TV History

August 16…A Huge Date In American History On August 16, 1969, it was the second day of music at Woodstock with performances by Canned Heat, Creedence Clearwater, Melanie, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Jefferson Airplane, The Incredible String Band, Santana, The Who, Paul Butterfield and Keel Hartley. On August 16, 1977, The King…

Welcome To “Mary Richards” Apartment! At first glance, this looks like it could be the ‘I Love Lucy’ set as sitcom production is still done basically the same way with the same studio and live audience layouts. ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ was done at CBS Studio Center on Radford Avenue in LA from…

In Case You Always Wondered… If you are like me, you always wonder what we don’t see when shots of famous sets are on camera. Well, here’s what we never saw when and ‘NBC Nightly News’ anchor or correspondent reported from the west coast. On the far wall is the NBC News Los Angeles,…

Three Things I Never Knew Till NOW! This Is A Shocker! First, I never knew Mary Tyler Moore had a flop. Second, that flop included David Letterman! Third, David Letterman can sing and dance! WHO KNEW? This is the only video clip of a show called ‘Mary’ that ran on CBS for three weeks.…

Television City’s Face Light Experiment…1958 At first glance, it looks like these RCA TK11s have 10 lenses, but appearances can fool you. Actually what you see here is an ingenious way to add face lighting to talent to take away the nose, brow and chin shadows on close ups. This is the only photo…

‘The Larry Sanders Show’…August 15, 1992 – May 31, 1998 It’s hard to believe that it was 22 years ago this week that HBO debuted ‘The Larry Sanders Show’, but it was. Out of the box, they knew they had a hit with Garry Shandling’s new show that took us behind the scenes of…

The Amazing Center Theater…Gone But Not Forgotten The Center Theater was Radio City Music Hall’s little sister and when it was converted by NBC for television in August of 1950, it became “the world’s largest television studio”. It’s big sister seated 6,000, and while the Center seated 3,000, it was just as opulent and…

August 13, 1899…The Master Of Suspense Was Born In London https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9kiLlJujgI Like you, I loved his movies, but his television show, ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ is my favorite of all his creations. On October 2, 1955, ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ debuted on CBS. This was the half hour show that aired weekly at 9:30 on Sunday…

Remembering Lauren Bacall…Her Television Debut This photo of Bacall, Fonda and Bogart was taken at NBC Burbank on May 30, 1955 during the dress rehearsal of a ‘Producer’s Showcase’ presentation of “Petrified Forest”…this was Lauren Bacall’s first appearance in a live television drama. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riylfh_9ir8 At the link is a rare kinescope of that performance.…

Captain, My Captain…Robin Williams On ‘Saturday Night Live’ https://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/robin-williams-snl-highlights-042018579.html At this link above, you’ll find video clips of 6 of Robin’s SNL appearances over the years. In the photo below, we see Robin with the SNL crew gathered around the Chapman Electra Crane which is driven by our friend Phil Pernice. Thanks to Phil…

August 12, 1968…The Last TV Performance Of “Over The Rainbow” 46 years ago today, Judy Garland appeared on ‘The Mike Douglas Show’. At the start of this clip, you can see Mike and Judy reminiscing over some rare photos of her, but this is set to start where Douglas asks her to sing one…

‘Mork And Mindy’…It All Started On ‘ The Dick Van Dyke Show’ In tribute to Robin Williams, today we’ll take a look at some little known history that relates to his extraordinary career. He was one of the world’s most brilliant comics and he, like his hero Jonathan Winters, will be missed for years…

Soon, We’ll ALL Be Obsolete! When videotape came to television in the late 50s, about 40% of network employees were let go because now, a set could be erected once and a weeks worth of shows could be shot in one day. Back then, that was called “time shifting” and the daily routine of…

A Prime Example Of Field Innovation…Can You Spot It? Is it the well made cardboard viewfinder hood? No. Is it the plastic over the cable connector? No agian. Look closer. It’s the heating pad taped to the underside of the lens to keep the grease in the lens fluid. When you set up cameras…

August 1957…’Home’ With Arlene Francis Ends Three Year Run NBC’s ‘Home’ show debuted March 1, 1954 at 11 AM from their 67th Street Studios which were built just a few years earlier by WOR. The concept came from a show NBC President Pat Weaver had originally titled ‘Shopping’ and was designed for the upscale…

A New Perspective! NBC, CBS And ABC Hollywood…Neighbors All! When you read about the early NBC, CBS and ABC studio locations in Hollywood, it seems they are all spread out, but take a close look at these photos….they were all virtually across the street from each other. Be sure and click on each photo…

Here is Beur Lehman putting the Ikegami HK 312s to bed in ABC’s TV 57 in Hollywood after taping an episode of Kotter. Source

August 9, 1936…Jesse Owens Won His 4th Gold Medal In Berlin The first live television coverage of a sports event in world history occurred during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. These games were televised by two German firms, Telefunken and Fernseh. Telefunken’s two large stationary cameras were based on RCA technology and…

In Case You Missed It #2…CBS Crewman At Nixon Resignation The 7 minutes of conversation Nixon had with the people in the Oval Office the night he gave his resignation speech is just fascinating, but if you were there, like George Christian, it was kind of creepy and a bit scarey. Here is a…