Wonderful Town

Ruth Sherwood and her sister, Eileen, have moved to 1935 Greenwich Village. They're surrounded by colorful Village characters (including an out-of-work football player known as the Wreck, and Mr. Appopolous, a modern painter and their landlord) and embark on various New York adventures. Ruth, who's trying to make it as a writer, meets up with a sleazy newspaper writer named Chick and a kindly editor named Bob, both of whom take an interest in both her career and her.

1958-11-30 | en

The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood

Everyone knows the story of Red Riding Hood. But every story has two sides and now the wolf has finally told his. This original musical comedy special, with songs by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, first aired on November 28, 1965 on ABC.

1965-11-28 | en

The World of Sholom Aleichem

This omnibus release consists of three playlets filmed and aired during television's Golden Age, and starring some of the legends of film and television. The collection originally ran as a two-hour segment on December 14, 1959, on the anthology series The Play of the Week, broadcast locally in New York City via the independent radio station WNTA. Each "tale" in the anthology was adapted from a single tale by the inimitable Sholom Aleichem, regarded by many as the "Yiddish Mark Twain". Included are: "A Tale of Chelm" starring Zero Mostel and Nancy Walker in the story of a bookseller attempting to buy a goat; "Bontche Schweig" about a poor man (Jack Gilford) whose recent arrival in Heaven makes the angels cry; and "The High School" about a Jewish merchant (Morris Carnovsky) persuaded by his wife (Gertrude Berg) to let their son attend a particular high school despite the enforcement of quotas for Jewish students.

1959-12-14 | en

Night of Too Many Stars: America Unites for Autism Programs

Jon Stewart returns to television to host a live show presented from The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. Benefiting NEXT for Autism, the special features stand-up performances, sketches and short films.

2017-11-18 | en

Cinderella

Julie Andrews was nominated for an Emmy for portraying the titular scullery maid who finds true love with a prince in this legendary adaptation of one of the most famous fairy tales of all time. A musical, made-for-television, with music by Richard Rodgers and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, it is the only of the legendary composing team's musicals created specifically for that medium. It was originally broadcast live on CBS on March 31, 1957, and was a phenomenal success, viewed by more than 107 million people. Though it originally aired in full color, only a black & white kinescope of the production has survived.

1957-03-31 | en

Babes in Toyland

A young girl becomes lost in a department store during the Christmas shopping rush. The frightened child is comforted by a department store Santa Claus who tells her a tale of storybook characters brought to life - of Tommy Tucker's love for the lovely Jane Piper and the cold-hearted villainy of evil Silas Barnaby. Through the girl's dreams, the viewer is transported to Toyland. Based on the classic Broadway operetta by Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough, this was its second live television special production, with some new cast members and some returning.

1955-12-24 | en

One Touch of Venus

While touring a museum, Rodney Hatch, an unremarkable barber, places an engagement ring intended for his girlfriend on the hand of a statue of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. From Mount Olympus, Venus witnesses the event and decides to visit Rodney on Earth by magically inhabiting the statue. Hilarity ensues when she starts to fall in love with Rodney and competes with his girlfriend for his attentions. This television version of Kurt Weill's successful Broadway musical is much more faithful to the stage version than the 1948 Ava Gardner film, which changed the story considerably and cut most of the songs.

1955-08-27 | en

Satins and Spurs

A rodeo performer at a show in Madison Square Garden falls for a handsome photographer who's been assigned to do a story on the show for Life Magazine.

1954-09-12 | en

Rent

The story of several friends in New York City facing financial poverty, homophobia, AIDS, and, of course, rent.

2019-01-27 | en

Annie Get Your Gun

A live television adaptation of the popular musical about sharpshooter Annie Oakley joining Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and falling in love with her co-star, Frank Butler.

1957-11-27 | en

The Oldest Living Graduate

Henry Fonda stars as Col. J. C. Kincaid, crusty patriarch of a Texas family. Kincaid's weak-willed son Floyd (George Grizzard) wants to get into the old man's good graces so that he can develop the Colonel's vast land ownings. Floyd arranges a city-wide celebration lauding Kincaid as the oldest living graduate of a nearby military academy. The festivities serve only to make the already sour Kincaid even more truculent and miserable. Adapted from Preston Jones' 1974 play and originally telecast live from Dallas' Southern Methodist University on April 7, 1980.

1980-04-07 | en

Montreux Comedy Festival 2012 - Bref on Fait Un Gala

2012-12-10 | fr

Peter Pan

This musical version of the tale of the boy who wouldn't grow up aired live on television on March 7, 1955. It was so popular that it was restaged the following year, and again four years later.

1955-03-07 | en

Bang the Drum Slowly

A pitcher of a major-league baseball team finds out that his teammate and pal is desperately trying to hide that he is dying of a terminal disease so the owner won't find out and fire him.

1956-09-26 | en

Bloomer Girl

In 1956, BLOOMER GIRL was presented in a live television production starring the magnificent Barbara Cook, whose star was then on the rise, with leading roles in CANDIDE and THE MUSIC MAN still in her future. A solid success when it opened on Broadway in 1944, BLOOMER GIRL boasts a glorious score by the legendary team of Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg (THE WIZARD OF OZ). The book by Fred Saidy is set at the brink of the Civil War and addresses issues of women's equality (priorities were the right to vote and to wear bloomers, a liberating alternative to hoop skirts) and racial equality.

1956-05-28 | en

A Wind from the South

Set in Ireland, the story centers on a day in the life of Shevawn, an innocent, 30-year-old dreamer who is domineered by her innkeeper brother. An American tourist with a troubled marriage gives Shevawn's life new meaning.

1955-09-14 | en

Hairspray Live!

A teenage girl living in Baltimore in the early 1960s dreams of appearing on a popular TV dance show.

2016-12-07 | en

The Adventures of Marco Polo

Venetian merchant Marco Polo travels to the East and the court of Kublai Khan who makes him an emissary and sends him on diplomatic missions throughout his empire. Over many years, Polo learns new cultures and languages, but he is haunted by the face of a mysterious woman whom he had met before leaving Venice and encounters her face in every woman he sees. Eventually returning to Venice to share his exotic and esoteric knowledge, Marco Polo once again finds the woman of his dreams. The Adventures of Marco Polo was an original, live television musical which was broadcast on NBC on April 14, 1956.

1956-04-14 | en

Marty

Marty Pilletti is a 36-year-old butcher who lives with his mother, who is always asking him why he doesn't find a nice girl and get married. The truth is Marty is lonely and would like nothing better, but he has low self-esteem and admits to his mother that he's ugly and no one wants him. He's tired of going to the Saturday night dance with his buddies and then going home more depressed than he was when the evening started. But at one of those dances he meets Clara. They have a great deal in common but Marty will have to overcome peer pressure if he and Clara are to have a relationship.

1953-05-24 | en

The Sound of Music Live!

The Sound of Music Live! is a television special that was originally broadcast by NBC on December 5, 2013. Produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the special was an adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway musical The Sound of Music, starring country singer Carrie Underwood as Maria von Trapp, performed and televised live from Grumman Studios in Bethpage, New York. Meron felt that if the telecast were successful, the concept could become "another kind of entertainment that can exist on TV." By her request, Underwood's casting as Maria was personally endorsed by Julie Andrews, who starred in the 1965 film.

2013-12-05 | en