Washington Square is an American musical comedy television series that was broadcast on NBC beginning on October 21, 1956 and ending on June 13, 1957.

Format

Star Ray Bolger portrayed a talent agent who sought performers in New York City. The set of ''Washington Square'' was modeled after the area of the same name in New York City, including components representing Greenwich Village Inn and Washington Square Playhouse. Bolger said that the facilities were flexible enough to stage a dramatic or comedy show "using the stage of the playhouse as our set . . . or we could do a whole variety show in the inn or as an outdoor production on a set representing Washington Square Park".

Cast and guests

In addition to Bolger, Elaine Strich played the operator (and mistress of ceremonies) of the Village Inn. The dance duo Mata and Hari played instructors in a school of dance. Daniza Illitsch initially played Mama Rosa, with

Kay Armen Armenuhi Manoogian ( hy, Արմենուհի Մանուկեան); November 2, 1915 – October 3, 2011), better known by her stage name Kay Armen, was an American Armenian singer popular during the 1940s and 1950s. Her career in show business span ...

succeeding her. Other regulars were

Rusty Draper Farrell Haliday "Rusty" Draper (January 25, 1923 – March 28, 2003) was an American country and pop singer-songwriter and radio and TV host who achieved his greatest success in the 1950s. Biography Born in Kirksville, Missouri, United State ...

, The Three Flames, and the Bil and Cora Baird Puppets. Music was provided by the Charles Sanford Orchestra. Guest stars included Jose Greco, Vera Ellen,

Richard Haydn Richard Haydn (born George Richard Haydon, 10 March 1905 – 25 April 1985) was a British-American comedy actor. Some of his better known performances include his roles as Professor Oddley in '' Ball of Fire'' (1941), Roger in '' No Time for Lo ...

Sammy Davis Jr. Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director. At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...

Bert Lahr Irving Lahrheim (August 13, 1895 – December 4, 1967), known professionally as Bert Lahr, was an American actor. He was best known for his role as the Cowardly Lion, as well as his counterpart Kansas farmworker "Zeke", in the MGM adaptation of ...

, and Charles Laughton.

Schedule

The program's regular time slot was 4 - 5 p.m. Eastern Time on alternate Sundays, with ''

Wide Wide World ''Wide Wide World'' is a 1955–1958 90-minute documentary series telecast live on NBC on Sunday afternoons at 4pm Eastern. Conceived by network head Pat Weaver and hosted by Dave Garroway, ''Wide Wide World'' was introduced on the ''Producers' ...

'' as the alternate show. Four additional episodes were scheduled on week nights in May and June 1957. Episodes were broadcast live in

compatible color Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white t ...

. Producer William A. Bacher compared the Sunday afternoon slot to out-of-town performances of plays, providing opportunities to make improvements without "constant harassment and the usual nighttime disaster reports". Competing programs included ''College Press Conference'' and ''Medical Horizons'' on ABC, while CBS initially had NFL football and ''CBS Sunday News'' and later had ''Odyssey''.

Production

Besides Bacher as producer,

Greg Garrison Marvin Ginsburg (February 20, 1924 – March 25, 2005), known professionally as Greg Garrison, was an American producer and director in television. Career Garrison started his television career by accident at the age of 22. Among his first pro ...

was the director. Mac Benoff was the head writer, aided by Al Schwartz and Buddy Arnold.

Jerry Herman Gerald Sheldon Herman (July 10, 1931December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway theatre. One of the most commercially successful Broadway songwriters of his time, Herman was the composer and lyricist ...

wrote the music. Mata and Hari were choreographers in addition to their on-camera roles. Helene Curtis Industries, Inc. and Royal McBee Corp. sponsored the program.

Reception

Critic

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 ...

found Bolger hampered by aspects of TV production in the premiere episode. In a review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', Gould complimented Bolger's dancing grace but said "for reasons that remain mystifying, television producers feel compelled to burden Mr. Bolger with a book". Gould added, "Understandably, even the writers finally gave up and settled for a variety show, but not before removing the spirit and pep from the proceedings". A review of the same episode in the trade publication ''

Broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting beg ...

'' praised the program, complimenting the overall production while praising Bolger's work in particular. "But what really mattered," it said, "was that Ray sang and danced for a good part of the hour and that he repeated 'The Old Soft Shoe' routine that stopped the show as successfully on TV as it used to do on the Broadway stage".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington Square 1956 American television series debuts 1957 American television series endings 1950s American television series American live television series English-language television shows NBC original programming