Road to Reality explained

Runtime:30 minutes
Narrated:Joel Crager
Language:English
Country:United States
Network:ABC

Road to Reality was a half-hour American daytime television show that aired on ABC from October 17, 1960 to March 31, 1961, at 2:30pm EST.[1] The daily program dramatized group therapy sessions that were apparently written from transcripts of actual sessions. The show was ABC's first daytime drama, and the first to bring psychoanalysis to daytime television.[2]

The show starred John Beal as the moderator of the group, Dr. Lewis,[1] and was announced by Joel Crager. The five (later six) patients were played by professional actors. Issues that the patients discussed included fear of intimacy, and shyness.[3] The UCLA Film and Television Archive holds two episodes in its collection.[4]

Premise

The daily introduction to the series said:

Cast

The cast included Eugenia Rawls (Margaret), Robert Drew (Vic), Judith Braun (Joan), Kay Doubleday (Chris), James Dimitri (Lee), and Robin Howard (Rosalind).[5]

Reception

The show was described favorably by psychiatrists working in psychoanalytics at the time, although it had limited popularity with the general audience.[6]

References

  1. Book: Schemering . Christopher . The Soap Opera Encyclopedia . 1987 . Ballantine Books . 0-345-35344-7 . 189-190 . 2nd.
  2. Book: Freedman . Eric . Transient Images: Personal Media in Public Frameworks . 2011 . Temple University Press . 978-1-4399-0327-8 . 102 . Intervention and the Kodak Moment.
  3. Book: Rabkin . Leslie Y. . The Celluloid Couch: An Annotated International Filmography of the Mental Health Professional in the Movies and Television, from the Beginning to 1990 . 1998 . Scarecrow Press . 9780810834620 . 244.
  4. Web site: Jay . Robert . "Lost" TV Case Study: Thursday, January 12, 1961 (ABC) . TV Obscurities . 26 December 2023.
  5. Book: Terrace . Vincent . The complete encyclopedia of television programs, 1947-1976 . 1976 . A.S. Barnes and Company . 0-498-01561-0 . 248.
  6. Web site: 2023-11-12 . Road to Reality – Nostalgia Central . 2023-12-28 . nostalgiacentral.com . en-GB.