The Stranger (1954 American TV series)
The Stranger was an early American television program broadcast on the now defunct DuMont Television Network. The series ran from 1954 to 1955, and was a drama starring Robert Carroll, who played a mysterious man who helped those in distress.[1]
| The Stranger | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Frank Telford |
| Starring | Robert Carroll |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | DuMont |
| Original release | June 25, 1954 – February 11, 1955 |
The program, produced and distributed by DuMont, aired Friday at 9 PM on most DuMont affiliates. The series was produced and directed by Frank Telford, and was cancelled in 1955, as the DuMont Network began crumbling.
Criticism
The Stranger was hampered by a small budget, even by 1950s standards. Later critics, such as Castleman and Podrazik (1982), cited The Stranger, among other DuMont series, as one of the reasons fewer and fewer viewers tuned into the ailing DuMont Network.
They stated the series was, like several other DuMont programs during the 1953-1954 season, "doomed from the start by third-rate scripts and cheap production" and called the program a "stale pulp adventure".[2] The series did not last long, and the network itself began crumbling by early 1955.
Episode status
Two episodes from 1954 exist at UCLA: The Build Up from September 24 and The Biter Bit from November 12.
See also
References
- McNeil, Alex (1980). Total Television (4th ed.). New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-024916-8.
- Castleman, Harry; Walter J. Podrazik (1982). Watching TV: Four Decades of American Television. New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 87. ISBN 0-07-010269-4.
Bibliography
- David Weinstein, The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004) ISBN 1-59213-245-6
- Alex McNeil, Total Television, Fourth edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1980) ISBN 0-14-024916-8
- Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows, Third edition (New York: Ballantine Books, 1964) ISBN 0-345-31864-1