Hallmark Hall of Fame

Infobox Television
show_name = Hallmark Hall of Fame


genre = Anthology
country = USA
language = English
network = NBC
first_run = December 24 1951

"Hallmark Hall of Fame" is a long-running irregularly scheduled anthology program on American television. It has had a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and still continuing today. From 1954 onward, all of their productions have been shown in color, although color television productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many TV-movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then moved into videotaped productions before finally turning to filmed ones. The most recent TV movie seen was episode 233, "Sweet Nothing in My Ear", which aired on CBS on April 20 2008.

"Hall of Fame" frequently airs prior to major holidays in order to spur greeting card and related product sales for the Hallmark Cards company. Its programming traditionally airs during sweeps, a period in which ratings are used to determine advertising rates.

In total, the series has received seventy-eight Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes.

It is the last remaining television program whose title contains a sponsor's name, once a common practice on American TV.

Early years

The series debuted on December 24 1951, on NBC with "Amahl and the Night Visitors", an original opera by Gian Carlo Menotti, and the first ever written specifically for television. It was the first time a major corporation developed a television project specifically as a means of promoting its products to the viewing public. The program was such a success that it was restaged by Hallmark several times over a period of fifteen years. "Amahl" was also staged by other NBC television anthologies.

Early productions were the classical works of Shakespeare; "Hamlet", "Richard II", "Macbeth", and "The Tempest". Biographical subjects were very eclectic, ranging from Florence Nightingale to Father Flanagan to Joan of Arc. Popular Broadway plays such as "Harvey", "Dial M for Murder", and "Kiss Me, Kate" were made available to a mass audience, most of them with casts that had not appeared in the film versions released to theatres. In a few cases, the actors repeated their original Broadway roles. Noted actors such as Richard Burton, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Maurice Evans, Julie Harris, Laurence Olivier, and Peter Ustinov all made what were then extremely rare television appearances in these plays.

Two different productions of "Hamlet" have aired on the "Hallmark Hall of Fame", one starring Maurice Evans (1953) and the other starring Richard Chamberlain (1970). Evans and actress Judith Anderson brought their famous "Macbeth" to the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" on two separate occasions, each time with a different supporting cast. The first version (1954) was telecast live from NBC Studios; the second (1960) was filmed on location in Scotland and released to movie theatres in Europe after being telecast in the U.S.

After a few decades the series began to offer original material, such as "Aunt Mary" (1979) and "Thursday's Child " (1983). American novelist Anne Tyler's works have been a popular source of material for the series. Three of her books - "Breathing Lessons", "Saint Maybe", and "Back When We Were Grownups" - have been adapted for the small screen.

Post-NBC

For nearly three decades, the series ran on NBC, but after the network dropped it due to declining ratings it moved to PBS, later to ABC, then to CBS where it currently airs. Some of the films are perennial Top Ten rated programs.

Many recent "Hall of Fame" movies repeat on the company's Hallmark Channel, and are available on home video and DVD under Hallmark Entertainment (now RHI Entertainment), often distributed through Hallmark Gold Crown Stores.

elected Recent Filmography

The following selected filmography is extremely limited in comparison to the hundreds of shows that the series has produced over more than half a century, and does not even include the many Hallmark programs produced on film since about 1980. Only a fraction of Hallmark Hall of Fame's programs have been made available on VHS and DVD, and nearly all are relatively recent productions. The earliest aired movie from the series to be released on DVD is "The Secret Garden", first broadcast in 1987.

* 1990 "Decoration Day"
* 1991 "Sarah, Plain and Tall
* 1991 "One Against the Wind
* 1996 "The Summer of Ben Tyler
* 1997 "Rose Hill
* 1997 "What the Deaf Man Heard
* 1998 "The Love Letter"
* 1999 "A Season for Miracles
* 2000 "The Runaway
* 2000 "Cupid & Cate
* 2001 "The Seventh Stream
* 2001 "In Love and War
* 2005 "The Magic of Ordinary Days"
* 2005 "Silver Bells"
* 2006 "The Water is Wide"
* 2007 ""
* 2007 "Pictures of Hollis Woods"
* 2008 "The Russell Girl"
* 2008 "Sweet Nothing in My Ear"

External links

* [http://corporate.hallmark.com/company/Hallmark-Hall-of-Fame-Movie-List Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie List]
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* [http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/hallmark/ 50 Years of Hallmark Hall of Fame] (UCLA Film and Television Archive)