Meeting of Minds
| Meeting of Minds | |
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Cover of Meeting of Minds! script from collection held at Center for Inquiry, Amherst, NY
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| Created by | Steve Allen |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 24 |
| Release | |
| Original network | PBS |
| Original release | January 10, 1977 – May 3, 1981 |
Meeting of Minds is a television series, created by Steve Allen, which aired on PBS from 1977 to 1981.
The show featured guests (played by actors) who played significant roles in world history. Guests would interact with each other and host Steve Allen, discussing philosophy, religion, history, science, and many other topics.
Steve Allen originally created the concept for Meeting of Minds in the late 1950s. He intended to broadcast it as a segment of his weekly The Steve Allen Show television program but the show's sponsor, The Chrysler Corporation, raised objections and the segment plans were cancelled. Five years later, however, Allen and an acting troupe finally performed the segment on Allen's nightly Westinghouse show. Then, in 1971, Allen attempted to revive the concept as part of a syndicated talk series. The first episode was a critical success, and the program won three local Emmy awards. Allen then personally financed the development of six additional one-hour programs, which were ultimately produced by PBS beginning in 1977.
The series was filmed at television station KCET in Hollywood, California. As nearly as was possible, the actual words of the historical figures were used. The show was fully scripted, yet the scripts were carefully crafted to give the appearance of spontaneous discussion among historic figures. Guests included: Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Cleopatra, Marie Antoinette, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Paine, Francis Bacon, Thomas Jefferson, Voltaire, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Daniel O'Connell, Catherine II, and Oliver Cromwell.
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