October 13, 1957…A Red Letter Day For Videotape & TV History

The first 4.5 minutes of the attached video tells the story and includes comparison shots of the videotape and kinescope version of the oldest surviving, intact videotape program, “The Edsel Show”.

Thanks to our friend Kris Trexler’s love of cars, his interest in classic television and his professional abilities as a film and videotape editor, we are able to see this…the oldest surviving video tape. He is the one who tracked down this tape that everyone said did not exist.

“The Edsel Show” was chosen to be the very first CBS entertainment program to be broadcast live to the nation from Hollywood, then “tape-delayed” for re-broadcast in the Pacific Time Zone. The show was performed at CBS Television City in Hollywood from 4pm-5pm Pacific Time for live viewing from 7pm-8pm Eastern Time. The show was simultaneously recorded on videotape at Television City, then played back 3 hours later for West Coast viewers at 7pm Pacific Time.

After the live broadcast, The Ford Motor Company hosted a lavish party at a Hollywood restaurant, where the cast and CBS and Ford execs wined and dined and watched the videotape playback of the show to the West Coast. The evolution from kinescopes to videotape recording was underway!

Not wanting to risk a high profile failure of the new technology, CBS also created a kinescope backup of the show which the engineers at Television City played simultaneously with the videotape, so in case the tape failed, CBS engineers could quickly switch to the kinescope “protection copy” of the show. Videotape was a new technology and there was much to risk if it failed during such an important broadcast, but it didn’t.

Now, back to the fascinating detective work Kris did… http://www.kingoftheroad.net/edsel/edselshow3.html

You can read the details at the link above from Kris’s website, but in a nutshell…the tape was not in the CBS Video Archives. The kinescope was, but the tape copy was on a TVC engineer’s desk who had personally saved the tape. Remember, part of the miracle of videotape was that it could be reused…the engineer knew it would be if he didn’t rescue it and after the playback, he took care of if for the rest of us to see! Thanks to him and Kris Trexler, here is the “The Edsel Show” that was done October 13, 1957 from CBS Television City. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze0Az9tdkHg

This is the oldest videotape recording in existence. The Edsel Show stars Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Rosemary Clooney. Produced at CBS …

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October 12, 1950…Burns And Allen Debuts On CBS Television

Their radio show started in 1936 but by 1950, it was time to move to television. When ‘The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show’ began on CBS Television October 12, 1950, it was an immediate success. The show was originally staged live before a studio audience and during its first three months, it originated from the Mansfield Theater in New York, then relocated to CBS’ Columbia Square facilities in Los Angeles.

Ever the businessman, Burns realized it would be more efficient to do the series on film and that started that process in the fall of 1952. The half-hour episodes could then be syndicated. From that point on, the show was shot without a live audience present, however, each installment would be screened before an audience to provide live responses prior to the episodes being broadcast. With 291 episodes, the show had a long network run through 1958 and continued in syndicated reruns for years.

After the live/kinescope series ended, the shows were filmed at General Service Studios. The sets were designed to look like their real-life residence, often using an establishing shot of the actual house at 312 Maple Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210.

The format had George watching all the action (standing outside the proscenium arch in early live episodes; watching the show on TV in his study in the filmed episodes), and breaking the fourth wall by commenting to the viewers.

During the course of the eight-year run, the TV show had remarkable consistency in its cast and crew. The episodes were produced and directed by Ralph Levy (1950–53), Fred de Cordova, who would go on to produce NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” (1953-56), and Rod Amateau (1956–58).

In addition to cast members Harry Von Zell (replacing original announcer Bill Goodwin in September 1951), Bea Benaderet (who made the transition from the radio show), and Larry Keating, the original writing staff consisted of Sid Dorfman, Harvey Helm, Paul Henning, and William Burns (George’s brother). -Bobby Ellerbee

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October 12, 1943…NBC Sells Blue Network: The Start Of ABC

On October 12, 1943, Edward John Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy and radio station WMCA in New York, bought NBC’s Blue Network for $8 million.

This was the start of ABC, but even with Noble’s millions, the first 10 years was a hard slog financially. The one thing ABC did that made the struggling network so appealing to a new buyer was something done on a whim, that cost them nothing.

Without asking Nobles, ABC’s chief engineer had applied to the FCC for Construction Permits for 5 television licenses, all on Channel 7, in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit. Shortly after, the FCC froze license applications due to an overwhelming crush of requests. The next part, putting these stations on the air would cost big money, and that is where the financial squeeze got serious. That was 1948.

In much the same way NBC was forced to sell the Blue Network,
the movie theater operator United Paramount Theaters (UPT) was forced to become an independent entity, separating itself from the film studio Paramount Pictures in 1949.

For its part, ABC was on the verge of bankruptcy, with only five stations and nine full-time affiliates. Its revenues failed to compensate for its heavy investments in buying and building stations. In 1951, Noble held a 58% stake in ABC, giving him $5 million with which to prevent ABC from going bankrupt with a loan from the Prudential Insurance Company of America.

