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Compact Video
Four Star Television, also called Four Star International, was an American television production company. Founded in 1952 as Four Star Productions by prominent Hollywood actors Dick Powell, David Niven, Charles Boyer and Joel McCrea, it was inspired by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz founding Desilu Productions a year earlier. McCrea left soon after its founding to continue in films, television and radio, and was replaced by Ida Lupino as the fourth star—although Lupino did not own stock in the company. Four Star produced several popular programs in the early days of television, including '' Four Star Playhouse'' (its first series), '' Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre'', '' Stagecoach West'', '' The June Allyson Show'' (also known as ''The DuPont Show Starring June Allyson''), '' The Dick Powell Show'', '' Burke's Law'', '' The Rogues'' and '' The Big Valley''. Despite its stars sharing equal billing, Powell played the biggest role in the company's early success and growth. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Four Star Logo
4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is a square number, the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. Evolution of the Hindu-Arabic digit Brahmic numerals represented 1, 2, and 3 with as many lines. 4 was simplified by joining its four lines into a cross that looks like the modern plus sign. The Shunga would add a horizontal line on top of the digit, and the Kshatrapa and Pallava evolved the digit to a point where the speed of writing was a secondary concern. The Arabs' 4 still had the early concept of the cross, but for the sake of efficiency, was made in one stroke by connecting the "western" end to the "northern" end; the "eastern" end was finished off with a curve. The Europeans dropped the finishing curve and gradually made the digit less cursive, ending up with a digit very close to the original Brahmin cross. While the shape of the character f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by ''Time (magazine), Time'' in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for her work in all four of these areas. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She earned many honors, including the Women in Film Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards#THE CRYSTAL AWARD, Crystal Award, an induction into the Television Hall of Fame, a Kennedy Center Honors, Kennedy Center Honor, and the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Ball's career began in 1929 when she landed work as a model. Shortly thereafter, she began her performing career on Broadway theatre, Broadway using the stage name Diane (or Dianne) Belmont. She later appeared in films i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Trackdown (TV Series)
''Trackdown'' is an American Western television series starring Robert Culp that aired on CBS between 1957 and 1959. The series was produced by Dick Powell's Four Star Television and filmed at the Desilu-Culver Studio. ''Trackdown'' was a spin-off of Powell's anthology series, '' Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre''. The series was sponsored by the American Tobacco Company via its Lucky Strike brand and Mobil. Overview ''Trackdown'' stars Robert Culp as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman. It is set in the 1870s after the American Civil War. In early episodes, stories focused on Gilman going to different Texas towns in pursuit of wanted fugitives. At midseason, the series became set in the town of Porter, Texas. Episodes touched on multiple Western themes and topics, so it was known as "the thinking man's Western". Gilman is the'' de facto'' sheriff in Porter. His friends in the town include Henrietta Porter (portrayed by Ellen Corby). She is the widow of the town's founder an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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The Rifleman
''The Rifleman'' is an American Western television series starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the fictional town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show was filmed in black and white, in half-hour episodes. ''The Rifleman'' aired on ABC from September 30, 1958, to April 8, 1963, as a production of Four Star Television. It was one of the first primetime series on American television to show a single parent raising a child. The program was titled to reflect McCain's use of a Winchester Model 1892 rifle (an anachronism, as the show was set in the 1880s) which had been customized to allow repeated firing by cycling its lever action. He demonstrated this technique in the opening credits, as well as a second modification that allowed him to cycle the action with one hand using a technique known as "spin-cocking". Overview The series centers on Lucas McCain, a Union veteran of the America ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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The Big Valley
''The Big Valley'' is an American Western television series that originally aired from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969 on ABC. The series is set on the fictional Barkley Ranch in Stockton, California, from 1884 to 1888. The one-hour episodes follow the lives of the Barkley family, one of the wealthiest and largest ranch-owning families in Stockton, led by matriarch Victoria Barkley ( Barbara Stanwyck), her sons Jarrod ( Richard Long) and Nick ( Peter Breck), daughter Audra ( Linda Evans), and their half-brother Heath ( Lee Majors). The series was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman, and produced by Levy-Gardner-Laven for Four Star Television. Plot synopsis The series begins about 6 years after the death of the family patriarch, Thomas Barkley. Although he is never shown in the series (other than a painting and a statue), the character of Thomas Barkley is referred to as a major plot point many times. The character of Heath Barkley is introduced in epis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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The Rogues (TV Series)
''The Rogues'' is an American television series that aired on NBC from September 13, 1964, to April 18, 1965, starring David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Gig Young as a related trio of former con men who could, for the right price, be persuaded to trick a very wealthy and heinously unscrupulous mark. Although it won the 1964 Golden Globe award for Best Television Series, the show was cancelled after one season consisting of thirty episodes. Production Niven and Boyer were two of the co-owners of Four Star Television, which produced the show. Although sometimes appearing together, the three lead actors tended to rotate appearances as their schedules permitted. This resulted in Young helming more episodes because the other two were engaged on other projects; Boyer and Niven were still major film stars (Niven had received an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1958). Larry Hagman was brought aboard for the last two episodes to help fill in for Young, who had been the lead in most of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Burke's Law (1963 TV Series)
