Producers' Showcase is an American anthology television series that was telecast live during the 1950s in compatible color by NBC. With top talent, the 90-minute episodes, covering a wide variety of genres, aired under the title every fourth Monday at 8 p.m. ET for three seasons, beginning October 18, 1954. The final episode, the last of 37, was broadcast May 27, 1957. Showcase Productions, Inc., packaged and produced the series, which received seven Emmy Awards, including the 1956 award for Best Dramatic Series.
Episode 1
Three playlets by Noel Coward, original music composed and conducted by Carmen Dragon: ""Red Peppers,"" a satirical affectionate look at small-time vaudeville with two musical numbers, ""Still Life,"" in which couple ""see a stranger across a crowded room"" and which was eventually made into a movie titled ""Brief Encounter,"" and ""Shadow Play,"" musical about a crisis in an otherwise happy marriage, and in her television debut, Gloria Vanderbilt.
Episode 2
An extremely successful and fundamentally honest businessman is lured into presidential ambitions, and is forced to make compromise after compromise until he withdraws from the race, determined to reform the system.
Episode 3
""Foreign correspondents and stars of show business present a 90-minute tribute to former colleagues. The Overseas Press Club Memorial Building in Manhattan is dedicated with a program saluting the men who have died serving the cause of a free press. Funds for the building were donated by organizations and individuals. Tonight's show was been arranged by Overseas Press Club members. John Daly will represent them as host. Bob Hope, who toured the world entertaining American troops, is featured in a scene depicting his overseas stints. Robert E. Sherwood, noted American playwright, contributes a dramatic vignette based on a scene of decision in the life of the great war correspondent, Ernie Pyle. Title: The making of an American correspondent. Richard Rodgers, the composer, conducts the orchestra in excerpts from Victory at sea, his score for the award-winning film series. No other love, drawn from a melody in this score, is sung by Perry Como. Sid Caesar, accompanied by thick accent, is
Episode 4
Docummentary made as part of ""Project Twenty"" series but run in Producer's Showcase time slot with regular Producer's Showcase sponsors. Relates the struggle for freedom in Austria from the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to WWI, to Nazi domination, to WWII, to post-war Four Power Occupation, to final freedom, keyed to the reopening of the rebuilt Vienna State Opera House in November, 1955 with the performance of Beetovan's opera ""Fidelio."" Produced by Henry Salomon, music scored and conducted by Robert Russell Bennett, narrated by Alexander Scourby; opera cast includes Martha Moedl, Anton Dermota, Paul Schoeffler, Irmgard Seefried, Ludwig Weber, Waldemar Kmentt, Karl Kamann, with Karl Bohm conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.
Episode 5
The story of the pursuit of the cause of yellow fever by Dr. Walter Reed and his Army medical colleagues after the Spanish-American War.
Episode 6
A sociological satire on the female of the species, set against a glamorous Park Avenue background that eventually extends to Reno and back, in which a happily married society leader is prodded by the gossip of her "best friends" to divorce her husband.
Episode 7
This marvelous show won several Emmy awards. They are as follows: Best Program, Best Actress (Martin), with nominations for director (Jones) and Supporting Actor (Ritchard).
Episode 8
The story of a banished Austrian archduke who returns to Vienna for a reunion of the old nobility and reunites with his former love, now married to a psychoanalyst.
Episode 9
The deposed king of Brandovia, whose inhabitants spend their time exporting bologna and repelling invasions by neighboring Carps and Gloats, finds his way to America, where he earns a living as a dancing instructor, pursued by his former royal fiancee who still has the valuable pearls he gave her, with the king marrying commoner Mrs. Candle and returning with her to his now peaceful kingdom.
Episode 10
Set in Russian prison during purge trials of 1930s, with prisoner Rubashov, an old Bolshevik, reviewing his life in series of flashbacks and tapped conversations with prisoner in adjoining cell.
Episode 11
Set in Black Mesa Bar-B-Q at desert crosswords, as a patrons, owner and his daughter Gaby Maple and an unfortunate hitchhiker Alan Squier are held hostage by fleeing killer Duke Mantee and his henchmen, with Squier signing over his life insurance policy to Gaby to fund her dream of traveling to France to paint, and then persuading Mantee to kill him .
Episode 12
(""That's My Desire"") backed up by the Woody Herman orchestra (with Woody singing)and Louis Armstrong and Velma Middleton, featuring Bobby Hackett on trumpet (""My Funny Valentine""); jam session of ""When The Saints Go Marchin' In;"" Shakespeare Festival, Stratford, Ontario, featuring Lorne Greene in ""Julius Caesar,"" with backstage segments with Director Michael Langham and Artistic Director Tyrone Guthrie; Cantinflas, performing his famous ""bullfighter"" act from Tiajuana Mexico; various scenes in New York City, Chicago, Des Moines, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Diego, Washington D.C., Mount Hood; the RCA commercial features Vaughn Monroe and Milton Berle.
Episode 13
A gently humorous and perceptive story of a marriage, from the wedding night in 1890, through 35 years of marriage, all in or near the couple's old four-poster bed, which finally has to be left behind as being too large for their retirement apartment.
