HOW LUCY SAVED THE WORLD EVERY WEEK - MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE PILOT - CBS-TV - SEPT. 17, 1966

 

Television's Queen of Comedy bet her kingdom to give American Television two of its greatest dramatic hours.

In 1966, the mighty CBS Network resumed its annual ritual of convincing and cajoling TV's reigning redhead,Lucille Ball, to continue with her hit series on the TIFFANY NETWORK, THE LUCY SHOW.

This was a complex negotiation , each year, because they were dealing with two Lucy's.

One was the driven and demanding actress, who rehearsed every LUCY SHOW script until it looked like it was spontaneous to the large and loyal audience.

But, in addition to her comedic career, the "other" Lucy was the president of DESILU STUDIOS, the production company that she and her ex-husband, video visionary and pioneer producer, Desi Arnaz, founded in the early 1950's to launch I LOVE LUCY.

Here's a brief historical detour:

In the 1950's and 1960's, DESILU was to television , everything that MGM was to the movies in the 30's and 40's. No surprise. Both Ball and Arnaz  had started their Hollywood careers acting  in feature films. They actually met at RKO STUDIOS, which they purchased and folded into DESILU in 1957. DESILU was a small studio with the biggest hits on the little screen.

Most of their work landed on CBS. It was a prolific and profitable partnership.

But , back to 1966...

To keep Lucy on the air and in the fold, CBS offered a financial incentive that was tailor-made for a studio executive. Because of her show's formidable ratings ( high, but not I LOVE LUCY high), she was given a "development" fund. It was her choice to invest in the production of pilot episodes for new DESILU series, or keep the money for herself.

She elected to invest in DESILU's future and with it in two unique pilots. One was for NBC and  was described by its creator, Gene Roddenbery as "WAGON TRAIN  to the stars."

That show was STAR TREK.  Do I need to say more?

Producer Bruce Geller had a different, but intriguing, vision for another show that would have the intensity and action of  sophisticated "heist" films like RIFIFI or TOPKAPI, but set in the shadowy world of espionage against an international backdrop. DESILU took it to CBS.

It was called MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE.

Both pilots , shot in COLOR, made their way to the Fall 1966 Prime Time Schedule. Both made television history and both left amazing legacies that manifested themselves  in feature films.

The legend and lore of STAR TREK fills volume after volume.

The heritage of  MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE, like the operatives who work for the Impossible Mission Force, has a lower profile.

The terse and tense exposition of the show changed the architecture of  action dramas on television. The stories were meticulously crafted and often had to be written backwards to make sense. It was well known that in the late 1960's President Lyndon Johnson was one of the show's biggest fans. The show had a pace and a presence that was Spartan but suspenseful. Propelled by Lalo Schifrin's pulsating theme and eccentric casting ( Wally Cox as the point-person in a Spy caper?:) , the show ran from 1966 to 1973 on CBS.

Here, from the DON FOLEY you tube site, here is the 1966 Pilot for MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE.

Enjoy!!!


   

THE KING OF COMEDY AS A STAR OF DAVID - JERRY LEWIS IN THE JAZZ SINGER - NBC-TV - CIRCA 10/13/59

Nobody could ever accuse Jerry Lewis of comedic cowardice.

His life and career are a testament to the risks and rewards of working in the Funny Business.

At what may have been the zenith of his career in the late 1950's, when he was globally adored by children and adults, coveted by Paramount Pictures, where the films he produced and in which he starred broke box office records,when he was in high demand by nightclubs and television networks, he decided that it was time to take a dramatic star turn on NBC-TV'S LINCOLN MERCURY STAR TIME.

Lewis, along with video veterans,  producer Ernest D. Glucksman ,Director Ralph Nelson and writer Oliver Crawford crafted an updated version of the classic Al Jolson film, the first talking picture, THE JAZZ SINGER  for the anthology series.

Co-starring with Anna Maria Alberghetti, Molly Picon, Eduard Franz , Joey Faye and Del Moore, Lewis brought his own  unique talents to a modernized telling of the Sampson Raphaelson story of a performer who faces a moral choice between his Father and his Faith or Stardom and Success.

It was recorded at NBC Burbank on 2 inch, COLOR  videotape and manually edited. The production design and detailed sets seem to stand the test of time. You judge the performances.

Here , from the Joao Antônio Franz dos Santos YOU TUBE site, is THE JAZZ SINGER.

Enjoy!!!

02:56 UTC - THE MOMENT THAT THE WHOLE WORLD WATCHED HISTORY UNFOLD ON TELEVISION - THE MOON LANDING - ALMOST EVERY BROADCASTER ON EARTH - 7/20/69

 

 

Tonight , billions of people around the globe will look up at the night sky and ,  perhaps, they will notice the Moon, glowing in among the stars.

 

A comparative fraction will stop to recall that on this date in 1969, at 10:56 PM EDT, 02:56 UTC, and 109420 into the mission of APOLLO 11, Commander Neil Armstrong descended the ladder from

The Lunar Module EAGLE to become the first human being in history to set foot on another celestial body.

 

It was the night that Americans walked on the Moon.

 

At that electrifying moment on that steamy summer night, 44 years ago, an estimated 600 million people  watched television in homes and churches and bars and union halls and in parks and on beaches. Television took us from the launch pad , to mission control , to the white house and to the Moon.

 

Video Viewers  who watched through the night, saw  the grainy, jittery images of Armstrong , who, sadly,  passed away in 2102  and  Lunar Module Pilot ,Buzz Aldrin ,on television as they surveyed the Sea of Tranquility. Aldrin called the Moon a place of "magnificent desolation."

 

The third member of the APOLLO 11 team, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins orbited the moon , as his partners walked it's surface. For a period, as he guided the ship around the dark side of Earth's only , natural satellite, he was out of communications contact with his colleagues and with NASA's Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas

 

In the hours that followed the amazing moonwalk, citizens of the world put aside their  political, religious and social differences to celebrate the realization of a dream as old as mankind.

 

I have not heard much on this 44th anniversary of this daring , dazzling accomplishment, which fulfilled the mandate of a martyred President .It was  John Kennedy who set the goal of putting a man on the moon  before end of the 1960's.The American Lunar landing all but ended the so-called RACE FOR SPACE, with , what was then the worlds only other Super Power, the Soviet Union.

 

Tonight, we should take a moment to honor those who walked the powdery lunar landscape, reflect on this superlative achievement and wonder when mankind can reach for its most noble dreams and the stars , again.

 

Here , from the ZELCO321 YOU TUBE site, is an excerpt of ABC NEWS coverage of this wondrous moment.

 

Enjoy!!!

  

 

BROADWAY COMES TO TELEVISION CITY - JACK BENNY IN SHOWER OF STARS - CBS-TV - CIRCA 10/6/55

 

 

 

"FROM TELEVISION CITY IN HOLLYWOOD..." is one of the most familiar and famous phrases ever spoken on TV.

That simple, declarative statement has been a clarion call for CBS viewers since the Tiffany Network's Los Angeles Broadcast Facility opened its doors ... and the cavernous studios behind them ... in 1952.

One of the most prolific and proficient production centers in the history of the medium, TV City has been home to drama, comedy, sci-fi, music, soap operas, game shows , news , commercials and every other genre in video.

Even though CBS was vanquished by mortal rival NBC in the 1953 battle to set the technical standard in COLOR television, there was a time in the mid-1950's that CBS experimented with tinted TV, using RCA equipment.

At least two stages in the CBS complex at 7800 Beverly Boulevard in L.A's Fairfax section were outfitted with lumbering  RCA TK-41 Cameras and supplemental lighting equipment required for polychromatic  production.

A wide range of shows on the CBS schedule were produced at Television City in , what CBS branded as, FULL COLOR between 1954 and 1958.

In 1959, CBS scion William Paley decided that he would no longer spend his money buying equipment from  his long-time competitor, RCA/NBC's David Sarnoff.

CBS shut down regularly scheduled, COLOR programming until the Fall of 1966, when all three of America's major broadcast networks delivered their prime-time programs in COLOR.

But reflecting on the mid-fifties at CBS, CHRYSLER'S SHOWER OF STARS is a prime example of the CBS COLOR STRATEGY.

A monthly  mix of music, comedy and variety, usually hosted by the incomparable Jack Benny, it alternated with CHRYSLER'S CLIMAX, a series of suspenseful dramas and mysteries.

While both shows were produced LIVE at Television City, SHOWER OF STARS was offered as a CBS COLORCAST,  once a month.

Here from the SCREENSTAGEANDSONG YOU TUBE SITE , is a  warm and wholesome comedy, based on a Broadway hit. Jack Benny does his monthly start turn, with a versatile cast in TIME OUT FOR GINGER.

Enjoy!!!

FROM THE BOARDWALK TO AN EMPIRE- THE MARTIN & LEWIS SHOW - NBC-TV - CIRCA 5/2/54

In the early 1950's, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis did something of which  Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin only Dreamed:

They conquered the world.

Not a shot was fired and there were no casualties in a comic revolution
that captured most of the planet.

The unlikely paring  offered audiences a voluble and volatile mix
of slapstick antics and street-smart banter that was too big for
any 12 inch , TV screen to contain.

If you met them, before they were a team, you might wonder how they
could compliment each other in front of a camera or behind a microphone.

Martin, an alluring crooner with impeccable comic timing and Lewis,
a kinetic comedian , whose adolescent demeanor, on stage, belied
the burgeoning auteur within.

They liked each other personally and shared the same comic sensibility.

When the legendary Atlantic City nightclub impresario, Skinny D-Amato,
booked them  in his  renowned 500 CLUB as two single acts ... Martin singing and Lewis performing
a  record pantomime... it was clear that they needed each other.

