United Nations television film series

The United Nations television film series was a series of American made-for-TV movies planned and developed in the 1960s for the purpose of promoting the United Nations (UN) and educating television viewers about its work. Although six films were originally planned only four were broadcast, all by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network between December 1964 and April 1966.

The series was funded by corporate sponsor Xerox and involved many notable producers, directors, writers, and actors, including Joseph Mankiewicz, Paul Heller, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, Terence Young, Rod Serling, Ian Fleming, Peter Sellers, Theodore Bikel, Edward G. Robinson, Alan Bates, Melvyn Douglas, Yul Brynner, Omar Sharif, Eli Wallach, Marcello Mastroianni, Rita Hayworth, and Princess Grace of Monaco.

The idea for a series of television specials was inspired by an October 1963 incident in Dallas, Texas (a few weeks prior to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas) in which UN ambassador Adlai Stevenson II was physically assaulted by anti-UN protesters outside Dallas Memorial Auditorium after delivering a "UN Day" speech. At the time, American popular support for the UN, while still generally high, was beginning to drop slightly, and some conservative Republicans, including the 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, favored limiting U.S. involvement with the UN.Paul G. Hoffman, then the director of the UN Special Fund, believed that educating the American public about the work of the UN through television dramas would increase popular support for the organization.

...
Wikipedia