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"Goodyear Television Playhouse" Visit to a Small Planet (1955)
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showtimesofficial sitesmiscellaneousphotographssound clipsvideo clips"Goodyear Television Playhouse" Visit to a Small Planet (1955)
Overview
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Director:
Writer:
Gore Vidal (writer)
TV Series:
Original Air Date:
8 May 1955
(Season 4, Episode 16)
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Elegy for a lost masterpiece
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Cast
(Episode Credited cast)| Edward Andrews | ... | Roger Spelding | |
| Theodore Bikel | ... | Paul Laurent | |
| Sylvia Davis | ... | Mrs. Spelding | |
| Alfred De La Fuente | ... | President of Paraguay | |
| Louis Edmonds | ... | Second Visitor | |
| Bruce Kirby | ... | Aide | |
| Jill Kraft | ... | Ellen Spelding | |
| Alan Reed | ... | General Powers | |
| Cyril Ritchard | ... | Kreton | |
| Dick York | ... | John Randolph |
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Trivia:
Bruce Kirby's TV debut.
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I write this review of a show no one will ever see only in hopes of redeeming the reputation of a beautiful and moving story "Visit to a Small Planet". Most have seen Gore Vidal's play only as filmed in the 1960 Jerry Lewis version. I saw part of this on television once. I recall that I did not last much beyond the first commercial, for that bastardized disaster was emphatically *not* "Visit to a Small Planet" with the towering and elegant Cyril Ritchard as the visiting alien. There is still a remembered sad smile of poignancy in the ending of this gentle parable. Presumably long lost and never to be seen again, the *real* "Visit to a Small Planet" will ever live in my memory and make me thankful that I was able to see the flickering black and white images of a vibrant television era when talent and skill counted for more that electronic sophistication. At least occasionally. Towering above the idiotic comedies of the time, plays broadcast such as "Visit to a Small Planet" paved the way for the best dramas of today.