Hollywood Opening Night – Nostalgia Central

1 9 5 1 – 1 9 5 3 (USA)
61 x 30 minute episodes

The first season of this American dramatic anthology series aired between July 1951 and March 1952 on CBS, featuring pre-filmed dramas with recycled scripts and stories from an earlier television series titled Stars Over Hollywood.

NBC picked up the series in October 1952 and began broadcasting the dramas live from its brand-new studios in Burbank, California – the first live drama series to originate from the West Coast.

During its NBC run, the show was hosted by famous Hollywood gossip columnist Jimmie Fidler.  Some subsequently famous Hollywood stars made their TV  debut in the show, including Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Swanson and Ethel Barrymore.

Other actors who appeared in episodes included Boris Karloff, Ralph Moody, Buddy Ebsen, Robert Stack, Raymond Burr, Ronald Reagan, Maureen O’Sullivan, Ann Sothern, and Macdonald Carey.

The series (which cost around $25,000 per week) came to an end in March 1953, primarily due to terrible ratings, as NBC scheduled it directly opposite I Love Lucy on CBS, which was the top-rated television show in America at the time.

Jimmie Fidler subsequently stepped away from television and returned to radio syndication and newspaper column writing, where he enjoyed a remarkably long career, eventually retiring in 1983, aged 85.

He died of natural causes in Toluca Lake on 9 August 9 1988, at the age of 89.