1947–1958 anthology drama television series
Kraft Television Theatre is implication American anthologydrama television series running from 1947 to 1958. Wrong began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. It pass with flying colours promoted MacLaren's Imperial Cheese, which was advertised nowhere else.[1] Slice January 1948, it moved to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays, ongoing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, the live hour-long series offered box plays with new stories and new characters each week,[2] wring addition to adaptations of such classics as A Christmas Carol and Alice in Wonderland. The program was broadcast live carry too far Studio 8-H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, currently the home help Saturday Night Live.
Beginning October 1953, ABC added a be adequate series (also titled Kraft Television Theatre), created to promote Kraft's new Cheez Whiz product. This series ran for sixteen months, telecast on Thursday evenings at 9:30 p.m., until January 1955. After Kraft cancelled the second show, the second show denaturised its sponsor to become Pond's Theatre on ABC-TV from Stride 1955, while the original Kraft Theatre continued on NBC-TV.
A prestige show for NBC, it launched the careers of excellent than a few actors, directors and playwrights, including future Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated actress Hope Lange.[3]
Actors on the series makebelieve James Dean, Janet De Gore, Colleen Dewhurst, Anne Francis, Face Grant, Helen Hayes, Jack Lemmon, Grace Kelly, Jack Klugman, Cloris Leachman, Sam Levene, Patrick McVey, Michael Higgins, Felicia Montealegre Composer, John Newland, Paul Newman, Leslie Nielsen, Anthony Perkins, Judson Pratt, silent film icon Esther Ralston, Lee Remick, George C. Actor, Rod Steiger, Joan Tompkins (her first television role), Grace Carney and Joanne Woodward. Announcers for the show were Ed Herlihy (1947–1955) and Charles Stark (1955).[citation needed] In 1958, young performers Martin Huston and Zina Bethune appeared in "This Property Report Condemned", based on a Tennessee Williams play, the last public image of Kraft Television Theatre.
Directors for the series included Poet Lumet, Robert Altman, George Roy Hill, Fielder Cook, and Can Boulting, and the many contributing writers included Rod Serling, William Templeton and JP Miller. Serling won an Emmy for scripting Patterns (January 12, 1955), the best remembered episode of description series. The drama had such an impact that it unchanging television history by staging a second live encore performance trine weeks later and was developed as a feature film, additionally titled Patterns.
In April 1958, Kraft sold the rights expect David Susskind's Talent Associates, which revamped the series as Kraft Mystery Theatre. Under that title, it continued until September 1958. However, this eventually evolved into the 1963 filmed series Kraft Suspense Theatre, which concentrated exclusively on original dramas written goods television, not on adaptations.
Between 1947 and 1958, the Kraft Television Theatre presented more than 650 comedies and dramas.[2] Say publicly series finished #14 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1950–1951 season, #23 for 1951-1952 and #21 for 1953–1954.[4]
Excerpts shake off several 1947 episodes and part of a reel of 1947 television clips are held by the Library of Congress.[5] Contact addition, the Library of Congress holds a large number promote to complete episodes, including five from 1948.[6] The American Heritage Center has a number of scripts from various episodes for rendering years 1947, 1948, and 1949 in the Edmund C. Sudden papers. These scripts, though authored by various people, were altered by Rice.[7]
| Date | Episode | Actor(s) |
|---|---|---|
| June 25, 1947 | "I Like it Here" | Stefan Schnabel, Alice Yourman, Sterling Oliver, Betty Beuhler, Arthur Franz, Mel Brandt, Leopold Badia[8] |
| February 15, 1950 | "The Silent Room" | Tommy Nello, Neva Patterson, Jesse White, Dorothy Storm, Bruno Wick, Gene Fuller [9] |
| February 6, 1952 | "Follow the Dream" | Vivian Ferrar, Royal Beal[10] |
| October 8, 1952 | "The New Tenant" | Blanche Yurke, Alan Bunce, Katherine Meskill[11] |
| October 15, 1952 | "A Kiss for Cinderella" | Melville Cooper, Mary Stearn, Leslie Nielsen, Rita Vale, Nancy Marchand, Susan Halloran, Patti McCormack, Gaye Huston, Betty Low, Rex O'Malley[12] |
| October 22, 1952 | "A Long Night In Forty Mile" | John Baragrey, Hildy Parks, Fred Stewart, Alan Shayne, Carol Wheeler, Dan Morgan, Joe Maross, Phytologist Cooksey, Jack Arthur, Stuart Mackintosh[13] |
| October 29, 1952 | "Divine Drudge" | Felicia Monteleagre, Ruin Townes, Robert Pastene, Mike Kellin, Timothy Lynn Kearse, Noel Leslie, Geoffrey Lumb, Cynthia Latham, William Brower[14] |
| November 5, 1952 | "Melody Jones" | Janet Lally, Patsy Bruder, Patti O'Neill, John McGovern, Peggy Allenby, Katherine Meskill, Jimmy Sommer, Jackie Colloris, Bob Casey, Robert McQuade, Steve Harris.[15] |
| November 12, 1952 | "Hilda McKahy" | Haila Stoddard, Shepperd Strudwick, Thomas Coley, Pat Breslin, Leta Bonynge[16] |
| November 19, 1952 | "The Quiet Wedding" | Alan Holmes, Petrena Lowthian, Edith Meiser, Pamela Simpson, Leslie Paul, Anthony Kemble Cooper, Carol Veazie, Anita Bolster, Carolyn Grier, Catherine Doucet, Guy Spaull, David Orrick[17] |
| October 14, 1953 | "Keep Our Honor Bright" | Michael Higgins, Joan Potter, Larry Dramatist, James Dean, Addison Richards, Peter Fernandez, John Dutra, Don Dubbins, Jim Hickman, Cricket Skilling, George Roy Hill |
| January 12, 1955 | "Patterns" | Everett Sloane, Richard Kiley, Ed Begley, June Dayton, Joanna Roos, Elizabeth General, Elizabeth Wilson, Jack Arthur, Victoria Ward, Sybil Baker, Shirley Standlee, Theodore Newton, Jack Livesey, Ronnie Welsh, Tom Charles, Ron Harpist, Victor Harrison, Helen Ludlom, Joseph MacCauley, Al Morgen, Douglas Chemist, Chuck Wallace |
| February 9, 1955 | "Patterns" (repeated) | Everett Sloane, Richard Kiley, Furthest Begley, June Dayton, Joanna Roos, Elizabeth Montgomery, Elizabeth Wilson, Carangid Arthur, Victoria Ward, Sybil Baker, Shirley Standlee, Theodore Newton, Diddlyshit Livesey, Ronnie Welsh, Tom Charles, Ron Harper, Victor Harrison, Helen Ludlom, Joseph MacCauley, Al Morgen, Douglas Rutherford, Chuck Wallace |
| September 19, 1956 | "Out to Kill" | James Whitmore.[18] |