GE True is a 33-episode American anthology series sponsored by General Electric. Telecast on CBS, the series presented stories previously published in True magazine. Articles from the magazine were adapted to television by Gene Roddenberry and other screenwriters. Jack Webb produced and hosted the thirty-three episodes during his stint as head of Warner Brothers Television through his Mark VII Limited Company. The series aired from September 30, 1962 until May 26, 1963, with repeats through September 1963.
Program overview
The show had a unique opening: A huge "True" sign, apparently five stories tall, darkened, was seen in deep shadows. Jack Webb announced, "This is True!" Strong symphonic music included timpani rhythms, followed by the majestic opening theme. The True sign became brightly lit as Webb walked alongside the illuminated sign in an off-stage direction. A classic quotation from such figures as Daniel Webster then appeared. In an overview of the 1962 television season, Time noted: GE True aired at 9:30 p.m. Sundays, following the last season of the former ABCsitcom, The Real McCoys, starring Walter Brennan and Richard Crenna, renamed on the CBS schedule as The McCoys. GE True aired a half-hour later than a predecessor series, General Electric Theater, hosted by Ronald W. Reagan, which at had aired at 9 p.m. from 1953 to 1962. Several episodes were directed by William Conrad, Marshal Matt Dillon on radio's Gunsmoke and later the star of the CBS crime drama, Cannon. Like its preceding program, The McCoys, GE True faced opposition from the highly rated NBCwestern series, Bonanza. Reruns of the series were subsequently syndicated under the title True. In 2013 the Jack Webb Fan Club of Los Angeles started a campaign to get the series released on DVD.
Selected episodes
In "Open Season", James Best portrays the courageous Wisconsin game warden Ernie Swift who faces the reprisal of the mob after he tickets gangster Frank MacErlane for illegal fishing. In "Defendant: Clarence Darrow", Clarence Darrow, the Chicago lawyer who later clashed with William Jennings Bryan in regard to the theory of evolution, is accused in 1912 of having attempted to bribe a juror. Darrow argues passionately over legal procedures with his own lawyer, Earl Rogers. In the episode "Firebug", Victor Buono plays Charles Colvin, a barber in Los Angeles, California, who is by night a pyromaniac. The United States Forest Service believes that one arsonist is causing a series of fires. The episode also stars Keith Andes and Arch Johnson. In "The Moonshiners", Walter Kopek, an agent of the United States Treasury Department assumes an undercover role to halt a bootlegging operation in Florida, run by the mobster Bill Munger. James Griffith is cast in this episode as Stan Woolman. In the three-part episode "Security Risk", George Ellsworth, played by Charles Aidman, an official with the United States Embassy in Warsaw, Poland in 1960, is blackmailed through a romantic affair with a young woman named Erica into passing secret information to the communists at the height of the Cold War. He confessed his guilt despite the protection of diplomatic immunity. Karl Swenson and Parley Baer also appear in this episode. In "A Pattern for Espionage", United States Army Colonel Harvey Madison, is approached by a former Russian comrade-in-arms to spy for the communists. Instead, he covertly cooperates with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to uncover a spy ring operated by the former Soviet Union. Anthony Eisley and Gregory Walcott also appear in this episode. In "The Tenth Mona Lisa", Italian farmer Vincenzo Perugia in 1911 steals the Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum in Paris but is apprehended by a French detective when he attempts to unload the painting on an art dealer. In the two-part 1963 episode "Heydrich", two Czech sergeants assassinate the Nazi hangman Reinhard Heydrich; Chancellor of the Third ReichAdolf Hitler takes revenge on an entire village in his search for the sergeants. In "Five Tickets to Hell", the series finale, John Quigley, a Chicago mobster travels to Chihuahua, Mexico, where he robs the mint of $500,000 and kills seven men in the commission of the crime. Police Lieutenant Juan Garcia tracks down Quigley and his three accomplices. Barbara Luna appears in this episode as Cotita.
Guest stars
In addition to the aforementioned, others who guest starred on GE True included:
