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"
I'll keep doing it until I die or the audiences die.
-Mark Russell
Mark Russell
August 23, 1932 – March 30, 2023
Beginning in the early 1960s, he was a regular entertainer at theShoreham Hotelin Washington, D.C.and did his first PBS show in 1975. From 1979 to 1984, he was a correspondent on the NBC reality TV showReal People. He also made brief appearances on all six episodes of the short lived Starland Vocal Band Show (CBS) during the summer of 1977.
Russell's song parodies use melodies from old standards with new humorous lyrics pertinent to the subject matter. For example, in 1990, following the execution of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, Russell did a parody song on his show to the tune of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". ("Pardon me, boys / Are you the cats who shot Ceauşescu?") Russell himself admits that most of his jokes and songs are very topical and have "a shelf life shorter than cottage cheese".
Russell's humor is known for skewering Democrats and Republicans as well as third party, independent politicians and other prominent political (and sometimes nonpolitical) figures.
Russell has often been asked the question "Do you have any writers?" His standard response is "Oh, yes. I have 535 writers: One hundred in the Senate and 435 in the House of Representatives!" When asked if his views on current events are too caustic, Russell replies, "I follow the old newsman's adage. As they say, 'I don't make the news. I just report it.' And in my case, I don't even make the jokes. I just report them as they masquerade as news."
For several years, on the Sunday before Labor Day, Russell made annual appearances on Meet the Press, which was hosted from 1991 to 2008 by Tim Russert, also a Canisius High graduate.
Marlon Brando declines
the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Godfather. The Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather attended the ceremony
in Brando’s place, stating that the actor “very regretfully” could not accept
the award, as he was protesting Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans in film.
Now revered by many as the greatest actor of his
generation, Brando earned his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the
brutish Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). The role
was a reprisal of Brando’s incendiary performance in the 1947 stage production
of Tennessee Williams’ play, which first brought him to the public’s attention.
Nominated again for roles in Viva Zapata! (1952) and Julius Caesar (1953),
he won his first Academy Award for On the Waterfront (1954).
Brando’s career went into decline in the 1960s, with expensive
flops such as One-Eyed Jacks (1961), which he also directed, and Mutiny
on the Bounty (1962). Aside from his preternatural talent, the actor had
become notorious for his moodiness and demanding on-set behavior, as well as
his tumultuous off-screen life. Francis Ford Coppola, the young director of The
Godfather, had to fight to get him cast in the coveted role of Vito
Corleone. Brando won the role only after undergoing a screen test and cutting
his fee to $250,000--far less than what he had commanded a decade earlier. With
one of the most memorable screen performances of all time, Brando rejuvenated
his career, and The Godfather became an almost-immediate classic.
On the eve of the 1972 Oscars, Brando announced that
he would boycott the ceremony, and would send Littlefeather in his place. After
Brando’s name was announced as Best Actor, the presenter Roger Moore (star of
several James Bond films) attempted to hand the Oscar to Littlefeather, but she
brushed it aside, saying that Brando could not accept the award. Littlefeather
read a portion of a lengthy statement Brando had written, the entirety of which
was later published in the press, including The New York Times. “The
motion picture community has been as responsible as any,” Brando wrote, “for
degrading the Indian and making a mockery of his character, describing his as
savage, hostile and evil.”
Brando had been involved in social causes for years,
speaking publicly in support of the formation of a Jewish state in the 1940s,
as well as for African-American civil rights and the Black Panther Party. His
Oscar statement expressed support for the American Indian Movement (AIM) and
referenced the ongoing situation at Wounded Knee, the South Dakota town that
had been seized by AIM members the previous month and was currently under siege
by U.S. military forces. Wounded Knee had also been the site of a massacre of
Native Americans by U.S. government forces in 1890.
Brando was the second performer to turn down a Best
Actor Oscar; the first was George C. Scott, who politely declined to accept his
award for Patton in 1971 and reportedly said of the Academy Awards
hoopla: “I don’t want any part of it.” Scott had previously declined a Best
Supporting Actor nomination for The Hustler (1961).
March 31, 2003
The first season of American Chopper began.
