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"
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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.
June 25, 1993
Last night
of Late Night with David Letterman. On this day in 1993, Late Night with David Letterman airs its
last episode. Offbeat comic Letterman, passed over by NBC for the host seat on The
Tonight Show after Johnny Carson's retirement, left the network to launch a
rival show on CBS.
David Letterman was born
in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1947. From an early age, he aspired to host his
own talk show. He became a stand-up comic and a wacky weatherman on a local TV
station. After years on the stand-up comedy circuit, he made his first
appearance on The Tonight Show in 1978 and served as the program's guest
host 50 times. In 1980, Letterman had a short-lived morning variety show, The
David Letterman Show, which won two Emmys.
He launched his popular
late-night TV show in 1982. His offbeat humor and goofy stunts spoofed
traditional talk shows. Antics like wearing a Velcro suit and throwing himself
at a wall or tossing eggs into a giant electric fan, Letterman gained a large
following, especially among college students. Regular features included his
"Top Ten List," "Stupid Pet Tricks," and tours of the
neighborhood. He also frequently wandered with his camera into other NBC shows
in progress. Over more than 11 years, the show won five Emmys and 35
nominations.
When
Carson announced his retirement 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,
outperformed Leno's show almost every week in its first year. However, Leno
pulled ahead the following year and maintained a strong lead. Letterman
underwent emergency heart surgery in 2000 and was off the show for five weeks.
In recent years, Leno's lead over Letterman in viewership has slimmed.
June 27, 1968
Elvis Presley tapes his
famous TV "comeback special"
There was quite a bit more
than just 12 years and a few extra pounds separating the Elvis Presley of 1968
from the Elvis that set the world on fire in 1956. With a nearly decade-long
string of forgettable movies and inconsistent recordings behind him, Elvis had
drifted so far from his glorious, youthful incarnation that he'd turned himself
into a historical artifact without any help from the Beatles, Bob Dylan or the
Stones. And then something amazing happened: A television special for NBC that
Elvis' manager Colonel Tom Parker envisioned as an Andy Williams-like sequence
of Christmas carol performances instead
became a thrilling turning point in Elvis's legendary career. Elvis began
taping his legendary "Comeback Special" on this day in 1968.
Much of the credit for the Comeback Special goes to
the young director NBC turned to on the project. Only 26 years old but with a
strong background in televised music, Steve Binder had the skills and
creativity to put together a more interesting program than the one originally
planned, but he'd also had the youthful confidence to tell Elvis that a
successful show was an absolute necessity if he wanted to regain his relevance.
"Basically, I told him I thought his career was in the toilet,"
Binder recalled in an interview almost four decades later. From the beginning,
Elvis embraced almost every suggestion Binder made, including what would turn
out to be the best one, which came after Binder watched Elvis jamming with his
friends and fellow musicians in his dressing room one night after rehearsals.
"Wait a minute, this is history," Binder recalls thinking. "I
want to film this." Binder sold Elvis on the idea that would become the
most memorable segment of the show: an informal, "unplugged" session
before a live audience.
Elvis went to Hawaii
with his wife, Priscilla, and their infant daughter, Lisa Marie, in the weeks
leading up to the taping, and when he returned, he was tanned, rested and
thinner than he'd been at any time since leaving the Army. "He was totally
keyed up now, on edge in a way he had rarely been since abandoning live
performing a decade before," writes Peter Guralnick in Careless Love:
The Unmaking of Elvis Presley, the second volume of his Elvis biography.
"His professionalism continued to be noted by the entire crew...but there
was something else now, too. For the first time in a long time he didn't bother
to hide the fact that he really cared."
When Elvis took to the stage on this night in 1968 to
record the "jam session" portion of the Comeback Special, he did so
only after Binder talked him out of a last-minute case of stage fright. After a
nervous start, Elvis Presley gave the legendary performance that would
reinvigorate his flagging career.
June 29, 1978
Bob Crane was found bludgeoned to death.
On the afternoon of June 29
Crane's co-star Victoria Ann Berry found his body in his apartment after he
failed to show up for a lunch meeting. Crane had been bludgeoned to death with
a weapon that was never found, though investigators believed it to be a camera
tripod. An electrical cord had been tied around his neck.
