Television IV: Studio 8-H

If "Howdy Doody" was something of a disappointment, "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" was even worse. I'd been watching "Captain Video", starring Al Hodge and Don Hastings, since its debut in 1949, but that was on the Dumont Network and I had no access to that. (A year later, I became a big fan of "Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers", starring a very young Cliff Robertson.)

I also liked "Corbett", starring Frankie Thomas, which began a year later on NBC. But the set, that had looked so big and realistic on television, was in reality like the inside of a cardboard toilet paper tube set on end. Of all the impressive-looking switches, dials and levers, the only thing that actually worked was the ladder. I was beginning to get a sense of the difference between television illusion and reality. But it's a hard lesson and one I would continue to grapple with for my entire career.

As a viewer, I remember many television 'firsts', from Eisenhower's inauguration to the debut of the "Today Show", both in 1952. "Today", like "Tonight" was the brainchild of television visionary Sylvester 'Pat' Weaver (Sigorney's father) and starred Dave Garroway along with newsman Frank Blair, Jack Lescoulie, Betsy Palmer and a roller-skating chimp named J. Fred Muggs. But J. Fred disappeared from the show after tearing up the set one morning and biting a member of the crew. (Chimps are not only very strong, they can be very nasty as well.)

It was on that same visit to NBC that I saw Studio 8-H for the first time. As it turned out, both my father and I would have a connection to that studio in the years to come. It was the biggest stage in the building by far but, when I first saw it, it was still a radio studio. Arturo Toscanini* conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra on that stage. Odd, green acoustical panels were mounted on the walls and ceilings to control the sound in what was a very 'live' room.

The next time I saw Studio 8-H it had been converted to a television studio and was where my father was now Unit Manager of "Kraft Television Theatre". It was the first one-hour drama series on television and it was broadcast live twice a week, Wednesdays on NBC, Thursdays on ABC. "Kraft" set a number of records in its eleven and one-half years on the air, presenting some 650 plays and employing over 4,000 actors.

There was nothing to compare with the 'opening night' excitement, the pure adrenalin rush of live television. If it could go wrong, it likely would go wrong. There were no re-takes, no "let's try that again". Guns didn't fire, doors wouldn't open, dead bodies got up and walked away. (I remember one show in particular, some sword-and-tights epic starring Jacques Sernas in which he leaped into a casement window and he, and the entire set fell over and crashed to the floor. There was nothing to do but get up and keep fencing.)

But week after week, "Kraft Television Theatre" mounted the most ambitious productions ever seen on television, including the sinking of the Titanic in Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" on that stage in 1956.**

Normally, "Kraft" employed four cameras and rarely had a back-up. If a camera went down, the director was suddenly doing a three-camera show and all his carefully planned 'blocking' was suddenly out the window. One of the cameras was also required to do the live Kraft commercials. With about two minutes to go, one of the cameras was 'released' and pushed out of the studio and down the hall to a small commercial studio where announcer Ed Herlihy would share stomach-churning recipes involving miniature marshmallows and Velveeta.

The next time I saw Studio 8-H was about 1955 and it was also the home of "Your Hit Parade", (at that time) starring Gisele MacKenzie, Russell Arms, Dorothy Collins and Snooky Lanson. The show was already in trouble; they were doing the same squeaky-clean 50's songs ("How Much is that Doggie in the Window") week after week because rock & roll was rapidly taking over the music industry and they simply could not (and would not) perform the new hits.

The next time I saw Studio 8-H, the music battle had already been won and the studio was now home to "Hullabaloo", NBC's go-go answer to the wildly popular "Shindig" on ABC. It had oddball musical guests but the primary interest was the Hullabaloo dancers, especially the "girl in the cage". But 8-H was also sometimes home to Gene Rayburn and "The Match Game" and Merv Griffin's "Play Your Hunch".

But the show that will forever be most associated with Studio 8-H, where it began and where it continues to this day is "Saturday Night Live".


*When, many years later, the original recordings made there were transferred to digital, engineers heard a strange humming sound in the background. Isolating the sound, they realized it was Toscanini humming the score as he conducted the orchestra.

** Imagine just the problem of transporting and controlling thousands of gallons of water in a television studio on the eighth floor of a Manhattan skyscraper. Add eight large sets, seven cameras and over 100 actors and you begin to see the logistics problems.