TFTP On This Day: "Today" from NBC (Feb. 22, 1982)

Posted to YouTube by user 'AmpexQuad'
Length - 3:21

It Was 36 Years Ago Today: This brief clip from the "Today" show--from 36 years ago today, on February 22, 1982--was from very early in Bryant Gumbel's tenure as "Today" host. He'd become Jane Pauley's co-host (replacing Tom Brokaw, who'd been promoted to "NBC Nightly News" anchor) only about a month-and-a-half earlier, on January 4, 1982. (Pauley was in her sixth year hosting, having started in 1976.)

Pauley recounts some information about how men's hair and whiskers grow faster in the spring, following up on a comment about how she'd had a sneak preview of spring on a trip south a few days before. Weatherman and sidekick Willard Scott participates as well, and he seems tickled by the fact that spring might make his toupee'd head grow hair faster. Taken from old Ampex quad video tape, the footage repeats twice, the second time without any sound.

TFTP On This Day: "Camel News Caravan" from NBC (Sep. 19, 1952)

Posted to YouTube by user 'Ben Model'

It Was 65 Years Ago Today: "Camel News Caravan" was the first high-profile television news program. Before its Feburary 1949 debut (and in some respects for some time afterwards), TV news consisted largely of broadcasts of newsreels produced for movie theaters or very brief broadcasts (usually five-minutes long) of readings of headlines. There are some of those things in "Camel News Caravan", but it was nonetheless a pioneering news program for a few reasons--because of its longtime sponsorship by Camel cigarettes; because of its increasingly televisual presentational style; and because of its anchor, John Cameron Swayze, who became the first well-known TV newsman.

In this particular day's newscast, the lead news is the brouhaha related to then-Vice Presidential nominee Richard Nixon's allegedly improper use of campaign funds. This incident would result a few days afterwards (on Sep. 23) in the TV broadcast of Nixon's famous "Checkers speech". Other stories featured in this newscast include a new military base in Greenland, an earthquake on Wake Island in the Pacific, and the latest in women's fashions.

There's much here that looks somewhat odd to us now. Having a sponsored newscast is incredibly jarring now, especially with it being a cigarette brand like Camel. The presentational style seems a bit stilted, and it's clear that given the newsgathering practices at the time that the stories presented in this newscast aren't exactly breaking news.

TFTP On This Day: "The Today Show" w/ coverage of shooting of George Wallace, from NBC (May 16, 1972)

Posted to YouTube by user 'NewsActive3'

It Was 44 Years Ago Today: On May 15, 1972, an assassination attempt was made on Alabama Governor and '72 presidential candidate George Wallace. This program is the following morning's episode of the "Today" show on NBC, from May 16, 1972--44 years ago today--most of which was given over to coverage of the event.

"Today" celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1972, having pioneered the early-morning news program with its premiere in January 1952. The program moved back and forth in these years from a harder news emphasis and a more varied mix of news and lighter fare; at this point in the early-1970s, "Today" was in one of its newsier phases, even discounting the extra emphasis on hard news in this episode due to the Wallace shooting.

In 1972, "Today" was co-hosted by Frank McGee, a longtime NBC newsman and one of the reasons the show was in a newsier phase at the time, and Barbara Walters, who was still on the upward trajectory of her legendary career but who had been with the "Today" show for about a decade by this point. (We see them in separate locations in this episode due to the ongoing events of the Wallace shooting and Walters' coverage of the '72 presidential primaries.) Frank Blair reads the news--a job he had had since nearly the beginning of "Today" in 1953. The "Today" we see here is vastly different than the "Today" of today. From the sets and the graphics, to the tone of the proceedings and the atmosphere of the program, this is a fascinating look at the "Today" show of 44 years ago today.