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"
First hour: Ed, Frankie and Tony discuss the public apology given by Tiger Woods during his nationally televised press conference. Also: David Krell looks back at Wiseguy; while Tony remembers the "Miracle on Ice" from the 1980 Winter Olympics, the final episode of M*A*S*H and the premiere of Your Show of Shows during This Week in TV History.
Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte Broadcast LIVE every other Monday at 9pm ET, 6pm PT (immediately following STU'S SHOW) on Shokus Internet Radio. The program will then be repeated Tuesday thru Sunday at the same time (9pm ET, 6pm PT)on Shokus Radio for the next two weeks, and then will be posted on line at our archives page at TVConfidential.net. We are also on Share-a-Vision Radio (KSAV.org) Friday at 7pm PT and ET, either before or after the DUSTY RECORDS show, depending on where you live.
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.
February 23, 1997 Schindler's List is shown on NBC, the first network to broadcast a movie without commercial interruption. Ford Motor Company, which sponsored the broadcast, showed one commercial before and after the film.
The 1993 film about German factory owner Oskar Schindler, who saved the lives of Jewish workers in his factory during World War II, was Spielberg's most ambitious movie to date. The picture, filmed in black and white, won Spielberg his first Academy Award as Best Director, and it also garnered Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay awards. The film's screenplay, by Thomas Keneally and Steven Zallian, was adapted from Keneally's novel, Schindler's Ark, published in 1982. Spielberg started making amateur films in his teens, and by the late 1970s he had become heavily involved in production and scriptwriting. He gained fame early in his career for directing such blockbusters as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., Poltergeist, and a string of other phenomenal successes. He established his own independent production company, Amblin' Entertainment, in 1984, where he produced Gremlins, Back to the Future, Arachnophobia, Cape Fear, and more. In 1994, he formed DreamWorks SKG with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, and the following year the trio announced a partnership with Microsoft Corporation, called DreamWorks Interactive, which produced interactive games and teaching tools. Just months before he released Schindler's List, Spielberg released Jurassic Park, which featured computer-generated dinosaurs that took the world by storm. He won his second Academy Award for Best Director in 1999 for Saving Private Ryan. Virtually all of Spielberg's films have been box office smashes.
February 24, 1980 The U.S. Hockey Team won its “Do you believe in miracles?” gold medal during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games beating Finland (4-2) in their final medal round game. The Soviet Union took the Silver Medal by beating Sweden in their final game. Sweden took home the Bronze Medal, with Finland finishing fourth.
Two days prior on February 22, 1980 was the "Miracle on Ice". The U.S. men's ice hockey team, led by coach Herb Brooks, defeated the Soviet Union team, 4 - 3. The Soviet Union team, who were considered to be the best international hockey team in the world, they entered the Olympic tournament as heavy favorites, having won every ice hockey gold medal since 1964, and all but one gold medal since 1956. On February 9, the American and Soviet teams met for an exhibition match at Madison Square Garden in order to practice for the upcoming competition. The Soviet Union won (10-3) so the odds were in favor of the Russians.
The day before the match, columnist Dave Anderson wrote in the New York Times, "Unless the ice melts, or unless the United States team or another team performs a miracle, as did the American squad in 1960, the Russians are expected to easily win the Olympic gold medal for the sixth time in the last seven tournaments."
The game ended with Al Michaels delivering the most famous call in Hockey history, "Eleven seconds, you've got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk...five seconds left in the game... Do you believe in miracles? YES!!!"
At the same time there was another international drama playing out. Despite President Carter’s initial refusal to admit the Shah of Iran into the United States, on October 22, 1979, he finally granted the Shah entry and temporary asylum for the duration of his cancer treatment. In response to the Shah's entry into the U.S., Iranian militants seized the American embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981. The "Miracle on Ice" was a shot in the country’s morale during a time of great uncertainty.
