Editing Desk Set (section)

==Production==
[[File:Tracy Hepburn Desk Set.jpg|thumb|[[Spencer Tracy]] with [[Katharine Hepburn]] in a promotional image for ''Desk Set'' (1957)]]

In the play, Bunny Watson (played by [[Shirley Booth]], who was originally intended for the film as well) had only brief, somewhat hostile interactions with Richard Sumner. Screenwriters Phoebe and Henry Ephron (the parents of [[Nora Ephron]]) built up the role of the efficiency expert and tailored the interactions between him and the researcher to fit Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.<ref>[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/72868/desk-set/#notes ''Turner Classic Movies'' Notes: Entry for ''Desk Set'']</ref>

The exterior shots of the "Federal Broadcasting Network" seen in the film are actually of the [[Radio Corporation of America|RCA]] Building (now known as the [[Comcast]] Building) at [[30 Rockefeller Plaza]] in [[Rockefeller Center]], the headquarters of [[NBC]].

The character of Bunny Watson was based on Agnes E. Law, a real-life librarian at [[Columbia Broadcasting Service|CBS]] who retired about a year before the film was released.<ref>{{cite book
  |last=Duralde
  |first=Alonso
  |title=Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas
  |page=[https://archive.org/details/haveyourselfmovi0000dura/page/61 61]
  |location=Wisconsin
  |publisher=Limelight Editions
  |year=2010
  |isbn=978-0879103767
  |url=https://archive.org/details/haveyourselfmovi0000dura/page/61
  }}</ref><ref>[http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%202/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury%201957-1958.pdf/Richfield%20Springs%20NY%20Mercury%201957-1958%20-%200198.pdf "Former Teacher Receives Honor" June 20, 1957. ''Richfield Springs Mercury'', pg 7.]</ref>

This film was the eighth screen pairing of Hepburn and Tracy, after a five-year respite since 1952's ''[[Pat and Mike]],'' and was a first for Hepburn and Tracy in several ways: the first non-MGM film the two starred in together, their first color film, and their first [[CinemaScope]] film. Following ''Desk Set'' their last film together would be 1967's ''[[Guess Who's Coming to Dinner]]''.

The computer referred to as EMERAC is a [[wikt:Special:Search/homoiophone|homoiophone]] [[Metonymy|metonym]] for [[ENIAC]] ("'''E'''lectronic '''N'''umerical '''I'''ntegrator '''A'''nd '''C'''omputer"), which was developed in the 1940s and was the first electronic general-purpose computer. Parts of the EMERAC computer, particularly the massive display of moving square lights, would later be seen in various [[20th Century Fox]] productions including both the [[Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea|motion picture (1961)]] and [[Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)|TV (1964–1968) versions]] of ''Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'' and the Edgar Hopper segment of the 1964 film ''[[What a Way to Go!]]''.

The researchers furnish incorrect information about the career of baseball player [[Ty Cobb]]. Miss Costello claims his major league career lasted for 21 years, and that he played only for the [[Detroit Tigers]].  In fact, he played for 24 years—22 with Detroit, and his final two seasons with the [[Philadelphia Athletics]].

There is a well-known "goof" in one scene. Mike gives Bunny an arrangement of white carnations, and she inserts one in his lapel's button-hole. At the end of the day, she and Richard leave the office. She is carrying the white carnation arrangement as they enter the elevator. As they exit the building, the carnations are pink.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050307/goofs/ Goofs in ''Desk Set''] at [[IMDb]].</ref>