I represent the first generation who, when we were born, the television was now a permanent fixture in our homes. When I was born people had breakfast with Barbara Walters, dinner with Walter Cronkite, and slept with Johnny Carson. Read the full "Pre-ramble"
This week’s show will include a return appearance by comedian Tom Dreesen, the longtime opening act for Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. who has also been a fixture on late night television, particularly The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and The Late Show with David Letterman. Tom was recently honored by the Radio and Television Museum in Chicago for his nearly five-decade career in show business. A much sought-after motivational speaker and master of ceremonies, he is also the co-author of Tim and Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White, the story of his partnership with Tim Reid in the late ‘60s and early 1970s as America’s first, and only, interracial comedy team. Tom Dreesen will join us in our second hour. 
 | ||
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.
September 26, 1986
Dallas episode Return to
Camelot airs.
Pam's stunned to find Bobby alive in her shower, the events from his
death onward all a dream.
September 28, 1901
Ed Sullivan is born in New York City. During the peak of its popularity in the 1950s and
1960s, Sullivan’s program showcased a wide range of entertainers,
including Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Rudolf Nureyev, Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope.
Sullivan worked as a newspaper reporter and columnist in New York during the
1920s and 1930s and also hosted and produced vaudeville shows and benefits. In
1948, he became the master of ceremonies of a weekly TV variety show dubbed Toast
of the Town. In 1955, the program, which aired Sunday nights on CBS, was
renamed The Ed Sullivan Show. Although Sullivan was often awkward and
self-conscious on camera, he was a hit with audiences and his program had broad
appeal. In addition to big-name entertainers, the show featured animal acts,
athletes, comedians, dancers and opera singers, along with such regulars as
Topo Gigio, a mouse puppet with an Italian accent, and a ventriloquist named
Senor Wences.
Notable moments in the history of The Ed Sullivan Show include its
broadcast on January 6, 1957, when Elvis Presley appeared on the program and
the cameras shot him from the waist up because his gyrating hips were
considered too scandalous for family television. On February 9, 1964,
more than 70 million viewers tuned in to the show for the American TV debut of
the Liverpool-based rock quartet The Beatles.
Sullivan was also notable for featuring African-American performers on his
program. According to the Museum of Broadcast Communications: “At a time when
virtually all sponsors balked at permitting black performers to take the stage,
Sullivan embraced Pearl Bailey over the objections of his sponsors. He also
showcased black entertainers as diverse as Nat “King” Cole, Leontine Price,
Louis Armstrong, George Kirby, Richard Pryor, Duke Ellington, Richie Havens and
the Supremes.”
The Ed Sullivan Show was cancelled in 1971. Sullivan died of cancer
at the age of 73 on October 13, 1974. In 1967, CBS renamed the Billy Rose
Theater, from which Sullivan broadcast his show, the Ed Sullivan Theater. Since
1993, David Letterman has hosted his late-night talk show from the Ed Sullivan
Theater, which is located at Broadway and 53rd Street in Manhattan.
September 28, 1961
Dr. Kildare premiered on
NBC-TV.
Dr. Kildare is an NBC medical
drama television series which originally ran from September 28, 1961
until August 30, 1966, for a total of 191 episodes over five seasons. Produced
by MGM Television, it was based on fictional
doctor characters originally created by author Max Brand in
the 1930s and previously used by MGM in a popular film
series and radio
drama. The TV series quickly achieved success and made a star of Richard Chamberlain, who played the title role. Dr.
Kildare (along with an ABC medical drama, Ben Casey,
which premiered at the same time) inspired or influenced many later TV shows
dealing with the medical field.
September 28, 1961
Hazel premiered on NBC-TV.
Hazel is an
American sitcom about a fictional live-in maid named Hazel
Burke (Shirley Booth) and her employers, the Baxters. The
five-season, 154-episode series aired in prime time from September 28, 1961, to
April 11, 1966, and was produced by Screen
Gems. The show aired on NBC for its first four seasons. Season 1 was broadcast in black-and-white for
all but one episode and seasons 2–4 were aired in color. The fifth and final
season was broadcast in color on CBS. The show was based
on the popular single-panel comic strip by cartoonist Ted Key, which
appeared in the Saturday Evening Post.
September 29, 1986
The first episode of Designing Women aired on CBS.
Designing Women is
an American sitcom created
by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason that aired
on CBS from
September 29, 1986, until May 24, 1993, producing seven seasons and 163
episodes. The comedy seriesDesigning Women was a joint production
of Bloodworth/Thomason Mozark Productions in association with Columbia Pictures Television for
CBS.
The series centers on the lives of four women and one man working
together at an interior designing firm inAtlanta,
Georgia called Sugarbakers & Associates. It originally starred Dixie
Carter as president of the design firm Julia Sugarbaker, Delta
Burke as her ex-beauty queen sister Suzanne Sugarbaker, Annie
Potts as head designer Mary Jo Shively, and Jean Smart as
office manager Charlene Frazier. Later in its run, the series received
recognition for its well-publicized behind-the-scene conflicts and cast
changes. Julia Duffy and Jan Hooksreplaced
Burke and Smart for season six, but Duffy was not brought for the seventh and
final season, and she was replaced by Judith
Ivey.
October 1, 2006
The
pilot episode of Dexter aired.
Dexter is an American
television crime drama mystery series
that aired on Showtime from October 1, 2006, to
September 22, 2013. Set in Miami, the series
centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael
C. Hall), a forensic technician specializing in blood spatter pattern analysis for
the fictional Miami Metro Police Department, who leads a secret parallel life
as a vigilante serial killer, hunting down murderers who have
slipped through the cracks of the justice system. The show's first
season was derived from the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004), the
first of the Dexter series novels by Jeff Lindsay. It was adapted for television
by screenwriter James Manos, Jr., who wrote the first episode.
Subsequent seasons evolved independently of Lindsay's works.
In
February 2008, reruns (edited down to a TV-14 rating)
began to air on CBS,
although the reruns on CBS ended after one run of the first season. The series
has enjoyed mostly positive reviews throughout its run and popularity,
including four consecutive Primetime Emmy nominations for Best Drama Series
starting in season 2. Season 4 aired its season finale on December 13, 2009, to a
record-breaking audience of 2.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched
original series episode ever on Showtime at that time.
In
April 2013, Showtime announced that Season 8 would be the final season of Dexter. The
Season 8 premiere was the most watched Dexter episode with
more than 3 million viewers total for all airings that night. The original
broadcast of the series finale—shown at 9 p.m. on September 22, 2013—drew 2.8
million viewers, the largest overall audience in Showtime's history.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was". Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
Television historian and Emmy Award-winning writer Vince Waldron will join us for a behind-the-scenes look at The Dick Van Dyke Show, the most acclaimed comedy series of TV's golden age. Vince’s book The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book, Deluxe Expanded Archive Editi... tells you everything you wanted to know about the iconic sitcom, as seen through the eyes of the cast and crew, including Carl Reiner, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Larry Mathews, and, of course, Dick Van Dyke himself. We’ll talk about how Reiner originally developed the series, why the show’s ensemble cast is among the best ever assembled, and the various hoops the Van Dyke show had to go through just to get on the air. Vince Waldron will join us in our second hour.
Also joining this week will be Kevin Martin, owner and CEO of Piece of the Past, one of the longest running autograph dealers in the world today. One of the leading autograph and memorabilia experts in the industry, Kevin has more than three decades of experience authenticating and selling only entertainment memorabilia. He also has written more than ten books, including An Insider’s Guide to Autograph Collecting, an A to Z look at the world of autograph collecting that also features many useful tips to make sure that the autographed celebrity item that you’re thinking of purchasing online and from an outside sources is, in fact, authentic. Kevin Martin will join us in our first hour. | ||
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.