Crane's funeral was held on July 5 at St. Paul the
Apostle Catholic Church in Westwood.
An estimated 200 family members and friends attended, including Patty Duke, John Astin,
and Carroll O'Connor. Pallbearers included
Hogan's Heroes producer Edward Feldman, co-stars Larry Hovis
and Robert Clary, and Crane's eldest son,
Robert. Crane was interred in Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth, California.
More than 20 years after his death, Crane's widow,
Sigrid Valdis, had his remains exhumed and transported approximately 25 miles
southeast to Westwood
Village Memorial Park in Westwood. After her death from lung cancer
in 2007, Valdis was buried next to him.
According to an episode of A&E's Cold Case Files,
police officers who arrived at the scene of the crime noted that Carpenter
called the apartment several times and did not seem surprised that the police
were there, which raised suspicions. The car Carpenter had rented the previous
day was impounded. In it, several blood smears were found that matched Crane's blood type. DNA testing
was not available at that time. Due to insufficient evidence, Maricopa County
Attorney Charles F. Hyder declined to file charges.
In 1990 the Maricopa County Attorney re-opened Crane's
murder case; investigators reexamined and retested the evidence found in June
1978. Although DNA testing of the blood found in Carpenter's rental car was
inconclusive, Detective Jim Raines discovered an evidence photograph of the
car's interior that appeared to show a piece of brain tissue. The blood and
tissue samples themselves, which had been found in Carpenter's car the day
after Crane's murder, had been lost; but an Arizona judge ruled that the new
evidence was admissible. In June 1992
Carpenter was arrested and charged with Crane's murder.
At Carpenter's 1994 trial Crane's son Robert testified
that in the weeks before his father's death, Crane had repeatedly expressed a
desire to sever his friendship with Carpenter. Carpenter had become, "a
hanger-on," he said, and "a nuisance to the point of being
obnoxious". The night before his death, Crane reportedly called Carpenter
and ended their friendship.
Defense attorneys attacked the prosecution's case as
circumstantial and inconclusive. They denied the claim that Carpenter and Crane
were on bad terms just before the slaying, and they labeled the determination
that a camera tripod was the murder weapon as sheer speculation, based on
Carpenter's occupation. They also disputed the claim that the rediscovered
photo showed brain tissue, noting that authorities did not have the tissue
itself. The defense pointed out that Crane had been videotaped and photographed
in compromising sexual positions with numerous women, implying that a jealous
person or someone fearing blackmail might have been the killer.
Carpenter was found not guilty. He maintained his
innocence until his death on September 4, 1998. Crane's murder remains
officially unsolved.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
 Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
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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.
June
19, 2013
James Gandolfini, TV's
Tony Soprano, dies at 51
On
this day in 2013, James Gandolfini, the actor best known for his role as New
Jersey crime boss Tony Soprano on the TV series "The
Sopranos," which debuted in 1999 and ran for six seasons, dies of a heart
attack while vacationing in Rome, Italy. He was 51.
The
son of working-class parents of Italian descent, Gandolfini was born on
September 18, 1961, in Westwood, New Jersey, and graduated from Rutgers
University in 1983. Afterward, he worked as a bartender and club manager
in New York City,
drove a delivery truck and studied acting. He made his film debut in 1987’s
low-budget "Shock! Shock! Shock!" and went on to play supporting
character roles in such movies as "True Romance" (1993), "Get
Shortly" (1995) and "The Juror" (1996).
Gandolfini
shot to stardom in the groundbreaking HBO drama "The Sopranos," which
centered on the violent, complicated Tony Soprano. Gandolfini's portrayal of
the brutal mobster, who lives in the New Jersey suburbs where he deals with
ordinary family issues and sees a therapist after suffering from panic attacks,
earned him three Emmy Awards for outstanding lead actor in a drama. Critics
called Tony Soprano one of the greatest TV characters of all time, and by the
show's final season Gandolfini was being paid a reported $1 million per
episode. Additionally, "The Sopranos" was credited with paving
the way for edgier TV shows and flawed leading characters such as corrupt
detective Vic Mackey on "The Shield," school teacher-turned-meth
dealer Walter White on "Breaking Bad" and cynical, philandering adman
Don Draper on "Mad Men."
