Revisiting the Weaver Years at NBC

This article reexamines Sylvester ‘Pat’ Weaver’s plans for cultural uplift via NBC television in the 1950s. His ambitions have been the subject of much scholarly research, which often notes his ‘Operation Frontal Lobes’ as influential, citing academic articles published in the 1990s as authoritative. However, contemporary documents show that the ‘Frontal Lobes’ project never succeeded and the effort became an embarrassment to the network. Taking advantage of searchable, digitized newspapers, magazines, and trade publications and reviewing materials in the NBC archives in Wisconsin, this article attempts a more nuanced understanding of Weaver’s influence on NBC programming.