''Burke's Law'' is an American detective fiction, detective television program, series that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from 1963 to 1966. The show starred Gene Barry as millionaire captain of the Los Angeles Police Department's homicide division Amos Burke, who is chauffeured around to solve crimes in his 1962 Rolls-Royce car, Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II complete with an early car phone. The original series was converted into a spy drama, ''Amos Burke Secret Agent'', in its third and final season. The series was Burke's Law (1994 TV series), revived in 1994–1995 on CBS, with Barry reprising the role of the millionaire detective. Premise The show shares stylistic similarities with Barry's previous series, ''Bat Masterson (TV series), Bat Masterson'', in which he played a debonair lawman of the Old West. During the opening credits, as the title flashes onscreen, a woman's voice seductively pronounces the words "It's Burke's Law!" The title also reflects Burke' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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The Dick Powell Show
''The Dick Powell Show'' is an American television anthology series that aired on NBC from September 26, 1961 until September 17, 1963, primarily sponsored by the Reynolds Metals Company. Overview The series was an anthology of various dramas and comedies. Programs were initially hosted by longtime film star Dick Powell until his death from lung cancer on January 2, 1963, then by a series of guest hosts (under the revised title ''The Dick Powell Theatre'') until the series ended. The first of these hosts was Gregory Peck, who began the January 8 program with a tribute to Powell, recognizing him as "a great and good friend to our industry." Peck was followed by fellow actors such as Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, Glenn Ford, Charles Boyer, Jackie Cooper, Rock Hudson, Milton Berle, Jack Lemmon, Dean Martin, Robert Taylor, Steve McQueen, David Niven, Danny Thomas, Robert Wagner and John Wayne. It featured many future stars, producers, and directors early i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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The June Allyson Show
''The DuPont Show with June Allyson'' (also known as ''The June Allyson Show'') is an American anthology drama series which aired on CBS from September 21, 1959, to April 3, 1961, with rebroadcasts continuing until June 12, 1961. The series was hosted by actress June Allyson and was a Four Star-Pamric Production. Allyson sometimes starred in episodes, one of which ("A Summer's Ending") was her first appearance on TV with her husband, Dick Powell. Aaron Spelling was the producer. Paul Henreid, James Neilson, and Jack Smight were directors. Richard Levinson and William Link William Theodore Link (December 15, 1933 – December 27, 2020) was an American film and television screenwriter and producer who often worked in collaboration with Richard Levinson. Biography Early life Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ... were writers for the program. Allyson took offense when critics dismissed the program with comments that included comparing its episodes to contents of wom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Stagecoach West (TV Series)
''Stagecoach West'' is an American Westerns on television, Western television series about stagecoach drivers on the American frontier. It stars Wayne Rogers, Richard Eyer, and Robert Bray, and originally aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It premiered on October 4, 1960 and ended on June 27, 1961, with a total of 38 episodes over the course of one season. Synopsis Luke Perry and Simon "Sime" Kane are veterans of the American Civil War who own and operate a stagecoach line on the American frontier.McNeil, Alex, ''Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present, Fourth Edition'', New York: Penguin Books, 1996, , p. 783.Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present (Sixth Edition)'', New York: Ballantine Books, 1995, , pp. 967–968. They share driving duties during stagecoach runs, and Sime′s courageous and resourceful son Davey often accompanies them on their trips. Based ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
''Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre'' is an American Western anthology television series broadcast on CBS from October 5, 1956 until May 18, 1961. Synopsis Many episodes were based on novels by Zane Grey, to all of which Four Star Films held exclusive rights. Dick Powell was the host and the star of some episodes. Many of the guest stars made their TV debuts on the program. Powell said that working with Grey's stories proved to be both a benefit and a challenge. While he spoke of "the vast output of wonderful action stories from Zane Grey's pen", he acknowledged the challenge of "trying to compress a novel into half an hour of storytelling on television." Some stories could be adapted relatively easily, while others had to be skipped or only parts of them could be used for scripts. Over time, script writers used up the supply of adaptable material from Grey and began to adapt other authors' stories. Episodes Production Development ''The Zane Grey Radio Show'' had ru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Four Star Playhouse
''Four Star Playhouse'' (syndicated as Star Performance) is an American anthology series that ran from September 25, 1952, through September 27, 1956. Overview Four Star Playhouse was owned by Four Star International. Its episodes ranged anywhere from surreal mysteries, such as "The Man on the Train", to light comedies, such as "The Lost Silk Hat". The original premise for the program was that Charles Boyer, Dick Powell, Rosalind Russell, and Joel McCrea would rotate as stars of episodes. By the time it debuted, David Niven and Ida Lupino had replaced McCrea and Russell. In addition to those four stars, other performers, including Ronald Colman, Joan Fontaine, Frank Lovejoy, Merle Oberon, and Teresa Wright occasionally had leading roles. Powell portrayed the recurring character of illegal gambling-house operator Willie Dante. The character was later revamped and spun off in his own series starring Howard Duff. Cast Many actors appeared in different roles in mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |