[vikmars]

Last night NBC showed the very first episode of SNL, hosted by George Carlin as a tribute to the late comedian.


Considering the original video is from 1975, I thought the upconvert on the HD feed was quite nice. It was much nicer than some of the other upconvert jobs I've seen on other networks. I thought it was much nicer than FOX Widescreen during sporting events. Was it shot on 35 mm?

 

[mgpt6]

RCA TK--44 cameras from studio 8-H.

 

[vertigo235]



Quote:
Originally Posted by vikmars /forum/post/14185608


Last night NBC showed the very first episode of SNL, hosted by George Carlin as a tribute to the late comedian.


Considering the original video is from 1975, I thought the upconvert on the HD feed was quite nice. It was much nicer than some of the other upconvert jobs I've seen on other networks. I thought it was much nicer than FOX Widescreen during sporting events. Was it shot on 35 mm?

Well, you may have allready realized this, but considering the show is LIVE, it would be impossible to be 35mm.

 

[HDTVChallenged]

Doh!!

1) All I can say is TV (technology) has come a long way baby.


2) Was it just me or did they edit (blank out) a good portion of Chevy's postage stamp joke?


3) Did they really string a mic cable out into a restroom?

 

[TVOD]

The 44s looked pretty good, and also there was no visible banding from the 2" recording.

 

[HDTVChallenged]

Lots and lots of edge enhancement a/o ghosting + color separation, plus somebody apparently drew on one of the camera lenses with a pink/red sharpie (or similar implement.) ... The audio sounded like it was recorded with a tin can and string, hideous but typical.


PS: Now I remember why pre-recorded VHS tapes seemed (upon their arrival) to be a vast improvement over "regular" TV.

 

[jwebb1970]

As to the audio/video issues....hey, this was from 1975. And obviously not a show that the netowrk spent too much $$ on.


Was nice to see the original cast again. Not the greatest ep from the seminal group, but still cool to see. When it was still "NBC's Saturday Night", the show had a much looser, almost variety show vibe.


It's come a long way since then, for better or worse.

 

[foxeng]



Quote:
Originally Posted by HDTVChallenged /forum/post/14189933


plus somebody apparently drew on one of the camera lenses with a pink/red sharpie (or similar implement.) ...

Remember the 44's were tube cameras and if you put a tube camera into the lights, it would burn in. That was where someone had panned the camera through a light and it burned. You used to see that all the time before solid state cameras.


As for the quality, yeah, you could tell it was shot cheap. The video tape didn't seem to survive very well over the years, but considering what they had at the time comparied to today, it looked remarkablely well. Not as good as some of the other video from the time like Flip Wilson or even Laugh-In, but it sure was nice to see "New Dad" again!! I had forgotten about that one.

 

[Argee]

How many people that were on that show are dead now? Billy Preston, Carlin, Belushi, Radner, Kaufmann, Jim Henson. Any others?

 

[jwebb1970]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Argee /forum/post/14190729


How many people that were on that show are dead now? Billy Preston, Carlin, Belushi, Radner, Kaufmann, Jim Henson. Any others?

Last time I saw Chevy Chase on TV, he looked like he could have been.


Ackroyd, OTOH, will never die.

 

[scowl]



Quote:
Originally Posted by foxeng /forum/post/14190233


Remember the 44's were tube cameras and if you put a tube camera into the lights, it would burn in. That was where someone had panned the camera through a light and it burned. You used to see that all the time before solid state cameras.

One classic SNL moment was when Bill Murray took a flash picture of the audience during Weekend Update. It left a nice purple/red splosh on the screen for the rest of the segment. I don't know if they swapped the camera out during the show (was there a way fix this without taking the camera apart?) but they were very upset that he did this without checking with them.

 

[TVOD]



Quote:
Originally Posted by HDTVChallenged /forum/post/14189933


Lots and lots of edge enhancement a/o ghosting + color separation, plus somebody apparently drew on one of the camera lenses with a pink/red sharpie (or similar implement.) ... The audio sounded like it was recorded with a tin can and string, hideous but typical.


PS: Now I remember why pre-recorded VHS tapes seemed (upon their arrival) to be a vast improvement over "regular" TV.

Edge enhancement, or more accurately detail enhancement aka contours, was common in those days. Most TVs still used notch filters, so most people saw around not much over 200 lines of resolution (TVL). Because the monitors were softer to begin with (from notch filters) VCs tended to add more enhancement.


Any camera operator in those days knew that aiming a camera into the lights was a cardinal sin. Tubes could be permanently damaged and cost $2000 per channel. It was common to white card a camera with a burn to attempt to purge it.


It's fun for me to see these images as I remember when each network's cameras looked different. This SNL was the classic NBC RCA look. Now NBC, ABC and CBS networks all use Sony cameras in their studios. I think Fox uses Thomson GV LDKs.


There's still many VCs using too much enhancement, so I guess not everything has changed.