TV History

Putting A Face To A Famous Voice, Again…Meet Apple’s Siri Long before there was an Iphone, there was a text to speech recording session which became…you guessed it…the basis for the Apple Siri assistant. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellebee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2bTymnb1uE Susan Bennett reveals to the world that she’s the voice behind Siri. Source

Putting A Face To A Famous Voice…The Telephone Company Lady Long before all the new computer voice sequencing programs came along, there was a lady named Jane Barbie making recordings for AT&T and The Bell Systems whose voice we have all heard a million times. Thanks to Dick Clark, we get to meet her.…

October 29, 1956…’The Huntley Brinkley Report’ Debuts On NBC First, a note on the video clip…this is a short clip of the first pairing of this great team at the 1956 Democratic Convention. From August 13 – 17, Chet and David hosted NBC’s coverage from Chicago and were well received. The public liked them…

Speaking Of Toys…Here Is The First Ever Barbie Commercial This is reported to have aired on ABC on ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’ in 1959. Did you know Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts and was from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin? Me either, but unlike most YouTube posts, this one actually has…

Incase You Missed It…Fantastic NBC ‘Monitor’ Site! The page linked here is just great, but it’s just one page of a whole site dedicated to NBC Radio’s weekend show ‘Monitor’. A note…just on this page, there are dozens of great ‘Monitor’ moments, BUT, at the bottom of this page, there are some priceless outtakes…

Just For Fun…A 1951 Christmas Card Gag With all the ABC mentions today and the shot of KECA’s first cameraman (Bob King) last week, I thought you would like to see this. I don’t think this is King, but it is one of the first few cameramen there. I love the made up name,…

And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor… Thanks to Sly Rose, here’s an interesting introduction to Frank Sinatra’s second and final television series…’The Frank Sinatra Show’ on ABC which aired from October 18, 1957 till June 27,1958. Notice the last panel in the ad which announces the debut show. His first series was on…

October 27, 1954…’Disneyland’ Debuts On ABC The video included here is the first segment of the debut broadcast on Wednesday night, October 27, 1954. The history presented here may reverse some of your lingering impressions…it did with me too. Specifically, ‘Disneyland’, the show, was on the air before Disneyland, the park opened. I always…

A Follow Up….The First Teleprompters Today’s earlier post on the Jess Oppenheimer through-the-lens prompter took me here. These photos show the first ever teleprompters in television. The large CBS photo is from December of 1950 and the show is ‘The First Hundred Years’. It was the first ongoing TV soap opera in the US…

Jess Oppenheimer’s “Through The Lens” Teleprompter Patent http://www.google.com/patents/US2883902 Lucille Ball liked to call Oppenheimer the brains behind ‘I Love Lucy’. As series creator, producer, and head writer, Jess was the creative force behind the show. According to Lucy director William Asher, “he was the field general. Jess presided over all the meetings, and ran…

‘Time And Again’…Excellent Johnny Carson Special On October 23rd, Johnny would have been 89 years old. There have been several very good specials on Carson in the past few years, but this 2005 tribute is about as good as is gets. Here, in five parts is the MSNBC tribute that runs around 42 minutes.…

Remembering Long Time CBS Announcer Bern Bennett… A delayed remembrance of longtime CBS staffer Bern Bennett Source

October 25, 1982…’Newhart’ Debuts On CBS You are in for a big surprise as you watch this! It’s the ‘Newhart’ pilot and was the first episode to air…it’s shot on videotape! I think the switch to film came after the first season. This may have been shot with the CBS spec Hitachi cameras at…

Ultra Rare! ‘Garry Moore Show’…Rundown Sheet, December 1, 1959 This rare piece of history comes to us from our friend David Schwartz. This is from the second season of the second version of ‘The Garry Moore Show’ which was a one hour, weeknight version and originated from CBS Studio 50 – The Ed Sullivan…

Behind The Scenes With Fox Sports…Putting The NFL On The Air This is great stuff, but one of my favorite shots is about a minute in when we see the two headed monster…the dual platform Chapman sidelines rig. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_V8IlitveE The NFL’s most exciting game isn’t played on the field.…

Follow Up…NBC Studio 3H, A Better Perspective Early in the week, we saw a lot of video of this historic television studio in action in the the 1930s. With this photo, and today’s earlier posting of the original 1933 floor plans of the third floor, I hope to give you a clearer understanding of…

A Very Rare Photo…Future Home Of CBS Blackrock & MORE Thanks to Rick Scheckman, here’s a photo from around 1956 that yielded more than we thought. This was probably taken out of a window of the RCA building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and here’s what we see. Starting at the very bottom and working…

Vertigo Alert…A View From The Top I don’t care how much money you offer…I wouldn’t go here! The crews that work on this antenna atop The Empire State Building have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Several people have asked to see this again, so here you go. By the way,…