CBS, 10/04/1956
Live from CBS Television City, a tuxedo-clad Jack Palance introduces this premiere installment of Playhouse 90 with a proclamation befitting of the occasion, "Tonight, television takes the giant step..." For the series debut, Rod Serling's tense teleplay launches deep into the omnipresent anxieties of the day with a tale of Soviet saboteurs penetrating the U.S. military to facilitate an atomic attack.
Digital video (from 16mm Kinescope), b/w, 90 min. A CBS Television Network production. Produced by: Martin Manulis. Directed by John Frankenheimer. Based on the novel by Pat Frank; Adapted for Playhouse 90 by Rod Serling. With: Charlton Heston, Tab Hunter, Diana Lynn, Vincent Price, Victor Jory, Charles Bickford. Program introduced by Jack Palance.
Presented with original commercials. Use of “Forbidden Area” episode from Playhouse 90 courtesy of CBS Broadcasting, Inc.