HEAVYWEIGHT COMEDY WITH A LIGHT TOUCH - THE BOB & RAY SHOW - NBC-TV - CIRCA 1952

In the wacky and wondrous minds of consummate comedians Bob Elliot & Ray Goulding, early television programming may have benefited from the services of a referee.

The premise of this hilarious sketch from their sweet but sardonic, NBC television series is so focused and funny, that no more exposition is required.

Here from the KATHERINE'SDADDY1 YOU TUBE site is a rare clip of two, talented men who proved that three chimes mean good times every time the red light went on.

Enjoy this brief but brilliant episode of THE BOB & RAY SHOW.

THE ABC'S OF SPACE COVERAGE - SPECIAL REPORT ON PROJECT GEMINI LAUNCH - ABC-TV - CIRCA JULY 17, 1966

LIVE television and the American, manned space flight program were, truly, a marriage made in the heavens.

That's exactly where the story took millions of fascinated viewers, here and around the globe.

While American Astronauts and Soviet Cosmonauts explored the frontiers of space, broadcast journalists challenged the new frontier of LIVE, wall-to-wall,space coverage with the added advantage of COLOR television technology.

In 1966, NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was conducting Project Gemini, the second phase in the mythic journey to set foot on the moon.

Starting in 1961, Project Mercury put pioneers like Alan Shepard and John Glenn into space and into orbit for the first time.

In the late 1960's. Project Apollo would propel men like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to touch the surface of the Moon, for the first time in human history.

Project Gemini was the initiative that launched two men into space inside a single capsule to test the systems and cultivate the skills needed to leave Earth's orbit and reach for the stars.

(YOUNG & COLLINS)

On a warm summer day in July of 1966, NASA would , first, launch a satellite atop an Atlas-Agena rocket into orbit.100 minutes later Gemini 10, with astronauts John Young and Michael Collins ( who, 3 years later, went to lunar orbit in Apollo 11 ) aboard, roared aloft, atop a Minuteman ballistic missile.

Once in orbit, they would target the satellite and dock with it, high above the Earth.Perfecting the rendezvous maneuver at high velocity in space, was imperative for the Project Apollo lunar landing system to work. Astronaut Young also made a daring Space Walk or EVA ( extra vehicular activity).

In 1966,ABC-TV was a network that appealed to the very young viewers with shows like BATMAN, SHINDIG! and THE FLINTSTONES.But,its news division, which would become the gold standard for network news coverage in the 1990's under the iconic Roone Arledge, was under-funded and under-watched.

It's an age old formula in television,and you don't need to understand complex,orbital mechanics to do the math:
limited resources = low ratings + low revenues.




Even with an honorable news product , plus talented ,versatile,young correspondents like Peter Jennings, Steve Bell and Ted Koppel and the added expertise of space specialist, reporter Jules Bergman, ABC could command respect, but not an audience.

They simply could not compete with CBS's Walter Cronkite or NBC's Chet Huntley & David Brinkley. Nor could ABC overcome the fact that their rival networks had more affiliated stations to deliver their coverage to many more loyal, news viewers.

Here from the efan 2011 YOU TUBE SITE , is a short clip from an ABC NEWS SPECIAL REPORT on the launch of the Atlas Agena rocket and the Gemini 10 spacecraft. Enjoy!!

EYE ON THE SKY - RARE SPECIAL REPORT ON LAUNCH OF SOVIET SATELLITE - CBS NEWS - CIRCA 10/6/57

There was a day in the Fall of 1957 when America looked to the heavens and CBS News turned its Eye to the skies, as the Soviet Union made history, high above the earth.

This nation's Cold War adversary pulled off a cosmic coup, by launching the very first artificial, Earth satellite into orbit on October 4, 1957.

But, it was the sound of the tiny spacecraft that unnerved people all over the planet.

Emitting a rhythmic, high-pitched radio signal, about the size of a basketball and circling the globe about every 90 minutes, silvery SPUTNIK 1 fascinated and frightened average Americans.


It provoked the White House, the Pentagon and the Scientific community into reflexive and responsive action.The U.S.A.'s struggling Ballistic Missile Program was quickly reorganized and infused with new resources.

At the CBS Broadcast Center on New York City's West 57th Street, the network's respected news division also explored new frontiers in television journalism.

A team was assigned to produce a CBS NEWS SPECIAL REPORT that would provide clarity and context to a story that truly was way over our heads.

It aired, LIVE on the Tiffany Network, two days after the historic launch on October 6, 1957.

Here,from the MR.DANBEAUMONT YOU TUBE site, is CBS Anchorman Douglas Edwards with SPUTNIK 1 : A CBS NEWS SPECIAL REPORT.
Enjoy!!!

OUR WISHES FOR A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY SEASON AND A HAPPY, HEALTHY 2012

(PHOTO BY OUR TV PAL,BRAD NAU)

To all of you who have been so kind as to visit KINESCOPE HD, we offer our best wishes for the Holidays and for the New Year ahead!

Thanks for your time, your interest and your commitment to classic television.

It is appreciated!!!

Our Holiday gift to you is a musical masterpiece that spans the decades from 1986 to 2010 and crosses network lines from NBC to CBS.

Here are two video versions of a virtuoso performance from 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, the incomparable Darlene Love, singing her 1963 hit, CHRISTMAS BABY.

