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 6 of Kraft Television Theatre premiered on October 1952 and ended in August 1953. This was a change from earlier seasons, which all ran from September to September (except for the first season, which ran from May 1947 to September 1948). The series was pre-empted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 1953 for a speech by President Eisenhower which ran from 9:30-10PM. To fill out the 9-10PM hour, NBC broadcast an episode of My Son Jeep from 9-9:30PM. NBC broadcast 47 episodes during the 1952-1953 season, of which at least 16 exist.
A special “Sixth Anniversary Show” aired on May 6th, 1953. It featured segments from four earlier episodes recreated with their original stars:
- “January Thaw” (originally broadcast October 8th, 1947)
- “Wuthering Heights” (originally broadcast November 24th, 1948)
- “Of Famous Memory” (originally broadcast March 21st, 1951)
- “My Brother’s Keeper” (originally broadcast March 4th, 1953)
Why was one of the segments from an episode broadcast only months before the anniversary show itself? Perhaps because “My Brother’s Keeper” was the 300th episode of the series. At least that’s according to the announcement at the start of the episode:
“Good evening. This is Ed Herlihy speaking for the Kraft Foods Company, makers of the world’s favorite cheese, who bring you each week all year long a fine play with a fine cast, on the Kraft Television Theatre. Tonight we present the 300th play in this Wednesday evening series: ‘My Brother’s Keeper,’ by George Roy Hill.”
Based on TV listings drawn from The New York Times and other newspapers, however, “My Brother’s Keeper” was actually the 302nd episode of Kraft Television Theatre. According to The Classic TV Archive it was the 303rd episode.
The Library of Congress (LOC) has 14 episodes from this season in its collection. The Paley Center for Media (Paley) has three complete episodes and portions of two others. The UCLA Film & Television Archive (UCLA) has two episodes. Both the Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) and the Peabody Awards Collection (Peabody) each have one episode. Together, these five institutions have copies of 16 different episodes.
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 1952-1953 season out there somewhere.
Season 6: 1952-1953 | |||
# | Episode Title | Airdate | Status |
---|---|---|---|
280 | “Michael and Mary” | 10/01/1952 | LOC |
281 | “The New Tenant” | 10/08/1952 | |
282 | “A Kiss for Cinderella” | 10/15/1952 | |
283 | “A Long Night in Forty-Mile” | 10/22/1952 | |
284 | “Divine Drudge” | 10/29/1952 | |
285 | “Melody Jones” | 11/05/1952 | |
286 | “Hilda McKay” | 11/12/1952 | |
287 | “The Quiet Wedding” | 11/19/1952 | |
288 | “Mr. Lazarus” | 11/26/1952 | LOC |
289 | “Iron Gate” | 12/03/1952 | |
290 | “The Intimate Strangers” | 12/10/1952 | |
291 | “The Guest Room” | 12/17/1952 | |
292 | “A Christmas Carol” | 12/24/1952 | |
293 | “Paper Moon” | 12/31/1952 | LOC |
294 | “The Fire Below and the Devil Above” | 01/07/1953 | LOC |
295 | “Zone Four” | 01/14/1953 | |
296 | “A Square Peg” | 01/21/1953 | |
297 | “Duet” | 01/28/1953 | LOC/Paley |
298 | “The Chess Game” | 02/04/1953 | LOC |
299 | “Right You Are!” | 02/11/1953 | |
300 | “Snooksie” | 02/18/1953 | LOC/Paley* |
301 | “Star Bright” | 02/25/1953 | |
302 | “My Brother’s Keeper” | 03/04/1953 | LOC/Paley/UCLA/MBC** |
303 | “So Very Young” | 03/11/1953 | |
304 | “Autumn Story” | 03/18/1953 | |
305 | “Miss Mabel” | 03/25/1953 | |
306 | “The Summer Place” | 04/01/1953 | |
307 | “Next of Kin” | 04/08/1953 | LOC |
308 | “Rain No More” | 04/15/1953 | LOC |
309 | “The New Servant” | 04/22/1953 | |
310 | “Hoodlum with a Halo” | 04/29/1953 | |
311 | “The Sixth Anniversary Show” | 05/06/1953 | LOC/Paley/UCLA |
312 | “Final Edition” | 05/13/1953 | |
313 | “One Left Over” | 05/20/1953 | Peabody |
314 | “The Twilight Rounds” | 05/27/1953 | LOC |
PRE-EMPTED: My Friend Jeep/Eisenhower Speech | 06/03/1953 | ||
315 | “The Ascent of P.J. O’Hara” | 06/10/1953 | |
316 | “Boy of Mine” | 06/17/1953 | |
317 | “The Rainy Day” | 06/24/1953 | |
318 | “The Diehard” | 07/01/1953 | |
319 | “The House Beautiful” | 07/08/1953 | |
320 | “The Blind Spot” | 07/15/1953 | |
321 | “The Adventure of the Kind Mr. Smith” | 07/22/1953 | |
322 | “The Intruder” | 07/29/1953 | |
323 | “Old MacDonald Had a Curve” | 08/05/1953 | LOC/Paley |
324 | “Day of the Vision” | 08/12/1953 | Paley |
325 | “In Albert’s Room” | 08/19/1953 | |
326 | “The Blues for Joey Menotti” | 08/26/1953 | LOC |
*According to its online database, the Paley Center for Media only has the first half of “Snooksie” in its collection.
**According to its online database, the Paley Center for Media only has the second half of “My Brother’s Keeper” in its collection.
Revised April 10th, 2019
Can I get episode 292 anywhere? I have always wanted to see it.