December 3: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on December 3. Discuss or comment as you please……

1931: Singer and game show panelist Jaye P. Morgan (The Gong Show) is born (as Mary Margaret Morgan) in Mancos, Colorado.

1933: Talk show host Les Crane is born in Long Beach, New York.

1947: WTMJ-TV (channel 3, later channel 4) signs on in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the first TV station in the Bagder State, and the 15th overall to sign on in the U.S.

1949: KRLD-TV (Channel 4, later KDFW) begins operating in Dallas, Texas.

1952: Televangelist Benny Hinn is born (as Toufik Benedictus Hinn) in Jaffa, Israel. The son of two Palestinian Christians (one Greek Orthodox, the other Armenian Apostolic), his name in Arabic is توفيق بندكتوس "بني" الحن. (As Colonel Potter once said on M*A*S*H: “Sure is a pretty lookin’ language!”)

1955: KRBB-TV (channel 10, now KTVE) launches in El Dorado, Arkansas.

1955: Actor Steven Culp is born in La Jolla, California. Not a “name” star, Culp nevertheless keeps busy. He holds the unusual and possibly unmatched distinction of appearing as a recurring character (in 2004) in four television series simultaneously: The West Wing (Speaker Jeff Haffley), Star Trek: Enterprise (Major Haynes), JAG (CIA Agent Clayton Webb) and ER (Dave Spencer). He also had the ignominious fortune of having both his JAG and ST:ENT characters killed off in the same week in the shows' season finales! (He also played Rex Van de Kamp on Desperate Housewives for one season, and THAT character was killed off in the season finale as well! Is somebody trying to tell him something?)

1968: Elvis Presley's “Comeback Special” (titled in the original broadcast as simply Elvis) airs on NBC. A segment featuring Presley jamming informally in front of a small audience is regarded as a forerunner of the so-called “Unplugged” concept, later popularized by MTV.

1973: Actress Holly Marie Combs (Charmed, Picket Fences) is born in San Diego, California.

1977: The last network episode of Emergency! is broadcast on NBC.

1981: Former child actor Brian Bonsall (Family Ties, Star Trek: The Next Generation) is born in Torrance, California. After leaving acting, he moved to Boulder, Colorado and worked in construction. Keeping up the tradition of “child stars gone bad,” he is currently a fugitive due to failing to show up for a court appearance after pleading guilty to third-degree assault of his girlfriend.

1983: NBC News Overnight airs the last of 367 telecasts, ending a short 17-month network run. The wee hours (1:30-2:30 a.m. ET) news program, hosted by Linda Ellerbee and Lloyd Dobins (later replaced by Bill Schechner), was critically acclaimed, earning such accolades as “TV's wittiest, toughest, least snazzy news strip” and “possibly the best written and most intelligent news program ever.” (Qualities which, in the world of formulaic commercial TV, doomed it to be short-lived. End of editorial...)

1985: Copacabana, an original musical starring Barry Manilow (based on his 1978 hit song of the same name), Annette O'Toole, and Estelle Getty, airs on CBS.

1994: The final of 65 original episodes of Clarissa Explains It All is broadcast on Nickelodeon. Besides launching the career of actress Melissa Joan Hart, the series was one of the first sitcoms to specifically target the so-called “tween” audience. Many of its elements (such as a spunky female lead that appeals to both sexes, frequent breaking of the “fourth wall,” etc.) would soon be copied by other pre-teen sitcoms to come.

2000: Queer as Folk begins an 83-episode run on Showtime.

(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…..)

 

[RicoGregg]

1931: Singer and game show panelist Jaye P. Morgan (The Gong Show) is born (as Mary Margaret Morgan) in Mancos, Colorado.

1955: Actor Steven Culp is born in La Jolla, California. Not a “name” star, Culp nevertheless keeps busy. He holds the unusual and possibly unmatched distinction of appearing as a recurring character (in 2004) in four television series simultaneously: The West Wing (Speaker Jeff Haffley), Star Trek: Enterprise (Major Haynes), JAG (CIA Agent Clayton Webb) and ER (Dave Spencer). He also had the ignominious fortune of having both his JAG and ST:ENT characters killed off in the same week in the shows' season finales! (He also played Rex Van de Kamp on Desperate Housewives for one season, and THAT character was killed off in the season finale as well! Is somebody trying to tell him something?)

1981: Former child actor Brian Bonsall (Family Ties, Star Trek: The Next Generation) is born in Torrance, California. After leaving acting, he moved to Boulder, Colorado and worked in construction. Keeping up the tradition of “child stars gone bad,” he is currently a fugitive due to failing to show up for a court appearance after pleading guilty to third-degree assault of his girlfriend.

1983: NBC News Overnight airs the last of 367 telecasts, ending a short 17-month network run. The wee hours (1:30-2:30 a.m. ET) news program, hosted by Linda Ellerbee and Lloyd Dobins (later replaced by Bill Schechner), was critically acclaimed, earning such accolades as “TV's wittiest, toughest, least snazzy news strip” and “possibly the best written and most intelligent news program ever.” (Qualities which, in the world of formulaic commercial TV, doomed it to be short-lived. End of editorial...)

*Around 1978 or '79, NBC wound up banning Jaye P. Morgan from any further Gong Show appearances. They complained that her remarks to contestants were cruel, crass, and just plain mean-spirited.

*"Rex Van de Kamp"; I just love the way over the years that unimaginative TV writers have named a character or something after something or someone that is intrinsically Los Angeles. Van de Kamp was a famous bakery in L.A., now out of business, although you can still buy Van de Kamp products in your neighborhood grocery. Other examples: Grace Vanowen (Van Owen Ave. in the Valley), L.A. Law; Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. (Valley suburb of Chatsworth), Dobie Gillis;
Harrison Otis Carter (Harrison Otis Chandler, late publisher of the L.A. Times), Here's Lucy; There are many other examples.

*Around 1988 or '89, I was on the Paramount lot visiting a friend who worked on Family Matters. While we were chatting, a precocious little boy wandered by and joined us. He sat on my lap while my friend took a picture. Yup, it was Brian Bonsall. Hard to believe that so many years have passed that he's now a wanted fugitive.

*NBC News Overnight; It was too good for network television. Thus, it was too good to last. And so it goes....

 

[Ultimajock]

1931: Singer and game show panelist Jaye P. Morgan (The Gong Show) is born (as Mary Margaret Morgan) in Mancos, Colorado.

*Around 1978 or '79, NBC wound up banning Jaye P. Morgan from any further Gong Show appearances. They complained that her remarks to contestants were cruel, crass, and just plain mean-spirited.

...Chuck Barris claims Jaye P. was banned because she flashed one act in mid-show (the uncensored clip of which appears in The Gong Show Movie). Barris and Morgan had a major falling-out a while later, and apparently they haven't spoken to each other in over two decades...

 

[Corky Marlowe]

1968: Elvis Presley's “Comeback Special” (titled in the original broadcast as simply Elvis) airs on NBC. A segment featuring Presley jamming informally in front of a small audience is regarded as a forerunner of the so-called “Unplugged” concept, later popularized by MTV.
A year or so ago, someone at TV Land apparently lost the key to the Cosby Show room, so they aired the '68 Elvis special...A real treat to see it.

Regarding Juicy Jaye P. Morgan...Didn't she once adorn one of her Gong Show scorecards with some little doodles that made it look like something was dribbling from the corner of her mouth?

 

[RicoGregg]

1931: Singer and game show panelist Jaye P. Morgan (The Gong Show) is born (as Mary Margaret Morgan) in Mancos, Colorado.

*Around 1978 or '79, NBC wound up banning Jaye P. Morgan from any further Gong Show appearances. They complained that her remarks to contestants were cruel, crass, and just plain mean-spirited.

