April 17: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on April 17. Discuss or comment as you please……

1952: One of the quirkiest TV shows ever aired ends its short life as The Continental airs its last episode on CBS. Starring Renzo Cesana as a suave “ladies’ man” of generic European stock, the show had the camera in the subjective point of view of women in the audience, with Cesana addressing the lens as if he were romancing and seducing the viewer. Despite the show’s short history, it provided abundant fodder for satire and takeoffs among many comedians.

1953: WCOV-TV (channel 20) signs on in Montgomery, Alabama.

1967: Joey takes on Johnny head-to-head as The Joey Bishop Show debuts on ABC opposite NBC’s Tonight Show.

1974: NBC Journalist Frank McGee dies in New York City of complications from bone cancer, aged 52.

1977: The 46th and final episode of McCloud ("McCloud Meets Dracula") airs on NBC.

1980: The short-lived ABC sitcom The Associates (starring a pre-SCTV, pre-SNL Martin Short; plus Joe Regalbuto, Wilfred Hyde-White, and other familiar faces) airs its 9th and last broadcast episode. (4 more episodes were completed, but remained unaired at the time.) Though the network showed little faith in the show it managed to snare 2 Emmy nominations and 2 Golden Globe nominations in spite of being cancelled.

1987: Comedian Dick Shawn dies of a heart attack, aged 63. His death is unusual in that it took place during a performance at UC-San Diego's Mandeville Hall. He had been lampooning politicians, including uttering the phrase, “If elected, I will not lay down on the job.” Shortly thereafter, he falls face down on the stage, and the audience at first believes it to be part of his act. Adding irony to the manner of his death: a quote from an interview with the New York Post's Cindy Adams in which Shawn stated, “I can't work places like Vegas or the Catskills where people are belching. Maybe I belong in colleges. At least if I die, I die in front of intelligent people who know what I'm talking about.”

2002: General Hospital airs its milestone 10,000th episode.

2007: She was always a lady, and elegant to the end: Actress/singer/game show panelist Kitty Carlisle dies in New York City of congestive heart failure resulting from a prolonged bout of pneumonia, aged 97.

(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]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on April 17. Discuss or comment as you please……

1987: Comedian Dick Shawn dies of a heart attack, aged 63. His death is unusual in that it took place during a performance at UC-San Diego's Mandeville Hall. He had been lampooning politicians, including uttering the phrase, “If elected, I will not lay down on the job.” Shortly thereafter, he falls face down on the stage, and the audience at first believes it to be part of his act. Adding irony to the manner of his death: a quote from an interview with the New York Post's Cindy Adams in which Shawn stated, “I can't work places like Vegas or the Catskills where people are belching. Maybe I belong in colleges. At least if I die, I die in front of intelligent people who know what I'm talking about.”

For many years the rumor was that Shawn's death was actually captured on video tape. While the idea that there really is such a tape can be debated, after all many colleges and universities did ( and still do ) video taped shows and the like involving celebrities such as Moe Howard for example, even in the early 70s when he was doing the college circuit I believe there are tapes of that which still exist today. But as for Dick Shawn's last preformace...I have yet to read about anyone who had actually saw his death on tape.

Could be an urban legend, like the one where back in Feburary 1976 a small child was testing out his/her new tape recorder only to get on tape the screams of Sal Mineo as he was being stabbed to death just outside the window in a nearby garage. People claim a tape existed of that but as if today...so far no tape.

However there is a death very similar to Shawn's that was captured on tape. The 1986 death of Virginia country music star Al Hogan. In the summer of 86, Al Hogan had just signed with some record company and was about to hit it big. However that came to an end one night as while Hogan was doing a country version of Chubby Checker's the Twist at a county fair, he suffered a fatal heart attack on stage in front of a crowd of about 2000 people. The fans thought him falling on the stage was part of the act. Of course it wasn't and about 5 people in the audience had those then-new camcorders taping all of this.

Every once in awhile Hogan's last show including that heart attack..the tape of it has been known to pop up on You Tube and of course everytime it is taken down by request of Hogan's family. This is one time I would approve of a third party getting a clip taken off of You Tube.

