April 25, 1992
The final episode of Growing Pains aired on ABC.
April 25, 1992
The final episode of Who's the Boss? aired on ABC.
April 25, 1997
The Dukes of
Hazzard television movie entitled
"The Reunion" aired.
April 28, 1957
Mike Wallace was seen on
TV for the first time. He was the host of Mike
Wallace Interviews.
April 29, 1992
The Los Angeles Riots were sparked on when a jury acquitted
four Los Angeles Police Department
officers accused in the videotaped beating of African-American
motorist RodneyKing following a
high-speed pursuit. Thousands of people in the Los Angeles area rioted over the six
days following the verdict. First day (Wednesday, April 29) The acquittals of
the four accused Los Angeles Police Department officers came at 3:15 p.m. local
time. By 3:45, a crowd of more than 300 people had appeared at the Los Angeles
County Courthouse, most protesting the verdicts passed down a half an hour
earlier and many miles away. Between 5 and 6 p.m., a group of two dozen
officers, commanded by LAPD Lt. Michael Moulin, confronted a growing African-American
crowd at the intersection of Florence and Normandie in South Central Los Angeles. Outnumbered,
these officers retreated. A new group of protesters appeared at Parker
Center, the LAPD's headquarters, by about 6:30 p.m., and 15 minutes later,
the crowd at Florence and Normandie had started looting, attacking vehicles and
people, mainly whites.
At approximately 6:45 p.m., Reginald Oliver Denny, a white truck driver who
stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of Florence and South Normandie
Avenues, was dragged from his vehicle and severely beaten by a mob of local
black residents as news helicopters hovered above, recording every blow, including
a concrete fragment connecting with Denny's temple and a cinder block thrown at
his head as he lay unconscious in the street. The police never appeared, having
been ordered to withdraw for their own safety, although several assailants (the
so-called L.A. Four) were later arrested and one, Damian Williams, was sent to prison.
Instead, Denny was rescued by an unarmed, African American civilian named Bobby
Green Jr. who, seeing the assault live on television, rushed to the scene and
drove Denny to the hospital using the victim's own truck, which carried
twenty-seven tons of sand. Denny had to undergo years of rehabilitative
therapy, and his speech and ability to walk were permanently damaged. Although
several other motorists were brutally beaten by the same mob, Denny remains the
best-known victim of the riots because of the live television coverage.
April 30, 1992
The final episode of the The Cosby Show aired.
The sitcom debuted in 1984 at a time when the sitcom
was declared to be dead. Comedian Bill
Cosby starred in the nation's
top-rated program for four of its eight years and always ranked in the top 20
shows.
The show focused on the Huxtable family, an upper-middle class
African-American family living in a brownstone
in Brooklyn Heights, New York. The
patriarch was Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable, an obstetrician.
The matriarch was attorney
Clair Huxtable. Despite its comedic tone, the show sometimes involved serious
subjects, such as son Theo's experiences dealing with dyslexia,
inspired by Cosby's child Ennis, who was also dyslexic.
Although the cast and characters were predominantly African-American, the
program was unusual in that issues of race were rarely mentioned when compared
to other situation comedies of the time, such as The
Jeffersons. However, The Cosby Show had African-American themes,
such as civil rights marches, and it frequently promoted African-American and
African culture represented by artists and musicians such as Jacob
Lawrence, Miles Davis, James Brown,
Stevie
Wonder, Lena
Horne, Duke Ellington, Dizzy
Gillespie and Miriam Makeba.
April 30th 1992
The second day of the Los Angeles Riots, KNBC (NBC's
Los Angeles affiliate) was covering the historic event nonstop.
But that evening the station decided to suspend it’s
around the clock riot coverage to air the series finale of The Cosby Show
giving viewers a brief Mental Sorbet.
Following the broadcast Bill Cosby went on the air and asked Angelinos to pray
for peace.
April 30, 1997
In The Puppy Episode of the ABC
sitcom Ellen, the character of Ellen Morgan (played
by Ellen DeGeneres) announces that she is gay.
The widely publicized episode featured cameos by
Oprah Winfrey, k.d. lang, Demi Moore, Billy Bob Thornton, and Dwight Yoakam. An
estimated 42 million viewers watched the special hour-long program. Ellen
DeGeneres herself had come out earlier that year on The Oprah
Winfrey Show and in TIME. Ellen
is often credited to be the first primetime sitcom to feature a gay leading
character but there was a sitcom titled Love, Sidney (1981 until 1983) staring the late Tony Randall.
