September 21, 2001
America: A Tribute to Heroes was shown
on 35 separate broadcast and cable networks simultaneously.
The telethon raised $150 million in pledges to
benefit families of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks that occurred
on September 11, 2001. The pledges were made from September 21 through
September 24, 2001. September 22, 1986
The TV show ALF
debuted on NBC.
ALF is
an American science fiction sitcom that
aired on NBC from
September 22, 1986 to March 24, 1990. It was the first television series to be
presented in Dolby Surround.The title character is Gordon
Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form),
who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle-class Tanner
family. The series stars Max Wrightas
father Willie Tanner, Anne Schedeen as
mother Kate Tanner, and Andrea Elson and Benji Gregory as
their children, Lynn and Brian Tanner. ALF was performed by
puppeteer/creator Paul Fusco.
Produced by Alien Productions, ALF originally
ran for four seasons and produced 99 episodes, including three one-hour
episodes that were divided into two parts for syndication totaling 102
episodes.September 23, 1956
Mickey Dolenz began his
television career in NBC's Circus Boy
series. He
later became a member of the Monkees.
September 23, 1961Weekly TV movie program Saturday Night at the
Movies debuts on NBC, starting with the 1953 film How to Marry a
Millionaire.
The program was the
first major network initiative to broadcast recent movies on the air. Although
movies from the 1930s and '40s had appeared on TV, the networks had resisted
showing more recent films. Until the 1960s, a fierce rivalry existed between
the television and movie industries, and neither wanted to promote the other.
However, with the success of Saturday Night at the Movies, relatively
recent films became a staple of TV programming.September 23, 1976
The first season of Black Sheep Squadron began on NBC under
the name Baa Baa Black Sheep.
Baa Baa Black Sheep (later syndicated
as Black Sheep Squadron) is a period military television series that aired
on NBC from 1976 until 1978.
Its premise was based on the experiences of United States Marine Corpsaviator Greg Boyington and his World War II "Black Sheep Squadron". The series was
created and produced byStephen J. Cannell. The opening credits read: "In World War II, Marine Corps Major
Greg 'Pappy' Boyington commanded a squadron of fighter pilots. They were a
collection of misfits and screwballs who became the terrors of the South
Pacific. They were known as the Black Sheep."
September 23, 1986The first season of Matlock began on NBC.
Matlock is an American television legal
drama, starring Andy Griffith in the title role of criminal-defense attorneyBen Matlock. The show, produced by
Intermedia Entertainment Company (first season only), The Fred Silverman Company, Dean Hargrove Productions, Viacom Productions, and Paramount Television (season 9 only), originally aired from March 3, 1986, to May 8,
1992, on NBC; and from November 5, 1992,
until May 7, 1995, on ABC.
The
show's format is similar to that of CBS's Perry Mason (with both Matlock and the later Perry
Mason TV movies in the 1980s created by Dean Hargrove), with Matlock identifying
the perpetrators and then confronting them in dramatic courtroom scenes. One
difference, however, was that whereas Mason usually exculpated his clients at a
pretrial hearing, Matlock usually secured an acquittal at trial, from the jury.
September 24, 1936
Muppet creator Jim Henson is born in Greenville,
Mississippi.
Henson joined a puppet
club in high school and used his skills to land a job at a local TV station
between high school and college. His homemade puppets delighted audiences, and
during his freshman year at the University of Maryland the TV station gave him
his own five minute show, called Sam and Friends. The show ran twice a
day, just before popular news show the Huntley-Brinkley Report and again
before the Tonight Show with Steve Allen. Henson's program ran for eight
years and won a local Emmy in 1958.In 1955, Henson took an
old green coat of his mother's, attached two halves of a ping-pong ball for
eyes, and created a lizard-like character named Kermit, who later evolved into
Kermit the Frog. Other familiar characters took shape on Sam and Friends,
as Henson's Muppets multiplied. In 1957, Henson made the first of more than 300
TV commercials for Wilkins Coffee. In 1963 Rowlf the Dog became a regular on
variety program The Jimmy Dean Show, which ran until 1966.
Henson showed an
interest in filmmaking in the mid 1960s, making a short film called Timepiece
in 1965, which was nominated for an Oscar. A few years later, he met Joan Ganz
Cooney, a TV producer heading up a study of children and television at a
seminar for educators in Boston. Ganz was formulating an idea for a kids' TV
program she called The Preschool Educational Television Show, and she
quickly persuaded Henson and his Muppets to join her. The show, with its new,
snappier title, Sesame Street, was launched in 1969, and generations of
children fell in love with Big Bird, Kermit the Frog, Ernie and Bert, Oscar the
Grouch, Grover, Cookie Monster, and many other Henson creations.
