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Tulsa TV Memories Guestbook 201 TTM main | What's new on TTM? | GB Archive
If you would like to take a look, it's on again 1/8 at 1 am, 1/14 at 4 pm, and 1/15 at 3 pm. "Elizabethtown" will be released on DVD next month.
He lived in the dorm for a while but rumor was that his Mom had a mansion somewhere on the South Side of Tulsey. Frank claimed that his family owned Turkey Mountain and often went there to commune with nature and hide out, but Frank also had this habit of strolling the TU campus smoking cannabis in his Dr. Grabow drugstore pipe - oblivious to others! He also had a great looking violin - that he played in an almost Inspector Clouseau manner! Always wonder where Frank ended up! Maybe he's in a lean-to on Turkey Mountain - happy as a clam!
I saw the need for a few comments here and there. 1. Susan Cowsill actually sang back-up for Dwight Twilley at The Venue a few months ago, the performance was recorded for a future DVD release. (The Cowsill's "Mister Flynn" is one of my all-time favorite paisley-gum/sunshine popadelic records ever recorded). 2. The Batman movie (or "Batman: The Movie" as it's called on video) was actually filmed between seasons 1 & 2 of the TV show. If I remember the DVD commentary correctly (and the DVD is available for a retail price of $6 at most finer video stores) the movie was supposed to be a pilot for the show, but somehow it was picked up without a pilot, thus the film actually became a cash-in for the studio. 3. I made an accidental "Brokeback Mountain" joke the other day, I called it "Bareback Mountain." "Bareback" is a term used in marketing for pre-AIDS (ergo, pre-condom) gay pornography. I'll let you all use your imagination. Isn't it amazing that one can learn such things by browsing eBay? I saw Mayo Meadow is caged up, ready for demolition. What's next? Are they going to bulldoze Boston Avenue Church so we can have access to another Office Depo?
Gary Chew just reviewed "Brokeback Mountain" on this site.
In Guestbook 136, I had noted that in 2001, Tulsa was 11th on the "Men's Fitness" magazine list of "America's fattest cities", but by 2003, Tulsa had lept into the 25th fittest position.
I heard Shirley Jones speak on one of her visits to Tulsa and she said that despite all of the major roles she played in the movies and on Broadway that people most remember her for being Mom Partridge. I saw Lou Rawls perform here a couple of years ago and he was still in top form. He told the audience that his goal was to help keep pop music legit. I think he did his part.
I had forgotten all about The Cowsills but I guess TVLand has had them on in recent years... Another death reported this morning - of cancer - velvet-voiced Lou Rawls - who had a variety of shows on TV in the 70's and 80's besides his being the long-running star/host of the United Negro College Fund telethons. What a "set of pipes"!
On a Sunday afternoon, I think it was, a garbage truck at the station was doing what garbage trucks do when it accidently backed into a power pole, knocking out power for the whole station. We had color bars on the air from the transmitter for quite a while. They decided to do sort of a newscast, so the remote truck was powered up with its generator. They pulled an old news desk out of the prop room and did the whole thing outside. They used a live truck and microwaved it to the transmitter in Coweta. I think the talent was Guy Atchley, Mary Rose, Dan Murphy doing weather and Carl Arky doing sports. News and sports was pretty much just ripping and reading wire copy. When they threw it to Dan for weather, he just looked over his shoulder and said "looks good to me, back to you, Guy". I had forgotten all about that day. Mary Rose used to record all her newscasts at home on 3/4" tape, so there used to be a copy of it floating around.
 Guy Atchley on moving day, courtesy of Mike Bruchas
Sometime back in the late 70s or very early 80s (I'm not sure of the date; I would say between 1978 and 1983) I was watching KTUL when the Sunday 5pm news came on. And there was Bob Hower and Co. broadcasting from the news desk... outside. Under a tree, I seem to recall, but with the news desk and everyone around it. It seemed very improvised, like they had to broadcast outside due to some extenuating circumstance. The audio was poor, and it really seemed like they were non-plussed by the whole outside broadcast. Anyone remember this, or am I imagining this? Any KTUL alums who can shed light on this?
