"Tragedy in a Temporary Town" | |
---|---|
Shell Presents episode | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 3 |
Directed by | Rod Kinnear |
Teleplay by | Reginald Rose |
Featured music | Arthur Young |
Original air date | May 16, 1959 |
Guest appearance | |
Michael Pate | |
"Tragedy In A Temporary Town" is a 1959 episode of the Australian anthology drama show Shell Presents starring Michael Pate. It was filmed "live" in Melbourne, then recorded and broadcast in Sydney. It was the third episode of Shell Presents and the first shot in Melbourne. [1] [2] It aired live on 16 May 1959 in Melbourne [3] with a tapped version airing on 30 May 1959 in Sydney.
The script had originally been filmed under the same title on The Alcoa Hour in the U.S. in 1956.
In a small town, a group of migrant workers are employed at an aircraft factory and live in a trailer park. When a girl claims she has been attacked, a group of men, led by Frank Doran, attempt to find out who is possible. They seize a Mexican boy, Raphael Infante, and threaten to lynch him. A tolerant man called Alec Beggs attempts to stop them.
The production starred Australian Michael Pate who was based in Hollywood from 1950 until the late 1960s. He made the film on a temporary return visit to Australia, arriving in Melbourne in late April to begin rehearsals. [4] [5]
The TV critic for The Age called it "promising" with an "outstanding performance" from George Fairfax. [8]
The TV critic for the Woman's Weekly called the production "a tragedy all right... the play was notably unrealistic, its star, Michael Pate, disappointing... a brave and expensive experiment for a commercial channel... [but] miserable viewing." [9]
The TV critic for the Sydney Morning Herald said it "did not make its potential impact because of uninventive direction and, with the tension factor suffering accordingly, some lack of subtlety in the characterisations." [10]
ATN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the first four licences to be issued for commercial television stations in Australia. The station formed an affiliation with GTV-9 Melbourne in 1957, in order to share content. In 1963, Frank Packer ended up owning both GTV-9 and TCN-9, so as a result the stations switched their previous affiliations. ATN-7 and HSV-7 joined to create the Australian Television Network, which later became the Seven Network. ATN-7 is the home of the national level Seven News bulletins.
Autumn Affair is an Australian television series made by and aired by Network Seven station ATN-7, and also shown in Melbourne on Nine Network station GTV-9. Television in Australia had only been broadcasting since 1956 and Seven was the first commercial station to make drama a priority. It premiered 24 October 1958 and continued until 1959. The series was the first ever Australian television soap opera. It was also the second regular Australian-produced dramatic television series of any kind, with previous locally produced drama consisting of religious series The House on the Corner, and one-off plays largely aired on ABC.
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HSV is a television station in Melbourne, Australia. It is part of the Seven Network, one of the three main commercial television networks in Australia, its first and oldest station. It launched in time for the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne. HSV-7 is the home of AFL coverage.
Michael Pate OAM was an Australian actor, writer, director, and producer, who also worked prolifically as a supporting actor in Hollywood films and American Television during the 1950s and 1960s.
1959 in Australian television was the fourth year of television broadcasts in Australia.
Shell Presents was an early attempt at Australian television drama, being an umbrella title for several different productions. It debuted on 4 April 1959, and aired on ATN-7 and GTV-9, who split production of plays for the series between them. It was an anthology series, each program being a self-contained play for television. The series won a Logie award in 1960 for TV Highlight of 1959. As the title suggests, it was sponsored by Shell. It was described as "a very big deal for the station: major institutional sponsorship from international companies for locally produced drama." It would be followed by The General Motors Hour.
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"Thunder of Silence" is an episode of the 1959 Australian TV drama anthology Shell Presents, and the fourth made in Sydney. It was based on an American play by Stewart Stern which had been produced in the U.S. with Paul Newman and Inger Stevens. It aired live on 22 August 1959 in Sydney with a recoded version airing on 28 November 1959 in Melbourne.
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"Ruth" is a 1959 Australian television play. It was presented as part of the Shell Presents program and starred Lyndall Barbour. It was written by John Glennon, an American actor and writer who appeared in the production, and directed by Rod Kinnear. The play aired in Melbourne on 5 September 1959 and in Sydney on 19 September 1959.
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"Tragedy in a Temporary Town" is a dramatic teleplay written by Reginald Rose. It was originally produced for The Alcoa Hour in the US directed by Sidney Lumet and sparked media attention for its portrayal of race and for Lloyd Bridges ad libbed profanity during its live broadcast. Bridges was nominated for the Emmy Award for Best Single Performance by an Actor for 1957 but did not win.