August 15: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on August 15 (a busy day, as the 15th usually is). Discuss or comment as you please……

1923: Actress Rose Marie (The Dick Van Dyke Show) is born (as Rose Marie Mazetta) in New York City.

1925: Actor Mike Connors (Mannix) is born (as Krikor Ohanian) in Fresno, California.

1933: Game show host Jim Lange (The Dating Game) is born in St. Paul, Minnesota.

1949: WLAV-TV (channel 7) begins broadcasting in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The station would change calls to WOOD-TV in 1951, switch to channel 8 in 1953 (to alleviate interference with Chicago’s WLS-TV), and change calls again to WOTV in 1972 (reverting back to the WOOD-TV calls two decades later).

1953: KCMC-TV (channel 6) is launched in Texarkana, Texas. Initially a CBS primary (also carrying some ABC and NBC on a secondary basis), the station would move to NBC (and change calls to KTAL-TV) in 1960 after Texarkana was combined with the Shreveport, Louisiana market by the FCC. This enabled the station to build a bigger tower that would cover both communities, but forced them to switch networks as Shreveport’s KSLA-TV was also a CBS primary.

1954: WCHS-TV (channel 8 ) begins operations in Charleston, West Virginia. It is the city’s second TV station, and its strong VHF signal quickly spells doom for the first (WKNA-TV, channel 49, which would go dark the next year).

1955: WXEX-TV (channel 8 ) debuts, licensed to Petersburg, Virginia, as the NBC affiliate for the Richmond market. They would switch to ABC in 1965, and change calls to WRIC-TV in 1990.

1968: Actress Debra Messing (Will & Grace) is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1971: KVRL (channel 26) signs on as Houston’s second UHF station. Calls would later change to KDOG (they actually once used the slogan “Where every dog has its day”), and later KRIV-TV (when Metromedia purchased the station). In 1986, Rupert Murdoch purchased KRIV and several other Metromedia outlets, which then became the owned-and-operated flagships of his new Fox network.

1981: Mother Angelica launches EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network). The channel’s debut comes exactly 37 years to the day after the former Rita Antoinette Rizzo first entered the Adoration Monastery of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration as a postulant.

1983: WSFP-TV begins broadcasting on channel 30 in Fort Myers, Florida (the last Florida TV market to get its own PBS station). Initially owned by the University of South Florida, the station is nonetheless not a satellite of Tampa’s WUSF-TV, but is programmed separately. The license would be transferred to the new Florida Gulf Coast University in 1996, and the station would change calls to the present WGCU.

1992: The Larry Sanders Show premieres on HBO.

1992: Nickelodeon unveils its Saturday night “SNICK” block of programming, featuring two favorites (Clarissa Explains It All, Ren and Stimpy) and two newcomers (Roundhouse, Are You Afraid of the Dark?).

1992: WGTW-TV debuts on channel 48 (licensed to Burlington, N.J. and serving the greater Philadelphia area), 9 years after the former occupant of the channel (WKBS-TV) had gone dark. The station is now yet another full-time TBN outlet.

1995: News commentator and Timex spokesman (“It takes a licking and keeps on ticking!”) John Cameron Swayze dies, aged 89. He had been the primary NBC newsman from 1949 until the debut of the Huntley-Brinkley Report in 1956.

1998: KXJB-TV (channel 4, Valley City/Fargo, North Dakota) switches operations to its rebuilt 2060 ft. tower. The structure had collapsed twice previously (in 1968 and 1997). In a silly gesture, workers affix a 4-foot flagpole to the top of the new tower, claiming that the cosmetic addition makes it the tallest in the country (beating the KVLY mast by one foot). The flagpole was later removed.

1998: At 12 p.m., cable outlet The Family Channel officially changes its name to Fox Family.

2002: Football player/sports announcer Kyle Rote dies, aged 73, in Baltimore, Maryland.

2004: WCAV (channel 19) debuts in Charlottesville, Virginia. The new CBS affiliate is the first serious local competition for long-standing WVIR-TV (channel 29, NBC).

(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits…..don’t expect it every single day. 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…..)

 

[RicoGregg]

1933: Game show host Jim Lange (The Dating Game) is born in St. Paul, Minnesota.

For three years, I had the distinct pleasure of working with Jim Lange at KMPC in L.A. He was friendly, helpful, humorous, and arguably the classiest act I ever worked with in broadcasting. He would tell great stories about The Dating Game days, or working for Chuck Barris, whom he respects greatly. I remember how lark-happy he was when ESPN hired him as a part-time golf commentator. He loves few things in life more than golf, and he was in hog heaven. Always energetic and in good shape, it's hard to believe that he's actually 75.

FYI: Jim & actress Jessica Lange are cousins.

 

[Ultimajock]

...Chuck Barris seems to have a varying effect on his ex-employees. Lange loves him, Jim Peck thinks he was fun but not especially smart, Gary Owens has finally gotten past his resentment from being dumped as nighttime host of "The Gong Show," Bob Eubanks has a love-hate deal going with him, and Geoff Edwards seems to really hate his guts ;-) ...

