Playhouse 90
Encyclopedia
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS
from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of the mid-1950s were hour-long shows, the title highlighted the network's intention to present something unusual, a weekly series of hour-and-a-half dramas rather than 60-minute plays.
, John Houseman
, Russell Stoneman, Fred Coe
, Arthur Penn
and Hubbell Robinson. The leading director was John Frankenheimer
(27 episodes), followed by Franklin Schaffner
(19 episodes). Other directors included Sidney Lumet
, George Roy Hill
, Delbert Mann
and Robert Mulligan
.
With Alex North
's opening theme music, the series debuted October 4, 1956 with Rod Serling
's adaptation of Pat Frank's novel Forbidden Area. The following week, Requiem for a Heavyweight
, also scripted by Serling, received critical accolades and later dominated the 1956 Emmys by winning awards in six categories, including best direction, best teleplay and best actor. Serling was given the first Peabody Award for television writing. For many viewers, live TV drama had moved to a loftier plateau. Playhouse 90 established a reputation as television's most distinguished anthology drama series and maintained a high standard for four seasons (with repeats in 1961).
Productions were planned from the start to be both live and filmed, with a filmed show every fourth Thursday to relieve the pressure of mounting the live telecasts. The first filmed Playhouse 90 was The Country Husband (November 1, 1956) with Barbara Hale
and Frank Lovejoy
portraying a couple in a collapsing marriage. The filmed episodes were variously produced by Screen Gems
and CBS
.
The ambitious series frequently featured critically acclaimed dramas, including the original television versions of The Miracle Worker
(with Teresa Wright
as Annie Sullivan), and The Helen Morgan Story
(with an Emmy to Polly Bergen
for her performance in the title role), In the Presence of Mine Enemies (Rod Serling
's Warsaw ghetto
drama starring Charles Laughton
, with Robert Redford
in an early role), and the original television version of Judgment at Nuremberg
, featuring Maximilian Schell
in the role he would repeat in the 1961 film, but with an otherwise different cast, including Claude Rains
in the Spencer Tracy
role. Playhouse 90 received many Emmy Award nominations, and it later ranked #33 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time
. In 1997, the acclaimed "Requiem for a Heavyweight" was ranked #30 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
Early on though in 1956, Playhouse 90 faced some controversy due to scheduling. It was thought by independent producers that in Playhouse 90s procurement, scheduling and promotion decisions, major networks favored programs that they produced or in which they had ownership interest. Worried about this issue, CBS suspended its plans for the series in fear that they had violated anti-trust laws. Soon afterwards though, CBS received an oral opinion from its legal counsel that no laws had been violated and the show continued.
, Sumner Locke Elliott
, Horton Foote
, Frank D. Gilroy
, Roger O. Hirson, A. E. Hotchner
, Abby Mann
, JP Miller
, Paul Monash
and Leslie Stevens
. Playwright Tad Mosel
, who wrote four teleplays for Playhouse 90, recalled, "My first Playhouse 90 was glamour... Glamour had come to television because CBS had built this magnificent Television City in Los Angeles... Television had come to deserve buildings for itself. This was a whole new idea, that you'd have a building for television. Playhouse 90 was one of the first shows to go into that mammoth building."
's novel of twisted revenge; Eloise
(November 22, 1956), adapted from the book by Kay Thompson
and Hilary Knight
; and The Family Nobody Wanted
(December 20, 1956), from the Helen Doss book about a childless couple who adopt a dozen children of mixed ancestry, a book brought to TV again in 1975.
As Playhouse 90 moved into 1957, Frankenheimer directed a science fiction drama, The Ninth Day (January 10, 1957), by Howard and Dorothy Baker, about a small group of World War III survivors and a Serling original, The Comedian
(February 14, 1957), featuring Mickey Rooney
as an abrasive, manipulative television comedian. In later interviews, Frankenheimer expressed his admiration for Rooney's acting in this memorable drama.
