More SNL Rarities…The Original SNL With Howard Cosell

You may be surprised to know that the original “Saturday Night Live” on ABC had more in common with SNL than just the name! It also had “The Prime Time Players” which were Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Christopher Guest!

As we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the 90 minute late night sketch show on NBC, we have to remember that in the beginning the show as titled “NBC’s Saturday Night”.

“Saturday Night Live” would have been a much better name, but that title was already in use at ABC. Below is a rare clip of the show’s opening with host Howard Cosell. Fortunately for everyone, the show only aired for 18 weeks. It was actually canceled just three weeks into the run, but ABC kept it on to fill the hole in it’s schedule.

ABC’s show ran from September 1975 till January 1976 and was produced by Roone Arledge. The show was later remembered by its director Don Mischer as “one of the greatest disasters in the history of television”, largely due to the fact that Cosell and Arledge, both veterans of sports broadcasting, were entirely unfamiliar with comedy and variety programming.

The show taped 15 new episodes at The Ed Sullivan Theater and it was Arledge’s idea to try and recapture the family show appeal of Sullivan who had been off the air for about three years.

The premiere episode featured celebrity guests Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Paul Anka, Siegfried and Roy, the cast of the Broadway version of The Wiz, tennis pro Jimmy Connors, and John Denver. The episode’s musical guest was the Bay City Rollers who performed live via satellite from the UK.

The shows also featured Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Christopher Guest as regular comedy performers, dubbed “The Prime Time Players”. Later, when “NBC Saturday Night” was granted use of the SNL name by ABC, we also got “The Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players” which ironically also counted the three “Prime Time Players” as cast members over the years. Enjoy and Share! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS2BtthZOug

This is from the original Saturday Night Live, hosted by Howard Cosell, Mark Wilson had just won his second Magician of the Year awards, and finished his Las…

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Just For Fun…Some Of The Slickest Video Edits And Effects Ever!

Zack King has been doing these for a while, but if you have never seen his work, be ready to be AMAZED! Really! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153077956897943

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Even More From NBC Burbank…Yet Another Singing Tour, 1959

This is the opening of a Gene Kelly special. It begins in one of the two main hallways that provided access for the huge studios. I’ve been told that the wall at the end of the hallway is Studio 1 and that about two thirds of the way down is where the KNBC local news was broadcast. I think their destination is Studio 4 and they enter through the “elephant” doors and you get a good impression of the size of the studio! Please remember to click on the blue text above to visit the page so you can see all of today’s stories! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx04DP6TEcw

Begining of PSP, 1959

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More From NBC Burbank…A Great Singing Tour, With UPDATES

Some wonderful soul has inserted a present day video trip down the same path of Steve Allen’s original 1958 singing stroll through the halls of NBC Burbank.

The original clip was part of an Allen special taped there and is performed to an Allen composition, “This Could Be The Start Of Something Big”. In this clip he is joined by Ann Sothern, Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gorme, Dinah Shore and a special mystery guest.

In one great long shot, they sing and stroll from Studio 1 (Steve Allen Show, & Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show Studio) and end the song over at Studio 4, (Dinah Shore Show, Laugh In, Dean Martin, Midnight Special), today it is home to ‘Day’s of Our Lives’. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbxoF4F0TrY

This is a special version of a YOUTUBE clip uploaded by goldenvmedia of This Could Be the Start of Something Big-Steve Allen Show clip as video taped at NBC …

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TeleTales #72…Speaking Of Johnny Carson And Studio 1

Here’s a nice color shot of the set with an RCA TK44 in the shot, probably a tour group stopping in. Notice the star on the floor…Johnny’s monologue marker. I don’t think this is the ’72 set, so this pix may be from around ’76. Please remember to visit this page to make sure you see everything…just click on the blue text at the top of this post. -Bobby Ellerbee

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TeleTales #71…NBC Burbank Studio 1: If These Wall Could Talk

I would venture to say, that between 1952 and 2013, every major personality in America has been on this stage at one time or another. Between Bob Hope and Johnny Carson’s shows here…well, the list of guests boggles the mind. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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TeleTales #70…NBC Burbank Studio 1: The Start Of Something Big

As NBC’s new Color City was coming to completion, CBS was in the final stages of completing Television City. In September, David Sarnoff announced that Burbank would go on the air earlier than planned. He said the new start date would be October 4, 1952 and that on November 8, NBC would open their first full color studio at the Colonial Theater in New York.

