Andy Rooney

Death is a distant rumor to the young.
Andy Rooney

Andy Rooney died last night of post-surgical complications. As of now the medical reason for the surgery has not been disclosed, and the Rooney family asks that their privacy be respected at this difficult time.  Mr. Rooney was most notable for his weekly broadcast, a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011. I remember as a CHILD OF TELEVISION I was not always interested in the first fifty five minutes of the broadcast but ran to the TV when I heard, "And now A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney".

Happiness depends more on how life strikes you than on what happens.
Andy Rooney

Andrew Rooney was born in Albany, New York, the son of Walter Scott Rooney (1888–1959) and Ellinor (née Reynolds) Rooney (1886–1980). He attended The Albany Academy, and later attended Colgate University in Hamilton in Upstate New York, where he was initiated into the Sigma Chi fraternity, until he was drafted into the U.S. Army in August 1941. Rooney began his career in newspapers while in the Army when, in 1942, he began writing for Stars and Stripes in London during World War II.
In February 1943, flying with the Eighth Air Force, he was one of six correspondents who flew on the first American bombing raid over Germany. Later, he was one of the first American journalists to visit the Nazi concentration camps near the end of World War II, and one of the first to write about them. During a segment on Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, Rooney confessed that he had been opposed to World War II because he was a pacifist. He recounted that what he saw in those concentration camps made him ashamed that he had opposed the war and permanently changed his opinions about whether "just wars" exist.
Rooney's 1995 memoir, My War, chronicles his war reporting. In addition to recounting firsthand several notable historical events and people (including the entry into Paris and the Nazi concentration camps), Rooney describes how it shaped his experience both as a writer and reporter.
Rooney joined CBS in 1949, as a writer for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, when Godfrey was at his peak on CBS radio and TV. It opened the show up to a variety of viewers. The program was a hit, reaching number one in 1952, during Rooney's tenure with the program. It was the beginning of a close life-long friendship between Rooney and Godfrey. He wrote for Godfrey's daytime radio and TV show Arthur Godfrey Time. He later moved on to The Garry Moore Show, which became a hit program. During the same period, he wrote for CBS News public affairs programs such as The Twentieth Century.
According to CBS News's biography of him, "Rooney wrote his first television essay, a longer-length precursor of the type he does on 60 Minutes, in 1964, 'An Essay on Doors.' From 1962 to 1968, he collaborated with another close friend, the late CBS News correspondent Harry Reasoner — Rooney writing and producing, Reasoner narrating — on such notable CBS News specials as 'An Essay on Bridges' (1965), An Essay on Hotels (1966), An Essay on Women (1967), and The Strange Case of the English Language (1968). An Essay on War (1971) won Rooney his third Writers Guild Award.

On a personal note:

My high school history teacher had us was watch An Essay on War and we were all very moved.

In 1968, he wrote two CBS News specials in the series 'Of Black America', and his script for 'BlackHistory: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed' won him his first Emmy." Rooney also wrote the script for the 1975 documentary FDR: The Man Who Changed America.
In the 1970s, Rooney wrote and appeared in several prime-time specials for CBS, including In Praise of New York City (1974), the Peabody Award-winning Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington (1975), Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner (1978), and Mr. Rooney Goes to Work (1977). Transcripts of these specials, as well as of some of the earlier collaborations with Reasoner, are contained in the book A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney. Another special, Andy Rooney Takes Off, followed in 1984.

I don't pick subjects as much as they pick me.
Andy Rooney

Rooney's "end-of-show" segment on 60 Minutes, "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" (originally "Three Minutes or So With Andy Rooney"), began in 1978 as a summer replacement for the debate segment "Point/Counterpoint" featuring Shana Alexander and James Kilpatrick. The segment proved popular enough with viewers that beginning in the fall of 1978, it was seen in alternate weeks with the debate segment. At the end of the 1978-79 season, "Point/Counterpoint" was dropped altogether.
In the segment, Rooney typically offered satire on a trivial everyday issue, such as the cost of groceries, annoying relatives, or faulty Christmas presents. Rooney's appearances on "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" often included whimsical lists (e.g., types of milk, bottled water brands, car brands, sports mascots, etc.). In later years, his segments became more political as well. Despite being best known for his television presence on 60 Minutes, Rooney always considered himself a writer who incidentally appeared on television behind his famous walnut table, which he made himself.

