March 21, 1980
J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), the
character millions loved to hate on TV’s popular nighttime drama Dallas, was shot.
The shooting made the season finale, titled A House Divided, one of television’s
most famous cliffhangers and left America wondering “Who shot J.R.?” Dallas fans waited for the next eight
months to have that question answered because the season premiere of Dallas was delayed due to a Screen
Actors Guild strike. That summer, the question “Who Shot J.R.?” entered the
national lexicon. Fan’s wore T-shirts printed with "Who Shot J.R.?" and "I
Shot J.R.". A session of the Turkish parliament was suspended to allow legislators a chance to get
home in time to view the Dallas
episode. Betting parlors worldwide took bets as to which one of the 10 or so
principal characters had actually pulled the trigger. J.R. had many enemies and
audiences were hard-pressed to guess who was responsible for the shooting.
The person who pulled the
trigger was revealed to be J.R.’s sister in law/mistress Kristin Shepard (Mary
Crosby) in the "Who
Done It?"
episode which aired on November 21, 1980. It was, at the time, the highest rated television episode in US history. It had a Nielsen
rating of 53.3 and a 76% share, and
it was estimated that 83,000,000 people watched the episode. The previous
record for a TV episode, not counting the final installment of the miniseries Roots, had been the 1967 finale for The Fugitive. "Who Shot J.R.?" now sits second on the
list, being beaten in 1983 by the final episode of M*A*S*H but still remains the highest rated non-finale
episode of a TV series.
March 21, 1995
The first episode of NewsRadio aired on NBC.
Focusing on the work lives of
the staff of an AM news station. The series was created by executive
producer Paul Simms, and was filmed in front of a studio audience
at CBS Studio Center and Sunset Gower
Studios. The show's theme tune was
composed by Mike Post, who also scored the pilot (Ian Dye and Danny Lux did
subsequent episodes).The show placed #72 on Entertainment
Weekly 's "New TV
Classics" list. The series is set at WNYX, a fictional AM news radio station
in New York City, populated by an eccentric station owner and staff.
The show begins with the arrival of a new news director, level-headed Dave
Nelson (Dave Foley). While Dave turns out to be less naive than his
youthful appearance suggests, he never fully gains control of his co-workers.
The fast-paced scripts and
ensemble cast combined physical humor and sight gags with
smart dialogue and absurd storylines. Plots often involved satirical takes on
historical events, news stories, and pop culturereferences.
The third- and fourth-season finales took the absurdity to the extreme,
setting the characters in outer space and aboard the Titanic.
There are a total of 97 episodes. Reruns continued in syndication for several years
before disappearing in most markets, but the show has aired on A&E Network, Nick at Nite and TBS network
in the United States, andTVtropolis and
the Comedy Network in Canada. In the United States, the show occasionally airs
as a filler onWGN America and runs regularly on Reelz Channel.
The program became available in syndication to local stations again starting in
July 2007 through The Program
Exchange. NBC briefly canceled NewsRadio in
May 1998, after its fourth season, but the decision was reversed two weeks later, with
an order of 22 episodes placed for afifth season. Ten days after its renewal, Phil Hartman was
killed by his wife, and his absence cast a pall over the fifth season. NBC left
the series "on the bubble" until the day the final episode of the
fifth season aired, months after production had wrapped. The fifth season
ending storyline where Jimmy James buys a radio station in a small New
Hampshire town was intended to provide a new setting for a potential sixth
season, but NBC later decided to officially cancel the series after poor
ratings and reviews.
March 23, 1940
Truth or Consequences originally
aired on NBC radio with its creator, Ralph Edwards, as the
Host.
A decade later it moved to television on CBS. Contestants on the show were asked trick questions
which they almost always failed to answer correctly. If they answered
incorrectly, or failed to come up with any answer in a short time, Beulah the
Buzzer went off. The host then told them that since they had failed to tell the
truth, they would have to pay the consequences. Consequences consisted of
elaborate stunts, some done in the studio and others done outside, some
completed on that week's episode and others taking a week or more and requiring
the contestant to return when the stunt was completed. Some of the stunts were
funny, but more often they were also embarrassing, and occasionally they were
sentimental like the reunion with a long-lost relative or a relative/spouse
returning from military duty overseas, particularly Vietnam. Sometimes, if that
military person was based in California, his or her spouse or parents were
flown in for that reunion.The spa city of "Hot Springs" in Sierra
County, New Mexico took the name Truth or Consequences in1950, when host Ralph Edwards announced that he
would do the program from the first town that renamed itself after the show.
Ralph Edwards came to the town during the first weekend of May for the next
fifty years.
The original TV version of this series, with Edwards as host, lasted only a
single season. When in returned three years later on NBC, Jack
Bailey was the host, later replaced
by Steve Dunne.
NBC aired a daytime version of the show from 1956 to 1965, first with Jack
Bailey again as host, succeeded by Bob
Barker. Barker remained with the show
through the rest of the daytime run and on into the original syndicated run
from 1966 to 1974. During Barker's run as host, "Barker's Box" was
played. Barker's Box was a box with four drawers in it. A contestant able to
pick the drawer with money in it won a bonus prize. Bob Hilton hosted a
short-lived syndicated revival from 1977 to1978 and in the fall of 1987, comic
Larry Anderson became the host of another short-lived version. March 23, 1950
Beat the Clock premiered on
CBS-TV.
