GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER

CBS at Sunday 7:30 PM (30 min.)

Premiered: February 1, 1953 Last Aired: May 27, 1962
General Electric Theater featured a mix of romance, comedy, adventure, tragedy, fantasy and variety music. Occupying the Sunday evening spot on CBS following the Toast of the Town/Ed Sullivan Show from 1 February 1953 to 27 May 1962, the General Electric Theater presented top Hollywood and Broadway stars in dramatic roles calculated to deliver company voice advertising to the largest possible audience. The addition of Ronald Reagan as program host commencing the third season 26 September 1954 reflected GE's decision to pursue a campaign of continuous, consistent company voice advertising. The Reagan role of program host and occasional guest star brought needed continuity to disparate anthology offerings.

By December 1954, after only four months on the air with Reagan as program host, the new General Electric Theater achieved Nielsen top-ten status among all programs as television's most popular weekly dramatic program. The format accommodated live telecasts originating from both coasts.

By 1957 General Electric Theater had hit stride with a top-rated program package the equal of the company's early technical proficiency in television. While GE's product divisions developed individual sponsorships to reach appliance, lamp and electronics consumers. General Electric Theater left the air in 1962 in a welter of controversy surrounding the U.S. Justice Department's anti-trust investigation of MCA and the Screen Actors Guild talent waivers granted to MCA -Revue. The hint of scandal discounted Reagan's value as company spokesman and program host. As SAG president in the 1950s Reagan had, after all, signed the waivers, and later benefited from the arrangement as a General Electric Theater program producer himself. The suggestion of impropriety fueled Reagan's increasingly anti-government demeanor on tour, and his insistence upon producing and starring in episodes combating Communist subversion in the final season of General Electric Theater.

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HERE ARE 49 EPISODES.MOST ARE FROM ORIGINAL FILM PRINTS AND SOME CONTAIN THE ORIGINAL COMMERCIALS!

(DISC 1)

1. Prosper's Old Mother
2. It Gives Me Great Pleasure
3. The Big Shot
4. Into The Night

(DISC 2)

5. True 10th Mona Lisa
6. The Martyr
7. Doctor of Pawnee Hill
8. The Holdout

(DISC 3)

9. Blaze of Glory
10. Incredible Jewelry Robbery
11. Trapped
12. Tippy Top

(DISC 4)

13. High Green Wall
14. 10 Days in the Sun
15. Emergency Call
16. Windmill

(DISC 5)

17. Go Fight City Hall
18. Man Who Inherits Everything
19. Graduation Dress
20. Little White Lie

(DISC 6)

21. Nobody's Child
22. Clarence Darrow

(DISC 7)

23. Enemies
24. Questioning Note
25. Don't Let it Throw You
26. Crime of Daphne

(DISC 8)

27. I Was a Bloodhound
28. Making it Together
29. I'm a Fool

(DISC 9)

30. With Malice Toward One
31. Cold Tough
32. Journal of Hope
33. My Dark Days

(DISC 10)

34. The Stone
35. Pot of Gold
36. Iron Silence
37. Outpost To Home

(DISC 11)

38. Adam's Apple
39. To Good With a Gun
40. Committed
41. Return of Gentlemen Jim

(DISC 12)

42. Nightclub
43. Victorian Chais Lounge
44. Bitter Choice
45. A Miss Minners

(DISC 13)

46. Nora
47. Eyes of s Stranger
48. Road to Edinburgh
49. We're Holding Your Son

This collection comes on 13 DVDS recorded at the SP speed for the best possible quality.
All DVDs are recorded from transfers from original film prints, NOT recorded off broadcast TV. As with any 60 year old film to VHS/DVD transfer one should NOT expect 2011 TV quality. These episodes are offered for their historical and TV history value

These are custom made DVDs, not available commercially.