For some unknown reason, many Europeans are smitten with the NYPD. There are more than a few replica NYPD cars over the pond (ranging from quite accurate to comically inaccurate) some available for rental. So it is no surprise to find on flickr a Belgian named Marc who makes incredibly accurate HO scale models of NYPD and FDNY vehicles and photographs them on a miniature version of New York City streets complete with a precinct... [continue]

Photo of vintage NYPD vehicles at last year's event by author This weekend the New York City Police Museum will be holding its eighth annual vintage police car show (Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.). It won’t just be cars from the history of the NYPD on display, but vehicles from police agencies from all over, along with cars you may have seen on television or movies. In past years Car 54,... [continue]

On June 15, 1948, WPIX signed on as the second independent television station in the city from studios in the Daily News Building on 42nd Street. (The first, WATV signed on a month earlier and eventually became WNET in 1961.) Like stations in many other cities, it was owned by a newspaper, in this case the Daily News and its then corporate parent the Tribune Company (the paper was sold off in 1991). The call... [continue]

This installment of NY1’s Today in New York City History aired ten years ago today (a Tuesday for those keeping score at home). Now thanks to someone randomly taping this back then and YouTube it is preserved in digital amber. In the twenty five second piece there was room for only two historical tidbits - the cornerstone of City Hall being laid in 1803 (it is the oldest continuously used City Hall in the country)... [continue]

Photo of Chuck and Sue at work by author Fans of Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons won’t have to stay up to 11 p.m. to see the long time anchor team together. WNBC will also have the team anchoring back at 6 p.m. starting next week. Simmons will also be moving back into her seemingly traditional 5 p.m. slot anchoring with David Ushery who will be displaced from the 6 p.m. newscast. Scarborough will... [continue]

It may be Fleet Week, but the U.S. Navy is not the only one in the city dropping anchors this week. WCBS-TV veteran anchor Jim Rosenfield is the latest victim of the CBS local news cutbacks here in New York. Rosenfield joined the station in 2005 when he jumped ship from WNBC where he was one of Sue Simmons “anchor husbands” on Live at Five. It's been almost a year since he and Dana Tyler... [continue]

It may be hard to believe, but tonight’s episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (10:00 p.m., WNBC 4) is the 200th episode for the first of the Law & Order spin-offs. One big difference between SVU and the mother ship is how the show over nine seasons has gone though only minimal cast changes, with the four regulars - Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson, Richard Belzer as John... [continue]

In the Law and Order universe there are two separate yet equally important constants: the format of the show and the revolving door of the actors who star in it. So it is not a surprise that Jessie L. Martin who plays Detective Green is leaving the show in the latest cast change. Series guru Dick Wolf says the parting is amicable, with Martin being burned out after playing the same character for nine years.... [continue]

This past Sunday the New York Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences had its local Emmy awards presentation and there were some surprises among the winners in the local news categories along with the amount stations took home compared to last year. WNYW (Fox 5) picked up the most with nine (up three from last year), including best morning newscast and Arnold Diaz’s “Shame, Shame, Shame” segments picked up two.Perhaps the... [continue]

Finally, our wait is over! A new 30 Rock airs tonight at 8:30 p.m. followed by a new installment of The Office. Since creator and star Tina Fey was a fixture on writers strike picket lines, there may be strike-inspired lines or scenes on the show in the coming weeks, in addition to the normal skewering of NBC’s less than stellar programming. In tonight's episode, Jack (Alec Baldwin) is reveling over the success of NBC’s... [continue]

WNBC’s newscast rebranding (back to "News 4 New York") was not the only change this week for the station. Vickie Burn, from NBC's DC affiliate WRC, is the new Vice President of News & Content aka news director, replacing Dan Forman. (The rebranding was just coincidental, according to the station.) Rumor has it that WNYW will get a new news director as well: Dianne Doctor, former news director at WNBC and WCBS. She is... [continue]

April 30th marks the date when cable viewers in Queens and Brooklyn can see NY1 in glorious high definition joining those in Staten Island who got it first. Fans of Pat Kiernan who live in Manhattan (along with New Jersey and the Hudson Valley) will have to wait a bit longer, with Time Warner promising to roll it out for them by the end of the year. Since cable TV is not like broadcast TV,... [continue]

Don’t adjust your television sets, because since Monday WNBC has been using "News 4 New York" in on-air mentions and on-screen graphics, switching gears from "Newschannel 4" (and "Newschannel 4 HD"). If you are from the Tri-State Area, you may remember the station used "News 4 New York" from 1980 until 1995. The old CGI opening included a bolt of lightning and a giant 4 heading towards the viewer (out of the Statue of Liberty's... [continue]

Television is coming back to life, with several shows (mainly on CBS) returning to the air this week with post-writers strike episodes. Amongst them, the comically inaccurate CSI: NY returns (Wednesday, 10:00 p.m., WCBS 2), with an investigation of a dead assassin found in a warehouse, no doubt filmed in someplace like Culver City. While it does shoot some scenes here, CSI:NY mostly films on a studio back lot or in downtown LA. Since... [continue]

WNBC’s Sue Simmons is known as a big Mets fan, so it's no surprise she was tapped to host a look back at Shea Stadium in its final year. So expect Sue being Sue along with some amazing Mets moments, concerts and some Jets (and we aren’t just talking about those coming into LaGuardia). The Amazin' Shea (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., WNBC 4) also will feature some interviews with some of the Mets greats. It is... [continue]

After spending a few weeks this month as Mr. Hyde groveling for money with unwatchable schmaltz, PBS is back to its normal self doing the kind of meaningful important programming it does well like long form current affairs documentaries. True, the interchangeable Celtic singers and self help yackers may keep the stations on air, but having in depth looks at the issues of the day is more important, especially with an ongoing war and presidential... [continue]

WNET is launching a new weekly local arts series called SundayArts this Sunday (12 noon). The debut episode’s main focus is the New York City Opera from its current production of Madama Butterfly to its incoming director. There will also be some arts news and highlights of current shows and events as part of the show which is structured around a rebroadcast of the Great Performances presentation of Madama Butterfly. This isn’t the first time... [continue]

The British motoring series Top Gear (Monday, 8:00 p.m., BBC America) has a world wide following and happens to be one of the funniest shows on television. It's sort of a combination of Monty Python, Mythbusters, Motorweek, and a talk show all rolled into one crazy hour of British madness with three crazy British hosts. This week, they add beautifully filmed travelogue and a bit of road movie to the mix as they journey to... [continue]

A seven-part miniseries about John Adams based on the best-selling Pulitzer Prize winning book by historian David McCullough seems like something you used to find on PBS done in cooperation with the BBC, but you’ll find it on HBO, with parts 1 & 2 airing Sunday at 8:00 p.m. The miniseries tells the story of the first vice-president and later the second president of the United States. The big bankroll of HBO means this production... [continue]

Television coverage of Governor Spitzer's scandal has been relentless. From extra newscasts from most of the stations and WNET/ Thirteen's special Monday night report (the only one that seemed to gauge statewide reaction) to leading all the local newscasts, but the networks, local stations throughout the country and even the BBC World News. When the BBC leads with an American governor’s prostitution scandal on its international news channel, it shows how big the story... [continue]