“Colored Television”…

Did you know that up till about 1932, the pictures on cathode ray tubes were green…like an oscilloscope screen? Me either, but there it was in an article on the history of the Empire State Building antenna from 1967.

Quoting the article; “At that time, the tubes had green fluorescent screens, since the white phosphor later used for black-and-white television had not yet been developed.”

This was in relation to NBC’s first experimental television transmissions from the first Empire State antenna on December 22, 1931. The first experimental transmission from the Empire State Building were 120-line pictures using mechanical scanning of both film and live subjects.

The live subject would have most definitely included extended periods of Felix The Cat spinning on a turntable. As I reported in the NBC Studio History Series earlier in the year, Felix, the mechanical camera and the transmitter were in the Roof Garden Studio of The New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street and were 60 line transmissions received on these green tinted screens.

It would be interesting to know when the white phosphor process began. I’m looking but as yet, no luck, but I did find this rare photo from 1932. If anyone has any information on this, please share it with us

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Television’s First Major League Baseball Game

The first ever Major League Baseball game was televised on August 26, 1939 on experimental station W2XBS, which is now WNBC. With Red Barber announcing, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds played a doubleheader at Ebbets Field. The Reds won the first, 5–2 while the Dodgers won the second, 6–1.

Barber called the first game on NBC Radio and moved to TV for the second game which he did without the benefit of a monitor and with only two cameras capturing the game. One camera was close to Barber who had to sit in the stands behind home base. The other was on the first base side up high. During the game, Red’s headset also went out so he was winging more than just the play by play action.

At the time, the New York World’s Fair was in full swing, as was RCA and NBC’s first big television push. Including the sets RCA had installed at the fair and around town, there were only about 400 receivers in the NYC area.

On September 15, 1938, NBC christened it’s new two truck mobile unit on the air by televising man on the street interviews at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. One unit was the camera truck and the other, the transmitter truck.

The first-ever televised baseball game had actually come four months earlier on May 17, 1939. That was a college game between Princeton and Columbia; Princeton beat Columbia 2–1 at Columbia’s Baker Field. The contest was aired on W2XBS and was announced by Bill Stern. Stern almost did not make the opening pitch of that game as he rushed home to get his hair piece.

Broadcasting baseball on the radio was something Stern had done for years and never needed to “look spiffy”. but since General Sarnoff would be watching, he decided he’d better take his hat off for the broadcast. When he did that for the camera before the game, he realized he was missing something he usually wore in the NBC studios doing his daily sport shows. Wonder if Willard Scott ever did that?

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‘The Bob Crosby Show’…CBS Daytime, 1953-1957

In the photos, we see RCA TK40s and 41s on the Crosby Show which was done Monday thru Friday from Television City’s Studio 33. Like most TVC shows, it was usually done in black and white, but every couple of months or so, they would broadcast a day or two, or a week in color. Studio 43 was equipped with RCA TK40A color cameras in 1954, with cables allowing any of the original four studios to use those cameras. In 1956, Studio 41 was equipped with RCA TK41s.

Jack Narz was usually the announcer for the show, but in the clip and the photo, we see different announcers. That’s Tom Kennedy in the photo with Crosby, but I don’t recognize the announcer in the video.

I think this show aired between 1 and 3 PM in the east, but since this is in the pre videotape days, it had to be done live in LA in the morning and was kinescoped for the west coast playback. Here is a sample:

The attached show clip was done in ’53. These are the other shows that were being done live from Television City that month, and the studios they came from.

ART LINKLETTER’S HOUSE PARTY 41
LIFE WITH FATHER 43
LUX VIDEO THEATER 43
MEET MILLIE 31
MEL ALLEN 31
MY FAVORITE HUSBAND 33
MY FRIEND IRMA 31
PLACE THE FACE 41
RADIO & RECORDS EVENT 31
THAT’S MY BOY 33
THE BOB CROSBY SHOW 33
THE RED SKELTON SHOW 31

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Newhart And Television…

In the photo, we see Bob with an RCA TK41 at NBC Burbank. Notice the lens turret handle on the back of the camera is at a kind of 2 o’clock position which is an easy way to “cap” the camera to save the three very expensive IO tubes inside. There are four lens positions on the turret and lock in with the handle at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions. At the link is a few rare seconds of ‘The Bob Newhart Show’ on NBC in 1961.

There’s too much to tell about Bob Newhart’s sitcoms, and we’ll take those up at another time. This story is more about Bob’s rise to fame via television and the many shows he appeared on before his sitcom days at CBS, and we’ll start at NBC Burbank.

Newhart’s success in stand-up led to his own NBC variety show in 1961, ‘The Bob Newhart Show’. The show lasted only a single season, but earned Newhart a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and a Peabody Award. The Peabody Board cited him as:

“… a person whose gentle satire and wry and irreverent wit waft a breath of fresh and bracing air through the stale and stuffy electronic corridors. A merry marauder, who looks less like St. George than a choirboy, Newhart has wounded, if not slain, many of the dragons that stalk our society. In a troubled and apprehensive world, Newhart has proved once again that laughter is the best medicine.”

In the mid-1960s, Newhart appeared on The Dean Martin Show 24 times, and on The Ed Sullivan Show eight times. He appeared in a 1963 episode of ‘The Alfred Hitchcock Hour’, “How to Get Rid of Your Wife”, and on ‘The Judy Garland Show’. Newhart guest-hosted ‘The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson’ 87 times, and hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’ twice, 15 years apart (1980 and 1995).

In addition to stand-up comedy, Newhart appeared as a character actor on ‘Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre’, ‘It’s Garry Shandling’s Show’ and he appeared as Dr. Bob Hartley on ‘Murphy Brown’. He also appeared as himself on ‘The Simpsons’, and as a retired forensic pathologist on ‘NCIS’.

Newhart guest-starred on three episodes of ‘ER’, for which he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, and on ‘Desperate Housewives’. In 2013 he appeared on ‘Committed’ and was in an episode of the sixth season of ‘The Big Bang Theory’, for which he was awarded a Primetime Emmy Award, and several episodes of the seventh season.

‘Password’ welcomed Bob many times, as did other game shows which are too numerous to mention.

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Classic! Bob Newhart…How He Became His Own Straight Man

In the clip, you’ll see Bob doing what made him famous…being his own straight man in one of his famous one sided telephone calls. In the photo we see Bob at Chicago’s WGN in 1959.

Chicago native, Bob Newhart was drafted into the Army and served in the Korean War as a personnel manager until being discharged in 1954. After the war, Newhart got a job as an accountant for United States Gypsum. He later claimed that his motto, “That’s close enough,” and his habit of adjusting petty cash imbalances with his own money shows he did not have the temperament to be an accountant.

In 1958, Newhart became an advertising copywriter for Fred A. Niles, a major independent film and television producer in Chicago. It was here that he and a co-worker would entertain each other with long telephone calls about absurd scenarios, which they would later record and send to radio stations as audition tapes. When his co-worker ended his participation, Newhart continued the recordings alone, developing the shtick which was to serve him well for decades.

A disc jockey, Dan Sorkin, who later became the announcer-sidekick on his NBC series, introduced Newhart to the head of talent at Warner Bros. Records, which signed him in 1959–only a year after the label was formed–based solely on those recordings. He expanded his material into a stand-up routine which he began to perform at nightclubs.

His 1960 comedy album, ‘The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart’, went straight to number one on the charts, beating Elvis Presley and the cast album of ‘The Sound of Music’. It was the first comedy album to make #1 on the Billboard charts. ‘Button Down Mind’ received the 1961 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The album peaked at #2 in the UK Albums Chart. Newhart also won Best New Artist, and his quickly released follow-up album, ‘The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back’, won Best Comedy Performance – Spoken Word that same year.

Newhart became famous mostly on the strength of his audio releases, in which he became the world’s first solo “straight man”. This is a seeming contradiction in terms: by definition, a straight man is the counterpart to a more loony comedic partner. Newhart’s routine, however, was simply to portray one end of a conversation (usually a phone call), playing the straightest of comedic straight men and implying what the other person was saying. In the clip, he does just that! Enjoy and share! .

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The Tony Awards Opening…’Let’s Go To The Hop’

At the link is a quick backstage look at the end of host Hugh Jackman’s opening number, a hopping tour of Radio City Music Hall. The whole thing was beautifully shot by Steadicam operator Tore Liva with help from his trusty utility man.

In the photos, we see two of the three jibs used for the show, a 40 footer center house, a 24 footer left balcony and a 16 footer on the right side of the stage. Our friend Rob Balton’s company Camera Moves was there along with at least a dozen other cameras, including a few that were pedestal mounted in center house. A great job by everyone. As exciting as the Emmy and Oscar broadcasts are, the Tony shows are in a league of their own.

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Ed Sullivan’s Last Show…Clearing Up Some History

Over the past week, several sites have reported that Ed Sullivan’s last show was on June 6, 1971. This is partly true, but is not the whole story. Here’s the rest of that very sad tale.

As I understand it, CBS announced the cancellation of the show on Tuesday, March 30, 1971. When Sullivan took to the stage that previous Sunday night, March 28th, he did not know that would be his last show, but it was. They did not even allow him to do a farewell show. Having been on air talent for many years, I can tell you this is unfortunately “how it’s done”. Most employers that fire talent feel that another chance on the air to say goodby also opens the door for possible triads against them, so, they do it this way. It’s quite cruel.

Sullivan was furious and very hurt by this and really never forgave CBS for not letting him hit the 25 year mark and for the shabby way they parted ways. After Ed Sullivan’s last live-to-tape show, reruns from that twenty third season ran till June 6th. The last original Sullivan show telecast (Episode 1068) was on March 28, 1971 with guests Melanie, Joanna Simon, Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass, and Sandler and Young.

The last show to air on June 6, 1971 was episode 20 from February 7, 1971 with Gladys Knight & the Pips singing “If I Were Your Woman” & “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. Jerry Vale sang “I Want To Make It With You”, Caterina Valente sang “The Girl from Ipanema” and Peter Nero played the theme from “Love Story” on his piano. Sid Caesar & Carol Channing performed a scene from the play “Four on a Garden”. For comic relief, there was Robert Klein and Pat Henry. The End. Literally.

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You’ve Probably Never Seen This, And Will Probably Never Again!

Ever seen a newscast with a live announcer? We’ll get ready! Oh…and this is not just any live announcer…it’s Don Pardo!

You’ll see Don at the start, again at 1:18 where he has a rare bit of a stumble and again at 6:57 at the close. For those that saw Jack Cafferty on CNN with Wolf Blitzer for many years and wondered where he came from, here’s your answer…WNBC. Jack has a very characteristic intro to the weather segment with Al Roker in this great clip from 1987. Enjoy and share!

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