Cosmopolitan Theatre

Cosmopolitan Theatre is an American anthology series which aired on the DuMont Television Network from October 2, 1951, to December 25, 1951. The combined drug companies that sponsored the series not only canceled it but relinquished the time slot, citing budgetary problems. The trade publication Variety reported that the show had "some hefty ratings" and was "one of the more qualitative" programs on DuMont.

Synopsis

The series consisted of live presentations of stories written for Cosmopolitan magazine, and was one of many TV series airing "tele-plays" at the time.

Episode status

The program was broadcast live. If any episodes exist, they would be in the form of kinescope recordings.

Production

packaged Cosmopolitan Theatre; Sherman Marks was the producer and director. Writers of episodes included Richard Macauley and David Shaw.
The show replaced Cavalcade of Bands from 9 to 10 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays. It originated from WABD and was carried live to 14 stations with 10 more showing it via kinescope.

Critical response

In December 1951, critic John [Crosby (media critic)|John Crosby] called Cosmopolitan Theatre "the Dumont network's most elaborate entry into the dramatic field". He noted that restricting the show's content to stories from the magazine "places a rather severe limit not only on the range of material but also on the type of material open to this program." He noted that the two forms of media differed greatly in the ways they affected audiences and ended the review with the comment, "TV has conditioned us to accept a much harder degree of reality than most slick fiction has ever attempted."