The George Sanders Mystery Theater

Last updated
The George Sanders Mystery Theater
George Sanders Mystery Theater 1957.JPG
Sanders as the host of the show.
Genre Mystery drama
Directed by Fletcher Markle
Presented by George Sanders
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13
Production
Producer Screen Gems
Camera setup Single-camera
Running time24 mins.
Original release
Network NBC
ReleaseJune 22 (1957-06-22) 
September 14, 1957 (1957-09-14)

The George Sanders Mystery Theater is the title of a 30-minute American television mystery drama series hosted by character actor George Sanders which aired Sundays on NBC in the summer of 1957, [1] replacing the first half of Caesar's Hour . [2]

Contents

Some of the actors who were cast in the episodes included: Lyle Talbot, June Vincent, S. John Launer, Paul Petersen, John Archer, Robert Horton, Kathryn Crosby, Elisha Cook, Mae Clarke, and Marion Ross. [3]

Work on the program, which had the working title The Mystery Writers Theater of TV, began two years prior to its debut. After Sanders was signed to be host, the title was changed to use his name. He began working on episodes 16 months prior to the show's debut. [2]

The producers were Sam Bischoff and David Diamond for Screen Gems. [4] Pabst Beer was the sponsor. [5]

Episodes

No.TitleDirected ByWritten ByCast
1Man in the Elevator Fletcher Markle Leonard Lee [2] Don Haggerty, Dorothy Green, and Paul Peterson
2And the Birds Still Sing Gerd Oswald Gene Wang Tristram Coffin, Havis Davenport, John Beradino, and Richard Benedict
3The Call Fletcher Markle Halsted Welles Adam Williams and Marshall Bradford
4You Don't Live Here Fletcher Markle Eugene Francis Marion Ross, Jim Hayward, Alex Gerry, Peter M. Thompson, and Freeman Morse
5Last Will and Testament James Neilson Jerome Bromfield Robert Horton, Dolores Donlon, Herb Butterfield, Ray Gordon, George Eldredge, and Joseph Hamilton
6The Liar Fletcher Markle Halsted Welles from a story by Charlotte Armstrong Robert Nichols, Richard Devon, Marvin Press, Ray Buckley, Nolan Leary, and Kathleen Mulgreen
7Broker's Special Fletcher Markle Melvin Wald and Jack Jacobs George Sanders, Mary Lawrence, Grant Richards, Lyle Talbot, and Diana Damis
8Try It My Way Fletcher Markle Whitfield Cook from a story by Frederick Nebel Howard Wendell, Phil Arnold, and Gilbert Frye
9Round Trip Fletcher Markle Charles Faber Pamela Duncan, Roger Smith, Ella Ethridge, Russ Bender, and Paul Harber
10Love Has No Alibi John Meredyth Lucas Steve Fisher based on the novel by Octavus Roy Cohen William Leslie, Kathryn Grant, Don Haggerty, S. John Launer, Paul Haber, and Jack W. Harris
11The Night I Died Fletcher Markle Brainerd Duffield based on a story by Cornell Woolrich Paul Gary, Benny Rubin, Howard McNear, Eve McVeagh, Scotty Beckett, and Ted Jacques
12Morning Boat to Africa Oscar Randolph Maury Hill George Sanders, Valerie French, and Peter Adams
13The People vs. Anne Tobin Gerd Oswald Robert P. Presnell Jr. Arthur Franz, June Vincent, Reba Tassell, Robert Quarry, and Paul Keast

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Milner</span> American actor (1931–2015)

Martin Sam Milner was an American actor and radio host. He is best known for his performances on two television series: Route 66, which aired on CBS from 1960 to 1964, and Adam-12, which aired on NBC from 1968 to 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Boone</span> American actor (1917–1981)

Richard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns, including his starring role in the television series Have Gun – Will Travel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Farina</span> American actor (1944–2013)

Donaldo Gugliermo "Dennis" Farina was an American stage and film actor, who prior to his acting career worked as a Chicago police detective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Culp</span> American actor (1930–2010)

Robert Martin Culp was an American actor and screenwriter widely known for his work in television. Culp earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy (1965–1968), the espionage television series in which co-star Bill Cosby and he played secret agents. Before this, he starred in the CBS/Four Star Western series Trackdown as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman in 71 episodes from 1957 to 1959. The 1980s brought him back to television as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell on The Greatest American Hero. Later, he had a recurring role as Warren Whelan on Everybody Loves Raymond, and was a voice actor for various computer games, including Half-Life 2. Culp gave hundreds of performances in a career spanning more than 50 years.

