Happy Hitchcock Halloween!

On April 13, 1958 Alfred Hitchcock Presents aired "Lamb to the Slaughter," which would become one of the series' classic shows, featured on the newly released Season Three DVD.



Listen to producer Norman Lloyd discussing this episode (spoiler alert!) and his work as a producer and director on the series two minutes into tape 4 of his interview (click the arrow above).

October 22, 1962: JFK Addresses the Nation about the Cuban Missile Crisis

Forty five years ago, the U.S. and the Soviet Union nearly went to war over the placement of missiles in nearby Cuba. Kennedy told the television audience that he would "...regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union." The crisis was abated when an unconditional Soviet withdrawal was negotiated.

Soundbites from the Archive of American Television:

Max Schindler (Director, News)

“We all knew that something was happening because people were being called away from parties here in town. Very high placed government officials were being called away. We knew it was serious when they started showing pictures of missile silos opening, we thought Washington would be, probably a prime target because it was very serious. Here was this young President Kennedy facing off with Nikita Khrushchev. And I guess he wanted to push to see how hard he could get this young president to back off. Kennedy said the missiles had to be taken out of Cuba, Khrushchev said nyet, no way. And there were Russian ships steaming toward Cuba, or as Kennedy used to say ‘Cuber.’ It was kind of a scary time, and I don’t know how it was around the rest of the country, but in Washington it was very scary. My daughter had just been born a couple of months earlier, and because of a death in the family, she hadn’t been baptized and I came home one night and my wife said to me I baptized Maggie in her crib, she was that scared that we were going to have a nuclear war at that time. So it was a very scary time here in Washington… The coverage was all kind of secretive. We followed a lot of government officials around and tried to get information from them, but it was very hard. It was a very trying time, but they didn’t want to give any information out so, even though we had camera crews at the White House, and State Department, and the Pentagon and all over, we didn’t really get much out of them. They played it pretty close to the vest during that time and I can’t say as I blame them.”

Click here to watch Max Schindler's entire 6-part Archive of American Television Interview.

Interview Description:
Schindler talked briefly about his early years as a cameraman/production manager in local television in the 1950s. He described his entrance into network television in the 1960s on David Brinkley’s Journal, as an associate director. He spoke of his transition to director and talked about coverage done for several of the important news events of the day, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War. He described directing news coverage following the Kennedy assassination and capturing the images of the President’s coffin being placed onto Air Force One and the newly sworn-in Lyndon B. Johnson coming out to speak his first words as President. Schindler described covering other ‘60s events including Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech and the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests. He described in great detail, his two-decade long association with Meet The Press, which he began in 1965. Schindler described preparing for the show and talked about several of the guests who appeared as well as describing the moderators on the series. Schindler described his work from the 1970s to today covering such events as the Watergate scandal, the returning of the hostages from Iran, and Papal visits to the U.S. Finally, Schindler described the work he has done as a Washington director for the Today show, which he has done from 1975 to the present day.

Bill Monroe (News Correspondent)

“We didn’t quite know what was going on… Gradually it came into view. We took what we could find out from the White House and Kennedy used the media to get across the points he needed to make as the thing developed.”

“One time I was at the White House as a producer of a speech that Kennedy gave that was on all three networks. And he told us to give him at the end of the speech a one-minute cue… He was going to improvise the last minute. He felt that reading something, although he was good at it, is not as effective as if he talk[ed] to [the viewer] directly. And he wanted to finish one minute improvised. Most Presidents don’t have the nerve to do that… He was supremely confident about his articulateness and his ability to handle television.”

60 Years Ago — October 20, 1947 — The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) Began Its Probe That Resulted in The Hollywood Blacklist

“Television Responds to the Red Scare”
By Gary Rutkowski

American television production, halted in its infancy before World War II, continued full-force with the four networks— ABC, CBS, NBC, and DuMont— scheduling programs regularly. Soon after, in 1950, they also began consulting an independently published booklet entitled “Red Channels,” which listed alleged Communists or sympathizers who were not to be employed on television: a blacklist.

