Just a few random TV related events that happened on May 21. 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 better-known series that had a May 21 swan song include Laramie, The Untouchables, Miami Vice, MacGyver, Charmed, Homicide: Life on the Street, and Millenium.)
1916: Singer Dennis Day (The Jack Benny Program) is born (as Owen Patrick Eugene McNulty) in New York City.
1917: Actor Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, Ironside) is born in New Westminster, British Columbia.
1924: Actress/comedienne/game show panelist Peggy Cass (The Hathaways, The Doctors, To Tell the Truth) is born (as Mary Margaret Cass) in Boston, Massachusetts.
1939: Actor David Groh (Rhoda) is born in Brooklyn, New York.
1940: Bell Telephone Laboratories transmits a 441-line video signal, with a bandwidth of 2.7 MHz, by coaxial cable from New York to Philadelphia and back.
1950: Faith for Today premieres on ABC. After a 5-year network run, this Sunday morning staple would continue producing first-run shows for syndication through 1981.
1952: Actor Mr. T (The A-Team) is born (as Laurence Tureaud) in Chicago.
1955: WNAM-TV (channel 42) signs on in Neenah, Wisconsin. Never heard of it, you say? Well, a few years up the road, the station would change channel, calls, and city of license, and become WFRV-TV (channel 5) in Green Bay. Sound a bit more familiar now?
1956: WITI (channel 6) begins operating in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1966: Actress Lisa Edelstein (House, M.D.) is born in Boston, Massachusetts.
1971: The New Andy Griffith Show airs its 13th and final episode on CBS. It is Griffith’s second failed series attempt after leaving his hugely successful Andy Griffith Show in 1968. (The first, The Headmaster, died a quick death as well.) There would be yet another series bomb (1979’s Salvage 1) before Griffith would get his mojo back as Matlock in 1986.
1978: Writer/produced Bruce Geller (Zane Grey Theater, Have Gun, Will Travel, The Rifleman, Rawhide, Mission: Impossible, Mannix) dies, aged 47, when the Cessna 337D Skymaster he is piloting crashes into Buena Vista Canyon near Santa Barbara, California.
1990: Best...series...finale...EVER. Newhart ends its CBS run with a bang. (If you don’t know how it ended, shame on you – turn in your TV Geek ID Card and Decoder Ring...) Urban Legend or Fact Department: the finale, by design, runs 30 seconds longer than the typical episode. Somehow, WRGB (Schenectady, New York) is the only CBS affiliate that does not get advised of this by the network. Partway through the concluding scene, WRGB's control room automatically cuts to a male anchor to read teasers for the 11 p.m. newscast, but he is visibly surprised at suddenly seeing his own face appearing on the monitor, as he was watching the end of the episode along with about 30 million other viewers! (OK, anyone want to confirm or deny this Wikipedia nugget? First I’ve heard of it – if true, I’d love to see that clip turn up on YouTube...)
1987: The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd debuts on NBC. The series would have two 13-episode mid-season replacement stints on the network (1987 and 1988), then move to cable, where Lifetime would commission three additional 13-episode runs from 1989-91.
1991: After nearly a decade of operation on cable and on selected OTA stations, FNN (Financial News Network) breathes its last, brought down by a financial scandal and an accounting dispute. They are purchased by competitor CNBC, who take over their satellite transponder and cable slots the next day, more than doubling their audience in one stroke. The channel would be co-branded as CNBC/FNN for the next year, and the merged operation would inherit some of FNN’s features and a few of their on-air personalities.
1992: The Real World premieres on MTV.
1999: Nineteenth time’s the charm: Susan Lucci (All My Children) finally wins a Daytime Emmy after having previously amassed a “perfect” record of 18 nominations, no wins.
2003: Third time’s definitely NOT the charm here: the third incarnation of The Twlight Zone ends its one and only season on UPN.
2004: Announcer Gene Wood (Beat the Clock, Family Feud, Card Sharks, Password, Love Connection, Win Lose or Draw, others) dies of cancer, aged 78.
2005: Actor and voice artist Howard Morris (Your Show of Shows, The Andy Griffith Show) dies of a heart ailment in Los Angeles, aged 85.
2006: Mike Wallace makes his final appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes.