April 1, 1963
Soap operas General Hospital and The Doctors premiere. The ABC television network airs the premiere episode
of General Hospital, the daytime drama that will become the network’s
most enduring soap opera and the longest-running serial program produced in
Hollywood. On the same day, rival network NBC debuts its own medical-themed
soap opera, TheDoctors.
By setting their new shows in a hospital, both networks were attempting to
capitalize on the popularity of prime-time medical dramas such as Dr.
Kildare and Ben Casey. Set in the fictional upstate New York town of
Port Charles, General Hospital focused on the lives of the doctors,
nurses and patients of the town’s General Hospital, including Dr. Steve Hardy
(John Beradino) and Nurse Audrey March (Rachel Ames). The central character of The
Doctors was Dr. Matthew Powers (James Pritchett), chief of staff of Hope
Memorial Hospital, located in the fictional New England town of Madison.
In contrast to General Hospital, The Doctors first ran as an
anthology series, with each episode focusing on a single plotline. It later ran
as a weekly serial and became a full-fledged daily soap in March 1964. For most
of its run, the show was largely sponsored by the Colgate-Palmolive Company,
makers of Fab detergent, Palmolive dish liquid and Irish Spring soap, among
many other products. The tagline of The Doctors, announced at the
beginning of each episode, was “a daytime drama series dedicated to the
brotherhood of healing.” The Doctors won numerous Emmy Awards, including
Best Daytime Drama in 1972 and 1974, Best Actress for Elizabeth Hubbard (who
played Dr. Althea Davis) in 1974 and Best Actor for Pritchett in 1978. Some of
the notable actors that have appeared on The Doctors include Ellen
Burstyn, Alec Baldwin, Kathleen Turner and Armand Assante. With ratings
declining steadily after 1975, The Doctors was canceled in 1982, just
months before its 30th anniversary.
For its part, General Hospital has remained on the air for more than
four decades, making it ABC’s longest-running soap opera. Though falling
ratings in the late 1970s threatened the show’s existence, it turned things
around and become a hit with younger audiences in the early 1980s. Some of its
more popular ongoing storylines involved the “super couple” Luke Spencer
(Anthony Geary) and Laura Webber (Genie Francis), whose 1981 wedding was the
most-watched event in daytime television history. In June 2008, the show won a
record-breaking 10th Emmy Award for Best Daytime Drama.
Mr. Rogers was most famous for
creating and hosting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968–2001), which featured
his gentle, soft-spoken personality and directness to his audiences. Initially
educated to be a minister, Rogers was displeased with the way television
addressed children and made an effort to change this when he began to write for
and perform on local Pittsburgh-area shows dedicated to
youth. WQED developed his own show in 1968 and it was distributed nationwide by
Eastern Educational Television Network. Over the course of three decades on
television, Fred Rogers became an indelible American icon of children's
entertainment and education, as well as a symbol of compassion, patience, and
morality. He was also known for his advocacy of various public causes. His
testimony before a lower court in favor of fair use recording of television
shows to play at another time (now known as time shifting) was cited in a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Betamax case, and he gave now-famous
testimony to a U.S. Senate committee, advocating government funding for children's television.
Rogers received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, some forty honorary degrees, and a Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, was recognized by two Congressional resolutions,
and was ranked No. 35 among TV Guide's Fifty Greatest TV Stars of All Time.
Several buildings and artworks in Pennsylvania are dedicated to his memory, and
the Smithsonian Institution displays one of his trademark sweaters as a
"Treasure of American History".
Rogers was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, to James and Nancy Rogers;
he had one sister, Elaine. Early in life he spent much of his free time with
his maternal grandfather, Fred McFeely, who had an interest in music. He would
often sing along as his mother would play the piano and he himself began
playing at five.
At Rollins, he met Sara Joanne Byrd, an Oakland, Florida native; they married on
June 9, 1952. They had two sons, James (b. 1959) and John (b. 1961). In 1963
Rogers graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was ordained a minister
in the Presbyterian Church.
Rogers had an apartment in New York City and a
summer home on Nantucket island in Massachusetts.
Rogers was red-green color
blind, swam
every morning, was a vegetarian, and neither smoked nor drank. Despite
recurring rumors, he never served in the military.
