Tuesday, June 30, 2009

This week in Television History: June 09 Part III

Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte Broadcast LIVE every other Tuesday at 10pm ET, 7pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org

As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.









June 27, 1945
FCC allocates TV channels
On this day in 1945, the FCC allocates airwaves for 13 TV stations. Before World War II, a few experimental TV shows had been broadcast in New York, but the war postponed the development of commercial television. With the allocation of airwaves, commercial TV began to spread. The first regularly scheduled network series appeared in 1946, and many Americans viewed television for the first time in 1947, when NBC broadcast the World Series. Since privately owned television sets were still rare, most of the series' estimated 3.9 million viewers watched the games from a bar.

June 27, 1975
Sonny and Cher divorce
In 1971 Sonny and Cher starred in their first television special, The Nitty Gritty Hour. A mixture of slapstick comedy, skits and live music, the appearance was a critical success, which led to numerous guest spots on other television shows. Sonny and Cher caught the eye of CBS head of programming Fred Silverman who offered the duo their own variety show.

The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour debuted in 1971 as a summer replacement series.



The show returned to prime time later that year and was an immediate hit, quickly reaching the Top 10. The show received 15 Emmy Award nominations during its run, winning one for direction, throughout its initial four seasons on CBS. Sonny and Cher's dialogues were patterned after the successful nightclub routines of Louis Prima and Keely Smith: the happy-go-lucky husband squelched by a tart remark from the unamused wife. The show featured a stock company of zany comedians, including Freeman King, Ted Ziegler, and Murray Langston (later The Unknown Comic on The Gong Show). By the third season of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, the marriage of Sonny and Cher was falling apart; the duo separated later that year. The show imploded, while still in the top 10 of the ratings. What followed was a nasty, very public divorce. Cher won a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy for The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour in 1974.
Bono launched his own show, The Sonny Bono Comedy Revue, in the fall of 1974, retaining the "Sonny and Cher" troupe of comedians and writers. Cher also announced plans to star in a new variety series of her own. Critics, surprisingly, predicted that Bono would be the big winner with a solo comedy vehicle, and didn't hold much hope for Cher's more musical showcase. After only six weeks, however, Bono's show was abruptly cancelled. The Cher show debuted as an elaborate, all-star television special on February 16, 1975 featuring Flip Wilson, Bette Midler and special guest Elton John. The first season ranked in the Top 25 of the year-end ratings.
As a result of the divorce, Sonny and Cher went their separate ways until Cher attended the opening of one of Bono's restaurants in something of a reconciliation. The Sonny & Cher Show returned in 1976, even though they were no longer married (the duo "reunited" with a humorous handshake). After struggling with low ratings through 1977, Sonny and Cher finally parted ways for good. Sonny & Cher reunited for a performance on Late Night with David Letterman on November 13th of 1987.



Cher went on to a successful film career, winning the Best Actress Oscar for Moonstruck (1987). Sonny Bono later became a politician, serving as mayor of Palm Springs and as a U.S. congressman. He was killed in a skiing accident in 1998.
June 28, 1975
Rod Serling dies at age 50 after open-heart surgery. Born in 1924 in Syracuse, New York, Serling became one of early television's most successful writers, best known for the anthology series The Twilight Zone, which he created, wrote, and hosted.


