Just a few random TV related events that happened on July 29. Discuss or comment as you please……
1924: Actor Robert Horton (Wagon Train, A Man Called Shenandoah) is born in Los Angeles.
1933: Actor Robert Fuller (Laramie, Wagon Train, Emergency) is born (as Buddy Lee) in Troy, New York.
1938: Peter Jennings is born (full name Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings) in Toronto, Ontario.
1953: Documentary director/producer Ken Burns (The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The War) is born in Brooklyn, New York.
1956: WCKT (channel 7) begins broadcasting in Miami, Florida. The calls would change to WSVN in 1983 after the original owner (a partnership of the Cox and Knight publishing families who owned Miami's two major newspapers) lost the station’s license due to violations of FCC rules as well as various ethics violations.
1957: Jack Parr becomes the new permanent host of The Tonight Show.
1963: Actress Alexandra Paul (Baywatch) is born in New York City.
1972: Actor Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation) is born in Burbank, California.
1979: Game show producer Bill Todman (Card Sharks, Family Feud, Match Game, Password, The Price is Right, To Tell the Truth, etc, etc., etc.) dies in New York City, aged 62.
1982: Television pioneer Vladimir Zworykin dies in Princeton, New Jersey, aged 92. The Russian-born engineer is regarded by some as the “true” inventor of television, having invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode ray tubes. He was also instrumental in the practical development of charge storage-type tubes, infrared image tubes, and the electron microscope.
1982: Actress Allison Mack (Smallville) is born in Preetz, Germany.
1983: Friday Night Videos premieres on NBC late night.
2005: Radar’s teddy bear from the series M*A*S*H (which had for a time been housed in the Smithsonian) is sold at auction for $11,800.
2007: Tom Snyder dies in San Francisco of leukemia, aged 71.
2007: Investigative reporter Marvin Zindler dies in Houston, Texas of pancreatic cancer, aged 85. One of the most influential local TV personalities in the country, his career at Houston’s KTRK-TV spanned 34 years. He is best known for his reports leading to the closing down of the infamous “Chicken Ranch” brothel in Fayette County (the subject of the Broadway and film musical “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”). As a result, he was assaulted by a very angry Fayette County Sheriff T.J. Flournoy, in a fight that left Zindler with two fractured ribs and a snatched toupee.
(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…..)
1924: Actor Robert Horton (Wagon Train, A Man Called Shenandoah) is born in Los Angeles.
1933: Actor Robert Fuller (Laramie, Wagon Train, Emergency) is born (as Buddy Lee) in Troy, New York.
1938: Peter Jennings is born (full name Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings) in Toronto, Ontario.
1953: Documentary director/producer Ken Burns (The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The War) is born in Brooklyn, New York.
1956: WCKT (channel 7) begins broadcasting in Miami, Florida. The calls would change to WSVN in 1983 after the original owner (a partnership of the Cox and Knight publishing families who owned Miami's two major newspapers) lost the station’s license due to violations of FCC rules as well as various ethics violations.
1957: Jack Parr becomes the new permanent host of The Tonight Show.
1963: Actress Alexandra Paul (Baywatch) is born in New York City.
1972: Actor Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation) is born in Burbank, California.
1979: Game show producer Bill Todman (Card Sharks, Family Feud, Match Game, Password, The Price is Right, To Tell the Truth, etc, etc., etc.) dies in New York City, aged 62.
1982: Television pioneer Vladimir Zworykin dies in Princeton, New Jersey, aged 92. The Russian-born engineer is regarded by some as the “true” inventor of television, having invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode ray tubes. He was also instrumental in the practical development of charge storage-type tubes, infrared image tubes, and the electron microscope.
1982: Actress Allison Mack (Smallville) is born in Preetz, Germany.
1983: Friday Night Videos premieres on NBC late night.
2005: Radar’s teddy bear from the series M*A*S*H (which had for a time been housed in the Smithsonian) is sold at auction for $11,800.
2007: Tom Snyder dies in San Francisco of leukemia, aged 71.
2007: Investigative reporter Marvin Zindler dies in Houston, Texas of pancreatic cancer, aged 85. One of the most influential local TV personalities in the country, his career at Houston’s KTRK-TV spanned 34 years. He is best known for his reports leading to the closing down of the infamous “Chicken Ranch” brothel in Fayette County (the subject of the Broadway and film musical “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”). As a result, he was assaulted by a very angry Fayette County Sheriff T.J. Flournoy, in a fight that left Zindler with two fractured ribs and a snatched toupee.
(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…..)
