On Friday, November 16th, TVLAND Television Network will be airing a two hour special; also featured in Entertainment Weekly Magazine, Counting the 50 Greatest TV Icons. Johnny Carson is rated as number one. Once again, I am perplexed of something I could easily predict and that is that a forgotten giant in television history was left out. Does it mean that younger writers have no sense of history and cannot remember anybody who existed before their time on earth? That is about the only excuse I can give the omission of Arthur Godfrey. At one time he was called “Mr. CBS.”
In the 1950’s he was the biggest performing asset of CBS radio and television and accounted for twelve percent of the network’s annual revenue. Time Magazine called him “The Greatest Salesman Who Ever Stood Before a Microphone.”
Not to see him listed amongst the top five TV people in television history is sad but also suggests the quality of the survey.
I have only one fact to mention and then leave to you who is reading this, the judgment.
In 1953, on one of the three shows that Arthur Godfrey had on radio and television, he walked out before a television camera and received one of, if not the biggest share audience in television history. 91.4% of all those watching television that evening were tuned in to see him!
I think this Friday evening, I’ll be spending my time reading one or two books.
Hmmm, I’ve never seen any clips of Arthur Godfrey and he was well before my time, so do clips exist? He did discover a lot of big stars, but it was mostly before rock and roll, unlike Ed Sullivan. And the famous Julius LaRosa incident, in which he fired him on air hurt his popularity and in 1959 left TV for good. But it probably does have to do somewhat that the lists’ writers don’t have a sense of history.
I would name the top five as Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason, Arthur Godfrey, Johnny Carson, and Ed Sullivan, not necessarily in that order. I didn’t see Sid Caesar or Steve Allen on the list, and I’m sure there were other giants of the past who didn’t make it. Many of the giants who did make it were far down on the list, and there were many midgets who shouldn’t even be there. Many were far from being household words, and some were even unrecognizable.
Certainly Amos n Andy would be on my list, but I suppose the suffocating politically correct atmosphere of today would prevent that.
Интересненько, а кто может объяснить девушке как добавить этот блог в избранное?