Tag Archives: NBC

September 30, 2013 · 9:08 pm

This Day in History 10/1: The first Tonight Show appearance of Johnny Carson

I don’t usually watch late night television…and mostly because Johnny Carson isn’t a part of it.

On October 1, 1962, temporary host Groucho Marx introduced the new permanent host of NBC’s Tonight Show, a shy midwesterner named Johnny Carson. For the next 30 years, Carson ruled late night as his own personal empire, and in my opinion, was the greatest late-night host of all time.

Looking back at old Tonight Show episodes, you can see not only how good he was, but how incredibly dumb today’s late-night hosts have become. Carson was crude, dirty and lewd without uttering a word. His very mannerisms could cause a filthy snicker. Carson also had a knack for letting the guests shine, inserting himself only to help the guest or as an affable comic foil.

Most importantly, the guy was cool. He was real, real cool. Even with among the most controversial intellectuals of the twentieth century, he was cool.

I attached the first appearance of Ayn Rand on the Tonight Show in 1967. Rand was invited back two more times to the show. It’s basically a conversation between Carson and Rand on objectivism, capitalism, rationality…even Ed McMahon joins the conversation.

Forget about your own opinions on Rand: I’m mixed on her, to be honest. Just name one show on late night today that would have such an intellectual conversation for over 20 minutes of airtime.

…and we wonder why our kids can’t think critically.

NBC Education Nation Summit: “Waiting for Superman” and Teacher Town Hall

The blind and dumb leading the blinder and dumber, courtesy of MSNBC.com

I couldn’t participate in yesterday’s Teacher Town Hall for NBC’s Education Nation, and I blame Blighter for it.

The Ozymandia blogger and my good friend was married on Saturday, and let’s just say I enjoyed myself a little too much to be involved in any serious discussion on education issues.

Yesterday, at NBC’s Education Nation Summit at Rockefeller Center, featured special Meet the Press panel, a panel discussion about the upcoming school reform documentary Waiting for Superman, as well as the Teacher Town Hall I missed. They’re both linked below, but some things of note:

Randi Weingarten needed some real coaching in that discussion. It’s amazing, and downright insulting, that we send a non-teacher up to defend one of the oldest professions in civilization. You can’t go up against Canada and Rhee, the education golden-children, looking like a shrill Teamster’s wife on the picket line.
Geoffrey Canada, Harlem education entrepreneur, has enjoyed enormous success, which should be applauded. But how many of us have the financial resources he has to do the outside-the-box stuff that works in his situation?
Michelle Rhee comes off as a complete whiner and a bad loser. She whines about lawsuits, AFT support of her boss’ opponent in the DC mayors’ race, the fact that a democratic government hamstrings her efforts. C’mon…cowboy up and face reality: you had the White House, the US Department of Education and the reform movement behind you. Don’t whine about losing an election: those are the breaks. Man up and deal.
In a part of the Teacher Town Hall, where a teacher (young, maybe TFA?) gets up and says teachers “should be under attack…we should be held accountable…you’re not in this for the money”, she just sounds like a TFA shill. Furthermore, she should face political and economic reality. You will NEVER attract the best teachers with salaries not commensurate with other professions, nor will you attract them with the flimsy education requirements of graduate schools.
The fact that teacher/bloggers such as Deven Black, Ira Socol, Sabrina and yours truly–teacher/journalists that not only stick their neck out on education “reform”, but also teach as well–were so underrepresented boggles the mind. Not to toot my own horn, of course.

Below are the links to each of these pieces, so take a look for yourselves, and be as liberal as you want with your opinions:

MSNBC “Waiting for Superman” Panel discussion

Part II of “Superman” Panel discussion

Part III of “Superman” Panel discussion

Part IV of “Superman” Panel discussion

Part V of “Superman” Panel discussion

MSNBC Teacher Town Hall: “Are teachers under attack?”

MSNBC Teacher Town Hall in its Entirety

This Day in History 9/7: Philo Farnsworth and the birth of Television

It’s been very busy around here, what with Hurricane Earl putting a damper on my beach vacation, the start of school and a presentation that I need to get done. Yet today marks an anniversary worth celebrating, as well as some video worth showing to your classroom.

On September 7, 1927, Philo Farnsworth, an American inventor and scientist, sent the first all-electronic television signal through a tube called an “image dissector.” The image broadcast was nothing more than a straight line, but the developments on that early image would signal the beginning of the television age some 20 years later. Farnsworth has often had to fight for his place among television’s great pioneers, especially his chief rivals Vladimir Zworykin and John Logie Baird.

Today, many Americans recognize Farnsworth as one of television’s “founding fathers,” so to speak.

The video we share shows how early television affected national and world events. It is highlights of NBC’s coverage of the 1948 Presidential election between incumbent Harry Truman and Republican challenger Thomas Dewey. Clearly, this video can be saved for civics/government lessons to show how political coverage has changed over the decades.

Beyond the obvious differences in picture and voice, take note of the recording quality for your students. Early television was always live, broadcast on a kinoscope for immediate viewing. To record anything, you had to point a movie camera in front of the television set to record the program. It wouldn’t be until the mid-1950s when producers like Desi Arnaz pioneered the practice of filming television broadcasts as if they were movies–this is why reruns of I Love Lucy and other shows of the time appear so crisp and sharp.

Have fun, and enjoy the beginning of school.