Fred Rogers had a life-changing moment when he first
saw television in his parents' home. He entered seminary after college; but, after
his first experience as a viewer, he wanted to explore the potential of the
medium. In an interview with CNN in his later years, Rogers
stated, "I went into television because I hated it so, and I thought
there's some way of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would
watch and listen."
He thus applied for a job at NBC in New York City in 1951 and was hired because of
his music degree. Rogers spent three years working on the production staffs for
such music-centered programming as NBC Opera Theater. He also worked on Gabby Hayes' show for children.
Ultimately, Rogers decided that commercial television's reliance on
advertisement and merchandising undermined its ability to educate or enrich
young audiences, so he quit NBC.
In 1954, he began working at WQED, a Pittsburgh public television station, as a puppeteer on a local children's show The
Children's Corner. For the next seven years, he worked with host Josie Carey in unscripted live TV, developing many of the
puppets, characters, and music used in his later work, such as King Friday
XIII, and Curious X the Owl.
Rogers began wearing his famous sneakers when he found them to be quieter than his work shoes as he moved about
behind the set. He was also the voices of King Friday XIII and Queen Sara
Saturday (named after his wife), rulers of the neighborhood, as well as X the
Owl, Henrietta Pussycat, Daniel Striped Tiger, Lady Elaine Fairchild, and Larry
Horse. The show won a Sylvania Awardfor best children's show, and
was briefly broadcast nationally on NBC.
During these eight years, he would leave the WQED
studios during his lunch breaks to study theology at the nearby Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Rogers, however, was not
interested in preaching; and, after his ordination, he was specifically charged
to continue his work with Children's Television. He had also done work at the University of Pittsburgh's program in Child Development and Child Care.
In 1963, Rogers moved to Toronto, where he was contracted by
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to develop his debut
in front of the camera, the 15-minute children's program Misterogers,
which though popular with children ran just three seasons. Many of his famous
set pieces—Trolley, Eiffel
Tower, the
'tree', and 'castle'—were created by CBC designers. While in Canada, Rogers
brought his friend and understudyErnie Coombs, who would go on to create Mr. Dressup, a very successful and
long-running children's show in Canada, and similar in many ways to Mister
Rogers' Neighborhood. Mr. Dressup also used some of the songs that
would be featured on Rogers' later program. The two of them co-starred on Butternut Square on CBC TV between October 19, 1964
and February 10, 1967.
In 1966, Rogers acquired the rights to his program
from the CBC and moved the show to WQED in Pittsburgh, where he had worked on The
Children's Corner. He developed the new show for the Eastern Educational Network. Stations that carried the program were limited but
did include educational stations in Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York
City.
After returning to Pittsburgh, Rogers attended the
Sixth Presbyterian Church in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
Distribution of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
began on February 19, 1968. The following year, the show moved to PBS
(Public Broadcasting Service). In 1971, Rogers formed Family Communications,
Inc. (FCI), and the company established offices in the WQED building in
Pittsburgh. Initially, the company served solely as the production arm of Mister
Rogers' Neighborhood, but now develops and produces an array of children's
programming and educational materials.
Visually, the presentation of the show was very
simple, and it did not feature the animation or fast pace of other children's
shows, which Rogers thought of as "bombardment". Rogers also believed
in not acting out a different persona on camera compared to how he acted off
camera, stating that "One of the greatest gifts you can give anybody is
the gift of your honest self. I also believe that kids can spot a phony a mile
away." Rogers composed almost all of the music on the program. He wanted
to teach children to love themselves and others, and he addressed common
childhood fears with comforting songs and skits. For example, one of his
famous songs explains how a child cannot be pulled down the bathtub drain
because he or she will not fit. He even once took a trip to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh to show children that a
hospital is not a place to fear. During the Gulf War (1990–91), he assured his
audience that all children in the neighborhood would be well cared for and
asked parents to promise to take care of their own children. The message was
aired again by PBS during the media storm that preceded the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In 1994, Rogers created another one-time special for
PBS called Fred Rogers' Heroes which consisted of documentary portraits
of four real-life people whose work helped make their communities better.
Rogers, uncharacteristically dressed in a suit and tie, hosted in wraparound
segments which did not use the "Neighborhood" set.