February 25, 1928 The Federal Radio Commission issues the first television license. The license went to the Charles Francis Jenkins Laboratories for a television broadcast station on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C. The station later moved to Maryland and operated until 1932. Government regulation of broadcasting has been in existence almost as long as the broadcast industry itself. The Wireless Act of 1910 required American ships to carry a broadcasting transmitter and qualified radio operator on all sea voyages. In the early 1920s, laws were passed governing transmission power, use of frequencies, station identification, and advertising. The Radio Act of 1927 shifted regulatory powers from the Department of Commerce to the new Federal Radio Commission, which became the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1934. Today, the FCC still regulates broadcasting and communications. The U.S. president appoints its five commissioners with the Senate's consent. The commission licenses and regulates radio and TV broadcasters as well as other communications mediums, such as telephone and cable television. It assigns frequencies and call signs to radio stations and is responsible for ensuring rapid, efficient telephone and telegraph service. The FCC also operates the Emergency Broadcast System, which provides a vehicle for authorities to communicate with the public and disseminate critical information immediately when national disaster strikes (though the system can also be used to broadcast weather warnings and local emergencies). More expansive policy issues under the purview of the commission include deciding how much sex and violence is permissible on television. Deregulation of the industry in the 1980s reduced the FCC's size from seven to five commissioners and increased the term of radio and television station licenses. In the 1990s, the FCC developed a television rating system, much like the one used in movies, which helps people decide which shows are appropriate for the viewers in their household.
February 25, 1950 Comedy program Your Show of Shows, hosted by Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, firstairs. Although the show lasted only four seasons, it became a classic of television's golden era, featuring comedy by future stars Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Woody Allen, and others. The series was one of television's Top 20 hits for three of its four years.
February 27, 2003 Children’s Television Host Fred Rogers succumbs to stomach cancer at 74. The talented writer and puppeteer, known to generations of children simply as “Mr. Rogers,” hosted Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood on public television for more than 30 years. A native of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Rogers filmed the famed show in Pittsburgh, 30 miles east of his hometown. He studied early childhood development at the University of Pittsburgh and, in 1962, was ordained as Presbyterian minister with a mission to work with children and families through television. Beginning in 1954, he worked as a puppeteer on a show called The Children’s Corner, before beginning work on his own show, which first aired in 1968. Singing his well-known theme song, “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” Rogers would enter his living-room-like set at the beginning of each episode, changing his shoes and sweater. He would then take his viewers on a magical trolley ride to the “Neighborhood of Make-Believe,” where he introduced them to characters such as King Friday XIII, his wife Queen Sara Saturday, Curious X the Owl, and Henrietta Pussycat. Even in an era of slick packaging and new technology in children’s programming, Rogers found continued success by sticking to his original message—that children should love each other and themselves. He aimed to help children deal with troubling emotions, like fear and anger, as well as everyday problems, like visiting the dentist. Rogers composed most of his show’s songs and did much of the puppeteering and voices himself. Despite countless awards and honors, including four Emmys® and a George Foster Peabody Award, Rogers once remarked, “I have never really considered myself a TV star. I always thought I was neighbor who just came in for a visit.” He taped his last show in December 2000, but came out of retirement briefly to film public service announcements helping parents and children deal with the September 11th tragedy. One of Rogers’ trademark red sweaters now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
February 28, 1983 Last episode of M*A*S*H airs.M*A*S*H, the cynical situation comedy about doctors behind the front lines of the Korean War, airs its final episode after 11 seasons.
The last episode drew 77 percent of the television viewing audience, the largest audience ever to watch a single TV show up to that time.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
This episode had at one time been ranked #1 on TV Guide's "100 Greatest Episodes Of All Time". It is now ranked #3 on TV Guide's "100 Greatest Episodes Of All Time". It was directed by Joan Darling and written by David Lloyd, who received an Emmy for "Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series."
One of Hollywood’s great unsolved mysteries will be explored on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, Feb. 22 at its new time (9pm ET, 6pm PT) on Shokus Internet Radio, with a rebroadcast Friday, Feb. 26 at 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org. Join us as we probe the circumstances surrounding the demise of George Reeves, the actor best known among Baby Boomers for his starring role in The Adventures of Superman. Though widely reported as a suicide, many questions regarding Reeves’ death in the early morning hours of June 16, 1959 have remained unanswered in the minds of many for more than 50 years. Our guests thisweek will include Jan Alan Henderson, author of Speeding Bullet: The Life and Bizarre Death of George Reeves, and television historian and Reeves authority Bruce Dettman (Glass House Presents, The Adventures Continue).
If you want to be part of our conversation, we invite you to join us for our live broadcast Monday, Feb. 22 beginning at 9pm ET, 6pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio. Phone number is (888) SHOKUS-5 / (888) 746-5875. Email address is talk@tvconfidential.net.
