April 12, 1987
21 Jump Street first airs on the Fox Network. The series focused on a squad of youthful-looking undercover police officers investigating crimes in high schools, colleges, and other teenage venues.
Created by Patrick Hasburgh and Stephen J. Cannell, the series was produced by Stephen J. Cannell Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television. The show was an early hit for the fledgling Fox Network, and was created to attract a younger audience. The final season aired in first-run syndication mainly on local Fox affiliates. It was later rerun on the FX cable network from 1996 to 1998.
The series provided a spark to Johnny Depp's nascent acting career, garnering him national recognition as a teen idol. Depp found this status irritating, but he continued on the series under his contract and was paid $45,000 per episode. Eventually he was released from his contract after the fourth season. A spin-off series, Booker, was produced for the character of Dennis Booker (Richard Grieco); it ran one season, from September 1989 to June 1990.
April 15, 1987
Magnum P.I. Episode – Limbo
"Limbo" was originally intended to be the series finale (with Magnum seemingly walking off to heaven). When they filmed this episode everyone on the crew thought it was the last one, including Tom Selleck. Not long before the air date in April of 1987, Tom agreed to do one final (short) season (Season Eight). After Season Eight was greenlighted, "Limbo" underwent some minor edits to reenforce the idea that Magnum is not really dead (Michelle's visit to the hospital). Still, some scenes couldn't be re-done or re-edited, namely the scene were everybody is at Robin's Nest dressed in black, and talking about Magnum in the past tense.
April 17, 1937
Daffy Duck debuts.
Daffy Duck makes his debut in the Warner Bros. short Porky's Duck Hunt. In the 1920s, movie houses had started showing a short cartoon before feature presentations, but the form became more innovative and popular after sound was introduced in 1928.April 17, 2002
General Hospital airs 10,000th episode.
ABC airs the 10,000th episode of the daytime drama General Hospital, the network’s longest-running soap opera and the longest-running program ever produced in Hollywood.Created by Frank and Doris Hursley, General Hospital premiered on
April 1, 1963. It was set in the fictional town of Port Charles in upstate New
York, and focused on the lives and loves of the staff working in the town’s
General Hospital. Prominent characters in the show’s early days included Dr.
Steve Hardy (John Beradino) and Nurse Audrey March (Rachel Ames). On the same
day General Hospital debuted, ABC’s rival network, NBC, launched its
own medical soap opera, The Doctors. Both networks were attempting to
capitalize on the success of prime time-medical dramas such as Dr. Kildare and
Ben Casey.
General Hospital set a new standard for daytime soap operas by
introducing dramatic action-adventure plotlines into the complicated mix of
family and romantic issues that was the usual bread and butter of soaps at the
time. Still, by the late 1970s, the show’s ratings had dropped to the point
where it seemed on the brink of cancellation. In general, ratings for daytime
soap operas were declining, a development some attributed to the fact that
growing numbers of women--the target audience for the genre since the first of
its kind, CBS’s Guiding Light, debuted in 1952--were entering the work
force and weren’t home during the day. In 1978, Gloria Monty took the reins as
executive producer of General Hospital; in a few short years, the show
had become the No. 1 daytime drama, largely by captivating growing numbers of
teenage audiences.
One of the big secrets to the show’s new success was viewers’ fascination
with the romance of the “super couple” Luke Spencer and Laura Webber (known to
millions of fans simply as “Luke and Laura”), played by Anthony Geary and Genie
Francis. After bad-boy Luke stole Laura from her lawyer husband, Scotty Baldwin
(Kin Shriner), their 1981 wedding became the most-watched event in soap-opera
history. Luke and Laura divorced on the show in 2001 after 20 years of
marriage; with great fanfare, they remarried in the fall of 2006.
In the 10,000th episode of General Hospital, Nurse Audrey receives
a medal commemorating her 10,000 days of service. Rachel Ames departed the show
in 2007, and the longest-running character on General Hospital (as of
its 46th season in 2008) is Shriner’s Scotty Baldwin, who was introduced in
1965. Among the more famous performers to appear on General Hospital over
the years are Demi Moore, who got her start on the show, and Rick Springfield,
who became a pop star due to his soap-opera fame. Other General Hospital veterans
include John Stamos, Jack Wagner and Ricky Martin. Elizabeth Taylor, a longtime
fan of the show, made a cameo appearance in 1981.
One General Hospital spinoff, Port Charles, ran from 1997
to 2003; another, General Hospital: Night Shift, premiered in 2007. In
recent years, General Hospital has been praised for its treatment of
such sensitive issues as HIV/AIDS and sexual abuse of children. Chosen by TV
Guide as the All-Time Best Daytime Soap, the show won a
record-breaking 10th Emmy Award for Best Daytime Drama in June 2008.
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
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