Underplayed Gems

Short Short Dramas

Short Short Dramas poster
Genre
anthology series, drama television series
Country
United States
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A host introduces a storyteller who sets up a play. The storyteller then performs as a main character in a short drama. Episodes were only 12 minutes long and were filmed rather than broadcast live.

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What happens

Short Short Dramas is an American dramatic anthology series which aired from September 30, 1952 to April 9, 1953 on NBC. During the original run it was hosted by Ruth Woods, whose segments were dropped when it was syndicated. Each episode began with Woods introducing a storyteller. He or she set the scene for the episode's play and then took a starring role in it. While most American anthology TV series of the 1950s aired weekly in either half-hour or hour-long time-slots, Short Short Dramas aired in a 15-minute time-slot, with episodes broadcast each week on Tuesday and Thursday from 7:15 to 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Episodes were 12-minutes excluding ads, and a total of 78 episodes were produced. Additionally, unlike most early anthology series which were live, Short Short Dramas was an early example of a filmed dramatic series, still a relatively new idea at the time (the first filmed dramatic TV series had aired in 1949, but they were only just starting to become more common in 1952). Among its guest stars were Cliff Robertson, E.G. Marshall, Leslie Nielsen, Bethel Leslie, Tony Randall, Neva Patterson, Richard Kiley, and Ernest Borgnine, Directors included Daniel Petrie. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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