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"
Children's show Kukla, Fran and Ollie premieres
on prime time network TV.
The show
featured beloved puppets Kukla, Ollie (a dragon), and others, with live actress
Fran Allison as host. The show began as a local Chicago program before debuting
on NBC. It was one of the two most important series made in Chicago, along with
Garroway at Large, during the city's brief period as an important
production center for network programs in the late 1940s. After its network
cancellation in 1957, PBS revived the series from 1969 to 1971.
John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne born in Birmingham,
England.
Osbourne first gained fame
in the 1970s as a founding member and the lead vocalist of the heavy-metal band
Black Sabbath. After being fired from the group in the late 1970s, he embarked
on a successful solo career. In the mid-1990s, he and his wife Sharon launched
Ozzfest, a popular annual tour of heavy-metal and rock acts. As a performer,
Osbourne became infamous for biting the heads off a dove and a bat onstage and
was also accused of promoting suicide and Satanism through some of his lyrics.
Osbourne’s fame widened beyond the music world with the debut of The
Osbournes, a reality TV show featuring the rocker and his family that
debuted on MTV on March 5, 2002. The idea for the show reportedly sprang from
an episode of MTV’s Cribs, which featured the feisty, frequently
foul-mouthed Osbourne clan at home. The Osbournes focused on Ozzy’s
relationship with his spunky wife Sharon and the couple’s two teenagers, Kelly
and Jack; a third sibling, Aimee, opted not to participate in the show. Filmed
largely at the Osbournes’ Beverly Hills, California mansion, the show covered a
range of topics, from Ozzy’s battles with a vacuum cleaner to his efforts to
stay sober; to Sharon’s fight against colon cancer; to Jack and Kelly’s
partying and often-bratty behavior; to the family’s pack of misbehaving pets.
The Osbournes, which aired its last original episode on March 21,
2005, proved to be one of the highest-rated series in MTV’s history and spawned
a string of reality TV shows about celebrities on various networks, including
MTV’s Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, with pop stars Nick Lachey and
Jessica Simpson, which aired from 2003 to 2005, and Hogan Knows Best,
which featured pro wrestler Hulk Hogan and his wife and children and debuted in
2005 on Vh1. Gene Simmons of the rock group Kiss starred with his family in Gene
Simmons Family Jewels, which premiered in 2006 on A&E, while Denise
Richards, the actress and former wife of Charlie Sheen, appeared in a show
about her professional and domestic life, Denise Richards: It’s Complicated,
which debuted in 2008 on E!.
In addition to turning Ozzy Osbourne into a household name and sparking a
boom in celebrity-focused reality TV, The Osbournes transformed his wife
and longtime manager Sharon into a star in her own right. From 2003 to 2004,
she hosted her own TV talk show and later went on to make numerous guest
appearances on various TV programs and to serve as a judge on the TV
competition America’s Got Talent.
The special is commonly
referred to as the '68 Comeback Special, because of subsequent developments
in Presley's career, but the soundtrack album was released simply as NBC-TV Special. It was directed by Steve Binder and produced by Binder and Bones Howe.
“If we did the drugs everybody thought we did, we’d be dead today,”
“You cannot work stoned.”
-Marty Krofft
Marty Krofft
April 9, 1937 – November 25, 2023
I grew up watching Sid and Marty Krofft's shows.
As a young adult I was entertained by the Krofft Brothers again.
D.C. Follies is a syndicated sitcom which aired from 1987–1989. The show was set in a Washington, D.C. bar, where a bartender played by Fred Willard would welcome puppet caricatures of politicians and popular culture figures.
This is a little brain candy to snack on while dinner is cooking.
May we all be thankful for what we are about to view...
Station manager Arthur Carlson comes up with a big idea for a unique holiday promotion involving live turkeys and a helicopter. First aired on 40 years ago on October 30th 1978 (Season 1, Episode 7) In 1997 TV Guide ranked this episode number 40 on its '100 Greatest Episodes of All Time' list.
She was the model in the last cigarette commercial televised in the U.S. (for Virginia Slims, aired at 11:59 p.m. on New Year's Day 1971 on The Tonight Show). Hamel had been a model in print ads not just for
Slims, but also for Pall
Mall Gold cigarettes.
Hamel started appearing in TV series in 1975. She was
considered for the role of Kelly Garrett on Charlie's Angels, but reportedly declined the role. Producer Aaron Spelling cast Jaclyn Smith instead.
Hamel is probably best remembered for playing Joyce
Davenport, the hard-driving public defender and love interest of police captain
Frank Furillo, on the long-running TV series Hill Street Blues from 1981 to 1987. She was a five-time Emmy nominee
for that role.
In 2002, she also appeared on Hill Street Blues creator Steven Bochco's legal drama Philly. In recent
years, Hamel had a recurring role in the NBC television series Third Watch and appeared as Margo Shephard, Jack's
mother, in the ABC series Lost.
November 21
World Television Day
World Television Day celebrates the daily value of
television as a symbol of communication and globalization. Television is one of
the single greatest technological advances of the 20th century, serving to
educate, inform, entertain and influence our decisions and opinions. It is estimated that approximately 90% of
homes around the world have televisions, however, with the introduction of
internet broadcasting, the number is declining in favor of computers.
World Television Day was proclaimed by the United
Nations in 1996. It is celebrated annually on November 21.
November 21, 1993
Six days after his
final assignment on Blossom, Bill Bixby died of complications
in Century
City, California.
He was 59
years old. His wife, Judith Kliban, and his longtime friend, Dick Martin, were by his side. His ashes are
at Kliban’s Maui estate.
It is episode No. 65, production No. 67, written
by Meyer
Dolinsky,
and directed by David Alexander. This episode is notable for depicting an inter-racial kiss between a
white man (Kirk) and a black woman (Uhura), which was daring for 1960s US television.
The parade was suspended
from 1942 to 1944 as a result of World War II, owing to
the need for rubber and helium in the war effort. The parade resumed in
1945 using the route that it followed until 2008. The parade became known
nationwide after being prominently featured in the 1947 film, Miracle on 34th Street, which included footage of the 1946
festivities. The event was first broadcast on network television in 1948 (see below). By this
point the event, and Macy's sponsorship of it, were sufficiently well-known to
give rise to the colloquialism "Macy's Day Parade". Since 1984, the
balloons have been made by Raven Aerostar (a
division of Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Raven Industries).
November 24, 1978
David Letterman makes his first guest appearance on The
Tonight Show.
Letterman became a
favorite on the show, serving as guest host more than 50 times. By 1982,
Letterman had his own late-night comedy talk show, Late Night with David
Letterman, which ran until 1993. When NBC chose Jay Leno instead of
Letterman to become the replacement when host Johnny Carson retired, Letterman
changed networks and launched Late Show on rival network CBS.
When actor Will Lee
died in 1982, it left the producers of Sesame Street with the question of how to deal with the loss of Mr. Hooper,
a beloved character who had been on the show since the first episode. Dulcy Singer, executive producer at the time, said that "if
we left it unsaid, kids would notice." One way out was to avoid the issue
of death entirely. Producers toyed with the idea of telling viewers that the
character had gone away. Caroll Spinney
said that "we didn't know what to do. [We] thought perhaps he could just
retire, move to Florida or something, but then the producers thought that the
best thing to do would be to actually deal with death." After much
discussion and research, the producers decided to have the character of Mr.
Hooper pass away as well, and use the episode to teach its young viewers about
death as a natural part of life and that it is okay to grieve and feel sad when
a loved one passes away.
After consulting with numerous child psychologists, Norman Stiles,
the head writer for the show, prepared a script designed to deal with the issue
of death on Sesame Street. The cause of death was not discussed on the show,
nor is the process of growing old. Valeria Lovelace, director of research at
the show's production company, the Children's Television Workshop, said
"We were advised to take the direct approach... Children don't understand
words like 'passing away.'" The show took an honest and direct approach.
Show producer Fran
Kaufman said that the goal was to
avoid "sugar-frosting" the message.
That message, according to the producers, was
"[Mr. Hooper] died, he won't be coming back, and we are all going to miss
him...Another message of the segment was that children have to understand that
they will continue to be cared for."
In the episode, Big Bird
thinks that Mr. Hooper will return later, but is told about the irreversibility
of death. Although being reminded of already being told Mr. Hooper died, Big
Bird, like many kids, shows his initial inability to comprehend this concept.
But Big Bird's concern soon switches to his own needs. "He's gotta come
back," Big Bird exclaimed, "Who's going to take care of the store?
Who's gonna make me birdseed milkshakes and tell me stories?" The other
adults reassure him that everything will be okay and he will be taken care of.
Big Bird gets frustrated by these comments exclaiming "but it won't be the
same". Bob
addresses Big Bird's concern head-on saying "You're right, Big Bird. It'll
never be the same without him. But you know something? We can all be very happy
that we had a chance to be with him and to know him and to love him a lot, when
he was here."
The farewell episode aired November 24, 1983 (Thanksgiving Day). Loretta Long noted, in an interview on The Tavis Smiley Show,
"We were very careful to do it over the Thanksgiving holiday, where there
would be a lot of adults in the house to help the children."
The filming of the scene was very emotional for the
cast and crew, whom had worked closely with Will Lee for 14 years. Genuine
tears were present in almost all on set. "We barely got through that
show," said Bob McGrath in a 2006 interview. "Any emotions you saw were
real. We tried to do a pickup and we got about a minute into it and we all fell
apart emotionally. It crossed over not only from PBS, but all of the networks.
They all felt it was such an important show that they took the time to
highlight it."
Mr. Hooper's death received a lot of press and drew
many viewers. Reports stated that the episode was used to stimulate discussion
of death in many homes. Valeria Lovelace commented, "It was a relief to us
all that the segment worked as we hoped it would. It was really scary
beforehand; we didn't know for sure how it was going to turn out." The
episode was soon selected by the Daytime Emmys
as being one of the 10 most influential moments in daytime television.
Aside from receiving critical acclaim, the episode
garnered success with its target viewers. Loretta Long explained, "People
come up to us and say, 'Thank you. Now we can explain what happened to grandma,
what happened to grandpa.'"
In 1966 and 1967, Little appeared in ABC-TV‘s Judy CarnesitcomLove on a Rooftop as the Willises’ eccentric neighbor, Stan
Parker. He appeared on That Girl in 1967 as a writer who impressed Marlo Thomas‘ character with his impersonations. He also made two
memorable appearances as accident-prone Brother Paul Leonardi on The Flying Nun in 1968; it marked one his few appearances as a
character actor rather than an impressionist.
Little was a frequent guest on variety and talk shows. With Johnny Carson he captured The Tonight Show host’s voice and many on-stage mannerisms (and
later played Carson in the HBO TV-movie The
Late Shift). One of his best
known impressions is of U.S. President Richard Nixon (reprising in 1991 the role of Nixon as ideal
sperm donor in Gina’s fantasies on the soap opera Santa
Barbara.) During the 1970s,
Little made many television appearances portraying Nixon. He was a regular
guest on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts in the 1970s and was also a semi-regular on the
Emmy-winning ABC-TV variety series The
Julie Andrews Hourin 1972–1973.
In response to his imitation of Jack Benny, the comedian sent Little an 18-carat gold money clip
containing this message: “With Bob Hope doing my walk and you doing my voice, I can be a star and do
nothing.” He was named “Comedy Star of the Year” by the American Guild of Variety Artists in 1974.
The Rich Little Show (1976) and The New You Asked for It (1981) were
attempts to present Little in his own person, away from his gallery of
characterizations. Little also appeared on a second season episode of The Muppet Show.
In 1981 Little appeared in a comedy LP called The
First Family Rides Again, which was the fourth and final ‘First Family’
comedy LPs originally created by Bob Booker and Earle Doud. Little starred
along with Melanie Chartoff, Micheal Richards, Shelly Black, Jenilee Harrison,
Earle Doud, and Vaughn Meader, making light of U.S. President Ronald Reagan‘s years in the White House.
Little has starred in various HBO specials
including the 1978 one-man show, Rich Little’s Christmas Carol. He has also appeared in several movies and released nine albums.
When David Niven proved too ill for his voice to be used in his
appearances in Trail
of the Pink Panther (1982)
and Curse
of the Pink Panther (1983),
Little provided the overdub. (Ironically, Little provided the voice for the
Pink Panther in two experimental 1965 cartoons, Sink Pink and Pink Ice, in Niven’s voice). He rendered similar assistance
for the 1991 TV special Christmas at the Movies by providing an uncredited dub for actor/dancer Gene Kelly who had lost his voice. As a native Canadian, he also lent his voice
to the narration of two specials which were the forerunners for the animated
series The Raccoons: The
Christmas Raccoons and The
Raccoons on Ice.
Little was the host for the 2007 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Although President George W. Bush was reported to have enjoyed Little’s
performance, it was panned by some reviewers for “his ancient jokes and
impressions of dead people (Johnny Carson, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan).”
November 27, 1978
