I didn't get the big break, but I got many little breaks.
-Ronnie Schell
 |
| Ronald Ralph Schell December 23, 1931 – June 12, 2026 |
 | ||
| Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
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"
Showing posts with label Cartoons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cartoons. Show all posts
Sunday, June 14, 2026
Ronnie Schell
.JPG)
Monday, May 25, 2026
This Week in Television History: May 2026 PART IV
May 30, 1908
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and
countless other Warner Bros. cartoon characters, was born in San Francisco.
His parents, who ran a women's clothing business,
moved with their son to Portland, Oregon, when Blanc was a child. Blanc began
performing as a musician and singer on local radio programs in Portland before
he was 20. In the late 1920s, he and his wife, Estelle, created a daily radio
show called "Cobwebs and Nuts," which became a hit. Blanc made many
other radio appearances and became a regular on Jack Benny's hit radio show,
providing the sounds of Benny's ancient car (The Maxwell) and playing several
other characters.In 1937, Blanc made his
debut with Warner Bros., providing the voice for a drunken bull in a short
cartoon called "Picador Porky." Another actor provided the pig's
voice, but Blanc later replaced him. In 1940, Bugs Bunny debuted in a short
called "A Wild Hare." Blanc said he wanted the rabbit to sound tough
and streetwise, so he created a comic combination of Bronx and Brooklyn
accents. Other characters Blanc created for Warner Bros. included the Road
Runner, Sylvester, and Tweety Bird. He performed in some 850 cartoons for
Warner Bros. during his 50-year career. For other studios, he provided the
voices of Barney Rubble and Dino the dinosaur in The Flintstones, Mr.
Spacely for The Jetsons, and Woody Woodpecker's laugh.
In his 1988
autobiography, That's Not All Folks, Blanc described a nearly fatal
traffic accident that left him in a coma. Unable to rouse him by using his real
name, a doctor finally said, "How are you, Bugs Bunny?" and Mel
replied, in Bugs' voice, "Ehh, just fine, doc. How are you?"
Blanc
continued to provide voices until the late 1980s, most memorably voicing Daffy
Duck dueling with Donald Duck in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988). After
Mel Blanc died of complications from heart disease, his son Noel, trained by
his father, provided the voices for the characters the elder Blanc had helped
bring to life.
May 30, 1908
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and countless other Warner Bros. cartoon characters, was born in San Francisco.
His parents, who ran a women's clothing business, moved with their son to Portland, Oregon, when Blanc was a child. Blanc began performing as a musician and singer on local radio programs in Portland before he was 20. In the late 1920s, he and his wife, Estelle, created a daily radio show called "Cobwebs and Nuts," which became a hit. Blanc made many other radio appearances and became a regular on Jack Benny's hit radio show, providing the sounds of Benny's ancient car (The Maxwell) and playing several other characters.
In 1937, Blanc made his
debut with Warner Bros., providing the voice for a drunken bull in a short
cartoon called "Picador Porky." Another actor provided the pig's
voice, but Blanc later replaced him. In 1940, Bugs Bunny debuted in a short
called "A Wild Hare." Blanc said he wanted the rabbit to sound tough
and streetwise, so he created a comic combination of Bronx and Brooklyn
accents. Other characters Blanc created for Warner Bros. included the Road
Runner, Sylvester, and Tweety Bird. He performed in some 850 cartoons for
Warner Bros. during his 50-year career. For other studios, he provided the
voices of Barney Rubble and Dino the dinosaur in The Flintstones, Mr.
Spacely for The Jetsons, and Woody Woodpecker's laugh.
In his 1988
autobiography, That's Not All Folks, Blanc described a nearly fatal
traffic accident that left him in a coma. Unable to rouse him by using his real
name, a doctor finally said, "How are you, Bugs Bunny?" and Mel
replied, in Bugs' voice, "Ehh, just fine, doc. How are you?"
Blanc continued to provide voices until the late 1980s, most memorably voicing Daffy Duck dueling with Donald Duck in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988). After Mel Blanc died of complications from heart disease, his son Noel, trained by his father, provided the voices for the characters the elder Blanc had helped bring to life.
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
Monday, December 15, 2025
Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: 1966 CBS’ Christmas Message
Here is a
"HOLIDAY SOR-BAY"
a little spark of madness
that we could use to artificially maintain our Christmas spirit.
This 1966 CBS’ Christmas Message by illustrator, animator, and editorial cartoonist R.O. Blechman.
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
Tuesday, December 09, 2025
Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: The Making of A Charlie Brown Christmas
Here is a
"HOLIDAY SOR-BAY"
a little spark of madness
that we could use to artificially maintain our Christmas spirit.
December 9, 1965
For the first time in nearly six decades, the Charlie Brown holiday specials will not be broadcast on television. Instead, the Peanuts are heading to Apple TV+.
Tony Figueroa
Sunday, December 07, 2025
Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: Simpsons 2010 Christmas Special
Here is a
"HOLIDAY SOR-BAY"
a little spark of madness
that we could use to artificially maintain our Christmas spirit.
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
Saturday, December 06, 2025
Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Sing Along with Lyrics
Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY"
a little spark of madness
that we could use to artificially maintain our Christmas spirit.
TV History
December 6, 1964
December 6, 1964
Rudolph the Red–Nosed Reindeer the long-running Christmas television special produced in stop motion animation by Rankin/Bass first aired on the NBC television network.
The show was sponsored by General Electric under the umbrella title of The General Electric Fantasy Hour.
The special is based on the song by Johnny Marks, which was in turn taken from the 1939 poem of the same title written by Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May. Since 1972, the special has aired over CBS, which unveiled a high-definition, digitally remastered version in 2005. As with A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph no longer airs just once annually, but several times during the Christmas season. It has been telecast every year since 1964, making it the longest running Christmas TV special, and one of only four 1960s Christmas specials still being telecast (the others being A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Frosty the Snowman). And again, as with the Charlie Brown special, Rudolph has now been shown more than thirty-one times on CBS, although in this case, CBS was not Rudolph 's original network.
On December 6, 2024 Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer returned to NBC
Tony Figueroa
Friday, December 05, 2025
Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: Christmas Flintstone Song
Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY"
a little spark of madness
that we could use to artificially maintain our Christmas spirit.
Tony Figueroa
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Monday, July 21, 2025
This Week in Television History: July 2025 PART III
July 22, 1965
Till
Death Us Do Part debuted on England’s BBC-TV.
Till Death Us Do Part is a British
television sitcom that
aired on BBC1 from
1965 to 1975. First airing as
a Comedy
Playhouse pilot, the show aired in seven series until 1975. Six years later, ITV continued the sitcom, calling it Till Death.... From 1985 to 1992, the BBC produced a sequel In Sickness and
in Health.Created by Johnny Speight, Till Death Us Do Part centred on the East End Garnett family, led by patriarch Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell), a reactionarywhite working-class man who holds racist and
anti-socialist views. His long-suffering wife Else was played by Dandy Nichols, and his daughter Rita by Una Stubbs. Rita's husband Mike Rawlins (Anthony Booth) is a socialist layabout. The character Alf Garnett became a well known
character in British culture, and Mitchell
played him on stage and television up until 1998, when Speight died.
In addition to the spin-off In
Sickness and in Health, Till Death Us Do Part was re-made
in many countries including Brazil, Germany (Ein Herz und
eine Seele), the
Netherlands (In Voor- En Tegenspoed), and the United States (All in the Family).
Many episodes from the first three
series are thought to no longer exist, having been wiped in the
late 1960s and early '70s as was the policy at the time.
July 25, 1985
Rock Hudson announces he has AIDS.
Rock Hudson, a quintessential tall, dark and handsome
Hollywood leading man of the 1950s and 1960s who made more than 60 films during
his career, announces through a press release that he is suffering from
acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). With that announcement, Hudson
became the first major celebrity to go public with such a diagnosis. The first
cases of AIDS, a condition of the human immune system, were reported in
homosexual men in the United States in the early 1980s. At the time of Hudson’s
death, AIDS was not fully understood by the medical community and the disease
was stigmatized by the general public as a condition affecting only gay men,
intravenous drug users and people who received contaminated blood transfusions.Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., on November 17, 1925, in Winnetka,
Illinois. He rose to fame in the 1950s, starring in such films as Giant (1956),
for which he received an Academy Award nomination, and A Farewell to
Arms (1957). Hudson’s good looks and charm were on display in 1959’s Pillow
Talk and several other romantic comedies he made with Doris Day in the
early 1960s. In the 1970s, Hudson co-starred in the popular TV series McMillan
and Wife. In the early 1980s, he began experiencing health problems and
underwent heart bypass surgery. His final TV role was a recurring part on Dynasty
from 1984 to 1985.
