Status Guide – “Kraft Television Theatre” Season Two
I’ve written a brief overview of NBC’s long-running Kraft Television Theatre — which ran from 1947 to 1958 — and the status of its hundreds of episodes, which you can read here. Because the show ran year-round, I initially considered each season to run from May to May (in other words, the first season would have run from May of 1947 to May of 1948). However, I eventually decided to align my status guides with various episode guides available online: TV.com, the Internet Movie Database and the Classic TV Database.
Completed Status Guides
Season Air Dates Published Season One May 7th, 1947 – September 15th, 1948 May 16th, 2009 Season Two September 22nd, 1948 – September 14th, 1949 September 26th, 2009 Season Three September 21st, 1949 – September 20th, 1950 January 9th, 2010 Season Four September 27th, 1950 – September 5th, 1951 February 7th, 2010 Season Five September 12th, 1951 – September 24th, 1952 March 30th, 2010
The second season of Kraft Television Theatre premiered on September 22nd, 1948 with the 72nd episode of the series and ended on September 14th, 1949 with the 123rd episode. Only six complete episodes exist at the four big television archives, five at the Library of Congress and one at UCLA’s Film & Television Archive. Excerpts from another episode, broadcast as part of the sixth anniversary show, are held by both institutions.
| Season Two: 1948-1949 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ep. # | Episode Title | Airdate | Status |
| 72. | “Her Husband’s Wife” | 09/22/1948 | |
| 73. | “Great Day” | 09/29/1948 | |
| 74. | “Twin Diamonds” | 10/06/1948 | |
| 75. | “The Truth Game” | 10/13/1948 | |
| 76. | “Criminal At Large” | 10/20/1948 | |
| 77. | “Biography” | 10/27/1948 | |
| 78. | “Old Lady Robbins” | 11/03/1948 | |
| 79. | “The Detour” | 11/10/1948 | |
| 80. | “The Ivory Door” | 11/17/1948 | |
| 81. | “Wuthering Heights” (Excerpts) | 11/24/1948 | UCLA/LoC |
| 82. | “The Dover Road” | 12/01/1948 | |
| 83. | “The Flashing Stream” | 12/08/1948 | |
| 84. | “The Old Soak” | 12/15/1948 | |
| 85. | “Hansel and Gretel” | 12/22/1948 | |
| 86. | “Meet the Prince” | 12/29/1948 | |
| 87. | “To Catch the Wind” | 01/05/1949 | |
| 88. | “Miranda” | 01/12/1949 | |
| 89. | “Duet for Two Hands” | 01/19/1949 | |
| 90. | “There’s Always Juliet” | 01/26/1949 | |
| 91. | “Her Master’s Voice” | 02/02/1949 | |
| 92. | “Gramercy Ghost” | 02/09/1949 | |
| 93. | “Room Service” | 02/16/1949 | |
| 94. | “The Flying Gerardos” | 02/23/1949 | |
| 95. | “A Bill of Divorcement” | 03/02/1949 | |
| 96. | “Arrival of Kitty” | 03/09/1949 | |
| 97. | “Consider Lily” | 03/16/1949 | |
| 98. | “Village Green” | 03/23/1949 | |
| 99. | “Wicked is the Vine” | 03/30/1949 | UCLA |
| 100. | “As Husbands Go” | 04/06/1949 | |
| 101. | “The Miracle of Chickerston” | 04/13/1949 | LoC | 102. | “The Whole Town’s Talking” | 04/20/1949 | LoC |
| 103. | “Green Stockings” | 04/27/1949 | |
| 104. | “Adam and Eva” | 05/04/1949 | |
| 105. | “Oath of Hippocrates” | 05/11/1949 | LoC |
| 106. | “Big Hearted Herbert” | 05/18/1949 | 107. | “Autumn Fire” | 05/25/1949 |
| 108. | “The Elephant Shepherd” | 06/01/1949 | |
| 109. | “Payment Deferred” | 06/08/1949 | |
| 110. | “Little Brown Jug” | 06/15/1949 | |
| 111. | “Pink Strings and Sealing Wax” | 06/22/1949 | LoC |
| 112. | “Baby Mine” | 06/29/1949 | |
| 113. | “Within the Law” | 07/06/1948 | |
| 114. | “A Young Man’s Fancy” | 07/13/1949 | |
| 115. | “The Curtain Rises” | 07/20/1949 | |
| 116. | “Time for Elizabeth” | 07/27/1949 | LoC |
| 117. | “Heaven and Charing Cross” | 08/03/1949 | |
| 118. | “The Misleading Lady” | 08/10/1949 | |
| 119. | “Mr. Pim Passes By” | 08/17/1949 | |
| 120. | “Where the Deer and the Antelope Play” | 08/24/1949 | |
| 121. | “Bedelia” | 08/31/1949 | |
| 122. | “Respectfully Yours” | 09/07/1949 | |
| 123. | “Little Darling” | 09/14/1949 | |
Related:
September 27th, 2009 at 11:27PM
At one time, NBC had an entire shelf of “KRAFT TELEVISION THEATER” kinescopes in their warehouse at Fort Lee, New Jersey…and then they systematically “cleared their shelves” of those and other historically significant TV series by tossing them out- often destroying the film itself. And they did this every few years…we’re lucky four of them from the 1948-’49 season DID survive! Too bad Kraft couldn’t have socked most of them away in their own warehouse, as Westinghouse did with most of their “STUDIO ONE” kinnies….
November 11th, 2009 at 10:23PM
Are you sure they don’t exist? NBC donated over 100,000 kinies to the Library of Congress in the early 80s and they have a ton of Kraft Television Theatres. I’m not sure how many but its a significant amount numbering in the hundreds.
November 12th, 2009 at 8:04PM
The last time I searched the Library of Congress database online — and this was at least a year ago — I found around 50 episodes of Kraft Television Theatre. There could certainly be plenty more that I either missed or are not searchable via the online database.
December 19th, 2009 at 4:06PM
If you go to museum.tv and sign up to view the archives, you can watch (under Drama) a number of episodes of this program.
January 8th, 2010 at 10:11PM
I was mistaken about how many episodes the Library of Congress has. Not 50 but 196 or so.