April 5: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on April 5. Discuss or comment as you please……

1922: Actor Christopher Hewitt (Mr. Belvedere) is born in Worthing, Sussex, England.

1922: Actress Gale Storm (My Little Margie, The Gale Storm Show) is born (as Josephine Owaissa Cottle) in Bloomington, Texas.

1933: Actor/comedian/impressionist Frank Gorshin is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1939: Actor Roger Davis (Dark Shadows, Alias Smith and Jones) is born in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

1948: At 7:45 pm, WGN-TV (channel 9) begins regular programming with a two-hour special tiled WGN-TV Salute to Chicago.

1953: WKNX (channel 57) signs on in Saginaw, Michigan. The station would move to channel 25 in 1965, and change calls to the current WEYI-TV in 1972.

1954: KQED (channel 9) begins broadcasting in San Francisco as the nation’s sixth public broadcasting station. (The sign-on comes just 4 days after unrelated WQED in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.) Though today one of the most successful PBS member stations, its initial schedule was less than modest: just twice a week, one hour each day.

1960: Judge Greg Mathis (Judge Mathis) is born in Detoit.

1966: The 190th and final episode of Dr. Kildare is broadcast on NBC.

1970: WSNS-TV (channel 44) begins operating in Chicago.

1971: Password returns to the daytime schedule, this time on ABC.

1971: WNJT (channel 52) hits the airwaves in Trenton, New Jersey. It would be the founding station of the New Jersey Network (NJN).

1980: Hawaii Five-O gets booked – not by Dano, but by CBS. The last (278th) episode airs tonight, ending a 12-season run.

1982: Tom Brokaw begins his 22-year stint as anchor of NBC Nightly News.

1984: The cult sitcom Buffalo Bill airs its final episode (the 25th). A critical success, but never a hit in the ratings, it is said that Brandon Tartikoff’s biggest regret of his NBC career was having to cancel the show.

1987: Fox makes its initial foray into prime-time, debuting Married...with Children and The Tracy Ullman Show.

1991: Katie Couric is officially designated as co-host of The Today Show after substituting since February. (See also: 2006)

1997: The Crocodile Hunter premieres on Animal Planet.

2005: In a taped message, Peter Jennings announces to viewers of ABC World News Tonight that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer and will soon start chemotherapy. It would be his last TV appearance before passing away 4 months later.

2005: Actress Debralee Scott (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; Welcome Back, Kotter; Angie) dies in Amelia Island, Florida, aged 52. She had recently collapsed and fallen into a coma for several days, but was released after doctors could not find anything wrong with her. Three days later, she took a nap and never woke up. The cause of her death remains unknown, though officially listed as “natural causes.”

2006: On her 15th anniversary with the show, Katie Couric officially tells viewers of Today that she would be stepping down as co-anchor. Her 15-year tenure is the longest of any other Today Show anchor.

(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…..)

 

[WMC2006]

2005: In a taped message, Peter Jennings announces to viewers of ABC World News Tonight that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer and will soon start chemotherapy. It would be his last TV appearance before passing away 4 months later.

2005: Actress Debralee Scott (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; Welcome Back, Kotter; Angie) dies in Amelia Island, Florida, aged 52. She had recently collapsed and fallen into a coma for several days, but was released after doctors could not find anything wrong with her. Three days later, she took a nap and never woke up. The cause of her death remains unknown, though officially listed as “natural causes.”

As I recall, Peter Jennings told us he had quit smoking but started again after 9/11.

Debralee Scott became a semi-regular on Match Game, too, filling that lower left seat that was often occupied by female newbies to the panel and whom Gene Rayburn often kissed to welcome them (after first using breath spray of course).

 

[mleach]

2005: In a taped message, Peter Jennings announces to viewers of ABC World News Tonight that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer and will soon start chemotherapy. It would be his last TV appearance before passing away 4 months later.

As I recall, Peter Jennings told us he had quit smoking but started again after 9/11.

Weren't all the great anchors of the past big time smokers? Never seen a pic of Dan Rather with a cigarette but I do remember seeing old films of Chet Huntley, Frank McGee and David Brinkley puffing away...sometimes right on the set. Walter Conkite I believe was a pipe smoker. And of corse there was Edward R. Murrow.

Today of course its different. I have been told over the years that at some local TV stations part of that "morals clause" in contracts states an anchor can't even be seen in public buying a pack of cigarettes, much less being seen smoking one. One has to wonder what Edward R. Murrow would do if CBS told him he can't smoke. That might had been a good thing, he could have lived another decade or two.

 

[Stanislav]

2005: In a taped message, Peter Jennings announces to viewers of ABC World News Tonight that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer and will soon start chemotherapy. It would be his last TV appearance before passing away 4 months later.

As I recall, Peter Jennings told us he had quit smoking but started again after 9/11.

