A soap opera, or soap for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers. The term was preceded by "horse opera", a derogatory term for low-budget Westerns.
Original video animation, abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV, are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA series may be broadcast for promotional purposes. OVA titles were originally made available on VHS, later becoming more popular on LaserDisc and eventually DVD. Starting in 2008, the term OAD began to refer to DVD releases published bundled with their source-material manga.
Hancock's Half Hour was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James; the radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. The final television series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone.
Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western series that was produced and originally broadcast by CBS on both television and radio from 1957 through 1963. The television version of the series starring Richard Boone was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons, and it is one of the few shows in television history to spawn a successful radio version. That radio series starring John Dehner debuted November 23, 1958, more than a year after the premiere of its televised counterpart.
A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries programs can also be referred to and can also be shown as a television film that is usually shown with only a few limited number of episodes too as well. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. As of 2021, the popularity of miniseries format has increased in both streaming services and broadcast television.
UTV is the ITV region covering Northern Ireland, ITV subsidiary and the former on-air name of the free-to-air public broadcast television channel serving the area. It is run by ITV plc and is responsible for the regional news service and other programmes made principally for the area.
The Phil Silvers Show, originally titled You'll Never Get Rich, is a sitcom which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959. A pilot titled "Audition Show" was made in 1955, but it was never broadcast. 143 other episodes were broadcast – all half-an-hour long except for a 1959 one-hour live special. The series starred Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko of the United States Army.
Natural World is a strand of British wildlife documentary programmes broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Two HD and regarded by the BBC as its flagship natural history series. It is the longest-running documentary in its genre on British television, with nearly 500 episodes broadcast since its inception in 1983. Natural World programmes are typically one-off films that take an in-depth look at particular natural history events, stories or subjects from around the globe.
Major League Baseball on ABC, sometimes ESPN Major League Baseball on ABC is the de facto branding of Major League Baseball (MLB) games on ABC produced by ESPN. ABC has aired MLB games in various formats: c. 1953-1965, 1976–1989, and 1994–1995. After not televising MLB since Game 5 of the 1995 World Series, and after the ABC Sports division merged with ESPN in 2006, ABC has aired selected games as part of its sister cable network's contract since 2020.
Naked City is an American police procedural television series from Screen Gems that aired on ABC from 1958 to 1959 and from 1960 to 1963. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture The Naked City and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format. As in the film, each episode concluded with a narrator intoning the iconic line: "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them."
Cheyenne is an American Western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1962. The show was the first hour-long Western, and was the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season. It was also the first series to be made by a major Hollywood film studio which did not derive from its established film properties, and the first of a long chain of Warner Bros. original series produced by William T. Orr.
Clete Roberts was an American broadcast journalist. He began his career in radio news, then transitioned to television, working for stations in California. In later years, he portrayed himself and fictional broadcast journalists in entertainment media, such as in 1970s episodes of the TV series M*A*S*H.
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed between shows. Television shows are most often scheduled for broadcast well ahead of time and appear on electronic guides or other TV listings, but streaming services often make them available for viewing anytime. The content in a television show can be produced with different methodologies such as taped variety shows emanating from a television studio stage, animation or a variety of film productions ranging from movies to series. Shows not produced on a television studio stage are usually contracted or licensed to be made by appropriate production companies.
Maigret is a British television series made by the BBC and which – following a pilot episode broadcast in 1959 – ran for 52 episodes from 1960 to 1963.
Startime is an anthology show of drama, comedy, and variety, and was one of the first American television shows broadcast in color. The program was aired Tuesday nights in the United States on the NBC network in the 1959–60 season.
Andrew J. Musser Jr. was an American sportscaster. He is best known for his time as a play-by-play announcer for Philadelphia Phillies baseball from 1976 to 2001.
James B. Clark Jr. was an American film director, film editor, and television director. His career as a film editor began in 1937, and he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing in 1941 for How Green Was My Valley. He continued to work as a film editor until 1960, but in 1955 also began a career as a film and television director. He tended to focus on works involving people's relationships with animals. Among the more popular and notable projects he directed were the films A Dog of Flanders (1959), The Sad Horse (1959), Misty (1961), Flipper (1963), Island of the Blue Dolphins (1964), and My Side of the Mountain (1969), and episodes of the television series My Friend Flicka (1955–1956), Batman (1966–1967), and Lassie (1969–1971).
In 1950 the Mutual Broadcasting System acquired the television and radio broadcast rights to the World Series and All-Star Game for the next six years. Mutual may have been reindulging in dreams of becoming a television network or simply taking advantage of a long-standing business relationship; in either case, the broadcast rights were sold to NBC in time for the following season's games at an enormous profit.
"The Second Happiest Day" is an American television play broadcast on June 25, 1959 as part of the CBS television series, Playhouse 90.