Just a few random TV related events that happened on April 18. Discuss or comment as you please……
1913: Producer/syndicator Don Fedderson (The Millionaire, Date with the Angels, Who Do You Trust?, My Three Sons, Family Affair, To Rome with Love, The Smith Family, The Lawrence Welk Show) is born in South Dakota. DYK: Fedderson is the father of Petticoat Junction actor Mike Minor.
1925: Actor Bob Hastings (McHale’s Navy, General Hospital, All in the Family) is born in Brooklyn, New York. DYK: He is the brother of longtime As the World Turns star Don Hastings.
1934: Actor James Drury (The Virginian) is born in New York City.
1947: Actress Dorothy Lyman (All My Children, Mama’s Family) is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1953: WLOK-TV (channel 73) signs on in Lima, Ohio. In 1955, the station would move to channel 35 and change calls to WIMA-TV, and change calls again to the present WLIO in 1972. DYK: Adrian Cronauer, the DJ whose stint on an armed forces radio station in Saigon later served as the inspiration for the 1987 movie "Good Morning Vietnam," was a staff announcer and personality at WIMA-TV from 1965-67.
1961: Actress Jane Leeves (The Benny Hill Show, Murphy Brown, Frasier) is born in Salford, Greater Manchester, England.
1962: Top Cat airs its final first-run network episode on ABC. (But would, of course, continue to live on in reruns and syndication.) DYK: When shown in the U.K., the show was re-titled Boss Cat because “Top Cat” was a trademarked brand name of cat food in those countries. However, as the theme song and dialog still referred to the protagonist as “Top Cat,” one wonders why they bothered!
1963: Late night host Conan O’Brien is born in Brookline, Massachusetts.
1971: Actress Tamara Braun (General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, All My Children) is born in Evanston, Illinois.
1976: Actress Melissa Joan Hart (Clarissa Explains It All, Sabrina the Teenage Witch) is born in Smithtown, New York.
1979: Real People premieres on NBC.
1983: The Disney Channel launches on U.S. cable TV.
1999: Silk Stalkings airs its 176th and final original episode after 8 seasons on CBS and, later, USA Network.
2007: The 400-foot transmitter tower of WCFE-TV (channel 57 analog, 38 DTV, Plattsburgh, New York) located on Lyon Mountain completely collapses as a result of heavy amounts of ice and snow during a Nor'easter, and partially damages the transmitter building. The station is able to continue supplying programming to cable systems via an undamaged fiber optic link and, 5 days later, would again be available over the air as a temporary digital sub-channel of WCAX-TV in Burlington, Vermont. A new tower would be completed and activated in August 2007.
2008: At 4:37 a.m. CDT, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake strikes the Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky region (epicenter near Mount Carmel, Illinois). The tremor, one of the largest ever recorded in the area, is felt up to 450 miles away. Several area TV stations are on-air live with their early morning local newscasts when the quake hits (including WFIE in Evansville and WAVE in Louisville). As can be seen in those YouTube clips, the on-air talent at these stations (in a region where such serious tremors are rare) were initially perplexed about the source of the shaking (in contrast to California stations, where they damn well know an earthquake when they feel one).
(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…..)
1913: Producer/syndicator Don Fedderson (The Millionaire, Date with the Angels, Who Do You Trust?, My Three Sons, Family Affair, To Rome with Love, The Smith Family, The Lawrence Welk Show) is born in South Dakota. DYK: Fedderson is the father of Petticoat Junction actor Mike Minor.
1925: Actor Bob Hastings (McHale’s Navy, General Hospital, All in the Family) is born in Brooklyn, New York. DYK: He is the brother of longtime As the World Turns star Don Hastings.
1934: Actor James Drury (The Virginian) is born in New York City.
1947: Actress Dorothy Lyman (All My Children, Mama’s Family) is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1953: WLOK-TV (channel 73) signs on in Lima, Ohio. In 1955, the station would move to channel 35 and change calls to WIMA-TV, and change calls again to the present WLIO in 1972. DYK: Adrian Cronauer, the DJ whose stint on an armed forces radio station in Saigon later served as the inspiration for the 1987 movie "Good Morning Vietnam," was a staff announcer and personality at WIMA-TV from 1965-67.
1961: Actress Jane Leeves (The Benny Hill Show, Murphy Brown, Frasier) is born in Salford, Greater Manchester, England.
1962: Top Cat airs its final first-run network episode on ABC. (But would, of course, continue to live on in reruns and syndication.) DYK: When shown in the U.K., the show was re-titled Boss Cat because “Top Cat” was a trademarked brand name of cat food in those countries. However, as the theme song and dialog still referred to the protagonist as “Top Cat,” one wonders why they bothered!
1963: Late night host Conan O’Brien is born in Brookline, Massachusetts.
1971: Actress Tamara Braun (General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, All My Children) is born in Evanston, Illinois.
1976: Actress Melissa Joan Hart (Clarissa Explains It All, Sabrina the Teenage Witch) is born in Smithtown, New York.
1979: Real People premieres on NBC.
1983: The Disney Channel launches on U.S. cable TV.
1999: Silk Stalkings airs its 176th and final original episode after 8 seasons on CBS and, later, USA Network.
2007: The 400-foot transmitter tower of WCFE-TV (channel 57 analog, 38 DTV, Plattsburgh, New York) located on Lyon Mountain completely collapses as a result of heavy amounts of ice and snow during a Nor'easter, and partially damages the transmitter building. The station is able to continue supplying programming to cable systems via an undamaged fiber optic link and, 5 days later, would again be available over the air as a temporary digital sub-channel of WCAX-TV in Burlington, Vermont. A new tower would be completed and activated in August 2007.
2008: At 4:37 a.m. CDT, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake strikes the Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky region (epicenter near Mount Carmel, Illinois). The tremor, one of the largest ever recorded in the area, is felt up to 450 miles away. Several area TV stations are on-air live with their early morning local newscasts when the quake hits (including WFIE in Evansville and WAVE in Louisville). As can be seen in those YouTube clips, the on-air talent at these stations (in a region where such serious tremors are rare) were initially perplexed about the source of the shaking (in contrast to California stations, where they damn well know an earthquake when they feel one).
(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…..)