Just a few random TV related events that happened on February 15. Discuss or comment as you please……
1907: Actor Cesar Romero (Batman) is born in New York City.
1916: Actress Mary Jane Croft (The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy) is born in Muncie, Indiana.
1918: Actor Allan Arbus (M*A*S*H) is born in New York City.
1927: Actor Harvey Korman (The Danny Kaye Show, The Carol Burnett Show) is born in Chicago.
1947: Actor Rusty Hamer (Make Room for Daddy) is born in Tenafly, New Jersey.
1950: KEYL (channel 5, now KENS-TV) signs on in San Antonio, Texas.
1950: WSYR-TV (channel 3, now WSTM-TV) begins operating in Syracuse, New York.
1951: Actress Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman) is born (as Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg) in London, England.
1952: The funeral of King George VI is televised in the U.K.
1953: WKNB-TV (channel 30) hits the air in New Britain, Connecticut. Later WNBC-TV (for about 3 years, when NYC’s channel 4 was still WRCA-TV), and WHNB-TV, they now go by WVIT.
1954: Cartoonist/writer/producer Matt Groening (The Simpsons, Futurama) is born in Portland, Oregon.
1957: One of the more obscure entries in the history of failed UHF stations: KBAS-TV (channel 43) signs on in Ephrata, Washington as a satellite of Yakima’s KIMA-TV. The station would move to channel 16 the following year, and die an inglorious death in November 1961.
1960: The Danny Thomas Show (a/k/a Make Room for Daddy) airs the episode “Danny Meets Andy Griffith,” a “back door pilot” for what would become The Andy Griffith Show. Also in the cast are Ronnie Howard as Opie, and Frances Bavier, playing not Aunt Bea, but a townswoman named Henrietta Perkins.
1964: Comedian/actor Chris Farley (Saturday Night Live) is born in Madison, Wisconsin.
1967: Actor Michael Easton (Days of Our Lives, Port Charles, One Life to Live) is born in Long Beach, California.
1968: WVUT (channel 22) signs on from Vincennes University in Indiana.
1970: KAMU (channel 15) begins broadcasting from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
1971: Actress Renee O’Connor (Xena: Warrior Princess) is born (as Evelyn Reneé O'Connor) in Katy, Texas.
1973: Actress/comedian/voice artist Alex Bornstein (MADtv, Family Guy) is born in Highland Park, Illinois.
1973: Actor Wally Cox (Mr. Peepers, The Hollywood Squares) dies in Los Angeles, aged 48. His death is widely reported as due to an accidental overdose of sedatives, but Cox’s close friend Marlon Brando would later claim in his autobiography that Cox died of a heart attack. (Shortly after Cox’s death, Brando took his ashes from his widow, purportedly to scatter them at sea, but instead kept them hidden in a closet at his house, frequently talking to them.[!] Brando's son, Miko, says that both his father's and Cox's ashes were scattered at the same time in Death Valley, California, following Brando's death. Mega-weirdsville...)
1975: Actor/musician/voice artist Brendon Small (Home Movies, Metalocalypse) is born in Springfield, Illinois.
1981: WAWS (channel 30) launches as Jacksonville, Florida’s first independent station. They would later become a charter Fox affiliate
1983: Actress Ashley Tesoro (Saved by the Bell: The New Class, The Bold and the Beautiful) is born in Davenport, Iowa.
1988: Red Dwarf premieres on BBC2 in the U.K.
1996: Actor McLean Stevenson (M*A*S*H) dies in Los Angeles from cardiac arrest, aged 68. In an odd coincidence, the following day actor Roger Bowen (Arnie), who played Henry Blake in the movie “M*A*S*H” would also die from cardiac arrest, aged 63. Bowen’s family actually delayed releasing news of his passing to the media for one week, fearing that his obituary might have been misconstrued as a garbled version of Stevenson’s.
1996: Actor Tommy Rettig (Lassie) dies of a heart attack in Marina del Rey, California, aged 54. After his Lassie stint, and the almost stereotypically troubled young adulthood of a former child star, Rettig eventually settled down and had become a very respected software engineer.
2002: Journalist Howard K. Smith dies of pneumonia in Bethesda, Maryland, aged 87.
2007: Inventor Robert Adler dies in Boise, Idaho, aged 93. A hero to couch potatoes the world over, his biggest claim to fame was a quantum improvement in wireless TV remote control technology, using sound waves instead of visible light (first marketed as Zenith’s “Space Commander”), and later developing further improvements utilizing ultrasound signals.
2007: Songwriter Ray Evans (Bonanza, Mr. Ed) dies in Los Angeles, aged 92.
