The Ford Show
 

The Tennesee Ernie Ford show ran from 1957-1961 You tube has some color video shorts from that show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q3eTObNiUU

He was from Bristol, about 55 miles From here.."The Old Peapicker.." (grin)

I thought he was from Bent Fork? :D

Well bless your lil peapickin heart... you beat me to it...:D

Several years ago one of our local PBS stations ran an episode of the Ford Show each week. All were in beautiful TK-41 color. Of course I never recorded any of them. Don't ask me why. The shows originated at NBC Burbank.

-Steve D.

You can buy DVDs of them from the Ford Estate here:

http://www.ernieford.com/TEFCENTRAL-HOMEVIDEO.html

I've bought them; they're good quality and include the logos, bumpers, and commercials!

The PBS episodes didn't include the commercials ect. Looks like the Ford Show was first telecast in color starting in Sept. 1958.

Thanks,
-Steve D

Ron sent me a photo of the videotape boxes when they were first uncovered back in the early 1980's. Take a look. Amazing that they were saved at all!

Very fortunate. The old 3M Scotch blue plastic boxes would float across the Atlantic and be dry at the end.

I have the Ford "Mikado" by G&S in color. Not a good xfer. Very dark and very low res but still a most entertaining episode. One of a kind.

In 1976, I worked for an indie station in middle Tennessee. We inherited a semi truck load of video tape and equipment from the previous station that lived in our building... that went off the air in 1973.

There were at least 1000 2" low-band recordings of shows like The Dean Martin Show stored there. The trailer was air conditioned, and all the tapes were in good condition, along with complete sets of 16mm comedy shows from the 1950's, like Topper, and I Married Joan. I was given all the films, and still have many of them today.

The station had nothing that would play low-band 2", so most of them were destroyed. Some, that were saved, were taken to a certain PBS affiliate in the area that DID have a low-band machine, and the shows were copied to high-band. These shows live today. Some of the Martin shows came from a local NBC affiliate, and included network commercials. Ernie Ford, Minnie Pearl, and others, were saved from the dump. I have no idea where these tapes are today, but I do know that they were copied and preserved.

I've got several 3M scotch boxes that will live forever, too.