After seven years of
children's television, Henson wanted to explore more sophisticated possibilities
for his Muppets. He shopped around an idea for a variety show starring Kermit,
but none of the networks were interested. Undeterred, Henson created The
Muppet Show as a syndicated series, which became the world's most watched
TV show, with 235 million viewers in more than 100 countries. The program ran
from 1976 to 1981 and won three Emmys. Meanwhile, the Muppets launched a movie
career in 1979 with The Muppet Movie, followed by The Great Muppet
Caper (1981) and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984).
Other,
less familiar Henson creatures appeared in The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth
(1986) with David Bowie, as well as in two cable TV series, Fraggle Rock
and The Ghost of Faffner Hall. His Saturday morning cartoon, Jim
Henson's Muppet Babies, was launched in 1984 and won four Emmys. Henson
died of pneumonia in 1990.
September 24, 1961
The Bullwinkle Show premiered in
prime time on NBC-TV. The show was originally on ABC in the afternoon as Rocky and His
Friends.
September 24, 1966
"Last
Train to Clarksville" gives the made-for-TV Monkees a real-life pop hit.
When
producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson conceived a situation comedy called The
Monkees in 1965, they hoped to create a ratings success by blurring the
line between pop music and television. Instead, they succeeded in obliterating
that line entirely when the pop group that began as a wholly fictional creation
went on to rival, however briefly, the success of its real-life inspiration,
the Beatles. On this day in 1966, the made-for-television Monkees knocked down
the fourth wall decisively when their first single, "Last Train To
Clarksville" entered the Billboard Top 40."Last
Train To Clarksville" was written by the team that was also responsible
for the theme song of The Monkees, songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby
Hart. Though Boyce and Hart had been working together in Los Angeles for
several years before being asked to write and record the soundtrack for
Schneider and Rafelson's A Hard Day's Night-inspired pilot, their
biggest success to date had been in writing minor hits for Chubby Checker and Paul
Revere and the Raiders and in being
commissioned to write the theme song for Days Of Our Lives. Their
association with The Monkees would end up launching Boyce and Hart on a
moderately successful career as performers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. By far their best-known hits, however, were the ones
they wrote for the Monkees, including "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"
and "Last Train To Clarksville."
Just
as producers Schneider and Rafelson had reached out to a pair of industry
professionals to create the music for the pilot episode of The Monkees,
they engaged numerous others to create the other memorable songs in the
Monkees' catalog. Under the musical direction of Don Kirshner, The Monkees featured
hits by some of the era's greatest songwriters, including Neil Diamond, who
wrote "I'm A Believer" and "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit
You" (both 1967) and the great husband-and-wife team of Gerry Goffin and
Carole King, who wrote "Daydream Believer" (1967). Numerous other
Monkees songs were written by such songwriting luminaries as Cynthia Mann and
Barry Weill, Harry Nilsson and Carole Bayer Sager and Neil Sedaka.
By
the time their third album was released, the real-life Monkees—Davy Jones,
Michael Nesmith, Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork—had taken over creative control
of their musical output, including taking on much of the songwriting. Although
they would release seven more studio albums, none would contain hits as
successful or memorable as the one that gave the group its breakthrough on
September 24, 1966.
September 21, 2001
America: A Tribute to Heroes was shown on 35 separate broadcast and cable networks simultaneously.
The telethon raised $150 million in pledges to benefit families of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001. The pledges were made from September 21 through September 24, 2001.
September 22, 1986
The TV show ALF
debuted on NBC.
The title character is Gordon
Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form),
who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle-class Tanner
family. The series stars Max Wrightas
father Willie Tanner, Anne Schedeen as
mother Kate Tanner, and Andrea Elson and Benji Gregory as
their children, Lynn and Brian Tanner. ALF was performed by
puppeteer/creator Paul Fusco.
September 23, 1956
Weekly TV movie program Saturday Night at the Movies debuts on NBC, starting with the 1953 film How to Marry a Millionaire.
September 23, 1976
Baa Baa Black Sheep (later syndicated as Black Sheep Squadron) is a period military television series that aired on NBC from 1976 until 1978. Its premise was based on the experiences of United States Marine Corpsaviator Greg Boyington and his World War II "Black Sheep Squadron". The series was created and produced byStephen J. Cannell. The opening credits read: "In World War II, Marine Corps Major Greg 'Pappy' Boyington commanded a squadron of fighter pilots. They were a collection of misfits and screwballs who became the terrors of the South Pacific. They were known as the Black Sheep."
The first season of Matlock began on NBC.
The
show's format is similar to that of CBS's Perry Mason (with both Matlock and the later Perry
Mason TV movies in the 1980s created by Dean Hargrove), with Matlock identifying
the perpetrators and then confronting them in dramatic courtroom scenes. One
difference, however, was that whereas Mason usually exculpated his clients at a
pretrial hearing, Matlock usually secured an acquittal at trial, from the jury.
September 24, 1936
Muppet creator Jim Henson is born in Greenville,
Mississippi.
Henson joined a puppet club in high school and used his skills to land a job at a local TV station between high school and college. His homemade puppets delighted audiences, and during his freshman year at the University of Maryland the TV station gave him his own five minute show, called Sam and Friends. The show ran twice a day, just before popular news show the Huntley-Brinkley Report and again before the Tonight Show with Steve Allen. Henson's program ran for eight years and won a local Emmy in 1958.
In 1955, Henson took an
old green coat of his mother's, attached two halves of a ping-pong ball for
eyes, and created a lizard-like character named Kermit, who later evolved into
Kermit the Frog. Other familiar characters took shape on Sam and Friends,
as Henson's Muppets multiplied. In 1957, Henson made the first of more than 300
TV commercials for Wilkins Coffee. In 1963 Rowlf the Dog became a regular on
variety program The Jimmy Dean Show, which ran until 1966.
Henson showed an
interest in filmmaking in the mid 1960s, making a short film called Timepiece
in 1965, which was nominated for an Oscar. A few years later, he met Joan Ganz
Cooney, a TV producer heading up a study of children and television at a
seminar for educators in Boston. Ganz was formulating an idea for a kids' TV
program she called The Preschool Educational Television Show, and she
quickly persuaded Henson and his Muppets to join her. The show, with its new,
snappier title, Sesame Street, was launched in 1969, and generations of
children fell in love with Big Bird, Kermit the Frog, Ernie and Bert, Oscar the
Grouch, Grover, Cookie Monster, and many other Henson creations.
After seven years of children's television, Henson wanted to explore more sophisticated possibilities for his Muppets. He shopped around an idea for a variety show starring Kermit, but none of the networks were interested. Undeterred, Henson created The Muppet Show as a syndicated series, which became the world's most watched TV show, with 235 million viewers in more than 100 countries. The program ran from 1976 to 1981 and won three Emmys. Meanwhile, the Muppets launched a movie career in 1979 with The Muppet Movie, followed by The Great Muppet Caper (1981) and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984).
Other, less familiar Henson creatures appeared in The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986) with David Bowie, as well as in two cable TV series, Fraggle Rock and The Ghost of Faffner Hall. His Saturday morning cartoon, Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, was launched in 1984 and won four Emmys. Henson died of pneumonia in 1990.
September 24, 1961
September 24, 1966
"Last
Train to Clarksville" gives the made-for-TV Monkees a real-life pop hit.
"Last
Train To Clarksville" was written by the team that was also responsible
for the theme song of The Monkees, songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby
Hart. Though Boyce and Hart had been working together in Los Angeles for
several years before being asked to write and record the soundtrack for
Schneider and Rafelson's A Hard Day's Night-inspired pilot, their
biggest success to date had been in writing minor hits for Chubby Checker and Paul
Revere and the Raiders and in being
commissioned to write the theme song for Days Of Our Lives. Their
association with The Monkees would end up launching Boyce and Hart on a
moderately successful career as performers in the late 1960s and early 1970s. By far their best-known hits, however, were the ones
they wrote for the Monkees, including "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"
and "Last Train To Clarksville."
Just
as producers Schneider and Rafelson had reached out to a pair of industry
professionals to create the music for the pilot episode of The Monkees,
they engaged numerous others to create the other memorable songs in the
Monkees' catalog. Under the musical direction of Don Kirshner, The Monkees featured
hits by some of the era's greatest songwriters, including Neil Diamond, who
wrote "I'm A Believer" and "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit
You" (both 1967) and the great husband-and-wife team of Gerry Goffin and
Carole King, who wrote "Daydream Believer" (1967). Numerous other
Monkees songs were written by such songwriting luminaries as Cynthia Mann and
Barry Weill, Harry Nilsson and Carole Bayer Sager and Neil Sedaka.
By the time their third album was released, the real-life Monkees—Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork—had taken over creative control of their musical output, including taking on much of the songwriting. Although they would release seven more studio albums, none would contain hits as successful or memorable as the one that gave the group its breakthrough on September 24, 1966.
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
Tony Figueroa
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