Behind The Scenes…NBC Sports Olympic Coverage Wrap Up

Two years of planning, 102 shipping containers of gear, 1000 cameras, 2700 monitors, and 3000 people, all came together for NBC to televise 11,000 athletes competing in 28 sports over 37 venues.

Thanks to Andrew Jackson at NBC’s Englewood Cliffs NJ facility, the master control, transmission and uplink HQ for all NBC cable channels, for sharing the video with us. -Bobby Ellerbee

Source

A Musical Trip Down Memory Lane With The Great Johnny Mercer…

If you’ve ever heard “Moon River”, “The Days Of Wine And Roses”, “Autumn Leaves”, “Hooray For Hollywood”, “That Old Black Magic”, “Laura”, “Something’s Gotta Give”, “Birth Of The Blues”, “Jeepers Creepers”, “To Marvelous For Words”, “I’m An Old Cowhand From The Rio Grande”, “Blues In The Night”, “You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby”, you’ve heard at least 13 of the hundreds of huge songs he wrote.

Everybody from Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Ella Fitzgerald to Louis Armstrong, Andy Williams and well…you name it, have recorded his songs, that still live in our memories.

In this 8 minute clip, Steve Alan and Johnny run through a dozen or more of his songs in a kind of “sing off” that will amaze you.

By the way, I’ve added a new Facebook page to share some of my favorite music from my 50 years in radio and television. It’s called Ears Of A Generation, so if you like music that makes you feel good, stop in and take a listen at the link below! -Bobby Ellerbee
https://www.facebook.com/Ears-Of-A-Generation-295938424114838/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YFT8MixHSE

Songwriting. legend JOHNNY MERCER performing some of his classics…

Source

Creating The SNL Title Sequences…A Detailed Look At The Process

This is heaven for the many pro photographers and videographers among us, but even for laymen, this is quite interesting. Here is the detailed and technical description of the photographic process from the man who did it Alex Buono.

From the lens tricks and cameras used, to the special effects, it’s all here. The most experimental footage was relegated to the interstitial bumpers, watch out for them during the commercial breaks. The one I like best is the custom bokeh technique. This one looks like a magic trick…as the main shot goes out of focus, the background lights come into focus as tiny SNL logos.Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.alex-buono.com/how-we-did-it-snl-titles-sequence/

Alex Buono | HOW WE DID IT — SNL Title Sequence

…And we’re back! After a much-needed summer hiatus, it’s that time of the year again when my comrades in the SNL Film Unit all reconvene on the 17th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza for another season of filmmaking speed-drills.

Source

Sunday Matinee #2…Veteran Stage Manager Doug Quick, BTDT

BTDT = Been There, Done That, and where television is concerned, that pretty much sums it up for 45 year veteran Stage Manager Doug Quick, who’s been running “The Price Is Right” for 35 years. There are lots of great war stories in nearly 7 hours of video.

In a career spanning 45 years, Doug Quick has stage managed a variety of programs for both NBC and CBS and has worked with such legendary figures as Red Skelton, Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali, Bob Barker, and Carroll O’Connor.

Doug Quick began his production career in the prestigious NBC Page Program in 1969, which included training as Carson’s personal page on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson”, and as a page on “The Dean Martin Show”. Quick’s enthusiasm, determination and strong work ethic secured him a PA job on Martin’s show, which led to a position as an NBC staff stage manager, where he worked alongside respected stage managers Jerry Masterson and Ted Baker.

Transitioning to freelance in the mid-1970s, Quick worked on “Sanford and Son”, “The Redd Foxx Show”, “The Flip Wilson Show”, “The Dinah Shore Show” and more before becoming a CBS staff stage manager in 1976. Other notable programs he was assigned to include “Archie Bunker’s Place” and a myriad of now classic game shows including “Match Game”, “Family Feud”, “The $25,000 Pyramid”, and the longest running game show in television history, “The Price is Right”, which he has stage managed for more than 35 years. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.dga.org/Craft/VisualHistory/Interviews/Doug-Quick.aspx?Filter=Full+Interview

Doug Quick – Visual History Interview

Veteran stage manager Doug Quick (The Price is Right; Archie Bunker’s Place; The Young and the Restless) discusses his creative contributions to episodic programming, daytime serials and variety shows, and the extensive rehearsal and planning that goes into the production of game shows.

Source

Mark You Calendar! “The Larry Sanders Show” Returns September 23!

It doesn’t appear that the show will have a time slot on the broadcast schedule, but it will at finally be available “on demand”. Hey Now! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/30/larry-sanders-show-hbo-return-premiere-date

‘The Larry Sanders Show’ reruns returning to HBO this fall

The entire six-season run of The Larry Sanders Show will return to HBO on Sept. 23, the network announced Saturday, making good on its promise in…

Source

A Rare Look Inside CBS Studio 33…The Cronkite Newsroom

Although Dan Rather was now the anchor, Studio 33 is where Walter Cronkite first reported from, when they moved to the Broadcast Center in 1964.

Prior to the move, the newsroom and set was on the 23rd floor of the Graybar Building which was next to Grand Central, and the show was switched out of the old Studio 42. About a year after this video, the news moved to Studio 47.

