This half-hour drama/interview series aired Saturdays on ABC. The first seventeen episodes (through February 23rd, 1952) aired from 12:00PM to 12:30PM ET; the series was then pushed back a half-hour, starting at 11:30PM ET with the March 1st episode. Adelaide Hawley hosted the series under the General Mills persona of Betty Crocker. The show was partially interview and partially drama, with guests also appearing in short dramas. Famous guests included Uta Hagen, Robert Cummings, June Lockhart, Veronica Lake, and Audrey Hepburn.

None of the four main television archives/museums (The Library of Congress, UCLA Film & Television Archive, Paley Center for Media and the Museum of Broadcasting) have episodes of Betty Crocker Star Matinee. But as always, that doesn’t mean the episodes don’t exist. Perhaps General Mills has them sitting in a vault somewhere.

This half-hour dramatic series was broadcast by NBC on Wednesdays from 10:30PM to 11PM. It premiered on September 6th, 1950 and as far as I can tell, the final new episode was shown on May 16th, 1951. I’ve compiled a broadcast history of the series primarily from contemporary television listings in The New York Times. I also used several existing several existing episode guides for reference, including the Classic TV Archive and the IMDb.

Unfortunately, The New York Times never marked episodes as repeats and only occasionally included episode titles. Both the CTVA and the IMDb show “Girl or Ghost” airing on May 2nd, 1951 while The New York Times has it airing as the third episode of the series on September 20th, 1950. A total of 37 episodes seems unusual; just two more would hit the 39 mark which, in the early days of television, was a common number (39 weeks of new episodes plus 13 weeks of repeats equals 52 total weeks). In any event, the final broadcast of the series was on August 29th, 1951. It was most likely a repeat.

Stars Over Hollywood was a television version of a long-running radio program. It was produced by Review Productions and sponsored by Armour & Co. [1, 2]. Trio Pictures, Inc. was also involved in producing the series [3]. Only three episodes are held in the four major television archives/museums (The Library of Congress, UCLA Film & Television Archive, Paley Center for Media and the Museum of Broadcasting), two at UCLA and one at the Paley Center for Media.

The third episode of the series, “Grady Everett for the People,” was reportedly the first television script sold by Rod Serling. Unfortunately, it looks like a copy of the episode may not exist.

Sources
1 A September 11th, 1950 article in The Los Angeles Times states that Stars Over Hollywood “was filmed by Review Productions” (Walter Ames, “TV Employees Chided for Lax Public Relations on Schedule Changes,” Page 26).
2 “Radio-TV Notes.” New York Times. 9 Aug. 1950: 39.
3 According to The Los Angeles Times, “Trio Pictures, Inc. has started work on five ‘Stars Over Hollywood’ films for video. They’ll be released next month on NBC-TV with sponsor” (Walter Ames, “Eye Expert Reveals Results of Video Tests; Van Helfin Wavers Over TV Strip Deal,” Page B6).

In March of 1951, a 34-minute pilot episode for a proposed I Love Lucy series was filmed in an attempt to sell the series to CBS and potential sponsors. It worked, but the pilot itself was never broadcast. Instead, its storyline was worked into an episode that was shown on November 19th, 1951 during I Love Lucy’s first season [1]. Although I Love Lucy would air for six years and reign atop the Nielsen charts, the pilot episode was eventually forgotten.

In the early 1980s, the Museum of Broadcasting (now the Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio) began actively searching for the pilot episode. At the time, the curator of museum’s television collection, Ronald C. Simon, explained that during the 1970s all traces of the pilot had disappeared; not even Desi Arnaz or Lucille Ball owned or knew where to find a copy [2].

Then, in December of 1989, a film print was found under the bed of a the late Pepito Pérez, who had appeared in the pilot as a clown way back in 1951. Reportedly, Pepito’s widow, Joanne Perez, had read about the long-lost pilot in TV Guide, recalled that her husband had been given a copy, and checked under their bed [3]. CBS aired an hour-long special built around the pilot on Monday, April 30th, 1990. It tied for first in the week’s ratings with a 21.2/37 rating. Over 30 million viewers tuned in [4].