For a time, Rogers produced specials for parents as
a precursor to the subject of the week on the Neighborhood called
"Mister Rogers Talks To Parents About [topic]". Rogers didn't
host those specials, but instead invited news announcers, such as Joan Lunden, who hosted the Conflict
special, to take on the emcee duties in front of a gallery of parents while
Rogers answered questions from them. These specials were made to prepare
parents for questions their children might ask after watching the episodes on
the topic of the week.
The only time Rogers appeared on television as
someone other than himself was in 1996, when he played a preacher on one
episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
In the mid-1980s, the Burger King fast-food chain lampooned
Rogers' image with an actor called "Mr. Rodney", imitating Rogers'
television character. Rogers found the character's pitching fast food as
confusing to children, and called a press conference in which he stated that he
did not endorse the company's use of his character or likeness (Rogers did no
commercial endorsements of any kind throughout his career, though over the
years he acted as a pitchman for several non-profit organizations dedicated to
learning). The chain publicly apologized for the faux pas, and pulled
the ads. By contrast, Fred Rogers found Eddie Murphy's parody of his show on Saturday Night Live, "Mister Robinson's Neighborhood," amusing and
affectionate, which was also initially broadcast at a time of night when his
own child audience was not likely to see it.
Rogers voiced himself on the "Arthur Meets
Mister Rogers" episode of the PBS Kids series Arthur.
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood won four Emmy awards, and Rogers himself was presented with a
Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1997 Daytime Emmys, as described by Esquire'sTom Junod:
Mister Rogers went onstage to accept the
award — and there, in front of all the soap opera stars and talk show
sinceratrons, in front of all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater
bosoms, he made his small bow and said into the microphone, "All of us
have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with
me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are.
Ten seconds of silence."
And then he lifted his wrist, looked at the
audience, looked at his watch, and said, "I'll watch the time." There
was, at first, a small whoop from the crowd, a giddy, strangled hiccup of
laughter, as people realized that he wasn't kidding, that Mister Rogers was not
some convenient eunuch, but rather a man, an authority figure who actually
expected them to do what he asked. And so they did. One second, two seconds,
three seconds — and now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the
mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking
down a crystal chandelier. And Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch
and said softly "May God be with you," to all his vanquished
children.
Other works
In 1969, Rogers appeared before the United States SenateSubcommittee on
Communications. His goal was to support funding for PBS
and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in response to significant
proposed cuts. In about six minutes of testimony, Rogers spoke of the need for
social and emotional education that public television provided. He passionately
argued that alternative television programming like his Neighborhood
helped encourage children to become happy and productive citizens, sometimes
opposing less positive messages in media and in popular culture. He even
recited the lyrics to one of his songs.
The chairman of the subcommittee, John O. Pastore, was not previously
familiar with Rogers' work, and was sometimes described as impatient. However,
he reported that the testimony had given him goosebumps, and declared, "I
think it's wonderful. Looks like you just earned the $20 million."
The subsequent congressional appropriation, for 1971, increased PBS funding
from $9 million to $22 million.
During the controversy surrounding the introduction
of the household VCR,
Rogers was involved in supporting the manufacturers of VCRs in court. His 1979 testimony in the case Sony Corp. of America v.
Universal City Studios, Inc. noted that he did not object to home recording of
his television programs, for instance, by families in order to watch together
at a later time. This testimony contrasted with the views of others in the
television industry who objected to home recording or believed that devices to
facilitate it should be taxed or regulated.
The Supreme Court considered the testimony of Rogers in its decision
that held that the Betamax video recorder did not infringe copyright. The Court stated that his views were a notable piece of evidence
"that many [television] producers are willing to allow private
time-shifting to continue" and even quoted his testimony in a footnote:
Some public stations, as well as commercial
stations, program the "Neighborhood" at hours when some children
cannot use it ... I have always felt that with the advent of all of this new
technology that allows people to tape the "Neighborhood" off-the-air,
and I'm speaking for the "Neighborhood" because that's what I
produce, that they then become much more active in the programming of their
family's television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed
by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been "You are an
important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions."
Maybe I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person
to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is
important.
Rogers died on the morning of February 27, 2003 at
his home with his wife by his side, less than a month before he would have
turned 75. His death was such a significant event in Pittsburgh that the entire
front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published the next day devoted its coverage to him.