September 21, 2001
America: A Tribute to Heroes was shown on 35 separate broadcast and cable networks simultaneously.
The telethon raised $150 million in pledges to benefit families of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001. The pledges were made from September 21 through September 24, 2001.
September 22, 1986
The TV show ALF
debuted on NBC.
ALF is
an American science fiction sitcom that aired on NBC from September
22, 1986 to March 24, 1990. It was the first television series to be presented
in Dolby Surround.
The title character is Gordon
Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF
(an acronym for Alien Life Form), who crash lands in the garage of the suburban
middle-class Tanner family. The series stars Max Wrightas
father Willie Tanner, Anne Schedeen as mother Kate Tanner, and Andrea
Elson and Benji Gregory as their children, Lynn and Brian
Tanner. ALF was performed by puppeteer/creator Paul Fusco.
Produced by Alien Productions, ALF originally
ran for four seasons and produced 99 episodes, including three one-hour
episodes that were divided into two parts for syndication totaling 102
episodes.
September 23, 1951
The first transcontinental telecast was received
on the west coast. The show Crusade for
Freedom was broadcast by CBS-TV from New York.
September 23, 1956
Mickey Dolenz began his television career in
NBC's Circus Boy series.
He later became a member of
the Monkees.
September 23, 1961
Weekly TV movie program Saturday Night at the
Movies debuts on NBC, starting with the 1953 film How to Marry a
Millionaire.
The program was the
first major network initiative to broadcast recent movies on the air. Although
movies from the 1930s and '40s had appeared on TV, the networks had resisted
showing more recent films. Until the 1960s, a fierce rivalry existed between
the television and movie industries, and neither wanted to promote the other.
However, with the success of Saturday Night at the Movies, relatively
recent films became a staple of TV programming.
September 23, 1976
The first season of Black Sheep Squadron began on NBC under the name Baa Baa Black Sheep.
Baa Baa Black Sheep (later syndicated as Black
Sheep Squadron) is a period military television series
that aired on NBC from
1976 until 1978. Its premise was based on the experiences of United States Marine Corpsaviator Greg
Boyington and his World
War II "Black Sheep Squadron". The series was created and
produced byStephen J. Cannell. The opening credits read:
"In World War II, Marine Corps Major Greg 'Pappy' Boyington commanded a
squadron of fighter pilots. They were a collection of misfits and screwballs
who became the terrors of the South Pacific. They were known as the Black Sheep."
September 24, 1936
Muppet creator Jim Henson is born in Greenville,
Mississippi.
Henson joined a puppet
club in high school and used his skills to land a job at a local TV station
between high school and college. His homemade puppets delighted audiences, and
during his freshman year at the University of Maryland the TV station gave him
his own five minute show, called Sam and Friends. The show ran twice a
day, just before popular news show the Huntley-Brinkley Report and again
before the Tonight Show with Steve Allen. Henson's program ran for eight
years and won a local Emmy in 1958.
In 1955, Henson took an
old green coat of his mother's, attached two halves of a ping-pong ball for
eyes, and created a lizard-like character named Kermit, who later evolved into
Kermit the Frog. Other familiar characters took shape on Sam and Friends,
as Henson's Muppets multiplied. In 1957, Henson made the first of more than 300
TV commercials for Wilkins Coffee. In 1963 Rowlf the Dog became a regular on
variety program The Jimmy Dean Show, which ran until 1966.
Henson showed an
interest in filmmaking in the mid 1960s, making a short film called Timepiece
in 1965, which was nominated for an Oscar. A few years later, he met Joan Ganz
Cooney, a TV producer heading up a study of children and television at a
seminar for educators in Boston. Ganz was formulating an idea for a kids' TV
program she called The Preschool Educational Television Show, and she
quickly persuaded Henson and his Muppets to join her. The show, with its new,
snappier title, Sesame Street, was launched in 1969, and generations of
children fell in love with Big Bird, Kermit the Frog, Ernie and Bert, Oscar the
Grouch, Grover, Cookie Monster, and many other Henson creations.
After seven years of
children's television, Henson wanted to explore more sophisticated
possibilities for his Muppets. He shopped around an idea for a variety show
starring Kermit, but none of the networks were interested. Undeterred, Henson
created The Muppet Show as a syndicated series, which became the world's
most watched TV show, with 235 million viewers in more than 100 countries. The
program ran from 1976 to 1981 and won three Emmys. Meanwhile, the Muppets
launched a movie career in 1979 with The Muppet Movie, followed by The
Great Muppet Caper (1981) and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984).
Other,
less familiar Henson creatures appeared in The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth
(1986) with David Bowie, as well as in two cable TV series, Fraggle Rock
and The Ghost of Faffner Hall. His Saturday morning cartoon, Jim
Henson's Muppet Babies, was launched in 1984 and won four Emmys. Henson
died of pneumonia in 1990.
September 24, 1961
The Bullwinkle Show premiered in prime
time on NBC-TV.
The show was
originally on ABC in the afternoon as "Rocky and His Friends."
September 24, 1966
"Last
Train to Clarksville" gives the made-for-TV Monkees a real-life pop hit
When
producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson conceived a situation comedy called The
Monkees in 1965, they hoped to create a ratings success by blurring the
line between pop music and television. Instead, they succeeded in obliterating
that line entirely when the pop group that began as a wholly fictional creation
went on to rival, however briefly, the success of its real-life inspiration,
the Beatles. On this day in 1966, the made-for-television Monkees knocked down
the fourth wall decisively when their first single, "Last Train To
Clarksville" entered the Billboard Top 40.
"Last
Train To Clarksville" was written by the team that was also responsible
for the theme song of The Monkees, songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby
Hart. Though Boyce and Hart had been working together in Los Angeles for
several years before being asked to write and record the soundtrack for
Schneider and Rafelson's A Hard Day's Night-inspired pilot, their
biggest success to date had been in writing minor hits for Chubby Checker and Paul
Revere and the Raiders and in being commissioned
to write the theme song for Days Of Our Lives. Their association with The
Monkees would end up launching Boyce and Hart on a moderately successful
career as performers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. By far their best-known hits, however, were the ones
they wrote for the Monkees, including "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"
and "Last Train To Clarksville."
Just
as producers Schneider and Rafelson had reached out to a pair of industry
professionals to create the music for the pilot episode of The Monkees,
they engaged numerous others to create the other memorable songs in the
Monkees' catalog. Under the musical direction of Don Kirshner, The Monkees featured
hits by some of the era's greatest songwriters, including Neil Diamond, who
wrote "I'm A Believer" and "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit
You" (both 1967) and the great husband-and-wife team of Gerry Goffin and
Carole King, who wrote "Daydream Believer" (1967). Numerous other
Monkees songs were written by such songwriting luminaries as Cynthia Mann and
Barry Weill, Harry Nilsson and Carole Bayer Sager and Neil Sedaka.
By
the time their third album was released, the real-life Monkees—Davy Jones, Michael
Nesmith, Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork—had taken over creative control of their
musical output, including taking on much of the songwriting. Although they
would release seven more studio albums, none would contain hits as successful
or memorable as the one that gave the group its breakthrough on September 24,
1966.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was". Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
 |
| Micky and Peter and the band play along with Davy's original vocals during the NYC stop of the 50th Anniversary tour. |
 |
MONKEES 50TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR |
The Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, and director of such classic shows as M*A*S*H, Cheers, Frasier, The Simpsons and Everybody Loves Raymond, Ken Levine is also an award-winning radio host and former Major League Baseball broadcaster for the Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners. If you follow baseball on any level, you know that the game, in many ways, is a reflection of life itself. Ken takes that idea a step further in Going Going Gone, a new play that explores our need to be remembered in a world that focuses on celebrating milestones. Though set against the backdrop of sports, Going Going Gone has elements that will remind you of Norm, Cliff and some of the other barflies on Cheers. We’ll ask Ken about that, plus we’ll talk about the influence of Garry Marshall early in his writing career, what Vin Scully mean to him personally (and to baseball fans in general), and more. Ken Levine joins us in our second hour.
| ||
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.
