Just a few random TV related events that happened on December 17. Discuss or comment as you please……
1928: Actor George Lindsey (The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry RFD, Hee Haw) is born in Fairfield, Alabama.
1931: Actor Dave Madden (Laugh-In, The Partridge Family, Alice) is born in Sarnia, Ontario.
1945: Commentator Chris Matthews (Hardball with Chris Matthews) is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1946: Actor Eugene Levy (SCTV) is born in Hamilton, Ontario.
1949: WEWS-TV (channel 5) goes on the air, becoming the first licensed television station in Ohio. The call letters denote the initials of the parent company's founder, Edward Willis Scripps. The station has maintained the same channel position, ownership, and call letters since their sign-on.
1949: The Sutton Coldfield television transmitter is opened in the English Midlands, making it the first part of the U.K. outside London to receive BBC Television.
1953: The FCC formally approves the RCA/NTSC compatible color standards. NBC had previously made some test colorcasts (with FCC permission), but networks and stations were now free to broadcast in color whenever they wanted. Following the decision, CBS, the losers in the color standards battle, actually had the first live NTSC color program on the air at 6:15 P.M. (Although NBC had briefly broadcast their “chimes” logo in color 45 minutes earlier.) NBC followed at 6:30 P.M. with a special program celebrating the FCC decision, featuring Pat Weaver, General David Sarnoff, and Jimmy Durante.
1953: WEAU-TV (channel 13) begins broadcasting in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
1953: Actor Barry Livingston (My Three Sons) is born in Los Angeles.
1964: Sportscaster Michelle Tafoya is born in Manhattan Beach, California.
1969: Singer Tiny Tim marries “Miss Vicki” (Victoria Mae Budinger) on The Tonight Show, an event that draws 40 million viewers. Despite the very romantically oriented publicity of their wedding, the couple would mostly live apart, and divorce eight years later. Their only child -- a daughter, Tulip Victoria -- is married and living in Pennsylvania with four children.
1976: At 1:00 p.m. ET, WTCG-TV Atlanta (channel 17, now WPCH-TV) begins satellite transmission of its regular programming to four cable systems, thus becoming the first “superstation.”
1978: The occasional anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame ends its long (26 years) original run on NBC. The series would continue briefly on CBS, move to PBS for a few shows, back to CBS for an 8-season run, to ABC for 6 more years, and ultimately back to CBS for a third time. It is also the last remaining U.S. television program with its sponsor's name in the title (a far more common practice in the 50’s and 60’s).
1983: The NBC program Manimal, about a man who can shape-shift into the form of various animals, limps to an end with the 8th and final episode. The series had a fatal time slot (opposite Dallas on CBS) and was just one casualty in a very bad NBC fall lineup (nine of their debuted shows that year would be canceled before the season ended).
1989: The Simpsons premieres on Fox with a special Christmas episode (“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”). The characters had first appeared two years earlier as a segment on The Tracey Ullman Show. The regular series run would begin January 14, 1990.
(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…..)
1928: Actor George Lindsey (The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry RFD, Hee Haw) is born in Fairfield, Alabama.
1931: Actor Dave Madden (Laugh-In, The Partridge Family, Alice) is born in Sarnia, Ontario.
1945: Commentator Chris Matthews (Hardball with Chris Matthews) is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1946: Actor Eugene Levy (SCTV) is born in Hamilton, Ontario.
1949: WEWS-TV (channel 5) goes on the air, becoming the first licensed television station in Ohio. The call letters denote the initials of the parent company's founder, Edward Willis Scripps. The station has maintained the same channel position, ownership, and call letters since their sign-on.
1949: The Sutton Coldfield television transmitter is opened in the English Midlands, making it the first part of the U.K. outside London to receive BBC Television.
1953: The FCC formally approves the RCA/NTSC compatible color standards. NBC had previously made some test colorcasts (with FCC permission), but networks and stations were now free to broadcast in color whenever they wanted. Following the decision, CBS, the losers in the color standards battle, actually had the first live NTSC color program on the air at 6:15 P.M. (Although NBC had briefly broadcast their “chimes” logo in color 45 minutes earlier.) NBC followed at 6:30 P.M. with a special program celebrating the FCC decision, featuring Pat Weaver, General David Sarnoff, and Jimmy Durante.
1953: WEAU-TV (channel 13) begins broadcasting in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
1953: Actor Barry Livingston (My Three Sons) is born in Los Angeles.
1964: Sportscaster Michelle Tafoya is born in Manhattan Beach, California.
1969: Singer Tiny Tim marries “Miss Vicki” (Victoria Mae Budinger) on The Tonight Show, an event that draws 40 million viewers. Despite the very romantically oriented publicity of their wedding, the couple would mostly live apart, and divorce eight years later. Their only child -- a daughter, Tulip Victoria -- is married and living in Pennsylvania with four children.
1976: At 1:00 p.m. ET, WTCG-TV Atlanta (channel 17, now WPCH-TV) begins satellite transmission of its regular programming to four cable systems, thus becoming the first “superstation.”
1978: The occasional anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame ends its long (26 years) original run on NBC. The series would continue briefly on CBS, move to PBS for a few shows, back to CBS for an 8-season run, to ABC for 6 more years, and ultimately back to CBS for a third time. It is also the last remaining U.S. television program with its sponsor's name in the title (a far more common practice in the 50’s and 60’s).
1983: The NBC program Manimal, about a man who can shape-shift into the form of various animals, limps to an end with the 8th and final episode. The series had a fatal time slot (opposite Dallas on CBS) and was just one casualty in a very bad NBC fall lineup (nine of their debuted shows that year would be canceled before the season ended).
1989: The Simpsons premieres on Fox with a special Christmas episode (“Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”). The characters had first appeared two years earlier as a segment on The Tracey Ullman Show. The regular series run would begin January 14, 1990.
(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…..)
