The Wizard of Odds is an American game show hosted by Alex Trebek that aired on NBC from July 16, 1973 to June 28, 1974 in which people from the studio audience vied in a number of rounds, primarily games revolving around statistical questions. Sam Riddle was the show's first announcer; toward the end of the run, Charlie O'Donnell replaced him.
Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC. The series aired from December 4, 1947 to April 11, 1948. The program was in cooperation with the National Theater and Academy, a federally sponsored theater group, and featured live performances of plays, some of which were by well-known authors.
The first presentation was The Last of My Solid Gold Watchers by Tennessee Williams. Each episode was 30 minutes long, and featured actors and actresses who had not reached stardom. A wide variety of plays was presented on the program. Although short-lived, the "live play" format later became very popular during the early 1950s.
In Wine Country is a lifestyle television show originating from NBC's owned-and-operated station in San Jose, California, KNTV, which serves the San Francisco Bay Area, and also airs throughout the country on the network's "Nonstop" digital subchannels and as part of the overnight schedule early Sunday mornings over the main NBC television network.
In Wine Country debuted as "Wine Country Living" in January of 2002 after KNTV became an NBC affiliate. It changed its title to the current "In Wine Country" in September of 2004.
The program is hosted by Mary Babbitt and mainly deals with topics pertaining to wine and life in California's Napa Valley, along with other American wine-producing regions.
Just Because: Tales of Violence, Dreams of Peace is a violence prevention film for teenagers showing an unflinching portrait of gang violence and its wide-ranging consequences.
Sunday Night, later named Michelob Presents Night Music, is a late-night television show which aired for two seasons between 1988 and 1990 as a showcase for jazz and eclectic musical artists. It was hosted by Jools Holland and David Sanborn, and featured Marcus Miller as musical director. Guests included acts such as Sonny Rollins, Shinehead, Sister Carol, Sonic Youth, Joe Sample, Slim Gaillard, Elliott Sharp, Pere Ubu, Pharoah Sanders, and many others. In addition, vintage clips of jazz legends like Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, and Billie Holiday were also featured. The show also featured a house band of Omar Hakim, Marcus Miller, Philippe Saisse, David Sanborn, Hiram Bullock, and Jools Holland. The show often allowed its guests ample time to explain the origins of their sound, meaning of songs, etc. It also provided a national audience for lesser known acts. Hal Willner was the music coordinator, responsible for the interesting musical mix-and-matching that took place on the show.
I'll Bet is an American game show that ran on NBC from March 29 to September 24, 1965. The series was created by Ralph Andrews, and hosted by Jack Narz. The series was a precursor to It's Your Bet, which was considerably more successful, running for four years.
Gambit is an American television game show based on the card game blackjack, created by Wayne Cruseturner and produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions. The show originally ran on CBS from September 4, 1972 to December 10, 1976. A slightly retooled version, Las Vegas Gambit, aired on NBC from October 27, 1980 to November 27, 1981, originating from the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The 1972–1976 version changed taping locations at CBS Television City, taping episodes in Studios 31, 33, 41 and 43 at various times.
Both versions were hosted by Wink Martindale and announced by Kenny Williams. Elaine Stewart was the card dealer for the CBS version, while Beverly Malden filled this role for the first half of Las Vegas Gambit, and was later replaced by Lee Menning.
The program was retooled as Catch 21, which began airing on GSN in 2008.
Michael Nesmith in Television Parts is a summer TV series run by NBC in 1985. It was a 30-minute comedy-variety series created by Michael Nesmith as a continuation of his Grammy Award-winning video production Elephant Parts, and earlier series PopClips. The first episode was a stand-alone television special which aired on March 7, 1985. The following series premiered on June 14, 1985.
The show was a mix of music videos mixed in with comedy sketches, commercial parodies, and general silliness. It was hosted by Nesmith himself, who also participated in many of the sketches. Television Parts also featured guest appearances by a number of comedians, including Martin Mull, Whoopi Goldberg, Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Martin, The Funny Boys and Garry Shandling, whose appearance on the show was the seed for It's Garry Shandling's Show. One of the show's featured pieces, "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey" was later picked up by Saturday Night Live.
The show was cancelled after one short summer season that same year. It wo
Geographically Speaking was an American travel series that debuted on June 9, 1946 on NBC, and aired Sundays at 8:15 pm EST immediately following the game show Face to Face.
The weekly 15-minute program was one of the first TV shows to have a regular sponsor, Bristol-Myers. The show consisted of hostess Mrs. Carveth Wells narrating her 16mm home movies of her trips with her husband to unusual and exotic places. When she ran out of home movies, the series ended in October 1947.
Mrs. Wells later appeared as a contestant on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life, on TV and radio, in February 1958.
The American Forum of the Air, hosted by Theodore Granik, was a public affairs panel discussion program, the first series of its kind on radio. It aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System and NBC from 1934 to 1956. Notable guests, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue is an American animated drug prevention television special starring many of the popular cartoon characters from American weekday, Sunday morning and Saturday morning television at the time of this film's release. Financed by McDonald's and Ronald McDonald Children's Charities, the special was originally simulcast on April 21, 1990 on all four major American television networks: ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS, and most independent stations, as well as various cable networks. McDonald's also distributed a VHS home video edition of the special, produced by Buena Vista Home Video, which opened with an introduction from President George H. W. Bush, and First Lady Barbara Bush. The show was produced by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation and Southern Star Productions, and was animated overseas by Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd.. The musical number "Wonderful Ways to Say No" was written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who also wrote the songs for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the
Fame is a television series that ran on NBC in the summer of 2003. The show was essentially NBC's attempt to duplicate the success of mega-hit American Idol, right down to their selection of judges. Former pop star Carnie Wilson was similar in her judgements to American Idol's Paula Abdul, Johnny Wright, the veteran music producer, was the show's analogue of Randy Jackson, and JoJo Wright was, like Simon Cowell, the judge who says things to stir people up. The show retained the original Fame theme music, as well as producer Debbie Allen. Former boy band member Joey Fatone was the official host of the show, but Allen also made frequent appearances.
The show was based on the Italian show Saranno Famosi, where young talented dancers, singers and actors attended a school to became real superstars. The main goal of the show was to make all the challengers able to dance, sing and act and so to be complete. It still airs in Italy.
Dotto is an American television quiz show which aired on CBS from January 6 to August 15, 1958 and was hosted by Jack Narz. Although it quickly became the highest-rated daytime game show on television, its end came when it became the unexpected first casualty – and ignition – of the quiz show scandals that rocked American broadcasting as the 1950s closed.
Background is a news series hosted by Joseph C. Harsch that first aired in August 1954 on NBC. Each half hour episode covered a foreign policy or national politics subject through films reports, interviews, and live broadcasts. The series was cancelled after one season.
Poland: A Changing Nation is a TV documentary on Poland's labor crisis, produced and narrated by Mary Nissenson, that aired on NBC from August 29 to October 3, 1980.
Francis Albert Sinatra Does His Thing was an Emmy-nominated television special starring Frank Sinatra, Diahann Carroll and The 5th Dimension recorded in November 1968 and broadcast on NBC. The title references Sinatra's attempts at engaging with the youth culture of the late 1960s. Don Costa was the bandleader.