In 1959, CBS aired the first episode of The Twilight Zone. Serling fought hard for creative control, hiring writers he respected (such as Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont) and launched himself into weekly television. He stated in an interview that the science fiction format would not be controversial and would escape censorship unlike the earlier Playhouse 90. In reality the show gave him the opportunity to communicate social messages in a more veiled context.
Serling drew on his own experiences for many episodes, with frequent stories about boxing, military life and aircraft pilots, which integrated his firsthand knowledge. The series also incorporated Serling's progressive social views on racial relations and the like, which were somewhat veiled by the science fiction and fantasy elements of the shows. Occasionally, however, Serling could be quite blunt, as in the episode I Am The Night — Color Me Black, where racism and hatred causes a dark cloud to form in the American South before eventually spreading elsewhere. Serling was also progressive on matters of gender, with many stories featuring quick-thinking, resilient women, although he also wrote stories featuring shrewish, nagging wives.
The show lasted five seasons (four using a half-hour format, with one half-season using an hour-long format), winning awards and critical acclaim for Serling and his staff. While having a loyal fan base, the program never had huge ratings and was twice canceled, only to be revived. After five years and 156 episodes, 92 of them written by Serling himself, he wearied of the show. In 1964, he decided to let the third cancellation be final.
Serling sold his rights to the series to CBS. His wife later claimed that he did this partly because he believed the studio would never recoup the cost of the show, which frequently went over budget.
In 1969, NBC aired a Serling-penned pilot for a new series, Night Gallery. Set in a dimly lit museum which was open after hours, the pilot film featured Serling (as on-camera host) playing the part of curator introducing three tales of the macabre, unveiling canvases that would appear in the subsequent story segments (its brief first season rotated as one spoke of a four-series programming wheel titled Four in One), focused more on gothic horror and the occult than did The Twilight Zone. Serling, no longer wanting the burden of an executive position, sidestepped an offer to retain creative control of content—a decision he would come to regret. Although discontented with some of producer Jack Laird's script and creative choices, Serling maintained a stream of creative submissions and ultimately wrote over a third of the series' scripts. By season three however, Serling began to see many of his script contributions rejected. With his complaints ignored, the disgruntled host dismissed the show as Mannix in a cemetery. Night Gallery lasted until 1973.
Subsequent to The Twilight Zone, Serling moved onto cinema screens and continued to write for television. In 1964, he scripted Carol for Another Christmas, a television adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It was telecast only once, December 28, 1964, on ABC.
On May 25, 1962, Serling guest starred in the episode The Celebrity of the CBS sitcom Ichabod and Me with Robert Sterling and George Chandler.
He wrote a number of screenplays with a political focus, including Seven Days in May (1964) about an attempted military coup against the President of the United States; Planet of the Apes (1968); and The Man (1972) about the first African American President.

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".

Stay Tuned



Friday, June 26, 2009

Your Mental Sorbet: Ed McMahon tipsy.

Here is another "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.

Johnny explains this clip on an anniversary show.

Ed was a regular guy, a class act and was able to laugh at himself.
I am sure in heaven Ed will have a desk.

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Michael Jackson

Wow, twice in one day.
The blog is called CHILD OF TELEVISION, as a child my mother worked for Motown during it's golden age and there were many larger than life figures that were part of my day to day life. The Jackson 5ive were a part of that time. Forgive me dear readers for being at a loss for words right now. While everyone on the News is covering current developments, I want to reflect on that simpler time.

Let us not forget appointment viewing on Saturday morning.


Good Night Michael

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Farrah Fawcett 1947 – 2009

There comes a time in a young man's life when you hang your first poster of a pretty girl. My first was was Farrah Fawcett. I had the T-Shirt too.
God gave women intuition and femininity. Used properly, the combination easily jumbles the brain of any man I've ever met.
Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett died this morning at approximately 9:30 a.m. in the intensive care unit of Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, with Ryan O'Neal and her friend Alana Stewart by her side. She was 62 years old. A lot has been said lately about Farrah's illness and her fighting spirit. Her true legacy has yet to be determined. I'd like to take a little time to look back at the life of my first pin-up girl.
She was born Mary Farrah Leni Fawcett in Corpus Christi, Texas. She said that the name Farrah was made up by her mother because it went well with her last name. From 1966–1969, Farrah attended the University of Texas at Austin and became a sister of Delta Delta Delta Sorority. She appeared in a photo of the "Ten Most Beautiful Coeds" from the university, which ran in Cashbox magazine. A Hollywood publicist saw the photo, called Farrah and urged her to move to Los Angeles, which she did in 1969, leaving after her junior year with her parents' permission to "try her luck" in Hollywood.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Farrah appeared in TV commercials for Noxema shaving cream, Ultra Brite toothpaste, Wella Balsam shampoo, and the 1975 Mercury Cougar (Later in 1978, after achieving TV stardom, she appeared in a series of commercials for her own brand of shampoo, marketed by Fabergé).

