The Interviews: An Oral History of Television

Television Academy Foundation

5220 Lankershim Boulevard

North Hollywood, CA 91601

818-509-2260

televisionacademy.com/interviews

youtube.com/foundationinterviews

The Interviews: An Oral History of Television

Collection number: 01

The Interviews: An Oral History of Television

Television Academy Foundation

North Hollywood, CA

Date Completed:: 2018

Descriptive Summary

Title: The Interviews: An Oral History of Television

Dates: 1996-2018

Collection number: 01

Creator: Archive of American Television

Extent: 900 interviews (557 standard definition, 343 high definition) approximately 3,700 hours of video footage 88 TB of data

Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English

Repository: The Television Academy Foundation The Interviews: An Oral History of Television

North Hollywood, CA 91601

Abstract: Founded in 1997, with its first interviews recorded in 1996, The Television Academy Foundation’s The Interviews: An Oral History of Television consists of over 850 videotaped oral history interviews with the legends of television, including Milton Berle, Carol Burnett, Walter Cronkite, Norman Lear, Mary Tyler Moore, Betty White, and many others. Interviewees hail from professions across the television industry, from actors and writers to executives, editors, publicists, composers, and more. Major topics discussed in interviews include Advice to Aspiring Professionals, TV’s Golden Age, Censorship, and Technological Innovation, as well as important events in American and television history, such as the Hollywood Blacklist, the Quiz Show Scandals, 9/11, and the Kennedy Assassination. The Interviews conducts up to twenty-five new interviews each year. The vast majority of the collection is available to the public through the Interviews' website (full versions) and YouTube (shorter clips).

Accruals

The Interviews conducts up to twenty-five new interviews each year, which are then digitized, cataloged, and made available to the public through the Interviews' website.

Administrative History

The Television Academy Foundation was founded in 1959 as the charitable arm of the Television Academy with the goal of shaping the art of creating television by engaging and educating the next generation of television professionals. Today, the Foundation pursues this goal through scholarships, internships, career development programs, outreach to university faculty, and the in-depth oral history of television housed in The Interviews.

The Archive of American Television (rebranded in 2017 as The Interviews: An Oral History of Television) was first conceived of by television executive Dean Valentine in 1996. Inspired by Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation, which documents stories of the Holocaust through oral history interviews, Valentine set out to establish a similar project for television. Mr. Valentine was soon joined by Thomas W. Sarnoff, Chairman of the Television Academy Foundation for 17 years, Producer David Wolper and Executive Grant Tinker. The result was the Archive of American Television, established under the aegis of the Television Academy Foundation with the mission to preserve, celebrate, and share the history of the television industry. The first interviews conducted for the Archive were with Leonard H. Goldenson (founder of ABC Television), Dick Smith (television’s first makeup artist), Milton Berle (comedian and performer known as “Mr Television”), Elma Farnsworth (widow of Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of electronic television), Sheldon Leonard (producer), and Ethel Winant (casting director). Since then, the Interviews has recorded over 850 interviews, and, since 2008, has made its interviews freely available to the public through its website.

Conditions Governing Access

The vast majority of the Interviews' holdings have been digitized and are freely available to the public for viewing through the Interviews' website (full) and on YouTube (shorter clips).

Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use / Copyright Status

The Interviews' footage is available to all film, television, broadband and documentary producers, and has been digitized for easy access and delivery. Licensing fees apply, but vary depending on the usage rights and territory required. Transcripts for research purposes only are available for a fee.

The Interviews owns copyright on all of its interviews, with the exception of special cases where the copyright or permission to rebroadcast must be obtained from the interviewee or their estate. The Interviews may then make this request on the researcher’s behalf.

Preferred Citation

Quoting from the interviews is allowed, but please contact the Interviews for exact phrasing and credit.

Scope and Content

The Interviews: An Oral History of Television contains over 800 videotaped oral history interviews with television industry professionals, chronicling the birth and growth of television from its earliest days in the Farnsworth labs to current stars and visionaries. The first interviews were taped in 1996, and since then up to twenty-five new interviews have been recorded each year. The interviews are available online.

