In the Beginning (TV series)
In the Beginning is an American sitcom created by Norman Lear, Jim Mulligan and Norman Steinberg and produced by Lear's Tandem Productions company. The show aired on CBS from September 20 to October 18, 1978, was cancelled after its first five episodes aired; the series, a semi-update of the film Going My Way, featured conservative priest Father Cleary and liberal, streetwise nun Sister Agnes running a ghetto mission together in Baltimore. While Aggie was from the area and enjoyed the assignment, Father Cleary had difficulty dealing with her, as well as the neighborhood prostitutes and winos. McLean Stevenson as Father Cleary Priscilla Lopez as Sister Agnes Priscilla Morrill as Sister Lillian Olivia Barash as Willie Bobby Ellerbee as Jerome Jack Dodson as Msgr. Barlow First developed by Lear in 1977, the series was intended as a starring vehicle for Broadway actress Priscilla Lopez, was to have been titled Aggie, after her character. However, McLean Stevenson was added to the cast, in addition to the title change, it moved the show's focus from its original premise of Aggie against the establishment to Aggie and her battles with Father Cleary.
In the Beginning marked McLean Stevenson's second attempt at a successful post-M*A*S*H vehicle. However, the series fared worse than his short-lived 1976 sitcom The McLean Stevenson Show. A long-forgotten flop, In the Beginning was cancelled by CBS after only 5 of its 9 episodes had aired, due to poor ratings and the departures of co-creators Jim Mulligan and Norman Steinberg after the pilot, as a result of conflicts with the network. Stevenson's next show, Larry, another T. A. T. Communications Company production, premiered three months and ran 15 months with Tandem's Diff'rent Strokes as a lead-in. IMDb TV.com TV Guide epguides.com
McLean Stevenson
Edgar McLean Stevenson Jr. was an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Lt. Colonel Henry Blake in the television series M*A*S*H, which earned him a Golden Globe Award in 1974. Stevenson appeared on a number of television series, notably The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and The Doris Day Show. Stevenson was born in Illinois, he was the great-grandson of William Stevenson, making him a second cousin once removed of two-time presidential candidate Adlai E. Stevenson II, he was the brother of actress Ann Whitney. His father, was a cardiologist, their shared middle name, "McLean", came from Lottie McLean. Stevenson attended Lake Forest Academy and joined the United States Navy. After his service he attended Northwestern University, where he was a Phi Gamma Delta fraternity brother, graduated with a bachelor's degree in theater arts. Afterward he worked at a radio station, played a clown on a live TV show in Dallas, became an assistant athletic director at Northwestern, sold medical supplies and insurance.
He worked as a press secretary for his cousin in the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956. He formed the "Young Democrats for Stevenson". In 1961, Stevenson's cousin invited him to social functions, he followed his cousin's advice to look for a show business career. He won a scholarship to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, he made his professional career debut in The Music Man in 1962 and appeared in Warsaw, Indiana, in summer stock productions. Before becoming a star, Stevenson appeared as a contestant on the Password television game show in New York City, winning five pieces of luggage. After this he appeared in New York City on stage, in television commercials, he performed on Broadway, began to establish himself as a comedy writer, writing for the seminal That Was The Week That Was—in which Alan Alda appeared—and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, performing on both shows. He was a regular on the 1970 The Tim Conway Comedy Hour variety show on CBS. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he appeared in TV commercials for products such as Kellogg's, Libby's fruit cocktail, Dolly Madison and Winston cigarettes, in which he was shown sprinting around a parking lot of Winston delivery trucks and painting over the product slogan, replacing the "like" in "like a cigarette should" with the grammatically correct "as".
After guest-starring in That Girl with Marlo Thomas, he was cast in The Doris Day Show in 1969, playing magazine editor boss Michael Nicholson until 1971. He auditioned for the role of Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H, but was persuaded to play Lt. Col. Henry Blake instead; this role shot him to stardom. He wrote the episode "The Trial of Henry Blake", provided the story for another, "The Army-Navy Game", which earned him an Emmy nomination. Stevenson found his greatest success in M*A*S*H; the series became one of the most popular situation comedies of its time, was recognized as one of the top sitcoms in television history. Despite the show's success, Stevenson began to resent playing a supporting role to the wisecracking Hawkeye, asked to be released from his contract during the show's third season; the show's writers reluctantly penned him an exit in the final episode of the 1974–1975 season, in which Lt. Colonel Blake was discharged, only to board a plane, shot down over the Sea of Japan, killing everyone on board—a development added after scripts were distributed so the show's actors would display genuine emotion.
