Look Up and Live
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Look Up and Live was a 30-minute television anthology series. The series was produced in cooperation with the National Council of Churches and aired on CBS from January 3, 1954 to January 21, 1979.[1] It was a non-denominational Sunday morning religious show that covered issues from multiple perspectives, avoiding heavy proselytizing. The series' success in reaching young people with inspirational messages was due partially to the contemporary musicians and celebrities featured on the show.
In 1960, Look Up and Live received the Peabody Award. At that time, Reverend Andrew Young was a host of the series. Young, who would later become a top aide to Martin Luther King, Jr., was associate director of the Department of Youth Work for the National Council of Churches from 1957 to 1960. His duties included working on Look Up and Live, both in front of and behind the camera. Young has said that the knowledge of television he gained during his time working on the series enabled him to advise Dr. King on media strategy.
There were a number of other narrators and hosts over the years, including Mahalia Jackson, Merv Griffin, Eddie Fisher, Eydie Gormé, and Ed Sullivan. Guest stars included Gene Hackman, Oscar Brown, Dick Van Dyke, James Earl Jones, Bennye Gatteys, Jack Klugman, Beatrice Straight, Sal Mineo, Billy Dee Williams, Theodore Bikel, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and, in two of his earliest performances, Warren Beatty. John M. Gunn edited six plays that were turned into episodes of the show.[2][3]
In 1979, Look Up and Live and Lamp Unto My Feet, both of which were cancelled earlier that year, along with Camera Three, to make room for CBS News Sunday Morning, were combined into a new series called For Our Times, a weekly religious talk show which aired until 1988.
Some episodes of Look Up and Live are preserved at the Paley Center for Media in New York City and in the Peabody Awards archive at the University of Georgia.
Critical response
[edit]A review in The New York Times said that the December 7, 1958, episode "offered an attractive example of the use of original devices in a religious telecast".[4] The review said, "The combination of imaginative choreography ..., interesting musical passages and effective settings made an unusual and absorbing presentation."[4]
References
[edit]- ^ Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. pp. 264-265. ISBN 978-0823083152. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
- ^ Library of Congress 2012, p. 394.
- ^ Rodman, Howard; Roskam, Clair; Benjamin, James; Kellerman, Don (1959). The Seeking Years: Six Television Plays from the Award-winning CBS-TV Series "Look Up and Live" (1st ed.). Bloomington, Minnesota: Bethany Press. ASIN B000OWZP4K.
- ^ a b "TV: A Trip to the Congo: Lowell Thomas' 'High Adventure' Focuses on Unusual Personalities of Area". The New York Times. December 8, 1958. p. 63. Retrieved August 25, 2024.
- Library of Congress (2012). Catalog of Copyright Entries. 3rd Series: 1958: January-June (Spanish ed.). Charleston, South Carolina: Nabu Press. p. 394. ISBN 978-1279803981.
External links
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- 1950s American anthology television series
- 1960s American anthology television series
- 1970s American anthology television series
- 1954 American television series debuts
- 1979 American television series endings
- American religious television series
- Black-and-white American television shows
- CBS television dramas
- Peabody Award–winning television programs
- United States television show stubs