Just a few random TV related events that happened on March 30. Discuss or comment as you please……
1917: Actor Herbert Anderson (Dennis the Menace) is born in Oakland, California.
1927: Actor/singer/game show host Peter Marshall (Hollywood Squares) is born (as Ralph Pierre LaCock) in Huntington, West Virginia.
1930: Actor John Astin (The Addams Family, Night Court) is born in Baltimore, Maryland.
1959: WNED-TV (channel 17) signs on in Buffalo, New York. The educational outlet takes over the channel formerly occupied by WBUF-TV, a defunct station that had been, for a brief time, an NBC O&O outlet intended to see if UHF could compete with VHF.
1964: Jeopardy! premieres on NBC.
1970: Somerset, a spin-off from Another World, debuts on NBC.
1971: Actor Mark Consuelos (All My Children) is born in Zaragoza, Spain.
1973: The last original episode of Mission: Impossible airs on CBS.
1981: President Ronald Reagan and three others are struck by gunfire from deranged would-be assassin John Hinckley, Jr. outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. Networks immediately begin live uninterrupted coverage of the assassination attempt, leaving TV viewers with many vivid memories: CBS’ Dan Rather thrust into the limelight less than a month after replacing Walter Cronkite; veteran Frank Reynold’s angry on-air outburst on ABC after learning the reports of Press Secretary James Brady’s death were erroneous; CBS’s Lesley Stahl having a testy confrontation with Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes; and, of course, Secretary of State Al Haig’s infamous nervous, sweaty “I’m in charge here” pronouncement. Later in the evening, when regular programming resumes, CBS hastily replaces the scheduled episode of M*A*S*H with a rerun. Part of the plot of the delayed episode involved Charles nearly being killed when a sniper’s bullet passes through his cap.
1982: USA Tuesday Night Fights debuts on the USA Network.
1990: Rush Limbaugh, guest hosting on CBS’s soon to be canceled Pat Sajak Show, stirs up a hornet’s nest with a bizarre and controversial show. He has a verbal confrontation with an audience member over the subject of abortion, whines that there is “an underlying prejudice” against him, temporarily relocates to another studio to conduct an interview, then returns to endure heckling and catcalls from the studio audience. (At one point, Limbaugh simply stares silently into the camera for a full minute as insults ring out in the studio.) During a commercial break, the audience is cleared, and Limbaugh hosts the remainder of the show in an empty studio. He later charges CBS with deliberately “planting” dissidents in the audience as a publicity stunt.
1997: At 6 pm, Five, the U.K.'s fifth and last terrestrial analog network, launches with a special video of the Spice Girls, who perform “1-2-3-4-5” (a rewritten version of the Manfred Mann song “5-4-3-2-1”).
1999: Comedian Gary Morton (2nd husband of Lucille Ball) dies in Palm Springs, California of lung cancer, aged 74.
2001: The Fairly OddParents and Invader ZIM premiere on Nickelodeon.
2004: Journalist Alastair Cooke (Omnibus, Masterpiece Theatre) dies of heart disease and cancer in New York City, aged 95.
(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…..)
1917: Actor Herbert Anderson (Dennis the Menace) is born in Oakland, California.
1927: Actor/singer/game show host Peter Marshall (Hollywood Squares) is born (as Ralph Pierre LaCock) in Huntington, West Virginia.
1930: Actor John Astin (The Addams Family, Night Court) is born in Baltimore, Maryland.
1959: WNED-TV (channel 17) signs on in Buffalo, New York. The educational outlet takes over the channel formerly occupied by WBUF-TV, a defunct station that had been, for a brief time, an NBC O&O outlet intended to see if UHF could compete with VHF.
1964: Jeopardy! premieres on NBC.
1970: Somerset, a spin-off from Another World, debuts on NBC.
1971: Actor Mark Consuelos (All My Children) is born in Zaragoza, Spain.
1973: The last original episode of Mission: Impossible airs on CBS.
1981: President Ronald Reagan and three others are struck by gunfire from deranged would-be assassin John Hinckley, Jr. outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. Networks immediately begin live uninterrupted coverage of the assassination attempt, leaving TV viewers with many vivid memories: CBS’ Dan Rather thrust into the limelight less than a month after replacing Walter Cronkite; veteran Frank Reynold’s angry on-air outburst on ABC after learning the reports of Press Secretary James Brady’s death were erroneous; CBS’s Lesley Stahl having a testy confrontation with Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes; and, of course, Secretary of State Al Haig’s infamous nervous, sweaty “I’m in charge here” pronouncement. Later in the evening, when regular programming resumes, CBS hastily replaces the scheduled episode of M*A*S*H with a rerun. Part of the plot of the delayed episode involved Charles nearly being killed when a sniper’s bullet passes through his cap.
1982: USA Tuesday Night Fights debuts on the USA Network.
1990: Rush Limbaugh, guest hosting on CBS’s soon to be canceled Pat Sajak Show, stirs up a hornet’s nest with a bizarre and controversial show. He has a verbal confrontation with an audience member over the subject of abortion, whines that there is “an underlying prejudice” against him, temporarily relocates to another studio to conduct an interview, then returns to endure heckling and catcalls from the studio audience. (At one point, Limbaugh simply stares silently into the camera for a full minute as insults ring out in the studio.) During a commercial break, the audience is cleared, and Limbaugh hosts the remainder of the show in an empty studio. He later charges CBS with deliberately “planting” dissidents in the audience as a publicity stunt.
1997: At 6 pm, Five, the U.K.'s fifth and last terrestrial analog network, launches with a special video of the Spice Girls, who perform “1-2-3-4-5” (a rewritten version of the Manfred Mann song “5-4-3-2-1”).
1999: Comedian Gary Morton (2nd husband of Lucille Ball) dies in Palm Springs, California of lung cancer, aged 74.
2001: The Fairly OddParents and Invader ZIM premiere on Nickelodeon.
2004: Journalist Alastair Cooke (Omnibus, Masterpiece Theatre) dies of heart disease and cancer in New York City, aged 95.
(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…..)
