Television from a different time

Thanks "mack". I remember watching that show on the small, black and white TV screen in our living room. As I remember, it was one of the first films showing the kind of work done by the NYPD Emergency Services.

Today as I know it, that same kind of dangerous, life saving work is going on in NYC by the members of the NYPD Emergency Services.

I would also like to add that myself and a few others here recently had the opportunity to visit one of those NYPD ESU stations where the officers there treated us GREAT and described some of the various kinds of work they do. A very dedicated, well trained group of individuals that I have a huge amount of respect for.
 
I was looking for "Fire Rescue" show in the series which aired September 30, 1962. This is a picture with a camara guy actually tied onto the front bumper while the TV crew filmed responses.

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The Rescue 1 show summary is:

"This episode presents a documentary about the Rescue Company One of the New York Fire Dept., a small corps of firefighters whose training and skills have equipped them for the most challenging assignments. The program follows the firefighters as they answer calls to multiple alarm fires, resuscitation calls and other emergencies day and night. Incidents include the death of firefighter John Farragher in a fire in the city's Hell's Hundred Acres section and a nine-alarm fire in a clothing store in Queens. The show focuses on Lt. William McMahon as he leads his men. There are scenes at the company's quarters on West 43rd St."

 
In this topic, those of us who remember Television from a different time, we have talk about how "GREAT A TIME IT WAS". To sit back and watch television. Being entertained by our favorite actors, playing our favorite characters. Those characters became household names. Names that we still remember today.

Our living rooms became our favorite spot watching those televisions. There were also live variety shows with singing, dancing, and comedy skits.

But we are NOT the only ones that miss those great television days.

Here is a Fireside Chat from two familiar faces that also entertained us recently in "The Ventures/Days of Doo Wop".
We were recently introduced to the family of Joey and Doreen Arminio by this site member Retired B/C Jack K., aka "68jk09".
Along with that we learned that Doreen Arminio's father and brother are both FDNY.

This is their recent fireside chat, talking about how GREAT those years were of television's earlier days. I think they would like to try and recreate those variety type shows. They too, appreciated both the GREAT DAYS of Television, and the GREAT DAYS of Doo Wop.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3FiFhbcJp0
 
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It was once an afternoon favorite. It was called: "Kids say the darndest Things".

From 1952 to 1970, host Art Linkletter would ask kids various questions and here are some of the answers those kids gave back then.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_bK6XU6SsQ
 
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Reflecting on past tv, the original tv remote was called "a kid", you were ordered to get up off the comfy couch and change the channel after the adult in the room looked carefully through the curled pages of the TV Guide, there was no "flicking through the channels". When we received our very first color tv,  this was a BIG thing.  The tv came with two or three color control knobs that let you adjust the color configuration on the tube. As kids we were told early on  "hands off" the adjustable color control knobs no exceptions, only dad was to tune in the color. I recall baseball fields had this crazy un-godly lime greenish blur, other red colors almost blistered our eyes. But that was the setting,  we dare not touch. A few years later when I was a little older, having a conversation with my dad, he divulged to me that he was actually "color blind".
 
JohnnyGage said:
Reflecting on past tv, the original tv remote was called "a kid", you were ordered to get up off the comfy couch and change the channel after the adult in the room looked carefully through the curled pages of the TV Guide, there was no "flicking through the channels". When we received our very first color tv, this was a BIG thing. The tv came with two or three color control knobs that let you adjust the color configuration on the tube. As kids we were told early on "hands off" the adjustable color control knobs no exceptions, only dad was to tune in the color. I recall baseball fields had this crazy un-godly lime greenish blur, other red colors almost blistered our eyes. But that was the setting, we dare not touch. A few years later when I was a little older, having a conversation with my dad, he divulged to me that he was actually "color blind".
Click to expand...

My father was color blind too. He used to do some repairing of televisions and early dated electronic equipment. He used to ask me what color bands were around each, I think they were called "transistors". They had different colored rings around them to mean various power (?).

Red meant one amount
Yellow was another
Green another etc

Two reds and one green was one amount.
One yellow a green and a red another etc.

Also for those who have been following the thread "My Younger Buff Years" recently on page 117, reply # 1742, "JohnnyGage" last sentence contains the letters/numbers "KMG365 out".

That comes from TV from a different time, a show called "Emergency". The character of Captain Stanley acknowledges the run on the firehouse radio and says "Station 51 10-4, KMG365". The character named JohnnyGage is the rider.

Here is a quick scene from that TV Show as Capt Stanley acknowledges the run.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CneHsNsceTw
 