The way I heard it, he had not smoked for something like 20 years prior to 9/11, and quit again not long after. But sometimes the damage is already done. It's always better to quit than not quit, but even if you quit relatively early in life, there's still the risk that cancer will develop long after the fact. In Jennings' case, the sad fact is that whether or not he had "backslid" over 9/11, he would probably have still died when he did, or not much longer afterwards.

Lung cancer is an odd duck. Many smokers never get it. (My mother smoked voraciously for over 50 years, quitting just 5 years ago at the age of 75, and she is nonetheless cancer-free and shows no signs of emphysema, either.) And something like 15% of all lung cancer cases occur among non-smokers, even those who had no other secondary factors (asbestos, working in mines, etc.). Genetics plays a role, too. Just shows that as much as we have learned about cancer, there is still a lot we haven't figured out yet.

 

[KML0224]

Maybe so, but cigarettes did eventually take my grandfather away in 1992. SIGH!

Getting back to TV again...Sunday, April 5, 1987 and FOX...didn't they run more than one episode of Married...With Children that night? Besides The Tracey Ullman Show, didn't Duet debut that night as well? I think it featured Allison LaPlaca and Mary Paige Kellar? (I'm a little foggy on that one.) I don't think FOX programmed 7 nights a week until 1990 when Beverly Hills 90210 started its run.

 

[WMC2006]

According to Wiki:

-Duet aired from 4/19/87 to 8/20/89
-Fox expanded to 7 nights of programming in 1993
-Married...With Children aired from 4/5/87 to 6/9/97.

 

[mleach]

2005: In a taped message, Peter Jennings announces to viewers of ABC World News Tonight that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer and will soon start chemotherapy. It would be his last TV appearance before passing away 4 months later.

As I recall, Peter Jennings told us he had quit smoking but started again after 9/11.

The way I heard it, he had not smoked for something like 20 years prior to 9/11, and quit again not long after. But sometimes the damage is already done. It's always better to quit than not quit, but even if you quit relatively early in life, there's still the risk that cancer will develop long after the fact. In Jennings' case, the sad fact is that whether or not he had "backslid" over 9/11, he would probably have still died when he did, or not much longer afterwards.

Lung cancer is an odd duck. Many smokers never get it. (My mother smoked voraciously for over 50 years, quitting just 5 years ago at the age of 75, and she is nonetheless cancer-free and shows no signs of emphysema, either.) And something like 15% of all lung cancer cases occur among non-smokers, even those who had no other secondary factors (asbestos, working in mines, etc.). Genetics plays a role, too. Just shows that as much as we have learned about cancer, there is still a lot we haven't figured out yet.

Actually Jennings was a smoker at the time of Bill Clinton's first Inauguration..that was in 1993. I had several co-workers who were in Culpepper, Virginia when Clinton stopped by on his way to the White House. All of them told me two stories. One...MTV's Tabitha Soren was "on the look out" finding sexy men hoping to interview them for MTV...and two...the sight of seeing Peter Jennings chain smoking outside. Plus I have heard reports over the years from those who watched ABC's World news Tonight back in the 80s/early 90s, the satellite feeds all claiming that during the breaks, Peter would take a few puffs and then fan away the smoke just before air time. Jennings may had quit not long after all of this and it wasn't until 9/11 that he picked up the habit again.

You are right about lung cancer being an "odd duck". I have an aunt who recently turned 90 and despite smoking Lucky Strikes for 50 years..she is still in good health. On the flip side I had a cousin who was a smoker of Virginia Slims for only 2 years and yet she died from lung cancer at age 24.

Gloria Stavers, the woman who was in charged of 16 Magazine and helped many of those teen idols back in the 60s and 70s, it was said she only smoked ONE cigarette a day for ten years. She died from lung cancer in 1982. Then there was Andy Kaufman..never smoked..died from lung cancer before he was in his 40s. Then again Andy was known to be a bit "weird" and they was always some mystery to his personal life debated to this day so maybe he did hide his smoking habit..if he had one. We will never really know for sure.

 

[bpatrick]

I have seen one picture of Dan Rather with a
cigarette; the picture appears to have been
taken in the '50s or early '60s, judging from
his haircut. It appeared in TV Guide back around
2000 or 2001.

My grandfather (mother's side) started smoking
when he was 10 and lived to be 75. Lung cancer
was not the cause of death.

 

[LKellerIII]

Obviously, smoking does not automatically equal lung cancer. I read an interview with a 109 year old French woman a few years ago. Asked for the secret of her longevity, she mentioned a stress free life and the fact that she rode her bicycle everywhere for most of her life. Oh - and she stopped smoking in her late 90s.

Occasionally people who have never smoked get lung cancer - comedian Andy Kaufman being an example.

However, we all know that smoking greatly increases the risk of cancer. Especially if your family has a history of cancer, smoking is a great danger to you.

