September 12: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on September 12. Discuss or comment as you please……

1915: Journalist Frank McGee is born in Monroe, Louisiana. (Some sources also list his birth year as 1921.)

1954: NBC inaugurates its new “Brooklyn 1” color studio with the first in a series of “Color Spectaculars:” "Satins and Spurs," produced by Max Liebman and starring Betty Hutton. The studio was a former Warner Brothers motion picture facility.

1954: Lassie begins its long network run on CBS.

1954: WTWO (channel 2, now WLBZ-TV) signs on in Bangor, Maine. (Of course, we all know that the WTWO calls subsequently migrated to Terre Haute, Indiana's channel 2...) BTW, an old thread talked about old TV station "mascots" -- here is the original WTWO's "Mitey Two."

1955: KNTV begins broadcasting in San Jose, California.

1956: The infamous quiz show Twenty-One premieres on NBC. The revelation of cheating and coercion between show personnel and contestants (including, most notably, Charles Van Doren) led to Congressional hearings and almost spelled an end to the game show genre.

1959: Bonanza, the first weekly television series broadcast regularly in color, debuts on NBC

1966: WUSF-TV (channel 16) signs on in Tampa, Florida, based at the University of South Florida. It is the second non-commercial station in the market (after WEDU).

1972: Maude, the first spinoff from All in the Family, premieres on CBS .

1978: Taxi premieres on ABC.

1980: The Cross-Wits ends a 5-season syndicated run.

1981: The Smurfs, based on the Belgian comic series created by Peyo, debuts on NBC.

1989: Life Goes On premieres on ABC.

1993: Lois & Clark premieres on ABC.

1994: Richard Dawson returns as host of the syndicated Family Feud, replacing Ray Combs. He receives a long, warm standing ovation from the studio audience as he opens his first new show.

1994: After 45 years with NBC, WDAF-TV (Kansas City, Missouri) changes affiliation to Fox.

1999: Actor Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, Ironside) dies in Healdsburg, California, aged 76.

2003: The Jenny Jones Show ends a 13-year, 1500-episode syndicated run.

(Just a little featurette I hope to do as time permits…..don’t expect it every single day. 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]

1981: The Smurfs, based on the Belgian comic series created by Peyo, debuts on NBC.

And yet, in spite of this development, the United States to this day maintains diplomatic relations with Belgium. We still have Belgian Waffles, not Freedom Waffles, and we still have Brussels Sprouts, not Freedom Sprouts. :-\

 

[Ultimajock]

1915: Journalist Frank McGee is born in Monroe, Louisiana. (Some sources also list his birth year as 1921.)

...on November 22, 1963, it was McGee who reported on NBC-TV the official announcement that President Kennedy had died at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. Bill Ryan and WBAP-TV/5 Fort Worth reporter Charles Murphy had reported that news unofficially, but McGee was on the phone to Robert MacNeil at the hospital in Dallas and, because of technical snafus, repeating into his microphone everything that MacNeil was saying. MacNeil attended the makeshift press conference at the hospital and got back on the telephone to make the report; curiously, the technical snafus cleared up the second that McGee said Kennedy had died, and for the rest of the report from there on viewers could hear MacNeil utter parts of sentences and McGee repeat them. It made for a uniquely dramatic report. BTW, the man to make the report of Kennedy's official death announcement on NBC Radio was Edwin Newman, who would later fly to Washington and report on NBC-TV that night. That night's Huntley-Brinkley Report had a riveting film clip of bystanders in Rockefeller Plaza hearing Newman's radio report over the car radio of NBC reporter Gabe Pressman, one elderly woman physically recoiling from Newman's report. Over on CBS, the TV side was famously handled by Walter Cronkite, while David Jackson handled the radio side...

1956: The infamous quiz show Twenty-One premieres on NBC. The revelation of cheating and coercion between show personnel and contestants (including, most notably, Charles Van Doren) led to Congressional hearings and almost spelled an end to the game show genre.

...a couple of months ago, Charles Van Doren wrote a piece for The New Yorker about the Twenty-One mess and his hand in it. While it was interesting to read his account, it really hadn't told me anything I hadn't already learned from watching Quiz Show...

1959: Bonanza, the first weekly television series broadcast regularly in color, debuts on NBC

...one of the nicest gags in the movie Diner was when the patron of an appliance store complains to salesman Daniel Stern that when he finally saw Bonanza in color "The Ponderosa looked faked, and I hardly recognised Little Joe" ;D ...

1994: Richard Dawson returns as host of the syndicated Family Feud, replacing Ray Combs. He receives a long, warm standing ovation from the studio audience as he opens his first new show.

...and Dawson spoke so softly at points during that season's programs that he was downright inaudible to the audience...

 

[Stanislav]

1981: The Smurfs, based on the Belgian comic series created by Peyo, debuts on NBC.

And yet, in spite of this development, the United States to this day maintains diplomatic relations with Belgium. We still have Belgian Waffles, not Freedom Waffles, and we still have Brussels Sprouts, not Freedom Sprouts. :-\

Actually, Brussels Sprouts alone should have been grounds for declaring war.....

 

[Stanislav]

...on November 22, 1963, it was McGee who reported on NBC-TV the official announcement that President Kennedy had died at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. Bill Ryan and WBAP-TV/5 Fort Worth reporter Charles Murphy had reported that news unofficially, but McGee was on the phone to Robert MacNeil at the hospital in Dallas and, because of technical snafus, repeating into his microphone everything that MacNeil was saying.

Snafus which led to some almost humorous moments in the midst of a tragic day. Particularly when they are all trying to figure out how to attach that amplifier to the phone handset -- Huntley, in particular, looks embarrassingly befuddled by the device.

It's also interesting, BTW, that they reacquired MacNeil's audio well before McGee was aware of it -- and for some time we could hear both the original report and McGee's "repeating" it. However, DYN that he subtly changes MacNeil's wording here and there -- editing on the fly, so to speak.

BTW, the man to make the report of Kennedy's official death announcement on NBC Radio was Edwin Newman, who would later fly to Washington and report on NBC-TV that night. That night's Huntley-Brinkley Report had a riveting film clip of bystanders in Rockefeller Plaza hearing Newman's radio report over the car radio of NBC reporter Gabe Pressman, one elderly woman physically recoiling from Newman's report.

That's one of the iconic film clips of that day, IMHO. At the time, Newman was not yet reading the official Malcolm Kilduff announcement (it was earlier in the afternoon) but, rather, the wire report that stated "Two priests who were with President Kennedy say he is dead of bullet wounds." It is on the word "dead" that the woman lets out a cry, and recoils from the car.

...a couple of months ago, Charles Van Doren wrote a piece for The New Yorker about the Twenty-One mess and his hand in it. While it was interesting to read his account, it really hadn't told me anything I hadn't already learned from watching Quiz Show...

I read that article. Van Doren has been quite reticent about speaking of the scandal for a long time, and some were hoping for new revelations. Alas, as you said, nothing really new. Van Doren, though attempting in the article to confess and apologize for his role in the scandal, nevertheless comes across (to me, at any rate) as rather smug and self-righteous, and even where he assigns guilt to himself, it is always subtly mitigated in the context to make him look more like a "victim." I wasn't impressed.

 

[wbhist]

Over on CBS, the TV side was famously handled by Walter Cronkite, while David Jackson handled the radio side...

I thought it was Allan Jackson who did the radio reportage. (David Jackson is his son, B.T.W.)

 

[Ultimajock]

Over on CBS, the TV side was famously handled by Walter Cronkite, while David Jackson handled the radio side...

I thought it was Allan Jackson who did the radio reportage. (David Jackson is his son, B.T.W.)

...you're right, I confused the names. I know it was Ron Cochran who anchored ABC's TV coverage, but I'm not sure if someone else handled ABC's radio coverage or they simulcast on both media...

 

[wbhist]

I know it was Ron Cochran who anchored ABC's TV coverage, but I'm not sure if someone else handled ABC's radio coverage or they simulcast on both media...

On ABC Radio, the late Don Gardiner was the one who mentioned that Kennedy had died.

 

[AH3RD]

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1966

“The Royal Flush” (prod. #4701) first aired @ 7:30/6:30 p.m. Central Time in Living Color on NBC Television as the premiere episode of The Monkees, a comedy-fantasy series from Raybert/Screen Gems TV Productions heavily influenced by The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night (United Artists, 1964) and Help! (United Artists, 1965), which reflected the misadventures of an unknown, young, longhaired, modern-dressed group and its dreams on the way to fame and fortune. Produced by Robert Rafelson and Bert Schneider, it starred David Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, all of whom were chosen from a lot of 437 applicants who answered an ad in the September 8, 1965 issues of The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety.

