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An outgrowth of the CBC dramatic anthology General Motors Theatre, General Motors Presents launched its three-year run in 1958 with one of the largest budgets ever afforded a Canadian TV series. This was because several of the program's hour-long episodes had been picked up for telecast in the United States, to air as part of the ABC anthology Encounter for a period of 39 weeks. Alas, Encounter folded early due to poor ratings, leaving the Canadian producers to make up the remaining budget costs without American assistance. Despite a sharp decline in production quality, the series managed to flourish thanks to an impressive influx of talented Canadian actors and authors, among them Douglas Rain (the voice of "HAL" in 2001: A Space Odyssey) and Bernard Slade (whose later playwriting credits included Same Time, Next Year). Even so, a few adaptations of previously aired American TV dramas were shown on the series, including Reginald Rose's The Incredible World of Horace Ford, which later did yeoman duty as a Twilight Zone episode. During the final season of General Motors Presents, the series offered rebroadcasts of selected programs from the BBC anthology Interplay.