Oddity Archive: Episode 70 - The DuMont Network

[@billbelcher8050]

From a voice of a totally different generation...I'm 75...and contrary to the spin your commentary has offered for this wonderful step back in time...I was there! I remember this stuff...it's quaintly fascinating and was totally engrossing to me then...and I still LOVE it all today...THANK YOU for your research and revealing presentation.Bill Belcher...formerly of Connecticut where, in the early 50s, we saw these shows on Channel 5, WABD in New York!

[@nicholsjoshua15]

I do agree, it was better than the pure shit that's on TV now. The last TV show I liked was The Clone Wars.

[@maxwelsh6121]

@@nicholsjoshua15 yes because that's not representative of modern television at all LOL hey I'm just kidding don't get your udders in a twist

[@paulnadratowski3942]

Bill Belcher Connecticut didn’t see DuMont on WTNH? Channel 8 formally 6

[@fjccommish]

I was older than 75 when DuMont began.

[@paulnadratowski3942]

fjvideo so your 150 now???

[@Mattfromthepast]

I love this early era of TV where people were just learning what could be done with it and you basically got a series of stage plays with stage actors who's names may have been lost to time without TV. I don't find it boring at all and this is a great look into those early years. Thanks.

[@Larkinchance]

As for the rare snipets of Dumont programs, Don't be too critical, it was style of the artform in transition from the NY stage and radio drama.. Check the writer list for "Captain Video" 2 unknown writers, Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov. All the lawyers and corporate content owners are so afraid archivist copying and yet they lost the entire first 40 years of TV.

[@Larkinchance]

@@steveharvey2102 Mr. Harvey, it is an historical record...

[@harrisongrant8558]

Honestly, that's the vibe I got from these shows, and it was really no different than most early television in the sense that they were basically radio dramas adapted for screen, while writers were still trying to grasp the whole concept of less dialogue and letting the visuals tell the story. They were just doing what they always did, so it took some time before TV shows started getting really good, but if you are a fan of old radio shows, you might get something out of them; it probably helps that I grew up with those old radio dramas (despite being barely 30) and have a soft spot for them.

[@Larkinchance]

agree@@harrisongrant8558

[@fjccommish]

It's worse than being in Hell When you watch it - OH Well. With Dumont

[@DoctorKandosii]

I actually found the anti-discrimination message at the end to be quite endearing, quite brave of them to broadcast given the era they were working in.

[@CommodoreFan64]

Although I think modern anti-discrimination is mostly SJW BS!! I do have to agree it was very brave of them to broadcast a message like that across the country.

[@binyon7]

@@CommodoreFan64 you apparently have never been discriminated against.

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@binyon7 That comment shows you know jack shit about me, I'm part native American, was born blind in one eye, partly def in both ears, have black cousins, Latino nieces, and nephews, and I was picked on/discriminated against more than you can imagine growing up, living in the southeastern US, so don't get me started, but that has nothing do with what Hollywood is doing these days trying to appease the less them 1% of the population, while alienating more, and more of the majority with more, and more of their WOKE BS!!!

[@scasey1960]

This is because DuMont was a yankee station broadcast from the Empire State.

[@blackcitroenlove]

@@scasey1960 and "yankee" states are the hub of culture and finance. We're just better, deal with it.

[@jamesslick4790]

I am Jewish and in my 50's and I am today years old when I realised that she (On the Goldbergs) says"Mrs. Silvertone" ( A brand of radios,and musical instruments from.....Sears!)

[@seanwilkinson3975]

I love the initial WABD station logo with the giant cinematic letters, the Statue of Liberty, and "New York's Window On The World". No matter what you think of the network, that title card is sweet.

[@VectorOmega]

Now known as "WNYW Fox 5" and "New York's HD TV Window On The World."

[@syxepop]

Broadcasting from THE SAME BUILDING as back then... (if Fox wanted to go into the "retro broadcast network" thingie they should buy all the rights to the DuMont name (yesterday's broadcasts with today's tech, something Mr. ABD himself would agree...).

[@franksantore2327]

Laugh if you will at School House, but there were 4 famous actors on there, all making their first TV appearance. 1. Kenny Delmar, the teacher, was Fred Allen's announcer and played Senator Claghorn on Allen's radio program. 2. Arnold Stang went on to be the voice of Top Cat in the cartoon. 3. Wally Cox later played the character in the top rated 50s TV show Mr. Peepers, and was the voice of Underdog. 4. Buddy Hackett, the famous comedian, made his first TV appearance on this show.

[@Tornado1994]

He was also Buzz The Honey Nut Cheerios Bee.

[@stephenholloway6893]

He was also did a few other voices for Paramount and DePatie Freleng. Most notably from those studios were Herman the Mouse and Catfish from MisterJaw.

[@Tornado1994]

@@stephenholloway6893 And Wally "Underdog" Cox. Who was also Top Cat.

[@stephenholloway6893]

@@Tornado1994 Arnold Stag was Top Cat. Not Wally Cox. Stag was who I was referring to far as his DePatie Freleng and Paramount voice roles besides his most famous animated role Top Cat.

[@maxwelsh6121]

I say , i say , i say ...that's fascinatin' , son

[@songwriterjj6022]

The DuMont Electronicam system was pretty unique. It was a two-sided camera. One side sent out a live signal and the other side sent the signal to film. This is why the classic 39 episodes of the Honeymooners look so good.

[@laservideoentertainment339]

my old 1949 television handbook has a couple of DuMont station test card images. Just thought I'd say.

[@LordClydeofOMAR]

Nobody: Alternate Timeline: "Welcome to DuMont World News Tonight with David Muir. Tonight our nation mourns as former president James Dean has died at the age of 90."

[@luisreyes1963]

And just which alternate Earth did you visit? 🌎

[@Nono-hk3is]

The Monument Mythos

[@LordClydeofOMAR]

@@Nono-hk3is DING DING DING!!!!

[@DrewberTravels]

34:20 That was an extremely progressive message that they were broadcasting in the 1940s. Too bad the Dumont network didn't catch on.

[@JL-sm6cg]

The southern racists probably would've put DuMont out of business had it caught on. :-(

[@janeleitch1249]

My father worked for Dumont and our family was featured on the cover of the Dumont magazine for employees.

[@visaman]

Just as an aside, KVOS 12 Bellingham (Washington) was a Dumont affiliate, and was on the air months before CBUT (CBC) went on the air, so, when Elizabeth was crowned Queen in 1953 , KVOS aired the coronation, via kinescope from the BBC that had been flown in from England by the RAF, and escorted to the border by the RCMP who handed the film over to the Washington State Patrol, who rushed it to KVOS. So the viewers in Vancouver saw the coronation the same day it happened.

[@seanwilkinson3975]

Albert Giesbrecht: Amazing!

[@davespencer4944]

By plugging into CBC.. Dumont best U.S networks by 4 to 5 hours with coverage.

[@JL-sm6cg]

DAAAAMN! Talk about one hour film development! Kinescope versions of shows usually took at least two weeks to get to affiliates that couldn't air them live, between the development of the film and the transportation.

[@visaman]

@@JL-sm6cg Oh I know, my mom told me that in Saskatoon, they would watch the Christmas episode of Don Messer's Jubilee in February!

[@rockvilleraven]

@@visaman In Baltimore WAAM was partially a Dumont affiliate along with ABC. They carried the Johns Hopkins Science Review since they are in the local area. Now they are WJZ a CBS O&O

[@dereknantz4847]

The actor at 25:39 is Danny Goldman. He was the voice of Brainy Smurf in The Smurfs as well as the voice of the bee in Honey Nut Cheerios commercials in the 80’s, as well as the movie Young Frankenstein and many other films and commercials. Sadly he recently passed away in 2020.

[@MrBranh0913]

Its ashamed that so much of this archive has been lost. So much early history can't be revisited. I would have loved to have seen the Gallery Of Madame Tsu-Sung. Kind of sad

[@luisreyes1963]

I think you meant "The Gallery Of Madame Liu-Tsong". 🧧

[@Syncopator]

In the early days of live TV, video tape wasn't an option and film was often too expensive. And even once video tape became available, you could reuse it, and it often got re-used. There's well known cases of Johnny Carson's early shows being erased, as well as Soupy Sales, both of which are a real crime...

[@RickinBaltimore]

That closing bit was really forward thinking for the late 40s/early 50s

[@AMStationEngineer]

DuMont's sound effects - courtesy of the Hammond B3 organ... (and a Leslie speaker)

[@cityhawk]

Poor souls.

[@dutrekker1617]

As the host states, you had to be there. Television was brand new and anything it had on it was received well. Television was a complete novelty and quality did not need to be high to be watched.

[@greggi47]

I was born in 1947. I don't know when I first saw TV. My earliest memories must be from 1952 or thereabouts. It would have been WOI-TV from Ames, Iowa, or WHO in Des Moines. The roughness of early programs is endearing in retrospect. When I visited relatives in Kansas City seeing KCMO on a much lager screen was a treat. Thanks for igniting memories. WOI was an oddity: operated by Iowa Stae University, it was also an ABC affiliate that picked up some of the Dumont shows--Captain Video is what stands out.

[@TimelordR]

I applaud your effort in this video about the long-extinct DuMont Network. Now would you be willing to do a similar piece about PBS' predecessor NET?

[@josecristovao9027]

Fun fact: NET's flagship station, WNET, was one of Dumont's O&Os, and is still one of PBS's flagships.

[@syxepop]

José Cristóvão - I don't think so! Today's THIRTEEN (as Billy Joel put it... Channel Thirteen, Sesame Street, what does it mean) was originally an INDEPENDENT commercial station in Newark, NJ and operated in THE SAME TELEVISION MARKET as WABD (by the early '60s it was WNEW, as DuMont changed their name to Metromedia and kept the station, although NGOs with the one in DC and others as independents), so Channel Thirteen COULDN'T be a DuMont O&O or even affiliate. Besides, today's WNET story as a commercial station starts in 1948 as WATV. And was sold in 1957, changing call-sign in '58 to WNTA (they wanted to be a broadcast network, based on a film distribution service, kind of like My Network is today in 2021). They didn't became an Educational station until 1962, before the NET Network officially started. The CONFUSION is most likely because of the call-sign similarity (WNET vs. WNEW)...

[@luisreyes1963]

Fun Fact: Chicago's WGN-TV was once a Du Mont affiliate until the network became defunct.

[@kevinpatrickmacnutt]

Arnold Stang was also in Arnold Schwarzenegger's first feature film "Hercules in New York" as well as doing a lot of voice over work.

[@regenthoof8633]

He was Top Cat, cos Phil Silvers didn't want to do it.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

I heard Stang was annoyed that Arnold was credited as "Arnold Strong" in that movie, because the two names were too similar.

[@robmclean4352]

The episode I've been waiting for! A few years ago, a friend was wondering if should ditch his huge, decades-old TV set and get a flat screen. i said, "That TV of yours is so old it still gets the DuMont Network!" LOL! Now if we can only get a (mini-)episode about the United Network: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overmyer_Network

[@tonstad39]

Or the paramount network

[@steadfastcoward]

In a way, it DOES! When DuMont's television network folded the New York station became part of Metromedia, and when the Fox Broadcasting Company (FBC) began it's operations it bought at least some of the old Metromedia stations including the New York channel. Fox is the historical successor to DuMont in that odd sense.

[@luisreyes1963]

@@tonstad39 Funny you should mention Paramount Network, it's the new name for the Spike cable channel.

[@maxwelsh6121]

Thanks for the link , very interesting . ...id missed hearing about this one at all....

[@donald6815]

I miss the old Dumont network. Where I lived, it didn't come on until about 3:00 p.m. We kids would sit and stare at the test pattern until then.

[@JL-sm6cg]

You had my kind of attention span. lol

[@ladyi7609]

Y'all know who Marlon Brando was, right? Well, the guy who played the nerdy Arnold Stang, i.e. Wally Cox, was not only a roommate of Brando's back when both were starting out as actors but one of his oldest friends and apparently just as tough and strong as Brando! Changes your mind a little about the guy, hopefully.

[@mikerca]

When Wally Cox died, Marlon Brando continually pestered Wally’s wife for possession of his ashes. He bugged her so much that she finally gave them to him !

[@irasaposnik6511]

No it didn’t

[@tamaraclaw]

Arnold Stang was the actor, Wally Cox was a different actor. One of the few advantages of being older is knowing about actors from yesteryear. Although these shows were broadcast before I was born, Wally Cox was often on TV in the 1960s and both actors voiced cartoons which were being broadcast in the 60s

[@kingbee1500]

From talking to older engineers, they said DuMont made an excellent TV set. My family preferred B&W Motorolas...and complained about the excessive heat B&W RCA Victor sets generated! Our first color set was a 1963 model Zenith-ran 20 degrees cooler than the damn color RCA my cousins had (that's my Dad talking)!

