Talk:Sunrise Semester

Parked Text
Below is text previously removed which deals with the WNBT/WRCA show "The Modern Farmer." The Modern Farmer should probably get a disambiguation page to distinguish the New York City local TV show from the South Korean show of the same name. Note that WNBT/WRCA was owned by the US network NBC, so I have no idea where the CBS and Frank Stanton references are from.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, it was preceded on CBS by The Modern Farmer, which went on air at 5:00 a.m. Then-CBS president Dr. Frank Stanton described the show as "a Sunrise Semester for the rural set," targeting as its audience the family farmer, up early to grab a quick breakfast before setting out to do the mornin' chores. Broadcast in "living black and white", The Modern Farmer featured newsreel footage of new equipment, recent advances in seeding and harvesting techniques, along with "The Cracker Barrel", a primitive form of audience interaction programming. Clem Reynolds and William "Smokey" Chesterfield sat on either side of a cracker barrel and talked about the weather and its effect on crops, told stories and cornball jokes, and took an occasional telephone call from viewers, with the assistance of the local often-flustered switchboard operator, Clara. Since the show was filmed in advance, farmers were sometimes confused when they placed a call to the number on the screen and received no answer (it was 5:00 a.m. and the CBS studio was closed).

L. Robert Taylor (talk) 07:58, 22 June 2017 (UTC)