An Hour With Rocky & Bullwinkle…The Whys, Hows & Whos Of The Show

The Wayback Machine is set for 1963 and everybody is here! On top of tons of cartoon footage, we meet the voices, writers and masterminds – Bill Scott and Jay Ward – of the most beloved TV cartoon characters of our generation.

Rocky, Bullwinkle, Dudley, Nell, Snidely, Mr. Peabody, Sherman, Boris, Natasha, the Fractured Fairy Tales, the inside jokes, fun with the censors, and even a real life story involving President Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis are all part of this trip down memory lane. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

Behind the scenes of the greatest animated cartoon series ever created.

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Meet The Voice Of The “Law & Order” Franchise…Steve Zirnkilton

How many times have you heard “In the criminal justice system”, and wondered just who that great voice belongs to? Well the answer is Steve Zirnkilton.

There are a lot of stories about how he happened to get the job, but here is his version, as told to Backstage Magazine in 2014.

“As it happened, Dick Wolf was buying a house up here in Maine, and at that time, I had my real estate brokers license and my insurance license. I approached him and asked if I could act as his buyer’s representative to make sure that everything would go smoothly.

When the transaction was complete he said, “What do I owe you?” I immediately passed him a cassette tape which was my VO demo. I handed it to him and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. I didn’t hear anything and then some months later, his secretary called saying that he wanted me to do the bumpers for a show called “Nasty Boys,” a spring launch for NBC.

That lasted about six episodes. I figured I’d had my shot. Then I got a call from Mr. Wolf’s secretary saying that Mr. Wolf has a show called “Law & Order,” and he’d like you to play a detective in the show. I played a detective in the pilot and shared a trailer with William H. Macy.

Nobody wanted the show. CBS and Fox both passed. Nearly a year went by and then Brandon Tartikoff at NBC decided to give it a try. Mr. Wolf’s secretary called me again and said, “Please meet Mr. Wolf at the recording studio. He has something he’d like you to read.” And that was the opening. I had no idea if the show would have any legs, but happily it hung around for a while.”

For uniformity’s sake, Dick Wolf has used his voice on all of the other Law & Order shows and Zirnkilton is the only person, other than Wolf, to appear in the credits for every episode of every show. Although the pilot episode of “Law & Order” did not have the voice over opening, he got screen credit for his role as an on camera detective. Since then, he has been listed as the narrator.

If his residuals are anything like what Paul Anka and Johnny Carson split for their authorship of Johnny’s “Tonight Show” theme, this is one very fat cat! Well done Steve! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Meet “Blackbird”…Via CGI, It Is Any Car You Want It To Be (2 Videos)

Had this technology been available in the ’60s, George Barris would never have had to build the Batmobile, the Munster’s car or the Beverly Hillbillies truck, because this car can become any car!

Here’s a short video that shows how adding a “skin” or real car look works.

In essence, the Blackbird is a mobile camera rig designed to morph into any car in the world. At the push of a button the fully adjustable chassis can modify its length by 4 feet and width by 10 inches. It can fit any wheel set and be altered for any type of suspension and chassis design. You can see all this and more demonstrated in the second video below.

Two years in development, the Blackbird was hand built by the world’s top technicians from JemFX in the same hangar that the Blackbird SR-71 supersonic jet was once manufactured. The car rig’s name is a nod to this legacy of stealth design.

Although this is very cool, so is seeing the original Batmobile in person. These days, its hard to believe your own eyes. -Bobby Ellerbee

Special effects company The Mill has come up with a technology so intriguing, we just had to give it a go. Meet the ‘Blackbird’, which is all about taking mo…

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The Chaplin Studios…A Mega Magical Place In Time

It is hard to know where to start, because we have a rare opportunity to see this historic landmark as is is now, and as it was when it was first built at 1416 N. La Brea Avenue in Hollywood.

I’ve written a short history here which comes to life in these three videos.

In 1919, construction was completed on the land bought in 1917 by silent screen icon Charlie Chaplin, including his personal residence on the site. Many of Chaplin’s classic films were shot at the studios, including “The Kid” (1921), “The Gold Rush” (1925), “City Lights” (1931), “Modern Times” (1936), “The Great Dictator” (1940), “Monsieur Verdoux” (1947), and “Limelight” (1952).

This remarkable video shows the studio site in 1917, when it was just an orange grove and includes a rare time lapse of the studio being built. It continues with Chaplin “making a movie” which gives us a look at almost every part of the lot, including his office, the sound stage, The Barn, film lab and much more…even Fatty Arbuckle plays a part. This is fascinating!!

For comparison, here is a recent tourist video that kind of gushes, but is none the less quite detailed and shows us some things verified in the first video, like the door Charlie used, which is not a door anymore. 

In that in the tourist video we didn’t see inside the sound stage, here is a KABC story on the property from a few years back that takes is inside. 

Now…back to our history.

