Screen grab courtesy YouTube History in Five
How Network TV News Covered the Assassination of JFK
Original Airdates: Nov. 10-13, 2023
TVC 627.1: From November 2013: A special joint edition of The Sounds of Lost Television and This Week in TV History featuring Phil Gries, Tony Figueroa, and Donna Allen that looks back at how network television news covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963 and the events that followed over the next three days—a seminal moment in U.S. history and in the lives of many Baby Boomers; a seminal moment in the history of network TV news; and, in many respects, a seminal moment in the history of Archival Television Audio.
Phil happened to be home on the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, watching the NBC daytime documentary program Tell Us More on local NBC affiliate WNBC, when a news bulletin read by announcer Don Pardo interrupted regular programming at approximately 1:45pm ET and announced that President Kennedy had been “cut down by an assassin’s bullet.” However, due to the technical limitations of TV broadcasting at the time, NBC had no tape of either the Pardo bulletin or the opening minutes of its own news coverage. For more than twenty years, those minutes were considered lost, until it was discovered circa 1988 that only Phil had the presence of mind to make an audio recording on his own while watching television at home that day.
The Missing Four Minutes of NBC News Coverage of 11/22/63
Original Airdates: Nov. 10-13, 2023
TVC 627.2: From November 2013: Phil Gries of Archival Television Audio recalls the moment, circa 1988, when he realized that he had something that NBC did not have—the audio of the first four minutes of the network’s national news coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963—and his decision to go public with that discovery, first to NBC News, then to the Library of Congress.
Audio highlights this segment include the first news bulletin, read by Don Pardo (then-booth announcer for WNBC, the NBC affiliate in New York) at approximately 1:45pm ET on Nov. 22, 1963, announcing the shooting of President Kennedy.
The Missing Four Minutes, Part 2
Original Airdates: Nov. 10-13, 2023
TVC 627.3: From November 2013: Phil Gries of Archival Television Audio plays audio of the first national news bulletin for NBC News, read by booth announcer Don Pardo at approximately 1:47pm ET on Nov. 22, 1963, announcing that President Kennedy had been “cut down by an assassin’s bullet.” Due to the technical limitations of TV broadcasting at the time, NBC had no tape of this bulletin or the first four minutes of its own news coverage. Those first four minutes were considered lost for more than twenty years, until it was discovered circa 1988 that only Phil had the presence of mind to make an audio recording on his own while watching television at home that day.
Legendary NBC announcer Don Pardo. Image courtesy BuzzFeed
Don Pardo and The Chaos at NBC News on 11/22/63
Original Airdates: Nov. 10-13, 2023
TVC 627.6: From November 2013: Phil Gries of Archival Television Audio plays excerpts from his May 1998 interview with longtime NBC announcer Don Pardo in which Pardo recalls the chaos that permeated the NBC newsroom on Nov. 22, 1963, in the moments immediately following the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot, and how he was pressed into becoming an interim news anchor, reading AP news bulletins hot off the wire, until the usual network news team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley was in place.
Walter Cronkite, Aaron Brown, and Don Pardo
Original Airdates: Nov. 17-20, 2023
TVC 628.1: From November 2013: Part 2 of our special joint edition of The Sounds of Lost Television and This Week in TV History featuring Phil Gries, Tony Figueroa, and Donna Allen that looks back at how network television news covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963—a seminal moment in U.S. history and in the lives of many Baby Boomers and a seminal moment in the history of network TV news.
In this segment, Phil plays audio from Aaron Brown’s interview with Walter Cronkite on CNN in November 2003 in which Cronkite recalls the moment when he briefly lost his composure on camera after he announced the death of President Kennedy. Also in this segment: More highlights from Phil’s exclusive interview with Don Pardo in May 1998 in which Pardo discusses his early career at NBC, including the times when he did play-by-play in 1946 as part of experimental TV broadcasts of Major League Baseball games at Yankee Stadium, Ebbets Field, and the Polo Grounds.
How the JFK Assassination Stigmatized Dallas
Original Airdates: Nov. 17-20, 2023
TVC 628.2: From November 2013: Phil Gries of Archival Television Audio discusses some of the various films and documentaries that have been made over the years about the assassination of President John K. Kennedy. Also in this segment: How the JFK assassination left a stigma on the city of Dallas for many years, and how that started to changed in the late 1970s with the emergence of the Dallas Cowboys as “America’s Team” and the popularity of the TV series Dallas.
The Back Story of the Zapruder Film
Original Airdates: Nov. 17-20, 2023
TVC 628.3: From November 2013: Phil Gries of Archival Television Audio shares some final thoughts on how network TV news covered the assassination of President Kennedy on 11/22/63, as well as how the 8mm color motion sequence shot by clothing manufacturer Abraham Zapruder became one of the most scrutinized pieces of film ever.
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