Interviewees are professionals who work in front of the camera, including actors, comedians, hosts, journalists, meteorologists, and news anchors, as well as behind-the-scenes professionals, including agents, animators, directors, editors, executives, makeup artists, producers, puppeteers, writers, and more. Just a few of the notable names in the collection are: Milton Berle, James Burrows, Carol Burnett, Sid Caesar, Walter Cronkite, Michael Eisner, Michael J. Fox, Jon Hamm, Ron Howard, Quincy Jones, Norman Lear, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, Keenen Ivory Wayans, and Betty White.

Each interview follows a life-history format, starting with the interviewee’s childhood and early influences, then moving on to major television work and concluding with advice to aspiring professionals. The interviews range in length from one-hour to up to eight-hours and touch on a multitude of topics, many of historical significance, including the Quiz Show Scandals, the Hollywood Blacklist, the Kennedy Assassination, the Civil Rights Movement, and 9/11. The range of time periods discussed by interviewees stretch from the time of television’s invention in the 1920s to the present day. The Interviews contains transcripts of each interview.

The Interviews also contains two additional oral history collections: The Living Television Collection and the Jeff Kisseloff Audio Interview Collection. Living Television was a special initiative of the Archive of American Television, which collaborated with broadcast organizations, colleges, and universities across the country to videotape in-depth interviews of local television pioneers. The Living Television Collection is partially digitized, and a few of the interviews have been absorbed into The Interviews. Journalist Jeff Kisseloff conducted over 300 interviews with people involved in all aspects of early television as research for his book, The Box: An Oral History of Television, 1929-1961. These audio taped interviews are housed in The Interviews' collection and are not digitized.

The Interviews does not contain episodes of television shows or television ephemera.

Related Archival Collections

The following archival collections contain related materials:

The Academy Oral History Projects

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oral History Collections

Margaret Herrick Library

Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study

333 S. La Cienega Boulevard

Beverly Hills, CA 90211

http://www.oscars.org/oral-history

The American Comedy Archives at Emerson College

Iwasaki Library

120 Boylston Street

Boston, MA 02116

http://www.emerson.edu/library/archives/american-comedy-archives

Directors Guild of America Visual History Program

7920 Sunset Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90046

http://www.dga.org/Craft/VisualHistory.aspx

UCLA Film and Television Archive

Archive Research and Study Center

Powell Library (Room 46)

Los Angeles, CA 90095-1517

https://www.cinema.ucla.edu

The Writer Speaks: Oral Histories of Film and Television Writers

Writers Guild Foundation

7000 West Third Street

Los Angeles, CA 90048

https://www.wgfoundation.org/programs/the-writer-speaks/

Controlled Access Terms

Berle, Milton

Burnett, Carol

Burrows, James, 1940-

Caesar, Sid, 1922-2014

Cronkite, Walter

Eisner, Michael, 1942-

Farnsworth, Philo Taylor, 1906-1971

Fox, Michael J., 1961-

Goldenson, Leonard H.

Jones, Quincy, 1933-

Lear, Norman

Leonard, Sheldon, 1907-1997

Louis-Dreyfus, Julia

Moore, Mary Tyler, 1936-

Sarnoff, Tom

Smith, Dick, 1922-2014

Tinker, Grant

Van Dyke, Dick

Wayans, Keenen Ivory

White, Betty, 1922-

Winant, Ethel

Wolper, David L.

ABC Television Network

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation

Archive of American Television

CBS Television Network

Du Mont Broadcasting Corporation

NBC Television Network

Advertising—Television programs

African Americans in television broadcasting

African Americans on television

Animators

Biographical television programs

Broadcast journalism

Broadcasting

Civil rights movement

Detective and mystery television programs

Emmy Awards

Executives

Historical television programs

History on television

Hollywood blacklist

Journalists

Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963—Assassination

Mass media

Morning news talk shows

New York World’s Fair (1939-1940 : New York, N.Y.)

