July 23: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on July 23. Discuss or comment as you please……

1920: Actor Leo McKern (Rumpole of the Bailey) is born (as Reginald McKern) in Sydney, Australia.

1921: Calvin DeForest (a.k.a. Larry “Bud” Melman) (Late Night with David Letterman, Late Show with David Letterman) is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1951: Character actress Edie McClurg is born in Kansas City, Missouri.

1961: Actor Woody Harrelson (Cheers) is born in Midland, Texas.

1962: Telstar, the first active communications satellite, relays the first live transatlatic television signals. The first broadcast was to have consisted of remarks by President John F. Kennedy, but the signal is acquired before the President is ready, so the lead-in time is filled with a short segment of a televised major league baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. During that evening the satellite also carries the first telephone call transmitted through space, and successfully relays faxes, data, and both live and taped television.

1970: Actress Charisma Carpenter (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) is born in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1974: Actress Stephanie March (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) is born in Dallas, Texas.

1982: Actor Vic Morrow (Combat!), aged 53, and 2 young children, My-Ca Dinh Le (aged 7) and Renee Shin-Yi Chen (aged 6), are killed on the set of “Twilight Zone: The Movie” when a helicopter crashes into them as a stunt goes awry.

1996: WRAL-TV, Raleigh, North Carolina, begins experimental operations on channel 32 as the first digital TV station in the U.S. CBS utilizes the station in testing its own HD programming. The DTV signal would move to channel 53 in 2000, and will switch to channel 48 post-transition.

1996: A North Carolina jury throws out a class action suit brought on behalf of more than 160,000 onetime supporters of Jim Bakker and The PTL Club who contributed as much as $7,000 each to the TV ministry’s coffers during the 1980s.

(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits…..don’t expect it every single day. 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…..)

 

[KML0224]

WRAL-DT as early as 1996? WOW! Were they also the first station to have their digital on the air fulltime? I'm pretty sure that they had the first local newscast in HD.

 

[Stanislav]

WRAL-DT as early as 1996? WOW!

Well, remember originally the end of analog TV was scheduled for 2006, so I suppose they were figuring on about a 10-year total transition period from testing to full implementation. Personally, I feel that DTV is still a bit immature of a technology (it has advantages as well as disadvantages) and "not ready for prime-time" (analog is so much more robust and useful when it comes to fringe or terrain-hindered reception), but money talks, and the powers that be were bound and determined to free up UHF spectrum to auction off. I'd rather have seen the dual analog/digital availability stretched out a few more years, both to allow for improvements in the technology and to accomplish the consumer transition more through digital sets gradually being purchased as older units wear out, rather than forcing new sets or converters on people just to watch their locals. (But, of course, some predicted that it would have taken much longer -- I'd seen predictions from 2012 to 2020 and beyond -- for DTV-capable sets to "naturally" make their way into households, and no one wanted to delay The Big Payday that long.) They also really should have mandated ATSC tuners much earlier on instead of allowing the current situation in which many folks who bought new TVs just a few short years ago suddenly need to convert.

 

[mleach]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on July 23. Discuss or comment as you please……

[1996: A North Carolina jury throws out a class action suit brought on behalf of more than 160,000 onetime supporters of Jim Bakker and The PTL Club who contributed as much as $7,000 each to the TV ministry’s coffers during the 1980s.

Despite the wrong-doing as far as money went, looking back it is amazing how the Bakkers were ahead of their time. Wasn't PTL among the first to use satellite? And with their use of the "Johnny Carson" style format, the Bakkers were able to get people to tune in to their show who otherwise wouldn't even consider watching anything religious.

Plus back in the mid 80s when HIV and AIDS were starting to become household names, the Bakkers actually had on the PTL Club, people who actually had AIDS and the Bakkers actually felt sorry for them. In other words, neither Jim or Tammy Faye would scream at them saying "..you are going to HELL because you have AIDS" which would be something many other preachers of that era would have done and sadly many would still do that today. Believe it or not despite all the information and research that is available on the subject of HIV and AIDS there are many today who still believe HIV is a "gay thing" and that there should be some sort of a national database for people to find out who in the community has HIV, like whats being done with child sex offenders.

I have heard that Jim Bakker today is back to doing his old "begging for money" thing but when Tammy Faye died last year, a lot of people were very sad about that, me included. We could use more people in our world like Tammy Faye.

 

[LKellerIII]

I believe Larry Bud Melman's real name was "Calvert DeForest."

And happy birthday Edie McClurg - another underrated comic talent (I know, that's another thread). Notable performances - as the school secretary in Ferris Bueller's Day Off; and as the airline ticket agent in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Her deadpan reaction to Steve Martin's obscene verbal tirade is priceless.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Another July 23 birthday:

1918: Pee Wee Reese (d. 1999--born Harold Henry Reese in Ekron, KY). The former Brooklyn/LA Dodger star (1940-58) entered the broadcast booth after his retirement, calling "Games of the Week" with Dizzy Dean on CBS from 1960-65 and with Curt Gowdy from 1966-68.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1962: Actor Eriq La Salle (ER) is born in Hartford, CT.

 

[Ultimajock]

And happy birthday Edie McClurg - another underrated comic talent (I know, that's another thread). Notable performances - as the school secretary in Ferris Bueller's Day Off; and as the airline ticket agent in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Her deadpan reaction to Steve Martin's obscene verbal tirade is priceless.

...and (inconguously) one of the high schoolers in Carrie...

 

[71dude]

1985: The Jeffersons ends an 11-season run on CBS.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

[
1962: Telstar, the first active communications satellite, relays the first live transatlatic television signals. The first broadcast was to have consisted of remarks by President John F. Kennedy, but the signal is acquired before the President is ready, so the lead-in time is filled with a short segment of a televised major league baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. During that evening the satellite also carries the first telephone call transmitted through space, and successfully relays faxes, data, and both live and taped television.

It might be noted that the evening's telecast via Telstar featured a feed from Europe to North America showing many locations there that was m.c.'d by Richard Dimbleby. The feed began with a shot of Big Ben and Dimbleby saying, "Hello, North America".