1. RTV 3007 • Intro to Television
TV Anthology Series:
RTV 3007 • Intro to Television

2. TV Anthology Series
Combined techniques from live theater and cinema
Each episode a full story of minutes
Actors chose to fit the story (not vice-versa)
Produced live
Perfected multi-camera, multi-set TV production
Produced in studios the size of gymnasiums. Cameras rolled from set to set
Closeups became important
Stories showed intimate portraits of ordinary life.

3. TV Anthology Series - 1948-1957 Several Series were produced:
Kraft TV Theater
Philco TV Playhouse
Goodyear TV Playhouse
Launched the career of many famous actors and writers:
Paddy Chayefsky
Rod Serling
Rod Steiger
Gore Vidal
Charlton Heston
Studio One
Playhouse 90
Robert Montgomery Presents

4. TV Anthology Series - 1948-1957 Advertisers did not like the format
Showed life’s problems as complex (advertisers had simple solutions)
Showed ordinary life as interesting (advertisers wanted to show aspirations to upward mobility)
Anthology series often portrayed serious social issues. Advertisers did not like political content.

5. Studio One Productions
The Remarkable incident at Carson Corners –
Twelve Angry Men

6. The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone used science fiction as a vehicle for social commenary, as networks and sponsors who censored controversial material from TV were less concerned with seemingly innocuous fantasy and sci-fi stories.
Themes included nuclear war, McCarthyism and mass hysteria. These subjects were strictly forbidden on "serious" primetime television.
Pilot
The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

7. End of the Anthology Series
Supreme Court rules that film has the same First Amendment protections as newspapers. TV is still bound by FCC content regulations.
Marty, a film based on an anthology TV character, wins four Oscars
Money becomes available for independent film production. Result of US vs Paramount Pictures case in 1948.
Writers, directors, actors leave anthology TV for greater freedom in Hollywood movies.
TV returns to serial formats: formulaic shows with recurring characters emphasizing upward mobility.