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* ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama.