RTV 3007 • Intro to Television

TV ANTHOLOGY SERIES: 1948-1958

TV ANTHOLOGY SERIES 1948-1957

• Combined techniques from live theater and cinema

• Each episode a full story of 60-90 minutes

• Actors chose to fit the story (not vice-versa)

• Produced live

• Perfected multi-camera, multi-set TV production

• Produced in studios the size of gymnasiums. Cameras rolled from set to set

• Closeups became important

• Stories showed intimate portraits of ordinary life.

• Several Series were produced:

• Kraft TV Theater

• Philco TV Playhouse

• Goodyear TV Playhouse

• Launched the career of many famous actors and writers:

• Paddy Chayefsky

• Rod Serling

• Rod Steiger

• Gore Vidal

• Charlton Heston

• Studio One

• Playhouse 90

• Robert Montgomery Presents

TV ANTHOLOGY SERIES 1948-1957

TV ANTHOLOGY SERIES 1948-1957

• Advertisers did not like the format

• Showed life’s problems as complex (advertisers had simple solutions)

• Showed ordinary life as interesting (advertisers wanted to show aspirations to upward mobility)

• Anthology series often portrayed serious social issues. Advertisers did not like political content.

STUDIO ONE PRODUCTIONS

• The Remarkable incident at Carson Corners – http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi2848171545/

• Twelve Angry Men - 1953 http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3066275353/

THUNDER ON SYCAMORE STREET - 1953• Studio One production based on a true story about a black family who

was attacked when they moved to a white neighborhood.• Advertisers told Studio One they could not portray social problems

associated with race• Writer Reginald Rose changed the outcast family’s “problem” to the

presence of an ex-convict.• However, the story did not reveal the “problem” until the very end.• This caused audience members to speculate on the nature of the

“problem” during the show – Was the family Jewish?

THE TWILIGHT ZONE 1958-1964

Twilight Zone's writers frequently used science fiction as a vehicle for social comment, as networks and sponsors who censored controversial material from live dramas were less concerned with seemingly innocuous fantasy and sci-fi stories. Themes on The Twilight Zone included nuclear war, McCarthyism, and mass hysteria, subjects that were strictly forbidden on more "serious" primetime television.

Pilot 1958 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLSY8o2j8aIThe Monsters Are Due on Maple Street - 1959 http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi2799413017/?ref_=tt_wb_hulu

END OF THE ANTHOLOGY SERIES

• 1953 - the Supreme Court says film has the same First Amendment protections as newspapers

• In 1955, Marty, a film based on an anthology TV character, won four Oscars

• Money became available for independent film production. This was helped by the US vs Paramount Pictures case in 1948.

• Writers, directors, actors started leaving anthology TV for greater freedoms in Hollywood

• By 1960, TV returned to serial formats: formulaic shows with recurring characters emphasizing upward mobility.