The success of the broadcast of the 1967 version of
The Forsyte Saga on
NET (the precursor of PBS) led Stanford Calderwood, then serving as president of WGBH, to investigate whether the BBC would sell programs to the station. Suggestions for the series format came from, among others,
Frank Gillard in the UK and
Christopher Sarson in the US. In looking for an underwriter for the series, Calderwood eventually met with
Herb Schmertz of
Mobil Corporation. Schmertz was able to gain funding for the show, and with Joan Wilson of WGBH-TV bought the US distribution rights for fifty hours of British dramas for about $1 million per year. He and several other men, including Frank Marshall, met in London and made a selection of programs to be broadcast. Decisions on the format of the show were finalized and the series premiered on January 10, 1971, with the first episode of
The First Churchills. The working title for the series had been
The Best of the BBC, which was changed to
Masterpiece Theatre before the first broadcast, with Sarson insisting upon the British spelling for
Theatre. Mobil pulled out in 2004. In 2011 Eaton launched the Masterpiece Trust as a fundraising initiative, in collaboration with WGBH Boston. The Trust gives donors the opportunity to support their local PBS station and also "secure the future of superb British drama...invest upfront in the development of new scripts and programs, and grow the
[Masterpiece] series both on-air and online". In the same year the series attracted new sponsors
Viking River Cruises and
Ralph Lauren (Ralph Lauren was subsequently replaced by
Farmers Insurance). Interviewed in 2017, Eaton described her role at
Masterpiece as "the person who chooses which British programs will be included in Masterpiece...looking at a lot of shows that are already made, reading scripts, and choosing the ones that would suit this audience." == Format change ==