Just For Fun…Best Version Of “Winter Wonderland” Ever

Andy Williams was a huge talent by every measure, but his brothers taught him how to sing. Together, it’s like listening to a quad version of Andy…and about the best you’ll ever hear. By the way, before Andy went solo, The Williams Brothers were one of the biggest acts in the business and in their day, were as big as The Osmonds became and set the pace for them. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3zk1aNTQ3c

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December 20,1938…Vladimir Zworykin Patented The Iconoscope

Although there was controversy over a lot of patents and inventions in electronic television between Philo Farnsworth and Zworykin and RCA, there is no contention over the development of the Iconoscope.

Zworykin had built one as early at October 1931. At the 1936 Berlin Olympic games, two of the three cameras there were using Iconoscope tubes and one used the Farnsworth Image Dissector tube.

Below we see Zworykin with some of his earliest Iconoscope models. Next is a rare photo of one of NBC’s first cameramen, Don Pike operating one of the three prototype Iconoscope cameras in NBC Studio 3H around 1936. For good measure, I’ve also included at photo of Philo Farnsworth with one of his early Image Dissector cameras. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Picture Parade #5…It’s A Wonderful “Snowy” Life

This Frank Capra classic was shot from April 15 – July 27, 1946. The Bedford Falls Main Street sets were at the RKO Encino Ranch and for the Winter scenes, 3000 tons of shaved ice was for the snow pack on the ground.

Films made prior to this used white cornflakes for the falling snow effect, but because the cornflakes were so loud, dialogue had to be dubbed in later. Frank Capra wanted to record the sound live, so a new snow effect was developed using foamite (a fire-fighting chemical) and soap and water. This mixture was then pumped at high pressure through a wind machine to create the silent, falling snow. 6000 gallons of the new snow were used in the film. The RKO Effects Department received a Class III Scientific or Technical Award from the Motion Picture Academy for the development of the new film snow. Happy Holidays! Enjoy and Share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Picture Parade #4…Stella!

On the New Orleans location shoot for ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, Vivian Leigh relaxes in the chair preparing to become her character, Blanche DuBois in 1951. Leigh had a bi polar disorder and is said to have had trouble distinguishing her real life from Blanche’s. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Picture Parade #2…Two Ultra Rare Sights In One Photo

I think this photo is from 1945 when Norma Jeane Mortenson was becoming one of Blue Book Modeling Agency’s top models in Los Angeles. In 1946, she (yes, Marilyn Monroe) would bleach her hair blonde to look more like her favorites Gene Harlow and Lana Turner.

The camera is an RCA Orthicon model which came out around 1943 and is owned by Don Lee’s LA station, KTSL. This is the only picture of this camera I have seen that was not owned by either the NBC or CBS networks. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Picture Parade #1…’Let’s Make A Deal’ ABC 1968 – 1976

Here’s a photo I just got from Chuck Pharis. This was in ABC Hollywood Studio 54 and that’s Jan Lowery on Camera 1, which is a Norelco PC60. This looks a lot like it did when it was on NBC from Burbank before the move to ABC. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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December 19, 1971…’The Waltons’ Debuts on CBS

The series began as a television movie entitled ‘The Homecoming: A Christmas Story’ and was broadcast on December 19, 1971 and is included here without any commercials, either web or broadcast.

There is a scene here with the family gathered around the radio listening to Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy…notice that Edgar Bergen is playing the role of Grandpa Walton.

The TV movie did well and plans were made to develop it into a series. CBS thought that a big star in the John Walton role would be good, and Henry Fonda was asked to audition, but after reading the script, he said, “What do you need me for? The kids and family are the stars.”

The Walton House was actually located in the northern section of the Jungle area of Warner Brothers studios in Burbank. Walton’s Mountain, which could be seen from the house’s front porch, was actually a slope of the Hollywood Hills directly south of the Warner Bros. Studios. Interiors of the house were filmed on Stage 26.

When the show premiered on CBS at the beginning of the 1972-73 season, most media pundits felt it didn’t have a chance, airing as it did opposite two longtime ratings powerhouses, ‘The Flip Wilson Show’ on NBC, had been the number one show in America for the previous two seasons, and ABC’s ‘Mod Squad’ was a long-standing favorite, as well.

Surprisingly, ‘The Waltons’ out-performed both shows in the ratings by a wide margin. ‘Mod Squad’ was canceled by the end of the season, and Flip Wilson, rather than have the same thing happen to his show, announced that the 1973-74 season would be his last. All this happened just a year after CBS felt that rural shows were “out,” and set out to prove it, in a highly controversial move, as Fred Silverman canceled several long-running series, like ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ and ‘Green Acres’ which were still very popular and doing well on televisions weekly ratings. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umEEnFtmV0I

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December 19, 1973…Johnny Carson Sparks Toilet Paper Shortage

Really! Remember this? You can read the whole story at the link below, but here’s the short version. 1973 was a hard economic year in the US with a recession, the Arab oil embargo and shortages of a few items.

Carson took a news paper report of possible toilet paper shortages to a whole new level when he made a joke about it in his monologue. Seems his 20 million viewers spread the word and went out and stocked up. For three months, the rush and hording kept store shelves hard to keep full. A little potty humor goes a long way, which is more than you can say for a roll of toilet paper. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://priceonomics.com/the-great-toilet-paper-scare-of-1973/

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‘The Late Show With David Letterman’…Final Christmas Picture

Taken last night, here’s the “class” picture of the staff and crew, complete with Darlene Love who appears tonight for the 28th year in a row.

I understand she told Dave that she wouldn’t perform “Baby Please Come Home” on TV again. Hopefully, this leaves the door open for her to appear on the show when Colbert takes over and sing what I think is her best Christmas song, “Winter Wonderland” produced by Phil Spector. Thanks to Rick Scheckman for the photo and to all the Letter-men and women for so many years of great television! Happy Holidays to ALL! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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‘The Colbert Report’…How’s This For A Parting Shot?

There were A LOT MORE than we see here…see the new video I just posted!

What a line up for the grand finale! To name just a few, I see John Stewart, Barry Manilow, Sam Waterson, Willie Nelson, Big Bird, Ben Affleck, Charlie Rose, REM lead Michael Stipe, James Franco, Patrick Stewart, Henry Kissinger and Bob Costas. Can you name the rest?

This pix and more in the article below. Thanks to Stephen and the great staff and crews for these last 10 years! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://variety.com/2014/tv/news/stephen-colbert-colbert-report-final-sign-off-comedy-central-1201383118/

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One Of A Kind In Every Way…Shooting ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ Open

Yesterday was the first time I had seen this rare shot and wanted to share it with you. It is the only one I have ever seen of the title sequence of the show being filmed. I can hear the theme playing now.

In case you have never heard the lyrics to “The Fishin Hole”, here is Andy singing them. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drnykHuHw7M

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Later Today…Some Letterman Christmas Traditions Come To An End

If the usual “twofer Thursday” taping schedule holds true today, Dave’s Friday show will be taped this afternoon, a couple of hours after they tape the episode for tonight. On tomorrow night’s show, we’ll see Darlene Love, Jay Thomas and the Christmas tree target practice traditions for the last time.

Whether we see it on camera or not, there will be a lot of emotions flowing in Studio 50 today. All our best wishes to the many that make this show, and to the many that, since day one, have helped make it a landmark. There’s more in this ABC News article. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/letterman-pulls-curtain-holiday-tradition-27636370

Letterman Pulls Curtain on Holiday Tradition

With the curtain soon to fall on David Letterman’s late-night television career, the end comes Friday for an odd and emotional holiday tradition that involves comic Jay Thomas, the Lone Ranger, a giant meatball and, most indelibly, singer Darlene Love. Love will sing “Christmas (Baby Please…

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Later Today…Stephen Colbert’s Final Report On Comedy Central

Over these last nine years, there has been a lot of water under the comedy bridge at 512 West 54th Street at NEP’s Studio 54. Stephen Colbert’s time there ends today with their last live to tape show. Speculation is he will take over for David Letterman in the fall. Here’s an interesting story from The New York Times on the persona Colbert leaves behind. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/business/media/stephen-colbert-prepares-final-colbert-report.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

Stephen Colbert Prepares Final ‘Colbert Report’

After nine years nurturing his TV persona of a conservative blowhard talk show host, Stephen Colbert will bid farewell to the other Stephen Colbert on Thursday.

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December 18, 1953…First Color Commercial Airs On WPTZ, Philadelphia

In yesterday’s post, we learned of the FCC’s December 17, 1953 decision adopting RCA’s Compatible Color System. On Friday, December 18, 1953 at about 11:15 am, the FCC issued to WPTZ, Channel 3, its official color experimental license which authorized the transmission of color video on the station.

Three hours later, color television hit the airwaves in Philadelphia with a color commercial made up of slides. George Skinner hosted a show there weekdays between 2 pm and 2:30 called ‘Skinner’s Spotlight’…it was during this time that WPTZ’s first color telecast under an official FCC license took place. It was the first color commercial broadcast in the nation and it was on Channel 3 at about 2:20 pm. At the time, there were only about 100 color sets in Philadelphia.

The day before, the NBC Network had broadcast the first color image under the new NTSC standards when at 5:31 PM, it broadcast a color slide of the NBC chimes logo. At the time, only a few stations had any color equipment and it was all telecine. Only NBC had live color cameras which were the four RCA TK40 prototypes at The Colonial Theater.

The first shipment of the TK40 production model cameras was made on March 4, 1954. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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December 17, 1976…WTCG Atlanta Becomes First US Satellite TV Station

At 1:00 Eastern Time the afternoon of December 17, 1976, WTCG’s signal was beamed via the Satcom 1 satellite to four cable systems in Grand Island, Nebraska; Newport News, Virginia; Troy, Alabama and Newton, Kansas. The first broadcast was the 1948 film ‘Deep Waters’, which had been in progress for 30 minutes on channel 17 in Atlanta.

Instantly, WTCG went from being a small independent television station that was available only in Georgia and neighboring states to a major coast-to-coast operation. WTCG became a so-called “superstation” and set a precedent for today’s basic cable television. By 1978, WTCG was carried on cable providers in all 50 states.

WTCG became only the second US cable channel to transmit its programming via satellite; HBO was the first, on September 30, 1975 but cable subscribers were required to pay extra to receive that service. Ted Turner’s innovation signaled the start of the basic cable revolution. WTCG (for Turner Communications Group) changed its call sign to WTBS (Turner Broadcasting System) on August 27, 1979.

Below, Atlanta legend, and later national legend Bill Tush talks about those early days and the infamously insane news casts he hosted back then. What a Hoot! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg5S8d0UCl8

Bill Tush was a vital part of the beginning of Superstation WTBS and CNN. People in Atlanta saw something we will never see again and still talk about today….

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December 17, 1989…’The Simpsons’ Debuts On Fox..D’OH!

Here are two great short videos that cover a lot of the history and creation of the show with not much overlap. The embedded video below features the creators and how ‘The Simpsons’ grew from bumper shorts on ‘The Tracy Ulman Show’ into it’s own dynasty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ8aSQZ8vJg
In this clip, we meet the voice actors, see how some of the catch phrases and running gags came to be and see some “best of” moments. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s80afw0KgU

First video on this channel. Hope you enjoy! The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The serie…

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