Just a few random TV related events that happened on May 16 (big day!). Discuss or comment as you please……
1931: Actor Jack Dodson (The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry R.F.D.) is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1937: Actress Yvonne Craig (Batman) is born in Taylorville, Illinois. After setting pubescent young men’s libidos ablaze in the 60’s as Batgirl (and as the green-skinned Orion slave girl in the Star Trek episode “Whom Gods Destroy”), Craig would by the mid-70’s retire from acting to produce industrial shows, and later start a successful real estate business.
1947: Actor Bill Smitrovich (Crime Story, Life Goes On, The Practice) is born in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
1949: KFMB-TV (channel 8 ) signs on as San Diego’s first TV station. They are the only major station in the market to have maintained their primary network affiliation (CBS) throughout their history.
1951: Actress Laurette Spang-McCook (the original Battlestar Galactica) is born in Buffalo, New York. In the TV-movie that spawned the original series, her character (Cassiopeia) was a “socialator” (i.e., prostitute). Despite her character’s profession being considered an honorable one on her home planet, blessed by the elders, ABC’s Standards and Practices apparently felt that a whore by any other name is still a whore, and Cassiopeia would suddenly go “legit” and become a Medical Technologist in the regular series. :
(Spang-McCook would later retire from acting in 1984 to become a full-time housewife and mother.)
1954: The Educational Television and Radio Center (ETRC), which would eventually be known as National Educational Television (NET), commences operation as a non-interconnected TV “network.” The ETRC had, since November 1952, been providing a limited service for exchanging and distributing educational programs produced by local television stations to other stations. Today, they begin providing by mail a daily five-hour package of their own programming, primarily on kinescope film, to their affiliated stations. Initially, the programs are noted for being in-depth and intelligent on one hand, but dry and boring as all get-out on the other.
1954: WGAN-TV (channel 13, now WGME-TV) begins operating in Portland, Maine.
1959: WTOM-TV (channel 4) signs on in Cheboygan, Michigan as a satellite of Traverse City’s WPBN-TV (channel 7).
1965: WIBF-TV (channel 29, now WTXF-TV) launches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1965: WNJU-TV (channel 47) signs on in Linden, New Jersey as the first commercial UHF station in the New York City television market. Its early years would feature a schedule of English, Asian, Spanish and Italian shows, including the live teenage dance show Disc-O-Teen, hosted by John Zacherle (a/k/a horror host Zacherley), and bullfights, which led to criticism from animal rights groups.
1969: Actor David Boreanaz (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Bones) is born in Buffalo, New York.
1969: Actress Tracey Gold (Growing Pains) is born (as Tracey Claire Fisher) in New York City.
1973: Actress Tori Spelling (Beverly Hills 90210) is born (as Victoria Davey Spelling) in Los Angeles.
1981: SCTV Network 90, a repackaging of the Canadian series SCTV, debuts on NBC.
1983: On the NBC special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, Michael Jackson sings and dances to his hit single "Billie Jean," performing for the first time his "moonwalk" dance.
1984: Actor/comedian Andy Kaufman (Taxi) dies in Los Angeles due to kidney failure, caused by metastasized large cell carcinoma (which began as a rare form of lung cancer), aged 35. Because Kaufman kept the true nature of his illness a secret almost until the day he died, and because he had allegedly told many people that he wished to fake his own death, there are still those who believe that Kaufman is alive, his alleged death being just “his ultimate stunt.”
1986: Bobby Ewing is revealed to be alive (and showering in his ex-wife Pam's bathroom) in the infamous Season Nine finale of Dallas. (In the September 26 season premiere, it would be shown that the entire 1985–86 season was a dream of hers the night after they agreed to remarry. A dream that, coincidentally, ended about the same time that actor Patrick Duffy suddenly decided he needed his Dallas paycheck after all...)
1990: Puppeteer Jim Henson (Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, etc.) dies in New York City of multiple organ failure due to septic shock brought on by a severe streptococcal infection, aged 53. (FWIW, contrary to reports at the time, Henson’s illness was not exacerbated by his refusing medical treatment. Although raised as a Christian Scientist, Henson did indeed seek a doctor’s care in the early stages of his illness. However, the failure of that doctor to diagnose the infection, combined with the incredible rapidity with which it spread through Henson’s body, made the illness impossible to arrest.)
1990: Entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. dies of throat cancer in Beverly Hills, California, aged 64.
2004: The Practice ends an 8-season run on ABC.
2004: Dance choreographer June Taylor (The Jackie Gleason Show) dies in Miami, Florida of natural causes, aged 87.
2005: The 210th and final original episode of Everybody Loves Raymond airs on ABC.
2007: CBS officially announces the cancellation of Jericho. A massive Internet fan campaign, bombarding the network with pleas not to pull the plug, eventually succeeds, winning Jericho a second season. (The series would, however, not be renewed for a third season.)
2008: After more than 3000 episodes over 17 years, the last Montel Williams Show airs in syndication. (Due to the vagaries of scheduling, some stations would show this final show one week later.) The show continues in reruns in selected cities and on BET.
