Just a few random TV related events that happened on April 1. Discuss or comment as you please……
1889: Television pioneer Thaddeus H. Barnstrom is born in Miccosukkee, Oklahoma. His revolutionary concept of powering television sets with electricity would immediately obsolete the earliest experimental wood-burning models.
1928: Fortuitous propagation enables amateur TV enthusiasts across the country to pick up an experimental 30-line mechanical broadcast from W6XZX in French Lick, Indiana. Newspaper reports indicate that viewers were able to describe several of the images received, including a shadow, a blob, and “something that looked like either Herbert Hoover or a pork chop.”
1940: A demonstration of television at a posh mansion is marred when a young woman is slightly injured as a torrent of water emerges from the set during an experimental broadcast from Niagara Falls. Police are said to be looking for three plumbers who fled the scene, one making a loud noise an officer described as sounding like “Woo woo woo woo woo woo...”
1952: Modern Hemstitching Today premieres on DuMont.
1954: An episode of The Abbott and Costello Show is honored at the annual Emmy awards, winning in the category “Most Egregious Overuse of a Canned Laugh Track in a Situation Comedy.”
1955: One of the shortest-lived and least-remembered UHF stations comes and goes quickly as KSTM (channel 38) signs on in Storm Lake, Iowa. Forced to improvise when a delay in tower construction threatens to push back the station’s much publicized debut broadcast, the chief engineer lofts a helium balloon carrying a small coat hanger UHF antenna high above the studio building (formerly the Storm Lake Bowl-o-Rama). Viewers in a radius of several blocks are able to see the brief live broadcast for about 10 seconds prior to the unfortunate lightning strike. The broadcast also marks one of the earliest recorded instances of profanity being uttered on live television.
1957: Pope Pius XII becomes the first pontiff to appear on television when he inadvertently shows up in the background of an early morning RAI-TV news remote, emptying the Blessed Chamber Pot off his balcony.
1969: KPIX-TV weatherman Haywood Tripper is fired after he ingests a sugar cube offered by a local street person just before a live remote in Haight-Ashbury. His forecast of marmalade skies with intermittent showers of locusts and peppermints causes a small panic before a disclaimer can be broadcast.
1971: ABC’s attempt to follow on the success of Monday Night Football falls flat as the short-lived Wednesday Afternoon Parcheesi is canceled.
1973: Store owner Aloysius “Crazy Al” Rosencrantz is sentenced in a St. Louis court to 3 years in prison for fraudulently selling black-and-white television sets as color models. His defense of, “Hey, black and white are colors, too, you know. And it’s in a brown cabinet – that’s a color!” fails to sway the jury.
1980: The fourth network that never was: The planned inaugural broadcast of the Rural America Television Service (RATS) is abruptly canceled when they suddenly realize that, in all the hubbub leading up to the launch date, they had neglected to actually sign any affiliates.
1983: Character actor Darius Shemphill dies of complications from hemorrhoids in Oxnard, California, aged 62. His signature performance as “3rd Man in Elevator” in an episode of Pete and Gladys is still admired for its artistic nuances.
1997: PETA protesters picket the studios of San Diego’s KFMB-TV after a news anchor swats and kills a fly that lands on her arm during a live broadcast.
2000: Smellovision replaces television. Carl Stalling says it’ll never work.
2005: The first “Peanuts” TV special following the death of Charles M. Schulz, bringing animated versions of the House, M.D. characters into the Peanuts universe, engenders much controversy and outrages fans. To this date, it is not known whether It’s Flesh-Eating Bacteria, Charlie Brown will ever be rebroadcast.
2009: A curmudgeonly schlub in Florida brings the Classic TV forum at radio-info.com to new lows with a pathetic attempt at April Fool’s Day humor.
(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits. It’s an entirely random selection based on a quick Net search, and is not meant to be comprehensive. So, don’t post nasty messages about “you forgot THIS” or “how could you not mention THAT?” Do so, and I’ll just take my keyboard and go home…..)
1889: Television pioneer Thaddeus H. Barnstrom is born in Miccosukkee, Oklahoma. His revolutionary concept of powering television sets with electricity would immediately obsolete the earliest experimental wood-burning models.
1928: Fortuitous propagation enables amateur TV enthusiasts across the country to pick up an experimental 30-line mechanical broadcast from W6XZX in French Lick, Indiana. Newspaper reports indicate that viewers were able to describe several of the images received, including a shadow, a blob, and “something that looked like either Herbert Hoover or a pork chop.”
1940: A demonstration of television at a posh mansion is marred when a young woman is slightly injured as a torrent of water emerges from the set during an experimental broadcast from Niagara Falls. Police are said to be looking for three plumbers who fled the scene, one making a loud noise an officer described as sounding like “Woo woo woo woo woo woo...”
1952: Modern Hemstitching Today premieres on DuMont.
1954: An episode of The Abbott and Costello Show is honored at the annual Emmy awards, winning in the category “Most Egregious Overuse of a Canned Laugh Track in a Situation Comedy.”
1955: One of the shortest-lived and least-remembered UHF stations comes and goes quickly as KSTM (channel 38) signs on in Storm Lake, Iowa. Forced to improvise when a delay in tower construction threatens to push back the station’s much publicized debut broadcast, the chief engineer lofts a helium balloon carrying a small coat hanger UHF antenna high above the studio building (formerly the Storm Lake Bowl-o-Rama). Viewers in a radius of several blocks are able to see the brief live broadcast for about 10 seconds prior to the unfortunate lightning strike. The broadcast also marks one of the earliest recorded instances of profanity being uttered on live television.
1957: Pope Pius XII becomes the first pontiff to appear on television when he inadvertently shows up in the background of an early morning RAI-TV news remote, emptying the Blessed Chamber Pot off his balcony.
1969: KPIX-TV weatherman Haywood Tripper is fired after he ingests a sugar cube offered by a local street person just before a live remote in Haight-Ashbury. His forecast of marmalade skies with intermittent showers of locusts and peppermints causes a small panic before a disclaimer can be broadcast.
1971: ABC’s attempt to follow on the success of Monday Night Football falls flat as the short-lived Wednesday Afternoon Parcheesi is canceled.
1973: Store owner Aloysius “Crazy Al” Rosencrantz is sentenced in a St. Louis court to 3 years in prison for fraudulently selling black-and-white television sets as color models. His defense of, “Hey, black and white are colors, too, you know. And it’s in a brown cabinet – that’s a color!” fails to sway the jury.
1980: The fourth network that never was: The planned inaugural broadcast of the Rural America Television Service (RATS) is abruptly canceled when they suddenly realize that, in all the hubbub leading up to the launch date, they had neglected to actually sign any affiliates.
1983: Character actor Darius Shemphill dies of complications from hemorrhoids in Oxnard, California, aged 62. His signature performance as “3rd Man in Elevator” in an episode of Pete and Gladys is still admired for its artistic nuances.
1997: PETA protesters picket the studios of San Diego’s KFMB-TV after a news anchor swats and kills a fly that lands on her arm during a live broadcast.
2000: Smellovision replaces television. Carl Stalling says it’ll never work.
2005: The first “Peanuts” TV special following the death of Charles M. Schulz, bringing animated versions of the House, M.D. characters into the Peanuts universe, engenders much controversy and outrages fans. To this date, it is not known whether It’s Flesh-Eating Bacteria, Charlie Brown will ever be rebroadcast.
2009: A curmudgeonly schlub in Florida brings the Classic TV forum at radio-info.com to new lows with a pathetic attempt at April Fool’s Day humor.
(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits. It’s an entirely random selection based on a quick Net search, and is not meant to be comprehensive. So, don’t post nasty messages about “you forgot THIS” or “how could you not mention THAT?” Do so, and I’ll just take my keyboard and go home…..)
