The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports is an American network radio program and later television program that included broadcasts of a variety of sports, although it is primarily remembered by many for its focus on boxing. The diversified field of sporting events continued onto television, reportedly including at least two golfing tournaments as well (beginning in 1958) with football’s Rose Bowl. With all of this, however, […]
Our Miss Brooks is an American situation comedy starring Eve Arden as a sardonic high school English teacher. It began as a radio show broadcast on CBS from 1948 to 1957. When the show was adapted to television (1952–56), it became one of the medium’s earliest hits.
Our Miss Brooks was considered groundbreaking for showing a woman who was neither a scatter-brained klutz nor a homebody, but rather a working woman who transcended the actual or assumed limits to women’s working lives of the time. Connie Brooks was considered a realistic character in an non-glamorized profession (she often joked, for example, about being underpaid, as many teachers were at the time) who showed women could be competent and self-sufficient outside their home lives without losing their femininity or their humanity. The show ran for 130 episodes on television and won an Emmy award before it was cancelled in 1956.
Then Came Bronson is an American adventure/drama television series starring Michael Parks that aired on NBC from 1969 to 1970, and was produced by MGM Television. The series, created by Denne Bart Petitclerc, began with a movie pilot on Monday, March 24th, 1969. The series was approved for one year and began its first run on September 17th, 1969.
The series features Parks as the protagonist, James “Jim” Bronson, a newspaperman who becomes disillusioned after the suicide of his best friend Nick (Martin Sheen) and, after a heated argument with his editor, “working for the man.”
In order to renew his soul, Bronson becomes a vagabond searching for the meaning of life and seeking the experiences life has to offer (as revealed in the series pilot). During his travels, he shares his values with the people he meets along the way and lends a helping hand when he can. Bronson rides a Harley-Davidson Sportster motorcycle and, as such, he was viewed by some as a modern version of the solitary cowboy wandering the American west. The motorcycle had previously been sold to Nick by Bronson. After it is left at the suicide scene by his friend, Bronson buys it back from the widow.
Curiously, though the opening promises a journey of self-discovery, the premise of each episode is that Bronson enters someone else’s life at a crucial point and acts as a catalyst for change. When Bronson encounters an Amish community, for example, a local boy becomes enraptured by the outside world and steals Bronson’s motorcycle to run off to Reno, Nevada. In another episode, located in Reno, Nevada, Bronson meets his cousin Eve on her wedding day and lends her money for the wedding service, but she runs off to the casinos and blows it.
The first three episodes, including the end credits scenes, were shot in and around Jackson, Wyoming. The premier pilot movie was also shown at the town’s then only theatre to give the locals a sense of what the series was about, since they were shooting in town and at local area popular spots. Bronson is committed to pacifism and often redirects an antagonist’s anger into self-examination. Always, like a true catalyst, he rolls out of every episode unchanged.
The show had obvious similarities to the early 1960s series Route 66 (in which Michael Parks guest-starred in one episode). It was also sometimes erroneously described as a knock-off of the movie Easy Rider, but it actually preceded the release of that movie.
The Lawrence Welk Show is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years (1951–55), then nationally for another 27½ years via the ABC network (1955–71).
In 1951, The Lawrence Welk Show started as a local program on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, flagship station of the Paramount Television Network. The original show was broadcast from the since-demolished Aragon Ballroom at Venice Beach.
The show made its national TV debut on ABC Television on July 2nd, 1955, and was initially produced at the Hollywood Palladium, moving to the ABC studios at Prospect and Talmadge in Hollywood shortly afterwards. For 23 of its 27 years on the air, the show would originate there.
The 1965-66 season was taped at the Hollywood Palace since that was ABC’s only West Coast TV studio at the time equipped for live or taped color production; Welk had insisted that the show go color in 1965 because he believed that being broadcast in color was critical to the continued success of his program. Once a couple of studios at the ABC Prospect and Talmadge facilities had been converted to color in 1966, the show moved back there.
The show aired on ABC until 1971. When the show was canceled by the head of programming there, Welk formed his own production company and continued airing the show, on local stations and, often from 7 to 8 P.M. Eastern time on Saturdays over some of the ABC affiliates on which he had previously appeared, along with some stations affiliated with other networks.
When the show began, it was billed as the Dodge Dancing Party from 1955 to 1959. During 1956–59, Lawrence Welk was broadcast two nights per week. The second show’s title was Lawrence Welk’s Top Tunes and New Talent Show (1956–58) and then Lawrence Welk’s Plymouth Show, after another Chrysler vehicle (1958–59). The Plymouth show was the first American television program to air in stereophonic sound. Due to the fact that stereophonic television had not yet been invented (it would be 25 more years before it would become standard), ABC instead simulcast the show on its radio network, with the TV side airing one audio channel and the radio side airing the other; viewers would tune in both the TV and the radio to achieve the stereophonic effect. Starting with the 1959–60 season the two shows were merged into The Lawrence Welk Show, reverting to monaural broadcasts.
The primary sponsor of The Lawrence Welk Show was Dodge (automobile marque), later to be followed by Geritol (a multivitamin), Sominex (sleep aid), Aqua Velva (aftershave), Serutan (laxative), Universal Appliances (manufacturer of home appliances), Polident (a denture cleanser), Ocean Spray (fruit juice) and Sinclair Oil (automobile fuel) served as associate sponsors for a short time.
The People’s Choice is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from 1955 to 1958, primarily sponsored by The Borden Company.
It stars Jackie Cooper as Socrates “Sock” Miller, an ex-Marine and a young politician in fictitious New City, California. Sock has a basset hound named “Cleo”, whose thoughts (voiced by Mary Jane Croft), as she balefully observes Sock’s dilemmas, are recorded on the soundtrack for the viewers’ amusement. Cleo’s real name was Bernadette. Much of Cleo’s dialog consists of wisecracks. The popularity of the basset hound breed increased markedly with the run of the show.
In the first season, Sock is an ornithologist living in a trailer park with his Aunt Gus (Margaret Irving). A city council member, he is dating Mandy Peoples (Patricia Breslin), the daughter of the mayor (Paul Maxey), who does not entirely approve of the relationship but gradually warms to Sock.
Later, Sock takes courses (though he is not in law school) to pass the California bar exam to become an attorney, so that he can afford to marry Mandy. In the first season finale, Sock suddenly proposes to Mandy and wants to elope. He is afraid the mayor will want to stage a big wedding, and they won’t be able to get married for many months. The couple drives to Nevada for a quickie wedding, intending to return in time for Sock to take his bar exam. On the way back, they are arrested for a traffic violation, spend the night in jail, and Sock misses the bar exam. Sock wants to be independent of his father-in-law; so they agree to keep their marriage a secret from the mayor until Sock gets his law license.
Most episodes in the second season are about Sock and Mandy trying to be together (as much as this could be depicted in the 1950s), while keeping the mayor from finding out that they are married. At some point during the season, Aunt Gus and the mayor get married, and she learns that Sock and Mandy are married and agrees to keep their secret from the mayor. By the end of the season, Sock has passed the bar, and their marriage is out in the open. Sock’s scheming Marine buddy, Rollo “The Hex” Hexley (Dick Wesson), moved in with Sock during the second season and appeared in twenty-seven episodes as well as the original 1955 pilot.
In the third season, Sock manages a residential real estate development called “Barkerville Estates.” They still return to New City often enough for Mayor Peoples and Aunt Gus to appear regularly.
The series was created and co-produced by Irving Brecher, who was also the creator of the 1949 situation comedy, The Life of Riley. Although The People’s Choice never made the top 30 programs, its ratings were respectable enough to warrant a three-year run on NBC. The show later became popular in syndication.
Gidget is an American situation comedy about a surfing, boy-crazy teenager called “Gidget” and her widowed father Russ Lawrence, a UCLA professor. Sally Field stars as Gidget with Don Porter as father Russell Lawrence. The series was first broadcast on ABC from September 15th, 1965 to April 21st, 1966.
The television series was based upon concepts and characters created by Frederick Kohner in his 1957 novel Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas, which Kohner based upon the adventures of his teenage daughter Kathy. The novel was adapted into a 1959 movie starring Sandra Dee, James Darren and Cliff Robertson. The 1965 weekly, half-hour television series is seen by some as a sequel to the 1959 film, despite numerous discontinuities in plot, time frame and other details. It can also be seen as an independent incarnation, related to but distinct from either the novels or the films. Kohner served as a script consultant on the show.
