The Big Story

Each week, The Big Story dramatized a story from the news. Conceived with a goal of recognizing the work of American news reporters, the half-hour episodes focused primarily on crime stories. The reporter whose work formed the basis of each episode was recognized on the show and received a $500 reward from the shows sponsor, Philip Morris cigarettes.

The show ran on the radio from 1947 till 1955 and was quite popular. It was adapted to television in 1949 and ran new episodes for eight years and lasted an additional year in syndication. The TV version featured appearances of many young actors who went on to be major stars of the second half of the Twentieth Century, such as Martin Landau, Leslie Nielsen, and Joyce van Patten.

For more information, see Wikipedia.

Series description provided by Frank Bell.