The sponsor of the week was Kellogg’s™, and the songs were were Boyce & Hart's “This Just Doesn’t Seem To Be My Day” and Goffin & King's “Take A Giant Step.” The third Monkees episode to be filmed, “The Royal Flush” was the first to be helmed by James Frawley, an initial member of innovative NYC comedy troupe The Premise, who would go on to direct the bulk of The Monkees' 58 half-hour segments (32 to be exact). Frawley would soon be greatly rewarded for his efforts on “The Royal Flush”; it won the Emmy for Outstanding Directorial Achievement In A Comedy Series for 1966-67.

The success of the TV series and the hit records it helped generate made The Monkees the rage of America, imitating and, at times, even eclipsing The Beatles' own success! The series cranked out 58 episodes for 2 seasons on NBC, finally ending in September 1968. But what a following The Monkees have had during the course of that run: 2 Emmy Awards, 4 #1 hit albums, 3 #1 hit singles, and 2 sold-out concert tours...not to mention the admiration and adulation of fans worldwide, something which continues to thrive to this very day!!

 

[easttxtv]

1954: NBC inaugurates its new “Brooklyn 1” color studio with the first in a series of “Color Spectaculars:” "Satins and Spurs," produced by Max Liebman and starring Betty Hutton. The studio was a former Warner Brothers motion picture facility.

Strangely enough, with all the emphasis on color at that studio in it's early TV years, the TV program that would occupy the studio the longest, NBC's late/great soap Another World, would debut in black & white and not become colorized until after 2 years had passed.

One of the TV specials done there was one with Esther Williams, showcasing her swimming skills used in past movie musicals; the pool used for the special is said to still be underneath the studio floor there. The Brooklyn studio was also the setting for the Peter Pan special that aired in 1960 with Mary Martin in her iconic leading role.

The studio complex (now dubbed 'JC Studios') has been used since 2000-2001 for taping the long-running CBS soap As the World Turns.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Also in 1978: Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis is born in Sassari, Italy. She is the current co-host of the Italian version of "Total Request Live."

 

[radioman148]

Also in 1978: Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis is born in Sassari, Italy. She is the current co-host of the Italian version of "Total Request Live."

Isn't she also George Clooney's main squeeze?

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Also in 1978: Italian actress Elisabetta Canalis is born in Sassari, Italy. She is the current co-host of the Italian version of "Total Request Live."

Isn't she also George Clooney's main squeeze?

Yes--at least as of now (I was going to mention this in my reply yesterday, but for some reason I decided not to).

 

[Corky Marlowe]

1999: Actor Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, Ironside) dies in Healdsburg, California, aged 76.

Didn't he actually die in 1993?

 

[Ultimajock]

1999: Actor Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, Ironside) dies in Healdsburg, California, aged 76.

Didn't he actually die in 1993?

...I thought it was '92. And am I the onlt person who firmly believes he made his living in the latter decades of his life by consciously patterning his appearance after Orson Welles' and selling his talents to advertisers who couldn't/wouldn't pay Welles' voice-over/endorsement fee?...

 

[Stanislav]

1999: Actor Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, Ironside) dies in Healdsburg, California, aged 76.

Didn't he actually die in 1993?

...I thought it was '92.

1993. Jeez....a year after I posted the original, people are still finding my mistakes.....

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

2003: Singer/actor/author Johnny Cash (born 1932) passes away after complications from diabetes at 2AM CDT in Nashville, TN.

 

[oldschooler1]

1954: NBC inaugurates its new “Brooklyn 1” color studio with the first in a series of “Color Spectaculars:” "Satins and Spurs," produced by Max Liebman and starring Betty Hutton. The studio was a former Warner Brothers motion picture facility.

Click here, and scroll down. The photo featuring camera operator Jan Kasoff shows a TK 41C in action in the Brooklyn Studio:
http://www.ev1.pair.com/colorTV/TVcams-in-action.html
The pic above it, shooting the Hallmark Hall of Fame, may also have been done in the Brooklyn Studio.

 

[71dude]

1977: The Betty White Show premieres on CBS. Touted as the most promising new show of the season, it fizzles after a strong pilot and runs until January.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

1977: The Betty White Show premieres on CBS. Touted as the most promising new show of the season, it fizzles after a strong pilot and runs until January.

Betty White...You don't hear much from her anymore. Is she still alive?