Just a few random TV related events that happened on May 12. Discuss or comment as you please……
1914: Journalist Howard K. Smith is born in Ferriday, Louisiana.
1936: Journalist Tom Snyder (The Tomorrow Show, The Late Late Show) is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1937: Comedian George Carlin is born in New York City.
1937: The BBC uses its remote television broadcast unit for the first time, to televise the coronation of King George VI. A fragment of this broadcast is one of the earliest surviving examples of British television (filmed off-screen at home by an engineer with an 8-mm movie camera).
1938: Lest you think that NBC technical screw-ups involving skipped or out of order segments (think 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee, or Loose Change) is a more modern-day phenomenon.....on this day, W2XBS telecasts the 1937 film “Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel.” Yep, you guessed it...the projectionist accidentally plays the last reel out of order, ending the film 20 minutes early.
1963: After 7 seasons on NBC, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show airs its final show.
1963: Scheduled to make his first nationwide television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Bob Dylan instead angrily walks out of rehearsal when he is informed that the song he is planning to sing (“Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues,” lampooning the John Birch Society and the red-hunting paranoia associated with it) has been rejected by the network as “unacceptable for broadcast.” Dylan refuses to substitute another song, and blows off the gig.
1969: Actress Kim Fields (The Facts of Life, Living Single) is born in New York City.
1971: Actress Jamie Luner (Just the Ten of Us, Melrose Place) is born in Palo Alto, California.
1982: The 82nd and final original episode of The Incredible Hulk is aired on CBS.
1986: During a broadcast of the NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration, the new “peacock” logo is introduced to America. The shotgun marriage of that ugly “N” and peacock ends (no one crying about that), and the bird finally assumes its official place as NBC's symbol. The peacock's head is now flipped to the right to imply looking forward, not back. The eleven feathers from the previous peacock logo have been reduced to six, symbolizing NBC's six divisions at the time (News, Sports, Entertainment, Stations, Network and Productions). The logo remains in use today, under strict network guidelines to affiliates, vendors, and contractors, including proper RGB, CMYK or Pantone colors for reproduction.
1987: Gimme a Break! ends a 6-season run on NBC.
1992: Actor Robert Reed (The Defenders, The Brady Bunch, Mannix) dies in Pasadena, California of bladder and colon cancer and complications from AIDS, aged 59.
1993: The Wonder Years ends on ABC after 6 seasons and 115 episodes.
1995: CBS’s As the World Turns airs its 10,000th episode.
2001: Six days short of his 89th birthday, crooner Perry Como dies quietly in his sleep at his home in Jupiter Inlet Colony, Florida.
(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…..)
1914: Journalist Howard K. Smith is born in Ferriday, Louisiana.
1936: Journalist Tom Snyder (The Tomorrow Show, The Late Late Show) is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1937: Comedian George Carlin is born in New York City.
1937: The BBC uses its remote television broadcast unit for the first time, to televise the coronation of King George VI. A fragment of this broadcast is one of the earliest surviving examples of British television (filmed off-screen at home by an engineer with an 8-mm movie camera).
1938: Lest you think that NBC technical screw-ups involving skipped or out of order segments (think 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee, or Loose Change) is a more modern-day phenomenon.....on this day, W2XBS telecasts the 1937 film “Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel.” Yep, you guessed it...the projectionist accidentally plays the last reel out of order, ending the film 20 minutes early.
1963: After 7 seasons on NBC, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show airs its final show.
1963: Scheduled to make his first nationwide television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Bob Dylan instead angrily walks out of rehearsal when he is informed that the song he is planning to sing (“Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues,” lampooning the John Birch Society and the red-hunting paranoia associated with it) has been rejected by the network as “unacceptable for broadcast.” Dylan refuses to substitute another song, and blows off the gig.
1969: Actress Kim Fields (The Facts of Life, Living Single) is born in New York City.
1971: Actress Jamie Luner (Just the Ten of Us, Melrose Place) is born in Palo Alto, California.
1982: The 82nd and final original episode of The Incredible Hulk is aired on CBS.
1986: During a broadcast of the NBC 60th Anniversary Celebration, the new “peacock” logo is introduced to America. The shotgun marriage of that ugly “N” and peacock ends (no one crying about that), and the bird finally assumes its official place as NBC's symbol. The peacock's head is now flipped to the right to imply looking forward, not back. The eleven feathers from the previous peacock logo have been reduced to six, symbolizing NBC's six divisions at the time (News, Sports, Entertainment, Stations, Network and Productions). The logo remains in use today, under strict network guidelines to affiliates, vendors, and contractors, including proper RGB, CMYK or Pantone colors for reproduction.
1987: Gimme a Break! ends a 6-season run on NBC.
1992: Actor Robert Reed (The Defenders, The Brady Bunch, Mannix) dies in Pasadena, California of bladder and colon cancer and complications from AIDS, aged 59.
1993: The Wonder Years ends on ABC after 6 seasons and 115 episodes.
1995: CBS’s As the World Turns airs its 10,000th episode.
2001: Six days short of his 89th birthday, crooner Perry Como dies quietly in his sleep at his home in Jupiter Inlet Colony, Florida.
(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…..)