Nothing in fine print is ever good news.
Andy Rooney

Rooney's shorter television essays have been archived in numerous books, such as Common Nonsense, which came out in 2002, and Years of Minutes, released in 2003. He penned a regular syndicated column for Tribune Media Services that ran in many newspapers in the United States, and which has been collected in book form. He won three Emmy Awards for his essays, which numbered over 1,000. He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2003. Rooney's renown made him a frequent target of parodies and impersonations by a diverse group of comedic figures, including Frank Caliendo, Rich Little and Beavis.
In 1993, CBS released a two-volume VHS tape set of the best of Rooney's commentaries and field reports, called "The Andy Rooney Television Collection - His Best Minutes." In 2006, CBS released three DVDs of his more recent commentaries, "Andy Rooney On Almost Everything," "Things That Bother Andy Rooney," and "Andy Rooney's Solutions."


Rooney's final regular appearance on 60 Minutes was on October 2, 2011, after 33 years on the show. It was his 1,097th commentary.

I didn't get old on purpose, it just happened. If you're lucky, it could happen to you.
Andy Rooney

Books written by Rooney:

• A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney, 1981
• The Complete Andy Rooney, 1983
• And More by Andy Rooney, 1985
• Pieces of My Mind, 1986
• The Most of Andy Rooney, 1986
• Word for Word, 1988
• Not That You Asked..., 1989
• Most of Andy Rooney, 1990
• Sweet and Sour, 1992
• My War, 1997
• Sincerely, Andy Rooney, 1999
• Common Nonsense, 2002,
• Years of Minutes, 2003
• Out of My Mind, 2006
• 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit, 2009

The closing of a door can bring blessed privacy and comfort - the opening, terror. Conversely, the closing of a door can be a sad and final thing - the opening a wonderfully joyous moment.
Andy Rooney 

Good Night Mr. Rooney

Stay Tuned 

Tony Figueroa
"And now A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney".

Your Mental Sorbet: Banned Axe Deodorant's 'Sexy Angels' Ad

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


AXE Excite: commercial for the new AXE fragrance: "even angels will fall". Music: Sexy Boy by 'Fallen Angels'


This ad has been banned in South Africa, saying they're offensive to Christians.

UPDATE: Axe South Africa has started a campaign on their Facebook page to get the ad back on TV.



Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

TV CONFIDENTIAL Archives: Oct. 26, 2011

Show No. 110 Oct. 26, 2011

First hour: Music journalist and music historian Jon Burlingame (TV’s Biggest Hits: The Story of Television Themes from Dragnet to Friends) joins Ed for a remembrance of Emmy Award-winning composer and arranger Pete Rugolo, whose many contributions to television include the theme music for such shows as Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Thriller, Run for Your Life and The Fugitive. Also in this hour: Phil Gries with Part 2 of our look at the early TV career of Woody Allen, including rare audio of his appearances with Johnny Carson, Steve Allen and Merv Griffin. Allen’s life and career will be the subject of Seriously Funny: The Comic Art of Woody Allen, a two-part documentary that will air Nov. 20-21 on PBS. Second hour: Ed welcomes Emmy Award-winning actress Michael Learned (The Waltons, Nurse, One Slight Hitch). Michael is currently starring, along with Granville van Dusen, in Southern Comforts, a "delightful and sneakily sexy" romantic comedy that is playing at The Falcon Theatre in Burbank (818-955-8101; www.falcontheatre.com) through Sunday, Nov. 13. Also in this hour: Beverley Staunton, primary lead vocalist on Dancing with the Stars, takes Ed behind the scenes of the popular ABC series. Beverley’s new CD, Everything Changes, is an upbeat collection of songs that showcases her musical style as a country/pop artist.

The Garner Files, Desperate Housewives and More: Next on TVC

Actress Kathryn Joosten and author Jon Winokur will join us on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing Nov. 2-8 at the following times and venues:

WROM Radio
Wednesday 11/2
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Saturday 11/5
Midnight ET, 9pm PT
Sunday 11/6
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio
KSAV.org
Friday 11/4
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT

KWDJ 1360-AM
Ridgecrest, Calif.
Saturday 11/5
8pm PT
Sunday 11/6
2pm PT

InternetVoicesRadio.com
Tuesday 11/8
11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT


Whether you think of him as Jim Rockford, Bret Maverick, Grandpa Jim on 8 Simple Rules, Charlie Madison in The Americanization of Emily, Noah Calhoun in The Notebook or any of his other memorable roles in film and television, James Garner is one of the few actors whose vast appeals reaches three different generations. But while many of us think of Garner from what we see on screen — which, for many of us, is the laidback character he created on The Rockford Files — there is a lot more to the Emmy Award-winning actor than meets the eye. Few people know the real story of Jim’s life, from the abuse and struggles he overcame growing up in Depression-era Oklahoma, to how he overcame bouts of depression, constant physical pain and epic battles with the Hollywood establishment to become the acting equivalent of a national monument.


