This Week in Television History: March 2020 PART V

March 30, 1962

Jack Paar films his final episode of The Tonight Show. 

Paar had hosted the show since July 1957, six months after Steve Allen stepped down. Paar was known for his emotional outbursts, which included walking off the set of The Tonight Show on February 11, 1960, to protest network censorship of his jokes. The unflappable Johnny Carson took over as host starting in October 1962.

April 3, 1980

The final episode of Barnaby Jones aired. 

April 5, 1980

The final episode of "Hawaii Five-O" aired. 

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your Mental Sorbet: ABC Wide World of Sports - "The Harlem Globetrotters in Sierra Vista" (1978)

I felt like playing every day because the fans would motivate me.

Even though we had long bus rides and our kneecaps were sore and our backs were hurting and our ankles were twisted, the fans always motivated us. Once we got off the bus.

After we saw all those fans, even though some of us had the flu sometimes, we still played. 

Curly Neal

Fred "Curly" Neal
(May 19, 1942 - March 26, 2020)

Here is another

"Mental Sorbet" 

A little spark of madness

that we could use to momentarily forget about those

things that leave a bad taste in our mouths

Stay Tuned and Wash Your Hands

Tony Figueroa

This Week in Television History: March 2020 PART IV

March 23, 1940

Truth or Consequences originally aired on NBC radio with its creator, Ralph Edwards, as the Host. 

A decade later it moved to television on CBS. Contestants on the show were asked trick questions which they almost always failed to answer correctly. If they answered incorrectly, or failed to come up with any answer in a short time, Beulah the Buzzer went off. The host then told them that since they had failed to tell the truth, they would have to pay the consequences. Consequences consisted of elaborate stunts, some done in the studio and others done outside, some completed on that week's episode and others taking a week or more and requiring the contestant to return when the stunt was completed. Some of the stunts were funny, but more often they were also embarrassing, and occasionally they were sentimental like the reunion with a long-lost relative or a relative/spouse returning from military duty overseas, particularly Vietnam. Sometimes, if that military person was based in California, his or her spouse or parents were flown in for that reunion.

The spa city of "Hot Springs" in Sierra County, New Mexico took the name Truth or Consequences in1950, when host Ralph Edwards announced that he would do the program from the first town that renamed itself after the show. Ralph Edwards came to the town during the first weekend of May for the next fifty years.

The original TV version of this series, with Edwards as host, lasted only a single season. When in returned three years later on NBC, Jack Bailey was the host, later replaced by Steve Dunne. NBC aired a daytime version of the show from 1956 to 1965, first with Jack Bailey again as host, succeeded by Bob Barker. Barker remained with the show through the rest of the daytime run and on into the original syndicated run from 1966 to 1974. During Barker's run as host, "Barker's Box" was played. Barker's Box was a box with four drawers in it. A contestant able to pick the drawer with money in it won a bonus prize. Bob Hilton hosted a short-lived syndicated revival from 1977 to1978 and in the fall of 1987, comic Larry Anderson became the host of another short-lived version.

March 23, 1950 

Beat the Clock premiered on CBS-TV. 

Beat the Clock is a Goodson-Todman game show that aired on American television in several versions since 1950.

The original show, hosted by Bud Collyer, ran on CBS from 1950 to 1958 and ABC from 1958 to 1961. The show was revived in syndication as The New Beat the Clock from 1969 to 1974, with Jack Narz as host until 1972, when he was replaced by the show's announcer, Gene Wood. Another version ran on CBS from 1979 to 1980 (as The All-New Beat the Clock, and later as All-New All-Star Beat the Clock), with former Let's Make a Deal host Monty Hall as host and Narz as announcer. The most recent version aired in 2002 on PAX (now ION) with Gary Kroeger and Julielinh Parker as co-hosts. The series was also featured as the third episode ofGameshow Marathon in 2006. Ricki Lake hosted while Rich Fields announced.

In 2013, the show appeared in TV Guide's list of the 60 greatest game shows ever.

March 24, 1980

The late-night news program Nightline, anchored by Ted Koppel, airs for the first time on ABC. 

The show that would become Nightline first aired during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, during which Iranians seized the U.S. embassy in Iran, taking 66 Americans hostage. To cover the story as it unfolded, ABC debuted a late-night news show called The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage, which was normally anchored by Fred Reynolds. When the crisis ended, the show became a more general news show called Nightline and Koppel, who had already worked for ABC News in various capacities since 1963, became its anchor.

Throughout its tenure on television, Nightline has aired five nights a week at 11:30 p.m., competing with NBC’s The Tonight Show and CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman for viewers during much of that time. Despite some threats of cancellation over the years, Koppel’s professionalism and the show’s unique mix of long-format interviews and investigative journalism kept the show popular with audiences. Nightline remains the only news show of its genre to air every weeknight.

