Alcoa Theatre

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Alcoa Theatre was a half-hour anthology series that was broadcast at 9:30pm on alternate Monday nights by NBC from October 7, 1957 through September 19, 1960.

In 1955, the series had premiered in a one-hour format aired on Sunday nights. (Its best-known presentation was Gian-Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors.) Its move to Mondays two years later included not only a reduced length, but a rotating company of five stars - David Niven, Robert Ryan, Jane Powell, Jack Lemmon, and Charles Boyer - who appeared in both dramas and light comedies. After the first season, they were dropped, although each episode continued to feature well-known and emerging talents, among them Cliff Robertson, John Cassavetes, Cornel Wilde, Agnes Moorehead, Jack Carson, Walter Slezak, and Gary Merrill.

The show aired under a variety of other names - Alcoa Theatre Turn of Fate, Goodyear TV Playhouse, and Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre - but is remembered best simply as Alcoa Theatre.

In 1959, the series received an Emmy Award as Best Dramatic Series (Less Than One Hour), in addition to awards for both writing and direction of an episode entitled Eddie.