[@WAQWBrentwood]

voitdive Zenith still had metal chassis and not insignificant hand wiring in their big sets into the late 60s. We had both RCA and Zenith TVs, I don't know if there was a price difference, but somehow the Zenith sets seemed better and needed less work as they aged. Radios too: I have a 1939 Zenith console that still runs perfectly! since it has an audio in (for phono.) it's an awesome device for playing 1940s radio shows from the innerwebs on 😀.

[@xaenon]

King Bee I know what you're talking about with those old RCA sets. My dad bought a shiny new RCA color set in like 1964, one of their larger models. During the Great Blizzard in Chicago, the boiler (yes, steam heat) decided to die. We didn't even notice at first; the living room was toasty with the whole family watching TV. It wasn't until we (the kids) had to go to bed that we found out that the rest of the house was getting very cold, lol. Seriously, that set gave off more heat that the steam radiator. And with no A/C anywhere in the house, that living room was like a blast furnace in the summer when that set was on. The fans in the window and the big oscillating floor fan did absolutely nothing to make it more comfortable, so TV viewing was limited to about an hour or so a night.

[@21stcenturyfossil7]

DuMont TV sets were among the highest quality TV sets of the 1950s. Before he got into TV manufacturing, Alan DuMont was making wide band (for the time) oscilloscopes and that high standard was carried on.

[@maxwelsh6121]

Thank you so much for this, I've been fascinated by Dumont for years, I'm surprised that in the research I did I either missed or somehow forgot that Dumont the man is the inventor of the CRT itself, very impressive stuff. You filled in some other gaps for me too.

[@joe6096]

This solved a mystery in my family, thank you! My grandparents bought a 1952 RCA integrated entertainment center brand new. It consisted of a 12" TV, AM/FM/SW radio, and separate 33/78 RPM, and a single 45 RPM slide out turn tables. They had it in their livingroom when my Mom and uncle were children, then moved it to the the diningroom in the early 70s when they bought their first color console TV. After my grandparents passed away in 2007 and 2009 respectively, it was of course up to my Mom and Uncle and myself to go through the house and liquidate everything, eventually selling the house. So as we were going through the entertainment center (I'm an electronics technician by trade, and by this time I'd already tested the power supply and main capacitors to see if it was still safe to turn on and it absolutely was NOT - the caps were dry, wiring had cracked and deteriorated, and it would need a complete electronic restoration of both the power supply, amplifier, and TV circuit and tuner before anyone should even think of plugging it into the wall...... a task I was not suited for since I trained in the solid state/transistor/microprocessor era with no vacuum tube background and was not about to try to "learn" old school electronics on 500 Volt tubes and a 50,000 volt flyback transformer) So we found the owners manual in excellent condition underneath the system, on the floor. As I opened it up and started reading through it, they used real photographs of the TV receiving real channels at the factory during final quality check and adjustment (imagine a company doing that for your TV today! Talk about quality!!) On that screen was the test pattern for the DuMont network and channel W3XWT, none of which any of us had ever heard of (we're in Cleveland, so we didn't know any TV stations in New York anyway). So seeing this and learning about DuMont solved that mystery! Thank you!

[@CrowTRobot-ni7zu]

Wow, FM radio on a TV set in the 40s and 50s! All the AM simulcasts, classical music and elevator music you want!

[@DGTelevsionNetwork]

and don't forget Pirate radio hippies!

[@rockvilleraven]

James McDonnell You can get the audio on Channel 6 on 87.7 FM radio. No TV needed . Some radio stations get a Low Power TV Frequency and use it broadcast on FM on that spot on the dial.

[@CrowTRobot-ni7zu]

In the analogue days, that was possible, yes. I was really just making a joke that FM didn't have a big variety in the 40s and 50s.

[@RyanSchweitzer77]

+rockvilleraven I wonder how those analog low-power channel 6 stations doubling as FM stations will manage when the FCC will eventually require the low-power stations to switch to digital (which they have been exempt from doing for the time being since the 2009 DTV switchover).

[@WAQWBrentwood]

rockvilleraven The entire 88-108 FM broadcast​ band sits between Ch 6 and Ch7 of the original VHF TV band (the bridge between VHF TV Low and VHF TV High bands). it's the reason good TV antennas are great FM radio antennas.

[@andrewowen1605]

Oh good, just at the point when procrastination becomes a problem and I really need to work, you go and post this. DAMN YOU BEN

[@romulusnr]

Arnold Stang, played by... Arnold Stang, playing Arnold Stang. He went on to be a voice on Top Cat. He was also one of the mechanics tortured by Jonathan Winters in Mad Mad Mad Mad World. He also featured frequently on NBC's Milton Berle Show, as did Gertrude Berg and her Molly Goldberg character.

[@jasonsamuels3757]

It's worth noting that Shout Factory released a DVD set of all the available Goldbergs episodes and it also shows up on Shout Factory TV.

[@bartsimpson83]

As a fledgling film producer, I'm a big fan of public domain material. Looking at something like Captain Video, it occurs to me that a sufficiently creative person could take the basic concept and make something really interesting out of it and because it's public domain there'd be no need to license anything so the budget could go entirely to sets, costumes, etc. A low-budget film shot on just one or two soundstages with most of the backgrounds put in digitally a la Sin City would be a fun project I think.

[@luisreyes1963]

How about a revival of Rocky King, Detective (complete with cheesy organ music)? 😆

[@Halo4Lyf]

I really appreciate the history lessons, truly! I find the history of anything, but especially broadcasting technology and content, to be seriously fascinating. :)

[@rongendron8705]

I'm 77 & at age 4, my family got their first t.v. in 1950, so I remember the DuMont channel very well! In those days, they had nearly as many watchable shows as the networks & far more than the local stations, on channels # 9 & # 11! As a child, they had enjoyable "children's shows", which I felt, appealed to all ages! It's a shame that the DuMont network didn't last, since viewers then, had so few alternative shows to watch, before Cable T.V.!

[@raygordonteacheschess5501]

Such a brave, experimental network that needs a feature film done about it.

[@daftoptimist]

That PSA at the end is pretty wholesome.

[@JL-sm6cg]

Too bad it wouldn't have caught on with a majority of Americans at the time. Had DuMont got big enough to have affiliates in the south...they would no longer have them.

[@TheHarryshelton]

Hats off to these pioneers. Happy that these shows survived!

