TV History

Even The Energizer Bunny Needs A Break Now And Then… Just a short post tonight…I’m exhausted. The day started at The Paley Center For Media and then moved to the CBS Broadcast Center. It just ended at the The David Letterman Show. On the left, me taking one of the 182 photos I shot…

My ABC Tour And NBC 8G Tour & Taping On The Seth Meyers Set On the left, me at Diane Sawyer’s desk at ‘ABC World News Tonight’ in ABC TV 3. The same studio the Peter Jennings reported from. When this was taken, ‘Good Morning America’ was still on, as you can see in…

My Day At ‘Tonight’ And NBC Studio 6B Yep! That’s me at Jimmy Fallon’s Desk and behind Camera 1 on the set of ‘The Tonight Show’! This morning, I told you I was on a “special mission” and that there would me more later. Well…it’s later and frankly, I am having a bit of…

Headed For ‘Tonight’ Show And 30 Rockefeller Plaza! It’s 5 AM in Boston, and and I’m leaving on Amtrak for Penn Station in NYC now. Dennis Degan will be joining me for the taping this afternoon at 4, but as soon as i get to the city, I have a “special mission” which I…

Eyes Of A Generation…On Tour By noon today, I hope to be standing in The Museum Of Broadcast Technology in Woonsocket, RI with my good friend Paul Beck. I’ll be taking as many pictures along the way as I possibly can, however my usual early morning posting schedule may be out the window for…

Eyes Of A Generation…On Tour…One Week From Today Next Sunday morning, I’ll get a top to bottom tour of NBC. My tour guides will be Dennis Degan of ‘Today’ and Joel Spector, who began with NBC in 1965. Joel is still the chief audio engineer on the ‘Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade’ and has been doing…

‘The Andy Williams Show’…Photos & Videos To Match Occasionally, we get lucky and can match up rehearsal photos to the performance video. Today, we’ve matched two photos. On the left is Williams in rehearsal for the first show of the third season taped on October 5, 1964. Andy’s guest are Jack Benny, Janet Leigh…

“Parting The Waters”…Follow Up Pictures Yesterday’s video on how the effects for ‘The Ten Commandments’ “parting the waters” scene were done have brought a couple more interesting tidbits, thanks to Glenn Mack. Above is an aerial view of the Paramount lot showing the huge water set directly in front of the “big sky” backdrop.…

This Looks Interesting…Anyone Know How This Turned Out? Canon must be proud to know that their lenses are “Letterman Proof”. As we all know, Dave has been known to rough house with them and his friend, Craig Ferguson, has learned from the master. William French, our friend in San Francisco, sent this overnight. I…

April 26, 2005…9 Years Ago Today, NBC First HD Broadcast NBC’s first High Definition broadcast was of ‘Late Night With Conan O’Brien’ from Studio 6A. I don’t know how fast or furious the roll out was there, but below is a photo that shows that when the Sony SD camera were replaced with Sony…

Backstage With Jack Paar…’Tonight’, December 7, 1958 This rare treat is in the form of a “New York Times” article by John Shanley gives us a look behind the scenes of ‘Tonight’ when Jack Paar was the host. That I know of, there is no online kene footage of Paar hosting the show from…

Sunday night, May 21, 1961, ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ was broadcast from the stage of The Stardust Hotel. In the photo, we see that stage being used for rehearsal by Phil Harris, with producer Bob Precht sitting in front of the boom. The camera on the right is a Marconi Mark IV which is…

NBC’s “Radio Ear”…The First IFB or Ear Prompter To help radio crews and floor reporters cover the 1944 political conventions (both held in Chicago), NBC came up with the “radio ear”…a one way voice link from control. The television people in Studio 3H saw this and thought it would be a good way to…

Television’s First News Man…Lowell Thomas Although Lowell Thomas’s news programs were heard and seen on NBC radio and television, Thomas did not actually work for NBC…he worked for Sunoco, the sponsor of his shows. Details on television’s first news program are few, and far between, but as best I can tell, Thomas hosted the…

50 Years Ago, This Week…The 1964 World’s Fair Opened For some, this was the first and only time they would see, and be seen, by color television cameras. Just as RCA had made great use of it’s presence at the 1939 World’s Fair (also in New York) to introduce the public to television, their…

Am I On The Right Floor? My Ears Tell Me No! I love ‘Mad Men’, BUT…when I watch, for example, a couple of men or women walk along the “office” floors, I don’t hear a concrete skyscraper floor…I hear a wooden stage floor and the illusion is broken. Same thing the other day on…

Mel Allen…Columbia University Football, 1946 In 1946, CBS Television began telecasting the home games at Columbia University. CBS Radio sportscaster, and the then voice of the NY Yankees, Mel Allen was chosen to be the host. This photo was taken at Columbia’s Baker Filed on October 5, 1946. A few days later, he would…

Remembering RCA’s Harry Wright I’m sad to announce the passing of one of RCA Broadcast’s brightest engineers…our friend Harry Wright. Below is part of his obituary, and at the link, a story I did on Harry’s long career at RCA. Mr. Wright is on the right in the photo. He will be missed. https://eyesofageneration.com/39409/…

Instant Replay…New Information + The Birth Of A & B Roll News A week or so back, I did a story on the early days of live news on CBS. I had thought that the ‘CBS Television News With Douglas Edwards’ had always come from the Grand Central Studios, but it didn’t. It did…

Sports Graphics…Back In The Day Long before there were digital graphics gizmos, there were analog graphics gizmos. This piece of hardware was used at WHDH in Boston for Celtic’s basketball in 1964. In ’64, colorcasting was trying to break out, but networks and stations that originated major sports broadcasts, would always take along a…