(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…..)
1931: Actor Jack Dodson (The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry R.F.D.) is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1937: Actress Yvonne Craig (Batman) is born in Taylorville, Illinois. After setting pubescent young men’s libidos ablaze in the 60’s as Batgirl (and as the green-skinned Orion slave girl in the Star Trek episode “Whom Gods Destroy”), Craig would by the mid-70’s retire from acting to produce industrial shows, and later start a successful real estate business.
1947: Actor Bill Smitrovich (Crime Story, Life Goes On, The Practice) is born in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
1949: KFMB-TV (channel 8 ) signs on as San Diego’s first TV station. They are the only major station in the market to have maintained their primary network affiliation (CBS) throughout their history.
1951: Actress Laurette Spang-McCook (the original Battlestar Galactica) is born in Buffalo, New York. In the TV-movie that spawned the original series, her character (Cassiopeia) was a “socialator” (i.e., prostitute). Despite her character’s profession being considered an honorable one on her home planet, blessed by the elders, ABC’s Standards and Practices apparently felt that a whore by any other name is still a whore, and Cassiopeia would suddenly go “legit” and become a Medical Technologist in the regular series. :
(Spang-McCook would later retire from acting in 1984 to become a full-time housewife and mother.)1954: The Educational Television and Radio Center (ETRC), which would eventually be known as National Educational Television (NET), commences operation as a non-interconnected TV “network.” The ETRC had, since November 1952, been providing a limited service for exchanging and distributing educational programs produced by local television stations to other stations. Today, they begin providing by mail a daily five-hour package of their own programming, primarily on kinescope film, to their affiliated stations. Initially, the programs are noted for being in-depth and intelligent on one hand, but dry and boring as all get-out on the other.
1954: WGAN-TV (channel 13, now WGME-TV) begins operating in Portland, Maine.
1959: WTOM-TV (channel 4) signs on in Cheboygan, Michigan as a satellite of Traverse City’s WPBN-TV (channel 7).
1965: WIBF-TV (channel 29, now WTXF-TV) launches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1965: WNJU-TV (channel 47) signs on in Linden, New Jersey as the first commercial UHF station in the New York City television market. Its early years would feature a schedule of English, Asian, Spanish and Italian shows, including the live teenage dance show Disc-O-Teen, hosted by John Zacherle (a/k/a horror host Zacherley), and bullfights, which led to criticism from animal rights groups.
1969: Actor David Boreanaz (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Bones) is born in Buffalo, New York.
1969: Actress Tracey Gold (Growing Pains) is born (as Tracey Claire Fisher) in New York City.
1973: Actress Tori Spelling (Beverly Hills 90210) is born (as Victoria Davey Spelling) in Los Angeles.
1981: SCTV Network 90, a repackaging of the Canadian series SCTV, debuts on NBC.
1983: On the NBC special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, Michael Jackson sings and dances to his hit single "Billie Jean," performing for the first time his "moonwalk" dance.
1984: Actor/comedian Andy Kaufman (Taxi) dies in Los Angeles due to kidney failure, caused by metastasized large cell carcinoma (which began as a rare form of lung cancer), aged 35. Because Kaufman kept the true nature of his illness a secret almost until the day he died, and because he had allegedly told many people that he wished to fake his own death, there are still those who believe that Kaufman is alive, his alleged death being just “his ultimate stunt.”
1986: Bobby Ewing is revealed to be alive (and showering in his ex-wife Pam's bathroom) in the infamous Season Nine finale of Dallas. (In the September 26 season premiere, it would be shown that the entire 1985–86 season was a dream of hers the night after they agreed to remarry. A dream that, coincidentally, ended about the same time that actor Patrick Duffy suddenly decided he needed his Dallas paycheck after all...)
1990: Puppeteer Jim Henson (Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, etc.) dies in New York City of multiple organ failure due to septic shock brought on by a severe streptococcal infection, aged 53. (FWIW, contrary to reports at the time, Henson’s illness was not exacerbated by his refusing medical treatment. Although raised as a Christian Scientist, Henson did indeed seek a doctor’s care in the early stages of his illness. However, the failure of that doctor to diagnose the infection, combined with the incredible rapidity with which it spread through Henson’s body, made the illness impossible to arrest.)
1990: Entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. dies of throat cancer in Beverly Hills, California, aged 64.
2004: The Practice ends an 8-season run on ABC.
2004: Dance choreographer June Taylor (The Jackie Gleason Show) dies in Miami, Florida of natural causes, aged 87.
2005: The 210th and final original episode of Everybody Loves Raymond airs on ABC.
2007: CBS officially announces the cancellation of Jericho. A massive Internet fan campaign, bombarding the network with pleas not to pull the plug, eventually succeeds, winning Jericho a second season. (The series would, however, not be renewed for a third season.)
2008: After more than 3000 episodes over 17 years, the last Montel Williams Show airs in syndication. (Due to the vagaries of scheduling, some stations would show this final show one week later.) The show continues in reruns in selected cities and on BET.
(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…..)