This week, I thought I’d share a few links a friend, John, shared with me from an online course for adults he’s been teaching at a suburban Philadelphia university. The course is on “The Golden Age of Television,” with each session covering a TV play from the early 1950s. Here are the three plays in chronological order of when they aired, with a few notes from John:

Marty; broadcast May 23, 1953 on NBC’s Philco Television Playhouse

The Strike, broadcast on Studio One, June 7, 1954, on CBS:

This was Rod Serling’s first major teleplay about war, based on his personal experiences and observations in World War II.

Twelve Angry Men Restored Kinescope. Originally Broadcast live on Westinghouse Studio One, September 20, 1954:

It was written by Reginald Rose, produced by Felix Jackson, and directed by Franklin Schaffner. The cast was Robert Cummings, Franchot Tone, Norman Fell, Edward Arnold, John Beal, George Voskovec, Joseph Sweeney, Lee Philips, Walter Abel, Bart Burns, Vincent Gardenia and Larkin Ford. Fell, you might remember, as the landlord from Three’s Company: Gardenia, the father in Moonstruck. For those older folks among my reader, Furness was the long-time spokesperson for Westinghouse who said at the end of the commercials “Remember, you can be sure if it’s Westinghouse.”

John also shared this interview with Delbert Mann who directed Marty talking about the television production and Paddy Chayefsky: