''Kraft Television Theatre'' is an American anthology

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

television series running from 1947 to 1958. It began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. It first promoted MacLaren's Imperial Cheese, which was advertised nowhere else. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, the live hour-long series offered television plays with new stories and new characters each week, in addition to adaptations of such classics as '' A Christmas Carol'' and '' Alice in Wonderland''. The program was broadcast live from Studio 8-H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, currently the home of ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serve ...

''. Beginning October 1953, ABC added a separate series (also titled ''Kraft Television Theatre''), created to promote

Kraft The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arra ...

's new Cheez Whiz product. This series ran for sixteen months, telecast on Thursday evenings at 9:30pm, until January 1955. After Kraft cancelled the second show, the second show changed its sponsor to become '' Pond's Theatre'' on ABC-TV from March 1955, while the original ''Kraft Theatre'' continued on NBC-TV.

Background

A prestige show for NBC, it launched the careers of more than a few actors, directors and playwrights, including future Emmy-winning and

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-nominated actress Hope Lange. Actors on the series included James Dean,

Janet De Gore Janet De Gore (November 19, 1930 – June 11, 2022) was an American television and theatre actress. Born in Larchmont, New York, De Gore began her career in 1950 starring as Janice in the Broadway play '' The Member of the Wedding''. De Gore ...

, Colleen Dewhurst, Anne Francis, Lee Grant,

Helen Hayes Helen Hayes MacArthur ( Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have w ...

, Jack Lemmon,

Grace Kelly Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956. Kell ...

, Jack Klugman, Cloris Leachman, Sam Levene, Patrick McVey, Michael Higgins,

John Newland John Newland (November 23, 1917 – January 10, 2000) was an American director, actor, television producer, and screenwriter. Early life and career Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Newland began his career in vaudeville while still in his teens. Aft ...

, Paul Newman, Leslie Nielsen,

Anthony Perkins Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor, director, and singer. Perkins is best remembered for his role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's suspense thriller ''Psycho'', which made him an influential ...

, Judson Pratt, silent film icon Esther Ralston, Lee Remick, George C. Scott, Rod Steiger, Joan Tompkins (her first television role), Grace Carney and Joanne Woodward. Announcers for the show were

Ed Herlihy Edward Joseph Herlihy (August 14, 1909 – January 30, 1999)Cox, Jim (2008). ''This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . was an Ameri ...

(1947–1955) and Charles Stark (1955). In 1958, young performers Martin Huston and

Zina Bethune Zina Bianca Bethune (February 17, 1945 – February 12, 2012) was an American actress, dancer, and choreographer. Early years Bethune was born on Staten Island, the daughter of Ivy ( Vigder), a Russian-born (Sevastopol, present-day Ukraine) actr ...

appeared in "This Property Is Condemned", based on a Tennessee Williams play, the last show of ''Kraft Television Theatre''. Directors for the series included Sidney Lumet, Robert Altman, George Roy Hill, Fielder Cook, and John Boulting, and the many contributing writers included Rod Serling, William Templeton and JP Miller. Serling won an Emmy for scripting ''

Patterns A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated li ...

'' (January 12, 1955), the best remembered episode of the series. The drama had such an impact that it made television history by staging a second live encore performance three weeks later and was developed as a feature film, also titled ''

''. In April 1958, Kraft sold the rights to David Susskind's Talent Associates, which revamped the series as ''Kraft Mystery Theatre''. Under that title, it continued until September 1958. However, this eventually evolved into the 1963 filmed series '' Kraft Suspense Theatre'', which concentrated exclusively on original dramas written for television, not on adaptations. Between 1947 and 1958, the ''Kraft Television Theatre'' presented more than 650 comedies and dramas. The series finished #14 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 1950–1951 season, #23 for 1951-1952 and #21 for 1953–1954.

Episode status

Excerpts from several 1947 episodes and part of a reel of 1947 television clips are held by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

. In addition, the Library of Congress holds a large number of complete episodes, including five from 1948. The

American Heritage Center The American Heritage Center is the University of Wyoming's repository of manuscripts, rare books, and the university archives. Its collections focus on Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United St ...

has a number of scripts from various episodes for the years 1947, 1948, and 1949 in the Edmund C. Rice papers. These scripts, though authored by various people, were edited by Rice.

Episodes

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 39123
''Kraft Mystery Theatre'' at CVTA with episode list
1947 American television series debuts 1958 American television series endings 1940s American anthology television series 1950s American anthology television series 1940s American drama television series 1950s American drama television series Black-and-white American television shows English-language television shows NBC original programming Kraft Foods Television series by Talent Associates