Monday, November 02, 2026

This Week in Television History: November 2026 PART I

 

November 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.

"Until we meet again on screen or in person, good night, good luck, and may the good Lord take a likin' to you."

November 6, 1946

Sally Margaret Field is born.

Field began her career in television, starring on the sitcoms Gidget (1965–66) and The Flying Nun (1967–70). She ventured into film with Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and later Norma Rae (1979), for which she received theAcademy Award for Best Actress. She later received Golden Globe Award nominations for her performances inAbsence of Malice (1981) and Kiss Me Goodbye (1982), before receiving her second Oscar for Best Actress forPlaces in the Heart (1984). Field received further nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress forMurphy's Romance (1985) and Steel Magnolias (1989).

November 6, 2001

The TV show 24 aired for the first time.

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.

Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa

Thursday, October 29, 2026

Patrick Stewart

William Shatner has one style. We have completely contrasting personalities. We're very good friends. I adore him, but we're very different people, so they were smart enough to write characters that reflected that.
-Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Stewart
13 July 1940 – 28 October 2026

In 1966, Stewart became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). 

He made his Broadway theatre debut in 1971 in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1979, he received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Antony and Cleopatra in the West End. His first television role was in Coronation Street in 1967. His first major screen roles were in the television series Fall of Eagles (1974), I, Claudius (1976) and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979). In 2008, he reprised his role as King Claudius in Hamlet and received his second Laurence Olivier Award and his first Tony Award nomination for respectively the West End and Broadway theatre productions.


Stewart gained international stardom for his leading role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), a role he reprised in a series of four films (1994–2002) and Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023). He starred as Captain Ahab in the USA Network television miniseries Moby Dick (1998), Ebenezer Scrooge in the TNT fantasy television film A Christmas Carol (1999), and King Henry II in the Showtime drama television film The Lion in Winter (2003). He was Primetime Emmy Award-nominated for his guest comedic roles in the NBC sitcom Frasier (2003) and BBC sitcom Extras (2005). A recurring collaborator of Seth MacFarlane, he starred as the lead of the MacFarlane-produced Starz sitcom Blunt Talk (2015–2016), the voice of CIA Deputy Director Avery Bullock in the animated sitcom American Dad! (2005–2026), and the narrator of the two Ted films (2012, 2015).


On film, Stewart gained further stardom portraying Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film series (2000–2017), reprising the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (2022, 2026), with his appearance in Avengers: Doomsday (2026) being his final film appearance. He also acted in Hedda (1975), Excalibur (1981), Dune (1984), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), Jeffrey (1995), Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001), Green Room (2015), The Kid Who Would Be King (2019), and The Sheep Detectives (2026).


Good night, sweet prince,
and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest


Tuesday, October 27, 2026

Susan Saint James

The finish line is just the beginning of a whole new race.

-Susan Saint James


Susan Saint James
born Susan Jane Miller
August 14, 1946 – October 26, 2026

So once again I'm talking about one of my favorite VIP tours. It was a couple of decades ago now, but I got to spend the day with Susan Saint James. When you take around somebody like her, she has more stories about what she's done on various shows then I could ever share with her, and I'll never forget our introduction. She came up to me looking angry and said, “I was at my old sound stage and there's a younger prettier girl working there now”. Her old sounds the age at that time was soundstage 40 and the show in production was Crossing Jordan and the younger prettier girl was Jill Hennessy. Of course I matched her anger with a, “Wait a second you were Sandra Bullock before Sandra Bullock was Sandra Bullock and we spent several hours together. I remember she was a talker she talked non-stop. Fortunately, I'm also a talker and I could talk non-stop we talked about Rock Hudson we talked about Pete duel we talked about being her being the spokesperson for la leche league. All between doing theme park attractions with her son Teddy. It was an incredible day. I introduced her to IMDB she told me about going to the baked potato after work there was a lot more in our time together but some of the conversations, I just like to keep to myself.

Goodnight Susan thank you for an amazing afternoon





Monday, October 26, 2026

Walter Koenig

Well, an actor is an actor is actor, to paraphrase someone or other and the opportunity to work, to have a steady engagement, certainly seemed like an appealing concept to me.

-Walter Koenig

Walter Marvin Koenig

September 14, 1936 – October 25, 2026



This Week in Television History: October 2026 PART IV

 

October 26, 1946

Pat Sajak born. 

On this day in 1946, Patrick Leonard Sajdak, who will one day be 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 Armyin 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.  

Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa

Monday, October 19, 2026

This Week in Television History: October 2026 PART III

   

October 20, 1991 - The movie I Still Dream of Jeannie aired. 

It is the second and final reunion film based on the 1965–1970 sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.

