September 8: This Day in TV History

[Stanislav]

Just a few random TV related events that happened on September 8. Discuss or comment as you please……

1915: Actor Frank Cady is born in Susanville, California. Because of crossover episodes among Filmways’ 1960’s sitcoms, Cady holds the distinction of being the only actor to portray the same character (Sam Drucker) on three concurrently running series (Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies). (Despite the rampant incestuous cross-pollination of the “Clampetts go to Hooterville” and vice-versa storylines, none of the other actors actually appeared on all three shows.)

1922: Comedian Sid Caesar (Your Show of Shows, Caesar’s Hour) is born (as Isaac Sidney Caesar) in Yonkers, New York.

1950: The first late-night (11 pm) local newscast in the country debuts on Philadelphia’s WCAU-TV (channel 10).

1952: CBLT begins broadcasting in Toronto, Ontario as the CBC’s second station (CBFT Montreal had signed on two days earlier). Initially broadcasting on channel 9, they would move to channel 6 in 1956, then to channel 5 in 1972.

1966: Tarzan debuts on NBC.

1966: Star Trek premieres on NBC. The first episode shown (“The Man Trap”) is actually the sixth filmed (counting the two pilots).

1967: Judd for the Defense debuts on ABC.

1968: The Bugs Bunny Show ends its initial network run on ABC. It would re-emerge one week later on CBS as The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, featuring some newly animated linking/bridging segments and a new “secondary” theme song (“Road Runner….the Coyote’s after you….”)

1969: Game show host Bud Collyer (Beat the Clock, To Tell the Truth) dies in Greenwich, Connecticut.

1972: Are You Being Served? airs as a one-time special program on the BBC. A pilot of sorts, the show is very well-received, and would begin as a regular series the following year.

1981: Actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas (Home Improvement) is born (as Jonathan Taylor Weiss) in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

1986: The Oprah Winfrey Show debuts in syndication. It was a retitling/retooling and national rollout of Winfrey’s local A.M. Chicago show

1990: Fox introduces the “Fox Kids” programming block.

1997: Ally McBeal premieres on Fox.

2003: The Ellen DeGeneres Show premieres in syndication.

(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…..)

 

[bpatrick]

Ironically, syndicated "To Tell The Truth" with Garry
Moore as host made its debut the same day Bud Collyer
died.

The Road Runner theme ("Road Runner...the Coyote's
after you") was used on his own show on CBS (1966-68);
during the 1966-67 season, Bugs and the Road Runner
aired against each other at noon (ET)--Bugs on ABC,
Road Runner on CBS.

 

[Stanislav]

1915: Actor Frank Cady is born in Susanville, California. Because of crossover episodes among Filmways’ 1960’s sitcoms, Cady holds the distinction of being the only actor to portray the same character (Sam Drucker) on three concurrently running series (Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies). (Despite the rampant incestuous cross-pollination of the “Clampetts go to Hooterville” and vice-versa storylines, none of the other actors actually appeared on all three shows.)

Correcting/annotating my own thread, thanks to a tip from a fellow TV Geek. This "fact" about Frank Cady has been trumpeted for years, but the fact is that several of the PJ actors appeared at one time or another on all 3 series, primarily due to the Christmas and Thanksgiving themed Hooterville episodes that aired as part of the BH "canon." I wondered if they meant appearing on all 3 in the same season, but some even fulfill that criteria. (Edgar Buchanan, for example, although his crossover parts on GA were largely confined to the first season, did appear in a single GA episode in 1968, the same year as the big Clampetts/Hooterville shindigs.)

I suppose Mr. Cady might be the only one to have done all three in the same week -- a safe bet since he was in just about every GA and PJ episode.

