We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
The 195^-55 Season In Revie w: New Concepts Paid Off TV’s 1954-55 season could justifiably be tagged “The Year of the Great Experiment.” For the first time, net¬ works and sponsors discarded the hung-over radio no¬ tion that program fare for a given time spot must be as predictable as death, taxes and the outcome of cowboy sagas. To the glut of half-hour variety and situation comedy programs were added 90-minute super-shows, fine drama, excellent documentaries and other inno¬ vations designed to inject excitement into a medium already beginning to suffer from sameness. Some programs flopped, like the tee-off “spectacular”— Betty Hutton’s “Satins and Spurs.” But failure is often a by-product of experiment. To compensate, viewers were deluged with dividends, such smash successes as Mary Martin’s “Peter Pan,” Disneyland, The George Gobel Show, Kraft TV Theater’s original and repeat performances of “Patterns.” In all. The Year of the Great Experiment was a resounding success. Top network executives—NBC’s Sylvester L. (Pat) Weaver; CBS’ Hubbell Robinson, Jr.; ABC’s Robert M. Weitman—sparked the new shows. But, as usual, audi¬ ence approval decided which stayed. The vote was thumbs-up on new concepts, programs and personalities. The season’s “different” quality was first established by NBC’s color spectaculars—one every fourth Satur¬ day and every fourth Sunday, produced by Max Lieb- man, and the Producers’ Showcase dramatic series every fourth Monday. Liebman alternated between musical reviews and “book” shows, some of them sparkling hits, others on the dull side. Hit or miss, each offered star personali¬ ties, many making their TV debuts. Producers’ Showcase concentrated almost exclusively on past Broadway successes, with generally good results. Ginger Rogers, Greer Garson, Shelley Winters, Paulette Goddard and stars of similar caliber helped bring a touch of so-called “Hollywood glamor” to TV. The two- hour “Peter Pan,” transferred almost intact from Broad¬ way, was hailed as Showcase’s finest accomplishment, and some insisted it was the best show in TV history. CBS had a star-studded dramatic series, too— Best of Broadway —but many of its programs suffered from at¬ tempts to compress a full-length stage play continued George Gobel Walt Disney 19