Kraft Suspense Theatre


The Kraft Suspense Theatre is an American television anthology series that was produced and broadcast from 1963 to 1965 on NBC. Sponsored by Kraft Foods, it was seen three weeks out of every four and was pre-empted for Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall specials once monthly. Como's production company, Roncom Films, also produced Kraft Suspense Theatre.. Writer, editor, critic and radio playwright Anthony Boucher served as consultant on the series.
Later syndicated under the title Crisis, it was one of the few suspense series then broadcast in color. While most of NBC's shows were in color then, all-color network line-ups did not become the norm until the 1966-67 season. It was also packaged with episodes of Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre under the title Universal Star Time.
In Britain BBC2 screened episodes of this series and Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre under the banner of Impact.

Overview

, Richard Crenna, John Forsythe, Ron Foster, Vivi Janiss, Brad Johnson, Jack Kelly, Robert Loggia, Ida Lupino, Martin Milner, Leslie Nielsen, Larry Pennell, Mickey Rooney, James Whitmore, Jeffrey Hunter, Tippi Hedren, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan and Michael Winkelman were among the actors and actresses cast on Kraft Suspense Theatre.
Directors included prominent names in television and later features, examples being Robert Altman, Richard L. Bare, Roy Huggins, Buzz Kulik, David Lowell Rich, Ida Lupino, Sydney Pollack, Elliot Silverstein, Jack Smight, Ralph Senensky, and Paul Wendkos.
Some episodes doubled as pilots for potential series. The episode "Rapture At Two-Forty," in particular, was the pilot for the series Run for Your Life, which premiered on NBC in the fall of 1965 and ran till 1968.
The 1968 theatrical film Sergeant Ryker, starring Lee Marvin, was a two-part made-for-television film that was first broadcast on Kraft Suspense Theatre under the title "The Case Against Paul Ryker". It also served as a pilot for the 1966 series Court Martial, which ABC would broadcast. Other episodes that were later expanded into theatrical films included "Once Upon a Savage Night", released as Nightmare in Chicago, and "In Darkness, Waiting", which was released as Strategy of Terror.

Episodes

Pilot: 1963

  1. The Case Against Paul Ryker: Part 1
  2. The Case Against Paul Ryker: Part 2
  3. The End of the World, Baby
  4. A Hero for Our Times
  5. Are There Any More Out There Like You?
  6. One Step Down
  7. The Machine That Played God
  8. The Long, Lost Life of Edward Smalley
  9. The Hunt
  10. The Name of the Game
  11. The Deep End
  12. A Truce to Terror
  13. Who Is Jennifer?
  14. Leviathan Five
  15. My Enemy, This Town
  16. The Action of the Tiger
  17. Doesn't Anyone Know Who I Am?
  18. The Threatening Eye
  19. A Cause of Anger
  20. Knight's Gambit
  21. Once Upon a Savage Night
  22. Portrait of an Unknown Man
  23. Their Own Executioners
  24. The Sweet Taste of Vengeance
  25. Charlie, He Couldn't Kill a Fly
  26. The Watchman
  27. The Robrioz Ring
  28. A Cruel and Unusual Night

    Season 2: 1964–65

's theme music was revised for this season.
  1. The World I Want
  2. Operation Greif
  3. A Lion Amongst Men
  4. That He Should Weep for Her
  5. The Kamchatka Incident
  6. The Jack Is High
  7. Graffiti
  8. One Tiger to a Hill
  9. Threepersons
  10. The Gun
  11. The Wine-Dark Sea
  12. In Darkness, Waiting: Part 1
  13. In Darkness, Waiting: Part 2
  14. That Time in Havana
  15. Four into Zero
  16. Streetcar, Do You Read Me?
  17. The Last Clear Chance
  18. Won't It Ever Be Morning?
  19. Nobody Will Ever Know
  20. 'The Green Felt Jungle
  21. Rapture at Two-Forty
  22. Jungle of Fear
  23. Kill No More
  24. The Long Ravine
  25. The Easter Breach
  26. The Safe House
  27. Twixt the Cup and the Lip
  28. The Trains of Silence
  29. Kill Me on July 20
  30. The Rise and Fall of Eddie Carew
  31. Connery's Hands
*pilot for unsold series

Syndication

Reruns of the series have been shown under the name Suspense Theatre, although many prints of episodes have had the syndicated rerun title Crisis. In the 1990s, Sci-Fi Channel aired the series under the Suspense Theatre and Crisis titles as part of its late-night primetime programming lineup. Retro TV and Antenna TV, the small broadcast networks, ran the series in the early 2010s.