Bus Stop (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Bus Stop is a 26-episode drama
which aired on ABC
from October 1, 1961
, until March 25, 1962
, starring Marilyn Maxwell
as Grace Sherwood, the owner of a bus station
and diner
in the fictitious town of Sunrise in the Colorado
Rockies
. The program was adapted from William Inge
's play, Bus Stop
, and Inge was a script consultant for the series, which followed the lives of travelers passing through the bus station and the diner. Maxwell's co-stars were Richard Anderson
as District Attorney Glenn Wagner, Rhodes Reason
as Sheriff Will Mayberry, Joan Freeman
as waitress Elma Gahrigner, Bernard Kates
as Ralph the coroner, and Buddy Ebsen
as Virge Blessing.
, the head of production at 20th Century Fox
, created Bus Stop. Eight episodes were directed
by Robert Altman
. There were two Emmy Award
nominations: (1) Richard L. Van Enger for "Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing for Television" and (2) Geraldine Brooks for "Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role" for the episode "Call Back Yesterday", which aired on December 10, with David Hedison
as her fellow guest star.
, Bus Stop
, in which Marilyn Monroe
and Don Murray
had the lead roles. The sixth episode (telecast November 12) was the series pilot, "Cherie," the only episode directly based on Inge's play and movie. Tuesday Weld
was cast in the title role of Cherie, an 18-year-old singer who hopes to be discovered in Hollywood, and 24-year-old Gary Lockwood
portrayed Bo, a Montana rodeo
cowboy who wants to marry her. Joseph Cotten
also starred in the episode as Dr. Lyman. Lockwood appeared the same season as investigator Eric Jason in ABC's Follow the Sun
and would star two years later as NBC
's The Lieutenant
. Weld had previously appeared as the materialistic teenager Thalia Menninger on CBS's The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
with Dwayne Hickman
and Bob Denver
.
, Anne Helm
, Bethel Leslie
, Chris Robinson
, and Dean Stockwell
.
Diane Baker
guest starred on October 15 in the episode "The Resurrection of Annie Ahern." James Brolin
had an uncredited role in the episode.
Robert Redford
guest starred as Art Ellison in the October 22 episode "The Covering Darkness". On October 29, in "Portrait of a Hero", the guest stars were John Larch
and Rod Taylor
.
On November 19, Jack Warden
guest starred in the episode "Accessory by Consent". On November 26, Edgar Buchanan
, Jack Carson
, and Burt Mustin
, also Gus the Firefighter in Leave It to Beaver
, appeared in the episode "The Man from Bootstrap".
"A Lion Walks Among Us," (December 3) led to a Congressional hearing on violence. The episode, initially titled "Told By an Idiot", was directed by Altman. It starred Fabian
as Luke Freeman, a maniacal axe-wielding serial killer with Diane Foster
as Sally Wagner. The drama was adapted from Tom Wicker
's 1961 novel, The Judgment.
"And the Pursuit of Evil" aired on December 17, with guest stars James MacArthur
and Keenan Wynn
. On Christmas
eve, the episode "The Runaways", written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., guest starred character actor
Parley Baer
and Joan Tompkins
. On January 7, Steve Forrest and Beverly Garland
starred in "Summer Lightning". Ellen Burstyn
, Richard Conte
, Jason Evers
, and Nina Foch
appeared in "Cry to Heaven" on January 14, 1962.
On January 21 in "The Stubborn Stumbos", Claude Akins
and Earl Holliman
played feuding brothers. On January 28 in "Turn Home Again", the guests were Ruth Roman
, Jack Albertson
, and Wendell Corey
. On February 4 in "How Does Charlie Feel", the guests included character actor J. Pat O'Malley
, Cliff Robertson
, and Ray Teal
, appearing on Bonanza in the same time slot. On February 11 in "Put Your Dreams Away", Gary Merrill
and Felicia Farr
guest starred.
The February 18 segment "The Opposite Virtues" stars Jeanette Nolan
, Lew Ayres
, George Hamilton
, Robert F. Simon
, and Michael Parks
. Howard Duff
and Pippa Scott
guest starred on the March 4 episode "Door Without a Key". Jay C. Flippen
guest starred in the March 11 segment "Verdict of Twelve". In "County General" on March 18, guest stars were Frank Lovejoy
and Donald May
.
The series finale "I Kiss Your Shadow", with Joanne Linville and George Grizzard
as guest stars, is a story of a man crushed by the memory of his wife's death in an automobile
accident. In his book Danse Macabre
, Stephen King
nominated this episode as "...the single most frightening story ever done on TV." King wrote that Bus Stop was "...a straight drama show,... The final episode, however, deviated wildly into the supernatural, and for me, Robert Bloch
's adaptation of his own short story "I Kiss Your Shadow" has never been beaten on TV - and rarely any where else - for eerie, mounting horror."
, which moved for its third season from Saturday to Sunday evenings in the 9 p.m. Eastern slot. Ronald W. Reagan and Jack Benny
appeared at the same hour on CBS in General Electric Theater
(its last season) and The Jack Benny Program
. Bus Stop followed ABC's western
series Lawman
costarring John Russell
and Peter Brown
and preceded Gardner McKay
's Adventures in Paradise
.
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
which aired on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
from October 1, 1961
1961 in television
The year 1961 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1961.For the American TV schedule, see: 1961-62 American network television schedule.-Events:...
, until March 25, 1962
1962 in television
The year 1962 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1962.For the American TV schedule, see: 1962-63 American network television schedule.-Events:...
, starring Marilyn Maxwell
Marilyn Maxwell
Marilyn Maxwell , born Marvel Marilyn Maxwell, was an American actress and entertainer.Noted for her blonde hair and sexually alluring persona, she appeared in several films and radio programs, and entertained the troops during World War II and the Korean War on USO tours with Bob Hope.-Career:She...
as Grace Sherwood, the owner of a bus station
Bus station
A bus station is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. It is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can stop...
and diner
Diner
A diner, also spelled dinor in western Pennsylvania is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially in the Midwest, in New York City, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout...
in the fictitious town of Sunrise in the Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
Rockies
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
. The program was adapted from William Inge
William Inge
William Motter Inge was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s, he had a string of memorable Broadway productions, and one of these, Picnic, earned him a Pulitzer Prize...
's play, Bus Stop
Bus Stop (play)
Bus Stop is a 1955 play by William Inge. The 1956 film is only loosely based upon it.-Characters:Bus Stop is a drama, with romantic and some comedic elements. It is set in a diner in rural Kansas, about 20 miles west of Kansas City, Missouri during a snowstorm from which bus passengers must take...
, and Inge was a script consultant for the series, which followed the lives of travelers passing through the bus station and the diner. Maxwell's co-stars were Richard Anderson
Richard Anderson
Richard Norman Anderson is an American actor in film and television, known to TV audiences as Steve Austin's and Jaime Sommers' boss, Oscar Goldman, in both The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman TV series and their three subsequent TV movies: The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man...
as District Attorney Glenn Wagner, Rhodes Reason
Rhodes Reason
Rhodes Reason is an American actor.Reason is the younger brother of actor Rex Reason, whom he strongly resembles, to the point that many have mistakenly assumed that they were twins. Rhodes Reason is two years younger.-Biography:Reason made his acting start at age 18 in Romeo and Juliet, directed...
as Sheriff Will Mayberry, Joan Freeman
Joan Freeman
Joan Freeman is an American actress.Freeman was a child actor, having appeared in her first film in 1949 at the age of seven...
as waitress Elma Gahrigner, Bernard Kates
Bernard Kates
Bernard Kates was an American actor on television, in movies and on the stage.His film appearances include Judgment at Nuremberg , The Babe, and The Phantom....
as Ralph the coroner, and Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...
as Virge Blessing.
Emmy Award nominations
Roy HugginsRoy Huggins
Roy Huggins was an American novelist and an influential writer/creator and producer of character-driven television series, including Maverick, The Fugitive, and The Rockford Files....
, the head of production at 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, created Bus Stop. Eight episodes were directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
. There were two Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nominations: (1) Richard L. Van Enger for "Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing for Television" and (2) Geraldine Brooks for "Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role" for the episode "Call Back Yesterday", which aired on December 10, with David Hedison
David Hedison
Albert David Hedison, Jr. is an Armenian-American film, television, and stage actor. He was billed as Al Hedison in his early film work. In 1959, when he was cast in the role of Victor Sebastian in the short-lived espionage television series Five Fingers, NBC insisted that he change his name...
as her fellow guest star.
The episode "Cherie"
The series was preceded by Inge's play and the 1956 filmFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, Bus Stop
Bus Stop (film)
Bus Stop is a 1956 film directed by Joshua Logan for 20th Century Fox, starring Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Robert Bray and Hope Lange...
, in which Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
and Don Murray
Don Murray (actor)
Donald Patrick "Don" Murray is an American actor.-Early life and career:Murray was born in Hollywood, California on July 31, 1929, the only child of Dennis Aloisius, a Broadway dance director and stage manager and Ethel Murray, a former Ziegfeld performer...
had the lead roles. The sixth episode (telecast November 12) was the series pilot, "Cherie," the only episode directly based on Inge's play and movie. Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld is an American actress.Weld began her acting career as a child, and progressed to more mature roles during the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960...
was cast in the title role of Cherie, an 18-year-old singer who hopes to be discovered in Hollywood, and 24-year-old Gary Lockwood
Gary Lockwood
Gary Lockwood is an American actor probably best known for his iconic 1968 role as the astronaut Dr. Frank Poole in 2001: A Space Odyssey.-Early life:...
portrayed Bo, a Montana rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
cowboy who wants to marry her. Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair...
also starred in the episode as Dr. Lyman. Lockwood appeared the same season as investigator Eric Jason in ABC's Follow the Sun
Follow the Sun (TV series)
Follow the Sun is an American drama series which ran for thirty episodes on the ABC television network from September 17, 1961, through April 8, 1962.-Synopsis:...
and would star two years later as NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's The Lieutenant
The Lieutenant
The Lieutenant is an American television series, the first created by Gene Roddenberry. It aired on NBC on Saturday evenings in the 1963-1964 television schedule. It was produced by Arena Productions, one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's most successful in-house production companies of the 1960s. Situated...
. Weld had previously appeared as the materialistic teenager Thalia Menninger on CBS's The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963. The series and some episode scripts were adapted from a 1951 collection of short stories of the same name, written by Max Shulman, that also inspired the 1953 film The Affairs of Dobie Gillis with Debbie...
with Dwayne Hickman
Dwayne Hickman
Dwayne Bernard Hickman is a former American actor and television executive at CBS.He is known primarily for his "teenage" actor roles on television sitcoms. The naturally brown-headed Hickman is best known for playing Chuck MacDonald, Bob Collins's crazy teenaged nephew, on the popular 1950s...
and Bob Denver
Bob Denver
Robert Osbourne "Bob" Denver was an American comedic actor known for his roles as Gilligan on the television series Gilligan's Island and the beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the 1959–1963 TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.-Early life:Denver was born in New Rochelle, New York, and raised in...
.
Other selected episodes
The series premiere "Afternoon of a Cowboy" guest starred Steve CochranSteve Cochran
Steve Cochran was an American film, television, and stage actor, the son of a California lumberman. He graduated from the University of Wyoming in 1939...
, Anne Helm
Anne Helm
Anne Helm is a retired actress, born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and currently resides in Pasadena, CA.Living in New York City, she began pursuing a career as an actress which eventually led to Hollywood. Beginning in the 1950s, she made guest appearances on different television series and made...
, Bethel Leslie
Bethel Leslie
Bethel Leslie was an American theatre, film, and television actress and a screenwriter.Born in New York City, Leslie was discovered by George Abbott, who cast her in the play Snafu in 1944...
, Chris Robinson
Chris Robinson (actor)
Chris Robinson is an actor who played Rick Webber #2 on General Hospital...
, and Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell
Dean Stockwell is an American actor of film and television, with a career spanning over 65 years. As a child actor under contract to MGM he first came to the public's attention in films such as Anchors Aweigh and The Green Years; as a young adult he played a lead role in the 1957 Broadway and...
.
Diane Baker
Diane Baker
Diane Carol Baker is an American actress who has appeared in motion pictures and on television since 1959.-Early life:...
guest starred on October 15 in the episode "The Resurrection of Annie Ahern." James Brolin
James Brolin
James Brolin is an American actor, producer and director, best known for his roles in soap operas, movies, sitcoms, and television. He is the father of actor Josh Brolin and husband of singer/actress Barbra Streisand.-Early life:...
had an uncredited role in the episode.
Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
guest starred as Art Ellison in the October 22 episode "The Covering Darkness". On October 29, in "Portrait of a Hero", the guest stars were John Larch
John Larch
John Larch was an American film and television actor.After his lead role in the radio serial Captain Starr of Space , John Larch entered films in 1954. He usually appeared in westerns and action films, including Miracle of the White Stallions as General George S. Patton Jr...
and Rod Taylor
Rod Taylor (actor)
Rodney Sturt "Rod" Taylor is an Australian-American actor of film and television.-Early life:Born on 11 January 1930 in Lidcombe, a suburb of Sydney, Taylor was the only child of William Sturt Taylor, a steel construction contractor and commercial artist, and the former Mona Thompson, a writer of...
.
On November 19, Jack Warden
Jack Warden
Jack Warden was an American character actor.-Early life:Warden was born John Warden Lebzelter in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Laura M. and John Warden Lebzelter, who was an engineer and technician. He was of Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry...
guest starred in the episode "Accessory by Consent". On November 26, Edgar Buchanan
Edgar Buchanan
Edgar Buchanan was an American actor with a long career in both film and television, most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies television sitcoms of the 1960s...
, Jack Carson
Jack Carson
John Elmer "Jack" Carson was a Canadian-born U.S.-based film actor.Jack Carson was one of the most popular character actors during the 'golden age of Hollywood', with a film career spanning the 1930s, '40s and '50s...
, and Burt Mustin
Burt Mustin
Burton Hill "Burt" Mustin was an American character actor.-Early life:Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to W. I. and Sadie Mustin, Mustin was a 1903 graduate of the Pennsylvania Military College , earning his degree in civil engineering...
, also Gus the Firefighter in Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
, appeared in the episode "The Man from Bootstrap".
"A Lion Walks Among Us," (December 3) led to a Congressional hearing on violence. The episode, initially titled "Told By an Idiot", was directed by Altman. It starred Fabian
Fabian (entertainer)
Fabiano Anthony Forte , known as Fabian, is an American teen idol of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He rose to national prominence after performing several times on American Bandstand. Eleven of his songs reached the Billboard Hot 100 listing.-Early life:Fabian was the son of Josephine and Domenic...
as Luke Freeman, a maniacal axe-wielding serial killer with Diane Foster
Diane Foster
P. Diane Foster is a Canadian track and field athlete, who mainly competed in the 100 metres....
as Sally Wagner. The drama was adapted from Tom Wicker
Tom Wicker
Thomas Grey "Tom" Wicker was an American journalist. He was best known as a political reporter and columnist for The New York Times.-Background and education:...
's 1961 novel, The Judgment.
"And the Pursuit of Evil" aired on December 17, with guest stars James MacArthur
James MacArthur
James Gordon MacArthur was an American actor best known for the role of Danny "Danno" Williams, the reliable second-in-command of the fictional Hawaiian State Police squad Hawaii Five-O.-Early life:...
and Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....
. On Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
eve, the episode "The Runaways", written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., guest starred character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
Parley Baer
Parley Baer
Parley Edward Baer was an American actor in film, television, and radio.-Radio:Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Baer had a circus background, but began his radio career at Utah station KSL...
and Joan Tompkins
Joan Tompkins
Joan Tompkins, legally known as Joan Swenson was an American actress of television, film, radio, and stage, who co-founded with her husband, Karl Swenson, an acting company in Beverly Hills, California...
. On January 7, Steve Forrest and Beverly Garland
Beverly Garland
Beverly Garland was an American film and television actress, businesswoman, and hotel owner. Garland gained prominence for her role as Fred MacMurray's second wife, "Barbara Harper Douglas", in the 1960s sitcom My Three Sons...
starred in "Summer Lightning". Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn is a leading American actress of film, stage, and television. Burstyn's career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the next ten years she appeared in several films and television series before joining the Actors Studio in 1967...
, Richard Conte
Richard Conte
Richard Conte was an American actor. He appeared in numerous films from the 1940s through 1970s, including I'll Cry Tomorrow and The Godfather.-Life and career:...
, Jason Evers
Jason Evers
Jason Evers was an American actor.Evers was born Herb Evers in New York City, New York. After quitting high school to join the United States Army, Evers was so inspired by stars like John Wayne that he decided to try acting...
, and Nina Foch
Nina Foch
Nina Foch was a Dutch-born American actress and leading lady in many 1940s and 1950s films.- Personal life :...
appeared in "Cry to Heaven" on January 14, 1962.
On January 21 in "The Stubborn Stumbos", Claude Akins
Claude Akins
Claude Marion Akins was an American actor with a long career on stage, screen and television.Powerful in appearance and voice, Akins could be counted on to play the clever tough guy, on the side of good or bad, in movies and television. He is best remembered as Sheriff Lobo in the 1970s TV series...
and Earl Holliman
Earl Holliman
-Early life:Earl Holliman was born at Delhi in Richland Parish of northeastern Louisiana. Holliman’s biological father died before he was born, and his biological mother, living in poverty with several other children, gave him up for adoption at birth...
played feuding brothers. On January 28 in "Turn Home Again", the guests were Ruth Roman
Ruth Roman
Ruth Roman was an American actress. One of her most memorable roles was in the Alfred Hitchcock 1951 thriller Strangers on a Train....
, Jack Albertson
Jack Albertson
Jack Albertson was an American character actor dating to vaudeville. A comedian, dancer, singer, and musician, Albertson is perhaps best known for his roles as Manny Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure , Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Amos Slade in the 1981 animated film The Fox...
, and Wendell Corey
Wendell Corey
Wendell Reid Corey was an American actor and politician.He was born in Dracut, Massachusetts, the son of Milton Rothwell Corey and Julia Etta McKenney . His father was a Congregationalist clergyman...
. On February 4 in "How Does Charlie Feel", the guests included character actor J. Pat O'Malley
J. Pat O'Malley
James Patrick O'Malley was an English singer and character actor, who appeared in many American films and television programs during the 1940s–1970s, using the stage name J. Pat O'Malley...
, Cliff Robertson
Cliff Robertson
Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half of a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly...
, and Ray Teal
Ray Teal
Ray Teal was an actor who appeared in more than 250 movies and some 90 television programs in his 37-year career. His longest running role was as Sheriff Roy Coffee on NBC's most successful western, Bonanza...
, appearing on Bonanza in the same time slot. On February 11 in "Put Your Dreams Away", Gary Merrill
Gary Merrill
Gary Fred Merrill was an American film and television character actor whose credits included more than fifty feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of television guest appearances....
and Felicia Farr
Felicia Farr
Felicia Farr is a former American actress and model.-Biography:Felicia Farr appeared in several modeling photo shoots and advertisements throughout the 1950s and 1960s...
guest starred.
The February 18 segment "The Opposite Virtues" stars Jeanette Nolan
Jeanette Nolan
Jeanette Nolan was an American radio, film and television actress. Nolan was nominated for four Emmy Awards.-Early life:...
, Lew Ayres
Lew Ayres
Lew Ayres was an American actor, best known for starring as Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr...
, George Hamilton
George Hamilton (actor)
George Stevens Hamilton is an American film and television actor.-Early life:Hamilton was the youngest son of bandleader George "Spike" Hamilton and his first wife, Ann Stevens . He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived in Blytheville, Arkansas...
, Robert F. Simon
Robert F. Simon
Robert F. Simon was an American character actor, often portraying military or authority figure roles. Though his face was recognized by audiences, he was mostly unknown by name...
, and Michael Parks
Michael Parks
Michael Parks is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in almost fifty films and has made frequent TV appearances, but is probably best known for his work in recent years with Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Kevin Smith as well as the 1969 television series Then Came...
. Howard Duff
Howard Duff
Howard Green Duff was an American actor of film, television, stage, and radio.Duff was born in Charleston, Washington, now a part of Bremerton. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle in 1932 where he began acting in school plays only after he was cut from the basketball team...
and Pippa Scott
Pippa Scott
Pippa Scott is an American actress who has appeared in movies and television since the 1950s. She was also married to a founding partner of Lorimar Productions, Lee Rich...
guest starred on the March 4 episode "Door Without a Key". Jay C. Flippen
Jay C. Flippen
Jay C. Flippen is an American character actor who often played police officers or weary criminals in many films of the 1940s/'50s....
guest starred in the March 11 segment "Verdict of Twelve". In "County General" on March 18, guest stars were Frank Lovejoy
Frank Lovejoy
Frank Lovejoy was an American actor in radio, film, and television. He was born Frank Lovejoy Jr. in Bronx, New York, but grew up in New Jersey. His father, Frank Lovejoy Sr., was a furniture salesman from Maine...
and Donald May
Donald May (actor)
Donald May is an American actor best known for replacing Wayde Preston as the lead in the 1957 television series Colt .45. May played "Sam Colt, Jr.," cousin to Preston's character Christopher Colt, and the program ran on the BBC under the title The Colt Cousins...
.
The series finale "I Kiss Your Shadow", with Joanne Linville and George Grizzard
George Grizzard
George Cooper Grizzard, Jr. was an American actor of film and stage. He appeared in more than 40 films, dozens of television programs and a number of Broadway plays.-Life and career:...
as guest stars, is a story of a man crushed by the memory of his wife's death in an automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
accident. In his book Danse Macabre
Danse Macabre (book)
Danse Macabre is a non-fiction book by Stephen King, about horror fiction in print, radio, film and comics, and the genre's influence on United States popular culture...
, Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
nominated this episode as "...the single most frightening story ever done on TV." King wrote that Bus Stop was "...a straight drama show,... The final episode, however, deviated wildly into the supernatural, and for me, Robert Bloch
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...
's adaptation of his own short story "I Kiss Your Shadow" has never been beaten on TV - and rarely any where else - for eerie, mounting horror."
Losing out to Bonanza
Despite the quality of its story lines, cast, and guests, Bus Stop failed in the ratings against NBC's BonanzaBonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, which moved for its third season from Saturday to Sunday evenings in the 9 p.m. Eastern slot. Ronald W. Reagan and Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
appeared at the same hour on CBS in General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald W. Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.-Radio:...
(its last season) and The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy.-Cast:*Jack Benny - Himself...
. Bus Stop followed ABC's western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series Lawman
Lawman (tv series)
Lawman is an American Western television series originally telecast from 1958 to 1962 starring John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop and featuring Peter Brown as Deputy Marshal Johnny McKay on the ABC Television Network. The series was set in Laramie, Wyoming during the mid to late 1870s. Warner Bros....
costarring John Russell
John Russell (actor)
John Lawrence Russell was an American actor, and World War II veteran, most noted for playing Marshal Dan Troop in the successful ABC western television series Lawman from 1958 to 1962....
and Peter Brown
Peter Brown (actor)
Peter Brown is an American television actor known for his role as Deputy Johnny McKay opposite John Russell in the 1958 Warner Bros. western series Lawman.-Early life:...
and preceded Gardner McKay
Gardner McKay
George Cadogan Gardner McKay was an American actor, artist, and author.-Biography:Born in New York City, McKay graduated from Cornell University, where he majored in art. He became a Hollywood heart throb in the 1950s and 1960s. He landed the lead role in Adventures in Paradise, based loosely on...
's Adventures in Paradise
Adventures in Paradise
Adventures in Paradise is an American television series which ran on ABC from 1959 until 1962. It starred Gardner McKay as Adam Troy, the captain of the schooner Tiki III which sailed the South Pacific looking for passengers and adventure. The show was created by James Michener...
.