October 4, 1956….”Playhouse 90″ Debuts On CBS
October 4, 1956….”Playhouse 90″ Debuts On CBS
This is how television’s most distinguished anthology series started. Although the weekly 90 minute series only ran for four years, it is still held as the gold standard for live television drama.
Jack Palance is the host of this debut show, but the next week, he would star in “Requiem For A Heavyweight” which won Emmys for Best Director (Ralph Nelson) and Best Teleplay (Rod Serling) as well as a Peabody Award.
This debut broadcast was done from Studio 31 at CBS Television City and was directed by the renown John Frankenheimer. The script written by Rod Serling was an adaptation of the book by Pat Frank. To relieve the pressure of producing four 90 minute live shows a month, every third week a filmed episode was aired.
I have included a page of this first script that was used by John Frankenheimer. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
A little challenging to watch on an iPhone 6 Plus, nonetheless gripping. Amazing work to pull a production like this off live. A little ironic that All American Boy, Tab Hunter, was the Commie scoundrel. When you consider the timeframe of this broadcast, it wasn’t that far fetched. I wonder if history is repeating itself today…
Was almost late for work watching this!