November 14:This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on November 14. Discuss or comment as you please……

1916: Producer Sherwood Schwartz (Gilligan’s Island, The Brady Bunch) in born in Passaic, New Jersey.

1921: Actor Brian Keith (Family Affair, Hardcastle and McCormick) is born (as Robert Keith Richey Jr.) in Bayonne, New Jersey.

1952: Actor Ray Sharkey (Wiseguy) is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1953: WCIA-TV (channel 3) begins broadcasting in Champaign, Illinois.

1965: Scientist/inventor/etc. Allen B. DuMont dies in Montclair, New Jersey, aged 64.

1988: Murphy Brown premieres on CBS.

2001: The Bernie Mac Show debuts on Fox.

(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…..)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1904: Radio and film actor Dick Powell (d. Jan. 2, 1963) is born Richard Ewing Powell in Mountain View, AR. Near the end of his life (he passed away from lymphoma at age 58) he was one of the founders of Four-Star Television, and also appeared in "Four Star Playhouse," "The Law and Mr. Jones," and was the host of "Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater" on CBS from 1956-61.

 

[wbhist]

1904: Radio and film actor Dick Powell (d. Jan. 2, 1963) is born Richard Ewing Powell in Mountain View, AR. Near the end of his life (he passed away from lymphoma at age 58) he was one of the founders of Four-Star Television, and also appeared in "Four Star Playhouse," "The Law and Mr. Jones," and was the host of "Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater" on CBS from 1956-61.

That's not all. In an episode his 1961-63 drama anthology series The Dick Powell Show, he was the first to play Amos Burke in an installment entitled "Who Killed Julie Greer?" By the time what became Burke's Law was ready to be picked up as a TV series, Powell was dead, so the role went to Gene Barry.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

That's not all. In an episode his 1961-63 drama anthology series The Dick Powell Show, he was the first to play Amos Burke in an installment entitled "Who Killed Julie Greer?" By the time what became Burke's Law was ready to be picked up as a TV series, Powell was dead, so the role went to Gene Barry.

"Never die before your anthology installment gets made into a series...Burke's Law."

 

[therealjm12]

Legend had it that Dick Powell was one of Hollywood's most conservative residents. He was was a big supporter of Joe McCarthy and black listing. He was, also, very close friends with Ronald Reagan (GE Theatre, Death Valley Days) and had a great amount of changing his political views from a FDR New Dealer to a right winger. I guess Dick Powell had a lot of influence long after his death.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1961: Actress Elizabeth Keifer ("Guiding Light," "Young and the Restless") is born in Pacific Palisades, CA.

 

[bpatrick]

1961: The game show "Yours For A Song" is hastily introduced
into ABC's Tuesday-night schedule. It's notable as the
last game show (not counting the "Hollywood Squares"
pilot) that Bert Parks--that most ubiquitous of hosts in
the '50s--emceed. The primetime show will last until
September 18, 1962; a daytime version will air from December
4, 1961 to March 29, 1963. After that, Parks will be known
almost exclusively as host of the Miss America Pageant until
he's fired at age 65 in 1980; he'll also host the syndicated
"Circus!" in the early '70s.

 

[wbhist]

1961: The game show "Yours For A Song" is hastily introduced into ABC's Tuesday-night schedule. It's notable as the
last game show (not counting the "Hollywood Squares" pilot) that Bert Parks--that most ubiquitous of hosts in
the '50s--emceed. The primetime show will last until September 18, 1962; a daytime version will air from December
4, 1961 to March 29, 1963. After that, Parks will be known almost exclusively as host of the Miss America Pageant until
he's fired at age 65 in 1980; he'll also host the syndicated "Circus!" in the early '70s.

Yours for a Song (whose producer, Harry Salter, had been musical director for Stop the Music that Parks hosted in the late 1940's) relied exclusively on public-domain song titles for use in what to test contestants on, given that ABC in those days was the most financially precarious of the three networks (so much so that it wasn't until 1962 that they began broadcasting anything in color). In fact, all care was meant to ensure that the songs used in the game were all public domain - unlike with, say, Name That Tune in all its incarnations.

The production company responsible for the show was located in a hotel that overlooked Central Park South. TV sets were in the office, and if any space launches took place, all activity in the office would stop - especially given that astronaut John Glenn was a contestant on Name That Tune (which Salter also created and was original producer of) back in 1957.

As a side note, Salter's wife, Roberta, was the daughter of the late Aimee Semple McPherson.

 

[bpatrick]

I'm not surprised to learn that all the songs on "Yours For A Song"
were in the public domain; the one thing I remember about that show
was that Parks would lead the audience in singalongs of the songs
being used, and they would always be old chestnuts like "Bicycle Built
For Two" or "Toot Toot Tootsie, Goodbye".

Also, I believe the show was done live (as were ABC's other New York-
based games such as "Camouflage" and "Who Do You Trust?"), so it's
no wonder everything would stop when there was a space shot; the
daytime show aired at 11:30 AM on a clock-time schedule, which ABC
used in those days to get "American Bandstand" on at 4 everywhere.