After
"The Sopranos" ended in 2007, Gandolfini acted on Broadway, appeared
in movies including "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012) and produced several
documentaries about injured American military veterans. Following Gandolfini's
June 2013 death, the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, ordered all state
government buildings to fly their flags at half-staff for a day in honor of the
popular Garden State native.
June 20, 1948
Toast of
the Town premieres.
Ed Sullivan's long-running variety show premieres.
Although later known simply as The Ed Sullivan Show, the series debuts
as Toast of the Town. Among the many performers who made their TV debuts
on the show were Bob Hope, Lena Horne, the Beatles, and Walt Disney. Elvis
Presley also made several high-profile performances on the show, in 1956 and
1957. The show ran until 1971.
June 22, 2008
Stand-up comedian, writer and actor George Carlin dies
of heart failure at the age of 71.
Born
in New York City, Carlin dropped out of high school and joined the Air Force.
While stationed in Shreveport, Louisiana, he got a job as a radio disc jockey;
after his discharge, he worked as a radio announcer and disc jockey in Boston
and Fort Worth, Texas. Carlin and his early radio colleague, Jack Burns, formed
a moderately successful stand-up comedy duo, appearing in nightclubs and on The
Tonight Show with Jack Paar. They soon parted ways, and Carlin made his
first solo appearance on The Tonight Show in 1962. Three years later, he
began a string of performances on The Merv Griffin Show and was later
hired as a regular on Away We Go, 1967’s summer replacement for The
Jackie Gleason Show. Carlin cemented his early career success with the
release of his debut comedy album, the well-reviewed Take-Offs and Put-Downs,
that same year.
During the late 1960s, Carlin had a recurring role on the sitcom That
Girl, starring Marlo Thomas, and made numerous TV appearances on shows such
as The Ed Sullivan Show and Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. Seeking
to make a leap into big-time stardom, the relatively clean-cut, conventional
comic reinvented himself around 1970 as an eccentric, biting social critic and
commentator. In his new incarnation, Carlin began appealing to a younger,
hipper audience, particularly college students. He began dressing in a
stereotypically “hippie” style, with a beard, long hair and jeans, and his new
routines were punctuated by pointed jokes about religion and politics and
frequent references to drugs.Released in 1972, Carlin’s second album, FM/AM, won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording. A routine from his third hit album, Class Clown (also 1972) grew into the comic’s now-famous profanity-laced routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” When it was first broadcast on New York radio, a complaint led the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ban the broadcast as “indecent.” The U.S. Supreme Court later upheld the order, which remains in effect today. The routine made Carlin a hero to his fans and got him in trouble with radio brass as well as with law enforcement; he was even arrested several times, once during an appearance in Milwaukee, for violating obscenity laws. More popular than ever as a countercultural hero, Carlin was asked to be the first guest host of a new sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live, in 1975. Two years later, he starred in the first of what would be 14 comedy specials on the cable television station HBO (the last one aired in March 2008). Carlin had a certain degree of success on the big screen as well, including a supporting role in Outrageous Fortune (1987), a memorable appearance in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) and a fine supporting turn in the drama The Prince of Tides (1991). More recently, he played a Roman Catholic cardinal in Kevin Smith’s satirical comedy Dogma (1999).
Though a 1994 Fox sitcom, The George Carlin Show,
lasted only one season, Carlin continued to perform his HBO specials and his
live comedy gigs into the early 21st century. He also wrote best-selling books
based on his comedy routines, including Brain Droppings (1997), Napalm
& Silly Putty (2001) and When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?
(2004). According to his obituary in the New York Times, Carlin gave his
last live comedy show in Las Vegas just weeks before his death.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
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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.
June 13, 2008
Tim Russert Dies at Age 58
Timothy John "Tim" Russert (May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008)
was an American
television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than
16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's
Meet the Press. He was a senior vice
president at NBC News, Washington bureau chief and also hosted an
eponymous CNBC/MSNBC weekend interview
program. He was a frequent correspondent and guest on NBC's The Today Show
and Hardball.
Russert covered several presidential elections, and he presented the NBC News/Wall Street Journal
survey on the NBC Nightly News
during the 2008
U.S. presidential election. Time magazine included Russert in its list of the 100 most influential people in
the world in 2008. Russert was posthumously revealed as a 30-year source for
syndicated columnist Robert Novak.
Shortly after 1:30 pm on June 13,
2008, Russert collapsed at the offices of WRC-TV, which houses the Washington, D.C. bureau of NBC News where he was chief. He was recording
voiceovers for the Sunday edition of Meet the Press. According to Brian Williams, during his speech at the Kennedy
Center on June 13, Russert's last words were, "What's happening?"
spoken as a greeting to NBC Washington bureau editing supervisor Candace
Harrington as he passed her in the hallway. He then walked down the hallway to
record voiceovers in the soundproof booth and collapsed. A co-worker began CPR
on him. The District of Columbia Fire and Rescue service received a call from
NBC at 1:40 pm, and dispatched an EMS unit
which arrived at 1:44 pm. Paramedics attempted to defibrillate Russert's heart
three times, but he did not respond. Russert was then transported to Sibley Memorial
Hospital, arriving at 2:23 pm, where he was pronounced dead. He was
58 years old.
In accordance with American journalistic tradition,
the public announcement of Russert's death was withheld by both the wire services and his network's competitors, until Russert's family
had been notified. Retired NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw then delivered, live on NBC, CNBC and MSNBC, the news of
his death. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams was on assignment in
Afghanistan and could not anchor the special report. Russert had just returned
from a family vacation in Rome, Italy, where he had celebrated his son's graduation from Boston College. While his wife and son remained in Rome, Russert had
returned to prepare for his Sunday television show.
Russert's longtime friend and physician, Dr. Michael
Newman, said that his asymptomatic coronary
artery disease had been controlled
with medication and exercise, and that he had performed well on a stress
test in late April. An autopsy
performed on the day of his death determined that his history of coronary
artery disease led to a myocardial
infarction (heart attack) and ventricular
fibrillation with the immediate cause
being an occlusive coronary
thrombosis in the left anterior descending artery resulting from a ruptured cholesterol plaque, called a "widow maker".
Russert is buried at Rock
Creek Cemetery, next to the historic Soldiers' Home, in Washington's Petworth neighborhood. The Newseum in Washington, D.C., has a re-creation of Russert's office.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one's life.
Anthony Michael Bourdain
(June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018)
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CNN confirmed Bourdain's death on Friday and said the cause of death was suicide. Bourdain was in France working on an upcoming episode of his award-winning CNN series, "Parts Unknown." His close friend Eric Ripert, the French chef, found Bourdain unresponsive in his hotel room Friday morning.
CNN just announced it will remember “our friend and colleague Anthony Bourdain this weekend by sharing his talent and stories. Rest in peace,
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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.
June 6, 1998
Sex and the City premieres
on HBO.
On this day in 1998, the
cable network HBO airs the pilot episode of Sex and the City, a new
comedy series chronicling the lives and loves of four single women living in
New York City.
Sex and the City didn’t really break out with fans until the second season, when the format of the show changed a bit: Carrie stopped addressing the camera directly, and simply provided a voice-over narration, and the man-on-the-street-type testimonials by different characters were largely omitted. The main premise--that each episode provides fodder for one of Carrie’s columns, each of which features a different question about sex, love and relationships--remained constant throughout the show, as did the unusually frank discussion and portrayal of sex that became the show’s hallmark. At the Emmy Awards, Sex and the City was nominated in the category of Outstanding Comedy Series in each of its six seasons; it won the award in 2001. In 2004, Parker collected an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, while Cynthia Nixon triumphed in the supporting category. To win, Nixon beat out co-stars Davis and Cattrall, who had been nominated in five out of the six seasons of the show’s run. Cattrall and Parker both took home Golden Globe Awards for their performances as well, and the show received three Globes for Best TV Series - Musical or Comedy. As soon as the series wrapped up in 2004, buzz began about a possible big-screen adaptation. Though the project stalled due to questions over money and Cattrall’s reported reluctance to sign on to the project, the plans finally came to fruition in late May 2008, when Sex and the City: The Movie was released to mixed reviews but great box-office success, including a $55.7 million opening weekend haul. As with the series, Parker served as an executive producer for the movie, which was written and directed by Michael Patrick King.  Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
