He began his career as a documentary filmmaker during the 1950s with the DuMont Television Network, where he was manager of news and public affairs.
[1] He moved to Los Angeles in 1954, where he produced the 1958 documentary Thou Shalt Not Kill for station KNXT about capital punishment.
He was hired by KTLA in 1956, where his documentaries included the 1963 Splt Image about internal television programming produced by patients at Camarillo State Mental Hospital.
[2] At KTLA, Rosten produced a higholy-regarded half-hour series of commentaries by Bill Stout on topics in the news.
[1] The Incredible Machine, which included some of the first pictures taken inside the human body and presented on film, ranked as the most-watched program in Public Broadcasting Service until 1982.