Just a few random TV related events that happened on January 28. Discuss or comment as you please……
1910: Actor John Banner (Hogan’s Heroes) is born in Vienna, Austria. He would pass away in 1973 on his 63rd birthday, also in Vienna.
1936: Actor Alan Alda (M*A*S*H, The West Wing) is born (as Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo) in The Bronx, New York.
1941: Actor Joel Crothers is born in Cincinnati, Ohio. A Tom Selleck doppelgänger, his extensive career in soap operas would include regular roles in Dark Shadows, The Secret Storm, Somerset, The Edge of Night, and Santa Barbara. (Gotta be a good candidate for the most soaps by one actor, no?)
1955: CKX-TV (channel 5) begins broadcasting in Brandon, Manitoba. It is the province’s first privately owned TV station.
1963: WMVT (channel 36) signs on in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the second non-commercial outlet in the market, a sister station to WMVS (channel 10).
1969: Actress Kathryn Morris (Cold Case) is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1973: Barnaby Jones premieres on CBS.
1974: Six years after the “Game of the Century” [see TDITVH for January 20], the TVS Network broadcasts another historic college basketball game, as Notre Dame upsets UCLA 71-70, breaking the Bruins’ incredible 88-game winning streak.
1975: Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, the 15th “Peanuts” special, debuts on CBS.
1977: Character actor Burt Mustin dies in Glendale, California, aged 92. One good reason why Mustin always played old men is that he didn’t even make his first film appearance until 1951, at the age of 67! (Prior to his professional debut, he had done a bit of amateur acting, notably in productions of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, but spent much of his earlier life as a car salesman.)
1979: CBS News Sunday Morning premieres.
1982: Actor Danny DeVito and actress Rhea Perlman are married. (27 years and 3 children later, they are still going strong...)
1982: The final episode of Tomorrow airs on NBC, having been canceled to make way for the new Late Night with David Letterman.
1986: Space Shuttle Challenger is destroyed in flight, breaking up about 73 seconds after launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, killing all 7 astronauts aboard. With both the media and public by this time naively thinking of shuttle flights as “routine,” the launch and subsequent tragedy are not carried live by most broadcast outlets. However, within minutes every broadcast and cable news channel would be showing tape of the horrifying footage, which would be repeated over and over all day long. [For newer users of this forum, there are several discussions of the Challenger coverage in the archives.] The accident would eventually be attributed to balky O-ring seals on the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters, which had spent the night exposed to a rare Central Florida hard freeze (with temps between 24° and 28° F. for many hours). [Pedantic Pet Peeve Department: Appearances, common belief, and initial reports (including those from NASA) notwithstanding, Challenger did not “explode.”]
1994: Otis goes to the Great Drunk Tank in the Sky: Actor and voice artist Hal Smith dies in Woodland Hills, California, aged 77.
2004: Becker airs its final original episode on CBS.
[Year unknown]: Per continuity on Sesame Street, this is Ernie’s birthday.
(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…..)
1910: Actor John Banner (Hogan’s Heroes) is born in Vienna, Austria. He would pass away in 1973 on his 63rd birthday, also in Vienna.
1936: Actor Alan Alda (M*A*S*H, The West Wing) is born (as Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo) in The Bronx, New York.
1941: Actor Joel Crothers is born in Cincinnati, Ohio. A Tom Selleck doppelgänger, his extensive career in soap operas would include regular roles in Dark Shadows, The Secret Storm, Somerset, The Edge of Night, and Santa Barbara. (Gotta be a good candidate for the most soaps by one actor, no?)
1955: CKX-TV (channel 5) begins broadcasting in Brandon, Manitoba. It is the province’s first privately owned TV station.
1963: WMVT (channel 36) signs on in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the second non-commercial outlet in the market, a sister station to WMVS (channel 10).
1969: Actress Kathryn Morris (Cold Case) is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1973: Barnaby Jones premieres on CBS.
1974: Six years after the “Game of the Century” [see TDITVH for January 20], the TVS Network broadcasts another historic college basketball game, as Notre Dame upsets UCLA 71-70, breaking the Bruins’ incredible 88-game winning streak.
1975: Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, the 15th “Peanuts” special, debuts on CBS.
1977: Character actor Burt Mustin dies in Glendale, California, aged 92. One good reason why Mustin always played old men is that he didn’t even make his first film appearance until 1951, at the age of 67! (Prior to his professional debut, he had done a bit of amateur acting, notably in productions of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, but spent much of his earlier life as a car salesman.)
1979: CBS News Sunday Morning premieres.
1982: Actor Danny DeVito and actress Rhea Perlman are married. (27 years and 3 children later, they are still going strong...)
1982: The final episode of Tomorrow airs on NBC, having been canceled to make way for the new Late Night with David Letterman.
1986: Space Shuttle Challenger is destroyed in flight, breaking up about 73 seconds after launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, killing all 7 astronauts aboard. With both the media and public by this time naively thinking of shuttle flights as “routine,” the launch and subsequent tragedy are not carried live by most broadcast outlets. However, within minutes every broadcast and cable news channel would be showing tape of the horrifying footage, which would be repeated over and over all day long. [For newer users of this forum, there are several discussions of the Challenger coverage in the archives.] The accident would eventually be attributed to balky O-ring seals on the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters, which had spent the night exposed to a rare Central Florida hard freeze (with temps between 24° and 28° F. for many hours). [Pedantic Pet Peeve Department: Appearances, common belief, and initial reports (including those from NASA) notwithstanding, Challenger did not “explode.”]
1994: Otis goes to the Great Drunk Tank in the Sky: Actor and voice artist Hal Smith dies in Woodland Hills, California, aged 77.
2004: Becker airs its final original episode on CBS.
[Year unknown]: Per continuity on Sesame Street, this is Ernie’s birthday.
(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…..)
