7.4 /10 1 Votes
6.3/10 TV Genre Anthology Narrated by Betty Furness Opening theme "Westinghouse Logo" Final episode date 10 June 1960 Number of seasons 2 Cast Desi Arnaz | 8.4/10 IMDb Also known as ''Desilu Playhouse'' Created by Desi Arnaz Theme music composer Johnny Green First episode date 6 October 1958 Network CBS Presented by Desi Arnaz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Four Star Playhouse, The Millionaire, Westinghouse Studio One, Letter to Loretta, Alfred Hitchcock Presents | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse is an American television anthology series produced by Desilu Productions. The show ran on CBS television between 1958 and 1960. Two of its 48 episodes served as pilots for the 1950s television series The Twilight Zone and The Untouchables.
Contents
History
Between 1951 and 1957, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball starred in and produced (via their Desilu production company) the popular I Love Lucy show. In early 1958, Desi Arnaz convinced CBS to purchase Desilu Playhouse with the promise that a bi-monthly Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show (later rebroadcast as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour) would be among the dramas, comedies and musicals planned for the show. Westinghouse paid a then-record $12 million to sponsor the show, which resulted in the cancellation of the prestigious anthology series Studio One, also sponsored by Westinghouse.
The show debuted on Monday nights in the 10:00–11:00 pm [Eastern] time slot on October 6, 1958, hosted by Desi Arnaz, with Betty Furness continuing as the Westinghouse spokesperson (as she had been on Studio One). The first show was "Lucy Goes to Mexico," a Lucy-Desi Hour with guest star Maurice Chevalier. The dramatic "Bernadette" (a biography of Saint Bernadette), starring Pier Angeli, premiered in week two. Later shows included comedies, dramas and musicals, and various one-off comedies and dramas starring Lucille Ball in non-"Lucy" character performances.
In October 1959, the show moved to Friday nights from 9:00–10:00 pm [Eastern]. The show lasted only one more year, due to an inability to attract big guest stars, the growing popularity of westerns and police shows (it was opposite ABC's highly rated 77 Sunset Strip that season), and the Arnaz-Ball divorce in 1960. Just prior to their marital breakup, Ball and Arnaz, along with Vivian Vance, William Frawley, and Little Ricky, filmed the last Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show, entitled "Lucy Meets The Moustache" and featuring guest stars Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams. This last hour-long installment of the I Love Lucy format and characters was broadcast on April 1, 1960. The final telecast of The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, "Murder is a Private Affair", aired on June 10, 1960.
Notable episodes
In the fall of 1958, "The Time Element". starring William Bendix, aired to positive reviews. Written by Rod Serling, the show's popularity gave Serling the leverage to convince CBS to give the go-ahead to Serling's concept for a science fiction/fantasy anthology series (which was what Serling had in mind when writing the "The Time Element") that he called The Twilight Zone which debuted in the fall of 1959.
In April 1959, Desilu Playhouse aired a two-part drama called "The Untouchables". Paul Monash adapted the 1947 memoirs of treasury agent Eliot Ness, played by Robert Stack. After CBS passed on the idea to produce a weekly version, The Untouchables became a hit series on ABC and ran for four seasons (1959–1963).
Aftermath
Westinghouse bought CBS in 1995, and renamed itself after its prime asset in 1997.