The series consisted of live presentations of stories written for Cosmopolitan magazine, and was one of many TV series airing "tele-plays" at the time.[2]
Episode status
The program was broadcast live. If any episodes exist, they would be in the form of kinescope recordings.[3]
Louis G. Cowan packaged Cosmopolitan Theatre; Sherman Marks was the producer and director.[6] Writers of episodes included Richard Macauley[4] and David Shaw.[5]
The show replaced Cavalcade of Bands[6] from 9 to 10 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays.[2] It originated from WABD and was carried live to 14 stations with 10 more showing it via kinescope.[6]
Critical response
In December 1951, critic John Crosby called Cosmopolitan Theatre "the Dumont network's most elaborate entry into the dramatic field".[7] He noted that restricting the show's content to stories from the magazine "places a rather severe limit not only on the range of material but also on the type of material open to this program."[7] He noted that the two forms of media differed greatly in the ways they affected audiences and ended the review with the comment, "TV has conditioned us to accept a much harder degree of reality than most slick fiction has ever attempted."[7]
^McNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present (4th ed.). New York, New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc. p. 182. ISBN0-14-02-4916-8.
