Sneak Preview (TV series)

By the mid-1950s, the practice of television executives of ordering dozens of pilots for proposed television series each year – far more than their networks could possibly broadcast as series – had created a sizable body of unsold pilots that had never aired.^[1] By 1954, the American television industry had begun to consider the idea of packaging these unsold pilots in anthology series and airing them during the summer, providing television networks with a way of both providing fresh programming during the summer rerun season and recouping at least some of the expense of producing them.^[1] NBC was one of the pioneers of the concept, premiering Sneak Preview on the evening of July 3, 1956, at exactly the same time as another anthology series of unsold pilots, G.E. Summer Originals on ABC, thus becoming one of the first two series of unsold pilots to air in the United States.^[1] Nelson Case hosted the series.^[2]

Sneak Preview ran for seven episodes over the course of seven weeks in the summer of 1956, airing on NBC from 9:00 to 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday evenings.^[1] It premiered on July 3,^[1][2] and its last episode aired on August 14.^[1][2]