December 29: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on December 29. Discuss or comment as you please……

1932: Actress Inga Swenson (Soap, Benson) is born in Omaha, Nebraska.

1934: Actor Ed Flanders (St. Elsewhere) is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

1936: Actress Mary Tyler Moore (The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show) is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1938: Longtime Canadian sportscaster Don Chevrier is born in Toronto, Ontario. Among many other duties in his career, he spent 20 years broadcasting Blue Jays baseball.

1947: Actor Ted Danson (Cheers, Becker) is born in San Diego, California.

1949: Experimental station KC2XAK becomes the first regularly operating UHF TV station. Transmitting from Bridgeport, Connecticut on channel 24 with an ERP of 10 kw at 450’ AAT, the station is operated by RCA and NBC to determine if UHF is feasible to use for broadcasting. KC2XAK originates no programming of its own; it is a passive rebroadcaster of New York’s WNBT (channel 4). The station would be shut down 2 ½ years later, with the equipment then shipped to Portland, Oregon to start KPTV (channel 27), the first commercial UHF station.

1967: Journalist Ashleigh Banfield is born in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

1969: Art Linkletter’s House Party begins a one-season revival on ABC, having ended a 17-year CBS run three months earlier.

2003: Actor Earl Hindman (Home Improvement) dies in Stamford, Connecticut, aged 61.

(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…..)

 

[wbhist]

1969: Art Linkletter’s House Party begins a one-season revival on ABC, having ended a 17-year CBS run three months earlier.

ABC? I thought Linkletter brought his show to NBC, under the title of Life With Linkletter. (In its last year on CBS, House Party had changed its title to The Linkletter Show.)

 

[bpatrick]

"Life With Linkletter" was on NBC; Art and Jack
co-hosted, with more emphasis on interviews and
issues (I don't even think they had the kids). It
was one of several attempts by NBC to salvage
1:30 (ET) after losing "Let's Make A Deal" to ABC
the year before; between 1968 and the expansion
of "Days Of Our Lives" in 1975, only Bill Cullen's
"Three On A Match" had any success in that time
slot (1971-74).

But there was a show called "Life With Linkletter"
on ABC in the early '50s, essentially a primetime
version of "House Party," which had moved briefly
from CBS radio to ABC. It lasted, I believe, a couple
of years (1950-52) before "House Party" headed back
to CBS and daytime television.

 

[bpatrick]

I might add that on the same day "Life With
Linkletter" premiered (Dec. 29, 1969), "The Who,
What Or Where Game" also debuted on NBC.
With its wagering element and tough questions
(my dad still talks about the time I correctly
identified "To Anacreon In Heaven," an old
drinking song, as the tune to "The Star-Spangled
Banner"), it was a perfect complement to "Jeopardy!"
"Jeopardy!" aired at noon (ET), "The 3Ws" followed at
12:30. In 1990 Dick Clark revived the basic format
of the show as "The Challengers"; unfortunately it
lasted only one season while "Jeopardy!" keeps right
on going.

 

[Ultimajock]

1969: The Dick Cavett Show starts its longest stretch on the ABC schedule, competing at 11:30 P.M. ET/PT with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on NBC and The Merv Griffin Show on CBS (coincidentially, Cavett had been a monologue gag writer for both Carson and Griffin several years earlier, and was a booker for The Tonight Show under Jack Paar's tenure). Cavett remains on ABC's late-night schedule, first Monday-through-Friday through 1972, then one week a month beginning in 1973, finally appearing only every other Thursday night by the time of the final broadcast on January 1, 1975. After spells on PBS and USA Cable, Cavett's show returned to ABC's late-night schedule in the Autumn of 1986, lasting only until December 30 of that year.

 

[Smittian]

1978: One of the most memorable moments in College Football history occurs during the waning minutes of ABC's Gator Bowl broadcast when Clemson's Charlie Bauman intercepts Ohio State QB Art Schlichter and runs out of bounds on the Ohio State sidelines where he is greeted by Buckeyes coach Woody Hayes who promptly grabs Bauman and punches him in the neck. This ended Hayes' 29-year tenure at Ohio State as he resigned the next day.

A sidenote: SNL did a funny sketch a few weeks later with John Belushi portraying Hayes who administers a beating to his wife during a game of checkers

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1978: One of the most memorable moments in College Football history occurs during the waning minutes of ABC's Gator Bowl broadcast when Clemson's Charlie Bauman intercepts Ohio State QB Art Schlichter and runs out of bounds on the Ohio State sidelines where he is greeted by Buckeyes coach Woody Hayes who promptly grabs Bauman and punches him in the neck. This ended Hayes' 29-year tenure at Ohio State as he resigned the next day.

A sidenote: SNL did a funny sketch a few weeks later with John Belushi portraying Hayes who administers a beating to his wife during a game of checkers

The incident has been posted on YouTube (ESPN Classic's replay of ABC's coverage of the '78 Gator Bowl) at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmoIjMr1BZs

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1977: Actress Katherine Moenning (CBS' "Three Rivers") is born in Philly.

 

[FreddyE1977]

1977: Actress Katherine Moenning (CBS' "Three Rivers") is born in Philly.

An actress from Philly starring in Three Rivers? No wonder that show didn't work!

 

[wbhist]

1969: The Dick Cavett Show starts its longest stretch on the ABC schedule, competing at 11:30 P.M. ET/PT with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on NBC and The Merv Griffin Show on CBS (coincidentially, Cavett had been a monologue gag writer for both Carson and Griffin several years earlier, and was a booker for The Tonight Show under Jack Paar's tenure). Cavett remains on ABC's late-night schedule, first Monday-through-Friday through 1972, then one week a month beginning in 1973, finally appearing only every other Thursday night by the time of the final broadcast on January 1, 1975. After spells on PBS and USA Cable, Cavett's show returned to ABC's late-night schedule in the Autumn of 1986, lasting only until December 30 of that year.

That means the death of Fred Foy (the announcer for Cavett's late 1960's-early '70's ABC talk shows) in 2010 fell one week short of the anniversary of the debut of Cavett's late-night effort.