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 10 of Kraft Television Theatre premiered in September 1956 and ended in September 1957. NBC broadcast 52 episodes this season, of which at least 45 episodes survive.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) has 34 episodes from this season in its collection. The Library of Congress (LOC) has 23 episodes. The UCLA Film & Television Archive (UCLA) has four. Together, these three institutions have copies of all but seven episodes from Season 10.
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 1956-1957 season out there somewhere.
| Season 10: 1956-1957 | |||
| # | Episode Title | Airdate | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 483 | “Out to Kill” | 9/19/1956 | LOC/MBC |
| 484 | “The Plunge” | 9/26/1956 | LOC/MBC |
| 485 | “The Life of Mickey Mantle” | 10/3/1956 | LOC |
| 486 | The Murder of a Sand Flea” | 10/10/1956 | LOC |
| 487 | “I Am Fifteen–And I Don’t Want to Die” | 10/17/1956 | LOC |
| 488 | “Ten Grapefruit to Lisbon” | 10/24/1956 | LOC/MBC |
| 489 | “Hit and Run” | 10/31/1955 | LOC |
| 490 | “Shadow of Suspicion” | 11/7/1956 | LOC/MBC |
| 491 | “Before It’s Too Late” | 11/14/1956 | LOC |
| 492 | “The Day of the Hunter” | 11/21/1956 | LOC |
| 493 | “Time Lock” | 11/28/1956 | LOC |
| 494 | “The Ninth Hour” | 12/5/1955 | LOC/MBC |
| 495 | “Teddy Bear” | 12/12/1956 | MBLOCC |
| 496 | “The Wonderful Gift” | 12/19/1956 | LOC/MBC |
| 497 | “The Just and the Unjust” | 12/26/1956 | LOC/MBC |
| 498 | “Hang Up My Guns” | 1/2/1957 | UCLA |
| 499 | “Six Hours of Terror” | 1/9/1957 | LOC/MBC |
| 500 | “No Warning” | 1/16/1957 | LOC/MBC |
| 501 | “Most Blessed Woman” | 1/23/1957 | MBC |
| 502 | “The Singing Idol” | 1/30/1957 | LOC/MBC/UCLA |
| 503 | “The Discoverers” | 2/6/1957 | |
| 504 | “The Man Who Couldn’t Say No” | 2/13/1957 | |
| 505 | “Give Me the Courage” | 2/20/1956 | MBC |
| 506 | “A Travel from Brussels” | 2/27/1957 | MBC |
| 507 | “The Duel” | 3/6/1957 | LOC |
| 508 | “Collision” | 3/13/1957 | MBC |
| 509 | “Night of the Plague” | 3/20/1957 | LOC/MBC |
| 510 | “Sheriff’s Ma” | 3/27/1957 | MBC |
| 511 | “The Medallion” | 4/3/1957 | MBC |
| PRE-EMPTED: Hallmark Hall of Fame | 4/10/1957 | ||
| 512 | “A Matter of Life” | 4/17/1957 | |
| 513 | “A Night of Rain” | 4/24/1957 | MBC |
| 514 | “Drummer Man” | 5/1/1957 | |
| 515 | “Flesh and Blood” | 5/8/1957 | MBC |
| 516 | “The Glass Wall” | 5/15/1957 | |
| 517 | “Man of Prey” | 5/22/1957 | MBC |
| 518 | “All Those Beautiful Girls” | 5/29/1957 | MBC |
| 519 | “The Roaring Twenties” | 6/5/1957 | MBC/UCLA |
| 520 | “Fire and Ice” | 6/12/1957 | MBC |
| 521 | “Nothing Personal” | 6/19/1957 | MBC |
| 522 | “The Curly-Headed Kid” | 6/26/1957 | MBC/UCLA |
| 523 | “The Long Flight” | 7/3/1957 | LOC/MBC |
| 524 | “The First and the Last” | 7/10/1957 | MBC |
| 525 | “The Big Break” | 7/17/1957 | LOC/MBC |
| 526 | “Welcome to a Stranger” | 7/24/1957 | MBC |
| 527 | “Success!” | 7/31/1957 | MBC |
| 528 | “Sextuplets” | 8/7/1957 | LOC |
| 529 | “Circle of Fear” | 8/14/1957 | MBC |
| 530 | “Ride into Danger” | 8/21/1957 | MBC |
| 531 | “Sing a Song” | 8/28/1957 | MBC |
| 532 | “Triumph” | 9/4/1957 | |
| 533 | “The Old Ticker” | 9/11/1957 | MBC |
| 534 | “The Killer Instinct” | 9/18/1957 | MBC |
46 episodes is a great number to be saved from a 1950s season. I suspect the show never went into syndication, so the episodes may not have been considered financially valuable.
The following episodes mostly from the next year also exist:
DE 458-459
“All The King’s Men” [Part I]
DE 460-461
“All The King’s Men” [Part II]
DE 444-445
“Angry Harvest”
DE 478-479
“Last of the Belles”
DE 476-477
“The Outcasts of Poker Flat”
DE 456-457
“Polka”
I know that by this point, Kraft Television Theatre transitioned to being broadcast in color (I recall reading that the first color episode of the series aired in July of 1956). Considering that there are very few surviving color telecasts prior to 1959, it is likely that the surviving episodes of Kraft Television Theatre from July of 1956 until the series ended in October of 1958 exist in black and white only.
Episode 514 “Drummer Man” 5/1/1957, was starring Sal Mineo, and featured him singing his single “Start Movin’”, the appearance led to this single appearing on the Billboard chart within days. It appears this episode is one of the “lost” ones according to this list. Is there ANY chance it could be out there somewhere? I’d love to see it.