PANCAKES in the morning from the late, great ED BENEDICT!
www.ginblossoms.net 
GB at the PARK WEST
GB at WGN the next morning :)
GB at the PARK WEST
GB at WGN the next morning :)Photographs by Rick Goldschmidt
from RANKIN/BASS' WILLY McBEAN & HIS MAGIC MACHINE (1965)
c. 1965 RANKIN/BASS PRODUCTIONS/RICK GOLDSCHMIDT ARCHIVES
Friday, January 21, 2011
We are getting closer to a soft cover edition of THE MAKING OF THE RANKIN/BASS HOLIDAY CLASSIC: RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER (MISER BROS PRESS). The sample looks good...the pages have a nice, dark printing to them and it is in a vinyl type black binding with a plastic cover over the front. We just need to determine a price now.Thursday, January 20, 2011
Mayberry Gold!
This is a wonderful treat for one of my favorite shows (Maybe my favorite)! THE DANNY THOMAS SHOW pilot for the series is here remastered and uncut, with a really cool animated opening and close, with a SANKA commercial at the end, featuring ANDY and DANNY. There are nine of the greatest episodes of the series in network format with the original end credits, bumpers and cast spots. I really love hearing Andy, Opie and Aunt Bea sing about POST cereals. If they released the whole series in network format, I would buy the whole thing over again. There is a clip from the 1962 network night, that Andy tells a story of Christopher Columbus as well. The 1963 CBS Opening night clip features Don Knotts, Andy Griffith, Danny Thomas, Phil Silvers, Jack Benny and Lucille Ball! This is well worth picking up for any fan of the series!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
The cast of RANKIN/BASS' THE HOBBIT
c. 1977 RANKIN/BASS PRODUCTIONS/RICK GOLDSCHMIDT ARCHIVESfrom left to right: Arthur Rankin, Jr., Don Messick, John Stephenson, Paul Frees, Jack De Leon, Orson Bean, Jules Bass, Hans Conried
Just did an interview with the UK's SFX MAGAZINE about RANKIN/BASS' THE HOBBIT
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
ROCKY & HIS FRIENDS box set
I have to say, I REALLY like the packaging on this new box set! I am not just saying that, because my friend Patrick Owsley's art was used for Bullwinkle either. The book is very nice, the design of the box is spectacular and the Button/ribbon (Which also has Patrick's Bullwinkle on it) is a very nice surprise. Many people were complaining on AMAZON about the fact that they bought the first four seasons (Which I also did) and wanted season 5 alone (Which they are issueing now) BUT if you are a fan of great cartoon packages, this is the BEST I have seen. Blows away the RANKIN/BASS BLU RAY set packaging of a few months ago, by the same company.
To Rick Goldschmidt -- I read your piece on the web about the history
of Bozo's Circus, a show that was produced live at WGN-TV in Chicago
for many years as you well know. I congratulate you on a very
comprehensive history, with lots of details that you have researched
with much diligence. There is one additional detail that I would
like you to know about, in case you have not heard of it. It is an
interesting "behind the scenes" engineering detail that went on for
several years, at least, in the Chicago area.
I am an electrical engineer [retired], and in 1972-1973, I worked at
a Motorola operation in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.
Many of my engineer colleagues had come from the Motorola television
receiver [Quasar] manufacturing operation in Franklin Park, another
Chicago suburb. In those days, engineering development and
improvement of color television receiver designs was an ongoing task
for electrical engineers at that Motorola location.
Because TV test equipment was very costly, and simple lab signal
generators could not completely test a new circuit design, and color
TV cameras were beyond the lab budget, and it was essential to use a
bona fide color TV signal for many test purposes, the engineers came
up with an interesting solution to their test needs. At Motorola,
and probably at other Chicago area TV set manufacturers, the
engineers established a very close working relationship with the
engineers at WGN-TV. When the Bozo program was on the air in
Chicago, it was the only locally originated colorcast, but very
suitable for test purposes at Motorola as you will learn. While Bozo
was broadcast, an engineer at Motorola was on the phone talking to an
engineer at WGN-TV. The Motorola engineer would request a slight
"tweek" of one of the broadcast signal parameters, such as
brightness, or hue, essential to check the proper response of the
circuit under test. This change was usually so subtle that home
viewers would not notice. Then another of the signal parameters
would be "tweaked" and so on, throughout the show. On another
broadcast day, one of the other TV set manufacturers engineers would
get their turn, with their test needs met. The WGN engineers were
very cooperative and helpful.
This led to a funny incident one day at Motorola. The development
engineers had been called into a meeting with some non-engineer
management executives. Suddenly, one of the engineers looked at his
watch and blurted out something like-- "Omigosh, Bozos Circus is
on!" With this, the engineers jumped up from their chairs and rushed
out of the room, back to the test lab, to the utter astonishment of
the clueless managers!
Paul J. Gregg
of Bozo's Circus, a show that was produced live at WGN-TV in Chicago
for many years as you well know. I congratulate you on a very
comprehensive history, with lots of details that you have researched
with much diligence. There is one additional detail that I would
like you to know about, in case you have not heard of it. It is an
interesting "behind the scenes" engineering detail that went on for
several years, at least, in the Chicago area.
I am an electrical engineer [retired], and in 1972-1973, I worked at
a Motorola operation in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.
Many of my engineer colleagues had come from the Motorola television
receiver [Quasar] manufacturing operation in Franklin Park, another
Chicago suburb. In those days, engineering development and
improvement of color television receiver designs was an ongoing task
for electrical engineers at that Motorola location.
Because TV test equipment was very costly, and simple lab signal
generators could not completely test a new circuit design, and color
TV cameras were beyond the lab budget, and it was essential to use a
bona fide color TV signal for many test purposes, the engineers came
up with an interesting solution to their test needs. At Motorola,
and probably at other Chicago area TV set manufacturers, the
engineers established a very close working relationship with the
engineers at WGN-TV. When the Bozo program was on the air in
Chicago, it was the only locally originated colorcast, but very
suitable for test purposes at Motorola as you will learn. While Bozo
was broadcast, an engineer at Motorola was on the phone talking to an
engineer at WGN-TV. The Motorola engineer would request a slight
"tweek" of one of the broadcast signal parameters, such as
brightness, or hue, essential to check the proper response of the
circuit under test. This change was usually so subtle that home
viewers would not notice. Then another of the signal parameters
would be "tweaked" and so on, throughout the show. On another
broadcast day, one of the other TV set manufacturers engineers would
get their turn, with their test needs met. The WGN engineers were
very cooperative and helpful.
This led to a funny incident one day at Motorola. The development
engineers had been called into a meeting with some non-engineer
management executives. Suddenly, one of the engineers looked at his
watch and blurted out something like-- "Omigosh, Bozos Circus is
on!" With this, the engineers jumped up from their chairs and rushed
out of the room, back to the test lab, to the utter astonishment of
the clueless managers!
Paul J. Gregg
THANKS Gregg! I have known many clueless managers too :)
