• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Broo_9780345497734_2p_fm_r1.qxp 7/31/07 10:32 AM Page ix INTRODUCTION In the following pages we present, in a sin- eral headings. For example, newscasts are gle volume, a lifetime (or several lifetimes) of summarized under News, movie series under television series, from the brash new medium Movies and sports coverage under Football, of the 1940s to the explosion of choice in the Boxing, Wrestling, etc. All other series are 2000s. More than 6,500 series can be found arranged by title in alphabetical order. There here, from I Love Lucy to Everybody Loves is a comprehensive index at the back to every Raymond, The Arthur Murray [Dance] Party cast member, plus appendixes showing an- to Dancing with the Stars, E/R to ER (both nual network schedules at a glance, the top with George Clooney!), Lost in Space to Lost 30 rated series each season, Emmy Awards on Earth to Lost Civilizations to simply Lost. and other information. Since the listings are alphabetical, Milton Network series are defined as those fed out Berle and The Mind of Mencia are next-door by broadcast or cable networks and seen si- neighbors, as are Gilligan’s Island and The multaneously across most of the country. Gilmore Girls. There’s also proof that good Broadcast networks covered are ABC, CBS, ideas don’t fade away, they just keep coming NBC, Fox, CW, MyNetworkTV, ION (for- back in new duds. American Idol, meet merly PAX) and the dear, departed DuMont, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts. UPN and WB. We both work, or have worked, in the TV Original cable series are listed in two dif- industry, care about its history, and have ferent ways. Major series seen on the largest done everything possible to get the facts cor- cable networks (those reaching at least rect. If you have an earlier edition of this 50 percent of U.S. homes) are generally listed book, there are thousands of additions and alphabetically and in detail; others, includ- improvements here, appearing on every page ing those appearing on less widely available (this new edition adds the equivalent of a networks or on networks without regular se- new 200- to 300-page book to the last one). ries schedules (like news, weather and docu- The book has been carefully researched for mentary channels) may be summarized the scholar, but it is also, like television itself, under the network’s name. Due to the flood of for your enjoyment—as well as for trivia new series on cable in recent years we have quizzes, bet-settling and gifts for that TV fan had to become somewhat selective in which you know. Guard your copy, though. People cable series to include. Favored for inclusion get so interested in what’s in here that the are (1) series with casts, such as dramas and book might “walk away.” sitcoms, (2) series that had reasonably long runs, typically two seasons or more, and The Rules: What’s in This Book (3) series of any type with especially large au- (Listen Carefully!) diences. There are more than 1,000 cable en- This encylopedia lists regular series car- tries, including shows and entries for all the ried on the commercial broadcast and cable major cable networks. If you don’t find a ca- networks in early evening, prime time and ble show under its own name, check under late night (roughly, between 6:00 P.M. and the network. 3:00 A.M.). In addition we have included the Syndicated series are sold by their produc- top syndicated programs that have aired pri- ers to individual stations, and are therefore marily in the evening hours. We cover the en- seen at different times in different cities, and tire history of network TV in the United not at all in some areas. Thousands of syndi- States, from its inception on a regular basis in cated programs have been produced over the 1944 through April 15, 2007. Our definition of years, many with very limited distribution. a “series” is a program that ran for at least four Only the principal ones are included here. As consecutive weeks in the same time slot—or with cable series, and with some exceptions, was intended to. the general rule is that they must have been A few program types are found under gen- available to at least half of all U.S. television ix Broo_9780345497734_2p_fm_r1.qxp 7/31/07 10:32 AM Page x homes. Other programs that may have been program was off during the summer months. seen in your city after 6:00 P.M.—but are not For syndicated and cable series, we have indi- included here—are local programs and syn- cated the years the program was in produc- dicated series which did not achieve wide- tion, and when it was first telecast. spread distribution. Cast: Regular cast members, those who were This is the first book to trace programming seen on a recurring basis, are listed along with back to the very founding of the networks, the years in which they were seen during the and, consequently, it includes some very original run. We have gone to considerable early network series that were seen in only effort to separate regulars from guests mak- two or three cities on the East Coast. The net- ing occasional appearances, as the latter works spread quickly, however, first by send- were not part of the continuing casts. Notable ing out kinescopes (films) of their shows to guests may be listed in the series description. nonconnected stations, and soon after with Principal sources of scheduling informa- live connections to stations in the Midwest tion were the files of the networks, cross- (in 1949) and on the West Coast (in 1951). checked against detailed logs maintained over Under each series’ main heading you will the years by NBC and ratings reports from find the following: Nielsen Media Research. For the very earliest First/Last Telecast: The dates on which the programs, listings in TV Guide and various series was first and last seen on a network. newspapers were consulted; however, read- This includes repeats on a network during its ers should be aware that pretelecast publicity original run, but not later reruns on local sta- does not always reflect what actually aired. tions, which will be at a different time in each Nielsen rating reports are useful as they indi- city, and may go on long after the program cate, after the fact, what was actually telecast. has ceased production. Generally the first Cast and content data were drawn from a and last telecast dates indicate the original multitude of sources including network and production run of a network series. syndicator files, press releases, listings in TV Broadcast History: The days, times, and net- Guide, reviews in Variety, Billboard, and Tele- works on which the series was carried (eastern vision magazines, Internet Web sites, and, of time). Special episodes which ran for only one course, our viewing of the shows. Yes, we or two weeks in other than the normal time watch almost everything. slot are not reflected. DUM indicates the Du- —T.B. and E.M. Mont TV network, and (OS) indicates that the A Short History of Network Television by Tim Brooks Television goes back a good deal further decade of radio, when virtually every home than most people realize. There was no single had a set, and superstars and hit shows be- inventor of television, although Dr. Vladimir came a familiar phenomenon. Comedies, Zworykin’s invention of the iconoscope in dramas, quiz shows, and variety hours were 1923 provided a basic element, the “eye” of all developed for a mass market, establishing the TV camera. Demonstrations of various formats that would later be transferred virtu- kinds of experimental TV were made in the ally intact to television. While radio and TV late 1920s, including even primitive color are only vaguely related technically, there is television in 1929. General Electric began no doubt that the great radio networks of the semiregular telecasts from its laboratories in 1930s were the direct entertainment prede- Schenectady in May 1928, mostly for the cessors of today’s TV. benefit of a few nearby engineers who had re- By the end of the 1930s interest in TV was ceiving sets. NBC opened experimental TV picking up. In 1938 NBC transmitted several station W2XBS in New York in 1930, followed notable telecasts from its New York station, by a similar CBS station in 1931. But for the including scenes from the Broadway play Su- next several years TV seemed to go nowhere. san and God starring Gertrude Lawrence and Pictures were fuzzy, screens tiny, and costs Paul McGrath from the original cast. Also in astronomical. In addition, there were several that year the NBC station carried the first live, incompatible types of transmission, and en- unscheduled coverage of a news event in gineers spent much time arguing over a sin- progress. An NBC mobile unit happened to gle set of technical standards—something we be working in a park in Queens, New York, take for granted today. when a fire broke out on Ward’s Island, For the public at large the 1930s was the across the river. The TV crew swung their x Broo_9780345497734_2p_fm_r1.qxp 7/31/07 10:32 AM Page xi cameras around and telecast live pictures of in Schenectady, thus forming history’s first the raging fire to surprised viewers. network of sorts. (The feasibility of transmit- Looking for a memorable event with which ting pictures between two widely separated to inaugurate regular TV service, NBC de- cities had been demonstrated in 1927, when cided upon the official opening of the World’s Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, Fair in New York on April 30, 1939.

Load more

  13

Copy Link