Just a few random TV related events that happened on May 25. Discuss or comment as you please……
1932: Actor Roger Bowen (Arnie) is born in Atttleboro, Massachusetts.
1939: Actress Dixie Carter (The Edge of Night, Diff’rent Strokes, Designing Women) is born in McLemoresville, Tennessee.
1944: The first commercial U.S. relay telecast takes place as Eddie Cantor is broadcast from Philco's Philadelphia station WPTZ to NBC's Manhattan station WNBT via an automatic relay tower halfway between the two cities. (An AT&T coaxial cable between the cities is in place, but is unavailable because of the war.) Arriving shortly before airtime at the Philadelphia studios, Cantor is told to change his planned song ("We're Havin' A Baby, My Baby And Me") because the NBC censors consider some of the lyrics too risqué. Cantor refuses, claiming no time to prepare an alternative number. NBC relents, but the sound is cut and the picture blurred on certain lines in the song. This is considered to be one of the first instances of television censorship.
1945: Following on CBS engineers’ wartime development and research of technologies for broadcasting at UHF frequencies, the FCC formally designates 480-920 mHz as an unchanneled experimental band for future expansion of black-and-white and development of color television.
1947: Actress Karen Valentine (Room 222, Karen) is born in Sebastopol, California.
1953: KUHT (channel 8 ) launches in Houston, Texas from the Ezekiel W. Cullen Building on the University of Houston campus as the first public television station in the United States. The station was built for $350,000 and had an initial annual operating budget of $110,000. (A lot of dough by early 1950’s standards – a laughable pittance for a TV station today!)
1953: KVEC-TV (channel 6, later KSBY) signs on in San Luis Obispo, California.
1963: Actor Mike Myers (Saturday Night Live) is born in Scarborough, Ontario.
1988: St. Elsewhere ends its 6-season run on NBC with an infamous and controversial finale in which the entire series is ultimately revealed to have been the snow-globe induced fantasy of an autistic child.
1990: Actor Vic Tayback (Alice) dies in Glendale, California of a heart attack, aged 60.
1990: It’s Garry Shandling’s Show ends a 4-season run on Showtime. A critical and cult success, the show was known for it’s self-referential theme song and its constant breaking of the “fourth wall.”
1992: Jay Leno debuts as the new permanent host of The Tonight Show on NBC.
1999: Home Improvement airs its 204th and final original episode on ABC.
2007: Actor Charles Nelson Reilly dies in Beverly Hills, California of complications from pneumonia, aged 76.
(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…..)
1932: Actor Roger Bowen (Arnie) is born in Atttleboro, Massachusetts.
1939: Actress Dixie Carter (The Edge of Night, Diff’rent Strokes, Designing Women) is born in McLemoresville, Tennessee.
1944: The first commercial U.S. relay telecast takes place as Eddie Cantor is broadcast from Philco's Philadelphia station WPTZ to NBC's Manhattan station WNBT via an automatic relay tower halfway between the two cities. (An AT&T coaxial cable between the cities is in place, but is unavailable because of the war.) Arriving shortly before airtime at the Philadelphia studios, Cantor is told to change his planned song ("We're Havin' A Baby, My Baby And Me") because the NBC censors consider some of the lyrics too risqué. Cantor refuses, claiming no time to prepare an alternative number. NBC relents, but the sound is cut and the picture blurred on certain lines in the song. This is considered to be one of the first instances of television censorship.
1945: Following on CBS engineers’ wartime development and research of technologies for broadcasting at UHF frequencies, the FCC formally designates 480-920 mHz as an unchanneled experimental band for future expansion of black-and-white and development of color television.
1947: Actress Karen Valentine (Room 222, Karen) is born in Sebastopol, California.
1953: KUHT (channel 8 ) launches in Houston, Texas from the Ezekiel W. Cullen Building on the University of Houston campus as the first public television station in the United States. The station was built for $350,000 and had an initial annual operating budget of $110,000. (A lot of dough by early 1950’s standards – a laughable pittance for a TV station today!)
1953: KVEC-TV (channel 6, later KSBY) signs on in San Luis Obispo, California.
1963: Actor Mike Myers (Saturday Night Live) is born in Scarborough, Ontario.
1988: St. Elsewhere ends its 6-season run on NBC with an infamous and controversial finale in which the entire series is ultimately revealed to have been the snow-globe induced fantasy of an autistic child.
1990: Actor Vic Tayback (Alice) dies in Glendale, California of a heart attack, aged 60.
1990: It’s Garry Shandling’s Show ends a 4-season run on Showtime. A critical and cult success, the show was known for it’s self-referential theme song and its constant breaking of the “fourth wall.”
1992: Jay Leno debuts as the new permanent host of The Tonight Show on NBC.
1999: Home Improvement airs its 204th and final original episode on ABC.
2007: Actor Charles Nelson Reilly dies in Beverly Hills, California of complications from pneumonia, aged 76.
(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…..)
