The Golden Age Of Television & The Roots Of Rock 'n Roll

Remembering When Video Was Monochrome & Music Was Monophonic!

What was then is very relevant to what is now

Before SCTV, SNL & Mad TV, before radio and TV itself, the popular entertainment medium, aside from movies and music, was vaudeville comedy stage revues. As the radio networks (CBS, NBC, Mutual, Westinghouse) needed more than just music and news, vaudevillian stars and their acts were recruited for comedy monologues, sketches and sitcoms. The next move was television in it's infancy. Live sketch comedy goes back to the dawn of television (1948-52): fledgling show pioneers were Sid Caesar (with great support from cast members Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner and Howie Morris), Ernie Kovacs, Red Skelton and Milton Berle (dubbed "Mr.Television" and "Uncle Miltie"). Get this: Berle hosted the syndicated Bowling For Dollars for one season and Gleason hosted a quiz show that lasted one broadcast (see our Trivia Quiz for details. While there were those vaudevillians who lasted a decade on TV, notably Berle, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Skelton's characterizations on all three networks, others, such as Ed Wynn, George Gobel, Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis and Donald O'Connor, lasted only a few years.

Advancements in television production in the 50's are credited to Lucille Ball (filming before a live audience), Desi Arnaz (three to five camera synched production), Ernie Kovacs (granddaddy of special effect) and Jackie Gleason (the Eletronicam system combining film and kinescope into one camera unit). Word has it that Les Paul, the celebrated guitarist who pioneered multiple track audio recording and Bing Crosby planted the seed at Ampex Electronics for recording video and audio on magnetic tape ...videotape recording.

Of course our beloved Jackie Gleason used to say about classic TV comedy, "When it's funny, it's funny and that's what makes a show endearing as a classic forever after" Many of today's successful TV show producers stated they studied the masters of yesteryear.an When it's good television, it's good television no matter how dim the picture or low the resolution. Jackie Gleason, Lucille Ball and her then husband Desi Arnaz, came up with ingenious, creative innovations, would pave the way for future TV sitcoms. Also rans included Father Knows Best (Robert Young, Jane Eyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray, Lauren Chapan), The Bob Cummmings Show (co-starring Ann B. Davis), My Little Margie (Gale Storm, Charles Farrel) Oh Sussana (Gale Storm, Zazu Pitts), I Married Joan (Joan Davis, Jim Backus), Our Miss Brooks (Eve Arden), Mr. Peepers (Wally Cos), The Dennis Day Shoe (co-starring Cliff Arquette), The Life If Riley (see trivia quiz for original Riley, second longer running series: William Bendix, Marjorie Reynolds, Lugene Sanders, Wesley Morgan, Tom D'andrea), The Goldbergs (Gertrude Berg, Harold J. Stone), December Bride (Spring Byington), Meet Millie (Elena Verdugo, Florence Hallop, Marvin Kaplan), (The Many Loves Of) Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman, Bob Denver, Tuesday Weld), The Dick Van Dykd Show (co-starring Mary Tyler Moore, Morey Amsterdam, Rosemarie, Carl Eeiner, it's creator),.

A noteworthy B&W idol mentions: While Shelley Fabares was a teen queen on The Donna Reed ShowThe Patty Duke Show that was written around a teenage girl, actually two, both played by Patty Duke (later, the suicidal pill popping starlet in Valley Of The Dolls). Patty played a bouncy, vivacious teen and a live-in twin cousin (hey, anything's possible even on early TV) who was the exact opposite - conservatively demure. Also in the cast: William Schallert (also a player on Dobie Gillis and Jean Byron. Of course, Ricky Nelson (OK, Rick Nelson now) was the girl's hearthrob on Ozzie & Harriet (with real life dad & mom as dad and mom), attempts to make Ronnie Burns with real life parents on(Burns & Allen and Dwayne Hickman Dobie Gillis girl swooners failed. Oh well, there was always lovable Maynard G. Krebs (Dobie, who would go on to become lovable Gilligan.

Noteworthy, but tragic: Honeymooners resurgence. In it's original form,as a standalone sitcom or sketches on Gleason's variety shows, The (original) Honeymooners episodes were endeared and today held as classics, in many major markets run as twelve hour marathons on New Years Eve. In the mid 1966, Jackie resurrected the sitcom as The Jackie Gleason Show presents The Honeymooners", hour musicals taped in Miami Beach. Audrey Meadows and Joyce Randolph could not relocate from New York. Shiela Mac Rae was the new Alice, Jane Kean the new Trixie and it just didn't work. In the mid 70's, Jackie regrouped the original cast and gave it a go on ABC, less the what was latter day considered politically incorrect fisting and "Pow, right in the kisser," or "To the moon, Alice," and the smacks on Norton's shoulder. After three hour runs, ABC pulled the plug on the legendary bus driver, sewer worker and wives. The kinescope episodes of The Honeymooners from 1954 to 1959 remain the loved classics. BTW: did you know Audrey Meadows was not the first to play Alice Kramden. And did you know Jackie played a blue collar worker dad on a sitcom, the role later played by another comedic actor? Find out who was the first to play Alice and what was Jackie's first 1949 CBS sitcom role in our Trivia Quiz. Of course, Jackie had success with his Honeymoonerless American Scene Magazine (1962-65) with his characterizations of The Poor Soul, Reginald Van Gleason III (often with former Marx Brothers movies character actress Margaret Du Mont), Charlie Bracken, The Loud Mouth (with Art Carney whom he bothered at a diner), Joe the Bartender (with Frank Fontaine a/k/a Crazy Guggenheim.

In the "minority" (race) oppressive 1950's, Black principal roles were portrayed by white stage minstrel (blackface) comics as Amos and Andy. A second black theme sitcom, , starred noted black film actress Ethel Waters as a maid. It would take Norman Lear, in the 70's, to bring network television prominence to Afro-American based situation comedies.

There would be no weekly comedy sketch show series hosted by a woman until many years later when a young female supporting cast member from The Gary Moore Show and on a failed sitcom Stanley starring Buddy Hackett, the femme talent named Carol Burnett finally got her own showcase on CBS with cast members Harvey Korman, Lule Wagoner, Vickie Lawrence and Tim Conway. The long awaited success and chemistry became legendary. Entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan became the rigid but endearing presenter of entertainers, opera singers to acrobats, dancers to sword throwers, lion tamers to puppet mouse Topogigo Sunday nights on CBS. When rock and roll proved it was here to stay, poker faced Sullivan challenged teen favorite Dick Clark (ABC) for booking Elvis and The Beatles, who never appeared on either Clark's American Bandstand or Saturday Night stage show (see teen dance and variety shows below). Sullivan even allowed so/so R&R one hit wonders such as "The Sparkletones" (Black Slacks) share his stage with the likes of Renata Tibaldi and Alan King. There was also Your Hit Parade on which four vocalist regulars sang the top ten tunes for the week. Who were the crooners? See our Trivia Quiz/

Hard to categorize was NBC's Colegate Comedy Hour brcause some weeks it was more musical than comical. The weekly fare had rotating hosts which included Eddie Cantor, the team of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, Bud Abbot and Lou Costello, the latter having also their own weekly syndicated half hour show. The Colegate endeavor, which failed miserably in the Nielsons, except for Martin & Lewis weeks, was more like Sullivan's show because it had an array of song and dance musical guests including Danny Kaye, Kay Starr and ol' blue eyes himself, Frank Sinatra; but even the Chairman of the Board couldn't dig this one out of the ratings cellar. It would have been funnier if Don Rickles were around TV screens, then, in the late 50's, to heckle Sinatra ("Hey Frank, make yourself at home...hit somebody" was one of Rickles' most famous barbs to blue eyes years later on the The Deab Nartin Show)

Producer Don Fedderson had no ratings problem with The Millionaire. No, not a quiz show, but a weekly series drama in which Michael Anthony, played by Marvin Miller, gave away a million smackers to some poor soul at the benevolence of the unseen, but heard billionaire, John Beresford Tipton, who was just curious about human nature and how sudden wealth could change it. Viewers were also intrigued and the show ran for several seasons in the late 1950's and early 60's on CBS. (Most of the recipients were better off without the mysterious windfall).



