The "Golden Age" of American television generally refers to the proliferation of original and classic dramas produced for live television during the United States' postwar years. From 1949 to approximately 1960, these live dramas became the fitting program­matic compliments to the game shows, westerns, soap operas, and "vaudeo" shows (vaudeville and variety acts on TV) that dominated network television's prime-time schedule. As the nation's economy and population expanded, and demographic patterns shifted, television and advertising executives turned to dramatic shows as a programming strategy to elevate the status of television and attract the growing and increasingly important suburban family audience. Golden Age dramas quickly became the ideal marketing vehicle for major U.S. corporations seeking to display their products favorably before a national audience.

     In the early years, Golden Age drama programs such as The Actors' Studio (ABC/CBS, 1948-50) originated from primitive but innovative two-camera television studios located primarily in New York City, although some broadcasts, such as Mr. Black (ABC, 1949), a half-hour mystery anthology series, were produced in Chicago as well. Ranging in duration from 30 minutes to an hour, these live dramas were generic hybrids uniquely suited to the evolving video technology. Borrowing specific elements from the stage, network radio, and the Hollywood film, the newly constructed dramas on television ("teledramas") fashioned a dynamic entertainment form that effectively fused these high- and low-cultural expressions.

     From radio these teledramas inherited the CBS and NBC network distribution system, sound effects, music, theme songs, and the omniscient narrator, who provided continuity after commercial message breaks. From film, teledramas borrowed aging stars and emerging personalities, camera stylistics, mobility, and flexibility. Imported from the theater were Broadway­ inspired set designs; contemporary stage acting techniques (i.e., realist and "method" acting), which imparted a sense of immediacy and reality to small-screen performances; and, finally, teleplay adaptations of classic and middle-brow literature. In a statement that clearly expresses the debt owed by television dramas to the stage, Fred Coe, producer of the weekly NBC Television Playhouse (1948-55), remarked that "all of us were convinced it was our mission to bring Broadway to America via the television set."

     Ironically, however, it was live teledramas that helped television to displace radio, the stage, and film as the favorite leisure-time activity for the nation's burgeoning suburban families in the late 1940s to the mid- I 950s. This postwar demographic shift from urban to suburban centers is often credited with creating the new mass audience and the subsequent demand for the home-theater mode of entertainment that network television, boosted by the high-quality drama programs, was uniquely capable of satisfying.

     The first so-called Golden Age drama program to appear was the Kraft Television Theatre, which premiered on May 7, 1947, on the NBC network. The Ford Theater (CBS/NBC/ABC, 1948-57), Philco and Goodyear Television Playhouses (NBC, 1948-55), Studio One (CBS, 1948-58), Tele-Theatre (NBC, 1948-50), and Actors Studio (ABC/CBS, 1948-49) followed the very next year. In 1951 network television was linked coast to coast, and in 1950 Hollywood Theater Time (ABC) became one of the first dramatic anthology shows to originate from the West Coast (al­ though transmitted to the East Coast via kinescopes­ inferior copies of shows filmed directly from the television screen).

     Several important factors contributed to the rise of Golden Age dramas by the mid-1950s. First, the U.S. Congress issued more station licenses and allocated more airtime and frequencies to the nation's four networks, NBC, CBS, ABC, and DuMont. Consequently, this major expansion of the television industry necessitated a rapid increase in the number of new shows. Because this early video era preceded the advent of telefilm and videotape, the live television schedule was a programming vortex with an inexhaustible demand for new shows, 90 percent of which were broadcast live. The remaining dramas were transmitted (usually from the East Coast to the West Coast) via kinescopes. Location on the television schedule was also a key element in the success of anthology dramas during this early phase. Because the sponsors, and not the networks, generally controlled the programs, teledramas were not restricted to a particular network or time schedule. As a result of this programming flexibility, it was not unusual for shows either to rotate around the dial or to remain firmly entrenched, all in search of the best possible ratings. In 1953 the Kraft Television Theatre aired at 9:00 P.M. on Wednesdays over the NBC network and aired a second hour under the same series title on Thursdays at 9:30 P.M. on ABC. The venerable Ford Television Theater appeared on all three networks during its nine-year run. The anthology format itself, which demanded a constant supply of actors, writers, directors, and producers, and was quite different from the episodic series structure featuring a stable cast, always offered something new to viewers. And since anthology dramas provided plenty of work to go around, many actors got their first starring roles in live dramas, while others gained national exposure that was not possible on the stage or eluded them on the big screen.

