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"
Barbra Streisand's "Color Me Barbra" special
aired on CBS-TV.
April 3, 1956
Elvis sings his first RCA recording, "Heartbreak
Hotel," on NBC's Milton Berle Show.
An estimated 25 percent of America's population saw
him sing that night; by April 21, the song had become Elvis' first No. 1
single.
April 4, 1971
The final episode of Hogan's
Heroes aired.
Rockets Or Romance: Three mobile rocket
launchers are aimed at London and awaiting detonation, or destruction. With
radio detection trucks patrolling the area and one rocket sitting inside Stalag
13, directing the Allied bombers could turn into a suicide mission. Timeline: Klink
tells Hogan the Germans will stop the Allies from Capturing Munich-which was
captured in March 1945.
April 4, 1986
The final episode of Knight
Rider aired.
Voo Doo Knight: Michael tries to stop a
voodoo woman who is using mind control on innocent people and forcing them to
commit crimes for her.
Frank
Cannon was a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, however he retired after the deaths of his wife
and son in a car
accident and
later became a private detective. The series begins at the
point where Cannon is just beginning this new career (the pilot film picks up
after Cannon has just spent 2 1/2 months overseas on an investigation). The
cause of death of Cannon's wife and child was not clear through the first four
seasons of the show. However, the first episode of the fifth and final season
revolves around Cannon's investigation of the deaths, and he finally finds out
the reason they were killed.
The
noticeably overweight Frank Cannon had
expensive tastes, especially in food and cars. (His primary vehicle was an ice-blue '72Lincoln Continental Mark IV.)During the series' run, his car would range from a
Lincoln 1971 Mark III to a 1976 Mark IV in various color schemes, all dark over
light blue exteriors, with interiors ranging from red velour to dark-blue
leather... Cannon's investigations were mostly for clients in the Southern California area, although on occasion he was called in for investigations much
farther away (e.g., New Mexico in the pilot).
Cannon
occasionally would get hurt (shot or beaten) and knocked unconscious. He
carried a gun for self-defense, usually a snub-nosed.38 Special revolver (which
appeared to be a Colt Detective Special). Sometimes he used other guns (Including an M1911 and a B.A.R). He was known to subdue suspects with karate chops, judo holds, and occasionally he would thrust and
knock down adversaries with his huge abdomen.
In
the first two seasons Cannon was a pipe smoker. In the third season, the pipe
was seen occasionally; it was subsequently dropped altogether.
The
Greatest American Hero flew onto the small screen for the first time.
Theseries that aired for three
seasons from1981 to 1983 on ABC. Created
by producer Stephen J. Cannell, it premiered as a two-hour pilot movie on March 18, 1981.The
series features William
Katt as
teacher Ralph Hinkley ("Hanley" for the latter part of the first
season), Robert
Culp as
FBI agent Bill Maxwell, and Connie Sellecca as lawyer Pam
Davidson.
The series chronicles Ralph's adventures after a
group of aliens gives him a red suit that grants him superhumanabilities. Unfortunately for
Ralph, who hates wearing the suit, he immediately loses its instruction
booklet, and thus has to learn how to use its powers by trial and error, often
with comical results.
The main character's name was originally Ralph
Hinkley, but after the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. on March 30, 1981, the character's last name was changed to
"Hanley". For the rest of the first season, he was either
"Ralph" or "Mister H". In the episode where Ralph is given
a promotion and his own office space, we see the name "Ralph Hanley"
on the door plaque. At the start of season two, the name had changed back to
Hinkley. In the season three episode "Live At Eleven", Ralph is given
a name tag at a political rally with his last name spelled "Hunkley"
and Ralph gives up saying "it's close enough for politics".
March 20, 1931
Hal Linden is born Harold Lipshitz in New
York City.
During his youth, Linden aspired to be a big bandbandleader. Before embarking on a career in music, he decided to
change his name stating, "'Swing and Sway with Harold Lipshitz' just
didn't parse." During the 1950s, he toured with Sammy Kaye, Bobby Sherwood, and other big bands of the era. Linden played the saxophone and clarinet and also sang. He enlisted in the United
States Army in 1952 where he was sent
to Fort Belvoir and played in the United
States Army Band. While in Fort
Belvoir, a friend recommended that he see the touring production of Guys and Dolls playing in Washington, D.C. After seeing the show, Linden decided to become an
actor. Linden found success on Broadway when he replaced Sydney Chaplin in the musical Bells Are Ringing. In
1971, he won a Best Actor Tony Award for
his portrayal of Mayer Rothschild in the musical The
Rothschilds.