In an interview, M*A*S*H actor Loretta Swit commented that Stevenson wanted to be the star and felt oppressed as one of an ensemble of eight. She said that before Stevenson left the series he told her, "I know I will not be in anything as good as this show, but I have to leave and be number one." Although he had played ensemble parts for several years, he has stated that the primary reasons for his departure were systemic problems with 20th Century Fox disregard for simple comforts for cast and crew on location, the more lucrative opportunities presented to him at the time. Stevenson was replaced in the series by Harry Morgan, a friend of Stevenson who had guest-starred opposite him in the Season Three premiere episode "The General Flipped at Dawn". Morgan portrayed Colonel Sherman Potter for the show's remaining eight seasons and starred in its short-lived spin-off AfterMASH. Stevenson appeared as a guest panelist for several weeks on Match Game in 1973, again in 1978 on the daytime and nighttime weekly syndicated version.
In 1981, he became a regular panelist on the daily syndicated version of Match Game, staying with the show until its cancellation a year later. He would make occasional appearances on the subsequent Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour in 1983 and 1984. After his departure from M*A*S*H, Stevenson's acting career began to decline, he starred in a series of sitcoms. They included The McLean Stevenson Show, In the Beginning, Hello and Condo. All four sitcoms were dismissed by audiences and lambasted by critics, all aired while M*A*S*H was still in production. Stevenson guest-starred as Stan Zbornak's brother Ted in the hit sitcom The Golden Girls in 1987, in addition to guest-starring in shows such as Square One TV, The Love Boat, Diff'rent Strokes, Hollywood Squares, he filled in for Johnny Carson as guest host of The Tonight Show 58 times, as a guest on the pr
Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, two African-American boys from Harlem who are taken in by a rich white Park Avenue businessman and widower named Phillip Drummond and his daughter Kimberly, for whom their deceased mother worked. During the first season and first half of the second season, Charlotte Rae starred as the Drummonds' housekeeper, Mrs. Edna Garrett; the series made stars out of child actors Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges and Dana Plato and became known for the "very special episodes" in which serious issues such as racism, illegal drug use, hitchhiking and child sexual abuse were explored. The lives of these stars were plagued by legal troubles and drug addiction, with Plato and Coleman suffering early deaths; the series was devised jointly to serve as a vehicle for Maude co-star Conrad Bain, child actor Gary Coleman, who had caught producers' attentions after appearing in a number of commercials.
An early rough outline for the series, featuring the characters created for Bain and Coleman, had the proposed title 45 Minutes from Harlem.. As the pitch was developed, Coleman's character gained an older brother, the daughter of Bain's character and a housekeeper was added to the line-up; the title became Diff'rent Strokes, inspired by the quote "Different strokes for different folks" popularized by boxer Muhammad Ali in 1966. The sitcom starred Coleman as Arnold Todd Bridges as his older brother, Willis, they played two children from a poor section of Harlem whose deceased mother worked for rich widower Philip Drummond, who adopted them. They lived in a penthouse with Drummond, his daughter Kimberly, their maid. There were three maids during the sitcom's run: Edna Garrett, Adelaide Brubaker, Pearl Gallagher, they lived in the Penthouse Suite at 697 Park Avenue in New York City. As Arnold, Coleman popularized the catchphrase "What'chu talkin"bout, Willis?" The ending varied, depending on whom he was addressing.
Early episodes addressed typical issues in a family. As the series progressed, although sticking to more light-hearted sit-com themes in many episodes, at times it focused on more serious topics including drug abuse, hitchhiking, child abuse, crime, among other issues; the first season much covered'every day life' of this unusual family line-up. Dana Plato, although billed on the opening credits, did not appear in every episode as her character was said to be away at her private school. During the first season, the unseen character of "The Gooch" is first mentioned - a mean, hulking bully at Arnold's school. First'featured' in the first season episode The Fight, where he is said to be bullying Arnold at school, The Gooch went on to be the focus of several future episodes, is mentioned in countless other right across the run of the series. Charlotte Rae appeared in every first season episode as Edna Garrett, is present for most of the second season, but is absent in several episodes late on in the season, before leaving to star in her own spin-off, The Facts of Life, set at Kimberly's private school.