After bombing, back to back, D'Amato, who was an entertainment visionary, told them that they could work the stage together or each could leave the club alone.

That was 1946 and in the turbulent decade that followed, they became the biggest stars on Film, in Nightclubs and on Television.

In 1956, they went their separate ways after making millions of people laugh and making show business history.

The story of their decision to "divorce " is a show business tragedy come true.

The act and their relationship succumbed to a lethal mix of ego and pride, jealousy and infighting.

Both went on to incredibly successful individual careers.

But together, they were invincible and incomparable.

They also made a lot of money for America's best nightclubs, the nation's largest theaters, Paramount Pictures, NBC Radio, NBC Television and their TV sponsor, The Colgate Palmolive Company.

While the wild physicality of their act didn't translate well to radio, their monthly, video adventures as part of the rotating constellation of stars on NBC-TV's expansive and expensive, COLGATE COMEDY HOUR, made for some of the most spontaneous moments in the mediums early years.

Here, from the DONAZIFY YOU TUBE site is the 5/2/54 episode of their Sunday night show, which celebrates the eighth anniversary of MARTIN AND LEWIS performing together.

Enjoy!!!!!

THE DAY TV NEWS SET ITS EYES ON THE SKIES - THE FIRST AMERICAN LAUNCHED INTO SPACE - NBC-TV - CIRCA MAY 5, 1961

It took less than 15 minutes for Astronaut Alan Shepard, supported by thousands of NASA technicians, government contractors and military personnel, to accomplish a daring dream of human adventure and scientific exploration, that would come to typify the baby-boom generation's sense of bravado : putting an American into space.

Shepard, a decorated Naval aviator and an accomplished engineer, was among the first class of 7 Astronauts who would risk
their lives to launch the America's manned-spaceflight program, NASA's Project Mercury.

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On May 5th, 1961, in the face of uncooperative weather and technical challenges, Shepard's Freedom 7 capsule , mounted atop a Redstone guided missile, thundered into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

It was a sub-orbital flight of 15 minutes duration, but it was this country's first step into space.

It came at just the right time for a nation was that unsure it could find the footing to take its first steps toward the stars. The Soviets had just put Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into Earth Orbit, while American missiles, designed by German scientists who had emigrated to the US after World War II, kept exploding on the launch pad.

Shepard's flight gave America the confidence to move forward and upward into space.

At NBC News, division president Robert Kitner had launched his own experiment in broadcast journalism, the INSTANT NEWS SPECIAL.

His innovative vision was to produce wide-ranging, LIVE, special coverage of major stories as they develped, that would culminate in a prime-time, news program.

The Race For Space Between the United States and what was then the Soviet Union, offered the perfect opportunity to test this new and vibrant form of journalism.

While the US and the Soviets battled for supremacy in space, NBC and CBS ran the race for ratings.

At NBC, the smart and savvy Frank McGee anchored the network's television coverage of Project Mercury with superlative support from radio correspondent Jay Barbaree, whose daily beat was the manned space flight program.

At CBS News, anchorman Walter Cronkite owned the story. In years to come, he would fly with Astronauts in simulated weightless conditions and is alleged to have inquired about the possibility of being the first Journalist in space.

This was also one of the few stories on whichthe fledging ABC News division would shine, based on the expertise of the late Jules Bergman, who was as knowledgeable about NASA and the science of space fight
' as any Astronaut.

Just as Project Mercury was a Templar for the missions to the Moon that followed, NBC's coverage of early space exploration laid the foundation for major, breaking news coverage at the network level and for cable news.

Below, from the MR. DAN BEAUMONT YOU TUBE site,is a rare excerpt from an NBC NEWS SPECIAL REPORT WITH FRANK McGEE on THE FLIGHT OF FREEDOM 7.

Enjoy!!!

LOOKING FOR LOVE ON LIVE TV - MARTY- NBC-TV - CIRCA 1953

The striking and evocative PHILCO-GOODYEAR TELEVISION THEATER production of MARTY, written by the prolific and profound Paddy Chayefsky for NBC,is truly a landmark in network drama.

The one hour episode of the renowned, award-winning anthology series was produced by the iconic Fred Coe and Directed ,LIVE, by video virtuoso, Delbert Mann on May24, 1953 in B&W, at NBC's 30 Rockefeller Center Studios.

Early television viewers and critics lauded this deftly woven story of an angst ridden , Italian butcher from Brooklyn, who is in search of love, while tormented by well meaning friends and family.

The Teleplay speaks for itself.It is a templar of Television's so-called GOLDEN AGE OF LIVE DRAMA.

While the video version starred Rod Steiger, it was Ernest Borgnine's portrayal of a middle-aged man who is struggling to find romance and self-esteem, in the film version that won an Academy Award.

From the OLD MOVES RADIO & TV YOU TUBE site, in its entirety , is MARTY. Enjoy!!!