Beautiful 1975 shot of a 44 working on The Tonight Show with Johnny, Joan and Ed who are obviously having a party....as usual.
Photo courtesy NBC Universal Photo Bank. All rights reserved. Images may not be copied, archived, sold, leased or shared.

The above and below photos are all of the same 1978 election night set in Studio 8G, but these top 3 were taken the day before while the finishing touches were being made. Photos courtesy Dennis Degan. Be sure to see the Dennis Degan section in our new Gallery section.

Election night 1978 at 30 Rock with Andréa Mitchell, John Chancellor, David Brinkley and Tom Brokaw before a bevy of TK44s in Studio 8G. Below, we see three great shots from 8H on December 17, 1977 during the broadcast of SNL's Episode 8 of that season featuring Elvis Costello. In the Gallery, I've added a special feature on these studios and the famous SNL crane, click here to see it.
Photos courtesy NBC Universal Photo Bank. All rights reserved. Images may not be copied, archived, sold, leased or shared.

Bob Hope at NBC Burbank October 15, 1975 during the taping of Bob Hope's 25 Years Of Comedy.
Photo courtesy NBC Universal Photo Bank. All rights reserved. Images may not be copied, archived, sold, leased or shared.

Longtime NBC cameraman Sidney Chomsky with a TK44 at the Academy Awards show. Sid's son Natt (an ABC tape editor) sent this to me and I thank him. For in interesting look at another multi generational TV family, see the new Gallery Section.

At WNBC in New York we see a weekend spots show with Marv Albert in the center shot by TK44s in Studio 6A.

In the three images above, we are at Studio 81 at Reeves Teletape for a home show called 'Hittin' Home', with Chuck Wollery and Nancy Glass in 1979. The crane is a Chapman Nike model. The image just above shows my friend Joe LoRe' on camera 4 of that show. He's a tad older here than in the photo of him at ABC on the TK60 page. In the two shots below, we're on the Sesame Street set with Reeves the same year.
Photos courtesy Dennis Degan. 

Studio 6A was where Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show originated in New York. In later years, it became the home of Late Night with David Letterman, followed by Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and now it's home to the syndicated Dr. Oz Show. This studio was the first in 30 Rock to be equipped for high definition video. The new HD control room was built behind the stage.
(Dennis Degan Photo)

Above is 30 year NBC Burbank veteran Jon Olson during a Jerry Lewis Show rehearsal and is protecting his eyes from the crew hanging lights there in Studio 2. Ironically, just across the hall, Dean Martin is in rehearsal too. Jon was behind the camera for the first 10 years and worked mostly on specials like Hallmark Hall of Fames (Our Town, Clarence Darrow, Gideon, etc.), some Laugh-In, Sanford and Son, Chico and the Man, CPO Sharkey with Don Rickles, Phyllis Diller, Richard Pryor's summer show. He also worked a few seasons of Flip Wilson, Andy Williams, Hollywood Squares, Let's Make a Deal, and many more. Boy...just look back at that list! Jon even won an Emmy for "Doug Henning's World of Magic" which was a one camera show. He spent the next 20 years in news, and when he left was West Coast Technical Director for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.

TK44s on the KNBC Los Angeles news set. The News 4 tri flip panel used to be the Johnny Carson flip panel.
Photo courtesy of Bob Meza.

Our friend Bob Meza with TK44s at NBC Burbank. He's the last engineer there with experience on the 44s.
Photo courtesy of Bob Meza.

Times, they are ''a changing...literally. As the TK47s start to arrive in Burbank, the 44s go away. 5 of these cameras came my way.
Photo courtesy of Bob Meza.

This photo was taken in 1989 and shows NBC cameraman Jag Gyanor in Studio 5 at NBC Burbank with a TK44, freshly adorned with the new peacock logo panels. Notice the fan on top?
Photo courtesy of Bob Meza.

Here's Bob Meza behind a TK44 at NBC Burbank. Bob is still at NBC and is the last engineer still there who worked on TK44s.
Photo courtesy of Bob Meza

Photo courtesy NBC Universal Photo Bank. All rights reserved. Images may not be copied, archived, sold, leased or shared.

From 1965 to 1974 Burbank was busy with The Dean Martin Show and cranked out 264 episodes. Above (color, top) is a photo from the 1972 Martin Christmas special and below that is a 1971 black and white shot from a 1971 episode of the show. One of the many running gags was the knock from the 'closet' door. Each week when Dean opened it, there was a celebrity guest, but most people never knew that Dean usually didn't know who was going to be there, and he didn't want to know so his reaction would be spontaneous.
Photo courtesy of Old Radio.com

TK44s in the studio at KCET-TV
Photo courtesy of Old Radio.com

One great thing about the TK44s was the flat door. Finally, ''camera art' had a place to live as many local stations like KOGO in San Diego (and NBC below) used full door adhesive graphics to their full capacity.
Photo courtesy of Old Radio.com

TK44 in the field for major league baseball above and college football below. The 44 series of color cameras were considered the first truly portable color cameras. Even though the camera heads weighed over 120 pounds and require two men to lift onto a tripod, that hundreds less than the 41s or 42s. Can you say hernia?
Photos courtesy RCA Broadcast News

While waiting to go on, Rock Hudson plays around with a TK44 in the hall outside Studio 6-B at 30 Rock.
Courtesy of Life Magazine.

Hello Mr. Ellerbee, I absolutely love your website and your incredible camera collection. For me, browsing your website is like going to Disneyland. I thought I'd send you a picture I scanned out of the June, 1970 RCA Broadcast News. This is a picture of seven TK-44A cameras at the Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting. This is now known as Maryland Public Television. I have worked at MPT for 35 years in Videotape and Master Control. Lou Goldberg

Courtesy of RCA Broadcast News, here we in December of 1969 in Studio 6B at 30 Rock. We're on the set of The Tonight Show with Johnny and Ed above and a rehearsal shot below. By the way, I've put a very special look at The Tonight Show's history in the Gallery...please take a look.

In these three images (above and below), we see long time NBC Burbank cameraman Jim Bragg working with the TK44s. Above it very interesting moment in time as it is the only time a "snorkel lens" was used for television. One look at the special apparatus and rigging will probably explain why. The effect is to give a ''from the ground up' kind of image. The lens was on loan for NBC to try out but they didn't bite. Although it's a unique perspective, you can see that Jim had to work pretty hard under the Chapman for this shot. Below, Jim is in under less stress as he prepares his 44s for golf and baseball.

A TK44 brings us David Frost and former president Richard Nixon in 1977 in the famous Frost Interviews.
Photo courtesy Howard Foster Keller.

This is the perfect way to show the difference in the look of the TK44s and TK45s. The center camera above is a TK45 and the other two are TK44s. Notice the black vent doors and trim and a lower tally dome light. Below are the TK46s in their tan and blue.

In the three photos above, we see RCA TK46 cameras set to record Elton John in Central Park in September 1980. I never much cared for the camera's colors, but this is the first RCA camera that had a tilting viewfinder and for that convenience, you can come to love the tan and blue. At least these cameras have a lens housing that looks more normal than the original molded, hard plastic cowls that came of the very early TK46 versions. They looked similar to the GE 350 lens cowls.
Photos courtesy Dennis Degan.