WSNS Channel 44 - The Good Time Bunch Christmas Special (Part 3, 1977)

Here's Part 3 of The Good Time Bunch Christmas Special with Mary Pat (Byrne) and Brian (Vandenbroucke) on WSNS Channel 44. Featuring several behind-the-scenes crew members of the station, including Datavision operator Kathy Dalheim, director Kurt Mendelsohn and producer James A. Angio.

This part starts with Mary Pat and Brian waxing on the dance from Part 2 and thanking the Joseph Holmes Dance Theatre, and segues into the behind-the-scenes makeup of the show, starting with a faraway shot of the stage where The Good Time Bunch is based (and a bank of lights on top, which seems to show the station's studios had a relatively low ceiling compared to other TV studios), and Mary Pat explaining the technical details. During the course of this demonstration, we see one of the two EMI 2001 cameras WSNS used (the other elicited the picture you see). We see the camera from different angles including the viewfinder (from the camera operator's POV) and the lens (which the performer sees).

[Technical Note: The EMI 2001 - which WSNS had used up to that point since its earliest days in 1970 - was a British-made color camera which had been prevalent at such British TV production companies such as the BBC, Thames TV, London Weekend and ATV, but extremely rare in the U.S. - only three ordered in this country altogether, with Channel 44 in possession of two of them. ]

Mary Pat then goes to the telecine section, where there are two banks of RCA TP-7 slide projectors and a film chain of unknown origin (based on the air vents in the back, which are not associated with the RCA TK-27 chains which the major stations used).

Meanwhile, Brian is at the control room where the producer and director put together how the show is presented. He starts off with a demonstration of the 3M Datavision character generator, with operator Kathy Dalheim typing a sample text on the screen (in a serif font, a departure from the usual sans-serif typeface generated by the machine in usual WSNS usage). Next, we see a section with a bank of TV monitors, and Brian goes to the audio control unit (with knobs and VU level meters) where the levels are set; and to the video switching unit where the director, Kurt Mendelsohn, is seated (and producer James A. Angio seated next to him); samples of various cuts, dissolves, transitions, and wipes are shown. As Mary Pat joins the crew, they explain the function of all the various units.

After the demonstration is over, Mary Pat and Brian thank the Proviso East High School Madrigal Singers and the Joseph Holmes Dance Theatre and wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Ready for description.

This aired on local Chicago TV on Sunday, December 25th 1977 during the 1pm to 3pm timeframe.

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