Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre | |
---|---|
Also known as | ''Universal Star Time Theatre of the Stars'' |
Genre | Anthology |
Presented by | Bob Hope |
Composer(s) |
Johnny Williams Bernard Herrmann Benny Carter Cyril Mockridge Dizzy Gillespie Quincy Jones Les Brown (bandleader) Johnny Mandel Lalo Schifrin |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes | 107 |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Roy Huggins |
Producer(s) |
Richard Berg Jack Laird Richard Lewis Frank P. Rosenberg James Tugend (assistant) |
Running time | 48 mins. |
Production company(s) | Hovue Productions, in association with Universal Television |
Distributor | NBCUniversal Television Distribution |
Release | |
Original network | NBC |
Audio format | Monaural |
Original release | October 4, 1963 | – May 17, 1967
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre is an American anthology series, sponsored by Chrysler Corporation, which ran on NBC from 1963 through 1967. The show was hosted by Bob Hope, but it had a variety of formats, including musical, dramatic, and comedy.
The program included such events as an adaptation of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, starring Jason Robards (from the novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn); The Seven Little Foys, starring Mickey Rooney, Eddie Foy Jr. and the Osmond Brothers; Think Pretty, a musical starring Fred Astaire and Barrie Chase; and Groucho Marx in "Time for Elizabeth", a televised adaptation of a play that Marx and Norman Krasna wrote in 1948.
Generally, each episode ran for an hour, although for some 'special presentations', NBC expanded the broadcast time to 90 minutes.
Hope was paid $25,000 per week for those episodes which he merely introduced, and $500,000 for those in which he starred in. Hope's performances consisted of his typical joke- and celebrity-filled blackout sketches. These were usually called Chrysler Presents a Bob Hope Special. Every season, Hope traveled to Vietnam for Christmas, to entertain the troops.
Actors who appeared in episodes included Phyllis Avery, Ida Lupino, Sean Garrison, Peter Falk, Hugh O'Brian, Shelley Winters, Cliff Robertson, John Cassavetes, Jack Lord, William Shatner, Angie Dickinson, Suzanne Pleshette, Robert Stack, Dina Merrill, Darren McGavin, Broderick Crawford, Robert Wagner, Robert Young and Stuart Whitman.