After The Last Tycoon
(March 14, 1957), adapted from the F. Scott Fitzgerald
novel about a film studio head, Frankenheimer followed with Tad Mosel
's If You Knew Elizabeth (April 11, 1957) about an ambitious college professor; another Fitzgerald adaptation, Winter Dreams (May 23, 1957), dramatizing a romantic triangle; Clash by Night (June 13, 1957), with Kim Stanley
in an adaptation of the Clifford Odets
play; and The Fabulous Irishman (June 27, 1957), a biographical drama tracing events in the life of Robert Briscoe
. Frankenheimer used a fake bull's head jutting into the frame when he staged The Death of Manolete (September 12, 1957), Barnaby Conrad's drama about the death of the legendary bullfighter, a production later ranked by Frankenheimer as one of his worst.
Robert Alan Aurthur's script for A Sound of Different Drummers (October 3, 1957) borrowed so heavily from Ray Bradbury
's Fahrenheit 451
that Bradbury sued. The Troublemakers (November 21, 1957) was George Bellak's adaptation of his own 1956 play about a campus newspaper editor killed by other students. Frankenheimer ended the year with The Thundering Wave (December 12, 1957), starring James and Pamela Mason
in an Aurthur drama about acting couple who agree to do a play together despite their separation.
Frankenheimer kicked off 1958 with The Last Man (January 9, 1958), an Aaron Spelling
revenge drama, followed by The Violent Heart (February 6, 1958) from Daphne du Maurier
story of romance on the French Riviera, Rumors of Evening (May 1, 1958) about a World War II pilot obsessed with USO entertainer and Serling's Bomber's Moon (May 22, 1958) about a World War II pilot accused of cowardice. A Town Has Turned to Dust (June 19, 1958), a Serling drama about 1870 lynching of innocent Mexican in Southwestern town, was based on the Emmett Till
case.
In The New York Times
for October 3, 1958, the day after JP Miller's Days of Wine and Roses
was telecast, Jack Gould
wrote a rave review with much praise for the writer, director and cast:
"Old Man" (November 20, 1958) was adapted by Horton Foote
from William Faulkner
's story set during the 1927 Mississippi River flood. Face of a Hero (January 1, 1959), based on the Pierre Boulle
novel, starred Jack Lemmon
, who took this play to Broadway for a run of 36 performances in October to November 1960. The following year, Frankenheimer began with The Blue Men (January 15, 1959), an Alvin Boretz
drama about the trial of police detective who refused to make an arrest. A.E. Hotchner adapted Ernest Hemingway
's For Whom the Bell Tolls into a two-parter (March 12 and March 19, 1959). Journey to the Day (April 22, 1960) was a Roger Hirson drama about group therapy.
The program was normally telecast in black-and-white, but on Christmas night, 1958, it offered a color production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker
, starring the New York City Ballet
and choreographed by George Balanchine
. The program was, however, presented live rather than on videotape, and has survived only on a black-and-white kinescope
.
and Judgment at Nuremberg. Seven Against the Wall was scripted by Howard Browne
, who later reworked his teleplay into the screenplay for Roger Corman
's 1967 movie, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
. Three of the actors in the Playhouse 90 production reprised their roles for the Corman film: Celia Lovsky
, Milton Frome
and Frank Silvera
.
In at least one case, the reverse was true; William Saroyan
's The Time of Your Life
starring Jackie Gleason
had been a James Cagney
film of the same title
ten years earlier, and used one of the original cast members from the film in a supporting role.
An indifferently received TV movie
production of In the Presence of Mine Enemies, starring Armin Mueller-Stahl
in the Charles Laughton role, was shown on cable TV in 1997 by Showtime.
Peabody Awards
Golden Globe Awards
Emmy Awards
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of the mid-1950s were hour-long shows, the title highlighted the network's intention to present something unusual, a weekly series of hour-and-a-half dramas rather than 60-minute plays.
Background
The producers were Martin ManulisMartin Manulis
Martin Manulis was an American film, television and theater producer. Manulis was best known for creating the television program, Playhouse 90 on CBS.-Career:...