     This rotating system of anthology-drama production resulted in a creative environment for television that many television historians consider as yet unsurpassed. The fact that these shows dramatized many high-quality original works as well as adaptations of high- and middlebrow literature gave advertisers cost­ effective reasons for underwriting the relatively high production values that characterized many of the top­ notch anthology programs. Many, in fact, were consistent Emmy Award winners. The Texaco Star Theater won the 1949 Emmy for "Best Kinescope Show." U.S. Steel Hour won two Emmys in 1953, its debut year, and Studio One received three Emmys during the 1955 season for its production of Twelve Angry Men.

     As the genre matured and traded its amateur sets for professionally designed studios, it looked good, and by extension, so did its sponsors. Accordingly, the growing prestige of live dramas enabled established and fading stars from the Broadway stage and Hollywood films to be less reticent about performing on television, and many flocked to the new medium. In fact, some actors even lent their famous names to these anthology drama programs. Robert Montgomery Presents (ABC, 1950-57) was one of the first anthology series to rely on Hollywood talent. Montgomery's star-driven program was later joined by the Charles Boyer Theater (1953), and in 1955 silent film star Conrad Nagel hosted his own syndicated anthology drama entitled The Conrad Nagel Theater. Bing Crosby Enterprises produced The Gloria Swanson Show in 1954, with Swanson as host and occasional star in teleplays produced for this dramatic anthology series. More commonly, however, it was the sponsor's name that appeared in the show titles, with stars serving as narrators or hosts. For example, from 1954 to 1962 Ronald Reagan hosted CBS's General Electric Theater.

     As crucial as these elements were, perhaps the most important reason leading to the success of this nascent television art form was the high caliber of talent on both sides of the video camera. Whereas many well­ known actors from the stage and screen participated in live television dramas as the 1950s progressed, it was the obscure but professionally trained theater personnel from summer stock and such university theater programs as Yale's Drama School who launched the innovative teletheater broadcasts that we now refer to as television's Golden Age.

     In 1949, 24-year-old Marlon Brando starred in I'm No Hero, produced by the Actors' Studio. Other young actors, such as Susan Strasberg (1953), Paul Newman (1954), and Steve McQueen, made noteworthy appearances on the Goodyear Playhouse. Among some of the most prominent writers of Golden Age dramas were Rod Serling, Paddy Chayefsky, Gore Vidal, Reginald Rose, and Tad Mosel. Serling stands out for special consideration here because, in addition to winning the 1955 Emmy for "Best Original Teleplay Writing" (Patterns on Kraft Television Theatre), he also won two teleplay Emmys for Playhouse 90 (1956 and 1957), as well as three "Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama" Emmys: two for Twilight Zone (l 959 and 1960) and one for Chrysler Theater in 1963. Ser­ling's six Emmys for four separate anthology programs over two networks unquestionably secures his position at the top of the Golden Age pantheon. For television, it was writers like Serling and Chayefsky who became the auteurs of its Golden Age. Gore Vidal sums up the opportunity that writing for television dramas represented in this way: "one can find better work oftener on the small gray screen than on Broadway." Chayefsky was more sanguine when he stated that television presented "the drama of introspection," and that "television, the scorned stepchild of drama, may well be the basic theater of our century."

     In addition to actors and writers, some of the most renowned Hollywood directors got their big breaks on television's anthology dramas. John Frankenheimer di­rected for the Kraft Television Theatre, Robert Altman for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Yul Brynner and Sidney Lumet for Studio One, Sidney Pollack for The Chrysler Theater (1965 Emmy for "Directorial Achievement in Drama"), and Delbert Mann for NBC Television Playhouse. These are but a few major directors who honed their skills during television's Golden Age.

     By 1955 Golden Age dramas had proven so popular with national audiences that they became important staples of the network television schedule. Some of the anthologies were now produced on film, but they maintained the aesthetic and psychological premises of the live productions that tutored their creators and their audiences. These drama series aired on the net­ works each day except Saturdays, and on some days, there were up to four separate anthology shows airing on one evening's prime-time schedule. One instance of such a programming pattern occurred on Thursday nights during the 1954-55 TV season. In one single evening, viewers could choose between Kraft Television Theatre (ABC, 1953-55), Four Star Playhouse (CBS, 1952-56), Ford Theater (NBC, 1952-56), and Lux Video Theater (NBC, 1954-57). Dramatic anthologies came in various generic formats as well, including suspense (Kraft Suspense Theatre [NBC, 196.3-65] and The Clock [NBC/ABC, 1949-51]); mystery (Mr. Arsenic [ABC, 1952] and Alfred Hitchcock Presents [CBS/NBC, 1955-65]); psychological (Theater of the Mind [NBC, 1949]); legal (They Stand Accused [DuMont, 1949-54]); science fiction (Twilight Zone [CBS, 1959-64]); military (Citizen Soldier [syndicated, 1956]); and reenactments (Armstrong Circle Theater [NBC/CBS, 1950-63]).

