Eyes of a Generation™... Television's Living History
Smorgasbord / Kirt's Cogitations™ #336

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If ever there was a website that would likely drag a radio and television broadcast historian down into the metaphorical rabbit hole, "Eyes of a Generation... Television's Living History" is it. Like Alice's experience in Wonderland, once you enter the homepage porthole and begin clicking on links, not only will getting back out be difficult, but the journey will introduce you to many fantastic experiences in TV broadcasting which you have never seen before. As the subtitle says, "In essence, this is a Television history book with 5000 stories, 10,000 rare photos and hundreds of one of a kind videos."

If you are old enough to remember way back to the 1980s and before, then you will find interesting tidbits of insider and backstage anecdotes about all of the popular television shows of the various eras - back to the very beginning. That includes sitcom, variety, and news types. Included in the collection is a wealth of photographs and videos, along with histories of the electronic equipment and its inventors that made it all possible. You will also find never-seen-before film footage of live taping sessions, TV show production, interviews, and documentaries.

Did you know that David Letterman owned the entire "Late Night" franchise and leased broadcasting rights to NBC?  That and lots more about the original American broadcast studios - ABC, CBS, and NBC - is included in the form of lengthy PDF documents.

Hundreds of images and video documentaries about development of kinescopes, orthicons, and iconoscopes; televisors, camera dollies, color TV cameras and TV sets can be found. Many of the topics here in RF Cafe's collection of vintage magazine articles documenting the evolution of radio and television provide more detailed technical information that what is found on "Eyes of a Generation," but the two resources compliment each other very well - especially the video clips. An example is this 1996 BBC report on a newly discovered (at the time) film reel of John Logie Baird's work on his Phonovision recording system in 1927. A huge section on cameras is available.

The "Viewseum" pages contain a rare collection of moving images related to electronic video, including the first coast-to-coast color TV broadcast of the Rose Bowl Parade in 1956. The "Archives" is yet another huge collection on various subjects that don't necessarily fit into one of the others.

On whichever page you land, be sure to scroll down to see all it has to offer. There are usually multiple instances of a subject on each page, and at the very bottom, buttons for progressing to other pages.

Posted April 18, 2022