Showing posts with label New Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Media. Show all posts

Monday, April 13, 2020

This Week in Television History: April 2020 PART II



April 13, 1945
Tony Dow is born in Hollywood, California. 
He was born to John Stevens, a designer and general contractor, and Muriel Virginia Dow (née Montrose) (May 27, 1906–April 30, 2001), a stunt woman in early Westerns and Clara Bow's movie double in Hollywood. In his youth, Dow was a Junior Olympics diving champion. He won the role of Wally Cleaver in a casting call, with almost no previous acting experience.
Dow remained on the series until it ended in 1963. After the run of Leave It to Beaver, he appeared on My Three Sons, Dr. Kildare, Mr. Novak (five episodes in three different roles), The Greatest Show on Earth, and Never Too Young. From 1965 to 1968, Dow served in the National Guard, interrupting his acting career. On his return to acting, he guest-starred in Adam-12, Love American Style, Square Pegs, The Mod Squad, The Hardy Boys and Emergency!
During the 1970s, Dow continued acting while working in the construction business and studying journalism and filmmaking. In 1987, he was honored by the Young Artist Foundation with its Former Child Star "Lifetime Achievement" Award for his role as Wally Cleaver.
Dow's most recent screen appearance was in the 2003 film Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.
In 1986, he wrote an episode of The New Leave It to Beaver, and in 1989, he made his directorial debut with an episode of The New Lassie, followed by episodes of Get a Life, Harry and the Hendersons, Swamp Thing, Coach, Babylon 5, Crusade, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Dow also served as the visual effects supervisor for Babylon 5. In 1996, he provided visual effects for the Fox TVM Doctor Who.
Dow attended Van Nuys High School and graduated in 1963, the same year Beaver ended. On June 14, 1969, Dow married Carol M. Marlow. In 1973, they had a son, Christopher T. Dow, before divorcing in 1978.
Dow is currently married to Lauren Shulkind, whom he wed in 1980. They live in the Santa Monica Mountains.
In the 1990s, Dow revealed that he has struggled and was eventually diagnosed with clinical depression. He has since starred in self-help videos chronicling this battle, including "Beating the Blues" (1998).

Dow has become a serious, and respected sculptor, creating abstract bronze sculptures. In his artist statement, he says the following about his work: "The figures are abstract and not meant to represent reality but rather the truth of the interactions as I see and feel them. I find the wood in the hills of Topanga Canyon and each piece evolves from my subconscious. I produce limited editions of nine bronzes using the lost wax process from molds of the original burl sculpture." One of his bronze pieces was on display in the backyard garden of Barbara Billingsley, who played his mother on Leave It to Beaver. Dow was chosen as one of three sculptors to show at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts exhibition, in the Carrousel du Louvre, in Paris, France, in December 2008. He represented the United States delegation, which was composed of artists from the Karen Lynne Gallery. His abstract shown at the Louvre was titled, "Unarmed Warrior," a bronze figure of a woman holding a shield.

April 19, 1995
The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City
Carried out by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the bombing killed 168 people and injured more than 680 others. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a 16-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings, causing at least an estimated $652 million worth of damage. Extensive rescue efforts were undertaken by local, state, federal, and worldwide agencies in the wake of the bombing, and substantial donations were received from across the country. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activated eleven of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, consisting of 665 rescue workers who assisted in rescue and recovery operations.

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".


Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Gwen Ifill

I'm a preacher's kid, and we were always told, Act right all the time, because someone's always watching.
- Gwen Ifill
Gwendolyn L. "GwenIfill September 29, 1955 – November 14, 2016

PBS devoted yesterdays NewsHour, to Gwen Ifill, who died Monday morning after a battle with cancer.

Good Night Ms. Ifill 

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa


Friday, January 22, 2016

Your Mental Sorbet: The Daily show's Jessica Williams - WRESTLING WITH HISTORY IN UPSTATE NEW YORK

Here is another "Mental Sorbet" A little spark of madness that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.



Jessica Williams learns about the history of the Whitesboro, NY, town seal, which depicts a white man wrestling a Native American.





Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Friday, January 09, 2015

Your Mental Sorbet: Behind the scenes as Mad Magazine turns 60

On Wednesday I was watching the horific news about the two masked gunmen entered the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and killing 12 people. I was remembering how I grew up on MAD magazine. "The Usual Gang of Idiots" taught me the art of parody, satire and that no one is above being made fun of. 
Anyone who uses bullets against a group of people whose main weapon are pencils and paper are trying to compensate for something. I wonder what that could be. No one is impressed. This does not make you a big man. Humorists all over the world are sharpening their pencils. 
They ALWAYS have the last laugh.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Monday, November 03, 2014

This Week in Television History: November 2014 PART I




Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL:
As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.


November 8, 1914
Norman Nathan Lloyd is born. 

Actor, producer, and director with a career in entertainment spanning roughly eight decades. Lloyd has appeared in over sixty films and television shows. 

In the 1980s, he gained a new generation of fans for playing Dr. Daniel Auschlander, one of the starring roles on the groundbreaking medical drama St. Elsewhere.


November 8, 1979
The program, "The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage", premiered on ABC-TV. 

The show was planned to be temporary, but it evolved into "Nightline" in March of 1980. The program had its beginnings on November 8, 1979, just four days after the Iran hostage crisis started. ABC News president Roone Arledge felt the best way to compete against NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was to update Americans on the latest news from Iran. At that time, the show was called The Iran Crisis–America Held Hostage: Day "xxx", where xxx represented each day that Iranians held hostage the occupants of the U.S. Embassy in TehranIran

Originally, World News Tonight lead anchor Frank Reynolds hosted the special report. Shortly after its creation, Reynolds stopped hosting the program. Ted Koppel, then ABC News's State Department Correspondent, took on the hosting duties. It was not until a few days later that a producer had the idea of displaying the number of days on America Held Hostage: Day 15, Day 50, Day 150, and so on.

November 8, 1994
Salvatore "Sonny" Bono is elected to the U.S. Congress.

If you had made a friendly wager back in 1974 as to which recent or current pop-music figure might go on to serve in the United States Congress in 20 years' time, you might have picked someone with an apparent political agenda, like Joan Baez, or at least one who was associated with some kind of cause, like nature-lover John Denver. 

You almost certainly wouldn't have placed your bet on Sonny Bono, a singer of arguably limited talents who appeared content to stand, literally and figuratively, in the shadow of his far more popular wife, Cher. It was indeed Salvatore "Sonny" Bono, however, who had a future in elective politics—a future that included his election to the United States House of Representatives from California's 44th Congressional District on this day in 1994.


To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".

Stay Tuned



Tony Figueroa