Status of Kraft Television Theatre, Season 9

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 9 of Kraft Television Theatre premiered on September 1955 and ended in September 1956. There were two pre-emptions, one in March 14th, 1956 for a documentary about Adolph Hitler and the other on August 22nd, 1956 for coverage of the Republican National Convention. NBC broadcast 49 episodes this season, of which at least 34 survive. The network also rebroadcast one episode (“A Night to Remember”) using a kinescope recording of the live broadcast from earlier in the season.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) has 24 episodes from this season in its collection, one of which is incomplete. The UCLA Film & Television Archive (UCLA) and The Paley Center for Media (Paley) both have 11. The Library of Congress (LOC) has just one. Together, these four institutions have copies of 34 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 1955-1956 season out there somewhere.

Season 9: 1955-1956
# Episode Title Airdate Status
435 “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz”” 9/28/1955 Paley
436 “The Beautiful Time”” 10/5/1955  
437 “Trucks Welcome” 10/12/1955  
438 “I, Mrs. Bibb” 10/19/1955 LOC/Paley/UCLA
439 “One” 10/26/1955  
440 “Number Four with Flowers” 11/2/1955 MBC
441 “The Ticket and the Tempest” 11/9/1955 MBC
442 “Summer’s End” 11/16/1955 MBC
443 “Day of Judgement” 11/23/1955 MBC
444 “Once a Genius” 11/30/1955 MBC/UCLA
445 “Lady Ruth” 12/6/1955 MBC
446 “A Nugget from the Sunrise” 12/14/1955 MBC
447 “A Christmas Dinner” 12/21/1955 MBC
448 “Eleven O’Clock Flight” 12/28/1955 Paley
449 “The Thieving Magpie” 1/4/1956 MBC
450 “The Sears Girl” 1/11/1956 MBC
451 “The Devil as a Roaring Lion” 1/18/1956 MBC/UCLA
452 “Home Is the Hero” 1/25/1956 Paley
453 “Five Minutes to Live” 2/1/1956 MBC/Paley
454 “Good Ole Charlie Faye” 2/8/1956 Paley
455 “Man on Roller Skates” 2/15/1956 Paley/UCLA
456 “Snapfinger Creek” 2/22/1956 Paley/UCLA
457 “Bobbie” 2/29/1956  
458 “The Fool Killer” 3/7/1956 Paley
PRE-EMPTED: The Twisted Cross 3/14/1956  
459 “The Lost Weekend” 3/21/1956  
460 “A Night to Remember” 3/28/1956 MBC/Paley/UCLA
461 “Paper Foxhole” 4/4/1956 MBC
462 “The Last Showdown” 4/11/1956 MBC/UCLA
463 “No Riders” 4/18/1956 UCLA
464 “The Gentle Grafter” 4/25/1956  
REPEAT: “A Night to Remember” 5/2/1956 N/A
465 “Death Is a Spanish Dancer” 5/9/1956 MBC
466 “A Profile in Courage” 5/16/1956 MBC/UCLA
467 “Bedroom Twelve on the Appalachian Waterfall” 5/23/1956  
468 “Box 704” 5/30/1956  
469 “The Night of May Third” 6/6/1956  
470 “Boy in a Cage” 6/13/1956  
471 “Flying Object at Three O’Clock High” 6/20/1956  
472 “Starfish” 6/27/1956 MBC*/Paley/UCLA
473 “Tear Open the Skies” 7/4/1956 MBC
474 “The Long Arm” 7/11/1956 MBC
475 “Babies for Sale” 7/18/1956 MBC
476 “Prairie Night” 7/25/1956 MBC
477 “One Way West” 8/1/1956  
478 “Anna Santonello” 8/8/1956 MBC
479 “The Magic Box” 8/15/1956  
PRE-EMPTED: Republican National Convention 8/22/1956  
480 “The Girl Who Saw Too Much” 8/29/1956 MBC
481 “Mock Trial” 9/5/1956 UCLA
482 “Shadow of Evil” 9/12/1956  

*The Museum of Broadcast Communications has an incomplete version of “Starfish” in its collection.


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2 Replies to “Status of Kraft Television Theatre, Season 9”

  1. I’m looking for two episodes in season 10 of Kraft Television Theatre. 27 Night of the Plague and 42 The First and The Last.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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