The series reintroduced Gidget’s friend Larue and married sister Anne Cooper, both of whom appear in Kohner’s original novel, but are absent from the motion picture series. Gidget’s brother-in-law, who appears in the novels as the intelligent but condescending child psychiatrist Larry Cooper is reinvented in the television series as John Cooper, an obtuse but lovable psychology student.
Gidget is about the father-daughter relationship between Frances “Gidget” Lawrence and her widowed father Russell Lawrence. Episodes follow Gidget’s adventures in school, at home, and at nearby beaches. Russell Lawrence guides his daughter through her fifteenth year, while married sister Anne and husband John offer often unsolicited child-rearing tips. Gidget’s friend Larue sometimes takes part in her escapades. More often than not, Gidget receives moral instruction from her father and gains wisdom from her experiences.
Each episode is narrated by Gidget; on occasion, she breaks the Fourth wall and directly addresses her audience, usually reflecting on what she has learned from the evening’s story, sometimes ending with “Toodles!” (an expression Field improvised during production).
Gidget was filmed at the Columbia/Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank, California, with the exterior and kitchen set borrowed from the Hazel series, which was filming its final season at the time. The house situated next door to the Lawrence residence is the principal residence on Bewitched series, which was in production simultaneously.
The show launched the career of 18-year-old Sally Field, who defeated 75 other teenage girls for the title role. Field exaggerated her surfing experience to the show’s casting directors during her audition (she had none); she later took lessons from Phil Sauers just to be able to pretend to surf for the cameras. Sauers served as the series’ “Surfing Technical Consultant” and provided the surfboards used during filming of the series. While the Gidget of the novel and the original film are both blondes, the Gidget of the television series is a brunette.
The lyrics of the theme song “”(Wait ‘Til You See) My Gidget” were written by Howard Greenfield, with music by Jack Keller. The song was performed in the pilot by The Four Freshmen, and in the series by Johnny Tillotson.
Gidget faced stiff competition during its initial run. The show originally aired on Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m., opposite The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS) and The Virginian (NBC), two established shows with strong ratings. The series was moved to Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. starting with Episode 18 (“Like Voodoo”) where it performed poorly opposite CBS’s Gilligan’s Island, despite airing after the Top 5-rated Batman.
ABC cancelled Gidget in April 1966 — just as the show began to find a large teen audience. Summer reruns launched the show into the Top 10 as viewers looked for programs they had not seen during their original fall/winter broadcasts. ABC had a belated hit on their hands, but refused to renew the show because they would have to admit they were premature in its cancellation. In addition, industry practice at the time rarely allowed for cancelled shows to be resurrected.
Rather than squander their newly found audience which ABC was hurting for at the time, the network scrambled to find a new starring vehicle for Field. The result was The Flying Nun (1967–70), where Field reluctantly portrayed Sister Bertrille for three seasons. Field later commented that she has great affection for her young persona and was proud of her work on Gidget but was embarrassed with The Flying Nun.
