When I taught studio television production at Iowa State in the
late '70s, our classroom equipment consisted of "hand-me-downs" from the
campus television station, WOI-TV, which just happened to be the Des
Moines ABC affiliate (unusual, indeed, for a university station).  We used
antidiluvian RCA TK-15 b-and-w cameras and a Grass Valley switcher, all of
which dated from, at least, the mid-60s, probably earlier.  The specific GV
model in the Hanks film may not have been historically accurate, but, I
believe, Grass Valley has been producing a variety of video sitching
equipment since at least the mid-50s.
 
        Finding and incorporating era television equipment must pose a
daunting problem for dedicated art directors, production designers, and
prop people.
_______________________________________________________________________________
                               William Lafferty
 
Department of Theatre Arts                           [log in to unmask]
Wright State University                           office (937) 775-4581 or 3072
Dayton, OH  45435-0001  USA                            facsimile (937) 775-3787
 
"The universe was once conceived almost as a vast preserve, landscaped for
heroes, plotted to provide them the appropriate adventures.  The rules were
known and respected, the adversaries honorable, the oracles articulate and
precise as the directives of a six-lane parkway.  Errors of weakness or vanity
led, with measured momentum, to the tragedy which resolved everything.  Today,
the rules are ambiguous, the adversary is concealed in aliases, the oracles
broadcast a babble of contradictions."
 
                                  --- Maya Deren, from her notes for *At Land*
 
----
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