March 29: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on March 29. Discuss or comment as you please……

1927: Commentator John McLaughlin (The McLaughlin Group) is born in Rhode Island.

1943: Comedian Eric Idle (Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Rutland Weekend Television) is born in South Shields, County Durham, England

1953: KVTV (channel 9, now KCAU-TV) signs on in Sioux City, Iowa, the first TV station in the western part of the state.

1961: KCSD (channel 19, now KCPT) begins broadcasting in Kansas City, Missouri.

1963: Young Doctor Malone broadcasts its last episode on NBC.

1964: The last of 26 episodes of The Judy Garland Show airs on CBS.

1967: WCMU-TV (channel 14) launches from Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant. It would become the flagship of the small regional network CMU Public Television, adding stations in Alpena, Cadillac, and Manistee over the next 17 years.

1968: Actress Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess, Battlestar Galactica) is born in Mount Albert, Auckland City, New Zealand.

1973: The 12th and final installment of the groundbreaking and controversial documentary series An American Family airs on PBS.

1974: The band KISS makes its first national television appearance on ABC's Dick Clark's In Concert.

1978: The Carol Burnett Show airs its 278th and final episode on CBS.

1982: Capitol premieres on CBS.

1994: Ellen premieres on ABC.

1996: Nash Bridges debuts on CBS.

1998: BBC America launches on cable and satellite systems in the U.S.

1999: Craig Kilborn replaces Tom Snyder as host of NBC’s The Late Late Show.

2002: BBC-TV’s classic “globe” motif is dropped from the service’s idents after having been used in one form or another for 39 years.

(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits. 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…..)

 

[mleach]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on March 29. Discuss or comment as you please……


1974: The band KISS makes its first national television appearance on ABC's Dick Clark's In Concert.

For years I have heard/read that it was actually the old Mike Douglas Show that featured KISS in their first nationwide TV appearance. Dick Clark has been known to take credit as far as being connected to some music star/group goes and their "first nationwide TV appearance". For example Barry Manilow. Dick Clark claimed his first TV appearance was on American Bandstand however I am 95% sure Barry did the old Dinah Shore show first.

Then there was ABBA. Bob McAllister's Wonderama had them a few months before they did Bandstand. Clark could have the edge here since Wonderama only aired ona handful of Metromedia stations but those old Metromedia stations were scattered coast to coast thus giving ABBA a "nationwide" audience but then again AB were seen on more stations and Dick Clark is much more well known that the late Bob McAllister.

The Jackson Five. ..Dick Clark I seem to recall hearing making a claim they did AB first but actually it was the old Hollywood Palace where the band ( and little Michael ) first appeared on nationwide TV. Then again how many people other than us old timers remember ABC's Hollywood Palace?

 

[azumanga]

For years I have heard/read that it was actually the old Mike Douglas Show that featured KISS in their first nationwide TV appearance.

...which was also in 1974. I remember seeing a clip a few years back at a local comic book show (it was part of a KISS concert bootleg), and it included KISS talking with comedienne Totie Fields.

 

[Stanislav]

For years I have heard/read that it was actually the old Mike Douglas Show that featured KISS in their first nationwide TV appearance.

Probably "first network TV appearance" would have been more accurate.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1963: Young Doctor Malone broadcasts its last episode on NBC.

And then three days later, April 1, 1963, "The Doctors" would premiere on NBC (would it have aired in "Young Doctor Malone's" old timeslot)--as would "General Hospital" on ABC.

 

[easttxtv]

1999: Craig Kilborn replaces Tom Snyder as host of NBC’s The Late Late Show.

Wow, Stanislav...NBC must have been really talented to air both The Late Late Show and Conan O'Brien at the same time! 8)

 

[Ultimajock]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on March 29. Discuss or comment as you please……


1974: The band KISS makes its first national television appearance on ABC's Dick Clark's In Concert.

For years I have heard/read that it was actually the old Mike Douglas Show that featured KISS in their first nationwide TV appearance. Dick Clark has been known to take credit as far as being connected to some music star/group goes and their "first nationwide TV appearance". For example Barry Manilow. Dick Clark claimed his first TV appearance was on American Bandstand however I am 95% sure Barry did the old Dinah Shore show first.

...Manilow seems to have attracted such bogus claims relating to his career history. For years Arista Records head Clive Davis claimed that Manilow's "Mandy" was Arista's first Billboard #1 hit single -- problem was, "Mandy" was released on the Bell label, before Davis bought that label from Columbia Pictures and renamed it. Billboard's Hot 100 continued listing the single as a Bell single until it dropped off the chart. The actual first Billboard Hot 100 #1 single Arista ever had was "Saturday Night" by The Bay City Rollers, over a year after the Davis purchase...

 

[ixnay]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on March 29. Discuss or comment as you please……

1973: The 12th and final installment of the groundbreaking and controversial documentary series An American Family airs on PBS.

Why was it groundbreaking and controversial?

ixnay

 

[wbhist]

For years Arista Records head Clive Davis claimed that Manilow's "Mandy" was Arista's first Billboard #1 hit single -- problem was, "Mandy" was released on the Bell label, before Davis bought that label from Columbia Pictures and renamed it. Billboard's Hot 100 continued listing the single as a Bell single until it dropped off the chart. The actual first Billboard Hot 100 #1 single Arista ever had was "Saturday Night" by The Bay City Rollers, over a year after the Davis purchase...

In fact, I seem to recall that "Mandy" was in fact Bell's last Billboard #1 hit single. The first Arista 45 by Mr. Manilow was "It's a Miracle."

 

[firepoint525]

Manilow's "I Write the Songs" (which was actually written by Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys :) became both Manilow's and Arista's second #1 single, almost exactly one year after "Mandy," and a couple of weeks after the Bay City Rollers' "Saturday Night."

 

[LKellerIII]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on March 29. Discuss or comment as you please……

1973: The 12th and final installment of the groundbreaking and controversial documentary series An American Family airs on PBS.

Why was it groundbreaking and controversial?

ixnay

An American Family was the first documentary series of its type - in which a camera crew chronicled the daily lives of an upper middle class family - the Louds of Santa Barbara.

Though we take cameras for granted today (because they're everywhere) part of the fascination in watching the show then was seeing how quickly people could forget the camera was in the room, and express themselves openly - warts and all. The two Loud parents fought a lot, and finally divorced. Their son Lance was openly gay, and often dressed in womens' clothing and lipstick - also controversial and quite shocking in 1971.

The family was revisited my documentary filmmakers a couple of times in the 1980s, and Lance's death from Hepatitis C and AIDS was also chronicled in a 2001 documentary.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Family

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1908: Actor Dennis O'Keefe (d. 1968), who had his own CBS series, The Dennis O'Keefe Show, from 1959-60, is born (as Edward Vance Flanagan in Fort Madison, IA.

 

[BobbyNBC10]

On 3/29/1962, Jack Paar did his last Tonight Show. In the fall, Jack would do a nighttime show on NBC that would run for 3 years. Meanwhile, the next night was a "Best of Paar", then the following Monday and on thru just before Johnny Carson took over on 10/1/1962, guest hosts such as Merv Griffin, Hugh Downs, Arlene Francis, Art Linkletter, Soupy Sales and Groucho Marx were used,with Paar reruns thrown in most nights.