See It Now, which is the television answer to Hear It Now, is one of the earliest documentary series on television and a trailblazer for modern broadcast journalism via Edward R. Murrow.
Both Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly made an arrangement with the Hearst Metrotone News series from MGM for technical services and film library footage as needed for See It Now.
Unlike other news programs using newsreel companies to record events, See It Now utilized its own camera crews to coordinate filming on location.
Plus, See It Now had no rehearsed interviews, plus no background music to accompany the visuals.
Although See It Now relied on news correspondents from around the world, the first autonomous news unit was organized by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly.
Don Hewitt, Joseph Wershba and Palmer Williams were involved in the first autonomous news unit for See It Now, which Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly organized.
For its debut, See It Now presented the first simultaneous live transmission from both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on a commercial television program.
Prior to Edward R. Murrow, television news was split into (and heavily influenced by) three separate formulas:
- Newsreels are short snippets of the news events from around the world which are pre-recorded (often curated or staged) and being offered to movie theatres.
- Documentaries, on film/radio, take an in-depth look at controversial or inspirational subjects.
- Radio news are early television newscasts, with anchors delivering the day's news stories in an unseen audio form, with limited (and often static) visuals.
Due to Edward R. Murrow, newsreels, documentaries and radio newscasts forged television news.
Edward R. Murrow's See It Now forges on-location visuals (newsreels) with investigative and in-depth reports (documentaries) and an authoritative anchor delivery (refined from radio).
Studio 41, which was at Grand Central Terminal, housed the CBS Television control room, which was being used for Edward R. Murrow's See It Now.
Person to Person, which Edward R. Murrow had also hosted, features celebrities in their homes from a comfortable chair in his New York studio, pioneering the celebrity interview concept.
One of the noted guests on the original Person to Person version is the sex icon Marilyn Monroe.
Marilyn Monroe was on Edward R. Murrow's original Person to Person version, the broadcast of which emanated from the home of her business partner and photographer Milton Greene.
During this Person to Person broadcast, Marilyn Monroe promoted her mid-1950's film The Seven Year Itch, which is one of her best and most famous films.
Marilyn Monroe wears a white dress being used in the best-known scene of The Seven Year Itch.
In the best-known scene of The Seven Year Itch, Marilyn Monroe's white skirt is being blown up by a subway grate wind, conveying a hot, sexy and charismatic side.
Ever since her 1962 death, the iconic and famous white skirt in Marilyn Monroe's The Seven Year Itch motion picture, where it's blown by a subway grate, has been depicted, represented and imitated.
September 1954 is when Marilyn Monroe's iconic and famous scene, in which her white dress is being blown by a subway grate, was originally shot in New York for The Seven Year Itch.
For Marilyn Monroe's flying white skirt scene in The Seven Year Itch, its location is outside the former Trans-Lux Theatre on Lexington Avenue in New York.
Likewise, in September 1954, Marilyn Monroe also makes 2 kisses being blown to the cameras for The Seven Year Itch, using the hand first, then her lips, with hot and sexy charisma.
Idlewild Airport houses Marilyn Monroe's 2 kisses to the cameras for The Seven Year Itch in 1954.
Ever since her 1962 death, the iconic and famous 2 Idlewild kisses to the cameras in Marilyn Monroe's The Seven Year Itch film has also been depicted, represented and imitated, like her white dress.
Marilyn Monroe's flying white dress scene and her 2 Idlewild kisses being blown to the cameras, both behind the scenes for The Seven Year Itch in 1954, are two of her most enduring and sexiest pics.
In addition, Marilyn Monroe's flying white skirt and her 2 Idlewild kisses to the cameras, both for The Seven Year Itch, are two of the most famous pop culture pics ever, also sexy ones.
Overall, mid-September 1954 (late-summer 1954) is when Marilyn Monroe's white dress scene and her kisses to the cameras, both for The Seven Year Itch, convey hot and sexy youth.
Edward R. Murrow starts his London reports with "This is London," with an emphasis on "This."
The iconic sign-off for Edward R. Murrow is "Good night, and good luck."
60 Minutes (CBS) is the spiritual (and professional) heir to two of the innovative and groundbreaking television programs being hosted by Edward R. Murrow: See It Now and Person to Person.
20/20 is ABC's answer to 60 Minutes (CBS), doubling as the first news-oriented program being made under the sports-heavy visionary Roone Arledge.
Despite its unsuccessful first edition, 20/20 (ABC) became a success by pairing the Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters duo, both from Today (NBC), as its hosts.
PrimeTime Live (ABC) is a companion along with 20/20 (ABC), the last news-oriented program being created by Roone Arledge.
