TV History

Technicolor First, I must acknowledge The American Wide Screen Museum website by Martin Hart for most of this material. The site calls itself ‘the internet’s largest film technology resource’ and I can tell you that I have never seen anything that comes even close to capturing the exhaustive detail that Mr. Hart includes in…

For Junkies Only! Here is some glorious ‘junk’ at South Carolina’s PBS HQ. Enjoy! I took these pictures about 5 years ago at a public TV facility. They say that, eventually, they are going to ‘do a museum’, so they are hanging on to some interesting old stuff. I still love looking at Chuck…

Back In Time… Here is a look back at how CBS covered the Orange Bowl game and parade back in 1960, starring the RCA TK30! Source

The Marconi BD 848 Color Camera, Rare Video In a recent conversation with Chuck Pharis, I discovered that RCA had sold Marconi the rights to make their own version of the TK30 which became the Marconi Mark I. I suspect they also sold them the rights to make a TK41 as well, which became…

In The Television Race, Others Were Ahead Of Us… Do you know why the British worked so hard on electronic TV before WW II? In part, to push large scale manufacturing of cathode ray tubes and electronic components they could use in radar! They knew the war was coming and the more hi tech…

The RCA Tape Cartridge Recorder: TCR 100 First introduced at the NAB in 1969, the TCR 100 was a real breakthrough in tape handling and even received an Emmy. It could play tapes from :20 to 3:00 in length automatically which finally did away with having to juggle several reel to reel machines in…

Tonight is Oscar Night! A year of planning comes together into tonight’s three hour show, but here’s a look at the second by second work that goes on in the truck. This great clip from 2009 shows us how the pros do it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vLVbhuzWOk I would have loved to see a PIP of the…

‘Hollywood Palace’: History This is an excellent history of the show from TV.com. Enjoy! The Hollywood Palace was an hour-long variety show that ran on the ABC-TV network from January 4, 1964 to February 7, 1970. Instead of a permanent host, guest hosts were used. Bing Crosby, a frequent guest host, hosted the first…

‘Hollywood Palace’: The Final Show, Full Episode Hosted by Bing Crosby, this is a star packed hour of highlights from their seven year run on ABC. FYI, the first two seasons were done in black and white, with RCA TK60s. The show switched to color at the start of its third season. The first…

Ikegami: History and Chronology The Los Angeles Olympics, one of the proudest moments in American history, was just one way in which Ikegami showcased its achievements, because it was Ikegami’s advanced broadcast cameras and monitors used extensively by ABC that played a critical role in bringing this international athletic event to television viewers the…

If Walls Could Talk… This is the hallway at NBC Burbank that Johnny Carson walked for his 20 years there. The hallway separates Studio 1 and Studio 3, with 1 being on the left. These days ‘Access Hollywood’ shoots in Studio 1 and I think ‘Days Of Our Lives’ shoots is 3. Thanks to…

Ralph Levy: Director Extraordinaire Ralph Levy, TV pioneer and two-time Emmy winning director, is remembered by TV historians as the man who directed the original ‘I Love Lucy’ pilot in March, 1951 — which made his passing on the date of Lucy’s 50th Anniversary all the more poignant. Born into a family of Philadelphia…

American Bandstand, 30th Anniversary Finale! A one of a kind band of 20+ ALL STARS of is chosen and the best of the best is playing with the late Bill Haley. The video cut ins of the live version of ‘Rock Around The Clock’ and Haley’s performance are great.  Enjoy! Source

CLASSIC: ‘Requiem For A Heavyweight’ RESTORED TELEVISION October 11, 1956, ‘Playhouse 90’ presented ‘A Requiem For A Heavyweight’ written by Rod Serling. The 90 minute, live teleplay won a Peabody Award, the first given to an individual script, and helped establish Serling’s reputation. The broadcast was directed by Ralph Nelson and is generally considered…

New York Islanders Hockey: Behind The Scenes Very good video and even goes into depth on the back and forth communications between the announcers and the truck. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJF-gBw2gk0 In this very special behind the scenes piece, you see just how the Islanders broadcast gets on to television each night. Features Deb Placey as…

March 19, 1953: First Coast To Coast Academy Awards Prior to this, the broadcast could only be seen live in the Los Angeles area, but in late 1952, that changed when AT&T finished the final links of the cross country coax and relay stations. This is also the first bi coastal broadcast as well,…

The RCA Tri – Color Vidicon Camera: 1953 Although RCA poured millions into this experimental project from ’53 till ’55, in the end they had to let it go. It worked, but not as well as they had hoped. Here are the details on the Tri – Color Vidicon. This is a single tube…

My Amazing Conversation with Kevin Kline, On TV History I was fortunate enough to have a couple of ten minute conversations with Kevin Kline yesterday and of all things, we talked mostly about television history…and you will not believe his connection to a True Pioneer! One that I had never heard of, but wait…

Cheyenne! Many Firsts For This Show The Warner Bros. Television story began in 1955 and it began with Cheyenne. In those early pioneering days, comedy was the king of the small screen, but Warner Bros. Television targeted a different genre, the dramatic series—and carved out an important new and very successful niche. Cheyenne’s legacy…