Fireside Theater (1949)

Directed by

Fred Coe

Genre

anthology series, drama television series

Country

United States

Length

7 seasons, 142 episodes

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 5 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This anthology series presents standalone dramas, often based on old stories or public domain works. Early episodes had small budgets and focused on familiar plots. Later seasons featured higher quality writing and were hosted by actress Jane Wyman.

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What happens

Fireside Theatre (later known as Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre, Jane Wyman Theatre, The Jane Wyman Show and Jane Wyman Presents) is an American anthology drama series that ran on NBC from 1949 to 1958, and was the first successful filmed series on American television. Early episodes (1949–1955) were low-budget and often based on public domain stories. While the series was dismissed by critics, it remained among the top ten most popular shows for most of this period. For the 8th season (1955–1956), Jane Wyman became the host and producer. The series was only the second filmed prime time network drama anthology to be hosted by a woman. Later episodes (1955–1958) were written by important freelance television writers, such as Rod Serling, Aaron Spelling and Gene Roddenberry. It predates the only major pioneer of filmed television production in the United States, I Love Lucy, by two years. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• Volume One