[@PIXPromosMore]

For MORE information on the Dumont Network, take a look at this 8 part program from 1984. It's a look at the 40 year history of Channel 5 in New York (the former WABD, then WNEW-TV, now WNYW)... kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYWylnmer7hkiNE As of this writing, the channel is now 71 years old...as is most TV stations.

[@rty1955]

PIX Promos & More channel-5 in NY is the longest on air tv station as CBS & NBC were shut down during the war, not so with WABD

[@syxepop]

roy Yung - AFAIK, NBC and CBS (all 3* FCC licensed stations at he time) only stopped broadcasting just for like a few months between 12/7/1941 and sometime in 1942. At the orders from the Department of War (today's DoD) all 3 licensed stations restarted broadcasting a max of 8-10 hours / week, but couldn't broadcast every day, which they were joined by License #4 (GE's WRGB near Albany, NY a few weeks / months later). The reasoning was to give the war wounded in hospitals in NYC and PHL some entertainment as remaining unsold TV's on stores and factories were given to those hospitals that treated the war-wounded. Then in 1944 DuMont got their FCC License # 5 for WABD (may have to do with the collaboration on their RADAR development), which was the LAST TV LICENSE the FCC gave until after WWII ended. * License # 3 was Philly's WPTZ (today's KYW) granted to Philco starting a couple of months after the 2 NYC pioneers.

[@cityhawk]

I saw it, it was incredibly well done and quite an informative documentary. For someone who is fascinated by the history of DuMont/Metromedia, it's a must-see.

[@joannegray5138]

I could be wrong, but the odd episode or two (VERY odd) of Tom Corbett Space Cadet might have winged their way over to the UK - either shown on the BBC, or maybe even in the cinemas as part of a children's Saturday matinee adventure series (a la Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers starring Buster Crabbe). I found in my father's collection of boyhood books a novelisation of Tom Corbett Space Cadet's first ever adventure, along with a harback comic book story of some other cheesy sci-fi adventurer from the late 40s/early 50s called Captain "Space" Kingsley and his sidekick "Shorty" Wade. I read these books quite a few tines when I was young myself (about 5 or 6) in the mid 70s, not knowing much about their origins. This video has not only brought back a couple of memories for this British girl of the 1970s, it's also answered a couple of questions that have been buzzing around the back of my head for the last 40 years :)

[@Agamemnon2]

I see what you mean about Rocky King being a highlight in the catalogue, it's by far the closest to what we'd call an actual TV show.

[@cityhawk]

Although Cavalcade of Stars looks intriguing (maybe only for the Honeymooners sketches), only because Jackie Gleason was the star of the show. Without him, DuMont, or the show, there would be no Honeymooners and its influence on future sitcoms.

[@mcfrdmn]

Very interesting video on the history of the Dumont Television Network .

[@Tornado1994]

A Network that sucked so bad, that it went defunct in less than a decade!

[@mcfrdmn]

The Dumont Television Network went bankrupt in less than 10 years from the time it went on the air because it was under funded and did not have sufficient revenue to keep it afloat. Don't forget that television was still in its infancy, and there were only two other networks in existance at that time besides the Dumont Television Network. NBC & CBS. ABC did not exist at that time nor did the CBC in Canada. Personally, I miss the Dumont Television Network.

[@Tornado1994]

I learned and read about Dumont while in 8th Grade back in 1996. The first Children's Program I read about on the Network's lineup called "Birthday Party". That explained alot. Dumont was clearly Poverty Row and Poorly run.

[@gopher101media]

Some of the major factors that had unfortunately caused the demise of DuMont was. 1. DuMont didn't have it's own Radio Network (Which if it did would have easily provided another source of revenue). 2. Paramount Pictures being a shareholder in DuMont (Which eventually became a Fatal Mistake in the end). 3. DuMont was forced after the FCC Freeze to depend on UHF Stations to expand (So many UHF Stations had failed in the early years) since available VHF Stations at that time went with CBS or NBC. 4. DuMont's Television manufacturing operations losing ground to Competitors that successfully established High Volume operations. 5. DuMont wasting money building it's elaborate TeleCenter at the time Television was switching from Live Shows done in New York (Which would originate from the TeleCenter) to Filmed Programs (Done in a Soundstage or in one of the many Backlots that existed in the Los Angeles area at that time). 6. The merger of ABC and United Paramount Theaters which would manage to give ABC desperately needed money to survive. DuMont had attempted to initiate a merger with ABC but Paramount Pictures immediately blew it out of the sky due to Antitrust concerns. What became the defacto "Final nail in the Coffin" was when DuMont (By that point was effectively Out of Options) decided to sell it's Highly Profitable Station in Pittsburgh (The DuMont Networks Crown Jewel) which in my opinion "Took the Cake" since a month after the sale of the station to Westinghouse was completed the DuMont network started to shut it's Network operations down for good (DuMont Network had permanently ceased operations on August 6, 1956).

[@rockvilleraven]

UHF on TV stations required a separate box to tune it in, and the picture was more miss than hit. The FCC in 1962, finally required TVs to have UHF built in. Still until the late 70s, they had a clicking UHF tuner to tune it in.

[@voxlvalyx]

I'm fairly certain the guy at 15:20 his is head on the floor pretty hard. Also, DuMont was able to get Gleason? Damn, that's awesome.

[@rareblues78daddy]

***** That was WAY before Gleason was a mega star like we think of him today.

[@xenohtype]

PS: That was before he got really famous. So, eh, Dumont didn't really get Gleason when we was well-known.

[@xenohtype]

+brcaa When HE got famous. Pardon my language.

[@bingo99aa]

Ailuri Valyx I've run it in slomo and his head lands on his arm, good acting!

[@Syncopator]

That was definately an EARLY Gleason opening, ultimately, that kind of stand up in front of a curtain was his trademark, though he usually had a cup of coffee and would sit down sometimes as well.

[@mikemayberry7121]

This is one of my favorite OA episodes. I love the history lessons! You have a way with finding those strange and uncanny pop culture moments that really take you back to the time. This channel is fucking cool.👍👍

[@DrewberTravels]

Most people don't realize that Captain Video had a boy and he was burger king's KidVid

[@fromthesidelines]

7:39- Wally Cox and Kenny Delmar would work together again on "THE UNDERDOG SHOW" in the mid-1960's.

[@Jose0421]

Dennis James was the host of Okay Mother on DuMont then went on to become a commentator for DuMont's Wrestling programs before becoming the host of the price is right in mid 1970s. That man was a true legend in his time. Even Arnold Stang who went on to play top cat.

[@steadfastcoward]

Unfortunately the 12LP4 WAS hot stuff and they got replaced en masse in early 50s sets because they got so warm the rubber seal between the screen and the bezel tended to melt. Enter the 12LP4A and GE probably got most of those sales. The major innovation they may have introduced was I believe a 30 inch CRT in the Royal Sovereign? which was the largest CRT of it's time and unequaled for a long time. The designs of those sizes were not very durable though I'm betting. Still, 30" was with a ROUND CRT and that didn't lend itself to as big of a DIAGONAL viewing area as you might have hoped for, more like 22-24".

[@rtnproductions5411]

Arnold Stang was also in "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World"(1963); he and Marvin Kaplan ran the service station Jonathon Winters destroys..."We're gonna have ta kill him-!"

[@TedInATL]

Thanks for all the thoughtful insights. /s

[@BaccarWozat]

Also not to be confused with Margaret Dumont.

[@SetTopGames]

It's interesting how the DuMont logo in one of those segments looks eerily like the DuPont logo.

[@louislamonte334]

A very sad story. Dumont had so many strikes against it it's a wonder it survived as long as it did. What it lacked most was a fighting, aggressive leader.

[@DrewberTravels]

16:25 It's Bob Newhart developing his act!

[@NP4Mayans]

Actually, the history at the beginning of this is a good summary of the launch of early TV (1930s) and the growth in the late 1940s & early 50s. You even talk about the "freeze" of 1948 -52 and the launch of UHF. Even Dumont tried UHF with a station in Easton, PA (long since defunct) RCA/NBC also tried 1950s UHF in Buffalo, NY and in Connecticut. Of course it really didn't take off until the mid-1960s as mentioned....

[@syxepop]

I've thrown in more than a few comments on this video on the FAR MORE SUCCESSFUL Spanish-spoken version of DuMont TV's "School House" sitcom, as it was done in both the late '60s and then again in the '90s for far more than the 13 original episodes. It's called EL COLEGIO DE LA ALEGRIA, was produced in Puerto Rico for WAPA-TV (Ch. 4.1, est. in 1954) by the late comedian / producer Tommy Muñiz (the baldy Professor in the videos). I'm putting this YT search, which includes quite a bit of segments from the 30 minute sitcom : kzbin.info?search_query=el+colegio+de+la+alegria+puerto+rico . IF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND SPANISH i hope that you will all appreciate how can someone turned this idea (which wasn't bad per se, just badly executed) into a more successful sitcom. PS: Another Hispanic comedy, "El Chavo Del Ocho" (the original live-action version from the mid '70s to the mid / late '90s), by the late Mexican comedian / producer Roberto Gomez Bolaños aka "Chespirito" also made "schoolhouse" segments and episodes from this very concept, but not the whole sitcom, as it was the case on the Puerto Rican production. Disfruten... (enjoy...)

[@syxepop]

Contrary to what Benny Boy stated in 3:54 TV in US wasn't totally shut down (as it was the case in UK from 1939-46) during WWII. The FCC commercially licensed WABD at Channel 4 in NYC in 1944, being the ONLY US TV station licensed commercially during US participation in the War. WABD (today's WNYW) was the 4th TV station commercially licensed by the FCC (WNBC and WCBS from NYC the same day in '41 and KYW from Philadelphia a few months later). During the War until 1946 at least the 3 NYC licensed stations (not sure about the Philadelphia one, but someone in the audience may clarify) broadcasted just a few hours a week programming designed for the military (and censored by their superiors) stationed in the area and for the injured in the War that were in the area's hospitals (the few TV's available then were given to hospitals for entertainment of the injured by the War). As for the other experimental TV stations already operating, like the ones who became KTLA (Los Angeles) and WGN (Chicago) were probably shut down entirely until at least 1945, when they could resume their experimental status until they got their FCC commercial licenses later on...

[@rogerb5615]

23:08 Wally Cox starred in a show called "Mister Peepers" on one of the major networks in the late 1950s.

[@stephenholloway6893]

A few years later Wally voiced Underdog himself.

[@Tornado1994]

@@stephenholloway6893 Correct. And Top Cat. He Tragically Died untimely in 1973.

[@stephenholloway6893]

@@Tornado1994 Top Cat was voiced by Arnold Stag. Not Wally Cox. Cox was Underdog in his only animated role.

[@seanwieland9763]

“Hey, how old is this TV? You can probably get the Dumont Network on this thing.” - Norm MacDonald as “Death” on Family Guy

[@EmergencyChannel]

These old shows were written by the same people that had been writing radio show scripts for 20+ years. Almost all exposition with acting being a distant second thought. As you said in the video, you just had to be there. I laughed out loud at the "life is like a oyster" joke, but I've only met a few people who had a twisted sense of humor like me. My sense of humor comes from living with my grand parents and listening to their tapes of old radio shows from the late 30's. My grand parents never owned a TV, all my entertainment came from radio and tapes. As a result, 99.5% of all modern comedies are not funny to me, which makes dating hell, heh.

[@steadfastcoward]

And I acquired my humor from lots of classic cartoons, many of which were released in the 1940s and run a million times on Saturday mornings and after school. Pass the incredibly sweet cereal please...mmmm. And dating IS hell. Has nothing to do with a sense of humor.

[@asd36f]

11:00 "In my Kaiser" - sponsor plug!

[@syxepop]

And that was in the '50s... Imagine today! Hey, whole shows like both versions of Knight Rider were based on the car sponsorship from Pontiac in the '80s and Ford in the '10s.. (and don't get me started about Viper...).

[@AzraelEnterprise]

I bet he drove a Kaiser Allstate, as it was designed to sell through and by Sears-Roebuck department stores in the southern United States.

