Cultural highlights of 1953

Television: UK
New shows
• In Town Tonight (BBC, from October). Magazine programme, already popular on UK radio.
• The Good Old Days (BBC from 20 July). Old-time music hall.
• Panorama (BBC from 11 November). Weekly current affairs. Still running (2008).
• The Quatermass Experiment (BBC, from 18 July)). Six-part half-hour science-fiction drama. Later filmed.The first of several series.
• Rag, Tag and Bobtail (BBC from 10 September). Children's.

Television: US
New shows
• Adventures of Superman (syndication, from 9 February).
• The Danny Thomas Show. It runs until 1971.
• General Electric Theatre (CBS from 1 February). Drama, hosted by Milton Berle.
• Soupy's On (WXYZ-TV Detroit). Daily variety show featuring Soupy Sales with jazz musicians guesting. (The theme is Yardbird Suite by Charlie Parker.) It runs until 1959.
• Tonight Show (WNBT-TV New York, from June). Late-night entertainment show that goes onto the network.
• You Are There (CBS, from 1 February). Current affairs, hosted by Walter Cronkite.

Drama
• Arthur Miller: The Crucible (Broadway from 22 January)

Print media
• Playboy. Marilyn Monroe is the first centrefold and cover girl.
• Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea (Pulitzer Prize, awarded 4 May).

Chronomedia 1953