6.4 /10 1 Votes
5.6/10 TV Written by Walter Doniger Narrated by Arthur Shields Original language(s) English Final episode date 15 July 1949 Presented by Arthur Shields Cast Arthur Shields | 7.3/10 IMDb Genre Anthology Drama Directed by Sobey Martin Country of origin United States First episode date 21 January 1949 Number of seasons 1 Number of episodes 26 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Similar The Kaiser Aluminum Hour, The Alan Young Show, Arthur Godfrey and His F, Tales of the 77th Bengal L, Pulitzer Prize Playhouse | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.
Contents
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.
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.
Your Show Time is also notable for being the first series to win an Emmy Award.
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, Gene Reynolds, and Selena Royle.
Preservation status
At least nine episodes survive at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.