''Climax!'' (later known as ''Climax Mystery Theater'') is an American television

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 dif ...

that aired on CBS from 1954 to 1958. The series was hosted by

William Lundigan William Paul Lundigan (June 12, 1914 – December 20, 1975) was an American film actor. His more than 125 films include '' Dodge City'' (1939), ''The Fighting 69th'' (1940), ''The Sea Hawk'' (1940), ''Santa Fe Trail'' (1940), '' Dishonored Lady ...

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 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 1964, eight other authors hav ...

in a television adaptation of

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., an ...

's novel '' Casino Royale''. It starred

Barry Nelson Barry Nelson (born Robert Haakon Nielsen; April 16, 1917 – April 7, 2007) was an American actor, noted as the first actor to portray Ian Fleming's secret agent James Bond. Early life Nelson was born in San Francisco, the son of Norwegian immi ...

as American secret agent "Jimmy Bond" and Peter Lorre as the villain Le Chiffre. This was the first screen adaptation of a James Bond novel, made before Eon Productions 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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* Anna Maria Alberghetti * Eddie Albert *

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* Edward Arnold * Mary Astor * Anne Bancroft *

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* Richard Boone * 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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* Art Carney * John Carradine * Jack Carson *

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* Lon Chaney Jr * Linda Christian * Steve Cochran * Claudette Colbert * Wendell Corey *

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* Linda Darnell * Jane Darwell * Laraine Day * Brandon deWilde * Paul Douglas * Tom Drake * Joanne Dru * James Dunn *

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* Nina Foch * John Forsythe *

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* Betty Furness * Eva Gabor * Zsa Zsa Gabor * Farley Granger *

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* 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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Louis Jourdan Louis Jourdan (born Louis Robert Gendre; 19 June 1921 – 14 February 2015) was a French film and television actor. He was known for his suave roles in several Hollywood films, including Alfred Hitchcock's '' The Paradine Case'' (1947), ''Lette ...

* Katy Jurado *

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established ...

* Phyllis Kirk *

Jack Klugman Jack Klugman (April 27, 1922 – December 24, 2012) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. He began his career in 1950 and started television and film work with roles in ''12 Angry Men'' (1957) and ''Cry Terror!'' (1958). Du ...

Angela Lansbury Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury (October 16, 1925 – October 11, 2022) was an Irish-British and American film, stage, and television actress. Her career spanned eight decades, much of it in the United States, and her work received a great deal ...

* Peter Lawford *

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* June Lockhart *

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* Peter Lorre * Barton MacLane *

Walter Matthau Walter Matthau (; born Walter John Matthow; October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor, comedian and film director. He is best known for his film roles in '' A Face in the Crowd'' (1957), '' King Creole'' (1958) and as a coach of a ...

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* Mercedes McCambridge *

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* Patricia Medina *

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* Sal Mineo * Thomas Mitchell *

Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...

* Elizabeth Montgomery * Agnes Moorehead *

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* Edmond O'Brien *

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* Pat O'Brien * Dennis O'Keefe * Susan Oliver *

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* Robert Preston *

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* Dale Robertson *

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* Ann Rutherford * Sylvia Sidney *

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* Dean Stockwell * Elaine Stritch *

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* Joan Tetzel *

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* Lana Turner * Eli Wallach *

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* Joanne Woodward * 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)