Just a few random TV related events that happened on October 15. Discuss or comment as you please……
1934: Weathercaster John Coleman is born in Alpine, Texas. His long career has included a lengthy stint at Chicago’s WLS-TV (where his amusing and irreverent style was a part of the then nascent “Happy News” concept) and, later, ABC’s Good Morning America. He also founded The Weather Channel, and was its first CEO and President. After leaving TWC, and stops at WCBS-TV and WMAQ-TV, he is still on-air at San Diego’s KUSI-TV (which Coleman fondly refers to as his “retirement job”).
1942: Actress/director Penny Marshall (The Odd Couple, Laverne & Shirley) is born in The Bronx, New York.
1951: I Love Lucy premieres on CBS. Because Lucy & Desi didn’t want to leave California (and knowing that doing the show live from the West Coast meant the more populous East would have to see the show via delayed kinescope), Desi insisted that the show be filmed. The move insures that I Love Lucy would survive in popularity for decades after other sitcoms of the era are long forgotten. (And, of course, the immense talent of the cast and writers helped a bit, too.) It was claimed (perhaps hyperbolically, but probably not far from the truth) that at one time at any given hour of the day, I Love Lucy was being broadcast somewhere in the world.
1953: KOIN-TV (channel 6) signs on in Portland, Oregon, the first VHF station in the market.
1953: KCRI (channel 9, now KCRG-TV) begins broadcasting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
1955: Fury debuts on NBC.
1959: KNDO (channel 23) signs on in Yakima, Washington.
1959: The Untouchables premieres on ABC.
1959: TV chef Emeril Lagassee is born in Fall River, Massachusetts.
1965: WEMT (channel 7, now WVII-TV) signs on in Bangor, Maine.
1966: ABC broadcasts a 90-minute television adaptation of the musical "Brigadoon," starring Robert Goulet, Peter Falk, and Sally Ann Howes. It garners many Emmy Awards and inaugurates a short-lived series of special television adaptations of famous Broadway musicals on the network.
1971: CHNB-TV (channel 4) is established in North Bay, Ontario.
1973: The Tomorrow Show premieres on NBC.
1979: WOFL (Channel 35) launches in Orlando, Florida. It occupies the channel vacated several years earlier by the bankrupt and defunct WSWB-TV.
1980: WCPO-TV (Cincinnati, Ohio) reporter Elaine Green and her cameraman are taken at gunpoint in the station’s parking lot by James Hoskins, a self-proclaimed radical. Barging into the newsroom, he takes 7 additional people hostage, then has Greene videotape an interview with him. After confessing to having murdered his girlfriend earlier that morning, and voicing his displeasure with local Cincinnati government, he agrees to let the hostages go once he has barricaded himself in the newsroom in anticipation of a shootout with police. The standoff ends when Hoskins shoots himself as a SWAT team is negotiating with him. WCPO-TV covers the crisis live from the parking lot, and the coverage earns Green a Peabody Award for her calm and level-headed handling of the situation.
1981: Character actor Frank Dekova dies in Sepulveda, California, aged 71. TV geeks recall him most fondly as “Chief Wild Eagle” on F Troop.
1987: A major turning point in Western history: The Price is Right host Bob Barker stops dyeing his hair.
1990: Legislation is signed into U.S. law requiring closed captioning decoders in all large color TVs manufactured after July 1, 1993.
2000: Curb Your Enthusiasm debuts on HBO.
2007: Samantha Who? premieres on ABC.
2007: The Price is Right airs the first show with new host Drew Carey.
(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…..)
1934: Weathercaster John Coleman is born in Alpine, Texas. His long career has included a lengthy stint at Chicago’s WLS-TV (where his amusing and irreverent style was a part of the then nascent “Happy News” concept) and, later, ABC’s Good Morning America. He also founded The Weather Channel, and was its first CEO and President. After leaving TWC, and stops at WCBS-TV and WMAQ-TV, he is still on-air at San Diego’s KUSI-TV (which Coleman fondly refers to as his “retirement job”).
1942: Actress/director Penny Marshall (The Odd Couple, Laverne & Shirley) is born in The Bronx, New York.
1951: I Love Lucy premieres on CBS. Because Lucy & Desi didn’t want to leave California (and knowing that doing the show live from the West Coast meant the more populous East would have to see the show via delayed kinescope), Desi insisted that the show be filmed. The move insures that I Love Lucy would survive in popularity for decades after other sitcoms of the era are long forgotten. (And, of course, the immense talent of the cast and writers helped a bit, too.) It was claimed (perhaps hyperbolically, but probably not far from the truth) that at one time at any given hour of the day, I Love Lucy was being broadcast somewhere in the world.
1953: KOIN-TV (channel 6) signs on in Portland, Oregon, the first VHF station in the market.
1953: KCRI (channel 9, now KCRG-TV) begins broadcasting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
1955: Fury debuts on NBC.
1959: KNDO (channel 23) signs on in Yakima, Washington.
1959: The Untouchables premieres on ABC.
1959: TV chef Emeril Lagassee is born in Fall River, Massachusetts.
1965: WEMT (channel 7, now WVII-TV) signs on in Bangor, Maine.
1966: ABC broadcasts a 90-minute television adaptation of the musical "Brigadoon," starring Robert Goulet, Peter Falk, and Sally Ann Howes. It garners many Emmy Awards and inaugurates a short-lived series of special television adaptations of famous Broadway musicals on the network.
1971: CHNB-TV (channel 4) is established in North Bay, Ontario.
1973: The Tomorrow Show premieres on NBC.
1979: WOFL (Channel 35) launches in Orlando, Florida. It occupies the channel vacated several years earlier by the bankrupt and defunct WSWB-TV.
1980: WCPO-TV (Cincinnati, Ohio) reporter Elaine Green and her cameraman are taken at gunpoint in the station’s parking lot by James Hoskins, a self-proclaimed radical. Barging into the newsroom, he takes 7 additional people hostage, then has Greene videotape an interview with him. After confessing to having murdered his girlfriend earlier that morning, and voicing his displeasure with local Cincinnati government, he agrees to let the hostages go once he has barricaded himself in the newsroom in anticipation of a shootout with police. The standoff ends when Hoskins shoots himself as a SWAT team is negotiating with him. WCPO-TV covers the crisis live from the parking lot, and the coverage earns Green a Peabody Award for her calm and level-headed handling of the situation.
1981: Character actor Frank Dekova dies in Sepulveda, California, aged 71. TV geeks recall him most fondly as “Chief Wild Eagle” on F Troop.
1987: A major turning point in Western history: The Price is Right host Bob Barker stops dyeing his hair.
1990: Legislation is signed into U.S. law requiring closed captioning decoders in all large color TVs manufactured after July 1, 1993.
2000: Curb Your Enthusiasm debuts on HBO.
2007: Samantha Who? premieres on ABC.
2007: The Price is Right airs the first show with new host Drew Carey.
(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…..)