Barbara Eden and Bill Daily are the only two regular cast members from the original series to reprise their roles in this film. Once again, Larry Hagman was unavailable to reprise his role of Tony Nelson, as he had just completed a 14-year run on Dallas and was taking a vacation with his family. Although the character Tony Nelson is mentioned throughout the film, and briefly appears in the animated opening sequence, he remains unseen for the rest of the film.

One of his Dallas co-stars, Ken Kercheval, appears in the film. The irony is further emphasized by the fact that Hagman and Kercheval played arch-enemies on Dallas and the character that Kercheval plays in I Still Dream of Jeannie is one that fills in the spot that would have gone to Hagman if he had been able to play Tony Nelson again for this film.

Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa

Monday, October 12, 2026

This Week in Television History: October 2026 PART II

  

October 13, 2021

William Shatner goes to space

Actor William Shatner—best known for his iconic “Star Trek” role as Captain Kirk—boards Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space shuttle with three other people, and becomes the oldest living person to travel into space at age 90. News stations broadcast the historic launch.

As exciting as exploring space may seem, despite the dangers, Shatner returned from his adventure with a surprise emotion: grief. He said the journey into space filled him with “overwhelming sadness.”

In his memoir Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder, Shatner says that he felt anxious when the space-flight day arrived, despite numerous preparatory simulations and training courses that he took with his fellow voyagers: Glen de Vries, a tech mogul; Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's vice president; and Chris Boshuizen, a former NASA engineer.

jShatner said he kept thinking about the Hindenburg disaster, when an airship crashed on May 6, 1937 in New Jersey. Yet he was committed to the flight, so he pushed himself to do it, despite doubts about whether his nonagenarian’s body could handle it. The g-pressure increased to painful levels right after takeoff. Then, the shuttle reached the point beyond gravity where the crew was weightless, and while his fellow travelers were enjoying floating around the vessel, Shatner just wanted to get to a window and look at what was outside.

“I love the mystery of the universe,” Shatner wrote in his book. “I love all the questions that have come to us over thousands of years of exploration and hypotheses. Stars exploding years ago, their light traveling to us years later; black holes absorbing energy; satellites showing us entire galaxies in areas thought to be devoid of matter entirely … all of that has thrilled me for years.”

Then, after a few moments of looking out the window, Shatner felt sadness about the destruction of the Earth because of mankind’s interference.

“But when I looked in the opposite direction, into space, there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold … all I saw was death,” Shatner wrote. “I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness.”

The surprise grief Shatner felt, he wrote, is not uncommon among astronauts, including Sally Ride. It’s called the “Overview Effect,” which is what happens when a space traveler views the Earth from orbit and feels the overwhelming awareness of our planet’s fragility. Author Frank White is credited with coining the term in 1987 when he wrote in his book The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution: “There are no borders or boundaries on our planet except those that we create in our minds or through human behaviors. All the ideas and concepts that divide us when we are on the surface begin to fade from orbit and the moon. The result is a shift in worldview, and in identity.”

October 15, 1951

TV's first long-running sitcom hit, I Love Lucy.

Ball starred as a ditzy wife on the radio show My Favorite Husband from 1948 to 1951. CBS decided to launch the popular series on the relatively new medium of TV. Lucy insisted Desi be cast as her husband in the TV version, though the network executives said no one would believe the couple were married. Desi and Lucy performed before live audiences and filmed a pilot, convincing network executives that audiences responded well to their act, and CBS cast Desi for the show.

At the time, most television shows were broadcast live from New York City, and a low-quality 35mm or 16mm kinescope print was made of the show to broadcast it in other time zones. Because Ball was pregnant, she and Arnaz insisted on filming the show in Hollywood. The duo, along with co-creator Jess Oppenheimer, then decided to shoot the show on 35 mm film in front of a studio audience, with three cameras, a technique now standard for most present-day sitcoms. The result was a much sharper image than other shows of the time, and the audience reactions were far more authentic than the "canned laughter" used on most filmed sitcoms of the time. The technique was not completely new — another CBS comedy series, Amos 'n' Andy, which debuted four months earlier, was already being filmed at Hal Roach Studios with three 35mm cameras to save time and money. Hal Roach Studios was also used for filming at least two other TV comedies as early as 1950, both airing on ABC, namely Stu Erwin's The Trouble with Father, and the TV version of Beulah; the original 1949/50 Jackie Gleason TV version of The Life of Riley on NBC was also done on film, not live. There were also some dramatic TV shows pre-dating I Love Lucy which were also filmed, not live. But I Love Lucy was the first show to use this film technique in front of a studio audience.

Arnaz persuaded Karl Freund, an Academy Award -winning cinematographer of such films as Metropolis (1927), Dracula (1931), and The Good Earth (1937), as well as director of The Mummy (1932), to be the series' cinematographer.

Scenes were often performed in sequence, as a play would be, which was unusual for comedies at that time. Retakes were rare and dialogue mistakes were often played off for the sake of continuity.

I Love Lucy became one of the most popular TV situation comedies in history, ranking in the top three shows for six years and turning the couple's production company, Desilu, into a multimillion-dollar business. Ball became president of the company in 1960, after she and Desi divorced. She also starred in several other "Lucy" shows, including The Lucy Show, which debuted in 1962 and ran for six seasons, and Here's Lucy, in which she starred with her two children until the show was cancelled in 1974. A later show, Life with Lucy, featuring Lucy as a grandmother, was cancelled after only eight episodes. Ball worked little in the last years of her life. She died of congestive heart failure following open-heart surgery in 1989.


October 16, 1946

Suzanne Somers is born Suzanne Marie Mahoney. 

The American actress, author and businesswoman, best known for her roles on Three's Company and Step by Step. Somers later became the author of a series of best-selling self-help books, including Ageless: The Naked Truth About Bioidentical Hormones (2006), a book about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. She has also released two autobiographies, four diet books, and a book of poetry entitled "Touch Me" (1980). She currently features items of her design on the Home Shopping Network. During the 1980s, Somers became a Las Vegas entertainer. She was the spokeswoman for the Thighmaster, a piece of exercise equipment that is squeezed between one's thighs. Thighmaster was one of the first products responsible for launching the infomercial concept. During this period of her career, she also performed for U.S. servicemen overseas.

Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa

Monday, October 05, 2026

This Week in Television History: October 2026 PART I

 

October 5, 1951

The Honeymooners was introduced during Jackie Gleason's first variety series Cavalcade of Stars. 

It originally aired on the DuMont network's Cavalcade of Stars, Jackie Gleason's variety show and subsequently on the CBS network's The Jackie Gleason Show, which was filmed in front of a live audience. It debuted as a half-hour series on October 1, 1955. Although initially a ratings success—becoming the #2 show in the United States during its first season—it faced stiff competition from The Perry Como Show, and eventually dropped to #19, ending its production after only 39 episodes (now referred to as the "Classic 39"). The final episode ofThe Honeymooners aired on September 22, 1956. Creator/producer Jackie Gleason revived the series sporadically until 1978.The Honeymooners was one of the first U.S. television shows to portray working-class married couples in a gritty, non-idyllic manner (the show is set mostly in the Kramdens' kitchen, in a neglected Brooklyn apartment building). The program is also popular internationally, particularly in Canada, Poland and Scandinavian countries Norway and Sweden.


October 5, 1986

Business World began airing on ABC-TV.

An ABC News Sunday-morning review of economic and financial stories was the first regularly scheduled weekly business series on network TV.

October 9, 1986

Joan Rivers debuted her new The Late Show on the FOX network.

After a moderate start, ratings for the talk show soon sagged. The ratings struggles also made it hard for Fox to attract affiliates for its primetime launch on April 5, 1987. Some prospective affiliates, such as Milwaukee's WCGV-TV, would only sign with the network if they did not have to carry The Late Show. KPTMin Omaha refused outright out of loyalty to Carson, who hailed from Corning, Iowa, east of Omaha and started his career on local radio and television. The network acquiesced to allow some stations out of that obligation so that the network launched in primetime with as many affiliates as possible, at the cost of ratings and access to The Late Show. For instance, at the time the show launched Fox had not closed on its purchase of its Boston station, WXNE-TV (nowWFXT). That station's previous owners, the Christian Broadcasting Network, objected to the show's content and refused to clear it. As a result, until Fox took control of the station in January, its audio feed aired on a low-rated AM station.

The behind-the-scenes relations between Rivers and network executives quickly eroded, and Rivers was eventually fired in May 1987. For the final show, which aired May 15, 1987, the set was vandalized with toilet paper, slime, and shaving cream. Her guests were Howie Mandel, Pee-Wee Herman, then-fledgling comedian Chris Rock, Wendy O. Williams, and show stage manager Michelle Aller as her alter-ego Mavis Vegas Davis.[3][4] Soon afterward the program was renamed The Late Show and featured rotating guest hosts including Suzanne Somers, Richard Belzer, and Robert Townsend. After firing prospective guest host Frank Zappa, producer John Scura replaced him with Arsenio Hall, who made his debut as a talk show host. Eventually, Hall was named the permanent replacement host in mid-1987.

October 11, 1971

Hugh Downs left the Today show and Concentration. 

He later became the host of ABC's 20/20. 

Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa