Blog Post Korean War 60th Anniversary-- First US War on TV The Vietnam War is known as the "first televised war" due to the graphic nature of the images seen by American viewers. Chronologically, however, the Korean War, which began on June 25, 1950, was the first war of the TV era, when the medium was still in its infancy. Just as the television networks...
Blog Post "Chicago Television"-- New Book from the Museum of Broadcast Communications The Chicago-based Museum of Broadcast Communications recently released Chicago Television , a survey of the city's first fifty years of TV broadcasting. Chicago TV stations WBKB (now WBBM-TV), WENR (now WLS-TV), WGN, and WNBQ (now WMAQ-TV) began commercial broadcasting in the 1940s, launching...
Blog Post Soap Star Helen Wagner, Matriarch of "As the World Turns," Dies at Age 91- Archive Interview Online Helen Wagner , listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for her long-running performance as Nancy Hughes on As the World Turns since the show debuted in 1956, has died. She sadly misses the the series' final episode by just a few months-- its planned for a September 17th airdate. Her TV series...
Blog Post Suzanne Pleshette Doubled her Double on "One Step Beyond" Alcoa Presents will forever be known for its syndicated title, One Step Beyond . The series dramatized real-life case histories of various occult subjects, with Rod Serling-esque intros by distinguished-looking host, series director John Newland. Alcoa Presents ran just a few seasons, resulting in...
Blog Post Falcon Crest Debuts on DVD Today Falcon Crest joins Dallas , Dynasty , and Knots Landing on DVD today-- the last of the long-running '80s prime time soaps to make the jump to home video. The series ran from 1981-1990, and starred Oscar-winning screen star Jane Wyman as villainess "Angela Channing," in her last major role, for...
Blog Post Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner for Tax Day Today is tax day, luckily there's classic TV to cheer us up. On a February 1965 episode of The Hollywood Palace , Carl Reiner interviews "tax expert" Mel Brooks' "Philip J. Heinker," who discusses his methods for filing, which includes claiming Romania ("I send them cottage cheese and Life magazine...
Blog Post Valerie Harper Wraps Up "Looped" What's the opposite of Rhoda Morgenstern? Answer: Tallulah Bankhead. Valerie Harper is playing Tallulah Bankhead in "Looped" on Broadway, and, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter 's Frank Scheck "effectively bury[s] her own persona," garnering "big laughs with her razor-sharp delivery of the...
Blog Post Leonard Nimoy in the 1950s & early '60s Leonard Nimoy was living hand-to-mouth in the 1950s and early 60s, as a struggling actor in TV and movies, before his stardom on Star Trek and Mission: Impossible . He landed the leading role in the feature film Kid Monk Baroni (1952) (photo, left), but spent most of his early career in TV in small...
Blog Post "Dynasty" Star John Forsythe Has Died-- Archive Interview Online John Forsythe, best known as oil tycoon Blake Carrington on the '80s prime time soap Dynasty , has died at the age of 92. Forsythe's TV career dates back to the 1940s, and baby boomers will remember his first regular series role as the single dad on the series Bachelor Father (1957-62). Forsythe's...
Blog Post April Archive Newsletter The latest Archive of American Television newsletter is out. If you'd like to be on our mailing list, enter your e-mail information in the box on the right column of our homepage .