Fawcett's first appearance on a TV show was a guest spot on I Dream of Jeannie, this was followed by guest appearances in Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law. She later appeared in The Six Million Dollar Man with Lee Majors, The Dating Game, and several episodes of Harry O alongside the late David Janssen.

Farrah rose to international fame in 1976 when she played private investigator Jill Munroe in the TV series Charlie's Angels (then billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors) along side Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and John Forsythe as the voice of Charlie. Farrah emerged as a fan favorite in the show, and the actress won a People's Choice Award for Favorite Performer in a New TV Program. Farrah was also a pop culture figure whose hairstyle was emulated by millions of young women and whose poster and T-Shirt sales (See Above) broke records, making her an international sex symbol in the 1970s and 1980s. Farrah left the show after only one season, and as settlement to a lawsuit stemming from her early departure, she appeared three more times as a guest star in each of seasons three and four. Cheryl Ladd replaced her on the show, portraying Jill's younger sister Kris Munroe and Farrah later went on to become a critically acclaimed actress, appearing in highly rated television movies like The Burning Bed, Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story and Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story.
Farrah, who had resisted appearing nude in films or magazines throughout the 1970s and 1980s, caused a major stir by posing nude in the December 1995 issue of Playboy Magazine, which became the best-selling issue of the 1990s, with over four million copies sold worldwide. At the age of 50, she returned to the pages of Playboy with a pictorial for the July 1997 issue, which also became a top seller. That same year, Fawcett was chosen by Robert Duvall to play his wife in an independent feature film he was producing, The Apostle. Farrah received an Independent Spirit Award nomination as Best Actress for the film. Farrah continued to work in television during the period, with well-regarded appearances on popular television series including Ally McBeal and four episodes each of Spin City and The Guardian, her work on the latter show earning her a third Emmy nomination in 2004.

In a 1977 interview with TV Guide, she said: "When the show was number three, I thought it was our acting. When we got to be number one, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra".

Good Night Angel

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Ed McMahon More than just a Sidekick.

At a time when most men begin their retirement, Ed McMahon was still on The Tonight Show staring Johnny Carson, Hosting TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes (with Dick Clark), Hosting Star Search, appearing with Jerry Lewis for his annual Muscular Dystrophy Association telethons working as a commercial spokesman and an actor. Even with that resume most people still refer to him as Johnny Carson’s Sidekick. Yes he sat on the couch and would say the occasional, “YES!” and “You are correct sir”. But Ed McMahon was more than just a sidekick, he was The Tonight Show’s announcer, a very specialized skill, but the hardest job Ed had was being Johnny Carson’s straight man. Any authority on comedy will tell you that being the straight man is a harder job than being the comic relief. Although Ed had trouble holding back his laughter sometimes, handing Carnac the Magnificent his envelopes was not as easy as it looked. Ed had a great sense of humor and was able to take a joke at the expense of his weight, drinking and big laugh.



Mr. McMahon's publicist, Howard Bragman, said he died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Bragman did not give a cause of death, saying that McMahon had a "multitude of health problems the last few months." After WWII, Ed McMahon made a long career on what he called his "whiskey baritone". Mr. McMahon started his carrer as a carnival barker and road show bingo caller. He also was a salesman on the Atlantic City boardwalk before entering television during its infancy in the late 1940s.
















There is only one quote that we think of when we hear the name Ed McMahon, but just reading it does not do it justice, "Heeeeeeeere's Johnny!".

Good Night Mr. McMahon. Say, "Hi" or is it " "Hi-ooooo!" to Johnny.

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Friday, June 19, 2009

Your Mental Sorbet: Barney Miller "Jack Soo Retrospective"

Here is another "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.

This was a celebration of the life of Jack Soo.

Jack Soo, a Retrospective (Season 5, Episode 24 - Original Air Date—17 May 1979) The death of Jack Soo in 1979 marked the passing of both a fine comedy actor and one of TV's most memorable characters: Nick Yemana, the deadpan detective known for his dry wit and wretched coffee. This tribute to Soo features reminiscences by the series regulars as well as some notable Yemana vignettes.







Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

This week in Television History:June 09 PART II

Forgive me Trekkers I did not include June 3, 1969 when the final episode of Star Trek aired
Turnabout Intruder is a third season, as well as the final first-run episode of
Star Trek: The Original Series. It is episode #79, production #79, written by Arthur H. Singer, based on a story by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Herb Wallerstein. This was the last original episode of Star Trek to air on NBC.
Originally scheduled to air at 10pm on Friday,
March 28, 1969, the network pre-empted it at the last minute with a special report on former president Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had died earlier that day. On June 3, 1969, after an absence of 2 months, Star Trek was brought back on a new night and time: Tuesdays at 7:30pm EDT. "Turnabout Intruder" was the first episode to be shown in this new time slot.
Overview:
Kirk becomes trapped in the body of a woman bent on killing him and taking over his command under his guise.


As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

June 20, 1948
Toast of the Town premiered. Ed Sullivan's long-running variety show premieres. Although later known simply as The Ed Sullivan Show, the series debuts as Toast of the Town.






Among the many performers who made their TV debuts on the show were Bob Hope, Lena Horne, the Beatles, and Walt Disney. Elvis Presley also made several high-profile performances on the show, in 1956 and 1957. The show ran until 1971.

June 24, 1987
Jackie Gleason died. Raised by a single mother who worked at a subway token booth in New York, Gleason dropped out of high school and began performing on the vaudeville circuit in his teens. Signed to a movie contract by the time he was 24 years old, Gleason played character roles in a handful of movies in 1941 and 1942, but found much more success in television. He became one of TV's most popular stars in a number of shows, including The Jackie Gleason Show, which ran throughout most of the 1950s and '60s.



On the show, he created the character of Ralph Kramden, a bus driver who became the beloved star of the spin-off television show The Honeymooners.

June 25, 1993
Late Night with David Letterman airs its last episode. Offbeat comic Letterman, passed over by NBC for the host seat on The Tonight Show after Johnny Carson's retirement, left the network to launch a rival show on CBS.
David Letterman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1947. From an early age, he aspired to host his own talk show. He became a stand-up comic and a wacky weatherman on a local TV station. After years on the stand-up comedy circuit, he made his first appearance on The Tonight Show in 1978 and served as the program's guest host 50 times. In 1980, Letterman had a short-lived morning variety show, The David Letterman Show, which won two Emmys.



He launched his popular late-night TV show in 1982. His offbeat humor and goofy stunts spoofed traditional talk shows. Antics like wearing a Velcro suit and throwing himself at a wall or tossing eggs into a giant electric fan, Letterman gained a large following, especially among college students. Regular features included his "Top Ten List," "Stupid Pet Tricks," and tours of the neighborhood. He also frequently wandered with his camera into other NBC shows in progress. Over more than 11 years, the show won five Emmys and 35 nominations.
When Carson announced his retirement in 1992, Letterman and rival comic Jay Leno engaged in a heated battle for the coveted host slot. When Letterman was passed over, he left NBC for CBS, where his new program, Late Show, outperformed Leno's show almost every week in its first year. However, Leno pulled ahead the following year and maintained a strong lead.

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Friday, June 12, 2009

Your Mental Sorbet: The Bob Newhart Show-P-I-L-O-T

Here is another "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.

In honor of the fact that I am in Chicago this week, I present The Bob Newhart Show-PILOT



Bob and Emily have been trying to have a child. They attend a party where an expectant mother is chatting away and they feel so left out, they decide to adopt. They’re quite nervous when interviewed, but they qualify.



Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Friday, June 05, 2009

Your Mental Sorbet: Conan O'Brien playing 1860s baseball

Here is another "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.

Conan's all-time favorite Late Night clip: playing 1860s baseball... Mine too.

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Thursday, June 04, 2009

David Carradine

David Carradine best known for his work on the TV Series Kung Fu and more recently in the movie Kill Bill was found dead in his room at the Park Nai Lert Hotel in Junfan Mulay, Bangkok, Thailand. The initial police investigation indicated that Carradine had Hanged himself using a cord of the type which is used with curtains. Circumstances suggested that the death was a Suicide. David Carradine's manager Chuck Binder, said he believed Carradine's death was from natural causes, and not from a suicide as reported in the Thai press.

