by David Krell | Nov 1, 2015 | David Krell
Television’s progress as a creative medium began, arguably, with I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. When the television series about a ditzy redhead married to a Cuban bandleader premiered on CBS in 1951, it introduced the three-camera format...
by David Krell | Jun 13, 2015 | David Krell
Brandon Tartikoff saw the best of times and the worst of times during his reign as the programming chief for NBC in the 1980s. The best of times: Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Miami Vice, Cheers, St. Elsewhere, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Hunter, Late Night with...
by David Krell | May 17, 2015 | David Krell
In the 1980s, NBC’s peacock rose like a phoenix after startling programming disasters, including Pink Lady and Jeff, Supertrain, and the departure of the original Not Ready for Prime Time cast of Saturday Night Live. Under programming guru Brandon Tartikoff and...
by David Krell | Feb 27, 2015 | David Krell
In the 1980s, America’s three television networks changed hands. ABC to Capital Cities. NBC to General Electric. CBS to Loews. Ken Auletta documented the decade in his 1991 book Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way. It is, indeed, a fantastic...
by David Krell | Oct 2, 2013 | David Krell
Media historians will likely document the 1980s as the Decade of the Peacock. As television approached its 40th anniversary since Milton Berle launched the medium into mass status in 1948 with Texaco Star Theatre, NBC’s avian emblem emerged like a phoenix,...
