New Year's light. Through the years, through the distances
Either the "Blue Light" entered our house, or we, despite the distances separating us from Moscow, became guests of the TV studio, but every year on December 31, we felt that we belonged to a common New Year's feast, stretching from the Far East to the western borders USSR…
For the last twenty years, the Internet has been accompanying us in life, but television is still not losing ground. In Soviet times, the blue TV screen was a window to the world, and on weekends and holidays it was the only outlet for those who decided to spend time at home.
In the New Year, you can't do without a TV at all - it is one of the main attributes of the holiday, along with a Christmas tree and a plentiful feast. And the highlight of the New Year's program was, and remains after the resumption, "Blue Light". Sincere, kind, with funny songs, dances, beautiful performances by circus performers, with confetti, streamers and friendly hosts, this musical and entertainment program was remembered for many generations of Soviet TV viewers.
Either the "Blue Light" entered our house, or we, despite the distances separating us from Moscow, became guests of the TV studio, but every year on December 31, we felt that we belonged to a common New Year's feast, stretching from the Far East to the western borders USSR.
The party said: we must! The Komsomol answered: yes
Remember, in the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" a cameraman from Ostankino Rodion-Rudolph told what a grand future awaits the newly born Soviet TV? The sprouts of this future appeared in 1960 with the publication of the Central Committee's resolution "On the Further Development of Soviet Television" as "an important means of communist education of the masses in the spirit of Marxist-Leninist ideology and morality, intransigence to bourgeois ideology."
A couple of years later, the TV music department received a call from the Central Committee of the CPSU and asked to come up with a music and entertainment program for the country's TV viewers. The editors themselves could not invent anything new, therefore they decided to appeal to the youth.
Once, having met on the sidelines of Shabolovka a young screenwriter Alexei Gabrilovich, someone from the department invited him to write a script for a modern multi-genre music and entertainment program, which had not yet been on television.
Gabrilovich, a recent graduate of VGIK, liked the idea. As befits a person with a sound vector immersed in his own thoughts and experiences, Alexey Evgenievich forgot about this assignment. When it was time for the script to be submitted, the absent-minded sound writer was not at a loss and suggested that his superiors make the main venue for, as they say now, a music show, a studio designed as a cafe.
Child of the late "thaw"
At first, in accordance with the form of a cafe-club invented by Gabrilovich, where actors meet after evening performances, tell different funny stories and sing, a “Television Cafe” appeared. Subsequently, this topic on Soviet TV was continued by "Zucchini 13 chairs", "Theatrical living room" and others. And "Telecafe" changed the programs "On the light", "Ogonyok" and, finally, "Blue light".
The first New Year's program "Blue Light" with a relaxed atmosphere, which was created by creative teams, performers, invited guests - representatives of various areas of the national economy, and even those who have been in space, appeared spontaneously. All its participants sat at tables with refreshments, where a bottle of "Soviet Champagne" was always adorned.
The viewers immediately liked Ogonyok. This program received an unprecedented resonance and for many years held one of the highest ratings on television. What is the mystery of the popularity of such a simple mass action?
The main goal of the creators of the "Blue Light" was to establish contact with people from the most remote corners of the Soviet Union, if possible. As they say, to unite the flock, the entire Soviet people. System-vector psychology of Yuri Burlan shows: the principle of consolidation is taken from the peculiarities of our collective mental, which is based on the Russian urethral-muscular mentality.
The "Blue Lights" reflected the era
Khrushchev's "thaw" began undermining the ideological foundations of Soviet society, laid down during Stalin's time. Former ideals were replaced with a surrogate for Western pseudo-values, alien to the interests of the USSR, which had recently endured the hardships of the Great Patriotic War. Social and political nihilism, dissidence and opposition were advancing to replace patriotism. Although the disintegration of the state proceeded slowly, it was still felt by its citizens as an incipient loss of "a sense of security and safety."
It was against such an internal political background that a new TV show appeared, which managed to unite a large country. The New Year's "Blue Light" in its "attendance" and views was not inferior to the mass celebrations of Victory Day, May Day and November 7.
First, the creators made the show a weekly music release, such as Saturday Night. Then she began to appear less often - only on holidays. And that was the right decision.
With a rare appearance on Ogonyok's TV screens, its authors and participants created a great shortage of the Soviet audience. It was so great that letters were sent to the music editorial office in an endless stream, and on New Year's Eve all the guests gathered at the festive table for the beginning of the new edition, eagerly awaiting a meeting with their favorite artists, poets, and cosmonauts.
In the 60s, no preliminary video recording of the "Blue Light" was made, the broadcast was conducted live, which created a special emotional connection between viewers and performers. Even if the singer worked to the soundtrack, he was sincere and natural.
Nobody wanted to miss the "New Year's Light", because it was never repeated. Therefore, such a "one-off" show was of particular value to the viewer.
On the Central Television, old video recordings, dating back to 1962, have been preserved, which today have become a chronicle of the last century. They can be used to read the signs of a bygone era, the dissolving symbols of the Soviet elite culture, the distinctive features of our human morality. In a word, everything that filled the life of Soviet people, who did not feel hatred and hostility towards each other, did not divide others along ethnic, religious or social lines.
Stars on the screen
The guests at the Blue Light studio were often grain growers and livestock breeders, milkmaids and steelworkers. After the presentation of high government awards in the Kremlin, many of them were invited to television, where the whole country learned about them live.
In the studio, the Heroes of Labor received congratulations from singers Joseph Kabzon, Edita Piekha, Muslim Magomayev, Lyudmila Zykina, Mark Bernes, Leonid Utyosov, Nikolai Slichenko … Without the oral-visual Arkady Raikin, Tarapunka and Shtepsel or the famous trinity Vitsin-Nikulin one New Year's Eve.
From 1962 to 1968, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin was a regular guest at the New Year's "Blue Lights". The country was waiting for its hero, in each new program noting how he was growing in military rank. Everyone admired the urethral Gagarin, dreaming of "celebrating" the New Year in the company of their beloved cosmonaut.
Cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin, German Titov, Alexei Leonov and many others not only sat at tables in the TV studio, but actively participated in the show.
Simple peasants, workers, people of other professions, communicating with the "stars" of space and art, were additionally stimulated for even more active participation in collective work for the good of the Motherland. At such moments, there was a powerful and all-encompassing sense of the unity of the people.
Gradually, "Blue Light" became the main entertainment program of the country, creating a mood for people for the whole year ahead. This is the forerunner of many musical programs on modern Russian television.
The best songs of the past year, which were liked by TV viewers and radio listeners, were performed at the "Blue Light". Famous actors and performers of different genres competed with each other in a skin-like manner for the opportunity to become participants in the first Soviet television show. From "Ogonyok" came the tradition of conducting a musical program in pairs, communicating with ease with the audience.
The Blue Light will soon celebrate its 55th anniversary. New generations have grown up, idols of past years have passed away. The revived "Ogonyok" changed its name to "Blue Light on Shabolovka", and only the stars of the domestic show business became its guests. But today, as well as five decades ago, they are waiting for the main New Year's TV program, hurrying to the table, so that with the chimes they have time to congratulate each other on the coming New Year.
And then the melody from the movie "Carnival Night", familiar from childhood, will sound again, and the presenters, raising their glasses, will turn to the whole country:
"HAPPY NEW YEAR DEAR FRIENDS!"