50's Kiddie TV Delights: Notable children;s shows: Bob Smith's Howdy Doody, with Clarabelle The Clown (Bob Keeshan, later Lew Anderson (pictured page top) Burr Tilstrom's Kukla Fran & Ollie,, Pinky Lee (pictured left), who collapsed while dancing frenetically during a live broadcast, Winky Dink, Fearless Fosdick (marionettes), Shari Lewis & Lambchop, Paul Winchell & Jerry Mahoney; these kidvid shows were on the networks, while local stations concocted ultra-low budget cartoon shows, such as Newark New Jersey's (Junior Frolics) had hosts like "Uncle" Fred Sayles narrating silent screen cartoons (Farmer Brown a/k/a Farmer Grey, KoKo The Clown, et al) over instrumental records. First Animated Cartoons in syndication: Rocky & Bullwinkle, Gumby, Underdog, Superman were the favorites. Curiously, Bullwinkle with villains Boris Badeniff and Natasha, had overtones of cold war propaganda, a la Animal Farm. but "Moose and Squirrel" was a weekly syndicated series. Major market independent TV stations had cartoon blocks of Felix The Cat, Looney Toons,(Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, et al); Allied Artist Toons; Little LuLu, Betty Boop, among others. 50'S non-animated-animal series faves Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, (doggies), My Friend Flicka (horsie). Mr Ed, the talking horse, would hee haw viewers the next decade. There was also Cleo, the talking dog, on the short lived prime time sitcom The People's Choice starring Jackie Cooper and Patricia Breslin.

Yes, NBC had a late night talk show debuting with Fred Allen, then Jack Paar The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson followed. followed. ABC had the venerable Joe Franklin. Merv Griffin, who vied with Carson to host The Tonight Show on NBC, found success in syndication with co-host Arthur Treacher. Dick Cavett found a talk show home later on ABC after Franklin was relegated to Memory Lane on then New York station channel 9, later licensed to Secaucus, NJ after station owners RKO-General got in dutch with the FCC.

Poignant early TV evening news anchors included Edward R. Murrow and John Cameron Swayze ("Hop-scotching the world for headlines!") Morning guys were Dave Garroway, (pictured left, who prolifically signed off with "Peace"). Robert Q. Lewis, Arthur Godfrey, among others (these after stations decided to go on the air at 9AM rather than 5PM, see "remember when..." below). Independent stations, strapped financially, aired armed forces advertorials provided by the Army,Navy and Marines...along with Three Stooges, Laurel & Hardy and Little Rascals film shorts. Interesting clips of early television commercials can be found included with our Oldies Television Trivia Quiz,link below our channel selector. Were there infomercials back in the early days of television? There was Star Nail, Jon Gnagy Learn To Draw Kits, Leg Magique, Jack La Lane Super Juicer

Sports without ESPN: Baseball legends like Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson (left) Pee Wee Reese, Joe Di Maggio or Yogi Berra were not seen nationwide as they played ball in the early days of television, games were carried on local stations where the games were played. Ditto football.Tennis, hockey and golf were not considered hot sports events in the early 50's when air time was at a premium. The networks began broadcasting World Series and Super Bowls, other games remained locally broadcast. Boxing and wrestling films were shown late night on weekends, bowling was relegated to the weekend afternoons when a station had no baseball. After Milton Berle's ratings declined on NBC in the mid 60's, the network loaned him to the syndicated Bowling For Dollars The thinking was to turn tenpin into a game show and since Groucho Marx's sardonic wisecracking gained popularity on his quiz show, maybe Berle could do likewise and popularize TV bowling. Of course it didn't work. Berle was awkward, not familiar with the sport. The most celebrated early TV baseball announcers were Mel Allen (pictured above) and Red Barber.

