February 18: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on February 18. Discuss or comment as you please……

1920: Game show host and panelist Bill Cullen (The Price Is Right, The $25,000 Pyramid, Blockbusters, I've Got a Secret, To Tell the Truth) is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1925: Actor George Kennedy (Sarge, The Blue Knight, Dallas) is born in New York City.

1950: Actress/model Cybill Shepherd (Moonlighting, Cybill) is born in Memphis, Tennessee.

1953: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz sign an $8,000,000 contract to continue I Love Lucy through 1955.

1953: KOLN (channel 12) begins broadcasting in Lincoln, Nebraska. The station would move to channel 10 the following year, donating its channel 12 facilities to start up educational station KUON-TV at the University of Nebraska.

1957: TV personality Vanna White (Wheel of Fortune) is born (as Vanna Marie Rosich) in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

1966: The birth date of fictional character Jack Bauer (24). This makes Bauer about 10 months older than the actor portraying him, Keifer Sutherland.

1974: Tattletales, hosted by Bert Convy, premieres on CBS.

1982: The first color broadcasts take place in Pakistan.

2008: Sportsman and TV personality "Grits" Gresham (The American Sportsman) dies in Natchitoches, Louisiana of complications from Alzheimer's disease, aged 85.

(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…..)

 

[Smittian]

1979 CBS becomes the first network to televise a NASCAR race in it's entirety with their coverage of the Daytona 500. A major snowstorm on the east coast kept many viewers who may not normally have watched the race inside and tuned to CBS. On the final lap, Cale Yarborough & Donnie Allison, who were battling for the lead crashed into each other and both ended up in the infield. While Richard Petty, who had been in 3rd place cruised to the victory, Yarborough, Allison and Donnie's brother Bobby got out of their cars and into a fist fight on national TV.

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

 

[landtuna]

ESPN Classic broadcast the '79 race (edited to two hours) last Sunday.

Rookie Dale Earnhardt SR. (Ironhead was driving the blue and yellow #2)
Rookie Geoff Bodine
Rookie Tighe Scott

Neal Bonnett (died in a testing crash)
Dale Earnhardt (died at the same track he began his Grand National career - Daytona)
Benny Parsons (died of non-racing causes after retiring as a driver and having a broadcasting career)

Sure was nice to hear Ken Squire and David Hobbs again.

 

[landtuna]

8 million bucks for two years 1953-1955 for Lucy and Desi? Is that verified? Seems like a ton of cash for the 50's.

 

[daryll]

Earnhardt, Sr. would lose his life on this track, on this day in 2001. It was the first NASCAR race for Fox after they outbid CBS for the rights to stock car racing.

 

[LynnW]

In 2008, $8,000,000.00 from 1953 is worth:

$64,389,682.24 using the Consumer Price Index

$53,665,526.32 using the GDP deflator using value of consumer bundle *

$157,759,461.73 using the nominal GDP per capita

$301,121,771.22 using the relative share of GDP

* Data for consumer bundle is only available till 2006.

Source: http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/uscompare/resultwithad.php#

 

[mleach]

Earnhardt, Sr. would lose his life on this track, on this day in 2001. It was the first NASCAR race for Fox after they outbid CBS for the rights to stock car racing.

The death of Dale Earnhardt was one of those celebrity deaths like Elvis, John Lennon, Princess Di and a few others that I can remember exactly what I was doing when I heard the news. I was at a Food Lion supermarket in Virginia !!!!! Someone went on the PA system and said "Our king...Dale Earnhardt...is dead". Not only do I remember seeing so many people start to cry in the store, but my wife and I actually had to help this one guy to his car because Dale's death was too much for him. I still remember this man telling us that Dale's death hit him hard WORSE than the death of his own son who had died a year before !!! Think about it..a NASCAR driver's death being WORSE than the death of your own child ??? And if that wasn't odd enough that Food Lion actually closed for the night just after they made the announcement !!! Come to think of it I think there were a number of stores who actually closed out of respect for Dale Earnhardt plus I seem to recall reading in the paper at the time some people actually took their own lives because they just couldn't live without Dale.

The actual funeral of Dale Earnhardt...I remember when our local funeral homes actually held their own memorial service for Earnhardt ( one funeral home actually attracted well over a 1000 people ). Factories allowed their employees to take time off to attend the same way they do when one's own family member had passed away and I am pretty sure the local schools allowed the students to take the day off too.

Yes all of this does seem strange but OTOH..Dale Earnhardt was that popular at the time.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1988: Actress Maiara Walsh (Disney Channel's Cory in the House, and Desperate Housewives) is born in Seattle, WA.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on February 18. Discuss or comment as you please……

1920: Game show host and panelist Bill Cullen (The Price Is Right, The $25,000 Pyramid, Blockbusters, I've Got a Secret, To Tell the Truth) is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

a proud native of Pittsburgh's South Side actually, who began his career here at WWSW radio.

 

[shackleford]

Dale Earnhardt (died at the same track he began his Grand National career - Daytona)

Dale began his Grand National career in the 1976 World 600 at Charlotte.
1979 Was only his first full season.

 

[RyanHoward]

1954: Actor John Travolta, who played Vinnie Barbarino on Welcome Back, Kotter, before
his big film career(Saturday Night Fever, Look Who's Talking, etc.) is born in Englewood, New Jersey.