Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions is a division of Hallmark Cards Inc, a U.S.-based company founded in 1910. In addition to its greeting-card operations and television-production company, Hallmark Cards operates a cable television channel.
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology drama series produced by Hallmark Cards. It has been running since 1951. Early shows were dramas performed and broadcast live and in black and white. Since 1954, all productions have been shown in colour (although colour television sets were extremely rare in the USA until the 1960s). Productions were later videotaped and eventually produced using film.
The series has received eighty Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas Prizes to 2010. It is also the last remaining U.S. television show to retain the once-common practice of using the name of the sponsor in the title of the show. Although one of the longest-running U.S. television series, it differs somewhat from other long-running shows in that it only broadcasts occasionally and not on a weekly schedule.
Based in Studio City in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions was associated with the NBC Network for nearly three decades. After NBC dropped the series in late 1978 due to declining ratings, Hallmark moved the show to PBS, then ABC, and eventually established a long-running relationship with CBS.
