Tribute 1 To The RCA TK41…The True Blacks And Mood
On October 30, 2014
- TV History
I think this is my all time favorite TK41 color shot. My like for this may be influenced by the art of the shot and the set, and even though this is not very colorful, it shows how great the black registration was on this camera. I would have loved to have been at NBC Burbank when this was done. Were any of you there? Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-RAnkH8Jxc
Andy Williams – O Holy Night
The Andy Williams shows were not lip synced. He always sang live. Shows from this period employed orchestra pre records, recorded on stage, mixed live to mono tape and played back through an Altec A7. Andy sang on a boom mic, probably an RCA BK5B. he was also the first performer to employ reverb on television. The production and post production mixer was Bill Cole, He did every big musical special in the 60s through the early 70s.
The video operator was the great Jerry Smith: The man behind the video for most of the great NBC music specials. His credits included the Sinatra specials, The Temptations and Supremes special, The Dean Martin shows, The Dinah Shore shows and many others.
I am so lucky to have learned shading from good engineers.
I went to a taping of the Andy Williams Show in Burbank. The Temptations were performing. What a thrill!
I remember this!
I am really glad we got to see him in person a few years ago before his illness, he brought his Christmas Show here to the Twilight Zone, and was still able to nail all of the numbers…used all local singers as well, a huge treat for them!
Watching our local news it appears no one knows how to adjust a camera properly…. they just push “auto-adjust” and go live with it.
41s could look great with a great engineer at the controls. A lot of knobs on a 41.
…betcha the video engineers worked double time to adjust the 41’s just right.
While I have to give kudos to the video, the audio sounds GREAT!
Artful set decoration and lighting, yes. BTW, registration covers all of the image and is not limited to ‘black’ or any color. It’s the alignment of the 3 I/O tubes to each other. This clip does show superb channel alignment, but it is also a bit soft. I’m sure the original recording was sharper than this clip.
Most of Andy’s production numbers were lip synced to guarantee best sound and no boom shadow. This made and camera moves and lighting easier. Great TK41 video and great crane operation-so smooth.
Beautiful. A perfect example of what made color television so awesome in the early days.
Back in the days when Video Engineers had hours to do camera setup to get it perfect. Now, I see newscasts where the people look orange due to codependence of computers and no Engineer on the shift.
Totally agree about the “art of the shot” Bobby. Absolute perfection. True artists behind the cams!