Brought to You in Living Color: 75 Years of Great Moments in Television & Radio from NBC [Paperback]

Marc Robinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 2003

Great Moments in Television & Radio

"Broadcasting is a great resource in a nation of so much diversity, giving everyone equal access to information, education,and entertainment. That's a powerful equation for people in a free society."
-Tom Brokaw

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

On November 15, 1926, the National Broadcasting Company aired its inaugural radio broadcast–a night of entertainment from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. NBC’s first president, Merlin H. Aylesworth, enthusiastically kicked off the evening. "Think of it!" he exclaimed. "Ten or maybe twelve million persons may be hearing what takes place in this ballroom tonight."

Little did he know that this was the beginning of a journey that would put NBC into the hearts, minds, and homes of millions of Americans through a medium that had yet to be developed: television. Since that spectacular evening more than seventy-five years ago, NBC has continued to provide the American public–through television, radio, and the Internet–with entertainment and information that has paralleled our nation’s social and political history.

Brought to You in Living Color: 75 Years of Great Moments in Television & Radio from NBC is a visually striking panorama of the news events, personalities, characters, and programs that have punctuated American life from the debut of NBC Radio through its rise to a television powerhouse. Resplendent with rare photos, this volume acknowledges not just the accomplishments of NBC but the achievements of a great many talented individuals who collectively have helped create the seventy-five-year history of the first broadcast network.

This commemorative book opens with NBC Radio’s broadcasts of the first hit situation comedy, Amos ’n’ Andy, Clem McCarthy’s calling the first broadcast of the Kentucky Derby, FDR calming a nation with his "fireside chats," and Benny Goodman swinging away on Let’s Dance.

The fascinating journey continues as television establishes itself as one of the most important components in American life. You’ll see how NBC sold mom, dad, and the kids on the value of television with Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater, live coverage of the 1947 World Series, and Buffalo Bob’s Howdy Doody. Page by colorful page, you’ll learn how television ushered in a new era of news, entertainment, and sports through on-air personalities such as David Brinkley, Sid Caesar, and Steve Allen, along with business and programming visionaries such as "General" David Sarnoff, Sylvester "Pat" Weaver, Grant Tinker, Brandon Tartikoff, and Bob Wright.

Brought to You in Living Color is a collection of shared memories that everyone can relate to. We’ve all experienced these events in one way or another, and this rich and vibrant book reminds us how: we’ve woken up to the Today show, understood the markets through CNBC, spent our days with Days of our Lives, laughed with Carson and Leno on The Tonight Show, heard the news from Tom Brokaw, cruised the South Beach strip with Miami Vice, made new friends with Friends, peeked inside the White House with The West Wing, graded politicians on Meet the Press, and felt the glory of sports through the Olympics, Wimbledon, the Super Bowl, the World Series, and other exciting events.

Brought to You in Living Color brings to life NBC’s most cherished moments, capturing seventy-five years of NBC magic from its earliest radio broadcasts and the Golden Age of Television to the era of "Must See TV." Visually stunning and engagingly written, this colorful book, like the events, personalities, and programs it chronicles, is an exploration and celebration of both American culture and the nation’s first broadcast network. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover

Celebrating 75 Years of Great Moments in Television & Radio from NBC

"Broadcasting is a great resource in a nation of so much diversity, giving everyone equal access to information, education, and entertainment. That’s a powerful equation for people in a free society."
–Tom Brokaw

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (October 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471469211
• ISBN-13: 978-0471469216
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 10.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,597,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars NBC Lite, March 7, 2003

By 

Paul A. Stermer (St. Joseph, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brought to You in Living Color: 75 Years of Great Moments in Television and Radio from NBC (Hardcover)

If you're looking for a big, happy coffee table book about what a terrific network NBC is, "Brought to You in Living Color" will meet your needs. If, however, you're expecting actual information (ratings? dates? a comprehensive list of shows? interviews?), as I was, this content-starved book will only make you shake your fist and curse the all-powerful National Broadcasting Network. It's as if the NBC publicity department is offering you a big bowl of jellybeans ... colorful and tempting, to be sure, but ultimately unsatisfying.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, August 3, 2008

By 

C. Paddington Spleene III "Visit your Public ... (Somewhere, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brought to You in Living Color: 75 Years of Great Moments in Television & Radio from NBC (Paperback)

This book was a disappointment on several points. First, I was misled to believe that this was an official momento of NBC's seventy-five year history. Despite Tom Brokaw's introduction, NBC had nothing to do with this book. Secondly, there were too many mislabeled photos for my taste. One photo taken at a Bob Hope USO show identified Connie Stevens as "Joey Heatherton". All due respects to Ms. Stevens, anyone who knew Joey's work, couldn't possibly confuse these two performers. No way.
A photo of Benny Goodman featured a blonde singer identified as "Peggy Lee". It clearly wasn't Ms. Lee in this circa 1960s photo. Ms Lee had a successful solo career for years when and after that photo was shot.
Finally, for "general principle", Diahann Carroll's role as "Julia" was described as: "A single mother after her husband died in Vietnam..." Huh? Is it possible that the author and his staff erred using the inaccurate & offensive euphemism "single mother" to describe women, specifically black women, raising a child alone regardless of legal status? There is a whole world of difference between a single mother(a woman with children born out of wedlock), a widow,(whose lawful husband is deceased), and a divorcee. Get it right, people. If you want another coffee table book to cultivate dust mites, this is the one.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New History of American Culture, April 10, 2002

By 

Edward Necarsulmer (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brought to You in Living Color: 75 Years of Great Moments in Television and Radio from NBC (Hardcover)

Brought to You in Living Color: 75 Years of Great Moments in Television and Radio from NBC

BROUGHT TO YOU IN LIVING COLOR is a wealth of knowledge on and about the history of NBC, which is also at once a history of network programming on television and modern entertainment itself. More importantly, Brought to You in Living Color, is everybody's book as it reads like a biography, a tightly researched work of non-fiction, and a memoir as it relays many facts and anectdotes (both funny and touching) about many of the milestones in television.

The book spans from the early days of radio to the current shows on NBC. While telling the story of the network, the book narrates what will likely be the most relevant social history of 20th century America. I strongly recommend this for your personal library,coffee table, or as a gift.