The Sound of Music (film) of the film; the actor accepted after being assured that he could work with Lehman to improve the character; Plummer later described himself as having become quite arrogant at the time, "spoiled by too many great theater roles". Wise also spent considerable time and effort on casting the secondary characters. For the role of Max Detweiler, Wise initially considered Victor Borge, Noël Coward, and Hal Holbrook among others before deciding on Richard Haydn. For the character of Baroness Elsa Schraeder, Wise looked for a "name" actress—Andrews and Plummer were not yet widely known to film audiences—and decided on Eleanor Parker.
The Sound of Music Live! million within the first three days. Following its original airing, an encore presentation of "The Sound of Music Live!" aired on December 14, 2013, attracting 3.1 million viewers. It notably displaced one of NBC's two traditional airings of the film "It's a Wonderful Life" (the other being on Christmas Eve), which was bumped ahead to December 20, 2013. NBC's Bob Greenblatt considered the production to be a success, and signed Meron and Zadan to produce another live musical for the 2014 holiday season. Greenblatt felt that there were enough recognizable, family-friendly musicals to make events like "The Sound of Music