September 12, 1966
The
Monkees first aired
The
series follows the adventures of four young men (the
Monkees) trying to make a name for themselves as rock 'n roll singers. The
show introduced a number of innovative new-wave film techniques to series
television and won two Emmy Awards in 1967. The program ended on Labor Day 1968
at the finish of its second season and has received a long afterlife in
Saturday morning repeats (CBS and ABC) and syndication, as well as overseas
broadcasts.
In
the early 1960s, aspiring filmmakers Bob
Rafelson and Bert
Schneider had formed Raybert Productions and were trying to get
a foot in the door in Hollywood. Inspired by the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night, the duo
decided to develop a television series about a fictional rock 'n' roll group. In
April, 1965, Raybert sold the series idea to Screen Gems, and by August, a
pilot script titled "The Monkeys" was completed by Paul
Mazursky andLarry Tucker. Rafelson has said that
he had the idea for a TV series about a music group as early as 1960, but had a
hard time interesting anyone in it until 1965, by which time rock and roll
music was firmly entrenched in pop culture.
On
September 8, 1965, trade publications Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter ran an ad
seeking "Folk & Roll Musicians-Singers for acting roles in new TV
series." As many as 400 hopefuls showed up to be considered as one of
"4 insane boys." Fourteen actors from the audition pool were
brought back for screen tests, and after audience research, Raybert chose
their final four.
Micky
Dolenz, son of screen actor George
Dolenz, had prior screen experience (under the name "Mickey
Braddock") as the 10-year-old star of the Circus Boy series
in the 1950s. He was actively auditioning for pilots at the time and was told
about the Raybert project by his agent.
Englishman Davy Jones was a former jockey who had
achieved some initial success on the musical stage (appearing with the cast
of Oliver! on The Ed Sullivan Show the night of the
Beatles' live American debut). Already appearing in Columbia Pictures
productions and recording for the Colpix record
label, he had been identified in advance as a potential star for the series.
Texan Michael
Nesmith, whose mother Bette Nesmith Graham had invented a correction
fluid and founded the company that would become Liquid
Paper, had served a brief stint in the U.S. Air Force and had also recorded
for Colpix under the name "Michael Blessing." Nesmith was the only
one of The Monkees who had come in based on seeing the trade magazine ad. He
showed up to the audition with his laundry and impressed Rafelson and
Schneider with his laid-back style and droll sense of humor. Nesmith also wore
a woolen hat to keep his hair out of his eyes when he rode his motorcycle, leading
to early promotional materials which nicknamed him "Wool Hat." The
hat remained part of Nesmith's wardrobe, but the name was dropped after the
pilot.
Peter Tork was
recommended to Rafelson and Schneider by friend Stephen
Stills at his own audition. Tork, a skilled
multi-instrumentalist, had performed at various Greenwich Village folk clubs
before moving west, where he worked as a busboy.
Rafelson
and Schneider wanted the style of the series to reflect avant
garde film techniques—such as improvisation, quick cuts, jump cuts,
breaking the fourth wall, and free-flowing, loose narratives—then
being pioneered by European film directors. Each episode would contain at least
one musical "romp" which might have nothing to do with the storyline.
In retrospect, these vignettes now look very much like music videos: short,
self-contained films of songs in ways that echoed the Beatles' recent ventures
into promotional films for their singles. They also believed strongly in the
program's ability to appeal to young people, intentionally framing the kids as
heroes and the adults as heavies.
Rafelson
and Schneider hired novice director James
Frawley to teach the four actors improvisational comedy. Each of the
four was given a different personality to portray: Dolenz the funny one,
Nesmith the smart and serious one, Tork the naive one, and Jones the cute one.
Their characters were loosely based on their real selves, with the exception of
Tork, who was actually a quiet intellectual. The character types also had much
in common with the respective personalities of the
Beatles, with Dolenz representing the madcap attitude of John
Lennon, Nesmith affecting the deadpan seriousness of George
Harrison, Tork depicting the odd-man-out quality of Ringo
Starr, and Jones conveying the pin-up appeal of Paul
McCartney.
A
pilot episode was shot in San Diego and Los Angeles on a shoestring budget—in
many scenes the Monkees wore their own clothes. Initial audience tests (which
were just then being pioneered) produced very low responses.
The
Monkees debuted September 12,
1966, on the NBC television network. The series was sponsored on alternate
weeks by Kellogg's
Cereals and Yardley
of London.
To
reduce noise on the set during filming, any of the four Monkees who was not
needed in front of the cameras was locked into a converted meat locker. In DVD
commentary, Tork noted that this had the added benefit of concealing any
marijuana use that might be going on, although he admitted that he was the sole
"serious 'head'" of the four of them. (In the 1980s, Tork gave up
alcohol and marijuana use and has volunteered time to help people recovering
from alcoholism.)
Due to
the loosely scripted nature of the series, some episodes would come in too
short for air. The producers decided to fill time with various
"extras", including the Monkees' original screen tests and candid
interviews with the group; these interviews usually lasted one minute, hence
the frequent joke, "We're a minute short as usual," though the
episode "Find The Monkees" featured a three-minute epilogue
interview. Although the early episodes contained it, the show eventually bucked
the trend of using a laugh track, which was standard practice at the time.
Most of the episodes from Season 2 did not contain canned laughter, which NBC
later cited as one of the reasons for cancelling the series.
September
13, 1976
The Muppet Show Premiered
Jim Henson's felt creations had two pilots in the
preview two years, but it was not until '76 that the series took off. Many
notable MeTV faces played host on the madcap variety show, from Jim Nabors on
episode two to Florence Henderson on episode nine. Oh, and Lynda Carter had an
awesome appearance, too. Check out nine
MeTV stars who hosted The Muppet Show.
September 15, 1986
NBC aired the pilot episode of L.A.
Law.
Created by Steven
Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it contained many of
Bochco's trademark features including an ensemble
cast, large number of parallel storylines, social drama, and off-the-wall
humor. It reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and
early 1990s, and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot-topic
issues such as capital punishment, abortion, racism, gay rights, homophobia, sexual
harassment, AIDS,
and domestic violence. The series often also
reflected social tensions between the wealthy senior lawyer protagonists and their
less well-paid junior staff.
In addition to its main cast, L.A.
Law was also well known for featuring then relatively unknown actors
and actresses in guest starring roles, who later went on to greater success in
film and television including: Don
Cheadle, Jeffrey Tambor, Kathy
Bates, David Schwimmer, Jay
O. Sanders, James Avery, Gates
McFadden,Bryan Cranston, C.C.H.
Pounder, Kevin Spacey, Richard
Schiff, Carrie-Anne Moss, William
H. Macy, Stephen Root, Christian
Slater, and Lucy Liu. Several episodes of the show also included
celebrities such as Vanna White,Buddy
Hackett and Mamie
Van Doren appearing as themselves in cameo roles.
The show was popular with audiences
and critics, and won 15 Emmy Awards throughout its run, four of which were
for Outstanding Drama
Series.
September 17, 1951
Cassandra Peterson is born.
The actress s best known for her on-screen
horror hostess character Elvira,
Mistress of the Dark. She gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ wearing a
black, gothic, cleavage-enhancing gown as host of Movie
Macabre, a weekly horror movie presentation. Her wickedly vampish
appearance was offset by her comical character, quirky/quick-witted
personality, and valley girl-type speech.
Mission: Impossible Premiered:
Interesting that Star
Trek and Mission: Impossible were Desilu productions
premiering so close together, and today they both continue to be major
Hollywood franchises for Bad Robot Productions. The pilot is of note because
the self-destructing message was delivered on a vinyl LP, not a tape. It was
also the only episode to be written by creator Bruce Geller.
