Explore TV Series

Four panelists must determine guests' occupations - and, in the case of famous guests, while blindfolded, their identity - by asking only "yes" or "no" questions.

Robert Montgomery Presents is an American dramatic television series which was produced by NBC from January 30, 1950 until June 24, 1957. The live show had several sponsors during its seven-year run, and the title was altered to feature the sponsor, usually Lucky Strike cigarettes, for example, Robert Montgomery Presents Your Lucky Strike Theater, ....The Johnson's Wax Program, and so on.

Burns and Allen, an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen, worked together as a comedy team in vaudeville, films, radio and television and achieved great success over four decades.

The Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show starred many notable comedians and entertainers of the era, including Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, Ray Bolger, Gordon MacRae, Ben Blue, Robert Paige, Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Broadway dancer Wayne Lamb and Spike Jones and His City Slickers.

The Bob Hope Show hosted by Bob Hope, debuted on April 9, 1950. During the 1952-1953 season, NBC rotated with other variety shows in a Sunday night block known as "The Colgate Comedy Hour" (Sept. 1950 to Dec. 1955). Also known as, "The Chevy Show with Bob Hope." When the first special debuted in October of 1950 it was the most expensive television program made up to that point - costing an astronomical $1,500 a minute to produce. Bob Hope had his own television show and radio show at the same time. For the next three seasons, The Bob Hope Show was broadcast once a month on Tuesday nights, giving Milton Berle a week off. Bob ended his radio show in April, 1956. Bob Hope also had another show by a similar name, "The Bob Hope Show (All Star Revue)". In addition, he performed in "Specials" for many years. It is the longest running variety program in television's history with a record of 45 years of televised entertainment.

Laugh along with funnyman Jack Benny as he brings his underplayed humor to TV along with regular performers from his radio show days.

Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Sunday night drama slot was subsequently renamed The Sunday-Night Play which ran for four seasons between 1960 and 1963. ITV transmitted its own unrelated run of Sunday Night Theatre between 1971 and 1974.

Armstrong Circle Theatre is an American anthology drama television series which ran from 1950 to 1957 on NBC, and then until 1963 on CBS. It alternated weekly with The U.S. Steel Hour.

The Gene Autry Show is an American western/cowboy television series which aired for 91 episodes on CBS from July 23, 1950 until August 7, 1956, originally sponsored by Wrigley's Doublemint chewing gum.

Lux Video Theatre is an American anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.

The Cisco Kid is a half-hour American Western television series starring Duncan Renaldo in the title role, The Cisco Kid, and Leo Carrillo as the jovial sidekick, Pancho. Cisco and Pancho were technically desperados, wanted for unspecified crimes, but instead viewed by the poor as Robin Hood figures who assisted the downtrodden when law enforcement officers proved corrupt or unwilling to help. It was also the first television series to be filmed in color, although few viewers saw it in color until the 1960s.

Your Show of Shows was a live 90-minute variety show that was broadcast weekly in the United States on NBC, from February 25, 1950, until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Other featured performers were Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Bill Hayes, Judy Johnson, The Hamilton Trio and the soprano Marguerite Piazza. José Ferrer made several guest appearances on the series. The series was telecast from the now-demolished International Theatre at 5 Columbus Circle and the Century Theater, now demolished, in New York. During 2002, Your Show of Shows was ranked #30 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

Danger is an American anthology series which aired on CBS from September 19, 1950 to May 31, 1955.

The First Hundred Years is the first ongoing TV soap opera in the United States that began as a daytime serial, airing on CBS from December 4, 1950 until June 27, 1952. A previous daytime drama on NBC, These Are My Children, aired in 1949 but only lasted one month, and NBC's Hawkins Falls began in June 1950 as a primetime "soap" and didn't move to daytime until April 1951. The drama involved two couples who were next-door neighbors. The series did not succeed due to very low viewership, as few American households had television sets, and fewer still watched during the afternoon. The series was replaced with the television version of Guiding Light, which would prove to be much more successful, airing for 57 years.

You Bet Your Life is an American quiz show that aired on both radio and television. The original and best-known version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show debuted on ABC Radio in October 1947, then moved to CBS Radio in September 1949 before making the transition to NBC-TV in October 1950. Because of its simple format, it was possible to broadcast the show simultaneously on the radio and on television. In 1960, the show was renamed The Groucho Show and ran a further year. Most episodes are in the public domain. The play of the game, however, was secondary to the interplay between Groucho, the contestants, and occasionally Fenneman. The program was rerun into the 1970s, and later in syndication as The Best of Groucho. As such, it was the first game show to have its reruns syndicated.

Space Patrol is a science fiction adventure series that was originally aimed at juvenile audiences of the early 1950s via television, radio, and comic books. However, it soon developed a sizable adult audience such that by 1954, the program consistently ranked in the top 10 shows broadcast on a Saturday.

Treasury Men in Action is an American crime drama series broadcast live and which aired from 1950 through 1955 on ABC. The series stars Walter Greaza, Ross Martin, and Tom McKee. It was directed by William Beaudine, Leigh Jason, and Will Jason among others.

Dick Tracy is an American TV series based on the detective comic strip Dick Tracy. The show aired on ABC from September 11, 1950 to April 7, 1951.

The Web is an American dramatic anthology series that aired live on CBS for four seasons from July 11, 1950 to September 26, 1954. The series was also revived briefly by NBC in the summer during 1957. The program was produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman.

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".

Cameo Theatre was an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1950 to 1955.

Truth or Consequences is an American television show originally hosted on NBC radio by Ralph Edwards and later on television by Edwards, Jack Bailey, Bob Barker, Bob Hilton and Larry Anderson. The television show ran on CBS, NBC and also in syndication. The premise of the show was to mix the original quiz element of game shows with wacky stunts. The daily syndicated show was produced by Ralph Edwards Productions, in associated with and distributed by Metromedia Producers Corporation and Lorimar-Telepictures.

