Me-TV: Amos Burke, Secret Agent

[joeybabe25]

You could easily have gotten another season, maybe two, with a switch to color, out of Burke's Law.

I understand the logic (let's face it, Burke's lifestyle was more James Bond than Joe Friday all along), but going up against I Spy was deadly. I was a huge Burke's Law fan. I was 9 when they switched. I watched Amos to the first commercial, changed the channel to check out I Spy, and never went back.

I was born in 1956 and my brother, who was older by 11 1/2 years always seemed to have ABC on. I later came to realize they had many more shows for the younger set, cool detective shows directed at the under 34 demo.

My parents watched "Sing Along With Mitch" (which I didn't object to that much...we all sang a long) and of course Sunday night was all CBS, in my parents air conditioned bedroom. They let us watch till 11:15 (CBS late news).

OH boy, those days!

Joe

 

[joeybabe25]

ABC knew about color. They just couldn't afford color. Hard to remember how far behind the other two networks ABC was then. In some markets they didn't have full-time affiliates (CBS or NBC stations would pick up some of their shows). In other markets, they were on UHF when almost all TVs could only receive VHF.

We didn't have a color set until the 70's. B&W was fine for us, and looking back those great ABC series were really meant for a black and white age.

Joe

 

[joeybabe25]

Or they were on VHF stations with poor signals (WTEV New Bedford/Providence), cheaply run (WMUR Manchester, which didn't have studio color until 1972 and often skipped network programming to save on line costs), or more interested in the goals of the parent corporation (WNAC Boston, owned by RKO General and which was notorious for preempting large portions of the schedule for movies).

Stations paid line costs?

Joe

 

[joeybabe25]

If you want to see how bad ABC looked at the time, check out their coverage of the JFK assassination on YouTube. Because they had no direct link between the studio and the news room they went to the news room, where anchors could be seen taking phone calls from the field and then relaying what was said to the viewer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo9IvyKP540
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikAops4Z6CM

I have read that ABC rented cameras for actualities until 1962. It was barely a television operation.

Joe

 

[FredLeonard]

Or they were on VHF stations with poor signals (WTEV New Bedford/Providence), cheaply run (WMUR Manchester, which didn't have studio color until 1972 and often skipped network programming to save on line costs), or more interested in the goals of the parent corporation (WNAC Boston, owned by RKO General and which was notorious for preempting large portions of the schedule for movies).

Stations paid line costs?

Joe

Sometimes. Stations in remote locations often paid line costs to connect to the network coaxial cable. All stations paid for costs of a loop from the station to AT&T toll test. But dropping out of the network for a half-hour didn't save line costs. It wasn't like a long distance phone call where you could hang up and call back. The line was leased for predesignated hours. Until ABC started late night programming (Les Crane), the ABC feed ended at 11pm. In the late 50s, ABC started feeding in late afternoon; by the 60s the feed began in late morning.

 

[FredLeonard]

If you want to see how bad ABC looked at the time, check out their coverage of the JFK assassination on YouTube. Because they had no direct link between the studio and the news room they went to the news room, where anchors could be seen taking phone calls from the field and then relaying what was said to the viewer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo9IvyKP540
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikAops4Z6CM

I have read that ABC rented cameras for actualities until 1962. It was barely a television operation.

Joe

All three networks got their news film (no video tape or ENG feeds yet) from newsreel companies early on. Not sure when ABC started having their own film crews but it could have been as late as 1962. The networks didn't actually rent cameras. They hired the companies that produced newsreels for movie theaters to shoots for the network (as well as use film the newsreel people shot on their own). If a shoot involved air talent, a network correspondent did that with the newsreel crew.

It was really primitive. The networks had motorcycle riders meet incoming flights from Europe at Idlewild (Kennedy) airport each afternoon and then rush the film into Manhattan so it could play on the evening news.
Once, however, ABC's lack of money paid off. For the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1952, CBS and NBC arranged to shoot kinescopes of the ceremony in London and then fly the film (in relays on chartered flights) back to the US. The film was developed in flight. ABC instead made a deal with the CBC to pick up and air their coverage. The CBC also had planes in relay, but their plane landed at Gander, Newfoundland. ABC, with the CBC feed, was an hour and a half to two hours ahead of the other two US networks.

 

[joeybabe25]

I meant to bring this up in the other thread with comments on Jack Webb, but not too long ago I found a download of an interview with Stan Freberg. He told how that Webb had a great sense of humor about Freberg's Dragnet spoofs and allowed him to use the theme music, unlike Lawrence Welk and Arthur Godfrey, who threatened to sue over Freberg's spoofs of them.

Welk or Godfrey could sue anyone at anytime for any reason (I learned that doing paid Lawyer shows on a talk radio station) but they never could have won. Freberg was spoofing them, not slandering them. And the right not to be made fun of does not exist (I'll leave the efficacy of slander and libel laws for the legal eagles).

Joe

 

[joeybabe25]

The TV movie was about a homicide case, and was more similar in tone and content to the original Dragnet. I wonder if NBC was disappointed when they ended up with all those drug lectures and police public service films (what you'd see if you asked the cops to supply a speaker at PTA meeting).