, John Houseman
John Houseman
John Houseman was a Romanian-born British-American actor and film producer who became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane...
, Russell Stoneman, Fred Coe
Fred Coe
Fred Coe , nicknamed Pappy, was a television producer and director most famous for The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse in 1948-1955 and Playhouse 90 from 1957 to 1959...
, Arthur Penn
Arthur Penn
Arthur Hiller Penn was an American film director and producer with a career as a theater director as well. Penn amassed a critically acclaimed body of work throughout the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:...
and Hubbell Robinson. The leading director was John Frankenheimer
John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films...
(27 episodes), followed by Franklin Schaffner
Franklin Schaffner
Franklin James Schaffner was an American film director best known for such films as Planet of the Apes , Patton , Papillon , and The Boys from Brazil .-Early life:...
(19 episodes). Other directors included Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
, George Roy Hill
George Roy Hill
George Roy Hill was an American film director. He is most noted for directing such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, which both starred the acting duo Paul Newman and Robert Redford...
, Delbert Mann
Delbert Mann
Delbert Martin Mann, Jr. was an American television and film director. He won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Director for the film Marty...
and Robert Mulligan
Robert Mulligan
Robert Mulligan was an American film and television director best known as the director of humanistic American dramas, including To Kill A Mockingbird , Summer of '42 , The Other , Same Time, Next Year and The Man in the Moon...
.
With Alex North
Alex North
Alex North was an American composer who wrote the first jazz-based film score and one of the first modernist scores written in Hollywood ....
's opening theme music, the series debuted October 4, 1956 with Rod Serling
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
's adaptation of Pat Frank's novel Forbidden Area. The following week, Requiem for a Heavyweight
Requiem for a Heavyweight
Requiem for a Heavyweight was a teleplay written by Rod Serling and produced for the live television show Playhouse 90 on 11 October 1956. Six years later, it was adapted as a 1962 feature film starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney....
, also scripted by Serling, received critical accolades and later dominated the 1956 Emmys by winning awards in six categories, including best direction, best teleplay and best actor. Serling was given the first Peabody Award for television writing. For many viewers, live TV drama had moved to a loftier plateau. Playhouse 90 established a reputation as television's most distinguished anthology drama series and maintained a high standard for four seasons (with repeats in 1961).
Productions were planned from the start to be both live and filmed, with a filmed show every fourth Thursday to relieve the pressure of mounting the live telecasts. The first filmed Playhouse 90 was The Country Husband (November 1, 1956) with Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale is an American actress best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street on more than 250 episodes of the long-running Perry Mason television series and later reprising the role in dozens of made-for-TV movies....
and Frank Lovejoy
Frank Lovejoy
Frank Lovejoy was an American actor in radio, film, and television. He was born Frank Lovejoy Jr. in Bronx, New York, but grew up in New Jersey. His father, Frank Lovejoy Sr., was a furniture salesman from Maine...
portraying a couple in a collapsing marriage. The filmed episodes were variously produced by Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....
and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
.
The ambitious series frequently featured critically acclaimed dramas, including the original television versions of The Miracle Worker
The Miracle Worker
The Miracle Worker is a cycle of 20th century dramatic works derived from Helen Keller's autobiography The Story of My Life. Each of the various dramas describes the relationship between Keller—a deafblind and initially almost feral child—and Anne Sullivan, the teacher who introduced her to...
(with Teresa Wright
Teresa Wright
Teresa Wright was an American actress. She received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1942 for her performance in Mrs. Miniver. That same year, she received an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for her performance in Pride of the Yankees opposite Gary Cooper...
as Annie Sullivan), and The Helen Morgan Story
Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s...
(with an Emmy to Polly Bergen
Polly Bergen
Polly Bergen is an American actress, singer, and entrepreneur.-Career:Bergen appeared in many film roles, most notably in the original Cape Fear opposite Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum...
for her performance in the title role), In the Presence of Mine Enemies (Rod Serling
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
's Warsaw ghetto
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
drama starring Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
, with Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
in an early role), and the original television version of Judgment at Nuremberg
Judgment at Nuremberg
Judgment at Nuremberg is a 1961 American drama film dealing with the Holocaust and the Post-World War II Nuremberg Trials. It was written by Abby Mann, directed by Stanley Kramer, and starred Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy...
