For Better or Werts : TV Worth Watching

WATCH ONLINE: 'Golden age' archive

You've heard that Paul Newman started out in live TV back in the 1950s. But where could you possibly see old kinescopes of that work?

Well, you could try the Internet Archive's robust online collection of classic television. And you would, in fact, find two examples of Newman on TV there, appearing in the 1952 fantasy series Tales of Tomorrow and a 1954 Armstrong Circle Theatre installment titled The Contender with Inger Stevens (photo above). Just click and watch.

But why stop there? What about Johnny Carson's pre-Tonight Show game show Do You Trust Your Wife? (Photo at right.) Or early sitcoms like My Little Margie and I Married Joan? Fantasy anthologies like One Step Beyond? Even creaky early soaps like Love of Life? (With vintage commercials!)

They're all there at the Internet Archive. You can not only stream these vintage goodies but download them, too, for later viewing on your computer or portable device. You could build a pretty nifty "golden age" archive of your own here.

Some of the titles are familiar: Ozzie & Harriet, The Jack Benny Show, The Cisco Kid, Victory at Sea. Some obscure: Beulah (see photo), Diver Dan, unsold TV pilots. There are big-name rareties: Andy Griffith's original U.S. Steel Hour version of No Time for Sergeants, The Betty Hutton Show, the immortal Captain Video. And variety vehicles: Dinah Shore, Red Skelton, Ed Wynn. Even the occasional color episode from more recent years -- er, decades -- like 1973's Bob Denver cowboy-com Dusty's Trail. (Think Gilligan's Island out west.)

There are commercials, too, hundreds of them, plus other Internet Archive sections devoted to news coverage, industrial and educational films, feature films and more.

It's so easy to dive in and lose complete track of time. Don't forget to Beat the Clock!

1 Comments

Tom said:

That is a fabulous find. Thank you for sharing it.

October 17, 2008 7:52 AM

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Diane Werts has been glued to the tube since she can remember, growing up in a household where the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on till bedtime and beyond. She worked for the USA Film Festival, then for The Dallas Morning News writing about everything from Shakespeare to macrame art to rock music (and has the hearing loss to prove it). She moved to New York's Newsday to edit their glossy TV magazine, then returned to writing about television, specializing in its stranger permutations. She's a past president of the Television Critics Association.

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