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November 22: This Day in TV History

S

Stanislav

Just a few random TV related events that happened on November 22. Discuss or comment as you please……

1932: Actor Robert Vaughn (The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The A-Team) is born in New York City.

1952: The first television station in Venezuela is inaugurated as Televisora Nacional (call sign YVKA-TV) begins broadcasting on channel 5.

1953: The first commercial (sponsored) NTSC colorcast occurs with this evening’s Colgate Comedy Hour with Donald O"Connor on NBC. It is broadcast from the same studio used 3 weeks earlier to colorcast the opera “Carmen” (which was unsponsored and still technically a “test” broadcast).

1961: Non-commercial WITF (channel 33) begins operating in Hershey, Pennsylvania. (It occupies the channel previously used by WEEU-TV, a failed commercial UHF licensed to Reading.)

1963: OK, if you don’t know what happened on this date, crawl out from your cave, go to your local community college, and sign up for a course in History. ;)

1968: William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols share the first interracial kiss on U.S. television in the Star Trek episode "Plato's Stepchildren".

1976: The prime-time mixed animation/live action special Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals premieres on CBS. Unlike most Bugs Bunny prime-time specials to follow, the show does not incorporate footage from older theatrical cartoons, but consists of entirely new animation.

1980: WPDE-TV (channel 15) signs on in Florence, South Carolina, bringing a full-time ABC affiliate to the market for the first time.

1980: Eddie Murphy makes his first appearance on Saturday Night Live in a non-speaking role in the sketch "In Search Of The Negro Republican."

1983: Actor Michael Conrad (Hill Street Blues) dies in Los Angeles, aged 58. ("Let's be careful out there...")

1987: The bizarre “Max Headroom” broadcast intrusions take place in Chicago. In the two incidents, the broadcast signals of first WGN-TV (channel 9) and later WTTW (channel 11) are interrupted (by means of overriding each station’s studio-transmitter link, or STL) by a man wearing a Max Headroom mask. The WGN incident lasts 20 seconds until engineers are able to switch their STL remotely to another link. The WTTW intrusion lasts a full 90 seconds and ends of its own accord; no station engineers are on duty at the Sears Tower transmitter site, and the station lacks the ability to remotely adjust their STL (as WGN had done). To this day, the perpetrator or perpetrators of the intrusion have never been identified.

2005: Ted Koppel steps down as host of ABC's Nightline after 25 years.

(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits. It’s an entirely random selection based on a quick Net search, and is not meant to be comprehensive. So, don’t post nasty messages about “you forgot THIS” or “how could you not mention THAT?” Do so, and I’ll just take my keyboard and go home…..) ;)
 
Stanislav said:
1963: OK, if you don’t know what happened on this date, crawl out from your cave, go to your local community college, and sign up for a course in History. ;)
Click to expand...

I have previously posted these links back in the spring, but I thought I would again post the links (through Truveo) to the fateful Nov. 22, 1963 episode of "As the World Turns" (with original commercials, bulletins, etc.) that was interrupted for Walter Cronkite's bulletins on the JFK shooting (I was surprised to have finally seen this online).

http://www.truveo.com/As-The-World-Turns/id/1541264369 (Part 1, including Cronkite's initial bulletin at 1:40 EST).

http://www.truveo.com/As-The-World-Turns-Part-2/id/1650711755 (Part 2)
 
This day in DFW's TV history HAD to be the single greatest when considering a time when local TV came of age and made local news and live reports/remote broadcasts a real priority.

The Fox station aired a 30-minute documentary tonight about their tapes/files/newsgathering of that day (and afterward)...
http://media.myfoxdfw.com/JFKvideo/

Here's the angle from the other 3:
http://cbs11tv.com/local/JFK.Assassination.Bill.2.866199.html
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Dallas-Remembers-Kennedy-Assassination-45-Years-Later.html
http://www.wfaa.com/video/?z=y&nvid=306445

And an extra....Dealey Plaza to get makeover:
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa081030_wz_dealey.163b4c86d.html
 
About 4 years ago there was a site called something like "earthlink". I could very well be wrong with the name of that since I had found it by accident. But anyway the site featured most of the NBC/JFK coverage that aired on A&E years ago.

I wonder if this site is still around? I did a search last night and turned up nothing.
 
I know this is a TV board, but let us not ignore
the fact that radio provided two pieces of information
on JFK before television:

1. ABC's Don Gardiner broadcast the first report that
shots had been fired at JFK's motorcade some four minutes
before Cronkite interrupted "As The World Turns."

2. Dan Rather was on two phone lines: one to Eddie Barker
of KRLD (KDFW)/4, the other to CBS in New York. Barker
told him that two priests had confirmed that JFK was dead;
thinking he was talking to Barker, Rather repeated, "He's dead?"
The CBS person took that as a statement rather than a question,
and Allan Jackson announced JFK's death on CBS radio more than
fifteen minutes before Cronkite (awaiting White House confirmation)
did so on CBS television.
 
What's scary is that I remember the ATWT organ theme. I din't realize before watching how long CBS stayed with audio-only coverage. Sure as heck wouldn't happen today!
 
