The first broadcast of The Alcoa Hour was on October 16, 1955. An original teleplay by Joseph Schull entitled “The Black Wings,” the production starred Wendell Corey and Ann Todd and was directed by Norman Felton. Both Variety and the New York Times praised the high quality of acting and the attractive sets but criticized the script. New York Times reviewer J.P. Shanley went so far as to say that the story was “melodramatic hogwash.” Schull’s narrative focused on a German physician (Corey) who had been a Luftwaffe pilot during World War II. He secretly endows a clinic for the treatment of victims of a bombing raid he led over England, then falls in love with an English girl (Todd) who was crippled by the bombing. In spite of the script’s weaknesses, the program was deemed a success because of the excellent performances and fine directing, and critics felt that The Alcoa Hour would become a worthy successor to the famous Philco Television Playhouse.

During its two years, The Alcoa Hour broadcast a wide variety of dramas, including the sixth consecutive Christmas season airing of Gian Carlo Menotti’s television opera Amahl and the Night Visitors on December 25, 1955. During the Christmas season of 1956, The Alcoa Hour broadcast a musical version of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol entitled “The Stingiest Man in Town.” The adaptation featured Basil Rathbone in a singing role, crooner Vic Damone, song- writer Johnny Desmond, opera singer Patrice Munsel, and the Four Lads, a popular singing group.

Typical programs on The Alcoa Hour included “Thunder in Washington” (November 27, 1955) and “Mrs. Gilling and the Skyscraper” (June 9, 1957). “Thunder in Washington” was an original script by David Davidson, directed by Robert Mulligan. The broadcast featured Melvyn Douglas and Ed Begley in a story about a highly competent business executive, Charles Turner, who answers a call from the president of the United States to come to Washington to introduce efficiency into numerous sprawling governmental agencies. Soon Turner’s efforts at reform offend almost everyone, and he finds himself defending his actions be- fore a House Appropriations Committee. The program ends with Turner vowing to continue his crusade to clean up Washington and the committee chair promising to stop him. New York Times reviewer Jack Gould praised the broadcast by saying that it was “a play of uncommon timeliness, power, and controversy. With one more scene, it could have been a genuine tour de force of contemporary political drama.” An interesting footnote to the production is that actor Luis van Rooten, hired to play the part of the president of the United States, spent hours studying the voice and mannerisms of then Presi- dent Dwight D. Eisenhower to make sure his perfor- mance was authentic, even though the president was to be seen only in a head-and-shoulders shot from behind.“Mrs. Gilling and the Skyscraper” was a very differ- ent sort of play. An original script by Sumner Locke El- liot, it was a vehicle for distinguished actor Helen Hayes, who played the part of an elderly lady trying to save her apartment from the owners of her building who intend to demolish it to make way for a skyscraper. Both the superb acting and sensitive script were praised. The script in particular was noted for how it dealt with the generational clashes between the old lady and new ten- ants in her building. During the 1950s, confrontations between the old and new were becoming increasingly common as large stretches of turn-of-the-century dwellings were leveled to make way for modern buildings, and the plight of Mrs. Gillings was a familiar one for many older Americans and their families.

Perhaps the most noteworthy Alcoa Hour was the broadcast of February 19, 1956, entitled “Tragedy in a Temporary Town.” The script by Reginald Rose told the story of a vigilante group formed after a girl is assaulted at a construction camp. According to Gould, “Mr. Rose’s final scene—the mob descending on an innocent Puerto Rican victim—did make the viewer’s flesh creep. And the raw vigor of the hero’s denunciation of the mob—the man’s language had uncommon pungency—was extraordinarily vivid video drama.” Directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Lloyd Bridges as the man who opposed the mob, “Tragedy in a Temporary Town” won a Robert E. Sherwood Television Award and a citation from the Anti Defamation League of B’nai B’rith as the best dramatic program of the year dealing with interethnic group relations.

The 1956–57 season saw the networks shifting away from live broadcasts and turning more to the use of film. Faced with this change and competition from a new crop of popular programs, The Alcoa Hour went off the air after its September 22, 1957, broadcast of “Night” starring Franchot Tone, Jason Robards, Jr., and E.G. Marshall. As of September 30, 1957, both The Alcoa Hour and its companion program The Goodyear Theatre became 30-minute filmed programs and were moved to Monday nights at 9:30.