This was the first American production of a Shakespeare play ever presented on network television which was more than an hour in length. There had been other Shakespeare productions on American TV (such as Walter Hampden's "Macbeth") before this "Hamlet", but they had reduced the plays being shown to only an hour. Maurice Evans had already starred in several Broadway productions of "Hamlet". This production also marked Evans' debut on network TV.
Sometimes erroneously credited (even by Hallmark) as the first Shakespeare play ever presented on television. There had already been a one-hour version of "Macbeth" presented on Philco Television Playhouse in 1949, as well as a three-hour "Hamlet" presented on British television in two installments in 1947 and a one-hour "Julius Caesar" presented on "Studio One".
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