With the beginning of the Cold War a strong Anti-Communist wind blew into postwar America and it was exploited. The era would be defined by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, whose manipulation of public opinion intensified the “red scare.” The “scare” was rooted in two sets of hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 and 1951 which targeted (but was not limited to) the Hollywood film, television, and radio communities. After the first, ten men (dubbed the “Hollywood Ten”), mostly screenwriters, were imprisoned for not cooperating with the committee, having not “named names” of other members of the Communist party of “leftist” organizations.

Many of these and other blacklisted writers found a safe haven in television— writing under pseudonyms and fronts. Others, such as performers and directors, found they could not work at all. Careers were ruined and lives were shattered in a time when any left wing political association, no matter how tenuous, could be considered subversive.

Television provided the first expose of the hysteria with Edward R. Murrow’s 1954 CBS “See It Now” broadcast “A Report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy,” which weakened McCarthy’s credibility by offering film clips of his own misstatements and half-truths. McCarthy received equal time on “See It Now,” only damaging himself further. In a related press conference, Murrow said: “Who has helped the Communist cause and who has served his country better, Senator McCarthy or I? I would like to be remembered by the answer to that question.” Weeks later, ABC and DuMont aired the “Army-McCarthy Hearings,” further weakening McCarthyism’s stronghold.

The blacklist came to an end in the early sixties, after McCarthy’s death, when several producers insisted that writers from the “Hollywood Ten” receive screen credit under their real names again. In 1997, on the 50th anniversary of the first HUAC hearings, formal apologies were given to blacklisted artists by such organizations as the DGA, the WGA, SAG and AFTRA.

(Reprinted from The Vault: The Journal of the Archive of American Television, Winter 2000.)

Selected Soundbites from the Archive of American Television Collection:

Ring Lardner, Jr. (Writer, blacklisted, one of the “Hollywood Ten”)

“HUAC Chairman [J. Parnell Thomas] said: 'That’s enough, skip to the $64,000 question. Go ahead.' He turned it over to the committee counsel who then said: 'All right, Mr. Lardner, are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?' I said, 'I can answer that question, too, but I’d like to explain.' Thomas said: 'Never mind explaining anything.' I said one other thing, and he said: 'Come on, answer the question, any real American would be happy to answer that question.' And I said, 'I could answer it the way you want it, Mr. Chairman, but if I did, I’d hate myself in the morning.' He said: 'Leave the witness chair. Take him away.' I said, 'I think I’m being removed by force.' And I was indeed.”

Roy Huggins (Show Creator/Producer/Director, “friendly” witness)

"[HUAC] asking me for names that they already had was a violation of their mandate from Congress and so I felt that it was wrong for me to cooperate with them. I didn't think it was wrong to give them names although I would rather not have. But giving them names they already had didn't strike me as being a horrible deed. But cooperating with them, with this loose canon committee that was violating its mandate from Congress and violating my rights was, was really not the right thing to do. But I decided that I was going to cooperate with them and I was also going to state that I felt what they were doing was wrong."

Abraham Polonsky (Writer-Director, blacklisted)

"I was subpoenaed [and] I stood on the Fifth and wouldn’t answer any questions…. I got a letter from a college here recently, and the letter said: “ what is the thing you’re proudest of?” And I wrote back and said, when the U.S. Government pushed me, I pushed back.” And the kid wrote back: 'That’s why we love you!'"

Tony Randall (Actor)

"Everybody was cleared through that man [Vincent] Hartnett [“Red Channels” author]. He made a living from clearing people. People made money out of the blacklist. And the worst blacklisters were actors who turned in other actors and got their jobs. It was a devastating disclosure of human nature."