College taught me a lot but my first week at KTUL and my first screw-ups on-air when learning my craft - taught me more. Especially writing up requests for SPOT make-goods after rolling wrong spots in a break, up-cutting a spot when switching or airing a wrong slide in the many (then) live slide/audio cart or live announced spots. Yeah - the more screw-ups that one had as a trainee - which hurt KTUL spot dollars or caused make-goods - the faster it came down from Sales and Traffic, to NOT do that! It all came down to money - do your job and HAVE a job - be irresponsible, mess-up on-air (especially in Prime Time spot breaks or local News) and there are 5 guys and gals lined up WANTING your job. And we did this (in 1972) for $2.25 an hour plus overtime, no health insurance except disability and the rumor of a pension plan that later went away! It was a "glamourous TV job". I think today - newbies don't carry a "burden" of what work is often about or their intended role in a production team/workplace. It's that "seeing the BIG picture" thang! I had some good mentors and great co-workers at KTUL in the 1970's. You were allowed to have your opinions there - but you had to prove yourself as a journeyman TV pro to have respect or them "older fellers" would cut you to the quick! Lord help you if all you had was the "talk" but not the "walk". The late Roy Pickett (on KTUL "culture"), salesman Jim Hill (he HAD done audio AND production), Carl/Zeb Bartholomew (on studio/audio/life in general), the late Rudy Cohen (Continuity) or late Huck West (Engineering) were great guides on "background" on why things were done the way they were done at 8 and who "the players" were. I learnt a lot from "the newsies" and many of the newbie film photogs I had gone to school with at TU - picked my "production" brain. Sometimes I think new folks today "in the biz" of radio/TV are not human sponges any more...
I am sad to say that the "it's not my job" phenomenon you described is universal. I have having the same issues in my profession. (Materials and parts supply services). If I suggest we actaullly do some work while at work, I get disparaging remarks and glares from my young co-workers. I agree with you, when I was learning a trade, I was delighted to have the older more experienced employees help me. That generation is, sadly, gone. It is nice to see others out there share my work ethic. You made my day.
The TV spots that we shot off tube studio cameras and art cards (or as they call them on the East Coast "hard cards") 35 years ago in Tulsa - probably would look better than a lot of the graphics seen here on local Comcast cable "breaks". We all cringe here at a national packaging store chain's ads with local tags that have been airing in the DC area about twice an hour during CNN's day-time shows. The local owner is kinda a distorted, spacey green in complexion - has been for months! Amateurs!
I experience these changes in the industry each and every day that I'm on the sound stage, along with other department heads from my/our generation. Young workers in all departments stare blankly as we ask them to do those things which were once expected to be a part of being considered a professional. When we insist that things be done correctly, we are looked-upon as some kind of "broadcast-bully" or "old-timer" who is out-of-touch with their concept of production. This phenomenon also prevails above-the-line. On the set of both of my shows there are now more than a dozen "writer/producers" each earning more for each episode than I earn in a year!! Most all of these people have no knowledge of production techniques and requirements, and apparently have no desire to learn. I recently had to explain why I could not playback music at rock-concert levels on the set while we were shooting dialogue!! On one of last year's high-profile awards shows I was required to communicate the meaning of dead-rolling a music track so as to button the show on-time...geez!! It appears that the broadcast business is now the domain of the "new professionals". Yes, we were all young once too, but we respected the knowledge and experience of our teachers and were eager to carry on the knowledge and time-tested techniques that they learned by experience. Sadly, many of those who now work both above and below the line have chosen to re-invent the business on their own terms. We "old-timers" are speaking a language that they truly do not understand, and don't care to. So, to all of you who are perplexed and maddened by the terms that are now used, it's not just the language of broadcasting that is changing...it's the entire industry...(sigh)...
Since that time, they have given the more expensive digital cameras a feel and sound that simulates the action of the old 35mm. Good move, I think.
