It premiered September 9, 1945 on ABC with Burgess Meredith, Henry Daniell and Cecil Humphreys in Wings Over Europe, a play by Robert Nichols and Maurice Browne which the Theatre Guild had staged on Broadway in 1928–29.

Numerous Broadway and Hollywood stars acted in the series, including Ingrid Bergman, Ronald Colman, Bette Davis, Rex Harrison, Helen Hayes, Katharine Hepburn, Gene Kelly, Deborah Kerr, Sam Levene, Agnes Moorehead, Basil Rathbone, Charles Tyner and Mary Sinclair.

It was still on the air during President John F. Kennedy's famous April 11, 1962, confrontation with steel companies over the hefty raising of their prices.

The show featured a range of television acting talent, and its episodes explored a wide variety of contemporary social issues, from the mundane to the controversial.

[citation needed] Notable guest star actors included Martin Balsam, Tallulah Bankhead, Ralph Bellamy, James Dean, Dolores del Río, Keir Dullea, Bennye Gatteys, Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke, Harrison, Celeste Holm, Sally Ann Howes, Jack Klugman, Sam Levene, Peter Lorre, Walter Matthau, Paul Newman, George Peppard, Janice Rule, Albert Salmi, George Segal, Jamie Smith, Suzanne Storrs, and Johnny Washbrook.

Griffith made his onscreen debut in the show's production of No Time for Sergeants, and would reprise the lead role in the 1958 big screen adaptation.

In 1956–57, Read Morgan made his television debut on the Steel Hour as a young boxer in two episodes titled "Sideshow".

Child actor Darryl Richard, later of The Donna Reed Show, also made his acting debut in the episode "The Bogey Man", which aired January 18, 1955.

On August 17, 1955, in her series debut, Janice Rule played the titular protagonist–and actor Jamie Smith her "likable, solid-type fiancé"–in the episode "The Bride Cried".

The latter was broadcast on November 20, 1957, with a cast including Jimmy Boyd, Earle Hyman, Basil Rathbone, Jack Carson and Florence Henderson.

[18] Directors on CBS included Boris Sagal,[6] Marshall Jamison,[84] Paul Bogart,[5] Don Richardson,[85] Tom Donovan,[92] Norman Felton, Dan Petrie, and Sidney Lumet.

[13]: 55  Concurrent with the change of networks, the Guild applied "the well-known theory that a certain director may be skilléd in staging a comedy, but somewhat inept at serious drama".

This is to say that in terms of their themes they were socially inoffensive, and dealt with no current human problem in which battle lines might be drawn.

After the production of Patterns, when my things were considerably easier to sell, in a mad and impetuous moment I had the temerity to tackle a theme that was definitely two-sided in its implications.

The play, in its original form, followed very closely the Till case in Mississippi, where a young Negro boy was kidnapped and killed by two white men who went to trial and were exonerated on both counts.

Noon on Doomsday finally went on the air several months later, but in a welter of publicity that came from some 15,000 letters and wires from White Citizens' Councils and the like protesting the production of the play.

The offices of the Theatre Guild, on West 53rd Street in New York City, took on all the aspects of a football field ten seconds after the final whistle blew.

[119]A review of the broadcast in The New York Times said, "Mr. Serling grappled with a potentially compelling theme —how the narrow-mindedness of a small town led members of the community to forgo principle.

"[62] To do so, the review said, "Serling indulged in a succession of rather implausible events and then coated them with so much emotion that his work seemed artificially supercharged instead of genuinely powerful.