Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars is an anthology series that was telecast from 1951 until 1959 on CBS. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. The title was shortened to Schlitz Playhouse beginning with the fall 1957 season.
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Schlitz Playhouse
United States
English
8
347
Joseph Gluck
Richard Belding
Sam Gold
George Amy
Robert B. Warwick, Jr.
50 mins.
October 5, 1951 –
March 27, 1959
Live to film[edit]
Initially, the show was broadcast live, but starting in the summer of 1953, some episodes were filmed in advance. Beginning with the 1956-1957 season, all of the shows were filmed.
Between October 1951 and March 1952, the hour-long show was aired at 9 p.m. In April 1952, the running time was reduced from an hour to 30 minutes. The series moved to 9:30 p.m. in the 1955 fall season.
Pilots[edit]
Three episodes served as pilots for later NBC Western series: The Restless Gun with John Payne (March 29, 1957 pilot) and Tales of Wells Fargo with Dale Robertson (as Jim Hardie; season 6, episode 12 - A Tale of Wells Fargo - aired on December 14, 1956), and the first-run syndication series Shotgun Slade [1] with Scott Brady (season eight, episode 14 aired on March 27, 1959). The Restless Gun pilot was based on the radio series The Six Shooter, and Payne's character had the same name, Britt Ponset, as the radio character; that name was changed to Vint Bonner when the actual series began, possibly to prevent confusion with Bret Maverick in Maverick, which debuted in 1957. The same year, Jacques Tourneur directed one episode, "Outlaw's Boots" (25 min), broadcast in December 1957. For the 1958-1959 season, the series alternated weeks with the Lux Playhouse.
An episode of the series also was the pilot for China Smith.[2]
Awards[edit]
In 1958, Paul Monash won an Emmy Award for Best Teleplay Writing - One Hour or Less for the episode "The Lonely Wizard".[4] In 1954, Billboard ranked it sixth-best filmed network dramatic series; it received 264 votes, compared to 826 votes for list-topping Ford Theater, but well ahead of the series at 10th place, Revlon Mirror Theater, which only got 35 votes.[5]
Sale[edit]
CBS-TV bought the negative rights to 104 episodes of Schlitz Playhouse of Stars for about $1.2 million in 1957 with RKO Teleradio serving as an intermediary between the network and Meridian Productions. CBS tried to buy the property outright, but Meridian wanted payments spread over 10 years, and the network did not want a long-term commitment. RKO Teleradio solved the problem by accepting the short-term payment from CBS and, in turn, paying 10 percent to Meridian each year for a decade.[7]