Carradine was born John Arthur Carradine in Hollywood, California the son of Ardanelle Abigail (née McCool) and noted American actor John Carradine. He was the brother of Bruce Carradine and half-brother of Keith and Robert Carradine, as well as the uncle of Ever Carradine and Martha Plimpton. Carradine studied drama at San Francisco State University before working as an actor on stage as well as in television and cinema. He changed his given name to David after starting his career.



Carradine was known for his roles as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s television series Kung Fu (as well as the sequels in the 1980s and 1990s), as well as 'Big' Bill Shelly in Martin Scorsese's Boxcar Bertha (1972), folksinger Woody Guthrie in Bound for Glory (1976), Abel Rosenberg in Ingmar Bergman's The Serpent's Egg (1977), and as Bill in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vols. 1 & 2 (2003, 2004, respectively). Other notable roles included the lead in Shane (the 1966 television series based upon the 1949 novel of the same name) and a gunslinger in Taggart, a 1964 western film based on a novel by Louis L'Amour. He also starred in the Broadway version of the play The Royal Hunt of the Sun in 1965. More recently, he portrayed Tempus, a powerful demon with the ability to manipulate time, on the hit television series Charmed, as well as Conrad in the television series Alias. Carradine appeared in an episode of Lizzie McGuire, and also provided his voice for the King of the Hill episode, Returning Japanese, in which he voiced the character of Hank's Japanese half-brother. He provided the voice for Lo Pei, the ancient warrior who was responsible for Shendu's petrification in the animated series: Jackie Chan Adventures.
Carradine was also known for producing and starring in several exercise videos teaching the martial arts of Tai chi and Qi Gong. Carradine actually had no knowledge of martial arts prior to starring in the series Kung Fu, but developed an interest in it after this experience and became an avid practitioner. Carradine also appeared as the host of Wild West Tech on the History Channel, taking over the duties from his brother Keith. He narrated the PBS anthropology series Faces of Culture.

To Quote David Carradine, "I don't need to convince anybody that I know kung fu, but maybe somebody needs to know that I really can act, without doing a Chinese accent or a funny walk".

Good Night Grasshopper

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

This week in Television History: June PART I

Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte Broadcast LIVE every other Tuesday at 10pm ET, 7pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org

As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

June 5, 1954
Your Show of Shows final episode


The comic variety show featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca launched in 1950. Other featured performers were Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Nanette Fabray, Bill Hayes, Judy Johnson, The Hamilton Trio and the soprano Marguerite Piazza. The show was created by Sylvester Weaver and directed by Max Liebman. Writers for the show included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, and Carl Reiner. For three of its four years, it ranked as one of the Top 20 most highly rated shows. In 1952, the program won the Best Show Emmy Award.

June 7, 1955
The $64,000 Question premieres


The show was a spin-off of radio game show The $64 Question and spun off The $64,000 Challenge. The show started with contestants answering a question worth $64, with each subsequent question worth double the amount of the previous one. The show was an instant hit, knocking I Love Lucy out of first place in the ratings. Rumors of rigging plagued this and other big-money game shows in the mid-1950s causing The $64,000 Question and The $64,000 Challenge to be yanked off the air within three months of the quiz show scandal's eruption. Challenge went first, in September 1958, with Question was killed in November, 1958.

June 15, 1969
First Hee Haw episode

Hee Haw started on CBS as a summer 1969 replacement for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Although the program ran for only two years, it was a hit with audiences and was in the Top 20 when CBS dropped it, deciding the show's hick country focus wasn't appropriate for the network's image. Hosted by country singers Roy Clark and Buck Owens, the program featured top country musicians and wacky stunts, jokes, and hijinks. The show went into syndication after the network dropped it, becoming highly successful and running until 1992. The show was inspired by Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the major difference being that Hee Haw was far less topical, and was centered around country music. The show was equally well-known for its voluptuous, scantily-clad women in stereotypical farmer's daughter outfits.


To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa