7.2 /10 1 Votes
6.4/10 TV Country of origin United States No. of seasons 4 Final episode date 17 May 1967 Number of seasons 4 | 7.8/10 IMDb Original language(s) English First episode date 4 October 1963 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Also known as ''Universal Star TimeTheatre of the Stars'' Composer(s) Johnny WilliamsBernard HerrmannBenny CarterCyril MockridgeDizzy GillespieQuincy JonesLes Brown (bandleader)Johnny MandelLalo Schifrin Cast Similar Kraft Suspense Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Alcoa Theatre, The Virginian, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
bob hope presents the chrysler theatre mr biddle s crime wave 1964
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre is an American anthology series, sponsored by Chrysler Corporation, which ran on NBC from 1963 through 1967. The show was hosted by Bob Hope, but it had a variety of formats, including musical, dramatic, and comedy.
Contents
Overview
The program included such events as an adaptation of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, starring Jason Robards (from the novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn); The Seven Little Foys, starring Mickey Rooney, Eddie Foy Jr. and the Osmond Brothers; Think Pretty, a musical starring Fred Astaire and Barrie Chase; and Groucho Marx in "Time for Elizabeth", a televised adaptation of a play that Marx and Norman Krasna wrote in 1948.
Generally, each episode ran for an hour, although for some 'special presentations', NBC expanded the broadcast time to 90 minutes.
Hope was paid $25,000 per week for those episodes which he merely introduced, and $500,000 for those in which he starred in. Hope's performances consisted of his typical joke- and celebrity-filled blackout sketches. These were usually called Chrysler Presents a Bob Hope Special. Every season, Hope traveled to Vietnam for Christmas, to entertain the troops.
Actors who appeared in episodes included Phyllis Avery, Ida Lupino, Sean Garrison, Peter Falk, Hugh O'Brian, Shelley Winters, Cliff Robertson, John Cassavetes, Jack Lord, William Shatner, Angie Dickinson, Suzanne Pleshette, Robert Stack, Dina Merrill, Darren McGavin, Broderick Crawford, Robert Wagner, Robert Young and Stuart Whitman.
Notable directors included Sydney Pollack, Stuart Rosenberg, John Cassavetes, Sam Peckinpah, Ida Lupino, and Daniel Petrie.
Several episodes were rerun from 1968 through 1972 under several different titles: NBC Adventure Theatre (1971-1972), NBC Action Playhouse (1971-1972), NBC Comedy Playhouse (1968-1970) and NBC Comedy Theater (1971-1972). The Hope introductions were replaced by other hosts, such as Peter Marshall (who hosted "Action"), Art Fleming ("Adventure" in 1971), Ed McMahon ("Adventure" in 1972), Monty Hall ("Comedy Playhouse" in 1968) and Jack Kelly ("Comedy Playhouse" in 1970, and "Comedy Theater").
In syndication, the series was presented as Universal Star Time and Theatre of the Stars, minus Hope's opening and closing segments.
Several of the dramatic episodes of the series aired in Britain on BBC2 as Impact, which also included episodes of Kraft Suspense Theatre.
Awards and nominations
The show won a total of seven Primetime Emmy Awards and was nominated for six more. Among them were the following:
For her performance in the episode "Two is the Number" (1964), Shelley Winters won for outstanding lead actress in a miniseries or movie.
Simone Signoret won for outstanding lead actress for her performance in "A Small Rebellion" (1966).
Cliff Robertson won for outstanding lead actor for his performance in "The Game" (1966).
Rod Steiger won for outstanding lead actor for his performance in "A Slow Fade to Black" (1964).
Sydney Pollack was nominated for directing "Something About Lee Wiley" (1963), and won for directing "The Game" (1966).
And Rod Serling won for writing the episode, "It's Mental Work" (1964).
Additionally, the show was nominated twice for the Directors Guild of America Award and twice for the Edgar Allan Poe Award.