September 23: This Month in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on September 23. Discuss or comment as you please……

1953: Television comes to Reno as KOLO-TV begins broadcasting on channel 8. It is Nevada’s second TV station (after KLAS-TV Las Vegas).

1953: KHQA-TV (channel 7) launches in Hannibal, Missouri.

1959: Actor Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) is born (as Jay Scott Greenspan) in Newark, New Jersey.

1962: ABC broadcasts in color for the first time with the premiere of The Jetsons. The network still has no live or tape color facilities at this time – just a single RCA TK-26 film chain.

1968: The remains of The Andy Griffith Show are re-born as Mayberry RFD.

1968: Not too often have 10 new TV stations signed on in one state all on the same day. In fact, just once: this day Kentucky Educational Television (KET) launches 10 UHF transmitters. The new stations are located in Ashland, Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, Hazard, Lexington (Richmond), Madisonville, Morehead, Owenton, Pikeville, and Somerset.

1969: Marcus Welby, M.D. premieres on ABC.

1978: CKCY-TV (channel 2, now CHBX-TV) begins operating in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, as a CTV affiliate.

1978: Dallas begins as a weekly series on CBS, a follow-on to the mini-series broadcast in April of this year.

1979: All in the Family is dead; Archie Bunker’s Place is born. Not so much a sequel as a retooling of AITF (to account for cast changes and attempt to inject new life into the series), the retitled show features a new opening, including a lively instrumental version of the “Those Were the Days” theme song.

1986: Andy Griffith returns to series TV as Matlock begins a 10-year run on NBC.

1992: Mad About You debuts on NBC.

1995: JAG premieres on NBC. This would be its only season on the Peacock Network -- it would move to CBS for the remainder of its 10-year run.

1997: Dharma & Greg debuts on ABC.

1998: BBC Choice launches. It is the UK's first digital-only TV station.

1998: Actress Mary Frann (Days of Our Lives, Newhart) dies in her sleep, age 55. An autopsy would determine that Frann was suffering from an undiagnosed condition called lipomatosis with fibrosis, a scarring of the heart muscle tissue.

2002: The franchise continues to multiply: CSI: Miami premieres on CBS.

2003: NCIS premieres on CBS.

(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…..)

 

[bpatrick]

1952: Richard Nixon saves his vice-presidential campaign
with the "Checkers" speech. With pressure on Dwight Eisenhower
to dump Nixon because of allegations of an $18,000 "slush fund,"
Nixon goes live on NBC, discloses his financial assets, and--oh yes--
mentions that a man in Texas had heard Pat Nixon say on the radio
that Julie and Tricia would like a dog and had sent them a cocker
spaniel which they named Checkers. "And no matter what [they] say,
we're going to keep it." The speech runs over as Nixon is in the middle
of giving the Republican National Committee's address if voters want him
on the ticket when he is cut off due to time. The letters of support pour
in anyway and when he next meets with Eisenhower, Ike says, "You're my
boy." (Eight years later, when Nixon is running for president, Ike says if
reporters give him a week he might think of one thing Nixon did as vice-
president.)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

The following company founded on Sept. 23 in history would eventually contribute to TV history:

1889: The Nintendo Company (named after the Japanese word for "leave luck to heaven") is founded as Nintendo Koppai in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi as a playing card company. It eventually would enter the video game market in 1975, when they secured the rights to distribute the Magnavox Odyssey video game console in Japan. Nintendo products first entered the US in fall 1985, and went national by the end of 1986 (with the likes of games as Super Mario Brothers).

 

[wbhist]

1962: ABC broadcasts in color for the first time with the premiere of The Jetsons. The network still has no live or tape color facilities at this time – just a single RCA TK-26 film chain.

From what I could tell, this lone film chain was at the network's Prospect and Talmadge studios in Hollywood.

I seem to recall that two years later, in 1964, ABC's New York facilities acquired General Electric PE-24 color film chains (this, per contemporary GE ads in Broadcast Engineering and Broadcasting magazines), while by 1965 Prospect & Talmadge got RCA TK-27's whose performance was deemed somewhat unsatisfactory.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1947: Actress Mary Kay Place ("Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman") is born in Tulsa, OK.

 

[LKellerIII]

1947: Actress Mary Kay Place ("Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman") is born in Tulsa, OK.

I met Mary Kay once - a friend of mine was a guitar player in her band in the MH, MH days, when she was performing as a country singer, like her character on the show.

A very nice and talented lady, who has become a very versatile character actor.

 

[mjlarochelle]

1978: CKCY-TV (channel 2, now CHBX-TV) begins operating in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, as a CTV affiliate.

It was at the same time that Sault Ste. Marie's CBC affiliate and first TV station, CJIC-TV moved from Channel 2 to Channel 5. This presented a problem for cable viewers who received Bay City's WNEM on Cable 5, as CJIC interfered with cable reception of WNEM after the move.

This is the only ID for CHBX that I've seen from before Baton bought the station and absorbed it into MCTV...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSIQR-eSBdA

 

[AH3RD]

Um...don'tcha mean, "This Day in TV History"? ???

 

[Ultimajock]

1947: Actress Mary Kay Place ("Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman") is born in Tulsa, OK.

I met Mary Kay once - a friend of mine was a guitar player in her band in the MH, MH days, when she was performing as a country singer, like her character on the show.

A very nice and talented lady, who has become a very versatile character actor.

...for proof of the latter point, may I suggest Starting Over (a damned good movie to begin with, Candy Bergen's singing notwithstanding) and Modern Problems (in which she's almost the only reason to look in the first place) ;D ...