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Film critic Kenneth Turan previews this series in the Los Angeles Times.
Writers Guild of America members receive free admission to this series at the box office!
Anthology television dramas of the 1950s and early-1960s represented a distinct art form born out of the enormous possibilities and practical limitations of a new electronic medium. Nascent TV technologies and broadcast facilities demanded productions that were modest in scale, favoring interior, character-based dramas driven by words and emotion instead of spectacle. As a result, the television writer emerged as a central auteur figure in the creation of these early dramas, with many, including Paddy Chayefsky, Rod Serling and Reginald Rose becoming household names. As feature film attendance suffered at the hands of television, motion picture studios offered lucrative contracts to TV writers in the hope that their considerable skills and prestige would boost box office receipts. This series presents an eclectic selection of feature films written by the most well-known of these TV auteurs. Taken in their totality, these films demonstrate that this acclaimed group of writers strived to translate their uniquely character-centered, socially conscious, humanist perspectives to the big screen, often with great success, and always with a flicker of their early pioneering work on the small screen.
Series curated by Mark Quigley, manager, Archive Research and Study Center.
Major funding for this program was provided by UCLA Moving Image Archive Studies. Additional funding was provided by the Hugh M. Hefner Classic American Film Program.