After years of prodding, Jim has finally published his own story, called The Garner Files, which he wrote along with one of our guests this week, Jon Winokur. It’s a book that not only covers his career in the motion picture and TV industries, but also provides a rare look into the life of a bona fide American icon. We’ll talk about Maverick, we’ll talk about Rockford, we’ll work in some of your email questions about James Garner and a whole lot more when Jon Winokur joins us in our second hour.

Also joining us this week will be Emmy Award-winning actress Kathryn Joosten, Mrs. McCluskey on Desperate Housewives, and a fixture on network and cable television for the past two decades. We’ll take a look at what’s ahead on this, the final season of Desperate Housewives. And with November being Lung Cancer Awareness Month, we’ll also talk about some of the work that Kathy does on behalf of such groups as the National Lung Cancer Partnership, a support network for lung cancer survivors (of which Kathryn Joosten is one). We’ll also ask about her work with the likes of David E. Kelley, Aaron Sorkin and Martin Sheen when Kathryn Joosten joins us in our first hour.
All this, plus a brand new edition of This Week in TV History. It’s a full program as always... we certainly hope you’ll join us.
TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Fridays 7pm ET and PT Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
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Sundays 2pm PTKWDJ 1360-AM (Ridgecrest, Calif.)
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This Week in Television History: November 2011 Part I

Listen to me on me on TV CONFIDENTIAL:

Realms of Music
WROM
Wednesday 9/7
9pm ET, 6pm PT

Share-a-Vision Radio
KSAV.org
Friday 9/9
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT

KWDJ 1360-AM
Ridgecrest, Calif.
Saturday 9/10
Following Dodgers baseball

InternetVoicesRadio.com
Tuesday 9/13
11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT

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.

Nov 2, 1966

Friends star David Schwimmer born in Astoria, Queens, New York.  
Schwimmer was raised in Southern California and attended Beverly Hills High School. He graduated from Northwestern University and went on to co-found the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago. In addition to stage work, Schwimmer’s early acting credits include guest roles on TV shows such as The Wonder Years, L.A. Law and NYPD Blue. The dark-haired actor’s big break came when he was cast in Friends, a half-hour comedy about the careers and love lives of six young adults living in New York City. Schwimmer played Ross Geller, a neurotic paleontologist and the older brother of the obsessive-compulsive Monica Geller (Courteney Cox Arquette). One of the show’s key storylines involved Ross’s on-again, off-again romantic relationship with Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), Monica’s high school friend and current roommate who, for a time early in the series, worked as a waitress at Central Perk, a coffee shop that served as a gathering spot for the six friends.

Friends, which debuted on September 22, 1994, on NBC, became a massive hit and a pop-culture icon, propelling Schwimmer and the five other main cast members--Aniston, Cox Arquette, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry--to Hollywood stardom. The show inspired fashion and hairstyle trends (notably Aniston’s layered cut, known as “The Rachel”), as well as such catchphrases as “How you doin’?” and “We were on a break.” After 10 seasons, the final episode of Friends aired on May 6, 2004; more than 50 million viewers reportedly tuned in, one of the all-time largest audiences for a TV finale. (By comparison, the most-watched last episode in TV history, the l983 finale of M*A*S*H, drew some 106 million viewers, while the last episode of Seinfeld, in 1998, was seen by over 76 million people.)

In addition to his work on Friends, Schwimmer has appeared in such movies as

The Pallbearer (1996), with Gwyneth Paltrow; Six Days Seven Nights (1998), with Harrison Ford and Anne Heche; Picking Up the Pieces (2000) with Woody Allen and Kiefer Sutherland; and HBO’s critically acclaimed World War II miniseries Band of Brothers (2001). Schwimmer played the title role in the 2005 film Duane Hopwood and voiced the character of Melman the Giraffe in the animated feature Madagascar (2005).

November 3, 1956

The Wizard of Oz is broadcast on television for the first time.  
Some 45 million people tuned in to CBS to see the movie, which was broadcast on Ford Star Jubilee. Judy Garland's 10-year-old daughter, Liza Minnelli, introduced the program.

