November 20th, 1955 was an average night of television fare, but it was one of the first times that the flickering box of wires, tubes and lights in the living room acted as a time machine.
On that autumn evening, viewers of CBS-TV'S vaunted and venerable JACK BENNY PROGRAM were introduced to the future sovereign of late night, TV silliness, Johnny Carson. This was just the first of dozens of instances in which this affable pair of meticulous monologists would appear together on television.They became loyal and lifelong friends
On this Eisenhower-era evening, Carson was a fledgling, Tiffany network star visiting Benny's top-rated telecast to promote his own CBS-TV series, "THE JOHNNY CARSON SHOW."
In a prescient bit, the slight and sprightly young performer stood next to Benny, the beloved, American, show business icon and Carson's professional role-model,offering Benny career advice.
It was a pleasant and entertaining exchange, that offers insight into a friendship that would endure for decades.
Here from the AL SMITHEY YOU TUBE site, here are two of television's most accomplished performers.Enjoy!!!!
When you think, see and hear things in a funny way that other people don't always observe or acknowledge, it means you are either a world class comedian or an average person in need of immediate psychological attention.
In the case of video-virtuoso Ernie Kovacs, it was the former and we are all fortunate for that.
Today , January 23, 2011, we celebrate what would have been the 92nd birthday of the Trenton, New Jersey native and television innovator. So much of what viewers love in TV comedy , today, grew from his inspired and spontaneous work , at the very dawn of the medium on Philadelphia's Philco-owned Channel 3, then WPTZ-TV.
There he hosted the fast and funny, 3 TO GET READY, a LIVE morning show, that preceded The TODAY SHOW as one of the nascent tube's first,AM offerings.
Kovacs,who took the primitive tools and technology available to him in the early 1950's, and he used the medium as a vibrant prism, though which the small, but loyal audience that had access to tv sets, would view his comic lunacy.
He moved on to host unique and engaging shows for DuMont, NBC, CBS and finally found a professional home at ABC-TV. Superstars from David Letterman to MONTY PYTHON'S Terry Gilliam have credited Kovac's with inspiring them.
An inveterate gambler and a confirmed cigar smoker, he died in a 1962 car accident in Los Angeles. His legacy of laughter and television accomplishment endures.
To learn more about Ernie Kovacs and his formidable contributions to television, I suggest you go to list of links on this page, just to the left of this post, and click on THE ERNIE KOVACS BLOG, an excellent site run by Al Quagliata & Ben Model.
Posted below, from the TURKEYTV You Tube site is a signature Kovac's piece.From one of his 1961 ABC-TV specials, here is THE MUSICAL OFFICE.
With President Kennedy's New Frontier and the attendant sense of Camelot come to life , in 1961, came a revolution in rec-room relaxation.RCA, The American communications company that invented LIVING COLOR television, offered its very first, wireless, remote control to operate a Color set.
While Zenith offered the original wireless, "Space Command," remote, RCA was the primary player in Color television.The introduction of the "Wireless Wizard" remote system, had significant impact with RCA distributors and prospective buyers. The heavy, oblong device, had "rocker bars" that controlled the seven functions required to operate the RCA television. There were no knobs or dials to ruin the sleek lines of the elegant cabinetry.It opened tge door to our goldebn age of sloth on the sofa!!:)
If you were among the first people in human civilization to lose the remote, there was a control panel , hidden in a drawer, that had identical switches to operate the set.
Here,from the HAUNTED STUDIOS YOU TUBE site, is a promotional film for RCA dealers and window shoppers explaining the protocols and the promise of the "Wireless Wizard" remote.
Better set the Color before Bonanza comes on!!!!Enjoy!!!!
It is rare that you can present a superlative entertainer who is so universally recognized and respected as a comedy icon, that there really is no need to tell his back story.
Do we need to say anything more than 'BOB HOPE?"
Born Leslie Townes Hope on May 27, 1903 in London,England, Bob Hope was a pioneer, an innovator and a household name. In 1908, Hope's family migrated to Ohio and for most of his 100 years,the Bristol-born, multi-talented Bob Hope was viewed as an American original.
While he achieved stardom on Broadway, in Vaudeville, on the Silver Screen, in Radio and on Television, he may be best recalled for his selfless dedication to the American Military. In war and peace, here at home and around the globe, the committed comedian entertained all who served the United States, our allies and the cause of Freedom.
Indefatigable, on and off stage, Hope was a superstar in the 1940's, 50's and 60's. Posted below, from the MOPSHIA15 You Tube site, is a prime example of Old Ski Nose in the spotlight.
Here is the BOB HOPE BUICK SHOW from Fall of 1959. Enjoy!!!!!
Three or four decades before you could instantly snap a vivid, crisp, digital image on your cellphone, I-phone or Blackberry, your grandparents marveled at the chance to see a moment of their lives,frozen in time on a curly, silvery, black and white photo, that was developed just 60 seconds after they clicked the shutter.