The Reverend William P. Barker presided over a public memorial in Pittsburgh.
More than 2,700 people attended the memorial at Heinz Hall, including former Good Morning America host David Hartman, Teresa Heinz Kerry, philanthropist Elsie Hillman, PBS
President Pat
Mitchell, Arthur creator Marc Brown, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar author-illustrator Eric Carle. Speakers remembered
Rogers' love of children, devotion to his religion, enthusiasm for music, and
quirks. Teresa Heinz Kerry said of Rogers, "He never condescended, just
invited us into his conversation. He spoke to us as the people we were, not as
the people others wished we were." Rogers is interred at Unity Cemetery in
Latrobe.
On New Years Day of 2004, Michael Keaton hosted the PBS TV special Fred
Rogers: America's Favorite Neighbor. It was released on DVD September 28
that year. Keaton was a former stagehand on the show before he quit to become
an actor. To mark what would have been his 80th birthday, Rogers' production
company sponsored several events to memorialize him, including "Won't You
Wear a Sweater Day", during which fans and neighbors were asked to wear
their favorite sweaters in celebration.
The television industry honored Rogers with a George Foster Peabody Award "in recognition of
25 years of beautiful days in the neighborhood" in 1987, the same
year he was initiated as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha SinfoniaFraternity, the national fraternity for men of music. Rogers
was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international
professional music fraternity. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. One of Rogers' iconic sweaters was
acquired by the Smithsonian Institution, which displays it as a "Treasure of American
History". In 2002 Rogers received the PNC Commonwealth Award in Mass
Communications.
He was furthermore awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002, for his contributions to children's
education, justified by President George W. Bush, who said, "Fred
Rogers has proven that television can soothe the soul and nurture the spirit
and teach the very young". A year later, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed
Resolution 16 to commemorate the life of Fred Rogers. It read, in part,
"Through his spirituality and placid nature, Mr. Rogers was able to reach
out to our nation's children and encourage each of them to understand the
important role they play in their communities and as part of their families.
More importantly, he did not shy away from dealing with difficult issues of
death and divorce but rather encouraged children to express their emotions in a
healthy, constructive manner, often providing a simple answer to life's
hardships."
Following Rogers' death, the U.S. House of Representatives in 2003 unanimously passed
Resolution 111 honoring Rogers for "his legendary service to the
improvement of the lives of children, his steadfast commitment to demonstrating
the power of compassion, and his dedication to spreading kindness through
example."
The same year the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved an overture "to observe a memorial
time for the Reverend Fred M. Rogers" at its General Assembly. The rationale for the recognition of Rogers
reads, "The Reverend Fred Rogers, a member of the Presbytery of
Pittsburgh, as host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood since 1968, had a profound
effect on the lives of millions of people across the country through his
ministry to children and families. Mister Rogers promoted and supported
Christian values in the public media with his demonstration of unconditional
love. His ability to communicate with children and to help them understand and
deal with difficult questions in their lives will be greatly missed."
The show was one of
television's 25 most highly rated shows for seven of its nine seasons. When
series star and executive producer Michael Landon decided to leave the show in 1982, the show's title
changed to Little House: A New Beginning and focused on
character Laura Ingalls Wilder (Melissa Gilbert)
and her family. The show lasted only one more season. Three made-for-television
movie sequels followed: Little House:
Look Back to Yesterday (1983), Little
House: Bless All the Dear Children (1983), and Little House: The Last Farewell (1984).
March
25, 1983
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever aired.
Technically, the 25th anniversary of Motown Records
should have been celebrated nine months later, in January 1984, but that was
only one of several details glossed over in staging the landmark television
special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. Filmed before a rapturous
live audience on March 25, 1983, the Motown 25 special is perhaps best
remembered for Michael Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean," which
brought the house down and introduced much of the world to the "moonwalk."
There were other great performances that night, too, but there were also
moments that revealed cracks in the joyous-reunion image that Motown chief
Berry Gordy sought to portray.
