TV History

TeleTales #101…Mrs. Write Just for fun, here’s a look at cue cards being done for “Art Linkletter’s House Party” at Television City around 1956. Can you imagine having to make changes to this? Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee Source

TeleTales #100…When Your’e Hot, Your’e Hot! Television City Here’s an RCA TK11 in cool down mode, on a “Playhouse 90” set at CBS Television City. As opposed to cameras at local stations, network cameras get a real work out. They are on for hours on end blocking shots and rehearsing. This one is mounted…

Happy Birthday, David Sarnoff! Born February 27, 1891 It is fitting, that on the eve of my release of The History Of NBC’s New York Studios presentation, we celebrate the 124th birthday of the man who started it all. Love him, or hate him, he made history and brought the art of seeing at…

TeleTales #95…Ooh Lala! Television With A French Twist This is the first Thomson camera model ever made and it’s quite interesting. I has two cables, I think the one on the left is the power line and may be connected to the CCU and power supply box, which may be as the base of…

TeleTales #94…”Family Feud”, ABC Hollywood From Donna Quante, who used to operate one of the two Chapman Sidewinders in this picture, here is a shot of the studio with Gene Wood doing the audience warm up at the lower right. This show used five Ikegami cameras, and all the operators wore jackets and sweaters…

TeleTales #93…You Mean It Wasn’t A Real Hotel? Did you know that “Petticoat Junction”, created by Paul Henning, was based on the stories told him by his wife Ruth, who had spent summers at a small hotel located near the train station in Eldon, Missouri? Speaking of Missouri, that’s where Henning was raised, and…

Now For Something Completely Different…And Poignant Among the surprises in Sunday’s Academy Awards show was Lady Gaga’s great “Sound Of Music” medley, and Tim McGraw singing what is in essence, Glenn Campbell’s good bye song to his family and the world. Glenn was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 2011 and has been slowly slipping away…

TeleTales #92…A Tour Of NBC Studio 8G With Seth Meyers Ever wonder what the backstage area of historic 8G looks like? We are about to find out in this roving interview with Seth. Thanks to NBC Q card king Wally Feresten for sharing this, and we’ll see Wally in the middle and at the…

February 25, 1940…Television’s First Hockey Game, NBC 75 years ago today, hockey came to television on experimental station, W2XBS; Channel 1 in New York City. There was only one camera there to cover the action, but cover it they did. That night at Madison Square Gardens, the New York Rangers took on the Montreal…

TeleTales #91…Television’s First “Live Animated” Commercial? Take a close look at these three amazing photos from early 1947. Live from NBC Studio 3H, we see a Bulova Watch commercial board with a Rube Goldberg type scene with gears and gizmos that move when cranked from behind. Notice at the top, the scroll window for…

February 25, 1950…”Your Show Of Shows” Debuts On NBC! “YSOS” debuted as part of a two and a half hour block that was called “Saturday Night Review.” The first hour, was “The Jack Carter Show,” live from WMAQ in Chicago and was a comedy and variety affair airing at 8 Eastern. At 9, ninety…

February 25, 1928…Television’s “First License” Issued: Sort Of… Charles Francis Jenkins invented a mechanical television system called “radiovision” and transmitted the earliest moving silhouette images on June 14, 1925. At the time, there was no Federal Communications Commission, or even it’s forerunner, the Federal Radio Commission, so Jenkins applied to the Department Of Commerce…

February 25, 1945…Johnny Olson’s First Television Job? In this rare newspaper ad from Maureen Carney, a mystery blooms on the 70th anniversary of a local television version of the Blue Network’s “Ladies Be Seated” radio program. In 1944, Olson became the host of the ABC Blue Network’s “Ladies Be Seated”, afternoon radio game show.…

TeleTales #90…The Real Beauty Of The RCA TK30 Notice the lighting in this 1948 photo from WDAF in Kansas City. When the TK30, the first Image Orthicon camera debuted in 1946, it brought with it several new advantages. One of which was the ability to shoot with 10X less light than the Iconoscope cameras.…

TeleTales #90…Living On Tulsa Time: KOTV In October of 1949, KOTV became Oklahoma’s second television station and claimed to have the largest studios in the US, which were built in a former Intentional Harvester dealership. This photo from 1952 shows that, even though they didn’t have pedestals for their RCA TK30s, they did have…

TeleTales #89…The Early Days Of WMAR, Baltimore These are the new WMAR mobile units in 1948, shortly after they became the third CBS Television affiliate. Up till then, CBS only had WCBS in New York and WCAU in Philadelphia. By comparison, NBC had at least six affiliates, and by the end of the year…

TeleTales #88…You Know What They Say About Necessity! It is indeed the mother of invention. When you need a crane, but can’t get one to you location, build one out of wood. I have no idea where,or what is shoot is, but offer a tip of the hat to an innovative crew. “Get ‘er…

TeleTales #86…The First Televised Oscars And “Gown Trip” The 25th Academy Awards ceremony was held on March 19, 1953. It took place at the RKO Pantages Theater in Hollywood and at the NBC International Theater in New York. It was the first Academy Awards ceremony to be televised, and the first ceremony to be…

TeleTales #84…Tore Livia’s Fantastic Single Steadicam Shot As I mentioned in today’s first post, Tore was the man that shot last year’s incredible Tony Awards opening with host Hugh Jackman hopping all over Radio City Music Hall. Here it is again. Tore picks up the shot outside and holds it flawlessly for 4 minutes…

Time-lapse…Building The Oscars Red Carpet AreaWATCH: Time-lapse captures crews building Oscars’ red carpet. Source