There was the never fail medical drama that began with Medic (Richard Boone as "Conrad Steiner, Doctor of Medicine") and Janet Dean, Registered Nurse. (Ella Raines). Then came...

The inopposite docs: Who can forget the boyish, mild-mannered "Dr. Kildare" (Richard Chamberlain) and the obnoxious Dr. Ben Casey (Vince Edwards).
The Simile Docs Ben Casey is grandfather to and, Hugh Laurie admits, inspiration for Fox's top rated medical drama House, Marcus Welby, MD (Robert Young), Medical Center and Jack Webb's Emergency. (One of our viewers got one up on us by submitting Breaking Point, the forgotten TV medic show that sort of a psychiatry version of Ben Casey starring Paul Richards which ran on ABC in 1963 after Vince Edwards hung up his stethoscope. Today, E/R, Gray;s Anatomy ...on and on ...people always were and are fascinated by medical melodrama). General Hospital is the long running daytime medical serial...soap opera The Daytime soap operas (so called, given the name by predominant advertisers) go back also to 1930's radio and 1950's television: The Secret Storm, The Edge Of Night, The Guiding Light to name only a few of many. If you weren't there, you would be surprised, maybe even be amazed, by how much the golden age of television really has inspired today's vast videodrome (homage to Debbie Harry for the term.)

Dancing With The Stars became an instant smash hit when it premiered 2006 on ABC, but in the fifties Arthur Murray Dance Party, which also featured dance contests with luminaries, got big ratings. Dance studio mogul Arthur Murray gave viewers dance lessoms, but his personable wife, Kathryn, hosted the long running summer replacement series.

Howdy, Podner! Annie Oakley (Gail Davis), Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd), Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and The Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore), among others, began the weekly western TV series craze in the early 1950's. By the latter part of that century, prime time top rating oaters emerged, including Gunsmoe (James Arness), Maverick (James Garner), The Rifleman (Chuck Connors), Bat Masterson, (Gene Barry) The Virginia( James Drury), Have Gun, Will Travel (Richard Boone as Palladin)., Ponderosa Ranch honcho Hoss Cartwright (Lorne Greene) and sons (Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, Pernell Roberts would take TV westerns to a new height with Bonanza. When the Emmy award winning series ended in the mid 1950's, horses, podners and varmints faded from the video screen as regular first run network TV offerings.Happy Trails.

The Evolution Of Television. In 1923, the iconoscope, a crude but functional form of the CRT Cathode Ray ("Picture") Tube, laid the path for today's big screens and digital pictures. (There was also the mechanical scanner patented in the same year). By the mid 1930's, experimental TV stations operated as the "red" and "blue"network, which blossomed into Du Mont (named after Allen B. Du Mont, arguably the inceptor of networked TV stations), CBS, NBC and later ABC. Our Oldies Television Trivia Quiz has historic information about videotech pioneers Vladimir Zworkyn and Phil Farnsworth.

Once Upon A Time, In The Beginning....
...When programs were frequently interrupted by a "Please Stand By-Technical Difficulties" sign,
...When TV stations didn't go on the air until 5PM and went off the air at midnight
...When there was 20+ hot vacuum tubes the size of a ketchup bottle inside the TV that too often burned out
...When a white dot stayed in the center of the picture tube for minutes after the TV was turned off
...When TV sets had focus, horizontal hold, vertical hold and rotary channel selector knobs
...When psuedo-color TV was simulated by placing a tri-tinted plastic sheet over the screen
...When "instant on" tube TV sets caught fire and had to be recalled.