Alcoa Theatre

Alcoa Theatre is a half-hour American anthology series sponsored by the Alcoa Corporation and telecast on NBC at 9:30 pm on Monday nights from September 30, 1957 to May 23, 1960. For its first four months on the air, the title Turn of Fate was used as an umbrella title for Alcoa Theatre and its alternate-week counterpart, Goodyear Theatre.

In 1955, The Alcoa Hour premiered in a one-hour format aired on Sunday nights, but it was reduced to 30 minutes, retitled Alcoa Theatre, and moved to Monday evening in 1957. The show employed an alternating rotating company of actors: David Niven, Robert Ryan, Jane Powell, Jack Lemmon and Charles Boyer during its initial season. They did not return in 1958, "and the program became a true anthology once again".

Overview


The series continued to feature the talents of veteran and emerging actors over the ensuing years, including Cliff Robertson, John Cassavetes, Brandon deWilde, Cornel Wilde, Agnes Moorehead, Jack Carson, Walter Slezak and Gary Merrill. Child actor Flip Mark made his television debut as Robbie Adams in the 1959 episode "Another Day Another Dollar".

"333 Montgomery" (June 13, 1960) starred DeForest Kelley in the pilot episode of an unsold series written by Gene Roddenberry. It was based on the book Never Plead Guilty by San Francisco criminal lawyer Jake Ehrlich. Kelley acted in three separate pilots for Columbia, and the studio decided to try him in a lead and sent him to meet Roddenberry. Kelley and Roddenberry went to San Francisco to meet Ehrlich, who chose him for the lead.

Jack Lemmon, William Talman and Joan Blackman starred in "The Victim," a suspense episode involving a disappearing woman.

Season 3 (1959-60)
Additional episodes in this season:
 * "Action Off Screen" - January 11, 1960
 * "Chinese Finale" - March 7, 1960
 * "The Glorious 4th" - April 4, 1960

Production
Alcoa Theatre was produced on film. By Four Star Films Incorporated at RKO-Pathe Studio in Culver City, California. Robert Fellows was the producer.