The site in question is called Earth Station 1.----As far as I know, it is still in operation.

November 22, 1963 marked the first time that people turned to televsion as their first source for breaking news events. The three television networks aquitted themselves very well in providing tasteful and timely coverage during the four days. Of course, the technical challenges at the time made the coverage look primitive when compared to today. But ever since that day, Americans have turned to television first in periods of national emergency. The networks lost millions of dollars in revenue due to the abandonment of commercials and entertainment programming through Monday, November 25. That loss was more than offset by the goodwill gained by making that choice.

I wonder if anyone on this board can tell me what stations in the Mountain and Pacifice Time Zones did for programing when the Network Feeds ended each night at 10 or 11 PM local time. I do know that NBC was on the air all ngith Sunday night--but I am curious to know what was programmed on the other nights.
 
Tim from Springfield said:
...but I thought I would again post the links (through Truveo) to the fateful Nov. 22, 1963 episode of
"As the World Turns" (with original commercials, bulletins, etc.) that was interrupted for Walter Cronkite's
bulletins on the JFK shooting...
Click to expand...

Does anyone know the original source for this recording? I'm guessing CBS TV City
in El Lay, as ATWT was done live then at 1:30pm ET and TV City would record the
incoming New York feed for left coast playback at 12:30pm PT.

The audio has the obvious 5 kHz Telco line sound, and the beginning is clean, as it
starts in black for a few seconds before the open fades up, and it stays in synch.

There is a synch change however, during the mid-break, at 12:22 in from first video.
After the system cue ("CTN"), they let the eyeball hang there for a few seconds,
then when the network goes to black there is a sync change and the original tape
breaks up briefly. Part one continues in black through most of the station break and
I am surprised there was no "attention all stations" announcement from air control
to the affiliates, even if it was only a :33 break.

Initially, I was also surprised that there was a mid-break in this half-hour soap, but
then I remembered most soaps at that time were, or had previously been, only fifteen
minutes, with a local station break likely after each, and CBS kept the affiliate time
intact when ATWT went to a half-hour.
 
I remember that "The Secret Storm" also had
a mid-show break after it went to 30 minutes.
These breaks were probably concessions to the
affiliates, which were used to selling that minute
or so between 15-minute soaps.

One of the results of the fact that Cronkite did
not appear on camera with the first report of JFK's
being shot was that all three networks built special
studios with cameras ready to go if and when a story
broke, which is why you see the anchor immediately
after the announcer says, "This is a CBS (or ABC or NBC)
News Special Report."
 
I heard an interview with Walter Cronkite during one of the anniversaries over the years, who explained the reason he was voice only for so long was that in those days, it took the cameras fifteen minutes or more to warm up and get calibrated for broadcast. Not being a TV person I don't klnow but but Uncle Walter so I believe "the must trusted man in America".
 
ricksegers said:
I heard an interview with Walter Cronkite during one of the anniversaries over the years, who explained the reason he was voice only for so long was that in those days, it took the cameras fifteen minutes or more to warm up and get calibrated for broadcast. Not being a TV person I don't klnow but but Uncle Walter so I believe "the must trusted man in America".
Click to expand...

It sounds about right - in those days CBS used B&W image orthicon cameras, primarily the Marconi Mark IV cameras, but some studios (probably for news) still had the older RCA TK-10 or TK-11 cameras - with RCA's "meatball" logo taken off, of course. (Because of their anti-RCA animus, it took Philips' unveiling of the Norelco PC-60 color cameras in 1965, as well as Marconi's Mark VII color cameras that same year, for CBS to fully commit to color starting in 1965 - I mention Marconi Mark VII's because CBS also used those in some of their studios for a brief period.)
 
oldiesfan6479 said:
Initially, I was also surprised that there was a mid-break in this half-hour soap, but
then I remembered most soaps at that time were, or had previously been, only fifteen
minutes, with a local station break likely after each, and CBS kept the affiliate time
intact when ATWT went to a half-hour.
Click to expand...

Actually, ATWT debuted as a 30-minute soap, it never aired as a 15-minute program. But yes, prior to the premiere of ATWT and Edge of Night on the same day (4-2-1956), all soaps on TV started out in a 15-minute length. (Also... daytime would see it's last 15-minute soaps in the late 1960s when Search for Tomorrow and (The) Guiding Light each would expand from 15 to 30.)
 
Stanislav said:
1963: OK, if you don’t know what happened on this date, crawl out from your cave, go to your local community college, and sign up for a course in History. ;)
Click to expand...

The only problem is with going to a local community college is, unless there has been a change, I never took a US History course in high school or college that got to World War I much lesss 1963.

BTW Stanislav, I really enjoy these posts.
 
bpatrick said:
I know this is a TV board, but let us not ignore
the fact that radio provided two pieces of information
on JFK before television:

1. ABC's Don Gardiner broadcast the first report that
shots had been fired at JFK's motorcade some four minutes
before Cronkite interrupted "As The World Turns."
Click to expand...