The Polaroid Land Camera revolutionized personal photography in the early 1950's. No more would an amateur Ansel Adams have to take a roll of film off to a photo shop or drug store to be developed.
With this high-tech apparatus, you could take a picture, count off a minute, open the back of the camera and pullout your completed photograph , suitable for frame or album.
The Polaroid folks were among the earliest companies to use television as the primary platform on which to sell their innovative product.
They staged LIVE, unedited product demos on shows, like the 1960 edition NBC-TV's THE PERRY COMO SHOW, that's posted, below from the MUSICOM 67 YOU TUBE site.
You'll notice actor Don Amechee, who portrayed telephone inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, on the silver screen, is the pitch perfect spokesperson for Polaroid. Enjoy!!!!!
Here's a yuletide present for all who are kind enough to visit KINESCOPE HD.
It's the 1957, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby Christmas Special, HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM FRANK AND BING. The show was directed by Old Blue Eyes as a special edition of his ABC-TV variety series.The warm and relaxed half hour was filmed at the Hollywood studios of 20th Century Fox,and aired on December 20, 1957.
Set in a stylized vision of a mid-1950's Beverly Hills bachelor pad, Crosby and Sinatra, the two consummate crooners of their time, swing to Christmas favorites while sharing a flagon of egg nog or two.In a nod to Eisenhower-era convention among the idle-rich, Leon Lontoc appears as Frank's butler. Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra provided the musical support, while the hipster dialog was written by William Morrow.
The Chairman of The Board (as New York, Disc Jockey William B. William had christened Sinatra) decided to have the program filmed in color, with a prescient eye towards durable, future distribution.
But, at that time, the alphabet network had only monochrome, broadcast capability, so it was telecast in vivid Black & White.
The version posted below from the RETROSPECTAVIDEO YOU TUBE site, may actually be the colorized version of the special that commissioned by the Sinatra family in October of 2003.
The performers, however, like their musical selections, are timeless Enjoy!!!!
Television viewers across America and around the globe have loved Lucy since CBS first introduced us to the henna-headed heroine of a thousand hare-brained schemes in the Fall of 1951.
The show was I LOVE LUCY and it was a true Templar for the multi-camera, situation comedies that endure ,even, to this day on network television.
You know the back story:
Insistent,impish and indefatigable Lucy Ricardo ( Lucille Ball ) craves the showbiz spotlight even more than her bandleader husband,Ricky ( Desi Arnaz ). In pursuit of fame and fortune Lucy enlists landlord/neighbor Ethel Mertz ( Vivian Vance ) as her co-conspirator in comic capers, while Ethel's husband, Fred Mertz ( William Frawley ) always has to help Ricky in cleaning up the rubble of Lucy's latest,laughable adventure.
In the Fall of 1957, Desi and Lucy's Desilu Productions had just purchased RKO Studios and rapidly became the largest producer of filmed comedy in television. The pressure on the pair was increasing. After 8 years of critical accolades and audience adoration, as ratings started to decline and as the real life marriage of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz became fraught with tension of Desi's drinking and womanizing,both the network and theArnaz's decided it was time to revamp the beloved series.
The solution was to do fewer episodes, but to extend them to a one hour format, studded with guest stars that Lucy would aggravate to comic extremes. The Ricardo's would move to the suburbs and the Mertze's would go with them.
On November 6th , 1957 @ 10pm Eastern time, THE LUCY-DESI COMEDY HOUR debuted to huge ratings, that pleased network executives and their new sponsor, The Ford Motor Company.
Producing just 13 episodes per season,the super-sized sitcom alternated with another Desilu production. It was a new anthology hour that Arnaz sold to CBS-TV for the Monday night, 10PM time slot, called WESTINGHOUSE PRESENTS THE DESILU PLAYHOUSE.
Desi Arnaz produced and hosted the stylish, expansive series, which was an incubator for Desilu produced pilots, that included THE UNTOUCHABLES ( sold as a series to ABC-TV, when CBS passed ) and an hour called THE TIME ELEMENT, which served as a test episode for the Tiffany network's iconic, sci-fi/fantasy series THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
Below, we have posted six clips from the XDESILU YOU TUBE site, which constitute one episode of THE LUCY-DESI COMEDY HOUR ( originally titled as A LUCILLE BALL-DESI ARNAZ COMEDY SPECIAL)that aired on December 1st , 1958.
It's brings together the rambunctious redhead with the voluble Danny Thomas and the cast of characters from his MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY series, in a vibrant example of early , prime-time, crossover programming. Enjoy!!!!
But,first, from the MISSLILLYBLUE YOU TUBE site, here's a word from their sponsor. See what happens when Lucy and Ricky visit their local Ford dealer and see the ne, 1957 Ford Retractable Top Convertible. Enjoy!!!!
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!!!!!
