''Hollywood Opening Night'' is an American anthology television program that was broadcast on CBS in 1951-1952 and on NBC in 1952-1953. The NBC version was the first dramatic anthology presented live from the West Coast. Episodes were 30 minutes long.

CBS version

The CBS version debuted on July 13, 1951, and ended on March 28, 1952. Until March 1, 1952, it was sponsored by Ennds chlorophyll tablets, manufactured by Pearson Pharmacal Company, that product's first venture into being a regular sponsor on TV. Episodes were reruns of stories produced by Music Corporation of America, originally shown on '' Stars Over Hollywood''.

NBC version

On NBC ''Hollywood Opening Night'' ran from October 6, 1952, until March 23, 1953. It replaced '' Lights Out'' and was replaced by ''

Eye Witness Eyewitness or eye witness may refer to: Witness * Witness, someone who has knowledge acquired through first-hand experience ** Eyewitness memory ** Eyewitness testimony Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Eyewitness'' (1956 film), a Britis ...

''. Besides the change in networks, the content changed from filmed episodes to live broadcasts, and the show began originating from the then-new Burbank studios of NBC. Host

Jimmie Fidler Jimmie Fidler (August 26, 1898 – August 9, 1988) was an American columnist, journalist and radio and television personality. He wrote a Hollywood gossip column and was sometimes billed as Jimmy Fidler. Born James Marion Fidler in St. Lou ...

introduced each episode from a set that resembled a theater, and he followed each episode with a preview of what was scheduled for the next week. Ethel Barrymore,

Dorothy Lamour Dorothy Lamour (born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton; December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for having appeared in the '' Road to...'' movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing ...

, and

Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...

made their TV dramatic debuts on the program. Competing shows on other networks included '' The Big Idea'' on DuMont, ''Perspective'' on ABC, and ''

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'' on CBS. Pearson again was the sponsor. Fidler blamed the show's demise on its being broadcast at the same time as ''

'', the top-rated TV program at that time. He wrote that he had often asked executives at NBC about moving the show to another night, but they kept it in the same time slot. William Corrigan was the program's producer and director, with Marilyn Evans as associate director. Boris Sagal was the story editor, and Fred Albeck was the musical director.

Reception

Columnist

Jack Gould John Ludlow Gould (February 5, 1914 – May 24, 1993) was an American journalist and critic, who wrote commentary about television. Early life and education Gould was born in New York City into a socially prominent family and attended the Loomi ...

of ''

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'' wrote that the premiere episode on NBC "was alleged to be a comic treatise on a baseball umpire". He compared one scene to "the

Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeare ...

of vaudeville" and noted that star

William Bendix William Bendix (January 14, 1906 – December 14, 1964) was an American film, radio, and television actor, who typically played rough, blue-collar characters. He is best remembered for his role in ''Wake Island'', which earned him an Academy ...

frequently was seen looking for a prompter to help with his lines. Syndicated columnist John Crosby considered the fact that the program was performed before a live audience to be a disadvantage. He noted the overacting of the performers ("all pretty frantic") in the episode that he reviewed, attributing it to the actors' performing more for the in-house audience than for people who were watching on TV. He summarized ''Hollywood Opening Night'' as "a pleasant, well-lit, well-upholstered vacuum of a show which should kill a half hour of your time as painlessly as possible."

Episodes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollywood Opening Night 1951 American television series debuts 1953 American television series endings 1950s American anthology television series American live television series English-language television shows NBC original programming CBS original programming