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Television

Science Fiction Theatre: The Other Side Of The Moon

Science Fiction TheatreThe 39th episode of the syndicated science fiction Science Fiction Theatre airs on stations across the U.S. Hosted by Truman Bradley, the episode stars Skip Homeier and Beverly Garland, and concludes the show’s first season. For budgetary reasons, this is the final episode filmed in color.

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Star Trek Television

Stage 7: The Secret Weapon Of 117

Gene RoddenberryThe TV anthology series Stage 7 presents the first produced science fiction television script written by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, The Secret Weapon Of 117. Ricardo Montalban stars as one of a pair of aliens trying to assess whether or not Earth has the technology to retaliate against infiltration and invasion by their species. Drawing from his past police work, Roddenberry has already sold scripts to Ziv Television Programs for Mr. District Attorney and Highway Patrol, and pitched an ultimately unsold script to Ziv’s Science Fiction Theatre series; this is his first genre work to make it to the screen. Sadly, no recordings still seem to exist of this self-contained story.

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Television

Science Fiction Theatre: Signals From The Heart

Science Fiction TheatreThe 40th episode of the syndicated science fiction Science Fiction Theatre airs on stations across the U.S. Hosted by Truman Bradley, the episode stars Peter Hansen and Walter Kingsford, and is the first episode of Science Fiction Theatre’s second season. For budgetary reasons, the second season reverts to black & white filming (the first season was shot in color).

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Communications Science & Technology Television

Videotape

Ampex VRX-1000 VTRAt the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Chicago, Ampex demonstrates the first commercially-available videotape deck, the Ampex VRX-1000 Quad VTR, using two-inch-wide open-reel videotape, in spools with a 14-inch diameter, to record and play back up to an hour of television programming. Over the next four days, Ampex receives orders from broadcasters totaling over two million dollars. CBS will give the VRX-1000 its first national on-air use in November, tape-delaying a newscast to its stations on the west coast, allowing the first broadcast of a single program at the same hour in different time zones. NBC will also have the VRX-1000 in use at the beginning of 1957. A newer model capable of recording and playing back programming in full color will become available in 1958. Though it does not record at the same resolution as film, the relative ease of use of videotape will see it replace kinescope film in most TV operations.

Categories
Godzilla Movies

Godzilla, King Of The Monsters!

GodzillaThe first Godzilla movie, Gojira, is re-released in America, dubbed into English with additional scenes starring actor Raymond Burr, as Godzilla, King Of The Monsters! Despite the quite noticeable differences between old footage and new, the movie proves popular, and sparks the western world’s obsession with Toho Studios’ signature creation. It is also just the first of several attempts to westernize the Godzilla mythos (chiefly for American audiences).

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Television

Science Fiction Theatre: The Green Bomb

Science Fiction TheatreThe 43rd episode of the syndicated science fiction Science Fiction Theatre airs on stations across the U.S. Hosted by Truman Bradley, the episode stars Whit Bissell and Kenneth Tobey, and plays on the rising nuclear fear of the fifties.

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