The Alcoa Hour

Infobox Television
show_name = The Alcoa Hour


caption =
genre = Anthology
director = Kirk Browning
Norman Felton
Herbert Hirschman
Sidney Lumet
Robert Mulligan
composer = Gian Carlo Menotti
country = USA
language = English
num_seasons = 2
num_episodes = 51
list_episodes =
producer = Herbert Brodkin
Samuel Chotzinoff
Joel Spector
asst_producer = Philip Barry, Jr.
Herbert Hirschman
runtime = 60 mins.
channel = NBC
first_aired = October 16, 1955
last_aired = September 22, 1957
related = "Philco Television Playhouse"
"Goodyear Television Playhouse"

"The Alcoa Hour" is a live anthology television series sponsored by Alcoa and broadcast in the United States from 1955 to 1957, during the Golden Age of Television. The series was broadcast on NBC on Sundays from 9:00 to 10:00 P.M.

Overview

One of its most famous episodes was the first, live-action version, in 1956, of "The Stingiest Man in Town", a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol", starring Basil Rathbone as Scrooge and Martyn Green as Bob Cratchit. It was the only "Alcoa Hour" production to be granted an original cast album recording. "The Stingiest Man in Town" was remade in 1978 as a Rankin-Bass animated cartoon, starring the voice of Walter Matthau as Scrooge.

Like the "Philco Television Playhouse" and "Goodyear Television Playhouse" that had preceded it, the "Alcoa Hour" was a one-hour live dramatic anthology series presenting both original stories and adaptations of popular works. The three series were essentially the same, with the only real difference being the name of the sponsor.

The series alternated weeks in the same time slot with the "Goodyear Television Playhouse" until both series ended in 1957.

External links

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