# Old 1950's TV Series "Science Fiction Theatre"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-1950s-tv-series-science-fiction-theatre/562317>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 29, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-1950s-tv-series-science-fiction-theatre/562317 "2010-11-29T19:21:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-1950s-tv-series-science-fiction-theatre/562317/1 "2010-11-29T19:21:54Z")

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Check this out…[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryb-LGqm7fA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryb-LGqm7fA)  
What was the machine with the rotating dish antenna? Some studio prop?  
The host (Truman Bradley)-was this his real name?  
Nice music though!

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**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-1950s-tv-series-science-fiction-theatre/562317/2 "2010-11-29T19:52:51Z")

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[Apparently it was his real name.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Fiction_Theatre), according to the Wiki.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-1950s-tv-series-science-fiction-theatre/562317/3 "2010-11-29T22:40:44Z")

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The thing below the rotating dish is a simple oscilloscope (which, from the loks of the signal, isn’t measuring anything at all.)

As far as the gizmo, an antenna dish that size would probably be useful only for S-band reception, and about the only S-band use I can think of in that era (besides radar) would be amateur S-band television. I can accept that someone on the crew fiddled around with amateur TV and brought in a homemade gizmo for set dressing (ZIV was a low-budget operation all the way around) but I think it probably falls into the category of “scientific looking but completely non-functional.”

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**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-1950s-tv-series-science-fiction-theatre/562317/4 "2010-12-02T00:04:07Z")

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> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> [Apparently it was his real name.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Fiction_Theatre), according to the Wiki.

Thanks for the link-ZIV was in many ways, a very interesting TV producer. In spite of limiteffinancial resources, they managed to produce some very good shows.  
I also remember a show called “West Point Story”-it had Robert Vaugn as a star.