While most folks under 25 may not know him or his work, he provided some of the softest, sweetest music to the American Soundtrack of the 1960's.
He was a fixture on NBC from his earliest work on THE STEVE ALLEN TONIGHT SHOWto his long-running variety series, THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW.
Many of those meticulously produced shows have been re-purposed for airing on PBS Stations ,airing during pledge drives.
Williams hit recording of Henry Mancini's evocative MOON RIVER, from the 1961's BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S.was Williams signature and his theme song.
Andy Williams easy sound didn't always top the charts , but THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW entertained millions of people week after week, season after season and to me , that's a great epitaph.
Here from the ANDYWILLIAMS 7864 YOU TUBE site, is a sample of Andy Williams affable and relaxed television show. R.I.P.
If you love football or television, a man named Steve Sabol has enriched your life.
Sabol was the son of NFL FILMS founder Ed Sabol.He was also the prolific, creative force behind that vibrant production company,which chronicled the weekly, gridiron exploits of American professional football on television, starting in the 1960's.
Steve Sabol passed away at age 69 , this week, after a long struggle with brain cancer.
As a writer, producer, designer and host, he saw poetry and grace in the grimy,bloody,violent, passionate, noble game of inches and inspiration that captives America on any given Sunday in the Fall.
His laudable legacy is printed on reels of celluloid that offer a powerful tableau of the athletic precision and artistic accomplishment that exemplify the National Football League and stand as vibrant testament to the dignity of the sport.
Sabol's rich repertoire included hand-held camera techniques , a rich symphonic score, the stentorian oration of iconic broadcaster John Facenda and expressive narrative that was as much poetry as prose.
Below, from the BRAYAS YOU TUBE site, is a true masterpiece from vision of Steve Sabol and the NFL FILMS portfolio : AUTUMN WIND
1960's television offered no place so down-to-Earth as Mayberry, North Carolina. This was a bucolic Camelot that was replete with eccentric residents and a sage Sheriff, who could solve the most complex , comic dilemma in 28 minutes, less commercials and credits.
It was a place of innocence in a time of social and political tumult.
In the late 1970's ,American exceptionalism was challenged on a daily basis, the economy was stalled and we faced a national crisis in confidence.
In the creative community, network executives, producers and performers tuned their eyes to the heavens and searched for answers.
Just above the horizon, ABC-TV enjoying it's first few seasons as America's most watched network, found BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, a futuristic tale about an armada of endangered nomads seeking a storied home in a far off galaxy and the fanciful story of an Earth-bound, but inspiried junk man with designs on lunar travel, called SALVAGE, starring Mayberry's favorite lawman, Andy Griffith.
( ANDY GRIFFITH WITH SALVAGE ONE CO-STARS, JOEL HIGGINS AND TRISH STEWART )
The pilot film was a hit on THE ABC SUNDAY NIGHT MOVIE and the series was commissioned.
Produced by Columbia Television, it offered a wholesome, yet wondrous story of an all-American entrepreneur and his enthusiastic team. The initial reviews were glowing, but the lustre soon faded.
SALVAGE ONE, as the series was labeled, debuted on January 20, 1979, as a mid-season replacement show, but lasted only 19 episodes.
Here from the MUSICLOVER 1966 YOU TUBE SITE is the full pilot for SALVAGE. Enjoy!!!
What was the best television show you ever saw in a movie theatre?
Think back to the sixties, before boxing matches or the METROPOLITAN OPERA were shown LIVE and in HD at the local cineplex.
In 1964, televisionary Steve Binder, who would go on to produce and direct major comedy and variety programs that ran the gamut from HULLABALOO to PEE WEE'S PLAYHOUSE to ELVIS '68 to theEMMY AWARDS, used inventor Bill Sargent's experimental, ELECTRONOVISION TV system to shoot a ground breaking, rock & roll event, which targeted the teeenage audience.
(EMMY WINNING, PRODUCER-DIRECTOR, STEVE BINDER)
The ELECTRONOVISION technology used specially developed, monochrome cameras,which shot over 800 scanlines at a 25 frame per second resolution, to
record a high quality film version of the landmark musical program.
It was then duplicated and sent to theaters, here,and around the globe.
It was called THE T.A.M.I. CONCERT, and the acronym stood for teenage American music international.
The all-star, rock show, shot in Los Angeles, may have been the first tremor of the youth-quake that would overtake American media in the decades ahead.
In our opinion, the show is still an incredible testament to the ability of television to capture the exuberant and , sometimes provocative,message in the Rock & Soul music of that era.
Here , from the DOWOPPERS51 YOU TUBE SITE is a clip of Lesley Gore on THE T.A.M.I. CONCERT.
There is not a person on this planet who was alive on the night of July 16, 1969 who doesn't know where he or she was on that warm,anxious summer evening at 13:32:00 UTC.
While some small percentage of the global populace had their eyes on the skies, most of us were focused on a television screen.
