Just a few random TV related events that happened on December 23. Discuss or comment as you please……
1924: Journalist Floyd Kalber is born in Omaha, Nebraska.
1931: W6XAO goes on the air from an 8th floor transmitter at Seventh and Bixel Streets in Los Angeles, broadcasting an 80-line picture at 44.5 megacycles. The experimental station, one of the first VHF TV stations in the U.S., transmits one hour daily except Sundays. The station lives on today as KCBS-TV.
1943: The first television broadcast of a complete opera (Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel”) takes place over Schenectady. New York’s WRGB.
1943: Actor/comedian/voice artist Harry Shearer (The Simpsons) is born is Los Angeles.
1945: Actress Susan Lucci (All My Children) is born in Scarsdale, New York.
1951: DuMont transmits the first ever coast-to-coast broadcast of a professional football game (the NFL Championship Game between the Los Angeles Rams and Cleveland Browns). The network paid $75,000 for the rights to broadcast the game.
1953: NBC transmits the first commercial TV program on color film, the Dragnet episode "The Big Little Jesus.” The episode was remade 14 years later. (See TDITVH for December 21.)
1982: Actor Jack Webb (Dragnet) dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles, aged 62. Though he only played a police officer on TV, and never actually served as one, he is given a funeral with full police honors, and L.A. Police Chief Darryl Gates announces that the badge number 714 that Webb used on Dragnet would be retired.
(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…..)
1924: Journalist Floyd Kalber is born in Omaha, Nebraska.
1931: W6XAO goes on the air from an 8th floor transmitter at Seventh and Bixel Streets in Los Angeles, broadcasting an 80-line picture at 44.5 megacycles. The experimental station, one of the first VHF TV stations in the U.S., transmits one hour daily except Sundays. The station lives on today as KCBS-TV.
1943: The first television broadcast of a complete opera (Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel”) takes place over Schenectady. New York’s WRGB.
1943: Actor/comedian/voice artist Harry Shearer (The Simpsons) is born is Los Angeles.
1945: Actress Susan Lucci (All My Children) is born in Scarsdale, New York.
1951: DuMont transmits the first ever coast-to-coast broadcast of a professional football game (the NFL Championship Game between the Los Angeles Rams and Cleveland Browns). The network paid $75,000 for the rights to broadcast the game.
1953: NBC transmits the first commercial TV program on color film, the Dragnet episode "The Big Little Jesus.” The episode was remade 14 years later. (See TDITVH for December 21.)
1982: Actor Jack Webb (Dragnet) dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles, aged 62. Though he only played a police officer on TV, and never actually served as one, he is given a funeral with full police honors, and L.A. Police Chief Darryl Gates announces that the badge number 714 that Webb used on Dragnet would be retired.
(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…..)