Room 222 is an American comedy-drama television series produced by 20th Century Fox Television. The series aired on ABC for 112 episodes from September 17th, 1969 until January 11th, 1974. The series focused on an American history class at the fictional Walt Whitman High School in Los Angeles, California, although it also depicted other events […]
Land of the Giants is an hour-long American science fiction television program lasting two seasons beginning on September 22nd, 1968, and ending on March 22nd, 1970. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen. Land of the Giants was the fourth of Allen’s science fiction TV series. The show was aired on ABC and […]
The Time Tunnel is a 1966–1967 U.S. color science fiction TV series, written around a theme of time travel adventure. The show was creator-producer Irwin Allen’s third science fiction television series, released by 20th Century Fox and broadcast on ABC. The show ran for one season of 30 episodes. Project Tic-Toc is a top secret […]
The Long, Hot Summer is an American drama series from 20th Century Fox Television that was broadcast on ABC-TV for one season from 1965-1966. Created by Dean Riesner, The Long, Hot Summer was based on the novel The Hamlet by William Faulkner, the short story “Barn Burning”, and the 1958 film of the same name. […]
Lost in Space is an American science fiction television series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15th, 1965, and March 6th, 1968. Though the original television series concept centered on the Robinson family, […]
Daniel Boone is an American action-adventure television series starring Fess Parker as Daniel Boone that aired from September 24th, 1964 to September 10th, 1970 on NBC for 165 episodes, and was made by 20th Century Fox Television. Ed Ames co-starred as Mingo, Boone’s Cherokee friend, for the first four seasons of the series. Albert Salmi […]
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1960s American science fiction television series based on the 1961 film of the same name. Both were created by Irwin Allen. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was the first of Irwin Allen’s four science fiction television series, as well as the longest running. It […]
The Doris Day Show is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS Television network from September 1968 until March 1973, remaining on the air for five seasons and 128 episodes. The Doris Day Show was also the title of her radio show which aired from Hollywood in 1952, with “It’s Magic” as […]
A “hippie” undercover cop show that ran on ABC from September 24th, 1968, until August 23rd, 1973. It starred Michael Cole as Pete Cochran, Peggy Lipton as Julie Barnes, Clarence Williams III as Linc Hayes, and Tige Andrews as Captain Adam Greer. The executive producers of the series were Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas. They were The Mod Squad (“One black, one white, one blond”), the hippest and first young undercover […]
Lancer is an American Western series that aired on CBS from September 1968, to May 1970. Lancer lasted for fifty-one hour-long episodes shot in color. The series stars Andrew Duggan, James Stacy, and Wayne Maunder as a father with two half-brother sons, an arrangement similar to the more successful Bonanza on NBC. Duggan stars as […]
Julia is an American sitcom notable for being one of the first weekly series to depict an African American woman in a non-stereotypical role. Previous television series featured African American lead characters, but the characters were usually servants. The show stars actress and singer Diahann Carroll, and ran for 86 episodes on NBC from September 17th, 1968 to March 23rd, 1971. The series was produced […]
My Mother the Car is an American fantasy sitcom which aired for a single season on NBC between September 14th, 1965 and April 5th, 1966. A total of 30 episodes were produced by United Artists Television. Critics and adult viewers generally panned the show, often savagely. My Mother the Car was an original variation on […]
Hullabaloo is an American musical variety series that ran on NBC from January 12th, 1965 through August 29th, 1966. Similar to Shindig! it ran in prime time in contrast to ABC’s American Bandstand. Directed by Steve Binder, who went on to direct Elvis Presley’s ’68 Comeback Special, Hullabaloo served as a big-budget, quality showcase for […]
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22nd, 1964, to January 15th, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international espionage and law-enforcement agency called U.N.C.L.E. Originally co-creator Sam Rolfe wanted […]
World War One is an American documentary television series that was shown on CBS during the 1964–1965 television season to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the start of the war. The series was produced by CBS News, which featured 26 half-hour episodes, was narrated by Robert Ryan. World War One originally aired on Tuesday nights […]
Peyton Place is an American prime-time soap opera which aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15th, 1964 to June 2nd, 1969. Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. A total of 514 episodes were broadcast, in black-and-white from 1964 […]
The Tycoon is a 32-episode American situation comedy television series broadcast by ABC. It starred Walter Brennan as the fictitious businessman Walter Andrews, similar to his birth name of Walter Andrew Brennan. The series aired with new episodes at 9 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday from September 15th, 1964, until April 27th, 1965. It continued in […]
The Huntley-Brinkley Report (sometimes known as The Texaco Huntley-Brinkley Report, for one of its early sponsors) was the NBC television network’s flagship evening news program from October 29th, 1956, until July 31st, 1970. It was anchored by Chet Huntley in New York City, and David Brinkley in Washington, D.C. It succeeded the Camel News Caravan, […]