, featuring Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...
in the role he would repeat in the 1961 film, but with an otherwise different cast, including Claude Rains
Claude Rains
Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
in the Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...
role. Playhouse 90 received many Emmy Award nominations, and it later ranked #33 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time
TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time
TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time is TV Guides list of the 50 most entertaining and influential television series in American pop culture...
. In 1997, the acclaimed "Requiem for a Heavyweight" was ranked #30 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
Early on though in 1956, Playhouse 90 faced some controversy due to scheduling. It was thought by independent producers that in Playhouse 90s procurement, scheduling and promotion decisions, major networks favored programs that they produced or in which they had ownership interest. Worried about this issue, CBS suspended its plans for the series in fear that they had violated anti-trust laws. Soon afterwards though, CBS received an oral opinion from its legal counsel that no laws had been violated and the show continued.
Writers
Writers for the series included Robert Alan AurthurRobert Alan Aurthur
Robert Alan Aurthur was an American screenwriter, director and TV producer.-Television:In the early years of television, he wrote for Studio One and then moved on to write episodes of Mister Peepers...
, Sumner Locke Elliott
Sumner Locke Elliott
Sumner Locke Elliott was an Australian novelist.-Biography:Elliott was born in Sydney to the writer Helena Sumner Locke and the journalist Henry Logan Elliott. His mother died of eclampsia one day after his birth...
, Horton Foote
Horton Foote
Albert Horton Foote, Jr. was an American playwright and screenwriter, perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning screenplays for the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird and the 1983 film Tender Mercies, and his notable live television dramas during the Golden Age of Television...
, Frank D. Gilroy
Frank D. Gilroy
Frank Daniel Gilroy is an American playwright, screenwriter, and film producer and director. He received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play The Subject Was Roses in 1965.-Early life:...
, Roger O. Hirson, A. E. Hotchner
A. E. Hotchner
Aaron Edward Hotchner, is an American editor, novelist, playwright and biographer.-Biography:He was born in St. Louis and attended Soldan High School...
, Abby Mann
Abby Mann
Abby Mann was an American film writer and producer.-Life and career:Born as Abraham Goodman in Philadelphia, he grew up in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was best known for his work on controversial subjects and social drama...
, JP Miller
JP Miller
James Pinckney Miller , known to friends and associates by the nickname Pappy, wrote under the name JP Miller. He was a leading playwright during the Golden Age of Television, receiving three Emmy nominations...
, Paul Monash
Paul Monash
-Life and career:Paul Monash was born in Harlem, New York, in 1917, and grew up in The Bronx. His mother, Rhoda Melrose, acted in silent films. Monash earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a master's degree in education from Columbia University...
and Leslie Stevens
Leslie Stevens
Leslie Clark Stevens III was the creator of the cult TV series The Outer Limits and director of the cult horror film Incubus , starring William Shatner. He wrote an early work of New Age philosophy, Est: The Steersman Handbook .-Early life and career:Leslie Stevens was born in Washington, D.C...
. Playwright Tad Mosel
Tad Mosel
Tad Mosel was an American playwright and one of the leading dramatists of hour-long teleplay genre for live television during the 1950s. He received the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play All the Way Home....
, who wrote four teleplays for Playhouse 90, recalled, "My first Playhouse 90 was glamour... Glamour had come to television because CBS had built this magnificent Television City in Los Angeles... Television had come to deserve buildings for itself. This was a whole new idea, that you'd have a building for television. Playhouse 90 was one of the first shows to go into that mammoth building."