[@Syncopator]

You have to remember the context-- the early "drama" shows were based on radio plays that were all the rage before TV hit the scene, but where sound effects were far more important than images, when you don't have images at all. And the variety shows were largely due to a lot of vaudeville performers or stage actors looking for new venues. TV wasn't the greatest way to watch a play, but these were the easiest to produce and did get exposure to the stories to a lot of people who wouldn't have gone to see them on Broadway. The shows that worked and may still stand up today are those written by writers or performed by performers who understood the medium and were willing to push the envelope, like Rod Serling, Paddy Chayefsky, Ernie Kovacks, Jackie Gleason, Sid Caesar, Red Skelton, or even Soupy Sales. The best TV dramas from the early days were those written by Chayefsky or Serling, such as Marty, Patterns, The Comedian, and Requiem for a Heavyweight, and were often on shows like Playhouse 90, which was an early attempt to translate stage theater to television, and were necessarily performed live because videotape hadn't been invented yet and staging a play for film and distributing the results was way too expensive and time consuming. The TV version of Requiem for a Heavyweaight that starred Jack Palance, was better than the subsequent movie versions, IMHO. But yeah, there was a lot of dull stuff on all the channels at the time, early TV had next to no budget and a lot of stuff was produced by "local" stations because transmission only goes out so far and until videotape was available, broadcasting shows so that you could watch a program anywhere in the country at the same time just wasn't an option, at least until budgets from advertising got big enough to produce and distribute programs on film. On the other hand, another quirk of television history was the local emcee, which were local hosts that would introduce movies or cartoons and tried to ham it up for yuks, Elvira probably being the final progeny of these-- there were such emcees all over the country, in a lot of local markets. I remember kids shows and monster movies, with the host probably shot in a garage and hosted by the likes of Tom Hatten, Engineer Bill, Sheriff John, Chucko the Clown, Hobo Kelly, Shrimpenstein, Seymour, Ghoulardi, the list goes on and on. It was that kind of regional material that made early TV special, as corny as it may have been. And a lot of what was on early TV that was filmed was westerns, as westerns were really big back then, and continued to be so up through most of the 1960s. Plus, the western serials shown on TV had already been filmed for theatrical release shorts, so there was a lot to choose from that was pre-made, inexpensive and ready to show. And there were sci-fi serials on film available as well, which also were popular and led to live broadcast sci-fi shows such as Captain Video and Tom Corbett. There was no Star Trek at that time, and you couldn't watch movies on VHS or disc, you had to go to the theaters. This kind of stuff was it, it was all you could get in-home at the time, and people were glued to it no different than they are today's HD fare (a lot of which sucks pretty hard too).

[@greggi47]

Vaudeville persisted for so long--right up to the end of Ed Sullivan's show.

[@SameNameDifferentGame]

I'm kind of surprised you didn't talk about pro wrestling on the network. The first nationwide pro wrestling show was on the DuMont Network, which is kind of a big deal (if you care about pro wrestling).

[@rockvilleraven]

On the Stick It was big as well as boxing at the time, because of the limitations of broadcast TV cameras, you didn't need multiple ones to cover it. One organization was the Capital Wrestling Corporation from Turner's Arena in DC. Run first by Jess McMahon and then Vince McMahon, Sr. This territory eventually became the World Wide Wrestling Federation, now the WWE, run by Vince Jr.

[@rareblues78daddy]

On the Stick ...and all that footage still exists as well!

[@SameNameDifferentGame]

I've heard a fair amount of it is in a private collection somewhere, but at least some of it exists!

[@rareblues78daddy]

On the Stick I was mistaken. Not *all* of it exists, but a fair amount does. This is from the Wikipedia article on surviving DuMont programs: "WWE has footage of DuMont wrestling matches held in the New York/Washington D.C. area (including footage from Madison Square Garden III among other wrestling footage from this period, most notably featuring Gorgeous George), which is from WWE's direct corporate predecessor, Capitol Wrestling Corporation. The McMahon family (in particular patriarch Jess McMahon and later Vince McMahon, Sr.), owners of the then-CWC, archived this footage on their own and not through DuMont. More DuMont-era wrestling footage has turned up with a collector in Japan." The only reason I commented was because I'm a massive fan of the early days of TV, and was reading the Wiki entries on DuMont long before I watched this video. The great thing is, more footage could *always* turn up! FFS, never before seen footage of the 1919 Black Sox throwing the world series turned up in the Yukon recently! It, along with about 400 other nitrate films were used for landfill in 1929, unearthed in 1978, and restored and "discovered" just recently. They were buried in permafrost, and that preserved them. Hell... who knows how many DuMont kinescopes are lingering in TV stations and attics the world over?

[@syxepop]

To update this little ditty about DuMont's wrestling... AFAIK, DuMont was the latest NATIONAL BROADCASTER that did regularly scheduled wrestling bouts every Monday night in the early '50s (NBC did some infrequent WWF bouts and WWE SmackDown was broadcasted at UPN for quite a while, but it was never considered a major broadcaster). ...that's until Fox (spiritual successor to DuMont) in 2019 is getting the WWE SmackDown franchise for Friday nights. (the world goes round and round...)

[@Tornado1994]

The DuMont Network was started and named after Alan B. DuMont and went off the air I believe around 1957. It was operated and HQ'd exclusively in Manhattan. I learned about Dumont while in Middle School back in '96 while reading the 1983 Book "Kids TV 1947-1972 The first 25 Years".

[@rty1955]

Tornado1994 yes WABD was named after Allan B Dumont and WTTG (still exists) is named after his partner Thomas T. Goldsmith. Dr. Goldsmith obtained a patent for the phosphors used and almost all the Cathod Ray Tubes (CRT) that were used in TV sets. Something that totally upset Sarnoff from RCA. Sarnoff wanted to own all the patents for television.

[@Tornado1994]

Understandable, especially regarding David Sarnoff. He was that type of Control Freak businessman and inventor.

[@funzo1159]

I thought there was some surviving footage of Mary Kay and Johnny, but only about 5-10 minutes? Also, that "commercial" at 7:13 was tough to watch. Wally Cox just totally messes up his lines left and right.

[@Tornado1994]

Its fascinating watching YOUNG Wally Cox film an awkward shameless,self promotion ad for Dumont. Elephant in the room, Wally Cox is best known as the voice of Underdog and died tragically young in '73. He wasn't even 50.

[@astrogazer1818]

Thanks, brought back some good memories. I knew some old timers that would talk about how they enjoyed Captain Video-, Tom Corbett space shows and they would go to neighbors house to watch on their tv. TV sets were rare to have back then so hardly nobody had them. On a similar thought, there were no superstores or malls around back then either.

[@Brillemeister]

I had no idea Archbishop Sheen was originally on DuMont! God bless

[@johnpinckney4979]

And his show on DuMont was sponsored by Admiral, a competitor of DuMont for TV sets...

[@MacrossSD]

God willing, he'll be canonized a saint. He is going to be beatified sometime this year :)

[@greggi47]

Yes, he and Berle were early examples of drag performers, the direct line of ancestry to RuPaul.

[@Brillemeister]

@@greggi47 You're not as funny as you imagine.

[@binyon7]

I always love detective Rocky's wife. Unseen but definitely heard!

[@neilforbes416]

Ellery Queen? Now I know where the Days Of Our Lives actors(?) got their acting lessons!

