Since 1955, Hallmark Hall of Fame has been a series of specials (appearing four to eight times a year throughout the I960s, two to three times a year thereafter). Hallmark Hall of Fame has usually aired around holiday times, in order to coincide with the sale of greeting cards. These specials usually have been in 90-minute or 120-minute form, and many are adaptations of works by major playwrights and authors (e.g., Wil­liam Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and George Bernard Shaw), as well as original drama by established television writers such as Rod Serling. Hallmark Hall of Fame specials often have featured the leading stage actors and actresses from Great Britain and the United States (e.g., Maurice Evans, Dame Ju­dith Anderson, Alfred Lunt, and Jessica Tandy).

     Hallmark Hall of Fame ran exclusively on NBC from 1951 until 1979. The parting was a mutual one for NBC and Hallmark, as NBC was disappointed with the low ratings the specials routinely received, and Hallmark was disappointed with poor time slots allotted to it. With the promise of better time periods, Hallmark Hall of Fame moved to CBS for the 1979-80 season. Despite a brief switch to PBS in 1981, Hallmark Hall of Fame continues to air twice a year on CBS. In the 1988-89 season, Hallmark Hall of Fame made its appearance on ABC for the first time, thereby having appeared on all three of the major television networks, as well as PBS.

     Hallmark Hall of Fame is one of the most honored programs in the history of U.S. television, having won more than 50 Emmy Awards, including 10 Emmys for best dramatic program of the year: Little Moon of Alban (1958-59), Macbeth (1960-61), Victoria Regina (1961-62), The Magnificent Yankee (1964-65), Eliza­beth the Queen (1967-68), Teacher, Teacher (1968- 69) A Storm in Summer (1969-70), Love is Never Silent (1985-86), Promise (1986-87), and Caroline? (1989-90). In addition, Hallmark Cards has won the Trustees Award in 1960-61 and the ATAS Governors Award in 1981-82. Judith Anderson won her first Emmy for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth in the Hall­mark Hall of Fame presentation of Macbeth in 1954 and would win again for the same role when Hall re­ made Macbeth in 1960-61. Also of note, in 1971, one month after he refused to accept his Academy Award for his portrayal of General Patton, George C. Scott accepted his Emmy for his performance in Arthur Miller's The Price.

     Some other notable Hallmark Hall of Fame productions have included Hamlet (1953) with Maurice Evans, Moby Dick (1954) with Victor Jory, Alice in Wonderland (1955) with Elsa Lanchester, Man and Superman (1956) with Maurice Evans, Twelfth Night (1957) with Maurice Evans and Rosemary Harris, Cyrano de Bergerac (1962) with Christopher Plummer and Hope Lange, Inherit the Wind (1966) with Ed Beg­ley and Melvyn Douglas, Anastasia (1967) with Julie Harris, The Man Who Came to Dinner (1972) with Orson Welles and Lee Remick, Beauty and the Beast (1976) with George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere, The Last Hurrah (1977) with Carroll O'Connor, Return Engagement (1978) with Elizabeth Taylor, Gideon's Trumpet (1980) with Henry Fonda, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1981) with Anthony Hopkins, The Marva Collins Story (1982) with Cicely Tyson, My Name Is Bill W (1989) with James Garner and James Woods, Decoration Day (1990) with James Garner and Ruby Dee, and Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991) with Glenn Close and Christopher Walken. In 2001 Hallmark ventured into cable by purchasing the Odyssey cable network and renaming it the Hallmark Channel. This new venue provided an outlet for the vast library of previous Hallmark Hall of Fame telecasts, as well as reruns of many old network series.