Schlitz Playhouse of Stars aka Celebrity Playhouse

From Wikipedia:

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars is a weekly anthology television series telecast Friday nights on CBS from 1951 until 1959. The series presented both comedies and drama. The series was sponsored by Schlitz beer. The series name was shortened to Schlitz Playhouse, beginning with the fall 1957 season.

Initially, the show was broadcast live, but starting in the summer of 1953, some of the episodes were filmed in advance. Beginning with the 1956-57 season, all of the shows were filmed.

Between October 1951 and March 1952, the hour-long show was shown at 9pm. In April 1952, the running time was reduced from an hour to 30 minutes. The series moved to 9:30pm in the 1955 fall season.

Two episodes served as pilots for later NBC series: The Restless Gun with John Payne (March 29, 1957 pilot) and Tales of Wells Fargo with Dale Robertson. The Restless Gun pilot was based on the radio series The Six Shooter, and Payne's character had the same name, Britt Ponset, as the radio character; that name was changed to Vint Bonner when the actual series began.

For the 1958-59 season, the series alternated weeks with the Lux Playhouse.

Guest stars included the child actress Beverly Washburn, who appeared in episodes entitled "The Closed Door" (1953) and "One Left Over" (1957). Dayton Lummis appeared as editor Cartwright in "The Last Pilot Schooner" and as Arthur Healy in "Ambitious Cop" (both 1955). Tyler MacDuff made his television debut in the 1954 episode "At the Natchez Inn".

Composer(s)

Melvyn Lenard

Paul Dunlap

Stanley Wilson

Country of origin United States

Language(s) English

No. of seasons 8

Production

Executive producer(s) Nat Holt

Producer(s) William Self

Frank P. Rosenberg

Jules Bricken

Editor(s)

Joseph Gluck

Richard Belding

Sam Gold

George Amy

Robert B. Warwick, Jr.

Location(s) Revue Studios

Cinematography George T. Clemens

Russell Harlan

Running time 60 minutes

Production company(s)

Meridian Productions

Revue Studios

Distributor CBS Television

Mill Creek Entertainment

Studios USA Television

Broadcast

Original channel CBS Television

Picture format Black-and-white

Audio format Monaural

Original run October 5, 1951 – July 31, 1959