Essays
The Moment that Julia Child Became an American icon
Though she did not own a TV set, Julia had been bitten by the television bug from the moment she set foot on a studio set.
Read MoreFred Barzyk’s Snapshots: Scene 6 – The Waiting Room
I love actors. I love how they are willing to give of themselves, to be vulnerable to critics, to wrap themselves in personas not their own, and how they love what they do.
Read MoreNat Johnson: My Early Radio Days
I aired, for the first time in America, a stereo broadcast of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Listeners were astounded – and generally seemed quite captivated.
Read MoreRos and Harris Barron in the ZONE
From Fred Barzyk: Hundreds of artists streamed through the studios of the WGBH New Television Workshop in the early ’70s. Ros and Harris were two of the earliest.
Read MoreCreating NOVA (1971-76)
From Michael Ambrosino: Science is a part of our heritage, our present culture, and a major force in determining our future. Its absence from television [in the 1970s], spoke to the ignorance of many of its gatekeepers…. Science, medicine, technology, engineering, architecture all impact our culture by determining how we live our lives!
Read MoreA Boy from Milwaukee
From Fred Barzyk: My Mom had this vision for me. She thought it would be wonderful if I could be in show business… I announced that I would become a piano player! Only problem was we didn’t have a piano.
Read MoreA stranger in a strange land
From Fred Barzyk: Bill insisted I try to get into the scholarship program. You studied for your graduate degree at Boston University and worked three days a week at the Educational Television station. Free tuition and you got $600 to live a year in Boston!
Read MorePaik and the Video Synthesizer
From Fred Barzyk: I remember Nam June Paik telling me to stand back since TV sets sometime exploded when he did this. I backed off. The TV did not explode but gave forth a dazzling array of colors, buzzed and slowly died, never to live again.
Read MoreRemembering the original WGBH
From Art Singer: Fifty one years ago this past September, on several late afternoons a week, I would take the twenty minute walk from BU across the Charles to the station’s studios on the MIT campus for a night’s work.
Read MoreJoan Wilson bids for masterpieces
Boston Globe — 12/13/1980 [Found in the Jeremy Brett archive.] It’s been said she has the best job in television. She jets to Europe several times a year — to London, Cannes and occasionally Italy. She hobnobs in New York with powerful oil magnates. She makes critical programming decisions which determine what millions of Americans…
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