...Chuck Barris claims Jaye P. was banned because she flashed one act in mid-show (the uncensored clip of which appears in The Gong Show Movie). Barris and Morgan had a major falling-out a while later, and apparently they haven't spoken to each other in over two decades...

Both imdb.com and Wikipedia indicate that Ultimajock is correct. My "source" was an NBC videotape editor I knew way back then. I also would think that Mr. Barris is in the best position to know.

 

[Stanislav]

*"Rex Van de Kamp"; I just love the way over the years that unimaginative TV writers have named a character or something after something or someone that is intrinsically Los Angeles. Van de Kamp was a famous bakery in L.A., now out of business, although you can still buy Van de Kamp products in your neighborhood grocery. Other examples: Grace Vanowen (Van Owen Ave. in the Valley), L.A. Law; Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. (Valley suburb of Chatsworth), Dobie Gillis;
Harrison Otis Carter (Harrison Otis Chandler, late publisher of the L.A. Times), Here's Lucy; There are many other examples.

Such as the Odd Couple episode in which Felix is in court and the complainant is a woman named "Beth Olam." (After a big old cemetery in L.A.)

 

[landtuna]

I was "living" in the NY metro area when NBC News Overnight was on and I know I didn't watch it in the middle of the night. That show must have been aired alternate times and is obviously the same one I had confused with TW3.

 

[bpatrick]

I had been wondering if you'd confused "TW3"
with "We Interrupt This Week," a satirical current-
events quiz that aired on PBS in the late '70s.
Hosted by Britisher Ned Sherrin and featuring journalists
such as Richard Reeves and I.F. Stone as panelists,
the show arbitrarily awarded points on the basis of
creativity and wit in the answers, in addition
to the correctness of the answers. But I won't
dispute your word.

 

[RicoGregg]

*"Rex Van de Kamp"; I just love the way over the years that unimaginative TV writers have named a character or something after something or someone that is intrinsically Los Angeles. Van de Kamp was a famous bakery in L.A., now out of business, although you can still buy Van de Kamp products in your neighborhood grocery. Other examples: Grace Vanowen (Van Owen Ave. in the Valley), L.A. Law; Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. (Valley suburb of Chatsworth), Dobie Gillis;
Harrison Otis Carter (Harrison Otis Chandler, late publisher of the L.A. Times), Here's Lucy; There are many other examples.

Such as the Odd Couple episode in which Felix is in court and the complainant is a woman named "Beth Olam." (After a big old cemetery in L.A.)

It kinda figures. The Paramount lot, where The Odd Couple was filmed takes up the entire southern half of an entire city block, with Melrose bordering on the south, and Santa Monica Blvd. bordering the north. The northern half of the block is taken up by Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and just off to the southwestern corner of HFC, is a small patch of land and a building called Beth Olam Cemetery. Right at the northern back wall of Paramount. Probably literally within shouting distance of the sound stage The Odd Couple was filmed on.

Thought of another L.A. name example: Mr. Drysdale (Dodger pitching great and L.A. native Don Drysdale), The Beverly Hillbillies.

 

[RicoGregg]

1931: Singer and game show panelist Jaye P. Morgan (The Gong Show) is born (as Mary Margaret Morgan) in Mancos, Colorado.

1955: Actor Steven Culp is born in La Jolla, California. Not a “name” star, Culp nevertheless keeps busy. He holds the unusual and possibly unmatched distinction of appearing as a recurring character (in 2004) in four television series simultaneously: The West Wing (Speaker Jeff Haffley), Star Trek: Enterprise (Major Haynes), JAG (CIA Agent Clayton Webb) and ER (Dave Spencer). He also had the ignominious fortune of having both his JAG and ST:ENT characters killed off in the same week in the shows' season finales! (He also played Rex Van de Kamp on Desperate Housewives for one season, and THAT character was killed off in the season finale as well! Is somebody trying to tell him something?)

1981: Former child actor Brian Bonsall (Family Ties, Star Trek: The Next Generation) is born in Torrance, California. After leaving acting, he moved to Boulder, Colorado and worked in construction. Keeping up the tradition of “child stars gone bad,” he is currently a fugitive due to failing to show up for a court appearance after pleading guilty to third-degree assault of his girlfriend.

1983: NBC News Overnight airs the last of 367 telecasts, ending a short 17-month network run. The wee hours (1:30-2:30 a.m. ET) news program, hosted by Linda Ellerbee and Lloyd Dobins (later replaced by Bill Schechner), was critically acclaimed, earning such accolades as “TV's wittiest, toughest, least snazzy news strip” and “possibly the best written and most intelligent news program ever.” (Qualities which, in the world of formulaic commercial TV, doomed it to be short-lived. End of editorial...)

*Around 1978 or '79, NBC wound up banning Jaye P. Morgan from any further Gong Show appearances. They complained that her remarks to contestants were cruel, crass, and just plain mean-spirited.

*"Rex Van de Kamp"; I just love the way over the years that unimaginative TV writers have named a character or something after something or someone that is intrinsically Los Angeles. Van de Kamp was a famous bakery in L.A., now out of business, although you can still buy Van de Kamp products in your neighborhood grocery. Other examples: Grace Vanowen (Van Owen Ave. in the Valley), L.A. Law; Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. (Valley suburb of Chatsworth), Dobie Gillis;
Harrison Otis Carter (Harrison Otis Chandler, late publisher of the L.A. Times), Here's Lucy; There are many other examples.

*Around 1988 or '89, I was on the Paramount lot visiting a friend who worked on Family Matters. While we were chatting, a precocious little boy wandered by and joined us. He sat on my lap while my friend took a picture. Yup, it was Brian Bonsall. Hard to believe that so many years have passed that he's now a wanted fugitive.

*NBC News Overnight; It was too good for network television. Thus, it was too good to last. And so it goes....

Did it again, dag-nabbit! I meant to say Family Ties, not Family Matters.

All these "family"-titled shows of the 80s, when the networks actually feared religious groups all began to seem alike.

 

[bk77]

2000: Queer as Folk begins an 83-episode run on Showtime.

Hal Sparks who played "Michael" on QAF, several years back I remember hearing a radio interview with him where he clamed that Showtime had all these strict rules about QAF. Such as the lesbians had to be "sexy and beautiful" no Rosie O'Donnel types. And the guys could NOT be seen showing chest hair, being overweight, sporting goatees & beards or smoking cigars. Sparks however did not say exactly why Showtime had this issue with such things so I have to assume that Showtime felt that by having a gay man doing such a "straight" thing as smoking a cigar, having a beard and being overweight or having a lesbian with some meat on her bones, that may upset the straight community.

With such strict rules no wonder I can see why so many in gay community had this "problem" with QAF.

 

[landtuna]

I had been wondering if you'd confused "TW3"
with "We Interrupt This Week," a satirical current-
events quiz that aired on PBS in the late '70s.

I don't think so. I am, at best, a very sporadic viewer of PBS. I remember Ellerbee and Dobyns very distinctly. My roomie at that time watched it with me but unfortunately his memory isn't any better than mine.

 

[Newname]

Thought of another L.A. name example: Mr. Drysdale (Dodger pitching great and L.A. native Don Drysdale), The Beverly Hillbillies.

And another connection with the Dodgers...Gillian Anderson's 'Agent Dana Scully' of The X-Files, was named after Vin...and an 'Agent Doggett' mentioned at some point during the show, was named after Vin's longtime partner on Dodger broadcasts, Jerry Doggett.

 

[easttxtv]

1949: KRLD-TV (Channel 4, later KDFW) begins operating in Dallas, Texas.

Hard to believe Ch. 4 will be 60 next year...much less that KXAS/5 is 60 now!

