TV History

The First Photo Of An NBC Studio? Quite Possibly… This is the Green Brothers Novelty Band inside NBC’s Studio B at 711 Fifth Avenue. The date is 1928, and although there are other photos of the network’s first radio studios, they are all dated 1929, so this could be the first inside look. Included…

FANTASTIC! Johnny Carson Punks Joan Rivers! RARE MUST SEE VIDEO! I had never seen this till just this morning and bet that you never have either. This is one of the most elaborate practical jokes ever and you’ll love the very end too! Thanks to John Marelli for sending this along. Enjoy and share!…

Pure Gene! As you watch Gene Rayburn cut promos for ‘The Match Game’ at WBZ in Boston, you’ll see him transform into his “hosting personality” right before your very eyes. This is fun! Thanks to Kevin Vahey for the clip. Enjoy and share! – Bobby Ellerbee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HljIGil9i3s 1982 Gene Rayburn/WBZ-TV Promos These are excerpts…

September 4, 1951…America’s First Coast To Coast TV Broadcast 63 years ago yesterday, the first live television signals were transmitted from San Francisco to the east coast. On that day in 1951, President Harry S. Truman’s opening speech before the Japanese Peace Conference was broadcast across the nation, marking the first time a television…

ULTRA RARE! Joan Rivers Debuts Her Own Show…September 1968 Until yesterday, Joan Rivers was a pioneer in every way and we will miss her! 46 years ago this month, ‘That Show With Joan Rivers’ debuted as one of daytime television’s first ever syndicated talk shows. Like Joan, the show was a bit ahead of…

Frame Sizes With Fixed Focal Length Lenses… In the days before Zoom lenses, cameras had rotatable turrets which usually held four fixed length lenses. Here is a scene that shows the difference between the frame sizes each lens gave. In those early days, cameraman and technical directors would go over the lenses needed for…

Priceless! Look closely…this is very interesting on two counts. First, this is the hard way to do a mat shot…holding the Lucky Strike transparency still for the camera to shoot through is no easy trick, especially in a crowded football stadium. Second, take a look at the top of the camera door. See the…

Christina Skaggs And ‘Tattletales’…Photo And Video At the very start of this video clip of ‘Tattletales’, you’ll see the crane shot from this camera operated by Christina Skaggs. Here she in high on her Chapman Electra behind the set for that opening shot. There is better quality video of this show, but this is…

Christina Skaggs…CBS Veteran And Pioneer Female Camera Op A few days back, we met Christina in videos of her work on ‘The Match Game’. As promised, she’s sent us a few new photos and this the first one…the second one will follow in a separate post with video. Although camera work has mostly been…

UPDATE 2021: Unfortunately the original video of the studio tour is gone, BUT…in it’s place is a fun bit Seth did with now retired NBC veteran Bob Friend, so take a look and laugh along with our friend Bob, the man who kept NBC Studio 8G alive and well for many, many years! In…

The One And ONLY…Mel Blanc Often called “The Man Of 1000 Voices”, here Mel admits to David Letterman that he really only has about 400, which by any measure is still stunning. This is one of the best interviews I’ve seen Mel do…they have a lot of fun and many of your favorite characters…

The State Of Television In 1952…Hosted By Dave Garroway This is a film made by RCA for use in theaters…a kind of “short subject” infotainment project designed to sell the virtues of that new thing called television, and more directly, RCA television sets. Until Milton Berle came to television as host of ‘The Texaco…

A THANK YOU, And A Welcome To A New “Old Friend” Until yesterday, Christina Skaggs never knew about Eyes Of A Generation, but thanks to one of television’s top hockey cameramen, Kevin Vahey, she does now. Over the years, we’ve seen Christina here as the female camera operator on ‘The Match Game’ and two…

Eyes Of A Generation…Masthead Companion Photo And Names This is the companion to the photo I use as profile picture for this site. It was taken at the same time and thanks to some veterans in The NBC East Group, we now know the names of these cameramen. This is at NBC Brooklyn on…

Dave And Paul…Side By Side Since 1982 I thought you may like to see this. It’s one of the best articles I’ve seen on Paul Shaffer’s time with David Letterman. Enjoy and share! – Bobby Ellerbee http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/29/paul-shaffer-s-life-with-letterman.html Paul Shaffer’s Life With Letterman Like an increasing number of baby-boomers, Paul Shaffer will be 65 and…

‘CBS Evening News’…29th Floor, Graybar Building Location As I wrote earlier today, in the post just before this, the famous newsroom we see here was located in The Graybar Building which is adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. The first time we see this is during the debut of television’s first daily half hour news…

September 2, 1963…CBS Leads Television News To Half Hour It was 51 years ago today that television news went from fifteen minutes to thirty minutes and Walter Cronkite lead the way. One week later on September 9, NBC’s ‘Huntley Brinkley Report’ followed. It would take till 1967 for ABC to join in. Before I…

September 2, 1983…The Tom Brokaw Era Begins At NBC In 1983, September 2 was a Friday. That was the day it was announced on the ‘NBC Nightly News’ that beginning Monday, Tom Brokaw would take over as the sole anchor. On April 5, 1982, Brokaw began co-anchoring NBC Nightly News from New York with…