Selig J. Seligman

Selig J. Seligman was executive Producer for Combat!, the first ABC series to be owned by the network. Seligman, a former ABC-TV vice president and cousin to ABC-TV president Leonard Goldenson, was the founder of Selmur productions (named for he and his wife, Muriel).

In 1958, he produced the ABC courtroom drama “Accused.” It presented reenactments of real law cases, mostly criminal. Like his later series, Combat!, the show stressed authenticity. The judge was played by a UCLA law professor and the attorneys were real-life lawyers. According to The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, Seligman kept a staff of lawyers and law students busy researching actual court cases in his search for realism for the series.

Seligman brought to “Accused” a strong knowledge of the law. He graduated number one in his class at Harvard law school and was a former State Department attorney.

Seligman was a war veteran who served as an attorney at the Nuremberg war crimes trials.