December 25: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on December 25. Discuss or comment as you please……

1924: Writer Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery) is born in Syracuse, New York.

1945: Actor Gary Sandy (WKRP in Cincinnati) is born in Dayton, Ohio.

1945: Producer Rick Berman (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise) is born in New York City.

1948: Singer Barbara Mandrell (Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters) is born in Houston, Texas.

1954: WSFA-TV (channel 12) airs its first broadcast in Montgomery, Alabama.

1954: WALB-TV (channel 10) begins operating in Albany, Georgia.

1955: The final broadcast of The Colgate Comedy Hour takes place on NBC.

1957: CKRN-TV (channel 4) signs on in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec.

1957: The annual Royal Christmas Message (first broadcast on radio in 1932) is transmitted in video form on British television for the first time. (Oddly, in 1955 and 1956 the Message was transmitted on TV, but only as audio with a static graphic slide.)

1958: A Playhouse 90 broadcast of “The Nutcracker” is the first color videotape aired on CBS.

1977: Bob McAllister hosts Metromedia’s Wonderama for the last time.

1981: Chuck Woolery hosts his last episode of Wheel of Fortune. Pat Sajak would assume hosting duties on December 28th.

1987: The Two Ronnies airs its 98th and final original episode in the U.K. on BBC1.

1997: Actor Denver Pyle (The Dukes of Hazzard, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, The Doris Day Show) is born in Bethune, Colorado.

2000: The venerable A Charlie Brown Christmas is aired on CBS for the last time. (The annual special would move to ABC the following year.)

(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…..)

 

[KeithE4]

1997: Actor Denver Pyle (The Dukes of Hazzard, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, The Doris Day Show) is born in Bethune, Colorado.

??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

Was that when he died?

 

[Davros2006]

I was going to say there's an error in the Denver Pyle file.

 

[Stanislav]

Yup -- should have been the date of his demise (he was born in 1920). Chalk up another typo.....

 

[SirFreebie1975]

didnt James Brown die also on this date last year?

 

[KML0224]

He passed on Christmas Day in 2006.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

On December 25, 1971, NBC-TV carried the longest game in NFL history; the dividional play-off game between the Miami Dolphis & Kansas City Chiefs from Municipal Stadium in Kansas City. Curt Gowdy called the play-by-play as Miami won on a field goal in the second overtime period, 27-24.

 

[andreajesus]

December 25, 2008 - Eartha Kitt, dead at 81 of colon cancer....

 

[daryll]

The loss of Chuck Woolery on Wheel of Fortune stills bothers me. I've read the stories of his demands for more money but he was truly fun to watch. Sajak is just so vanilla. Chuck was among the new generation of game show hosts who were hip and not recycled fossils from the 50's. He had two incredible runs on Scrabble and Love Connection.

 

[andreajesus]

and let's not forget - Chuck is STILL kicking butt on GSN as the host of "Lingo"!!

 

[Stanislav]

I have to agree with both of you. I've always liked Woolery's style, whereas to me Sajak is as dull as dishwater. The only thing that made the otherwise silly Love Connection at all watchable was Chuck, his comments, and his very obviously telegraphed "Don't take this too seriously, folks" attitude.

 

[WMC2006]

1997: Actor Denver Pyle (The Dukes of Hazzard, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, The Doris Day Show) is born in Bethune, Colorado.

??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

Was that when he died?

And Dukes REALLY died the day Schneider and Wopat walked out for more money and Coy and Vance joined the show.

 

[andreajesus]

1997: Actor Denver Pyle (The Dukes of Hazzard, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, The Doris Day Show) is born in Bethune, Colorado.

??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

Was that when he died?

And Dukes REALLY died the day Schneider and Wopat walked out for more money and Coy and Vance joined the show.

wouldn't that be considered one of those "jump the shark" kinda moments?? ???

 

[bpatrick]

1950: Walt Disney made his first foray into television
with a Christmas special for CBS.

 

[Ultimajock]

1950: Walt Disney made his first foray into television
with a Christmas special for CBS.

...into American television, that is. He gave BBC Television unlimited use of his films before the Second World War, which is how 1933's Mickey's Gala Premiere came to be run on BBC-TV on 1 September 1939 at the very moment when the service was shut down for the duration of the War, and the first thing shown on 7 June 1946 when the service was cranked back up...

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1981: Actress Katie Wright is born in Kansas City, MO. Her resume has included guest appearances on "The Wonder Years," as well as "Melrose Place" and "Malibu Shores." She is currently dating Hank Azaria of "Simpsons" fame.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1985: British actress Perdita Weeks (who appeared in Showtime's "The Tudors" in 2007) is born in Cardiff, Wales.

 

[bpatrick]

1973: WQXI Channel 11 in Atlanta changes its call letters
to WXIA, originally standing for "Eleven/Atlanta".
The station adopts the "11 Alive" moniker in September
1976. The call-letter change is due to a merger between
former owner Pacific & Southern and Combined Communications
(bought by Gannett in 1979). The radio station, known to a
generation of Atlantans as "Quixie in Dixie," is sold to Jefferson-
Pilot and retains the WQXI call letters.

 

[bpatrick]

The loss of Chuck Woolery on Wheel of Fortune stills bothers me. I've read the stories of his demands for more money but he was truly fun to watch. Sajak is just so vanilla. Chuck was among the new generation of game show hosts who were hip and not recycled fossils from the 50's. He had two incredible runs on Scrabble and Love Connection.

Which was the whole point of Lin Bolen's approval of Woolery as host of "Wheel"--she didn't want '50s fossils; she hired then-relatively unknown people like Alex Trebek, Geoff Edwards, and Jim McKrell (who had, however, hosted Chuck Barris' "The Game Game" in 1969-70). Strangely, though, for her own creation, "Stumpers," she hired one of those "fossils"--Allen Ludden.

 

[gregg75]

What a teat that must have been for the folks in Albany, Georgia who got a new
TV for Christmas that year. Along with a new TV, a new local station to watch
on it!