"Playhouse 90" (1956)TV series 1956-1961

Directors:

Tony Barr
Karl Genus
(more)

Writers:

Robert Alan Aurthur (writer) (2 episodes)
Gwen Bagni (writer)
(more)

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Release Date:

4 October 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Romance

Plot Keywords:

Family Relationships | Male Female Relationship | Husband Wife Relationship | Anthology | Number In Title

Awards:

Won Golden Globe. Another 12 wins & 29 nominations

Cast

Richard Joy

...

Himself, Announcer / ... (38 episodes, 1956-1957)

(more)

Series Directed by
John Frankenheimer		(27 episodes, 1956-1960)
Franklin J. Schaffner		(19 episodes, 1957-1960)
Ralph Nelson		(6 episodes, 1956-1959)
Vincent J. Donehue		(6 episodes, 1956-1958)
Arthur Hiller		(6 episodes, 1956-1958)
George Roy Hill		(5 episodes, 1957-1959)
Arthur Penn		(5 episodes, 1957-1958)
Buzz Kulik		(4 episodes, 1958-1960)
Robert Stevens		(4 episodes, 1959-1960)
Delbert Mann		(3 episodes, 1958-1959)
Fielder Cook		(3 episodes, 1959-1960)
Alex Segal		(3 episodes, 1959)
James Neilson		(2 episodes, 1956-1957)
Robert Mulligan		(2 episodes, 1957-1960)
Paul Wendkos		(2 episodes, 1957-1958)
Oscar Rudolph		(2 episodes, 1957)
Ron Winston		(2 episodes, 1958-1959)
David Swift		(2 episodes, 1958)
Sidney Lumet		(2 episodes, 1960)
Tony Barr		(unknown episodes)
Karl Genus		(unknown episodes)

Series Writing credits
Rod Serling		(11 episodes, 1956-1960)
Leslie Stevens		(7 episodes, 1957-1959)
James P. Cavanagh		(6 episodes, 1956-1958)
David Shaw		(6 episodes, 1957-1960)
Elick Moll		(4 episodes, 1956-1958)
Paul Monash		(4 episodes, 1956-1958)
Tad Mosel		(4 episodes, 1957-1959)
David Davidson		(4 episodes, 1958-1960)
A.E. Hotchner		(4 episodes, 1958-1959)
Leonard Spigelgass		(3 episodes, 1956-1957)
F. Scott Fitzgerald		(3 episodes, 1957-1958)
Berne Giler		(3 episodes, 1957-1958)
Horton Foote		(3 episodes, 1958-1960)
Abby Mann		(3 episodes, 1958-1959)
John Gay		(3 episodes, 1959-1960)
Reginald Rose		(3 episodes, 1959-1960)
Pat Frank		(2 episodes, 1956-1960)
Frank D. Gilroy		(2 episodes, 1956-1958)
John P. Marquand		(2 episodes, 1956-1958)
William Sackheim		(2 episodes, 1956-1958)
Hagar Wilde		(2 episodes, 1956-1957)
George Bellak		(2 episodes, 1957-1959)
Marc Brandell		(2 episodes, 1957-1959)
William Durkee		(2 episodes, 1957-1958)
A.J. Russell		(2 episodes, 1957-1958)
Robert Alan Aurthur		(2 episodes, 1957)
William Faulkner		(2 episodes, 1958-1960)
Roger O. Hirson		(2 episodes, 1958-1960)
Pierre Boulle		(2 episodes, 1958-1959)
Steve Gethers		(2 episodes, 1958-1959)
David Karp		(2 episodes, 1958-1959)
J.P. Miller		(2 episodes, 1958-1959)
Merle Miller		(2 episodes, 1958-1959)
David Swift		(2 episodes, 1958)
Adrian Spies		(2 episodes, 1959-1960)
Ernest Hemingway		(2 episodes, 1959)
Loring Mandel		(2 episodes, 1959)
Meade Roberts		(2 episodes, 1959)
Mel Barr		(1 episode, 1957)
Fred Clasel		(1 episode, 1957)
Lloyd C. Douglas		(1 episode, 1957)
Jack Jacobs		(1 episode, 1957)
Lulu Morgan		(1 episode, 1957)
Don Murray		(1 episode, 1957)
Malvin Wald		(1 episode, 1957)
Robert E. McEnroe		(1 episode, 1959)
Gwen Bagni		(unknown episodes)
Bo Goldman		(unknown episodes)

