Fireside Theater

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This program should not be confused with The Firesign Theatre.

The first successful filmed series on American television, Fireside Theater was an anthology drama show that ran from 1949-1958, featuring a different hour long drama every week. Stories were low budget, often based on public domain stories or written by freelance writers such as Rod Serling. While it was panned by critics, it remained in the top ten most popular shows for most of its run. It predated the other major pioneer of filmed TV in America, I Love Lucy, by two years.

From 1952 to 1958, the program was presented by a host. This role was first filled by Frank Wisbar (1952-1953), then by Gene Raymond (1953-1955), and finally by the person most associated with the series in the public mind, Jane Wyman (1955-1958). When episodes of this program were rerun on ABC during the summer of 1963, it was under the title Jane Wyman Presents; during the period first-run episodes were hosted by Miss Wyman it was sometimes known as The Jane Wyman Show.

The otherwise-unrelated comedy troupe The Firesign Theatre based their name on this series.

[edit] U.S. television ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Fireside Theater on NBC.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Season	TV season	Ranking	Viewers (in millions)
2nd	1950-1951	#2	5.365
3rd	1951-1952	#7	6.594
4th	1952-1953	#10	8.282
5th	1953-1954	#9	9.464
6th	1954-1955	#20	9.547
7th	1955-1956	#24	10.121

Fireside Theater became a hit for NBC, always in the Top 30 shows at the end of each tv season. In the 1956-1957 season, its ratings slumped and decreased in the ratings. It wasn't in the Top 30 Ratings in the 1956-1957 TV season and was never again until it ended in 1958.

[edit] References

Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows

[edit] External links

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• Museum of Broadcast Communications – Entry on Fireside Theater

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