Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, sometimes simply called Zane Grey Theatre, is an American Western anthology series which ran on CBS from 1956 to 1961. Zane Grey Theatre was created by Luke Short and Charles A. Wallace. The series was originally based on the short stories and novels of Western author Zane Grey, but as the episodes continued, new material was included. Aaron Spelling, who later became a legend in Hollywood, wrote twenty Zane Grey episodes. The program opened with a prelude of the episode followed by the introduction, the firing of a gun, with the proclamation: "From out of the... West, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater." Much of the musical score was handled by Four Star's Herschel Burke Gilbert. Powell appeared as various characters in 15 of the 149 episodes of the program and hosted the entire run. Zane Grey, a half-hour program, debuted at 8:30 Eastern on Friday, October 5, 1956, and ran until the end of the 1960-1961 season, when Powell switched to NBC for a new hour-long anthology of drama and comedy called The Dick Powell Show, which continued until shortly after Powell's death from cancer.
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