Guess it depended on ratings and ad revenues. As a kid at the time, a lot of the episodes felt like they were meant for my civics class and not prime-time network TV.

I never liked the right wing politics that much, but I did enjoy Dragnet because it got straight to the facts (Mam') and didn't waste time with a love story or Joe's health problems, blah blah... and that meant alot to a kid!

And besides, there's nothing wrong with a show that does present the right's view of the world. One of my favorite songs is "Okie From Muskogee", probably the best right wing song ever. But I identify more with Johnny Cash's "Man In Black"

 

[FredLeonard]

I never liked the right wing politics that much, but I did enjoy Dragnet because it got straight to the facts (Mam') and didn't waste time with a love story or Joe's health problems, blah blah... and that meant alot to a kid!

And besides, there's nothing wrong with a show that does present the right's view of the world. One of my favorite songs is "Okie From Muskogee", probably the best right wing song ever. But I identify more with Johnny Cash's "Man In Black"

It's interesting that Friday has to keep pushing people he interviews to stick to the facts, and they just want to blab on non-stop about their love life, health problems or crazy hobbies. Joe and Frank/Bill can't get away from them.

On Law & Order, nobody wants to talk the cops, Lenny Briscoe has to pry information out of them and then people immediately come up with some reason to get away.

 

[michael hagerty]

I never liked the right wing politics that much, but I did enjoy Dragnet because it got straight to the facts (Mam') and didn't waste time with a love story or Joe's health problems, blah blah... and that meant alot to a kid!

And besides, there's nothing wrong with a show that does present the right's view of the world. One of my favorite songs is "Okie From Muskogee", probably the best right wing song ever. But I identify more with Johnny Cash's "Man In Black"

It's interesting that Friday has to keep pushing people he interviews to stick to the facts, and they just want to blab on non-stop about their love life, health problems or crazy hobbies. Joe and Frank/Bill can't get away from them.

On Law & Order, nobody wants to talk the cops, Lenny Briscoe has to pry information out of them and then people immediately come up with some reason to get away.

45 years worth of change in how the average person behaves toward authority figures, and some stereotypical writing from both shows, especially Dragnet, which allowed for no real complexity in personalities. Webb wanted us to peg someone in 5 seconds (lonely widow, nosy neighbor, good citizen, fine young boy/girl) so we could move on to the police work.

 

[michael hagerty]

You could easily have gotten another season, maybe two, with a switch to color, out of Burke's Law.

I understand the logic (let's face it, Burke's lifestyle was more James Bond than Joe Friday all along), but going up against I Spy was deadly. I was a huge Burke's Law fan. I was 9 when they switched. I watched Amos to the first commercial, changed the channel to check out I Spy, and never went back.

I was born in 1956 and my brother, who was older by 11 1/2 years always seemed to have ABC on. I later came to realize they had many more shows for the younger set, cool detective shows directed at the under 34 demo.

My parents watched "Sing Along With Mitch" (which I didn't object to that much...we all sang a long) and of course Sunday night was all CBS, in my parents air conditioned bedroom. They let us watch till 11:15 (CBS late news).

OH boy, those days!

Joe

From "American Bandstand" and "77 Sunset Strip" on through "The Flintstones", "The Jetsons", "Batman", "Dark Shadows" and "The Mod Squad", ABC found traction with younger viewers. It's a formula followed by every fledgling network since (FOX, The WB, UPN, The CW, MNT).

As for facilities (cameras, trucks, etc.), add studio space to the list of areas in which ABC had to get creative. NBC and CBS could produce everything (except Ed Sullivan) from their studios in New York and L.A. ABC had to spend almost half a million dollars renovating the old Don Lee Studios on Vine Street to supplement the Prospect and Talmadge studios and still didn't have sufficient space, resulting in daytime programming (Tennessee Ernie Ford, Jack La Lanne, Gypsy Rose Lee) being produced at KGO, San Francisco.

 

[FredLeonard]

Early on, ABC was only getting cleared in major markets - those with three or more stations. Elsewhere, CBS or NBC affiliates might pick up a few ABC shows.

ABC did get traction with younger viewers but back then, Nielsen wasn't measuring demographics. Advertisers only saw (and counted) total numbers.

ABC, however, was owned by a theater chain - Paramount Theaters, which had been spun off by Paramount Pictures as the result of a government anti-trust action. Management had a radio network but they weren't thinking radio shows with pictures like CBS and NBC. They were thinking movies at home and had contacts in the major studios. ABC led the way in moving to film on TV and production centered in Hollywood, not New York. Before the other networks, ABC had deals with Warner's, MGM, Fox and Disney to convert their B movie units to TV production, after over-coming the studios' initial resistance to TV.

Baby boomers who watched ABC grew up, more stations came on and with their studio contacts, ABC was well-positioned to gain parity with the other two networks. They used sports, much as Fox did 20 years later, to be seen as big players. Last came news.

