ABC’s First Series…’Hollywood Screen Test’, April 1948

The “television magic” starts with the name of the show…it was actually done in New York. ABC didn’t have a television property in Los Angeles till September of 1949.

Debuting on 15 April 1948, and hosted first by Bert Lytell and then Neil Hamilton (who we know best as Commissioner Gordon on ‘Batman’). The idea behind ‘Hollywood Screen Test’ was to give exposure to many up-and-coming actors who were looking for their big break. Relative unknowns would be picked to guest star on the show with a half-hour scenes of dialogue from a couple of different plays with established stage and screen actors.

Among the stars discovered on ‘Hollywood Screen Test’ were Grace Kelly, Jack Klugman, Pernell Roberts, and Jack Lemmon.

Originally the show aired on Sundays at 8 ET. Across the dial, it’s Sunday night competitors were ‘Toast Of The Town’ with Ed Sullivan on CBS, ‘Meet The Press’ and ‘Admiral Revue’ with Sid Caesar on NBC and ‘The Original Amateur Hour’ on Dumont.

This was the first network series broadcast on ABC-TV, which started TV broadcasting in April 1948. 1948 was the first season in which all four networks, then in operation in the US, offered nightly prime time schedules. By the way, the dog named JJ Morgan got a job too. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

Source