Status of Kraft Television Theatre, Season 6

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


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