TV History

February 22, 1980…The Miracle On Ice Game; USA Beats USSR At the link is the final minute of the historic Olympic hockey game played 35 years ago today. The Russians were veterans and by all measures, the best team in the world, but somehow a bunch of American college kids beat them, and the…

TeleTales #79…”The Rope” From Alfred Hitchcock, 1948 There are only 10 edits in this unusual film which was shot in scenes that lasted from 4 minutes to over 10 minutes. In order for the huge Technicolor camera to follow the action, set wall were suspended on rails so walls could open to let the…

One Of TV’s Most Memorable Moments…Clarabell’s Goodbye Until those awful days in Dallas in 1963, September 24, 1960 was television’s most memorable moment…at least for us kids who watched ‘Howdy Doody’ every Saturday morning. Although the show went color on September 12, 1955 from Studio 3K, this is the only color footage of the…

The Debut Of “Playhouse 90″…October 4, 1956 This is how television’s most distinguished anthology series started. Although the weekly 90 minute series only ran for four years, it is still held as the gold standard for live television drama. Jack Palance is the host of this debut show “Forbidden Area”, but the next week,…

The First Television Show From NBC Studio 6B… A couple of weeks back, I showed you a rare, pristine photo of the “Texaco Star Theater” which was the first television show to come from Studio 6B. That was the first and only photo I had ever seen, but Val Ginter sent me the image…

A Fuller History Of NBC Television News…Some New Surprises! After further research, I now realize that last week’s story on this subject only scratched the surface or a much deeper history. Today, we set the record straight. The most widely celebrated dates in NBC news history are February 16, 1948 and February 16, 1949.…

President’s Day Special…First Live Presidential News Conference January 25, 1961, President Kennedy held the first ever live presidential news conference. It originated from the auditorium of the State Department and was carried live on both radio and television. It was the first of sixty three he would give. Prior to this, live radio broadcasts…

President’s Day Special…First President, Coast To Coast Not only is President Truman the first President to be broadcast cost to coast, he was the first person to do this! The first coast to coast broadcast, September 4, 1951 was made by President Harry Truman who made the principal speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty…

President’s Day Special…First President On Television, FDR Franklin Roosevelt was the first American President to appear on television at the dedication ceremonies of the New York World’s Fair on April 30, 1939. When Roosevelt made history he was watched by a couple of hundred viewers in the RCA pavilion as well as a few…

February 16, 1948…”NBC Television Newsreel” Debuts This was television’s first news program. The 10 minute show aired once a week and this was the same version of Fox Movietone News that was shown in movie theaters weekly. It was voiced by Lowell Thomas. Some months later, NBC added their own narrator…John Cameron Swayze who…

SNL 40 Breaks Records And Millions Of Funny Bones! BRAVO! STUNNING is about the only word that works to describe the show last night. The video montages, the opening, the presentation…everything was flawless! TD Steve Cimino and Director Don King did a great job, as did everyone behind the lenses last night. And the…

An Exclusive Eyewitness Account…Billy Crystal & The Debut Of SNL In an earlier post today, we looked at the history of the show’s missed start date and the first episode. As you know, Billy Crystal was scheduled to appear, but he didn’t. You are about to learn the real story of why he didn’t…

SNL Debut Show…The Opening Minutes With George Carlin In case you missed the encore performance of the debut show on NBC last night, here is opening and Carlin’s monologue. I have been told that the original closing credits on this debut show listed all of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players as “Bud”.…

The Television Debut Of The SNL Original Cast…Rare & Surprising! As it turns out, “The Not Ready For Prime Time Players” were not even ready for late night television! Really! Here’s the story… NBC’s new 90 minute, live comedy show “NBC Saturday Night” was scheduled to debut at 11:30 on October 4, 1975. The…

SNL Studio 8H…360 Degree Panorama View Source

“Saturday Night Live”…Behind The Scenes Of A Typical Week From a few months back, here is my article on some of the production detail of the show! Please remember to visit the EOAG page to see ALL today’s articles…just click on the blue text above! Enjoy and share. -Bobby Ellerbee ‘Saturday Night Live’…Behind The…

SNL Classic! Behind The Scenes Of “The Continental” Sketches Whenever Christopher Walken hosts, he does a recurring character…”The Continental” which is always shot from the woman’s Point Of View by a hand held camera. I wonder if they will do this tomorrow night? Here is “The Continental” sketch from February 22, 2003. This special…

An Updated Report On My Night At SNL…May 3, 2014 I’m re-posting my report from the next morning with some updates and added comments. New: I originally only mentioned this is passing, but I was fortunate enough to spend six hours in 8H on Friday afternoon watching rehearsals. I had come directly from a…

The Most Amazing Crowd Of Comics Ever…Until Tomorrow! Here is the star packed 8H hallway just before the SNL 25th Anniversary show, September 25, 1999. At this link is the super jam after the show with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and the SNL Band with Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, Paul Shaffer and more. Enjoy and…