Just a few random TV related events that happened on July 3. Discuss or comment as you please……
1913: Journalist and game show panelist Dorothy Kilgallen (What’s My Line?) is born in Chicago.
1928: John Logie Baird demonstrates the earliest version of field-sequential color television, using a mechanical scanning system and producing a vertical color image about 4 inches high.
1943: Actor Kurtwood Smith (That 70’s Show) is born in New Lisbon, Wisconsin.
1945: Actor Michael Cole (The Mod Squad) is born.
1946: NBC brings the popular radio serial Lights Out to TV, in the first of 4 live specials. Though the broadcasts garner very favorable reviews, Lights Out would not become a regular NBC series until 1949.
1947: Actress Betty Buckley (Eight is Enough) is born in Ft. Worth, Texas.
1949: Actress Jan Smithers (WKRP in Cincinnati) is born in Woodland Hills, California.
1950: Houston’s KLEE-TV (channel 2) changes calls to KPRC-TV.
1956: Talk show host Montel Williams is born in Baltimore, Maryland.
1957: Television pioneer Philo Farnsworth appears as the mystery guest on I’ve Got a Secret. He stumps the panel, winning $80 and a carton of Winston cigarettes. Ironically, though Farnsworth was chiefly responsible for the development of electronic television, this is his first and only appearance on TV.
1964: Voice artist Yeardley Smith (The Simpsons) is born (as Martha Maria Yeardley Smith) in Paris, France.
1978: Tic Tac Dough premieres on CBS.
1978: Actor James Daly (Medical Center) dies in Nyack, New York, aged 59. His final screen appearance, as "Mr. Boyce" in the mini-series Roots: The Next Generations, would be broadcast not long after his death.
1981: Actor Ross Martin (The Wild Wild West) dies in Ramona, California, aged 61.
1989: Actor Jim Backus (I Married Joan, Gilligan’s Island) dies in Burbank, California, aged 76.
1993: The last living Stooge succumbs as “Curly-Joe” DeRita dies in Woodland Hills, California, aged 83.
2006: Actor Benjamin Hendrickson (As the World Turns) dies in Huntington, New York, aged 55, of a gunshot wound to the head. Police label the death as a suicide. As a result of the unexpected tragedy, Henrickson’s long-running (over 20 years) ATWT character Harold "Hal" Munson Jr. (Chief of Detectives for the mythical town of Oakdale) is written out of the storyline as having died in the line of duty. ATWT airs a brief dedication at the end of the July 12 episode (the last taped by Hendrickson prior to his death).
(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…..)
1913: Journalist and game show panelist Dorothy Kilgallen (What’s My Line?) is born in Chicago.
1928: John Logie Baird demonstrates the earliest version of field-sequential color television, using a mechanical scanning system and producing a vertical color image about 4 inches high.
1943: Actor Kurtwood Smith (That 70’s Show) is born in New Lisbon, Wisconsin.
1945: Actor Michael Cole (The Mod Squad) is born.
1946: NBC brings the popular radio serial Lights Out to TV, in the first of 4 live specials. Though the broadcasts garner very favorable reviews, Lights Out would not become a regular NBC series until 1949.
1947: Actress Betty Buckley (Eight is Enough) is born in Ft. Worth, Texas.
1949: Actress Jan Smithers (WKRP in Cincinnati) is born in Woodland Hills, California.
1950: Houston’s KLEE-TV (channel 2) changes calls to KPRC-TV.
1956: Talk show host Montel Williams is born in Baltimore, Maryland.
1957: Television pioneer Philo Farnsworth appears as the mystery guest on I’ve Got a Secret. He stumps the panel, winning $80 and a carton of Winston cigarettes. Ironically, though Farnsworth was chiefly responsible for the development of electronic television, this is his first and only appearance on TV.
1964: Voice artist Yeardley Smith (The Simpsons) is born (as Martha Maria Yeardley Smith) in Paris, France.
1978: Tic Tac Dough premieres on CBS.
1978: Actor James Daly (Medical Center) dies in Nyack, New York, aged 59. His final screen appearance, as "Mr. Boyce" in the mini-series Roots: The Next Generations, would be broadcast not long after his death.
1981: Actor Ross Martin (The Wild Wild West) dies in Ramona, California, aged 61.
1989: Actor Jim Backus (I Married Joan, Gilligan’s Island) dies in Burbank, California, aged 76.
1993: The last living Stooge succumbs as “Curly-Joe” DeRita dies in Woodland Hills, California, aged 83.
2006: Actor Benjamin Hendrickson (As the World Turns) dies in Huntington, New York, aged 55, of a gunshot wound to the head. Police label the death as a suicide. As a result of the unexpected tragedy, Henrickson’s long-running (over 20 years) ATWT character Harold "Hal" Munson Jr. (Chief of Detectives for the mythical town of Oakdale) is written out of the storyline as having died in the line of duty. ATWT airs a brief dedication at the end of the July 12 episode (the last taped by Hendrickson prior to his death).
(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…..)