‘The Actors Studio’, ABC’s First “Prestige” Drama Showcase

At 8:30 Sunday night, September 28, 1948, this half hour anthology series kicked off with ‘Portrait Of Madonna’, starring Jessica Tandy and Dick York. In the center photo, we see director David Pressman on the left, holding a mic as he talks to the studio during rehearsal. In January of 49, Marlon Brando would make his television debut on this show. The show was produced live each week by the The Actors Studio Inc. which was a nonprofit organization for actors and actresses in New York, and won a Peabody Award for it’s “uninhibited and brilliant pioneering in the field of televised drama”.

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