One actress who misses the mark is Bea Benaderet. Yes, she appeared on all 3 shows, but on BH only as Cousin Pearl in the early years. She passed away a short time before the Clampett/Hooterville mash-ups were done, else she, too, would have been on all 3 series as the same character. (It's interesting to think of what might have gone down if she had lived. Granny meets Kate Bradley and looks at her oddly...."you look awful familiar...is you related to....?" Maybe they could have had her do a dual role as both Pearl and Kate...) <g>

 

[Tim L]

1915: Actor Frank Cady is born in Susanville, California. Because of crossover episodes among Filmways’ 1960’s sitcoms, Cady holds the distinction of being the only actor to portray the same character (Sam Drucker) on three concurrently running series (Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies). (Despite the rampant incestuous cross-pollination of the “Clampetts go to Hooterville” and vice-versa storylines, none of the other actors actually appeared on all three shows.)

Correcting/annotating my own thread, thanks to a tip from a fellow TV Geek. This "fact" about Frank Cady has been trumpeted for years, but the fact is that several of the PJ actors appeared at one time or another on all 3 series, primarily due to the Christmas and Thanksgiving themed Hooterville episodes that aired as part of the BH "canon." I wondered if they meant appearing on all 3 in the same season, but some even fulfill that criteria. (Edgar Buchanan, for example, although his crossover parts on GA were largely confined to the first season, did appear in a single GA episode in 1968, the same year as the big Clampetts/Hooterville shindigs.)

I suppose Mr. Cady might be the only one to have done all three in the same week -- a safe bet since he was in just about every GA and PJ episode.

One actress who misses the mark is Bea Benaderet. Yes, she appeared on all 3 shows, but on BH only as Cousin Pearl in the early years. She passed away a short time before the Clampett/Hooterville mash-ups were done, else she, too, would have been on all 3 series as the same character. (It's interesting to think of what might have gone down if she had lived. Granny meets Kate Bradley and looks at her oddly...."you look awful familiar...is you related to....?" Maybe they could have had her do a dual role as both Pearl and Kate...) <g>

There is a message board devoted to Petticoat Junction, http://pjboard.aimoo.com/ and the members there have speculated on just that possibility (Granny meeting Kate, etc..) Plus, the constant in all this is Paul Henning, who created and produced Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, and Produced Green Acres..

 

[Stanislav]

Plus, the constant in all this is Paul Henning, who created and produced Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, and Produced Green Acres...

Not to mention being married to Linda Kaye Henning (one of the Bradley sisters). Talk about yer nepotism there.....

 

[RicoGregg]

Plus, the constant in all this is Paul Henning, who created and produced Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, and Produced Green Acres...

Not to mention being married to Linda Kaye Henning (one of the Bradley sisters). Talk about yer nepotism there.....

Forgive me, but I thought Linda Kaye was Paul's daughter. Wasn't she married to Mike Minor? I used to wonder what purpose he served on the show.

 

[wbhist]

Forgive me, but I thought Linda Kaye was Paul's daughter. Wasn't she married to Mike Minor? I used to wonder what purpose he served on the show.

Oh, she was. (Paul's daughter, that is.) In the first five seasons she was credited as Linda Kaye: a) in part to avoid the appearance of nepotism on Paul's part, and b) as a kind of in-joke/homage to rubber-faced, fellow redhead Danny Kaye (no relation), who from 1963 to 1967 hosted an Emmy-winning yet perpetually ratings-challenged comedy/variety series, The Danny Kaye Show, on CBS. Alas, by the 1990's, long after Ms. Henning dropped the "Kaye" from her professional name, some reference books and web guides confused some of her credits with those of a stuntwoman named Linda Kaye who was in two Quentin Tarantino films. (Believe me, I actually saw Pulp Fiction where this Linda Kaye appeared as a "shot woman" - she looked nothing at all like Ms. Henning.)

And she was married to Mr. Minor, from 1968 until 1973. His character on the show was as an airplane crop-duster. Alas, his coming onto the show, coupled with the arrival of Meredith MacRae as Billie Jo #3, turned the show into a de facto musical variety sitcom, in a manner not unlike what happened with I've Got a Secret which, by the 1960's, had gone from a What's My Line?-style panel show on steroids to a de facto variety show with a panel on it.

 

[Stanislav]

My bad on the Henning thing.....sad how my memory plays tricks on me as I age.....

Although it was interesting and produced some cute plot lines (I liked the notion of Granny taking a shine to Sam Drucker) , I never felt really comfortable with the whole Clampetts/Hooterville crosssover thing. I'm puzzled trying to recall how Granny and Co. ended up in Hooterville to begin with. There has been much speculation about (a)where the Clampetts actually hailed from and (b)where the PJ/GA Hooterville setting was supposed to be. I think the early BH episodes implied the Clampetts were from Tennessee (that's where their hometown, Bugtussle, was supposed to be, wasn't it?), and Granny was an unabashed, unrepentant Rebel in the early seasons. But other clues (such as their traveling "back" to Silver Dollar City) placed their roots in the Missouri/Arkansas Ozarks. Regardless, I never pictured the Hooterville universe as being in the South; the characters don't have Southern accents, and the whole setting seems more Midwestern. In fact, I believe GA dialogue and continuity indicated that Chicago wasn't too far away, so I always imagined Hooterville as being more like downstate rural Illinois or something than the South.

But it was a contrivance to boost ratings, and ultimately it doesn't have to make sense. I always recall that legend about Hal Roach doing a comedy short set in the desert, and one gag involved a billboard. "But, Mr. Roach," one naive young assistant asked, "why is there a billboard in the middle of the desert?" Roach's reply was, "because the prop man damn well put it there, that's why!"

 

[RicoGregg]

My bad on the Henning thing.....sad how my memory plays tricks on me as I age.....

Don't feel bad. I had a memory slip-up when I posted a response to your Sept. 5 thread.

It happens to the best of us.

Besides, think about it: How many people truly remember Linda Kaye Henning and Mike Minor?

 

[Tim L]

Don Quinn, who partnered with Jim and Marian Jordan on Fibber McGee and Molly for most of their radio years, turns up as "Script Consultant" on Petticoat Junction on some early episodes. Hooterville was not unlike Wistful Vista in there were some unusual characters..and they both may have been set in the Midwest...I mentioned this before but the Petticoat Junction Ultimate Collection has a lot of the first year episodes that hadnt been seen in years, and lots of extras..Linda Kaye Henning does intros to all the episodes..In watching these, It was almost like what "Green Acres" would become..

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/releases/Petticoat-Junction-Volume-Release/4984

Paramount Home Video is supposed to be coming out with the "Official 1st Season" of Petticoat Junction December 16, with all 38 first year episodes..

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/releases/Petticoat-Junction-Official-1st-Season/8184

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1975: Actor Larenz Tate is born in Chicago. His television credits include appearances on "The Cosby Show," "21 Jump Street," "The Wonder Years," "Family Matters," and "The Royal Family," and most recently in FX's "Rescue Me."

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

1957: Actress Heather Thomas ("The Fall Guy") is born in Greenwich, CT.

 

[therealjm12]

In response to the Pearl Bodine/Kate Bradly relationship on Beverley Hillbillies/Petticoat Junction: I believe it was mentioned on one episode of the Beverly Hillbillies that Kate was Pearl's cousin -not on the Clampett side of the family. It may have been edited out for some reason on the reruns.

 

[RyanHoward]

1975: Actor Larenz Tate is born in Chicago. His television credits include appearances on "The Cosby Show," "21 Jump Street," "The Wonder Years," "Family Matters," and "The Royal Family," and most recently in FX's "Rescue Me."

Larenz has also done some feature film roles, including 50's doo-wop icon Frankie Lymon in 1998's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love."

 

[dxtrfn]

1998: Mark McGwire hits his 62nd home run of the season to break Roger Maris' single season home run record in a game shown nationally on FOX.