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"
NBC began regular U.S. television broadcasts, with a telecast of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt opening the New York World's Fair.
Programs
were transmitted from the NBC mobile camera trucks to the main transmitter,
which was connected to an aerial atop the Empire State Building.
Ten days prior to the Roosevelt
speech, David Sarnoff, President of RCA (The Radio Corporation of America and
NBC's original parent company) made a dedication speech for the opening of the
RCA Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. Staging this event prior to the
World's Fair opening ceremonies ensured that RCA would capture its share of the
newspaper headlines. The ceremony was televised, and watched by several hundred
viewers on TV receivers inside the RCA Pavilion at the fairgrounds, as well as
on receivers installed on the 62nd floor of Radio City in Manhattan. Back then,
the programs included operas, cartoons, cooking demonstrations, travelogues,
fashion shows, and skaters at Rockefeller Center along with numerous live
telecasts relayed from within the fair itself.
April 30, 1964
The FCC ruled that all TV receivers should be equipped to receive both
VHF and UHF channels.
The majority of the 165 UHF stations to begin
telecasting between 1952 and 1959 did not survive. Under the All-Channel Receiver Act, FCC regulations
required all new TV sets sold in the U.S. after 1964 to have built-in UHF
tuners that could receive channels 14–83. In spite of this, by 1971, only about
170 full-service UHF stations were in operation.
In
the late 1980s and 1990s, he reprised the role of Steve Austin in a number of
TV movies, and appeared in a number of supporting, recurring and cameo roles in
feature films and TV series, and lent his voice to a number of animated TV
series andvideo games.
April 23, 1989
NBC aired the pilot
episode of Baywatch.
Baywatch premiered on NBC in
1989, but was cancelled after only one season, when it placed 73rd out of
103 shows in the seasonal ratings, and also because the studio, GTG, went out
of business. Due to high production costs, GTG was unable to finance the series
any further.
Feeling
the series still had potential, David Hasselhoff, one of the principal actors,
along with creators and executive producers Michael
Berk, Douglas Schwartz, and Gregory
J. Bonann, revived it for the first-run syndication market in 1991. Hasselhoff
was given the title of executive producer for his work on bringing the show
back. The series was hugely successful, especially internationally.
April 26, 1989
Lucille Ball dies at age 78.
During her career, she and husband Desi Arnaz
transformed TV, creating the first long running hit sitcom.
Ball was born in 1911
near Jamestown, New York, to an electrician and a concert pianist. Her father
died when Ball was two. By age 15, Ball had decided to become an actress and
attended drama school. However, the shy, skinny teenager received little
encouragement and was rejected at least four times from Broadway chorus lines,
although she eventually joined one in 1926. In 1933, she was hired as the
Chesterfield cigarette girl and was featured in all the company's
advertisements. Attracting attention with her Chesterfield ads, she finally
began playing bit parts in Hollywood movies in 1933. By the late 1930s, the
starlet had graduated to comic supporting roles. In 1940, she met Cuban
bandleader Desi Arnaz while shooting Too Many Girls. The couple married
the following year.
Ball continued to land
movie roles that didn't fully showcase her talent. Frustrated, she turned to
radio and starred as a ditzy wife in My Favorite Husband from 1948 to
1951. CBS decided to launch the popular series on the relatively new medium of
TV. Lucy insisted Desi be cast as her husband in the TV version, though the
network executives said no one would believe the couple were married. Desi and
Lucy performed before live audiences and filmed a pilot, convincing network
executives that audiences responded well to their act, and CBS cast Desi for
the show.
I
Love Lucy became one of the most
popular TV sitcoms in history, ranking in the top three shows for six years and
turning the couple's production company, Desilu, into a multimillion-dollar
business. Ball became president of the company in 1960, after she and Desi
divorced. She also starred in several other "Lucy" shows, including The
Lucy Show, which debuted in 1962 and ran for six seasons, and Here's
Lucy, in which she starred with her two children until the show was
cancelled in 1974. A later show, Life with Lucy, featuring Lucy as a grandmother,
was cancelled after only eight episodes. Ball worked little in the last years
of her life. She died of congestive heart failure following open-heart surgery
earlier in the month.
April 29, 1944
Last
"Our Gang" film released. Dancing Romeo, the last "Our
Gang" film, is released on this day in 1944.
The first film, featuring a band of mischievous
youngsters, was produced in 1922 by Hal Roach. Roach produced the short films
until 1938, when he sold the rights to MGM. In all, more than 100 Our Gang
films were made. Later, they were shown as TV comedies under the name "The
Little Rascals."
Radio personality Dave Garroway moves to TV, as the host of one of television's
earliest musical-variety shows. Garroway at Large was one of the two
most important series to be made in Chicago, along with Kukla, Fran &
Ollie, during the city's brief period in the late 1940s as an important
production center for network programs. Garroway at Large ran until
1951.
