TV History

Early Zoom Lens: Part 3 This is the Watson 5×1 zoom made by Watson and Son, near London. This lens debuted in 1948 and is mounted on a Marconi Mark II at the 1954 Empire Games. The zoom command would be on the other side of the camera, but notice (1) the metal cabled…

Classic! Posed for their closeup, here is the early heart of ABC Sports under Roone Arlidge. I think this photo was taken at Pebble Beach in 1967. The cameras, 12 RCA TK41s, 12 Norelco PC 70s and one RCA TK60 (for title cards) were set up in this line for an ABC ‘Wide World…

Remembering Pat Summerall…May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013 Source

Caught With Your Pants Down? How’s this for a gag? The cast and crew at NBC’s Brooklyn Studios laugh along with Mitch Miller at ‘undress rehearsal’. Source

‘Rocky And Bullwinkle’…The Surprising Backstory! Production began in February 1958 with the hiring of voice actors June Foray, Paul Frees, Bill Scott, and William Conrad. Ward hired most of the rest of the production staff, including writers and designers, BUT…no animators were hired!?! Why? Because Ward was able to convince some friends at Dancer,…

The ‘Dance’ In the days before video tape, wireless mics and zoom lenses, camera rehearsals for live shows at the network level were a combination of art and technology. Each scene had to be blocked and practiced to get the shots, but not get the boom mic, other cameras or the wrong backdrops. Hitting…

Last Of The Monochrome Cameras: The RCA TK60 The great TK60 actually began as the TK12 and was introduced at the 1960 NAB. the TK12 was RCA’s first new camera design in 8 years and had what would become the “RCA New Look”, blue color for all their TV equipment. Electronically it used the…

The Masters Tournament: TV Coverage History 1956 Till Today First, if you are working at the Masters, please send us photos and tell us how many cameras are being used this year. At the link below, you’ll find some very interesting history and little known facts about how the broadcasts are done from Augusta.…

Remember ABC’s White Cameras? ABC veteran cameraman Don ‘Peaches’ Langford is pictured here on one of his first assignments in the mid 60s. He’s shooting the top of a ski run from about a mile away, and notice the lens. It’s not a Zoomar…it’s a telescope lens with no zoom and the focus was…

‘Bonanza’: A Funny Story From The Set… During the filming of one episode, Lorne Greene was required to jump off a small ledge into a lake five feet below. Michael Landon later recalled that when Greene did the stunt, he jumped into the water feet first and went completely under, but his hair piece…

The Monkeys! Did You Know This? The Beatles movie ‘Hard Day’s Night’ was the catalyst that brought the idea for this show to life. They already had the idea for the show and originally thought about using ‘The Lovin Spoonful’ band to play the lead rolls, but they signed a record deal before the…

Classic: ‘I Love Lucy’ Shooting on the living room set, we have Houston Fearless Panoram dollies on the left and right and a McAllister crab dolly in the middle. Notice the bank of floodlights on the front of each dolly. Looks like this was the day they handed out new crew jackets. Source

What Do ‘Jaws’ & ‘20,000 Leagues’ Have In Common? Before I tell you, I thought you would be interested in knowing this interesting bit of history. When it came time for “Bruce” the shark to be built for ‘Jaws’, unbelievably, the Universal prop department told Steven Spielberg that they were too busy on other…

FASCINATING! The Making Of Jurassic Park…Must See! The bottom link is to the must see 40 minute documentary of how ALL the movie was done, with miniatures, CGI (which was brand new), and FULL SIZE models with Spielberg and all the artists, but…to give you a quick look at the amazing quality of movement…

WRGB: Historic In Many Ways Before the history, take a look at these GE Iconoscope cameras. As this was a GE owned property, these could actually be some of the first GE Iconoscopes they made. Over the years, GE tested a lot of equipment here. WRGB claims to be the world’s first television station.…

Color Comes To Atlanta…1965 This is five of the six Norelco PC60s that arrived at WAGA (then CBS) in late 1966 which replaced their Marconi Mark IVs. WSB (then NBC) was first with local color in 65 and had the RCA TK42s, but by 69, they too went to the Norelcos. Before color, WSB…

TV Lens Week…Post 5: Digi Super 100 Auto Focus Gordon Tubbs explains how auto focus works and ‘the permissible circle of confusion’ optical theory, which is quite fascinating. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JelbzQpKr4E Canon’s Broadcast and Communications Division premiers their new HD field lens with Auto focus the DIGISUPER 100 HDTV at NAB 2008 Las Vegas. Source

This TK41 Is A Killer! About 10 days ago, I posted a TK41 from MGM’s prop department asking you if it was “Live Or Memorex”. Thanks to our friend Mike Clark, we can see that camera in action shooting more than just pictures! For an episode of ‘The Girl From U.N.C.L.E,’ guest star Peggy…