Hollywood Opening Night

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Hollywood Opening Night is an American anthology television program that was broadcast on CBS in 1951-1952 and on NBC in 1952-1953.[1] The NBC version was the first dramatic anthology presented live from the West Coast.[2] Episodes were 30 minutes long.[3]

CBS version[edit]

The CBS version debuted on July 13, 1951, and ended on March 28, 1952.[1] Until March 1, 1952, it was sponsored by Ennds chlorophyll tablets, manufactured by Pearson Pharmacal Company,[4] that product's first venture into being a regular sponsor on TV.[5] Episodes were reruns of stories produced by Music Corporation of America, originally shown on Stars Over Hollywood.[6]

NBC version[edit]

On NBC Hollywood Opening Night ran from October 6, 1952, until March 23, 1953.[3] It replaced Lights Out[7] and was replaced by Eye Witness.[8] 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.[1][9] Host Jimmie Fidler 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.[1] Ethel Barrymore, Dorothy Lamour, and Gloria Swanson made their TV dramatic debuts on the program.[3]

Competing shows on other networks included The Big Idea on DuMont, Perspective on ABC, and I Love Lucy on CBS.[10] Pearson again was the sponsor.[11] Fidler blamed the show's demise on its being broadcast at the same time as I Love Lucy, 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.[12]

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.[7]

Reception[edit]

Columnist Jack Gould of The New York Times wrote that the premiere episode on NBC "was alleged to be a comic treatise on a baseball umpire".[13] He compared one scene to "the Three Stooges of vaudeville" and noted that star William Bendix frequently was seen looking for a prompter to help with his lines.[13]

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.[14] 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."[14]

Episodes[edit]

Partial List of Episodes of Hollywood Opening Night
Date Title Star(s)
October 6, 1951 "Old Mother Hubbard" Ellen Corby[15]
November 24, 1951 "Landing at Daybreak" Anita Louise[16]
October 6, 1952 "The Terrible Tempered Tolliver" Bendix[13]
October 13, 1952 "Let Georgie Do It" Ann Sothern, Richard Egan[17]
October 27, 1952 "Somebody I Know" Peggy Ann Garner, Natalie Wood, Ann Harding, James Dunn[18]
November 3, 1952 "Welcome Home, Stranger" Teresa Wright, Mark Stevens[19]
November 10, 1952 "Thirty Days" Edward Arnold, Robert Stack[20]
November 17, 1952 "Hope Chest" MacDonald Carey, Joan Caulfield[21]
November 24, 1952 "The Singing Years" Lamour[3]
December 8, 1952 "Mysterious Ways" Barrymore[3]
December 29, 1952 "The Priceless Gift" Ronald Reagan[22]
February 9, 1953 "False Witness" Virginia Field[23]
February 16, 1953 "The Pattern" Swanson[3]
March 2, 1953 "The Invited Seven" Boris Karloff[24]
March 15, 1953 "Uncle Fred Flits By" David Niven[25]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (2009). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. Random House Publishing Group. p. 623. ISBN 978-0-307-48320-1. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  2. ^ Hawes, William (2001). Filmed Television Drama, 1952-1958. McFarland. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-0-7864-1132-0. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f McNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present (4th ed.). New York, New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc. p. 383. ISBN 0-14-02-4916-8.
  4. ^ "Chlorophyll" (PDF). Sponsor. 6 (11): 63. June 2, 1952. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  5. ^ "Foley and Gordn Get Secret Service Rights . . ". Billboard. July 21, 1951. p. 11. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  6. ^ Bundy, June (May 30, 1953). "400 Rerun Dramas Offer Local Bonanza". Billboard. p. 13. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  7. ^ a b "Mon(6)". Ross Reports. 4 (5): 2. October 5, 1952.
  8. ^ "R. Montgomery Hits Jackpot With 'Witness'". Billboard. March 7, 1953. p. 3. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  9. ^ "NBC Unveils Burbank Lot With Revue". Billboard. September 20, 1952. p. 4. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  10. ^ Hyatt, Wesley (6 October 2015). Short-Lived Television Series, 1948-1978: Thirty Years of More Than 1,000 Flops. McFarland. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-4766-0515-9.
  11. ^ "'Opening Night' uses trailers". Billboard. January 24, 1953. p. 8. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  12. ^ Fidler, Jimmie (April 18, 1953). "Advice Ignored, TV Show Lost $600,000". The Miami Herald. p. 13. Retrieved January 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b c Gould, Jack (October 8, 1952). "Radio and Television". The New York Times. p. 44. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  14. ^ a b Crosby, John (December 8, 1952). "'Live' TV Dramas Win Criticism and Praise". The Richmond News Leader. p. 28. Retrieved January 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "TV Drama". TV Digest. October 6, 1951. p. 6. Retrieved October 6, 2023.
  16. ^ "TV Schedule". The Morning Call. Pennsylvania, Allentown. November 24, 1951. p. 12. Retrieved January 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "H'Wood Opening Night". Ross Reports. October 12, 1952. p. 9. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
  18. ^ "Monday, October 27". The Philadelphia Inquirer. October 26, 1952. p. 100. Retrieved January 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "H'wood Opening Night". Ross Reports on Television including The Television Index. November 2, 1952. p. 8. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  20. ^ "H'wood Opening Night". Ross Reports on Television including The Television Index. November 10, 1952. p. 9. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  21. ^ "H'wood Opening Night". Ross Reports on Television including The Television Index. November 16, 1952. p. 8. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
  22. ^ Metzger, Robert P. (1989). Reagan: American Icon. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-8122-1302-7. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  23. ^ Stretch, Bud (February 9, 1953). "Air Waves". Courier-Post. New Jersey, Camden. p. 5. Retrieved January 31, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ Nollen, Scott Allen; Nollen, Yuyun Yuningsih (2021). Karloff and the East: Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern and Oceanian Characters and Subjects in His Screen Career. McFarland. p. 388. ISBN 978-1-4766-4086-0. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  25. ^ Taves, Brian (2015). P.G. Wodehouse and Hollywood: Screenwriting, Satires and Adaptations. McFarland. pp. 172–173. ISBN 978-0-7864-8443-0. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
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