from the TV Barn archives
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Hey! What happened to the news?

Many of you have been writing in with questions about the suddenly-absent "On the wires" feature, with links to TV-related stories at various online publications such as Variety and USA Today.

The truth is, I have begun work on a fairly big project — details of which I hope to share later — and I don't have quite the amount of time to devote to the Web site as before.

That's the same reason you haven't seen much reader mail posted here lately. However, I still continue to receive a great deal of interesting and useful stuff in my mailbox, from readers and PR people alike. So I've been fishing around for a quick, painless way to transmit these messages to you via the Web site.

Ironically, I found my answer in eGroups — yes, the mailing-list people who just a month ago were the bane of my existence. (I'm hoping that their recent acquisition by Yahoo will shape them up.)

Here now, the two new eGroups that I'm hoping will make TV Barn more interactive and informative.

TV Barn 2: More news

TV Barn 2 will be the repository for news and information that I didn't have time or inclination to get on the main TV Barn page. You'll find press releases, clippings from other publications, news passed along by readers, etc.

TV Barn Chat: Reader mail and more

TV Barn Chat is a modified message board that allows my readers to get in their own two cents. You can post to this group, or read what others have to say. I'll start unloading my backlog of Reader Mail to this area as well.

Of the two, TV Barn Chat is more experimental. If we get a lot of noise on it, or if we get no noise at all, I'll probably close it down and move Reader Mail over to TV Barn 2. With luck, however, it'll become a vibrant community of chatter and gossip about this medium we love and watch.

Finally, I have set up permanent links to some of my favorite news sites. They're at the bottom of the page in their own section, replacing "On the wires."

The links

On this date...

in 1973, ABC hopes "The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour" can duplicate the success NBC has had with its now-canceled "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In." But while Fred Willard and Teri Garr are on hand to help hosts Jack Burns and Avery Schreiber with the punchlines in assorted sketches, students of comedy can only wonder what the show might have been like with Burns' original comedy partner -- George Carlin.

July 1: in 1941, NBC station KNBT, channel 4, becomes the first major commercial television broadcaster. At 1:29 p.m., General Mills sponsors a Dodgers-Phillies game, followed by the first-ever regularly scheduled news show — the "Sunoco Newscast" with Lowell Thomas. During the ballgame, Bulova Watches pays $9 to be featured in the world's first (legal) TV commercial. At 2:29:10 the Bulova message is superimposed over a test pattern. At 9:30, Ralph Edwards hosts "Truth Or Consequences" in a TV and radio simulcast, becoming America's first TV game show. Meanwhile, across town, WCBW, Channel 2, receives its commercial broadcast license and prepares to give the NBC O&O some competition.

July 2: in 1973, "Match Game" is revived at CBS, where it's now comedy based and even more full of _______. Filling in the blanks for host Gene Rayburn and the contestants on this debut week are Bob Barker, Arlene Francis, Richard Dawson, Michael Learned, Richard Thomas, and Della Reese. -- Tom Heald

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