Kraft Television Theatre broadcast some 585 episodes on NBC between May 1947 and 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 5 of Kraft Television Theatre premiered on September 1951 and ended in September 1952. The series was pre-empted twice in July 1952 for coverage of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. NBC broadcast 53 episodes, of which 12 are known to exist, all of which can be found at the Library of Congress.
(According to The Classic TV Archive, an episode titled “The Intruder” aired on Tuesday, July 22nd, 1952. Not only would it have been extremely unusual for Kraft Television Theatre to air on a Tuesday rather than a Wednesday, TV listings in The New York Times and other newspapers indicate that additional convention coverage was shown that day. An episode titled “The Intruder” did air in July 1953, however.)
As always, 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 1951-1952 season out there somewhere.
| Season 5: 1951-1952 | |||
| # | Episode Title | Airdate | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 227 | “The Tale of the Wolf” | 09/12/1951 | |
| 228. | “The Wren” | 09/19/1951 | |
| 229. | “The Climax” | 09/26/1951 | |
| 230. | “Irish Eyes” | 10/03/1951 | |
| 231. | “Seen But Not Heard” | 10/10/1951 | |
| 232. | “Moon Over Mulberry Street” | 10/17/1951 | |
| 233. | “Intolerance” (aka “Interference”) | 10/24/1951 | |
| 234. | “Hour of Crisis” | 10/31/1951 | |
| 235. | “Justice” | 11/07/1951 | |
| 236. | “Never Be the Same” | 11/14/1951 | |
| 237. | “Dear Brutas” | 11/21/1951 | LOC |
| 238. | “The Fair Haired Boy” | 11/28/1951 | |
| 239. | “Loyalties” | 12/05/1951 | |
| 240. | “The Golden State” | 12/12/1951 | LOC |
| 241. | “Incident on Fifth Ave | 12/19/1951 | |
| 242. | “Nantucket Legend” | 12/26/1951 | LOC |
| 243. | “The New Gossoon” | 01/02/1952 | LOC |
| 244. | “Phillip Goes Forth | 01/09/1952 | LOC |
| 245. | “The Round Table” | 01/16/1952 | LOC |
| 246. | “The Peaceful Warrior” | 01/23/1952 | |
| 247. | “Mrs. O’Brien Entertains” | 01/30/1952 | |
| 248. | “Follow the Dream” | 02/06/1952 | |
| 249. | “The Skin Game” | 02/13/1952 | |
| 250. | “The Mollusk” | 02/20/1952 | |
| 251. | “September Tide” | 02/27/1952 | |
| 252. | “What Anne Brought Home” | 03/05/1952 | LOC |
| 253. | “The Thief” | 03/12/1952 | |
| 254. | “The Bride the Sun Shines On” | 03/19/1952 | |
| 255. | “The Rugged Path” (aka “On The Rugged Path”) | 03/26/1952 | LOC |
| 256. | “The Ryan Girl” | 04/02/1952 | |
| 257. | “The Last Mile” | 04/09/1952 | LOC |
| 258. | “Green Cars Go East” | 04/16/1952 | |
| 259. | “The Summit” | 04/23/1952 | |
| 260. | “The Man in Half Moon Street” | 04/30/1952 | |
| 261. | “She Stoops to Conquer” | 05/07/1952 | LOC |
| 262. | “The Inn” | 05/14/1952 | |
| 263. | “Prologue to Glory” | 05/21/1952 | |
| 264. | “Third Visitor” | 05/28/1952 | |
| 265. | “At Mrs. Beam’s” | 06/04/1952 | |
| 266. | “The Cricket on the Hearth” | 06/11/1952 | |
| 267. | “Death of a Kid Gleason” | 06/18/1952 | |
| 268. | “Thorn in the Flesh” | 06/25/1952 | |
| 269. | “A Time for Turning” | 07/02/1952 | |
| PRE-EMPTED: Republican National Convention | 07/09/1952 | ||
| 270. | “Great Big Doorstep” | 07/16/1952 | LOC |
| PRE-EMPTED: Democratic National Convention | 07/23/1952 | ||
| 271. | “The Music Master” | 07/30/1952 | |
| 272. | “Six by Six” | 08/06/1952 | |
| 273. | “Lace on Her Petticoat” | 08/13/1952 | |
| 274. | “Indian Summer” | 08/20/1952 | |
| 275. | “The Small Hours” | 08/27/1952 | LOC |
| 276. | “Mr. Barry’s Etchings” | 09/03/1952 | |
| 277. | “Letters to Lucerne” | 09/10/1952 | |
| 278. | “Truman Capote’s The Grass Harp” | 09/17/1952 | |
| 279. | “Background” | 09/24/1952 | |
Revised April 10th, 2019
I am SO grateful the Library of Congress has those “KRAFT TELEVISION THEATER” kinescopes- because at one time, NBC accumulated virtually all of them in their Fort Lee, New Jersey warehouse….THEN, they began “throwing them out”- or destroying them!- in the ’60s and ’70s, along with other “one-of-a-kind” live shows and videotapes to “make room” on their shelves for other things….GAAAAHHH!!!!