The Debut Of “Playhouse 90″…October 4, 1956
The Debut Of “Playhouse 90″…October 4, 1956
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 “Forbidden Area”, 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 wish there were many more dramatic shows of this quality. In reality they were giant soap operas. Too bad the networks aren’t interested in quality these days. What they think is quality is in fact FAR less than quality. As for me…… that’s why I don’t watch much tv.
I wish there were a collection of every show. I would buy it in a heartbeat.
Back when there was “good” programming on network television.
Ad for “Forbidden Area” in the New York Times
Frankenheimer’s DVD audio commentaries are among the best: Part reminiscence, part seminar in technique.
This is a page from director John Fankenheimers script of “Forbidden Area” from the debut show. The handwritten notes are his.