October 2: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on October 2. Discuss or comment as you please……

1890: The one, the only.....Groucho Marx (You Bet Your Life) is born (as Julius Henry Marx) in New York City.

1895: Heeeeey, Abbbooooott! Bud Abbott (The Abbott & Costello Show) is born (as William Alexander Abbott) in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

1946: The first network soap opera, Faraway Hill, debuts on DuMont.

1948: Actor Avery Brooks (Spenser: For Hire, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) is born in Evansville, Indiana.

1951: TV comes to Denmark in the form of thrice-weekly one-hour broadcasts by national radio broadcaster Statsradiofonien. The transmissions were seen by perhaps a few hundred viewers in the Copenhagen area. Daily telecasts would not begin until 1954.

1955: WHTN-TV (channel 13, now WOWK-TV) signs on in Huntington, West Virginia.

1955: The Philco Television Playhouse ends a 7-year NBC run.

1955: “Goood EVEning...” Alfred Hitchcock Presents premieres on CBS. (Bonus points to the first who can name –- WITHOUT Googling -- the classical work that served as the show’s theme song...)

1958: The Huckleberry Hound Show debuts on ABC.

1959: Doo-DOO-doo-doo...doo-DOO-doo-doo...The Twlight Zone premieres on CBS with the episode “Where is Everybody?” starring Earl Holliman.

1961: WHRO-TV (channel 15) hits the air in Hampton, Virginia.

1961: ♂ ♀ * † ∞ Ben Casey premieres on ABC.

1961: WETA-TV (channel 26) begins operating in Washington, D.C.

1962: Combat! debuts on ABC.

1970: Actress and talk show host Kelly Ripa is born in Berlin, New Jersey.

1971: Black hair care products finally have a forum for their commercials: Soul Train premieres in syndication.

1985: Actor Rock Hudson (McMillan and Wife, Dynasty) dies in Beverly Hills, California, aged 59, of complications due to AIDS.

1994: Actress Harriet Nelson (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) dies in Laguna Beach, California, aged 85.

1996: What some have called “The WCBS-TV Massacre” takes places as the station suddenly and without warning fires 3 news anchors (John Johnson, Michele Marsh and Tony Guida), a sports anchor (Bernie Smilovitz), and three reporters (Reggie Harris, Roseanne Colletti, and Magee Hickey) between the end of the 6 pm newscast and the start of the 11 pm.

2001: Scrubs debuts on NBC.

2004: Amy Poehler succeeds Jimmy Fallon as Tina Fey's co-anchor on Saturday Night Live's “Weekend Update” skit. This marks the first time “Update” was regularly anchored by two females.

2005: Comedian Nipsey Russell (Car 54 Where Are You?, Barefoot in the Park, and countless game shows) dies in New York City, aged 87.

2007: The ill-fated series Cavemen, based loosely on the characters created for Geico commercials, premieres on ABC. Of the 13 episodes produced, only 7 would air before the plug was pulled on the show.

(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…..)

 

[landtuna]

A good one-hour story of Abbott & Costello aired earlier today on Biography. Check your local listings for repeats.

 

[bpatrick]

The Alfred Hitchcock theme is called "Funeral
March Of A Marionette" by Gounot (sp?).

 

[Stanislav]

I just find it neat that two great comics like Groucho and Abbott share a birthday, and that two of the greatest anthology series of all time (TZ and AHP) were premiered on the same calendar day as well.

 

[Stanislav]

The Alfred Hitchcock theme is called "Funeral
March Of A Marionette" by Gounot (sp?).

Congratulations -- you win the Grand Prize: the respect and admiration of all your peers. (I bet you were hoping for free gas or something....)

(It is Charles Gounod (with a "d"), but we'll overlook that...)

 

[Tim L]

1958: The Huckleberry Hound Show debuts on ABC.

Actually, Hucleberry Hound premiered in New York at WNEW-TV Channel 5 on this date. The Huckleberry Hound Show was in Syndication..A Number of ABC affiliates carried the show, I am sure.

 

[RicoGregg]

Re: Cavemen

A classic case of "What the hell were they thinking?" ??? ??? ???

 

[wbhist]

1996: What some have called “The WCBS-TV Massacre” takes places as the station suddenly and without warning fires 3 news anchors (John Johnson, Michele Marsh and Tony Guida), a sports anchor (Bernie Smilovitz), and three reporters (Reggie Harris, Roseanne Colletti, and Magee Hickey) between the end of the 6 pm newscast and the start of the 11 pm.

