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The Man and the Challenge

The Man and the Challenge is a 36-segment half-hour television adventure/science fiction series which ran new episodes on NBC from September 12, 1959, to June 11, 1960. It starred George Nader as Dr. Glenn Barton, a research scientist for the Institute of Human Factors, an agency that conducted experiments designed to measure human endurance for the United States government. The series was produced by Ivan Tors. Nader's costars included Jack Ging as Dan Wright, Michael Masters as Bill Locke, the Canadian-born Joyce Meadows as Lynn Allen, and Michael Keith as Matt Adams. The episodes focused on various individuals setting world records of strength, endurance, and mastery of various difficult skills. The program also featured appearances by Bethel Leslie as Eleanor Beck in "The Early Warning", Ted Knight, as Dr. Herter in the episode "Daredevils", and Raymond Bailey, in the role of Dr. Kramer on the series opener "The Sphere of No Return". Joining Knight in that segment was Paul Burke.

The Man and the Challenge

9.0 N/A
Five Fingers

Five Fingers is an NBC adventure/drama series set in Europe during the Cold War loosely based on the 1952 film 5 Fingers, starring James Mason and Danielle Darrieux. It ran from October 3, 1959, to January 9, 1960. David Hedison starred as 32-year-old Victor Sebastian, an American counterintelligence officer with the code name "Five Fingers". Luciana Paluzzi played Simone Genet, Sebastian's secretary and romantic interest. Paul Burke played Robertson, Sebastian's contact man. Five Fingers itself was based on the book Operation Cicero by L.C. Moyzisch and on the memoirs of Elyesa Bazna. Bazna was something of an antihero in real life; the television series transformed the character from a World War II-era mercenary Albanian into a Cold War era heroic American. Sebastian posed as a Communist to gain information on party activities. His public cover was that of a theatrical booking agent for clubs and cafes throughout Europe.

Five Fingers

10.0 N/A
Probation Officer

An early hit for ATV, this absorbing, rigorously researched and very human drama series centres on the work of a team of probation officers based in London, and the lives of the men and women of all ages and backgrounds who come under their care. Drawing on the documentary skills of creator Julian Bond and produced by Emergency - Ward 10s Antony Kearey, Probation Officer was broadcast at a time when the service was increasingly coming into focus as progressive response to rising crime.

Probation Officer

7.0 N/A
Conflict

Conflict is a 1956 ABC series that directly succeeded Warner Brothers Presents. It is most famous for having hosted the effective pilots of 77 Sunset Strip and Maverick. Although it assumed the same time slot as its predecessor, the two do not share the same format. Where Warner Brothers Presents had been a wheel series, Conflict was a fully anthological series. However, since Cheyenne and Conflict alternated the Tuesday 7:30pm time slot, the net effect was that of a proper wheel series—even though Cheyenne and Conflict were not under the same umbrella title. The name change was imposed upon its production company, Warner Bros., by ABC executives who believed that "conflict" was the missing element in Casablanca and King's Row from Warner Brothers Presents. The show does not fit neatly into standard American television seasons. It technically superseded Warner Brothers Presents after Casablanca concluded its run in April 1956. And it seems to have provided at least one week of new material at the beginning of the 1957 season, before Sugarfoot, starring Will Hutchins, took its place.

Conflict

8.0 N/A
Search for Tomorrow

Search for Tomorrow is an American soap opera that premiered on September 3, 1951, on CBS. The show was moved from CBS to NBC on March 29, 1982. It continued on NBC until the final episode aired on December 26, 1986, a run of thirty-five years. At the time of its final broadcast, it was the longest-running non-news program on television. This record would later be broken by Hallmark Hall of Fame, which premiered on Christmas Eve 1951 and still airs occasionally. The show was created by Roy Winsor and was first written by Agnes Nixon for thirteen weeks and, later, by Irving Vendig.

Search for Tomorrow

7.5 N/A
Rocky Jones, Space Ranger

Rocky Jones, Space Ranger was a syndicated science fiction television serial originally broadcast in 1954. The show lasted for only two seasons and, though syndicated sporadically, dropped into obscurity. Because it was recorded on film rather than being broadcast live as were most other TV space operas of the day, it has survived in reasonably good condition. The film format also allowed more elaborate special effects and sets, exterior scenes, and much better continuity.

Rocky Jones, Space Ranger

6.0 N/A
China Smith

China Smith was a 1950s television adventure series starring Dan Duryea. The television show takes place in Singapore. Much of the cast and crew also worked on the film World for Ransom, which is considered an extension of the television program. Director Robert Aldrich had also directed two episodes of the series. The title character was a soldier of fortune wearing a white suit living in Singapore who would face danger and excitement every week. The series was made with a two-year gap; the first 26 episodes being filmed in Mexico, the second 26 episodes were shot in 1954-1955. In 1959 Daffy Duck played China Jones a parody of Duryea's character.

China Smith

NR N/A
Boy Meets Girls

Boy Meets Girls was a UK popular music TV show which was launched in September 1959 replacing the earlier show Oh Boy!. The show was presented and produced by Jack Good. Marty Wilde was the principal resident male artist and The Vernons Girls were the female residents. Joe Brown made regular appearances. Other artists appearing included Terry Dene, Freddy Cannon, Little Tony & His Brothers, Adam Faith and Cliff Richard. The director was Rita Gillespie for ABC Weekend Television part of the ITV network. It closed in 1960; all 26 episodes were subsequently wiped, and none survive in ITV's archive as of 2009.

Boy Meets Girls

8.0 N/A
The Adventures of Long John Silver

The Adventures of Long John Silver is a family adventure series about the Long John Silver character from Treasure Island. Produced in 1954 in colour in Australia for the American and British markets before the development of Australian television. Long John Silver is the proud captain of his own ship and his own crew. He and his buccaneer cruise around the Caribbean and often stay on the side of the English and fight the French and Spanish. After long and dangerous adventures, he and his crew rest in the tavern of Miss Purity. The series first aired in the United States on syndicated basis in 1956, but irregularly as part of another show. Several episodes were edited together and shown theatrically under the titles: 'Under the Black Flag' and 'South Sea Pirates'. Afterwards, it was sold to the ITV in the UK, and aired in 1957. In 1958, the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) screened the series as part of Children's TV Club.

The Adventures of Long John Silver

7.0 N/A
Meet McGraw

Meet McGraw is an American dramatic television series starring Frank Lovejoy in the role of the hard-hitting detective McGraw, a man specifically given no first name in the program. Forty-one half-hour episodes aired on NBC during the 1957-1958 season, sponsored by Procter & Gamble. The series was produced by the Desilu Studios, most of whose productions were broadcast by CBS. The theme song for the series is "One For My Baby" by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Meet McGraw preceded The Bob Cummings Show on Tuesday evenings on NBC. It aired at 9:00pm ET/PT opposite John Lupton’s Western series, Broken Arrow on ABC and Bud Collyer's To Tell the Truth quiz show on CBS. After its cancellation, Meet McGraw was repeated as The Adventures of McGraw on ABC in 1958-1959, but not in prime time. A number of episodes of the series, including "Mohave" and "Lady in Limbo," are available on DVD.

Meet McGraw

6.5 N/A
Portia Faces Life

Portia Faces Life was heard on radio from 1940 to 1970, and this soap opera was also telecast for a single season in the mid-1950s. It began in syndication on April 1, 1940, and was broadcast on some stations that carried NBC programs, although it does not seem to have been an official part of that network's programming. The original title was Portia Blake Faces Life. The program starred veteran radio actress Lucille Wall, who had been on Your Family and Mine and other radio dramas since the mid-1920s. Stations airing the series included WNAC in Boston, WLS in Chicago, KRLD in Dallas, KGW in Portland, Oregon and KFI in Los Angeles, according to newspaper advertisements. On October 7, 1940, the program became part of the CBS Radio Network, and its title was changed to Portia Faces Life at that point. It was sponsored by General Foods.

Portia Faces Life

1.0 N/A
Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard was perhaps the best-known series to emerge from Anglo-Amalgamated’s output of crime drama. Shot as cinema support features at the company’s Merton Park Studios in South Wimbledon, these half-hour thrillers – based on real-life cases from the vaults of London’s Metropolitan Police headquarters – were a successful regular feature in cinemas over nearly a decade from the early 1950s onwards. Like sister series Scales of Justice, Scotland Yard is introduced by celebrated writer and criminologist Edgar Lustgarten and presents case after intriguing case, with many solved onscreen by the redoubtable Inspector Duggan (played by Australian-born Russell Napier).

Scotland Yard

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NBC Sunday Showcase

NBC Sunday Showcase was a series of hour-long specials telecast in color on NBC during the 1959-60 season. The flexible anthology format varied weekly from comedies and science fiction to musicals and historical dramas. The recent introduction of videotape made repeats possible, and two 1959 dramas had repeats in 1960. On the heels of his Broadway hits The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees, Richard Adler composed the opening Sunday Showcase theme music, titled "Sunday Drive".

