Venetian merchant Marco Polo travels to the East and the court of Kublai Khan who makes him an emissary and sends him on diplomatic missions throughout his empire. Over many years, Polo learns new cultures and languages, but he is haunted by the face of a mysterious woman whom he had met before leaving Venice and encounters her face in every woman he sees. Eventually returning to Venice to share his exotic and esoteric knowledge, Marco Polo once again finds the woman of his dreams. The Adventures of Marco Polo was an original, live television musical which was broadcast on NBC on April 14, 1956.
This live TV adaptation of the Broadway musical "Dearest Enemy" from 1925 is based on an American Revolutionary War incident in September 1776 when Mary Lindley Murray, under orders from General George Washington, detained General William Howe and his British troops by serving them cake, wine and conversation in her Kips Bay, Manhattan home long enough for some 4,000 American soldiers, fleeing their loss in the Battle of Brooklyn, to reassemble in Washington Heights and join reinforcements to make a successful counterattack.
Ruth Sherwood and her sister, Eileen, have moved to 1935 Greenwich Village. They're surrounded by colorful Village characters (including an out-of-work football player known as the Wreck, and Mr. Appopolous, a modern painter and their landlord) and embark on various New York adventures. Ruth, who's trying to make it as a writer, meets up with a sleazy newspaper writer named Chick and a kindly editor named Bob, both of whom take an interest in both her career and her.
Latin Grammy Celebrates: Them and Their Music
This omnibus release consists of three playlets filmed and aired during television's Golden Age, and starring some of the legends of film and television. The collection originally ran as a two-hour segment on December 14, 1959, on the anthology series The Play of the Week, broadcast locally in New York City via the independent radio station WNTA. Each "tale" in the anthology was adapted from a single tale by the inimitable Sholom Aleichem, regarded by many as the "Yiddish Mark Twain". Included are: "A Tale of Chelm" starring Zero Mostel and Nancy Walker in the story of a bookseller attempting to buy a goat; "Bontche Schweig" about a poor man (Jack Gilford) whose recent arrival in Heaven makes the angels cry; and "The High School" about a Jewish merchant (Morris Carnovsky) persuaded by his wife (Gertrude Berg) to let their son attend a particular high school despite the enforcement of quotas for Jewish students.
A group of live webcams spread out around the world makes a documentary diptych about the months of the lockdown.
A special live broadcast on both BBC and UTV, hosted by Eamonn Holmes, celebrating the best of Northern Ireland television over the past 60 years and marking the occasion of digital switchover.
It's 30 years since CBBC started airing short links between shows. To celebrate, Hacker has brought together the finest presenters, past, present and even a new one, to reminisce and laugh at a few bloopers.
Zoe Ball hosts a live celebration in which the next actor to land Doctor Who's lead role is revealed, in the company of former cast members and celebrity fans.
In pre-WW1 England, a youngster is expelled from a naval academy over a petty theft, but his parents raise a political furor by demanding a trial.
The short video "influencer" Leopard, who is determined to become popular, faces the dual dilemma of company bankruptcy and payment of compensation. Partners, Gouzi and Monkey, also propose to break up their partnership. The three brothers came to the thriller crew for a special invitation to secretly shoot, intending to do well in the "last vote". Unexpectedly, they captured an exclusive scene of an accident involving the female lead in the production team. The three brothers improvised and continued to secretly shoot, but they didn't expect a series of screams and sharp smiles to intensify.
A young girl becomes lost in a department store during the Christmas shopping rush. The frightened child is comforted by a department store Santa Claus who tells her a tale of storybook characters brought to life - of Tommy Tucker's love for the lovely Jane Piper and the cold-hearted villainy of evil Silas Barnaby. Through the girl's dreams, the viewer is transported to Toyland. Based on the classic Broadway operetta by Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough, this was its second live television special production, with some new cast members and some returning.
While touring a museum, Rodney Hatch, an unremarkable barber, places an engagement ring intended for his girlfriend on the hand of a statue of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. From Mount Olympus, Venus witnesses the event and decides to visit Rodney on Earth by magically inhabiting the statue. Hilarity ensues when she starts to fall in love with Rodney and competes with his girlfriend for his attentions. This television version of Kurt Weill's successful Broadway musical is much more faithful to the stage version than the 1948 Ava Gardner film, which changed the story considerably and cut most of the songs.
Live broadcast of the concert at Wembley Stadium in London on July 1st 2007 to commemorate the life of Princess Diana on what would have been her 46th birthday. It was broadcast live to over 140 countries.
Julie Andrews was nominated for an Emmy for portraying the titular scullery maid who finds true love with a prince in this legendary adaptation of one of the most famous fairy tales of all time. A musical, made-for-television, with music by Richard Rodgers and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, it is the only of the legendary composing team's musicals created specifically for that medium. It was originally broadcast live on CBS on March 31, 1957, and was a phenomenal success, viewed by more than 107 million people. Though it originally aired in full color, only a black & white kinescope of the production has survived.
A pitcher of a major-league baseball team finds out that his teammate and pal is desperately trying to hide that he is dying of a terminal disease so the owner won't find out and fire him.
Henry Fonda stars as Col. J. C. Kincaid, crusty patriarch of a Texas family. Kincaid's weak-willed son Floyd (George Grizzard) wants to get into the old man's good graces so that he can develop the Colonel's vast land ownings. Floyd arranges a city-wide celebration lauding Kincaid as the oldest living graduate of a nearby military academy. The festivities serve only to make the already sour Kincaid even more truculent and miserable. Adapted from Preston Jones' 1974 play and originally telecast live from Dallas' Southern Methodist University on April 7, 1980.
In 1956, BLOOMER GIRL was presented in a live television production starring the magnificent Barbara Cook, whose star was then on the rise, with leading roles in CANDIDE and THE MUSIC MAN still in her future. A solid success when it opened on Broadway in 1944, BLOOMER GIRL boasts a glorious score by the legendary team of Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg (THE WIZARD OF OZ). The book by Fred Saidy is set at the brink of the Civil War and addresses issues of women's equality (priorities were the right to vote and to wear bloomers, a liberating alternative to hoop skirts) and racial equality.
This musical version of the tale of the boy who wouldn't grow up aired live on television on March 7, 1955. It was so popular that it was restaged the following year, and again four years later.
Cognac, a pampered poodle and popular star on French television, creates marital problems for his pretty owner Giselle when he becomes jealous of her new husband.