TV History

Johnny Carson – Red Skelton Running Gag… In 1952, Johnny Carson joined CBS owned KNXT in Los Angeles as a staff announcer. About a year later, a 15 minute show called ‘Carson’s Cellar’ debuted but petered out after a few months. That’s when Red Skelton asked Carson to become one of the writers on…

The “2000 Year Old Man”…Now 2088 Yesterday was Mel Brooks 88th birthday. What a career! Below are a few shots from his early days with Sid Caesar as a writer…one of the best teams ever. In the picture with Mell on the desk is Woody Allen and head writer Mel Tolkin with Sid. Over…

‘The Muppet Show’…Horizontal Split Screen Open Who knew? Until I saw this photo and compared it to a Season 4 opening montage, I never knew it was done in layers of horizontal image editing. The video starts at the intro. Enjoy and share. http://youtu.be/fp05wtcvDMk?t=38s Source

A Real Rarity…’Amos ‘n’ Andy’ Television Screen Test, 1950 Before ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy’ came to CBS Television in 1951, it had been a huge hit on radio and aired from March 19, 1928 to November 25, 1960. Charles Correll (Andy), and Freeman Gosden (Amos and Kingfish) were the creators and voices of all the…

Wait! Now You’re Telling Me Big Bird Is Not Real Too? Sorry again! It’s really a man named Caroll Spinney. Actually, Mr. Spinney retired a few years back, but he was the original Big Bird and Oscar The Grouch. Here’s an NPR interview with him…he’s 81 now. Enjoy and share! http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1249919 Source

Kermit Lives In A Drawer & ‘The Muppets’ Was Shot In London… Who knew? I was quite surprised to find out that ‘The Muppet Show’ that aired here in the US from September 1976 till March 1981, aired in the UK at the same time and was shot there too. After two pilot episodes…

CBS, NBC First West Coast Homes (With Video) Before there was Television City and NBC Color City, there was CBS Columbia Square and NBC Radio City West. Both were originally built for radio and about a third of their radio shows came from Hollywood. Columbia Square opened in April 1938 and television came there…

My Kind Of Weekend! Ultra Rare…Here’s The Back Story Thanks to our friend David Schwartz, here is a historic pair of tickets from a great weekend of live television in Los Angeles. Most of us never think about it, but CBS’s Television City and NBC’s Color City both went into operation about the same…

NBC Studio 3B…’The Doctors’, March 1973 Although I have posted this great shot of the RCA TK41s in action on the set of ‘The Doctors’ before, there is something new here…the date! I just spoke with Glenn Mack again this morning to verify that this photo was taken in March of 1973 and it…

Walter Cronkite’s Desk…A Reproduction Coming Soon This fall, Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Cronkite’s alma mater, will open a new exhibit in the Cronkite Museum that will include a replica of his 70’s era ‘CBS Evening News’ set, complete with cameras. I am helping them with photos (like these rare shots of…

Wherrrrrrrres Johnny? NBC 6B After The ‘Tonight’ Move… The photo I posted yesterday taken from behind Johnny in 6B was from March 8, 1972. These two great shots were taken by our friend Glenn Mack a year later in March of ’73. In Carson’s monologue of November 13, 1972 he said “this is our…

In Case You Missed It…Diane Sawyer Stepping Down As Anchor Last night, ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer announced her departure from the nightly anchor duties to pursue more in depth reporting for ABC. The very capable David Muir will replace her. More at the link. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/business/media/david-muir-to-succeed-diane-sawyer-as-world-news-anchor.html?_r=0 David Muir to Succeed Diane Sawyer as…

Johnny Carson In NBC’s Studio 6B… This photo is from March 8, 1972. This would be from the last days of the ‘Tonight’ show with Johnny hosting from New York. The show began in Burbank on May 1, 1972, but I think Johnny actually left for LA in early April and had guest hosts…

Johnny Carson’s ‘Tonight’ Show…From Vanity Fair This is a very fine article from February’s Vanity Fair Magazine written on the occasion of the ‘Tonight’ show’s return to New York. It’s a very intimate and in depth look at Johnny Carson and his years as host of the show in New York and in Los…

On A Personal Note… June 25, 2002 – June 25, 2014…My Little Jack Came Home Twelve years ago today, my then six week old puppy, Jack came home with me and my other dog, Jessie for the first time. I took video that day and the last few seconds are included here. This afternoon,…

Marilyn Monroe’s First Television Appearance…September 13, 1953 In the Comment section below, you’ll see the gift Jack Benny gave Marilyn for appearing on his show. She was reluctant and didn’t really want to do it because on live television, to many things could go wrong, but the “gift” helped, as did the studio executives…

CBS Field Sequential Cameras…Modified RCA TK10 Monochromes In a nutshell, the Field Sequential System colorcasts were actually black and white pictures transmitted with a sync code which would synchronize the home receiver wheel with the broadcast wheel. In the color photo, we see a reproduction of the wheel that went in front to the…

June 25, 1951…The First Commercial Colorcast Is Done By CBS Sixty three years ago today, the first commercial color telecast took place as CBS transmitted a one-hour special from New York to four other cities.The whole story and 20 rare photos are at this link https://eyesofageneration.com/cbs-field-sequential-color-cameras-at-studio-57/ Although there is not a lot of information…

Just For Fun, A Little Of Me…’Squidbillies’ Unveil Major Concert Lineup Today the line up of this year’s Music Midtown festival was announced on the internet with this little diddy from me and the other characters of my show. ‘The Squidbillies’. I am the voice of Sheriff and our 8th season on Adult Swim…

History’s First Marriage Of Recorded Sight And Sound…Circa 1894 From the inception of motion pictures, various inventors attempted to unite sight and sound through “talking” motion pictures. The Edison Company is known to have experimented with this as early as the fall of 1894 under the supervision of W. K. L. Dickson with a…