KTLA - better known to us denizens of LA-la-Land as Channel 5 - went on the air for the very first time at 8 PM on January 22, 1947. It was the first commercial television station in Los Angeles, and also the first station to broadcast west of the Mississippi.


KTLA's inaugural broadcast played to a pretty limited audience that night, as there were only about 300 TV sets in LA at the time. Bob Hope emceed the program, with the matter-of-fact title Western Premiere of Commercial Television. The show was shot live from a garage on the Paramount Studios in Hollywood and featured a variety of popular acts, such as the Hopeman's zany sidekick Jerry Colonna, The DeCastro Sisters, and The Rhythmaires.



And what a history it was! You see, Klaus Landsberg was a real genius. He had a vision for television. He knew exactly what he wanted it to be, and he used his technical know-how and innovative impulses to shape TV into somethin' really special. Klaus created, produced, or directed over 40 different shows back then. Under his artistic guidance, KTLA produced a wide variety of original programmin' for everybody to watch. All the kinda shows we take for granted these days - drama, comedy, news, reality, sports, wrestlin', live music and variety, kid stuff, games, even shop-at-home - Klaus and his KTLA cronies did it all, did it well, and oftentimes did it first. And they did it all live, too - as in get in front of the camera and do your thing, Charlie. There were no tapes, there were no edits. It was raw talent shown first take to the audience exactly as it happened. Most of the time, there weren't even any scripts! They winged it all the way. It was total seat-of-your-pants improvisation in those days.




Beany was the brainchild of Bob Clampett. It starred Daws Butler and Stan Freburg portrayin' a plentitude of playful puppet people like Beany Boy, Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent, Uncle Captain, Dishonest John, and Tearalong the Dotted Lion. Absolutely fantastic. This was Albert Einstein's favorite TV show. One time he walked out of a high-level conference of brainiac rocket scientists at CalTech just so he could watch it.You will have to excuse me, gentlemen. It's Time for Beany. oh yeah!

This spot guest stars El Presidente, Ol' Harry S. of The Buck Stops Here fame...



Time for Beany also helped spawn another popular TV show...

Musical Adventure with Korla Pandit (1949)

Korla Pandit got his big chance to be on TV when Klaus Landsberg offered him his own show, with the followin' condition: he also had to play the music for Beany and Cecil. Korla took the bait, and Musical Adventure was seen for the very first time in February, 1949.





Musical Adventure was the first all-music show ever broadcast, and it was a big hit. Nobody panned it, but Pandit panned it for gold. A couple years later he moved on from KTLA and was ticklin' the ivories for a national TV audience. Not too shabby for a guy in a turban. He was totally flyin' in that rarified stratosphere of TV super-stardom, but his magic carpet ride ended when a contract dispute got him kicked off the air. Korla was replaced with another kinky keyboard virtuoso, the famously flamboyant and mononymously likable Liberace.

Whew! This was a long one! I hope you all enjoyed readin' it as much as I enjoyed writin' it! Lemme tell you, this has been one of the funnest blogs I've ever done! Before I started, most of this stuff was totally unknown to me. I had to read read read dozens of Wikipedia articles, and check check check out at least as many websites to connect all the dots that put this thing together. But the research was easy. The hard part was pullin' myself away from watchin' hour after hour of video to all these classic shows! Tee hee!

Wow, I didn't know about that! She must've been pretty awesome to get two memorials that way.

Yep, she sure was. In fact, Jayne was so awesome, Jefferson Starship even wrote a song about her.

They did not! You just made that up!

Hush! It's time to watch the video...