January 30, 1933
The Lone Ranger debuts on Detroit radio
The creation of station-owner George
Trendle and writer Fran Striker, the "masked rider of the plains"
became one of the most popular and enduring western heroes of the 20th century.
Joined by his trusty steed, Silver, and loyal Indian scout, Tonto, the Lone
Ranger sallied forth to do battle with evil western outlaws and Indians,
generally arriving on the scene just in time to save an innocent golden-haired
child or sun-bonneted farm wife.
Neither Trendle nor Striker had any connections to or
experience with the cowboys, Indians, and pioneers
of the real West, but that mattered little to them. The men simply wanted to create
an American version of the masked swashbuckler made popular by the silent movie
actor Douglas Fairbanks in The Mark of Zorro,
arming their hero with a revolver rather than a sword. Historical authenticity
was far less important to the men than fidelity to the strict code of conduct
they established for their character. The Lone Ranger never smoked, swore, or
drank alcohol; he used grammatically correct speech free of slang; and, most
important, he never shot to kill. More offensive to modern historical and
ethnic sensibilities was the Indian scout Tonto, who spoke in a comical Indian
patois totally unrelated to any authentic Indian dialect, uttering ludicrous
phrases like "You betchum!"
Historical accuracy notwithstanding, the radio program
was an instant hit. Children liked the steady stream of action and parents
approved of the good moral example offered by the upstanding masked man. Soon
picked up for nationwide broadcast over the Mutual Radio Network, over 20
million Americans were tuning into The Lone Ranger three
times a week by 1939. In an early example of the power of marketing tie-ins,
the producers also licensed the manufacture of a vast array of related
products, including Lone Ranger guns, costumes, books, and a popular comic
strip.
The Lone Ranger made a seemingly effortless transition
from radio to motion pictures and television. The televised version of The Lone Ranger, staring Clayton Moore as the masked
man, became ABC's first big hit in the early 1950s. Remaining on the air until 1957, the program helped
define the golden age of the TV Western and inspired dozens of imitators
like The Range Rider, The Roy Rogers Show,
and The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok. Although the Lone
Ranger disappeared from American television and movie screens by the 1960s, he lived on in a popular series of comic books well
into the1970s.
January 31, 1988
The first episode of The Wonder Years aired on ABC.
The show earned a spot in
the Nielsen Top 30 during its first four seasons. TV Guide named
it one of the 20 best shows of the 1980s. After six episodes, The
Wonder Years won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1988. In addition, at age 13, Fred Savage became
the youngest actor ever nominated as Outstanding Lead Actor for a Comedy Series. The show was also awarded a Peabody
Award in 1989 for "pushing
the boundaries of the sitcom format and using new modes of
storytelling". In total, the series won 22 awards and was nominated
for 54 more. In 1997, "My Father's Office" was ranked #29
on TV Guide's 100 Greatest
Episodes of All Time, and in the 2009
revised list the pilot episode was ranked #43. In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked The Wonder Years #63 on its list of 100
Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2017, James Charisma of Paste ranked
the show's opening sequence #14 on a list of The 75 Best TV Title
Sequences of All Time. As of recent years many critics and fans
consider The Wonder Years to be a classic and that it has
had tremendous impact on the industry over the years and has inspired many
other shows and how they are structured.
February 1, 1953
CBS-TV debuted Private Secretary (also known as Susie)
February 1, 2003
The Space
shuttle Columbia breaks up while entering the atmosphere
over Texas,
killing all seven crew members on board.
Cameras focused on the launch
sequence revealed the foam collision but engineers could not pinpoint the
location and extent of the damage. Although similar incidents had occurred on
three prior shuttle launches without causing critical damage, some engineers at
the space agency believed that the damage to the wing could cause a
catastrophic failure. Their concerns were not addressed in the two weeks
that Columbia spent in orbit because NASA management believed
that even if major damage had been caused, there was little that could be done
to remedy the situation.
Columbia reentered the earth’s atmosphere on the morning
of February 1. It wasn’t until 10 minutes later, at 8:53 a.m.–as the shuttle
was 231,000 feet above the California coastline
traveling at 23 times the speed of sound–that the first indications of trouble
began. Because the heat-resistant tiles covering the left wing’s leading edge
had been damaged or were missing, wind and heat entered the wing and blew it
apart.
The first debris began
falling to the ground in west Texas near Lubbock at 8:58 a.m. One minute later,
the last communication from the crew was heard, and at 9 a.m. the shuttle
disintegrated over northeast Texas, near Dallas. Residents in the area heard a
loud boom and saw streaks of smoke in the sky. Debris and the remains of the
crew were found in more than 2,000 locations across East Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. Making
the tragedy even worse, two pilots aboard a search helicopter were killed in a
crash while looking for debris. Strangely, worms that the crew had used in a
study that were stored in a canister aboard the Columbia did
survive.
In August 2003, an
investigation board issued a report that revealed that it in fact would have
been possible either for the Columbia crew to repair the
damage to the wing or for the crew to be rescued from the shuttle. The Columbia could
have stayed in orbit until February 15 and the already planned launch of the
shuttle Atlantis could have been moved up as early as February
10, leaving a short window for repairing the wing or getting the crew off of
the Columbia.
In the aftermath of the Columbia disaster,
the space shuttle program was grounded until July 16, 2005, when the space
shuttle Discovery was put into orbit.
February 2, 1973
NBC-TV debuted Midnight Special hosted by Helen Reddy.
Like its syndicated late-night cousin Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, the
show typically featured guest hosts, except for a period from July 1975 through
March 1976 when singer Helen Reddy served as the regular host. Wolfman
Jack served as the announcer and frequent guest host. The program's
theme song, a traditional folk song called "Midnight Special", was performed
by Johnny Rivers.
The Midnight Special was noted for featuring musical acts performing live, which was unusual since most television appearances during the era showed performers lip-synching to prerecorded music. The series also occasionally aired vintage footage of older acts, such as Bill Haley & His Comets. As the program neared the end of its run in the early 1980s, it began to frequently use lip-synched performances rather than live ones. The program also featured occasional performances of comedians such as Richard Pryor, Andy Kaufman, and George Carlin.
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
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