Sources:
1 Shales, Tom. “Love That ‘Lost’ Lucy.” Washington Post. 30 Apr. 1990: B1.
2 “Broadcasting Museum Seeks TV’s Self-History.” 43.
3 Richmond, Ray. “Long-Lost Lucy TV Pilot Airs Tonight.” Toronto Star. 30 Apr. 1990: B4.
4 “Nielsens: NBC Barely Sweeping by CBS.” USA Today. 9 May 1990: 3D.

This is something I’ve been wanting to do with for some time now and I have started tinkering at it. With the information available online at various television archives and museums (I’ve listed four of the largest here) it is possible to put together a list of existing episodes for many obscure shows. Episodes may be held at the Library of Congress while others may be found at UCLA’s Film & Television Archive. Perhaps some exist at both institutions.

If episodes can’t be found at any of these archives (or at least their online databases) that doesn’t mean the episodes are lost or no longer exist. They may be stored in a network or production company’s vault, forgotten but safely secured. I’m just not privy to that sort of information. I’d like to be but I wouldn’t even know where to begin finding contact information for such places. In any event, there are still many shows for which “status guides” can be compiled. The hard part is putting them together.

I’ve made a few test guides to see how they turn out. Here is a list of episodes from the first season of Playhouse 90 and their current status. I’ve abbreviated the Library of Congress as LoC and use UCLA as shorthand for UCLA’s Film & Television Archive. This doesn’t include episodes that may exist at the Museum of Broadcast Communication or the Paley Center for Media (which until recently didn’t have its collection available online).

(more…)

This is the most recent recovery of a “missing” episode of a television show that I am aware of, at least having to do with programs originally broadcast in the United States. There have been a whole bunch of recoveries of television shows in the United Kingdom this year (learn more at Missing-Episodes.com).

Shout! Factory announced the release of the first season of Father Knows Best in mid-December of 2007 (here is the official press release courtesy of TVShowsOnDVD.com). Home Media Magazine published an article on December 29th, 2007 about the release that included the following paragraph:

One caveat about the DVD, according to Shapiro, is that Shout! Factory couldn’t locate the original version of the episode “The Promised Playhouse,” and the version on the DVD is culled from a fifth-season episode that used the footage in a flashback.

Less than two weeks later, on January 9th, 2008 Home Media Magazine published a follow-up article with the news that an uncut version of the episode had been discovered:

However, upon reading the article a collector from Dallas realized he had a 16mm print of the original and loaned it to Shout! Factory.

According to Lorrie Shapiro, VP of DVD for Shout! Factory, both the original and abridged version will be offered on the DVD. The original is included in the “Play All” queue.

Just like that, a “missing” episode had been found. Obviously, the episode was never truly missing — it had been in the hands of a Dallas collector the entire time. It just took a little publicity to get get the collector in contact with Shout! Factory.

This ninety-minute installment of NBC’s prestigious anthology series was Humphrey Bogart’s only foray into television (aside from appearances on The Jack Benny Program, Toast of the Town and Person to Person). Bogart had originated the role of Duke Mantee on Broadway in 1935, followed by the 1936 film version. Twenty years later, joined by wife Lauran Bacall and Henry Fonda, Bogart starred in a live, color version of “The Petrified Forest,” broadcast from 8:00PM to 9:30PM on Monday, May 30th, 1955.

The only surviving copy of the broadcast, a black-and-white kinescope, was found in the personal collection of Lauren Bacall in October of 1986 after the executive director of the Museum of Broadcasting (now the Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio) discussed it with her at a dinner party [1]. It was included in the 4th Annual Television Festival in Los Angeles in March of 1987, introduced by the man who directed it three decades earlier, Delbert Mann [2].

Unfortunately, “The Petrified Forest” has never been made available commercially. It can be viewed at UCLA’s Film & Television Archive, the Library of Congress or the Paley Center for Media.

Sources
1 “Broadcasting Museum Seeks TV’s Self-History.” New York Times. 25 Jan. 1987: 43.
2 Champlin, Charles. “Sharing the Riches of TV.” Los Angeles Times. 14 Feb. 1987: 1.