Rod Taylor The program faced stiff competition on Wednesday evenings from NBC's "Wagon Train", hence lasted for only one season. He voiced Pongo (a Dalmatian dog) in Disney's animated feature "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961) and also guest-starred on Marilyn Maxwell's short-lived ABC series "Bus Stop" around the same time. In 1962, he starred in an episode of NBC's "The DuPont Show of the Week" ("The Ordeal of Dr. Shannon"), an adaptation of A. J. Cronin's novel "Shannon's Way". Taylor starred in Alfred Hitchcock's horror/thriller "The Birds" (1963), along with Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette, Veronica Cartwright, and Jessica Tandy, playing a
The Birds (film) of suspense: the title and the publicity would have already informed the audience that birds attack, but they do not know when. The initial humor followed by horror would turn the suspense into shock. Hitchcock solicited comments from several people regarding the first draft of Hunter's screenplay. Consolidating their criticisms, Hitchcock wrote to Hunter, suggesting that the script (particularly the first part) was too long, contained insufficient characterization in the two leads, and that some scenes lacked drama and audience interest. Hitchcock at later stages consulted with his friends Hume Cronyn (whose wife Jessica Tandy was playing Lydia) and V.S.