Nancy Berg counts sheep
"She emerges in a lavishly decorated bedroom clad in a peignoir, or negligee, minces around the room stretches, yawns, jumps into bed, and the wriggles out again for a final romp with her French poodle [Phaedeaux, pronounced Fido]. Then she crawls under the covers, cuddles up for the night, and composes herself for sleep."
Another webcam-girl sharing her bedtime routines for everyone to see? Not quite. The quote is taken from Donald Horton and Richard Wohl's eminent article from 1956 "Mass communication and para-social interaction: observation on intimacy at a distance (re-printed in Inter/Media. Interpersonal communication in a media world). Horton and Wohl here describe the plot of a five-minute television spot called Count Sheep, which was aired at 1. a.m. each weekday in 1955. Wonderful concept for a late night show, isn't it? The concept 'para-social interaction' (what John B. Thompson calls mediated quasi-interaction) describes the relations between media personas and their audiences. It's a classic read.
I'd love to see just one episode of Count Sheep.
6 Comments:
I've been looking for it for years and even the museum of broadcasting doesn't have any. There was an article in Esquire magazine sometime around 1955-56 which had a cnterfold of her in the neglige' that may be the last remains of te show.
her daughter
Have really no tapes of the show been saved, that's too sad. I can quite vividly picture it in my mind - not quite the same though.
I´m reading this article (Horton and Wohl) atm. Interesting concept the whole para-social interaction and scarily slighly true at times. I´ve been looking for recordings of that show as well. It would be great to see it. What a shame.
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jerme
My name is Marilyn Rosenberg Roth. I worked for NBC as Assistant to the CEOs on the 5th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza during 1947-1956. In those days the TV News programs went off the air @ 11:30 p.m. In November 1955 I went into the office of Hamilton Shea, the President of WRCA-TV at the time, and told him that having the news screen turn black and expecting the viewers to just turn over and fall asleep after hearing so much bad news was not kind. We should show our viewers something soothing to watch after all that turmoil. I suggested a show called "Count Sheep", with a picture of sheep gracefully jumping a fence and soft music playing. Mr. Shea went for it immediately, and our current monthly publication, The NBC Chimes, November 1955, wrote it up, followed by information in many subsequent editions.
I was given credit for the idea, (Marilyn Rosenberg) in those articles. When my fiancé returned from service in Korea shortly thereafter, even my engagement to David F. Roth was noted in the Chimes. Nancy Berg was hired to be the hostess of the show, and photos of the two of us together were taken. Mr. Shea explained that he could not pay me for this terrific idea because I was an employee and offered instead to give me a gift of some furniture, which he could get from a sponsor, when we were married. I explained that we would be living with his parents, but -- I would be very happy to receive a gift from another sponsor, The Bermuda Queen, for a honeymoon cruise. Done. We had The Honey-moon Suite on top floor of the ship. And Mr. Shea sent a photographer to take our picture, me sitting cross-legged on the rail with David next to me, which appeared in the NYTimes!
I had copies of all the above photos, but
can't find them. I do have copies of the NBC Chimes articles I referred to. I used to
have a copy of the strip of film with the sheep jumping over the fence - can't find it either. I hope Nancy Berg's daughter will be able to find photos of her mother soon.
This is Marilyn Roth again. I left my comments re "Count Sheep" 2 days ago. YESTERDAY I FOUND ALL THE PHOTOS I LISTED RE THE CREATION OF THE PROGRAM, THE PHOTOS OF NANCY BERG & ME, OF THE PRESIDENT OF WRCA & ME SHAKING HANDS OVER MY PROGRAM IDEA, and all the rest I referred to. Since so many people are looking for info re Count Sheep & Nancy, I would like to send copies to your Constructions site. HOW DO I DO THAT???????????????
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