September
17, 1991
The first episode of "Home Improvement" aired on
ABC.
The series centers on the Taylor family, which
consists of Tim (Tim Allen),
his wife Jill (Patricia Richardson) and their three children:
the oldest child, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), the middle child Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and youngest child,
Mark (Taran Noah Smith). The Taylors live in suburban Detroit, and
have a neighbor named Wilson Wilson (Earl
Hindman) who is often the go-to guy for solving the Taylors' problems.
Tim is a stereotypical American male, who loves power
tools, cars and sports. In
particular, he is an avid fan oflocal
Detroit teams. In numerous instances Tim wears Lions, Pistons,
and Tigers clothing, and many plots revolve around
the teams. He is a former salesman for the fictional Binford Tool company, and
is very much a cocky, overambitious, accident-prone know-it-all.
Witty but flippant, Tim jokes around a lot, even at inappropriate times, much
to the dismay of his wife. However, Tim can sometimes be serious when
necessary. Jill, Tim's wife, is loving and sophisticated, but not exempt from
dumb moves herself. in later seasons she returns to college to study
psychology. Family life is boisterous for the Taylors with the two oldest
children, Brad and Randy, tormenting the much younger Mark, all while
continually testing and pestering each other. Such play happened especially
throughout the first three seasons, and was revisited only occasionally until
Jonathan Taylor Thomas left at the beginning of the eighth season. During the
show's final season, Brad and Mark became much closer due to Randy's absence.
Brad, popular and athletic, was often the moving
factor, who engaged before thinking, a tendency which regularly landed him in
trouble. Randy, a year younger, was the comedian of the pack, known for his
quick-thinking, wisecracks, and smart mouth. He had more common sense than Brad
but was not immune to trouble. Mark was somewhat of a mama's
boy, though later in the series (in the seventh season) he grew into a
teenage outcast who dressed in black clothing. Meanwhile, Brad became
interested in cars like his father and took up soccer. Randy joined the school
drama club, and later the school newspaper; in the eighth season, he left for Costa Rica.
Each episode includes Tim's own Binford-sponsored
home improvement show, called Tool Time, a
"meta-program," or show-within-a-show. In hosting this show, Tim
is joined by his friend and mild-mannered assistant Al Borland (Richard
Karn), and a "Tool Time girl" — first Lisa (Pamela
Anderson) and later Heidi (Debbe
Dunning) — whose main duty is to introduce the pair at the beginning of the
show with the line "Does everybody know what time it is?" The Tool
Time girl also assists Tim and Al during the show by bringing them tools.
Although revealed to be an excellent salesman and
TV personality, Tim is spectacularly accident prone as a handyman, often
causing massive disasters on and off the set, to the consternation of his
co-workers and family. Many Tool Time viewers assume that the
accidents on the show are done on purpose, to demonstrate the consequences of
using tools improperly. Many of Tim's accidents are caused by his devices being
used in an unorthodox or overpowered manner, designed to illustrate his mantra
"More power!". This popular catchphrase would not be uttered after Home
Improvement's seventh season, until Tim's last line in the series
finale.
Tool
Time was conceived as a parody of the PBS
home-improvement show This
Old House. Tim and Al are caricatures of the two principal cast
members of This Old House, host Bob Vila and
master carpenter Norm Abram. Al Borland has a beard and always wears
plaid shirts when taping an episode, reflecting Norm Abram's appearance on This
Old House. Bob
Vila appeared as a guest star on several episodes of Home Improvement,
while Tim Allen and Pamela Anderson both appeared on Bob Vila's show Home
Again.
The Tool
Time theme music, an early 1960s-style saxophone-dominated
instrumental rock tune, was sometimes used as the closing theme music for Home
Improvement, especially when behind the credits were running the blooper
scenes that took place during the taping of a Tool Time segment.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was". Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