     As these various titles suggest, the dramas staged on these anthology programs were remarkably diverse­ at least in form, if not in substance. In this regard, critics of the so-called Golden Age dramas have noted what they consider to be major problems inherent in the staging of plays for the commercial television medium.

     Much of the criticism of these live television dramas concerned the power sponsors often exerted over program content. Specifically, the complaints focused on the mandate by sponsors that programs adhere to a "dead-centerism." In other words, sponsored shows were to avoid completely socially and politically controversial themes. Only those dramas that supported and reflected positive middle-class values, which likewise reflected favorably the image of the advertisers, were broadcast. Critics charge the networks with pandering to the expectations of southern viewers in order not to offend regional sensibilities. Scripts exploring problems at the societal level (e.g., racial discrimination, poverty, and other social ills) were systematically ignored. Instead, critics complain, too many Golden Age dramas were little more than simplistic morality tales focusing on the everyday problems and conflicts of weak individuals confronted by personal shortcomings such as alcoholism, greed, impotence, and divorce. While there is no doubt that teleplays dealing with serious social issues were not what most network or advertising executives considered appropriate subject matter for predisposing viewers to consume the advertised products, it is important to note that the Golden Age did coincide with the cold war era and McCarthyism, and that cold war references, including many denigrating communism and celebrating the United States, were frequently incorporated in tele­ plays of the mid- to late 1950s.

     Most of the scripts in the live television dramas, however, were original teleplays or works adapted from the stage, ranging from Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Othello, among many others. This menu of live television dramas, especially when compared with popular Hollywood films, the elite theater, or commercial radio, presented American audiences with an extraordinary breadth of viewing experiences in a solitary entertainment medium. Moreover, this cultural explosion was occurring in the comfort of the new mass audience's brand-new suburban living rooms. While the classics and the writings of some contemporary popular authors provided material for the teleplays, these sources were not enough for the networks' demanding weekly program schedules. Moreover, the television programmers were often thwarted by Hollywood's practice of buying the rights to popular works and refusing to grant a rival medium access to them, thereby foreclosing the television networks' ability to dramatize some of the most popular and classic plays. In response, the networks began cultivating original scripts from young writers. Thus, the majority of the dramas appearing on these anthology shows were original works.

     Perhaps the quintessential Golden Age drama is Chayefsky's Marty. On May 24, 1953, Delbert Mann directed Chayefsky's most renowned teleplay for NBC's Philco Television Playhouse. Starring Rod Steiger and Nancy Marchand as the principals, Marty is a love story about two ordinary characters and the mundane world they inhabit. Marty is important because its uncomplicated and sympathetic treatment of Marty, the butcher, and his ability to achieve independence from his demanding mother and embrace his uncertain future, resonated with many suburban viewers, who were, themselves, facing similar social and political changes in postwar American society. Marty was an ideal drama for the times, leading one reviewer to write that it represented "the unadorned glimpse of the American middle-class milieu." The suburban viewers, like the fictional "Marty" they welcomed into their living rooms, had become willing participants in an emerging national culture no longer distinguishable by intergenerational and interethnic differences. What further distinguishes Marty is the fact that it signaled a trend in the entertainment industry whereby teleplays were increasingly adapted for film. Shortly after its phenomenal television success, Marty became a successful feature film.

     Some of the most successful and critically acclaimed dramatic anthology programs of the Golden Age were Armstrong Circle Theater (13 seasons), Kraft Television Theatre (11 seasons), Alfred Hitch­ cock Presents (10 seasons), Studio One (10 seasons), The U.S. Steel Hour (10 seasons), General Electric Theater (9 seasons), Philco Television Playhouse (7 seasons), Goodyear Playhouse (6 seasons), Playhouse 90 (4 seasons), and Twilight Zone (4 seasons, revived from 1985 to 1988). In present times, only Hallmark Hall of Fame (first broadcast in 1951) survives from the heyday of television's Golden Age. With the advent of videotape and telefilm, the shift to Hollywood studios as sites of program production, and the social upheavals of the 1960s, live anthology dramas fell victim to poor ratings and changing social tastes.