The most glaring breakdown in
decorum came during what could have been the evening's greatest triumph: the
reunion of Diana Ross and the Supremes. When Ross, Mary Wilson and Cindy
Birdsong performed together that night for the first time in 13 years, they
took to the stage with something closer to 20 years' worth of unresolved resentment
among them. Early in their performance of "Someday We'll Be
Together," as Diana slowly moved upstage, Mary and Cindy had the audacity
to keep stride alongside her. Diana turned around and angrily pushed Mary
back—a move that was carefully edited out of the later broadcast but which
prompted Smokey Robinson and others to take the stage and form an impromptu
chorus/demilitarized zone between the warring Supremes.
The "Battle of the
Bands" medley between the Temptations and the Four Tops was a much bigger
creative success, though the biggest individual names in the Temptations—Eddie
Kendricks and David Ruffin—were absent due to squabbling within the group,
leaving Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams as the only original Temptations on
stage that night. Also missing from the stage that night was a man whose name
was then unfamiliar to all but the most obsessive Motown fans, but whose
contribution to the label's success was monumental. The late James Jamerson,
whose bass guitar formed the foundation of almost every great Motown record of
the 1960s,
was in the building that night, but as a paying member of the audience seated
in the back rows. His own troubles with alcohol abuse played a part in his
estrangement from the Motown "family," but so did a decades-long
history of what he and fellow members of the Funk Brothers—the Motown backing
band—felt was a lack of appreciation and respect for their role in creating the
famous Motown sound.
Crystal began performing in comedy clubs as a
teenager; after graduating from New York University's film school, he formed
his own comedy troupe, 3's Company. As a young stand-up comic, Crystal opened
for acts like the singer Barry Manilow and was particularly known for his
impression of the sportscaster Howard Cosell interviewing Muhammad Ali. After
setting off for Hollywood, Crystal landed the role of Jodie Dallas, one of the
first openly gay characters on television, on Soap (1977-81). Though his
first film, Rabbit Test (1978)--in which he played the world's first
pregnant man--flopped, Crystal's star kept rising. His popular live
performances and regular appearances on TV's Saturday Night Live landed
him roles in a string of movies, including Rob Reiner's This is Spinal Tap (1984),
Running Scared (1986) and The Princess Bride (1987), and Throw
Momma From the Train (1987). In 1989, he made his highest-profile star turn
yet, playing opposite Meg Ryan in the hit romantic comedy When Harry Met
Sally..., also directed by Reiner.
In 1990, Crystal won over audiences with his first Oscar hosting gig,
performing silly songs based on the nominated films and popping up in film-clip
montages. He would host the ceremony seven more times (1991, 1992, 1993, 1997,
1998, 2000 and 2004), along with a number of other events, including the Grammy
Awards and the HBO benefit series Comic Relief, alongside Whoopi
Goldberg and Robin Williams. Crystal scored his biggest movie hit to date in
1991, playing a radio executive going through a mid-life crisis in City
Slickers (1991), which he also executive-produced. The film's success led
to a memorable moment at the 1992 Oscars, when Crystal's 73-year-old co-star,
Jack Palance, dropped to the stage to perform one-armed pushups when accepting
his statuette for Best Supporting Actor. As emcee that night, Crystal wrung maximum
comedic potential about the incident with his follow-up jokes. The film's
sequel, City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly's Gold, came out in 1994.
Crystal had less success with his next producing and acting effort, the
ambitious 1992 film Mr. Saturday Night, which he also directed. In the
film, Crystal played the stand-up comedian Buddy Young Jr., a character he had
originated in 1984 and later portrayed on Saturday Night Live, among
other shows. Mr. Saturday Night received mixed reviews, and was a
failure at the box office. In 1995, Crystal wrote, directed, produced and
starred in Forget Paris, a romantic comedy co-starring Debra Winger; the
film was a critical and commercial disappointment.
Crystal appeared in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996) and Woody Allen's
Deconstructing Harry (1997), but another producing effort, 1998's My
Giant, also flopped. He came back strong, however, with 1999's blockbuster
hit Analyze This, as a therapist who counsels a mob boss, played by
Robert De Niro. A sequel, Analyze That, was released in 2002. In between
those big-screen successes, Crystal earned an Emmy Award nomination for
directing the HBO movie 61*, about the home run race between Roger Maris
and Mickey Mantle in 1961; the project was driven by Crystal's longtime love of
baseball. He also wrote and co-starred in the Hollywood-skewering comedy America's
Sweethearts and provided the voice of one of the lead characters in the
animated hit Monsters, Inc., all in 2001.