It has been a Letterman tradition since she first performed the seasonal, fan favorite on NBC-TV'S LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN IN 1986. She reprised her rocking rendition for th 25th time on CBS-TV'S LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN on Friday , December 23, 2011.

We hope she's there to do it LIVE for another millennium or two!!!

First, from the BERNDIGGITYDOG YOU TUBE site, we have the "economy-sized" version from 1986 and then from BOYIN747 YOU TUBE site,the sprawling, brassy 2010 edition.

Have a wonderful Holiday, and Happy New Year and Enjoy!!!!!

1986


2010

CHRISTMAS WITH COMO - HOLIDAY EDITION OF THE CHESTERFIELD SUPPER CLUB - CBS-TV - CIRCA 12/15/53 @ 7:45PM EST

For three decades, on two television networks,a Yuletide video visit from singing star Perry Como was an American Christmas tradition.

The affable , singing barber from Canonsberg, Pennsylvania was already a major recording artist when he began hosting THE CHESTERFIELD SUPPER CLUB, one of the first "simulcast" programs , that aired LIVE on both CBS Television and Radio.

His success on that fifteen minute program,which aired three nights a week , led him to his own one hour, weekly, variety program on NBC-TV. PERRY COMO'S KRAFT MUSIC HALL , which was produced in LIVING COLOR, was first broadcast from Broadway's Ziegfeld Theater and then moved to NBC's cavernous Brooklyn Studios. It was one of televisions most watched programs in the 1960's.

A reserved and reverent Holiday guest in millions of American homes, his Christmas specials were a warm and wholesome celebration of the season.

Here from the CUPASAURAS YOU TUBE site, is a rare recording of the entire Christmas Night edition of Perry Como's CBS-TV series, THE CHESTERFIELD SUPPER CLUB. Enjoy!!!!

HOLIDAY DRAGNET - JACK WEBB'S CHRISTMAS MYSTERY AND MIRACLE - NBC-TV - CIRCA 12/24/53

One of television first heroes, world-weary, L.A.P.D detective Joe Friday, saw his world in black and white.

So did the millions of loyal viewers who followed his weekly adventures in crime fighting on the nascent NBC Television Network in the early 1950's.

They didn't just observe the absolutes of good and evil or right and wrong through Friday's eyes , but they watched television's first, true, police procedural, DRAGNET in silvery, shadowy, monochrome images transmitted by their friendly, hometown NBC station.

But, on Christmas Eve 1953, NBC network engineers and programmers joined with DRAGNET's producer-director-star, Jack Webb and his production company , MARK VII, to offer select viewers a holiday present that rivaled the lights and ornaments on their Yuletide trees in hue and palette.

The December 24, 1953 episode of DRAGNET,chronicled the theft of an aged, plaster statue of the infant Jesus in a Nativity scene, from a Los Angeles, Roman Catholic church. The show was consistent with the hit series production values in its use of tight shots, terse dialogue and, for the time, fast pace to convey the daily, methodical, and sometimes minute, challenges confronting a police officer investigating a case.



But this edition of DRAGNET, entitled THE BIG LITTLE JESUS, was different from all that had come before and none that would air until the second run of the durable series debuted on NBC-TV in 1967.

This episode aired on NBC in COLOR.

No, not LIVING COLOR.

That branding and it's attendant peacock animation would not be introduced until September of 1957, when NBC first gave viewers the 'bird' on YOUR HIT PARADE.

No,this Holiday special was broadcast in RCA COMPATIBLE COLOR.

That phrase assured the millions of video viewers with B&W receivers that they could also watch the tinted tale of the minature, missing Messiah without having to spend approx. $500,the 1953 equivalent of buying a late-model,used car or the down-payment on a middle class home, for the purchase of a color television set.

Plus,this program aired a scant, few weeks after the Federal Communications Commission endorsed the RCA ( then the parent company of NBC )system of electronic color television, over a mechanically driven color technology proposed by NBC's mortal, corporate rival,CBS. The timing of this broadcast brought, both, focus and immediacy to RCA and NBC efforts in color programming and receiver sales that could not be ignored.

The episode in question was the first episode of a regularly scheduled, network, filmed series to be photographed and broadcast in color.It was repeated often and re-produced for the second run of the DRAGNET series with many of the same cast members.



Re-titled as THE CHRISTMAS STORY,the Peacock Network aired it on December 21, 1967.In this version, veteran character actor, Harry Morgan played Webb's partner in crime-solving.

While the color negative of the 1953 version is , apparently, hard to find, we have posted , below, from theNOLOGORECORDS YOU TUBE site, the complete BIG LITTLE JESUS episode of DRAGNET. Enjoy!!!!

MARY MARTIN'S FASHION FANFARE - RARE LIVE PERFORMANCE - NBC-TV - CIRCA 1953

Multiple award winner and Broadway star Mary Martin was also one of television's earliest luminaries.

As incandescent and energetic on the small screen, as she was on the Broadway stage, Ms. Martin, may be best known to video viewers for her high wire performance as PETER PAN.

She achieved new, theatrical heights when NBC-TV brought J. M. Barrie's wondrous flight of fantasy to young viewers, LIVE and in LIVING COLOR in 1955 and again in 1960.

Here , in a raucous, rollicking , B&W clip from a 1953 revue on NBC, posted on the TOLDES YOU TUBE site, Ms. Martin makes a fast and furious fashion statement in song and dance with an able assist from the unseen Don Pardo. Enjoy!!!