Listen to me on TV CONFIDENTIAL with Ed Robertson and Frankie Montiforte Broadcast LIVE every other Monday at 9pm ET, 6pm PT (immediately following STU'S SHOW) on Shokus Internet Radio. The program will then be repeated Tuesday thru Sunday at the same time (9pm ET, 6pm PT)on Shokus Radio for the next two weeks, and then will be posted on line at our archives page at TVConfidential.net. We are also on Share-a-Vision Radio (KSAV.org) Friday at 7pm PT and ET, either before or after the DUSTY RECORDS show, depending on where you live.
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.
February 16, 1950
What's My Line debuts on TV. The show, produced by game show magnates Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, became the longest-running prime-time game show in the history of television. It ran for 18 years. A radio version launched in 1952 but was cancelled in 1953.
February 18, 1995
Get Smart's last episode airs.
A one-season revival of Get Smart, the 1960s comedy about bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart, is cancelled after only seven episodes. The original series, developed by Mel Brooks and starring Don Adams, aired from 1965 to 1970.
I Am Curiously Yellow. The episode's title is a takeoff on the movie I Am Curious (Yellow).
Writers: Lloyd Turner and Whitey Mitchell
Director: Nick Webster
February 20, 1972
Radio personality and newspaper columnist Walter Winchell dies at the age of 74.
Winchell's influential gossip and news show, Walter Winchell's Jergens Journal, ran for 18 years.
Winchell started as a vaudeville performer, working with an array of future stars, including Eddie Cantor and George Jessel. He began writing about Broadway in 1922 for the Vaudeville News and in 1929 began writing a syndicated column for the New York Daily Mirror, which ran for three decades. But dishing on socialites became his claim to fame when he began his radio news show in 1930. His fast-paced show was packed with short news and gossip items-his rapid-fire radio prattle was clocked at 215 words a minute. Millions of people tuned into his witty and extremely popular Sunday evening show, which he introduced with, "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. North and South America and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press!"
A gossip columnist when few others existed, Winchell ruined more than a few careers with reports that some maintained were sensationalistic, reckless, and actually untrue. His show popularized catchphrases like "blessed event" and "scram," and peers admired his penchant for finding fresh ways to report on Hollywood's elite. Winchell starred as himself in several films, including Love and Hisses in 1937 and Daisy Kenyon in 1947.
What some called captivating reporting was labeled yellow journalism by others. His career declined in the 1950s. Like so many other radio stars, Winchell's career lost its sparkle when Americans' allegiance turned to television. Meanwhile, he made an unpopular decision to back Senator Joseph McCarthy's "Red Scare," publicly accusing a number of Hollywood stars of being communists. In the 1960s, the New York Daily Mirror closed and his column ended. One of his last major jobs was narrating "The Untouchables," a popular television drama series, from 1959 to 1963. When he died penniless in 1972, it was reported that just one person-his daughter-showed up at his funeral.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
Here is another "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.
Acording to Deadline.com Letterman's producer Rob Burnett said "When we were talking about what it should be in very early conversations, we talked about the notion of Conan being involved in it in some way. I made an initial call to [Conan's producer] Jeff Ross, who said they had too much going on to consider it..."
David Elkouby joins Ed and Frankie in the first hour for a preview of the upcoming Hollywood Show, the legendary celebrity autograph show held four times a year in Southern California. The next Hollywood Show will take place Feb. 12-14, 2010 at the Marriott Hotel in Burbank, Calif.
Then in the second hour, Ed and Frankie welcome journalist and TV historian Stephen Bowie as they discuss the life and career of Laurence Heath, the writer/producer behind such popular series as Mission: Impossible, The Magician and Murder, She Wrote.
TV CONFIDENTIAL will be moving to new time slots on both of its affiliates starting the week of Feb. 22. For our listeners on Shokus Internet Radio, TV CONFIDENTIAL will be moving to 9pm ET, 6pm PT (immediately following STU'S SHOW), beginning Monday, Feb. 22. That means we'll be in prime time on the East Coast, drive time on the West Coast, with nightly replays at the same time beginning Tuesday, Feb. 23, also on ShokusRadio.com. For our listeners on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org., beginning Feb. 26, TV CONFIDENTIAL will be moving to a new night and time –- every Friday at 7pm PT and ET, either before or after the DUSTY RECORDS show, depending on where you live. That means you'll have two chances to hear our program on KSAV.org every Friday night, starting Feb. 26. We have some great programs lined up in the weeks ahead, and you will not want to miss them.
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.
February 8, 1953 Walt Disney is featured in a one-hour special broadcast of Ed Sullivan's hit show The Toast of the Town. The following year, Disney launched his own show, which ultimately broke Ed Sullivan's record as longest-running prime-time network program. Ed Sullivan's show ran from 1948 to 1971, but Walt Disney's show, which ran under several names, including Disneyland, Walt Disney Presents, and The Wonderful World of Disney, was on the air from 1954 to 1990, more than 10 years longer than Ed Sullivan.
February 10, 1960 Jack Paar told the following joke.
"An English lady, while visiting Switzerland, was looking for a room, and she asked the schoolmaster if he could recommend any to her. He took her to see several rooms, and when everything was settled, the lady returned to her home to make the final preparations to move. When she arrived home, the thought suddenly occurred to her that she had not seen a "W.C." around the place. So she immediately wrote a note to the schoolmaster asking him if there were a "W.C." around. The schoolmaster was a very poor student of English, so he asked the parish priest if he could help in the matter. Together they tired to discover the meaning of the letters "W.C.," and the only solution they could find for the letters was letters was a Wayside Chapel. The schoolmaster then wrote to the English lady the following note:
Dear Madam: I take great pleasure in informing you that the W.C. is situated nine miles from the house you occupy, in the center of a beautiful grove of pine trees surrounded by lovely grounds. It is capable of holding 229 people and it is open on Sunday and Thursday only. As there are a great number of people and they are expected during the summer months, I would suggest that you come early: although there is plenty of standing room as a rule. You will no doubt be glad to hear that a good number of people bring their lunch and make a day of it. While others who can afford to go by car arrive just in time. I would especially recommend that your ladyship go on Thursday when there is a musical accompaniment. It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in the W.C. and it was there that she met her husband. I can remember the rush there was for seats. There were ten people to a seat ordinarily occupied by one. It was wonderful to see the expression on their faces. The newest attraction is a bell donated by a wealthy resident of the district. It rings every time a person enters. A bazaar is to be held to provide plush seats for all the people, since they feel it is a long felt need. My wife is rather delicate, so she can't attend regularly. I shall be delighted to reserve the best seat for you if you wish, where you will be seen by all. For the children, there is a special time and place so that they will not disturb the elders. Hoping to have been of service to you, I remain,
Sincerely, The Schoolmaster."
The "Water Closet" joke involved a Enlish woman writing to a vacation resort in Switzerland and asking about the availability of a "W.C." the initials for "Water Closet" or bathroom, but the gentleman who received the letter was a schoolmaster who had a very lmitid English vocabulary, so he asked the parish priest if he could help in the matter. Together they tired to discover the meaning of the letters "W.C.," and the only solution they could find for the letters was letters was a Wayside Chapel. The full text of the joke contains multiple double entendres like, “It is capable of holding 229 people and it is open on Sunday and Thursday only”. This is mild by today's standards, but too much for the network to bear in 1960.
The NBC censors thought the joke was dirty and cut it from the February 10th, 1960 broadcast and replaced that section of the show with news coverage. All of this was done without consulting Paar.
When Paar discovered that his four-minute story had been cut, he retaliated by walking off in the of the February 11th show during the opening monologue saying, "I've been up thirty hours without an ounce of sleep wrestling with my conscience all day. I've made a decision about what I'm going to do. I'm leaving THE TONIGHT SHOW. There must be a better way to make a living than this, a way of entertaining people without being constantly involved in some form of controversy. I love NBC, and they've been wonderful to me. But they let me down."
Paar walked offstage, leaving his announcer Hugh Downs to finish the show for him.
Paar returned to the show on March 7th, looked right into the camera and said, "As I was saying before I was interrupted. When I walked off, I said there must be a better way of making a living. Well I've looked and there isn't. Be it ever so humble, there is no place like Radio City. Leaving the show was a childish and perhaps emotional thing. I have been guilty of such action in the past and will perhaps be again. I'm totally unable to hide what I feel. It is not an asset in show business. But I shall do the best I can to amuse and entertain you and let other people speak freely, as I have in the past."
