Playwrights '56 (1955)
Playwrights '56 (1955)
Plot.
Where to Watch.
This TV Show Is About.
Cast & Crew.
Gene Saks
Doctor / Emcee / Mr. Baumgarten
Steven Hill
Stobin / Walter Uhlan
Nina Foch
Belle Thurmond / Mrs. Scott
John McGiver
Actor
Kim Stanley
Abby / Martha Anderson
Frank Overton
Will Thompson
Albert Dekker
Maj. Tobey / Mr. Anderson
Meg Mundy
Louise Lang / Miss Stroud
Cliff Hall
Mac
Russell Hicks
Gen. Riller / Mr. More
Chris Gampel
Actor
Arthur Penn
Director
Vincent J. Donehue
Director
Delbert Mann
Director
Conrad Nagel
Mr. President
Ruth Hussey
Dewey Martin
Ralph Bellamy
George Grizzard
Henry Jones
Patrick Macnee
Dan Frazer
John C. Becher
Peter Mark Richman
Dick York
Steve McQueen
Harry Dean Stanton
Norman Fell
Elizabeth Patterson
Tom Poston
Nancy Walker
James Whitmore
Joan Blondell
Frederick O'Neal
Geoffrey Toone
Nehemiah Persoff
Sada Thompson
Cyril Ritchard
George Chandler
Lillian Gish
Details.
Release DateOctober 4, 1955
StatusEnded
Seasons1
Episodes20
Running Time1h
Wiki.
Playwrights '56, a.k.a. The Playwright Hour, is a 60-minute live American dramatic anthology series produced by Fred Coe for Showtime Productions. Twenty episodes aired on NBC from October 4, 1955, to June 19, 1956. It shared a Thursday time slot with Armstrong Circle Theatre.Stars included Mary Astor, Ralph Bellamy, Joan Blondell, George Chandler, Robert Culp, Paul Douglas, Tom Ewell, Norman Fell, Nina Foch, John Forsythe, Lillian Gish, Alice Ghostley, Lee Grant, James Gregory, Louis Jean Heydt, Steven Hill, Vivi Janiss, Henry Jones, E. G. Marshall, John McGiver, Steve McQueen, Dina Merrill, Jack Mullaney, Paul Newman, Phyllis Kirk, Edmond O'Brien, J. Pat O'Malley, Nehemiah Persoff, Tom Poston, Peter Mark Richman, Janice Rule, Kim Stanley, Warren Stevens, Karl Swenson, Franchot Tone, Ethel Waters, James Whitmore, Estelle Winwood, Jane Wyatt, and Dick York.
Among its notable writers were Horton Foote, Gore Vidal, Tad Mosel, Arnold Schulman, and A. E. Hotchner. Directors included Arthur Penn, later renowned for Bonnie and Clyde, and Delbert Mann, the 1955 Academy Award winner for directing Marty.
The program was sponsored by Pontiac automobiles. When it was canceled, an article in the trade publication Billboard cited cost as a factor, noting that it "ran about $30,000 a week more than its more successful counterpart". Most of the episodes originated from WRCA-TV in Brooklyn, New York, with the rest coming from KRCA-TV's Hollywood studios. After the program's June 19, 1956, broadcast, it was replaced by The Kaiser Aluminum Hour.Along with Producers' Showcase, Playwrights '56 shared the 1956 prime-time Emmy for Best Art Direction -Live Series.