In November 2005, Ted Koppel left Nightline; he was replaced by the three-anchor team of Martin Bashir, Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran. The program also introduced a new multi-topic format. In the past, each show had concentrated on a single topic.

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Kenny Rogers

Don't be afraid to give up the good for the great.

Kenny Rogers

Kenneth Ray Rogers
August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020

 

And somewhere in the darkness

The gambler he broke even

But in his final words

I found an ace that I could keep

Your Mental Sorbet: Carol Burnett Show - Interrogation Skit

Here is another

"Mental Sorbet" 

A little spark of madness

that we could use to momentarily forget about those

things that leave a bad taste in our mouths

Stay Tuned and Wash Your Hands

Tony Figueroa

Lyle Waggoner

Lyle Wesley Waggoner

April 13, 1935 — March 17, 2020)

Lyle Waggoner died today, after a short illness.

By the mid-1960s, Waggoner was appearing regularly in television and films, including an episode of Gunsmoke. He was a finalist for the title role in the TV series version of Batman, but lost the role to Adam West.

In 1967, he appeared in Catalina Caper (with Tommy Kirk, a former child actor trying to restart his career as a young adult), a film which would eventually be lampooned by Mystery Science Theater 3000. He also had a minor guest-starring role in the season-three episode "Deadliest of the Species" of the TV series Lost in Space.

Also in 1967, Waggoner began a seven-year stint on The Carol Burnett Show, a comedy sketch and variety show, on which he appeared as announcer and performer. In 1973, Waggoner became Playgirl's first male seminude centerfold. Waggoner left The Carol Burnett Show in 1974 in the hopes of advancing his career as a lead actor. His spot on the show was filled by frequent guest star Tim Conway (and his role as announcer by Ernie Anderson). He has appeared on some of the show's reunion TV specials.

In 1976, Waggoner was appointed "mayor" of Encino, California, by the local chamber of commerce. The "mayor" is not an actual government official; the post is an honorary "goodwill ambassador" position. In addition to Waggoner, other holders of the title include Steve Allen, Mike Connors, Fred Travalena, Ronnie Schell, and Cesare Danova.

A year after leaving Carol Burnett, Waggoner landed the role of Steve Trevor for the pilot and first season of the television series Wonder Woman starring Lynda Carter. Initially set during World War II, when the subsequent two seasons advanced the timeline to the 1970s, Waggoner played Steve Trevor, Jr.

Waggoner also appeared in several TV movies and minor motion pictures during the 1970s and 1980s, often cast for “hunk” appeal. He has also made guest appearances on numerous television series including Charlie's Angels, The San Pedro Beach Bums, Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, The Golden Girls, Ellen, and most recently The War at Home. Waggoner has also played at least three roles on The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and Murder, She Wrote throughout their respective runs.

In 1979, Waggoner founded Star Waggons, a company that leases customized location trailers for use by the entertainment industry. In 1990, Waggoner co-produced and appeared in a consumer-product show called Consumer America with co-host Shawn Bruner. The show featured novel national products from self-help to home goods and lasted about two seasons.

Waggoner retired from full-time acting to run Star Waggons, but he makes occasional appearances, often parodying his earlier image (The Naked Truth, That '70s Show, and Return to the Batcave).

He resided near Jackson, Wyoming, where he was a sculptor. His works can be seen at Galleries West Fine Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and are usually humorous renditions of lovely ladies, some of which are cast at Eagle Bronze in Lander, Wyoming. He also had homes in Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico; Oxnard California, and Westlake Village, California.

Good Night Mr. Waggoner

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

This Week in Television History: March 2020 PART III

March 16, 2005

Robert Blake acquitted of wife’s murder. 

After a three-month-long criminal trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, a jury acquits Robert Blake, star of the 1970s television detective show Baretta, of the murder of his 44-year-old wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.

Blake, who was born Mickey Gubitosi in 1933 in New Jersey, made his movie debut at the age of six, in MGM’s 1939 movie Bridal Suite; the studio soon featured him in its Our Gang series of short films. After changing his name to Robert Blake, he starred in the 1960 gangster movie The Purple Gang and numerous other films. In 1967, Blake memorably portrayed Perry Smith, one of two real-life murderers at the center of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, when the book was adapted for the big screen. As an actor, Blake was best known for his Emmy-winning work as the street-smart plainclothes policeman Tony Baretta in the ABC series Baretta. The show ran from 1975 to 1978, and Blake won an Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series at the end of its first season.

