Medical Horizons
Medical Horizons is a public affairs television series, focusing on advancements in medical technology, which aired on ABC from September 12th, 1955 to March 5th, 1956. The program, broadcast live, sometimes offered surgical scenes as well as information about new medical equipment. The series was hosted for the first four episodes by Quincy Howe. He […]
Famous Film Festival
Famous Film Festival was an American television prime-time movie series that aired Sunday nights from 7:30-9:00 pm (ET) on ABC during the 1955-56 television season. In 1955, ABC obtained the rights to broadcast 35 British movie titles. These included Great Expectations (1946), Brief Encounter (1945), Odd Man Out (1947), Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), The Red […]
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
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 Daly and the News
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 […]
MGM Parade
MGM Parade is the title of a documentary television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and broadcast by the ABC network during the 1955-56 season on Wednesdays at 8:30pm (E.S.T.), under the alternate sponsorship of American Tobacco (Pall Mall), and General Foods (Instant Maxwell House). Hosted by George Murphy (September 14th, 1955 – March 7th, 1956), Walter Pidgeon (March 14th – May 2nd, 1956) and other MGM stars, the series […]
The Lawrence Welk Show
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 […]
Talent Varieties
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 […]
Star Tonight
Star Tonight, an American television anthology series, aired on ABC from February 1955 to August 1956. It consisted of 80 total episodes, 30 from 1955 and 50 from 1956. Each episode was a self-contained story, usually adapted from famous plays, short-stories or novels by some of the writers of the day. It was designed as a showcase for […]
Ozark Jubilee
Ozark Jubilee is the first U.S. network television program to feature country music’s top stars, and featured performers located in Springfield, Missouri which has long emulated Nashville, Tennessee as a center of American country music. The weekly live stage show premiered on ABC-TV on January 22nd, 1955, was renamed Country Music Jubilee on July 6th, […]
TV Reader’s Digest
TV Reader’s Digest is the title of a 30 minute American television anthology drama series which aired on the ABC from 1955 to 1956. Based on articles that appeared in Reader’s Digest magazine, the episodes based on true stories which were varied in their themes, plots and content. Themes included crime, heroism, mystery, romance, and […]
Disneyland
The first incarnation of the Walt Disney anthology television series, commonly called The Wonderful World of Disney, premiered on ABC on Wednesday night, October 27th, 1954 under the name Disneyland. The same basic show has since appeared on several networks under a variety of titles. Originally hosted by Walt Disney himself, the series presented animated cartoons and other material (some […]
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin is an American children’s television program. The show ran for five seasons on ABC on Friday evenings from October 1954 to May 1959, airing 166 episodes. ABC reran the series on late afternoons from September 1959 to September 1961. It starred child actor Lee Aaker as Rusty, a boy orphaned in an Indian raid, […]
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 […]
Topper
Topper is an American fantasy sitcom based on the 1937 film of the same name, itself based on the novels by Thorne Smith. The series was broadcast on CBS from October 9th, 1953 to July 15th, 1955, and stars Leo G. Carroll in the title role. Sophisticated but stuffy Cosmo Topper is the vice president […]
The Big Picture
The Big Picture is an American documentary television program which aired on ABC-TV from 1951 to 1964. The series consisted of documentary films produced by the United States Army Signal Corps Army Pictorial Service, showing weaponry, battles, and biographies of famous soldiers. The half-hour weekly program featured famous or before-they-were-famous actors and actresses in quality […]
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. […]
Dollar a Second
Dollar a Second is an American comedy game show hosted by Jan Murray which originally aired from September 20th, 1953 to June 14th, 1954 on the DuMont Television Network. One pair of contestants (or a solo player) were selected to perform a certain task, which could be anything. They earn one dollar for every second […]
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 […]
The Dotty Mack Show
The Dotty Mack Show is an American variety show originally broadcast on the now defunct DuMont Television Network in 1953, and on ABC from 1953 to 1956. The program, produced and distributed from Cincinnati, aired Monday at 10:45 pm on most DuMont affiliates until July 1953, when it moved to Tuesdays at 9:30 pm. Originally […]
