My grandfather was an Army Air Corp officer in World War II and later an engineer for the Apollo Project.
He likewise had little tolerance of BS, even though he could be full of BS himself outside his own areas of talent and expertise.
I have a photo of him with Lucille Ball around somewhere.
It's a curious thing really. Moon landings or television start out as "impossible" ideas, the stuff of dreams, and then the "No Bullshit" people make these dreams possible.
I just looked up Desilu Productions and had forgotten I Love Lucy was filmed, thus no hugely bulky cameras or cables, as was the case for television.
Desilu is often credited with being the first television studio to shoot on film instead of making a live broadcast or to shoot on film with a multiple-camera setup. However, neither is true. Earlier filmed series included Your Show Time, The Stu Erwin Show, and The Life of Riley, and Jerry Fairbanks had developed and was using multiple-camera film production for television in 1950.
Desilu has also been credited as first to use a multiple-camera film setup before a live studio audience, but You Bet Your Life was being produced that way one year before I Love Lucy. On You Bet Your Life, the host, announcer, and contestants stayed in their places. Karl Freund's innovative lighting setup for I Love Lucy allowed performers to move freely about the stage set and to be recorded by each film camera with proper lighting.
Desilu began the creation of its productions using conventional film studio materials, production, and processing techniques. The use of these materials and techniques meant that the 35 mm negatives (the source material for copyright purposes) were immediately available for production and distribution of prints when the Lucy series went into syndication at local stations around the country. As such, no "lost" episodes of programs occurred, and no programs were recorded by kinescope from the television broadcast.
Through the use of orthodox Hollywood filming and production techniques, the content and quality of Desilu productions displayed a high standard (for 1950s-60s television productions) from the outset. Moreover, they were readily adaptable to both comedy and drama formats and were able to handle special effects or feature interior or exterior sets and locations with equal ease.
In January 1957, the NBC Television game show Truth or Consequences became the first program to be broadcast in all time zones from a prerecorded videotape.
I also found this:
If there is a revolution imminent in the production methods of motion picture making in Hollywood, it probably is taking place these days on Stage 2 of General Service Studios, where Desilu Productions, Inc. is turning out 22 minutes of TV program film in 60 minutes of actual shooting time.
Major film producers could take a lesson from this company which, like other makers of television films, was in the beginning faced with the problem of how to make films economically and at the same time successfully entertaining for the new medium. That Desilu is succeeding in this is evident in the fact that the company is operating at a profit, and that its product, the I Love Lucy television show, is rapidly climbing toward the No. 1 spot in the national polls; at this writing the show is No. 4 in the ratings.
http://www.lucyfan.com/filmingthe.html
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