Just a few random TV related events that happened on September 17. Discuss or comment as you please……
1938: Actor Paul Benedict (The Jeffersons) is born in Silver City, New Mexico. (Sesame Street fans also know Benedict as The Number Painter.)
1948: WENR-TV (channel 7, now WLS-TV) signs on, becoming Chicago’s third TV station.
1948: KMTR-TV (channel 13, now KCOP) goes on the air in Los Angeles.
1949: KBTV (channel 8, now WFAA-TV) begins operating in Dallas, Texas. (The KBTV calls certainly have gotten around, later residing with Denver’s channel 9, and then coming home to Texas on Port Arthur/Beaumont’s channel 4.)
1964: Bewitched premieres on ABC.
1965: WPHL-TV (channel 17) signs on as an independent station. (The channel had been dark since the demise of WPCA-TV three years earlier.) It is one of three UHFs to sign on in Philly in ’65 (along with WIBF-TV on 29 and WKBS-TV on 48).
1965: From the old West (as it never was) to Nazi Germany (as it really never was): CBS premieres The Wild, Wild West and Hogan’s Heroes.
1966: Mission: Impossible debuts on CBS.
1967: The Doors appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and perform "Light My Fire." Sullivan had requested that the line "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" be changed for the show. However, Jim Morrison sings it the way it was written, and the group is subsequently banned from further appearances on the show.
1968: Julia premieres on NBC.
1969: Room 222 debuts on ABC.
1970: The Flip Wilson Show premieres on NBC.
1970: Future CNN journalist Anderson Cooper makes his TV debut at the tender age of 3, appearing with his mother – Gloria Vanderbilt – on The Tonight Show.
1972: M*A*S*H debuts on CBS,
1978: The ceremony formalizing the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt is televised live from the White House East Room. The live breaking event interrupts the much-ballyhooed premiere (the uncut 148-minute pilot) of ABC’s Battlestar Galactica. Instead of rejoining the program in progress, ABC takes the highly unusual step of resuming the show from the point at which it was interrupted.
1989: Announcer Jay Stewart (Let’s Make a Deal, Sale of the Century, others) is found dead in his carport from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, aged 71. Severe depression following his daughter’s own suicide 8 years earlier, combined with an increasing dependence on alcohol and a battle with severe chronic back pain, is said to have been the motive for taking his life.
1997: “...and may God bless.” Comedian Red Skelton dies in Palm Springs, California, aged 84.
2001: David Letterman is the first late-night host to return to the airwaves after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
2002: Spin City debuts on ABC.
2003: WWL-TV investigative reporter Bill Elder dies, aged 65. He earned the nickname “the Mike Wallace of Louisiana” over a 35-year career beginning in 1965.
(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…..)
1938: Actor Paul Benedict (The Jeffersons) is born in Silver City, New Mexico. (Sesame Street fans also know Benedict as The Number Painter.)
1948: WENR-TV (channel 7, now WLS-TV) signs on, becoming Chicago’s third TV station.
1948: KMTR-TV (channel 13, now KCOP) goes on the air in Los Angeles.
1949: KBTV (channel 8, now WFAA-TV) begins operating in Dallas, Texas. (The KBTV calls certainly have gotten around, later residing with Denver’s channel 9, and then coming home to Texas on Port Arthur/Beaumont’s channel 4.)
1964: Bewitched premieres on ABC.
1965: WPHL-TV (channel 17) signs on as an independent station. (The channel had been dark since the demise of WPCA-TV three years earlier.) It is one of three UHFs to sign on in Philly in ’65 (along with WIBF-TV on 29 and WKBS-TV on 48).
1965: From the old West (as it never was) to Nazi Germany (as it really never was): CBS premieres The Wild, Wild West and Hogan’s Heroes.
1966: Mission: Impossible debuts on CBS.
1967: The Doors appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and perform "Light My Fire." Sullivan had requested that the line "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" be changed for the show. However, Jim Morrison sings it the way it was written, and the group is subsequently banned from further appearances on the show.
1968: Julia premieres on NBC.
1969: Room 222 debuts on ABC.
1970: The Flip Wilson Show premieres on NBC.
1970: Future CNN journalist Anderson Cooper makes his TV debut at the tender age of 3, appearing with his mother – Gloria Vanderbilt – on The Tonight Show.
1972: M*A*S*H debuts on CBS,
1978: The ceremony formalizing the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt is televised live from the White House East Room. The live breaking event interrupts the much-ballyhooed premiere (the uncut 148-minute pilot) of ABC’s Battlestar Galactica. Instead of rejoining the program in progress, ABC takes the highly unusual step of resuming the show from the point at which it was interrupted.
1989: Announcer Jay Stewart (Let’s Make a Deal, Sale of the Century, others) is found dead in his carport from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, aged 71. Severe depression following his daughter’s own suicide 8 years earlier, combined with an increasing dependence on alcohol and a battle with severe chronic back pain, is said to have been the motive for taking his life.
1997: “...and may God bless.” Comedian Red Skelton dies in Palm Springs, California, aged 84.
2001: David Letterman is the first late-night host to return to the airwaves after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
2002: Spin City debuts on ABC.
2003: WWL-TV investigative reporter Bill Elder dies, aged 65. He earned the nickname “the Mike Wallace of Louisiana” over a 35-year career beginning in 1965.
(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…..)