A Bitter-Sweet Remembrance…NBC Burbank

Our friend Richard Wirth has posted a new article on a place where he once worked. Here’s the latest on the demise of this once “proud as a peacock” property and an in depth look back at it’s place in broadcast history.

http://provideocoalition.com/pvcexclusive/story/the-demise-of-nbc-burbank

A Requiem for NBC Burbank

In 1982, I began what was to become one of the most favorite periods of my life.  I was hired at NBC in Burbank, California.  It wasn’t the most prestigious position nor was it the best job I would ever have.  But it was the best place I would ever work.

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A Rarity…Inside The First RCA Color Semi Trailer

A few days ago we saw the first RCA Color trucks at their 1954 debut at the Rose Parade. Those were the large bus type vans, but I think the tractor-trailer version came along in late 59 or early 60. The photo on the left is the only one I can remember seeing that showed any part of the inside of these trucks. That photo is from August of 1960 at Fenway Park, courtesy of Maureen Carney. The photo on the right is from later that year and shows the truck in Mobile, Alabama at The Senior Bowl.

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The Production Core Of ‘The Andy Griffith Show’

On the left is director Bob Sweeney who directed the first three seasons of the show. On the right, producer Aaron Ruben who was with the show from the start, till 1966 when he left to produce the spin off, ‘Gomer Pyle, USMC’. The show was filmed at Desilu Studios, with exteriors filmed at Forty Acres in Culver City with sets that were right next to the 1939 ‘Gone With The Wind’ sets. Woodsy locales were filmed north of Beverly Hills at Franklin Canyon. If you ever wondered who the excellent whistler was on the show’s theme song (The Fishin’ Hole), it was Earle Hagen, who along with Herbert Spencer composed the melody, with lyrics written by Everett Sloane. Lyrics? Yes, there are words to the song and if you have never heard it, here’s Andy Griffith singing them…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PVUit1-0Ck

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Smothers Brothers “Fun Facts”

Some of you may have known that Tom and Dick Smothers helped in the writing of ‘The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour’, but did you know there were two other brothers writing for the show too? One was “Super Dave Osborne” and the other was Albert Brooks…they were known to their mother as Bob and Albert Einstein. Other writers include Steve Martin, Rob Reiner, Pat Paulsen and how about this for a surprise…Don Novello who is better known as “Father Guido Sarducci”. The show’s most versatile writer had to be Mason Williams who also wrote and performed music, the best known of his efforts is the Grammy winning, “Classical Gas”. The show was done in Studio 33 at CBS Television City, but had the show not been canceled, Dick and Tommy had planned to move the show to San Francisco for the 69-70 season…flower power’s ground zero.

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Last Of The Mahicans…Retired 2010

These are RCA TK47s, the last full size camera made by the company that had pioneered color television. It debuted in 1978 and was in wide use with over 500 in operation by 1982. In 2010, WHKY in Hickory NC finally retired their TK47s. Station owner Tom Long had about a dozen that came from NBC Burbank and with parts from some and a stash of Plumbicon tubes, he kept them making great pictures right up till their last day. These photos are from their last year in service.

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January 1, 1960…Rose Parade in Black & White And Color, KTLA

In the late 50s and up to around 1962, KTLA did two local live broadcasts of each parade. The black and white edition came first with the cameras up near the head of the five mile parade route. The live color broadcast had their two RCA TK40s near the end of the route. On the left is a shot of the b/w coverage from the 1960 parade and on the left, a shot of their live color coverage of the same parade a few miles down the road. For more on this unusual event, go to this link and thanks to Early Television for the photos. http://www.earlytelevision.org/ktla_1960.html

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America’s New Year’s Eve Broadcast History: The Lombardo Years

Starting in 1927, Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians played New Year’s Eve shows on Chicago’s WBBM radio. In ’28, WBBM became one of the original CBS Radio Network stations and the executives in New York became aware of the very popular Chicago celebration and in 1929 brought Lombardo to New York for a New Year’s Eve network show that for some reason was shared with the NBC Radio Network, with CBS broadcasting the before midnight segment and NBC broadcasting the after midnight part of the show. Lombardo’s orchestra played at the “Roosevelt Grill” in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City from 1929 to 1959, and their New Year’s Eve performances continued until 1978 at the Waldorf Astoria. Below is the earliest (1957) known video of the televised performances which started on CBS in December 31, 1956. The Lombardo special on CBS would include a live segment from Times Square (long the focal point of America’s New Year’s Eve celebrations) showcasing the arrival of the New Year. During the early years on CBS, pioneer broadcast journalist Robert Trout reported from Times Square; in later years, another longtime newsman, Ben Grauer, reported from Times Square, though Grauer worked for NBC. While CBS carried most of the Lombardo New Year’s specials, there were a few years in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the special was syndicated live to individual TV stations instead of being broadcast on a network. By the middle 1970’s, the Lombardo TV show was facing competition, especially for younger viewers, from Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, but Lombardo remained popular among viewers, especially older ones. Even after Lombardo’s death, the band’s New Year’s specials continued for two more years on CBS. The Royal Canadians were noted for playing the traditional song Auld Lang Syne as part of the celebrations. Their recording of the song still plays as the first song of the new year in Times Square.

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

Here is an old kinescope from over 50 years ago!! For 100 years, the slow drop of a lighted glass ball on New Year’s Eve from atop One Times Square in New Yo…

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America’s New Year’s Eve Broadcast History: The Dick Clark Years

December 31, 1972 was a strange time in the country…Vietnam, the Olympic disaster, Watergate, the works, however, there was still a calming familiar face. That night, NBC aired a special: ‘Three Dog Night’s Year’s Rockin’ Eve 1973’. It was hosted by members of the famous band, but it was produced by Dick Clark. It was so successful among the targeted young viewers that another special, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 1974, was made and hosted by George Carlin and featured several popular musical performances. For 1975, the show moved to ABC, and Dick Clark took the reins as host. By 1977, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve became the annual television tradition. He would go on to host the show for forty-three straight years. The only exception during that run: ‘ABC 2000′, where the network aired celebrations heralding the new millennium around the world. While there was no “official” New Year’s Rockin’ Eve’ show that year, Dick was still there in his famous spot at Times Square, counting down like always inside the ABC special. The beginning of the end of the era came on December 6, 2004. It was on that day when news broke that he has been hospitalized after suffering from a minor stroke. While he said that he would still be good to go, eight days later on December 14, the official announcement came that Regis Philbin would fill in for NYRE 2005. While he wasn’t there in person, he was there in spirit with signs from fans and celebrity messages throughout the night. Clark returned in 2006, but he would no longer be solo. ‘American Idol’ and Top 40 host Ryan Seacrest became his new co-host and started his tenure joining Clark in his first television experience since the stroke. Ratings were there to welcome him, as the show drew in over 20 million viewers.

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

For the entire interview, visit http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/dick-clark Dick Clark was interviewed in 1999 for the Archive of American Tele…

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‘The Match Game’: A Fred Westbrook Photo

Below is a shot of ‘Match Game 74’ from CBS Television City Studio 33. The show started on NBC on December 5, 1962 and ran there till September of ’69. At NBC, the show originated from Studio 8H and was always a color show. In the early 70’s Fred Silverman at CBS began dumping the “rural” shows like ‘Green Acres’, ‘Andy Griffith’ and ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ and started adding game shows in prime time starting with ‘The Price Is Right’ in 1972. The next year, Silverman added another Goodson-Todman show which was ‘Match Game 73’ with it’s original host and announcer, Gene Rayburn and Johnny Olson. Did you know that Gene Rayburn was an NBC page in 1936? On January 5, 1967 (while still at NBC NY) Johnny Carson made a surprise appearance on the show…he came to heckle Ed McMahon who was a guest panelist for a week. True or false…this show also aired on ABC.

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‘Your Show Of Shows’ & The International Theater

Located at 5 Columbus Circle in NYC, The International Theater was home to NBC’s ‘Admiral Broadway Review’ in 1949 and to ‘Your Show Of Shows’ from 1950 – 1954. As mentioned in the post below, one of the first Sanner cranes was delivered here in 1950 and you can see it on the left. In the first ever LA-NY Academy Awards broadcast, the International was the NY host venue and The Pantages in LA was the other venue.

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Time To ‘Cowboy’ Up…Remember These Greats?

Left to right, Clint Walker ‘Cheyenne’, James Arnes ‘Gunsmoke’, Richard Boone ‘Have Gun Will Travel’, Robert Horton ‘Wagon Train’, James Garner ‘Maverick’ and John Payne ‘Restless Gun’.

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