 This was the first American production of a Shakespeare play ever  presented on network television which was more than an hour in  length. There had been other Shakespeare productions on American TV  (such as Walter Hampdens "Macbeth") before this "Hamlet", but they  had reduced the plays being shown to only an hour.  Maurice Evans (qv) had already starred in several Broadway  productions of "Hamlet". This production also marked Evans debut on  network TV.