When Earle walked into my tiny office in the bowels of the vast NBC Research Department in 1975 and we started batting around the idea for a book, we had no idea what it—or TV itself—would one day become. The original idea was a fairly simple listing of shows that we could use in our own work, which involved researching prior series and estimating the performance of future ones that were similar. No such listing existed, proving that most good ideas spring from something you could use yourself. Slowly the idea grew into something bigger and (hopefully) more informative and entertaining for the viewer. It was modeled in some ways on the TV picture book How Sweet It Was (1966) and the radio directory The Big Broadcast (1971). Why not a “just the facts, ma'am” book about TV shows?
Getting the book published turned into an epic battle, with 20 publishers turning us down, some quite emphatically. Who cared about old TV shows? Finally Ballantine Books said yes, somewhat tentatively, thanks to a farsighted editor named Paul Anbinder. (Lesson no. 2: if at first you don't succeed….). There were still potholes along the road after that (the book was canceled twice) but in 1979 it finally came out and the rest, as they say, is TV history. Half a million copies later it's safe to say viewers do care about “old” TV.
That was then. The NBC Research Department is no longer vast but TV certainly is, with networks and series beyond counting. We've tried to keep up with them all (we watch everything) and are sincerely grateful to readers whose support and input have made it possible to continually update and refine this volume. Once in a while there are brickbats from someone who thinks they've found an error, and we would be the first to acknowledge that it's impossible to be 100 percent correct in a compendium this huge. (Aside from the question of what is really correct, with press releases, network files and even shows themselves often inconsistent. What was Bunny's last name on Gomer Pyle? Even the writers couldn't keep it straight.)
Some data are simply lost; we'll probably never find the full story on The Laytons (1948), ostensibly the first black network sitcom. However we believe 99+ percent is correct, which is why the book is widely used as a reference. This is not a “factory” production but handcrafted, by the two of us, with the help of many valued correspondents and people in the business.
So we hope you sit back, enjoy and maybe pick up a few tidbits from the enclosed. As has been true for the past three decades, your comments and suggestions are always welcome, in care of the publisher.
—T.B. and E.M.