- Omnibus (U.S. TV series)
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For the 1967 to 2003 BBC series, see Omnibus (UK TV series).
Omnibus 
Leonard Bernstein's debut appearance, 1954Genre Variety Developed by Robert Saudek and the Ford Foundation Presented by Alistair Cooke Country of origin United States Language(s) English No. of seasons 8 No. of episodes 164 Production Running time 55 min usually, but it varied depending on the program Broadcast Original channel CBS (1952-1956)
ABC (1956-1957)
NBC (1957-1961)Picture format Black-and-white
ColorAudio format Monaural Original run November 9, 1952 – April 16, 1961 Omnibus is an American, commercially sponsored, educational television series.
History
Broadcast live primarily on Sunday afternoons at 4:00pm Eastern time, from November 9, 1952 until 1961. Omnibus originally aired on CBS, and later on Sunday evenings on ABC. The program finally moved to NBC in 1957, where it was irregularly scheduled until 1961. ABC aired a brief revival of the series in 1981. Omnibus was created by television executive, Robert Saudek, to be both entertaining and uplifting.[1]
With Ford Foundation funding, Omnibus, hosted by Alistair Cooke in his American television debut, featured diverse programming about science, the arts, and the humanities. The program featured original works by playwrights such as William Saroyan, interviews with public figures such as architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and performances by many of the most prominent entertainers of the day such as Jack Benny and Orson Welles. A heavily abridged version of Shakespeare's King Lear starring Orson Welles and directed by Peter Brook, was telecast on 18 October 1953 on CBS. Leonard Bernstein and Jonathan Winters made their first television appearances in the series. Bernstein gave his first televised music lectures on the program, and conducted one of the earliest telecasts of excerpts from Handel's Messiah on it. The best remembered episode featuring Bernstein was his first - an analysis of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in which the conductor demonstrated what the music might have been like if Beethoven had left some of his discarded music sketches in the symphony. It was transmitted on November 14, 1954.
The series won more than 65 awards, including seven Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards. The series is held at The Library of Congress and Global ImageWorks, among other archives. The Bernstein Omnibus programs were released in a 4-DVD set for Region 1[2] and Region 2 in 2010.
References
- ^ Robert Saudek, "Experiment in Video Programming", New York Times, 9 November 1952, 13(X).
- ^ Bernstein, Leonard. Omnibus: The Historic TV Broadcasts on 4 DVDs. E1 Entertainment, 2010. ISBN 141723265X.
External links
- Omnibus at the Internet Movie Database
- Omnibus at TV.com
- Museum of Broadcast Communications web site
- Global ImageWorks footage library Omnibus Collection
Films directed by Delbert Mann 1950s 1960s The Dark at the Top of the Stairs • Lover Come Back • The Outsider • That Touch of Mink • A Gathering of Eagles • Quick, Before It Melts • Dear Heart • Mister Buddwing • Fitzwilly • The Pink Jungle1970s 1980s BrontëTelevision "Lights Out" (1949) • "The Philco Television Playhouse" (1949 - 1955) • "Goodyear Television Playhouse" (1951 - 1955) • "Producers' Showcase" (1955) • "Playwrights '56" (1955 - 1956) • "Ford Star Jubilee" (1956) • "Omnibus" (1956 - 1957) • "The DuPont Show of the Month" (1958) • "Playhouse 90" (1958 - 1959) • "NBC Sunday Showcase" (1959) • "Startime" (1960) • Heidi (1968) • "CBS Playhouse" (1968) • David Copperfield (1969) • Jane Eyre (1970) • She Waits (1972) • No Place to Run (1972) • The Man Without a Country (1973) • The First Woman President (1974) • The Legendary Curse of the Hope Diamond (1975) • A Girl Named Sooner (1975) • Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident (1976) • Tell Me My Name (1977) • Breaking Up (1978) • Home to Stay (1978) • Tom and Joann (1978) • Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery (1978) • Torn Between Two Lovers (1979) • All Quiet on the Western Front (1979) • To Find My Son (1980) • "Insight" (1981) • All the Way Home (1981) • The Member of the Wedding (1982) • The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story (1983) • Love Leads the Way: A True Story (1984) • A Death in California (1985) • The Last Days of Patton (1986) • The Ted Kennedy Jr. Story (1976) • Tell Me My Name (1977) • Breaking Up (1986) • April Morning (1988) • Ironclads (1991) • Against Her Will: An Incident in Baltimore (1992) • Incident in a Small Town (1994) • Lily in Winter (1994)Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series The Alan Young Show (1951) · Your Show of Shows / The Red Skelton Show (1952) · Your Show of Shows (1953) · Omnibus (1954) · Disneyland (1955) · Toast of the Town (1956) · The Jack Paar Tonight Show (1957) · The Jack Paar Tonight Show (1958) · An Evening with Fred Astaire (1959) · The Garry Moore Show (1960) · Astaire Time (1961) · The Garry Moore Show (1962) · The Andy Williams Show (1963) · The Danny Kaye Show (1964) · The Andy Williams Show (1966) · The Andy Williams Show (1967) · Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968) · Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1969) · The David Frost Show (1970) · The Carol Burnett Show (1972) · The Julie Andrews Hour (1973) · The Carol Burnett Show (1974) · The Carol Burnett Show (1975)
Complete List · (1951–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–2025) Categories:- 1952 television series debuts
- 1961 television series endings
- 1950s American television series
- 1960s American television series
- American Broadcasting Company network shows
- American variety television series
- Black-and-white television programs
- CBS network shows
- Emmy Award winning programs
- English-language television series
- NBC network shows
- Peabody Award winning television programs
- United States television program stubs
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