February 22: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on February 22. Discuss or comment as you please……

1907: Producer/director/actor Sheldon Leonard in born in New York City.

1918: Announcer Don Pardo is born in Westfield, Massachusetts. After a 60-year career with NBC, he officially retired in 2004, but was persuaded by the producers of Saturday Night Live to continue on as their announcer, as his voice had become so identified with the show.

1959: Actor Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks, Sex and The City, Desperate Housewives) is born in Yakima, Washington.

1965: A lavish new production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical “Cinderella” is first aired on CBS. The cast includes Ginger Rogers, Walter Pidgeon, Celeste Holm, Jo Van Fleet, Pat Carroll, Barbara Ruick, Stuart Damon, and a young Lesley Ann Warren starring in the title role. The special would be repeated annually until 1974.

1968: Actress Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager, Boston Legal) is born (as Jeri Lynn Zimmermann) in Munich, West Germany (a military brat).

1981: Animation screenwriter Michael Maltese dies, aged 73. He penned many classic Warner Brothers cartoons, usually under the directorship of Chuck Jones (who would pass away exactly 21 years later – see below), as well as episodes of many of the early Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons.

1985: The Internet (or at least what would eventually be called “the Internet”) is first referenced in a TV show, on the ABC series Benson in the episode “Scenario.” (Although it was not yet referred to by that name – in the episode they actually access ARPANET, the progenitor of the Internet.)

1987: Pioneering TV talk show host David Susskind (Open End/The David Susskind Show) dies of a heart attack in New York City.

1995: Actor Ed Flanders (St. Elsewhere) dies in Denny, California from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was said to have been seriously depressed due to his 1992 divorce from his second wife and ongoing financial problems with his northern California ranch.

2002: Animation director/producer Chuck Jones dies of heart failure in Corona del Mar, California, aged 89. He was the last surviving animation director from the "Termite Terrace" days of the Warner Brothers cartoons.

2008: Screenwriter Richard Baer dies in Santa Monica, California of complications from a heart attack, aged 79. Baer wrote episodes of more than 50 TV shows, mostly sitcoms, including That Girl, Bewitched, The Munsters, The Andy Griffith Show, F Troop, and Petticoat Junction. (And he is not to be confused with Richard Bare, who directed the old "Joe McDoakes" theatrical shorts, starring George O'Hanlon, as well as, nearer and dearer to a TV Geek's heart, almost every episode of Green Acres. THAT Richard is still with us, at the ripe old age of 99!)

(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…..)

 

[mleach]

1985: The Internet (or at least what would eventually be called “the Internet”) is first referenced in a TV show, on the ABC series Benson in the episode “Scenario.” (Although it was not yet referred to by that name – in the episode they actually access ARPANET, the progenitor of the Internet.)

Maybe correct....depends on how one looks at it.

A few years before Benson's 1985 "internet" epiosde there was an episode of Alice that featured some crude kind of internet. In the case of Alice, Vera's computer boyfriend ( of course before she met and married Elliot the cop ) installed a PC in the storeroom of Mel's Diner for the prupose of Mel having access to the diner's bank account at the Desert Bank. Vera's BF told the waitresses Alice, Joline and Vera ( and I believe Mel Sharples ) they could do "other things" on the PC like check the Phoenix movie listings. Of course being a movie buff as she was and of course nobody else was around, Vera decides to go on Mel's PC to check the movie listings only to totally wipe out Mel's bank account. Later in the episode the gang goes to the bank to try to fix the problem. Of course Vera screws up again and manages to delete the bank's account.

Since the is before Vera met her cop/husband, I have to say this episode had aired either in 1982 or 1983. 1985 was of course the last year of Alice .

Also recently I caught a 1983 episode of The Facts of Life where Jo thanks to a PC at Edna's restaurant ( actually in the living room in the back of the restaurant ) was able to go online and wipe out information of Edna Garrett's competiton as payback. Later in the same episode it was was discovered the competition was going online to steal Edna's recipes.

I say "maybe correct" since Mel's Diner and Edna's Edibles (? on the spelling of the facts of Life restaurant ) were businesses and even though I have never seen the Benson episode in question I assume the computer with the access was at Benson's home. So with that being said actually all three shows could make the claim as being the first to "feature the net". Alice & The Facts of Life ( hard to tell which was first ) being the first to feature the net at a place of business, Benson..at one's household. Though as you pointed out the Benson episode mentoned "ARPANET" while neither Alice or The Facts of Life didn't. So that may give Benson the "edge" here.

 

[Stanislav]

1985: The Internet (or at least what would eventually be called “the Internet”) is first referenced in a TV show, on the ABC series Benson in the episode “Scenario.” (Although it was not yet referred to by that name – in the episode they actually access ARPANET, the progenitor of the Internet.)

Maybe correct....depends on how one looks at it.

A few years before Benson's 1985 "internet" epiosde there was an episode of Alice that featured some crude kind of internet. In the case of Alice, Vera's computer boyfriend ( of course before she met and married Elliot the cop ) installed a PC in the storeroom of Mel's Diner for the prupose of Mel having access to the diner's bank account at the Desert Bank. Vera's BF told the waitresses Alice, Joline and Vera ( and I believe Mel Sharples ) they could do "other things" on the PC like check the Phoenix movie listings. Of course being a movie buff as she was and of course nobody else was around, Vera decides to go on Mel's PC to check the movie listings only to totally wipe out Mel's bank account. Later in the episode the gang goes to the bank to try to fix the problem. Of course Vera screws up again and manages to delete the bank's account.

Since the is before Vera met her cop/husband, I have to say this episode had aired either in 1982 or 1983. 1985 was of course the last year of Alice .

Also recently I caught a 1983 episode of The Facts of Life where Jo thanks to a PC at Edna's restaurant ( actually in the living room in the back of the restaurant ) was able to go online and wipe out information of Edna Garrett's competiton as payback. Later in the same episode it was was discovered the competition was going online to steal Edna's recipes.

I say "maybe correct" since Mel's Diner and Edna's Edibles (? on the spelling of the facts of Life restaurant ) were businesses and even though I have never seen the Benson episode in question I assume the computer with the access was at Benson's home. So with that being said actually all three shows could make the claim as being the first to "feature the net". Alice & The Facts of Life ( hard to tell which was first ) being the first to feature the net at a place of business, Benson..at one's household. Though as you pointed out the Benson episode mentoned "ARPANET" while neither Alice or The Facts of Life didn't. So that may give Benson the "edge" here.

It's been a long time since I examined any of the history of what eventually became what we call "The Internet," but given the time frame and the episodes you describe, it sounds more like they were accessing some sort of pre-Internet Compuserve-like service. If memory serves, Compuserve and its ilk in that day were more like glorified BBSes -- huge, with lots of subscribers, but still limited in scope, proprietary, their own little cyber-fiefdoms from which you could not navigate to other networks (unless there was an agreement and a means to connect between them). What made the Internet "The Internet" was a worldwide scope (as in the "World Wide Web" (WWW), a major component of the Internet), standardization of protocols and such, and the theoretic ability for anyone, anywhere, to log in to the same vast system and navigate where they pleased. Theoretically, I can go on the Net and (assuming I possess the proper links or URLs) navigate to any specific place I desire in the same manner as anyone (also assuming there is no third party or concern blocking access via software, firewalls, etc.). With something like Compuserve, you were limited to navigating solely within their own little network, or to allied sites and services that they provided you a portal with which to access them. But the Internet, like television or a thousand other technologies, did not just suddenly come into being at a single point in time, but were the end result of many converging streams of history and invention and development, so pinpointing these things is problematic at best.

OTOH, I may be totally off my rocker and full of excrement. (And anyone who knows me can tell you that's a safe way to bet.....) ;D

 

[Ultimajock]

1918: Announcer Don Pardo is born in Westfield, Massachusetts. After a 60-year career with NBC, he officially retired in 2004, but was persuaded by the producers of Saturday Night Live to continue on as their announcer, as his voice had become so identified with the show.

...Don lives just a few blocks away from my apartment in Tucson, Arizona, now. If I ever get the chance, I'd love to chat with him about a couple of topics: how Bill Cullen, Art Fleming and Frank Zappa (Don appeared on the Zappa in New York album) were to work with, and his memories of doing WNBC's first bulletin announcing JFK's shooting in Dallas...

1981: Animation screenwriter Michael Maltese dies, aged 73. He penned many classic Warner Brothers cartoons, usually under the directorship of Chuck Jones (who would pass away exactly 21 years later – see below), as well as episodes of many of the early Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons.

...wasn't Maltese's speech pattern used by Mel Blanc as the inspiration for the voice of Sylvester the Cat?...

 

[Stanislav]

1918: Announcer Don Pardo is born in Westfield, Massachusetts. After a 60-year career with NBC, he officially retired in 2004, but was persuaded by the producers of Saturday Night Live to continue on as their announcer, as his voice had become so identified with the show.

...Don lives just a few blocks away from my apartment in Tucson, Arizona, now. If I ever get the chance, I'd love to chat with him about a couple of topics: how Bill Cullen, Art Fleming and Frank Zappa (Don appeared on the Zappa in New York album) were to work with, and his memories of doing WNBC's first bulletin announcing JFK's shooting in Dallas...

1981: Animation screenwriter Michael Maltese dies, aged 73. He penned many classic Warner Brothers cartoons, usually under the directorship of Chuck Jones (who would pass away exactly 21 years later – see below), as well as episodes of many of the early Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons.

...wasn't Maltese's speech pattern used by Mel Blanc as the inspiration for the voice of Sylvester the Cat?...

I thought the Sylvester/Daffy lisping voice was "inspired" by Eddie Selzer, who had a similarly slobbery lisp. I think it was Chuck Jones who used to tell the story of the first time Selzer screened a Daffy cartoon. When the lights came up, he looked around the room and exclaimed, "Gee, fellath, that'th a thwell voith! Where'd you come up with that voith?"

Selzer was also noted for having absolutely no sense of humor, despite overseeing the WB cartoon unit. He once came upon a group of animators laughing over a storyboard, and bellowed, "What in the hell does all of this laughter have to do with the making of animated cartoons?"

 

[onairb]

1985: The Internet (or at least what would eventually be called “the Internet”) is first referenced in a TV show, on the ABC series Benson in the episode “Scenario.” (Although it was not yet referred to by that name – in the episode they actually access ARPANET, the progenitor of the Internet.)

Maybe correct....depends on how one looks at it.

A few years before Benson's 1985 "internet" epiosde there was an episode of Alice that featured some crude kind of internet. In the case of Alice, Vera's computer boyfriend ( of course before she met and married Elliot the cop ) installed a PC in the storeroom of Mel's Diner for the prupose of Mel having access to the diner's bank account at the Desert Bank. Vera's BF told the waitresses Alice, Joline and Vera ( and I believe Mel Sharples ) they could do "other things" on the PC like check the Phoenix movie listings. Of course being a movie buff as she was and of course nobody else was around, Vera decides to go on Mel's PC to check the movie listings only to totally wipe out Mel's bank account. Later in the episode the gang goes to the bank to try to fix the problem. Of course Vera screws up again and manages to delete the bank's account.

Since the is before Vera met her cop/husband, I have to say this episode had aired either in 1982 or 1983. 1985 was of course the last year of Alice .

Also recently I caught a 1983 episode of The Facts of Life where Jo thanks to a PC at Edna's restaurant ( actually in the living room in the back of the restaurant ) was able to go online and wipe out information of Edna Garrett's competiton as payback. Later in the same episode it was was discovered the competition was going online to steal Edna's recipes.

I say "maybe correct" since Mel's Diner and Edna's Edibles (? on the spelling of the facts of Life restaurant ) were businesses and even though I have never seen the Benson episode in question I assume the computer with the access was at Benson's home. So with that being said actually all three shows could make the claim as being the first to "feature the net". Alice & The Facts of Life ( hard to tell which was first ) being the first to feature the net at a place of business, Benson..at one's household. Though as you pointed out the Benson episode mentoned "ARPANET" while neither Alice or The Facts of Life didn't. So that may give Benson the "edge" here.

I've seen the 'Benson' episode a couple of times (including the original airing), and the cast were in the bunker underneath the governor's mansion, taking part in a statewide computer simulation of a nuclear war("A very special 'Benson'!"), which would obviously not fall under the definition of 'personal' use, as the 'Alice' episode did!
I actually thought the 'Benson' ep. aired the previous year, around the time of ABC's telecast of 'The Day After'.

 

[wbhist]

I thought the Sylvester/Daffy lisping voice was "inspired" by Eddie Selzer, who had a similarly slobbery lisp. I think it was Chuck Jones who used to tell the story of the first time Selzer screened a Daffy cartoon. When the lights came up, he looked around the room and exclaimed, "Gee, fellath, that'th a thwell voith! Where'd you come up with that voith?"

Selzer was also noted for having absolutely no sense of humor, despite overseeing the WB cartoon unit. He once came upon a group of animators laughing over a storyboard, and bellowed, "What in the hell does all of this laughter have to do with the making of animated cartoons?"

You're correct about Selzer's question about what the animators' laughter had to do with making animated cartoons . . . but from my understanding, the one with the speech impediment that provided the impetus for Daffy's and Sylvester's voices was Selzer's predecessor, Leon Schlesinger.

As for Maltese, I.I.N.M., he and fellow writer Tedd Pierce provided the voices of the two island castaways in the 1943 Bugs Bunny cartoon Wackiki Wabbit (Maltese was the short, fat one and Pierce the tall, thin one; the castaways were caricatures of the respective men).

 

[mleach]

It's been a long time since I examined any of the history of what eventually became what we call "The Internet," but given the time frame and the episodes you describe, it sounds more like they were accessing some sort of pre-Internet Compuserve-like service. If memory serves, Compuserve and its ilk in that day were more like glorified BBSes -- huge, with lots of subscribers, but still limited in scope, proprietary, their own little cyber-fiefdoms from which you could not navigate to other networks (unless there was an agreement and a means to connect between them). What made the Internet "The Internet" was a worldwide scope (as in the "World Wide Web" (WWW), a major component of the Internet), standardization of protocols and such, and the theoretic ability for anyone, anywhere, to log in to the same vast system and navigate where they pleased. Theoretically, I can go on the Net and (assuming I possess the proper links or URLs) navigate to any specific place I desire in the same manner as anyone (also assuming there is no third party or concern blocking access via software, firewalls, etc.). With something like Compuserve, you were limited to navigating solely within their own little network, or to allied sites and services that they provided you a portal with which to access them. But the Internet, like television or a thousand other technologies, did not just suddenly come into being at a single point in time, but were the end result of many converging streams of history and invention and development, so pinpointing these things is problematic at best.

OTOH, I may be totally off my rocker and full of excrement. (And anyone who knows me can tell you that's a safe way to bet.....) ;D

The funny thing about the internet in those pre-Windows 95 days, tell people ( mainly thouse younger than 30 ) that the net DID exist though in a much cruder form before 1994, they just refuse to believe it.

I myself remember seeing ads for Compuserve back in the late 80's. I seem to recall they had some tie in with Sears. At least they did where I lived at back then.

My aunt back in the 70's worked at a hospital in my hometown ( Winchester, VA ) and even back then they had some kind of internet service which tied the computers there in Winchester to other hosptials around Virginia such as Virginia Beach, Richmond, Roanoke, Norfolk and of course Fairfax and UVA in Charlottesville. She never did tell me what was the purpose of that other than it was slow and that few bothered to use it ( quicker to pick up the phone and call Virginia Beach than to go online back in 1977 to discuss hospital matters ). She did tell me some years back that she was actually online talking to a doctor in Roanoke the day Elvis Presley died. The doctor said something like "no more Hound Dog" or something like that. Anyway what they were using, some intranet service is still in use today at many businesses. In other words the pc is only connected to other pcs within the business. Of course today its much faster. The department store chain Kohls is one I can think of that uses this process ( I know there are many others ). All of the distrubtion centers, stores and main offices are connected to each other so its quite easy say for a Kohls store in Virginia to "talk" to a store in California but the system only runs within Kohls so of course a store in Virginia can not talk/email a JC Penney store in the same town or across the country. Interesting the only non-Kohls site they allow acess on their intranet is..The Weather Channel !!!!

 

[LynnW]

Prodigy was the on line service provider with ties to Sears. Prodigy was founded as a joint venture of CBS, IBM and Sears. CBS sold its interest to the other two a couple years later. Podigy was the first of the large on line service providers, Compuserve and AOL being the others, to offer connection to the internet.

 

[LKellerIII]

Prodigy was the on line service provider with ties to Sears. Prodigy was founded as a joint venture of CBS, IBM and Sears. CBS sold its interest to the other two a couple years later. Podigy was the first of the large on line service providers, Compuserve and AOL being the others, to offer connection to the internet.

I was in my computer infancy in those days...but as I remember it, AOL came later. Compuserve charged for the actual time connected - originally about $10 per hour. By the time AOL came around, their price had dropped to $1.99 per hour. AOL's "revolutionary" idea was unlimited usage for one monthly service fee.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

It's been a long time since I examined any of the history of what eventually became what we call "The Internet," but given the time frame and the episodes you describe, it sounds more like they were accessing some sort of pre-Internet Compuserve-like service. If memory serves, Compuserve and its ilk in that day were more like glorified BBSes -- huge, with lots of subscribers, but still limited in scope, proprietary, their own little cyber-fiefdoms from which you could not navigate to other networks (unless there was an agreement and a means to connect between them). What made the Internet "The Internet" was a worldwide scope (as in the "World Wide Web" (WWW), a major component of the Internet), standardization of protocols and such, and the theoretic ability for anyone, anywhere, to log in to the same vast system and navigate where they pleased. Theoretically, I can go on the Net and (assuming I possess the proper links or URLs) navigate to any specific place I desire in the same manner as anyone (also assuming there is no third party or concern blocking access via software, firewalls, etc.). With something like Compuserve, you were limited to navigating solely within their own little network, or to allied sites and services that they provided you a portal with which to access them. But the Internet, like television or a thousand other technologies, did not just suddenly come into being at a single point in time, but were the end result of many converging streams of history and invention and development, so pinpointing these things is problematic at best.

OTOH, I may be totally off my rocker and full of excrement. (And anyone who knows me can tell you that's a safe way to bet.....) ;D

The funny thing about the internet in those pre-Windows 95 days, tell people ( mainly thouse younger than 30 ) that the net DID exist though in a much cruder form before 1994, they just refuse to believe it.

I myself remember seeing ads for Compuserve back in the late 80's. I seem to recall they had some tie in with Sears. At least they did where I lived at back then.

My aunt back in the 70's worked at a hospital in my hometown ( Winchester, VA ) and even back then they had some kind of internet service which tied the computers there in Winchester to other hosptials around Virginia such as Virginia Beach, Richmond, Roanoke, Norfolk and of course Fairfax and UVA in Charlottesville. She never did tell me what was the purpose of that other than it was slow and that few bothered to use it ( quicker to pick up the phone and call Virginia Beach than to go online back in 1977 to discuss hospital matters ). She did tell me some years back that she was actually online talking to a doctor in Roanoke the day Elvis Presley died. The doctor said something like "no more Hound Dog" or something like that. Anyway what they were using, some intranet service is still in use today at many businesses. In other words the pc is only connected to other pcs within the business. Of course today its much faster. The department store chain Kohls is one I can think of that uses this process ( I know there are many others ). All of the distrubtion centers, stores and main offices are connected to each other so its quite easy say for a Kohls store in Virginia to "talk" to a store in California but the system only runs within Kohls so of course a store in Virginia can not talk/email a JC Penney store in the same town or across the country. Interesting the only non-Kohls site they allow acess on their intranet is..The Weather Channel !!!!

YouTube has a 1981 report from KRON San Francisco on an early form of Internet where consumers could read newspapers online:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WCTn4FljUQ

And I also came across this 1969 video (but I couldn't verify a source for it) showing a preconceived version of what later became the Internet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0pPfyYtiBc&feature=related

 

[cwf1701]

It's been a long time since I examined any of the history of what eventually became what we call "The Internet," but given the time frame and the episodes you describe, it sounds more like they were accessing some sort of pre-Internet Compuserve-like service. If memory serves, Compuserve and its ilk in that day were more like glorified BBSes -- huge, with lots of subscribers, but still limited in scope, proprietary, their own little cyber-fiefdoms from which you could not navigate to other networks (unless there was an agreement and a means to connect between them). What made the Internet "The Internet" was a worldwide scope (as in the "World Wide Web" (WWW), a major component of the Internet), standardization of protocols and such, and the theoretic ability for anyone, anywhere, to log in to the same vast system and navigate where they pleased. Theoretically, I can go on the Net and (assuming I possess the proper links or URLs) navigate to any specific place I desire in the same manner as anyone (also assuming there is no third party or concern blocking access via software, firewalls, etc.). With something like Compuserve, you were limited to navigating solely within their own little network, or to allied sites and services that they provided you a portal with which to access them. But the Internet, like television or a thousand other technologies, did not just suddenly come into being at a single point in time, but were the end result of many converging streams of history and invention and development, so pinpointing these things is problematic at best.

OTOH, I may be totally off my rocker and full of excrement. (And anyone who knows me can tell you that's a safe way to bet.....) ;D

The funny thing about the internet in those pre-Windows 95 days, tell people ( mainly thouse younger than 30 ) that the net DID exist though in a much cruder form before 1994, they just refuse to believe it.

I myself remember seeing ads for Compuserve back in the late 80's. I seem to recall they had some tie in with Sears. At least they did where I lived at back then.

My aunt back in the 70's worked at a hospital in my hometown ( Winchester, VA ) and even back then they had some kind of internet service which tied the computers there in Winchester to other hosptials around Virginia such as Virginia Beach, Richmond, Roanoke, Norfolk and of course Fairfax and UVA in Charlottesville. She never did tell me what was the purpose of that other than it was slow and that few bothered to use it ( quicker to pick up the phone and call Virginia Beach than to go online back in 1977 to discuss hospital matters ). She did tell me some years back that she was actually online talking to a doctor in Roanoke the day Elvis Presley died. The doctor said something like "no more Hound Dog" or something like that. Anyway what they were using, some intranet service is still in use today at many businesses. In other words the pc is only connected to other pcs within the business. Of course today its much faster. The department store chain Kohls is one I can think of that uses this process ( I know there are many others ). All of the distrubtion centers, stores and main offices are connected to each other so its quite easy say for a Kohls store in Virginia to "talk" to a store in California but the system only runs within Kohls so of course a store in Virginia can not talk/email a JC Penney store in the same town or across the country. Interesting the only non-Kohls site they allow acess on their intranet is..The Weather Channel !!!!

YouTube has a 1981 report from KRON San Francisco on an early form of Internet where consumers could read newspapers online:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WCTn4FljUQ

And I also came across this 1969 video (but I couldn't verify a source for it) showing a preconceived version of what later became the Internet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0pPfyYtiBc&feature=related

and imagine going onto the primitive internet with just a terminal and a screen (or before that, a teletype machine similar to some of the teletypes used by radio, television, and newspapers in the mid/late 70s.) My first taste of what would be the internet came on a school network just only 1 year before we got microcomputers (the TRS-80, or as we called them Trash-80), and we used teletype machines with modems built in. (this was in 1980 and at my high school to boot). and you had to dial in (remember when phones had dials on the phones), and it was very easy to misdial sometimes (forget to dial the 9 to get out, temporary dyslexia (dial 34 when you mean 43), stick your finger in the wrong hole on the dial, etc). And you had to dial the number yourself (no auto dial and back in the day when you only had to remember 7 digits for a phone number and not 10 or 11 digits).

 

[easttxtv]

I used to work for a Days Inn for a couple of years in the early 1990s and each hotel had a separate computer (IBM-style PC with green monochrome monitor) that handled reservations information and also had a function where you could send a message to any other Days Inn in the chain (I think you could type 9 or 10 lines of text total)...besides being kinda fun to have in general, it was good to have if you wanted to forward specific guest info to the hotel in advance of arrival, or you could ask someone at another Days Inn about their weather conditions or have brief conversations if you knew someone at the other hotel. I don't remember if the system had an actual name. We didn't use that computer for our front desk/transactions work, we had a separate one for that.

I'm not sure how old that system was that Days Inn used, but few hotel computer systems are as old as Holidex, spawned by Holiday Inn. I never got to use that one since I haven't worked for a Holiday before. I never got to see it in action but I'm guessing it was kind of like the systems that airlines used.