TV History

September 2, 1963…A Red Letter Days At CBS News On a Monday evening 53 years ago today, the first half hour network news show debuted. From the CBS newsroom studio in the Graybar Building, adjacent to the Grand Central studios, Walter Cronkite reported for twice as long as anyone ever had on an evening…

September 1, 1952…Art Linkletter Comes To TV + Surprise Video “Art Linkletter’s House Party” premiered on CBS television on September 1, 1952, and had become television’s longest-running daytime variety show by the time it completed its 15 year run on September 5, 1969. But there was more to come! The “Kids Say The Darnedest…

Days Gone By…A Little Broadcaster Humor From Down Memory Lane Source

Television’s First Live Animation Project…January 1940, NBC Studio 3H Although commercial television was sill about 18 months away, NBC was preparing for it. In this sequence of photos, we see a “Rube Goldberg” style presentation board on which all the parts move, to tell the story of Bulova’s new 23 jewel-movement watch. At the…

August 30, 1957…Ten Years Of “Kukla, Fran & Ollie” Come To An End At the link is KFO creator Burr Tillstrom’s timeline of the shows milestones, starting with their October 13, 1947 debut as “The Junior Jamboree” on WBKB in Chicago, to their last show, which was also on WBKB. http://www.richsamuels.com/nbcmm/kuklapolitans/kuklapolitan_chronology.html In the five…

August 30, 1953…A Milestone For RCA Compatible Color Television On this day in 1953, the first publicly announced experimental broadcast in compatible color (all the other tests had been unannounced), of a network program, was presented by NBC. It was the production of an original play called “St. George And The Dragon” on the…

August 30, 1993…”Late Show With David Letterman” Debuts On CBS Here is the entire first show from The Ed Sullivan Theater with some great surprises along the way. I love the edited clips from Sullivan introducing the show, and at around 12:30, Dave goes to the spirit world to talk with Ed, and there…

August 29, 1940…CBS Color System First Demonstrated In the rare photos below, we see the first incarnation of the CBS Field Sequential color system, with none other than Charlie Chaplin (silver hair) taking a look. Creator, Peter Goldmark (with glasses) and CBS Program Director, Gilbert Seldes (elbow on the deck) are explaining the system…

August 28, 1922…The First Radio Commercial Airs On WEAF Did you know that AT&T invented radio advertising? It’s true, and their first and only involvement with broadcast radio, as a station owner, left a lasting legacy. It’s only fitting that the story be told here by radio, and this five minute NPR piece tells…

Great Behind The Scenes Footage…”Let’s Make A Deal” 1977 At the link is a 6 minute clip from the 1977 documentary “Deal” that gives us a good look at the show in ABC’s Studio 54 at the Prospect lot in Los Angeles. I’ve added this photo, so you can more easily identify 40 year…

August 27, 1968…48 Years Ago Today Dan Rather was manhandled at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. For us Boomers, this is classic footage of a well remembered event. -Bobby Ellerbee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wItUjFU1i4M For more presidential election videos go to electionwall.org Source

The “TONIGHT” Show’s Oldest Surviving Color Video…Sept 1, 1964 Above is a very rare piece of tape, that survived only because Stan Zabka, a former AD on the show, and a musical guest on this occasion, had a pal roll tape on his segment. A few years ago, he had our friends at DC…

August 26, 1939…First MLB Game On TV + Other Sports TV Firsts The first ever Major League Baseball game was televised on August 26, 1939 on experimental station W2XBS, which is now WNBC. With Red Barber announcing, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds played a doubleheader at Ebbets Field. The Reds won the…

August 25, 1958…”Concentration” Debuts On NBC The original network daytime series, “Concentration”, appeared on NBC for 14 years, 7 months. With 3,796 telecasts, this was NBC’s longest running game show. Hugh Downs was the original host and served from ’58 till ’69. During this time, Hugh was also Jack Paar’s side kick on “Tonight”…

“The Tonight Show” Crew In Action…A Behind The Scenes Look In the embedded video below, you’ll see what the audience in Studio 6B saw, when Jimmy Fallon and Jon Hamm did a fast paced blackout routine live. At this link, you can see how it looked to us at home, which is quite different.…

Remember This? I Had One, Who Else Had One? “Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy”! Sound familiar? Ever seen it said in COLOR? No? Then click this link for a surprise, and read on for more surprises. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9pPFCjRPvM I watched “Andy’s Gang” on NBC, which ran from August 20, 1955, to December 31, 1960. It…

Behind The Scenes…NBC Sports Olympic Coverage Wrap Up Two years of planning, 102 shipping containers of gear, 1000 cameras, 2700 monitors, and 3000 people, all came together for NBC to televise 11,000 athletes competing in 28 sports over 37 venues. Thanks to Andrew Jackson at NBC’s Englewood Cliffs NJ facility, the master control, transmission…

A Musical Trip Down Memory Lane With The Great Johnny Mercer… If you’ve ever heard “Moon River”, “The Days Of Wine And Roses”, “Autumn Leaves”, “Hooray For Hollywood”, “That Old Black Magic”, “Laura”, “Something’s Gotta Give”, “Birth Of The Blues”, “Jeepers Creepers”, “To Marvelous For Words”, “I’m An Old Cowhand From The Rio Grande”,…

Creating The SNL Title Sequences…A Detailed Look At The Process This is heaven for the many pro photographers and videographers among us, but even for laymen, this is quite interesting. Here is the detailed and technical description of the photographic process from the man who did it Alex Buono. From the lens tricks and…