Fifties TV - The Classic TV
The first thing you need to know is that there wasn't much of it. Mostly, in the afternoons and evenings.
The second thing you need to know is that it was black and white. Actually, it was various shades of gray. Dithered, sort of.
And, No Remote Control!!!!!!!
We were enthralled. This was much better than radio. You became very popular, very quickly if your family had a T.V. And people would linger outside the windows of stores that sold this new wonder - hoping to catch a glimpse of the future.
Our view of the world around us would forever be shaped by the images on the television. It was as revolutionary a change as the world before and after the Internet.
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Television was born with sitcoms. From their imaginary (and spotlessly clean) suburban houses to our very real living rooms came a host of legendary families. The Nelsons, The Andersons, the Cleavers and the Stones.
The Cleavers and The Stones Thank heavens for the Ricardos and the Kramdens. You could figure they would be a little offbeat, afterall, they lived in apartments.
822 Sycamore Road
Hillsdale
607 South Maple Street
Springfield
First telecast: October 15,1951
Last telecast: September, 24 1961
Original Series timeslot:
CBS Monday 9:00-9:30
After June of 1957, the show ceased weekly production to give Lucy and Desi a break in their workloads. Hour long stories of the misadventures of the Ricardos and Mertzes were shot and run as Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Hour shows. Reruns abounded, as they do to this day.
The Honeymooners was really television's first spin-off. Originally it was a running sketch from "The Calvacade of Stars" ('52).When Gleason got his own variety show on CBS, the first half included some stand-up and a big production number by the June Taylor Dancers. The second half hour was the Honeymooners.
During the '55 to'56 season, 39 Honeymooners episodes were filmed before a live audience.The Honeymooners wasn't wildly popular when first aired. In fact, CBS dropped the show to return to a new version of the old variety "Jackie Gleason Show" in which the Honeymooners was again the second half sketch.. The variety show eventually moved to Miami Beach and the Honeymooners was dropped.
Ever wonder where the so called "Lost Episodes" came from? Gleason announced the discovery of these live sketches in 1985. Of varied length, they were packaged into half hours.The even older Calvacade of Stars episodes resurfaced in 1994 when Disney broadcast them.
Amos and Andy ('52)(*Amos and Andy began on radio with Freeman Gosden as Amos and Charles Correll as Andy. These white men caricatured two young African American men. When the show went to TV, the roles were played by Alvin Childress as Amos and Spencer Williams as Andy. Although both actors were black, the racial stereotypes were offensive. The show attracted the attention of the NAACP and CBS pulled it in '53. The times they were a changin'.)
Abbott and Costello ('52)(Bud Abbott and Lou Costello)(*Sadly, these two had a terrible falling out. When he died in 1959, Costello was suiing Abbott for over $200,000)
Our Miss Brooks('52) (Eve Arden as Connie Brooks and Gail Gordon as Osgood Conklin, the Principal, with Richard Crenna as "geeky" Walter Denton)
My Little Margie ('52)(Gale Storm as Margie Albright and Charles Farrell as Vern Albright)(A delightful comedy about a hare-brained daughter and her beleagured father)
Topper ('53)(Leo G. Carroll and Lee Patrick as Cosmo and Henrietta Topper and Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys as "ghosts" George and Marion Kirby)(Neil was the martini drinking St. Bernard)(Stephen Sondhein was a scriptwriter - before West Side Story)
Make Room for Daddy ('54)(Danny Thomas as Danny Williams and Jean Hagen as Margaret Williams)
Love That Bob ('55) (Bob Cummings as photographer Bob Collins and Ann B. Davis as Charmaine "Schultzy" Schultz)
Burns and Allen ('56) (George Burns and Gracie Allen)
"Say goodnight, Gracie."
The Real McCoys ('57)(*They left their home in West Virginny and headed for Califor-eye-ay)
Walter Brennan as Grandpappy Amos McCoy
Richard Crenna as Luke McCoy
Kathy Nolan as Kate "Sugar Babe"McCoy
Lydia Reed as Hassie McCoy
Michael Winkleman as Little Luke McCoy
Where did Kate Go? Well, Kathy Nolan quit so one season she's there and next, POOF, she's gone. They said Kate was dead but gave few details.
Dennis the Menace ('59)
Jay North as Dennis
Herbert Anderson as Henry Mitchell
Gloria Henry as Alice Mitchell
Joseph Kearns as George Wilson
Sylvia Field as Martha Wilson
"Hi Mr. Wilson" usually meant trouble!
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis ('59)
Dwayne Hickman as Dobie Gillis
Tuesday Weld as Thalia Menninger
Bob Denver as Maynard G. Krebs
William Schallert as Professor Leander P
Michael J. Pollard as Jerome Krebs
Sheila James Kuehl as Zelda Gilroy
Darryl Hickman as Davey Gillis
Warren Beatty as Milton Armitage
(*Dobie was always contemplating life under Rodin's statue The Thinker)
American Bandstand began as a local program in Philadelphia in 1952. Then it was called Bob Horn's Bandstand. In July of 1956 the show got a new host, a clean-cut 26 year old named Dick Clark. When ABC picked the show up, it was renamed American Bandstand, airing it's first national show on August 5, 1957.