(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…..)
1907: Actor Cesar Romero (Batman) is born in New York City.
1916: Actress Mary Jane Croft (The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy) is born in Muncie, Indiana.
1918: Actor Allan Arbus (M*A*S*H) is born in New York City.
1927: Actor Harvey Korman (The Danny Kaye Show, The Carol Burnett Show) is born in Chicago.
1947: Actor Rusty Hamer (Make Room for Daddy) is born in Tenafly, New Jersey.
1950: KEYL (channel 5, now KENS-TV) signs on in San Antonio, Texas.
1950: WSYR-TV (channel 3, now WSTM-TV) begins operating in Syracuse, New York.
1951: Actress Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman) is born (as Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg) in London, England.
1952: The funeral of King George VI is televised in the U.K.
1953: WKNB-TV (channel 30) hits the air in New Britain, Connecticut. Later WNBC-TV (for about 3 years, when NYC’s channel 4 was still WRCA-TV), and WHNB-TV, they now go by WVIT.
1954: Cartoonist/writer/producer Matt Groening (The Simpsons, Futurama) is born in Portland, Oregon.
1957: One of the more obscure entries in the history of failed UHF stations: KBAS-TV (channel 43) signs on in Ephrata, Washington as a satellite of Yakima’s KIMA-TV. The station would move to channel 16 the following year, and die an inglorious death in November 1961.
1960: The Danny Thomas Show (a/k/a Make Room for Daddy) airs the episode “Danny Meets Andy Griffith,” a “back door pilot” for what would become The Andy Griffith Show. Also in the cast are Ronnie Howard as Opie, and Frances Bavier, playing not Aunt Bea, but a townswoman named Henrietta Perkins.
1964: Comedian/actor Chris Farley (Saturday Night Live) is born in Madison, Wisconsin.
1967: Actor Michael Easton (Days of Our Lives, Port Charles, One Life to Live) is born in Long Beach, California.
1968: WVUT (channel 22) signs on from Vincennes University in Indiana.
1970: KAMU (channel 15) begins broadcasting from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
1971: Actress Renee O’Connor (Xena: Warrior Princess) is born (as Evelyn Reneé O'Connor) in Katy, Texas.
1973: Actress/comedian/voice artist Alex Bornstein (MADtv, Family Guy) is born in Highland Park, Illinois.
1973: Actor Wally Cox (Mr. Peepers, The Hollywood Squares) dies in Los Angeles, aged 48. His death is widely reported as due to an accidental overdose of sedatives, but Cox’s close friend Marlon Brando would later claim in his autobiography that Cox died of a heart attack. (Shortly after Cox’s death, Brando took his ashes from his widow, purportedly to scatter them at sea, but instead kept them hidden in a closet at his house, frequently talking to them.[!] Brando's son, Miko, says that both his father's and Cox's ashes were scattered at the same time in Death Valley, California, following Brando's death. Mega-weirdsville...)
1975: Actor/musician/voice artist Brendon Small (Home Movies, Metalocalypse) is born in Springfield, Illinois.
1981: WAWS (channel 30) launches as Jacksonville, Florida’s first independent station. They would later become a charter Fox affiliate
1983: Actress Ashley Tesoro (Saved by the Bell: The New Class, The Bold and the Beautiful) is born in Davenport, Iowa.
1988: Red Dwarf premieres on BBC2 in the U.K.
1996: Actor McLean Stevenson (M*A*S*H) dies in Los Angeles from cardiac arrest, aged 68. In an odd coincidence, the following day actor Roger Bowen (Arnie), who played Henry Blake in the movie “M*A*S*H” would also die from cardiac arrest, aged 63. Bowen’s family actually delayed releasing news of his passing to the media for one week, fearing that his obituary might have been misconstrued as a garbled version of Stevenson’s.
1996: Actor Tommy Rettig (Lassie) dies of a heart attack in Marina del Rey, California, aged 54. After his Lassie stint, and the almost stereotypically troubled young adulthood of a former child star, Rettig eventually settled down and had become a very respected software engineer.
2002: Journalist Howard K. Smith dies of pneumonia in Bethesda, Maryland, aged 87.
2007: Inventor Robert Adler dies in Boise, Idaho, aged 93. A hero to couch potatoes the world over, his biggest claim to fame was a quantum improvement in wireless TV remote control technology, using sound waves instead of visible light (first marketed as Zenith’s “Space Commander”), and later developing further improvements utilizing ultrasound signals.
2007: Songwriter Ray Evans (Bonanza, Mr. Ed) dies in Los Angeles, aged 92.
(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…..)
