Series synopsis
The Millionaire is an American drama television series that premiered on CBS on January 19, 1955. It ended on June 7, 1960. It stars Marvin Miller, Paul Frees, Ann Codee and Edward Brophy.
An anthology series that explored the ways sudden and unexpected wealth changed life for better or for worse. It told the stories of people who were given one million dollars from a benefactor who insisted they never know him, with one exception.
Premise
An anthology series that explored the ways sudden and unexpected wealth changed life for better or for worse. It told the stories of people who were given one million dollars from a benefactor who insisted they never know him, with one exception.
Cast and characters
Leading cast
- Marvin Miller as Michael Anthony
- Paul Frees as John Beresford Tipton
- Ann Codee as Madam Genet
- Edward Brophy as Preliminary Feeney
- K.T. Stevens as Edna Denson
- Jim Davis as Jim Driskill
- Marian Seldes as Dorothy 'Dot' McAllister
- Jean Byron as Betty Jane Ryan / Bea Ryan
Supporting cast
- Jess Barker as Felix Lombard
- Tom Drake as Dr. Alan March
- Joan Marshall as Helen Rawlings
- Nan Leslie as Carol Browning Schofield
- Coleen Gray as Jean Smith Fortune
- Donald Woods as Cobb Marley
- Jacques Bergerac as Count Paul Lamada
- James Craig as Tom Garrity
- Sheila James Kuehl as Betty
- Don Beddoe as Dan Larsen
- Peggie Castle as Candy Caldwell AKA Alice C. Horton (The Face)
- Tom Laughlin as Vic Carter
Guest cast
- Paul Frees as John Beresford Tipton
- Ann Codee as Madam Genet
- Edward Brophy as Preliminary Feeney
- K.T. Stevens as Edna Denson
- Jim Davis as Jim Driskill
- Marian Seldes as Dorothy 'Dot' McAllister
- Jean Byron as Betty Jane Ryan / Bea Ryan
- Jess Barker as Felix Lombard
- Tom Drake as Dr. Alan March
- Joan Marshall as Helen Rawlings
- Nan Leslie as Carol Browning Schofield
- Coleen Gray as Jean Smith Fortune
Episodes
This series spans 6 seasons with 207 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 23 | January 19, 1955 | June 22, 1955 |
| Season 2 | 37 | September 28, 1955 | June 6, 1956 |
| Season 3 | 39 | September 12, 1956 | June 12, 1957 |
| Season 4 | 35 | September 18, 1957 | May 28, 1958 |
| Season 5 | 37 | September 3, 1958 | June 10, 1959 |
| Season 6 | 36 | September 15, 1959 | June 7, 1960 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Amy Moore Story Amy Moore, trying to raise her invalid son on a clerk's wages, thinks the check will solve all her problems. |
January 19, 1955 |
| 2 |
The Carl Nelson Story Carl Nelson becomes obsessed with money, which jeopardizes his relationships. |
January 26, 1955 |
| 3 |
The Joe Iris Story When he spends some of his million, low level criminal and ex-convict Joe Iris has difficulty convincing the police and former higher level associates that he has not returned to his old ways. |
February 2, 1955 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Rita Keeley Story A burlesque performer hounded by her brother's underworld pals uses her million to return to college in her hometown where she falls in love with a medical student but gossip about her past might wreck her happiness. |
September 28, 1955 |
| 2 |
The Robert Croft Story An antisocial writer of a lone successful novel unable to produce further work engages in self destructive and reckless behavior which intensifies with receipt of the million dollars until an accident changes his course. |
October 5, 1955 |
| 3 |
The Joe Seaton Story A couple who have traded identify with a man who has done so to pay for medical care for his ailing wife plan to kill the man and his wife to keep the million dollars they have falsely accepted under the man's identity. |
October 12, 1955 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Kathy Munson Story Kathy Munson becomes ill and her twin sister Marion takes her place in order to keep the family business afloat. Complications unsue when Marion falls for her sister Kathy's beau, who doesn't know there is a twin. |
September 12, 1956 |
| 2 |
The Jane Carr Story After receiving her check, a woman goes undercover at a trucking company that her reporter husband was investigating in connection with a narcotics ring to find clues in the husband's car bomb murder. |
September 19, 1956 |
| 3 |
The Anna Hartley Story A loyal wife believes so much in her artist husband despite her mother's protestations that the husband is a freeloader and a pretend artist that she will spend her fortune for the husband's credibility and fame. |
September 26, 1956 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Matt Kirby Story A newspaper man who ruthlessly embellishes the misdeeds of others in his stories uses his million to buy controlling interest in his paper but a female reporter could have unsavory and damaging details about the man's past. |
September 18, 1957 |
| 2 |
The Pete Marlowe Story After spending 20 years in prison Pete Marlowe tries to reconnect with the family he left behind. |
September 25, 1957 |
| 3 |
The Roy Delbridge Story An ex-GI is unable to dance due to his war wounds. |
October 2, 1957 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Betty Hawley Story After graduation from college, John Hawley (Richard Jaeckel) takes a job in Mexico for a mining company. John's wife Betty (Lisa Daniels) is pregnant and desperate to have their child in a hospital and in America. Hence, John agrees to accept $1,000 to drive over rutted dirt roads in an old rickety truck loaded with nitroglycerin to a mine cave-in many miles off. |
September 3, 1958 |
| 2 |
The Norman Conover Story Grocer Norman Conover starts a chain of stores with his million which draws a visit from his first wife, who has formerly agreed to stay away. |
September 10, 1958 |
| 3 |
The Fred Morgan Story Before they use the money for corrective surgery, Rita Morgan implores her husband to take her to place she was crippled in her husband's boating accident where they are intercepted by an run away convict but Fred devises an escape. |
September 17, 1958 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Mark Fleming Story When Mark Fleming uses his check to travel to Vienna to search for his sister who might have survived a WWII death camp that his parents did not, he falls in love with a woman who might turn out to be the sister. |
September 15, 1959 |
| 2 |
The Harry Brown Story A bickering couple with a child can't afford a divorce, until Michael Anthony delivers a millionaire dollar check to the husband. |
September 22, 1959 |
| 3 |
The Lorraine Daggett Story A woman is only shortly married to a man who fakes his death to avoid the wrath of his gangster pal and then is suspected of complicity in a scheme because she suddenly has a lot of money although she did not know the husband's past. |
September 29, 1959 |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | CBS |
|---|---|
| First aired | January 19, 1955 |
| Last aired | June 7, 1960 |
| Runtime | 30 minutes |
| Status | ended |
| Schedule | at 21:00:00 |