Television History Comes Alive On HOT

There was a time when NBC kept a card file listing every known television set owner. Each week the network sent out postcards to the owners listing the coming week’s programs and asking for comments on them.



The year was 1939 and television had been around for more than ten years but outside of New York City, it was unlikely that anyone saw one. Commercial network television was born in 1941 when NBC and CBS were granted licenses but World War II delayed the effort until the late 1940’s when network TV reached across the country. By long with ABC and the short lived DuMont Network, television was reaching millions of homes with original programs by 1951. The golden age of television had begun.


Sixty years later, two fans of that golden age are sharing their love of early television with local cable and digital TV subscribers. The station is appropriately called HOT-TV for the History of Television and airs on DISH at Channel 26 as well as digital channels 26.1, 31.3 and 50.4.


Joel Stevens, an advertising executive with Regional Media Solutions always wanted to be in the television business. He saw an opportunity when approached by his partner Fred Hutton, who had a collection of old television programs and movies that he wanted to share.


HOT-TV is more than re-runs of familiar classics like I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners. HOT’s programming includes shows that have rarely, if ever, been viewed by today’s viewers. These include early 1950’s shows such as I Married Joan, Sherlock Holmes, Mr. and Mrs. North, Ozzie and Harriett and My Little Margie. Vintage movies and cartoons fill in most of the weekly programs but the weekends are set aside for westerns. Fifties western serials like Tate - the one armed good guy, Kit Carson, and Gabby Hayes run alongside classic western movies.


A personal favorite airing on Hot-TV this month is a little known show called Life With Elizabeth that featured Betty White from 1953-55.


Looking beyond their obvious production flaws, Joel Stevens still prefers watching the old TV shows. “Because the shows were often filmed live and had no special effects, they needed to be well written and tight. Besides, I’m color blind,” he admitted.


“The response has been good in the three markets that HOT-TV is airing (Seattle, New York City and Dallas),” added Stevens. “It has surprised me that the appeal is across generations. Grandparents who remember the shows, especially the westerns, enjoy sharing them with kids.”


Fred Hutton, manager, operator and program director for HOT, picks the shows that air and personally owns many of the programs and movies.


“We are looking for shows and movies that are not carried on other local stations. Dallas-Fort Worth is such a large media market that the more common ‘vintage TV shows’ are always running somewhere.”


Hutton feels that viewers particularly enjoy the weekend westerns because many of them such as Annie Oakley and Range Rider were shot as Saturday morning kiddie shows. These are the shows they watched when TV’s first came into their homes.


For viewers like me that grew up watching TV in the 60’s and 70’s, the old shows offer many surprises. Many movie and TV stars got their start on the old shows and it’s fun to see Herman Munster (Fred Gwynne) as a cowboy outlaw or Colonel Binghamton (Joe Flynn) as a mad scientist.


“We get emails every day,” says Stevens, “showing appreciation for bringing back the old shows and movies. Some say ‘where have you been’ while others just offer suggestions for more shows. I guess everyone wants to be TV program director.”