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Fireside Theatre | |
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Also known as |
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Genre | Anthology drama |
Written by | |
Directed by | |
Presented by |
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Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 10 |
No. of episodes | 361(268/93) (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Producers |
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Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 30 mins |
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Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | April 5, 1949 May 22, 1958 [citation needed] | –
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Fireside Theatre (later known as Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre, Jane Wyman Theatre, The Jane Wyman Show and Jane Wyman Presents) is an American anthology drama series that ran on NBC from 1949 to 1958, and was the first successful filmed series on American television. Early episodes (1949-1955) were low-budget and often based on public domain stories. While the series was dismissed by critics, it remained among the top ten most popular shows for most of this period. For the 8th season (1955–1956) Jane Wyman became the host and producer making it only the second filmed prime time network drama anthology to be hosted by a woman. Later episodes (1955–1958) were written by important freelance television writers such as Rod Serling, Aaron Spelling and Gene Roddenberry. It predates the other major pioneer of filmed television production in America, I Love Lucy, by two years.