April 7: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on April 7. Discuss or comment as you please……

1928: Actor James Garner (Maverick, The Rockford Files) is born (as James Scott Bumgarner) in Norman, Oklahoma.

1933: Actor Wayne Rogers (M*A*S*H, House Calls) is born in Birmingham, Alabama.

1971: WCJB-TV (channel 20) signs on in Gainesville, Florida.

1980: NBC goes retro with a live TV drama, the first since 1962. “The Oldest Living Graduate,” based on the first novel of a trilogy by Preston Jones, is telecast live from Southern Methodist University. The production stars Henry Fonda, George Grizzard, Timothy Hutton, Cloris Leachman and John Lithgow.

2006: The Red Green Show airs its 300th and last episode on CBC.

(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…..)

 

[bpatrick]

The city of Norman has a statue of James Garner
dressed as Bret Maverick, one of several statues
of TV icons: Mary Tyler Moore (Minneapolis), Jackie
Gleason (Brooklyn), Bob Newhart (Chicago), and
Andy Griffith (Raleigh).

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1962: Actor Hugh O'Connor (d. Mar. 28, 1995) (In the Heat of the Night), the adopted son of Carroll O'Connor, is born in Rome, Italy.

 

[FreddyE1977]

1933: Actor Wayne Rogers (M*A*S*H, House Calls) is born in Birmingham, Alabama.

Wow! I have seen him giving stock market commentaries on Fox Business Channel and would
never have guessed he was that old. Then again it keeps slipping my mind how long its been
since M*A*S*H was in prime-time. Seems like it is always with us.

 

[bk77]

The city of Norman has a statue of James Garner
dressed as Bret Maverick, one of several statues
of TV icons: Mary Tyler Moore (Minneapolis), Jackie
Gleason (Brooklyn), Bob Newhart (Chicago), and
Andy Griffith (Raleigh).

On the flip side there have a been a number of cities who had over the years actually had turned down the idea of a TV icon statue in their city. Examples...

Phoenix-Polly Holiday ( Alice )
Boulder, CO-Robin Williams ( Mork & Mindy )
Indianapolis-Bonnie Franklin ( One Day at a Time )
Dallas-Larry Hagman
Denver-John Forsythe & Linda Evans ( Dynasty )
Chicago-Esthter Rolle ( Good Times )
Raytown, Missouri-Vicki Lawrence ( Mama's Family )
San Antonio-Carol Burnett
Bronx, NY-Joe Ross & Fred Gwynne ( Car 54 )

For some reason I seem to recall Columbus, Ohio was considering putting up some sort of statue or doing something similar to honor Family Ties but I don't think they ever did.

 

[KML0224]

Do you mean the statues based on TV characters from TV Land? There's a Ralph Kramden statue outside of the Port Authority, facing 8th Avenue in New York City.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

THIS JUST IN: A disappointed TV Land has learned that nobody is interested in statues of any of the castmembers of "High School Reunion", "First Love, Second Chance", or any of their other reality crap.

 

[Ultimajock]

THIS JUST IN: A disappointed TV Land has learned that nobody is interested in statues of any of the castmembers of "High School Reunion", "First Love, Second Chance", or any of their other reality crap.

...maybe they should start rerunning the 2007 A&E reality series Rollergirls. I'm fairly sure that someone in Austin can pull strings to have Punky Bruiser or Sister Mary Jane immortalised thusly ;-) ...