Video & Multimedia
Related: About this forumWhen TV was smart: Eleanor Roosevelt on "What's My Line?"
https://m.Television has mostly gone downhill since it's beginnings, and cable has made it worse. "What's my line?" had some of the most brilliant people in show biz, arts, publishing guessing the guest's profession. TV has not improved since.
Look at TLC and Bravo. They claimed they were all about informing and advancing the arts. I watched them when they started. Bravo had operas, just like PBS. But today, in my opinion it is unwatchable.
Look at The History Channels. Of that group, today, only the military history channel has standards. It actually shows only history.
And when the other history channels show actual history, it is done in a way that the viewer needs to be reminded again and again of what they had just viewed.
Even PBS has been ruined, a channel that I depended on through the 80s and 90s. It's to the point that I only watch NOVA and Nature.
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merrily
(45,251 posts)And we do not turn off the TV until the they give us something better. So, it's all good!
http://nextshark.com/millionaire-ceo-of-cbs-refuses-to-tip-valet-because-he-only-had-100s
(I'd vote for Eleanor Roosevelt in a New York millisecond.)
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)I am guilty too. I cannot get enough of old westerns.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Star Wars is the love child of an old Western and an old sci fi and maybe Ulysses. (Yeah, I know. One too many to make a baby. Cut me some slack.)
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)
appalachiablue
(41,113 posts)TV had wonderful programming in its prime decades like you mention. I recall the arts and culture shows such as Biography, special series like art critic Robert Hughes' "Shock of the New", James Burke's Science program, PBS' "Eyes on the Prize" and so much more.
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)
Old Crow
(2,212 posts)I really enjoyed this. We've really lost something as a nation, haven't we? Imagine watching TV programs that subtlely convey the idea that education, citizenship, and manners matter. Our pop culture has fallen several notches below what it was and it's worrisome.
longship
(40,416 posts)Of course, Kilgallen was a regular on What's My Line for years. And Steve Allen was the original host of the Tonight Show, which was later hosted by Jack Paar and Johnny Carson. Allen, interestingly enough was kind of a polymath, a uniquely intelligent individual who not only did comedy, but music and was a fierce science advocate. Sadly, few realize that.
Nice video. I always loved What's My Line.
BTW, host John Daly was one of the announcers who revealed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was a prolific correspondent during the war.
R&K
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)From the Steve Allen Show, 1958.
With Steve Allen (who wrote the song), Ann Sothern, Steve Lawrence, Edie Gorme, Dinah Shore, and Frank Sinatra.
A memorable performance of Steve Allen's great hit. A wonderfully joyful song.
Hope you enjoy.
Wish I had some old Steve Allen Tonight Show, with Louis Nye (Hi Ho, Stevarino!) Tom Poston (who could never remember his name), Bill Dana (My name, Jose Jimanez!), and a cast of goof balls. It was lunacy at its best.
Here's a taste of that: Louis Nye, Tom Poston, and Don Knotts.
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)It makes me think of David Letterman and his moving camera on his first show. It is incredible how we have changed.
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,107 posts)Compare shows in the first year of regular programming 1946 to 10 years later:
1946
May 9 – Hour Glass[5]
June 9 – Face to Face[5]
June 18 – Serving Through Science[5]
June 20 – Cash and Carry[5]
August 30 – I Love to Eat[5]
September 24 – Play the Game[5]
October 2 – Faraway Hill[5]
October 22 – Geographically Speaking[5]
November 1 – You Are an Artist[5]
November 15 – Let's Rhumba[5]
November 17 – Television Screen Magazine
1956
February 10 – My Friend Flicka
April 2 – As the World Turns
April 2 – The Edge of Night
April 26 – The Eddy Arnold Show (ABC)
June 24 – The Steve Allen Show
July 30 – Tic-Tac-Dough
September 7 – The Adventures of Jim Bowie
September 7 – Treasure Hunt
September 8 – Hey, Jeannie!
September 12 – Twenty One
September 14 – The Joseph Cotten Show
September 18 – Conflict
September 18 – Noah's Ark
September 23 – Circus Boy
September 25 – Broken Arrow
September 29 – The Gale Storm Show
October 2 – The Brothers
October 2 – The Jonathan Winters Show
October 3 – The Adventures of Hiram Holliday
October 4 – The Ford Show
October 4 – Playhouse 90
October 4 – Wire Service
October 5 – Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
October 5 – The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
October 5 – The West Point Story
October 21 – Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers
November 26 – The Price Is Right
– Jungle Jim
– Stanley
trof
(54,256 posts)Never missed WML.
Thanks.