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JohnnyGage said:
Reflecting on past tv, the original tv remote was called "a kid", you were ordered to get up off the comfy couch and change the channel after the adult in the room looked carefully through the curled pages of the TV Guide, there was no "flicking through the channels". When we received our very first color tv,  this was a BIG thing.  The tv came with two or three color control knobs that let you adjust the color configuration on the tube. As kids we were told early on  "hands off" the adjustable color control knobs no exceptions, only dad was to tune in the color. I recall baseball fields had this crazy un-godly lime greenish blur, other red colors almost blistered our eyes. But that was the setting,  we dare not touch. A few years later when I was a little older, having a conversation with my dad, he divulged to me that he was actually "color blind".
Click to expand...
Although not television but similar with dad's stereo. In the spring of '68 when I was a freshman in high school, one of my buddies told me about this great new radio station playing all the rock that the other stations wouldn't touch, WNEW-FM. I started listening to it on my small portable in my bedroom. Now in the living room was my father's pride and joy, his stereo. It consisted of a Lafayette integrated amp, a Lafayette am-fm tuner, a Garrard turntable and Lafayette speakers all purchased at the Lafayette store on East Fordham Rd back in the day. As with the television, there was a strict "hands off" order issued. Well my father worked two jobs and was out of the house nearly all the time except Sunday when he was off. So I started getting brave and any time nobody was in the house I would turn on the stereo and tune in WNEW-FM to listen to the music and great music it was always being careful to tune it back to the station that played dad's beloved Irish music. This went on for a good while until it all came crashing to a halt one Sunday when my father turned on his stereo for an afternoon of fine Irish music when on came the Doors. Well all hell broke loose. Seems I had forgotten to change the station back. The carrying on back and forth between mom and dad all directed at me. You'd a thought I had murdered the Pope. Needless to say I never touched dad's stereo again and had to be content to listen to WNEW on my small transistor radio in my bedroom until the time came that I could afford to buy my own stereo.
 
Willy, those funky things were resistors, not transistors, but you are right about the colors.  They taught us a mnemonic to remember the color sequence, and it went, "Bad boys rape our young girls, but Violet gives willingly, get some now."  That translated to Black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, gray, white, gold, silver, none for the stripes on the resistors.  Each color corresponded to a number except (as I remember it) gold and silver, which were multipliers. In today's "Me, too" environment, I doubt that they're using that mnemonic any more.  ::) :eek: :p 8)
 
Another show I could not get enough of; Adam-12 (1968-1975). That was the quickest 30 minutes on tv for me, I was glued to the couch absorbing every twitch and blink of the eye. It seemed realistic and very inspiring, I was in awe. What I liked most in both "Emergency" and "Adam-12" was the jargon, small talk and kitchen bantor. "Felony Squad" was pretty cool, too.

Then there were the variety types usually on Sunday nights, for example the "Andy Williams Show", "Dean Martin Show" and a ton of others with similiar format. Seemed at one time every star in Hollywood had a show, and announced "Brought to You In Living Color". My favorite was, still is, "The Andy Williams Christmas Show". A "SPECIAL TV EVENT". Ever y year I start my Christmas Season watching Andy, his brothers and Donny.

[Special note to Willy: Good catch on that KMG365. A little "Emergency" trivia; Captain Stanley was the second boss, the first Captain was actual LA Fire Captain Hammer who played himself the first year!]


 
Remember "M Squad" with Lee Marvin. Filmed in Chicago WITHOUT the co-operation of Chicago PD, per the Mayor Daley. Or so I have been told.
 
"My very first and last 10-92". Back around 1962 if you recall the small tubes in back of the tv. You could test a "dead" tube by removing it and taking to local drugstore that had a machine you inserted the tube into the appropriate hole configuration and the machine would tell you if the tube was weak or bad. Sometimes the tubes may cause a little "smoke" from your set as they burned out...Then for the more complicated repairs a serviceman would make a house sevice call, place a large mirror in front of the tv. He could then peer over the tv while working his magical repairs in the rear of the set to make sure the tv was working properly. Genius!

Unto the 92; Our b/w tv was having some problems, on occassion it might smoke from the back slightly.  One boring morning while probably watching Capt. Kangaroo and dear ol mom downstairs in our unfinished ranch house basement doing laundry, typical smarta** I was I ran to the top of the stairs and with all my might I yelled to her "THE TV IS SMOKING, THE TV IS SMOKING!". I immediately ran back to the comfy couch to watch the excitement that was about to unfold! All I heard was crashing, slamming and banging as she ran and tried to climb the wooden stairs in slippers, tripping over herself in a vain attempt to save me. She finally made it to the tv, finding nothing wrong with it she looked at me who was doubled over chuckling. The "rod, was not spared"...

And how about "Combat"? That was a great war show for it's time. During that time I always wanted to be "Sgt. Saunders"...


 
nfd2004 said:
For those of us LUCKY GUYs who can remember some of the above videos, we probably remember watching the evening news, followed by our favorite weekly television series. There were NO Reality Shows. Just a few hours of simply comedy or maybe a variety show.

Most of the guys on this site have a special interest in the fire service. For many of the guys they served as career firefighters, volunteer firefighters, auxiliary firefighters. Some had other important jobs, but they related to the job done by firefighters as buffs.

This video is an example of the kind of entertainment people watched back in those early days. I guess if some of us were to try and do that job today (at our age), this might be kind of what it would look like. It includes some very funny characters that some of us might remember - Harvey Korman and Tim Conway.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3Y6szkk-3Y
Click to expand...

Tim Conway, star of The Carol Burnett Show, passes away at 85 years old. Tim played the fireman in the above video. These were filmed in front of a live audience. 
 
Now Frank, be nice.  It couldn't be Willy . . . he doesn't have a Big Mac or even a White Castle burger in his hand.
 
At 3:40 in the preceeding classic video,  Tim pulls out the actual first aid booklet that was used in Advanced/Standard First Aid training by the American Red Cross. I took the course when I was 14 years old (1971). When I was the Disaster Manager for ARC in Pennsylvania a copy of the manual was in our showcase.


 
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