These early episodes were often mysteries, reflecting Wisbar's background in horror and mystery movie making. A half-hour format that presented two 15-minute filmed stories per episode was chosen for the 1949-50 season. Genres were mixed, and included comedies, musicals, mysteries, and dramas. Some of the 15-minute episodes were live and some were filmed. When Fireside Theatre premiered in April 1949, it began a three-month experimental period. Writers such as Rod Serling and Budd Schulberg saw their stories produced and then little-known and second-string movie actors such as Hugh O'Brian, Rita Moreno, and Jane Wyatt appeared on the series. To control costs, he wrote many episodes himself and used public domain and free-lance stories. Frank Wisbar Productions was the sole production company from 1951-55 and for the show's first several seasons, Wisbar produced and directed most episodes, and even served as host in the 1952-53 season. Producer/director/writer/host Frank Wisbar is often considered the reason for Fireside Theatre's success. And it enabled cost-effective distribution to the West Coast, not yet hooked into the coaxial cable network that linked East Coast and Midwest stations. It created opportunities for added profits from syndication when programs were sold for repeated airing. It allowed for closer control of content and costs. It made possible the creation of error-proof commercials. To the show's sponsor and owner, Procter & Gamble, film offered several distinct advantages over live production. However, when I Love Lucy premiered on CBS in 1951, Fireside Theatre had already been on the air for two years. The television series most often cited as the innovator in filmed programming is I Love Lucy (which was produced in Hollywood). Fireside Theatre fit this latter category. The worst was cheap, half-hour, Hollywood telefilms that did not, in their view, aspire to so-called serious drama or social relevance. For television critics working during the early years of the medium, the hour-long anthology dramas, with their adaptations of literary classics, serious dramas, and social relevance, represented the best of television. Videotape would not be available until 1956, and film was initially thought to be too expensive for weekly television production. Kraft Television Theatre, Studio One, and Philco Television Playhouse are outstanding examples of the form that dominated network schedules through the early 1950s. In 1955, the series was changed to Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre, and though it soon became a distinctly different series under the title, Jane Wyman Theater (1955-58), the title usually refers to the entire run of the series.įor the first two years of network series television (1947-49), all television shows were broadcast live from New York and many were anthology dramas, presenting weekly hour-long plays. Following The Milton Berle Show on Tuesday nights on NBC, Fireside was an anthology drama that presented a different half-hour story each week. In an era when live television dominated network schedules, the series demonstrated that filmed programming could be successful and from the fall of 1949 to the spring of 1955, it was one of the ten most watched programs in the United States. Fireside Theatre was the first successful filmed series on American network television.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |