TV History

‘Snap Judgement’, NBC Studio 8H…2 & 3 of 12 Thanks to Bob Batsche, here are photos of a game show hosted by Ed McMahon taken in early 1969. As we learned on the ‘Match Game’ photos, there were rehearsals with stand in announcers to give the celebrities and non celebrity contestants a feel for…

More Pictures From NBC 3H…Granddaddy Of Them All On the left is a look inside the 3H control room in the late 1930s which was on the fourth floor level, but accessible from the studio. In the middle, television’s first ever opera was presented from 3H on March 10, 1940, as the Metropolitan Opera…

‘Camel News Caravan’ Debut…NBC’s 1949 Press Release On February 16, 1949 John Cameron Swayze delivered the first edition of this show live from Studio 3H. ‘Camel News Caravan’ was preceded a year earlier by NBC’s first news program called ‘NBC Television Newsreel’ which was all voice on film. Some have Fox Movietone News as…

NBC Studio 3H – 3K…Living History Researching all of this NBC Studio History has brought with it a revelation that hits home…literally. As I write, this RCA TK30 is ten feet way, just outside my office door. I now realize that this is the first black and white television camera ever replaced by a…

NBC Studios History…ULTRA RARE OPERATIONS LOGS, 1947 These pages were copied at the Library Of Congress a few years back by our friend David Schwartz. These are some of the earliest known program relics of those early post war days when the NBC Television Network was basically then, just New York, Philadelphia and Schenectady.…

Goodbye To ‘The Doctors’ & Hello ‘Snap Judgement’ Before we get to Bob Batsche’s great pictures, my questions is…do you have a forgotten collection of photos like this to share? If you do, let me know or message them in. You can’t imagine the notes I’ve gotten about albums lost in flooded basements, including…

NBC ‘The Doctors’, Photo 2 of 3 Sorry I forgot this subject yesterday, but here we are back in Studio 3B again with more great Bob Batsche photos from early 1969. This is ‘The Doctors’ lab set and in the foreground, a beautiful shot of an RCA TK41 with yet another Fred Himelfarb modification.…

NBC Studios History…ULTRA RARE OPERATIONS LOGS, 1951 To give you and idea of the kind of information I have been able to use in my research on this project, here are two pages of NBC’s operations logs from March 12 and 13, 1951. Notice on the left are Kine instructions meaning those programs noted…

“Requiem for NBC Burbank”: Part II Our friend Richard Wirth has given us the second part of his look at NBC Burbank, and concentrates a little more on the engineering and technical advancements made on the lot over its 62 year history. There is one annoyance you should know about. About 12 seconds after…

Remembering David Brenner… For those of us old enough to remember David in the ’60s and ’70’, we remember a comedian that wasn’t afraid to try new things. He was one of Tom and Dick Smothers’ favorites and broke new ground on their ground breaking show. The photo shows him with Johnny on one…

You Mean Oliver & Lisa’s House Was Not Real? That does it! I’ll never watch ‘Green Acres’ again! Ever! Source

‘The Doctors’, NBC Studio 3B…Early 1969 1 of 3 This show debuted in 1963 and ran till 1982, with color starting in 1966. Thanks to our friend, NBC cameraman Bob Batsche, we have some great pictures from the set. Here’s a rehearsal shot with a gray scale chip chart and my favorite camera, the…

CBS Studios…Before And After The Broadcast Center Opened CBS purchased the Sheffield Farms dairy depot in 1952 and for many years, it was used mostly for scenery and storage. In the early 60s, it was known as the Production Center as many of CBS’s shows had offices here, like Ed Sullivan. In early 64…

A Genuine Rarity & Some NEW NBC Color History This rare photo shows the RCA engineers that were charged with the design and creation of the TK40. Many others (who’s work was part of the development of live color systems) were involved, but when it came to putting all of that into a final…

You Mean They Didn’t Really Walk Up The Wall? Source

Last Bob Batsche Color Photo From NBC 8H…The B&W Photos Start Tomorrow First, does anyone know if this staircase is still there? This photo from January ’69 shows the west wall of 8H (where the SNL permanent sets are now), and stairs that led to the old 9th floor control room. I don’t know…

‘The Match Game’, NBC Studio 8H…Photo 5 of 5 With the help of Dick DeBartolo (who is shown here sitting in Gene Rayburn’s chair), and some sleuthing of my own, I have discovered that this series of photos by NBC cameraman Bob Batsche were taken during the week of February 3-7, 1968. Episodes 1591-1595,…

CBS Studio 52…The New Yorker Theater, Part 2 MUST SEE THIS IS THE BEST LOOK YOU WILL EVER GET OF STUDIO 52! This one of a kind look inside happened on the 10th Anniversary show of ‘I’ve Got A Secret’. In the first 6 minutes, we go from the control room to the stage…

CBS Studio 52…The New Yorker Theater, Part 1 In part 2, you see this theater like never before, but take a look here first. Notice the nice big wings and the long camera ramp…you’ll see Gary Moore walk up it in the second part when we visit a very special edition of ‘I’ve Got…

June 8, 1939…The First Orthicon Camera On this day in 1938, two experimental RCA Orthicon cameras were put into service along side two RCA Iconoscope cameras at Ebbets field for a daytime game between the Dodgers and the Reds. This was televisions first ever broadcast of a major league baseball game and was only…