Hallmark Hall of Fame

The Hallmark Hall of Fame specials are among the high points of each television season. The dramas, usually movie-length, bring to the viewers fine actors in quality adaptations of recent Broadway shows or older classic plays, as well as screenplays based on popular books. The presentations are shown during holiday seasons, which are peak card-giving periods, and times that the sponsor, Hallmark Cards, wants to get its name before the public. While the programs are praised for their quality, by industry standards they are not always big hits in terms of ratings. Yet, Hallmark has been steadfast in their support because the quality of the programs enhances the corporate reputation for quality.

The first special was presented on December 24, 1951 as a "thank you" to the consumers who had sent Hallmark Cards over the holidays. The host, Sarah Churchill, briefly thanked the viewers for their support of Hallmark Cards, then Gian Carlo Menotti's Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors was shown without further interruption. It was the first opera to be shown on television.

Each succeeding year Hallmark has presented some of the most acclaimed programs of any given season. The first specials were often

Shakespearean plays such as Hamlet (1953 with Maurice Evans and restaged in 1970 with Richard Chamberlain), MacBeth (1954), and Taming of the Shrew (1956), but the first programs also included non-classical plays such as Alice in Wonderland (1955), Born Yesterday (1956), and Victoria Regina (1961). The series has been responsible for bringing to television viewers such exceptional plays as Anastasia (1967), Winter of Our Discontent (1983), The Secret Garden (1987), Stones for Ibarra (1988), April Morning (1988), and Sarah, Tall and Plain (1991) which was the highest rated movie of the season—two years later the sequel, Skylark, was aired (1993). Also presented in 1993 was To Dance with the White Dog which was the top-rated movie for the 1993-1994 season.

Hallmark Hall of Fame has also showcased other plays by Shakespeare, including Richard II and The Tempest, as well as six plays by George Bernard Shaw, including Pygmalion, Saint Joan, and Caesar and Cleopatra. More current works have included Rod Serling's A Storm in Summer, James Costigan's Little Moon of Alban, John Nuefeld's Lisa Bright and Dark, and Sherman Yellen's Beauty and the Beast.

In addition to critical acclamations, some of the presentations have won praise for their depiction of current social problems. Two such acclaimed specials were Promise (1986) which concerned the difficulties faced by a man caring for his mentally ill brother, and My Name is Bill W (1989) which chronicled the life of the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Both specials starred James Garner and James Woods.

Often cited as epitomizing the company slogan, "when you care to send the very best," Hallmark Hall of Fame received a Peabody in 1964 and Joyce Hall, president of Hallmark Cards, was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1985.

—Denise Lowe