October 20: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on October 20. Discuss or comment as you please……

1907: Actress and game show panelist Arlene Francis (What’s My Line?) is born (as Arlene Francis Kazanjian) in Boston, Massachusetts.

1932: Actor William Christopher (Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., M*A*S*H) is born in Evanston, Illinois.

1935: Actor Jerry Orbach (Murder She Wrote, Law & Order) is born in The Bronx, New York.

1951: The iconic CBS “eye” logo makes its television debut.

1953: WTVH-TV (channel 19, now WHOI) becomes Peoria, Illinois’ second TV station.

1959: WABG-TV (channel 6) signs on in Greenville, Mississippi as an independent station. They would soon be briefly affiliated with CBS until WJTV (Jackson) complained that WABG was encroaching on part of their coverage area. The station would then switch to ABC, their primary affiliation to this day.

1966: WAEO-TV (channel 12, now WJFW-TV) begins broadcasting in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

1969: WKYH-TV (channel 57, now WYMT-TV) signs on in Hazard, Kentucky. Today, it is one of only 4 or 5 full-power stations, and the only one affiliated with a commercial network (originally NBC, now CBS), that can regularly be received off-air in the very rugged terrain of southeastern Kentucky. (Two religious stations and a couple of KET transmitters pretty much round out the dial.)

1996: Canada's version of Sesame Street switches to showing exclusively Canadian content, no longer using any American made segments.

(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…..)

 

[azumanga]

1996: Canada's version of Sesame Street switches to showing exclusively Canadian content, no longer using any American made segments.

A little clarification -- the Canadian version was actually revamped into "Sesame Park", which took place at a park and the neighborhood surrounding it, instead of the iconic "street". Also, while most of the segments in the new version are Canadian, it still included some American segments -- what's any version of Sesame Street without Bert or Ernie? This new version lasted until 2002, when the CBC took the show off-the-air, leaving Canadians to turn to PBS for their Sesame Street fix.

 

[bpatrick]

Hazard, with its sparse population and rugged terrain,
was an area the network affiliates (Lexington being the
closest) avoided in the pre-cable era. Finally, the town's
longtime mayor, Bill Gorman, took a chance and put Channel
57 on the air, with a tie-in to CBS affiliate WKYT/27 Lexington
for certain events such as UK basketball. In the 1980s it became,
not quite a satellite of WKYT (even though it carries some of
WKYT's newscasts), but a sister station nonetheless. It does
have its own schedule and does not simply duplicate WKYT
(it doesn't carry Oprah, Wheel, or Jeopardy!, all of which are
on WKYT). Presently, with the HD changeover, WYMT is
broadcasting on 12-1 and WKYT on 12-2. The station has
been quite successful, with viewership in Kentucky, West
Virginia, and small parts of Tennessee and Virginia.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1973: The "Saturday Night Massacre": President Richard M. Nixon dismisses US Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refused to follow Nixon's orders to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox (who was eventually fired by Robert Bork). News reports of these firings interrupt networks' Saturday night programming (including CBS's big lineup of "All in the Family," "MASH," etc.).

A portion of the 1986-87 "Our World" episode concerning Fall 1973 (including the Saturday Night Massacre) is on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVh4haQ4Ewg

(I only linked to part 4 of this episode).

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1985: Actress Jennifer Freeman ("My Wife and Kids") is born in LA.