Wide Wide World was a 90-minute documentary series telecast live on NBC on
Sunday afternoons at 4pm Eastern. Hosed by Dave Garroway (above), Wide
Wide World was introduced on the Producer’s Showcase series on June 27,
1955. The premiere episode, featuring entertainment from the US, Canada
and Mexico, was the first international North American telecast in the history
of television. It returned in the fall as a regular Sunday series, telecast from
October 16, 1955 to June 8, 1958. The program was sponsored by General
Motors. In March 1956, Time magazine reported that it was the highest-rated
daytime show on television.

Matinee Theatre was a anthology series is an that aired on NBC during the Golden
Age of Television, from October 31, 1955 to June 27, 1958. The series consisted
of five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote
color TV, which had just been developed, to the American housewife.

Dark Shadows was a gothic soap that originally aired weekdays on the ABC
television network, from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. It was unprecedented
in daytime television when ghosts were introduced about six months after it
began.The series became hugely popular when vampire Barnabas Collins,
played by Jonathan Frid (above) appeared a year into its run. Dark Shadows
also featured werewolves, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks,
time travel, and a parallel universe. Now regarded as somewhat of a camp
classic, it continues to enjoy an intense cult following.