The David Niven Show
{{Short description|American TV anthology series (1959)}}
{{more citations needed|date=December 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox television
| image =
| caption =
| genre = Anthology series
| runtime = 30 minutes
| company = Amalfi Films
Four Star Productions
| creator =
| producer =
| camera =
| starring =
| narrated =
| country = United States
| language = English
| network = NBC
| first_aired = {{Start date|1959|04|07}}
| last_aired = {{End date|1959|07|07}}
| num_seasons = 1
| num_episodes = 13
| list_episodes = The David Niven Show#Episodes
}}
The David Niven Show is an American half-hour television anthology series that was broadcast from April 7, 1959, through September 15, 1959.{{cite book|last1=McNeil|first1=Alex|title=Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present |date=1996|publisher=Penguin Books USA, Inc.|location=New York, New York|isbn=0-14-02-4916-8|page= 202|edition=4th}}
Premise
This series is an anthology series hosted by David Niven.{{cite web|url=http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/the-david-niven-show/cast/200835 |title=The David Niven Show|work=TV Guide |accessdate=January 20, 2013}} He acted in one episode.{{cite news |last1=Kubasik |first1=Ben |title=Niven Says TV Network Gave Him a Run-Around |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-suffolk-edition/138067115/ |access-date=January 5, 2024 |work=Newsday (Suffolk Edition) |date=June 1, 1959 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240105021724/https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-suffolk-edition/138067115/ |archive-date=January 5, 2024 |location=New York, Melville |page=56|via = Newspapers.com }}
Episodes
class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="width:100%; background:#fff;" |
style="background:#39f;"| No.
! style="background:#39f;"| Title ! style="background:#39f;"| Directed by ! style="background:#39f;"| Written by ! style="background:#39f;"| Original air date {{Episode list |Title=Fortune's Folly |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|04|07}} |EpisodeNumber=1 |DirectedBy= Lewis Allen |WrittenBy= |ShortSummary= Hal's wife wants to divorce him because of his gambling. |LineColor=3399ff }} {{Episode list |Title=Lifeline |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|04|14}} |EpisodeNumber=2 |DirectedBy= Robert Florey |WrittenBy= Alfred Brenner |ShortSummary= A criminal hides in an amusement park. |LineColor=3399ff }} {{Episode list |Title=Backtrack |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|04|21}} |EpisodeNumber=3 |DirectedBy= Lewis Allen |WrittenBy= Gene Levitt |ShortSummary= A husband and a wife are blackmailed by an ex-mistress. |LineColor=3399ff }} {{Episode list |Title=The Promise |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|05|05}} |EpisodeNumber=4 |DirectedBy= Thomas Carr |WrittenBy= Leonard Freeman |ShortSummary= A family suffers the loss of a child. |LineColor=3399ff }} {{Episode list |Title=The Twist of the Key |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|05|12}} |EpisodeNumber=5 |DirectedBy= Don McDougall |WrittenBy= Hank Moonjean |ShortSummary= A quiet couple becomes involved in a mystery when they have new neighbors. |LineColor=3399ff }} {{Episode list |Title=A Day of Small Miracles |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|05|19}} |EpisodeNumber=6 |DirectedBy= Lewis Allen |WrittenBy= Leonard Praskins |ShortSummary= A couple is concerned about the health of their son and gets help from a magician. |LineColor=3399ff }} {{Episode list |Title=The Lady from Winnetka |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|05|26}} |EpisodeNumber=7 |DirectedBy= |WrittenBy= |ShortSummary= A woman finds romance with a suave tour guide on a Mediterranean isle. |LineColor=3399ff }} {{Episode list |Title=The Last Room |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|06|02}} |EpisodeNumber=8 |DirectedBy= Lewis Allen |WrittenBy= Frederick J. Lipp |ShortSummary= A police interrogator tries to find information with threats and torture. |LineColor=3399ff }} {{Episode list |Title=Maggie Malone |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|06|09}} |EpisodeNumber=9 |DirectedBy= |WrittenBy= |ShortSummary= The owners of a successful nightclub are threatened by gangsters. |LineColor=3399ff }} {{Episode list |Title=Portrait |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|06|16}} |EpisodeNumber=10 |DirectedBy= Thomas Carr |WrittenBy= Aaron Spelling |ShortSummary= A group of American soldiers in World War II try to find a mystery woman. |LineColor=3399ff }} {{Episode list |Title=Sticks and Stones |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|06|23}} |EpisodeNumber=11 |DirectedBy= |WrittenBy= |ShortSummary= The wife of a professional baseball player starts receiving threatening letters. |LineColor=3399ff }} {{Episode list |Title=The Vengeance |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|06|30}} |EpisodeNumber=12 |DirectedBy= Don McDougall |WrittenBy= John Robinson |ShortSummary= A judge is stalked by an escaped prisoner. |LineColor=3399ff }} {{Episode list |Title=The Good Deed |OriginalAirDate={{Start date|1959|07|07}} |EpisodeNumber=13 |DirectedBy= Thomas Carr |WrittenBy= John Robinson |ShortSummary= A journalist is asked to negotiate on the behalf of a fugitive. |LineColor=3399ff }} |
---|
Guest stars
- Eddie Albert
- Jacques Bergerac
- Eddie Bracken
- Joanne Dru
- Dan Duryea
- Anne Francis
- Carolyn Jones
- Julie London{{cite news |last1=Cain |first1=Ira |title=Julie London, Scott Brady To Fight Racketeers on 5 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-worth-star-telegram/138048692/ |access-date=January 4, 2024 |work=Fort Worth Star-Telegram |date=June 9, 1959 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104213610/https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-worth-star-telegram/138048692/ |archive-date=January 4, 2024 |page=15|via = Newspapers.com }}
- Frank Lovejoy
- Cameron Mitchell{{cite news |last1=Torre |first1=Marie |title=Take Your Choice |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sentinel/138047655/ |access-date=January 4, 2024 |work=The Sentinel |date=April 7, 1959 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104212401/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sentinel/138047655/ |archive-date=January 4, 2024|location=North Carolina, Winston-Salem |page=15|via = Newspapers.com }}
- Susan Oliver
- Fay Wray{{cite book |last1=Kinnard |first1=Roy |last2=Crnkovich |first2=Tony |title=The Films of Fay Wray |date=July 11, 2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-0415-2 |page=176 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eyOCpuGkuykC&dq=%22David+Niven+Show%22+NBC&pg=PA176 |access-date=January 4, 2024 |language=en}}
Production
The David Niven Show was produced by Four Star Productions.{{cite news |last1=Humphrey |first1=Hal |title=David Niven's Ground Rules for Hosting |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-mirror/138051323/ |access-date=January 4, 2024 |work=Los Angeles Mirror |date=March 30, 1959 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104221156/https://www.newspapers.com/article/los-angeles-mirror/138051323/ |archive-date=January 4, 2024 |page=21|via = Newspapers.com}} Vincent Fennelly produced the show, which was broadcast on NBC on Tuesdays from 10 to 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time,{{cite book |last1=Brooks |first1=Tim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8KztFy6QYwC&dq=%22David+Niven+Show%22+NBC&pg=PA332 |title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present |last2=Marsh |first2=Earle F. |date=June 24, 2009 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-48320-1 |page=332 |language=en |access-date=January 4, 2024}} replacing The Californians.{{cite news |last1=Danzig |first1=Fred |title=Not Much to Say for New David Niven Show |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/marysville-journal-tribune/138071506/ |access-date=January 5, 2024 |work=Marysville Journal-Tribune |agency=United Press International |date=April 8, 1959 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105032602/https://www.newspapers.com/article/marysville-journal-tribune/138071506/ |archive-date=January 5, 2024 |page=11|via = Newspapers.com }} Don Quinn wrote Niven's introductions to episodes, and Niven helped Fennelly select scripts.
Episodes broadcast July 14, 1959, through September 15, 1959, were reruns.{{cite magazine |date=July 13, 1959 |page=61 |title=Other Network Changes (Cont'd) |url=https://archive.org/details/rossreportstele83ross/page/n73/mode/1up?view=theater |magazine=Ross Reports |access-date=January 5, 2024 }}
Niven said that he and the show's sponsor undertook the program with the understanding that it would continue in the fall of 1959. "It was never my intention -- nor that of my sponsor -- to do a summer replacement type of series," he said. After the show began, NBC told them that when the new season arrived the time slot would be used for weekly specials. Niven added, "If we knew this was going to happen before we started, we would not have bothered to begin."
Critical response
A review by Harriet Van Horne in the El Paso Herald-Post used Niven's role on The David Niven Show as an example of established actors on TV who "use the medium a bit contemptuously".{{cite news |last1=Van Horne |first1=Harriet |title=Noted Actors Use Medium Of TV Bit Contemptuously |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/el-paso-herald-post/138049289/ |access-date=January 4, 2024 |work=El Paso Herald-Post |date=April 8, 1959 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104214322/https://www.newspapers.com/article/el-paso-herald-post/138049289/ |archive-date=January 4, 2024 |page=16|via = Newspapers.com }} She cited his "minute, maybe less" time on screen to introduce a drama and his post-drama return "for as long as it took to point the moral", adding, "I expect most of us would have been even more grateful for a David Niven Show starring David Niven." As for the drama itself, Van Horne wrote that "Fortune's Folly" made her feel "that I've seen it eight or nine times before", and she called it "a cynical little story, despite Mr. Mitchell's excellent performance."
In a review in the Oakland Tribune, Bill Fiset had a different view of that episode, calling the 30-minute drama "the finest in a long time".{{cite news |last1=Fiset |first1=Bill |title=These TV People |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune/138068571/ |access-date=January 5, 2024 |work=Oakland Tribune |date=April 16, 1959 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240105024020/https://www.newspapers.com/article/oakland-tribune/138068571/ |archive-date=January 5, 2024 |page=39|via = Newspapers.com }} Fiset wrote that the show "was tightly written and well done, with no tricks or gimmicks."
Home video
In April 2014, 12 of the 13 episodes produced were released in a 2-DVD set by Simply Media in the UK. "Episode 9, "Maggie Malone", is missing.{{Citation needed |date=January 2024}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052458/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 IMDb]
- [http://www.tv.com/shows/david-niven-show/ TV.com]
- [http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/the-david-niven-show/200835 TV Guide]
- [http://ctva.biz/US/Anthology/DavidNivenShow.htm The David Niven Show] at CVTA
{{DEFAULTSORT:David Niven Show, The}}
Category:1959 American television series debuts
Category:1959 American television series endings
Category:1950s American drama television series
Category:Black-and-white American television shows
Category:American English-language television shows
Category:Television series by 20th Century Fox Television