Beat
the Clock is a Goodson-Todman game show that
aired on American television in several versions since 1950.The original show, hosted
by Bud Collyer, ran on CBS from 1950 to 1958 and ABC from 1958 to 1961. The show was revived in
syndication as The New Beat the Clock from 1969 to 1974,
with Jack Narz as host until 1972, when he was replaced by the
show's announcer, Gene Wood. Another version ran on CBS from 1979 to 1980
(as The All-New Beat the Clock, and later as All-New
All-Star Beat the Clock), with former Let's Make a Deal host Monty Hall as
host and Narz as announcer. The most recent version aired in 2002 on PAX (now
ION) with Gary Kroeger and Julielinh Parker as co-hosts. The series was
also featured as the third episode ofGameshow
Marathon in 2006. Ricki Lake hosted
while Rich Fields announced.
In 2013, the show appeared
in TV Guide's list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.
J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), the character millions loved to hate on TV’s popular nighttime drama Dallas, was shot.
The shooting made the season finale, titled A House Divided, one of television’s most famous cliffhangers and left America wondering “Who shot J.R.?” Dallas fans waited for the next eight months to have that question answered because the season premiere of Dallas was delayed due to a Screen Actors Guild strike. That summer, the question “Who Shot J.R.?” entered the national lexicon. Fan’s wore T-shirts printed with "Who Shot J.R.?" and "I Shot J.R.". A session of the Turkish parliament was suspended to allow legislators a chance to get home in time to view the Dallas episode. Betting parlors worldwide took bets as to which one of the 10 or so principal characters had actually pulled the trigger. J.R. had many enemies and audiences were hard-pressed to guess who was responsible for the shooting.
The person who pulled the
trigger was revealed to be J.R.’s sister in law/mistress Kristin Shepard (Mary
Crosby) in the "Who
Done It?"
episode which aired on November 21, 1980. It was, at the time, the highest rated television episode in US history. It had a Nielsen
rating of 53.3 and a 76% share, and
it was estimated that 83,000,000 people watched the episode. The previous
record for a TV episode, not counting the final installment of the miniseries Roots, had been the 1967 finale for The Fugitive. "Who Shot J.R.?" now sits second on the
list, being beaten in 1983 by the final episode of M*A*S*H but still remains the highest rated non-finale
episode of a TV series.
March 21, 1995
The first episode of NewsRadio aired on NBC.
The show placed #72 on Entertainment
Weekly 's "New TV
Classics" list. The series is set at WNYX, a fictional AM news radio station
in New York City, populated by an eccentric station owner and staff.
The show begins with the arrival of a new news director, level-headed Dave
Nelson (Dave Foley). While Dave turns out to be less naive than his
youthful appearance suggests, he never fully gains control of his co-workers.
The fast-paced scripts and
ensemble cast combined physical humor and sight gags with
smart dialogue and absurd storylines. Plots often involved satirical takes on
historical events, news stories, and pop culturereferences.
The third- and fourth-season finales took the absurdity to the extreme,
setting the characters in outer space and aboard the Titanic.
There are a total of 97 episodes. Reruns continued in syndication for several years
before disappearing in most markets, but the show has aired on A&E Network, Nick at Nite and TBS network
in the United States, andTVtropolis and
the Comedy Network in Canada. In the United States, the show occasionally airs
as a filler onWGN America and runs regularly on Reelz Channel.
The program became available in syndication to local stations again starting in
July 2007 through The Program
Exchange. NBC briefly canceled NewsRadio in
May 1998, after its fourth season, but the decision was reversed two weeks later, with
an order of 22 episodes placed for afifth season. Ten days after its renewal, Phil Hartman was
killed by his wife, and his absence cast a pall over the fifth season. NBC left
the series "on the bubble" until the day the final episode of the
fifth season aired, months after production had wrapped. The fifth season
ending storyline where Jimmy James buys a radio station in a small New
Hampshire town was intended to provide a new setting for a potential sixth
season, but NBC later decided to officially cancel the series after poor
ratings and reviews.
March 23, 1940
Truth or Consequences originally aired on NBC radio with its creator, Ralph Edwards, as the Host.
The spa city of "Hot Springs" in Sierra County, New Mexico took the name Truth or Consequences in1950, when host Ralph Edwards announced that he would do the program from the first town that renamed itself after the show. Ralph Edwards came to the town during the first weekend of May for the next fifty years.
March 23, 1950
Beat the Clock premiered on
CBS-TV.
The original show, hosted
by Bud Collyer, ran on CBS from 1950 to 1958 and ABC from 1958 to 1961. The show was revived in
syndication as The New Beat the Clock from 1969 to 1974,
with Jack Narz as host until 1972, when he was replaced by the
show's announcer, Gene Wood. Another version ran on CBS from 1979 to 1980
(as The All-New Beat the Clock, and later as All-New
All-Star Beat the Clock), with former Let's Make a Deal host Monty Hall as
host and Narz as announcer. The most recent version aired in 2002 on PAX (now
ION) with Gary Kroeger and Julielinh Parker as co-hosts. The series was
also featured as the third episode ofGameshow
Marathon in 2006. Ricki Lake hosted
while Rich Fields announced.
In 2013, the show appeared in TV Guide's list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.

Tony Figueroa
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