I vaguely remeber this B&W TV show from the 1950’s…it starrred a fellow by the name of Marvin Miller, who worked for a reclusive miilionaire, named John Beresford Tipton. Anyway, Miller’s job was to give a million dollars to people that his boss had selected…the only “catch” was that the recipient had to agree to never reveal the source of the money.
I remember that most of the people getting the money had cause to regret it…does anybody know how long the show ran? And, are DVD copies available?
The IMDB says it ran from 1955-1960.
According to TV Shows on DVD there are no DVD releases available.
It was a hit back then.
I might be mistaken, but wasn’t there a “new” version a few years back, or was there just talk about making an updated version…memory foggy this morning.
You only saw John Beresford Tipton’s back - you never saw his face. Interestingly, Tipton’s voice was provided by Paul Frees, whose voice credits are astonishing. He voiced Boris Badenov in “Rocky and Bullwinke.” He was Inspector Fenwick in “Dudley Doright.” He was Professor Ludwig von Drake on Disney’s “Wonderful World of Color,” etc., etc.
I have the episode millionaire william courtney. It was aired 1959. and i would like to know the ending, the dvd ending of this episode was cut off.
Sir william refurbished his English castle and the local girl did not like him doing that. she had a finace who was played by Richard Ney and Sir william played by Pat Conway, tells her he will return the castle to its previous style. But then he tells the English lass that he loves her. It now cuts off. I do not know if he gets the girl and really does refurbish the castle.
And tv.com had some dvd’s of the millionaire, but i do not know where I ordered it–and it was the original. Skaryguy sells okay quality dvd of episodes…but again I do not have the whole episode of william courtney millionaire with Pat Conway of Tombstone fame, so if someone can help me, I would appreciate it. Vallynne
I watched in back in the 60s (probably in syndication). The basic theme was “Money doesn’t buy happiness.”
They never got into the tax issues; the million dollars would have been severely taxed back then unless they could prove it was a gift – and they weren’t allowed to name the source.
Here’s an episode on Youtube
I’'m suire I saw every one in first run. Quite popular. And, the taxes were already paid by Tipton. He thought of everything.
Notice the receipt had to agree not to reveal the source of the money to anyone, including your wife!
Apparently only married hetrosexual men were chosen to receive the cash!
If you look at the IMDB info, you’ll notice that the producer put his then-wife Tido in a cameo in many eps. Don and Tido Fedderson were the parents of Mike Minor of “Petticoat Junction” fame who married producer Paul Henning’s daughter Linda Kaye.
DeForest Kelley is in that episode. He plays a doctor. Check out part 2 (it’s in multiple parts on YouTube). At around 5:35 he says, believe it or not, “I’m a doctor, not a politician”. 
The movie it was based on, If I Had a Million (1932) was wonderful, one of those all-star anthologies.
Of course, back when this thread was started, a million bucks meant something.