May 20: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on May 20. Discuss or comment as you please……

[NOTE: Some of these May dates are full of series finales and last episodes. Rather than devote separate lines to each, I will just mention that some of the well-known series that had a May 20 swan song include Barney Miller, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Ally McBeal, Cheers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Search, and Roseanne.)

1919: Comedian George Gobel is born in Chicago.

1960: Actor John Billingsley (Star Trek: Enterprise) is born in Media, Pennsylvania.

1966: Actress Mindy Cohn (The Facts of Life)

1966: TV host and legal commentator Dan Abrams is born in New York City.

1989: One of the saddest TV deaths in my lifetime: the delightful Gilda Radner (Saturday Night Live) dies of cancer, aged 42. (Husband Gene Wilder’s account of her final days is heartbreaking...)

1996: Actor Jon Pertwee (Doctor Who [The Third Doctor]) dies of a heart attack in Timber Lake, Connecticut (while on a U.S. fan convention tour), aged 76. In his native England, Pertwee is equally, if not more, renowned for his starring role in Worzel Gummidge, an ITV series rarely, if ever, seen in the U.S.

2002: Legendary Southern California TV anchor Jerry Dunphy dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles, aged 80. His TV career spanned almost 5 decades, from 1953 up until the week of his death, including an unbroken 42-year SoCal stint (at KNXT/KCBS-TV, KABC-TV, and KCAL-TV). Immensely popular with viewers, he was known for his catchy intro: "From the desert to the sea, to all of Southern California, a good evening."

2006: During BBC One's live televised National Lottery drawing, six protesters from the men’s rights group Fathers 4 Justice run from the audience onto the stage waving placards and posters. The show is temporarily taken off-air, leaving just a program logo and announcer’s voice until the protesters can be removed from the studio, and the lottery draws hurriedly finished without impacting the program schedule. (It is said that the group chose the lottery drawing knowing well that many viewers would have tuned in early in anticipation of the following program -- the hugely-popular Eurovision Song Contest finals -- thus assuring them of the largest possible audience for their protest.)

2007: The Simpsons reaches its landmark 400th episode.

(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…..)

 

[radioman148]

Indeed Gilda Radner's death was very sad. Way too young!

 

[mleach]

2007: The Simpsons reaches its landmark 400th episode.

Several years back ( around 2000 ) I remember reading in the paper an interview with Simpsons' Matt Groening where he claimed that the Simpsons would come to an end in the form of a major motion picture. 20th Centruy Fox actually had reserved the domain name for simpsonsmovie.com way back in 1997 long before the movie was even green lighted.

Well its been almost two years since The Simpsons Movie did theatres to mixed reactions and the Simpsons are still doing new shows, even though its not hard to find those who believe the quailty of the show has gone down..way down in recent years.

 

[RicoGregg]

2002: Legendary Southern California TV anchor Jerry Dunphy dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles, aged 80. His TV career spanned almost 5 decades, from 1953 up until the week of his death, including an unbroken 42-year SoCal stint (at KNXT/KCBS-TV, KABC-TV, and KCAL-TV). Immensely popular with viewers, he was known for his catchy intro: "From the desert to the sea, to all of Southern California, a good evening."

Over at KSPN (710), David Vasseigh, producer/call screener of the McDonnell-Douglas Show (Joe McDonnell & Doug Krikorian), who is often allowed to speak on the air, announces to the world that Jerry Dunphy had died -- On May 17th! This sets off a flurry of incorrect announcements by other media outlets, media inquiries to KCAL-TV, CBS, & the Dunphy family, and total embarrassment to KSPN, then-owner ABC, and to hosts McDonnell & Krikorian. McDonnell repeatedly calls Vasseigh an idiot.

There are good reasons why you don't let talk show screeners talk on the air. This was THE prime example. Amazingly, Vasseigh is still employed in radio, and both McDonnell & Krikorian are not. Go figure.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

[NOTE: Some of these May dates are full of series finales and last episodes. Rather than devote separate lines to each, I will just mention that some of the well-known series that had a May 20 swan song include Barney Miller, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Ally McBeal, Cheers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Search, and Roseanne.)

1993: Cheers ends an 11-year run on NBC. After the final show, Jay Leno takes his "Tonight Show" on the road to Boston to the Bull and Finch Pub which inspired the series, and this interview occurred with the cast afterwards (let me just say that had a little too much beverages to drink):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTzuO4XnY-Q

 

[FreddyE1977]

at this point I think the only way that The Simpsons is ever coming to an end will be if
Nancy Cartwright, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria or Dan Castalanetta gets hit by a bus
(which I certainly hope does not happen!)

 

[LKellerIII]

at this point I think the only way that The Simpsons is ever coming to an end will be if
Nancy Cartwright, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria or Dan Castalanetta gets hit by a bus
(which I certainly hope does not happen!)

I hope not, too. But I'm not sure that would end the show in any case. Animated characters tend to live on with only minor voice changes when their original voice passes on to that recording studio in the sky. Cases in point: Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Barney Rubble), Alan Reed (Fred Flintstone), Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson), Lorenzo Music (Garfield)...many others.

 

[Ultimajock]

at this point I think the only way that The Simpsons is ever coming to an end will be if
Nancy Cartwright, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria or Dan Castalanetta gets hit by a bus
(which I certainly hope does not happen!)

...don't think that the idea of doing such to be rid of an association with Rupert Murdoch hasn't crawled across Harry Shearer's mind from time to time ;-) ...