John Frankenheimer
Between 1954 and 1960, John Frankenheimer directed 152 live television dramas, an average of one every two weeks. During the 1950s he was regarded as television's top directorial talent, and much of his significant work was for Playhouse 90, for which he directed 27 teleplays between 1956 and 1960. He began with Forbidden Area (October 4, 1956), adapted by Serling from the Pat Frank novel about Soviet sabotage, following with Rendezvous in Black (October 25, 1956), adapted from Cornell WoolrichCornell Woolrich
Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich was an American novelist and short story writer who sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley....
's novel of twisted revenge; Eloise
Eloise (books)
Eloise is the name of the protagonist in a series of children's books written by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight.Eloise is a six-year-old girl who lives in the "room on the tippy-top floor" of the Plaza Hotel in New York with her Nanny, her pug dog Weenie, and her turtle Skipperdee. A...
(November 22, 1956), adapted from the book by Kay Thompson
Kay Thompson
Kay Thompson was an American author, composer, musician, actress and singer. She is best known as the creator of the Eloise children's books.-Background:Catherine Louise Fink was born in St...
and Hilary Knight
Hilary Knight
Hilary Knight is an American writer-artist who is the illustrator of more than 50 books and the author of nine books. He is best known as the illustrator of Kay Thompson's Eloise and others in the Eloise series....
; and The Family Nobody Wanted
The Family Nobody Wanted
The Family Nobody Wanted is a 1954 memoir by Helen Doss .It retells the story of how Doss and her husband Carl, a Methodist minister, adopted twelve children of various ethnic backgrounds...
(December 20, 1956), from the Helen Doss book about a childless couple who adopt a dozen children of mixed ancestry, a book brought to TV again in 1975.
As Playhouse 90 moved into 1957, Frankenheimer directed a science fiction drama, The Ninth Day (January 10, 1957), by Howard and Dorothy Baker, about a small group of World War III survivors and a Serling original, The Comedian
The Comedian (1957 TV drama)
The Comedian is a 1957 live television drama written by Rod Serling from a novella by Ernest Lehman, directed by John Frankenheimer, and starring Mickey Rooney....
(February 14, 1957), featuring Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
as an abrasive, manipulative television comedian. In later interviews, Frankenheimer expressed his admiration for Rooney's acting in this memorable drama.
After The Last Tycoon
The Love of the Last Tycoon
The Love of The Last Tycoon: A Western is an unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, compiled and published posthumously.-Publication history:The novel was unfinished and in rough form at the time of Fitzgerald's death at age 44...
(March 14, 1957), adapted from the F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
novel about a film studio head, Frankenheimer followed with Tad Mosel
Tad Mosel
Tad Mosel was an American playwright and one of the leading dramatists of hour-long teleplay genre for live television during the 1950s. He received the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play All the Way Home....
's If You Knew Elizabeth (April 11, 1957) about an ambitious college professor; another Fitzgerald adaptation, Winter Dreams (May 23, 1957), dramatizing a romantic triangle; Clash by Night (June 13, 1957), with Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley was an American actress, primarily in television and theatre, but with occasional film performances....
in an adaptation of the Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
play; and The Fabulous Irishman (June 27, 1957), a biographical drama tracing events in the life of Robert Briscoe
Robert Briscoe (politician)
Robert Briscoe , known as Bob Briscoe was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Teachta Dála in the Oireachtas from 1927 to 1965.- Family :...
. Frankenheimer used a fake bull's head jutting into the frame when he staged The Death of Manolete (September 12, 1957), Barnaby Conrad's drama about the death of the legendary bullfighter, a production later ranked by Frankenheimer as one of his worst.
Robert Alan Aurthur's script for A Sound of Different Drummers (October 3, 1957) borrowed so heavily from Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
's Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury. The novel presents a future American society where reading is outlawed and firemen start fires to burn books...
that Bradbury sued. The Troublemakers (November 21, 1957) was George Bellak's adaptation of his own 1956 play about a campus newspaper editor killed by other students. Frankenheimer ended the year with The Thundering Wave (December 12, 1957), starring James and Pamela Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
in an Aurthur drama about acting couple who agree to do a play together despite their separation.