Olympics

Oral history

Presidents—Election

Presidents—United States—Election

Producers and directors

Reality television programs

September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001

Situation comedies (Television programs)

Super Bowl

Television

Television acting

Television actors and actresses

Television adaptations

Television advertising

Television broadcasting

Television—Censorship

Television commercials

Television composers

Television and culture

Television directors

Television—History

Television and history

Television journalists

Television mini-series

Television and politics

Television in politics

Television and popular culture

Television—Production and direction

Television programs

Television quiz shows

Television series

Television soap operas

Television talk show hosts

Television talk shows

Television—Technological innovations

Television writers

Variety shows (Television programs)

Vietnam War, 1961-1975

Voice actors and actresses

Western television programs

World series (Baseball)

Arrangement

The Interviews' website is searchable by keyword, phrase, post type, and category (genre, television show, topic, personal name, profession). Each interview that is available on the website has been cataloged and time-stamped, allowing users to access specific sections of interviews without scrolling through hours of tape. Additionally, the interviews are indexed within the following categories, providing multiple time-based access points:

Topics
- Bloopers
- Creative Influences and Inspiration
- Emmy Awards
- Historic Events and Social Change
  - 1939-40 World's Fair
  - 9/11
  - Civil Rights Movement(c. 1960s)
  - Diversity in Television
    - Disabled
    - Gay/Lesbian
    - Minorities
    - People with Disabilities
    - Women
  - Fall of the Berlin Wall
  - Health and Medicine
  - Iran Hostage Crisis
  - JFK Assassination and Funeral
  - Moon Landing
  - Natural Disasters
  - Queen Elizabeth Coronation
  - War
    - Cold War
    - Gulf War
    - Iraq War
    - Korean Conflict
    - Vietnam War
    - War on Terror
    - World War II
- Memorable Moments on Television
  - We Celebrated
  - We Considered
  - We Cried
  - We Laughed
- Pivotal Career Moments
  - First Break
  - Overcoming Adversity
- Pop Culture
  - Celebrities in the News
  - Characters & Catchphrases
  - Classic TV Series Episodes
  - Fame and Celebrity
  - Rock'n'Roll on TV (1950s & '60s)
  - TV Theme Songs
- Sports
  - Coverage
  - Olympic Games
  - Super Bowl
  - World Series
- TV's Golden Age (1940s & '50s)
- Technological Innovation
- Television Industry
  - Advertising and Sponsorship
  - Advice
  - Censorship/Standards & Practices
  - Criticism of TV
    - 'The Idiot Box'
    - Media Bias
    - Sex &Violence
    - Trash TV
  - Fame & Celebrity
  - Industry Crossroads
    - Hollywood Blacklist (ca. 1950s)
    - Industry Strikes
    - Quiz Show Scandals
    - Runaway Productions
  - Interactive Technology
  - Media Consolidation
  - Network Creation
  - New Media
  - Public Television
- Television and the Presidency

Professions
- Animation Professionals
- Designers
- Directors
- Executives
- Film & Video Post-Production Professionals
- Film & Video Production Professionals
- Hosts
- Journalists & News Producers
- Music Professionals
- Objects
- On-Set/Location Personnel
- Performers
- Producers
- Representatives
- Sound Professionals
- Stylists
- Talent Professionals
- Technology Innovators
- Writers & Show Creators

Genre
- Adventure/Espionage Series
- Animation
- Awards Shows
- Children's Programming
- Classic Anthology Series
- Comedy Series
- Commercials
- Cop/Detective/Mystery Series
- Daytime/Primetime Serials
- Drama Series
- Game Shows
- Late Night
- Legal Dramas
- Medical Dramas
- Music Shows & Variety Shows/Specials
- News and Documentary
- Reality TV
- Religious Programming
- Sci-Fi/Supernatural Series
- Service Shows
- Sports
- Talk Shows
- TV Movies/Miniseries/Dramatic Specials
- Western Series