<i>The Life of Riley</i> American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s

The Life of Riley is an American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, as well as two different television series, and a comic book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BD Wong</span> American actor (born 1960)

Bradley Darryl Wong is an American actor. Wong won a Tony Award for his performance as Song Liling in M. Butterfly, becoming the only actor in Broadway history to receive the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same role. He was nominated for a Critic's Choice Television Award for his role as Whiterose in Mr. Robot, and earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Jory</span> Canadian-American actor of stage, film, and television

Victor Jory was a Canadian-American actor of stage, film, and television. He initially played romantic leads, but later was mostly cast in villainous or sinister roles, such as Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) and carpetbagger Jonas Wilkerson in Gone with the Wind (1939). From 1959 to 1961, he had a lead role in the 78-episode television police drama Manhunt. He also recorded numerous stories for Peter Pan Records and was a guest star in dozens of television series as well as a supporting player in dozens of theatrical films, occasionally appearing as the leading man.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everett Sloane</span> American actor (1909–1965)

Everett H. Sloane was an American character actor who worked in radio, theatre, films, and television.

<i>Lux Video Theatre</i> American television anthology series (1950–1957)

Lux Video Theatre is an American television anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1957. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boris Karloff filmography</span>

Boris Karloff (1887-1969) was an English actor. He became known for his role as Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 Frankenstein, leading to a long career in film, radio, and television.

<i>Fireside Theatre</i> American anthology TV series (1949–1958)

Fireside Theatre is an American anthology drama series that ran on NBC from 1949 to 1958, and was the first successful filmed series on American television. Early episodes (1949-1955) were low-budget and often based on public domain stories. While the series was dismissed by critics, it remained among the top ten most popular shows for most of this period. For the 8th season (1955–1956) Jane Wyman became the host and producer making it only the second filmed prime time network drama anthology to be hosted by a woman. Later episodes (1955–1958) were written by important freelance television writers such as Rod Serling, Aaron Spelling and Gene Roddenberry. It predates the other major pioneer of filmed television production in America, I Love Lucy, by two years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Andes</span> American actor

Keith Andes was an American film, radio, musical theater, stage and television actor.

<i>Kraft Television Theatre</i> 1947-1958 anthology drama television series

Kraft Television Theatre is an American anthology drama television series running from 1947 to 1958. It began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. It first promoted MacLaren's Imperial Cheese, which was advertised nowhere else. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, the live hour-long series offered television plays with new stories and new characters each week, in addition to adaptations of such classics as A Christmas Carol and Alice in Wonderland. The program was broadcast live from Studio 8-H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, currently the home of Saturday Night Live.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthology series</span> Form of broadcast entertainment

An anthology series is a written series, radio, television, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different cast in each episode, but several series in the past, such as Four Star Playhouse, employed a permanent troupe of character actors who would appear in a different drama each week. Some anthology series, such as Studio One, began on radio and then expanded to television.

<i>The Colgate Comedy Hour</i> American TV series or program

The Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show featured many notable comedians and entertainers of the era as guest stars. Many of the scripts of the series are archived at the UCLA Library in their Special Collections.

George F. Lowther was a writer, producer, director in the earliest days of radio and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Weldon</span> American actress (1930–2021)

Joan Weldon was an American actress and singer in film, television, and theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Cephas Jones</span> American actor (1957–2023)

Ron Cephas Jones was an American actor, best known for his role as William Hill in the drama series This Is Us (2016–2022), which earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award; along with four consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning twice for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2018 and 2020.

The Vise is an American detective drama that was broadcast on ABC (1955–1957) and then moved to NBC (1957–1960). The series is a reboot of the ABC Mystery Theater radio and television series. It was produced by the Danzigers and starred Donald Gray as Mark Saber. It mostly ran during prime time in the late 1950s.

<i>The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show</i> cast list

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, was an American situation comedy television series that ran for 291 episodes over eight seasons (1950–58) on CBS. The show did not become weekly until the third season. The first two seasons of the show were biweekly broadcasts, with the last episode of Season Two being broadcast three weeks after the one that preceded it. The show was based on the Burns and Allen radio show (1929–50), which first ran for three years on the BBC radio network, before airing in the United States on CBS and NBC. The radio show itself was based on the characters George Burns and Gracie Allen had developed in vaudeville. Many of the early television episodes were a re-working of the same episodes that had aired on radio.

References

  1. "GEORGE SANDERS TO BE VIDEO HOST / Cast as Narrator of Filmed Series, 'The Ringmaster.' Built on Circus Stories", The New York Times (September 1, 1955, p.46) Retrieved February 12, 2019
  2. 1 2 3 Newton, Dwight (June 16, 1957). "The Sad Summer Season". The San Francisco Examiner. California, San Francisco. p. 132. Retrieved 18 June 2019 via Newspapers.com.
  3. Shonk, Michael (June 12, 2016). Mystery*File. "A TV Series Review by Michael Shonk: GEORGE SANDERS MYSTERY THEATRE (1957)." Retrieved February 12, 2019
  4. Irvin, Richard (2017). Film Stars' Television Projects: Pilots and Series of 50+ Movie Greats, 1948-1985. McFarland. p. 160. ISBN   9781476669168 . Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  5. "Pabst's NBC-TV 'Mystery Theatre'". Variety. May 8, 1957. p. 25. Retrieved August 2, 2023.