TV History

December 5, 1962…’The Match Game’ Pilot Taped This rare unaired video was taped in NBC’s 8H on December 5, 1962 with Peggy Cass and Peter Lind Hayes as guest panelist. Gene Rayburn is the host and Johnny Olson the announcer, but as you will see, the game has changed a lot and so have…

“Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In”…Three Backstories Rolled Into One (1) Fun (2) Editing on film and videotape (3) The Editor, Art “Jump Cut” Schneider There is not a better way to illustrate how “Laugh In” was done than to start with this embedded blooper reel, which will be fun and instructive at the same…

Just For Fun…Be Ready To LOL! I don’t know if all of these clips made it to air or not, but I’m glad they didn’t die on the tape room floor. These are all great, but John Davidson gets things rolling, and at 3:00, Marty Allen has one of my all time favorite answers.…

How Football’s Magic Yellow Line Technology Works…Two Videos Here are two videos to lay out how the yellow first down line is applied to live action on the field. This first one is a good history and general overview of the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Oqm6eO6deU This second one shows us how the equipment is linked to…

Remembering Grant Tinker…. Grant Tinker, former CEO of NBC, dies at age 90 Grant Tinker, former chairman and CEO of NBC and architect of many successes for the network, has died at age 90. He was also a former husband of actress Mary Tyler Moore. Source

How TV Covered Death Of President Kennedy…Broadcasting Magazine Here is the The December 2, 1963 issue of Broadcasting, which includes an article over 10 pages deep (starts on page 36) that gives us a rare look at how the networks swung into action after receiving the news from Dallas. The main article covers many…

TONIGHT! Tree Lighting At 30 Rockefeller Plaza + Some Surprises From 8 – 9 tonight, NBC carries the holiday tradition nation wide, live from Rockefeller Plaza…well…almost live. I have been told that Dolly Parton’s performance was done months ago, but great care was taken to make it a seamless fit into tonight’s show, so…

The Original Mosaic Look Ceiling and Today’s Colbert Dome Artistry When The Hammerstein Theater (now, The Ed Sullivan Theater) opened November 30, 1927, this black and white photo shows what the ceilings of the auditorium and lobby areas looked like. Below, you’ll see it in color! The first nine years at 1697 Broadway were…

November 30, 1956…A Videotape Milestone On this day in 1956, at Television City, CBS made broadcast history when they achieved the first ever videotape delay of east coast programming. The show was ‘The Evening News With Douglas Edwards’, and after recording the live feed coming down the network line from New York, the program…

November 29, 1929…The NBC Chimes Sound For The First Time In July of 1921, RCA bought WJZ from Westinghouse, and five years later, in July of 1926, they bought WEAF from AT&T. The National Broadcasting Company was incorporated by RCA on September 8, 1926, and two months later, on November 15, the NBC Radio…

A Fun Look At The History of Hollywood’s Visual Trickery Processes From 1898 till now, here is how special effects put the magic into movies like “The Invisible Man” ,”King Kong”, “Mary Poppins”, and more. From black and white matting, to yellow and blue screens, back to sodium vapor yellow and on to the…

November 28, 1925…”The Grand Ole Opry” Was Born “The Grand Ole Opry” started as the “WSM Barn Dance” in the new fifth-floor radio station studio of the National Life & Accident Insurance Company in downtown Nashville, Tennessee on November 28, 1925. On October 18, 1925, WSM management began a program featuring “Dr. Humphrey Bate…

The Story Of Videotape & Editing…Part 1 (of 2) Tomorrow, we’ll see how digital editing works, but today…this is a great history of how television’s need for time shifting, and delayed broadcast for time zones encouraged the development of kinescope and videotape recording. This is well done and told in layman’s terms so everyone…

Story Of Videotape Editing…Part 2 (of 2) Yesterday’s first installment was pretty easy to follow, even for laymen, but this lesson on digital editing is more of a challenge. This does however have an interesting timeline that reminds us of when new developments came into play. I’m posting a second video in a few…

My “Conrad” In Arms….Chuck Conrad & His New Texas TV Museum Impressive in every way! From the display, to the abundance of vintage cameras and tape equipment, to the Dumont Cruiser restoration, to Chuck’s attitude, The Texas Museum of Broadcasting and Communications in Kilgore, is true gift to us all. This is a new…

November 25, 1950…Center Theater, World’s Largest New TV Studio The Center Theater was Radio City Music Hall’s little sister and when it was converted by NBC for television was “the world’s largest television studio”. It’s big sister seated 6,000, and while the Center seated 3,000, it was just as opulent and a block away…

THE NEW EYES OF A GENERATION WEB SITE IS UP & RUNNING! Just in time for Thanksgiving browsing, the all new site ready! Please share this news with your friends, and let your non Facebook friends know with an email. Now everyone can comment on the new site, and it is very easy. You…

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Especially to those pros among us that are “in the kitchen” whipping up live television for us today. From parades and football, to local crews newsing, thanks for being there! Add your pictures of your day here, and don’t worry, we’ll save you some turkey. -Bobby Ellerbee Source

Another TV History Surprise…Jon Gnagy, One Of TV’s First Stars Before Howdy Doody, Lucy, Berle, Kukla, Fran or Ollie, there was Jon Gangy. His TV career began May 13, 1946, in NBC Studio 3H (pictured here) on a trial video version of NBC’s “Radio City Matinee” radio program, which was carried on NBC’s three…

November 22, 1963: A President Falls…TV News Ascends Until the day President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, breaking news coverage had been the domain of the print media, but the story of that weekend unfolded so fast, only live television could deliver both the story and the unforgettable images. During that 4 days of…