TV History

‘The Match Game’, NBC Studio 8H…Photo 4 of 5 This cameraman Vincent Kane behind this RCA TK41B. He’s the camera 1 position shooting Gene Rayburn while 2 -4 are on the other side of the set shooting the panel members. Unlike their brethren at NBC Brooklyn who seemed to prefer the doughnut box and…

‘The Match Game’, NBC Studio 8H…Photo 3 of 5 Here, we have cameras 2, 3 and 4 on the set during rehearsal. Camera 1 was Bob Batsche’s and was on the other side of the set to shoot Gene Rayburn. To the left of the cameras are two easels with chip charts. The little…

Just For FUN! One Of The Funniest Ever Roast Clips Don Rickles finally get’s his “come uppence” from the great Foster Brooks. Enjoy and share! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdPcjIrSvcs Source

CBS Studio 56, In Liederkrantz Hall…1960 Spec Sheets With 1,800 square feet of floor space, Studio 56 was the second largest facility in the building. It was directly under 54, and as noted, could be noisy if both were in use at the same time. One of the most notable productions from this studio…

The Legendary CBS Night Mare…The Scene Of The Crime Since 1936, when CBS Radio converted The Hammerstein Theater to a broadcast studio, magnetic field interference has been a problem at Studio 50. When it was converted to television in 1950, things got more difficult, but why? The problem is the building circled in each…

CBS Studio 55, In Liederkrantz Hall…1960 Spec Sheets With just over 2,000 square feet of floor space, Studio 55 was the largest facility in the building. It was directly under 53, and as noted, could be noisy if both were in use at the same time. One of the most notable productions from this…

The Beginning Of The End For NBC Burbank…October 10, 2007 Some seven years ago, NBC’s Brian Williams broke the news…perhaps a “slow jam” version would have been easier to take. When Jay Leno left the air, and Studio 11, NBC’s last daily network operation ended in Burbank. ‘Days Of Our Lives’ and ‘Access Hollywood’,…

‘The Match Game’, NBC Studio 8H…Photo 2 of 5 Behind the cameras, (L-R) BJ Bjorkman and Art Graham. The small vertical panel on the camera door, just in front of the exhaust port, suggests these are RCA TK41B models which would be the first with a single cable. The TK40, TK41 and TK41A models…

The History Of ‘The Match Game’…MUST SEE! From start to finish, this is the whole story of ‘The Match Game’. From the TK41 days at NBC days to the Norelco days at Television City and LOTS more. After a great intro, the real history of the show that began in 1962 at NBC starts…

‘The Match Game’, NBC Studio 8H…Photo 1 of 5 This is the debut of an exclusive series of photos which have never been seen before. The TK41 on the left was operated by Bob Batche (this was his usual position), but on this day in December of 1968, he had his “other” camera with…

Monkeying Around With The Cameras…April 9, 1961 Here’s great short clip of Zippy The Chimp on Ed Sullivan’s stage giving the cameramen a moving target and us, some great shots of the RCA TK11s. At least one has a Zoomar lens and at the end, a HF TD 1 pedestal gets a new use.…

CBS Studio 54…Inside Liederkrantz Hall, 1960 Although Studio 54 is the larger of the two second floor studios, it only hosts three cameras instead of the four in Studio 53. Quite a few of the CBS daytime dramas came from Liederkrantz Hall which was well suited for this kind of daily activity. The most…

I Told You I Lost Weight! Here is one of the many photos Atlanta photographer Parker Smith shot at my home last week. That’s me behind my RCA TK11 and notice how he lit the RCA TK41…there were even lights outside the window. In the left foreground is an RCA TK10 from WGN. Behind…

Exclusive Photos From NBC Studio 8H: Apollo 8 News Headquarters The First Moon Mission: Final Look Tomorrow, we’ll start looking at a few new sets of pictures taken by Bob Batche on the set of ‘The Doctors’, ‘The Match Game’, ‘Snap Judgement’ and ‘WNBC News’. For now, we’ll close out our Apollo and space…

A Brief History Of Liederkarntz Hall, Pre CBS And Beyond… This incredibly ornate building was constructed around 1890 as the “clubhouse” for a German social club, and was specially built for musical performances. By 1927, the building was sold and RCA Victor began recording here. About ten years later, CBS Radio bought the property…

CBS Studio 53…Inside Liederkrantz Hall, 1960 This was the smallest of the 4 studios which were numbered 53-56 with 1500 square feet of production space. Studios 53 and 54 were on the second floor and the only way to get props upstairs was via the building’s main “grand entrance” type stairway and big pieces…

Map of CBS New York Studios And Properties: 1960 This rare map will give you an idea of how much real estate CBS owned and leased in the city in 1960. Thanks to someone with a red pencil, we see the studio locations circled. Notice that the Broadcast Center on W 57 Street is…

More Of The NBC Studio 6E “News Nooks” Earlier in the week, we saw Lester Holt’s main ‘Nightly News, Weekend Edition’ location in 6E’s Media Room 1. Today, we’ll look inside the back up studio for that program…6E’s Media Room 2. This is a secondary production space used for interviews, and a times for…