The $64,000 Question
The $64,000 Question is an American game show broadcast from 1955–1958, which became embroiled in the scandals involving TV quiz shows of the day. The $64,000 Challenge (1956–1958) was its popular spin-off show. The $64,000 Question premiered June 7th, 1955 on CBS-TV, sponsored by cosmetics maker Revlon and originating from the start live from CBS-TV Studio 52 in New York (later the disco-theater Studio […]
Damon Runyon Theatre
Damon Runyon Theatre is an American television program that presented dramatized versions of Damon Runyon‘s short stories. Hosted by Donald Woods, the program, sponsored by Anheuser-Busch‘s Budweiser beer, aired for a total of 39 episodes on CBS from April 1955 through February 1956 (repeats continued through June).
Appointment With Adventure
Appointment with Adventure is a half-hour adventure dramatic anthology television series broadcast live on CBS from 1955-1956. The program has no host. It aired at 10 p.m. EST on the Sunday evening schedule between the better known Alfred Hitchcock Presents and What’s My Line? It ran opposite The Loretta Young Show on NBC and Life […]
The Millionaire
The Millionaire is an American anthology series that aired on CBS from January 19th, 1955, to June 8th, 1960, originally sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive. The series explored the ways sudden and unexpected wealth changed life for better or for worse and became a five-season hit during the Golden Age of Television. The Millionaire told the stories of people who were given one million […]
The Bob Cummings Show
The Bob Cummings Show (also known as Love That Bob) is an American situation comedy starring Robert “Bob” Cummings, which was produced from January 2nd, 1955 to September 15th, 1959. The Bob Cummings Show was the first-ever series to debut as a mid season replacement. The program began with a half-season run on NBC, then ran for two full seasons on CBS, and […]
Climax
Climax!, later known as Climax Mystery Theater is an American anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Costa. It was one of the few CBS programs of that era to be broadcast in color (using the massive TK-40A color cameras pioneered and manufactured by RCA, and used primarily by […]
December Bride
December Bride is an American sitcom that aired on the CBS television network from 1954 to 1959, adapted from the original CBS radio network series that aired from June 1952 through September 1953. December Bride centered around the adventures of Lily Ruskin, a spry widow played by Spring Byington, who was not, in fact, a […]
Father Knows Best
Father Knows Best was an American radio and television comedy series which portrayed a middle class family life in the Midwest. It was created by writer Ed James in the 1940s, and ran on radio from 1949 to 1954 and on television from 1954 to 1960. The May 27th, 1954 episode of The Ford Television Theatre show was called “Keep It in the […]
The George Gobel Show
The George Gobel Show, was a comedy show that ran on NBC from 1954 to 1960 (the last season on CBS, alternating with The Jack Benny Program). It was a showcase of George Gobel’s quiet, homespun style of humor, a low-key alternative to what audiences had seen on Milton Berle‘s shows. A huge success, the popular series made […]
The Jimmy Durante Show
The Jimmy Durante Show is a 51-episode half-hour comedy/variety television program presented live on NBC from October 2nd, 1954 to June 23rd, 1956. Several guest stars on the program later developed successful show business careers of their own. Jimmy Durante’s long nose, piano, and broken vocabulary were the mainstays of the program, which aired at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturdays. In the first […]
The Lineup
The Lineup is an American police drama which aired on CBS radio from 1950 to 1953 and on CBS television from 1954 to 1960. The television version was set specifically in San Francisco and was produced with the cooperation of the San Francisco Police Department, which received a credit at the close of each episode. It starred Warner Anderson as Guthrie and Tom Tully as Grebb, who was now an inspector instead […]
Shower of Stars
Shower of Stars (also known as Chrysler Shower of Stars) is an American variety television series broadcast live in the United States from 1954 to 1958 by CBS. The series was broadcast in color which was a departure from the usual programming broadcast by CBS. Shower of Stars is typically composed of musical comedy revues with an occasional straight play. It was shown […]
People are Funny
People Are Funny is an American radio and television game show, created by John Guedel that remained popular throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The program ran from 1942 to 1960. The program’s stunts and audience participation were calculated to reveal the humorous side of human nature. After contestants were sent from the studio to perform […]
Lassie
Lassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female Rough Collie dog named Lassie and her companions, human and animal. The show was the creation of producer Robert Maxwell and animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax and was televised from September 12th, 1954, to March 24th, 1973. The show chalked up seventeen seasons […]
Stage Show
Stage Show was a popular music variety series on American television originally hosted on alternate weeks by big band leaders and brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. Produced by Jackie Gleason, the CBS-TV show included the first national television appearances by Elvis Presley. Introduced by Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Bill Randle, Presley first appeared on January 28th, 1956, performing “Shake, Rattle and Roll”, “Flip, Flop and Fly” […]
Person to Person
Person to Person is a popular television program in the United States that originally ran from 1953 to 1961. Edward R. Murrow hosted it until 1959, interviewing celebrities in their homes from a comfortable chair in his New York studio (his opening: “Good evening, I’m Ed Murrow. And the name of the program is ‘Person to Person’. It’s all […]
Make Room For Daddy
The Danny Thomas Show (known as Make Room for Daddy during the first three seasons) is an American sitcom which ran from 1953-1957 on ABC and from 1957-1964 on CBS. A revival series known as Make Room for Granddaddy aired on ABC from 1970-1971. In March 1953, Danny Thomas first signed the contract for the show with ABC and chose Desilu Studios to film it using its three-camera method. […]
My Favorite Husband
My Favorite Husband is the name of an American radio program and network television series. The original radio show, co-starring Lucille Ball, was the initial basis for what evolved into the groundbreaking TV sitcom I Love Lucy. The series was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) written by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted […]
The United States Steel Hour
The United States Steel Hour is an anthology series which brought hour-long dramas to television from 1953 to 1963. The television series and the radio program that preceded it were both sponsored by the United States Steel Corporation. The series originated on radio in the 1940s as Theatre Guild on the Air. The television version […]
Ethel and Albert
Ethel and Albert (aka The Private Lives of Ethel and Albert) was a radio and television comedy series about a married couple, Ethel and Albert Arbuckle, living in the small town of Sandy Harbor. Created by Peg Lynch, who scripted and portrayed Ethel, the series first aired on local Minnesota radio in the early 1940s […]
Leave a Reply