Matinee Theater
Overview
Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George Lowther. McCleery had previously produced the live series Cameo Theatre which introduced to television the concept of theater-in-the-round, TV plays staged with minimal sets. Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse recalled: When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theater: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week’s show. That was over 50 years ago, and I’m trying to think; I believe the TV art director is his own set decorator —yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery’s chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity.
Cast
John Conte
Host
Johnny Crawford
John Hoyt
Peter Hansen
Patrick Macnee
Peggy McCay
Zsa Zsa Gabor
John Abbott
Irene Hervey
Tom Tryon
Addison Richards
Angie Dickinson
View Full Cast
Herschel Bernardi
Roddy McDowall
Robert Karnes
Richard Long
Gene Raymond
Edward Dudley
Will Hutchins
Robert Dudley
Robert Horton
John Carradine
Lamont Johnson
Dean Stockwell
Carl Mittelbach
Judith Evelyn
Darryl Hickman
Pernell Roberts
Hassan
Edward Everett Horton
Amzie Strickland
Richard Crenna
Kurt Kasznar
Paul Langton
Marian Seldes
Val Dufour
Betty Lynn
Catherine McLeod
Marshall Thompson
Patrick O'Neal
Geoffrey Toone
John Drew Barrymore
Margaret O'Brien
Myron Healey
Ray Danton
Cathy Downs
Eduardo Ciannelli
Dayton Lummis
Frances Reid
Oskar Homolka
Ludwig Donath
Joe De Santis
Kerwin Mathews
Susan Oliver
Kathleen Crowley
Lawrence Dobkin
Jackie Coogan
Richard Jaeckel
Wally Cox
Anthony Eustrel
Leif Erickson
Ann Harding
Dick Foran
Tommy Kirk
Katherine Warren
Warren Berlinger
Jeanne Cooper
James Dunn
Susan Kohner
Edward Binns
Eva Gabor
Lois Smith
DeForest Kelley
Kathleen Freeman
Lurene Tuttle
Isobel Elsom
Ben Cooper
Andrew Duggan
Patricia Cutts
William Schallert
Diana Lynn
Vincent Price
Nina Foch
Joe Maross
John Banner
Melinda Casey
Cedric Hardwicke
Gloria Talbott
Margaret Hayes
Jeanette Nolan
Gregory Gaye
Vinton Hayworth
Constance Ford
Ellen Corby
Sidney Blackmer
Conrad Nagel
Karen Sharpe
Ellen Sidney
Thayer David
Rachel Ames
Peter Graves
Everett Sloane
Bob Sweeney
Argentina Brunetti
Virginia Bruce
Susan Harrison
Arthur Hill
Richard Boone
Karen Steele
Mary Wickes
Nico Minardos
K.T. Stevens
Inger Stevens
William Hopper
Victor Jory
Cara Williams
Rex Reason
Maudie Prickett
Alan Young
Agnes Moorehead
Paul Gilbert
Gene Nelson
Sara Haden
Jim Backus
Rita Moreno
Russ Conway
Joseph Wiseman
Jane Darwell
Brett Halsey
George Peppard
Richard Arlen
Irene Ryan
Luis van Rooten
Dennis Hopper
Roger Moore
Lillian Roth
Hugh Marlowe
Donald Randolph
Maureen O'Sullivan
Mala Powers
Earl Holliman
Cecil Kellaway
Rolfe Sedan
Jack Nicholson
Musician's Son
Mona Freeman
Geraldine Page
Tom Laughlin
Sammee Tong
Alan Mowbray
Rhodes Reason
Morey Amsterdam
Doris Lloyd
Francis Lederer
Miriam Hopkins
Michael Landon
Arthur O'Connell
Gloria Castillo
Chuck Connors
Wendy Hiller
Robert Morse
Herbert Anderson
Jeff Morrow
Skip Homeier
Jean Carson
Margaret Truman Daniel
Billie Burke
June Lockhart
Steven Geray
J.M. Kerrigan
Natalie Trundy
Louis Hayward
Keith Andes
Anita Louise
June Havoc
Jean Parker
Douglass Montgomery
Judy Canova
Elaine Stritch
Werner Klemperer
Lloyd Corrigan
Robert Gist
Jack Albertson
Leo G. Carroll
Kevin McCarthy
Onslow Stevens
Ann B. Davis
Bill Goodwin
Mona Washbourne
Jacques Bergerac
George Macready
Tod Andrews
John Craven
Russell Collins
Strother Martin
John Lupton
Vanessa Brown
Mary Beth Hughes
Gloria Blondell
Shirley Knight
Ann Doran
Leon Askin
General Rabat
Lee Patrick
Nita Talbot
Sheila Bromley
Stafford Repp
Phyllis Stanley
Cathy O'Donnell
Madge Evans
Henry Daniell
Philip Ober
Augusta Dabney
Forrest Taylor
Sue Randall
Jay Novello
John Dehner
Bea Benaderet
Dabbs Greer
Cloris Leachman
Nancy Malone
Sandy Descher
Fay Bainter
Paul Lambert
Akim Tamiroff
Jess Barker
Richard Davalos
Jeff Donnell
Betty Lou Keim
John Wengraf
Robert Brown
Harry Ellerbe
Kent Smith
Ben Welden
Norma Varden
Patric Knowles
William Keene
Carol Nugent
Rebecca Welles
Hayden Rorke
Herbert Rudley
Dorothy Kirsten
Marie Windsor
Josephine Hutchinson
Alex Gerry
Leo Durocher
Naomi Stevens
Jerry Mathers
Bradford Dillman
Andrea King
Richard Erdman
Sean McClory
Joe Quinn
Virginia Christine
Regis Toomey
Tudor Owen
David Janssen
Stanley Adams
Douglas Kennedy
Max Showalter
Robert Middleton
Ernest Truex
James Flavin
Lillian Bronson
William Allyn
Doris Singleton
Les Tremayne
Philip Bourneuf
Richard Anderson
Paul Maxwell
Paul Picerni
Don Keefer
Tommy Farrell
Paul Burke
Edmund Gwenn
Harry Carey Jr.
Douglass Dumbrille
Shelley Fabares
Joanne Linville
Liam Sullivan
James Griffith
Jean Byron
Maidie Norman
Joseph Mell
Jean Muir
Alix Talton
Shirley Ross
Lisa Montell
Yasmin
Kuldip Singh
Omar Khayyam
Robert Arthur
Audrey Totter
- Rating source
- TMDB
- Keywords
- #anthology