In 1975, Linden landed the starring role in the ABC television police comedy Barney Miller. Linden portrayed the titular captain of the
beleaguered 12th Precinct in bohemian Greenwich Village, dealing with mordant wit, compassion and occasional
frustration at the comedy-of-manners misfits brought in for arrest or
questioning, or who came to lodge a complaint or stop by on bureaucratic
business or to just say hi. He earned seven Emmy Award nominations for his work on the series, one for each
season. Linden also earned four Golden
Globe Award nominations for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. The series aired from 1975 to 1982. During the
series' run, Linden also hosted two educational series, Animals,
Animals, Animals and FYI. He won two special Daytime
Emmy Awards for the latter series.
Linden won a third Daytime Emmy Award for a guest starring role on CBS
Schoolbreak Special in 1995.
Linden has since continued his career on the stage, in films and guest starring
roles on television. He released his first album of pop and jazz standards, It's
Never Too Late, in 2011.
Linden returned to episodic television in the NBC series Blacke's Magic in 1986. He played the lead character, Alexander
Blacke, a magician who solves mysteries with the help of his assistant Leonard
(Harry Morgan). The series was canceled after 13 episodes. In 1988,
he co-starred in the romantic comedy A New
Life, directed by Alan Alda. In 1992, Linden tried his hand at television again with the leading
role in the comedy-drama series Jack's Place. In the series, Linden portrayed Jack Evans, a
retired jazz musician who ran a restaurant that was frequented by patrons who
learned lessons about love. The show was often compared to the The Love Boat by critics as it featured a different weekly guest
star. The series premiered as a mid-season
replacement but did well enough in
the ratings for ABC to order additional episodes. Viewership soon
declined and ABC chose to cancel the series in 1993. The next year, Linden
appeared in the CBS
sitcom The Boys Are Back.
That series was also low rated and canceled after 18 episodes. In 1995, Linden
won his third Daytime Emmy Award for his 1994 guest starring role as Rabbi
Markovitz on CBS
Schoolbreak Special.]
Linden continues to have an active stage career. He
appeared in the Toronto production of Tuesdays
with Morrie in 2009. In July 2011, he appeared opposite Christina Pickles in the Colony Theatre's production of On
Golden Pond. Linden also starred
in Under My Skin, which premiered at the Pasadena
Playhouse on September 19, 2012 and
ran through October 2012. In 2013, Linden guest starred in an episode of comedy
series The
Mindy Project.
After the success of Barney Miller, Linden
decided to revive his music career with a night club act. In his act, Linden
plays the clarinet, performs pop
and Broadway standards backed by a big band, and discusses his life and career.
He has continued touring with various night club and cabaret acts since the
early 1980s.
In March 2011, he began touring with his cabaret show An
Evening with Hal Linden: I'm Old Fashioned. The show, which ran through
2012, was later released on DVD. In April 2011, Linden released his first
album, It's Never Too Late. The album features a collection of jazz,
Broadway and pop standards that Linden began recording around the time he was
touring in the early 1980s. Due to a lack of interest, he shelved the songs.
Linden decided to finish the album on the advice of his tour booker. Linden is
the spokesperson for the Jewish
National Fund, a position he has held
since 1997. Linden met dancer Fran Martin while doing summer stock in 1955.
They married in 1958 and had four children. Martin died in 2010.
March 22, 1931
William Shatner was born. The Canadian actor,
musician, recording artist, author and film director.
He gained worldwide fame
and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T. Kirk, captain of the USS
Enterprise, in the science
fiction television series, Star Trek, from 1966
to 1969; Star Trek: The Animated Series from 1973 to 1974; and in seven of the subsequent Star
Trek feature films from 1979 to 1994. He has written a series of books
chronicling his experiences playing Captain Kirk and being a part of Star Trek, and has co-written several novels set in the Star
Trek universe. He has also authored a series of science fiction novels
called TekWar that were adapted for television.
ABC premiered Family,
a weekly prime-time drama about a Pasadena California suburban family.
The show was created by novelist and screenwriter Jay
Presson Allen, directed by film director Mark Rydell, and produced by film
director Mike Nichols, as well as
television moguls Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg.
The show featured James
Broderick and Sada
Thompson as Doug and Kate Lawrence.
Doug was an independent lawyer, and
Kate was a housewife. They had three children: Nancy (portrayed by Elayne
Heilveil in the original mini-series and later by Meredith
Baxter Birney), Willie (Gary
Frank), Letitia, nicknamed
"Buddy" (Kristy McNichol)
and the family later adopted a girl named Annie Cooper (Quinn
Cummings). The show attempted to
depict the "average" family, warts and all. Storylines were very
topical, and the show was one of the first to feature shows to be termed as
"very special episodes." In the first episode, Nancy, who was pregnant
with her second child, walked in on her husband Jeff (John
Rubinstein) making love to one of her
friends. Other topical storylines included Kate having to deal with the
possibility that she had breast cancer. In the later seasons, there were
instances in which Buddy had to decide whether or not to have sex (She always
chose to wait, most notably in an episode with guest star/teen idol Leif Garrett). One episode featured guest-star Henry Fonda as a visiting elderly relative who was beginning to
experience senility.
During its five seasons Family received fourteen Emmy Award
nominations, three of them for Outstanding Drama Series. The show won four
awards all in acting categories: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
(Sada Thompson in 1977), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
(Kristy McNichol in 1976 and 1978) and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama
Series (Gary Frank in 1976).
March 9, 1996
Comedian George Burns dies at age 100.
Born Nathan Birnbaum in New
York City, Burns was one of 12 children. As a young child, he sang for pennies
on street corners and in saloons, and at age 13, he started a dance academy
with a friend. In 1922, Burns was performing the latest in a string of
song-and-dance acts in Newark, New Jersey, when he teamed up with a fellow
performer, Gracie Allen. Though Allen began as the straight one in their
partnership, her natural comedic ability prompted Burns to rewrite their
material to give her most of the punch lines. From then on, Burns played the
straight man to Allen’s ditz, with hilarious results.
By the time Burns and Allen married in 1926 (his brief first marriage, to
the dancer Hannah Siegel, ended in divorce), they had already become known on
the vaudeville circuit. The 1920s were a golden era for vaudeville performers,
and Burns and Allen were only two of a number of greats--their peers included
Milton Berle, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Bert Lahr and Jack Benny (Burns’ close
friend)--who successfully made the transition to other forms of entertainment.
After making their radio debut in 1929, the pair landed a regular show, The
George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, which aired from 1932 to 1950 on the
NBC network. In the late 1930s, the program’s audience numbered more than 40
million people and NBC paid Burns and Allen $10,000 per week, an enormous sum
for the time. The couple also played themselves on the big screen in a number
of films, including International House (1933), Many Happy Returns (1934),
A Damsel in Distress (1937) and College Swing (1938).
In 1950, The George Burns
and Gracie Allen Show made a seamless transition to television, airing on
CBS and becoming one of the top-ranked programs for the duration of the decade.
The Burns-Allen team remained in the public eye until Allen’s retirement in
1959. She died of a heart attack in 1964, at the age of 58. Though Allen was a
Roman Catholic, Burns buried her with Episcopal rites, explaining that as a
Jewish man he couldn’t be buried in Catholic-consecrated ground, and he wanted
to be buried beside her.
After Burns underwent major heart surgery in 1975 at the age of 79, his
career got a second wind. That year, he played a retired vaudevillian in the
film adaptation of Neil Simon’s play The Sunshine Boys, co-starring
Walter Matthau and Richard Benjamin. Burns won an Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor for the role. After that, there was no shortage of movie parts
for the octogenarian actor, who played God in Oh God! (1977) and its
sequels, Oh God! Book II (1980) and Oh God! You Devil (1984), in
which Burns was featured as both God and the Devil. He also starred in Just
You and Me, Kid (1979), Going in Style (1979) and Eighteen Again (1988).
In 1988, Burns won an award for lifetime achievement from the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He wrote two best-selling
autobiographical works, including Gracie: A Love Story (1988) and All
My Best Friends (1989), along with eight other books that earned him his
well-deserved reputation as an invaluable first-hand observer of the history of
20th century entertainment.
The
show centers on widower Benjamin Leighton "Ben" Matlock, a renowned,
folksy and popular though cantankerous attorney. Usually, at the end of the
case, the person who is on the stand being questioned by Matlock is the actual
perpetrator, and Matlock will expose him, despite making clear that his one
goal is to prove reasonable doubt in the case of his client's guilt or to prove
his client's innocence.
Matlock
studied law at Harvard, and after several years as a public defender, established his law
practice inAtlanta, living in a modest
farmhouse in a neighboring suburb. He is known to visit crime scenes to
discover clues otherwise overlooked and come up with viable, alternative
theories of the crime in question (usually murder). Matlock also has
conspicuously finicky fashion sense; he generally appears in court wearing a
trademark light gray suit and, over the series' entire run, owned three
generations of the FordCrown Victoria—always an all-gray model (Griffith's character had always driven Ford
products in his 1960s series, The Andy Griffith Show). Some Mayberry alumni—Don Knotts, Aneta Corsaut, Betty Lynn, Jack Dodson and Arlene Golonka—made guest appearances
on Matlock.
Matlock
is noted for his thrift and a fondness for hot dogs. After the series ended,
his penchant for hot dogs was explained in the 1997 episode "Murder
Two" of Joyce Burditt's Diagnosis: Murder. Matlock blames Dr. Mark Sloan (Dick Van Dyke) for recommending a
disastrous investment in 8-track cartridges, in which he lost his
savings of $5,000 in 1969, forcing him into wearing cheap suits and living on
hot dogs. Despite his thrift, Matlock's standard fee is $100,000, usually paid
up front, but if he or his staff believe strongly enough in the innocence of a
client, or if the client is unable to pay immediately (if at all), he will have
them pay over time, or will reduce the fee significantly or waive it entirely,
albeit reluctantly in some cases. He will also, reluctantly, take a pro
bono case occasionally, and at least on one occasion, he has worked as
the prosecuting attorney in a trial.
These
traits, and the demands he placed upon his investigators, were often points of
comic relief in the series. Andy Griffith's prior career as a comic often
showed through in things Matlock did or said.
A longtime fixture of
Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, comedian Minnie Pearl dies on this day. Pearl was
famous for her comic monologues about hillbilly life, and was featured on the
long-running syndicated show Hee Haw from 1970 to 1990.
March 5, 2006
Jon Stewart hosts 78th annual Academy Awards ceremony.
By early 2006, Jon Stewart,
the irreverent host of The Daily Show, a fake television news program on
Comedy Central, had seen the ratings for his show jump dramatically as a result
of its coverage of the 2004 presidential election. The show spawned a popular
spin-off, The Colbert Report, starring Daily Show regular Stephen
Colbert, and a best-selling parody of a social studies textbook, America
(The Book). On March 5, 2006, however, Stewart took on his highest-profile
gig to date--hosting the 78th annual Academy Awards ceremony at the Kodak
Theatre in Los Angeles.
In preparation for the Oscars, Stewart enlisted a team of writers from The
Daily Show led by Ben Karlin, a former editor of the satirical newspaper The
Onion and the then-executive producer of both The Daily Show and The
Colbert Report. After the stars swanned down the red carpet, the ceremony
began with a filmed segment suggesting Stewart was the last possible choice for
the hosting gig and showing a series of former hosts refusing the job.
While Stewart’s deadpan humor might have had audiences laughing at home, his
constant poking fun at Hollywood and the stars themselves seemed to meet with a
less friendly reception from the Kodak Theatre audience. Jokes about
Scientology and Hollywood’s liberal politics fell flat, but the audience did
warm up to Daily Show-style fake ads mocking Oscar-campaigning tactics
and Stewart’s ad-libbed running joke about the exuberant acceptance speech
given by the rap group Three 6 Mafia, who won an Oscar for Best Song for “It’s
Hard Out There For a Pimp” (from Hustle & Flow).
In the post-show media analysis the next morning, the consensus seemed to be
that Stewart struggled; his hosting performance and its reception by the
audience was compared with less-successful hosts from the past, such as David
Letterman and Chris Rock, as opposed to Oscar favorites like Billy Crystal and
Whoopi Goldberg. He was praised, however, for poking fun at the bloated,
self-important nature of the Academy Awards ceremony itself, with its
often-overdone production numbers and political posturing by the stars
themselves. Stewart earned a second Oscars hosting gig--and better reviews--in
2008, in the wake of Hollywood’s writers’ strike and in the midst of the
presidential campaign season.
The 78th annual Oscars were also memorable for the surprising upset victory
of the ensemble drama Crash in the Best Picture category. After the
Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee took home the Best Director Oscar for Brokeback
Mountain, that film’s string of awards seemed to have given it the
front-runner’s momentum to win Best Picture, the last statuette of the night.
The New York Times called Crash’s selection as Best Picture a
“stunning twist” to the evening, while Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles
Times observed that some Academy voters may have been uncomfortable with
the subject matter of Brokeback Mountain, which starred Heath Ledger and
Jake Gyllenhaal as sheepherders who fall in love while working in Wyoming in
the early 1960s. Acting awards went to Rachel Weisz (Best Supporting Actress
for The Constant Gardener), George Clooney (Best Supporting Actor for Syriana),
Reese Witherspoon (Best Actress for Walk the Line) and Philip Seymour
Hoffman (Best Actor for Capote).
March 7, 1986
The final episode of Different Strokes was aired.
Arnold's feature story
about his high school football team threatens to turn into a controversial
expose for the school newspaper when he witnesses team members buying steroids.
