User:Teblick/Bell & Howell Close-Up!

Bell & Howell Close-Up is a 30-minute American documentary television series that was broadcast irregularly on ABC beginning on November 14, 1961, and ending on June 4, 1963.

Bell & Howell Close-Up was one of seveal documentary programs developed by networks and local stations in response to criticism about the quality of programming on television, some of which reached the level of threatening to pursue cancellation of stations' licenses.

Because ABC's resources were less plentiful than those of CBS and NBC, the network outsourced much of the work for documentaries such as this series. Disagreement over aspects of that practice led to the departure of John Daly, who had been vice-president of news and public affairs at ABC.

Guests
Celebrities who appeared on Bell & Howell Close-Up included Dick Gregory, Mort Sahl, Al Capp, and Jules Feiffer.

Episodes

 * "Adventures in Reporting: Adventures on the New Frontier" (1960) - Viewers saw President John F. Kennedy in a more personal way than the usual coverage of a president.
 * "Cast the First Stone" - March 28, 1961 - A study of racial prejudice in four northern cities.
 * "The Children Were Watching" (1960) - A study of the desegregation of an elementary school in New Orleans included scenes of 'the reprehensible behavior of mothers and fathers and grandparents opposed to integration as they congregated around the school to taunt black children."
 * "Land of the Black Ghost, Part II" (May 16, 1961)
 * "The Land of the White Ghost, Part I" (May 9, 1961)
 * "The Miners' Lament" - April 9, 1963 - Coverage of violence related to unions and coal mines in eastern Kentucky included comments from Bert T. Combs, the state's governor, and video of "bombed homes, impoverished towns, and thousands of unemployed miners."
 * "Walk in My Shoes" (September 19, 1961 ) - Arthur Holch used interviews with Black Americans from different social classes to depict what their daily lives were like. The episode was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing Achievement in the Documentary Field.

Production
Some of the episodes were done by Drew Associates using "'direct cinema' productions that included the handheld camera work and synchronized sound that ABC Sports adopted and refined."

Producers for the series included Nicholas Webster.

Directors included Webster.

Writers included Holch.