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.
April 28, 1965
My Name is Barbra is Barbra Streisand's
debut television special.
Barbra
Streisand's breakout year as a singer came in 1963, when she released her first
two albums, won her first two Grammys and began appearing live in some of the
most prominent nightclubs in the country. By the following year, she was a
showbiz phenomenon, earning further nominations from the Grammys and Tonys
after wowing Broadway critics and audiences in her first leading role, as Fanny
Brice in Funny Girl. Yet even then, in a Time magazine cover
article in 1964, it was noted that "Many people still say Who when they
hear her name." That probably changed once and for all on April 28, 1965,
when millions of American television viewers tuned in to a solid primetime hour
of the 22-year-old Streisand in her first-ever TV special, the triumphant My
Name Is Barbra.
My Name is Barbra was the first special to be shot and aired under a $5 million, 10-year
contract signed between Streisand and CBS in June 1964. Quite apart from the
money, what made the deal so extraordinary was the creative control it gave to
Streisand. She chose to exercise that control by eschewing many of the
conventions of the then-popular musical variety show genre. Rather than
shooting only in a studio, Streisand and her crew filmed one of their major
sequences on location in the fur department of Bergdorf Goodman, where
Streisand vamped in exotic fur coats and specially designed hats by Halston to
a medley of poverty songs, including "Give Me the Simple Life" and "Brother
Can You Spare a Dime." And rather than filling out the bill with big-name
guest stars—a safe strategy for a young and still-rising star—Streisand
performed every number alone. "You can imagine how nervous that made the
network," Streisand later remarked, "when they learned that there
would be major guest stars, not even any minor ones—just me and a bunch of
great songs and some wonderful musicians."
However nervous they might have been, CBS executives
were thrilled with the results. My Name is Barbra was a huge critical
and ratings hit on this night in 1965. It won two Emmys and a Peabody Award and
helped make Barbra Streisand truly a household name, further ensuring the
success of later Streisand CBS specials like Color Me Barbra (1966) and The
Belle of 14th Street (1967).
April 30, 1975
ABC aired the pilot episode
of Starsky and Hutch.
The
series, which consisted of a 70-minute pilot movie (originally aired
as a Movie of the Week entry) and 92 episodes
of 50 minutes each. The show was created by William
Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and
broadcast between April 30, 1975, and May 15, 1979, on the ABC network. It was distributed
byColumbia Pictures Television in
the United States and, originally, Metromedia Producers Corporation in
Canada and some other parts of the world. Sony Pictures Television is now the
worldwide distributor for the series. The series also inspired a theatrical filmand a video game.
The series' protagonists were two Southern California police detectives:
David Michael Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser), the dark-haired, Brooklyn transplant
and U.S.
Armyveteran, with a street-wise manner and intense, sometimes childlike
moodiness; and Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson (David Soul),
the blond, Duluth, Minnesota native with a more
reserved and intellectual approach. Under the radio call sign "Zebra Three",
they were known for usually tearing around the streets of fictional "Bay
City, California". The vehicle of choice was Starsky's two-door Ford
Gran Torino, which was bright-red, with a large white vector stripe on both
sides. The Torino was nicknamed the "Striped Tomato" by Hutch
in the episode "Snowstorm", and fans subsequently referred to the car
by that nickname, too.
However, this moniker didn't come from the writers - it
came from a real-life comment that Glaser made. In a segment titled Starsky
& Hutch: Behind The Badge that was featured on the first season DVDcollection, Glaser
stated that when he was first shown the Torino by series producer Aaron
Spelling, he sarcastically said to Soul, "That thing looks like a striped
tomato!" In characteristic contrast, Hutch's vehicle was a battered, tan,
1973 Ford Galaxie 500. It occasionally appeared when
the duo needed separate vehicles, or for undercover work; however, the duo's
cover was often blown because Hutch's vehicle had a bad habit: when its
driver's side door was opened, the horn would go off, instantly drawing
attention. It was also noticeable due to the severely cluttered back seat, so
cluttered that there was no room to transport both prisoners, and the two
detectives, simultaneously.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
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