October 24: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on October 24. Discuss or comment as you please……

1948: WJBK-TV (channel 2) launches in Detroit as a dual CBS-DuMont affiliate.

1949: West Virginia gets its first TV station as WSAZ-TV signs on to channel 5 (later moving to channel 3) in Huntington. Less than a year later, WSAZ would establish a microwave link to Cincinnati in order to carry NBC programming “live” – this would be the first privately owned microwave system in the nation.

1953: Channel 10 signs on in Phoeniz, Arizona, in a share-time arrangement between KOY-TV and KOOL-TV. They would soon merge under the KOOL calls. (Today, the station exists as KSAZ-TV, after also spending 12 years with the calls KTSP.)

1953: WTRF-TV (channel 7) signs on in Wheeling, West Virginia.

1954: Actor Doug Davidson (The Young and the Restless) is born in Glendale, California.

1973: Who loves ya, baby? Kojak premieres on CBS.

1977: The new Peanuts special It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown airs on CBS. What were they thinking? Showing – and naming (“Heather”) – the unseen Little Red-Haired Girl!?! Go ahead, destroy the mystery. (FWIW, Charles Schulz always cautioned that the TV shows were “non-canonical.”) Another controversy in the special involved players blaming and berating ol’ Chuck for losing the big football game, when it was LUCY’s repeated and obsessive pulling the football away from him that caused the loss. So impassioned were the protests from fans that some lines were actually re-dubbed for future rebroadcasts, placing the blame where it deserved to be. Finally, this was the first Peanuts television special produced after the death of composer Vince Guaraldi. Subsequent musical directors tried to carry on the style and spirit of his work, but most feel that these later scores pale in comparison to Guaraldi's classics.

1991: The Great Bird of the Galaxy has warped outta here: Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry dies of heart failure in Santa Monica, California, aged 70.

1997: Voice artist Don Messick dies in Salinas, California, aged 71. He voiced dozens of characters for Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including such “classic” figures as Scooby-Doo, Ranger Smith, Pixie Mouse, Boo Boo Bear, Muttley, Bamm-Bamm Rubble, Astro, and Papa Smurf.

(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…..)

 

[RicoGregg]

1977: The new Peanuts special It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown airs on CBS. What were they thinking? Showing – and naming (“Heather”) – the unseen Little Red-Haired Girl!?! Go ahead, destroy the mystery. (FWIW, Charles Schulz always cautioned that the TV shows were “non-canonical.”) Another controversy in the special involved players blaming and berating ol’ Chuck for losing the big football game, when it was LUCY’s repeated and obsessive pulling the football away from him that caused the loss. So impassioned were the protests from fans that some lines were actually re-dubbed for future rebroadcasts, placing the blame where it deserved to be. Finally, this was the first Peanuts television special produced after the death of composer Vince Guaraldi. Subsequent musical directors tried to carry on the style and spirit of his work, but most feel that these later scores pale in comparison to Guaraldi's classics.

What were they thinking, indeed. When I saw the scenes where Charlie Brown was blamed for the team's loss, I got angry. What kind of message was that sending to their vast nationwide family audience?

One thing I've always wanted to see was something, a syndicated program, or newspaper column, or even a website, where people who don't like something in a movie, or TV program, or whatever, could not only go and vent, but somehow, the people involved in the production would actually be on the receiving end of the criticism. It seems fair. We have to sit through some of their crap, but they isolate themselves in their mansions and have office flunkies to deflect any negative comments from them? Not fair.

I wanted to protest the above-mentioned Charlie Brown episode, but how many people knew how to contact Bill Melendez Productions or Charles Schulz himself?

Another horrible example: The April Fool's, 1998 episode of South Park where we were SUPPOSED to find out who Cartman's father was turned out to be a horrible prank where instead we got a half hour of Terrence & Phillip farting. Afterwards, creators Trey Parker & Matt Stone hid from everybody, and got smarmy when they did feel like commenting, "What's everyone so angry about?" South Park lost me from that point. Maybe it didn't hurt them, but they lost me.

Finally, I promise, what about when Madonna makes one of her many awful movies then hides in her mansion in England, insulated from criticism after ripping people off who wasted good money to see a terrible movie?

It would seem more fair if somehow, the relationship between performers, producers and such and their audience was more of a two-way street.

That's it.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1936: Actor/director/producer (and older brother of actor/singer Ricky Nelson) David Nelson is born to Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hillard in New York City. In addition to "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," his other TV appearances include guest starring roles on "Love Boat," and in the TV-movies "Swing Out, Sweet Land" (1970), "High School U.S.A." (1983), and "A Family for Joe" (1990).

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1971: Actress/model Caprice Bourret ("The Surreal Life") is born.