My family gathered around a 24 inch Admiral, B&W console model in our living room. We ate pizza and drank Coca Cola, as the NBC News troika of space coverage, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley and Frank McGee, calmly and clearly explained the wondrous story that was unfolding some 238,857 miles away on the moon.
They offered an occasional wry and prosaic aside about the electrifying adventure at hand, and the almost unfathomable scale of the historic event that we would soon witness.
We were hoping for a moment of celebration, in a time of anger and violence, marked by social upheaval in the streets.
And then it happened:
Every person on Earth with access to a television could see the same fuzzy, monochrome image, captured on a barren rock in the sky that was as old as human memory, and sent home by the most amazing television technology that mid-twentieth century engineers could devise.
The world watched as Astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon.
Television took us along for the incredible ride.
As he climbed down the ladder the APOLLO 11 Lunar Module,he uttered the simple, but enduring phrase,"THIS IS ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN AND A GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND."
Those words have resonated with every person who dreams of traveling to the stars, ever since.
Today, Neil Armstrong passed away of complications from recent heart surgery.
He was 82 years old, a devoted Family man, a respected educator , an accomplished engineer, and ,perhaps, the last , true American hero.
There are no reports of embarrassing escapades. No scandals.No reason to place an asterisk next to his name in the history books that record his extraordinary accomplishments.
Armstrong , it is reported, always was uncomfortable with fame. It is said that he never used his celebrity to enhance his own personal wealth or social standing.
He declined the spotlight, but , it seems, that moon glow just doesn't fade.
Here from HULU, Metacafe and NBC News is the story of Apollo 11's amazing journey to the Moon.
The Fall of 1966 was a time of inspired innovation in network television and while CBS was then, as now,Amercica's most watched television network and ABC cultivated unaffilated,youthful viewers, NBC lead the league in creative programming concepts and technological advancement.
The Peacock's decision to take it's full broadcast day to LIVING COLOR in 1965, propmted the competition to do the same, in September of 1966, taking their silvery black and white schedules to vibrant ,vivid color.
NBC also crafted a new genre of story telling in partnership with future COMCAST corporate sibling, UNIVERSAL TELEVISION , in a groundbreaking inititaive called PROJECT 120. The landmark strategy was to produce original, feature length films, specifically for television distribution. Some productions would be sold to foreign broadcasters, some would be released theatrically around the globe, and many, if not most, were designed to serve as pilot episodes for proposed series.
While CBS looked on with curiosity about the prospect of partnering with a film studio to make movies, ABC-TV and COLUMBIA PICTURES' television subsidiary, SCREEN GEMS, best known for producing sitcoms like HAZEL, THE MONKEES AND I DREAM OF JEANNIE, moved into high gear.
On Easter Sunday, April 10, 1966, a sprawling, adult, western adventure with comic overtones calledSCALPLOCK premiered on the ABC SUNDAY NIGHT MOVIE. It was the pilot for a proposed series called THE IRON HORSE which starred Dale Robertson, who was one of NBC's most bankable cathode ray cowboys of the 1950's, having been the lead in TALES OF WELLS FARGO.
SCALPLOCK told the two-fisted tale of gambler Ben Calhoun who won the Buffalo Pass, Scalplock, & Defiance Railroad in a poker game.The problem was that the actual railroad has yet to be completed.Along the way there are the requiste romantic encounters,double-dealing villans and ubiquitous dynamite blasts,all unfolding with an easy grin and a good-natured giggle.
The fast-paced,engaging script was written by Stephen Kandel and James Goldstone ( who also directed ) and produced by Herbert Hirschman.The film had rich production values on a limited budget and a television shooting schedule. It was picked-up by ABC-TV and THE IRON HORSE series ran from September 12, 1966 to January 6, 1968.
Here from the CLASIC TV GUY YOU TUBE site,is the full pilot film, SCALPLOCK.
After these 17 extraordinary days of the 2012 London Summer Games, it is almost necessary to take a moment to recall and ,in my opinion, revere the true Templar in network television coverage of athletic competition : ABC's WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS.
It is hard to watch the Games of the XXX Olympiad without reflecting on the myriad contributions and manifold innovations of Roone Arledge, a true televisionary in the fields of , both,sports and news.
From the 8thMOTIVE YOU TUBE site, here is the 1977 version of the iconic opening titles toABC'S WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS.
My name is Paul Gluck ( aka PAGEONE ) and while I have been working in Television for over 30 years, I have watched Television for my entire life.From the very first, monochrome images of Dave Garroway on the TODAY SHOW that I saw flickering across the screen of my parents 21",blond wood, Zenith console TV, to the vibrant video of SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL blazing across the LCD flat panel in my living room, I have always loved television. I have worked as a production assistant,a writer, an assignment editor, a producer,an executive producer, an executive editor,a news director and a station manager. My fascination with the medium , the programs we create and the people who produce that content, grows with each & every day. KINESCOPE HD is a site dedicated to classic television, creative content production and vintage performances on video. I hope you share my love of television.If you do, share your thoughts on the programs we post.Enjoy!!!!!
