This Week in Television History: November 2017 PART IV

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.

November 28, 1962

Talk-show host and comedian Jon Stewart born. Stewart’s irreverent take on national and world events has been a huge hit with audiences and has even led some viewers to cite The Daily Show as their primary source of news.

Raised in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz attended the College of William and Mary and after graduation began performing stand-up comedy at clubs in New York City. In 1991, he became host of Short Attention Span Theater on Comedy Central, which was followed in 1992 by You Wrote It, You Watch It on MTV. In 1993, he hosted a half-hour program, The Jon Stewart Show, also on MTV. A late-night, nationally syndicated version of the program launched the following year but was cancelled in 1995.

In January 1999, Stewart took over hosting duties of The Daily Show from Craig Kilborn, who had hosted the show since its 1996 debut on Comedy Central and left to replace Tom Snyder as host of The Late Late Show. With Stewart in the anchor seat, The Daily Show typically opens with a monologue about the day’s news stories, followed by a satirical report from one of the program’s “fake news” correspondents. (Previous correspondents have included Steve Carrell, who was a Daily Show regular from 1999 to 2004 and went on to star in such movies as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine and Get Smart and the NBC sitcom The Office. Another Daily Show correspondent, Stephen Colbert, left the program in 2005 to launch his own spin-off, The Colbert Report.) During the final segment of the half-hour Daily Show, Stewart conducts interviews with politicians, authors, Hollywood celebrities or other newsmakers. The Daily Show has won multiple Emmy Awards, and in 2004 Stewart and his writing staff released a best-selling mock-history textbook titled America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction.

In addition to hosting The Daily Show, Stewart served as master of ceremonies for Hollywood’s biggest annual event, the Academy Awards, in 2006 and 2008. His own movie career, which includes appearances in Playing by Heart (1998), The Faculty (1998) and Big Daddy (1999), has yet to win him any Oscars. On The Daily Show, Stewart has mocked his roles in such box-office bombs as 2001’s Death to Smoochy.

November 28, 1997                                                                      

The final episode of "Beavis and Butt-head" aired on MTV.

When Highland High's secretary calls Beavis and Butt-head's home to see why the boys aren't in school, Beavis falsely claims that he and Butt-head are dead. Principal McVicker is pleasantly surprised and even stops his typical nervous shaking. Mr. Van Driessen mourns the loss and tries to get the class to remember something good about the obnoxious duo, though Daria echoes most of the class's sentiments by saying "it's not like they had bright futures ahead of them". The school faculty mostly agree (except Van Driessen) that although they never liked Beavis and Butt-head, they should exploit their apparent deaths to make their trouble worthwhile. Beavis and Butt-head see news that someone died at school, and decide to show up anyway. Just as Principal McVicker is on camera, holding a jar full of the memorial charity's change saying he would (hypothetically) trade it to have Beavis and Butt-head back, they greet him to his shock and end up in possession of the jar. Beavis and Butt-head walk off into the sunset, believing that they are rich and have no need to attend school anymore. This episode was the original series finale, up until the 2011 revival.

November 30, 1927

Robert Guillaume is born Robert Peter Williams. 

The stage and television actor, known for his role as Benson on the TV-series Soap and the spin-off Benson, voicing the mandrill Rafiki in The Lion King and as Isaac Jaffe on Sports Night. In a career that has spanned more than 50 years he has worked extensively on stage (including a Tony Award nomination), television (including winning two Emmy Awards), and film.

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa