Public Prosecutor is an American television series produced in 1947–1948, which first aired in 1951. It was the first dramatic series to be shot on film instead of being performed and broadcast live. It was originally planned to be broadcast on the NBC Television Network, but the series' 20-minute length caused the show to be problematic.Bristol-Myers Mulls 'Prosecutor' Series", Billboard, August 27, 1949, p. 10. It was renamed Crawford Mystery Theatre and was shown on the DuMont Television Network.

Broadcast history Public Prosecutor was the first dramatic series to be shot on film (in this case, 16 mm film to save production costs), instead of being performed and broadcast live."Half Hour Video Films Shot in 2 Days, Cost $10,000", The Washington Post, May 1, 1949, p. T1.Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, 1948, v. 51, no. 6, p. 592."NBC Mulls Video Pix Distrib", Billboard, Nov. 6, 1948, p. 11.

John Howard starred in the title role of public prosecutor Stephen Allen, along with Anne Gwynne as his secretary Patricia Kelly and Walter Sande as his assistant Evans. Each story began with the cast members addressing the camera (representing the TV viewers) directly, welcoming them to the office and bringing them up to date on the current case. The supporting casts were familiar from theatrical B movies and serials of the day.

The format was patterned after daytime radio dramas, which ran in 15-minute installments. Jerry Fairbanks Productions filmed the pilot episode in HollywoodThomas Schatz, Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s, University of California Press, 1999, p. 436. . in 1947. After the NBC Television Network picked up the series, Fairbanks filmed 26 episodes for a planned network premiere in September 1948."The News of Radio", The New York Times, March 17, 1948, p. 50."The News of Radio", The New York Times, April 6, 1948, p. 46. The completed films ran about 17-1/2 minutes each, like MGM's theatrical Crime Does Not Pay short subjects. Producer Fairbanks, who had made shorts for theaters since the late 1930s, may have foreseen Public Prosecutor having a second life as a theatrical series; the two-reel length was ideal for movie theaters, but too long for a 15-minute TV show and too short for a half-hour show.

Public Prosecutor was pulled from the network schedule when NBC decided it preferred 30-minute episodes.Stanley Rubin, "A (Very) Personal History of the First Sponsored Film Series on National Television", E-Media Studies, vol. 1, issue 1 (2008).

Production of the still-unseen series was suspended in October 1948 due to high costs and the lack of a national sponsor."News of TV and Radio", The New York Times, Oct. 24, 1948, p. X11. Instead, the NBC anthology series Your Show Time became American television's first filmed dramatic series to be broadcast, in January 1949.Rubin, ibid. Although Rubin writes that Your Show Time went on the air in September 1948 on the East Coast, no evidence has been found for this. The New York Times published an article on January 17, 1949, about the debut of the series on network television. The earliest syndicated airings of Public Prosecutor were in February 1951."Brewers Ogle TV As Spring Nears", Billboard, February 24, 1951, p. 6.

The DuMont Television Network broadcast the series as Crawford Mystery Theatre (named after sponsor Crawford Clothes) September 6–27, 1951, and continuing locally until February 28, 1952. The producers turned it into a panel show to fill out the program to 30 minutes. Each week, three guest panelists watched an episode, which was halted just before the climax. Each panelist then tried to guess the identity of the guilty party. Veteran radio announcer and future game-show host Warren Hull presided over the half-hour version of Public Prosecutor.

When Public Prosecutor was syndicated in the 1950s, the episodes had been re-edited to fit a 15-minute time slot."Official Loses Distribution of Fairbanks Film", Billboard, Jan. 19, 1952, p. 8."Consolidated TV, Fairbanks in Deal", Billboard, August 9, 1952, p. 10. Film and television historian Christopher Anderson writes, Narrated by Howard, who addresses the camera throughout much of the story, the bare-bones mystery plots are condensed to fit into fifteen-minute segments modeled after the format of radio episodes. The verbal exposition is so insistent that the images begin to seem redundant; the episodes truly resemble radio with pictures. Sets are undecorated. Actors appear distracted, if not anguished, as they try to hit their marks consistently in the first take. In spite of the opportunities for shot selection offered by the Multicam system, the camera work consists mainly of single-take medium shots or simple over-the-shoulder dialogue sequences.Thomas Schatz (ed), Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s, University of California Press, 1999, p. 438. .

Episode status One episode of Public Prosecutor is in the collection of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. Currently there are at least 10 episodes posted on YouTube.Public Prosecutor episodes on YouTube Alpha Video has released eight episodes of the series in a two-volume DVD set.

Episodes

See also List of programs broadcast by the DuMont Television Network List of surviving DuMont Television Network broadcasts 1947–48 United States network television schedule 1951–52 United States network television schedule

References

Bibliography David Weinstein, The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004) Alex McNeil, Total Television, Fourth edition (New York: Penguin Books, 1980) Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present, Ninth edition (New York: Ballantine Books, 2007)

External links

List of episodes at CTVA DuMont historical website "The Case of the Comic-Strip Murder" (aired September 20, 1951) at Internet Archive "The Case of the Man Who Wasn't There" (aired January 17, 1952) at Internet Archive Public Prosecutor episodes on YouTube