The production won four Primetime Emmy Awards for best special dramatic program, best performance by an actress (Harris), best direction (Schaefer), and best writing (Costigan).

[7] Ruth White played Shelagh Mangan in the 1964 version and won an Emmy award for outstanding performance in a supporting role by an actress.

In The New York Times, Jack Gould called it a play of "stirring poignancy and beauty" and "a searching and sensitive study of the turmoil of a human soul.

[8] William Ewald of the United Press praised Costigan's "crisp and prickly dialogue" and was especially effusive in his praise for Julie Harris's performance: "She has that ability rare among TV actresses -- and almost non-existent among movie queens -- to pitch out an emotion without excessive gesture, she does not merely underplay, she does something much finer -- she works from inside herself, squeezing out scenes through her pores.

Costigan and NBC also won the 1958 Peabody Award for television writing "for the lyric beauty, the poetic insight, and the dramatic integrity" of Little Moon of Alban.

[14] In January 1959, Schaefer, Costigan, and executive producer Mildred Freed Alberg also received Christopher Awards for Little Moon of Alban.