| Fireside Theater | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Anthology drama |
| Presented by | Frank Wisbar (1952-1953) Gene Raymond (1953-1955) Jane Wyman (1955-1958) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 268 (265[1]) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Jack Bernhard John Houseman John Reinhardt Frank Wisbar |
| Running time | 60 mins. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Original run | April 5, 1949 – May 22, 1958 |
Fireside Theater is an American anthology drama series that ran from on NBC from 1949 to 1958, and was the first successful filmed series on American television. Stories were low budget and 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 Wyman it was sometimes known as The Jane Wyman Show.
One of Fireside Theatre's most notable offerings was a 1951 condensed version of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, featuring Ralph Richardson as Scrooge for the first and only time on American television.[2] He later recreated the role on a spoken word Caedmon Records LP album, with Paul Scofield as narrator. It has since been released on CD.[3]
The otherwise-unrelated comedy troupe The Firesign Theatre based their name on this series. The Doubleday Book Club also ran a playscripts club called The Fireside Theatre.
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 was not in the Top 30 Ratings in the 1956-1957 TV season and never again regained its top spot.