In 1953, a New York real estate investor bought the studio from Chaplin, who had left America permanently in October 1952. The new owner had planned to tear down the studio, but instead, leased it to a television production company and it became known as Kling Studios. This is where the first couple of years of “The Adventures Of Superman” were shot. When the series went from B/W to color, the production moved.

In 1959, Red Skelton began producing his CBS television series at the facility, and in April 1960 Skelton purchased the studio. Skelton also purchased three large mobile units for taping color television shows, making a total investment estimated at $3.5 million. Skelton had a large “Skelton Studios” sign erected over the main gate on La Brea Avenue. Here is an article on the Skelton Studios color mobile unit on page 18.
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RCA-Broadcast-News/RCA-110.pdf

Skelton sold the studio to CBS in 1962, and CBS shot the Perry Mason television series there from 1962–1966.

In 1966, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss purchased the studio from CBS to serve as a headquarters for A&M Records.

In 1985, the hit single and video “We Are the World” was recorded in A&M’s Studio A.

From 1981 to 1985, Soul Train taped at The Chaplin Stage.

In February 2000, Jim Henson’s children purchased the studio for $12.5 million to serve as the new home of The Jim Henson Company.

There is a lot here to take in, but I hope you will take the time to see all the attached video and read the articles. It is not often that you get a chance to really understand the history of such important places, and this is one indeed sacred ground in the world of entertainment. There is more at the links below. 

http://patch.com/california/echopark/historic-chaplin-studio-still-stands-in-hollywood-e7630558

http://dearoldhollywood.blogspot.com/2009/02/chaplin-studios.html

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February 1, 1982…”Late Night With David Letterman” Debuts

On this date in 1982, Dave’s show replaced Tom Snyder’s ‘Tomorrow’ show, and at the end of the first week, the ratings were 30% better than Snyder’s.

These three clips are from the debut night and show us the start, a tour of Studio 6A which ends in the control room with Director Hal Gurney leading the singers (you’ll see) and Dave’s first guest Bill Murray.

There are too many thing to list that made the show a hit and “different”, but here’s an example from that first week that had everyone talking. On the third night, baseball great Hank Arron was on and after his time with Dave, a camera followed him backstage where Marv Albert did a “post interview, interview” to see how it had gone, just like a post game interview.

We love you and miss you Dave, and thank you for all the laughs along the way! Enjoy your retirement…you’ve earned a rest. -Bobby Ellerbee

Show Open

Studio 6A Tour

First Guest, Bull Murry

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CBS 75th Anniversay Show…Mega Memory Tour #2

From now through Tuesday, we’ll continue NBC, CBS and ABC network anniversary shows for you here, plus a couple of surprises, but now, it’s time for tour #2.

This is 2 hours of CBS’s glorious history as it was presented in 2003, and like NBC, CBS has presented more recent anniversary specials, but none of those are available in their entirety like this one.

Gleason, Benny, Burnett, Cronkite, Griffith, Sullivan, Newhart, MTM, Barker, Skelton, Letterman and all the great shows from westerns, dramas, soaps, sitcoms, news, radio, milestones, sports are all here! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

January 30, 1950…NBC Studio 8H Debuts As A Television Studio

Actually, “The Voice Of Firestone” radio show had been simulcast from Studio 8H on September 5, 1949, and before that, at least two simulcasts of Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra were done from 8H as early as 1943. All of those broadcasts had all been handled as remotes though, as there were no television facilities in the studio then.

Around the end of August of ’49, 8H was closed and totally redone at a cost of over a million dollars.

The first show that we know of that came from the new television studio was NBC’s new one hour anthology series, “Robert Montgomery Presents”, with the debut episode “The Letter” being broadcast at 8 PM January 30, 1950, for a double debut of sorts.

Seen above it Robert Montgomery opening the show in it’s usual way, perched above the studio floor where the live production is about to take place in 8H.

When NBC began broadcasting from it’s new 30 Rockefeller Plaza location on November 11, 1933, the first radio show came from 8H, or as it was called then, The Auditorium Studio. It was the largest of the 27 studios in the building with 8G, also known as The Radio Guild Studio, second in size.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 8H! -Bobby Ellerbee

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Inside Breaking News…Live At CNN For The Challenger Disaster

On January 28, 1986, about a half hour before the Challenger space shuttle was launched, a CNN tape crew had come into the main news studio to shoot a feature on how the news is covered. What their camera recorded in Atlanta was the same kind of chaos erupting across the country in other news rooms. Where were you when you heard the news? -Bobby Ellerbee

A crew just happened to be in the CNN Newsroom/ Studio shooting promotional/documentary footage of a random day’s work at the network. This is their montage …

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January 27, 1991…Whitney Houston Mesmerizes America

The Story Of The Best Ever Version Of “The Star Spangled Banner”

Here is our national anthem sung like never before, and the backstory of how it came to be. Please watch it with the volume high and don’t be surprised if you tear up to, what most consider, the most moving rendition ever.

Few know that the entire performance was prerecorded…music and voice. In order to keep the performance from sounding thin, as most stadium performances tend to be, Houston wanted the great arrangement, to be as powerful and moving as it was when she first heard it ten days earlier.

