The Alcoa Hour
| The Alcoa Hour | |
|---|---|
 Laurence Harvey and Diane Cilento in "The Small Servant", 1955. | |
| Genre | Anthology |
| Directed by |
Kirk Browning Norman Felton Herbert Hirschman Sidney Lumet Robert Mulligan |
| Composer(s) | Gian Carlo Menotti |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 52 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
Herbert Brodkin Samuel Chotzinoff Joel Spector |
| Running time | 47–50 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Picture format | Black-and-white |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | October 16, 1955 – September 22, 1957 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Alcoa Theatre |
The Alcoa Hour is an American anthology television series that was aired live on NBC from 1955 to 1957. The series was sponsored by Alcoa.
Overview
Like the Philco Television Playhouse and Goodyear Television Playhouse that had preceded it, The Alcoa Hour was a one-hour live dramatic anthology series presenting both original stories and adaptations of popular works. The three series were essentially the same, with the only real difference being the name of the sponsor.
The series alternated weeks in the same time slot with the Goodyear Television Playhouse until both series ended in 1957.
Notable episodes
One of the series' memorable episodes was the December 23, 1956, telecast of The Stingiest Man in Town, a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, starring Basil Rathbone as Scrooge and Martyn Green as Bob Cratchit. It was the only Alcoa Hour production to be granted an original cast album recording. The Stingiest Man in Town was remade in 1978 as a Rankin-Bass animated cartoon, featuring the voice of Walter Matthau as Scrooge.
The series' premiere episode, The Black Wings, marked the American TV debut of Ann Todd.[1]
The show garnered press in February 1956 for actor Lloyd Bridges' emotional performance in an episode titled "Tragedy in a Temporary Town", directed by Sidney Lumet.[2] During the performance, Bridges inadvertently slipped some profanity in while ad-libbing.[3] Although the slip of the lip generated hundreds of complaints, the episode won a Robert E. Sherwood Television Award, with Bridges' slip being defended even by some members of the clergy.[3][4][5] The episode, during which an innocent Puerto Rican man is targeted by a mob for a sexual crime, was cited by the Anti-Defamation League as "the best dramatic program of the year dealing with interethnic group relations."[4]
Episodes
Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Season Premiere | Season Finale |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 24 | October 16, 1955 | September 2, 1956 |
| 2 | 28 | September 16, 1956 | September 22, 1957 |
Season 1 (1955-56)
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "The Black Wings" | October 16, 1955 |
| 2 | 2 | "The Small Servant" | October 30, 1955 |
| 3 | 3 | "A Girl Can Tell" | November 13, 1955 |
| 4 | 4 | "Thunder in Washington" | November 27, 1955 |
| 5 | 5 | "Undertow" | December 11, 1955 |
| 6 | 6 | "Amahl and the Night Visitors" | December 25, 1955 |
| 7 | 7 | "Man on a Tiger" | January 8, 1956 |
| 8 | 8 | "A Patch of Faith" | January 22, 1956 |
| 9 | 9 | "Long After Summer" | February 5, 1956 |
| 10 | 10 | "Tragedy in Temporary Town" | February 19, 1956 |
| 11 | 11 | "Man on Fire" | March 4, 1956 |
| 12 | 12 | "Doll Face" | March 18, 1956 |
| 13 | 13 | "Finkle's Contest" | April 1, 1956 |
| 14 | 14 | "Even the Weariest River" | April 15, 1956 |
| 15 | 15 | "Paris and Mrs. Perlman" | April 29, 1956 |
| 16 | 16 | "The President" | May 13, 1956 |
| 17 | 17 | "The Confidence Man" | May 27, 1956 |
| 18 | 18 | "The Magic Horn" | June 10, 1956 |
| 19 | 19 | "The Archangel Harrigan" | June 24, 1956 |
| 20 | 20 | "The Piper of St. James" | July 8, 1956 |
| 21 | 21 | "Sister" | July 22, 1956 |
| 22 | 22 | "Kiss and Tell" | August 5, 1956 |
| 23 | 23 | "The Big Vote" | August 19, 1956 |
| 24 | 24 | "The Girl in Chapter One" | September 2, 1956 |
Notable actors
Actors appearing in the series included:
- Eddie Albert
- Ann Bancroft
- Ralph Bellamy
- Theodore Bikel
- Eddie Bracken
- Lloyd Bridges
- Lee J. Cobb
- Wendell Corey
- Hume Cronyn
- Mildred Dunnock
- Tom Ewell
- Lillian Gish
- Margaret Hamilton
- Laurence Harvey
- Helen Hayes
- Boris Karloff
- Jack Klugman
- Viveca Lindfors
- Walter Matthau
- E.G. Marshall
- Roddy McDowell
- Sal Mineo
- Thomas Mitchell (actor)
- George Peppard
- Christopher Plummer
- Robert Preston (actor)
- Vincent Price
- Claude Rains
- Tony Randall
- Basil Rathbone
- Jason Robards
- Maureen Stapleton
- Elaine Stritch
- Jessica Tandy
- James Whitmore
- Shelley Winters
- Joanne Woodward
- Teresa Wright
- Ed Wynn
- Keenan Wynn
See also
References
- ↑ The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present. Ballantine Books. 2003. p. 27. ISBN 0-345-45542-8.
- ↑ "Actor's Slip Of Tongue Keeps TV Viewers Arguing". The Hartford Courant. 9 March 1956. p. 9. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
- 1 2 "Profanity Ad-libbed by Emotional Actor". The Leader-Post. Associated Press. 20 February 1956. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
- 1 2 Newcomb, Horace (2004). Encyclopedia of Television. CRC Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-57958-411-5.
- ↑ Hyatt, Wesley (10 March 2004). A Critical History of Television's The Red Skelton Show, 1951-1971. McFarland. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-7864-1732-2.
External links
- The Alcoa Hour at CVTA with episode list
- The Alcoa Hour at the Internet Movie Database
- The Alcoa Hour at TV.com