Gibson shared co-hosting duty with Frank Buxton.
http://westernboothill.blogspot.com/2013/05/rip-virginia-gibson.html
http://westernboothill.blogspot.com/2013/05/rip-virginia-gibson.html
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Obit: Virginia Gibson at 88...Co-host of ABC-TV's "Discovery' kids show
- Thread starter CrankyYankee
- Start date
I remember watch Discovery back in the day and it was a weekend staple for many young people. I believe she hosted the entire series, being joined by Frank Buxton for a season or two. There are some assorted clips up on YouTube with the various opens as well as some other content.
Thanks for the link - I never realized that she was an actress prior to her Discovery days.
Thanks for the link - I never realized that she was an actress prior to her Discovery days.
She was also part of the second cast of "Your Hit Parade," along with Jill Corey, Alan Copeland and Tommy Leonetti.
I remember the show's jazzy theme music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLteCLJ6urY
The old ABC Color ID, program open, close, and about half a second of Virginia Gibson.
The old ABC Color ID, program open, close, and about half a second of Virginia Gibson.
Courtesy of former co-host Frank Buxton's web site, here both Ginny and Frank visit Israel as depicted in a clip from Discovery '66:
http://www.frankbuxton.com/discovery-clip.html
http://www.frankbuxton.com/discovery-clip.html
F
FredLeonard
Guest
She was one of the Seven Brides in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."
While Ginny stayed for the entire nine-year run of "Discovery,"
Frank Buxton left in 1966 and was replaced by the show's announcer,
Bill Owen. Buxton and Owen later co-authored the first edition of
a history of network radio, "The Big Broadcast 1920-1950," and Buxton,
who had some experience as a standup comedian, wrote several episodes
of "The Odd Couple."
BTW, "Discovery" was an outgrowth of Newton Minow's "vast wasteland"
speech in 1961; ABC was the only one of the Big Three to take Minow up
on his proposal to do a daily educational children's program (could Minow have
forgotten about "Captain Kangaroo" on CBS?), but couldn't clear enough affiliates
(ABC, as it did when "Discovery" finally did get on the air, was going to cut 30
minutes off "American Bandstand") or find a sponsor. The sponsor problem nagged
at the show during its first season, when it was on five days a week, and from 1963
on it was a Sunday-only program.
CBS and NBC went with weekly shows in 1962: NBC's "Exploring" lasted for four years
as a Saturday feature, while CBS had less luck with "Reading Room" (1962-63) and its
successor, "Do You Know?" (1963-64).
Frank Buxton left in 1966 and was replaced by the show's announcer,
Bill Owen. Buxton and Owen later co-authored the first edition of
a history of network radio, "The Big Broadcast 1920-1950," and Buxton,
who had some experience as a standup comedian, wrote several episodes
of "The Odd Couple."
BTW, "Discovery" was an outgrowth of Newton Minow's "vast wasteland"
speech in 1961; ABC was the only one of the Big Three to take Minow up
on his proposal to do a daily educational children's program (could Minow have
forgotten about "Captain Kangaroo" on CBS?), but couldn't clear enough affiliates
(ABC, as it did when "Discovery" finally did get on the air, was going to cut 30
minutes off "American Bandstand") or find a sponsor. The sponsor problem nagged
at the show during its first season, when it was on five days a week, and from 1963
on it was a Sunday-only program.
CBS and NBC went with weekly shows in 1962: NBC's "Exploring" lasted for four years
as a Saturday feature, while CBS had less luck with "Reading Room" (1962-63) and its
successor, "Do You Know?" (1963-64).
F
FredLeonard
Guest
"Exploring" was hosted by physicist Dr. Al Hibbs, of the Cal Tech Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Before "Exploring," he had been a contestant on "You Bet Your Life." (Reportedly, his old office at Cal Tech is occupied by Dr. Leonard Hoffstadter.) He calculated a formula to win at roulette, worked on the space program and did early work on nanotechnology.
NBC paired "Exploring" on the Saturday morning schedule with "The First Look," hosted by folk singer Oscar Brand (also host of a public radio program) and future playmate of the month Sally Sheffield. She was the reason I watched. :
http://www.playboy.com/girls/view/sally-sheffield#
Originally, Captain Kangaroo was not considered an "educational program." It had commercial sponsors selling products to kids plus cartoons, games and other entertainment features. It was a kid's show like the Mickey Mouse Club, Howdy Doody and Pinky Lee (among many others). Any educational value was incidental.
Discovery ran weekdays as a 20 minute show for one season. The rest of the half hour was a newscast "with the accent on youth" called "American Newstand." It had launched the previous year cutting American Bandstand to 50 minutes. With the addition of Discovery, Bandstand was cut to a half hour. In 1963, Newstand was gone and Bandstand and Discovery became weekend shows; ABC started showing re-runs of Wagon Train (called "Major Adams, Trailmaster") in the time slot.
The host of Newstand, Roger Sharpe ended up doing local news on New York's ABC7 Eyewitness News. On camera reporter Bill Lord became executive producer of Good Morning America, Nightline and World News Tonight and then Exec VP of ABC News. The other on-camera reporter, Dave Jayne, died in 1977 in a plane crash in Jordan while working as producer on a Barbara Walters special.
NBC paired "Exploring" on the Saturday morning schedule with "The First Look," hosted by folk singer Oscar Brand (also host of a public radio program) and future playmate of the month Sally Sheffield. She was the reason I watched. :
http://www.playboy.com/girls/view/sally-sheffield#
Originally, Captain Kangaroo was not considered an "educational program." It had commercial sponsors selling products to kids plus cartoons, games and other entertainment features. It was a kid's show like the Mickey Mouse Club, Howdy Doody and Pinky Lee (among many others). Any educational value was incidental.
Discovery ran weekdays as a 20 minute show for one season. The rest of the half hour was a newscast "with the accent on youth" called "American Newstand." It had launched the previous year cutting American Bandstand to 50 minutes. With the addition of Discovery, Bandstand was cut to a half hour. In 1963, Newstand was gone and Bandstand and Discovery became weekend shows; ABC started showing re-runs of Wagon Train (called "Major Adams, Trailmaster") in the time slot.
The host of Newstand, Roger Sharpe ended up doing local news on New York's ABC7 Eyewitness News. On camera reporter Bill Lord became executive producer of Good Morning America, Nightline and World News Tonight and then Exec VP of ABC News. The other on-camera reporter, Dave Jayne, died in 1977 in a plane crash in Jordan while working as producer on a Barbara Walters special.
She was also in the short "Once Upon a Honeymoon", featured in episode #701 of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GNpElbvcDw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GNpElbvcDw
CrankyYankee said:
When Frank went into script writing around 1967 or so, ABC staff announcer Bill Owen, who did the introductions for Discovery, replaced him as Virginia's co-host. By the show's final season on ABC, 1970-71, there were instances in which Ginny solo-hosted.
The Discovery announcer during those later years was Bill Rice, another ABC staffer whose voice was a staple of their evening newscasts from about the 1960's through the beginning of the 21st century.
My memory of the show is a bit hazy, but I recall as a kid of 7 or 8 looking forward to watching Discovery. My impression is that the hosts didn't dumb it down for me as a viewer just because I was a kid. That's seems so different from kid shows now. At least that was my impression at the the time. I wonder what I would think of the intellectual level (relative to modern kid info shows) if I saw a recording of the show now.
OldNumber7 said:
They knew how to do classy, "educational" kids shows back then. I also remember NBC's "Exploring" in the early '60s (?) and a show called "Do You Know?" that was on CBS around the same time.
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