October 23, 1956…Videotape Debut Network TV: Setting The Record Straight
October 23, 1956…Videotape Debut Network TV: Setting The Record Straight
Most people think the November 30, 1956 time delayed broadcast of “CBS News With Douglas Edwards” was the first use of videotape on network television. That is not correct, but it was the first use of tape as a time-shifter, in that the east coast broadcast was videotaped at Television City for rebroadcast two hours later to the mountain and west coast time zones.
As for the first known network use of videotape, that happened 60 years ago today at NBC. At the time, “The Jonathan Winters Show” was 4 weeks old. The 15 minute variety show ran from 7:30-7:45 Tuesday nights, just before “The Camel News Caravan” with John Cameron Swayze, replacing one of the two weekly Diana Shore shows that had for years, aired in that slot on Tuesday and Thursday nights.
On October 23, 1956, the NBC engineers in New York wanted to see if the viewing public could tell the difference between a videotape and the live portion of the show. Jonathan’s musical guest that night was Dorothy Collins, of “Your Hit Parade” fame. She had a new record out called “The Italian Theme” and her performance, with dancers and backup singers, was recorded earlier in the day. During the live show, Winters introduced her, as if she was there, and the tape rolled seamlessly. In case there was a problem, NBC had extra operators on duty that night in New York, and to their great relief and amazement, no one called or noticed. With that quiet event, videotape had passed the final acceptance test.
Remember, this is only six months after Ampex introduced videotape at the 1956 NAB in April. In the book “A Companion To American Technology”, Carroll Pursell reports that a month later, in November of ’56, Winters used videotape to play two characters in the same sketch. Unfortunately, there is no kinescope or tape of this historic event either, and about all that’s available from Jonathan’s 1956 show is this single program. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
It was for the west coast delay only (not to the Mountain Time Zone). The feed from TV City was for up and down the Pacific Time Zone; stations in MT got the NYC feed. Later, there were some backhauls from L.A. going east when CBS did some weird stuff during DST for EST/CST stations.
Was this show recorded on an Ampex VTR?
“Dinah” Shore
I remember reading somewhere that Winters’ show was also a color pioneer.
The following fall, NBC followed the other two networks and moved its nightly newscast to 6:45 or 7:15 with the other 15 minute segment available to the stations for local news – no more 15 minute entertainment shows. In addition to Winters and Shore, NBC had fed shows with Eddie Fisher, Tony Martin, Pinky Lee and Vivian Blaine, and Arthur Murray. CBS also had news during the 7:30 half hour prior to fall 1955, filling out the period with Perry Como, Jane Froman or Jo Stafford.
Wonder how long the pre-roll was back then
When was The Edsel Show on CBS?
I believe the show was sponsored by Tums?
Another NBC first !