The first openly gay regular character on a sitcom was Soap's (1977) Jodie Dallas, played by Billy Crystal.In the spring of 1994,
Ellen DeGeneres was cast in a series called These Friends of Mine, but
in the fall of 1994, she took center stage and the program was retiled Ellen.
The program finished in the top 20 shows for the 1994-1995 season.
The outing ignited a storm of controversy, prompting ABC to place a parental
advisory at the beginning of each episode.
Despite her success, and the enormous audience drawn by the coming-out
episode, ABC cancelled the series at the end of the 1998 season. Although the
network pointed to dwindling ratings, Ellen DeGeneres contended that the
network buckled under pressure from conservative groups and stopped promoting
the show after the controversial episode.
April 25, 1992
The Dukes of
Hazzard television movie entitled
"The Reunion" aired.
Mike Wallace was seen on
TV for the first time. He was the host of Mike
Wallace Interviews.
At approximately 6:45 p.m., Reginald Oliver Denny, a white truck driver who
stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of Florence and South Normandie
Avenues, was dragged from his vehicle and severely beaten by a mob of local
black residents as news helicopters hovered above, recording every blow, including
a concrete fragment connecting with Denny's temple and a cinder block thrown at
his head as he lay unconscious in the street. The police never appeared, having
been ordered to withdraw for their own safety, although several assailants (the
so-called L.A. Four) were later arrested and one, Damian Williams, was sent to prison.
Instead, Denny was rescued by an unarmed, African American civilian named Bobby
Green Jr. who, seeing the assault live on television, rushed to the scene and
drove Denny to the hospital using the victim's own truck, which carried
twenty-seven tons of sand. Denny had to undergo years of rehabilitative
therapy, and his speech and ability to walk were permanently damaged. Although
several other motorists were brutally beaten by the same mob, Denny remains the
best-known victim of the riots because of the live television coverage.
April 30, 1992
The final episode of the The Cosby Show aired.
The sitcom debuted in 1984 at a time when the sitcom
was declared to be dead. Comedian Bill
Cosby starred in the nation's
top-rated program for four of its eight years and always ranked in the top 20
shows.
The show focused on the Huxtable family, an upper-middle class
African-American family living in a brownstone
in Brooklyn Heights, New York. The
patriarch was Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable, an obstetrician.
The matriarch was attorney
Clair Huxtable. Despite its comedic tone, the show sometimes involved serious
subjects, such as son Theo's experiences dealing with dyslexia,
inspired by Cosby's child Ennis, who was also dyslexic.
Although the cast and characters were predominantly African-American, the
program was unusual in that issues of race were rarely mentioned when compared
to other situation comedies of the time, such as The
Jeffersons. However, The Cosby Show had African-American themes,
such as civil rights marches, and it frequently promoted African-American and
African culture represented by artists and musicians such as Jacob
Lawrence, Miles Davis, James Brown,
Stevie
Wonder, Lena
Horne, Duke Ellington, Dizzy
Gillespie and Miriam Makeba.
April 30th 1992
The second day of the Los Angeles Riots, KNBC (NBC's Los Angeles affiliate) was covering the historic event nonstop.
But that evening the station decided to suspend it’s around the clock riot coverage to air the series finale of The Cosby Show giving viewers a brief Mental Sorbet. Following the broadcast Bill Cosby went on the air and asked Angelinos to pray for peace.
April 30, 1997
In The Puppy Episode of the ABC sitcom Ellen, the character of Ellen Morgan (played by Ellen DeGeneres) announces that she is gay.
The widely publicized episode featured cameos by Oprah Winfrey, k.d. lang, Demi Moore, Billy Bob Thornton, and Dwight Yoakam. An estimated 42 million viewers watched the special hour-long program. Ellen DeGeneres herself had come out earlier that year on The Oprah Winfrey Show and in TIME. Ellen is often credited to be the first primetime sitcom to feature a gay leading character but there was a sitcom titled Love, Sidney (1981 until 1983) staring the late Tony Randall. The first openly gay regular character on a sitcom was Soap's (1977) Jodie Dallas, played by Billy Crystal.In the spring of 1994,
Ellen DeGeneres was cast in a series called These Friends of Mine, but
in the fall of 1994, she took center stage and the program was retiled Ellen.
The program finished in the top 20 shows for the 1994-1995 season.
The outing ignited a storm of controversy, prompting ABC to place a parental
advisory at the beginning of each episode.
Despite her success, and the enormous audience drawn by the coming-out episode, ABC cancelled the series at the end of the 1998 season. Although the network pointed to dwindling ratings, Ellen DeGeneres contended that the network buckled under pressure from conservative groups and stopped promoting the show after the controversial episode.
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
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