Route 66
https://youtu.be/0K3FqWShn28?t=62 Route 66 premiered on CBS in October 1960 and ran until March 1964, for a total of 116 episodes. The show followed two young men traversing the United States in a Chevrolet Corvette convertible and...
Charles Van Doren Quiz Show Scandal
https://youtu.be/WW_wRS9_7rQ In November 1959 Charles Lincoln Van Doren, an American writer and editor, testified before the U.S. Congress that he had been given the correct answers by the producers of the NBC quiz show Twenty-One.
The Twilight Zone
https://youtu.be/vB1Ot9MEOOs The Twilight Zone debuted on CBS TV in October 1959. Created by Rod Serling, the show's episodes were a blend of fantasy, science fiction, horror, black comedy and psychological thrills that often ended with an unexpected...
Bonanza
https://youtu.be/i2IvhKl_hKQ In September 1959 NBC launched "Bonanza," the first TV color western. Filmed at Incline Village, Nevada, the show ran until 1973 with Michael Landon as Little Joe, Lorne Greene as Ben Cartwright and Dan Blockeras Hoss. Source: Wikipedia...
Superman George Reeves Dies
https://youtu.be/p0swAKS-5qA George Reeves (born George Keefer Brewer in 1914) died from a gunshot in June1959. He was best known for the television series Adventures of Superman (1952–1958). Reeves death at age 45 remains controversial. Although ruled...
Rawhide
Rawhide was an American Western TV series starring Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood that aired on the CBS network for 7 1/2 years. The series was produced by Charles Marquis Warren, who also produced early episodes of Gunsmoke. The show is fondly remembered...
Tonight – Starring Jack Paar
https://youtu.be/c2m5kZ0p5x4 Although, as my fried Rodney pointed out, the YouTube picture above is NOT Jack Paar - the video actually is. Jack Harold Paar (1918 –2004) was an American talk show host, author, radio and television comedian, and film actor. After...
Have Gun – Will Travel
https://youtu.be/HYl20fyIptM Have Gun – Will Travel was an American Western series that was originally broadcast by CBS on both television and radio from 1957 through 1963. The television version of the series starring Richard Boone was rated number three or...
American Bandstand
American Bandstand premiered locally in late March 1952 as Bandstand on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV as a television adjunct to a radio show of the same name on WFIL radio,. In August 1957, the show was picked up...
The Daily Worker
In 1924 the Communist Party USA began publishing the Daily Worker newspaper in in New York City. At its peak, the newspaper achieved a circulation of 35,000. Contributors to its pages included: Robert Minor and Fred...
First Commercial Videotape Recorder
https://youtu.be/f0e03ScjnO4 A video tape recorder (VTR) is designed to record and play back video and audio material from magnetic tape. In 1956, Ampex Corporation introduced the first practical videotape recorder for television...
Dear Abby Advice Column
Dear Abby: Which is better? To go to a school dance with a creep or to sit home? - All Shook Up Dear Shook: Go with the creep and look over the crop. https://youtu.be/akk_67S3DUk The first Dear Abby column appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle In January 1956. The...
Popular Television Show Premieres
https://youtu.be/_teSvw34ZlY In 1955 the Mickey Mouse Club premiered on ABC. https://youtu.be/FcEbkM5Z3yA In 1955 Gunsmoke premiered on CBS https://youtu.be/XQ6OdQyYeKA In 1955 Johnny Carson Show premiered on CBS https://youtu.be/sJkmcf4gJ48 In 1955 The Lawrence Welk...
Popular TV Programs
Popular TV shows 1954 https://youtu.be/NkQ58I53mjk https://youtu.be/ojkTUIelOWI https://youtu.be/VjA4-wSjPWg https://youtu.be/2ylvWg6AV7g Top-rated primetime television series of the 1954–55 season as measured by Nielsen Media Research.[1]...
Vintage Commercials
With a shift in government spending at the end of the Korean War, the American GDP dropped by 2.2% and unemployment peaked at ~6%. Although the U.S. Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy to curb inflation, spiking interest rates decreased consumer demand. The...
The Guiding Light
https://youtu.be/egI5QDtHhC0 The Guiding Light was broadcast on NBC, then CBS radio from 1937-1956 and on CBS TV from 1952-2009. The original NBC radio series (broadcast in 15-minute episodes) was based on the personal experiences of writers Emmons Carlson and Irna...
Roy Rogers Show
The Roy Rogers Show was broadcast on NBC from December 1951 to June 1957. Before changing his name, Rogers used his given name Leonard Franklin Slye to co-found the Sons of the Pioneers. https://youtu.be/s3FclAQDCxU IMDb Set in the fictional town...
Amahl and the Night Visitors
https://youtu.be/VUKvrNeNgk8 Amahl and the Night Visitors was a one-act production by Gian Carlo Menotti that was the first opera specifically composed for television in America. The story: One night in Judea, a disabled shepherd...
Jet Magazine
Founded in 1951, the weekly magazine Jet focused on news, culture, and entertainment related to the African–American community. Jet chronicled the Civil Rights Movement including the murder of Emmett Till, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the...
Bob and Ray
Wikipedia Bob and Ray was the name of a popular American radio comedy show with Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding whose career spanned five decades. The duo typically satirized radio and television interviews, with deadpan,...
Radio Moscow
https://youtu.be/cznCttle760 Radio Moscow's interval signal. Radio Moscow (Pадио Москва) was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics until 1993. After the fall of the Soviet Union It was...
Armed Forces Radio Service
After WWII, the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) employed mobile radio vans and commandeered Japanese stations on the mainland, Korea, the Marianas, and the Ryukyus. After the Korean War broke out, broadcasts to Korea from Japan were transmitted from the Far...
Dragnet – Danger Ahead
Dun Da dun dun ~ Walter Schumann's ominous, four-note introduction to the TV show Dragnet was recognized by most Americans in the 1950s to signify "danger ahead." Dragnet was an American television series, based on the radio series of the same name, both created...
Ernie Kovacs Popular TV Comedian
https://youtu.be/U2AWAZ0gojY Ernest Edward Kovacs (1919 – 1962, was a popular American TV comedian, actor, and writer. Often spontaneous, his zany comedy style influenced numerous TV comedy programs for years after his death. Frequently his slapstick humor...
Victor Borge Danish Pianist & Comedian
Victor Borge (born Børge Rosenbaum) was a Danish conductor and pianist whose comic renditions of piano concerts were widely popular in the United States and Europe. Born to two concert musicians, Rosenbaum was a child prodigy pianist. After classical...