October 18, 1964…Hallmark Brings “The Fantasticks” To Television
At the link above is a kinescope of the famous Broadway play, that was the October 18, 1964 presentation of “The Hallmark Hall Of Fame”. Below, the photo shows John Davidson speaking to his father, who is played by Bert Lahr.
This was done live to tape at NBC Brooklyn, but only the kinescope work copy remains. The way tape was edited at the networks then, required a kinescope copy of the raw footage, which was then edited as a master of how to manually edit the tape. The odd look was common in kinescopes of color productions, which black and white film didn’t handle well.
‘The Hallmark Hall of Fame’ debuted on Christmas Eve 1951, with the world premiere of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” on NBC TV. Until 1955, the production schedule was near frantic with an average of 40 new presentations a year. In 1954, the show began color broadcasts and in 1956, it went to a bi monthly format with six or seven shows a year.
The Hallmark anthology series was one of the highest rated and most awarded in television history. For nearly three decades the series was broadcast by NBC, but the network cancelled it in late 1978 due to declining ratings. Since then, the series has been televised occasionally by CBS from 1979 to 1989, then on ABC from 1989 to 1995, then CBS again from 1995 until 2011, when that network cancelled the series due to low ratings. As of 2014, the series has earned 80 Emmys, 9 Golden Globes, 11 Peabody Awards and many others. -Bobby Ellerbee
I remember seeing “Amahl and The Night Visitors” several times when I was a kid. It was already gone before we got our first color set.
It’s too bad the Hallmark channel doesn’t show these old programs. I don’t recall ever seeing a bad one.
Quality television unlike today’s television..
I just wonder what the base “foot level” was with all of those “scoops” lit up?
It’s interesting that with color television being such a big deal, with NBC at the forefront and promoting color TV in a big way, that they would take B&W production stills.
Correction: “The Fantasticks” was never a Broadway play. It ran off-Broadway for 42 years at a small theater in Greenwich Village. The original cast, however, starred Jerry Orbach (Det. Lennie Briscoe) as El Gallo, the part Ricardo Montalban played in the TV version. Later El Gallos included future game show host Bert Convy.
Those IO cameras required a lot of light and they could be noisy.
Bobby, Once again I have to post that I no longer see the camera icon that enabled us to post photo attachments to our comments/replies to your posts. Do others notice this?
That kinescope looks like it’s also about a 3rd generation VHS copy, with maybe an EIAJ generation thrown in for good measure.
They sure used a lot of crane dolly’s and those extra hot fill lights on the cameras. Unreal.