Roone Arledge, incidentally, created both 20/20 (ABC) and PrimeTime Live (ABC) in 1978 and 1989.
Hugh Downs, incidentally, was part of the Chicago School of Television, along with Dave Garroway.
For his own Garroway at Large television program, Dave Garroway defied television's early theatrical conventions for a more casual approach, in which the reality of the studio was acknowledged.
Using one camera, Dave Garroway walked around large studios and simple abstract sets as he directly talked to guests and television viewers for his eponymous Garroway at Large program.
Early-morning television was Pat Weaver's innovative, but controversial dream for a few years, and he tapped Dave Garroway from Chicago to make this dream real.
Pat Weaver's successful dream of an early-morning television program was called Today (NBC).
When Today (NBC) began, television was completely absent from the early-morning hours, and critics believed that no one watched TV while getting ready for work.
Just before Today (NBC), Pat Weaver was also trying to find a location for its studio.
Situated in the Rockefeller Centre complex, the RCA Exhibition Hall is based directly across from the iconic and famous headquarters of the Associated Press at 50 Rockefeller Plaza.
Contrasting to the iconic headquarters of the Associated Press, which represented print journalism, the RCA Exhibition Hall represented electronic media's fluid and transparent future.
Using the RCA Exhibition Hall as Pat Weaver's choice, Today (NBC) was unconventional.
During the early-1950's era, parts of the floor of the RCA Exhibition Hall were being converted into an early studio space for Today (NBC).
Inside the RCA Exhibition Hall floor, portions of which were converted into the first studio location for Today (NBC), was a room evoking the Associated Press bullpen at 50 Rock.
Blending print journalism's industrial past (via the 50 Rock hub of the Associated Press) with electronic media's transparent future (via the RCA Exhibition Hall), the Today (NBC) bullpen was innovative.
Undoing the past, the blueprint of this unique room in the RCA Exhibition Hall for Today (NBC) under Dave Garroway/Pat Weaver birthed modern broadcast design elements.
Elements of this first Today (NBC) studio under Dave Garroway/Pat Weaver included newsroom-as-set trends, street-side studios, news tickers and clock displays.
This borderless room, which was located inside the RCA Exhibition Hall for Today (NBC) under Dave Garroway/Pat Weaver, was created in-house by NBC's engineering and production teams.
RCA's corporate exhibition teams shaped the layout/design of the first Today (NBC) studio.
Just before (and even after) the newsroom-as-set trends being influenced by Dave Garroway, television news set designs across North America have three separate formulas:
- News anchors sitting at one desk in a studio with a claustrophobic feel behind blank walls
- Journalists working in a newsroom/bullpen being filled with teletype machines and noises
- Technical staff operating in a dark and windowless control room, featuring monitor banks
However, Dave Garroway's innovations, including Garroway at Large and Today (NBC), tore down the walls, mixing the main stage (news desk) with the backstage workspace (bullpen/control room).
Whereas Studio 41's control room at Grand Central for Edward R. Murrow's See It Now (CBS) had an isolated and enclosed approach, the RCA Exhibition Hall for Today (NBC) was more dynamic.
Ever since, 60 Minutes (CBS) has usually used chroma key technology to place its signature black and open-magazine graphics behind journalists during intros and story transitions.
Journalists stand/sit in front of a blue/green backdrop in the studio for 60 Minutes (CBS).
Control room equipment digitally replaces the solid chroma key colour background with the iconic and famous branding for 60 Minutes (CBS), graphics and story previews.
20/20 (ABC), during the Roone Arledge era, used a multi-monitor control room, similar to Studio 41's control room at Grand Central Terminal for Edward R. Murrow's See It Now (CBS).
Plus, the studio set for 20/20 (ABC), under Roone Arledge, had a working newsroom feel.
Dateline is NBC's response to both 60 Minutes (CBS) and 20/20 (ABC).
For Dateline NBC, during its early years (and its peak), it incorporated trappings being associated with ABC News under Roone Arledge, like Stone Phillips, Jeff Diamond and Neal Shapiro.
Stone Phillips, Jeff Diamond and Neal Shapiro came from Roone Arledge's news magazines: 2020 and PrimeTime Live, both from ABC News, to mastermind Dateline NBC.
In addition, Dateline NBC has David Rummel from 60 Minutes (CBS).
Panorama is the longest-running television news magazine/current affairs program in the world.
The BBC is the main incubator for Panorama.
Having begun its run in 1953, Panorama (BBC) initially had breakdowns.
Under Grace Wyndham Goldie, Panormaa (BBC) was relaunched, with Richard Dimbleby as its main anchor.