As you can see here in this photo taken shortly after it opened, Studio 1 was originally equipped as a black and white studio and was pressed into service early as KNBH’s studios at Radio City West were very overcrowded.

CBS didn’t want NBC to beat them by going on the air from Burbank first, so they rushed an episode of “My Friend Irma” into production and televised their first program from an unfinished Television City on the evening of October 3rd of 1952, one day before the first telecast from NBC. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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TeleTales #69…NBC Burbank Studio 1: A Star Is Born

Here’s the studio under construction in 1952. The legend is, Bob Hope helped design this studio and may have been responsible for the massive audience area and it’s steep incline so that no seat had an obstructed view of the stage. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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TeleTales #68…NBC Burbank Drive By, 1958

It looks like today is Burbank day, so lets take it all in! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

#t=11″ target=”_blank”>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2flcoPut0 #t=11

This is a 1958 videotape of NBC Burbank as recorded on 2″ Quad in a mobile unit. The show opens as the camera travels down California Street, takes a right t…

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ULTRA RARE 1! Inside NBC Burbank Studio 3…360 Degree Video

Just the other day, someone asked about the seating in Studio 3, wondering if it was like the huge Studio 1 audience area. Well, here’s your answer. There’s a lot of history here as this was home to “The Dean Martin Show”, “The Jerry Lewis Show” and countless others, including much of ‘Tonight’ with Jay Leno. By the way, you can use your mouse to stop and go back and view this manually by dragging the mouse. Be sure to enlarge the screen to see this at it’s best. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.dermandar.com/p/bwWhwM/studio-3Dermandar

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TeleTales #67…A HUGE Beatles SURPRISE!

CBS sent one of their prototype hand held video cameras from Cape Kennedy to Miami to get shots for the February 16, 1964 Beatles appearance on Ed Sullivan.

The man responsible for their creation, Dr. Joe Flaherty, who’s still Senior VP of Technology at CBS, told me a few years back that CBS had teamed up with Ikegami to come up with these cameras.

Their effort had started just the year before in 1963 and this is one of three prototypes Ikegami sent to CBS for use on space mission coverage.

This is the first time one of these cameras was used on anything other than space shots. This photo was taken at the morning sound check which was followed by a dress rehearsal and finally that night’s show.

By late 1964, I think about a dozen had been built and sent out for field tests. Two were sent to CBS O&Os KMOX in St. Louis, two to WBBM in Chicago, two to KNXT in LA, three to WCBS and three were on the CBS mobile units assigned to Cape Kennedy.

Unlike the RCA/NBC portables, I think this has an Image Orthicon tube and not a Vidicon. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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TeleTales #66…NBC Chicago Class Picture

With Chicago on my mind from the ABC story, I wanted to share this picture from around 1950. There are a lot of familiar faces and names here that went on the New York. Among those that did, but are not seen here are Hugh Downs, Mrs. Francis from “Ding Dong School” and Jack Lescoulie. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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TeleTales #64…Speaking Of The EMI 2001 Cameras

Here is a followup on the BBC remote story from yesterday that showed us the EMI 2001 cameras in the field. Thanks to Andy Rose for the find. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGvO29NQ8xs

EMI 2001 Broadcast Camera Training Video 1970’s (BBC)

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February 9, 1953…The REAL Beginning Of ABC!

That was the day United Paramount, led by Leonard Goldenson, came to the rescue and saved the company from bankruptcy.

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

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! Thanks to Maureen Carney for the image and reminding me of this anniversary! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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