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Oldest TV Broadcast in General

Davros2006

Davros2006

What's your oldest TV broadcast in general?

Among some of the oldest in my collection...

• Various kinds of CBC footage from 1984 (my oldest goes back to Dec. 21, 1983, which pre-dates the first time my household bought a VCR). Some of that footage includes some original commercials.
• A few seconds of WLBZ-2 Bangor, also from 1984 (which I have mentioned in previous postings)
• A nice bit of WVII-7 Bangor from March and April 1985 (both on the 24th of the respective months)
• My oldest CBS footage comes from February 9, 1986 (source is WJBK-2 Detroit)
• I have some PBS footage from January 29, 1986 (probably sourced from WTVS-56 Detroit)

Note: It is possible that a few seconds I have of a movie called Right Cross (1950) (which was either made in color or colorized as my brief copy isn't in black-and-white) may have come from any of those U.S. stations I had on cable back in late '84. I'm practically ruling out CBC because I don't know if they did late night movies back then.
 
I know CBUT had late night movies in the mid-80s, but I don't know if that was just CBUT or the whole network.

The oldest broadcast I have is from CHCH in Hamilton from March 1985. It is part of the miniseries "AD".
 
...the oldest date on which I recorded something -- the weekend on which I first owned a VCR -- was sometime in January 1986, when I recorded back-to-back airings of Sneak Previews from KTCA/2 St. Paul and At the Movies with Siskel & Ebert from WGN-TV/9 Chicago. (The comparison of the two shows simply convinced me that Michael Medved will never be anything more than a glorified heckler, and a mediocre one at that.) The oldest clip of a kinescope that I have a home video copy of would be a 1948 WNBQ/5 Chicago newscast anchored by Clifton Utley (Garrick's dad); the oldest complete programs that I have would be a pair of Cavalcade of Stars with Jackie Gleason kinnies from DuMont in the summer of 1950...
 
The oldest broadcasts I have are mostly from the old Nashville Network. Christmas Music Specials from the likes of Bobby Goldsboro, Roger Whitaker, Ricky Van Shelton, Irish Tenor John MacNally and others. Most of these were done at the same theater, with a very simple background, just the performer and background musicians in a 30 minute mini-concert. These were from 1989-90 mostly.

1990-91 I Love Lucy Reruns from WOIO-Fox 19 in Cleveland. The three episodes guest starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.


Also with Mr. Ford:

1990 Tennessee Ernie Ford:50 Golden Years.. emceed by Jim Lange (who got his TV start as Ford's announcer on his afternoon ABC-TV show from San Francisco from 1962-65).

1991 Dinah Shore TNN Special with Ernie Ford. His last TV appearance, as he had passed away in October 1991, before this show aired..

1990 or 1991 Syndicated rebroadcast of the 1968 NBC Thanksgiving Special "Mouse on the Mayflower" with Tennessee Ernie Ford, Julie Sommars and Eddie Albert on WJW-TV 8 Cleveland, when it was still a CBS affilliate.

The TNN Statler Brothers Show..Varied episodes from the early-mid 1990's.

Several ACTS/VISN episodes of Gospel Music Celebration from 1989-90. Produced at Liberty University with Mack Evans and Don Norman, both Gospel Music Quartet Veterans, then on Staff at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg

1964-65 NBC Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo..1991-92 from USA Network..about 15 episodes from a Sunday morning airing..

Ive begun to transfer some of this to DVD, as most of these and other rarities I have, except for the Lucy episodes, and maybe the cartoon, will may nrver be out on DVD at all..
 
Oldest thing on my shelf is the first thing I ever recorded on a VCR - the 1984 LA Olympics opening ceremony.
 
I have a VHS copy of Howdy Doody released as a black and white kinescope although Howdy introduces it as a color episode..roughly around 1955 or so...must have been the first color episode as it promoted the RCA compatible color system and there was no peacock intro as of yet.
 
I have the first 5 episodes of 'The Adventures of Superman' starring George Reeves from its first season in 1951. An interesting note was the outfit that Superman wore wasn't the red, white and blue colors; as the show was filmed in black and white, they used brown, and white so it would film better).
 
A tricky question to answer. On VHS, I have the complete catalog of WKRP in Cincinatti from WSTM/Syracuse,when it was a rerun in 1982 or so. I inherited these from my cousin. They have original spots and news promos.

On DVD, from a friend, I have NBC's 50th anniversary from November 1976, which he recorded on a home beta system. And in that DVD are kinescope clips as far back as 1949. As well, it ocntains color videotape clips of Gene Kelly's specials from 1959, and Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner doing their "1,000 year old man" routine from 1959 -- on color videotape!

I doubt those color shows still exist anywhere.
 
oldschooler1 said:
A tricky question to answer. On VHS, I have the complete catalog of WKRP in Cincinatti from WSTM/Syracuse,when it was a rerun in 1982 or so. I inherited these from my cousin. They have original spots and news promos.

On DVD, from a friend, I have NBC's 50th anniversary from November 1976, which he recorded on a home beta system. And in that DVD are kinescope clips as far back as 1949. As well, it ocntains color videotape clips of Gene Kelly's specials from 1959, and Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner doing their "1,000 year old man" routine from 1959 -- on color videotape!

I doubt those color shows still exist anywhere.
Click to expand...

That'd be a real shame, considering they'd already thought it important enough to use in a retrospective. There's a Fred Astaire special I've seen clips of from that era that, I think, was completely restored/archived (a bit of it's on You Tube, and the video quality looks like it was taped today.) If there's more out there of that caliber, I'd love to see it.

Time for a pilgrimage to the Paley Center...

(That's the former Museum Of Television & Radio, still available at http://www.mtr.org , which I've just noticed now has video clips on its "screening room" page!)
 
My oldest show? Can you count WWF Saturday Night's Main Event? It was recorded off of WCSH-TV (NBC) channel 6 of Portland, ME on January 3, 1987. Sadly, the last portion of it has kinda been cut off. The same videotape also had Super Bowl XXI, recorded from WGME-TV (CBS) channel 13 of Portland, ME on January 25, 1987. While the game itself is intact, half of the Denver Broncos player introductions is cut off. Almost all of the post-game stuff is gone as well. Halftime was never recorded. Both of these shows have since been transferred to a DVD+RW. The original VHS tape is long gone, never to be seen again.
 
Oh, yeah, here's a response that's on topic: my oldest show is a Betamax recording of a 1980 episode of WNEW-TV New York's "Mobil Summershow" anthology; the episode in question features highlights from London's Thames Television's "Kenny Everett Video Show", aired with extremely limited commercial interruption. To my knowledge, it's the only time Kenny Everett aired on WNEW-TV (the syndicated version of it eventually landed on WNBC-TV in their post-Saturday Night Live slot.)

Still have the tape, and a Betamax to play it on.
 
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