Following Rae's departure, in the third season Nedra Volz took over as the housekeeper, the older and crankier Adelaide Brubaker. Although she was not added to the opening credits, Volz appeared as a frequent semi-regular character. First seen in the second season was Arnold's best Dudley; the character went on to be featured in many episodes, both school-based and otherwise, throughout the show's run. During the fourth season, Dody Goodman was introduced as Philip's dotty sister Sophia. Appearing on a semi-regular basis, she filled the same function as Adelaide as the older female character in many stories. In Season 5, Mary Jo Catlett portrayed Pearl Gallagher, the last of the three maids, joined the cast as a series regular. Pearl appeared in every episode until the final season. Midway through Season 6, Dana Plato became pregnant and approached the producers of the show to include her pregnancy, they agreed to add it, but they decided not to add the pregnancy, with Plato's publicized brushes with substance abuse contributing to this decision, resulting in her dismissal from the series.
Plato's character, was written out of the story lines with the explanation that she moved to Paris to study for a couple of years. Plato did not appear as a regular cast member in the final two seasons of the series, but she made several guest appearances. At the same time, ratings were beginning to fall, so new characters were added to open up future storylines. Dixie Carter and Danny Cooksey portrayed divorced television aerobics instructor Margaret "Maggie" McKinney, her son, Sam McKinney. Carter was introduced midway into the sixth season.
Radio broadcasting
Radio broadcasting is transmission by radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both; the signal types can be digital audio. The earliest radio stations did not carry audio. For audio broadcasts to be possible, electronic detection and amplification devices had to be incorporated; the thermionic valve was invented in 1904 by the English physicist John Ambrose Fleming. He developed a device he called an "oscillation valve"; the heated filament, or cathode, was capable of thermionic emission of electrons that would flow to the plate when it was at a higher voltage. Electrons, could not pass in the reverse direction because the plate was not heated and thus not capable of thermionic emission of electrons. Known as the Fleming valve, it could be used as a rectifier of alternating current and as a radio wave detector; this improved the crystal set which rectified the radio signal using an early solid-state diode based on a crystal and a so-called cat's whisker.
However, what was still required was an amplifier. The triode was patented on March 4, 1906, by the Austrian Robert von Lieben independent from that, on October 25, 1906, Lee De Forest patented his three-element Audion, it wasn't put to practical use until 1912 when its amplifying ability became recognized by researchers. By about 1920, valve technology had matured to the point where radio broadcasting was becoming viable. However, an early audio transmission that could be termed a broadcast may have occurred on Christmas Eve in 1906 by Reginald Fessenden, although this is disputed. While many early experimenters attempted to create systems similar to radiotelephone devices by which only two parties were meant to communicate, there were others who intended to transmit to larger audiences. Charles Herrold started broadcasting in California in 1909 and was carrying audio by the next year.. In The Hague, the Netherlands, PCGG started broadcasting on November 6, 1919, making it, arguably the first commercial broadcasting station.
In 1916, Frank Conrad, an electrical engineer employed at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, began broadcasting from his Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania garage with the call letters 8XK. The station was moved to the top of the Westinghouse factory building in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Westinghouse relaunched the station as KDKA on November 2, 1920, as the first commercially licensed radio station in America; the commercial broadcasting designation came from the type of broadcast license. The first licensed broadcast in the United States came from KDKA itself: the results of the Harding/Cox Presidential Election; the Montreal station that became CFCF began broadcast programming on May 20, 1920, the Detroit station that became WWJ began program broadcasts beginning on August 20, 1920, although neither held a license at the time. In 1920, wireless broadcasts for entertainment began in the UK from the Marconi Research Centre 2MT at Writtle near Chelmsford, England. A famous broadcast from Marconi's New Street Works factory in Chelmsford was made by the famous soprano Dame Nellie Melba on 15 June 1920, where she sang two arias and her famous trill.
