The Golden Age of Television: Notes from the Survivors

From the blurb: Do you remember when your TV screen was only ten inches wide, when it broadcast only five hours a day, when neighbors came in every Saturday night to watch Sid Caesar and kids were in every afternoon to see Howdy Doody? Max Wilk, one of television's first writers (who is now one of its foremost), has given us a wonderful memoir of the days when the mighty screen was, indeed golden-its creations rough, spontaneous, and unforgettable. These were the days when writers and actors thought nothing of creating an hour-long TV drama once a week and producing it live-The Ford Television Theatre and the Philco Playhouse made James Dean, Grace Kelly, and Paul Newman household names. The mad antics of Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca delighted us all, but even writers like Mel Brooks and Woody Allen were hard put to be so funny for so little money and with such tight deadlines. Max Wilt reminisces with Art Carney about his years with "the Great One," Jackie Gleason, and brings us back to those late nights with Steve Allen and Jack Paar when talk shows were still in their infancy. He shows us the love and care (and hysteria) that went into those early TV efforts and lets us in on the heartache and hilarity which were inevitable by-products of attempting to do so much with such primitive resources. Was Jack Benny really as funny off-camera as on? What happened when Jimmy Cagney forgot his lines? Did Julius La Rosa and Arthur Godfrey ever make up? Why was I Love Lucy one of the biggest breakthroughs in TV technology? Max Wilk probes deep into the recesses of the television monolith and makes the fantastic decade of the media's birth and growth truly come alive.