The Twentieth Century
The compilations mixed newsreel footage and eyewitness interviews, focusing on great events, unfamiliar historical episodes, and biographical portraits, including contemporary figures in the arts, sciences, law, and politics.[1] The program was sponsored during its entire run by the Prudential Insurance Company, whose Rock of Gibraltar symbol was often the backdrop for the opening and closing credits.Prudential withdrew sponsorship after the ninth season when sports programming seriously cut into the number of its 6 pm Sunday timeslots, and contemporary subjects came to dominate productions.Many episodes had original scores commissioned from a wide range of contemporary classical and film composers, including Antheil, Auric, Creston, Gould, Hovhaness, Kay, Kubik, Milhaud, Nascimbene, Rosenthal, Shapero, Siegmeister, Tcherepnin, and Waxman.Produced by many of The Twentieth Century team and narrated by Cronkite, the new series focused on what humankind could shape and expect by examining aspects of the future already evident in the present.