This performance was the opening of Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium, January 27, 1991…10 days into the Persian Gulf War. Whitney was backed by the Florida Orchestra along with music director Jahja Ling, before 73,813 fans, 115 million viewers in the United States and a worldwide television audience of 750 million.

When asked to perform, Houston knew instantly how she wanted to interpret the tune. Rickey Minor, her longtime musical director, and later Jay Leno’s band leader, said that in a crowd that large and loud, it would be impossible for Houston to hear herself, so in order to have the most powerful performance, the decision was made to prerecord both the music and vocals.

Although there was no audio from her mic, there is no question that she sang this with all her heart live, but it was her pre-recorded voice that the audience heard. She did it in one take in the studio!

The NFL had no qualms about the song being prerecorded, even if Houston would be criticized for it. The NFL’s issue was with the meter. “The Star-Spangled Banner” is written in 3/4 time — not quite brisk, but waltzy. Houston and vocal arranger Minor, as well as bassist-arranger John L. Clayton, changed it to 4/4, slowing it down.

“All was in place for what many of us thought would be one of the greatest versions of the national anthem ever performed,” said Jim Steeg, who for 25 years had been in charge of the Super Bowl for the NFL.

“Then on Jan. 17,” as Steeg further recalled it, “senior executives with the NFL asked to hear the recording. A tape was overnighted to Buffalo, where the AFC championship game was played. The next day I was told the version was viewed as too slow and difficult to sing along with. Could I ask to have it redone.” Perhaps the NFL was afraid there would be discontent in the stands, as there had been when Jose Feliciano dared to stray in the anthem before Game 5 of the 1968 World Series. So Steeg called John Houston, Whitney’s father and her manager at the time. “The conversation was brief,” Steeg said. “There would be no rerecording.”

Houston’s performance electrified the stadium and soon after, popular demand prompted Houston’s record label to release a single of her national anthem performance that hit the top 20 on the Billboard charts.

“I think it might well be the best Super Bowl performance of all time, ” said Billboard Magazine editor Danyel Smith. I AGREE! God Bless America! -Bobby Ellerbee

January 26, 1992…First Successful Super Bowl Counter Programming

CLASSIC! Men On Football…’In Living Color’

This is one of my all-time favorite comedy pieces from “In Living Color”! This whole thing is funny, but it heads for the outer limits at about the 4:30 mark, so do not drink anything after that unless you want to blow it out of your nose!

This was a special live episode (usually it was prerecorded) that aired on Fox, Sunday, January 26, 1992 and was broadcast opposite the Super Bowl XXVI halftime on CBS. It drew about 25 million of those viewers. After the half hour live special, most returned to CBS which had an audience estimated at 79.6 million viewers.

This was the first time that a major television network successfully scheduled Super Bowl counter-programming. The ‘In Living Color’ Super Bowl halftime special was branded by the network as ‘The Doritos Zaptime-In Living Color Super Halftime Party’.

During the “Men on Football” sketch, Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier adlibbed a suggestion that Richard Gere and track and field star Carl Lewis were gay. Lawsuits were filed and the tape was edited for reruns and syndication. This is the original unedited version! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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A Day In The WABC TV News Room…1973

In an a year that has been so tumultuous for the television news business, when even fair and accurate reporting has come under attack, I thought this would be a good time to take a look back at how the process actually unfolds at a big local news department.

This great video is nearly a half hour long, and takes us through a full day of activity at the WABC news room, and studio. From assignment editors handing out local stories to crews and reporters, including Geraldo Rivera, to rushing film via motorcycle couriers back for editing, and finally to air with anchors Bill Beutel and Roger Grimsby.

According to the address above the door, this newsroom was at 77 West 66th Street, at the corner of Columbus Avenue, where the WABC news studio is now. The street numbers, and the ABC campus have changed a bit over the years and I think the live studio they were running to is in what is now 77 West 66th.

As you will see, the studio is a few buildings down, and was perhaps in 7 West 66th. Every piece of film and graphics, and talent had to make the mad dash down the street to the studio building.

You may have noticed the redundant use of the word “film”, but in ’73…that was still the main medium for news. At least it was color though, and took 40 minutes to develop.

The process of getting the script to teleprompters starts at around 18.5 minutes in and the broadcast shots come soon after.

Some nice shots of the editing process here, and the Norelco cameras have the extra tall dome tally lights…interestingly, only the very top of the tube light illuminates and you’ll hear the anchors discuss that at the very end, after the broadcast. Those tall tally lights were after-market-add-ons and were made to be taller than the teleprompters most mounted above the lens, but WABC is using and under lens setup.

Even for those of us not from New York, there are a lot of memories here like the Vietnam war protest Geraldo is covering, Burt Reynolds and Dianne Canon who are making “Shamus”, and for New Yorkers, a lot of drive by memories from the news cars.

Thanks to long time ABC cameraman Howie Ziedman for the video link. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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