There's not much cancer in my family, but I stopped smoking 20 years ago because it was a big fat waste of money, annoyed my non-smoking friends, and my breathing was getting labored when I exerted myself.


Then there's emphysema - If you've ever known anybody with that disease, you know it ain't pretty.

 

[onairb]

Getting back to TV again...Sunday, April 5, 1987 and FOX...didn't they run more than one episode of Married...With Children that night? Besides The Tracey Ullman Show, didn't Duet debut that night as well? I think it featured Allison LaPlaca and Mary Paige Kellar? (I'm a little foggy on that one.) I don't think FOX programmed 7 nights a week until 1990 when Beverly Hills 90210 started its run.

Didn't Fox repeat the first episodes of 'Tracey Ullman' and 'Married ...With Children' frpm 9-10 o'clock on that first night?
I think they may have done the same with other shows, as well.

 

[wbhist]

1980: Hawaii Five-O gets booked – not by Dano, but by CBS. The last (278th) episode airs tonight, ending a 12-season run.

Of course, by that time Dano was no longer part of the team - James MacArthur had left after the 11th season.

 

[hubcity]

Getting back to TV again...Sunday, April 5, 1987 and FOX...didn't they run more than one episode of Married...With Children that night? Besides The Tracey Ullman Show, didn't Duet debut that night as well? I think it featured Allison LaPlaca and Mary Paige Kellar? (I'm a little foggy on that one.) I don't think FOX programmed 7 nights a week until 1990 when Beverly Hills 90210 started its run.

Didn't Fox repeat the first episodes of 'Tracey Ullman' and 'Married ...With Children' frpm 9-10 o'clock on that first night?
I think they may have done the same with other shows, as well.

Three times, actually, on the east coast in the 7pm, 8pm and 9pm hours. While it was the same episodes of Tracey Ullmann and MWC repeated three times, there was a unique filmed intro for each hour. My memory's hazy, but the first had Tracey Ullmann welcoming you to the Fox Network, the second featured her bemusement at having the show encored, and by the third she was saying "AGAIN?? Oh, well, okay..."

(Those others who were also geeky enough to tune in to see if they did anything different - does that track with your memory?)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Maybe so, but cigarettes did eventually take my grandfather away in 1992. SIGH!

Getting back to TV again...Sunday, April 5, 1987 and FOX...didn't they run more than one episode of Married...With Children that night? Besides The Tracey Ullman Show, didn't Duet debut that night as well? I think it featured Allison LaPlaca and Mary Paige Kellar? (I'm a little foggy on that one.) I don't think FOX programmed 7 nights a week until 1990 when Beverly Hills 90210 started its run.

I also remember another early Fox show, "Mr. President" with Conrad Bain, debuting on that first night of Sunday evening Fox programming--unless my memory is fuzzy and it actually premiered the next Sunday.

 

[Toledo Eleven]

Here are some TV Guide ads from the early days of Fox TV: http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/fox/

 

[Tim L]

Maybe so, but cigarettes did eventually take my grandfather away in 1992. SIGH!

Getting back to TV again...Sunday, April 5, 1987 and FOX...didn't they run more than one episode of Married...With Children that night? Besides The Tracey Ullman Show, didn't Duet debut that night as well? I think it featured Allison LaPlaca and Mary Paige Kellar? (I'm a little foggy on that one.) I don't think FOX programmed 7 nights a week until 1990 when Beverly Hills 90210 started its run.

I also remember another early Fox show, "Mr. President" with Conrad Bain, debuting on that first night of Sunday evening Fox programming--unless my memory is fuzzy and it actually premiered the next Sunday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._President_(TV_series)

"Mr. President" premiered May 3. 1987..Interesting that you mention Conrad Bain but not the star of the show..George C. Scott as "Mr. President"

 

[Scoobyfan1]

Here are some TV Guide ads from the early days of Fox TV: http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/fox/

Thank You, that is a cool site BTW; also, I love the ad for Scooby Doo on WLIO 35 in Lima, OH; Scooby happens to be one of my favorite shows and it's nice to see ads in TV Guide for him during his syndicated run in the 80's. Oh and if anyone's interested or there are any other Scooby fans on Radio-Info(besides me), tonight Cartoon Network is aring a preview episode of the newest Scooby series: it's called Scooby Doo Mystery Incoroporated and it airs at 7 PM Pacific Time(and Eastern; as for Central and Mountain, check your local listings), just thought I would mention that.

 

[FreddyE1977]

1953: WKNX (channel 57) signs on in Saginaw, Michigan. The station would move to channel 25 in 1965, and change calls to the current WEYI-TV in 1972.

Just as WBGU-TV in Bowling Green, Ohio moved from Channel 57 to 27 (after spending their first nine
years up on Channel 70) in 1986. Channel 57 never got a lot of love out there in Midwest UHF-TV Viewer Land for some reason...