Re: OT: First US Popular TV Drama
Hopalong Cassidy never struck me as a drama. Ryan Lee wrote: My lecturer/tutor at uni, Dr Alan Mckee, author of Australian Television: A Geneaology of Great Moments, selected Hopalong Cassidy (1949) and after a deluge of suggestions (and bargaining! The shows everyone mentioned all came up..), consensus was that 1950 was a reasonable year to settle on. Hopalong Cassidy: http://web.cnjnet.com/~mweinber/hoppy.html Job well done, panel! Thanks much! Ryan
Re: OT: First US Popular TV Drama
Surely you mean Drama, my good man. Take off that high hat, opera cape, and the monocular. You are fooling no one. -- Shel Belinkoff wrote: Hopalong Cassidy never struck me as a drama. Ryan Lee wrote: My lecturer/tutor at uni, Dr Alan Mckee, author of Australian Television: A Geneaology of Great Moments, selected Hopalong Cassidy (1949) and after a deluge of suggestions (and bargaining! The shows everyone mentioned all came up..), consensus was that 1950 was a reasonable year to settle on. Hopalong Cassidy: http://web.cnjnet.com/~mweinber/hoppy.html Job well done, panel! Thanks much! Ryan -- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com You might as well accept people as they are, you are not going to be able to change them anyway.
OT: First US Popular TV Drama
Ryan,
Hopalong Cassidy ('49) was probably more of a kids show than a drama that aired in the
evening for adults. The Lone Ranger and Hoppy were the start of kids merchandising
tie-ins. But they were dramas for Saturday morning TV, when the kids were home from
school. Of course, Howdy Doody ('47) was the first kid's show and aired daily for
years.
Quite a trip down memory lane, whatever vague memories I have from '49... :-)
Regards, Bob S.
Ryan writes:
My lecturer/tutor at uni, Dr Alan Mckee, author of Australian Television: A
Geneaology of Great Moments, selected Hopalong Cassidy (1949) and after a
deluge of suggestions (and bargaining! The shows everyone mentioned all came
up..), consensus was that 1950 was a reasonable year to
settle on.
Re: OT: First US Popular TV Drama
I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I did, and I just might! Wanna sit next to me to back me up? vbg Anyway, think everyone's had enough of this thread so I'll slice its throat now.. Cheers, Ryan - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ryan, Tell the good professor he is full of it. Read that URL you sent along. Cassidy was a silent movie actor and the TV shows were not even B class westerns... more like C class. They were 1/2 hour morality plays with terrible production values and plots. The Lone Ranger was much higher quality but still a kids show. You didn't have adult viewers of a weekly TV western until Gun Smoke. I still like Dragnet but others had suggestions too! Regards, Bob S.
Re: OT: First US Popular TV Drama
He didn't say it had to be good, just popular.. Cotty wrote: On 14/3/04, RYAN disgorged: Would anyone happen to know the year when America started producing popular drama on TV (and maybe a title)? Guessing pre-1950s.. I'm not very optimistic, but thought it's worth a shot.. I wouldn't be optimistic about popular drama on American TV ! Cheers, Cotty ___/\__ || (O) | People, Places, Pastiche ||=|www.macads.co.uk/snaps _
OT: First US Popular TV Drama
Ryan, TV wasn't much in the US until post WWII. My dad bought us a set in '49. I remember a number of variety shows (Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Sid Caesar, Jack Benny) and Tom Corbet, Space Cadet as a daily(??) serial that I watched. There were only 2 or 3 channels in Chicago - now the national networks CBS, NBC, and ABC - and they didn't run a full day of programming. Everything was local except for a few hours in the evening. The oldest serious drama that I remember was the Halmark Hall of Fame, where the Halmark greeting card company sponsored 1+ hour live productions of serious theater. Quite a feat! The oldest weekly drama that I can think of was Dragnet. It was a popular police drama about 2 Los Angeles detectives solving crimes, brought in total from radio to TV. I think the radio scripts were very good and the writers made a quick transition to TV. I even believe the star of the show, Jack Webb, made the transition from radio to TV. Later, the westen Gunsmoke was another popular radio drama that was re-cast on TV with great success. I believe it became the longest running series in US TV history. I love Lucy is in there somewhere, but is more of an early situation comedy series. Hope this helps, Bob S. Ryan Lee ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) writes: Anyway, down to business- I know it's not nearly the right place to ask, but scouring the net and I can't seem to find the answer to what I initially thought would be an easy peasy question. Would anyone happen to know the year when America started producing popular drama on TV (and maybe a title)? Guessing pre-1950s.. I'm not very optimistic, but thought it's worth a shot..
Re: OT: First US Popular TV Drama
And let's not forget Playhouse 90 ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The oldest serious drama that I remember was the Halmark Hall of Fame, where the Halmark greeting card company sponsored 1+ hour live productions of serious theater. Quite a feat!
Re: OT: First US Popular TV Drama
1947-- Faraway Hills (a DuMont soap opera) appeared in prime time. Seems to be the first nationally shown TV Drama. The DuMont Network folded in 1955. There were TV broadcasts as early as 1928 in the New York City area though. -- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com You might as well accept people as they are, you are not going to be able to change them anyway.
