"Patterns" was an American

television play A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television movi ...

broadcast live on January 12, 1955, as part of the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

television series, ''

Kraft Television Theatre ''Kraft Television Theatre'' is an American anthology drama television series running from 1947 to 1958. It began May 7, 1947, on NBC, airing at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. It first promoted MacLaren's Impe ...

''. Because of its popularity, it was restaged on February 9, 1955. It was written by

Rod Serling Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his Anthology series, anthology television series ''The Twilight Zone (1 ...

and directed by

Fielder Cook Fielder Cook (March 9, 1923 – June 20, 2003) was an American television and film director, producer, and writer whose 1971 television film ''The Homecoming: A Christmas Story'' spawned the series ''The Waltons''. Biography and career Born in ...

Everett Sloane Everett H. Sloane (October 1, 1909 – August 6, 1965) was an American character actor who worked in radio, theatre, films, and television. Early life Sloane was born in Manhattan on October 1, 1909, to Nathaniel I. Sloane and Rose (Gerst ...

Richard Kiley Richard Paul Kiley (March 31, 1922 – March 5, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor and singer. He is best-known for his distinguished theatrical career in which he twice won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Kile ...

, and

Ed Begley Edward James Begley Sr. (March 25, 1901 – April 28, 1970) was an American actor of theatre, radio, film, and television. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film '' Sweet Bird of Youth'' (1962) an ...

starred.

Summary

Ruthless corporate boss Walter Ramsie (played by

; called Ramsey in the film adaptation) attempts to edge out aging employee Andy Sloane (played by

) to make room for newcomer Fred Staples (played by

). Ramsie uses every opportunity to humiliate the fragile Sloane, while Staples sees Sloane as a professional who makes valuable contributions to the firm. After a dramatic boardroom argument with Ramsie, Sloane collapses from a heart attack and dies. Staples tenders his resignation, but is convinced by Ramsie to stay in the play's climactic confrontation scene.

Cast

The cast consisted of the following: *

as Mr. Ramsie *

as Fred Staples *

as Andy Sloane * June Dayton as Fran Staples *

Joanna Roos Joanna Roos (born Dorothy Roos, January 11, 1901 – May 13, 1989) was an American Broadway, radio, television, and film actress and a playwright. She was born in Brooklyn in 1901 and attended Syracuse University as well as Yvette Guilbert's Scho ...

as Miss Lanier *

Elizabeth Montgomery Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery (April 15, 1933 – May 18, 1995) was an American actress whose career spanned five decades in film, stage, and television. She portrayed the good witch List of Bewitched characters#Samantha Stephens, Samantha Step ...

as Ann Evans *

Elizabeth Wilson Elizabeth Welter Wilson (April 4, 1921 – May 9, 2015) was an American actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years, including memorable roles in film and television. In 1972 she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for ...

as Marge Fleming * Jack Arthur as Starter * Victoria Ward as Miss Stevens * Sybil Baker as Telephone Operator * Shirley Standlee as Miss Hill * Theodore Newton as Mr. Gordon * Jack Livesey as Mr. Jamieson * Ronnie Welsh as Paul Sloane * Tom Charles * Ron Harper * Victor Harrison * Helen Ludlom * Joseph Mac Cauley * Al Morgen * Douglas Rutherford * Chuck Wallace

Reception

Serling's celebrated script tore apart the dynamics of the business world and earned Serling his first of six

Emmys The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for dramatic writing. There was a rave review from Jack Gould of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' who suggested it be repeated:

Nothing in months has excited the television industry as much as the ''Kraft Television Theatres production of ''Patterns'', an original play by Rod Serling. The enthusiasm is justified. In writing, acting and direction, ''Patterns'' will stand as one of the high points in the TV medium's evolution. ''Patterns'' is a play with one point of view toward the fiercely competitive world of big business and is bound to be compared with the current motion picture ''
Executive Suite ''Executive Suite'' is a 1954 American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer drama film directed by Robert Wise and written by Ernest Lehman, based on the 1952 novel of the same name by Cameron Hawley. The film stars William Holden, June Allyson, Barbara St ...
''. By comparison, ''Executive Suite'' might be ''Babes in Toyland'' without a score. For sheer power of narrative, forcefulness of characterization and brilliant climax, Mr. Serling's work is a creative triumph that can stand on its own. In one of those inspired moments that make the theater the wonder that it is, ''Patterns'' was an evening that belonged to the many, not only to Mr. Serling. The performances of Everett Sloane, Ed Begley and
Richard Kiley Richard Paul Kiley (March 31, 1922 – March 5, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor and singer. He is best-known for his distinguished theatrical career in which he twice won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Kile ...
were truly superb. The production and direction of Fielder Cook constituted a fluid use of video's artistic tools that underscore how little the TV artistic horizons really have been explored. ''Patterns'' was seen from 9 to 10pm Wednesday over the National Broadcasting Company's network; a repeat performance at an early date should be mandatory.

Gould's request for a repeat was an unusual suggestion, since in that pre-videotape era, live shows were not repeated. Surprisingly, NBC took Gould's suggestion seriously and made plans for another production.

Second live performance

When ''Patterns'' returned on February 9, 1955, it was once again performed live, an unprecedented event. This was the first time a television drama was repeated due to popularity. The second performance, directly sustained by

Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

' advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson, was captured on

kinescope Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 1940s ...

and is available for viewing at

The Paley Center for Media The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and the Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution in New York City with a branch office in Los Angeles. It is de ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. On March 27, 1956, a feature-length film version of ''Patterns'' was released. The film featured an expanded script by Serling.

Van Heflin Emmett Evan "Van" Heflin Jr. (December 13, 1908 – July 23, 1971) was an American theatre, radio, and film actor. He played mostly character parts over the course of his film career, but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man. ...

replaced Kiley in the role of Fred Staples. In the April 27, 2008, edition of ''TV Week'', the television critic

Tom Shales Thomas William Shales (November 3, 1944 – January 13, 2024) was an American writer and television critic. He was a television critic for ''The Washington Post'' from 1977 to 2010, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1 ...

compared the movie unfavorably to the live TV production:

Some people thought live TV was the beginning of a truly new storytelling medium—one uniquely suited to intimate, unadorned, psychological dramas—but it turned out to be a beginning with a tiny middle and a rushed end... ''Patterns'' was so well-received that Kraft mounted a live repeat of the show a month later, and the intimate TV show was turned into a less intimate (and somehow less satisfying) movie in 1956. Except for the use of terms like “mimeographed” and “teletype,” little about the drama seems dated, unless one is of the opinion that corporate politics and boardroom bloodletting no longer exist... With minimally judicious scene-setting (shots of clocks, a building directory, a switchboard) and a rapid introduction of characters, Serling pulls a viewer almost immediately into his story, a tale of corporate morality—or the lack of it—and such everyday battles as the ones waged between conscience and ambition.Shales, Tom. "Serling's ''Patterns'' an Icon of Lost Era," ''TV Week'', April 27, 2008.
/ref>

References

{{reflist

External links

"Serling's ''Patterns'' an Icon of Lost Era" by Tom Shales
1955 American television episodes Television anthology episodes Kraft Television Theatre 1955 television plays