There Was No Peacock

I took the NBC studio tour once in New York City. For someone quite young, who was even then very interested in broadcasting, it was quite a thrill. I never asked my parents what they thought of the whole deal, but they seemed to be interested enough.

The ‘50s were called The Golden Age of Television, and may still be. It was a time when you could watch dramas every night; variety shows several times a week. Not all the shows were top-drawer, but they tried. And they were all “live.” Not “live on tape,” or “recorded live in front of an audience.” They were happening in a New York studio at the same time as we were watching them.

I saw three or four in the process of development. One, as I recall, went on the air that night. The others followed later in the week. Each was spread out beneath us, as we looked down from the visitors’ loft.

It was amazing how the crew made do with so little equipment. Milton Berle’s big-time variety show started out with only two cameras and later added a third. The drama shows had three. You can’t do anything these days without four or five; even CNN Headline News has 17 in the studio for one thing or another.

But it happened. We didn’t seem to notice the mistakes, if there were any (and there most likely were – well covered by these professionals). Somehow, it all came together in 60 minutes of glorious black & white, long before NBC got its peacock.