Peter
Pan was a popular melding of American television and Broadway
theater, first broadcast on NBC in March 1955 and repeated annual
for many years thereafter. It formed part of an ongoing series titled
Producers' Showcase, a loose rubric for high-quality dramatic presentations
put together by producer Fred Coe for the network about once a month
between 1954 and 1957.
The
impetus for the telecast was the popular Broadway musical Peter
Pan, starring Mary Martin in the title role and co-starring
Cyril Ritchard as Pan's nemesis Captain Hook. Based on the 1904
J.M. Barrie play of the same name, the Broadway production was staged
by Jerome Robbins. When it ended its theatrical run, Coe arranged
to run a version of it, modified for the small screen, on NBC on
March 5, 1955.
The
production fitted neatly into two of NBC's strategies for establishing
its identity as a network. First, it was what NBC vice president
(and programming chief) Pat Weaver called a "spectacular"--a special,
high-quality event that publicized the network and drew programming
power away from individual sponsors, which generally could not afford
to foot the entire bill for these expensive shows. Second, it was
hailed by the network and by critics as a splendid forum for the
color television system the network and its parent company, RCA,
were hawking.
The
teleplay loosely followed the familiar original Barrie play, moving
from the nursery of the Darling family in London to the island of
Neverland, a magical and mythical place to which the eternally young
Peter Pan lured the Darling children. His special interest lay in
Wendy, whom he and the other "lost boys" wished to adopt as their
mother. Before the play's end, Peter had to defeat the dastardly
Captain Hook, a humorously effeminate villain played with panache
by Ritchard, and return Wendy and her brothers to their home.
The
program's sets, particularly the Neverland set, were simple yet
colorful, and audiences and critics enjoyed the close-up view it
provided of the Broadway play. Robbins' staging blended lively and
tender moments, engaging the audience from the play's beginning.
The production gained prestige not just from its famous stars but
from the addition of Lynn Fontaine as the program's narrator.
Peter
Pan proved an immediate and spectacular success, garnering an
overnight rating of 48 and inspiring Jack Gould of the New York
Times to speculate that the program had provided "perhaps television's
happiest hour." The production was remounted, live, in January of
1956 and was rebroadcast annually for years thereafter. It was singled
out in the 1955 Emmys as the best single program of the year, and
Martin was named best actress in a single performance.
The
teleplay's popularity is easy to account for. It presented a charming
and imaginatively staged version of a classic children's tale, drawing
in both adult and youthful viewers. It also gave Americans a fantasy-filled
forum in which to debate gender in the postwar years.
The teleplay's message about adult manhood and womanhood, that they
were states to be avoided at all costs (Peter didn't want to grow
up, and Wendy was unhappy when she did), played into a growing discomfort
with preset gender roles. And both its hero and its villain were
highly androgynous.
The
message and the androgyny were, of course, present in the original
Barrie play. They were enhanced, however, by script changes and
by the intimacy of the medium on which the play was broadcast. Peter
Pan on television resonated with the color and the confusion of
its era--and encouraged audiences to fly to Neverland for years
to come.
-Tinky
"Dakota" Weisblat
Martin, Mary. My Heart Belongs. New York: Quill, 1984.
Rivadue,
Barry. Mary Martin: A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood,
1991.