Miking was what we did - micing is something a dyslexic may do! I have my trouble with the phrase "play-out" in TV technology. Being played out sounds like a tape ran out - on air. It was always PLAY BACK but as TV technology went to server play-backs - some doofuses (it actually is a Hungarian word I told!) thought play-out was more hip as a term. These were folks who never had a tape run out on air accidentally I guess. So now TV Master Controls do "play-outs" as opposed to playing back tapes. Grrrr. When I flew home at Xmas - I sat next to a "producer" for WBT Talk Radio in Charlotte - from his job description - he was what many moons ago we might have called a combo-man/engineer. He was in his mid-20s and 2 years out of college, but had worked in smaller markets since he was 16. He ran "the board" on live a.m. drive shows then did cut-ins and local spots in Limbaugh mid-day, loaded sounders to servers, recorded other folks voicing spots and mixed in music, took in ISDN "network" promos and spots and loaded them on servers, and cut daily topical promos from shows he had air-checked. He also fed video stills to the web. He had to do 2 planning meetings a day with talent and exec producers on the next day's shows to line all out. He also often had to dial-out to phone guests when on air and ran spots for news talent in another studio. But never was he heard as a "voice" on-air - not in his job description! Sounds like radio is BUSIER than ever...He said he lives on caffeine...
I haven't been to the new store yet, so don't think I'm knocking IT...I'm just saying I'm gonna miss the OLD store. I also have to say I have a little pity for those who frequented the store next door. Some of them may not be able to find the new store! LOL
And do they now call a disk jockey a "disc" jockey? Why are CDs "discs," not disks?
I am coming to Tulsa for the first time this coming Friday. Do you know anything about the family? Anything you know would be appreciated. Thanks.
She did appear as "Lisa" in episodes "Batman's Waterloo" and"King Tut's Coup".
We used to talk into "mikes,' but over the past few years this damnable "mic" thing has appeared. When you wore a microphone in the dear, dim past, you were "miked," now, I suppose, you'd be "miced." which sounds like something that would happen to Tom the Cat in a cartoon. And when you sic the dog on an intruder, does it sound as though you have psyched the dog? Perhaps you have psyched the dog, and even the intruder, but that's not the way it should go. If you develop a tic near your eye, will people think a tyke is sitting on your shoulder? I know, it's too early in the year to get into such deep matters. Forgive me.
The question up for discussion would be "How would you have directed "Brokeback Mountain" differently, big guy? Bob and I somehow felt that Duke Wayne would have been just a tad hesitant about being in the cast. May Tulsa have a flame-retardant winter.
The Duke: "Well, I wish I knew how to quit ya, pilgrim."
Tuned-in to KTLA's Rose Parade broadcast this morning. Felt so sorry for all the participants and the broadcast crews. I've done my share of foul weather television, and it's no fun. The sky is clearing a bit now (11:18 am) but this afternoon's wrap will be pretty messy!! Thanks to Lee Woodward for the "Brokeback Mountain" gag. I ask his kind permission to use it when I go back to shooting "Crumbs" later this week. It'll be a nice laugh for my boom operators. I'll try to time it so that they'll laugh out-loud and ruin a take of some intimate scene. Hey, f***'em if they can't take a joke!!!
The others are Eartha Kitt and Julie Newmar. Lowell says he has a photo of himself posing with the latter feline.
I watched the New York ball drop in the Eastern Time Zone, so at least it wasn't at 11 pm. Watching (or more accurately, listening to) Dick Clark was a tough experience. Gutsy of him to try to carry on, or maybe it's just that after hanging onto a microphone for 60 years, you find the microphone really hangs on to you. In New Year's Eves long past, did KVOO radio run NBC's parade of band remotes from time zone to time zone, with the highlight Ben Grauer's Times Square call? I guess Ben was about Clark's age when he finally hung up HIS spikes. May 2006 be a good year for all the denizens of this space, especially the King and his straight man. And as Johnny Martin would say, "thanks for the use of the hall."
Lionel's right-hand man, Lee, has more to say about this above.
Is it true that his 'scope is nicknamed "Chilly Willy"?
Check this list of the 50 greatest gadgets of the past 50 years from PCWorld via Boing Boing. If you didn't own quite a few of them, you probably do own some of their descendants.
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Jim Reid
Lee Woodward
King Lionel