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Ted Sherdeman (21 June 1909 – 22 August 1987) was an American radio producer, television writer and screenwriter. He was known for the films The Eddie Cantor Story (1953), Away All Boats (1956), St. Louis Blues (1958), A Dog of Flanders (1960) and Misty (1961); and the TV series Wagon Train (1958-1965), Hazel (1963-1966), My Favorite Martian ...
- Stephaney Sherdeman
- August 22, 1987 (aged 78), Santa Ana, California
- June 21, 1909, Lincoln, Nebraska
Aug 29, 1987 · Aug. 29, 1987 12 AM PT. Ted Sherdeman, a former radio writer who came to write for some of the most popular television series of the 1950s and ‘60s, died Saturday in a Santa Ana convalescent...
Ted Sherdeman was born on 21 June 1909 in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Them! (1954), Latitude Zero (1969) and The McConnell Story (1955). He was married to Anne Stone. He died on 22 August 1987 in Santa Ana, California, USA.
- Writer, Producer, Additional Crew
- June 21, 1909
- Ted Sherdeman
- August 22, 1987
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Ted Sherdeman (21 June 1909 – 22 August 1987) was an American radio producer, television writer and screenwriter. He was known for the films The Eddie Cantor Story (1953), Away All Boats (1956), St. Louis Blues (1958), A Dog of Flanders (1960) and Misty (1961); and the TV series Wagon Train (1958-1965), Hazel (1963-1966), My Favorite Martian ...
- Them!’S Primary Scriptwriter Once Worked For General Douglas MacArthur.
- Two Main Ants Were Built For The Movie.
- Them! Features The Wilhelm Scream.
- Leonard Nimoy Makes An appearance.
- Many Different Sounds Were Combined to Produce The Screeching Ant cries.
- Sandy Descher Had to Sniff A Mystery Liquid During Her Signature Scene.
- Them! Was Originally Going to Be Filmed in 3D and in Color.
- The Setting of The Climactic Scene Was Changed—Twice.
- Warner Bros. Encouraged Theaters to Use Them! as A Military Recruitment Tool.
- The Movie Was A Surprise hit.
When World War II broke out, the knowledge Ted Sherdeman had gained from his career as a radio producer was put to good use by Uncle Sam, landing him a position as a radio communications advisor to General MacArthur. However, the fiery conclusion of the war left Sherdeman with a lifelong disdain for nuclear weapons. In an interviewhe revealed that ...
Them! brought its spineless villains to life using a combination of animatronics and puppetry, courtesy of an effects artist by the name of Dick Smith. He constructed two fully functional mechanical antsfor the production, including a 12-foot monster filled with gears, levers, motors, and pulleys. Operating the big bug was a job that required a sma...
Fifty-nine minutes in, the ants board a ship and one of them grabs a sailor, who unleashes the so-called “Wilhelm Scream.” You can also hear it when James Whitmore’s character is killed, and the sound bite rings out once again during the movie’s climax. Them! was among the first movies to reuse this distinctive holler, which was originally recorded...
In one brief scene, future star Leonard Nimoy plays an Army man who receives a message about an alleged “ant-shaped UFO” sighting over Texas. He then proceeds to poke fun at the Lone Star State, because, as everybody knows, insectile space vessels are highly illogical.
Throughout the movie, the monsters announce their presence with a haunting wail. Douglas’s team created this unforgettable shriek by mixing assorted noises, including bird whistles, which were artificially pitched up by sound technicians.
Like Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, Them! has a deliberate pace and the massive insects don’t make an onscreen appearance until the half hour mark. Douglas took creditfor this restrained approach, saying, “I told Ted, let’s tease [the audience] a little bit before you see the ant. Let’s build up to it.” So instead of showing off the big bugs, the opening...
To hear Douglas tell it, the insect models looked a lot scarier in person. “I put green and red soap bubbles in the eyes,” he once stated. “The ants were purple, slimy things. Their bodies were wet down with Vaseline. They scared the bejeezus out of you.” For better or for worse, though, audiences never got the chance to savor the bugs’ color schem...
Yates envisioned the final battle playing out in New York City’s world-famous subway tunnels. Hughes moved the action westward, conjuring up an epic showdown between human soldiers and the last surviving ants at a Santa Monica amusement park. Finally, for both artistic and budgetary reasons, Sherdeman set the big finale in the sewersof Los Angeles.
The film’s official pressbook advised theater managers who were screening Them! to contact their nearest Armed Forces recruitment offices. “Since civil defense in the face of an emergency figures in the picture, make the most of it by inviting [a] local agency to set up a recruiting booth in the lobby,” the filmmakers advised. Also, the document su...
Studio head Jack L. Warner predicted that Them!, with its far-fetched plot, wouldn’t fare well at the box office. So imagine his surprise when it raked in more than $2.2 million—enough to make the picture one of the studio's highest-grossing filmsof 1954.
- 1 min
But if anyone deserves credit for the film's success, it's Ted Sherdeman, a former staff producer at Warner Bros. who was instrumental in developing the project. First, he commissioned the original story from George Worthing Yates, which appeared as a diary account about giant ants nesting in the New York subway.
Ted Sherdeman (1909-1987) was a writer, producer, and director of motion pictures and television. He began his career in 1950 as a writer for Columbia and Warner Brothers. HIs films included "Them," "The Eddie Cantor Story," "St. Louis Blues, " "A Dog of Flanders," and "Latitude Zero" based on his own novel.
