TFTP Game Shows: "Shadow Stumpers" from WAAM/Baltimore (c. early-1950s)

Posted to YouTube by user 'ClassicTVshows'

From the days when local stations produced programs for their local audiences in genres such as the game show, "Shadow Stumpers" is a fascinating example of a game show premise and of game play specifics very unlike other game shows, before or since.

Aired on WAAM (now WJZ) in Baltimore, and hosted by Brent Gunts, who was apparently sort of an impresario of local Baltimore TV, the show has a delightfully quaint pace and tone. Two families compete by guessing what an object is from a silhouetted shadow of the item; points are given for each correct guess, but that's mostly beside the point, as the purpose here is to showcase the wholesome family members (especially the kids) and highlight the interchanges between Gunt and family members. A family living-room set further enhances the tone.

Before program syndication became prevalent and networks took over almost every spare hour of a local affiliate's schedule, local stations used to produce programs in many genres--weekday talk shows, afternoon teenage dance parties, kids' programs--but relatively few ever attempted a local game show (outside of the high-school knowledge bowl variety, at least). "Shadow Stumpers" is one of those rare attempts.

The YouTube posting of this episode is labeled as being from 1962, but this is a mislabeling, as the program aired in Baltimore from approximately 1949 until 1953.

TFTP Special: TV Test Patterns (1950s/1960s)

Posted to YouTube by user 'MSTS1'

For today's Labor Day holiday, we've got a post that will give the normal old TV clips the day off. This is not a TV program clip per se, but it is a type of TV content from the past that was very prevalent in TV's early days and has completely disappeared now: the TV test pattern.

Test patterns were used by television engineers to make sure that the transmitted and televised image being broadcast was adequate from a technical standpoint. This is why these test patterns have the patterns of lines of different thicknesses and lengths, the concentric circles, the areas of different gradations of shading--so that engineers could tweak settings and make adjustments prior to a station signing on for the broadcast day.

The test patterns featured here are reproduced from versions found in print books, but since they were a stationary element they are more or less as viewers would have seen them on the air. Test patterns would have appeared for anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours before the station actually signed on with programming (which in the early days of TV may not be until mid-morning, midday, or even in the earliest days early-evening). Most test patterns had call letters or some other identifying mark for the station, as can be seen in most of the test patterns featured in this clip; these are all from varying periods in the 1950s and 1960s.