Bobby Ellerbee comments: “Perhaps the most famous of the TVC studios is 33. This is the only one left that has the side wings and the built in theater seating. Here is a shot from behind the lighting directors consoleRead more…
Dumont Kinescope Machines
I Love Lucy: First Recorded, But Fourth Aired, Episode
Edward R. Murrow on CBS “Television City”
CBS Television City Studio 33
NBC Studios: New York and Burbank (Video)
Bobby Ellerbee’s Eyes of a Generation is a brilliant Website and Facebook page that posts amazing photographs and videos of television behind the scenes. Its main focus is the huge cameras used to record TV, but Ellerbee includes all manner ofRead more…
Despite the 43 years I've devoted to cinematography, I must admit that I was scarcely prepared for the many problems which were to confront me upon my initial excursion into the realm of television with the "I Love Lucy" show. Fortunately, this motion picture experience helped to cushion many of the serious problems and aided me in adapting myself to this new medium. Today, many of the initial difficulties we've experienced have, to some extent, been solved, but we still remain in the infancy of a fascinating new entertainment medium. There are formidable problems ahead, all of which will be conquered in due time. As for myself, I have enormously enjoyed being a part of the team which has already overcome some of the preliminary hurdles.
“Filming the ‘Lucy’ Show” – by Karl Freund
Dick van Dyke Show: Behind the Scenes
In Television: Critical Methods and Applications I used a screen shot of The Dick van Dyke Show to illustrate high-key lighting–even in a nighttime bedroom scene. Today, thanks to a fascinating article by Xenia at Collar City Brownstone, which pointed to Shorpy.com, IRead more…
Artist Drafts Floor Plans of Sitcom Apartments
Melissa McSweeney found some very cool hypothetical layouts of sitcom apartments–not the sets, but the characters’ apartments as illustrator Iñaki Aliste Lizarralde imagined them. She explains: [illustrator Iñaki Aliste] Lizarralde’s sitcom apartment renderings offer avid TV watchers a whole new levelRead more…
The Process Begins
On August 12, 2014, I signed a contract with Routledge to write a book on the sitcom for its Television Guidebooks series. The following month I launched this blog to track the book’s development and to post items of interestRead more…