Hallmark Hall of Fame is a long-running irregularly scheduled anthology program on American television. It has had a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and still continuing today. Many TV-movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then moved into videotaped productions before finally turning to filmed ones. The most recent TV movie seen was episode 232, The Russell Girl, which aired on CBS on January 27 2008.
Hall of Fame frequently airs prior to major holidays in order to spur greeting card and related product sales for the Hallmark Cards company. Its programming traditionally airs during sweeps, a period in which ratings are used to determine advertising rates.
In total, the series has received seventy-eight Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes.
It is the last remaining television program whose title contains a sponsor's name, once a common practice on American TV.
The paint was still wet on NBC's (then) new Television Soundstages in Burbank California, when the show began broadcasting.
The show won every major award in broadcasting, becoming the "gold-standard" of American Television.
The broadcasts were originally live, 39 telecasts each season, and each show ran from the 'regular' 90 minutes to three hour specials (as for "The Red Cross"). Monday through Friday, the casts were rehearsed in Hollywood at the NBC Radio studios on Vine Street, and performed, on Sundays, at the (then) newly built NBC Television Studios in Burbank.
The show began as a live program, then switched to videotape in the 1960s, and finally to film (and on-location filming) in the early 1970s.
During its first two years on the air, the show was a weekly series, and was called "Hallmark Television Playhouse".
