Your Hit Parade
Your Hit Parade is an American radio and television music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1955 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco’s Lucky Strike cigarettes. André Baruch continued as the announcer when the program arrived on NBC television in summer 1950 (Del Sharbutt […]
Armstrong Circle Theatre
Armstrong Circle Theatre is an American anthology drama television series which ran from 1950 to 1957 on NBC, and then until 1963 on CBS. It alternated weekly with The U.S. Steel Hour. The series featured original dramas by noted writers, although sometimes comedies were shown. Its guidelines specifically called for the avoidance of violence. Originally a half-hour production, in 1955 the show expanded […]
Beat the Clock
Beat the Clock is a Goodson-Todman game show that aired on American television in several versions since 1950. The original show, hosted by Bud Collyer, ran on CBS from 1950 to 1958 and ABC from 1958 to 1961. The show was revived in syndication as The New Beat the Clock from 1969 to 1974, with Jack Narz as host until 1972, when he was replaced by the show’s […]
What’s My Line
What’s My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasks celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations. It is the longest-running U.S. primetime network television game-show. […]
The Life of Riley
The Life of Riley, with William Bendix in the title role, is a popular American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, a long-running 1950s television series (originally with Jackie Gleason as Riley for one truncated season, then with Bendix for six seasons), and a 1958 comic […]
Jane Wyman’s Fireside Theater
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 […]
Arthur Godfrey and His Friends
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 […]
The Jack Benny Program
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 […]
The Perry Como Show
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
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 […]
The Milton Berle Show
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 […]
The Ed Sullivan Show
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
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
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 […]
Gillette Cavalcade of Sports
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, […]
