Kraft Television Theatre
Kraft Television Theatre is an American anthology drama television series running from 1947 to 1958. It began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. It first promoted MacLaren's Imperial Cheese, which was advertised nowhere else. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, the live hour-long series offered television plays with new stories and new characters each week, in addition to adaptations of such classics as A Christmas Carol and Alice in Wonderland. The program was broadcast live from Studio 8-H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, currently the home of Saturday Night Live.
| Kraft Television Theatre | |
|---|---|
Ed Begley, Everett Sloane and Richard Kiley in Rod Serling's Patterns on Kraft Television Theatre (1955) | |
| Also known as | Kraft Mystery Theatre |
| Genre | Anthology drama |
| Narrated by | Ed Herlihy (1947-55) Charles Stark (1955) |
| Theme music composer | Norman Cloutier |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 11 |
| No. of episodes | 650 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 48–52 minutes |
| Production companies | J. Walter Thompson Agency Talent Associates |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | May 7, 1947 – October 1, 1958 |
Beginning October 1953, ABC added a separate series (also titled Kraft Television Theatre), created to promote Kraft's new Cheez Whiz product. This series ran for sixteen months, telecast on Thursday evenings at 9:30pm, until January 1955. After Kraft cancelled the second show, the second show changed its sponsor to become Pond's Theatre on ABC-TV from March 1955, while the original Kraft Theatre continued on NBC-TV.