The very first song played on this national edition was Jerry Lee Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shaking Goin' On."
"It has a good beat and you can dance to it."
Rate-A-Record, where three kids would listen and then rate a new song, was a very popular segment. Rankings went from 35 to 98.
Dancing was a major feature of Bandstand. The kids who showed up every day (Bandstand aired every weekday afternoon for the first six years) knew all the most popular steps. The Slop. The Hand Jive. The Bop. They even invented a few - the Stroll, the Circle and the Chalypso.
These experienced regulars considered an infrequent participant or a first time visitor "an amateur." I wonder what they would have thought about a kid in TV Land, practicing the new steps in front of her bedroom mirror and praying to God her little brother didn't catch her at it. Filmed in the cramped quarters of the WFIL Studios at 46th and Market Streets in Philly, Bandstand is such a part of Americana that Dick Clark's podium now resides in the Smithonian.
American Bandstand became the springboard for launching the careers of many of Rock's early stars. Among them: Bill Haley and the Comets, Buddy Holly, Connie Francis, Bobby Darin, Fabian and Ritchie Valens.
Richard W. Clark was born November 30, 1929. He entered the music business as a sales manager for an upstate New York radio station at age seventeen. In 1952, Clark began doing a radio show "Caravan of Music" at WFIL in Philadelphia. The station's TV affiliate had a teen-oriented show called Bandstand which was hosted by Bob Horn. Taking over the reins in July of 1956, Dick Clark turned American Bandstand into a national institution.
Although the Mickey Mouse Club TV series premiered on October 3, 1955, the Mouseketeers made their first television appearance on July 17, 1955 - on the ABC broadcast special celebrating the opening of Disneyland.
Mouseketeer Roll Call...
The original, featured Mousketeers.
šoš Sharon Baird
šoš Bobby Burgess
šoš Lonnie Burr
šoš Tommy Cole
šoš Annette Funicello
šoš Darlene Gillespie
šoš Cubby O'Brien
šoš Karen Pendelton
šoš Doreen Tracey
The Big Mousketeer, Co-Host Roy Williams
and
JIMMIE DODD
The most famous of the Mousketeers, Annette proved to be a pretty good role model! And in all the years that have passed, she has never let us down, remaining a valiant and classy lady.
Do you remember the Days of the Week?
Monday - Fun With Music Day
Tuesday - Guest Star Day
Wednesday - Anything Can Happen Day
Thursday - Circus Day
Friday - Talent Round-Up Day
Some immortal words...
Mickey Mouse Club! Mickey Mouse Club!
Who's the leader of the club
That's made for you and me?
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!
Hey, there! Hi, there! Ho, there!
You're as welcome as can be!
M--I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
Mickey Mouse! Donald Duck!
Mickey Mouse! Donald Duck!
Forever let us hold our banners high!
High! High! High!
Come along and sing a song
And join the jamboree
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
And, the ending...
(Softly)
Now's the time to say goodbye
To all our company
M-I-C - See ya real soon!
K-E-Y - Why? Because we like you!
M-O-U-S-E!!
One of the first television shows for children was Howdy Doody. Buffalo Bob Smith and the wooden freckled-faced Howdy Doody were so popular that there became a huge waiting list for tickets to the show. Everybody wanted to sit in the Peanut Gallery! Bet you didn't know that Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) was the original Clarabell, the seltzer wielding clown. Followed by Bobby Nicholson and touring since 1954, Lew Anderson. Now Clarabell never spoke. Except once. On the last show he said "Good-bye kids."
Human characters were Chief Thunderthud (Bill LeCornec) and Princess Summerfall Winterspring (Judy Tyler). Corneilius Cobb, who ran the General Store in Doodyville."Other" characters were Phineas T. Bluster (the mayor), Dilly Dally and Flub-a-Dub. Also John J. Fadoozle, the World's number one __PURRRRIVATE EYE.
Yes, Howdy had siblings. Double Doody was his twin brother and Heidi Doody was his sister.
Buffalo Bob opened every show with the classic:
"Say Kids, What Time Is It?
The Fifties is known as the Golden Age of Television in large part because of the variety shows which dominated the early part of the decade. Variety was to the early Fifties what the Western was to the late Fifties.
Television variety shows of the period were just vaudeville on T.V. Most of the performers had honed their comedic skills on vaudeville stages, and the shows were structured like vaudeville revues. And, like vaudeville - these were live performances.
Because these programs spotlighted talent from many sources, they were the ideal springboard for fresh new faces - a place where the legends of the past gave birth to the stars of the future.
Arthur Godfrey's Talent Show, 1950
The Perry Como Show, 1950
The Colgate Comedy Hour, 1950
Your Hit Parade, 1950
The Red Skelton Show, 1951
The Jack Benny Show, 1951
People Are Funny, 1953
The George Gobel Show, 1954
The Lawerence Welk Show, 1955
The Steve Allen Show, 1956
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show, 1957