1955: KRBB-TV (channel 10, now KTVE) launches in El Dorado, Arkansas.

Haven't thought of Ch. 10 since the last time I saw a Shreveport/Texarkana/east-TX TV Guide.

 

[wbhist]

And another connection with the Dodgers...Gillian Anderson's 'Agent Dana Scully' of The X-Files, was named after Vin...and an 'Agent Doggett' mentioned at some point during the show, was named after Vin's longtime partner on Dodger broadcasts, Jerry Doggett.

And all the time, I thought Agent Scully was named after the Scully disc-mastering lathe. That probably explains why there was never an "Agent Neumann" on The X-Files . . . or an "Agent Presto," or an "Agent Fairchild" . . . :

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1990: Dec. 3, 1990 was the day that scientist Iben Browning (who had claimed that he had predicted the 1989 San Francisco earthquake) had predicted that "earth tides" would cause an earthquake somewhere in the New Madrid Fault seismic zone in Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Arkansas (while also being felt in other surrounding states). This creates Midwestern hysteria, and as Dec. 3 approaches, the media converge on the town of New Madrid, MO (the fault's namesake). However, no earthquake occurs in the Midwest that day--at least until April 18, 2008.

A great article recounting the earthquake hysteria of 1990 in the Midwest is available through the Indiana University School of Journalism's page:

http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/ethics/other-topics/the-day-the-earth-stood-still/

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1990: Dec. 3, 1990 was the day that scientist Iben Browning (who had claimed that he had predicted the 1989 San Francisco earthquake) had predicted that "earth tides" would cause an earthquake somewhere in the New Madrid Fault seismic zone in Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Arkansas (while also being felt in other surrounding states). This creates Midwestern hysteria, and as Dec. 3 approaches, the media converge on the town of New Madrid, MO (the fault's namesake). However, no earthquake occurs in the Midwest that day--at least until April 18, 2008.

A great article recounting the earthquake hysteria of 1990 in the Midwest is available through the Indiana University School of Journalism's page:

http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/ethics/other-topics/the-day-the-earth-stood-still/

Can't believe tomorrow will be 20 years since all that hysteria.

 

[wbhist]

1968: Elvis Presley's “Comeback Special” (titled in the original broadcast as simply Elvis) airs on NBC. A segment featuring Presley jamming informally in front of a small audience is regarded as a forerunner of the so-called “Unplugged” concept, later popularized by MTV.

Also on that day in 1968: Special Bardot, aired right after Elvis' "comeback special" on NBC. While the prior special had segments that anticipated MTV's Unplugged, this program - headlined by French sex kitten Brigitte Bardot and originally aired in France on Dec. 31, 1967 - was effectively a forerunner of the music video of the type that MTV aired in its early years, with "B.B." cavorting in and around London, Paris and her Saint-Tropez residence, performing various songs in French and English. The special featured Serge Gainsbourg (with whom she was involved at the time, and who wrote about half the songs that were in the show, including a spoof of "Bonnie and Clyde"), Sacha Distel (singing "The Good Life"), flamenco guitarist Manitas de Plata, Claude Bolling and his orchestra, and Claude Brasseur. As was reported at the time, about 15 seconds of the open were cut because of Bardot showing (ahem) some skin that would have run afoul of the U.S. broadcast standards of the time. However, it seems at least one of the numbers from the original French airing ("Harley Davidson," which she performed next to one of the fabled motorcycles) was also cut, as no reference to it could be found in any TV listings that detailed this show (probably to appease the show's U.S. sponsor - Burlington Industries). While her ratings did not match those of Elvis that night, she didn't do too shabbily, either - not all that unexpected, given that one of her main competition was a CBS News special, "Justice Black and the Bill of Rights," in which Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black gave his only TV interview to Eric Sevareid and Martin Agronsky, and discussed his views on the subject at hand; Bardot handily walloped the Justice.