Wide Wide World
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wide Wide World was a 90-minute Sunday afternoon documentary series telecast live on NBC from October 16, 1955 to June 8, 1958. Conceived by Pat Weaver, the show was first introduced on June 27, 1955 as part of the Producers' Showcase series.
Dave Garroway was the host of the series which featured live remote segments from locations throughout North America and occasional reports on film from elsewhere in the world. The series carried live events into four million households.
ESPN's Steve Bowman described the logistics involved in setting up a live remote at Arkansas' Claypool Reservoir where George Purvis, head of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, put 300,000 ducks on NBC:
- There were many hurdles. Initially Purvis dealt with how to hide TV cameras, crews, control trucks and the necessary workmen and equipment and how to get electricity and telephone lines two miles to the woods.
- "To start with, the only way to get to the spot selected was over two miles of muddy woods roads where only tractors had gone before," Purvis recalls. "The cameras would be two miles from the nearest power line or telephone. This meant using power generators placed far enough back in the woods so as not to disturb the wary ducks. Six telephone circuits were needed to send the audio part of the program to New York.
- "Even after stringing two miles of wire there was just one circuit from Claypool's Reservoir to Jonesboro, 20 miles away. So a radio loop was installed at the barn to cover the 20-mile gap." Camouflaged blinds were built for television cameras and operators, one of which was 40 feet up a hickory tree. An additional blind was built for the remote control truck.
- The video would go from the camera to the control truck via the cable, then to an 80-foot relay tower 1,000 feet back in the woods, then 35 miles to another relay tower, then 40 miles to a third tower before being sent to Memphis. There it was transmitted 1,200 miles to New York where the audio and video were combined to be broadcast live. With the electronics in place, the only thing left was to make sure that at an exact prearranged time there would be ducks in front of the cameras — over a quarter-of-a-million ducks.