November 5, 1911

Leonard Slye, later known as Roy Rogers, is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.  
Rogers first came to Hollywood in the 1920s as a migrant fruit picker. In the early 1930s, he joined a singing group called Uncle Tom Murray's Hollywood Hillbillies, which first sang on the radio in 1931. Rogers went on to sing with other similar groups, including the Sons of the Pioneers, which recorded hits like "Tumbling Tumbleweeds." The Sons of the Pioneers group was recruited for low-budget western films, and Rogers was soon playing bit parts for Republic Pictures, the same studio where cowboy star Gene Autry worked. When Autry quit over a dispute with the studio in 1937, Rogers gained more exposure. Starring with his trick horse, Trigger, and his frequent co-star Dale Evans, Rogers soon became one of the Top 10 moneymakers in Hollywood.

Rogers also followed Autry into the radio medium, launching The Roy Rogers Show in 1944. The show, a mix of music and drama, always closed with the song "Happy Trails," which became known as Rogers' theme song.

After Rogers' wife died in 1946, he married co-star Dale Evans. His radio program ran until 1955. In 1951, a TV version of the program debuted and ran until 1957. Rogers became one of the wealthiest men in Hollywood by diversifying his money: His empire included a TV production studio, real estate, cattle, horses, a rodeo show, and a restaurant chain. Roy Rogers died in 1998.

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your Mental Sorbet: Hitler and the Great Pumpkin

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

Hitler and the Great Pumpkin
As the Nazi gang makes plans for Halloween, Hitler extols the virtues of the Great Pumpkin. Meanwhile, good ol' Jodl Brown is (accidentally) invited to the Halloween party.

This scene from Downfall (German: Der Untergang) is a 2004 German/Italian/Austrian epic war film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, depicting the final ten days of Adolf Hitler's life in his Berlin bunker and Nazi Germany in 1945, in which Hitler launches into a furious tirade upon finally realizing that the war is truly lost, has become a staple of internet videos. In these YouTube Parodies, the original audio of Ganz's voice is retained, but new subtitles are added so that he now seems to be reacting instead to some setback in present-day politics, sports, popular culture, or everyday life. Other scenes from various portions of the film have been parodied in the same manner, notably the scenes where Hitler yells at Günsche to find Fegelein and where Hitler rants at Jodl after the latter rejected his plan. By 2010, there were thousands of such parodies, including many in which a self-aware Hitler is incensed that people keep making Downfall parodies.

The film's director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, spoke positively about these parodies in a 2010 interview with New York magazine, saying that many of them were funny and they were a fitting extension of the film's purpose: "The point of the film was to kick these terrible people off the throne that made them demons, making them real and their actions into reality. I think it's only fair if now it's taken as part of our history, and used for whatever purposes people like." Nevertheless, Constantin Films has taken an "ambivalent" view of the parodies, and has asked video sites to remove many of them. On April 21, 2010, the producers initiated a removal of parody videos on YouTube^. There was then a resurgence of the videos on the site.

In October 2010, YouTube stopped blocking any Downfall-derived parodies, and is now placing ads on some of them. Corynne McSherry, an attorney specializing in intellectual property and free speech issues for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, stated "All the [Downfall parody videos] that I've seen are very strong Fair use cases and so they're not infringing, and they shouldn't be taken down."

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

TV CONFIDENTIAL Archives: Oct. 19, 2011

Show No. 109 Oct. 19, 2011

First hour: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen help Ed recap the first month of the new fall TV season, including a look at such early hits as Pan Am, New Girl, 2 Broke Girls and Up All Night, NBC's programming strategy with Prime Suspect, and the reasons behind the failures of The Playboy Club, Free Agents and Charlie's Angels. Second hour: Ed welcomes actor Dennis Farina (Crime Story, Get Shorty, Midnight Run, Buddy Faro). Dennis' latest film, The Last Rites of Joe May, will be available to more than 40 million homes nationwide via Movies on Demand for eight weeks beginning Oct. 27. The film will also be available for instant viewing via iTunes, Amazon Instant Video and VUDU, as well as have a limited theatrical release in New York in November. Dennis is also one of the stars of Luck, a provocative look at the world of horse racing that will premiere on HBO in January 2012. Also in this hour: Phil Gries presents rare audio of some of the early television appearances of Woody Allen. Allen's life and career will be the subject of Seriously Funny, a two-part documentary that will air Nov. 20-21 on PBS.

