Just a few random TV related events that happened on June 25. Discuss or comment as you please……
1947: Actor/comedian Jimmie “J.J.” Walker (Good Times) is born in The Bronx, New York.
1949: Phyllis George (The NFL Today) is born in Denton, Texas.
1951: CBS begins regularly scheduled test broadcasts on a 5-station network using its non-compatible color system. The first such colorcast begins at 4:35 pm from New York Studio 57. The star-studded lineup includes Arthur Godfrey, Faye Emerson, Sam Levenson, Ed Sullivan, Garry Moore, Robert Alda, Isabel Bigley, Bill Baird Marionettes, Sol Hurok’s New York City Ballet arranged by George Balanchine, Patty Painter (“Miss Color Television”), Wayne Coy (Chairman of the FCC), William S. Paley (CBS Chairman), and Frank Stanton (President of CBS). While a small handful of experimental observers witness this historic broadcast, the many black-and-white sets in normal Americans’ homes show nothing but static.
1953: Exactly two years after the above broadcast, RCA-NBC petitions the FCC to adopt its compatible color television system as the standard for commercial color TV. (A recommendation that would be echoed by the NTSC in a formal industry-wide petition one month later.)
1955: The final broadcast of the classically kitschy space drama Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. It is one of the few shows of the era to have aired at one time or another on all 4 networks (in order, starting in 1950, CBS, ABC, NBC, DuMont, and then back to NBC).
1956: WKNO (Channel 10) signs on in Memphis as Tennessee’s first public TV station.
1965: Jack Parr airs the final broadcast of his post-Tonight prime-time series The Jack Parr Program. The 3-year run ends with Parr, alone, sitting on a stool, chatting and reminiscing to viewers (the studio had no audience for this final segment).
1967: The first live, international, satellite television production, Our World, is broadcast to 350-400 million viewers in 26-31 countries around the globe (the numbers vary depending on which source you believe), utilizing the Intelsat I (“Early Bird”), Intelsat II, and ATS-1 satellites. The ambitious 2 ½ hour production is best remembered for its most famous segment: The Beatles (along with a small orchestra and dozens of friends) shown recording the new song “All You Need is Love.”
1975: Actress Linda Cardellini (Freaks and Geeks, ER) is born in Redwood City, California.
1980: The ABC drama Family airs its final episode.
1985: The Jeffersons ends its 11-year network run on CBS. The cast is bitter, having not been informed about the show’s cancellation until after the final episode wrapped (Sherman Hemsley reportedly learned about the cancellation by reading it in the newspaper), thus not allowing them to do a proper series finale.
1997: Explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau dies in Paris, aged 87. Among his enormous legacy are more than 120 television documentaries, more than 50 books, and an environmental protection foundation with 300,000 members.
1999: After a total of 8,891 episodes over 35 years, NBC soap opera Another World leaves the airwaves for good.
2005: Character actor John Fiedler dies in Englewood, New Jersey, aged 80. Best remembered as the nervous Mr. Peterson on The Bob Newhart Show, and as the voice of Piglet in Disney’s “Winnie the Pooh” productions, Fiedler appeared in countless stage, film, and TV roles over a 40-year career.
(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…..)
1947: Actor/comedian Jimmie “J.J.” Walker (Good Times) is born in The Bronx, New York.
1949: Phyllis George (The NFL Today) is born in Denton, Texas.
1951: CBS begins regularly scheduled test broadcasts on a 5-station network using its non-compatible color system. The first such colorcast begins at 4:35 pm from New York Studio 57. The star-studded lineup includes Arthur Godfrey, Faye Emerson, Sam Levenson, Ed Sullivan, Garry Moore, Robert Alda, Isabel Bigley, Bill Baird Marionettes, Sol Hurok’s New York City Ballet arranged by George Balanchine, Patty Painter (“Miss Color Television”), Wayne Coy (Chairman of the FCC), William S. Paley (CBS Chairman), and Frank Stanton (President of CBS). While a small handful of experimental observers witness this historic broadcast, the many black-and-white sets in normal Americans’ homes show nothing but static.
1953: Exactly two years after the above broadcast, RCA-NBC petitions the FCC to adopt its compatible color television system as the standard for commercial color TV. (A recommendation that would be echoed by the NTSC in a formal industry-wide petition one month later.)
1955: The final broadcast of the classically kitschy space drama Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. It is one of the few shows of the era to have aired at one time or another on all 4 networks (in order, starting in 1950, CBS, ABC, NBC, DuMont, and then back to NBC).
1956: WKNO (Channel 10) signs on in Memphis as Tennessee’s first public TV station.
1965: Jack Parr airs the final broadcast of his post-Tonight prime-time series The Jack Parr Program. The 3-year run ends with Parr, alone, sitting on a stool, chatting and reminiscing to viewers (the studio had no audience for this final segment).
1967: The first live, international, satellite television production, Our World, is broadcast to 350-400 million viewers in 26-31 countries around the globe (the numbers vary depending on which source you believe), utilizing the Intelsat I (“Early Bird”), Intelsat II, and ATS-1 satellites. The ambitious 2 ½ hour production is best remembered for its most famous segment: The Beatles (along with a small orchestra and dozens of friends) shown recording the new song “All You Need is Love.”
1975: Actress Linda Cardellini (Freaks and Geeks, ER) is born in Redwood City, California.
1980: The ABC drama Family airs its final episode.
1985: The Jeffersons ends its 11-year network run on CBS. The cast is bitter, having not been informed about the show’s cancellation until after the final episode wrapped (Sherman Hemsley reportedly learned about the cancellation by reading it in the newspaper), thus not allowing them to do a proper series finale.
1997: Explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau dies in Paris, aged 87. Among his enormous legacy are more than 120 television documentaries, more than 50 books, and an environmental protection foundation with 300,000 members.
1999: After a total of 8,891 episodes over 35 years, NBC soap opera Another World leaves the airwaves for good.
2005: Character actor John Fiedler dies in Englewood, New Jersey, aged 80. Best remembered as the nervous Mr. Peterson on The Bob Newhart Show, and as the voice of Piglet in Disney’s “Winnie the Pooh” productions, Fiedler appeared in countless stage, film, and TV roles over a 40-year career.
(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…..)
