July 24: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on July 24. Discuss or comment as you please……

1936: Actress Ruth Buzzi (Laugh-In) is born in Westerly, Rhode Island.

1947: Actor Robert Hays (Angie, Starman) is born in Bethesda, Maryland.

1949: Comedian and actor Michael Richards (Seinfeld) is born in Culver City, California.

1951: Actress Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman) is born in Phoenix, Arizona.

1953: KEYT-TV (Channel 3) goes on the air in Santa Barbara, California.

1957: KTVC (later KBSD) begins operations on channel 6 in Dodge City, Kansas.

1959: The famous “Kitchen Debate” between then-Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev takes place at the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow. By chance, part of the exhibition features a demonstration of U.S. color videotape technology, and a camera captures the impromptu debate, which takes place in a model American kitchen. The tape (one of the earliest surviving color videotapes) is sent by jet to the U.S., where excerpts are shown on network newscasts. An interesting article on the debate and the tape (in the context of preserving early TV recordings) can be found here.

1971: WUHQ-TV (channel 41) signs on in Battle Creek, Michigan as an ABC affiliate. (They are now known by the calls WOTV.) The rationale for the station was to provide ABC programming to areas poorly served by Grand Rapids’ WZZM-TV. Ironically, WUHQ was unable at first to secure a direct network feed, and for a time relied on an off-air pickup of WZZM’s signal for their ABC shows. However, WZZM frequently pre-empted ABC programs, sometimes with little to no advance notice. When this happened, WUHQ would switch to the off-air signal of WSJV in Elkhart, Indiana, often with less than satisfactory results. (At times, WSJV’s signal was too unstable to use, forcing WUHQ to substitute a film or other non-network programming.)

(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…..)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1948: Although his premiere on this date occurred in theater shorts, this Looney Tunes character would later become a television legend in his own right (through TV reruns of Warner Bros. cartoons and in commercials): Marvin the Martian made his first appearance in the WB short "Haredevil Hare" (despite being unnamed in this cartoon).

 

[Stanislav]

1948: Although his premiere on this date occurred in theater shorts, this Looney Tunes character would later become a television legend in his own right (through TV reruns of Warner Bros. cartoons and in commercials): Marvin the Martian made his first appearance in the WB short "Haredevil Hare" (despite being unnamed in this cartoon).

I believe he remained unnamed in all the theatrical WB cartoons. Chuck Jones retroactively named several of his lesser characters later on for publicity/merchandising and the occasional new project. In addition to Marvin, the big orange monster in a couple of the Bugs Bunny shorts was christened "Gossamer" (he had actually been referred to on-screen as "Rudolf" in his first cartoon), and most famously the originally unnamed singing frog from "One Froggy Evening" was given the official moniker "Michigan J. Frog" (in reference to a song from the short, "The Michigan Rag," which was actually an original composition by writer Michael Maltese). Said frog, of course, became the WB network mascot in the 90's.

 

[Stanislav]

1959: The famous “Kitchen Debate” between then-Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev takes place at the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow. By chance, part of the exhibition features a demonstration of U.S. color videotape technology, and a camera captures the impromptu debate, which takes place in a model American kitchen. The tape (one of the earliest surviving color videotapes) is sent by jet to the U.S., where excerpts are shown on network newscasts. An interesting article on the debate and the tape (in the context of preserving early TV recordings) can be found here.

The link in that last line is now dead, but here is a link to the Wayback Machine's archived version:

http://tinyurl.com/mu87ld

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1956: Game show host Pat Finn (best known as the host of the infamous 1990 Joker's Wild revival) is born in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

 

[wbhist]

1948: Although his premiere on this date occurred in theater shorts, this Looney Tunes character would later become a television legend in his own right (through TV reruns of Warner Bros. cartoons and in commercials): Marvin the Martian made his first appearance in the WB short "Haredevil Hare" (despite being unnamed in this cartoon).

This short was also significant in that it was the last and latest of the "pre-1948" Warners' color cartoons that in 1956 were sold for TV syndication to Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.).