Huntley-Brinkley Report

Huntley-Brinkley Report
A still from the June 16, 1963 edition of The Huntley-Brinkley Report taken at NBC News' New York base. David Brinkley appears on the screen from Washington, while Chet Huntley is standing to the right.
Directed by	Norman Cook Frank Sungland
Presented by	Chet Huntley in New York City David Brinkley in Washington
Theme music composer	Ludwig van Beethoven
Ending theme	Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125, second movement
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	3,590
Production
Executive producer(s)	Wallace Westfeldt
Producer(s)	David Teitelbaum
Editor(s)	Henrik Krogius Gilbert Millstien
Running time	15 minutes (1956-1963) 30 minutes (1963-1970)
Release
Original network	NBC
Picture format	525 line b&w (1956-1965) NTSC color (1965-1970)
Original release	October 29, 1956 – July 31, 1970
Chronology
Preceded by	Camel News Caravan
Followed by	NBC Nightly News

The Huntley-Brinkley Report (sometimes known as The Texaco Huntley-Brinkley Report for one of its early sponsors) was NBC's flagship evening news program from October 29, 1956 to July 31, 1970. It was anchored by Chet Huntley in New York City, and David Brinkley in Washington, D.C. It succeeded the Camel News Caravan, anchored by John Cameron Swayze. The program ran for 15 minutes at its inception but expanded to 30 minutes on September 9, 1963 exactly a week after the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite did so. It was developed and produced initially by Reuven Frank. Frank left the program in 1962 to produce documentaries (Eliot Frankel replaced him) but returned to the program the following year when it expanded to 30 minutes. He was succeeded as executive producer in 1965 by Robert "Shad" Northshield and by Wallace Westfeldt in 1969.

By 1956, NBC executives had grown dissatisfied with Swayze in his role anchoring the network's evening news program, which fell behind its main competition, CBS's Douglas Edwards with the News, in 1955. Network executive Ben Park suggested replacing Swayze with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, who had garnered favorable attention anchoring NBC's coverage of the national political conventions that summer.Bill McAndrew, NBC's director of news (later NBC News president), had seen a highly rated local news program on NBC affiliate WSAZ-TV in Huntington, West Virginia, with two anchors reporting from different cities. He replaced Camel News Caravan with the Huntley-Brinkley Report, which premiered on October 29, 1956, with Huntley in New York and Brinkley in Washington. Producer Reuven Frank, who had advocated pairing Huntley and Brinkley for the convention coverage, thought using two anchors on a regular news program "was one of the dumber ideas I had ever heard." Nonetheless, on the day of the new program's first broadcast, Frank authored the program's closing line, "Good night, Chet. Good night, David. And good night, for NBC News." This exchange became one of television's most famous catchphrases even though both Huntley and Brinkley initially disliked it.