Big Story, The

1 9 4 9 – 1 9 5 7 (USA)
315 x 30 minute episodes

“Stories from The Big Story Newsstand. Fact, not fiction, taken from official newspaper stories.”

This NBC anthology series of dramatisations was based on a popular radio series and used actual newspaper stories, with the reporter whose story was used receiving $500. Comments from the actual reporter opened and closed each episode.

Stand-out episodes included “Theory and Practice”, starring Wesley Addy, in which a reporter attempted to find the murderer of a policeman; “The Smell of Death”, in which a reporter tried to free two youngsters who were being held hostage by a berserk gunman (starring Peter Turgeon and Tom Carlin); “A Madman Is Loose” with Bernard Grant and Leonardo Cimino in a story of a reporter attempting to apprehend a psychopathic killer with an obsession for canaries, and “Nightmare” with a reporter (Sara Seeger) investigating the methods of treatment used by a psychiatrist in North Carolina.

Many future acting stars appeared in episodes, including Steve McQueen, James Dean, Lee Marvin, Anthony Perkins, Leslie Nielsen, Walter Matthau, Jack Klugman, George Peppard, Robert Lansing, Robert Culp, Norman Fell, Martin Landau, Jerry Stiller, Mark Lenard, and Conrad Janis.

Narrators included William Sloane, Ben Grauer, Norman Rose, and Burgess Meredith.

The series ran on NBC from 16 September 1949 to 28 June 1957 and in syndication beginning in October 1957.

Host/Narrator
William Sloane
Ben Grauer
Norman Rose
Burgess Meredith

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