She was the first artist of international renown to participate in direct radio broadcasts. The 2MT station began to broadcast regular entertainment in 1922; the BBC was amalgamated in 1922 and received a Royal Charter in 1926, making it the first national broadcaster in the world, followed by Czech Radio and other European broadcasters in 1923. Radio Argentina began scheduled transmissions from the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires on August 27, 1920, making its own priority claim; the station got its license on November 19, 1923. The delay was due to the lack of official Argentine licensing procedures before that date; this station continued regular broadcasting of entertainment and cultural fare for several decades. Radio in education soon followed and colleges across the U. S. began adding radio broadcasting courses to their curricula. Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts introduced one of the first broadcasting majors in 1932 when the college teamed up with WLOE in Boston to have students broadcast programs.
Broadcasting service is – according to Article 1.38 of the International Telecommunication Union´s Radio Regulations – defined as «A radiocommunication service in which the transmission are intended for direct reception by the general public. This service may include sound transmissions, television transmissions or other types of transmission.» Definitions identical to those contained in the Annexes to the Constitution and Convention of the International Telecommunication Union are marked "" or "" respectively. A radio broadcasting station is associated with wireless transmission, though in practice broadcasting transmission take place using both wires and radio waves; the point of this is that anyone with the appropriate receiving technology can receive the broadcast. In line to ITU Radio Regulations each broadcasting station shall be classified by the service in which it operates permanently or temporarily. Broadcasting by radio takes several forms; these include FM stations. There are several subtypes, namely commercial broadcasting, non-commercial educational public broadcasting and non-profit varieties as well as community radio, student-run campus radio stations, and
Shelley Fabares
Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Donna Reed's daughter Mary Stone on The Donna Reed Show and as Hayden Fox's love interest Christine Armstrong on the sitcom Coach, she was Elvis Presley's co-star in three films. In 1962, her recording of "Johnny Angel" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Fabares was born in California, she is the niece of actress Nanette Fabray. Fabares began acting at age three and, at age 10, made her television debut in an episode of Letter to Loretta, "The Clara Schuman Story". Early TV appearances included the Producers' Showcase adaptation of Our Town starring Frank Sinatra and Paul Newman, she was Young Cathy in a Matinee Theatre adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Fabares had small parts in The Girl Rush, Never Say Goodbye, The Bad Seed, Pretty Baby!, Jeanne Eagels, Marjorie Morningstar, Summer Love. On TV she was in Captain Midnight, Annie Oakley and Colgate Theatre, she had a semi regular role on the short lived series Annette starring Annette Funicello.
In 1958, Fabares landed the role of Mary Stone in the long-running family sitcom The Donna Reed Show. This ran until 1966. Fabares established herself as a favorite with teen audiences."Donna Reed was an extraordinary woman, a woman of great strength, kindness and compassion,"said Fabares later. Fabares' national popularity led to a recording contract and two "Top 40" hits, including "Johnny Angel," which went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1962, peaked at number 41 in the UK, it was certified gold. She released an album, Shelley!. "I was stunned about that, to put it mildly," she said. "After all, I never could sing."This was followed by a second album, The Things We Did Last Summer, which included two hit songs "Johnny Loves Me" and "The Things We Did Last Summer". Fabares left The Donna Reed Show in 1963 to pursue other acting opportunities, she released a third album, Teenage Triangle in 1963. She guest starred on Mr. Novak, The Eleventh Hour and Trial, The Twilight Zone. Fabares was one of the female leads in the surf film Ride the Wild Surf.
She was Elvis Presley's leading lady in Girl Happy for MGM and played the love interest of Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits in Hold On! at the same studio. MGM made a pilot for a TV series based on Meet Me in St. Louis with Fabares in the lead but it was not picked up, she was reunited with Elvis for Spinout at United Artists. Sam Katzman cast her as the love interest of a young Hank Williams Jr. in A Time to Sing. Film roles dried up in the late 60s and Fabares went back to guest starring on shows like The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, Daniel Boone, Medical Center, Bracken's World, The Interns. Fabares said. "I went to bed on Tuesday having worked since I was 3. I got up Wednesday morning and didn't work for four years, went to bed Wednesday night after four years, got up and interviewed for a Mannix episode and started working again. I think this business is cyclical. You go through busy times and you go through dead times."After Mannix, she was in Longstreet, Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, American Style, McCloud and Cade's County.
