Wow...television from 1950 really had poor production value!

[Reverend_Smitty]

I'm watching one of the first episodes of "What's My Line" on Game Show Network and it's pretty trippy to watch. I think they are only using 2 cameras to film the show and the "newness" of the medium apparently prevents the camera man from properly framing a shot, plus the picture is jumping around a bit and the panning of the camera is not very smooth either.

But I guess in 1950 the 12 people who owned a TV in this country overlooked all this and was watching for the sheer novelty of it.

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. That's part of the charm

I love, love, love watchin' the really old shows because they were so... experimental. :)

[Reverend_Smitty]

3. part of the "so bad it's good" charm...

everyone seems so uncomfortable on screen

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. Notice something else?

The panelists are in tuxedos and evening gowns.

I thought "What's My Line" had a lot of class.

[Reverend_Smitty]

8. Actually this episode is sooooooo old...

that the evening gown and tux tradition has not even been established yet. They are just wearing business suits and "street dresses". But the lovely Arlene Francis is on the panel tonight

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. Maybe they hadn't been invented yet

:D

One thing I remember quite distinctly about the old "What's My Line" was that it seemed very "New York" in the sense of... well, Dorothy Kilgallen was a newspaper reporter and columnist, Bennett Cerf a book publisher and Arlene Francis a Broadway star and "radio personality. They were New Yorkers through and through, and it was like the show was New York's show.

[CreekDog]

2. you can thank Desi Arnaz for the three camera technique

"At the time, most television shows were broadcast live from New York City, and a low-quality 35mm or 16mm kinescope print was made of the show to broadcast it in other time zones. But Ball was pregnant at the time, and she and Arnaz therefore insisted on filming the show in Hollywood. The duo, along with co-creator Jess Oppenheimer, then decided to shoot the show on 35 mm film ...with three cameras, a technique now standard for most present-day sitcoms. The result was a much sharper image than other shows of the time...The technique was not completely new — another CBS comedy series, Amos 'n' Andy, which debuted four months earlier, was already being filmed at Hal Roach Studios with three 35mm cameras to save time and money."

from wiki entry on I Love Lucy

[Reverend_Smitty]

4. It certainly makes a difference

just watching an episode of "I've Got A Secret" from 1963 that airs next is a night and day difference from this program

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. He also hired Karl Freund as director of photography

Freund had been hailed as a film genius since the '20s.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005713/bio

The reason Lucy and Desi wanted to film in Hollywood, though, was that they lived in Los Angeles, at the "ranchito" they named Desilu (the first time that name was used) in the 17000 block of Devonshire in Northridge. (It's probably a strip mall now.)

[CreekDog]

7. that combination of people (Lucy, Desi, Freund) really changed tv

It seems like every sitcom for years based stories on formulas that I Love Lucy did for the first time.

[Quantess]

9. What year was The Rifleman?

That show was superb. Good music, too.

[Reverend_Smitty]

10. According to IMDB, 1958-1963

[Aristus]

12. Another trippy effect of early television was the black auras that followed

people around. What was it about the human body that caused that black halo effect? :shrug:

[DS1]

13. Thetans

[LeftinOH]

14. The kinescopes are really crude (technically) copies; the actual shows

probably looked perfectly OK on their initial telecast.