Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951)
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then changed to videotaped productions before finally changing to filmed ones. The series has received eighty Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes. Once a common practice in American television, it is the last remaining television program such that the title includes the name of the sponsor. Unlike other long-running TV series still on the air, it differs in that it broadcasts only occasionally and not on a weekly broadcast programming schedule.
- Kenneth Blackwell
- Tennyson Flowers
- Richard Friedenberg
Stars:
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Episode 1 - To Dance with the White Dog
Release Date: 1993-12-05A story about marital love, old age and death. Robert Samuel ('Mr. Sam') Peek, a sagacious and seasoned pecan tree grower from rural Georgia, has been married for the last 57 years or so to his college sweetheart, Cora. When she suddenly passes away, Sam becomes increasingly lonely--until he befriends a snow-white dog that strays onto the Peek property. People wonder if the animal is real or merely a figment of Mr. Sam's imagination. Then Mr. Sam and the dog take a fateful journey to a college reunion.
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Episode 2 - Breathing Lessons
Release Date: 1994-02-06ACADEMY AWARD WINNER! According to Mark O'Brien, ""The two mythologies about disabled people break down to one: we can't do anything, or two: we can do everything. But the truth is, we're just human."" O'Brien was a frequently published journalist and poet, and a contributor to National Public Radio. He contracted polio in childhood and, due to post-polio syndrome, spent much of his life in an iron lung. Yet for more than forty years, he fought against illness, bureaucracy and society's conflicting perceptions of disability for his right to lead an independent life.Breathing Lessons breaks down barriers to understanding by presenting an honest and intimate portrait of a complex, intelligent, beautiful and interesting person, who happens to be disabled. Incorporating the vivid imagery of O'Brien's poetry, and his candid, wry and often profound reflections on work, sex, death and God, this provocative film asks: what makes a life worth living?
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Episode 3 - A Place for Annie
Release Date: 1993-05-01A Place for Annie is a 1994 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie that stars Sissy Spacek, Mary-Louise Parker and Joan Plowright. Directed by John Gray, the 191st presentation aired on the ABC network on May 1, 1994.