Odds Against Tomorrow
Rissien moved to Hollywood in 1954 to work on the Mark Stevens series "Big Town" followed by production assignments at Screen Gems at Columbia Pictures. In 1959 he established Harry Belafonte's film production company, HarBel Productions, where he acquired the film rights to "Odds Against Tomorrow". From there he went to ABC, where he was program supervisor on shows such as "Combat" and "The Donna Reed Show". In the early 1960s, he was hired as VP of Production for Bing Crosby Productions, producer of such shows as "Hogan's Heroes", "Ben Casey," "The Bing Crosby Show" and others. After that he went to Filmways as VP of Production for film and television. Projects produced during this time included "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Green Acres" and the film "Castle Keep" directed by legendary director Sydney Pollack.