Al Hogan's body was buried..interesting right next door to Patsy Cline's just outside of Winchester, Virginia.

 

[rwells2265]

1953: WCOV-TV (channel 20) signs on in Montgomery, Alabama.

1974: NBC Journalist Frank McGee dies in New York City of complications from bone cancer, aged 52.

Oddly enough, Frank McGee was the first news director of Channel 20's competition, WSFA channel 12 (which signed on Christmas Day 1954).

It was McGee's coverage of the Montgomery bus boycott which attracted NBC's attention, and the rest - as they say ........

--Russell

 

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on April 17. Discuss or comment as you please……

1987: Comedian Dick Shawn dies of a heart attack, aged 63. His death is unusual in that it took place during a performance at UC-San Diego's Mandeville Hall. He had been lampooning politicians, including uttering the phrase, “If elected, I will not lay down on the job.” Shortly thereafter, he falls face down on the stage, and the audience at first believes it to be part of his act. Adding irony to the manner of his death: a quote from an interview with the New York Post's Cindy Adams in which Shawn stated, “I can't work places like Vegas or the Catskills where people are belching. Maybe I belong in colleges. At least if I die, I die in front of intelligent people who know what I'm talking about.”

For many years the rumor was that Shawn's death was actually captured on video tape. While the idea that there really is such a tape can be debated, after all many colleges and universities did ( and still do ) video taped shows and the like involving celebrities such as Moe Howard for example, even in the early 70s when he was doing the college circuit I believe there are tapes of that which still exist today. But as for Dick Shawn's last preformace...I have yet to read about anyone who had actually saw his death on tape.

However there is a death very similar to Shawn's that was captured on tape. The 1986 death of Virginia country music star Al Hogan. In the summer of 86, Al Hogan had just signed with some record company and was about to hit it big. However that came to an end one night as while Hogan was doing a country version of Chubby Checker's the Twist at a county fair, he suffered a fatal heart attack on stage in front of a crowd of about 2000 people. The fans thought him falling on the stage was part of the act.

Similarly, an almost identical incident to the above two -- performer collapses on stage, people at first believe it to be part of the act, etc. -- but this one in the U.K., AND on live TV:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b77_1240142064

(Background about the performer here for we non-Brits...)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1972: Actress Jennifer Garner (Alias) is born in Houston, TX.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

1952: One of the quirkiest TV shows ever aired ends its short life as The Continental airs its last episode on CBS. Starring Renzo Cesana as a suave “ladies’ man” of generic European stock, the show had the camera in the subjective point of view of women in the audience, with Cesana addressing the lens as if he were romancing and seducing the viewer. Despite the show’s short history, it provided abundant fodder for satire and takeoffs among many comedians.

Everyone remembers Christopher Walken's SNL bit ("fine sham-pahn-yah"), but who else did a takeoff on the show? I can picture Sid Caesar doing it...ALso, "McCloud Meets Dracula"...Apparently the cocaine at NBC/Universal was particularly good at that time.

 

[mleach]

1952: One of the quirkiest TV shows ever aired ends its short life as The Continental airs its last episode on CBS. Starring Renzo Cesana as a suave “ladies’ man” of generic European stock, the show had the camera in the subjective point of view of women in the audience, with Cesana addressing the lens as if he were romancing and seducing the viewer. Despite the show’s short history, it provided abundant fodder for satire and takeoffs among many comedians.

Everyone remembers Christopher Walken's SNL bit ("fine sham-pahn-yah"), but who else did a takeoff on the show? I can picture Sid Caesar doing it...ALso, "McCloud Meets Dracula"...Apparently the cocaine at NBC/Universal was particularly good at that time.

Many years ago when Roseanne had her short lived chat show I seem to recall she had made some kind a statement when discussing her pervious show "Roseanne" about wanting to do at least a few episodes of her sitcom using the camera as an "actor" and asking for "their" opinion on how they would deal with a situation in the Conner household but ABC in the end had vetoed the idea.