Kraft Suspense Theatre

Kraft Suspense Theatre
Format Drama, Crime, Mystery
Theme music composer John Williams
Country of origin  United States
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 59 (+ 1 Unaired)
Production
Executive producer(s) Frank P. Rosenberg
Producer(s) Frank Telford
Robert Blees
Luther Davis
Joel Rogosin
Thomas Fitzroy
Leon Benson
Running time 60 mins.
Production company(s) Roncom Films, Inc.
Universal Television
Distributor MCA Television
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
Picture format Color
Original run October 10, 1963 – July 1, 1965

Kraft Suspense Theatre, an anthology series, was telecast from 1963 to 1965 on NBC. Sponsored by Kraft Foods, it was seen three weeks out of every four and was pre-empted for Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall specials once monthly. Como's production company, Roncom Films (which stands for "RONnie COMo", Perry's son, who was in his early twenties when this series premiered), also produced Kraft Suspense Theatre. Later syndicated under the title Crisis, it was one of the few suspense series telecast in color at the time. While most of NBC's shows were in color then, all-color network line-ups did not become the norm until the 1966-67 season.

Ben Cooper, Richard Crenna, John Forsythe, Ron Foster, Brad Johnson, Leslie Nielsen, Mickey Rooney, James Whitmore, and Michael Winkelman were among the actors cast on Kraft Suspense Theatre. Some episodes doubled as pilots for potential series; Rapture at Two-Forty was sold to NBC and premiered in the fall of 1965 as Run for Your Life. On May 7, 1964, Darryl Richard, a supporting actor on The Donna Reed Show, appeared in the episode "Charlie, He Couldn't Kill a Fly".

The 1968 theatrical film Sergeant Ryker, starring Lee Marvin, was actually a two-part made-for-television film that first aired on Kraft Suspense Theatre as The Case Against Paul Ryker, which also served as a pilot for the 1966 series Court Martial, that would air on ABC-TV.

Reruns of the series have been shown on RTV and Antenna TV under the name Suspense Theatre, although many prints of episodes have had the syndicated rerun title "Crisis".[1]

Contents

Episodes

Pilot: 1963

Season 1: 1963–64

  1. "The Case Against Paul Ryker: Part 1" / 1963-10-10
  2. "The Case Against Paul Ryker: Part 2" / 1963-10-17
  3. "The End of the World, Baby" / 1963-10-24
  4. "A Hero for Our Times" / 1963-10-31
  5. "Are There Any More Out There Like You?" / 1963-11-07
  6. "One Step Down" / 1963-11-14
  7. "The Machine That Played God" / 1963-12-05
  8. "The Long, Lost Life of Edward Smalley" / 1963-12-12
  9. "The Hunt" / 1963-12-19
  10. "The Name of the Game" / 1963-12-26
  11. "The Deep End" / 1964-01-02
  12. "A Truce to Terror" / 1964-01-09
  13. "Who Is Jennifer?" / 1964-01-16
  14. "Leviathan Five" / 1964-01-30
  15. "My Enemy, This Town" / 1964-02-06
  16. "The Action of the Tiger" / 1964-02-20
  17. "Doesn't Anyone Know Who I Am?" / 1964-02-27
  18. "The Threatening Eye" / 1964-03-12
  19. "A Cause of Anger" / 1964-03-19
  20. "Knight's Gambit" / 1964-03-26
  21. "Once Upon a Savage Night" / 1964-04-02
  22. "Portrait of an Unknown Man" / 1964-04-16
  23. "Their Own Executioners" / 1964-04-23
  24. "The Sweet Taste of Vengeance" / 1964-04-30
  25. "Charlie, He Couldn't Kill a Fly" / 1964-05-07
  26. "The Watchman" / 1964-05-14
  27. "The Robrioz Ring" / 1964-05-28
  28. "A Cruel and Unusual Night" / 1964-06-04

Season 2: 1964–65

  1. "The World I Want" / 1964-10-01
  2. "Operation Greif" / 1964-10-08
  3. "A Lion Amongst Men" / 1964-10-22
  4. "That He Should Weep for Her" / 1964-11-05
  5. "The Kamchatka Incident" / 1964-11-12
  6. "The Jack Is High" / 1964-11-19
  7. "Graffiti" / 1964-11-26
  8. "One Tiger to a Hill" / 1964-12-03
  9. "Threepersons" / 1964-12-10
  10. "The Gun" / 1964-12-24
  11. "The Wine-Dark Sea" / 1964-12-31
  12. "In Darkness, Waiting: Part 1" / 1965-01-14
  13. "In Darkness, Waiting: Part 2" / 1965-01-21
  14. "That Time in Havana" / 1965-02-11
  15. "Four into Zero" / 1965-02-18
  16. "Streetcar, Do You Read Me?" / 1965-02-25
  17. "The Last Clear Chance" / 1965-03-11
  18. "Won't It Ever Be Morning?" / 1965-03-18
  19. "Nobody Will Ever Know" / 1965-03-25
  20. "The Green Felt Jungle" / 1965-04-01
  21. "Rapture at Two-Forty" / 1965-04-15
  22. "Jungle of Fear" / 1965-04-22
  23. "Kill No More" / 1965-04-29
  24. "The Long Ravine" / 1965-05-06
  25. "The Easter Breach" / 1965-05-13
  26. "The Safe House" / 1965-05-20
  27. "Twixt the Cup and the Lip" / 1965-06-03
  28. "The Trains of Silence" / 1965-06-10
  29. "Kill Me on July 20th" / 1965-06-17
  30. "The Rise and Fall of Eddie Carew" / 1965-06-24
  31. "Connery's Hands" / 1965-07-01

External links

References

  1. ^ it's listed among the shows on RTV's website.