[@ZXRulezzz]

13:24 sounds like a Tex Avery cartoon. I love it.

[@SteveCarras]

I do,too! Liked your message.

[@ZXRulezzz]

@@SteveCarras "Mhm why, this is terrible, I can't die at 11:30"

[@rjmcallister1888]

Jackie Gleason stayed at DuMont until 1952, when he packed up and went on to a long run at CBS. Several performers from Fred Allen's one-time powerhouse on NBC Radio also landed at DuMont, along with Fred, briefly. It's kind of a video version of what ABC or Mutual offered on radio in that era. Neither had significant budgets, but ABC-TV survived because it had resources left over from the Blue Network days, including owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.

[@RadioFreeCedarCity]

I can see that "School House" was the predecessor to "Cero en Conducta"...tie that clip in with "La Fea Mas Bella" vs. "Ugly Betty" and "Let's Make A Deal vs. "Trato Hecho" and you've got an interesting episode of U.S. vs. Latin TV...

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

+Jet Thompson Latin American TV took many cues from early US TV and simply ran with them.

[@ClassicGaminer2014]

Televisa S.A. (responsible for "Cero en Conducta" and "La Fea Más Bella") and Univision (responsible for Trato Hecho) try to make original content/shows. Televisa takes the cake for plagiarism, they always make Telenovelas based off of other Latin American Telenovelas and even remake their own classics. They're a really greedy company that fail at making original Telenovelas and shows.

[@syxepop]

Let me put one little fact: most likely Puerto Rico got a version of "SchoolHouse" first in the '60s. It was called "El Colegio de la Alegría" and had pretty much that same lineup of teacher and students. (Producer / comedian) Tommy Muñiz was the teacher and José Miguel Agrelot was the "chubby wisecrack" Torito (as in "little bull"). Tommy (just as producer this time) went to do another reboot in the '80s (in both shorts and 30 minute episodes) with film producer / comedian Jacobo Morales as the teacher and whoever was alive (about 2/3 of them) redoing their roles with some replacements. I swear either the '60s or '80s version is far funnier and better quality than the original and the other Hispanic versions... Including the one Televisa made within the "El Chavo del Ocho" sitcom (probably the 2nd funniest).

[@AzraelEnterprise]

Most of the Captain Video scenes are clearly filmed in airplanes, possible an old B-17 Flying Fortress and/or P-51 Mustang.

[@lindavanarsdall1590]

Dumont was not the fourth but the third network. It was before ABC.

[@brickman409]

24:34 When it cut back to the show, and the guy was playing the clarinet, I started laughing so hard. I don't why, I just didn't expect it.

[@tonstad39]

You also possibly didn't expect the Spanish inquisition

[@brickman409]

tonstad39 lol wtf

[@tonstad39]

brickman409 Monty python reference

[@brickman409]

tonstad39 oh ok

[@rty1955]

At 28:25 that's Fred Scott he was one of the announcers for WABD and Later WNEW. I knew him well

[@neilforbes416]

A lot of this sort of shit turned up on Australian TV in the mid-to-late 1950s while the medium was in its infancy here. Compared to this stuff, Australian domestic efforts were A-class, top-notch! We were clearly streets ahead of America in TV production.... and we were just getting started!

[@JoelGetzhasauselessurl]

Also, if you stick the cables from a UHF converter box into an electrical outlet, they explode. Or at least thats what happened when I did it.

[@luisreyes1963]

Did you learn about that from an "I Love Lucy" episode? 😆📺

[@shmikex]

I was gonna say you forgot The Honeymooners, which originally was on the Cavalcade of Stars. But then I realized by that point, Gleason was on CBS. What's interesting though is the episode where they got a TV and Norton wanted to watch Captain Video. I suppose maybe back then there wasn't an issue with getting the rights to reference another network's shows.

[@cudaus1]

These shows have great film quality for their age. I have seen worse. Growing up in Detroit, some of the DuMont shows were seen on the CBS affiliate WJBK channel 2. Great Job!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

+cudaus1 Apparently CKLW-TV across the river in Windsor also aired DuMont programs for it's final couples years. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBET-DT

[@cudaus1]

I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for mentioning it.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

cudaus1 Where I live, apparently WSPD also played some Dumont programs as that was the only station in town that had to pick ' chose from all four networks at the time (Toledo, OH). Not every city could have enough stations for each affiliates so too often they were often creating schedules where they could put on what they figured would give them the viewership necessary. This lasted for a good 20-30 years before enough stations (and I guess UHF) became necessary.

[@cudaus1]

We had a cottage in Newport Michigan, a stones throw from Toledo. I remember WSPD well. I believe that newsman Joe Weaver left WSPD and moved to WJBK in Detorit. Wasn't SPD Ch11?

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

cudaus1 No, it was on 13. Also both SPD nad JBK were owned by the same company based in Toledo, Storer Broadcasting.

[@cessnaace]

Of the so called kiddie Sci-fi shows of that era (you covered 2), my favorite is "Space Patrol" which ran for 5 seasons on ABC for 250 episodes. It had a sizable adult audience. Several episodes still exist. It shouldn't be confused with the British series of the same name.

[@glennso47]

Archbishop Fulton Sheen had a hit show called Life Is Worth Living It actually won more Emmy Awards than Milton Berle. Berle joked “Bishop Sheen had better writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)”

[@cindylawrence1515]

I was born in 1947 and my father was a top engineer for Sperry defense systems, mostly radar units, we had a custom built commercial receiver with huge 18" X 25" converted radar screen. Our neighbors were amazed.. Anyway, I was a captain video addict. (Along with Space Patrol and Tom Corbett Space Ranger. Later there was the filmed Rocky Jones series. I thought cleaolanta was really scarey) I remember Captain Video's main man on earth was in the real life was named Fred Scott. I remember the captain's "western agents" which even at the time I knew this was an excuse to play cheap old westerns and fill up time. I do remember Molly, but that was "too adult" for us kids" anyway, we all knew dozens of Molly's along with Italian and Irish types just being themselves. This was an amazing time of a FAR more healthy America. Where you could walk from Coney Island to the Bronx in safety. The houses of worship were full and family life was, well it was typical American wholesome family life. People slept on roofs and it the parks on hot summer nights. The Christmas seasons were a riot of color decorations on homes and great Christmas traditional family and most importantly we were taught religious observances. And Dumont remains for every real 50's nut I know, one of the most ultra cool features of that golden era.....

