Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

GREAT BOOK--- GREAT PICTURES--- 75 YEARS OF NBC--- BIG BOOK WITH LOTS OF HISTORY--- I BOUGHT TWO COPIES--- ONE FOR ME AND ONE AS A GIFT

This is the definitive look at what NBC has done, and it's all here, from Today to Tonight, and literally everything in between. Whether you're a couch potato or a student of the medium, this is "must" reading!

Leafing through this gorgeous volume brought back so many memories, I had to buy it. Chico and the Man, Jane Pauley on The Today Show, The Gong Show, Willard Scott with his toupee, Johnny Carson, John Belushi, the Olympics (with Ali bravely holding the torch). Your don't realize how much influence NBC has had in our lives -- making us better at our jobs, making us laugh, exposing us to new places and idea. There's great stuff on new shows as well -- West Wing, Law & Order,etc. Definitely worthwhile for the nostalgia and pictures -- it's quite beautiful book.

This book is much better than I expected. After seeing all the nice stories and great pictures, it's clear that NBC has been in front of my life more than I realized. I highly recommend this book.