Series Produced by
Peter Kortner	....	producer / executive producer (11 episodes, 1957-1960)
Julian Claman	....	associate producer (5 episodes, 1956-1958)
Martin Manulis	....	producer (5 episodes, 1956-1958)
Herbert Brodkin	....	producer (4 episodes, 1959-1960)
Russell Stoneham	....	associate producer / assistant producer (3 episodes, 1957-1959)
Fred Coe	....	producer (3 episodes, 1958-1959)
Eva Wolas	....	producer (2 episodes, 1956-1957)
Mildred Freed Alberg	....	producer (unknown episodes)
Tony Barr	....	associate producer (unknown episodes)
Ralph Levy	....	producer (unknown episodes)
Joe Scully	....	associate producer (unknown episodes)

Series Original Music by
Jerry Goldsmith		(3 episodes, 1960)
Robert Allen		(unknown episodes)
John Williams		(unknown episodes)

Series Cinematography by
Gert Andersen		(7 episodes, 1956-1958)
Joseph F. Biroc		(unknown episodes)
Albert Kurland		(unknown episodes)

Series Film Editing by
Henry Batista		(3 episodes, 1956)
Robert L. Swanson		(3 episodes, 1957)
Richard K. Brockway		(2 episodes, 1958)

Series Casting by
Joe Scully		(1 episode, 1958)

Series Production Design by
Horace Armistead		(1 episode, 1958)

Series Art Direction by
Walter Scott Herndon		(2 episodes, 1956)
William Craig Smith		(2 episodes, 1959-1960)

Series Set Decoration by
William Kiernan		(1 episode, 1957)
Raymond Boltz Jr.		(1 episode, 1958)
Russell A. Gausman		(1 episode, 1958)
Julia Heron		(1 episode, 1958)
Buck Henshaw		(unknown episodes)

Series Costume Design by
Barbara Karinska		(1 episode, 1958)

Series Makeup Department
Clay Campbell	....	makeup artist (1 episode, 1957)
Helen Hunt	....	hair stylist (1 episode, 1957)
Madine Danks	....	hair stylist (1 episode, 1958)
Larry Germain	....	hair stylist (1 episode, 1958)
Bud Westmore	....	makeup artist (1 episode, 1958)
William Woods	....	makeup artist (1 episode, 1958)

Series Production Management
Glenn Cook	....	production manager (1 episode, 1958)

Series Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Carter De Haven Jr.	....	assistant director (1 episode, 1957)
Ron Winston	....	assistant director (1 episode, 1957)
Nathan Barrager	....	assistant director (1 episode, 1958)
Marshall Green	....	assistant director (1 episode, 1958)
Lindsley Parsons Jr.	....	second assistant director (unknown episodes)

Series Art Department
Mike Gordon	....	property master (1 episode, 1958)
Bob Markel	....	property master (1 episode, 1958)

Series Sound Department
John P. Livadary	....	recording supervisor (1 episode, 1957)
Harry Smith	....	sound (1 episode, 1957)
Leslie I. Carey	....	sound recordist (1 episode, 1958)
Joe Lapis	....	sound recordist (1 episode, 1958)

Series Special Effects by
Jim Fox	....	special effects technician (unknown episodes)

Series Visual Effects by
Louis DeWitt	....	special photographic effects (1 episode, 1958)
Jack Rabin	....	special photographic effects (1 episode, 1958)

Series Camera and Electrical Department
Leard Davis	....	lighting director (2 episodes, 1957-1959)

Series Costume and Wardrobe Department
Motley	....	costume supervisor (1 episode, 1957)
Joseph Dimmitt	....	wardrobe (1 episode, 1958)

Series Editorial Department
Fred W. Berger	....	supervising editor (1 episode, 1958)

Series Music Department
Sammy Cahn	....	composer: theme (134 episodes, 1956-1960)
Alex North	....	composer: theme (134 episodes, 1956-1960)
Igo Kantor	....	music editor (unknown episodes)

Series Other crew
Peter Kortner	....	story editor / script editor (8 episodes, 1956-1957)
Brooks Graham	....	technical director (2 episodes, 1956-1957)
Dominick Dunne	....	executive assistant (unknown episodes)

Production Companies

• CBS Television (live episodes)
• Filmaster Productions Inc.
• Screen Gems Television
• Universal Pictures Television

Distributors

• CBS Television (1956-1960) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Columbia TriStar Domestic Television (2001)
• Sony Pictures Television (2002-)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (broadcast of "The Nutcracker")

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Arizona, USA

Company:

CBS Television

Trivia:

The show began in 1956 broadcasting all live 90-minute plays, with only a sub-par kinescope film (film camera aimed at the live broadcast on the TV monitor) as an archive. The second year they began to film maybe every second or third episode (as a "made-for-TV-movie"), then in the last two years began videotaping many of the episodes. The tape technique was harder to spot because the broadcasts still appeared live, but there are at least partial tapes (of excellent, pristine, quality) in the CBS vaults of P90 episodes of "Days of Wine and Roses (1958)," "The Old Man (1958)," "Judgment At Nuremberg (1959)," "Alas, Babylon (1960)," and the final 'Playhouse 90' from 1960, "In The Prescence of Mine Enemies." Clips of these actual tapes were featured in the 2002 CBS special "50 Years of Television City in Hollywood.".

Movie Connections:

Featured in Influences: From Yesterday to Today (1999) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Song for a Summer Night

A master genre that does not even exist today.

"Playhouse 90" came as the grand finale of that elusive TV genre which precedes even my 44 years on this earth: the dramatic anthology. Prior to this one, anthology programs had existed on the infant medium for almost a decade. The networks had KRAFT TELEVISION THEATRE, FORD THEATRE, GOODYEAR PLAYHOUSE, and STUDIO ONE as early as 1948. They all had the same common goal: presentation of self-contained, live, dramatic stories, their quality rivaled only by the best of the Broadway stage. (It was no coincidence that many of these dramas were produced in New York.) While all previous series were only 30 and 60 minute episodes, P90 introduced something new: its show was done in the "Television City" studio in Hollywood, and it was a lavish, unheard of, *90* minutes. In those days a live play could exist on a sound-stage without a studio audience with intimate, claustrophobic, camera set-ups, and present over a span of 90 minutes, "The Plot To Kill Stalin;" "Bomber's Moon;" "Bitter Heritage;" "Requiem For A Heavyweight;" "No Time At All," "The Comedian," "The Helen Morgan Story," "Judgment At Nuremberg," and "The Miracle Worker" straight through, without second takes, and on a week-by-week basis!! Stories were adaptations by Hemingway and Faulkner, as well as originals by Reginald Rose, J.P. Miller, and Rod Serling- all with stellar actors and directors. Eventually some productions were filmed in kinescope or on location as TV-movies, but the productions I'd kill to see are the ones which initiated the first ever videotape. Because videotape was not up and running until late 1957, the P90 archive of plays is uneven. Most of the museum archive is still on kinescope (which you can see at one of the two MT&R television museums on the coast of your choice), but the good news is that many plays from the last two years of the series were captured on glorious black-and-white videotape- the medium which comes closest to simulating the original live broadcast. A CBS special in 2002 dusted off some of these tapes and aired- probably only for the second time ever- clips of 1958's "The Old Man" and "Days of Wine And Roses," 1959's "Judgment at Nuremberg," and the final P90 from 1960, "In The Prescence of Mine Enemies." I suspect, sadly, that these show quality tapes are probably tied up in copyright laws and cannot be shown publicly. The series was a short, brilliant blaze of Emmy-winning glory, and came to a crashing halt in 1961- one year before I was born. I miss it.