TV History

Good Evening Vietnam! An RCA TK60 shoots the control room of American Forces Vietnam, or AFVN, television in Saigon in 1972 for a segment in the evening news cast. Did you know the navy had TK60s on their aircraft carriers to show the flight deck to the controllers on the bridge? Source

‘The Pontiac Star Parade’ 1959 Here’s Gene Kelly in the dress rehearsal at NBC Burbank. At the link below you can see another clip from the show that gives you a good look at one of the huge studios and some pretty fancy crane camera work at the start. The cameras were RCA TK41s.…

‘Cinderella Weekend’, WCAU Philadelphia This is a photo from 1950 taken at WCAU’s Chestnut Street studio. That’s a pretty interesting General Electric pedestal under that RCA TK30. Although ‘Cinderella Weekend’ was produced locally in each market, it was actually a package show that stations paid a fee for. Monday-Friday homemakers answered questions from a…

Chicagoland Television Icons Perhaps the only major 50s personality missing in this photo is Hugh Downs who was at WBKB when this was made, but joined the NBC staff the next year. 1 is the staff of ‘Kukla, Fran and Ollie’. 2 is the staff of ‘Stud’s Place’ with Studs Terkel. 3 is the…

Follow Up: Jerry Lewis and Video Assist A few days ago, I posted a photo of Lewis with a Dumont Electronicam and told some of the story of his work in developing video assist for movies. Here is the whole story from an article I wrote a while back complete with some interesting photos…

Remembering Ray Dolby His first job was at Ampex working on video tape recording. From there, the rest is history. He was a true pioneer in audio and will be missed. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/12/ray-dolby-dies/2807823/ Sound pioneer Ray Dolby dies 445 62 Share This Story!Let friends in your social network know what you are reading aboutFacebookEmailTwitterGoogle+LinkedInSound pioneer…

The Lone Ranger…Something You My Not Have Known Here’s Clayton Moore visiting ABC affiliate WATE in Knoxville during a charity telethon. The show’s original run was from September 1949 till September 1957 on ABC. It starred Jay Silverheals as Tonoto and Moore as The Lone Ranger, BUT…from 52 till 53, Moore was replaced by…

The Landmark Achievements Of “The Colgate Comedy Hour” There are three major landmarks in television history that occurred on this show which ran from September of 1950 through December of 1955. The first landmark is “the wheel format” which basically inserted rotating hosts on a weekly basis. The network also used the wheel format…

A Dying Breath Brought New Life To Video Assist In the very last days in operation as a network, Dumont introduced the Electronicam in 1955. By late ’54 the handwriting was on the wall…in February of 1955, Dumont executives realized the company could not continue as a television network. It was decided to shut…

The First TV Network Built in a War Zone – AFVH The American Forces Vietnam Network Here’s another interesting article from our friend Richard Wirth. I have a photo of Richard operating one of the TK60s, so I know he knows the AFVH story well. Some of you probably do too! Enjoy! http://provideocoalition.com/pvcexclusive/story/television-for-the-troops Television…

NCIS…Season 11 Coming Up Soon Here are some interesting details of the show’s history…the pilot for this series aired as a two-part episode of ‘JAG’ in the spring of 2003. Don Johnson (Miami Vice) was offered the part of Gibbs, but turned it down. The sound heard at the beginning and end of each…

Can You Still Sing Along? Many of us still remember the theme song lyrics to some of our childhood favorites. Remember Tom Terrific? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PgniqcgdFo Tom Terrific Theme Song Source

Gene Rayburn VS The Cameramen The camera crew in Studio 33 at Television City have their hands full trying to follow Gene as he races around the studio at the opening of an episode of ‘Match Game ’78’. The Norelco PC70s are in use and it looks like the center camera ramp is still…

Someone’s In The Kitchen With Lucy! Ethyl and Lucy rehearse for a scene in the kitchen. In front of the sound boom, Director of Photography Karl Freund is making adjustments with the crew. The show goes before the motion picture cameras in much the same way it would as a live show in a…

Measure Twice, Cut Once Director of photography Karl Freund has his back to us as an assistant pulls a tape on Desi Arnaz in the living room set of ‘I Love Lucy’. The action in each weekly episode takes place on three basic sets erected more or less permanently on Stage 2 at General…

The First Order For Color Equipment… Before any other local station, WBAP-TV (now KXAS or NBC5) in Dallas/Ft. Worth optimistically placed an order in the fall of 1949 for RCA color television equipment, to be delivered when ready. Although their order was placed first, WKY in Oklahoma City actually became the first non NBC…

What Do You Think? I think having a program monitor on a camera is a good idea. I know that you can punch it up on the VF, but you can’t see both screens at the same time. Source

W6XAO Experimental Station…Now, KCBS In 1931 famous California broadcast entrepreneur Don Lee was granted a license to begin experimental television broadcasts with station W6XAO in Los Angeles. The station later became KTSL, KNXT and is currently KCBS-TV. The ridge above the Hollywood sign, where Lee established his transmitter, is still known as “Mount Lee”.…