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Matinee Theater(1955)

Drama

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First Air Date: 1955-10-31

Average Runtime: 1h 0m

Rating: 5.3

Votes: 7

Seasons: 3

Episodes: 574

Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George Lowther. McCleery had previously produced the live series Cameo Theatre which introduced to television the concept of theater-in-the-round, TV plays staged with minimal sets. Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse recalled: When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theater: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week’s show. That was over 50 years ago, and I’m trying to think; I believe the TV art director is his own set decorator —yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery’s chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity.

Keywords

anthology

Seasons & Episodes

Season 1

Episodes: 199

E01

Beginning Now

Air Date: 1955-10-31

Matinee Theater(1955)

Seasons & Episodes

Season 1

Beginning Now

Make Believe Mother

The Persistent Image

I'm Straight with the World

Progress and Minnie Sweeney

The House on Wildwood Lane

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

One for the Road

An Apple for Miss Myrtle

The Man Without a Country

Jigsaw

She's the One with the Funny Face

All the Hoffmeyers in the World

The Aspern Papers

Roman Fever

Midsummer

The Lady Chooses

The Courtship of Miles Standish

Dispossessed

One for the Road

The Touchstone

Wuthering Heights

The Brass Ring

Jason

Arrowsmith

Passing Strange

For These Services

Cordially - With Bombs

The White Oaks

O'Toole from Moscow

The Milwaukee Rocket

This One is Different

Sins of the Fathers

See You on Sunday

Coming of Age

Technique

Gallin: All-American

Santa is No Saint

The Unwelcomed

The Red Sanders Story

Class of '58

Horns of the Dilemma

Little Girls Grow Up

The Shot

Mr. Krane

Yesterday is Gone

Double Door

The Happy Rest

The Gate

One Left Over

All the Trees in the Field

The Century Plant

Friday the 13th

The Old Maid

Mother Was a Bachelor

The Bottom of the River

The Carefree Tree

Interlude

The Big Box

Sincerely Yours, Charlie Fisher

Doc

The Amateur

Light and Shadow

Romney

O Promise Me

Hold My Hand and Run

Dark Possession

The Diamond

Susan and God

As Young As You Feel

The White Knight

The Anxious Years

The Heart of Mary Lincoln

The Middle Son

Valentine's Day

Summer Cannot Last

The Last Battlefield