TV Shows - 1950s

1 9 5 5 - 1 9 5 8 (USA) Before the quiz show scandal of the late 1950s, The $64,000 Question was a high-stakes, nail-biting, ratings-topping game show phenomenon. Sponsored by the Revlon lipstick company it was the first...

Television mesmerised us from the moment it entered our households, and - in less than a decade - became a staple of our way of life. The rapid growth of the popularity of television surpassed even...

1 9 5 6 - 1 9 5 7 (UK) BBC entertainment in which Alan Melville strung together sketches, songs, parodies and guest appearances to a different letter of the alphabet each week. Derived originally from a published...

1 9 5 2 - 1 9 5 4 (USA) 52 x 30 minute episodes Stage and screen comedians Bud Abbott (born William Abbott) and Lou Costello (born Louis Francis Cristillo) brought their routines to television in a...

1 9 5 6 (UK) 9 x 20 minute episodes The comedy adventures of an engaged couple living separately (this was the 1950s) in London's bedsitter land, with the humour arising from their differing attitudes to life. Shorthand typist...

1 9 5 2 - 1 9 5 4 (UK) Following on the success of London Town, Richard Dimbleby presented About Britain - a similar series presenting "journeys to people and places of yesterday and today". Episodes included 'The Lake District', 'Scotland...

1 9 5 1 - 1 9 5 8 (UK) About The Home was an essential part of afternoon viewing for many British women in the 1950s. The long-running programme was designed to help housewives improve their domestic skills...

1 9 5 3 - 1 9 5 4 (USA) 250 x 30 minute episodes Action in the Afternoon was television's first live outdoor Western. Set in Huberle, Montana, the show originated in the wide-open spaces of suburban...

A now-forgotten alternative to the commercial break in the early days of British commercial television was the Advertising Magazine (or 'Admag') in which performers were allowed to extol the virtues of various products during the...

1 9 5 9 - 1 9 6 2 (USA) 91 x 60 minute episodes Created by James Michener, this black & white action-adventure series from ABC recounted the exploits of Adam Troy (Gardner McKay), a graduate of...

1 9 5 7  (UK) 13 x 30 minute episodes The exploits of Boy (Michael Carr Hartley), the young, orphaned survivor of an aeroplane crash, as he and Dr Lawrence (Ronald Adam), a research scientist, battle the sinister...

1 9 5 6 - 1 9 5 7 (UK) 26 x 30 minute episodes This early British-made sitcom starred a US actress so it could be sold to America. The actress in question was Joan Shawlee who...

1 9 5 8 (UK) 6 x 30 minute episodes This series for children used the biggest film location devised to date by BBC Television, for the scenes on board ship. The "pre-sequel" to Treasure Island followed Ben Gunn...

1 9 5 9 (UK) 5 x 30 minute episodes This British sitcom followed the adventures of retired Army Brigadier, Garnet Wellington-Bull, who was a widowed career soldier trying to come to terms with life on civvy street...

1 9 5 3 - 1 9 5 5 (USA) These adventure stories for children from ABC related the adventures of Captain Hartz as he travelled to different jungles around the world, bringing home exotic animals to...

1 9 5 7 - 1 9 5 8 (USA) 15 x 15 minute episodes This short serial was broadcast as a segment of The Mickey Mouse Club. The story, set in England, followed the efforts of two boys,...

1 9 5 6 (USA) 13 x 30 minute episodes Dr Fu Manchu (Glen Gordon), evil genius and possessor of seemingly unlimited financial resources, has pledged to bring about the downfall of western civilisation to avenge unknown...

1 9 5 0 - 1 9 5 2 (USA) 93 x 30 minute episodes The investigations of Ellery Queen (played initially by Richard Hart and then Lee Bowman, pictured above), a gentleman detective and writer living in...

1 9 5 9 - 1 9 6 2 (UK) 50 x 25 minute episodes This children's Saturday serial from the BBC starred Terence Longdon as dashing pilot Garry Halliday (pictured below left), with Terence Alexander as his faithful...

1 9 5 9 - 1 9 6 2 (Australia) 5 minute episodes The first regular live children's television show from Channel Nine in Melbourne was originally broadcast as The Happy Show for one hour every weekday...