Look Up and Live

Last updated

Oscar Brown performing on Look Up and Live, 1965 Oscar brown jr 1965.JPG
Oscar Brown performing on Look Up and Live, 1965

Look Up and Live was a 30-minute television anthology series. The series was produced in cooperation with the National Council of Churches and aired on CBS from January 3, 1954 to January 21, 1979. [1] It was a non-denominational Sunday morning religious show that covered issues from multiple perspectives, avoiding heavy proselytizing. The series' success in reaching young people with inspirational messages was due partially to the contemporary musicians and celebrities featured on the show.

Contents

In 1960, Look Up and Live received the Peabody Award. At that time, Reverend Andrew Young was a host of the series. Young, who would later become a top aide to Martin Luther King, Jr., was associate director of the Department of Youth Work for the National Council of Churches from 1957 to 1960. His duties included working on Look Up and Live, both in front of and behind the camera. Young has said that the knowledge of television he gained during his time working on the series enabled him to advise Dr. King on media strategy.

There were a number of other narrators and hosts over the years, including Mahalia Jackson, Merv Griffin, Eddie Fisher, Eydie Gormé, and Ed Sullivan. Guest stars included Gene Hackman, Oscar Brown, Dick Van Dyke, James Earl Jones, Bennye Gatteys, Jack Klugman, Sal Mineo, Billy Dee Williams, Theodore Bikel, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and, in two of his earliest performances, Warren Beatty. John M. Gunn edited six plays that were turned into episodes of the show. [2] [3]

In 1979, Look Up and Live and Lamp Unto My Feet , both of which were cancelled earlier that year, along with Camera Three , to make room for CBS News Sunday Morning , were combined into a new series called For Our Times, a weekly religious talk show which aired until 1988.

Some episodes of Look Up and Live are preserved at the Paley Center for Media in New York City and in the Peabody Awards archive at the University of Georgia.

Critical response

A review in The New York Times said that the December 7, 1958, episode "offered an attractive example of the use of original devices in a religious telecast". [4] The review said, "The combination of imaginative choreography ..., interesting musical passages and effective settings made an unusual and absorbing presentation." [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Candid Camera</i> American hidden camera reality television series (1948–2014)

Candid Camera is an American hidden camera reality television series, with versions of the show appearing on television from 1948 until 2014. Originally created and produced by Allen Funt, it often featured practical jokes, and initially began on radio as The Candid Microphone on June 28, 1947.

<i>The Ed Sullivan Show</i> American televison variety show

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward R. Murrow</span> American broadcast journalist (1908–1965)

Edward Roscoe Murrow was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe for the news division of CBS. During the war he recruited and worked closely with a team of war correspondents who came to be known as the Murrow Boys.

The year 1958 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events during 1958.

<i>Guiding Light</i> American radio and television soap opera

Guiding Light is an American radio and television soap opera. Guiding Light aired on CBS for 57 years between June 30, 1952, and September 18, 2009, overlapping a 19-year broadcast on radio between January 25, 1937, and June 29, 1956. With 72 years of radio and television runs, Guiding Light is the longest-running soap opera, ahead of General Hospital, and is the fifth-longest-running program in all of broadcast history; only the American country music radio program Grand Ole Opry, the BBC religious program The Daily Service (1928), the CBS religious program Music and the Spoken Word (1929), and the Norwegian children's radio program Lørdagsbarnetimen (1924–2010) have been on the air longer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Kuralt</span> American journalist (1934–1997)

Charles Bishop Kuralt was an American television, newspaper and radio journalist and author. He is most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years. In 1996, Kuralt was inducted into Television Hall of Fame of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryant Gumbel</span> American journalist and sportscaster

Bryant Charles Gumbel is an American television journalist and sportscaster, best known for his 15 years as co-host of NBC's Today. He is the younger brother of sportscaster Greg Gumbel. From 1995 to 2023, he hosted HBO's acclaimed investigative series Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, which has been rated as "flat out TV's best sports program" by the Los Angeles Times. It won a Peabody Award in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Charles Daly</span> American journalist and game show host (1914–1991)

John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly was an American journalist, host, radio and television personality, ABC News executive, TV anchor, and game show host, best known for his work on the CBS panel game show What's My Line?

