Kraft Television Theatre broadcast some 585 episodes on NBC from May 1947 to October 1958. The series ran year-round with no summer breaks, meaning it didn’t have traditional seasons. I’ve aligned this status guide with episode lists and guides available online, like those found at TV.com, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), and the Classic TV Archive (CTVA).
Season 3 of Kraft Television Theatre premiered on September 1949 and ended in September 1950. There were no pre-emptions this season. NBC broadcast 53 episodes, of which 14 are known to exist in their entirety.
The Library of Congress has 14 episodes in its collection, five from 1949 and nine from 1950. One of these episodes, “January Thaw,” was earlier presented in October 1947 during Season 1. This restaged version can also be found at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
(Another episode from Season 3, “Kelly,” was restaged in January 1951 during Season 4. Although the Library of Congress, the UCLA Film & Television Archive, and the Museum of Broadcast Communications all have copies of the 1951 version, no copies of the original 1950 version are known to exist. The entry in UCLA’s online catalog is dated incorrectly.)
The Library of Congress also has a short reel of 16 mm film containing “outtakes” from “The Wind is Ninety,” which aired in June 1950. This is likely rehearsal footage.
Keep in mind that just because the big TV archives/museums only have certain episodes doesn’t mean there aren’t additional episodes of Kraft Television Theatre from the 1949-1950 season out there somewhere.
Season 3: 1949-1950 | |||
# | Episode Title | Airdate | Status |
---|---|---|---|
124 | “The Man in Half Moon Street” | 09/21/1949 | LOC |
125 | “Climax” | 09/28/1949 | LOC |
126 | “Apple of His Eye” | 10/05/1949 | LOC |
127 | “Your Friendly Nabors” | 10/12/1949 | |
128 | “Accidentally Yours” | 10/19/1949 | |
129 | “To Dream Again” | 10/26/1949 | |
130 | “Whistling in the Dark” | 11/02/1949 | |
131 | “Happy Ending” | 11/09/1949 | |
132 | “The Happiest Year” | 11/16/1949 | |
133 | “In Love with Love” | 11/23/1949 | |
134 | “Seen But Not Heard” | 11/30/1949 | |
135 | “Comedy of Errors” | 12/07/1949 | LOC |
136 | “Nantucket Legend” | 12/14/1949 | LOC |
137 | “The Glove” | 12/21/1949 | |
138 | “New Brooms” | 12/28/1949 | |
139 | “That Naborly Feeling” | 01/04/1950 | |
140 | “As Husbands Go” | 01/11/1950 | |
141 | “The Vinegar Tree” | 01/18/1950 | |
142 | “Kelly” | 01/25/1950 | |
143 | “The Old Ladies” | 02/01/1950 | |
144 | “The Dark Tower” | 02/08/1950 | |
145 | “The Silent Room” | 02/15/1950 | |
146 | “Valley Forge” | 02/22/1950 | |
147 | “Mrs. Moonlight” | 03/01/1950 | |
148 | “Nineteenth Hole” | 03/08/1950 | |
149 | “Ladies in Retirement” | 03/15/1950 | |
150 | “The Queen’s Husband” | 03/22/1950 | |
151 | “The Copperhead” | 03/29/1950 | |
152 | “A Doll’s House” | 04/05/1950 | LOC |
153 | “The Lucky Finger” | 04/12/1950 | LOC |
154 | “Make Way for Lunch” | 04/19/1950 | |
155 | “Black Sheep” | 04/26/1950 | |
156 | “The Fourth Step” | 05/03/1950 | |
157 | “Macbeth” | 05/10/1950 | LOC |
158 | “Storm in a Teacup” | 05/17/1950 | |
159 | “The House Beautiful” | 05/24/1950 | |
160 | “The Luck of Guldeford” | 05/31/1950 | |
161 | “The Doctor in Spite of Himself” | 06/07/1950 | |
162 | “Good Housekeeping” | 06/14/1950 | |
163 | “Noah” | 06/21/1950 | |
164 | “The Wind is Ninety” | 06/28/1950 | LOC |
165 | “Jeannie” | 07/05/1950 | |
166 | “Murder on the Nile” | 07/12/1950 | LOC |
167 | “Accent on Youth” | 07/19/1950 | |
168 | “Mr. Barry’s Etchings” | 07/26/1950 | |
169 | “January Thaw” | 08/02/1950 | LOC/UCLA |
170 | “Feathers in a Gale” | 08/09/1950 | |
171 | “September Tide” | 08/16/1950 | LOC |
172 | “The First Mrs. Fraser” | 08/23/1950 | LOC |
173 | “The Detour” | 08/30/1950 | |
174 | “Last Trump” | 09/06/1950 | |
175 | “The Great Big Doorstep” | 09/13/1950 | |
176 | “Last Stop” | 09/20/1950 |
Revised April 10th, 2019
The “Kelly” confusion is due to the fact that the January 25, 1950 production was so successful that it was done again, in a separate live performance, on January 10, 1951, nearly a year later. I have this straight from E.G. Marshall who starred in both productions. Is it possible that the two holdings are of the different performances?
Jim, thanks for raising this issue. After doing some additional research it looks like there are no copies of the original January 25th, 1950 version of “Kelly” in any of the big television archives. The Library of Congress, the Museum of Broadcast Communications and UCLA’s Film & Television Archive all have copies of the January 10th, 1951 version, although only the Library of Congress correctly identifies it as a re-staging.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications identifies its version as airing on January 10th, 1950. This date is doubly inaccurate. You can watch the episode online and at the beginning, the announcer notes that it is the 192nd presentation. At the end, the announcer promotes the following week’s play as “Best Years,” which was broadcast on January 17th, 1951. Clearly, this is the 1951 version.
UCLA notes that its copy is the 192nd play broadcast by Kraft Television Theatre, which identifies it as the 1951 version, but gives the 1950 date.
As further confirmation that the Museum of Broadcast Communications and UCLA have the 1951 version, television listings in The New York Times state that Anne Francis appeared in the 1950 version alongside E.G. Marshall and Mark Roberts while Olive Deering appeared alongside Marshall and Roberts in the 1951 version. The end credits to the version available for viewing at the Museum of Broadcast Communications include Deering as does the cast list at UCLA.