Life Is Worth Living
Life Is Worth Living is a religious inspirational TV series which aired on the DuMont Television Network from 1952 to 1955, then on ABC until 1957.
The show was hosted by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, who gave lectures about the moral issues of the day, which he would explain in detail with the help of drawings and lists he made on a blackboard. Bishop Sheen, who was an ardent opponent and critic of Communism, devoted several episodes of his program to the dangers which Communism presents to society; in one 1953 episode, he did a reading of the play Julius Caesar in which he replaced four pivotal characters from the play - Julius Caesar, Cassius, Marc Antony and Brutus - with Joseph Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria, Georgy Malenkov and Andrey Vyshinsky respectively. Shortly after Bishop Sheen made the statement "Stalin must one day meet his judgement" in that episode, Stalin died of a stroke on March 5, 1953.
Life Is Worth Living had healthy viewership numbers despite airing opposite both Frank Sinatra and Milton Berle's NBC variety series Texaco Star Theater during its run on both DuMont and ABC, often drawing between 10 million and 30 million viewers per week and winning an Emmy in its second season. When DuMont ceased regular non-sports programming in 1955, Life Is Worth Living moved to ABC and remained there until 1957. Following the program's end, Bishop Sheen launched another program, The Best of Bishop Sheen, on the NTA Film Network from 1958 to 1961, then created another program, The Fulton Sheen Program, which ran in first-run syndication from 1961 to 1968.
Reruns of Life Is Worth Living and The Fulton Sheen Program aired in syndication on local stations into the early 1990s. Life Is Worth Living reruns now air on the Eternal Word Television Network, with new openings and closings narrated by actor Joseph Campanella.
External links
- Life Is Worth Living at EWTN
- Life Is Worth Living at IMDb
