TV History

December 17, 1969…Tiny Tim Marries Miss Vicki On ‘Tonight’ Remember this? I was a senior in high school and although it was a Wednesday night, I got permission to stay up and watch, along with about 40 million others. Probably one of the greatest publicity stunts of all time. I met him a few…

A Salute To The Rockettes And Radio City…Two Rare Videos At the link above is some great archival footage with a few surprises! Who knew they practiced on the roof of Radio City? Looking at the cars, this appears to be from the late 1940s. The audio comes in at :28 and color footage…

December 16, 1951…’Dragent’ Debuts On NBC Television https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arfj_dexJIM&ab_channel=JacobJuenger At this link is the very first episode of ‘Dragnet’. Be ready for a surprise at 2:40 as we see a young actor (made up to look older) that will become one of TV’s biggest stars. Playing the role of Chief Of Detectives, Thad Brown is…

Another Great Article From Richard Wirth…’Cameras In The Sky’ Hello again Everybody! I thought it would be interesting to take a look back to some of the people who designed the processes and invented the equipment that gave us aerial cinematography. The article examines the history of shooting film and television from the air…

In Case You Missed It…Funniest SNL Christmas Bit In Years! Kenan “What’s Up With That” Thomson is at it again. This was part of a very good show this past Saturday. I haven’t laughed this hard at an SNL holiday skit since ‘Schwetty Balls’. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWnP2jO06gc If you’ve been crossed…

December 14, 1934… Laurel And Hardy’s ‘Babes In Toyland’ Debuts 80 years ago yesterday, a classic was born. As kids, a lot of saw this on our local stations around the holidays and knew it as ‘March Of the Wooden Soldiers’ which was the title of the 1948 re-release. The original title was ‘Babes…

Making ‘Gone With The Wind’…Linda Ellerbee & Ray Gandolf, ABC To celebrate the debut, here is a most excellent ABC ‘Our World’ special on the making of ‘Gone With The Wind’ from 1987. There is a lot of rare film and many little known facts in this 5 part presentation. For example, did you…

December 15, 1939…’Gone With The Wind’ Debuts In Atlanta Even now, ‘Gone With The Wind’ remains one of the biggest books ever published and one of the top movies every made. In the late 70’s, I spent a lot of time in Margret Mitchel’s Atlanta home, which back then was owned by my friend…

Picture Parade 4…The Infamous TSM Auto Cams At WNBC Connie Chung says the news casters named them “Larry, Moe and Curly”, but soon, everyone called them that. These rambunctious robots had a mind of their own and often ran afoul at the worst possible moments. These came soon after the last big NABET strike…

Picture Parade 3…A Sad Day At Boston’s WGBH October 14, 1961, a fire started in Studio A and it was a complete loss. In the center of the photo are a couple of RCA TK11/31s and amazingly the TVP pedestal’s compressed air tank did not blow up. This was a Friday, but they were…

Picture Parade 2…Guys And Dolls In Television At WBKB, Chicago These pictures were taken during WW II and show how women stepped into jobs of all kinds across the country. Some here were engineers while others worked cameras and control room equipment. The cameras were made before the war at WBKB, as was the…

Picture Parade 1…The Identities Are Revealed This photo gets posted a lot, but never with the names and event, so, let’s fix that. The photo was one of a few dozen taken this day for use by RCA in trade ads to promote their new TK30 Image Orthicon camera in early 1947. The cameraman…

December 14, 1984…Howard Cosell Retires From Monday Night Football I think the best way to mark the occasion is with this video. The great Billy Crystal story on Howard that he told to David Letterman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjL9_9aS51U Billy Crystal’s Story About A Drunk, Weeping Howard Cosell Source

Ultra Rare…Frank Sinatra Guest Hosts ‘Tonight’…A One Time Event As far as I can tell, this Monday night in 1977 was the first and only time Sinatra guest hosted the show.  Guests that night were George Burns, Carol O’Connor and Don Rickles which is quite a lineup. Sinatra had actually retired in 1971, but…

Picture Parade 4…White Shoes And Color News This is the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami. Pictured with Mike Wallace is the governor of Florida, Miss Florida and an overloaded cameraman. That hefty bundle is the Norelco PCP 90 with a 35 pound camera and a 25 pound back pack transmitter. Enjoy and share!…

Picture Parade 3…Space Cadets, A Whole Nation Of Us! In the 60s, space missions were huge events and networks had cameras everywhere explaining not only the mission but the science behind all this and we ate it up. It was a great time in America. Here’s CBS owned KMOX giving us a look at…

Picture Parade 2…’Playhouse 90′, “A Heritage Of Anger”, 1956 Interestingly, like the Richard Pryor – SNL story I posted earlier, this is also a Season 1, Episode 7, event, but on a much different track. These are some great photos of the rehearsals as CBS Television City on November 15, 1956. The stars were…

Picture Parade 1…The Voice Of Christmas Past Here’s a look back at some of the surprises under the tree many of us at least hoped for. I’d never seen a CBS or ABC truck till I went looking for these pictures. This internet thingy has more pictures than a Sears catalog ;>) Enjoy and…