In July 1985 Hudson was hospitalized while in Paris. Some media reports
indicated he was suffering from liver cancer. However, on July 25, Hudson
issued a press release stating he had AIDS and was in France for treatment.
Hudson, who had a three-year marriage during the 1950s to a woman who had been
his agent’s secretary, was believed to be gay, although he never spoke publicly
about his sexuality.
Hudson died on October 2, 1985, at age 59 in Beverly Hills, California. His
death was credited with bringing attention to an epidemic that went on to kill
millions of men, women and children of all backgrounds from around the world.
Hudson’s friend and former Giant co-star Elizabeth Taylor became an AIDS
activist and rallied the Hollywood community to raise millions for research. In
1993, Tom Hanks received a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in director
Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia, the first major Hollywood movie to focus
on AIDS.
July 27, 1940
Bugs Bunny first
appears on the silver screen in A Wild
Hare.
The wisecracking rabbit had evolved through several earlier short
films. As in many future installments of Bugs Bunny cartoons, A Wild Hare featured Bugs as the
would-be dinner for frustrated hunter Elmer Fudd.
July 27, 2003
Bob Hope dies at age 100 in Toluca Lake, California.
Known for entertaining American servicemen and women for more than five
decades, Hope had a career that spanned the whole range of 20th century
entertainment, from vaudeville to Broadway musicals to radio, television and
movies.He was born Leslie Townes
Hope, the fifth of seven sons, on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, England. In 1907,
Hope’s family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. As a young man, he began his
entertainment career as a dancer and vaudeville performer. During the 1930s, he
appeared in Broadway musicals, along with such performers as Fanny Brice and
Ethel Merman. In 1934, Hope wed the nightclub singer Dolores Reade; the
marriage would endure until his death. In 1938, Hope, who became known for his
snappy one-liners, rose to national fame with his own radio show on NBC and his
first feature film, The Big Broadcast of 1938.
In 1940, Hope co-starred in the box-office hit Road to Singapore with
Bing Crosby. The film, about a pair of singing, wisecracking con men, was the
first of seven “Road” movies the pair would make. Hope appeared in more than 50
feature films during his career. He hosted the Academy Awards 18 times,
although he never won an Oscar himself, an occurrence he turned into a
long-running joke. However, he did receive five special awards from the
Academy, including two honorary Oscars. Hope was also a top entertainer on TV
and from 1959 to 1996 he made 284 “Bob Hope specials” for NBC.
Starting with World War II, Hope began entertaining American troops at
military bases around the world. His USO tours traveled to military bases
during times of war (Vietnam, the Persian Gulf), as well as times of peace. He
was so beloved for his work with the military for more than half a century that
Congress passed a resolution in 1997 making Hope an honorary veteran. It was
one of the countless honors that Hope received throughout his career. In 1998,
he was granted honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.
July 22, 1965
Till
Death Us Do Part debuted on England’s BBC-TV.
Till Death Us Do Part is a British
television sitcom that
aired on BBC1 from
1965 to 1975. First airing as
a Comedy
Playhouse pilot, the show aired in seven series until 1975. Six years later, ITV continued the sitcom, calling it Till Death.... From 1985 to 1992, the BBC produced a sequel In Sickness and
in Health.
Created by Johnny Speight, Till Death Us Do Part centred on the East End Garnett family, led by patriarch Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell), a reactionarywhite working-class man who holds racist and
anti-socialist views. His long-suffering wife Else was played by Dandy Nichols, and his daughter Rita by Una Stubbs. Rita's husband Mike Rawlins (Anthony Booth) is a socialist layabout. The character Alf Garnett became a well known
character in British culture, and Mitchell
played him on stage and television up until 1998, when Speight died.
In addition to the spin-off In
Sickness and in Health, Till Death Us Do Part was re-made
in many countries including Brazil, Germany (Ein Herz und
eine Seele), the
Netherlands (In Voor- En Tegenspoed), and the United States (All in the Family).
Many episodes from the first three
series are thought to no longer exist, having been wiped in the
late 1960s and early '70s as was the policy at the time.
July 25, 1985
Rock Hudson announces he has AIDS.
Rock Hudson, a quintessential tall, dark and handsome Hollywood leading man of the 1950s and 1960s who made more than 60 films during his career, announces through a press release that he is suffering from acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). With that announcement, Hudson became the first major celebrity to go public with such a diagnosis. The first cases of AIDS, a condition of the human immune system, were reported in homosexual men in the United States in the early 1980s. At the time of Hudson’s death, AIDS was not fully understood by the medical community and the disease was stigmatized by the general public as a condition affecting only gay men, intravenous drug users and people who received contaminated blood transfusions.Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., on November 17, 1925, in Winnetka,
Illinois. He rose to fame in the 1950s, starring in such films as Giant (1956),
for which he received an Academy Award nomination, and A Farewell to
Arms (1957). Hudson’s good looks and charm were on display in 1959’s Pillow
Talk and several other romantic comedies he made with Doris Day in the
early 1960s. In the 1970s, Hudson co-starred in the popular TV series McMillan
and Wife. In the early 1980s, he began experiencing health problems and
underwent heart bypass surgery. His final TV role was a recurring part on Dynasty
from 1984 to 1985.
In July 1985 Hudson was hospitalized while in Paris. Some media reports
indicated he was suffering from liver cancer. However, on July 25, Hudson
issued a press release stating he had AIDS and was in France for treatment.
Hudson, who had a three-year marriage during the 1950s to a woman who had been
his agent’s secretary, was believed to be gay, although he never spoke publicly
about his sexuality.
Hudson died on October 2, 1985, at age 59 in Beverly Hills, California. His
death was credited with bringing attention to an epidemic that went on to kill
millions of men, women and children of all backgrounds from around the world.
Hudson’s friend and former Giant co-star Elizabeth Taylor became an AIDS
activist and rallied the Hollywood community to raise millions for research. In
1993, Tom Hanks received a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in director
Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia, the first major Hollywood movie to focus
on AIDS.
July 27, 1940
Bugs Bunny first appears on the silver screen in A Wild Hare.
The wisecracking rabbit had evolved through several earlier short films. As in many future installments of Bugs Bunny cartoons, A Wild Hare featured Bugs as the would-be dinner for frustrated hunter Elmer Fudd.
July 27, 2003
Bob Hope dies at age 100 in Toluca Lake, California.
Known for entertaining American servicemen and women for more than five
decades, Hope had a career that spanned the whole range of 20th century
entertainment, from vaudeville to Broadway musicals to radio, television and
movies.
He was born Leslie Townes
Hope, the fifth of seven sons, on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, England. In 1907,
Hope’s family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. As a young man, he began his
entertainment career as a dancer and vaudeville performer. During the 1930s, he
appeared in Broadway musicals, along with such performers as Fanny Brice and
Ethel Merman. In 1934, Hope wed the nightclub singer Dolores Reade; the
marriage would endure until his death. In 1938, Hope, who became known for his
snappy one-liners, rose to national fame with his own radio show on NBC and his
first feature film, The Big Broadcast of 1938.
In 1940, Hope co-starred in the box-office hit Road to Singapore with
Bing Crosby. The film, about a pair of singing, wisecracking con men, was the
first of seven “Road” movies the pair would make. Hope appeared in more than 50
feature films during his career. He hosted the Academy Awards 18 times,
although he never won an Oscar himself, an occurrence he turned into a
long-running joke. However, he did receive five special awards from the
Academy, including two honorary Oscars. Hope was also a top entertainer on TV
and from 1959 to 1996 he made 284 “Bob Hope specials” for NBC.
Starting with World War II, Hope began entertaining American troops at military bases around the world. His USO tours traveled to military bases during times of war (Vietnam, the Persian Gulf), as well as times of peace. He was so beloved for his work with the military for more than half a century that Congress passed a resolution in 1997 making Hope an honorary veteran. It was one of the countless honors that Hope received throughout his career. In 1998, he was granted honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.
Tony Figueroa
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