''Actuality Specials'' is an American television series consisting of a collection of documentaries produced by

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

and broadcast during the 1960s. Some of the programs were reruns that had been shown earlier; others were produced specifically for this series.

Narrators

The documentaries were usually narrated by one of the NBC news anchors and included

Chet Huntley Chester Robert Huntley (December 10, 1911 – March 20, 1974) was an American television newscaster, best known for co-anchoring NBC's evening news program, '' The Huntley–Brinkley Report,'' for 14 years beginning in 1956. Early life Hunt ...

, Robert MacNeil, Frank McGee and

Edwin Newman Edwin Harold Newman (January 25, 1919 – August 13, 2010) was an American newscaster, journalist, and author. After beginning his career with the wire services and serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Newman worked in radio for CBS New ...

. Narration was sometimes provided by Hollywood personalities such as

Lorne Greene Lorne Hyman Greene (born Lyon Himan Green; February 12, 1915 – September 11, 1987) was a Canadian actor, singer, and radio personality. His notable television roles include Ben Cartwright on the Western ''Bonanza'' and Commander Adama in ...

and

Raymond Burr Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor who had a lengthy Hollywood film career and portrayed the title roles in the television dramas '' Perry Mason'' and '' Ironside''. Burr's early acting career inclu ...

Broadcast history

The series was originally produced as a summer series beginning in July 1962, part of an attempt to placate

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

chairman Newton Minow and his displeasure with the lack of quality programming at the time. It was pulled from the schedule that fall. It returned in October 1965 and ran for three more years. During this time, it alternated broadcast with '' The Bell Telephone Hour''.

References

External links

* 1962 American television series debuts 1968 American television series endings 1960s American documentary television series NBC original programming Black-and-white American television shows American English-language television shows {{US-documentary-tv-prog-stub