Encounter (1958 TV series)

Encounter is a five-week anthology television series aired from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and carried by both CBC Television and ABC from October 5 to November 2, 1958.[1] In Canada the series was known as General Motors Presents.[2]

The one-hour dramas were either romance, adventure, or mystery stories. Patrick Macnee, Barry Morse and William Shatner were among those who appeared on Encounter.[3] ABC had planned to air 39 episodes of the series, but aired only 5.

In the United States, Encounter followed the western series Colt .45. The program faced competition on CBS from Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The $64,000 Question. NBC at the time aired part of The Dinah Shore Chevy Show.[4]

It is not known what program succeeded Encounter in the 9:30 Eastern time slot beginning on Sunday, November 9, 1958. The following season The Alaskans, an adventure program set in Alaska and starring Roger Moore, Dorothy Provine, and Jeff York, aired on ABC in that time period.[5]

Encounter is not the shortest-running series on an American television network. In the fall of 1966, The Tammy Grimes Show, a situation comedy starring Tammy Grimes, ran only four episodes on ABC before it was cancelled.[6]100 Grand, an ABC quiz show, lasted for only three episodes after its debut in the fall of 1963 on the Sunday evening schedule. A program called Turn-On, promoted as a sophisticated answer to NBC's Laugh In, was cancelled on the air during its first and only episode.