PIONEERS OF TELEVISION 2.0 STARTS TONIGHT

[MattParker]

The second series of Pioneers of Television begins a four part run on PBS tonight. Tonight's episode is science fiction, to be followed in coming weeks with westerns, crime dramas and local kids' shows.

And earlier Pioneers of Television series (sitcoms, game shows, variety shows and talk shows) premiered in 2008 and continues to be re-run occasionally on PBS member stations.

Check your local listings and set your DVRs.

 

[landtuna]

The 'Local Kids Shows' episode airs Tuesday evening (in Phoenix at least).

I happened to catch Pat McMahon's interview with the writer/producer of the series this morning. I was right - he is young.

He said the Kid's Shows segment gives about 25 minutes to KPHO's "Wallace & Ladmo" show which ran for about 36 years here in Phoenix and seemed to set some sort of standard for those types of shows.

Pat McMahon played several characters on the "Wallace & Ladmo" show (Gerald, Captain Super and some others) so the interview was pretty fluffy in nature.

 

[ShawnHill1]

I have to imagine that besides "Wallace and Ladmo", they'll dedicate a significant part of the program to WGN's Bozo program (if not, the entire Bozo franchise, but the Chicago version would be prominently mentioned quite a bit).

 

[gregg75]

I'm expecting the kids show to be the best so far, but if they waste the whole hour on 3
or 4 shows it won't be.

 

[MattParker]

I'm expecting the kids show to be the best so far, but if they waste the whole hour on 3
or 4 shows it won't be.

No, but it won't be the worst either. It will be like the other three.

 

[landtuna]

Here's a link to the contents: http://www.pbs.org/opb/pioneersoftelevision/pioneering-programs/local-kids-tv/

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

"Sesame Street" a "local kids" program? Of all the NET/PBS kids' shows, only "Mister Rogers" was the closest to being a "local kids show" (starting as the "Children's Corner" on WQED Pittsburgh in 1954).

 

[MattParker]

Bozo and Romper Room were local - franchised but produced locally in each market.

Here again, the website list shows the producers picked the lowest hanging fruit. Their selection of shows is not representative but reflects the easiest interviews. The fact is they could have gotten a broader selection of kids' hosts. Many of them are still around - and they show up to pitch at local station pledge drives, and many public TV stations have put together local "documentaries" about kids' shows in their markets.

In fairness, there is no way that an hour show could come close to covering even a smattering of kids' shows from different markets. They were stupid to even try. There have been enough national kids' shows to make a worthwhile hour and they should have concentrated on that. And look at what they've missed: Howdy Doody. The Mickey Mouse Club. Captain Kangaroo. Pinky Lee. Kid's Westerns (Roy, Gene, Hoppy, The Lone Ranger - all left out of the Western episode).

PBS should be ashamed to this piece of dreck.

 

[Ultimajock]

...i'll probably make sure to miss this one while watching my old VHS tape of B.J. & Dirty Dragon episodes from WFLD/32 and WGN-TV/9 Chicago ;-) ...

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

There has been disappointment expressed here because none of the local kids' TV shows (and there were many of them) will be included in the PBS show. For example, Al Lewis was on TV for 35 years as "Uncle Al". At one time in the 1950's, he was doing three one-hour shows a day. In the Summer of 1959, his Saturady morning show was shown on the ABC-TV Network. His widow, Wanda, was on many of the shows and could easily have been interviewed for that program. There are others as well.

 

[gregg75]

Ok.....it's over

I would like to have seen more national shows mentioned like CAPTAIN KANGAROO and
syndicated shows like the NEW ZOO REVIEW.

I always found FAT ALBERT to be more annoying than entertaining.

Once again the show went into it's usual TRAP.....the first black, first latino, etc. But
it had a good flow and may have been the best in the series. B+

 

[landtuna]

I haven't seen it yet but.....the title of the show is "Pioneers of Local Kid's Shows".

I wouldn't have expected to see national shows.

 

[briancraig]

I've only seen one of these shows, the one about crime dramas.

I would give that episode a gentlemanly C. The footage and interviews were interesting, but I thought it could have been done much better.

They included Mission: Impossible and I Spy, neither show is what I would call a crime drama. In fact, Mission: Impossible got more air time than any other show. I love that show and it was great to see how Martin Landau and Barbara Bain looked today, but they should have saved it for an hour about spy dramas.

They also spent way too much time showing a recreation of a Dragnet radio episode. There were so many important crime shows they didn't even mention (Ironside, Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, Cannon etc.), so why waste time showing modern actors recreating old time radio.

But the biggest problem I had with the show was not licensing any of the music from these shows. Crime shows of that era all had distinctive music. They showed the Hawaii Five-O opening but without the music. How can you show Mission: Impossible or The Rockford Files without the theme song.

I would think the royalty rates would have been affordable since this was an "educational" show. I thought there was a lower rate for PBS and documentary series.

Were the Sci-Fi and Western shows similar?

 

[gregg75]

So right landtuna. I thought it was just Early Kids Shows.

Anyway, most of the shows were fun and entertaining about 15% of the time,
but the rest of the time they were dull an boring. That probably had a lot to do
with them going away.

FAT ALBERT was not a local kids show. What was it doing on there anyway?

 

[landtuna]

For any of you not growing up in the Phoenix area, what did you think of the time and content they gave "Wallace and Ladmo"?

I got a phone call and completely missed the show tonight. Since I am already familiar with W&L I doubt I missed much. This series is misnamed according to the episodes I've already seen as they don't really concentrate on the pioneers of anything (with a few exceptions) but rather shows popular in the 60's and 70's.

 

[gregg75]

The Phoenix show came across as a Saturday Night Live type show which was popular
with both kids and adults. Which leads me to wonder how many stations did Phoenix
have in 1950........maybe that's all they had to watch.......that would make for high
ratings indeed.

 

[desertv]

When "Wallace" went on in 1955 on channel 5 there were 4 stations in Phx, ABC(3), CBS(10), NBC(12), and KPHO (5) which just lost CBS to channel 10 and went independent.

 

[Ultimajock]

When "Wallace" went on in 1955 on channel 5 there were 4 stations in Phx, ABC(3), CBS(10), NBC(12), and KPHO (5) which just lost CBS to channel 10 and went independent.

...actually, DuMont was still limping along by that time, and I think KPHO still aired the occasional DuMont program. However, by the time It's Wallace? premiered, DuMont's entertainment programming had dwindled down to maybe one or two programs -- It's Wallace? premiered on 1 April 1955, the last day for Captain Video on DuMont -- and all that was left by September were Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena and the game show What's the Story. Even Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's Life is Worth Living had jumped from DuMont to ABC in April 1955...

 

[Tim L]

I recorded this on DVD for viewing later..Sounds like it couild have been much better..What somebody could do is a 90 minute-2 hour special just on local hosts..The Pioneers of TV would have been better served by focusing just on the national hosts..
Because of last week's Ice Storms in the Midwest I missed the Crime Shows episode..Might have been the best of the four..

 

[gregg75]

The Phoenix show did appear to be better than most. Maybe that's why it lasted so
long. Creating that one "lady" character that everyone loved to hate really worked
well and set the show apart from many others.