Confession (American TV series)

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This article is about the 1958–1959 television series. For other TV series, see Confession (disambiguation).
Confession
GenreInterview/discussion
Directed byPaytrick Fay
StarringJack Wyatt
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
Production
Running time30 mins.
Original release
NetworkWFAA (1957–1958)
ABC (1958––1959)
Release1957 (1957) –
January 13, 1959 (1959-01-13)

Confession is an American interview and

Dallas, Texas, area beginning early in 1957 and nationally on ABC during the summer of 1958 and the 1958–1959 television season
.

Synopsis

In each episode, host Jack Wyatt interviews a convicted criminal who has been vetted and approved by local police officials, discussing his or her crimes and reasons for committing them.[1][2][3] After the interview, Wyatt moderates a discussion by a panel which includes a lawyer, a member of the clergy, either a psychiatrist or a psychologist, and either a penologist or a sociologist, during which the panelists analyze the interview and suggest ways of reforming the criminal.[3]

Production

Dallas, Texas, broadcast from the studios of WFAA.[3] With relatively few network shows to broadcast during prime time during the late 1950s, ABC picked up the show for network broadcast to help fill out its schedule during the summer of 1958, and continued to broadcast it during the first half of the 1958–1959 season.[3] Episodes for ABC were videotaped at WFAA.[1][3]

Although its live local broadcasts in Dallas prior to its ABC run commonly prompted a flood of telephoned complaints to WFAA after each episode,

drug addicts, prostitutes, sex offenders, and murderers.[3] In one of its more notable 1957 episodes, Darrell Wayne Kahler, a 22-year-old male transvestite[3] arrested for vagrancy while drunk, dressed as a woman, and being molested by three men, discussed his dysfunctional upbringing, his heavy use of alcohol and cigarettes, and his work as a "B girl" at a nightclub, and police allowed him to dress in a black cocktail dress to reenact his arrest for Wyatt's interview.[4]
The Kahler episode brought the show to national attention and prompted ABC to pick up it for network broadcast.

Broadcast history

Confession premiered as a local program on

Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond replaced it in ABC's schedule.[3]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0 14 02 4916 8
    , p. 176.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-345-39736-3
    , p. 211.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7864-3828-0
    , pp. 61–62.
  4. ^ "Television: Confession," Time, December 30, 1957.
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