(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…..)
[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 better-known series that had a May 21 swan song include Laramie, The Untouchables, Miami Vice, MacGyver, Charmed, Homicide: Life on the Street, and Millenium.)
1916: Singer Dennis Day (The Jack Benny Program) is born (as Owen Patrick Eugene McNulty) in New York City.
1917: Actor Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, Ironside) is born in New Westminster, British Columbia.
1924: Actress/comedienne/game show panelist Peggy Cass (The Hathaways, The Doctors, To Tell the Truth) is born (as Mary Margaret Cass) in Boston, Massachusetts.
1939: Actor David Groh (Rhoda) is born in Brooklyn, New York.
1940: Bell Telephone Laboratories transmits a 441-line video signal, with a bandwidth of 2.7 MHz, by coaxial cable from New York to Philadelphia and back.
1950: Faith for Today premieres on ABC. After a 5-year network run, this Sunday morning staple would continue producing first-run shows for syndication through 1981.
1952: Actor Mr. T (The A-Team) is born (as Laurence Tureaud) in Chicago.
1955: WNAM-TV (channel 42) signs on in Neenah, Wisconsin. Never heard of it, you say? Well, a few years up the road, the station would change channel, calls, and city of license, and become WFRV-TV (channel 5) in Green Bay. Sound a bit more familiar now?
1956: WITI (channel 6) begins operating in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
1966: Actress Lisa Edelstein (House, M.D.) is born in Boston, Massachusetts.
1971: The New Andy Griffith Show airs its 13th and final episode on CBS. It is Griffith’s second failed series attempt after leaving his hugely successful Andy Griffith Show in 1968. (The first, The Headmaster, died a quick death as well.) There would be yet another series bomb (1979’s Salvage 1) before Griffith would get his mojo back as Matlock in 1986.
1978: Writer/produced Bruce Geller (Zane Grey Theater, Have Gun, Will Travel, The Rifleman, Rawhide, Mission: Impossible, Mannix) dies, aged 47, when the Cessna 337D Skymaster he is piloting crashes into Buena Vista Canyon near Santa Barbara, California.
1990: Best...series...finale...EVER. Newhart ends its CBS run with a bang. (If you don’t know how it ended, shame on you – turn in your TV Geek ID Card and Decoder Ring...) Urban Legend or Fact Department: the finale, by design, runs 30 seconds longer than the typical episode. Somehow, WRGB (Schenectady, New York) is the only CBS affiliate that does not get advised of this by the network. Partway through the concluding scene, WRGB's control room automatically cuts to a male anchor to read teasers for the 11 p.m. newscast, but he is visibly surprised at suddenly seeing his own face appearing on the monitor, as he was watching the end of the episode along with about 30 million other viewers! (OK, anyone want to confirm or deny this Wikipedia nugget? First I’ve heard of it – if true, I’d love to see that clip turn up on YouTube...)
1987: The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd debuts on NBC. The series would have two 13-episode mid-season replacement stints on the network (1987 and 1988), then move to cable, where Lifetime would commission three additional 13-episode runs from 1989-91.
1991: After nearly a decade of operation on cable and on selected OTA stations, FNN (Financial News Network) breathes its last, brought down by a financial scandal and an accounting dispute. They are purchased by competitor CNBC, who take over their satellite transponder and cable slots the next day, more than doubling their audience in one stroke. The channel would be co-branded as CNBC/FNN for the next year, and the merged operation would inherit some of FNN’s features and a few of their on-air personalities.
1992: The Real World premieres on MTV.
1999: Nineteenth time’s the charm: Susan Lucci (All My Children) finally wins a Daytime Emmy after having previously amassed a “perfect” record of 18 nominations, no wins.
2003: Third time’s definitely NOT the charm here: the third incarnation of The Twlight Zone ends its one and only season on UPN.
2004: Announcer Gene Wood (Beat the Clock, Family Feud, Card Sharks, Password, Love Connection, Win Lose or Draw, others) dies of cancer, aged 78.
2005: Actor and voice artist Howard Morris (Your Show of Shows, The Andy Griffith Show) dies of a heart ailment in Los Angeles, aged 85.
2006: Mike Wallace makes his final appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes.
(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…..)
