Your Show Time
Your Show Time is an American anthology drama series that debuted on NBC Television on the East Coast in September 1948 and then on both the East and West Coasts, as a network show, on January 21, 1949.
| Your Show Time | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Anthology Drama |
| Written by | Walter Doniger |
| Directed by | Sobey Martin |
| Presented by | Arthur Shields |
| Narrated by | Arthur Shields |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Producers | Marshall Grant Stanley Rubin |
| Running time | 26 mins. (approx) |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC Television |
| Picture format | Black-and-White |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | January 21 – July 15, 1949 |
The show was produced by Marshall Grant (1910-1957) for Grant Productions and Stanley Rubin for Realm Productions. The series was hosted and narrated by Arthur Shields, aired on Friday evenings, and ran until July 15, 1949. The series was sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes, and was later syndicated as Film Drama in 1955 and Story Theater in 1956.[1]
Production background
Filmed by Grant Productions at Hal Roach Studios, Your Show Time was American television's first dramatic series to be shot on film instead of being aired on live television or as a kinescope. The series Public Prosecutor was produced on film in 1947–48, for a planned September 1948 debut, but remained unaired until DuMont aired that series in 1951–52.[2]
Your Show Time is also notable for being the first series to win an Emmy Award.[3] The 1949 episode "The Necklace", produced by Stanley Rubin, won the Emmy Award as Outstanding Made For Television Movie.[4]
Synopsis
The show featured half-hour dramatizations of stories by renowned authors such as Guy de Maupassant, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Victor Hugo, Robert Louis Stevenson, Frank Stockton, and Mark Twain. Other episodes were adapted from chapters of novels, such as The Bishop's Experiment, an adaptation of the section featuring the bishop in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables with Leif Erickson as Jean Valjean.
Cast
The show featured appearances by such actors as Julie Adams, Robert Alda, Evelyn Ankers, Morris Carnovsky, Melville Cooper, Reginald Denny (actor), William Frawley, Eva Gabor, Hurd Hatfield, Hugo Haas, Sterling Holloway, Marjorie Lord, Alan Napier, Dan O'Herlihy, Eve Miller, Gene Reynolds, and Selena Royle.
Preservation status
At least nine episodes survive at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Episodes
| Episode # | Episode title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1-1 | "The Necklace" | January 21, 1949 |
| 1-2 | "The Sire de Maletroit's Door" | January 28, 1949 |
| 1-3 | "Mademoiselle Fifi" | February 4, 1949 |
| 1-4 | "The Mummy's Foot" | February 11, 1949 |
| 1-5 | "The Substitute" | February 18, 1949 |
| 1-6 | "The Invisible Wound" | February 25, 1949 |
| 1-7 | "Capture" | March 4, 1949 |
| 1-8 | "The Real Thing" | March 11, 1949 |
| 1-9 | "The Treasure of Franchard" | March 18, 1949 |
| 1-10 | "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" | March 25, 1949 |
| 1-11 | "The Tenor" | April 1, 1949 |
| 1-12 | "The Manchester Marriage" | April 8, 1949 |
| 1-13 | "The Lady, or the Tiger?" | April 15, 1949 |
| 1-14 | "A Confession on New Year's Eve" | April 22, 1949 |
| 1-15 | "The Mysterious Picture" | April 29, 1949 |
| 1-16 | "An Old, Old Story" | May 6, 1949 |
| 1-17 | "The Marquise" | May 13, 1949 |
| 1-18 | "The Million Pound Bank Note" | May 20, 1949 |
| 1-19 | "Birthday of the Infants" | May 27, 1949 |
| 1-20 | "Why Thomas Was Discharged" | June 3, 1949 |
| 1-21 | "The Bishop's Experiment" | June 10, 1949 |
| 1-22 | "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" | June 17, 1949 |
| 1-23 | "An Only Son" | June 24, 1949 |
| 1-24 | "Colonel Starbottle for the Plaintiff" | July 1, 1949 |
| 1-25 | "Cricket on the Hearth" | July 8, 1949 |
| 1-26 | "A Lodging for the Night" | July 15, 1949 |
Awards
| Year | Award | Result | Category | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Emmy Award | Won | Best Film Made for Television | For episode "The Necklace" |
References
- CTVA entry
- Stanley Rubin, "A (Very) Personal History of the First Sponsored Film Series on National Television", E-Media Studies, vol. 1, issue 1 (2008). The filmed series Public Prosecutor was produced earlier, but broadcast on DuMont later.
- The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. Ballantine Books. 2003. p. 1345. ISBN 0-345-45542-8.
- "("Your Show Time" search results)". EMMYS. Television Academy. Archived from the original on 6 October 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
External links
- Your Show Time at IMDb
- Your Show Time at TV.com
- Your Show Time at CTVA with cast list for each episode
- The short film Ep. 10 The Adventure of the Speckled Band is available for free download at the Internet Archive
- Vintage 45's Blog
- YouTube uploads of episodes from Your Show Time: "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", "The Mummy's Foot"