Leonard Goldenson, the president of UPT, approached Noble in 1951 and proposed that UPT purchase ABC. Noble received further offers, including one from Bill Paley of CBS, but that would have forced CBS to sell at least its New York and Los Angeles stations. Goldenson and Noble reached a tentative agreement in the late spring of 1951 that ABC would become a subsidiary of UPT, but would remain autonomous in its management.

On June 6, 1951, UPT’s board of directors validated their tentative agreement. However, the transaction had to be approved by the FCC. Insofar as the Paramount Pictures film studio was already a shareholder of the DuMont Television Network, the FCC conducted a series of hearings to ensure whether Paramount was truly separated from United Paramount Theaters, and whether it was violating antitrust laws.

In 1952, when the FCC ended its freeze on applications for new stations, among the issues to be addressed was the approval of the merger between UPT and ABC.

On February 9, 1953, the FCC authorized UPT’s purchase of ABC in exchange for $25 million in shares, and the company was renamed American Broadcasting-Paramount Theaters, Inc.

The new company was based in Paramount’s headquarters at 1501 Broadway in New York, and owned six AM radio stations and many FMs, as well as five TV stations and 644 cinemas in 300 cities throughout the United States.

In consideration of this merger, UPT sold its television station in Chicago, WBKB-TV, to CBS for $6 million. CBS changed the calls to WBBM-TV. They kept ABC’s existing Chicago station, WENR-TV but moved the WBKB call letters to channel 7, which would eventually become WLS-TV. Goldenson began to sell some of the old theaters to finance the new television network.

On May 1, 1953, ABC’s flagship stations – WJZ, WJZ-FM and WJZ-TV in New York – adopted the callsigns of WABC, WABC-FM and WABC-TV, and moved to 7 West 66th Street, one block from Central Park.

At the same time, Goldenson had been trying to convince his movie studio friends to provide content for the network. ABC’s merger with UPT led to the creation of relationships with Hollywood’s film production studios, breaking a long quarantine that had existed between film and television.

Goldenson’s efforts paid off, and on October 27, 1954, the network was able to launch a “New ABC” campaign with the productions of several studios, including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox.

However, the most iconic (and ironic) of ABC’s relationships with Hollywood producers was its agreement with Walt Disney. Walt and his brother Roy contacted Goldenson at the end of 1953 to ask ABC to finance part of the Disneyland project in exchange for Disney’s production of a television series.

Walt wanted ABC to invest $500,000 and a guarantee of $4.5 million in additional loans, a third of the budget intended for the park. Around 1954, ABC agreed to finance Disneyland in exchange for the broadcasting of a new Sunday television program, “Disneyland”, which debuted on the ABC network on October 27, 1954 as the first of many anthology TV programs that Disney would broadcast over the course of the next fifty years. We all know the rest of the story! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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WNBC Moves From 3C To Historic 3K

In late 1935, NBC radio studio 3H was converted to become television’s first permanent home. This was where RCA and NBC did all their early experimental broadcasts and was the first home of “The Howdy Doody Show” as well as “Kraft Theater”.

On September 12, 1955, NBC dedicated Studio 3K, which was made by combining 3H and radio studio 3F, into the network’s first in-house color studio, and “Howdy Doody” was the first show done from here. It was also the home of the Kraft Kitchen set, where Ed Herlihy spent so many hours.

Up until earlier this year, 3K had been an MSNBC studio. Those few 3K shows are now in the new 4th floor news studio. Over a period of 7 weeks, WNBC has built a new news set there that is a kind of 360 use set.

Overnight, the great time-lapse video of the studio under construction was taken down, but here is the link with more info on the studio. Let me know if the video plays for you. -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Behind-the-Scenes-WNBCs-New-Studio-at-30-Rock–396178341.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_NYBrand

http://www.newscaststudio.com/2016/10/10/nbc-new-york-debuts-new-home-gains-space-30-rock/

NBC New York debuts new home, gains more space at 30 Rock

NBC’s flagship O&O, WNBC-TV, moved into a new home Sunday night, greatly expanding the station’s … Read More

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October 9, 1986…’The Late Show With Joan Rivers’ Debuts On Fox

Here is the rare video of that first show with David Lee Roth, Pee Wee Herman, Elton John and Cher. In the story, some surprises I had never known about till now. Read on!

We all know that the Fox announcement of the show caught Johnny Carson by surprise and caused him never to speak with Joan again, BUT…as you will see, Rivers had some pretty good reasons for playing her cards close to her chest.

Rivers had been Carson’s permanent guest host since 1983, and as 1986 neared, some executives at NBC thought it was possible that Johnny Carson would retire after reaching his 25th anniversary on October 1, 1987, as it was such a logical cut-off point. In the spring of 1986, a confidential memo went out to top NBC executives listing about 10 possible replacements in the event of Carson’s retirement. Rivers was shocked to see that she was not on the list.