Frankenheimer kicked off 1958 with The Last Man (January 9, 1958), an Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...
revenge drama, followed by The Violent Heart (February 6, 1958) from Daphne du Maurier
Daphne du Maurier
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE was a British author and playwright.Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Her elder sister was...
story of romance on the French Riviera, Rumors of Evening (May 1, 1958) about a World War II pilot obsessed with USO entertainer and Serling's Bomber's Moon (May 22, 1958) about a World War II pilot accused of cowardice. A Town Has Turned to Dust (June 19, 1958), a Serling drama about 1870 lynching of innocent Mexican in Southwestern town, was based on the Emmett Till
Emmett Till
Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta region when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married...
case.
In The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
for October 3, 1958, the day after JP Miller's Days of Wine and Roses
Days of Wine and Roses (1958 TV drama)
Days of Wine and Roses was an acclaimed 1958 teleplay by JP Miller which dramatized the problems of alcoholism. John Frankenheimer directed the cast headed by Cliff Robertson, Piper Laurie and Charles Bickford....
was telecast, Jack Gould
Jack Gould
Jack Gould was an American journalist and critic, who wrote influential commentary about television....
wrote a rave review with much praise for the writer, director and cast:
- It was a brilliant and compelling work... Mr. Miller's dialogue was especially fine, natural, vivid and understated. Miss Laurie's performance was enough to make the flesh crawl, yet it also always elicited deep sympathy. Her interpretation of the young wife just a shade this side of delirium tremens--the flighty dancing around the room, her weakness of character and moments of anxiety and her charm when she was sober--was a superlative accomplishment. Miss Laurie is moving into the forefront of our most gifted young actresses. Mr. Robertson achieved first-rate contrast between the sober man fighting to hold on and the hopeless drunk whose only courage came from the bottle. His scene in the greenhouse, where he tried to find the bottle that he had hidden in the flower pot, was particularly good... John Frankenheimer's direction was magnificent. His every touch implemented the emotional suspense but he never let the proceedings get out of hand or merely become sensational.
"Old Man" (November 20, 1958) was adapted by Horton Foote
Horton Foote
Albert Horton Foote, Jr. was an American playwright and screenwriter, perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning screenplays for the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird and the 1983 film Tender Mercies, and his notable live television dramas during the Golden Age of Television...
from William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
's story set during the 1927 Mississippi River flood. Face of a Hero (January 1, 1959), based on the Pierre Boulle
Pierre Boulle
Pierre Boulle was a French novelist largely known for two famous works, The Bridge over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes .-Biography:...
novel, starred Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
, who took this play to Broadway for a run of 36 performances in October to November 1960. The following year, Frankenheimer began with The Blue Men (January 15, 1959), an Alvin Boretz
Alvin Boretz
Alvin Boretz was television writer whose early work included episodes of GE Theater , Playhouse 90 , and Armstrong Circle Theatre . He later wrote episodes of Dr...
drama about the trial of police detective who refused to make an arrest. A.E. Hotchner adapted Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
's For Whom the Bell Tolls into a two-parter (March 12 and March 19, 1959). Journey to the Day (April 22, 1960) was a Roger Hirson drama about group therapy.
Live to tape
Playhouse 90 began as a live series, making a transition to tape in 1957. Kevin Dowler, writing for the Museum of Broadcast Communications, noted:- Its status as a "live" drama was short lived in any case, since the difficulties in mounting a 90-minute production on a weekly basis required the adoption of the recently developed videotape technology, which was used to pre-record entire shows from 1957 onward. Both the pressures and the costs of this ambitious production eventually resulted in Playhouse 90 being cut back to alternate weeks, sharing its time slot with The Big Party between 1959 and 1960. The last eight shows were aired irregularly between February and May 1960, with repeats broadcast during the summer weeks of 1961...