"I wasn't a big risk-taker," she said later. "I should have been more aggressive. I was nervous and scared to try something different."Fabares had support roles in TV movies like Brian's Song, Two for the Money. Her performance in Brian's Song earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Fabares had a regular role on The Brian Keith Show; when the show ended she resumed guest shots: Police Story, The Rockford Files, The Rookies, Matt Helm, Medical Story, Marcus Welby, M. D. Barnaby Jones, Spencer's Pilots, she had a role in the TV movie Sky Heist and from 1976-77 Fabares had a regular part on The Practice with Danny Thomas. She had a regular role on Forever Fernwood. In 1978, Fabares played Francine Webster on the CBS sitcom One Day at a Time, a role she reprised for the last three years of the show. "I was Francine, a rather villainous character," she said later. "She was wonderful. She saw the world only through her eyes, it never occurred to her that her people didn't."She was in episodes of Lucan, Vega$, The Incredible Hulk, Hello and Fantasy Island.
Fabares was in the TV movies Pleasure Cove, Donovan's Kid, Friendships and Lies and Gridlock. She had the starring role in the TV series Highcliffe Manor but it only lasted six episodes. In the 1980s Fabares could be seen on Mork & Mindy, Matt Houston, The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote, she did a TV movie Memorial Day with Mike Farrell who became her husband, as well as movies Suburban Beat, The Canterville Ghost, Hot Pursuit, Run Till You Fall. In 1989, she won the role of Christine Armstrong Fox on the ABC sitcom Coach. "Here was an intelligent, well-written series," Fabares said "And the people putting it on wanted me to play a successful, ambitious woman in it."The series struggled in the ratings until shifted after Roseanne. It was a hit and played until 1997. For her work, Fabares was nominated twice for a Primetime Emmy Award, and, in 1994, she was honored by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award for h
M*A*S*H (TV series)
M*A*S*H is an American war comedy-drama television series that aired on CBS from 1972 to 1983. It was developed by Larry Gelbart, adapted from the 1970 feature film M*A*S*H, which, in turn, was based on Richard Hooker's 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors; the series, produced with 20th Century Fox Television for CBS, follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the "4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War. The show's title sequence features an instrumental-only version of "Suicide Is Painless," the original film's theme song; the show was created after an attempt to film the original book's sequel, M*A*S*H Goes to Maine, failed. The television series is the best-known of the M*A*S*H works, one of the highest-rated shows in U. S. television history. M * A * S * H aired weekly with most episodes being a half-hour in length; the series is categorized as a situation comedy, though it has been described as a "dark comedy" or a "dramedy" because of the dramatic subject matter.
The show is an ensemble piece revolving around key personnel in a United States Army Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the Korean War. The "4077th MASH" was one of several surgical units in Korea. While the show is traditionally viewed as a comedy, many episodes had a more serious tone. Early seasons aired on network prime time while the Vietnam War was still going on, the show was forced to walk the fine line of commenting on that war while at the same time not seeming to protest it. For this reason, the show's discourse, under the cover of comedy questioned and grappled with America's role in the Cold War. Episodes were both plot- and character-driven, with several narrated by one of the show's characters as the contents of a letter home; the show's tone could move from silly to sobering from one episode to the next, with dramatic tension occurring between the civilian draftees of 4077th – Hawkeye, Trapper John, B. J. Hunnicutt, for example – who are forced to leave their homes to tend the wounded and dying of the war, the "regular Army" characters, such as Margaret Houlihan and Colonel Potter, who tend to represent patriotism and duty.
Other characters, such as Col. Blake, Maj. Winchester, Cpl. Klinger, help demonstrate various American civilian attitudes toward Army life, while guest characters played by such actors as Eldon Quick, Herb Voland, Mary Wickes, Tim O'Connor help further the show's discussion of America's place as Cold War war maker and peace maker. Through changes of personnel M*A*S*H maintained a constant ensemble cast, with four characters – Hawkeye, Father Mulcahy, Margaret Houlihan, Maxwell Klinger – on the show for all 11 seasons. Several other main characters departed or joined the program during its run, numerous guest actors and recurring characters were used; the writers found creating so many names difficult, used names from elsewhere. Note: Character appearances include double-length episodes as two appearances, making 260 in total; as the series progressed, it made a significant shift from being a comedy with dramatic undertones to a drama with comedic undertones. This was a result of changes in writing and production staff, rather than the cast defections of McLean Stevenson, Larry Linville, Wayne Rogers and Gary Burghoff.
Series co-creator and joke writer Larry Gelbart departed after Season 4, the first featuring Mike Farrell and Harry Morgan. This resulted in Farrell and Morgan having only a single season reading scripts featuring Gelbart's masterful comic timing, which defined the feel and rhythm of Seasons 1–4 featuring predecessors Rogers and Stevenson, respectively. Larry Linville and Executive Producer Gene Reynolds both departed at the conclusion of Season 5 in 1977, resulting in M*A*S*H being stripped of its original tight comedic foundation by the beginning of Season 6 — the debut of the Charles Winchester era. Whereas Gelbart and Reynolds were the comedic voice of M*A*S*H for the show's first five seasons, Alan Alda and newly promoted Executive Producer Burt Metcalfe became the new dramatic voice of M*A*S*H for Seasons 6–11. By the start of Season 8, the writing staff had been overhauled, with the departure of Gary Burghoff, M*A*S*H displayed a distinctively different feel, consciously moving between comedy and drama, unlike the seamless integration of its first five years.
The end of the Vietnam War in 1975 was a significant factor as to why storylines become less political in nature and more character driven. Several episodes experimented with the sitcom format: "Point of View" – shown from the perspective of a soldier with a throat wound "Dreams" – an idea of Alda's, where during a deluge of casualties, members of the 4077 take naps on a rotation basis, allowing the viewer to see the lyrical and disturbing dreams "A War For All Seasons" – features a story line that takes place over the course of 1951 "Life Time" – a precursor to the American television series 24, it utilizes the real time method of narrationAnother change was the infusion of story lines based on actual events and medical developments that materialized during the Korean War. Considerable research was done by the producers, including interviews with actual MASH surgeons and personnel to develop story lines roote
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American English-language commercial terrestrial television network, a flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, with additional major offices near Los Angeles and Philadelphia; the network is one of the Big Three television networks. NBC is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network", in reference to its stylized peacock logo, introduced in 1956 to promote the company's innovations in early color broadcasting, it became the network's official emblem in 1979. Founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. At that time the parent company of RCA was General Electric. In 1930, GE was forced to sell the companies as a result of antitrust charges. In 1986, control of NBC passed back to General Electric through its $6.4 billion purchase of RCA. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as chief executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007, when he was succeeded by Jeff Zucker.
In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, forming NBC Universal. Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, acquired General Electric's remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBCUniversal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke. NBC has thirteen owned-and-operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates throughout the United States and its territories, some of which are available in Canada and/or Mexico via pay-television providers or in border areas over-the-air. During a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had a competing outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ, which served as the flagship for a loosely structured network; this station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, moved to New York City. WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&T's manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas.
The Bell System, AT&T's telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, using both wireless and wired methods. The 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a regular schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs, was an immediate success. In an early example of "chain" or "networking" broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island. C. WCAP. New parent RCA saw an advantage in sharing programming, after getting a license for radio station WRC in Washington, D. C. in 1923, attempted to transmit audio between cities via low-quality telegraph lines. AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines; the early effort fared poorly, since the uninsulated telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric and other electrical interference. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its embryonic network were incompatible with the company's primary goal of providing a telephone service.
AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&T's phone lines for network transmission. RCA spent $1 million to purchase WEAF and Washington sister station WCAP, shut down the latter station, merged its facilities with surviving station WRC; the division's ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC started broadcasting on November 15, 1926. WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On January 1, 1927, NBC formally divided their respective marketing strategies: the "Red Network" offered commercially sponsored entertainment and music programming. Various histories of NBC suggest the color designations for the two networks came from the color of the pushpins NBC engineers used to designate affiliate stations of WEAF and WJZ, or from the use of double-ended red and blue colored pencils. On April 5, 1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network known as the Pacific Coast Network.
This was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18, 1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network; the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. In 1936, the Orange Network affiliate stations became part of the Red Network, at the same time the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC developed a network for shortwave radio stations, called the NBC White Network. In 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building de
