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"
And I can't wait to see where the road leads from here.
-Dean Stockwell
Robert Dean Stockwell
March 5, 1936 – November 7, 2021
Scott Bakula said it best
I met Dean at his audition for Quantum Leap in 1988. He had agreed to ‘read’ for the Network, I was already cast. We connected immediately and my career and my life were changed that day in Brandon Tartikoff’s office. How lucky were we to get him? A few months later he would be nominated for an Academy Award for his role in Married to the Mob, but he was stuck with us. Serendipity? All I know is, he never tried to get out or complain, he loved the role and the show and the rest was history.
He became a dear friend and a mentor and we grew very close over the next five, very intense years. Dean was such a passionate man…about life, his work, his art (he was an amazing artist!), his family, all kinds of causes, people, music, the planet, cigars, golf, and on and on! Having been a famous child actor, he had a soft spot for every young actor who came on our set. He was very protective of their rights and safety and always checked in with them to make sure that they were ok. His big hearted response to the kids made all of us take notice and be better guardians ourselves.
In spite of having a career that came and went several times during his seventy plus years in the business, he was always grateful and delighted to have the chance to keep working. The only time he ever complained was when we called him on the golf course and told him we were ready for him to come to work! He used to announce his presence on the sound stage (if we hadn’t already caught a whiff of cigar smoke trailing in behind him), with a bellowed, “The fun starts now!” Truer words were never spoken.
I loved him dearly and was honored to know him. He made me a better human being…
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.
"Until
we meet again on screen or in person, good night, good luck, and may the good
Lord take a likin' to you."
The television series produced for
the Fox network, created by Joel Surnow and Robert
Cochran, and starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) Agent Jack Bauer.
Each season, comprising 24 episodes, covers 24 hours in
Bauer's life using the real time method
of narration. Premiering on November 6, 2001, the show spanned 192 episodes over eight seasons; the series finale broadcast
on May 24, 2010. In addition, a television film, 24: Redemption, was broadcast between seasons six and seven, on November 23,
2008. 24 returned as a 12-episode series titled 24: Live Another
Day, which aired from May 5 to
July 14, 2014. 24: Legacy, a spin-off series featuring new characters is
scheduled to premiere on February 5, 2017, after the Super Bowl.
that we could use to momentarily forget about those
things that leave a bad taste in our mouths
Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies is a 1972 animated one-hour TV-movie (with a live-action segment near the end) that was aired on December 16 as an episode of the anthology series The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie.[1] In this Filmation-produced movie, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and other Looney Tunes characters interact with the characters from the Filmation series Groovie Goolies.
This movie is notable for being the one and only time that Warner Bros. "loaned out" their famous Looney Tunes characters to appear in a Filmation production (otherwise they were a silent partner). Warner Bros. had shut down their animation studio in 1969. While Warner Bros. had outsourced production to other companies since the 1960s, it was usually to studios run by former Warner Bros. alumni (such as Friz Freleng and later Chuck Jones), something that was not the case with Filmation.
The Electric Companyis an American educationalchildren's television seriescreated byPaul Dooleyand produced by theChildren's Television Workshop(CTW) forPBSin the United States. PBS broadcast 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons from October 25, 1971, to April 15, 1977. After it ceased production in 1977, the program continued in reruns until October 4, 1985, as the result of a decision made in 1975 to produce two final seasons for perpetual use. The Workshop produced the show at Second Stage, located within theReeves Teletape Studios (Teletape), inManhattan, which had been the first home ofSesame Street.The series reran onNoggin, a channel co-founded by the CTW, from 1999 to 2002.
The Electric Company employed sketch comedy and various other devices to provide an entertaining program to help elementary school children develop their grammar and reading skills.[1] Since it was intended for children who had graduated from CTW's flagship program, Sesame Street, the humor was more mature than what was seen there.
October 26, 1946
Pat Sajak born Patrick Leonard Sajdak.
Known to
millions of game-show fans as the Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak, 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 27, 1966
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown first aired.
A Halloween
special, it was the third Peanuts special (and second holiday-themed
special, following A Charlie Brown
Christmas) to be produced and animated by Bill Melendez. Its initial broadcast took place
on October 27, 1966, on CBS, preempting My Three Sons. CBS re-aired the special
annually through 2000, with ABC
picking up the rights beginning in 2001, where it now airs annually at
Halloween. ABC once broadcast You're
Not Elected, Charlie Brown immediately following It's the
Great Pumpkin, as if to emphasize the proximity of Halloween to Election
Day. Also, the Great Pumpkin is mentioned in You're Not Elected.
The program was nominated for an Emmy Award. It has been issued on home video several times, including a Remastered Deluxe
Edition of the special released by Warner Home Video on September 2, 2008, with the bonus feature It's
Magic, Charlie Brown which was
released in 1981. To celebrate its 40th anniversary, a retrospective book was
published in 2006. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a
Television Classic includes the entire script, never-before-seen photographs,
storyboard excerpts, and interviews with the original child actors who provided the voices of the Peanuts gang.
Charlie Brown's repeated line of "I got a rock"
caused some stir among many viewers of the show, according to Charles M. Schulz in the book and retrospective
TV special "Happy Birthday,
Charlie Brown." Schulz said that after the program first aired,
bags and boxes of candy came in from all over the world "just for Charlie
Brown."
October 29, 1956
The Huntley-Brinkley
Report first aired.
The
Huntley-Brinkley Report (sometimes known as The Texaco Huntley-Brinkley Report,
for one of its early sponsors) was the NBC television network’s flagship
evening news program from October 29, 1956, until July 31, 1970. It was
anchored by Chet Huntley in New York City, and David Brinkley in Washington,
D.C. It succeeded theCamel News Caravan, anchored by John Cameron Swayze. The
program ran for 15 minutes at its inception but expanded to 30 minutes on
September 9, 1963, exactly a week after CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
did so. It was developed and produced initially by Reuven Frank. Frank left the
program in 1962 to produce documentaries (Eliot Frankel replaced him) but
returned to the program the following year when it expanded to 30 minutes.[1]
He was succeeded as executive producer in 1965 by Robert “Shad” Northshield and
in 1969 by Wallace Westfeldt.
October 30, 1931
Dick
Gautier is born.
Actor, comedian, composer, singer and author. Among his most well-known
television roles are for Hymie the Robot in the television series Get Smart, and Robin Hood in the short-lived TV comedy series When
Things Were Rotten, a Mel Brooks send-up of the classic legend. Gautier died January 13, 2017, at an assisted living facility in Arcadia, California, following a long illness.
