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"
Earl Holliman became known to television audiences through his portrayal as Sundance in CBS's Hotel de Paree, with costar Jeanette Nolan, from 1959 to 1960, and in the title role of Mitch Guthrie with Andrew Prine in NBC's Wide Country, a drama about modern rodeo performers that aired for 28 episodes between 1962 and 1963.
He also had the distinction of appearing in the debut episode of CBS's The Twilight Zone, titled "Where Is Everybody?", which aired on October 2, 1959, the same night as the premiere of Hotel de Paree. In 1967, Holliman guest-starred on Wayne Maunder's short-lived ABC military-Western series Custer. In 1970 and 1971, Holliman made two appearances in the Western comedy series Alias Smith and Jones starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy.
From 1974 to 1978, he portrayed Sergeant Bill Crowley opposite Angie Dickinson in the Police Woman series. He co-starred in all 91 episodes of the hit series (which he later remarked changed his life), playing the police department superior of undercover officer Pepper Anderson. He later took part in The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast comedy roast of co-star Dickinson on August 2, 1977.
Holliman continued to appear in television guest roles throughout the 1970s to 1990s. He shared a starring role in the CBS movieCountry Gold(a made for television remake ofAll About Eve), filmed on location inNashville, Tennessee, which also featuredLoni Anderson,Linda Hamilton, andCooper Huckabee.He was also a regular celebrity panelist onThe Hollywood Squares, where he was recognized for his ability to trick the contestants with believable bluff answers.His most notable role during this period was in the hit miniseriesThe Thorn BirdswithRichard ChamberlainandRachel Ward.[24]He also took part in theGunsmokereunion movieGunsmoke: Return to Dodgein 1987 as Jake Flagg, having guest-starred on theGunsmokeTV series withJames Arnessthree times between 1969 and 1973.
He was an occasional celebrity on the $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramid game shows between 1983 and 1991. In 1991 and 1994, Holliman had two guest-star roles on Murder, She Wrote. From September 15, 1991, to January 4, 1992, he appeared in the lead role of Detective Matthew Durning on the CBS sitcom P.S. I Luv U (a role which he got due to his prominence in Police Woman two decades prior).
Later in his career, Holliman had a recurring role as Fred Duffy, the father of the title character Caroline Duffy, on Caroline in the City, appearing in three episodes, and he additionally starred in the 1997–99 television seriesNight Man as Frank Dominus, a disgraced former police officer and father of the main character.
Holliman was a vegetarian and was against the exploitation of animals by using their fur for clothing. He was known for his work as an animal rights activist, including serving for more than 25 years as president of Actors and Others for Animals. He was well known for nursing animals on his own property, at one point feeding roughly 500 pigeons in a day, as well as healing a wounded dove and a blind opossum inside his home.
For many years, he was one of many in the film community to help organize meals during the Christmas season for the less fortunate at the Los Angeles Mission.
The television series MTV
Unplugged, featuring stripped-down acoustical performances by a wide range
of artists not usually known for such performances, makes its broadcast
premiere on this day in 1989.
The
premiere episode of MTV Unplugged was only lightly promoted by the
network, in part because it featured a lineup whose biggest name was the
English pop group Squeeze—a band whose greatest popular success was already
several years behind it. The episode also featured performances by the relatively
unknown singer-songwriter Syd Straw, Cars guitarist Elliot Easton and
singer-songwriter Jules Shear, who went on to act as host in the first season
of MTV Unplugged. Following this less-than-star-studded debut,
subsequent episodes featured a smattering of moderately popular acts like
10,000 Maniacs and Michael Penn along with performers with little or no name
recognition among the MTV generation, like Graham Parker and Dr. John.
Late
in its first season, however MTV Unplugged began to gain popular
momentum with noteworthy appearances by Sinead O'Connor and Aerosmith. It was a
second-season appearance by Paul McCartney, however, that probably turned the
show into the success it became when McCartney released a recording of his
performance as Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)—an album that enjoyed
tremendous popular success. Soon enough, MTV Unplugged became a popular
stop not only for some of the biggest contemporary acts of the early 1990s,
such as R.E.M. and Nirvana, but also for older artists looking to relaunch
their brands with a younger audience, such as Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and
Tony Bennett. Unplugged albums released by the latter three artists each
went on to sell upwards of a million copies, making the MTV Unplugged brand
a saleable commodity.
The
program has not been without its critics. Steve Albini, for instance, who
produced Nirvana's final studio album, In Utero, told Time magazine
in 1995, "From an artistic standpoint, it's a total joke.... You take
bands that are fundamentally electric-rock bands and put acoustic guitars in
their hands and make them do a pantomime of a front-porch performance."
Nevertheless, MTV Unplugged is among the most successful original
programs ever produced by MTV.
November 30, 1929
Richard
Wagstaff "Dick" Clark is born.
He
was an American radio and television
personality, as well as a cultural
icon who remains best known for hosting American television's longest-running
variety show, American
Bandstand, from 1957 to 1987. He
also hosted the game show Pyramid and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, which transmitted Times Square's New Year's Eve celebrations worldwide. Clark was
also well known for his trademark sign-off, "For now, Dick Clark. So
long!", accompanied with a military salute.
December 1, 1994
The Game Show Network was launched.
Game Show Network
launched at 7:00 p.m. ET on December 1, 1994. The first aired game show
was What's My Line?. From 1994 until about 1997, the network aired
classic pre-1972 game shows as well as game shows made after 1972, most of
which came from the Mark Goodson–Bill Todman library.
The network aired game shows in a 24-hour cycle, and also used live
interstitials as wraparound programming. In its first few months, GSN's
commercials consisted of public
service announcements (PSAs),
promotions for its programming and commercials related to network parent
company Sony. By
1995, when the network began to expand, the network began accepting
conventional advertising as it gained new sponsorships.
December 1, 2004
NBC anchor Tom Brokaw made he final appearance as
anchor on NBC Nightly News.
He began his run on the show in April 1982. It was
planned that Brokaw would host at least three documentaries a year for NBC.
The British-born Canadian actor and voice actor best known for his role as
Wilbur Post in the television series Mister Ed and as the voice of Scrooge McDuck in Disney films, TV series
and video games. During the 1940s and 1950s, he starred in his own shows on
radio and television.
November 19, 1959
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show Premieres Jet Fuel
Formula.
The
Rocky and Bullwinkle Show is the
collective name for two separate animated series: Rocky and
His Friends (1959 – 1961) and The Bullwinkle Show (1961 – 1964). Rocky & Bullwinkle
enjoyed great popularity during the 1960s. Much of this success was a result of
it being targeted towards both children and adults. The zany characters and
absurd plots would draw in children, while the clever usage of puns and topical
references appealed to the adult demographic. Furthermore, the strengths of the series helped it
overcome the fact that it had choppy, limited animation; in fact, some critics described the series as a
well-written radio
program with pictures.
The show was broadcast for the first time in the fall of 1959 on the ABC
television network under the title Rocky and His Friends twice a week,
on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, at 5:30pm(et). In 1961, the series was
moved to NBC where it was renamed The Bullwinkle
Show, and first appeared on Sundays at 7pm(et), just before Walt
Disney's Wonderful World of Color; eventually, it was
rescheduled on late Sunday afternoons, and early Saturday afternoons in its
final season. Subsequently, in 1964, the show returned to ABC, where it was
canceled within a year. However, reruns of episodes were still continually
aired on ABC's Sunday morning schedule [11am(et)] until 1973, at which time the
series went into syndication. In addition, an abbreviated fifteen minute
version of the series ran in syndication in the 1960s under the title The
Rocky Show. This version was sometimes shown in conjunction with The
King and Odie, a fifteen minute version of Total Television's King
Leonardo and His Short Subjects. The King and Odie was
similar to Rocky and Bullwinkle in that it was sponsored by General
Mills and animated by Gamma Productions.
November 20, 1939
Richard Remick ”Dick“ Smothers is born.
He is best known for being half of the
musical comedy team the Smothers Brothers, with his older brother Tom.
