THE BEST OF BROADWAY (1954-1955) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

THE BEST OF BROADWAY (1954-1955) – Balladeer’s Blog’s latest look at a Forgotten Television item deals with The Best of Broadway. The color program aired on CBS once per month and its failure to last more than one season may be explained by the fact that the other three weeks the program that aired in its time slot was … Pabst Blue Ribbon Bouts. 

I’m certainly not denying that there very well might have been some crossover audience between boxing and Broadway but I imagine some viewers who caught and loved a Best of Broadway episode eagerly tuned in the following week, saw beer-sponsored boxing and just assumed the Broadway program had been canceled or was just a one-off special.

At any rate, this series presented one-hour adaptations of assorted Broadway productions and was filmed with a studio audience.

THE EPISODES:

THE ROYAL FAMILY (September 15th, 1954) – From the Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman comedy The Royal Family of Broadway. Paul Nickell directed this depiction of a Barrymore-esque thespian dynasty and the chaos that results when the family matriarch is outraged to learn that her daughter and granddaughter are considering leaving their stage careers behind for marriage.

CAST: Helen Hayes, Fredric March, Claudette Colbert, Charles Coburn and Nancy Olson

THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (October 13th, 1954) – Another George S. Kaufman comedy collaboration, this time with Moss Hart. David Alexander directed this version of the story of a snobbish critic whose entourage takes over the home of an Ohio family while the critic recuperates from an injury.

CAST: Monty Woolley, Buster Keaton, Merle Oberon, Joan Bennett, Margaret Hamilton, Bert Lahr and Zasu Pitts       

PANAMA HATTIE (November 10th, 1954) – From the Cole Porter musical with book by Herbert Fields and B.G. DeSylva. David Alexander again directed. In the Panama Canal Zone, nightclub owner Hattie Maloney gets caught up in military intrigue when she does a favor for some U.S. Navy personnel. She also falls for an aristocratic older man passing through.

CAST: Ethel Merman, Art Carney, Janis Carter, Neil “Commissioner Gordon” Hamilton, Ray Middleton and Mort Marshall

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (December 8th, 1954) – From the Philip Barry romantic comedy. THE Sidney Lumet directed. The story involves a wealthy woman whose former husband shows up just as she is about to remarry. A nosy reporter further complicates matters.

CAST: Mary Astor, Dorothy McGuire, Richard Carlson, John Payne, Herbert Marshall and Neva Patterson 

ARSENIC & OLD LACE (January 5th, 1955) – The Cary Grant film version of this dark comedy is one of my all-time favorites! This tv adaptation of the Joseph Kesselring play was directed by Herbert B. Swope, Jr. A critic and social commentator from a VERY eccentric family is about to get married when he discovers that his sweet elderly aunts are really serial killers.

NOTE: Boris Karloff got to play his stage role of the sinister Jonathan Brewster after missing out on the movie version.

CAST: In addition to Karloff there was Helen Hayes, Peter Lorre, Billie Burke, Orson Bean, Patricia Breslin, John Alexander and Edward Everett Horton

THE SHOW-OFF (February 2nd, 1955) – A Groundhog Day presentation of the George Kelly play directed once again by THE Sidney Lumet. A clerk impresses his blind date with outrageous lies about his life and career. He alienates her skeptical family and winds up getting himself and his lady in zany hijinks.

CAST: “The Great One” – Jackie Gleason, Alice Ghostley, Carleton Carpenter, Thelma Ritter and Cathy O’Donnell as Amy Fisher (not that one)

THE GUARDSMAN (March 2nd, 1955) – We have Paul Nickell back (see what I did there) to direct this staging of the Ferenc Molnar play. A stage couple bicker constantly despite being newlyweds. Suspecting his wife of having a wandering eye, the husband masquerades as a mysterious Russian to see if she would be open to an affair.

CAST: Claudette Colbert, Franchot Tone, Margaret Hamilton, Mary Grace Canfield, Reginald Gardiner and Edith King 

STAGE DOOR (April 6th, 1955) – From the Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman play. Sidney Lumet was THE director. (Fooled ya that time!) Aspiring Broadway actresses get caught up in romance and other dramas while trying to make it big.

CAST: Elsa Lanchester, Rhonda Fleming, Nita Talbot, Charles Drake, Diana Lynn, Peggy Ann Gardner and Jack Weston

BROADWAY (May 4th, 1955) – Franklin J. Schaffner directed this adaptation of the George Abbott play. An innocent and trusting young dancer on Broadway inadvertently gets involved in murder and the bootlegging racket.

CAST: Joseph Cotten, Piper Laurie, Keenan Wynn, Martha Hyer, Don Gordon and Balladeer’s Blog’s old friend since 2011 – Iggie Wolfington himself! For new readers I’ll mention that purely by coincidence I have covered virtually everything in which this eccentrically named performer appeared. 

FOR MORE FORGOTTEN TELEVISION CLICK HERE:   https://glitternight.com/category/forgotten-television/