February 10, 1992 Alex Haley, author of Roots (1976), dies of a heart attack at age 70 in Seattle.
Roots, which portrayed four generations of an African American family based on Haley's own family, became a TV miniseries in 1977. The eight-part series was aired on consecutive nights and became the most watched show in TV history. Some 130 million people-nearly half the country's population at the time--watched the last episode of the show. Haley's books led to an increased interest in the study of black history and heritage. Born in Ithaca, New York, Haley grew up in Henning, Tennessee, where he listened to family stories told by his maternal grandmother. A mediocre student at Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College and at Elizabeth City Teachers College, Haley later spent two decades with the U.S. Coast Guard as a journalist, writing adventure stories to take the edge off his boredom. When he retired, he moved back to New York to pursue a writing career. He interviewed trumpeter Miles Davis and political activist Malcolm X for Playboy in the 1960s and later collaborated with the Black Muslim spokesman to write The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), an acclaimed work that fueled the black-power movement in America and was cited extensively in institutions of higher learning. Haley then started his best-known work, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, published in 1976. The blend of fact and fiction, drawn largely from stories recited by Haley's grandmother, chronicles seven generations of Haley's family history, from the enslavement of his ancestors to his own quest to trace his family tree. To write the mostly nonfiction work, Haley pored over records in the National Archives and went by safari to the African village of Juffure to meet with an oral historian (Haley later donated money to that village for a new mosque). In the early 1970s, he and his brothers founded the Kinte Foundation, named for Haley's ancestor Kunta Kinte, to collect and preserve African American genealogy records. Haley received special citations from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award committees in 1977 for Roots, which sold more than a million copies in one year. It was translated into 26 languages. Later in his life, Haley wrote a biography of Frank Wills, the security guard who discovered the break-in at the Watergate Hotel that brought down Richard Nixon's presidency.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
The Hollywood Collectors Show and a real life Hollywood mystery will be among the topics of discussion on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, premiering Monday, Feb. 8 at 10pm ET, 7pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio, with a rebroadcast Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 11pm ET, 8pm PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org. In our first hour, we’ll welcome David Elkouby, co-owner of the Hollywood Collectors Show, the legendary autograph show held in the Hollywood area four times a year, featuring actors, writers, performers, collectors and celebrities from the world of film and television. The next Hollywood Collectors Show is scheduled for Valentines Weekend, Feb. 12-14, in Burbank. We’ll find out which celebrities are scheduled to appear, plus a whole lot more.
Then in our second hour, journalist and television historian Stephen Bowie will join us as we look back at a bizarre murder case from the early 1960s involving a man who would later become the lead writer and producer of a long-running, award-winning prime time network series. Which producer? Which show? These answers and more will be revealed beginning at 11pm ET, 8pm PT.
If you want to be part of our conversation, we invite you to join us for our live broadcast Monday, Feb. 8 beginning at 10pm ET, 7pm PT on Shokus Internet Radio. Phone number is (888) SHOKUS-5 / (888) 746-5875. Email address is talk@tvconfidential.net.
Programming Announcement: TV CONFIDENTIAL moving to new time slots starting the week of Feb. 22 TV CONFIDENTIAL will be moving to new time slots on both of its affiliates starting the week of Feb. 22. For our listeners on Shokus Internet Radio, TV CONFIDENTIAL will be moving to 9pm ET, 6pm PT (immediately following STU'S SHOW), beginning Monday, Feb. 22. That means we'll be in prime time on the East Coast, drive time on the West Coast, with nightly replays at the same time beginning Tuesday, Feb. 23, also on ShokusRadio.com.
For our listeners on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org., beginning Feb. 26, TV CONFIDENTIAL will be moving to a new night and time –- every Friday at 7pm PT and ET, either before or after the DUSTY RECORDS show, depending on where you live. That means you'll have two chances to hear our program on KSAV.org every Friday night, starting Feb. 26. We have some great programs lined up in the weeks ahead, and you will not want to miss them.
Here is another "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.
The television special Petula, aired in April 1968. A vehicle for popular singer Petula Clark ("Downtown"), the show featured Harry Belafonte as her guest. During one song, Petula touched Belafonte's arm and this "interracial contact" was considered taboo enough to cause a national controversy to surround the special.
