''Alcoa Theatre'' is a half-hour American

anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a di ...

telecast on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

at 9:30 pm on Monday nights from September 30, 1957 to May 23, 1960. The program also aired under the title ''Turn of Fate''. ''Alcoa Theatre'' was syndicated together with '' Goodyear Theatre'' as ''Award Theatre''. In 1955, ''

The Alcoa Hour ''The Alcoa Hour'' is an American anthology television series that was aired live on NBC from 1955 to 1957. The series was sponsored by Alcoa. Overview Like the '' Philco Television Playhouse'' and ''Goodyear Television Playhouse'' that had p ...

'' premiered in a one-hour format aired on Sunday nights, but it was reduced to 30 minutes, retitled ''Alcoa Theatre'', and moved to Monday evening in 1957. The show employed an alternating rotating company of actors:

David Niven James David Graham Niven (; 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) was a British actor, soldier, memoirist, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Major Pollock in '' Separate Tables'' (1958). Niven's other role ...

Robert Ryan Robert Bushnell Ryan (November 11, 1909 – July 11, 1973) was an American actor and activist. Known for his portrayals of hardened cops and ruthless villains, Ryan performed for over three decades. He was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...

Jane Powell Jane Powell (born Suzanne Lorraine Burce; April 1, 1929 – September 16, 2021) was an American actress, singer, and dancer who first appeared in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the 1940s and 50s. With her soprano voice and girl-next-door ima ...

Jack Lemmon John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered equally proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy pictures, leadin ...

and

Charles Boyer Charles Boyer (; 28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American fi ...

. Each appeared in dramatic and light comedic roles through the first season.

Overview

The series continued to feature the talents of veteran and emerging actors over the ensuing years, including

Cliff Robertson Clifford Parker Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor whose career in film and television spanned over six decades. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film '' PT 109'', and won the 196 ...

John Cassavetes John Nicholas Cassavetes ( ; December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. First known as a television and film actor, Cassavetes also helped pioneer American independent cinema, writing and direc ...

, Brandon deWilde,

Cornel Wilde Cornel Wilde (born Kornél Lajos Weisz; October 13, 1912 – October 16, 1989) was a Hungarian-American actor and filmmaker. Wilde's acting career began in 1935, when he made his debut on Broadway. In 1936 he began making small, uncredited ap ...

Agnes Moorehead Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900April 30, 1974) was an American actress. In a career spanning four decades, her credits included work in radio, stage, film, and television.Obituary '' Variety'', May 8, 1974, page 286. Moorehead was t ...

Jack Carson John Elmer Carson (October 27, 1910 – January 2, 1963) was a Canadian-born American film actor. Carson often played the role of comedic friend in films of the 1940s and 1950s, including ''The Strawberry Blonde'' (1941) with James Cagney and ...

Walter Slezak Walter Slezak (; 3 May 1902 – 21 April 1983) was an Austrian-born film and stage actor active between 1922 and 1976. He mainly appeared in German films before migrating to the United States in 1930 and performing in numerous Hollywood producti ...

and

Gary Merrill Gary Fred Merrill (August 2, 1915 – March 5, 1990) was an American film and television actor whose credits included more than 50 feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of television guest appearances. He starr ...

Child actor The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated t ...

Flip Mark made his television debut as Robbie Adams in the 1959 episode "Another Day Another Dollar". Another child actor, Dennis Holmes, prior to joining the cast of '' Laramie'' appeared as Davey Morris in the 1959 episode, "The Night of the Kill." Gian-Carlo Menotti's '' Amahl and the Night Visitors'' remains one of the ''Alcoa Theatres best-known presentations. "333 Montgomery" (June 13, 1960) starred

DeForest Kelley Jackson DeForest Kelley (January 20, 1920 – June 11, 1999), known to colleagues as "Dee", was an American actor, screenwriter, poet, and singer. He was known for his roles in Westerns and as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the in the televisi ...

in the pilot episode of an unsold series written by

Gene Roddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter, producer, and creator of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'', its sequel spin-off series '' Star Trek: The Animated Series,'' and '' S ...

. It was based on the book ''Never Plead Guilty'' by

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

criminal lawyer Jake Ehrlich. Kelley acted in three separate pilots for

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

, and the studio decided to try him in a lead and sent him to meet Roddenberry. Kelley and Roddenberry went to San Francisco to meet Ehrlich, who chose him for the lead. This event was crucial to Kelley's career because it introduced him to Roddenberry, later resulting in his ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vario ...

'' role.

, William Talman and

Joan Blackman Joan May Blackman (born May 17, 1938, in San Francisco, California) is an American actress. Film Blackman appeared in her first motion picture, ''Good Day for a Hanging'', in 1959. She had a significant role in two Elvis Presley films. She play ...

starred in "The Victim," a suspense episode involving a disappearing woman.

Awards and nominations

Episodes

Series Overview

Season 1 (1957-58)

Season 2 (1958-59)

Season 3 (1959-60)

References

External links

*
Theatre'' at CVTA
{{EmmyAward DramaSeries 1951-1975 1957 American television series debuts 1960 American television series endings 1950s American anthology television series 1960s American anthology television series 1950s American drama television series 1960s American drama television series Black-and-white American television shows English-language television shows NBC original programming Alcoa Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series winners