Four stars - Ida Lupino, Dick Powell, David Niven and Charles Boyer - got together to create a quality, half-hour anthology series, Four Star Playhouse. They bring the same quality to the half-hour format that was usually only encountered in the longer anthology programs. The series normally rotated weekly around one of the four stars. Occasionally they would insert a program that was created as a pilot for another series and did not star one of the principals. Dick Powell went counter to anthology tradition by starring in several episodes as the continuing character, Willie Dante, owner of the nightclub Dante's Inferno, with the stories set in and around the nightclub. The show originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1952 to September 27, 1956.