The cameras here are Hitachi SK 110s and show us how frantic the pace is just before and during air. Stuffing a day of the world’s news into 22 minutes is not an easy task, and back then, the news was real news…not what we settle for now. By the way, this space is now occupied by CBS Radio. -Bobby Ellerbee

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

It’s Hari Kari Time

Source

“Rocket Rangers”…The First Show With A Purposely Wiped History

In 1953 and ’54, CBS had a Saturday morning show called “Rocket Rangers” that starred Cliff Robertson as Commander Rod Brown, in 58 episodes of the show. It was done live in New York, and given that Pye cameras were used, I would say this was done in one of the four CBS studios at Leiderkranz Hall. I think that is the only place CBS had Pye cameras, perhaps they only had them in one studio there.

CBS had “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet” for only a couple of months before it moved to ABC, then later DuMont, then later NBC. With space adventure shows at their peak of popularity in 1953, CBS hired Tom Corbett’s original director, John Haggott, and commissioned him to create a clone.

He did, and the result was Rod Brown (Cliff Robertson) of the Rocket Rangers. With the same director, same special effects gizmos, and many of the same writers, this was a somewhat livelier version of Space Cadet. Aliens were very rarely seen on Space Cadet, so Rod Brown gave us virtually a new alien every week. It was an interesting program and it is a shame that no kinescopes survive. Why not?

Well, it seems there was a “Perry Mason” moment in the show’s history. There are no surviving kinescopes of this show, because they were ordered by the court to be destroyed. Seems that the producers of “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet” on Dumont sued, because the characters and premise was too close to their story line. This is thought to be the first event of its kind in television.

Cliff Robertson was on Broadway at the time, and would rise on Saturdays at 4 a.m., drive to the CBS studios, go through dress rehearsal, and do the live broadcast at 11:30 a.m. EST. After the program he went over to the theater where he was performing in “Late Love” with Elizabeth Montgomery for a matinee, and then an evening show. By the end of the day, he would be “stumbling around”, as he later said. Robertson was also attending the Actors Workshop at the time. His salary for the part of “Rod Brown” was approximately $175 week. -Bobby Ellerbee

Source

“Nightly Show” Canceled…Last Show Airs Thursday

Larry Wilmore’s ‘Nightly Show’ Cancelled at Comedy Central

“The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore” will call it a day after Thursday’s episode. Comedy Central has canceled the half-hour series that replaced “The Colbert Report” on Jan. 19, 2015, making…

Source

August 15, 1948…CBS Debuts First, Live Nightly News Broadcast

On this day in 1948, Douglas Edwards became the first, live daily anchor of a network news show. In the 3 minute video below, Dan Rather tells the story nicely, so take a look.

Just to be clear, there was news on CBS and NBC before this, but CBS was first do go with a live, daily 15 minute report. Before this at CBS, Edwards and others had done a live news show twice a week.

NBC was actually first with a daily network news show, but theirs was not live. The most widely celebrated dates in NBC news history are February 16, 1948, and February 16, 1949.

In February ’48 “The NBC Television Newsreel” debuted as a 10 minute weeknight newsreel which was narrated off camera by John Cameron Swayze. The next year, on February 16, Swayze moved in front of the camera and that began “The Camel News Caravan” as a live 15 minute nightly news show.

CBS had put Douglas Edwards on camera on May 3, 1948 in the twice-weekly days of the newscast, making him the permanent host, as the prior “revolving” host format was abandoned.

Both networks had done earlier local news that goes back to 1939, but that is a story for another day. -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzCjp8JAAgc

From CBS, an Evening News piece on the retirement of Douglas Edwards, the first CBS anchorman.

Source

August 15, 1992…”The Larry Sanders Show” Debuts On HBO

It’s hard to believe that it was 24 years ago this week, but it was.

Out of the box, they knew they had a hit with Garry Shandling’s new show. It took us behind the scenes of late night television in a way no one ever has, before or since. With sidekick Jeffrey Tambor as Hank Kingsley, and Rip Torn as the show’s producer as the key cast members, the list of guest stars that came to the show was a who’s who that rivaled the real late night shows.

The show was done at CBS Studio Center on Radford Avenue in Los Angeles and won more awards than you can shake a stick at! There were Writers Guild, Directors Guild, Golden Globes, Emmys, Cable Ace, Peabody, Critics awards and more given in the US, and even more from the UK and international committees. During its six-year run, The Larry Sanders Show won 24 major awards including three Emmys.

After the show ended (May 31,1998), the show received a spot on Time Magazine’s 100 Greatest Shows of All Time. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly ranked The Larry Sanders Show the 28th Greatest Show of the past 25 years. TV Guide named it the 38th Greatest Show of All Time.

Below is a clip from Season 1, Episode 1 called “The Garden Weasel”. In re release, the name of this debut episode was changed to “What Have You Done For Me Lately”. Hey Now! – Bobby Ellerbee

Clips of Larry Sanders reluctantly doing in-show advertisements for the Garden Weasel taken from the first episode of The Larry Sanders Show starring Garry S…

Source

NBC Olympics: TV Ratings Not Great, But Steaming Video HUGE

Heading into Friday night, NBC’s television coverage of the Rio Olympics has been averaging 28.7 million viewers and a 15.9 household rating.

Those numbers are still down from London four years ago, but NBC Sports continues to see record returns from streaming. Live-streamed minutes of the Rio Games have now reached 1.5 billion, and the Stamford facility keeps adding capacity. -Bobby Ellerbee

1.28 Billion Minutes Streamed (and NBC Is Still Counting)

The NBC headquarters is in full Olympics mode, which includes a vastly expanded streaming program that, through Thursday, had offered 1.28 billion minutes of live Rio coverage.

Source