Reid grew up in Berkeley, California. Her acting career started in 1938 with a bit part in the movie Man-Proof. Reid's Broadway debut was as Juliette Lecourtois in Where There's a Will at the John Golden Theatre in 1939. She later played Roxane opposite Jose Ferrer's Cyrano in the 1946 Broadway production of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Alvin Theatre. She repeated her stage role of Roxane, again opposite Ferrer, in a 1949 one-hour Philco Television Playhouse adaptation of Cyrano. After a series of stage roles throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Reid played title role in the CBS television version of the radio soap operaPortia Faces Life from 1954 to 1955. She next portrayed Grace Baker on As The World Turns from 1959 to 1962, and Rose Pollack on The Edge of Night in 1964.
Reid portrayed matriarch Alice Horton on Days of our Lives since the show's premiere on November 8, 1965. Reid's 37-year long reign on DAYS seemingly ended when her character was controversially "killed" by the Salem Stalker in 2004, but thankfully it was all a hoax and Reid returned later that year.
In 1966 Reid appeared opposite Rock Hudson in the 1966 John Frankenheimer drama Seconds. In the audio commentary for the DVD version of the film, Frankenheimer called Reid one of his favorite actresses.
To qoute Frances Reid on her real self breaking through her mild-mannered character Alice, "I don't think you should limit your vocabulary. And every now and then things come out as an expletive. I think it shocks our crew when I do it. They expect me to be...Alicey."
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.
In 1986, Morris began playing a regular occasional character, "Arnold 'Sporty' James," on the NBC cop drama Hunter, starring Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer. Morris continually appeared as "Sporty" on Hunter through 1989. In 1994, he was shot in an apparent robbery attempt but went on to make a full recovery. In a radio interview, he mentioned that the robber who shot him was eventually incarcerated, and in prison some fans of Morris's who happened to be inmates there teamed up and beat up the robber in revenge. Morris starred on Martin as Martin's first boss Stan. Morris's shooting had caused him to be unable to continue in the role, and he was written out of the show by having the character become a national fugitive. The scene where he is about to undergo plastic surgery was shot on the hospital bed Morris occupied while recuperating from the 1994 assault.
Mumy came to prominence in the 1960s as a child actor, most notably as Will Robinson, the youngest of the three children of Prof. John and Dr. Maureen Robinson (played Guy Williams and June Lockhart respectively) and friend of the nefarious and pompous Dr. Zachary Smith (played by Jonathan Harris), in the cult 1960s CBS sci-fi television seriesLost in Space. He later appeared as a lonely teenager, Sterling North, in the 1969 Disneymovie, Rascal, and as Teft in the 1971 film Bless the Beasts and Children. In the 1990s, he had the role of Lennier in the syndicated sci-fi TV series Babylon 5, and he also served as narrator of A&E Network's Emmy Award-winning series, Biography. He is also notable for his musical career, as a solo artist and as half of the duo Barnes & Barnes.
February 1, 1982 Late Night with David Letterman premieres.
David Letterman's offbeat late-night talk show debuts on this day in 1982. A favorite of college students, the show aired after Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. When Carson retired in 1992, Letterman and rival comic Jay Leno engaged in a heated battle for the coveted host slot. When Letterman was passed over, he left NBC for CBS, where his new program, Late Show with David Letterman, outperformed Leno's show almost every week in its first year.
February 2, 1937 Thomas Bolin "Tom" Smothers III is born.Comedian, composer and musician, best known as half of the musical comedy team the Smothers Brothers, alongside his younger brother Dick.
February 2, 1947 Farrah Fawcett is born.
A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the TV series Charlie's Angels in 1976. Fawcett later appeared off-Broadway to the approval of critics and in highly rated television movies in roles often challenging (The Burning Bed, Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story, Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story, Margaret Bourke-White) and sometimes unsympathetic (Small Sacrifices). Fawcett was also a pop culture figure whose hairstyle was emulated by millions of young women and whose poster sales broke records, making her an international sex symbol in the 1970s and 1980s. Fawcett was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006, and began treatment, including chemotherapy and surgery. Four months later, on her 60th birthday, the Associated Presswire service reported that Fawcett was, at that point, cancer free. Less than four months later, in May 2007, Fawcett brought a small digital video camera to document a doctor's office visit. There, she was told a malignantpolyp was found in the area where she had been treated for the initial cancer. Doctors contemplated whether to implant a radiation seeder (which differs from conventional radiation and is used to treat other types of cancer). Fawcett's U.S. doctors told her that she would require a colostomy. Instead, Fawcett traveled to Germany for treatments described variously in the press as "holistic", "aggressive", and "alternative". There, Dr. Ursula Jacob prescribed a treatment including surgery to remove the anal tumor, and a course of perfusion and embolization for her liver cancer by Doctors Claus Kiehling and Thomas Vogl in Germany, and chemotherapy back in Fawcett's home town of Los Angeles. Although initially the tumors were regressing, their reappearance a few months later necessitated a new course, this time including laser ablation therapy and chemoembolization. Aided by friend Alana Stewart, Fawcett documented her battle with the disease. In early April 2009, Fawcett, back in the United States, was rushed to a hospital, reportedly unconscious and in critical condition. Subsequent reports, however, indicated that the severity of her condition was not as dire as first reported. On April 6, the Associated Press reported that her cancer had metastasized to her liver. Fawcett had learned of this development in May 2007 and her subsequent treatments in Germany had targeted this as well. The report denied that she was unconscious, and explained that the reason for Fawcett's hospitalization was not her cancer but a painful abdominal hematoma that had been the result of a minor procedure, according to the Los Angeles cancer specialist treating Fawcett, Dr. Lawrence Piro. Her spokesperson emphasized she was not "at death's door", adding "She remains in good spirits with her usual sense of humor ... She's been in great shape her whole life and has an incredible resolve and an incredible resilience." Three days later, on April 9, Fawcett was released from the hospital, picked up by longtime companion O'Neal, and, according to her doctor, was "walking and in great spirits and looking forward to celebrating Easter at home." A month later, on May 7, Fawcett was reported as being critically ill, with Ryan O'Neal quoted as saying that she now spends her days at home, on an IV, often asleep. The Los Angeles Times reported that Fawcett was in the last stages of her cancer and had the chance to see her son Redmond in April 2009, although shackled and under supervision, as he was then incarcerated, Fawcett seemed not to notice. Her 91-year-old father, James Fawcett, flew out to Los Angeles to visit. Her doctor, Lawrence Piro, and Fawcett's friend and Angels co-star Kate Jackson—a breast cancer survivor—appeared together on The Today Show dispelling tabloid-fueled rumors, including the suggestions that Fawcett had ever been in a coma, had ever reached 86 pounds, and had ever given up her fight against the disease or lost the will to live. Jackson decried such fabrications, saying they "really do hurt a human being and a person like Farrah". Piro recalled when it became necessary for Fawcett to undergo treatments that would cause her to lose her hair, acknowledging that "Farrah probably has the most famous hair in the world", but acknowledged that it is not a trivial matter for any cancer patient, whose hair "affects [one's] whole sense of who [they] are". Of the documentary, Jackson averred that Fawcett "didn't do this to show that 'she' is unique, she did it to show that we are all unique ... This was ... meant to be a gift to others to help and inspire them." The two-hour documentaryFarrah's Story, which was filmed by Fawcett and friend Alana Stewart, aired on NBC on May 15, 2009. The documentary was watched by nearly 9 million people in its premiere airing and it was re-aired on the broadcast network's cable stations MSNBC, Bravo and Oxygen. Fawcett earned her fourth Emmy nomination posthumously on July 16, 2009, as producer of Farrah's Story. Fawcett died at approximately 9:28 a.m., on June 25, 2009, in the intensive care unit of Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, with O'Neal and Stewart by her side.
February 6, 1940 Thomas John "Tom" Brokaw is born. Television journalist and author best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004.
He is the author of The Greatest Generation (1998), a runaway bestseller, and other books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He is the only person to host all three major NBC News programs: The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and, briefly, Meet the Press. He currently serves as a Special Correspondent for NBC News and works on documentaries for other outlets.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
Second hour: Ed, Frankie and guest co-host Tony Figueroa welcome author Jan Alan Henderson (Speeding Bullet) and TV historian Bruce Dettman (Glass House Presents, The Adventures Continue) as they revisit one of Hollywood's great unsolved mysteries, the death of actor George Reeves.
