The Running Joke about Television in 1962

Fifty years later, has it come to pass?

I knew nothing at all about television--other than the running joke that this fabulous new medium would thrive on how-to and pornography programs--but in June 1962 I taped the three experimental half-hour shows or pilots, that WGBH had suggested.

WGBH, Channel 2, was Boston's fledgling public TV station. It didn't have much mazuma and was mostly run by volunteers, but they had managed to cobble together a few hundred dollars to buy some videotape. Russell (Russ) Morash, producer of Science Reporter would be our producer-director, and Ruthie Lockwood, who had worked on a series about Eleanor Roosevelt, would be our assistant producer. Ruthie scrounged up a sprightly tune to use as our theme song. And after considering dozens of titles, we decided to call our little experiment The French Chef until we could come up with something better.

From My Life in France by Julia Child