During his criminal trial, Blake’s defense team portrayed the aging actor as a rather pathetic figure and argued that Bakley had a pattern of sending letters and nude photos of herself to famous men and had trapped Blake into marrying her by becoming pregnant. The couple’s daughter, Rose, was born in June 2000, and though Bakley initially claimed that the child was fathered by Christian Brando, son of the celebrated actor Marlon Brando, a paternity test proved the baby was Blake’s. Blake and Bakley married that November. Their brief, unhappy union lasted until May 4, 2001, when Bakley was shot to death as she sat in a car outside a Los Angeles restaurant.

Blake was arrested for the murder, and the prosecution produced two former stunt doubles who claimed the actor had recruited them to kill his wife. During cross-examination, the stuntmen were revealed to be cocaine and methamphetamine users. In their acquittal of Blake, the jury made it clear they didn’t believe the stuntmen’s statements, and also concluded that the prosecution had failed to place the murder weapon in Blake’s hands.

In November 2005, eight months after the criminal trial ended, Robert Blake was found guilty in a civil trial of “intentionally” causing Bonny Lee Bakley’s death; he was ordered to pay $30 million to Bakley’s children. Rose remained in the care of Blake’s eldest daughter, Delinah. Though he did not testify in the criminal trial, Blake did take the stand during his civil trial to deny the accusations.

March 21, 1980

J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman), the character millions loved to hate on TV’s popular nighttime drama Dallas, was shot. 

The shooting made the season finale, titled A House Divided, one of television’s most famous cliffhangers and left America wondering “Who shot J.R.?” Dallas fans waited for the next eight months to have that question answered because the season premiere of Dallas was delayed due to a Screen Actors Guild strike. That summer, the question “Who Shot J.R.?” entered the national lexicon. Fan’s wore T-shirts printed with "Who Shot J.R.?" and "I Shot J.R.". A session of the Turkish parliament was suspended to allow legislators a chance to get home in time to view the Dallas episode. Betting parlors worldwide took bets as to which one of the 10 or so principal characters had actually pulled the trigger. J.R. had many enemies and audiences were hard-pressed to guess who was responsible for the shooting.

The person who pulled the trigger was revealed to be J.R.’s sister in law/mistress Kristin Shepard (Mary Crosby) in the "Who Done It?" episode which aired on November 21, 1980. It was, at the time, the highest rated television episode in US history. It had a Nielsen rating of 53.3 and a 76% share, and it was estimated that 83,000,000 people watched the episode. The previous record for a TV episode, not counting the final installment of the miniseries Roots, had been the 1967 finale for The Fugitive. "Who Shot J.R.?" now sits second on the list, being beaten in 1983 by the final episode of M*A*S*H but still remains the highest rated non-finale episode of a TV series.

March 21, 1995

The first episode of NewsRadio aired on NBC.

Focusing on the work lives of the staff of an AM news station. The series was created by executive producer Paul Simms, and was filmed in front of a studio audience at CBS Studio Center and Sunset Gower Studios. The show's theme tune was composed by Mike Post, who also scored the pilot (Ian Dye and Danny Lux did subsequent episodes).

The show placed #72 on Entertainment Weekly '​s "New TV Classics" list. The series is set at WNYX, a fictional AM news radio station in New York City, populated by an eccentric station owner and staff. The show begins with the arrival of a new news director, level-headed Dave Nelson (Dave Foley). While Dave turns out to be less naive than his youthful appearance suggests, he never fully gains control of his co-workers.

The fast-paced scripts and ensemble cast combined physical humor and sight gags with smart dialogue and absurd storylines. Plots often involved satirical takes on historical events, news stories, and pop culturereferences. The third- and fourth-season finales took the absurdity to the extreme, setting the characters in outer space and aboard the Titanic.

There are a total of 97 episodes. Reruns continued in syndication for several years before disappearing in most markets, but the show has aired on A&E Network, Nick at Nite and TBS network in the United States, andTVtropolis and the Comedy Network in Canada. In the United States, the show occasionally airs as a filler onWGN America and runs regularly on Reelz Channel. The program became available in syndication to local stations again starting in July 2007 through The Program Exchange. NBC briefly canceled NewsRadio in May 1998, after its fourth season, but the decision was reversed two weeks later, with an order of 22 episodes placed for afifth season. Ten days after its renewal, Phil Hartman was killed by his wife, and his absence cast a pall over the fifth season. NBC left the series "on the bubble" until the day the final episode of the fifth season aired, months after production had wrapped. The fifth season ending storyline where Jimmy James buys a radio station in a small New Hampshire town was intended to provide a new setting for a potential sixth season, but NBC later decided to officially cancel the series after poor ratings and reviews.

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

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa