APril 13: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on April 13. Discuss or comment as you please……

1923: Actor Don Adams (The Bill Dana Show, Get Smart, Tennessee Tuxedo, Check It Out) is born (as Donald James Yarmy) in New York City.

1935: Actor Lyle Waggoner (The Carol Burnett Show) is born in Kansas City, Kansas.

1942: The FCC minimum programming time required of U.S. television stations is cut from 15 hours to 4 hours per week due to World War II.

1945: Actor Tony Dow (Leave It to Beaver) is born in Hollywood, California.

1956: KETA-TV (channel 13) launches in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma as the first non-commercial station in the state, and the 11th in the nation.

1962: The last edition of Douglas Edwards and the News airs on CBS, to be replaced the following Monday by The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. (Does anyone know if Edwards' last broadcast is archived anywhere?)

1969: Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore are reunited for the special Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman on CBS

1970: At 9:07:53 p.m. CST, an oxygen tank aboard the spacecraft Apollo 13 ruptures, crippling the command module Odyssey. The accident, occurring almost 200,000 miles from Earth, sets in motion a life-and-death crisis that, thankfully, would end with the safe return of the three astronauts aboard. TV networks, which had already started to show signs of boredom with spaceflight (in fact, having refused to pre-empt their schedules for a live TV transmission from Apollo 13 that ended just moments before the accident) suddenly regain interest in light of the potential tragedy.

1970: Actor Rick Schroder (Silver Spoons, NYPD Blue) is born in Staten Island, New York.

1975: The last original episode of Mannix (a show with, IMHO, one of the coolest theme songs in history) airs on CBS. 22 years later, Mike Connors would resurrect the character of Joe Mannix for an episode of Diagnosis: Murder -- a sequel of sorts to the 7th season Mannix episode “Little Girl Lost,” with many of the original guest stars reprising their roles.

1976: Actor Jonathan Brandis (seaQuest DSV) is born in Danbury, Connecticut.

1979: Television broadcasts begin in Sri Lanka.

(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…..)

 

[mleach]

Lyle Waggoner....a few years back when I was still in radio I remember reading one morning one of those trivia books we had the station that claimed that Lyle Waggoner was the first male celebrity to appear totally nude in Playgirl back in 1973. For some reason I have always heard it was actually former teen idol Fabian who held that "honor".

Fabian for many years has called his Playgirl nude pics...the most dumbest thing he ever did. Lyle OTOH...never heard what his take on that was but I assume Carol Burnett could had cared less since he stayed with the show long after that Playgirl issue had came out.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I thought the first Playgirl centerfold was Peter Lupus (a.k.a. Willy Armitage from Mission Impossible). Who woulda thunk that Don Adams, Lyle Waggoner and Tony Dow all shared a birthday. Lyle Waggoner is now truly a Waggoner....he leases location trailers for the movie industry.

 

[Ultimajock]

I thought the first Playgirl centerfold was Peter Lupus (a.k.a. Willy Armitage from Mission Impossible). Who woulda thunk that Don Adams, Lyle Waggoner and Tony Dow all shared a birthday. Lyle Waggoner is now truly a Waggoner....he leases location trailers for the movie industry.

...after Surf II, that may have been the only showbiz option still open to him ;-) ...

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1981: Actress Courtney Peldon (Boston Public, Nash Bridges) is born in NYC.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Lyle Waggoner....a few years back when I was still in radio I remember reading one morning one of those trivia books we had the station that claimed that Lyle Waggoner was the first male celebrity to appear totally nude in Playgirl back in 1973. For some reason I have always heard it was actually former teen idol Fabian who held that "honor".

Fabian for many years has called his Playgirl nude pics...the most dumbest thing he ever did. Lyle OTOH...never heard what his take on that was but I assume Carol Burnett could had cared less since he stayed with the show long after that Playgirl issue had came out.

I thought the first nude Playgirl centerfold was Peter Lupus, a.k.a. Willy Armitage in Mission Impossible.

Tony Dow turns 65 today? Gee, Wally, isn't being a Senior Citizen kind of creepy and stuff?

 

[bk77]

Tony Dow turns 65 today? Gee, Wally, isn't being a Senior Citizen kind of creepy and stuff?

A few years ago Tony Dow, Jerry Mathers, Ken Osmond and Barbara Billingley reunited to do a movie about those who suffer from bipolar disorder titled "You Are Not Alone". Since the movie was only available to mental health clinics and hospitals and not to the general public I didn't expect to find that on IMDB, I was right its not there. Of course I have never seen that movie since I don't work in the mental health field but my aunt who for many years did until she had recently retired has told me many of times that the movie they did was one of the best movies that she had even seen touching the subject of bipolar. Now as to why the movie folks picked the cast of Leave it to Beaver to do a movie on such a serious subject like bipolar disorder in the first place, that she couldn't answer.