November 21
World Television Day
World Television Day celebrates the daily value of
television as a symbol of communication and globalization. Television is one of
the single greatest technological advances of the 20th century, serving to
educate, inform, entertain and influence our decisions and opinions. It is estimated that approximately 90% of
homes around the world have televisions, however, with the introduction of
internet broadcasting, the number is declining in favor of computers.
World Television Day was proclaimed by the United
Nations in 1996. It is celebrated annually on November 21.
Caryn Johnson, later known as Whoopi Goldberg, is born
in New York City.
Goldberg began acting at
age eight in children's theater productions. She dropped out of high school
during her freshman year, later citing a learning disability that teachers
mistook for retardation. She began using drugs but later cleaned up and resumed
her interest in acting. She married her substance abuse counselor and had a
daughter. She started winning small roles in Broadway shows including Jesus
Christ Superstar and Hair. Her marriage ended, and she moved with
her daughter to California, where she began performing with improv groups in
San Diego and San Francisco while earning money as a bank teller, makeup
artist, and other odd jobs.
Goldberg launched a
comedy act with comedian Don Victor but was soon performing a hit solo act
called "Spook Show." She toured the country with her comedy,
eventually ending up on Broadway.
In
1985, three days after her 36th birthday, she made her movie debut in The
Color Purple, also starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. She earned an
Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She later appeared in numerous
comedies, including Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986), and won the Best
Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as a psychic in Ghost (1990). Her
1993 comedy, Sister Act, was such a phenomenal hit that she earned $8
million for Sister Act II, which made her one of the industry's
highest-paid actresses. She briefly had her own talk show and guest-starred
regularly on Star Trek: The Next Generation. She has been married
several times and has several grandchildren.
November 15, 1929
Edward Asner is born.
Film, television, stage, and
voice actor and a former president of the Screen
Actors Guild. He is primarily known
for his Emmy Award-winning role as Lou Grant during the
1970s and early 1980s, on both The
Mary Tyler Moore Show and
its spin-off series Lou
Grant, making him one of the few
television actors to portray the same leading character in both a comedy and a
drama.
November 15, 1919
Joseph Albert Wapner is
born.
The
retiredAmericanjudge and former television "judge." He is the
first star of the ongoing reality courtroom seriesThe
People's Court. The court show's
first run in syndication, with Wapner presiding as "judge", lasted
from 1981 to 1993. This run lasted 12 seasons and 2,484 episodes. Unlike the
show's second run which has been presided over by multiple judges, Wapner was
the sole judge to preside during the court show's first run.
Wapner's tenure on the program made him the first star
of arbitration-based
reality court shows, what is now a
most popular trend in the judicial genre. Until the summer of 2013, Wapner also
held the title of longest reigning arbiter over The People's Court.
However, by completion of the court show's 2012-2013 season, Marilyn Milian captured this title from him and became the
longest-reigning judge over the series. Five years after presiding over the The
People's Court, Wapner returned
to television as a judge on the nontraditional
courtroom series, Judge Wapner's Animal Court, lasting for 2 seasons (1998-1999 and 1999-2000).
November 17, 1944
Actor and director Danny DeVito is born in Neptune,
New Jersey.
A former hairdresser,
DeVito made his stage debut in 1969. He began appearing in small movie roles,
including One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). He spent five years
playing cab dispatcher Louie De Palma on the TV sitcom Taxi. By the mid
1980s, with comedy credits like Romancing the Stone (1984) and Ruthless
People (1986), he was in high demand as a comic actor. He began directing
in 1987, with Throw Mama from the Train, followed by the hit The War
of the Roses (1989). Recent credits include L.A. Confidential (1997)
and The Rainmaker (1997). In 1994, he began producing films with great
success. His hits as producer have included, including Pulp Fiction
(1994), Get Shorty (1995) and Erin Brockovich (2000). Married to
actress Rhea Perlman, DeVito owns his own film company, Jersey Films. DeVito currently
plays Frank Reynolds on FX's critically acclaimed comedy It's Always Sunny
in Philadelphia.
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 dramaSt. 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 Tehran, Iran. 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
Sonny
Bono fell almost completely out of the public eye following the cancellation of
The Sonny and Cher Show in 1977. While his ex-wife and erstwhile musical
partner, Cher, launched a hugely successful second phase of her career with
well-received acting roles in the 1980s, Sonny left the spotlight behind to
focus on the restaurant business. Although he presented himself as a
none-too-bright bumbler during his days on television, Bono had been an astute
operator in shepherding his and Cher's early musical career and in his later
business dealings. The owner of several successful restaurants, Bono got
involved in politics after growing frustrated with the bureaucratic hurdles
placed before one of his restaurant construction projects by local officials in
Palm Springs, California, in the late 1980s. Though he himself had registered
to vote for the first time only one year earlier, Bono was elected mayor of
Palm Springs in 1988. Following a failed run in the California Republican
Senatorial primary in 1992, Bono turned his attention to the 44th District's
Congressional seat in 1994. A conservative Republican, Bono was swept into
office as part of the Newt Gingrich-led Republican "revolution" that
year, and he was re-elected in 1996.
During
his time in office, Bono did not treat his fellow lawmakers to any singing
performances, but the man behind the hits "I Got You Babe" (1965) and
"The Beat Goes On" (1967) did trade on his public persona as a
good-natured, non-threatening nice guy. As The Washington Post noted in its
obituary following Bono's death in a skiing accident in 1996, "Bono
brought to Congress a rare skill: He could make lawmakers—even the most pompous
among them—laugh at themselves." Or as President Bill Clinton said,
""His joyful entertainment of millions earned him celebrity, but in
Washington he earned respect by being a witty and wise participant in
policymaking processes that often seem ponderous to the American people."
As a result of its extensive influence, Sesame Street is one of the
most highly regarded, and most watched, educational shows for children in the
world. The original series has been televised in more than 120 countries, and
25 independent versions have been produced. The show has been called
"perhaps the most vigorously researched, vetted, and fretted-over
program". As of 2009, the series has received 118 Emmy Awards,
more than any other television series. An estimated 77 million Americans
watched the series as children.
Sesame Street uses a combination of animation, puppets, and live actors to
stimulate young children's minds, improve their letter and word recognition,
basic arithmetic,
geometric forms, classification, simple problem solving, and socialization by
showing children or people in their everyday lives. Since the show's inception,
other instructional goals have been basic life skills, such as how to cross the
street safely, proper hygiene, healthy eating habits, and social skills; in
addition, real-world situations are taught, such as death, divorce, pregnancy and
birth, adoption, and even all of the human emotions such as happiness, love,
anger, and hatred. Also, recently, the Sesame Street Muppets discussed
the late-2000s recession with their latest
prime-time special Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times.
The series has made many published lists, including greatest all-time show
compilations by TV
Guide and Entertainment Weekly. A 1996 survey
found that 95% of American preschoolers have watched the show by the time they
are three years old.
Sesame Street will celebrate its 40th anniversary and will include a segment
with First Lady Michelle Obama interacting with the Muppets.
Jon Stone was responsible for hiring the first cast of Sesame Street.
He did not audition actors until Spring 1969, a few weeks before the five test
shows were due to be filmed. He videotaped the auditions, and Ed Palmer took
them out into the field to test children's reactions. The actors who received
the "most enthusiastic thumbs up" were cast. For example, Loretta
Long, was chosen to play Susan when the children who saw
her audition stood up and sang along with her rendition of "I'm a Little Teapot". It was Stone's goal
to cast white actors in the minority. As Stone said, casting was the only
aspect of the show that was "just completely haphazard".Most
of the cast and crew found jobs on Sesame Street through personal
relationships with Stone and the other producers. Stone also hired Bob McGrath
to play Bob, Will
Lee to play Mr. Hooper, and Matt Robinson to play Gordon.
Speed bumps, I was thinking, you know, you're driving along, everything's OK, and then there's a speed bump to go, 'Slow down.' Go over it real slowly, and you hit the pedal, and you keep going, and I just thought it was kind of a nice metaphor for life.
-Teri Garr
Terry Ann Garr December 11, 1944 – October 29, 2024
Teri Garr died from complications of multiple sclerosis at her home in Los Angeles, on October 29, 2024, at the age of 79.
