December 16: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on December 16. Discuss or comment as you please……

1918: Producer E. Roger Muir (Howdy Doody) is born in Alberta.

1937: Actress/game show panelist Joyce Bulifant (The Bill Cosby Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Match Game) is born in Newport News, Virginia.

1941: Journalist Lesley Stahl (60 Minutes) is born in Lynn, Massachusetts.

1943: Producer/writer Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue) is born in New York City.

1951: Dragnet premieres on NBC.

1953: Western Canada’s first TV station, CBUT (channel 2) in Vancouver, begins broadcasting.

1963: Actor Benjamin Bratt (Law & Order) is born in San Francisco.

1968: KFIZ-TV (channel 34) signs on in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The independent UHF would struggle for just under 4 years before giving up the ghost.

1970: Night Gallery premieres on NBC.

1975: One Day at a Time debuts on CBS.

1997: Visual effects in a Japanese TV broadcast episode of the Pokémon episode “Dennō Senshi Porygon” cause 685 children to have epileptic seizures. Most recover quickly, and only 2 remain hospitalized for more than 2 weeks. The episode is pulled and has never been rebroadcast.

2004: All My Children airs its 9000th episode.

2005: Actor John Spencer (The West Wing) dies, aged 59, in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack. Coincidentally, his TV character (Leo McGarry) also had a history of heart problems. At the time of his death, he had appeared in two of the five West Wing episodes then in post-production. His death was subsequently written into the series, with his character (then a vice-presidential candidate) dying of a heart attack on election night.

2007: The transmission tower for the analog signal of WNEP-TV (channel 16, Scranton, Pennsylvania) collapses due to severe ice, winds, and snow at the Penobscot Knob site. The collapse also destroys the WNEP-TV transmitter building, as well as the antenna and transmitter of co-located WCLH-FM. Later this day, the top section of the nearby WVIA-TV (channel 44) tower also collapses in the severe weather.

2007: News anchor Hugh Smith dies in St. Petersburg, Florida, aged 73. He was the main anchor at WTVT Tampa from 1963 to 1991. His career ended when he resigned after pleading guilty to soliciting sex from a 15-year-old prostitute, his second prostitution-related arrest in nine years.

(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…..)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1958: Voice actress Katie Leigh is born in Monterey, CA. Her roles include the voices for Baby Rowlf on "Jim Henson's Muppet Babies," Sheila the Thief on "Dungeons and Dragons," and Sunni Gummi on "Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears."

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1987: Actress Hallee Hirsh ("ER") is born in Omaha, NE.

 

[FreddyE1977]

1968: KFIZ-TV (channel 34) signs on in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The independent UHF would struggle for just under 4 years before giving up the ghost.

Given what I can recall about UHF reception circa 1970, that statement is more true than you know!

 

[Ultimajock]

1968: KFIZ-TV (channel 34) signs on in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The independent UHF would struggle for just under 4 years before giving up the ghost.

Given what I can recall about UHF reception circa 1970, that statement is more true than you know!

...actually, KFIZ-TV had quite a bit of viewership in the Madison ADI, as the signal carried into Madison itself, about 75 miles from Fond du Lac. The real audience problem was in what was allegedly the station's own home market, Green Bay-Fox Cities, which had been a VHF-only since WNAM-TV/42 Neenah converted itself into WFRV/5 Green Bay in 1955. Many potential viewers thought they couldn't pick the station up, if they thought of Channel 34 at all. The last straw came when the company that owned KFIZ-TV, KFIZ Radio and the Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter newspaper sold off their holdings in 1972; they got new buyers for the paper and radio station, but nobody would touch the TV station...

 

[FreddyE1977]

1953: Western Canada’s first TV station, CBUT (channel 2) in Vancouver, begins broadcasting.

Did their logo look like a naked backside? ;D

 

[wbhist]

1953: Western Canada’s first TV station, CBUT (channel 2) in Vancouver, begins broadcasting.

Did their logo look like a naked backside? ;D

Er, no . . . the calls were derived from CBU radio, with a "T" added to signify "Television," per the protocol of CBC stations.

 

[RyanHoward]

1987: Actress Hallee Hirsh ("ER") is born in Omaha, NE.

I remember her. She played Rachel Greene(no relation to Jennifer Aniston's Friends character),
the troubled daughter of Dr. Greene(Anthony Edwards).

 

[WMC2006]

1987: Actress Hallee Hirsh ("ER") is born in Omaha, NE.

I remember her. She played Rachel Greene(no relation to Jennifer Aniston's Friends character),
the troubled daughter of Dr. Greene(Anthony Edwards).

I didn't watch those later years of ER and didn't realize Rachel Greene became "troubled". I recall the character as a sweet little girl early on and then saw her return for the final episode as a potential med student. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

She first portrayed Rachel Greene in the 2001-2002 season of ER in a storyline where a now teenage and rebellious Rachel leaves her mom in St. Louis to be with her father, Mark Greene, with whom she feuds but eventually they reconcile before Mark succumbs to brain cancer at the end of the 8th season. Hirsh later reprises her role in 2004 in the season 10 episode "Midnight", visiting her stepmother Dr. Elizabeth Corday, introducing her new boyfriend and seeking birth control pills. In the ER series finale, aired April 2, 2009, entitled "And in the End", Hirsh's character returned as candidate interviewing for medical school, bringing the Greene family history full circle