Joseph Wershba (CBS News Reporter/News Producer)

"What Murrow did was to hurl the spear that broke open this whole boiling fear in the American body politic where it wasn't a question of whether this was going to be constitutional or that was going to be, the question was going to be whether we have a government at all based on a constitution."

Leonard Goldenson (Executive/Founder ABC)

"We couldn't afford it. It cost us about $600,000 to run that [coverage of the Army-McCarthy hearings] gavel to gavel, but when that was over, that was good-bye Mr. McCarthy. The public turned on him. And properly so."

Ring Lardner Jr.'s entire six-part Archive interview is now online.

Interview Description:

Ring Lardner, Jr. (1915-2000) described his work as a screenwriter and one of the most closely identified victims of the Hollywood blacklist. Mr. Lardner described his career as a writer on such films as A Star Is Born (1937), in which he contributed the movie’s famous ending; Woman of the Year (1942), for which he and co-writer Michael Kanin won an Academy Award; and Laura (1944), the classic film noir for which he contributed uncredited. He described the Hollywood “red scare” which halted his career and placed him on an industry blacklist. He described his testimony as an “unfriendly” witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) that landed him in jail as one of the “Hollywood Ten.” He spoke in detail about his work in television, which he did under pseudonym during the blacklist era, working on such series as The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-58), The Buccaneers (1956-57), The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-57), and Ivanhoe (1958). Mr. Lardner talked about his emergence from the blacklist in the mid-sixties that culminated with his win of the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for M*A*S*H (1970).

Composer Mike Post's Archive of American Television Interview is Online!

Mike Post, who composed the theme songs for Hill Street Blues, The Greatest American Hero, and L. A. Law, and many others spoke about his long and distinguished career in music composition. Post was one of the featured composer's last night at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences evening "Another Opening Another Show" which celebrated TV Theme Music. Among the other composers in attendance were Archive interviewees Earle Hagen and Vic Mizzy (to be posted online soon).

Click here to watch Mike Post's 3-hour Archive of American Television interview (in 6 parts).

Interview Description:
Mike Post was interviewed for nearly three hours in Burbank, CA. Post talked about his early interests in music and his formative years as a studio musician. He discussed his first big break in television as the musical director of the newly revamped The Andy Williams Show (1969-71), making him the youngest person to have that title at the time. He discussed his longtime partnership with Pete Carpenter and their collaborative efforts on many of the major dramatic shows of the 1970s and ‘80s. He spoke about his chance meeting with Stephen J. Cannell that led to his extensive work with Cannell and his colleagues Dick Wolf and Steven Bochco. He described the work of a television composer as someone who layers their art on another’s in a true spirit of collaboration. He outlined his compositions and memorable theme songs for such series as The Rockford Files, Hill Street Blues, The Greatest American Hero, L.A. Law, Cop Rock (theme by Randy Newman) and Law & Order. He was interviewed on May 25, 2005 by Stephen J. Abramson.

"Leave it to Beaver" Celebrates 50 Years

Here's a note we received from Archive interviewee Jerry Mathers regarding Leave it to Beaver's 50th Anniversary -- which is October 4th!

From Jerry Mathers:

Leave it to Beaver is celebrating it's 50th anniversary on October 4th! Please join me in watching Tom Bergeron interview my tv family and friends, Barbara Billingsley, Tony Dow, Ken Osmond, Frank Bank and of course me, on Good Morning America (Ch. 7) on Thursday, October 4th at 7:00 am.

And, we are also scheduled to be on the KTLA Morning News "live" (Ch. 5) on Friday, October 5th between 8 and 10 am. TV Land will be hosting a 24 hour LITB marathon beginning on Saturday, October 6th at 8:00pm ET/PT concluding on Sunday, October 7th at 8:00pm ET/PT. The marathon includes the rarely seen 1957 pilot entitled "It's a Small World."

Press release info

TV Land marathon link

Barbara Billingsley's (June Cleaver) Archive of American Television interview is also online. Click here to access.