Richard Irvin, a self-described "documentarian of television history," is the author of several books about classic television. Among his books are: George Burns Television Productions: The Series and Pilots, 1950-81; The Early Shows: A Reference Guide to Network and Syndicated Primetime Television Series from 1944 to 1949; and Film Stars' Television Projects: Pilots and Series of 50+ Movie Greats, 1948-85. He lives in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.
​As an author, what has especially attracts you to the era of early American television?
The fact that there is little documentation of the types of series that aired during this period attracted me to the subject. This is true particularly for shows that were not as popular during this time period as series like "I Love Lucy," Ed Sullivan, or "Dragnet."
In researching your book The Early Shows: A Reference Guide to Network and Syndicated Prime-Time Television Series from 1944 to 1949, how well covered did you find these shows in the print media at the time (in an era when few Americans owned television sets)?
Except for show business publications like "Variety," "Billboard," and "Broadcasting" magazines. most newspapers at the time devoted very little space to television shows. With few exceptions, such as the New York Times, papers simply printed a TV schedule with virtually no details about specific shows.
How have you come to view programming in your research from the 1948-60 era? Do you rely on collectors' screeners? Have you had the opportunity to visit the Library of Congress, which contains audio records of some early '40s shows as well as the 1947-48 kinescope excerpts in the famed Hubert V. Chain Collection (of such series as Campus Hoopla and Kraft TV Theatre)?
I have viewed videos at the Library of Congress as well as at the Paley Center in NYC. Various graduate students at UCLA have helped me with research on shows and scripts in the UCLA archives.
I presume this question refers to TV programming from 1948 to 1960 since I believe with having now so many outlets for TV programming (i.e., DVD's, streaming, digital channels) that more recent programs are being well preserved by producers. Even series like "Emily's Reasons Why Not," which aired just one episode on ABC, has had a DVD released of all the episodes. And shows like "Us & Them" which Fox never aired at all will be showing up on Crackle. Concerning older programs, I think the first step is to survey archives, museums, and libraries on what their actual holdings of kinescopes and old TV scripts are. Some institutions still do not list all their holdings on line other than a brief description. For example, the Library of Congress has many tapes of very old TV shows in storage that are not listed on their website. Also, a collector of hundreds of TV scripts from Fort Worth, Texas was supposed to open a library to be called the Broadcasting Arts Library. He had listed his collection online but that resource appears to no longer exist. Once it is determined what holdings are out there, then a better determination could be made on how institutions can share in preserving early TV programming.
Such a community would hopefully entice private collectors of kinescopes and scripts from the early days of TV to share material with a wider audience.
I like the situation comedies from the 1950s. Two which I remember that are online are William Bendix in "The Life of Riley" and Leo G. Carroll in "Topper."
Click here to see a description of The Life of Riley: "Babs' School Election" and Topper: "Trip to Lisbon" on SaveTV’s catalog of 1948-60 American TV programs-- scroll to each series title.