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 7 of Kraft Television Theatre premiered on September 1953 and ended in September 1954. There were no pre-emptions. NBC broadcast 56 episodes this season, of which at least 22 survive.
The Library of Congress (LOC) has 15 episodes from this season in its collection. The Paley Center for Media (Paley) has six. The UCLA Film & Television Archive (UCLA) and The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) each have five. Together, these four institutions have copies of 22 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 1953-1954 season out there somewhere.
| Season 7: 1953-1954 | |||
| # | Episode Title | Airdate | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 327 | “Quite a Guy” | 9/2/1953 | |
| 328 | “Double in Ivory” | 9/9/1953 | |
| 329 | “Her Father’s Butler” | 9/16/1953 | |
| 330 | “Corinth House” | 9/23/1953 | |
| 331 | “Lobblies Never Lie” | 9/30/1953 | |
| 332 | “Cap’n Jonas” | 10/7/1953 | |
| 333 | “Keep Our Honor Bright” | 10/14/1953 | Paley/LOC |
| 334 | “The Picket Fence” | 10/21/1953 | |
| 335 | “The Threshold” | 10/28/1953 | |
| 336 | “Dream House” | 11/4/1953 | |
| 337 | “A Long Time Till Dawn” | 11/11/1953 | Paley/LOC |
| 338 | “The Gate” | 11/18/1953 | MBC |
| 339 | “Gavin” | 11/25/1953 | LOC |
| 340 | “The Rose Garden” | 12/2/1953 | UCLA |
| 341 | “A Room and a Half” | 12/9/1953 | |
| 342 | “To Live in Peace” | 12/16/1953 | |
| 343 | “Rip Van Winkle” | 12/23/1953 | LOC |
| 344 | “A Cup of Kindness” | 12/30/1953 | LOC |
| 345 | “The Thankful Heart” | 1/6/1954 | LOC |
| 346 | “The Atherton Boy” | 1/13/1954 | |
| 347 | “One Man in a Million” | 1/20/1954 | MBC |
| 348 | “The Antique Touch” | 1/27/1954 | |
| 349 | “The Missing Years” | 2/3/1954 | |
| 350 | “The Barn” | 2/10/1954 | LOC |
| 351 | “The Cuckoo Clock” | 2/17/1954 | |
| 352 | “Gallin-All American” | 2/24/1954 | |
| 353 | “Two Weeks in the Country” | 3/3/1954 | MBC |
| 354 | “The Picture Window” | 3/10/1954 | |
| 355 | “You Touched Me!” | 3/17/1954 | Paley; LOC |
| 356 | “Pardon My Prisoner” | 3/24/1954 | UCLA |
| 357 | “A Hat for Winter” | 3/31/1954 | |
| 358 | “Mr. Candido” | 4/7/1954 | |
| 359 | “The People Next Door” | 4/14/1954 | |
| 360 | “The Little Gods Sell Tamales” | 4/21/1954 | LOC |
| 361 | “Dr. Rainwater Comes A-Courtin'” | 4/28/1954 | |
| 362 | “Alice in Wonderland” | 5/5/1954 | Paley/LOC/UCLA |
| 363 | “The Stake” | 5/12/1954 | LOC |
| 364 | “A Touch of Summer” | 5/19/1954 | |
| 365 | “The Scarlett Letter” | 5/26/1954 | LOC/UCLA |
| 366 | “Citizen Miller” | 6/2/1954 | |
| 367 | “Romeo and Juliet” | 6/9/1954 | LOC |
| 368 | “The Man Who Took to His Bed” | 6/16/1954 | |
| 369 | “The Long Road Home” | 6/23/1954 | |
| 370 | “The Man Most Likely” | 6/30/1954 | LOC/Paley |
| 371 | “Wish Tonight” | 7/7/1954 | |
| 372 | “An American Lyric” | 7/14/1954 | MBC |
| 373 | “Knight in a Business Suit” | 7/21/1954 | |
| 374 | “Edie and the Princess” | 7/28/1954 | |
| 375 | “The Happy Touch” | 8/4/1954 | |
| 376 | “Charm Bracelet” | 8/11/1954 | |
| 377 | “The Worried Man’s Blues” | 8/18/1954 | |
| 378 | “Short Story” | 8/25/1954 | |
| 379 | “Kidnapped” | 9/1/1954 | LOC |
| 380 | “Party for Jonathan” | 9/8/1954 | MBC |
| 381 | “The Witch Child” | 9/15/1954 | |
| 382 | “The Light is Cold” | 9/22/1954 | |
It seems more likely for episodes from later seasons to survive for a show than for the earlier episodes. I guess it’s because as the show lasts people tend to appreciate it more and because recording technology becomes available that wasn’t available before.
You’re correct, based on what I’ve found so far there are many more episodes from the last few seasons than the first few.
Did Kraft move from being live (and surviving in kinescope form) to being a filmed program? If so, that might increase the survival rate, since reruns and syndication would be more likely.