- The success of Playhouse 90 continued into the 1957-58 season with productions of The Miracle Worker, The Comedian and The Helen Morgan Story. Although these shows, along with Requiem and Judgment at Nuremberg were enough to ensure the historical importance of Playhouse 90, the program also stood out because of its emergence in the "film era" of television broadcasting evolution. By 1956, much of television production had moved from the east to the west coast, and from live performances to filmed series. Most of the drama anthologies, a staple of the evening schedule to this point, fell victim to the newer types of programs being developed. Playhouse 90 stands in contrast to the prevailing trend, and its reputation benefited from both the growing nostalgia for the waning live period and a universal distaste for Hollywood on the part of New York television critics. It is also probable that since the use of videotape (not widespread at the time) preserved a "live" feel, discussion of the programs could be easily adapted to the standards introduced by the New York television critics.
The program was normally telecast in black-and-white, but on Christmas night, 1958, it offered a color production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
, starring the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
and choreographed by George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
. The program was, however, presented live rather than on videotape, and has survived only on a black-and-white kinescope
Kinescope
Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor...
.
TV Listings
| Season | Time Slot |
|---|---|
| 1 (1956-1957) | Thursday at 9:30 pm |
| 2 (1957-1958) | |
| 3 (1958-1959) | |
| 4 (1959-1960) | Thursday at 9:30 pm (October 1, 1959 - January 21, 1960) Tuesday at 9:30 pm (February 9, 1960; March 22, 1960) Wednesday at 8:00 pm (February 24, 1960; May 18, 1960) Monday at 9:30 pm (March 7, 1960; May 2, 1960) Sunday at 9:30 pm (April 3, 1960) Friday at 9:30 pm (April 22, 1960) |
Source for movies
More than a few teleplays in the series were later filmed as theatrical motion pictures, including Requiem for a Heavyweight, The Helen Morgan Story, Days of Wine and RosesDays of Wine and Roses (film)
Days of Wine and Roses is a film directed by Blake Edwards with a screenplay by JP Miller adapted from his own 1958 Playhouse 90 teleplay of the same name....
and Judgment at Nuremberg. Seven Against the Wall was scripted by Howard Browne
Howard Browne
Howard Browne was a science fiction editor and mystery writer. He also wrote for several television series and films...
, who later reworked his teleplay into the screenplay for Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
's 1967 movie, The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (film)
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre is a 1967 gangster film based on the 1929 Chicago mass murder of seven members of the Northside gang, directed against George "Bugs" Moran by Al Capone...
. Three of the actors in the Playhouse 90 production reprised their roles for the Corman film: Celia Lovsky
Celia Lovsky
Celia Lovsky was an Austrian American actress. She was born Cäcilie Lvovsky in Vienna, daughter of Bretislav Lvovsky , a minor Czech opera composer...
, Milton Frome
Milton Frome
Milton Frome was an American character actor. He made approximately 140 television and film appearances between 1934 and 1982.-Career:...
and Frank Silvera
Frank Silvera
Frank Alvin Silvera was an American actor and theatrical director.-Career:Silvera was born in Kingston, Jamaica to a Spanish Jewish father and Jamaican mother. His family later emigrated to the United States, settling in Boston where Silvera attended English High School and Northeastern Law School...
.
In at least one case, the reverse was true; William Saroyan
William Saroyan
William Saroyan was an Armenian American dramatist and author. The setting of many of his stories and plays is the center of Armenian-American life in California in his native Fresno.-Early years:...
's The Time of Your Life
The Time of Your Life (TV film)
The Time of Your Life is a 1958 live television version of William Saroyan's play starring Jackie Gleason, directed by Tom Donovan, and adapted by A. J. Russell. The telecast was shown on October 9, 1958 and was the third episode of the third season of the prestigious anthology series Playhouse 90...
starring Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...
had been a James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
film of the same title
The Time of Your Life (film)
The Time of Your Life is a 1948 film starring James Cagney adapted from the 1939 William Saroyan play of the same title. The movie was adapted by Nathaniel Curtis, directed by H. C. Potter, and featured William Bendix as Nick, Wayne Morris as Tom, Broderick Crawford as Krupp, and Ward Bond as...
ten years earlier, and used one of the original cast members from the film in a supporting role.