The Don Gardiner bulletin on the shooting from ABC Radio has been posted on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UHz0k3kkFw
 
Here's another one:

1958: TV/Film actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who starred on ABC's ill-fated 1989 sitcom Anything But Love, as well as numerous films(Halloween, A Fish Called Wanda, etc.) and is the daughter of the
late Janet Leigh, is born in Los Angeles.
 
RyanHoward said:
Here's another one:

1958: TV/Film actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who starred on ABC's ill-fated 1989 sitcom Anything But Love, as well as numerous films(Halloween, A Fish Called Wanda, etc.) and is the daughter of the
late Janet Leigh, is born in Los Angeles.
Click to expand...
...she's also the daughter of Tony Curtis; Tony co-starred in the 1959 theatrical film Operation Petticoat, and when ABC made a TV series out of that property in 1977, Jamie Lee was a supporting player in the pilot TV-movie and first season of the series...
 
oldiesfan6479 said:
Tim from Springfield said:
...but I thought I would again post the links (through Truveo) to the fateful Nov. 22, 1963 episode of
"As the World Turns" (with original commercials, bulletins, etc.) that was interrupted for Walter Cronkite's
bulletins on the JFK shooting...
Click to expand...

Does anyone know the original source for this recording? I'm guessing CBS TV City
in El Lay, as ATWT was done live then at 1:30pm ET and TV City would record the
incoming New York feed for left coast playback at 12:30pm PT.

The audio has the obvious 5 kHz Telco line sound, and the beginning is clean, as it
starts in black for a few seconds before the open fades up, and it stays in synch.

There is a synch change however, during the mid-break, at 12:22 in from first video.
After the system cue ("CTN"), they let the eyeball hang there for a few seconds,
then when the network goes to black there is a sync change and the original tape
breaks up briefly. Part one continues in black through most of the station break and
I am surprised there was no "attention all stations" announcement from air control
to the affiliates, even if it was only a :33 break.

Initially, I was also surprised that there was a mid-break in this half-hour soap, but
then I remembered most soaps at that time were, or had previously been, only fifteen
minutes, with a local station break likely after each, and CBS kept the affiliate time
intact when ATWT went to a half-hour.
Click to expand...

Sadly, tomorrow will be the first year that an anniversary of the JFK assassination has arrived that ATWT is not part of the CBS daytime lineup. :( :( :(

Also another question I've wondered about--does anyone know how the missed plot line on what was slated to be the remaining portion of the 11/22/63 episode of ATWT (since the show aired live, the actors went on with the show not knowing until afterward what had transpired in Dallas) was handled, particularly in the first episode after the assassination coverage (Nov. 26, 1963)? In other words, does anyone know about the ATWT plot summary from the 11/26/63 episode and if the original episode for that day had to be edited?
 
Tim from Springfield said:
oldiesfan6479 said:
Tim from Springfield said:
...but I thought I would again post the links (through Truveo) to the fateful Nov. 22, 1963 episode of
"As the World Turns" (with original commercials, bulletins, etc.) that was interrupted for Walter Cronkite's
bulletins on the JFK shooting...
Click to expand...

Does anyone know the original source for this recording? I'm guessing CBS TV City
in El Lay, as ATWT was done live then at 1:30pm ET and TV City would record the
incoming New York feed for left coast playback at 12:30pm PT.

The audio has the obvious 5 kHz Telco line sound, and the beginning is clean, as it
starts in black for a few seconds before the open fades up, and it stays in synch.

There is a synch change however, during the mid-break, at 12:22 in from first video.
After the system cue ("CTN"), they let the eyeball hang there for a few seconds,
then when the network goes to black there is a sync change and the original tape
breaks up briefly. Part one continues in black through most of the station break and
I am surprised there was no "attention all stations" announcement from air control
to the affiliates, even if it was only a :33 break.

Initially, I was also surprised that there was a mid-break in this half-hour soap, but
then I remembered most soaps at that time were, or had previously been, only fifteen
minutes, with a local station break likely after each, and CBS kept the affiliate time
intact when ATWT went to a half-hour.
Click to expand...

Sadly, tomorrow will be the first year that an anniversary of the JFK assassination has arrived that ATWT is not part of the CBS daytime lineup. :( :( :(

Also another question I've wondered about--does anyone know how the missed plot line on what was slated to be the remaining portion of the 11/22/63 episode of ATWT (since the show aired live, the actors went on with the show not knowing until afterward what had transpired in Dallas) was handled, particularly in the first episode after the assassination coverage (Nov. 26, 1963)? In other words, does anyone know about the ATWT plot summary from the 11/26/63 episode and if the original episode for that day had to be edited?
Click to expand...

This question surfaced before on this board, with no definitive answer. My assumption is that when normal programming returned, ATWT probably started over from the top the same episode that was interrupted on the 22nd. The only thing possibly invalidating that theory is that soaps generally were structured in a strict M-F cycle, with Friday's episode often ending on a peak of drama or even a mild cliffhanger. There might have been some hasty rewrites to shuffle or alter scenes to insure that the whole "rhythm" of the show got back in sync.
 
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