Television: Matinee's Fadeout

In its 2½ years as five-day-a-week afternoon fare, NBC's live hour-long Matinee Theater, the only daytime color TV show on any network, has launched dozens of new writers and a score of directors, given more roles to actors than MGM. Among its 29 tons of scripts, the show has adapted worthy works ranging from Jane Austen to Emile Zola. As a sheer piece of logistics, it has piled up phenomenal records: it has used 15,243 costumes, 4,203 settings, 210,103 props, and 9,035 gallons of coffee to keep the casts and crews rolling on. It...

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