After a three-year absence, Crystal returned to his Oscar hosting duties in
2004, for the eighth time. He was reportedly offered the Oscar hosting gig for
the 2006 ceremony but turned it down to concentrate on his autobiographical
one-man show, 700 Sundays, on Broadway. Attendance was so good that the
show's run was extended past its original booking; it also won a Tony Award for
Best Theatrical Event. That same year, Crystal became a best-selling children's
book author with the release of I Already Know I Love You (2006), based
on his experiences with the birth of his first granddaughter.
March 14, 1968
The original Batman series
concluded its short run.
March 19, 1953
First
Academy Awards program on network TV (NBC).
The first network broadcast of the Academy Awards takes place on this
day in 1953. Some 174 stations across the country carried the awards. Gary
Cooper won Best Actor for his performance in High Noon, and Shirley
Booth won Best Actress for her role in Come Back, Little Sheba. The
Greatest Show on Earth won Best Picture. for the first time, audiences are
able to sit in their living rooms and watch as the movie world’s most
prestigious honors, the Academy Awards, are given out at the RKO Pantages
Theatre in Hollywood, California.
Organized in May 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences was envisioned as a non-profit organization dedicated to the
advancement of the film industry. The first Academy Awards were handed out in
May 1929, in a ceremony and banquet held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood
Roosevelt Hotel. The level of suspense was nonexistent, however, as the winners
had already been announced several months earlier. For the next 10 years, the
Academy gave the names of the winners to the newspapers for publication at 11
p.m. on the night of the awards ceremony; this changed after one paper broke
the tacit agreement and published the results in the evening edition, available
before the ceremony began. A sealed envelope system began the next year, and
endures to this day, making Oscar night Hollywood’s most anticipated event of
the year.
Public interest in the Oscars was high from the
beginning, and from the second year on the ceremony was covered in a live radio
broadcast. The year 1953 marked the first time that the Academy Awards were
broadcast on the fledgling medium of television. The National Broadcasting
Company (NBC) TV network carried the 25th annual awards ceremony live from
Hollywood’s RKO Pantages Theatre. Bob Hope was the master of ceremonies, while
Fredric March, a two-time Academy Award winner for Best Actor (for 1932’s Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and 1946’s The Best Years of Our Lives), presented the
awards. The statuette for Best Picture went to Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest
Show on Earth, while John Ford won Best Director for The Quiet Man. Winners in
the top two acting categories were Gary Cooper (High Noon) and Shirley Booth
(Come Back, Little Sheba).
Hope, a star of stage and screen who tirelessly
performed in United Service Organization (USO) shows for American troops during
World War II, would become a mainstay of the new TV medium. He was also the
most venerated Academy Awards host, playing MC no fewer than 18 times between
1939 and 1977. NBC broadcast the Oscars until 1961, when the American
Broadcasting Company (ABC) took over for the next decade, including the first
awards broadcast in color in 1966. Although NBC briefly regained the show in
the early 1970s, ABC came out on top again in 1976 and has broadcast every
Academy Awards show since. The network is under contract to continue showing
the Oscars until 2014.
Ratings for the Academy Awards have been notoriously
uneven, with larger audiences tending to tune in when box-office hits are
nominated for high-profile awards such as Best Picture. When Titanic won big in
1998, for example, the Oscar telecast drew 55 million viewers; the triumph of
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2004 drew 44 million. The 80th
Academy Awards ceremony, held in February 2008, drew the lowest ratings since
1953, with a total of about 32 million viewers--just 18.7 percent of America’s
homes--tuned in to the telecast. Analysts blamed the relative obscurity of the
Best Picture nominees--the winner, No Country For Old Men, made a relatively
puny $64 million at the box office--and the lingering effects of a Hollywood
writers’ strike for the poor viewer turnout.
March
19, 1983
Diff'rent
Strokes - The Reporter (Season 5: Episode 22).
Determined to prove he didn't fabricate a story about
drug abuse in his grade school just to win a journalism contest, Arnold takes
his article to the New York City newspaper sponsoring the competition, and when they run his story on the front
page, Arnold receives some unexpected more support from First Lady Nancy
Reagan.
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