NBC Sunday Showcase

5.0 N/A
Sky King

Sky King is an American radio and television adventure series. The title character is Arizona rancher and aircraft pilot Schuyler "Sky" King. The series was likely based on a true-life personality of the 1930s, Jack Cones, the "Flying Constable" of Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County, California, although this claim is unverified. Although the series had strong western elements, King mostly captured criminals and spies, and found lost hikers with the use of his plane, the Songbird. Though the planes used changed during the course of the series, the later model was not given a number, but was still known as the Songbird. King and his niece, Penny, lived on the Flying Crown Ranch, near the town of Grover, Arizona. Penny and Clipper were also pilots, though still relatively inexperienced and looking to their uncle for guidance and mentoring. Penny was an accomplished air racer and rated multi-engine pilot, whom Sky trusted to fly the Songbird. In the third TV episode, Penny refers to Clipper as "my brother", so they are siblings. The musical score was largely the work of Herschel Burke Gilbert.

Sky King

5.8 N/A
Rocky King, Detective

Rocky King, Inside Detective is an American television series broadcast on the DuMont Television Network on Sundays at 9pm ET from January 15, 1950 to December 26, 1954. This series was one of DuMont's most popular programs, and was a live crime series set in New York City. The show not only kept Roscoe Karns from retirement, but cast him opposite his son, Todd Karns. The DuMont offices and corridors were used as sets. At the end of each program, King would exchange telephone small talk with his unseen wife Mabel and, after hanging up, say to no one in particular, "Great girl, that Mabel".

Rocky King, Detective

6.5 N/A
The Pride of the Family

The Pride of the Family was a half-hour situation comedy starring Paul Hartman, Fay Wray, Natalie Wood, and Robert Hyatt, which aired for forty episodes on ABC in the 1953–1954 season. Hartman portrays Albie Morrison, the father and error-prone head of the household, about whom most of the episodes are centered. Albie works in the advertising section of his local newspaper, and he often has new ideas that go awry in the workplace as well as failed handyman activities at home. Wray, remembered in particularly from her role in the horror film King Kong, plays Albie's wife, Catherine. Natalie Wood is the 15-year-old daughter, Ann, and "Bobby" Hyatt is the 14-year-old son, Junior Morrison. Larry J. Blake appeared fourteen times in the role of "Frank". Hartman's Albie Morrison lacks the good judgment and wisdom exercised by the fictitious insurance agent James Anderson, Sr., the role of Robert Young on the long-running Father Knows Best, which premiered the following season on CBS. Billboard described Hartman's lead role as "average"; indeed the series attempted to present the "average family." Guest stars included Tol Avery, Barbara Billingsley, Douglas Fowley, Frank Ferguson, Lyle Talbot, Steven Terrell, and Joey D. Vieira.

The Pride of the Family

5.0 N/A
Soldiers of Fortune

Soldiers of Fortune is a 1955 syndicated half hour American television adventure series. It starred John Russell as Tim Kelly and Chick Chandler as his sidekick Toubo Smith who were international adventurers. Each episode would take place in a different country. Many of the film crew had worked at Republic Pictures studios with the show filmed on Republic's backlot then used by television's Revue Productions. The show was constantly rerun on American television into the 1960s. The show was sponsored for two years by 7 Up soft drink. One year after Soldiers of Fortune was cancelled, John Russell went on to star as Marshal Dan Troup in the successful ABC/Warner Brothers western series Lawman.

Soldiers of Fortune

6.0 N/A
Northwest Passage

Northwest Passage is a 26-episode half-hour adventure television series produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer about Major Robert Rogers during the time of the French and Indian War. The show derived its title and the main characters Rogers, Towne, and Marriner from the 1937 novel of the same name by Kenneth Roberts, and from the 1940 MGM feature film based on the novel. The scope of the novel was much broader than that of the series, and the second half of the book included an historically based attempt by Rogers to find a water route through North America as a "passage" to the Pacific Ocean. This attempt, lending its name to the novel and used by Roberts as a metaphor for the questing human spirit, is referenced in the first episode. One of the earlier series telecast in color, Northwest Passage aired new episodes on NBC from September 14, 1958, to March 13, 1959. Keith Larsen played the lead role; Buddy Ebsen, later the star of CBS's The Beverly Hillbillies and Barnaby Jones, appeared as Sergeant Hunk Marriner, and Don Burnett co-starred as Ensign Langdon Towne.

Northwest Passage

7.3 N/A