The Golden Touch of Frankie Carle was a short-lived musical variety television series broadcast in the United States by NBC from August to October 1956. The Golden Touch of Frankie Carle featured the pianist and guest singers performing a variety of music, including popular standards and the current hits of the day. The program’s main […]
The Kaiser Aluminum Hour is a dramatic anthology television series which was broadcast in prime time in the United States during the 1956-57 season by NBC. The Kaiser Aluminum Hour was shown on alternate Tuesday nights at 9:30 pm Eastern time in rotation with the longer-running Armstrong Circle Theatre, with the first broadcast airing on July 3rd, 1956 and the final one on June […]
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the time the show premiered on October 2nd, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades. Alfred Hitchcock Presents is well known for its title sequence. The camera fades in on a simple line-drawing caricature of Hitchcock’s rotund […]
The Phil Silvers Show, originally titled You’ll Never Get Rich, was a situation comedy which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959 for 142 episodes, plus a 1959 special. The series starred Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko of the United States Army. The series was created and largely written by Nat Hiken, and won three consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Comedy Series. The show […]
Navy Log is an American drama anthology series that initially aired for one season on CBS. It relates the greatest survival war stories in the history of the United States Navy. This series premiered on September 20th, 1955, but the following year, it was moved to ABC, where it aired until September 25th, 1958. The […]
Warner Bros. Presents is the umbrella title for three series telecast as part of the 1955-56 season on ABC: Cheyenne, a new Western series that originated on Presents, and two based on classic Warner Bros. films, Casablanca and Kings Row. At first, Warner Bros., like most other Hollywood studios, had seen television as a threat that it wished would disappear. Jack Warner tried to dismiss it as a mere passing fad, but by […]
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp is a western television series loosely based on the life of frontier marshal Wyatt Earp. The half-hour black-and-white program aired for 229 episodes on ABC from 1955 to 1961 and featured Hugh O’Brian in the title role. O’Brian was chosen for the role in part because of his […]
John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly (generally known as John Charles Daly or simply John Daly (February 20th, 1914 – February 24th, 1991) was an American journalist, game show host and radio personality, probably best known for hosting the panel show What’s My Line?. He was the vice president of ABC during the 1950s. On December […]
Talent Varieties is a country music talent show on American network television and radio in 1955 that featured performers hoping to achieve fame in the entertainment business.The weekly ABC-TV program was a live half-hour summer replacement series hosted by Slim Wilson. Wilson introduced the amateur and professional talent, including music and comedy acts (many from the Ozarks); and his Tall Timber Trio, composed of Speedy Haworth (guitar), Bob White (bass […]
High Finance is a quiz show created and hosted by Dennis James which aired on CBS from July 7th to December 15th, 1956. It followed Gunsmoke on the CBS schedule. High Finance aired at 10:30 p.m. Saturdays opposite NBC’s Your Hit Parade.
On the program, contestants answered questions about current events. The player would be asked five questions based on three newspapers which he or she studied before the show. Each correct answer earned $300. Three correct answers allowed the player to play the “investment segment” in which he or she wagered any amount of the money won on answering a question. A correct answer won the wager and a prize, plus the option to risk any prizes won and return the next week to play another “investment segment” or keep any prizes won and leave the show. A fourth win would earn that player his or her “dream prize”, such as a miniature golf course or a restaurant. A fifth successful “investment segment” won that player an additional $75,000.
Mama is a weekly Maxwell House and Post-sponsored CBS television comedy-drama series that ran from July 1st, 1949 until March 17th, 1957. It is based on the memoir Mama’s Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes, which was also adapted for the 1944 John Van Druten play and the subsequent 1948 film I Remember Mama, and told […]
Stop the Music was a prime time television game show that aired for an hour on Thursday evenings on ABC from May 5th, 1949 to April 24th, 1952, and again for a half-hour from September 7th, 1954 to June 14th, 1956. The show had also been broadcast on radio from 1948 to 1949. http://archive.org/download/stopTheMusic-Misc1955Episode/StopTheMusic1955.mp4 The program aired at 9 pm ET on Thursdays for […]
Fireside Theater is an American anthology drama series that ran on NBC from 1949 to 1958, and was the first successful filmed series on American television. Stories were low budget and often based on public domain stories or written by freelance writers such as Rod Serling. While it was panned by critics, it remained in the top ten most popular shows for most of its run. It […]
The Camel News Caravan was a 15-minute American television news program aired by NBC News from February 14th, 1949, to October 26th, 1956. Sponsored by the Camel cigarette brand and anchored by John Cameron Swayze, it was the first NBC news program to use NBC filmed news stories rather than movie newsreels. On February 16, 1954, the Camel News Caravan became the first news program broadcast in color, making use of 16mm color film.In early […]