 

[ricksegers]

Actress Rose Marie (The Dick Van Dyke Show) is born (as Rose Marie Mazetta) in New York City

Rose Marie also had a quite a career as a child star doing vaudeville, radio and films.

 

[bpatrick]

I suppose most of you know how Jim Lange got
"The Dating Game," but I'm going to tell the story
anyway. Tennessee Ernie Ford had moved to
Carmel, CA, and given up his NBC nighttime show
so as not to have to commute to L.A. While living
in Carmel, he listened to Lange on KGO radio (I think
he also had a morning show on KGO-TV). When Ernie
had the chance to get back on daytime (where he'd
aired from 1955-57), he wanted to do the show from
San Francisco, but at the time (1962) ABC was the
only network with facilities there; he also wanted Lange
as his announcer/sidekick.

Fast forward three years. It's 1965, Ernie's show is on
its last legs, and one morning Chuck Barris has the set on
and happens to hear Lange's voice. He decides Lange is
just the guy he wants to host his new show, "The Dating
Game," and the rest is history: Lange stayed with the show
in network and syndicated versions until 1980.

He's one of the most underrated hosts in the business.
Happy 75th, Jim, you're the same age as my dad.

 

[wbhist]

Actress Rose Marie (The Dick Van Dyke Show) is born (as Rose Marie Mazetta) in New York City

Rose Marie also had a quite a career as a child star doing vaudeville, radio and films.

Let's not forget her years on The Hollywood Squares (the original, classic Peter Marshall version).

 

[bpatrick]

It was 50 years ago today that the quiz scandals kicked
into high gear when Colgate-Palmolive canceled the daytime
(CBS) and nighttime (NBC) versions of "Dotto," the daytime version
of which was number one in daytime ratings. In May, standby
contestant Ed Hilgemeier had seen the show's champion, Marie Winn,
studying a notebook; when he tried to make conversation, she snapped
the notebook shut. On the air, her answers seemed to come before
host Jack Narz finished asking the questions; Hilgemeier looked at her
notebook, and found she had been given the questions ahead of time.
He notified her "defeated" opponent, Yeffe Kimball Slatin, tore out the
page from Winn's notebook, and took it to the producers. They promised
Slatin $4000 to keep quiet but only $1500 to Hilgemeier. He took his
story to assistant New York D.A. Joe Stone and to the FCC. Narz did
pass a polygraph test proving his innocence, and we probably remember
him best for "Concentration" and "Now You See It" in the '70s.

After this, Herb Stempel came forward with his story of how he was
forced to lose to Charles Van Doren on "Twenty-One," and James Snodgrass
produced sealed envelopes detailing not only the questions but directions
on how to answer those questions on the same show.

Every game and quiz show on the air came under suspicion: even Groucho's
"You Bet Your Life." Marion Pollock helped pick the contestants and also
wrote the questions; NBC, to head off suspicions of cheating, asked Groucho
and partner John Guedel to put her on one job but not both; they left her on
the question writing and reassigned her contestant-selection job to Rich Hall.
But it all took place out of her hearing, something that angered her to her
dying day.

"What's My Line?" suggested a line of questions to comedian-guest panelists
in order to lead them away from the right answers; they voluntarily stopped
this before CBS started asking questions.

Fortunately, only a few shows, mostly those of Jack Barry and Dan Enright
("Twenty-One," "Tic Tac Dough"), were involved. But the result were some
low-stakes yet entertaining formulas: "Concentration," "Password," "Let's
Make A Deal," the original "Match Game" and "Jeopardy!," "Hollywood Squares," "The Dating Game," and "The Newlywed Game."

 

[RicoGregg]

I suppose most of you know how Jim Lange got
"The Dating Game," but I'm going to tell the story
anyway. Tennessee Ernie Ford had moved to
Carmel, CA, and given up his NBC nighttime show
so as not to have to commute to L.A. While living
in Carmel, he listened to Lange on KGO radio (I think
he also had a morning show on KGO-TV). When Ernie
had the chance to get back on daytime (where he'd
aired from 1955-57), he wanted to do the show from
San Francisco, but at the time (1962) ABC was the
only network with facilities there; he also wanted Lange
as his announcer/sidekick.

Fast forward three years. It's 1965, Ernie's show is on
its last legs, and one morning Chuck Barris has the set on
and happens to hear Lange's voice. He decides Lange is
just the guy he wants to host his new show, "The Dating
Game," and the rest is history: Lange stayed with the show
in network and syndicated versions until 1980.

He's one of the most underrated hosts in the business.
Happy 75th, Jim, you're the same age as my dad.

BPatrick, just to add one little tidbit to your story, Chuck Barris borrowed $25,000 from his then-father-in-law to make the pilot for The Dating Game.

Cheating is wrong, and some producers of some game shows made some mistakes, but after seeing the movie "Quiz Show", I halfway understand why they did it. Compare Herbert Stempel to Charles Van Doren. No contest. Van Doren was ratings magic, particularly with women. Stempel couldn't have sold igloos to homeless Eskimos. Audiences did not like him. Van Doren would have had a great TV career if not for the scandal. Sponsors were more controlling back then, and according to the movie, Geritol told, make that ordered Dan Enright to make damn sure Charles Van Doren won, and to dump Herb Stempel.

The quiz scandals, along with the HUAC and McCarthy, marked a sad time in American history.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1944: Journalist Linda Ellerbee ["NBC News Overnight," "Our World" (ABC 1986-87)," and on Nick News since 1991] is born Linda Jane Smith in Bryan, TX.

 

[wbhist]

1944: Journalist Linda Ellerbee ["NBC News Overnight," "Our World" (ABC 1986-87)," and on Nick News since 1991] is born Linda Jane Smith in Bryan, TX.

And so it goes, I guess . . .

 

[mleach]

BPatrick, just to add one little tidbit to your story, Chuck Barris borrowed $25,000 from his then-father-in-law to make the pilot for The Dating Game.

Cheating is wrong, and some producers of some game shows made some mistakes, but after seeing the movie "Quiz Show", I halfway understand why they did it. Compare Herbert Stempel to Charles Van Doren. No contest. Van Doren was ratings magic, particularly with women. Stempel couldn't have sold igloos to homeless Eskimos. Audiences did not like him. Van Doren would have had a great TV career if not for the scandal. Sponsors were more controlling back then, and according to the movie, Geritol told, make that ordered Dan Enright to make damn sure Charles Van Doren won, and to dump Herb Stempel.

The quiz scandals, along with the HUAC and McCarthy, marked a sad time in American history.

As I can recall both watching the movie "Quiz Show" and reading about this, Herbert Stemple lost on purpose ( he knew the answer ) to Van Doren. But I have always wondered "what if"...say had Stemple ON HIS OWN decided to keep on giving the right answers and simply decided to ignor the sponsors? In other words, keep on playing until he didn't know the answers regardless.

What would have had happened? Would the makers of Geritol & Dan Enright sue Stemple? Sue for what? For NOT breaking the law? Would Stemple's life be threatened? I can't see that either. Not pay him his winnings? How would that be possible? Charles van Doren kicking Stemple's ass? Ah yeah right !!!

I believe even Herb Stemple himself had asked this question on that PBS special years back about the Quiz Show scandals. What if..he decided to play the game on his own..honestly. What could have had happened if he did?

 

[radioman148]

BPatrick, just to add one little tidbit to your story, Chuck Barris borrowed $25,000 from his then-father-in-law to make the pilot for The Dating Game.

Cheating is wrong, and some producers of some game shows made some mistakes, but after seeing the movie "Quiz Show", I halfway understand why they did it. Compare Herbert Stempel to Charles Van Doren. No contest. Van Doren was ratings magic, particularly with women. Stempel couldn't have sold igloos to homeless Eskimos. Audiences did not like him. Van Doren would have had a great TV career if not for the scandal. Sponsors were more controlling back then, and according to the movie, Geritol told, make that ordered Dan Enright to make damn sure Charles Van Doren won, and to dump Herb Stempel.

The quiz scandals, along with the HUAC and McCarthy, marked a sad time in American history.

As I can recall both watching the movie "Quiz Show" and reading about this, Herbert Stemple lost on purpose ( he knew the answer ) to Van Doren. But I have always wondered "what if"...say had Stemple ON HIS OWN decided to keep on giving the right answers and simply decided to ignor the sponsors? In other words, keep on playing until he didn't know the answers regardless.

What would have had happened? Would the makers of Geritol & Dan Enright sue Stemple? Sue for what? For NOT breaking the law? Would Stemple's life be threatened? I can't see that either. Not pay him his winnings? How would that be possible? Charles van Doren kicking Stemple's ass? Ah yeah right !!!

I believe even Herb Stemple himself had asked this question on that PBS special years back about the Quiz Show scandals. What if..he decided to play the game on his own..honestly. What could have had happened if he did?

We'll never know.

 

[Ultimajock]

...I once interviewed Jim Peck, who worked for Barry-Enright on The Joker's Wild as the regular fill-in host when Jack Barry or Bill Cullen were unavailable. In that interview, he told me that employees of Barry-Enright learned very quickly never to utter the words "Twenty" and "One" in the same sentence with each other, let alone the number "21," in Dan Enright's presence; on the other hand, Barry was relatively open with Peck about the Twenty-One affair (perhaps because, unlike Enright, Barry's face was on the bloody thing and he had to make his peace with the situation a lot quicker than Enright had to simply to walk down a public sidewalk)...

 

[radioman148]

...I once interviewed Jim Peck, who worked for Barry-Enright on The Joker's Wild as the regular fill-in host when Jack Barry or Bill Cullen were unavailable. In that interview, he told me that employees of Barry-Enright learned very quickly never to utter the words "Twenty" and "One" in the same sentence with each other, let alone the number "21," in Dan Enright's presence; on the other hand, Barry was relatively open with Peck about the Twenty-One affair (perhaps because, unlike Enright, Barry's face was on the bloody thing and he had to make his peace with the situation a lot quicker than Enright had to simply to walk down a public sidewalk)...

I met Jack Barry once and he had no problem discussing the quiz shows.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1977: Actress Nicole Paggi (Hope and Faith, One on One) is born in Travis County, TX.