As I warned you all in my post on Space Command, we’re entering a very hazy period of time regarding any concrete information on a lot of Shatner’s appearances. This “haze” doesn’t really start to clear until about 1960 or so, when things definitely get more pinned down. In the meantime, new information has come to light that forces me to deviate from my plan to talk about Shatner’s appearance in The Taming of the Shrew for Stratford, and backtrack just a few months to discuss a TV appearance instead.
While doing some research for my next few posts, I ran across an article and radio program about William Shatner for the CBC. The images shown were for a number of productions I had never heard of. I did some more digging, and found a bit more information on these shows on IMDB.
And then I noticed that there were about 8-10 other shows that were also appearing on IMDB that hadn’t been there when I was building my initial Shatner database. So, I spent several hours this morning slotting in all of the information that I could find regarding these appearances. And that information was really, really sparse, but I’ve done what I could. After this post, my next tasks will be to update some of the information in previous reviews, because even little changes can affect the whole of Shatner’s web.
So let’s dive into the CBC Theatre’s, “The Man Who Ran Away” from early April 1954, shall we?
CBC Theatre was a Canadian anthology series that debuted in 1953 as one of the very first dramatic programs for the fledgling CBC television network. In 1954, it changed it’s name to General Motors Theatre to align with its new corporate sponsor. In 1958 it changed names again to General Motors Presents and continued under that moniker until it left the airwaves in 1961. Also in 1958, ABC bought the rights to 39 episodes to be shown in the United States under the series name of Encounter (which is how it appears on IMDB), but apparently only 5 were ever aired.
If IMDB is to be believed, Shatner appeared on the program a total of 9 times from 1954-1960. The first of these appearances was for an episode called “The Man Who Ran Away.” I’m guessing that Shatner accepted the invitation to join the Stratford Festival in early 1954, and parlayed the cache that the invitation conferred on him to start working in Toronto for the CBC, probably (but not certainly…remember the haze?) first off in Space Command. Being there at the CBC then allowed him to work in other productions, including shows like CBC Theatre.
So what was this episode about, what was Shatner’s role in it and how was it?
Who the hell knows? I found zero information on the program outside of IMDB. Nothing. If anyone has any further info on this thing, drop me a line and let me know!
Shatnerweb’s Rating:
Unknown – Not Viewed
Shat Level: Unknown – Not Viewed
Shatner’s Web
It’s time to detail all of the connections between CBC Theatre’s “The Man Who Ran Away” and other Shatner appearances! As I have stated several times, the information that I have on this program and Shatner’s involvement with it is very spotty, so take everything you read below with a huge grain of salt.
An actress by the name of Corinne Conley appeared in this episode. She would go on to appear with Shatner in two more episodes of General Motors Theatre/Presents, November of 1954’s “The Black Eye” and 1960’s “The Well.” She also appeared with Shatner on a 1955 episode of Scope titled “Antiquity 1954.” Astonishingly, after 1960 she would not work with Shatner again until the 2015 movie, A Christmas Horror Story. I love discovering stuff like that as I examine Shatner’s web!
Josephine Barrington would work with Shatner again on another episode later in the same year entitled “I Like It Here.”
Robert Christie worked with Shatner at the Stratford Festival in a number of productions, as well as on Broadway in the short-lived 1956 run of Tamburlaine the Great. He also appeared with The Shat in a 1955 episode of Scope, “The Verdict Was Treason.”
Alex McKee also worked on that Scope episode, “The Verdict Was Treason”, as well as a late 1954 episode of General Motors Theatre, “The Black Eye.”
Louis Negin was at Stratford for some productions with Shatner, plus Tamburlaine the Great and the film version of Oedipus Rex.
Kate Reid appeared with Shatner next in the 1955 episode of Playbill, “Mr. Finchley Versus the Bomb.” She also appeared as Portia in the 1960 television production of “Julius Caesar” for the program Festival.
The director of this episode, David Greene, would go on to direct Shatner twice more about a decade later: first in a 1964 episode of The Defenders, called “The Uncivil War” and then in a 1965 episode of Shatner’s first series For the People, “To Prosecute All Crimes.”
Sydney Newman, who was the producer of CBC/General Motors Theatre, was also the Supervising Producer at the CBC for much of the early to mid-1950’s. He left in the late 1950’s to create and produce programs in England. Probably his most famous creation? Doctor Who, in 1963. Before that though, he would go on to act as producer or supervising producer in the Shatner-featuring General Motors‘ episodes “Billy Budd,” “Forever Galatea,” “I Like It Here,” “Never Say No,” “The Black Eye,” and “The Coming Out of Ellie Swan.” He was also supervising producer of The Canadian Howdy Doody Show when Shatner would have appeared on it.
Further Studies
Read a bit more about General Motors Theatre here.
When Sydney Newman died, The Museum of Broadcast Communications described him as “the most significant agent in the development of British television drama.” Read up on him here.
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