December 22: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on December 22. Discuss or comment as you please……

1914: Longtime Three Stooges foil Emil Sitka is born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He would briefly and semi-officially himself be a Stooge in the 1970’s following Larry Fine’s stroke, though Sitka’s only output as the “7th Stooge” consisted of a few posed publicity stills for a Stooges movie role that fell through when Moe Howard also started to suffer from ill health.

1915: Actress Barbara Billingsley (Leave It to Beaver) is born (as Barbara Lillian Combes) in Los Angeles.

1917: Game show host Gene Rayburn (The Match Game) is born (as Eugene Rubessa) in Christopher, Illinois.

1924: Talk show host Joe Pyne is born in Chester, Pennsylvania.

1931: RCA begins transmitting experimental television broadcasts from a small antenna erected atop the spire of the Empire State Building.

1945: Journalist Diane Sawyer (Good Morning America) is born (as Lila Diane Sawyer) in Glasgow, Kentucky.

1948: KPIX-TV (channel 5) signs on in San Francisco. It is the first TV station in California outside Los Angeles.

1952: WSBA-TV (channel 43, now WPMT) goes on the air in York, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest continually operating UHFs in the country.

1953: WNCT-TV (Channel 9) signs on in Greenville, North Carolina.

1969: Composer Wilbur Hatch dies, aged 67. He is best known for having been the music director for I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, and Here's Lucy.

1979: Former commercial station KMOS-TV (channel 6, Sedalia, Missouri) returns to the air as a PBS affiliate after a 16-month hiatus. (The station had been donated by its previous owner to Central Missouri State University, now the University of Central Missouri.)

1998: Actress Michelle Thomas (The Cosby Show, Family Matters) dies from a rare form of soft-tissue sarcoma (cancer). She is just 29 years old.

(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…..)

 

[FreddyE1977]

wow! June Cleaver still going strong at 93 yrs. young. Happy Birthday!

 

[easttxtv]

1998: Actress Michelle Thomas (The Cosby Show) dies from a rare form of soft-tissue sarcoma (cancer). She is just 29 years old.

Wasn't she the one who played Justine, Theo's girlfriend?

 

[Stanislav]

1998: Actress Michelle Thomas (The Cosby Show) dies from a rare form of soft-tissue sarcoma (cancer). She is just 29 years old.

Wasn't she the one who played Justine, Theo's girlfriend?

Yes, and they were also boyfriend and girlfriend in real life for a time (although they had broken up by then, Malcolm Jamal-Warner was by her side when she died). Also played Myra, who had the hots for Urkel on Family Matters. So incredibly sad for such a very talented lady to die so young.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1948: Actress Lynne Thigpen (d. Mar. 12, 2003), best known as "The CHIEF" of the Acme Detective Agency in the PBS game show "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" from 1991-96, is born Cherlynne Theresa Thigpen in Joliet, IL. Her TV appearances also include guest spots on series like "Gimme a Break," "LA Law," "Homicide: Life on the Street," and "thirtysomething."

 

[Ultimajock]

1948: Actress Lynne Thigpen (d. Mar. 12, 2003), best known as "The CHIEF" of the Acme Detective Agency in the PBS game show "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" from 1991-96, is born Cherlynne Theresa Thigpen in Joliet, IL. Her TV appearances also include guest spots on series like "Gimme a Break," "LA Law," "Homicide: Life on the Street," and "thirtysomething."

...although Carmen Sandiego was her best-known TV work, I'd argue that she's actually best known as the menacing disc jockey seemingly cheering on the vengeful street gangs of New York in the 1979 theatrical film The Warriors...

 

[dustintv]

Michelle Thomas was acting on Young and the Restless at the time of her death in 1998.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1948: Actress Lynne Thigpen (d. Mar. 12, 2003), best known as "The CHIEF" of the Acme Detective Agency in the PBS game show "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego" from 1991-96, is born Cherlynne Theresa Thigpen in Joliet, IL. Her TV appearances also include guest spots on series like "Gimme a Break," "LA Law," "Homicide: Life on the Street," and "thirtysomething."

...although Carmen Sandiego was her best-known TV work, I'd argue that she's actually best known as the menacing disc jockey seemingly cheering on the vengeful street gangs of New York in the 1979 theatrical film The Warriors...

When I was Joliet earlier in the fall, I noticed that an elementary school is now named for Ms. Thigpen.