Peter Pan (Producers' Showcase)

"Peter Pan"
Producers' Showcase episode
Directed byClark Jones
Written bySumner Locke Elliott
Based onPeter Pan by Jule Styne, Mark Charlap, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Carolyn Leigh
Original air dateMarch 7, 1955 (1955-03-07)
Running time90 mins

"Peter Pan" is a 1955 American television play that aired as an episode of Producers' Showcase. It was an adaptation of the 1954 stage musical Peter Pan and was the first full-length Broadway production on color TV.

Production

The script was written by Sumner Locke Elliott who had appeared on stage in a production of the play in 1937.[1]

Reception

The show attracted a then-record audience of 65-million viewers, the highest ever up to that time for a single television program.[2][3]

Awards

Mary Martin won an Emmy Award for the television production. The show also won an Emmy for Program of the Year.

1956 Production

The musical was restaged live for television (again on Producers' Showcase) on January 9, 1956.[4] Clark Jones returned as director.[5]

NBC claimed the combined audiences for the 1955 and 1956 productions was 125,000,000.[6]

1960 Production

Peter Pan was restaged on December 8, 1960, this time in a slightly longer version with a slightly different cast. Vincent J. Donehue directed.[7]

The 1960 production was intended as a "stand alone" special instead of an episode of an anthology series. Act II was split into two acts, for a total of five acts instead of three, to allow for more commercial breaks.

It was shot at the Ziegfield Theatre and in NBC's color studios in Brooklyn. Cyril Ritchard was performing in Australia on stage in The Pleasure of His Company and NBC paid for him to be flown back to appear in the production.[6]

1960 Cast

  • Mary Martin
  • Cyril Ritchard
  • Margalo Gilmore
  • Sondra Lee
  • Maureen Bailey
  • Joe E. Marks
  • Norman Shelly
  • Joey Trent
  • Jacqueline Mayro
  • Kent Fletcher
  • Edmund Gaines

Reception

The special was successful in the ratings.[8]

Variety called it "a wholly delightful two-hour presentation... In spirit, verve, performance and total execution, it was the best of the Pans and, thanks to the wonders of tape, a residual-happy bonanza for years to come."[7]

Vincent J. Donehue received a Director's Guild Award.[9]

The 1960 version was rebroadcast in 1963, 1966 and 1973.[10]

References

  1. ^ ""PETER PAN."". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 30, 873. New South Wales, Australia. 14 December 1936. p. 6. Retrieved 21 September 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ Ed Reitan. "RCA-NBC Firsts in Color Television". Archived from the original on 19 December 2008. Retrieved 22 December 2008.
  3. ^ "COE, FRED U.S. Producer – The Museum of Broadcast Communications". www.museum.tv. Archived from the original on 2010-12-04.
  4. ^ "PRODUCERS' SHOWCASE: PETER PAN {TAPE 1 OF 2} (TV)". The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved 22 December 2008.
  5. ^ "Peter Pan to return". Quad-City Times. 8 January 1956. p. 45.
  6. ^ a b "Advertisement". Variety. 7 December 1960. pp. 32–33.
  7. ^ a b "Peter Pan". Variety. 14 December 1960. p. 27.
  8. ^ "Peter Pan: Years Ahead Sales Pitch". Variety. 14 December 1960. p. 20.
  9. ^ Elisabeth Elkind. "Inventory of the Vincent J. Donehue Papers, 1946–1965". The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Retrieved 22 December 2008.
  10. ^ "Mary Martin's Return from Never-Never Land: Here is something worth crowing about – Peter Pan is back!". Los Angeles Times. March 19, 1989. Retrieved April 28, 2021.