Monday, June 09, 2014

This Week in Television History: June 2014 PART II


Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL:




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 10, 1989
HBO aired the first episode of Tales from the Crypt. 

This horror anthology television series ran from June 10, 1989 to July 19, 1996 on HBO for seven seasons with a total of 93 episodes. The title is based on the 1950s EC Comics series of the same name and most of the content originated in that comic or the six other EC Comics of the time (The Crypt of TerrorHaunt of FearVault of HorrorCrime SuspenStoriesShock SuspenStories and Two-Fisted Tales). The show was produced by HBO with uncredited association by The Geffen Film Company and Warner Bros. Television (all part of a production consortium officially called Tales from the Crypt Holdings).

June 11, 1999
DeForest Kelley died of stomach cancer . 
His body was cremated and the ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.


June 15, 1969
First Hee Haw episode.

TV country-western variety show Hee Haw debuts. 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.
Hee Haw continues to remain beloved and popular with its long-time fans and those who've discovered the program through DVD releases and its reruns on RFD-TV. In spite of the loving support of the series by its fans, the program had never been a favorite of television critics or members of the more high brow society. This particular fact was reinforced when TV Guide ranked the series number 10 on its 50 Worst Shows of All Time List in 2002...a full 10 years after the last first-run episode aired in May 1992 (although the entry specifically refers to the Hee Haw Honeys spinoff, not the main show itself).
 
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".



Stay Tuned



Tony Figueroa

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