Michael Learned, Beverley Staunton Plus a Tribute to Pete Rugolo: Next on TV CONFIDENTIAL

Actress Michael Learned, singer Beverley Staunton and music journalist Jon Burlingame will be our guests on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing Oct. 26-Nov. 1 at the following times and venues:

WROM Radio
Wednesday 10/26
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Saturday 10/29
Midnight ET, 9pm PT
Sunday 10/30
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Share-a-Vision Radio
KSAV.org
Friday 10/28
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT

KWDJ 1360-AM
Ridgecrest, Calif.
Saturday 10/29
8pm PT
Sunday 10/30
2pm PT

InternetVoicesRadio.com
Tuesday 11/1
11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT

Winner of four Emmy Awards, including three for her portrayal of family matriarch Olivia Walton on The Waltons, the long-running CBS drama that was a Thursday night ritual for many of us every week throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Michael Learned is also an accomplished stage actress who has headlined many productions on and off Broadway, including Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, the national tour of On Golden Pond, Wendy Wassserstein’s The Sisters Rosenweig and Lewis Black’s One Slight Hitch. She earned her fourth Emmy for her starring role as Mary Benjamin in Nurse, and has also appeared in such films, miniseries and TV movies as For the Love of Mary, Life During Wartime, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Power, Roots: The Gift and the Waltons reunion movies.


Michael Learned is currently starring, along with Granville van Dusen, in Southern Comforts, a romantic “opposites attract” comedy about a Southern widow and a New Jersey widower who find love late in life.
Hailed by The New York Times as “a delightful and sneakily sexy romance,” Southern Comforts is playing at The Falcon Theatre in Burbank (818-955-8101; www.falcontheatre.com) through Sunday, Nov. 13.

We’ll talk about what attracted Michael to the play, her early background as an actress, her fondness for the theatre and, of course, The Waltons when she joins us in our second hour.




Also joining us this week will be Beverley Staunton, primary lead vocalist on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars — a role that requires the kind of versatility that Beverley has shown throughout her musical career, which has seen her perform with such artists as Bette Midler, Michael Buble, Julio Iglesias, Barry Manilow, Kelly Clarkson, Lionel Ritchie, Martina McBride, Dionne Warwick and James Taylor.

Beverley’s new CD, Everything Changes, is an upbeat collection of songs that showcases her musical style as a Country/Pop artist. We’ll talk about the CD, as well as go behind the scenes of Dancing with the Stars, when Beverley joins us at the bottom of our second hour.




Our first hour will include a tribute to the late Pete Rugolo, the Emmy Award-winning composer and arranger who wrote the theme music for such classic TV shows as Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Thriller, Run for Your Life, Felony Squad and The Fugitive. Though many of us think of Pete in terms of his TV compositions, his career in television only scratched the surface of his many contributions to the world of music in general, which included collaborations with such greats as Stan Kenton, Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington, Mel Torme, Dinah Washington and Nat King Cole.

Joining us as we remember Pete Rugolo will be music journalist and music historian Jon Burlingame. Jon’s writings on the subject of music in film and television include such books as TV’s Biggest Hits: The Story of Television Themes from Dragnet to Friends, which includes comments from Jon’s interviews with Pete Rugolo and other great composers. We'll also feature some of Pete's work in television as part of our bumper music during our first hour.

Also this week: Phil Gries with Part 2 of our look back of the early television career of Woody Allen, including rare audio of his appearances with Johnny Carson, Steve Allen and Merv Griffin. Allen’s life and career will be the subject of Seriously Funny: The Comic Art of Woody Allen, a two-part documentary that will air Nov. 20-21 on PBS.
TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Fridays 7pm ET and PT Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
Saturdays 8pm PT
Sundays 2pm PTKWDJ 1360-AM (Ridgecrest, Calif.)
Tuesdays 11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PTPassionate World Radio
Three times a week
WROM: Realms of Music
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner
Find us now on Facebook

This Week in Television History: October 2011 Part IV

Listen to me on me on TV CONFIDENTIAL:

Realms of Music
WROM
Wednesday 9/7
9pm ET, 6pm PT

Share-a-Vision Radio
 

KSAV.org
Friday 9/9
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT

KWDJ 1360-AM
Ridgecrest, Calif.
Saturday 9/10
Following Dodgers baseball

InternetVoicesRadio.com
Tuesday 9/13
11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT

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.

October 26, 1946

Pat Sajak born is born in Chicago.  
Wheel of Fortune, which debuted in 1975, became the longest-running syndicated game show on American television, turning Sajak and his co-host, Vanna White, into pop-culture icons.

After attending Chicago’s Columbia College, Sajak joined the Army in 1968 and went to Vietnam, where he was a disc jockey for Armed Forces Radio in Saigon. After his discharge from the military, he worked in radio and TV and in 1977 became a weatherman for a Los Angeles TV station. In 1981, Wheel of Fortune’s creator, Merv Griffin (who also developed the long-running game show Jeopardy!, which debuted in 1964) tapped Sajak to take over hosting duties from Chuck Woolery for a network daytime version of Wheel. In 1983, Wheel of Fortune became a syndicated evening program. It has remained on the air continuously since that time, with Sajak and White as co-hosts.

During each episode of Wheel of Fortune, contestants compete to solve word puzzles. Players spin the big wheel to determine prize money and each player can buy vowels to help solve the puzzle. White stands next to the puzzleboard and reveals the individual letters when players have guessed them correctly. Born Vanna Marie Rosich on February 18, 1957, White was raised in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She attended the Atlanta School of Fashion Design and worked as a model before heading to Los Angeles to pursue acting. In 1982, the blonde beauty was selected to join Sajak on Wheel of Fortune. The first letter she ever turned on the puzzleboard was a “T.” In 1992, the Guinness Book of World Records named White “Television’s Most Frequent Clapper,” crediting her with an average of 720 claps per show.

Each year, more than 3,000 people audition to become contestants on Wheel of Fortune, while fewer than 500 make the final cut. During its 25 years of syndication, Wheel of Fortune has given over $180 million in cash and prizes to its contestants.

As for longevity, while Jeopardy! debuted in 1964, it has not aired continuously since then. Jeopardy! first aired from 1964 to 1975, then went off the air. It returned briefly, from 1978 to 1979, and was revived again in 1984, when Alex Trebek became host of a syndicated edition of the show. The longest-running game show in network or syndication is The Price is Right. The show originally aired on network TV from 1956 to 1965. A syndicated version of The Price is Right premiered in 1972, with Bob Barker as host. Barker remained with the show until his retirement at the age of 83 in 2007. Comedian Drew Carrey took over hosting duties beginning in October 2007.

October 28, 1950

Popular radio personality Jack Benny moves to television with The Jack Benny Show. The TV version of the show ran for the next 15 years.

Jack Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky in 1894. His father, a Lithuanian immigrant, ran a saloon in Waukegan, Illinois, near Chicago. Benny began playing violin at age six and continued through high school. He began touring on the vaudeville circuit in 1917. In 1918, he joined the navy and was assigned to entertain the troops with his music but soon discovered a flair for comedy as well. After World War I, Benny returned to vaudeville as a comedian and became a top act in the 1920s. In 1927, he married an actress named Sadye Marks; the couple stayed together until Benny's death in 1974.

Benny's success in vaudeville soon won him attention from Hollywood, where he made his film debut in Hollywood Revue of 1929. Over the years, he won larger roles, notably in Charley's Aunt (1941) and To Be or Not to Be (1942). Movies were only a sideline for Benny, though, who found his natural medium in radio in 1932.

In March 1932, then-newspaper columnist Ed Sullivan, dabbling in radio, asked Benny to do an on-air interview. Benny reluctantly agreed. His comedy, though, was so successful that Benny was offered his own show almost immediately, which debuted just a few months later. At first a mostly musical show with a few minutes of Benny's comedy during interludes, the show evolved to become mostly comedy, incorporating well-developed skits and regular characters. In many of these skits, Benny portrayed himself as a vain egomaniac and notorious pinchpenny who refused to replace his (very noisy) antique car and who kept his money in a closely guarded vault. His regulars included his wife, whose character, Mary Livingstone, deflated Benny's ego at every opportunity; Mel Blanc, who used his famous voice to play Benny's noisy car, his exasperated French violin teacher, and other characters; and Eddie Andersen, one of radio's first African American stars, who played Benny's long-suffering valet, Rochester Van Jones. The program ran until 1955.

In the 1950s, Benny began experimenting with television, making specials in 1950, 1951, and 1952. Starting in 1952, The Jack Benny Show aired regularly, at first once every four weeks, then every other week, then finally every week from 1960 to 1965. Benny was as big a hit on TV as on the radio. Despite the stingy skinflint image he cultivated on the air, Benny was known for his generosity and modesty in real life. He died of cancer in Beverly Hills in 1974.

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your Mental Sorbet: Roseanne Halloween IV

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

Roseanne sends everyone to a party while she stays home -- and is visited by the ghosts of Halloween past, present, and future. To teach her a lesson about the Halloween spirit.









Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa