TV History

A Bitter-Sweet Remembrance…NBC Burbank Our friend Richard Wirth has posted a new article on a place where he once worked. Here’s the latest on the demise of this once “proud as a peacock” property and an in depth look back at it’s place in broadcast history. http://provideocoalition.com/pvcexclusive/story/the-demise-of-nbc-burbank A Requiem for NBC Burbank In 1982,…

A Rarity…Inside The First RCA Color Semi Trailer A few days ago we saw the first RCA Color trucks at their 1954 debut at the Rose Parade. Those were the large bus type vans, but I think the tractor-trailer version came along in late 59 or early 60. The photo on the left is…

Carson’s Debut: ‘Tonight Show’, October 1, 1962 The “official” guests that night were Joan Crawford (seen here), Mel Brooks, Tony Bennett and Rudy Vallee. His “unofficial” guest was Groucho Marx who (as you can hear in the audio clip above) actually introduced Johnny for the first time…Ed introduced Carson for a second time that…

The Production Core Of ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ On the left is director Bob Sweeney who directed the first three seasons of the show. On the right, producer Aaron Ruben who was with the show from the start, till 1966 when he left to produce the spin off, ‘Gomer Pyle, USMC’. The show was…

Smothers Brothers “Fun Facts” Some of you may have known that Tom and Dick Smothers helped in the writing of ‘The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour’, but did you know there were two other brothers writing for the show too? One was “Super Dave Osborne” and the other was Albert Brooks…they were known to their…

Last Of The Mahicans…Retired 2010 These are RCA TK47s, the last full size camera made by the company that had pioneered color television. It debuted in 1978 and was in wide use with over 500 in operation by 1982. In 2010, WHKY in Hickory NC finally retired their TK47s. Station owner Tom Long had…

January 1, 1960…Rose Parade in Black & White And Color, KTLA In the late 50s and up to around 1962, KTLA did two local live broadcasts of each parade. The black and white edition came first with the cameras up near the head of the five mile parade route. The live color broadcast had…

America’s New Year’s Eve Broadcast History: The Lombardo Years Starting in 1927, Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians played New Year’s Eve shows on Chicago’s WBBM radio. In ’28, WBBM became one of the original CBS Radio Network stations and the executives in New York became aware of the very popular Chicago celebration and…

America’s New Year’s Eve Broadcast History: The Dick Clark Years December 31, 1972 was a strange time in the country…Vietnam, the Olympic disaster, Watergate, the works, however, there was still a calming familiar face. That night, NBC aired a special: ‘Three Dog Night’s Year’s Rockin’ Eve 1973’. It was hosted by members of the…

‘The Match Game’: A Fred Westbrook Photo Below is a shot of ‘Match Game 74’ from CBS Television City Studio 33. The show started on NBC on December 5, 1962 and ran there till September of ’69. At NBC, the show originated from Studio 8H and was always a color show. In the early…

‘Your Show Of Shows’ & The International Theater Located at 5 Columbus Circle in NYC, The International Theater was home to NBC’s ‘Admiral Broadway Review’ in 1949 and to ‘Your Show Of Shows’ from 1950 – 1954. As mentioned in the post below, one of the first Sanner cranes was delivered here in 1950…

Famous Faces By The Ton…SNL 25th Anniversary Backstage September 25, 1999 was the air date for this show. This is the pre show gathering in the hall outside 8H and is great recall practice for those of us like me that have CRS…better known as Can’t Remember S**t. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJklopreiAQ A fly-on-the wall look backstage…

‘The Price Is Right’: NBC’s Colonial Theater, January 1, 1962 By chance, both the photo and video (above) are from the same day. Although ‘The Price Is Right’ became Goodson-Todman’s first regularly aired game show to be broadcast in color on September 23, 1957, no color kinescopes or videotapes are known to exist. As…

When Networks Owned Their Own Remote Fleets Above is a good video of the inner workings and equipment in one of the first CBS Color Mobile Units equipped with Norelco cameras. I’m not sure when the last network owned units were sold, but I think by the late 80s, ABC, CBS and NBC were…

Time To ‘Cowboy’ Up…Remember These Greats? Left to right, Clint Walker ‘Cheyenne’, James Arnes ‘Gunsmoke’, Richard Boone ‘Have Gun Will Travel’, Robert Horton ‘Wagon Train’, James Garner ‘Maverick’ and John Payne ‘Restless Gun’. Source