Hallmark Hall of Fame

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Hallmark Hall of Fame
Image:HallOfFame.jpg
Hallmark Hall of Fame logo
Genre Anthology
Country of origin USA
Language(s) English
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
First shown in December 24, 1951

Hallmark Hall of Fame is a long-running irregularly scheduled anthology program on American television. It has had a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and still continuing today. More than 350 TV movies have been shown since its debut.[citation needed] The most recent TV movie seen was Pictures of Hollis Woods which aired on in December, 2007.

Hall of Fame frequently airs prior to major holidays in order to spur greeting card and related product sales for the Hallmark Cards company.[citation needed] It also traditionally airs during sweeps, a period in which ratings are used to determine advertising rates.

In total, the series has received seventy-eight Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes.

It is the last remaining television program whose title contains a sponsor's name, once a common practice on American TV.

Contents

[edit] Anne Tyler

American novelist Anne Tyler's works have been a popular source of material for the series. Three of her books - Breathing Lessons, Saint Maybe, and Back When We Were Grownups - have been adapted for the small screen.

[edit] Early years

The series debuted on December 24, 1951, on NBC with Amahl and the Night Visitors, an original opera by Gian Carlo Menotti, and the first ever written specifically for television. It was the first time a major corporation developed a television project specifically as a means of promoting its products to the viewing public.[citation needed] The program was such a success that it was restaged by Hallmark several times over a period of fifteen years. (Amahl was also staged by other NBC television anthologies current at the time.)

Early productions were highly classical in nature, and included Shakespeare's Hamlet, Richard II, Macbeth, and The Tempest. Biographical subjects were very eclectic, ranging from Florence Nightingale to Father Flanagan to Joan of Arc. Popular Broadway plays such as Harvey, Dial M for Murder, and Kiss Me, Kate were made available to a mass audience. In a few cases, the actors repeated their original Broadway roles. Noted actors such as Richard Burton, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Maurice Evans, Julie Harris, Laurence Olivier, and Peter Ustinov all made what were then extremely rare television appearances in these plays.

Two different productions of Hamlet have aired on the Hallmark Hall of Fame, one starring Maurice Evans (1953) and the other starring Richard Chamberlain (1970). Evans and actress Judith Anderson brought their famous Macbeth to the Hallmark Hall of Fame on two separate occasions, each time with a different supporting cast. The first version (1954) was telecast live from NBC Studios; the second (1960) was filmed on location in Scotland and released to movie theatres in Europe after being telecast in the U.S.

After a few decades the series began to offer original material, such as Aunt Mary (1979) and Thursday's Child (1983).

[edit] Post-NBC years

For nearly three decades, the series ran on NBC, but after the network dropped it due to declining ratings it moved to PBS, later to ABC, then to CBS where it currently airs. Some of the films are perennial Top Ten rated programs.

Many recent Hall of Fame movies repeat on the company's Hallmark Channel, and are available on home video and DVD under the Hallmark Entertainment banner, often distributed through Hallmark Gold Crown Stores.

[edit] List of recent Hallmark movies

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://india.smashits.com/wikipedia/Hallmark_Hall_of_Fame"
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