TV History

1950 State Of The Art Telecine Graphics Source

So Close, So Far Away…The ‘Today’ Show’s Original Home Circled in white is the ‘Today’ show’s original studio location. When the show debuted January 14th of 1952, this part of the building that is now occupied by Christie’s (auction house) was called The RCA Exhibition Hall. In the summer of 1958, television manufacturer Philco…

How Big Are The NBC Studios At 30 Rock? When I saw the Seth Meyers debut Monday night, I wondered why they had not gone with a bigger set, but I had forgotten that with 8H taking up 10,000 square feet of that floor, 8G is actually considerably smaller that the 6th floor studios.…

An Oscar Week Favorite…Lewis Horvitz Directing The Awards Here’s a video several have requested. From the 69th Annual Academy Awards show, here’s the director in the truck at the Shrine Auditorium on March 24, 1997. Gil Cates produced. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vLVbhuzWOk Source

‘Late Night With Seth Meyers’…The Debut Reviews Are In “Safe” seems to be a key word in several of the pieces I’ve seen this morning. What did you think? In his ‘Late Night’ debut, Seth Meyers is strong but plays it safe On March 3rd, 2009, a 34-year old Jimmy Fallon stepped out for…

Thank You For Helping Me Make Snowballs! A Personal Message… As a body of television history, Eyes Of A Generation is like the snowball that gets bigger and bigger as it rolls down the hill. I am the snowball maker, you guys are the snow covered hill…without which, the snowball would not get any…

EXCLUSIVE ULTRA RARITY! NBC 3rd Floor 1933 Configuration For once and for all, this will put to rest any doubts on the history of the conversion of NBC Studio 3H to 3K. Until yesterday, when I received this drawing of the original 1933 radio studio configuration, there had never been a reliable floor plan…

NBC 67th Street Studios Control Room In the two ‘Password’ posts just before this, we go over a lot of the history of this studio, but here is a one of a kind shot from our friend Gady Reinhold. ‘From These Roots’ was in rehearsal at the time Gady took this shot around 1959.…

The Password Is “Video Tape Center”…The Answer, Part 2 From time to time, all of the networks leased studio space in New York outside of their usual production facilities. In the early ’50s, CBS even leased a couple of studios at Dumont and that’s why occasionally, we see pictures of Dumont cameras on CBS…

NBC Television Network Map…July 1, 1948 In early 1946, NBC’s television network consisted of only NYC and Philadelphia. By early 1947, Schenectady joined in making it a three city linkup. This 1948 map shows that Boston, Baltimore, Washington and Richmond have been added making seven cities linked in the network. Twelve more will be…

Director Troy Miller…Another Of His Great Opening Parodies This is another of Troy Miller’s Oscar openings described in the article posted earlier today. This is from the 2012 awards show and the video is available inside this “Hollywood Reporter” article. Great work from Troy and company, as usual! Enjoy! http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/oscars-billy-crystal-movie-montage-justin-bieber-295229 Oscars 2012: Billy Crystal…

Meet Sullivan Associate Producer, Jacques Andre On Sunday nights, between 8 and 9 PM, Jacques was the “middle man” on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’. During the week, he worked for producer Bob Precht, but on show night, he stood with Ed at the side of the stage keeping the show’s running time and was…

A Meeting Of The Minds…The Directors And The Beatles The photo above was shot after the Saturday morning rehearsal on February 8, 1964…the more relaxed day of the weekend. In one of the world’s most unique photos, we find assistant director John Moffit posed behind Ringo’s black oyster pearl Ludwig drums (without his glasses).…

The Huge Mystery Of The NBC ND-8G Cameras…Part 2 In yesterday’s “The Huge Mystery Of The NBC ND-8G Cameras…A Discussion” post, I danced around a nagging question till I got more sources and last night, I got them*. Here’s the problem: if 8G went live on April 22, 1948, how is it that ‘Hour…

Eric Shapiro’s Final Fade To Black As ‘CBS Evening News’ Director Well done sir…well done! Hail and farewell. “CBS Evening News” director ending 51-year CBS career at the top Director Eric Shapiro started at CBS in 1963 as a mail boy, working his way up with legendary director Don Hewitt as his inspiration Source

From The Eddie Brinkmann Archival Collection On a Sullivan show trip west to Television City, Eddie visits with director Ezra Stone on the ‘Bachelor Father’ set at Review Studios. When Stone’s acting life with ‘The Aldrich Family’ radio show ended, he turned primarily to directing on stage and in television—ironically, his first television directing…

NBC’s ‘All Star Review’ In the post just before this, Jackie Gleason mentioned in a letter to Eddie Brinkmann that they “had their competition at NBC on the run”. Jackie’s competition for his first season at CBS was NBC’s ‘All Star Revue’. A rare full episode is here for you to watch. Notice at…

Reliving History…More Of The Eddie Brinkmann Papers ‘The Jackie Gleason Show’ debuted on CBS September 20, 1952. Less than three months into his new show, he wrote this letter to his Studio 50 stage manager…Eddie Brinkmann. At the time, Eddie was also stage managing Ed Sullivan’s ‘Toast Of The Town’ from CBS Studio 51,…

Ultra Rare! CBS Studio 50 Spec Sheets…1960 In order to rent studio space to producers, networks have detailed information on their properties to pass along. From the 1960 CBS property book, this is the 3 page description of Studio 50, which of course is now The Ed Sullivan Theater and Letteman’s home. Looking at…