<i>Playhouse 90</i> American television series

Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of the mid-1950s usually were hour-long shows, the title highlighted the network's intention to present something unusual: a weekly series of hour-and-a-half-long dramas rather than 60-minute plays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Taylor</span> American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster, and educator

Billy Taylor was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and from 1994 was the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

<i>Lassie</i> (1954 TV series) 1954 TV series

Lassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female Rough Collie dog named Lassie and her companions, both human and animal. The show was the creation of producer Robert Maxwell and animal trainer Rudd Weatherwax and was televised from September 12, 1954, to March 25, 1973, making it the eighth longest-running scripted American primetime television series. The show ran for 17 seasons on CBS before entering first-run syndication for its final two seasons. Initially filmed in black and white, the show transitioned to color in 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeanne Cooper</span> American actress (1928–2013)

Wilma Jeanne Cooper was an American actress, best known for her role as Katherine Chancellor on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless (1973–2013). At the time of her death, she had played Katherine for over 40 years, and her name appears on the list of longest-serving soap opera actors in the United States.

<i>Davey and Goliath</i> American animated television series

Davey and Goliath is a Christian clay-animated children's television series, whose central characters were created by Art Clokey, Ruth Clokey, and Dick Sutcliffe, and which was produced first by the United Lutheran Church in America and later by the Lutheran Church in America. The show was aimed at a youth audience, and generally dealt with issues such as respect for authority, sharing, and prejudice. Eventually, these themes included serious issues such as racism, death, religious intolerance and vandalism. Each 15-minute episode features the adventures of a boy named Davey Hansen and his "talking" dog Goliath as they learn the love of God through everyday occurrences. Many of the episodes also feature Davey's parents John and Elaine, his sister Sally, as well as Davey's friends: Jimmy, Teddy, and Nathaniel in earlier episodes, and Jonathan, Nicky, and Francisco in later ones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip H. Lathrop</span> American cinematographer

Philip H. Lathrop, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer noted for his skills with wide screen technology and detailed approach to lighting and camera placement. He spent most of his life in movie studios. Lathrop was known for such films as Touch of Evil (1958), Lonely Are the Brave (1962), The Americanization of Emily (1964), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Point Blank (1967), Finian's Rainbow (1968), The Traveling Executioner (1970), Portnoy's Complaint (1972), Earthquake (1974), Swashbuckler (1976), The Driver (1978), Moment by Moment (1978), A Change of Seasons (1980), Foolin' Around (1980), Loving Couples (1980), and Deadly Friend (1986).

<i>Perry Mason</i> (1957 TV series) American legal drama series (1957–1966)

Perry Mason is an American legal drama series originally broadcast on CBS television from September 21, 1957, to May 22, 1966. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner. Many episodes are based on stories written by Gardner.

<i>Omnibus</i> (American TV program) American educational television series

Omnibus was an American, commercially sponsored, educational variety television series.

<i>Wide Wide World</i>

Wide Wide World is a 1955–1958 90-minute documentary series telecast live on NBC on Sunday afternoons at 4pm Eastern. Conceived by network head Pat Weaver and hosted by Dave Garroway, Wide Wide World was introduced on the Producers' Showcase series on June 27, 1955. The premiere episode, featuring entertainment from the US, Canada and Mexico, was the first international North American telecast in the history of the medium.

Actors Studio is an American television series that was hosted by Marc Connelly. It originally aired on ABC from September 26, 1948 to October 26, 1949 and then on CBS from November 1, 1949, to June 23, 1950. It was one of the first series to be picked up by a network after being cancelled by another network. CBS departed from its own precedent when it took the World Video-owned series. Until then it had not shown any sustaining programs that were not owned by CBS.

<i>The Monkees</i> (TV series) American sitcom (1966–1968)

The Monkees is an American television musical sitcom that first aired on NBC for two seasons, from September 12, 1966, to March 25, 1968. The series follows the adventures of four young men trying to make a name for themselves as a rock 'n roll band. The show introduced a number of innovative new-wave film techniques to series television and won two Emmy Awards in 1967, including Outstanding Comedy Series. The program ended in 1968 at the finish of its second season and has received a long afterlife through Saturday morning repeats and syndication, as well as overseas broadcasts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bek Nelson</span> American actress

Bek Nelson was an American model and showgirl who turned to acting at age 29, making seven films and two dozen television shows in her first three years.

References

  1. Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television . Watson-Guptill Publications. pp.  264-265. ISBN   978-0823083152 . Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  2. Library of Congress 2012, p. 394.
  3. Rodman, Howard; Roskam, Clair; Benjamin, James; Kellerman, Don (1959). The Seeking Years: Six Television Plays from the Award-winning CBS-TV Series "Look Up and Live" (1st ed.). Bloomington, Minnesota: Bethany Press. ASIN   B000OWZP4K.
  4. 1 2 "TV: A Trip to the Congo: Lowell Thomas' 'High Adventure' Focuses on Unusual Personalities of Area" . The New York Times. December 8, 1958. p. 63. Retrieved August 25, 2024.