TV History

What Do ‘Bonanza’, The Beatles And Bozo Have In Common? The amazing Alan Livingston…that’s what! Livingston was best-known for his years as president of Capitol Records during the 1960s, when he signed The Beatles, but he also created Bozo The Clown and as an NBC executive, was responsible for ‘Bonanza’ coming to the screen.…

CBS Broadcast Center…50th Anniversary Special Report You’ll want to save a link to this or copy and paste this as it is a one of a kind presentation. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the most complete list of Daytime shows and their originating studios on CBS in the fall of 1964.…

CBS Studio 52…A Surprise, With Studio 50 & 51 History Expanded Here is a ticket from July 14, 1949 for ‘The 54th Street Revue’ television show from Studio 52. Thanks to author and television historian David Schwartz in Los Angeles who sent this, we now have proof that Studio 52 was in television service…

ULTRA RARE! Nixon Jokes With Crew Minutes Before Resigning Forty years ago today, President Nixon announced his resignation to the nation from the Oval Office of The White House. The first seven minutes of this video capture his pre broadcast remarks which, under the circumstances, are truly remarkable. The CBS crews handled the pool…

We’d Like To Welcome You To Munchkinland! This month marks the 75th Anniversary of the release of ‘The Wizard Of Oz’. This is a long shot of the Munchkinland set, the most intricate of the many huge sets used in the production. Enjoy and share! Source

CBS Studio 52, Floor Plan And Specs From the CBS Engineering files here is a layout and description of the theater as it was in 1960. Thanks to Gady Reinhold for these rare pages. Enjoy and share! Source

A Brief History Of CBS Studio 52…254 West 54th Street Here’s a shot of the long running CBS soap opera ‘Love Of Life’ in rehearsal at Studio 52, which is located just around the corner from The Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway. Actually, it’s around either corner because Studio 52 went all the way…

The Man Behind The Curtain…The Wizard Of Ollie Here is a rare look behind the curtain at the creator of the great ‘Kukla, Fran And Ollie’ show, Burr Tillstrom at work. He had two monitors to see how he was doing on the other side. Burr was the creator and only puppeteer on the…

‘The First Hundred Years’…Television’s First Daytime Soap Opera There are several “firsts” to cover, but first…a word from our sponsor, Tide. In the rare opening credit clip above, you can get the gist of why they were called “soap operas”. Having evolved on radio, most of the midday dramas there were presented by laundry,…

‘Your Hit Parade’…The Original, Music Countdown Show Long before the Casey Kasem or American Bandstand countdowns, there was ‘Your Hit Parade’ which started on radio in 1935 and ran there till 1955. The television version started on NBC in 1950 and ran there till ’58 when it went to CBS for a year. In…

August 6, 1965…President Johnson Signs Voting Rights Act I’m not sure if this photo was taken on that day as I don’t see any civil rights leaders, like Dr. King, but the anniversary offers a prime occasion to post this photo which is one of the only images I have ever seen of NBC…

What Was On TV In March 1957? Take A Look! Thanks to our friend Steve Dichter, here is a short video look at a KNXT Los Angeles program guide. KNXT is now KCBS but has always been the CBS flagship station there. The most interesting part to me is on the last page…the 9AM…

WSB’s White Columns…A Shrine To Atlanta Radio & Television When NBC Radio started in 1927, WSB was already on the air and was one of the first affiliates to sign up. As a matter of fact, the famous NBC chimes were inspired by WSB’s chimes. White Columns on Peachtree Street was one of the…

‘Family Feud’…ABC’s TV 54 Studio, Hollywood TV 54 was the largest studio ABC had at the Prospect property. It was also home to ‘American Bandstand’ and ‘Let’s Make A Deal’ back in the ’60s and ’70s. I think ‘General Hospital’ took it over and may still be there…it’s in it’s 51st year on the…

The BBC’s State Of The Art Television…1956 On the 10th Anniversary of the return to the air after World War II, here is a look at the history of television in The UK. From the early Emitron cameras to the Marconi BD 848 color cameras and even zoom lenses, it’s all here. By the…

New Article From Richard Wirth…”Theatrical Television” The subject this time is Theatrical Television and explores the early days of TV when is was thought it might replace motion picture film. Now, almost 85 years after those first attempts, that day has finally come. What took it so long? Read Richard’s perspective on the answer…

August 4, 1987…FCC Rescinds Fairness Doctrine My Thoughts On The State Of Broadcasting Today…An Editorial I don’t often climb on my soapbox, but today…I’m going to. I’ve wanted to write about the condition of broadcasting for a while and with this historically significant date at hand, now seems to be as good a time…

Fascinating, First Hand Television History… As mentioned in the previous post, here is Jerry Lewis discussing the Martin & Lewis years on ‘The Colgate Comedy Hour. Enjoy and share! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOnXZDjyPqI Full interview at www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/jerry-lewis Source

‘The Colgate Comedy Hour’…Live From The El Capitan Theater NBC’s studios at Sunset and Vine in Hollywood were built in 1938 for radio and didn’t have much space for big television productions. Taking a cue their brothers in New York, they began to do remotes from local theaters. One of these theaters was the…

The History Of The RCA TK12 / TK60…Hard Decisions All Around Since we’ve seen a lot of the RCA TK60 this week, especially in the TAMI Show footage and in the new James Brown movie, I thought you would like to see that great camera in it’s original form. Above is the RCA TK12,…