An indifferently received TV movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
production of In the Presence of Mine Enemies, starring Armin Mueller-Stahl
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.-Early life:Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia...
in the Charles Laughton role, was shown on cable TV in 1997 by Showtime.
Awards
- 1957 Rod SerlingRod SerlingRodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
for Requiem for a HeavyweightRequiem for a HeavyweightRequiem for a Heavyweight was a teleplay written by Rod Serling and produced for the live television show Playhouse 90 on 11 October 1956. Six years later, it was adapted as a 1962 feature film starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney.... - 1959 Playhouse 90
Golden Globe Awards
- 1957 Best TV Show – Playhouse 90
- 1958 Best Dramatic Anthology Series – Playhouse 90
Emmy Awards
- 1957 Best New Program Series – Playhouse 90
- 1957 Best Art Direction - One Hour or More – Albert Heschong in Requiem for a HeavyweightRequiem for a HeavyweightRequiem for a Heavyweight was a teleplay written by Rod Serling and produced for the live television show Playhouse 90 on 11 October 1956. Six years later, it was adapted as a 1962 feature film starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney....
- 1957 Best Single Performance by an Actor – Jack PalanceJack PalanceJack Palance , was an American actor. During half a century of film and television appearances, Palance was nominated for three Academy Awards, all as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning in 1991 for his role in City Slickers.-Early life:Palance, one of five children, was born Volodymyr...
in Requiem for a HeavyweightRequiem for a HeavyweightRequiem for a Heavyweight was a teleplay written by Rod Serling and produced for the live television show Playhouse 90 on 11 October 1956. Six years later, it was adapted as a 1962 feature film starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney.... - 1957 Best Single Program of the Year – Requiem for a HeavyweightRequiem for a HeavyweightRequiem for a Heavyweight was a teleplay written by Rod Serling and produced for the live television show Playhouse 90 on 11 October 1956. Six years later, it was adapted as a 1962 feature film starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney....
- 1957 Best Teleplay Writing - One Hour or More – Rod SerlingRod SerlingRodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
in Requiem for a HeavyweightRequiem for a HeavyweightRequiem for a Heavyweight was a teleplay written by Rod Serling and produced for the live television show Playhouse 90 on 11 October 1956. Six years later, it was adapted as a 1962 feature film starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney.... - 1957 Best Director - One Hour or More – Ralph NelsonRalph NelsonRalph Nelson was an American movie and television director, producer, writer, and actor.-Life and career:...
in Requiem for a HeavyweightRequiem for a HeavyweightRequiem for a Heavyweight was a teleplay written by Rod Serling and produced for the live television show Playhouse 90 on 11 October 1956. Six years later, it was adapted as a 1962 feature film starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney.... - 1958 Best Single Performance by an Actress – Polly BergenPolly BergenPolly Bergen is an American actress, singer, and entrepreneur.-Career:Bergen appeared in many film roles, most notably in the original Cape Fear opposite Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum...
in The Helen Morgan StoryThe Helen Morgan StoryThe Helen Morgan Story is a 1957 American biographical film directed by Michael Curtiz starring Ann Blyth and Paul Newman.The screenplay by Oscar Saul, Dean Riesner, Stephen Longstreet, and Nelson Gidding is based on the life and career of torch singer/actress Helen Morgan, with fictional touches... - 1959 Best Dramatic Series - One Hour or Longer – Playhouse 90
- 1960 Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Drama – Playhouse 90
External links
- "Backstage at Playhouse 90," Time, December 2. 1957
- 'Writing for Television" by Rod Serling
- television for future viewers" by Jake Ayres. Daily Bruin, May 29, 2007.
- Actress, Mary SinclairMary SinclairMary Sinclair was an American television, film and stage actress and “a familiar face to television viewers in the 1950s” as a performer in numerous plays produced and broadcast live during the early days of television. Sinclair was also a painter and had in her youth been a Conover model...