October 10: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on October 10. Discuss or comment as you please……

1946: Actor/dancer/singer Ben Vereen (Roots, Tenspeed and Brownshoe) is born (as Benjamin Augustus Middleton) in Miami, Florida.

1954: KTIV (channel 4) makes its debut in Sioux City, Iowa. DYK: Legendary NBC newsman Tom Brokaw began his TV career at KTIV.

1957: Zorro premieres on ABC.

1959: Actor Bradley Whitford (The West Wing) is born in Madison, Wisconsin.

1962: McHale’s Navy premieres on ABC.

1963: An episode of ABC’s Dr. Kildare (“If You Can’t Handle the Truth”) features an unusual convergence of three guest stars in dramatic roles who are best remembered for their TV comedy characters: Bob Denver, Barbara Eden, and Ken Berry.

1964: The opening ceremony of the Tokyo summer games is telecast live in the U.S. via the geostationary satellite Syncom 3. It is the first transmission of a scheduled TV event across the Pacific Ocean via satellite.

1971: Upstairs, Downstairs premieres on ITV in the U.K. It would later be imported and shown on PBS in the U.S.

1973: Actor Mario Lopez (Saved by the Bell) is born in San Diego, California.

1977: WXNE-TV (channel 25, now WFXT) signs on in Boston, Massachusetts. Initially owned by Pat Robertson’s CBN, it is now the Fox affiliate for the market.

1982: Nature premieres on PBS.

2002: Actress Teresa Graves (Laugh-In, Get Christie Love!) dies, aged 54, when a faulty space heater sets fire to her house in the Hyde Park section of Los Angeles. She had retired from acting two decades earlier to devote more time to her religion (Jehovah’s Witnesses) and to care for her mother. Her neighbors reportedly knew nothing of her show business past until her obituary was published.

(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…..)

 

[wbhist]

1963: An episode of ABC’s Dr. Kildare (“If You Can’t Handle the Truth”) features an unusual convergence of three guest stars in dramatic roles who are best remembered for their TV comedy characters: Bob Denver, Barbara Eden, and Ken Berry.

Funny . . . I thought Dr. Kildare was on NBC . . . while ABC had Ben Casey.

 

[Ultimajock]

...1985: only two hours after taping a wide-ranging interview on The Merv Griffin Show, legendary director-actor Orson Welles dies of a heart attack at his Hollywood, California, home. Welles could arguably be considered the original "King of All Media" -- his career saw immense success on Broadway (his "voodoo" MacBeth and Nazi-set Julius Caesar are considered to be the most important productions of Shakespeare in American theatrical history), radio (his year as Lamont Cranston on The Shadow and the 30 October 1938 CBS production of The War of the Worlds), Hollywood (Citizen Kane and The Third Man), newspapers (a regular opinion column in the New York Post) and television (a staple guest on talk and game shows and one of the first celebrity voice-over artists on commercials ranging from Paul Masson wine to Eastern Airlines). He had also been the original choice to narrate the original run of The Twilight Zone, but CBS didn't meet his proposed fee for the job, so Rod Serling did the narration instead...

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1946: British TV presenter Chris Tarrant is born in Reading, Berkshire, England. He began hosting the British version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" in 1998 (one year before Regis Philbin's version on ABC took America by storm).

 

[bpatrick]

1952: "America's favorite family, the Nelsons" move from radio
to TV as The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet debuts on ABC
(the radio show, a separate episode each week, continues until 1954).
It's best remembered today for two reasons: (1) it launched Ricky's
(or Rick's) singing career, beginning in 1957 when he sang Fats Domino's
"I'm Walkin'", and (2) it gave us one of the great unanswered questions in
TV history: What did Ozzie Nelson do for a living? (Actually, he had been
a very successful bandleader and Harriet his singer.) The TV show ran 14
years and remains the longest-running live-action sitcom in the medium's
history. (The 1973 semi-revival, "Ozzie's Girls," was gone after one season.)

