RCA TK-14's in Billy Joel "Tell Her About It" clip

[Aussie Bloke]

I've been viewing Billy Joel's "Tell Her About It" video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laaJnP7WlZM which the did a mock Ed Sullivan Show stage set up with a guy impersonating Ed Sullivan (he did a great job of it too) and to look the part they even used RCA B&W cameras with the CBS logos on them. Now one thing interesting I noticed is one of the cameras appears to be the ultra rare RCA TK-14 cameras because of the labeling on the top front of the camera head and the red tally light and the blue body colour. It looks too original to be a slap-together prop so it would have to be original used as a prop. I wonder if Chuck Pharis's TK-14 http://www.pharis-video.com/p4756.htm was the same camera or if that camera was from Museum of Broadcast Technology in Woonsocket, R.I. as I am aware they have one?

[austvarchive]

there are a couple of other tk-14's around in movie prop suppliers in the US, and i saw some on ebay some years ago as well.

The clip is good but with many mistakes...no tally lights come on the camera, no signs of obvious life from them, no camera cable to them, much of the control room gear is color, and from many years later etc

[W.B.]

And if the era was supposedly 1963, weren't there supposed to be Marconi Mark IV's with the CBS logo emblazoned on them?

[Sandy G]

Dah-Yum, you boys is PICKY...(grin) At least they had B/W cameras, instead of TK-41s, or even something more modern...

[Aussie Bloke]

To the average viewer this clip is a superb recreation of the Ed Sullivan Theatre and Billy Joel did an excellent recreation of the 60s Motown sound. To camera engineers and those who know their cameras and studio setups, all the mistakes are very obvious, but it wouldn't worry the average viewer viewing the clip lol.

Anyways from my standpoint the main 2 things that stood out that were incorrect is the control room was more modern than the gear, the TK-14 was paired with a TK-31 on the other side, bit strange, although the Ed Sullivan Show did have a mix of TK-30 and TK-31s in the 50s. Also the pictures on the monitors didn't have the image orthicon tones and halos around bright objects. I know the Marconi MK4s came in, in the early 60s, not sure which date though so in the beginning of the 60s they still used the old TK-30/31s.

Anyhow despite the inaccuracies in recreating the Ed Sullivan Show pointed out, I thought the recreation was still fantastically done, and they went to great efforts to make it look as authentic as possible with having the old cameras with the old CBS logos and getting a guy who looks and sounds like Ed Sullivan to play his part so it was a production well done to my opinion!!!

Following up on Sally's comment, hip-hop duo Outkast did a clip in similar fashion to Billy Joel's entitled "Hey Ya" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvKs133Udmk which they recreated an old TV studio setup with old cameras and people watched them on an old 40s TV set. Anyhow the cameras they used was a RCA TK-41 and a TK-60, bit strange to have a mix of B&W and colour cameras for studio work as it will confuse the viewer in wondering if this program is in living colour or not hehehehe. Well I it looks they are shooting the whole show in B&W so they should of used 2 TK-60s instead. Spot all the other obvious mistakes in this clip. I still say this clip was very well done and worth watching. Have to say the lead singer with the long hair and mo looks a lot like keyboardist Billy Beck from 70s funk band Ohio Players.

[Dave A]

Mistake #1...EV644 shotgun on the keyboard changes position.
Mistake #2...The TK-41 op racks the lens but the viewfinder image is constant.

Sony blocked the Billy Joel clip here in the states.

[Sandy G]

I generally LOVE catchin' "Misteaks" in movies & TV...In "Goodfellas", the 1st time we see Ray Liotta, the caption reads "Idlewild Airport, 1963", & you see a 747 landing-introduced 1970-& Ray (Henry) & Joe Pesci (Tommy) are leaning up against the back of a 1965 or '66 Chevy, & there is a billboard in the background w/what looks like a 1965-66 Caddy Coupe De Ville...In "Goldfinger", Oddjob takes the crook who doesn't want to be in w/Goldfinger off in a then-new 1964 Lincoln & shoots him- & then has said Lincoln crushed. Except the one that actually gets crushed is a motorless 1963... The Lincolns are easy to identify, the 1961-63 models have extremely curved side window glass, whereas the 1964-65 models have flat. No, I DON'T have a life, do I ?!? (grin)

[austvarchive]

biggest mistake: tk60 camera viewfinder is not real, the tube is too small and is an implant

crap -recreations of images on screen, doesnt quite look right and misty at the edges showing its an overlay

yes, camera person racks the lenses over but crap viewfinder overlay doesnt match on the camera.


I have seen so many bad re-creations on screen over the years but generally the public wouldnt realise.

In the graham kennedy movie "THE KING" it showed them using the PYE MKIII cameras right up till color in 1975, when they actually upgraded to the newer larger 4.5" tube pye model in around '62, the camera viewfinders were implants which had square screens and clearly visible "dots" of a color tube/lcd screen where as the original tubes were round. Also camera cables were absent in many shots, the wrong pedestals were used, and in some shots you could see the corrosion on the lenses and dust showing the cameras hadnt even been cleaned up for the film and therefore looked old when they would have been almost new.

The shots of the bosch KCU40's also showed no image in the viewfinders which seemed a glarigly obvious mistake which was suprising nobody picked up.

It is however very hard to get everything correct in a movie set environment, i worked last year on the Bob Hawke telemovie about australias prime minister, and for some scenes the gear just wasnt available to make it 100% historically accurate, so you just had to make do with what you had. Also the sheer pace of production can mean you simply dont have time available to attend to every little detail and as much as you plan beforehand its still up to the others in the production role to make last minute changes which can render that planning a waste of time - so you can only do what you can do, in the situation & resources given to you at the moment!

The movie is due to air this year and once it does i am permitted to release the photos of my stuff in use behind the scenes and alike, so will let this group know..and you can pick all the faults in that too

[couryhouse]

Troy - this is an OLD post! Just bumped into it when googling tk-14

I have 2 tk 14'a tht made their way though a prop person according to legend. note the black lenses... canons ( yea they made them for tk11/1s I have a catalong of them!) which mine had on them when they were in hickory NC

Are these DEFINTY the cameras? not absolute but the chances and match up of pointers leads me to believe.....

Ed Sharpe Archivist for SMECC

'a

Originally Posted by Aussie Bloke

I've been viewing Billy Joel's "Tell Her About It" video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laaJnP7WlZM which the did a mock Ed Sullivan Show stage set up with a guy impersonating Ed Sullivan (he did a great job of it too) and to look the part they even used RCA B&W cameras with the CBS logos on them. Now one thing interesting I noticed is one of the cameras appears to be the ultra rare RCA TK-14 cameras because of the labeling on the top front of the camera head and the red tally light and the blue body colour. It looks too original to be a slap-together prop so it would have to be original used as a prop. I wonder if Chuck Pharis's TK-14 http://www.pharis-video.com/p4756.htm was the same camera or if that camera was from Museum of Broadcast Technology in Woonsocket, R.I. as I am aware they have one?

[couryhouse]

ok I see the tk 31 with the handle on the finder thus just one tk 14....

both of mine are tk 14s

Originally Posted by couryhouse

Troy - this is an OLD post! Just bumped into it when googling tk-14

I have 2 tk 14'a tht made their way though a prop person according to legend. note the black lenses... canons ( yea they made them for tk11/1s I have a catalong of them!) which mine had on them when they were in hickory NC

Are these DEFINTY the cameras? not absolute but the chances and match up of pointers leads me to believe.....

Ed Sharpe Archivist for SMECC

'a