Dave Garroway started out
as a page at NBC and worked his way up to the position of radio announcer for
various NBC programs. From 1944 to 1948, he announced for the NBC radio series The
World's Great Novels. The show featured dramatic readings of classic novels
and later evolved into NBC University of the Air, which offered
accredited radio-assisted degrees in literature. Garroway also hosted his own
radio talk show with music, which aired under various names from 1946 to 1955.
Starting
in 1952, Garroway became the longtime host of NBC's Today show. He
continued some prime-time work, though, and when Garroway at Large
ended, he tried another show, called The Dave Garroway Show, in 1953.
The second show, however, didn't take off, partly because of stiff competition
from the other networks, which were airing popular programs Mama and
Ozzie and Harriet.
April 18, 1929
First
"Our Gang" film with sound debuts.
Small Talk,
the first "Our Gang" picture with sound, debuts on this day in 1929.
Producer Hal Roach had started producing the Our Gang short comedies in 1922.
The series' mischievous band of kids, later known as the "Little
Rascals," quickly caught on with the public, especially after characters
Spanky, Alfalfa, and Darla were added in the early 1930s. In 1938, Roach sold
the Our Gang rights to MGM, which produced the shorts until 1944. In total,
more than 100 Our Gang films were made.
April 18, 1979
Real People premiered.
Real People had the format of a comedy talk show
taped in front of a large studio audience. Each segment featured a news report
consisting of visits to people with unique occupations or hobbies, occasionally
bringing some of them in-studio to interact with the audience. In its early
seasons, Real
People was
NBC's most popular series, often scoring at the top of the ratings, and was a rare hit
for the network at a time when NBC was a distant
third in the ratings and struggling with numerous flops. Segments included
"funny pictures" and funny newspaper errors sent in by viewers, who
were awarded a Real
People T-shirt.
According to a 2008 interview with producer George
Schlatter, who also co-created Rowan & Martin's
Laugh-In for NBC, the show had covered serious topics like war heroes.
Desilu Playhouse on CBS-TV presented a two-part show titled The Untouchables.
In
April 1959, Desilu Playhouse aired a two-part drama called The
Untouchables. Paul Monash adapted the 1947 memoirs of treasury agent Eliot Ness,
played by Robert Stack. After CBS passed on the idea to produce
a weekly version, The Untouchables became
a hit series on ABC and ran for four seasons
(1959–1963). Stack was selected only after Arnaz personal choice,
actor Van Johnson,
agent demanded he be paid for 2 episodes at $10,000 each (the normal rate).
Arnaz, according to Stack, blew his top at Johnson, fired him and called Stack
and offered him the role. Stack accepted at once and began filming the next day.
Archie
enlists Edith to help cook corned beef and cabbage for a St. Patrick's Day
festival at Archie's Place. What Archie does not know is that Edith has come
down with an acute case of phlebitis, and that she was told to stay off her
feet. Edith does not want to tell Archie, afraid she will let him down.
Finally, Edith's phlebitis catches up with her, and she tells Archie she cannot
walk, and to call Dr. Shapiro.
Initially,
Dr. Sidney Shapiro, Dr. Seymour Shapiro's son, who arrives at the Bunker home
(to the chagrin of Archie, who thought that his dad would make the house call,
as the two have never gotten along from Sidney's childhood), is angry at Archie
for apparently forcing Edith to work, but when he sees Archie did not know
about the illness, he has a crisis of conscience, as he then apologizes for
yelling at him, as Archie responds, "Just don't play baseball on
my stoop anymore!"
Archie
also is stunned, and comes upstairs. Archie cannot believe that Edith would
hide that from him, and questions her love for him. After Edith reassures him,
Archie tells her he wants to be told next time when she is not feeling well,
then admits he loves her very much and that without her, he has nothing.
The first TV variety show starring an African-American
cast debuts.
The show, Happy
Pappy, starred Ray Grant as master of ceremonies. It first aired on local
television in Chicago.
April 2, 1974
The 46th Academy Awards Streaker.
While David Niven was introducing Elizabeth Taylor to
present the award for Best Picture, a streaker named Robert Opel ran out from
backstage, causing spontaneous laughter. David Niven tookcontrol of the
situation by saying, “Isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only
laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his
shortcomings?”
April 3, 1924
Doris Day is born Doris
Mary Ann Kappelhoff.
Day began her career as a big band singer in 1939. Her popularity began
to rise after her first hit recording, “Sentimental Journey“, in 1945. After leaving Les Brown & His Band of Renown to try a solo career,
she started her long-lasting partnership with Columbia Records, which would remain her
only recording label. The contract lasted from 1947 to 1967, and included more
than 650 recordings, making Day one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of
the 20th century. In 1948, after being persuaded by Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne and her agent at the
time, Al Levy, she auditioned for Michael Curtiz, which led to her being
cast in the female lead role in Romance on the High Seas.
When
third husband Martin
Melcher died
on April 20, 1968, a shocked Day discovered that Melcher and his business
partner Jerome Bernard Rosenthal had squandered her earnings, leaving her
deeply in debt. Rosenthal had been her attorney since 1949, when he
represented her in her uncontested divorce action against her second husband,
saxophonist George W. Weidler. In February 1969, Day filed suit against Rosenthal and won the
then-largest civil judgment (over $20 million) in the state of California.
(She later settled for about one-quarter of the amount originally awarded.)
Day
also learned that Melcher had committed her to a television series, which
became The Doris Day Show.
Best
known as the lead singer of the group Tony Orlando and Dawn in the early 1970s.
Discovered
by producer Don
Kirshner,
Orlando had songs on the charts in 1961 when he was 16, “Halfway to Paradise” and “Bless You”. Orlando then became a producer himself, and at an
early age was promoted to a vice-president position at CBS Records, where he was in charge of
the April-Blackwood Music division. He sang under the name “Dawn” in the 1970s,
and when the songs became hits, he went on tour and the group became “Tony
Orlando and Dawn”. They had several songs which were major hits including “Candida“, “Knock Three Times“, and “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree“.
April 3, 1949
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis debuted on radio in
an NBC program that ran until 1952.
April 4, 1969
The CBS Television Network firedThe
Smothers Brothers because the brothers failed to submit an episode of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour to
network executives before its broadcast. The network claimed the second to last show of the season was turned in
late, and claimed that their tardiness constituded a breach of contract
justifying their dropping of the series. The network ultimately refused to run
the episode anyway because they said it "would be considered irreverent
and offensive by a large segment of our audience". That episode is on the Smothers Brothers: The Best of Season 3 DVD.
The variety show was well known
for its censorship battles with the network. The network executives often
objected to the brothers' selection of controversial, outspoken, left wing, and
antiwar guests, including:
Pete Seeger, who had been
invited to appear on the Smothers' second season premiere to sing his anti-war
song, "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.” Seeger would later apear on the show
and sang that song.
Harry Belafonte was scheduled
to do a calypso song called "Don't Stop the Carnival" with images
from the riots at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention behind him. The Song
was cut and the time was sold to the Nixon campaign but can now be seen on the
season 3 DVD.
Joan Baez wanted to dedicate a
song to her draft-resisting husband who was about to go to prison for his
stance. The dedication to her husband made the air but the reason for the
dedication did not.
Dr. Benjamin Spock, noted baby
doctor and anti-war activist, was prevented from appearing as a guest of the
show because, according to the network, he was a "convicted felon."
Under the category of
irreverent and offensive, we have:
David Steinberg’s satirical
sermonettes caused controversy for being sacrilegious. His second sermonette
was in the episode that never aired.
Leigh French created the
recurring hippie character, Goldie O'Keefe, whose parody of afternoon advice
shows for housewives, "Share a Little Tea with Goldie," was actually
one long celebration of mind-altering drugs. (Tea" was a counter culture
code word for marijuana, but the CBS censors seemed to be unaware of the
connection). Goldie would open her sketches with, "Hi(gh)– and glad of
it!"
Elaine May wrote a skit about
censorship that featured Tom and Elaine who playing motion picture censors
trying to find a more acceptable substitution for unacceptable dialogue. The
skit ended up being censored.
Tom
and Dick Smothers assembled the old Smothers
Brothers Comedy Hour gang in February 1988 for a 20th reunion special on
CBS. Now the network wanted the brothers and company to be edgy and
controversial but no one associated with the show was interested. After all
when the establishment tells you something is cool... It's no longer cool.
In 1968 when it came time to submit the names of the writers for Emmy
considerations, Tom refused to include his name for fear that he had become too
controversial and it would hurt the show’s chances of winning. The show won the
Emmy for outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy Variety that year.
Almost 40 Years later (Sunday, September 21st 2008) during the
live television broadcast of the 60th Annual Emmy Awards, Tom Smothers received
an Emmy acknowledging his contributions as a writer on “The Smothers Brothers
Comedy Hour”. Steve Martin, who was one of the Emmy winning writers on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,
presented Tom with a commemorative Emmy acknowledging his role in the writing
of a variety show.
April
5, 1949
Fireside Theatre starts.
Fireside
Theatre, one of TV's first dramatic series to be filmed rather than
broadcast live, debuts. The show ran
until 1958 and was revived for one year in 1963. For the first year, each film
was only 15 minutes long, but later the time slot expanded to 30 minutes. Jane
Wyman, who was married to Ronald Reagan between 1940 and 1948, served as host
from 1955 to 1958 and during the 1963 revival.
The FCC ruled that all TV receivers should be equipped to receive both
VHF and UHF channels.
The majority of the 165 UHF stations to begin
telecasting between 1952 and 1959 did not survive. Under the All-Channel Receiver Act, FCC regulations
required all new TV sets sold in the U.S. after 1964 to have built-in UHF
tuners that could receive channels 14–83. In spite of this, by 1971, only about
170 full-service UHF stations were in operation.
