Sunrise Semester

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Sunrise Semester
GenreEducational
Telecourse
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons25
No. of episodes800+
Production
Production locations
Multi-camera
Running time30 minutes
Production companyCBS
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseSeptember 9, 1957 (1957-09-09) –
October 1, 1982 (1982-10-01)

Sunrise Semester is an American

Emmy Awards
during its lifetime.

The program was so named because it was broadcast in the early morning, in New York at 6:30 a.m.

History and production

Sunrise Semester was developed by Warren A. Kraetzer, director of the Office of Radio/Television at New York University, and Sam Cook Digges, general manager of WCBS-TV,[2] and started on WCBS before becoming a syndicated program. Thomas Brophy, assistant director under Kraetzer, was the administrator of the program until his retirement in 1973, when he was succeeded by Pat Myers.[3] New York University planned the courses and provided faculty; beginning in 1963, CBS taped and distributed it to network affiliates.[4][5] The first course was Comparative Literature 10: From Stendhal to Hemingway, taught by Floyd Zulli, Jr., an Assistant Professor of Romance Languages.[3][6] Neil Postman taught a course, Communication, The Invisible Environment, in the Fall of 1976.[7]

After a preview broadcast at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 7, 1957,

Sperry and Hutchinson Foundation.[18]

During the summer, the program was titled Summer Semester and courses were non-credit;[10] from 1962 Rutgers University produced summer courses.[12]

In a December 1958 article, John Crosby reported that most viewers of Sunrise Semester were women between 16 and 60.[19] In the early years, NYU held a social event at which registered students could meet their instructor.[17] There were plans in the early 1980s to improve the production values of the program, but CBS canceled it in 1982 to make way for early-morning news.[10][6] At that time, according to the network, only 42 affiliates carried the program.[20]

Awards and reception

Sunrise Semester won five Emmy Awards in its first two years.[6][21]

Zulli's first course, viewable only in New York, had 74,000 viewers in the first week, 120,000 by the end of the semester.[6] 150 students enrolled for credit, and bookstores sold out of Stendhal's The Red and the Black.[22] Jack Gould in The New York Times called it "a refreshing and civilized hit" and praised the instructor's "[lack of] condescension" and "carefully controlled ...theatrical[ity]".[23] In the mid-1970s, 85 CBS stations were carrying the broadcast, and NYU believed there were up to a million viewers.[24] Variety called Zulli's course "the first unquestioned hit show of the 1957 television season".[6] CBS did not permit advertising during the program, but the slots before and after it were popular with advertisers.[2]

Sunrise Semester has been described as "a kind of primitive form of a ... MOOC"; in 1962 The New York Times ran a featured article on a housewife who had completed a bachelor's degree at NYU including 54 out of 128 credits from Sunrise Semester courses.[12] Sunrise Semester was cited in a 2021 article in the Smithsonian magazine as setting the stage for widespread distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.[25]

See also

References

  1. ^ "WBC Buys 'Sunrise Semester'" (PDF). Broadcasting Telecasting. April 14, 1958. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Fowler, Glenn (September 8, 1990). "Sam C. Digges, 74, Originator of CBS 'Sunrise Semester'". The New York Times.
  3. ^
    OCLC 1661809
    .
  4. ISBN 978-0823083152
    . Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  5. Life
    : 13. October 18, 1963.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Shapiro, Deborah (September 15, 2015). "Archivist's Angle: The Sunrise and Sunset of 'Sunrise Semester'". NYU Alumni Connect.
  7. Lakeland Ledger
    . September 19, 1976.
  8. ^ "Television Programs: Saturday, September 7". The New York Times. September 1, 1957. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  9. ^ "Television Programs: Monday, September 23". The New York Times. September 22, 1957. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  10. ^
    ISBN 9780823083152
    .
  11. ^ a b Carlisle, p. 55.
  12. ^ a b c Riddle, Randy (June 4, 2013). "MOOC Pre-History". Blog: Technology and Learning. Inside Higher Ed.
  13. ^ Carlisle, p. 54.
  14. ^ deLorenzi, John (November 17, 1957). "The Double-Domes Invade TV". Reading Eagle.
  15. ^ Carlisle, pp. 53, 55.
  16. ^ Carlisle, pp. 55–56.
  17. ^ a b McDonald, Shannon (May 13, 2014). "Sunrise Semester: Distance Learning before the Internet". The Back Table. New York University Libraries.
  18. ^ Carlisle, p. 56.
  19. ^ Crosby, John (December 5, 1958). "Television and Radio". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. p. 16.
  20. ^ Hechinger, Fred M. (July 27, 1982). "About Education". The New York Times.
  21. ^ According to Carlisle, p. 56, four.
  22. ^ Carlisle, pp. 54–55.
  23. ISBN 9780691148274
    , and in Carlisle, p. 54.
  24. ^ Carlisle, p. 57.
  25. ^ Wu, Tara (January 28, 2021). "The 1950s TV Show That Set the Stage for Today's Distance Learning". Smithsonian Magazine.

External links

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