Kraft Suspense Theatre

Kraft Suspense Theatre
Also known as	Crisis Suspense Theatre
Genre	Anthology
Theme music composer	John Williams
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	59 (1 unaired)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Frank P. Rosenberg
Producer(s)	Frank Telford Robert Blees Luther Davis Joel Rogosin Thomas Fitzroy Leon Benson Arthur H. Nadel
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	48 mins.
Production company(s)	Roncom Films, Inc. Universal Television
Distributor	MCA Television
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	October 10, 1963 (1963-10-10) – July 1, 1965 (1965-07-01)

Kraft Suspense Theatre is an American anthology series that was telecast 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 (which stands for "RONnie COMo", Perry's son, who was in his early twenties when this series premiered), also produced Kraft Suspense Theatre.

Later syndicated under the title Crisis, it was one of the few suspense series telecast in color at the time. 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.

Overview

Ben Cooper, Richard Crenna, John Forsythe, Ron Foster, Brad Johnson, Robert Loggia, Martin Milner, Leslie Nielsen, Mickey Rooney, James Whitmore, Jeffrey Hunter, Tippi Hedren, Telly Savalas and Michael Winkelman were among the actors cast on Kraft Suspense Theatre.

Some episodes doubled as pilots for potential series. The episode "Rapture at Two-Forty" was the pilot for the series Run for Your Life, which premiered on NBC in the fall of 1965.

The 1968 theatrical film Sergeant Ryker, starring Lee Marvin, was a two-part made-for-television film that first aired on Kraft Suspense Theatre as The Case Against Paul Ryker. It also served as a pilot for the 1966 series Court Martial, that would air on ABC-TV. Other episodes that were later expanded into theatrical films (initially for European release) included "Once Upon a Savage Night" (released as Nightmare In Chicago) and "In Darkness, Waiting" (Strategy of Terror).

Episodes

Pilot: 1963

• "Shadow of a Man" / 1963-06-19

Season 1: 1963–64

1. "The Case Against Paul Ryker: Part 1" / 1963-10-10
2. "The Case Against Paul Ryker: Part 2" / 1963-10-17
3. "The End of the World, Baby" / 1963-10-24
4. "A Hero for Our Times" / 1963-10-31
5. "Are There Any More Out There Like You?" / 1963-11-07
6. "One Step Down" / 1963-11-14
7. "The Machine That Played God" / 1963-12-05
8. "The Long, Lost Life of Edward Smalley" / 1963-12-12
9. "The Hunt" / 1963-12-19
10. "The Name of the Game" / 1963-12-26
11. "The Deep End" / 1964-01-02
12. "A Truce to Terror" / 1964-01-09
13. "Who Is Jennifer?" / 1964-01-16
14. "Leviathan Five" / 1964-01-30
15. "My Enemy, This Town" / 1964-02-06
16. "The Action of the Tiger" / 1964-02-20
17. "Doesn't Anyone Know Who I Am?" / 1964-02-27
18. "The Threatening Eye" / 1964-03-12
19. "A Cause of Anger" / 1964-03-19
20. *"Knight's Gambit" / 1964-03-26
21. "Once Upon a Savage Night" / 1964-04-02
22. "Portrait of an Unknown Man" / 1964-04-16
23. "Their Own Executioners" / 1964-04-23
24. "The Sweet Taste of Vengeance" / 1964-04-30
25. "Charlie, He Couldn't Kill a Fly" / 1964-05-07
26. *"The Watchman" / 1964-05-14
27. "The Robrioz Ring" / 1964-05-28
28. "A Cruel and Unusual Night" / 1964-06-04

Season 2: 1964–65

1. "The World I Want" / 1964-10-01
2. "Operation Greif" / 1964-10-08
3. "A Lion Amongst Men" / 1964-10-22
4. "That He Should Weep for Her" / 1964-11-05
5. "The Kamchatka Incident" / 1964-11-12
6. "The Jack Is High" / 1964-11-19
7. "Graffiti" / 1964-11-26
8. "One Tiger to a Hill" / 1964-12-03
9. "Threepersons" / 1964-12-10
10. "The Gun" / 1964-12-24
11. "The Wine-Dark Sea" / 1964-12-31
12. "In Darkness, Waiting: Part 1" / 1965-01-14
13. "In Darkness, Waiting: Part 2" / 1965-01-21
14. "That Time in Havana" / 1965-02-11
15. "Four into Zero" / 1965-02-18
16. "Streetcar, Do You Read Me?" / 1965-02-25
17. "The Last Clear Chance" / 1965-03-11
18. *"Won't It Ever Be Morning?" / 1965-03-18
19. "Nobody Will Ever Know" / 1965-03-25
20. *"The Green Felt Jungle" / 1965-04-01
21. "Rapture at Two-Forty" / 1965-04-15
22. *"Jungle of Fear" / 1965-04-22
23. "Kill No More" / 1965-04-29
24. "The Long Ravine" / 1965-05-06
25. "The Easter Breach" / 1965-05-13
26. "The Safe House" / 1965-05-20
27. "Twixt the Cup and the Lip" / 1965-06-03
28. "The Trains of Silence" / 1965-06-10
29. "Kill Me on July 20th" / 1965-06-17
30. "The Rise and Fall of Eddie Carew" / 1965-06-24
31. "Connery's Hands" / 1965-07-01

*pilot for unsold series

Syndication

Reruns of the series have been shown on RTV and Antenna TV under the name Suspense Theatre, although many prints of episodes have had the syndicated rerun title "Crisis".

External links

• Kraft Suspense Theatre at the Internet Movie Database
• Kraft Suspense Theatre at TV.com
• Kraft Suspense Theatre at epguides.com