And this was only one year after long-time anchor Jim Jensen's three-decades-long (since 1964) association with the station was brought to an end, and four other mainstays (Vic Miles, Chris Borgen, J.J. Gonzalez and science editor Earl Ubell) retired following the purchase of CBS by Westinghouse. Only in the last year (2007) did WCBS climb out of the ratings basement where they'd been since the 1995-96 series of retirements, buyouts and firings.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I just find it neat that two great comics like Groucho and Abbott share a birthday, and that two of the greatest anthology series of all time (TZ and AHP) were premiered on the same calendar day as well.

....and that two great cartoon characters like Huckelberry Hound and Kelly Ripa share one as well! :

 

[RicoGregg]

....and that two great cartoon characters like Huckelberry Hound and Kelly Ripa share one as well! :

There's a good joke here somewhere, but damned if I can think of it. ???

 

[bpatrick]

October 2, 1960: Two shows which have bounced
around the networks for years find longtime homes
on CBS's Sunday schedule. In the afternoon, "Ted
Mack And The Original Amateur Hour" begins a ten-
year run (and as you've noted, Ted ended it himself
in 1970, before CBS could cancel it due to poor demographics).
That evening, "Candid Camera" begins its most successful
run, reaching number two in the 1962-63 season. Arthur
Godfrey is Allen Funt's first co-host, but apparently there
is a serious clash of egos because by the second year
Durward Kirby is co-host, and in the 1966-67 season (its
last in that version), when Kirby rejoins Garry Moore on
"Candid Camera"'s short-lived lead-in, Bess Myerson takes
over.

Later, in the '70s, "Candid Camera" will resurface with John
Bartholomew Tucker, Phyllis George, and Jo Ann Pflug among
the co-hosts (this version is syndicated), and there will be
more versions in the '80s and '90s, some hosted by Allen Funt's
son Peter, and even one hosted by Dom DeLuise. "Amateur Hour"
will get a brief run on the Family Channel in 1992, hosted by
Willard Scott, and I'm still not clear why the show was dropped
after thirteen weeks; I've heard that the ratings were fairly good.

 

[wbhist]

October 2, 1960: Two shows which have bounced around the networks for years find longtime homes on CBS's Sunday schedule. In the afternoon, "Ted Mack And The Original Amateur Hour" begins a ten-year run (and as you've noted, Ted ended it himself in 1970, before CBS could cancel it due to poor demographics). That evening, "Candid Camera" begins its most successful run, reaching number two in the 1962-63 season. Arthur Godfrey is Allen Funt's first co-host, but apparently there is a serious clash of egos because by the second year Durward Kirby is co-host, and in the 1966-67 season (its last in that version), when Kirby rejoins Garry Moore on "Candid Camera"'s short-lived lead-in, Bess Myerson takes over.

Later, in the '70s, "Candid Camera" will resurface with John Bartholomew Tucker, Phyllis George, and Jo Ann Pflug among the co-hosts (this version is syndicated), and there will be more versions in the '80s and '90s, some hosted by Allen Funt's son Peter, and even one hosted by Dom DeLuise. "Amateur Hour" will get a brief run on the Family Channel in 1992, hosted by Willard Scott, and I'm still not clear why the show was dropped after thirteen weeks; I've heard that the ratings were fairly good.

Another co-host of the 1970's syndicated version of Candid Camera was Betsy Palmer - who'd been a panelist along with Miss Myerson on I've Got a Secret within the last half of its 1952-67 CBS run. And the IGAS host, before 1964? Garry Moore . . .

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Another Oct. 2 historical event with later implications on television:

1950: Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts comic strip debuts, introducing Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the "Peanuts gang" to Americans and becoming a daily newspaper staple for the next 50 years (until Schulz's retirement at the end of 1999 and his passing only 1 1/2 months later--plus reruns of past Peanuts strips in many newspapers to this day). Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, and the Peanuts characters would make their TV special debut on Dec. 9, 1965 with "A Charlie Brown Christmas" followed by many more Peanuts specials during the last 44 years.

 

[Ultimajock]

October 2, 1960: Two shows which have bounced
around the networks for years find longtime homes
on CBS's Sunday schedule. In the afternoon, "Ted
Mack And The Original Amateur Hour" begins a ten-
year run (and as you've noted, Ted ended it himself
in 1970, before CBS could cancel it due to poor demographics).
That evening, "Candid Camera" begins its most successful
run, reaching number two in the 1962-63 season. Arthur
Godfrey is Allen Funt's first co-host, but apparently there
is a serious clash of egos because by the second year
Durward Kirby is co-host, and in the 1966-67 season (its
last in that version), when Kirby rejoins Garry Moore on
"Candid Camera"'s short-lived lead-in, Bess Myerson takes
over.

...that wasn't the first time Godfrey was dumped from a show over a personality clash. Circa 1943, he was canned after only five weeks or so as Fred Allen's announcer on "Texaco Time" on CBS Radio...

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1954: Actress Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos) is born in Brooklyn, NY.