March 4: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on March 4. Discuss or comment as you please……

1939: The BBC broadcasts one of the first plays to be written especially for television: “Condemned To Be Shot” by R. E. J. Brooke. The production is notable for the then-novel concept of using a camera as the first-person perspective of the play's unseen central character.

1954: The first shipment to TV stations of compatible color cameras and associated studio equipment is made from RCA's plant in Camden, New Jersey. Among the recipients are the first 3 local stations to begin live color transmissions: WKY-TV Oklahoma City, WBAP-TV Ft. Worth, and WTMJ Milwaukee.

1968: The first of 9 separate incarnations (so far) of The Dick Cavett Show premieres on ABC daytime.

1970: WTCI-TV (channel 45) signs on in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

1975: Television cameras are allowed in the Canadian Parliament for the first time.

1975: The first People's Choice Awards are broadcast on CBS.

1987: Silver Spoons ends a 5-season, 116-episode run; mostly on NBC, but the last season in syndication.

1994: Actor John Candy (SCTV) dies in Durango, Mexico (on location while filming the movie “Wagons East!”) of a heart attack, aged 43.

1996: Comedian Minnie Pearl (Hee Haw) dies in Nashville from complications due to a stroke, aged 83.

1997: Just Shoot Me! and The Practice debut on NBC.

(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…..)

 

[KML0224]

To clarify, WKY-TV is now KFOR-TV/DT (NBC) channel 4/digital 27 and WBAP-TV is now KXAS-TV/DT (NBC) channel 5/digital 41.

 

[RyanHoward]

The Practice was on ABC, NOT NBC!!--You probably were thinking of Danny Thomas'
ill-fated 1976 sitcom, also called The Practice.

 

[Stanislav]

The Practice was on ABC, NOT NBC!!--You probably were thinking of Danny Thomas'
ill-fated 1976 sitcom, also called The Practice.

So sue me.....

 

[ixnay]

The Practice was on ABC, NOT NBC!!--You probably were thinking of Danny Thomas'
ill-fated 1976 sitcom, also called The Practice.

So sue me.....

I think Stanislav's kidding, Ryan. I *think*.

When ABC's The Practice premiered, I remember seeing that title and more or less automatically thinking of the 1976 Danny Thomas* series.

I was wondering when Canada began televising Parliament proceedings. I believe C-SPAN in the US began beaming House proceedings in 1976 and Senate proceedings in 1986.

I was vacationing in Canada in 1987 and one morning while channel surfing came across a televised proceeding in the House of Commons.

*You probably aced Miami Dolphin-ology 101 if you know that Danny Thomas was a founding investor in the Fins (he and Joe Robbie were Lebanese-Americans). That according to The League by David Harris, a wonderful business history of the NFL (and AFL).

ixnay

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1895: Three Stooges member Shemp Howard (d. 1955) is born Samuel Horwitz in Brownsville (part of Brooklyn), NY.

 

[Ultimajock]

*You probably aced Miami Dolphin-ology 101 if you know that Danny Thomas was a founding investor in the Fins (he and Joe Robbie were Lebanese-Americans). That according to The League by David Harris, a wonderful business history of the NFL (and AFL).

...as well, Thomas was a part owner of KZAZ/11 Nogales, Arizona, when it signed on the air (the station is now KMSB/v11 Tucson, the Fox affiliate here, and thanks to digital TV, can no longer be recieved terrestrially in its original city of license)...