TV History

SPECIAL 3 DAY BIRTH OF COLOR EVENT: DAY 3, PART 7 Yesterday was the 63rd anniversary of commercial color broadcasting in America. Today, Eyes Of A Generation will present the last parts of the most complete story of the development of RCA’s Compatible Color System, ever presented on the internet. Pass the word! More…

SPECIAL 3 DAY BIRTH OF COLOR EVENT: DAY 3, PART 8 Yesterday was the 63rd anniversary of commercial color broadcasting in America. Now, Eyes Of A Generation presents the last part of the most complete story of the development of RCA’s Compatible Color System, ever presented on the internet. BUT…we open a new chapter…

Just In From Associated Press…A Story About Yours Truly! By Frazier Moore Posted Dec 19, 2016 at 3:00 PM     WINDER, Ga. — What does Bobby Ellerbee see when he looks at his antique TV cameras? He sees a bit of what they’ve seen since the birth of television. His cameras are now dormant, decommissioned from performing any on-air…

December 15, 1977…A Sex Pistols Odyssey Begins For NBC And Me! On this day in 1977, one of the biggest stories in that year’s music history began, and I was part of it. On December 15, two days before their scheduled appearance on ‘Saturday Nigh Live’, The Sex Pistols were denied visas to the…

December 14, 1957…Hanna-Barbera And “Ruff & Ready” Debut This is the very first episode of ‘Ruff & Ready’. It aired on NBC December 14, 1957 and was the first cartoon ever produced by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera’s new company. Ruff (the cat) was voiced by Don Messick, and Reddy was voiced by Daws…

Would YOU Like To BE, David Letterman? Good! Click The Video! This is one of the reasons we all love Letterman. In this great piece, we get to “be” Dave for a few minutes at the opening of his show. With a hand held cameraman “as Dave”, and Letterman walking behind him to talk,…

Ever Wonder Where NBC’s Studio 6B Control Room Is? Here is your answer! As part of a surprise military homecoming, Dwayne Johnson and Jimmy Fallon go up the left isle in the audience and at about 1:25, go behind the sound booth that feeds the house monitors, and into a 7th floor door that…

ULTRA RARE…FIRST “TONIGHT” SHOW, PART 1 of 2 In Part 2, which will follow shortly, you will see the first half hour of the first ever “Tonight” show, which began at 11:30 PM EST on the NBC Television Network on September 27, 1954…BUT… WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE HERE IS, IN ESSENCE, THE…

ULTRA RARE…FIRST “TONIGHT” SHOW, Part 2 of 2 To get the full effect of this historic footage, that is just now become available online, make sure you see and read Part 1, posted earlier today. This is Monday, September 27. 1954…debut night, and full of surprises for everyone…including those of us watching now. Steve…

Happy Trails To The Great Verne Lundquist… Verne Lundquist, whose voice has filled living rooms and bars all over the country on every fall Saturday over the last 17 years as the lead college football voice of CBS, called his final game. We’ll miss you Uncle Verne! -Bobby Ellerbee Source

December 10, 1932…The First Ever, Technicolor Christmas Feature Walt Disney’s ‘Santa’s Workshop’ was released to theaters on this day in 1932 and it was a huge hit. This was the third animated technicolor feature ever done, with the first being Disney’s ‘Flowers And Trees’ which debuted in July of ’32…an Academy Award winner. Disney’s…

“The Big Picture” Presents….Television In The Army Remember “The Big Picture” series? Here is their half hour show on how the Army uses TV, from the early ’50s. Given that there are RCA TK11 cameras here (as well as the older TK30s), this has to be sometime after 1952. At the Production Center, they…

How Howard Cosell Broke The News About John Lennon’s Death It was on this day, December 9, 1980 that most of us learned of John Lennon’s death, but those that were up late…watching ABC’s “Monday Night Football” game, heard the astounding news from Howard Cosell around 11:30 December 8, near the end of that…

1926-2016…Celebrating 90 Years Of Talking Pictures Thanks to Western Electric’s Vitaphone technology, moving pictures with sound became a commercial success, but the story does not start with “The Jazz Singer”, and it doesn’t even start with the spoken word. Believe it or not, the very first sound with film efforts were thought of as…

“Hairspray Live!”…Bravo Again For Live Television! This was NBC’s fourth venture into holiday event live musicals, but their first go at a broadcast with an audience and studio sets as opposed to a more traditional proscenium-style approach. Perhaps taking a cue from Fox’s live broadcast of “Grease” last winter, NBC did this show from…

First Film Production Of “The Night Before Christmas” From the Edison Company, here is what is believed to be, the first filmed presentation of the famous Clement Clark Moore poem. This silent short film, directed by Edward S. Porter was released December 16, 1905 in New York City. Happy Holidays! -Bobby Ellerbee Source

December 7, 1963…The First Instant Reply Is Shown Today is the 53nd anniversary of instant reply. Thanks to director Tony Verna, football changed for the better for fans at home. Below is Sam Gardner’s Fox Sports article from the 50th Anniversay of that day AND a great NFL Sports Video. -Bobby Ellerbee ______________________________________________________ On…

December 6, 1964…A Christmas Classic Was Born! The evening of December 6, 1964, kids across the country tuned into NBC for the debut of “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” in living color. It has aired every year since. The Christmas television special was produced in stop motion animation by Rankin/Bass Productions, and was sponsored…

December 6, 1877…Thomas Edison Makes The First Sound Recording Edison’s recitation of “Mary Had A Little Lamb” was the first voice recording ever made, but on the tin foil cylinder it was recorded on, it is preceded by a few seconds of music, and followed by a person laughing, then “Old Mother Hubbard” and…