Mama Rosa is an American sitcom television series that aired from March 2 until May 18, 1950.

An American television anthology drama series which offered adaptations of Pulitzer Prize winning plays, stories and novels.

A 1950 anthology about people who find themselves `trapped' in various situations.

Starlight Theatre is an American anthology series that aired on CBS television from April 2, 1950 to September 20, 1951.

Crusader Rabbit is the first animated series produced specifically for television. The concept was test marketed in 1948, while the initial episode - Crusader vs. the State of Texas - aired on KNBH in Los Angeles, California on August 1, 1950.

The Frank Sinatra Show was an American musical variety series hosted by Frank Sinatra from 1950 to 1952. The series aired on CBS. As with many variety shows of the time, the show was broadcast live and was recorded via kinescope. Some episodes were 30 minutes long while others were 60 minutes.

Prudential Family Playhouse is an American anthology drama series that aired on live CBS from October 1950 to March 1951.

Formula One is the highest class of single-seat auto racing that is supervised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

Cavalcade of Bands was an early-1950s American television series which aired on the now defunct DuMont Television Network.

The Bigelow Theatre is an American anthology series originally broadcast on CBS Television and on the DuMont Television Network. This series is not to be confused with the similarly named The Bigelow Show, a musical variety program which aired on NBC and CBS in the late 1940s.

Big Town is a popular long-running radio drama series which was later adapted to both film and television and a comic book published by DC Comics.

Live anthology series featuring a wide format of stories (western, musical comedy, dramatic, et cetera).

This short-lived French TV series from 1950 features police investigations tinged with astrology. In nine episodes of about ten minutes each, in a humorous style, a duo of private detectives investigates a series of murders involving a marriage agency.

The Stage Door is an American drama series that aired live on CBS Tuesday night from 9:00 pm to 9:30 eastern time from February 7, 1950 to March 28, 1950. Based on the play The Stage Door by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman.

The Hank McCune Show is an American television situation comedy. Filmed without a studio audience, the series is notable for being the first program to incorporate a laugh track. The series began as a local Los Angeles program in 1949. NBC placed it on its national primetime schedule at the start of the 1950-51 season. It debuted at 7:00pm Eastern Time on September 9 and was cancelled three months later.

The Hazel Scott Show was an early American television program broadcast on the now defunct DuMont Television Network. The series ran during the summer of 1950, and is most notable for being the first U.S. network television series to be hosted by a African American woman.

Musical Comedy Time is a series of live hour-long adaptations of Broadway musical comedies and standard operettas that aired on NBC from October 2, 1950 to March 19, 1951.

Andy Pandy is a British children's television series that premiered on BBC TV in June or July 1950. Originally live, a series of 13 filmed programmes was shown until 1970, when a new coloured series was made. The show was the basis for a comic strip of the same name in the children's magazine Robin.

The Paul Winchell Show, or The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show, was a variety program which aired on NBC prime time from 1950 to 1954, starring ventriloquist Paul Winchell and his dummy, Jerry Mahoney.

An anthology series about people who are suddenly confronted with uncertain situations.

Your Hit Parade is an American radio and television music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1955 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes. During this 24-year run, the show had 19 orchestra leaders and 52 singers or groups. Many listeners and viewers casually referred to the show with the incorrect title The Hit Parade. When the show debuted, there was no agreement as to what it should be called. The press referred to it in a variety of ways, with the most common being "Hit Parade," "The Hit Parade," and even "The Lucky Strike Hit Parade". The program's title was not officially changed to "Your Hit Parade" until November 9, 1935 Each Saturday evening, the program offered the most popular and bestselling songs of the week. The earliest format involved a presentation of the top 15 songs. Later, a countdown with fanfares led to the top three finalists, with the number one song for the finale. Occasional performances of standards and other favorite songs from the past were known as "Lucky Strike Extras."

Beat the Clock is a game show hosted by Bud Collyer that ran on CBS from 1950 to 1958 and ABC from 1958 to 1961.

The Arthur Murray Party is an American television variety show which ran from July 1950 until September 1960. The show was hosted by famous dancers Arthur and Kathryn Murray, and was basically one long advertisement for their chain of dance studios. Each week the couple performed a mystery dance, and the viewer who correctly identified the dance would receive two free lessons at a local studio. The Arthur Murray Party is notable for being one of the few TV series—the others were Down You Go; The Ernie Kovacs Show; Pantomime Quiz; Tom Corbett, Space Cadet; and The Original Amateur Hour—broadcast on all four major commercial networks in the 1950s during the Golden Age of Television. It may, in fact, be the only series which had a run on all four networks at least twice.

Broadway Open House, is network television's first late-night comedy-variety series. It was telecast live on NBC from May 29, 1950 to August 24, 1951, airing weeknights from 11pm to midnight. One of the pioneering TV creations of NBC president Pat Weaver, it demonstrated the potential for late-night programming and led to the later development of The Tonight Show.

The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican is an animated miniseries that first aired on ABC (US) in 1950. The show is notorious for a variety of factors including its unprofessional voice acting, simplistic animation, and inconsistent appearances of the title character.

Rootie Kazootie was the principal character on the 1950s children's television show The Rootie Kazootie Club. The show was the creation of Steve Carlin and featured human actors along with hand puppets.

The first TV adaptation of the adventures of super sleuth Ellery Queen, broadcast live from Hollywood. Queen was a mystery writer who assisted his father, a detective with the New York Police Department, in solving murders. Queen's methods were arcane and intellectual rather than action oriented, and he always astounded his father by arriving at a correction solution by purely deductive reasoning.