Arthur Godfrey and His Friends is an American television variety show hosted by Arthur Godfrey. The hour-long series aired on CBS Television from January 1949 to June 1957 (as The Arthur Godfrey Show after September 1956), then again as a half-hour show from September 1958 to April 1959. Many of Godfrey’s musical acts were culled from Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, which was airing on […]
Kukla, Fran and Ollie is an early American television show using puppets, originally created for children but soon watched by more adults than children. It did not have a script and was entirely ad-libbed. It first aired from 1947 to 1957. Burr Tillstrom was the creator and only puppeteer on the show, which premiered as […]
The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy. Jack Benny made his TV debut in the 1949 season. There is a kinescope of his later November 1949 TV appearance on the intermittent Jack Benny Program special […]
Perry Como made the move to television when NBC initially televised the Chesterfield Supper Club radio program on December 24th, 1948. A very special guest on that first television show was Como’s eight-year-old son, Ronnie, as part of a boys’ choir singing “Silent Night” with his father. The show was the usual Friday night Chesterfield Supper Club with an important […]
Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts (also known as Talent Scouts) is an American radio and television variety show which ran on CBS from 1946 until 1958. Sponsored by Lipton Tea, it stars Arthur Godfrey, who was also hosting Arthur Godfrey and His Friends at the same time. The concept for the show was that Godfrey had several “talent scouts” who brought their discoveries onto […]
Studio One is an American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. In 1948, Markle made a quantum leap from radio to television. Sponsored by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, the television series was seen on CBS (which Westinghouse owned between 1995 and 2000), from 1948 through 1958, under several variant titles: Studio One […]
Break the Bank is an American quiz show which aired variously on Mutual Radio and ABC, CBS and NBC television from 1945 to 1957. From October 1956 to January 1957, NBC Television aired a short-lived prime-time version called Break the $250,000 Bank. Sponsored by Vicks, the series began on radio October 20, 1945, heard Saturdays on Mutual until April 13th, 1946. Initially, it featured different hosts each week, including John […]
Ford Theatre, spelled Ford Theater for the radio version and known as Ford Television Theatre for the TV version, was a radio and television anthology series broadcast in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s. At various times the television series appeared on all three major television networks, while the radio version was broadcast on two separate networks and on two separate […]
Milton Berle was an American comedian and actor. As the host of NBC’s Texaco Star Theater (1948–55), he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as “Uncle Miltie” and “Mr. Television” during TV’s golden age. Berle would revive the structure and routines of his vaudeville shows for his debut on TV. His first TV series was The […]
Douglas Edwards was America‘s first network news television anchor, anchoring CBS‘s first nightly news broadcast from 1948–1962, which was later to be titled CBS Evening News. In 1948, as CBS’s top correspondents and commentators shunned the fledgling medium of television, Edwards was chosen to present regular CBS television news programs and to host CBS’s television coverage of the 1948 Democratic […]
Our Miss Brooks is an American situation comedy starring Eve Arden as a sardonic high school English teacher. It began as a radio show broadcast on CBS from 1948 to 1957. When the show was adapted to television (1952–56), it became one of the medium’s earliest hits. Our Miss Brooks was considered groundbreaking for showing […]
Edward Vincent “Ed” Sullivan (September 28th, 1901 – October 13th, 1974) was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of the television variety program The Toast of the Town, now usually remembered under its second name, The Ed Sullivan Show. Broadcast for 23 years from 1948 to 1971, it set […]
The Original Amateur Hour is an American radio and television program. The show was a continuation of Major Bowes Amateur Hour which had been a radio staple from 1934 to 1945. The television debut came on January 18th, 1948 on the DuMont Television Network with Mack as the host. The regular staff for the television […]
Kraft Television Theatre is an American drama/anthology television series that began May 7th, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that time slot until 1958. Initially produced by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, the live hour-long series offered television plays […]
The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports is an American network radio program and later television program that included broadcasts of a variety of sports, although it is primarily remembered by many for its focus on boxing. The diversified field of sporting events continued onto television, reportedly including at least two golfing tournaments as well (beginning in 1958) with football’s Rose Bowl. With all of this, however, […]
The Voice of Firestone is a long-running radio and television program of classical music. The show featured leading singers in selections from opera and operetta. Originally titled The Firestone Hour, it was first broadcast on the NBC Radio network on December 3rd, 1928 and was later also shown on television starting in 1949. The program […]