Theater Memories Part 5: Theater on TV

In the past few days, I've listed my memories of summer stock, national tours, out of town tryouts and regional productions. Next is TV productions of theater. Before moving to NYC, TV was my main means of seeing theater. Some video recollections:

Much Ado About Nothing (1974) A TV version of the Joseph Papp-produced revival with Sam Waterston, Kathleen Widdoes, Barnard Hughes, Douglas Watson (from Another World) and, I believe, Christopher Walken's younger brother. Papp's first production in his deal with CBS. I watched it at my grandparents' house while my family was visiting downstairs for the grandparents' anniversary party. I was 15.

Sticks and Bones: David Rabe's controversial Vietnam-shatters-the-American-family play ended Papp's deal with CBS. Tom Aldredge recreated his stage performance and Anne Jackson replaced Elizabeth Wilson.

Wedding Band: Papp subsequently presented some shows on ABC. Ruby Dee, Eileen Heckart, JD Cannon and Polly Holliday were brilliant in Alice Childress' play about interracial love in 1918.

Then there was PBS' Theater in America which later became part of Great Performances. Each week a different regional theater was highlighted. In the second season, Hal Holbrook introduced each production. Highlights:

Maxim Gorky's Enemies from the defunct Lincoln Center Repertory; Cyrano de Bergerac and Taming of the Shrew (with hunky Marc Singer) from ACT; King Lear from Central Park with James Earl Jones,

James Earl Jones and
Paul Sorvino in
King Lear

Raul Julia, Rene Auberjonois, Paul Sorvino, Douglas Watson (again), Rosalind Cash, Ellen Holly, Lee Chamberlain (who I knew from The Electric Company); In Fashion, a musical based on a Feydeau farce with a brilliant Charlotte Rae stealing the show as the domineering mother-in-law (she had two songs--one comic and one ballad, excelled with both, Max Wright was the butler, from Actors Theater of Louisville; Feasting with Panthers, a bizarre environmental piece about Oscar Wilde from Trinity Rep; The Seagull with Frank Langella, Blythe Danner, Lee Grant, Kevin McCarthy, Marian Mercer (Williamstown); Zalman or the Madness of God by Elie Wiesel with Robert Prosky who grew up on my grandparents' street in Philly, Arena Stage; The First Breeze of Summer from the Negro Ensemble Company with Moses Gunn, Frances Foster, Douglas Turner Ward, who also directed; Secret Service, a Civil War melodrama from Phoenix Ensemble with a young Meryl Streep and John Lithgow, but Mary Beth Hurt stole it; June Moon with Stephen Sondheim as a wisecracking piano player, Jack Cassidy, Susan Sarandon, Estelle Parsons and Austin Pendleton (another scene stealer).

Theater in America was later replaced by American Playhouse on PBS which mostly did original TV plays, occasionally presented adaptations of theater such as The Skin of Our Teeth with Blair Brown, Harold Gould, Sada Thompson and Rue McClanahan; The Fifth of July with Richard Thomas, Swoosie Kurtz, Kathy Bates, Cynthia Nixon (I think); for colored girls; Working with Patti LaBelle, Eileen Brennan, Scatman Crothers, Didi Conn; Breakfast with Les and Bess, a 1950s-ish comedy with Dick Van Dyke and Cloris Leachman.

There was also a series called Visions which was almost all TV-based original pieces, but one I remember was particularly theatrical: It was called Prison Game by Susan Yankowitz and it took the form of a game show like To Tell the Truth where the panel had to guess which of three women contestants actually killed her husband. Jessica Walter, Cara Williams, Peter Bonerz, Severn Darden, Neva Patterson were in the cast.

Also I recall that before Theater in America, PBS had a series called Hollywood Television Theater that had many outstanding productions incl. The Andersonville Trial, dir. by George C. Scott and starring William Shatner, Richard Basehart, Jack Cassidy, Buddy Ebsen and Cameron Mitchell; Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy with Harris Yulin, Richard Jordan, Rene Auberjonois; The Last of Mrs. Lincoln with Julie Harris recreating her Tony-winning role, Robbie Benson as her son Tad, Michael Cristofer as her older son Robert and Linda Kelsey (Lou Grant) as her daughter-in-law; Steambath which featured actual nudity--with Bill Bixby, Jose Perez, Valerie Perrine, Herb Edelman, Kenneth Mars and Stephen Elliott.

Also on Hollywood Television Theater: Ladies of the Corridor, co-written by Dorothy Parker, with Cloris Leachman, Mike Farrell (before MASH), Sam Waterston, Jane Wyatt, Zohra Lampert, Neva Patterson, Barbara Baxley, Mabel Albertson (mother-in-law on Bewitched and That Gir); For the Use of the Hall by Oliver Hailey with Barbara Barrie, David Hedison (incredibly handsome star of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea), George Furth (author of Company and Twigs), Aline MacMahon (Golddiggers of 1933); Neighbors, a play about race, still relevant today, with Andrew Duggan, Jane Wyatt, Raymond St. Jacques, Cicely Tyson; The Carpenters, a savage family play by Steven Tesich with Vincent Gardenia and Marge Redmond.

Other TV/theater memories: Dames at Sea on NBC with Ann-Margret, Ann Miller and Anne Meara; Mary Martin as Peter Pan (of course); Geraldine Page and Lee J. Cobb in Look Homeward, Angel (CBS); Joanne Woodard and Eileen Heckart in All the Way Home; Woodard and Laurence Olivier in Come Back, Little Sheba; Pearl Bailey and Dana Hill in Member of the Wedding; Moon for the Misbegotten (ABC) with Jason Robards, Colleen Dewhurst and Ed Flanders repeating their Broadway roles. Flanders won an Emmy to go with his Tony, making him one of the few actors to win the top honors for theater and TV for the same role.

Also: Our Town on the Hallmark Hall of Fame with Hal Holbrook, Sada Thompson, Ned Beatty, Robbie Benson, Glynnis O'Connor, Ronnie Cox, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Charlotte Rae.