 

[mleach]

...1985: only two hours after taping a wide-ranging interview on The Merv Griffin Show, legendary director-actor Orson Welles dies of a heart attack at his Hollywood, California, home. Welles could arguably be considered the original "King of All Media" -- his career saw immense success on Broadway (his "voodoo" MacBeth and Nazi-set Julius Caesar are considered to be the most important productions of Shakespeare in American theatrical history), radio (his year as Lamont Cranston on The Shadow and the 30 October 1938 CBS production of The War of the Worlds), Hollywood (Citizen Kane and The Third Man), newspapers (a regular opinion column in the New York Post) and television (a staple guest on talk and game shows and one of the first celebrity voice-over artists on commercials ranging from Paul Masson wine to Eastern Airlines). He had also been the original choice to narrate the original run of The Twilight Zone, but CBS didn't meet his proposed fee for the job, so Rod Serling did the narration instead...

Orson Wells in his later years also did a number of local radio commercials such as the one for our local Northern Virginia-based J.V. Arthur Insurance Company. I actually know the owner of this place and yes several years I actually asked him how much did it cost them to get Orson.

Alas...he would NOT tell me. "sigh" but he did tell me that Raymond Burr "was cheap". They used Burr after Orson's death.

 

[LKellerIII]

...1985: only two hours after taping a wide-ranging interview on The Merv Griffin Show, legendary director-actor Orson Welles dies of a heart attack at his Hollywood, California, home. Welles could arguably be considered the original "King of All Media" -- his career saw immense success on Broadway (his "voodoo" MacBeth and Nazi-set Julius Caesar are considered to be the most important productions of Shakespeare in American theatrical history), radio (his year as Lamont Cranston on The Shadow and the 30 October 1938 CBS production of The War of the Worlds), Hollywood (Citizen Kane and The Third Man), newspapers (a regular opinion column in the New York Post) and television (a staple guest on talk and game shows and one of the first celebrity voice-over artists on commercials ranging from Paul Masson wine to Eastern Airlines). He had also been the original choice to narrate the original run of The Twilight Zone, but CBS didn't meet his proposed fee for the job, so Rod Serling did the narration instead...

Orson Wells in his later years also did a number of local radio commercials such as the one for our local Northern Virginia-based J.V. Arthur Insurance Company. I actually know the owner of this place and yes several years I actually asked him how much did it cost them to get Orson.

Alas...he would NOT tell me. "sigh" but he did tell me that Raymond Burr "was cheap". They used Burr after Orson's death.

About the same time Welles was doing lots of commercials, voice-over actor Paul Frees was also doing many commercials and VOs using a very near imitation of Welles - at least in the San Francisco Bay Area where Frees lived. I assume Frees did this work for other markets, too - but since I lived in the Bay Area, I don't know for sure. In a day's time, you might hear this 'Wellsian' voice many times...doing radio and TV commercials, and introducing the anchors on NewsCenter 4.

Frees and Welles voices were naturally rather similar, but Frees was also able to imitate Orson's phrasing and vocal pacing. What was interesting about this was that (as far as I know), Welles never took offense at this - or any legal action either. In a certain sense, Welles could have decided that Frees was taking money out of his pocket.

 

[bpatrick]

Another one who could do a good job with Welles' voice
and cadence was Ralph James, the voice of Orson on
"Mork & Mindy." Some people still think it really was Orson
Welles.

 

[Stanislav]

Also voice artist Maurice LaMarche, who gave a Wellsian voice to the Brain in Pinky and the Brain, and also looped the voice for Vincent D'Onofrio's brief portrayal of Welles in the movie "Ed Wood."

 

[Corky Marlowe]

I gotta block off some time to listen to the legendary Orson Welles vo session outtakes...

"I wouldn't direct any living actor like this...In Shakespeare!"

Now, I'm hungry for some frozen cod with crumb crisp coating.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1965: Actress/singer Rebecca Pidgeon is born in Cambridge, MA. Her TV credits include appearances on CBS' "The Unit" (2006-09) and the CBS 2007 TV movie "Jesse Stone: Sea Change."