[@Tornado1994]

Sperry designed the F3 Artificial Horizon that equipped the infamous Beechcraft Bonanza Single Engine.

[@RayPointerChannel]

daytime Soap Operas used organs well into the mid 1960s. The "major networks," especially CBS many times used "Mood Music" record drops for orchestral underscores. This was also a budgetary issue, but still helped to compensate for the limited budgets.

[@Tornado1994]

During the 50s, CBS,ABC and NBC all used Strings for Scores, Organs were only used on Soaps.

[@donbest5024]

I think that organ stuff on soaps went away when the young and the restless started in 1973.

[@leejtam0914]

they feel like the old radio dramas from the same time

[@nicolerichwine5767]

If I had a time machine, I'd steal/buy all the tapes for Mary Kay and Johnny and The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong.

[@visaman]

The shows were performed live, so there are no tapes, but films were made of the live broadcasts for stations down the network that weren't connected to the cable.In fact many of these shows were broadcast before there was a cable connecting the stations. I apologize for my long-winded reply. PS. Kinescopes were invented in 1947, but not widely used until 1948, so the shows that aired on Dumont before 1948 are lost to the mists of time forever.

[@nicolerichwine5767]

Albert Giesbrecht No need to apologize! I didn't know all that, so thank you for the history lesson.

[@rty1955]

Albert Giesbrecht kinescopes were never meant for broadcast they were horrible quality. CBS used the Dumont electronicam for syndication of live tv shows and the kinescopes were used as "work prints" to know how to edit the master films from the electronicam. The kinescopes were used to determine how each camera was switched during the live performance so it could be edited exactly as broadcast.

[@annietart]

Dave Barry wrote pretty extensively about Captain Video in Dave Barry Does Japan. I never thought I'd actually see it!

[@MistaSpookie]

Love the Archive... Keep 'em coming!

[@crabbyoldgamer3028]

The Flintstones had the Cavelcave of Stars, starring Jacky Gleastone. Mr. Peepers, Wally Cox, was on that school show.

[@syxepop]

As the Flintstones was heavily inspired in The Honeymooners (Fred being a slightly updated Ralph Kramden by another name, for example...).

[@tremorist]

Jacky Gleason aka Sherrif Beauford T. Justice from Texas. lol

[@crabbyoldgamer3028]

+tremorist Or aka the more famous by about a million times Ralph Kramden.

[@tremorist]

Crabby Old Gamer Did not know that. Probably because the honeymooners were not on german TV. Smokey and the bandit was. I even have the BluRay, although I must admit that I did not buy it for the appearance of Mr Gleason in the first place. :) I am a fan of Jerry Reed.

[@stephenwilliams5201]

Add some hijacked radio voices. this helps. Ah to even use a cheep Hammond organ, found at ice rinks. The best for its time. and don't forget a real studio band. Just like do I say it not one bit of digital audio. Good show om.

[@jeenkzk5919]

the guy (Arnold Stang) reciting the poem at 25:58 went on the do Top Cat, the honey bee for Cheerios in the 80s and many more voices!

[@jeenkzk5919]

Thats right! He did didn't he? He lived up until a few years ago! Great character actor!

[@Tornado1994]

Wally Cox, tragically died untimely in 1973.

[@Tornado1994]

@Henrystrikesback Wally Cox, tragically died untimely in 1973,

[@XLordLeamingtonX]

You know, Arnold Stang (who you called a dork) is an acting legend?

[@greggi47]

He can be that, and a dork.

[@mikerca]

I live in New Jersey and regularly drive by two of the old Dumont buildings in Passaic and Clifton. There is also one in Elmwood Park that became a JVC facility in the 70s. Allen B. Dumont lived in Montclair which is also close to my house. One of my hobbies is collecting Dumont paraphernalia.

[@mikerca]

@Benjamin Federico The original building that Alan B. Dumont purchased was originally a pickle factory located at 2 Main Ave., Passaic N.J. It is now a furniture store. The facility where they manufactured Cathode Ray Tubes was at 750 Bloomfield Ave., Clifton, N.J. I believe that building has been for sale for a while. The facility where I believe they manufactured TV sets was on River Drive in Elmwood Park, N.J. But don’t have an actual address. The building is still there but don’t know what it is now. It was a JVC stereo service center so maybe a search some of some old JVC literature or manuals from the 70’s or 80’s and it may state the street address.

[@heidifedor]

You should do a review of Ernie Kovacs. It was probably the most surrealistic comedy on tv.

[@rabbitsrefuse]

If I legitimately chuckled a few times at School House, does that mean there’s something wrong with me?

[@syxepop]

School House wasn't a bad sitcom per se (seen better adaptations in Spanish) it was just BADLY EXECUTED.

[@bakonfreek]

Those shadows around the television personalities in some shots.. I just recently started learning about the types of video tubes used in television cameras around the time the DuMont network existed. Splashy electrons or something, I only sort of skimmed videolabguy's video.

[@adelgado75]

The episode of Ellery Queen could have been an episode of the CBS soap opera or any soap opera for that matter from the same era, The Edge of Night.

[@JMacQ77]

Welcome to the channel that I love, but the only one whose host chooses to hide behind a fiberboard crate. Odd, isn't he?

[@themoviedealers]

Well, there's also Ashens, who usually only shows his hands and a filthy brown sofa.

[@MacinMindSoftware]

Some of these are just radio shows that weren't quite ready to be seen. Having immersed myself in OTR for many years, I get how seeing something you've only ever heard can be intriguing. It's like meeting someone you've never seen but talked to for 10 years. Yeah, you know that happens in HAM radio.

[@75aces97]

Way before my time but very interesting. Dumont got a later start than NBC and CBS, and unlike those two, they didn't have their own studio to shoot their news and entertainment features. They shot their news and panel discussion shows in offices and conference rooms in city office buildings. Unfortunately this was with 1940s tech, so the cameras and lights generated a lot of heat inside tight spaces. Sitcoms often don't hold up, and that classroom show lived up to that expectation, but it did have a young Arnold Stang, who went onto a long, successful career in voice acting. If you watched TV or listened to radio from 1950-1990 you likely heard his voice in a commercial. Also was in the filling station scene of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Their original stations were sold to Metromedia (another good subject for Oddity Archive), which operated a string of independent stations across the country, until Fox bought them to start its own network.

[@maxwelsh6121]

Talks about boring half-baked plots, and how difficult to get into it is -then precedes to show a woman dance about and talk about how she doesn't want to be a cooch dancer, WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO INTEREST YOU MAN?!?! (LOL)