This Week in Television History: January 2023 PART II

 

January 11, 1958

Seahunt debuted on CBS-TV.

Mike Nelson (Lloyd Bridges) is a free-lance scuba diver who has various adventures. Nelson, a former U.S. Navy frogman (having left the service about four years before the series began), is a well-known expert on diving who is often called on for difficult or dangerous projects. Traveling on his boat the Argonaut, Nelson outmaneuvers villains, salvages everything from a bicycle to a nuclear missile, rescues children trapped in a flooded cave, and even a dog. In the pilot episode, Mike rescues a downed Navy pilot from his sunken jet. Since no dialogue was possible during the underwater sequences, Bridges provided voice-over narration for all the installments. Nelson also educated non-diving characters (and the audience) in various aspects of diving and the underwater world.

The series made frequent references to Marineland of the Pacific, which provided facilities, resources and technical advice to the production company.

At the end of each episode, Bridges would appear as himself to deliver a brief comment. These comments sometimes included a plea to viewers to understand and protect the marine environment, along with gems of wisdom from Bridges' own experiences.

 

The show was aired on the network for four years.

 

January 11, 1963

The Beatles made their first national TV appearance in the U.K. 

They performed the song "Please Please Me" on the show "Thank Your Lucky Stars."

 

January 11, 1983

The Joy of Painting aired for the first time.

The half-hour instructional television show hosted by painter Bob Ross which ran from January 11, 1983 until May 17, 1994. In each episode, Ross taught techniques for landscape oil painting, completing a painting in each session. The program followed the same format as its predecessor, The Magic of Oil Painting, hosted by Ross's mentor Bill Alexander. In its running it won three Emmy Awards.

January 13, 1928

Experimental Television sets are installed in three homes in Schenectady, New York. 

RCA and General Electric installed the sets, which displayed a 1.5-inch-square picture. However, televisions did not become common household appliances until the late 1940s.

January 13, 1973

ABC aired the final episode of Alias Smith and Jones.

1973 - ABC aired the final episode of "Alias Smith and Jones." 

January 15, 1993

Last episode of soap opera Santa Barbara airs. 

“The worst program on television--maybe ever…” one reviewer dubbed NBC’s daytime soap opera Santa Barbara upon its debut in July 1984. Critics soon changed their tune about the show, however, and it would run for more than eight years, garnering numerous Daytime Emmy Awards, including the statuette for Best Drama Series in 1988, 1989 and 1990. The show’s ratings never reached the level of its critical buzz, however, and NBC finally pulled the plug, airing its final episode on January 15, 1993.

Created by the husband-and-wife team Bridget and Jerome Dobson, former head writers at Guiding Light and As the World Turns, Santa Barbara centered on four California families: the wealthy Capwells and Lockridges, the middle-class Perkinses and the poorer Andrades. Channing Capwell Jr. was killed five years before the action of the series began, and much of the show’s drama revolved around unraveling the mystery surrounding his murder. After Santa Barbara’s unimpressive debut--which could partially be blamed on its coincidence with the 1984 Summer Olympic Games--the show’s writers took a radical approach to boost ratings, killing off a number of characters with earthquake and serial killer storylines. By the 1987 season, Santa Barbara was earning more Daytime Emmy nominations than any other show, and had also earned a following of devoted fans.

Among daytime soaps, Santa Barbara was notable for its generous $30 million budget and its unique blend of romance, melodrama and black comedy (one popular character was killed when a giant neon letter “C” fell from the Capwell Hotel sign, crushing her). It was also the first soap with prominent Hispanic characters--notably Cruz Castillo (A. Martinez), who with Eden Capwell (Marcy Walker) formed one of the show’s resident “power couples”--and even featured a member of the British nobility, Dame Judith Anderson, as the grand dame Minx Lockridge.

Despite the enthusiasm of such famous fans as President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, Santa Barbara never finished above 10th place in the ratings, and its popularity began to wane after the 1988 season. This trend continued over the next few years, even as the show won its string of Emmy Awards and became a smash hit in such far-flung locales as Eastern Europe and post-Soviet Russia. After fiddling with airtimes in an effort to bolster ratings, NBC made the decision to cancel Santa Barbara. In the supremely unsubtle final shot of the finale, Paul Rauch, the show’s executive producer, walked in front of the camera, smashed a cigar under his shoe and walked away.

Among soap opera fans around the world, Santa Barbara remains a cult favorite. Alumni of the series include Robin Wright Penn, star of such films as The Princess Bride, Forrest Gump and Message in a Bottle; soap opera mainstay Jack Wagner (Melrose Place) and executive producer Mary Ellis-Bunim, the late co-creator of MTV’s The Real World.

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa