Just a few random TV related events that happened on June 6. Discuss or comment as you please……
1949: First day on-air for WKY-TV (channel 4, later KFOR-TV) in Oklahoma City. The station has always been a primary or exclusive affiliate of NBC, and in 1999 was the first OKC station to put a digital signal on the air.
1957: The last new episode of The Lone Ranger is broadcast on ABC. Reruns of the iconic Western would continue through the summer, be moved to daytime slots for several more years, and continue to be available in syndication thereafter.
1971: The final network broadcast (a rerun) of The Ed Sullivan Show is run on CBS. The last original episode had been broadcast on March 28, leaving Topo Gigio, Sandler and Young, and the guy who spun the plates on top of the poles to find another outlet for their talents. The show racked up 1,087 episodes and, incredibly, lasted over 2 decades on the same night of the week, in the same time slot, and on the same network.
1971: WHAE-TV (calls stood for “Heaven And Earth”) begins broadcasting on channel 46 in Atlanta as one of Pat Robertson's owned and operated stations. Not a full-time Christian station, WHAE also broadcast classic sitcoms, cartoons, westerns, and other “secular” (but wholesome) programming. Later it changed calls to WANX-TV, was sold to Tribune in 1984 and again changed calls, to WGNX-TV. The station then landed a CBS affiliation in 1994 when longtime Atlanta CBS outlet WAGA-TV defected to Fox.
1972: NBC journalist Natalie Morales (The Today Show) is born in Taiwan.
1976: 20/20, the long-running ABC news magazine, airs its first show – a near-disaster that does not bode well for the show's mere survival, let alone its longevity. Hosted by Harold Hayes and Robert Hughes, the show garners vicious reviews with terms such as “absurd,” “trashy,” and (my favorite) “candycane journalism.” A quick revamp for the second show, which included luring semi-retired Hugh Downs back to TV, enables 20/20 to survive and flourish.
1983: The award-winning children's show Reading Rainbow makes its debut on PBS. The show would go on to win a Peabody Award and 26 Emmys.
1986: The Merv Griffin Show ends its long 20+ year run as a first-run syndie and (from 1969-72) CBS network offering.
1997: Actress Farrah Fawcett makes a legendary bizarre appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. She tells long, rambling stories, seemingly fails to understand simple questions, and is distracted by blinking lights on the set.
2007: Bob Barker tapes his final show as host of The Price is Right. (The episode would air on June 15).
(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…..)
1949: First day on-air for WKY-TV (channel 4, later KFOR-TV) in Oklahoma City. The station has always been a primary or exclusive affiliate of NBC, and in 1999 was the first OKC station to put a digital signal on the air.
1957: The last new episode of The Lone Ranger is broadcast on ABC. Reruns of the iconic Western would continue through the summer, be moved to daytime slots for several more years, and continue to be available in syndication thereafter.
1971: The final network broadcast (a rerun) of The Ed Sullivan Show is run on CBS. The last original episode had been broadcast on March 28, leaving Topo Gigio, Sandler and Young, and the guy who spun the plates on top of the poles to find another outlet for their talents. The show racked up 1,087 episodes and, incredibly, lasted over 2 decades on the same night of the week, in the same time slot, and on the same network.
1971: WHAE-TV (calls stood for “Heaven And Earth”) begins broadcasting on channel 46 in Atlanta as one of Pat Robertson's owned and operated stations. Not a full-time Christian station, WHAE also broadcast classic sitcoms, cartoons, westerns, and other “secular” (but wholesome) programming. Later it changed calls to WANX-TV, was sold to Tribune in 1984 and again changed calls, to WGNX-TV. The station then landed a CBS affiliation in 1994 when longtime Atlanta CBS outlet WAGA-TV defected to Fox.
1972: NBC journalist Natalie Morales (The Today Show) is born in Taiwan.
1976: 20/20, the long-running ABC news magazine, airs its first show – a near-disaster that does not bode well for the show's mere survival, let alone its longevity. Hosted by Harold Hayes and Robert Hughes, the show garners vicious reviews with terms such as “absurd,” “trashy,” and (my favorite) “candycane journalism.” A quick revamp for the second show, which included luring semi-retired Hugh Downs back to TV, enables 20/20 to survive and flourish.
1983: The award-winning children's show Reading Rainbow makes its debut on PBS. The show would go on to win a Peabody Award and 26 Emmys.
1986: The Merv Griffin Show ends its long 20+ year run as a first-run syndie and (from 1969-72) CBS network offering.
1997: Actress Farrah Fawcett makes a legendary bizarre appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. She tells long, rambling stories, seemingly fails to understand simple questions, and is distracted by blinking lights on the set.
2007: Bob Barker tapes his final show as host of The Price is Right. (The episode would air on June 15).
(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…..)
