''Climax!'' (later known as ''Climax Mystery Theater'') is an American television anthology series that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by William Lundigan and later co-hosted by Mary Costa. It was one of the few CBS programs of that era to be broadcast in color, using the massive TK-40A color cameras pioneered and manufactured by RCA, and used primarily by CBS' arch-rival network, NBC (the broadcasting division of RCA). Many of the episodes were performed and broadcast live, but, although the series was transmitted in color, only black-and-white ''kinescope'' copies of some episodes survive to the present day. The series finished at #22 in the

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

for the 1955-1956 season and #26 for 1956-1957.

Notable episodes

In 1954, the Climax! episode "Casino Royale" featured secret agent

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 19 ...

in a television adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel '' Casino Royale''. It starred Barry Nelson as American secret agent "Jimmy Bond" and

Peter Lorre Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...

as the villain Le Chiffre. This was the first screen adaptation of a James Bond novel, made before

Eon Productions Eon Productions Ltd. is a British film production company that primarily produces the ''James Bond'' film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the UK. ''Bond'' films Eon was starte ...

acquired the Bond film rights. Eon would later obtain the rights to ''Casino Royale'' in the late 1990s. This adaptation is available on DVD as a bonus feature on the MGM DVD release of the 1967 film adaptation of the novel. ''The Lou Gehrig Story'' was released on a DVD named Legends of Baseball, America's Pastime by PC Treasures, LLC. The disc also features ''The Jackie Robinson Story''. The only other episode of ''Climax!'' available on DVD is

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...

's adaptation of

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as '' Treasure Island'', '' Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

's '' The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'', retitled on ''Climax!'' as "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde". It stars Michael Rennie, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, and Lowell Gilmore; it is available in the DVD box set "Classic Sci-Fi TV - 150 Episodes" from Mill Creek Entertainment. In an earlier episode of ''Climax!'', an adaptation of

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

's '' The Long Goodbye'', actor Tristram Coffin, playing a dead body, arose in shot and walked off stage. The event was widely covered in the media of the day, later becoming an

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

that was attributed to Peter Lorre and the previously mentioned adaptation of ''Casino Royale''. In addition, a small number of select episodes from the series can be found on YouTube.

Episodes

Season 1: 1954–55

Season 2: 1955–56

Season 3: 1956–57

Season 4: 1957–58

Guest stars

(in alphabetical order) Sir Cedric Hardwicke Joan Tetzel Climax 1957

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* Eddie Albert *

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* Edward Arnold *

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* Anne Bancroft *

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* Ralph Bellamy *

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* Lloyd Bridges * Terry Burnham"Pig-Tailed Blonde Has Role as Lana Turner's Daughter"
''Long Beach Independent-Press-Telegram''. March 1, 1959. p. A11. Retrieved October 29, 2022. *

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* Rory Calhoun *

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* John Cassavetes * Lon Chaney Jr * Linda Christian * Steve Cochran *

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* Wendell Corey *

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* Linda Darnell *

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* Laraine Day * Brandon deWilde * Paul Douglas * Tom Drake * Joanne Dru * James Dunn * Geraldine Fitzgerald *

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* Anne Francis * Betty Furness *

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* Farley Granger * Bonita Granville * Coleen Gray * Peter Graves * Jean Hagen * Sir Cedric Hardwicke *

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* Paul Henreid *

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* Tab Hunter * Ruth Hussey *

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* Peter Lawford *

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* Marjorie Lord *

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* Steve McQueen * Patricia Medina * Vera Miles * Sal Mineo * Thomas Mitchell *

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* Elizabeth Montgomery *

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* Rita Moreno * Barry Nelson *

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* Dale Robertson *

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* Ann Rutherford * Sylvia Sidney *

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* Yma Sumac * Joan Tetzel *

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* Claire Trevor *

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* John Wayne *

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* Teresa Wright

References

External links

*
''Climax!'' at CVTA with episode list
* {{Gore Vidal 1954 American television series debuts 1958 American television series endings 1950s American anthology television series CBS original programming English-language television shows Casino Royale (novel)