 He briefly starred in a CBS radio series, "Shorty Bell", in the summer of 1948, and reprised his role as "Andy Hardy", with most of the original cast, in a syndicated radio version of "The Hardy Family" in 1949 and 1950 (repeated on Mutual during 1952).In 1949 "Variety" reported that Rooney had renegotiated his deal with MGM.He agreed to make one film a year for them for five years at $25,000 a movie (his fee until then had been $100,000 but Rooney wanted to enter independent production.)