Both Welk and Hollywood Palace were produced at the El Capitan Theater, previously used by NBC before Burbank opened up.

 

[Ultimajock]

As for facilities (cameras, trucks, etc.), add studio space to the list of areas in which ABC had to get creative. NBC and CBS could produce everything (except Ed Sullivan) from their studios in New York and L.A. ABC had to spend almost half a million dollars renovating the old Don Lee Studios on Vine Street to supplement the Prospect and Talmadge studios and still didn't have sufficient space, resulting in daytime programming (Tennessee Ernie Ford, Jack La Lanne, Gypsy Rose Lee) being produced at KGO, San Francisco.

...in Chicago, ABC was still sharing studios and technical facilities with NBC at the Merchandise Mart as late as 1953 for programs like Studs' Place on TV and Don McNeill's Breakfast Club on radio. It wasn't until CBS bought WBKB-TV/4 in '53, converted the station to WBBM-TV/2 and moved it to the McClurg Court studio locale that ABC was able to move out of the Merchandise Mart into WBKB's old Lake Theater studios (and switch WENR-TV/7's call sign to the CBS-abandoned WBKB)...

 

[BD Sullivan]

If you want to see how bad ABC looked at the time, check out their coverage of the JFK assassination on YouTube. Because they had no direct link between the studio and the news room they went to the news room, where anchors could be seen taking phone calls from the field and then relaying what was said to the viewer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo9IvyKP540
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikAops4Z6CM

I have read that ABC rented cameras for actualities until 1962. It was barely a television operation.

Joe

I had noted in the thread that discussed JFK assassination coverage that some of the early ABC coverage is embarassing because it has the reporter on the phone in a place that looked like somebody's unfinished basement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo9IvyKP540

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

ABC, College Football, and Color (Was: Re: Me-TV: Amos Burke, Secret Agent)

(I thought I once read somewhere that ABC had actually signed a long-term lease for three color remote trucks in 1965. If that's the case, I think the second one may have been used in New York for rare colorcasts there, and the third was probably driven around the country for such things as NBA games, a couple of events covered by "Wide World Of Sports", and several times driven to Cape Canaveral for news coverage of Gemini space launchings)

And probably college football, most likely any big games like Notre Dame-USC, Ohio State-Michigan, Alabama-Auburn, etc.

ABC did not hold TV rights to regular-season college football (then controlled by the NCAA) in 1965. NBC did (in both 1964 and 1965), and most of NBC's games in 1964 and 1965 were colorcast.

As far as I have been able to tell, the December, 1965 Bluebonnet Bowl was the only college football game ABC carried that year. According to the December 18th, 1965 Boston Globe, the ABC telecast was not indicated as color; however, I suspect the game may have been broadcast in color.

ABC began covering regular-season college football games in 1966; all but a handful of games in 1966 (the exceptions were a handful of regional telecasts) and all of the games from 1967 onward were in color.

 

[BD Sullivan]

In the Fall of 1965, there were 11 ABC prime time shows in color, almost half (five) of them new shows: The FBI, Big Valley, OK Crackerby, Tammy and Gidget. The others were Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Farmer's Daughter, Ozzie & Harriet, Lawrence Wek, The Hollywood Palace and The Flintstones.

 

[joeybabe25]

I think (not sure) that O&H's 1965-66 season was only color near the end.

Joe

 

[BD Sullivan]

I think (not sure) that O&H's 1965-66 season was only color near the end.

Joe

I was taking it from a September '65 TV log.

 

[mysticnitekatt]

The show was not filmed but broadcast as a live drama (as was Dr. Who originally) and Encore showed kinescopes. Apparently, the Brits were late getting zoom lenses because the cameras moved in and out.

Except for 7 episodes in Season 1,All episodes of THE AVENGERS in Seasons 1-3 were "live-to-tape" - they were NOT aired live, but recorded with limited breaks during production in scene order in a single session, as editing of tape was still done by hand! These tapes were later transferred to 16mm TELE-RECORDINGS (Which is a different process than kinescoping as monitors display the image differently regarding scan lines and shows are recorded at 25 fps,rather than 24fps) these which were used for overseas sales and the tapes reused.

DOCTOR WHO was done the same way for it's first six seasons as well. In fact, the first 2 1/2 years were Telerecorded twice - new prints were made when technology was improved in 1965-1966)

The AVENGERS switched to 35mm film for it's 4th Season upon selling the series to ABC Television. Although the show went to color in 1970, The BBC Still made Telerecordings through the beginning of Season 11 in 1974.

 

[mysticnitekatt]

I noticed last night that Me-TV, which has been running Burke's Law in broadcast order, skipped the final three episodes and played the first episode of Amos Burke, Secret Agent.

I'm surprised those episodes are even part of the package. Does anyone remember whether they were part of the TV Land run or any other syndication of Burke's Law?

When TV LAND CANADA ran the series, they ran both BURKE'S LAW and AB:SECRET AGENT - ALL THE EPISODES! Unlike MeTV which seems to be running whatever Fox cares to send them! (Not the only Fox Series skipping episodes for no good reason - no rights issues,etc.)