In an article she wrote for People Magazine, Rivers said that NBC offered her only a one year contract in 1985 as permanent guest host while Carson’s contract had been renewed for two years, which signaled to her that her future was uncertain as her previous one year contracts had run the same length as Carson’s. In addition, Rivers noted numerous snubs from NBC executives over the years, such as not being invited to the annual Carson party until recently, and taking the fall for a controversial joke that management approved during rehearsal.

Rivers had received higher-paying offers from other networks in prior years but declined them out of her loyalty to Carson, but in 1986 as NBC was unwilling to give assurances on her future and negotiations were fruitless, this was the impetus for Rivers to seriously consider the Fox offer.

Fox was looking for a host for a late-night talk show for the network’s launch in October 1986 and offered Rivers the job at a salary higher than what NBC was paying. She accepted, and Carson was blindsided by the news when he saw the press conference on television.

Carson was furious and said that he felt betrayed by Rivers – not because she dared to compete with him, but because she was not honest with him beforehand about her intentions and did not ask him for advice and his blessing.

For her part, Rivers was adamant that her problem was with NBC and not with Carson, who was like a father figure to her. She stated that she didn’t want to tell Carson before the announcement was made because she was afraid Fox would cancel the deal if word leaked out. She had previously been ordered by Carson’s producers and lawyers not to go to him with her problems, as they kept Carson completely insulated since he was a major source of NBC profits. Carson had been completely unaware of Rivers’ problems with NBC.
-Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MckrtLdSIxs Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHFHuARH0g0 Part 2

Here is the part 1 of the premiere of “The Late Show with Joan Rivers”, as broadcast on October 9, 1986. Joining Joan are guests David Lee Roth, Pee Wee Herm…

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How Football Officials Know When To Call A “TV TIME OUT”

How NFL TV Timeouts Were Handled Early On…

Back in the 50s and 60s, televised pro football had what were called “hat men” on the sidelines. They were connected by headphone to the director and here, from the Washington Evening Star, is an October 8, 1963 article on what their job was. Thanks to Maureen Carney for the image. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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October 8, 1948…NBC’s WNBQ TV In Chicago Signs On

Thanks to long time WMAQ staff member Edward Dabrowsky, and a few others, here are some great shots from times gone by.

The station signed on October 8, 1948, as WNBQ, the last of Chicago’s four commercial VHF stations to launch. WNBQ is also the third of the five original NBC owned-and-operated stations to begin operations, after New York City and Washington and before Cleveland and Los Angeles. Eight years later, it became the first station in the world to broadcast all of its programs in color.

Though NBC had long owned WMAQ radio, it did not change the TV station’s call letters to WMAQ-TV until August 31, 1964.

WMAQ-TV originated several programs for the NBC television network from its studios in the Merchandise Mart during the 1950s, including Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, featuring Burr Tillstrom and Fran Allison; Garroway at Large, starring Dave Garroway; and “Studs’ Place,” hosted by Studs Terkel. Television critics referred to the broadcasts – often low-budget with few celebrity guests but a good deal of inventiveness – as examples of the “Chicago School of Television.”

WMAQ-TV gained fame for its newscasts during the 1960s, anchored by Floyd Kalber, John Palmer, Jim Ruddle, and Jorie Luelof. Though its role as a program provider to NBC diminished in the 1960s, WMAQ-TV gathered and distributed more than 200 feeds per month of news footage from overseas and the central United States to NBC News.

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October 5, 1969…”Monty Python’s Flying Circus” Debuts On BBC

How did one of the most beloved comedy shows of all time come to be? After hearing how the pitch went, it’s hard to believe that the show ever came to be…but it did! At 4 minutes into this fun trip down memory lane, John Cleese tells the story. SPAM! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6xXcoVCKp0

Living legend John Cleese stops by to talk about his book “So, Anyway,” how he and his fellow Pythons pitched their show, and why fish are funny.

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October 5, 1947…First Live Television Speech From The White House

On this day in 1947, President Harry Truman became the first president to broadcast a speech live from the White House. The subject was food conservation, and Truman asked Americans to cut back on their use of grain in order to help starving Europeans. At the time, Europe was still recovering from World War II and suffering major shortages.

Although the majority of Americans did not see this live, because not many had a TV set, his speech signaled the start of a powerful and complex relationship between the White House and a medium that would have an enormous impact on the American presidency, from how candidates campaigned for the office to how presidents communicated with their constituents. Each of Truman’s subsequent White House speeches, including his 1949 inauguration address, was televised. In 1948, Truman was the first presidential candidate to broadcast a paid political ad.

Below, NBC’s WRC is shown providing TV pool coverage of the speech with CBS’s WTOP handling the radio pool. In those early pool days, coverage alternated between CBS and NBC, and both used unmarked cameras and microphones for these occasions. -Bobby Ellerbee

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