As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history,
the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.
September 11, 1942
Comedian Tom Dreesen is
born.
Dreesen grew up in Harvey, Illinois, south of Chicago. His family was one of the few
white families in a largely African American community. While working
as an insurance salesman in 1968, he met Tim Reid through a local Jaycee
chapter, and the two teamed up to form the first biracial stand-up comedy duo
in the United States. Though their material is now considered cutting-edge for
its time, the pair struggled to make a living together, and split up in the mid-1970s.
However, each found individual success: while Reid landed a role on WKRP in Cincinnati,
Dreesen became a regular on The Tonight Show and toured
with Frank Sinatra as the crooner's opening act. In 1989, Dreesen released a
comedy album through Flying Fish Records
called That White Boy's Crazy. The album was recorded in
front of an all-black audience in Harvey, Illinois.
Dreesen continues to perform today. He is also involved in philanthropic
endeavors and hosts an annual celebrity golf tournament called the Tom Dreesen
Celebrity Classic. In 2008, Dreesen, Reid, and former Chicago Sun-Times sportswriter Ron
Rapoport completed the book Tim and Tom: An American Comedy in
Black and White.
September 11, 1967
The Carol Burnett Show premiered
on CBS.
The
Carol Burnett Show (also Carol Burnett and Friends in
syndication) is an American variety/sketch
comedy television show starring Carol
Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki
Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner.
In 1975, frequent guest star Tim Conway became
a regular after Waggoner left the series. In 1977, Dick
Van Dyke replaced Korman for much of its final season (but he left the
show by Thanksgiving, on friendly terms). The show originally ran on CBS from September
11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 279 episodes, and again with nine episodes in
the fall of 1991.
The series originated in CBS Television City's Studio 33, and won 25
primetime Emmy Awards, was ranked number 16 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All
Time in 2002, and in 2007 was listed as one of Time magazine's 100 Best TV Shows of
All Time.
In 2013, TV Guide ranked The
Carol Burnett Show number 17 on their list of the 60 Greatest Shows of
All Time.
September 12, 1972
Maude preimered.
Maude stars Bea Arthur as Maude Findlay, an outspoken, middle-aged, politically liberal woman
living in suburban Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York with her fourth husband, household appliance store
owner Walter Findlay (Bill Macy). Maude embraced the tenets of women's
liberation, always voted for Democratic Party
candidates, strongly supported legal abortion, and advocated for civil rights and racial and gender equality. However, her
overbearing and sometimes domineering personality often got her into trouble
when speaking out on these issues.
September 13, 1977
SOAP Priemered on ABC.
The show was created as a
parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time
comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial
format and included melodramatic plot elements such as amnesia, alien
abduction, demonic possession, murder and kidnapping. In 2007 it was listed as
one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME," and in 2010,
the Tates and the Campbells ranked at number 17 in TV Guide's list of
"TV's Top Families".
The
show was created, written, and produced by Susan Harris. The show aired for
four seasons and 85 episodes. The final four episodes of the series aired as
one-hour episodes during the original run on ABC. These hour-long episodes were
later split in two, yielding 93 half-hour episodes for syndication.
September 14, 1967
The first episode of Ironside aired.
Ironside is an American television crime
drama that aired on NBC over 8 seasons from 1967 to 1975. The show starred Raymond
Burr as Robert T. Ironside, a consultant for the San Francisco police
(usually addressed by the title Chief Ironside), who was paralyzed
from the waist down after being shot while on vacation. The character debuted
on March 28, 1967, in a TV movie entitled Ironside. When the series
was broadcast in the United Kingdom, in the 1970s, it was broadcast under the
title A Man Called Ironside. The show earned Burr six Emmy and
two Golden Globe nominations.
Ironside was a production of Burr's Harbour Productions Unlimited in
association with Universal Television.
September 14, 1972
The series The
Waltons began airing.
The
Waltons is an American
television series created by Earl
Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a
1963 film of the same name, about a family in rural
Virginia during the Great
Depression and World
War II.
The series pilot The
Homecoming: A Christmas Story was broadcast on December 19, 1971. Beginning
in September 1972, the series aired on CBS for nine
seasons. After the series was canceled by CBS in 1981, NBC aired three
television movie sequels in 1982, with three more in the 1990s on CBS. The
Waltons was produced by Lorimar Productionsand distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution in
syndication.
September 16, 1927
Peter Falk was born.
The
actor is best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo.
He appeared in numerous films and television guest roles, and has been
nominated for an Academy Award twice,
and won the Emmy Award on five occasions and the Golden Globe award
once. The Columbo character was originally played in a 1960 episode of the NBC
anthology series The Chevy Mystery Show, where the detective was played
by Bert Freed, and in a subsequent Broadway
play by Thomas
Mitchell. Falk first appeared as Columbo in Prescription: Murder
, a 1968 TV movie, but the character was not the subject of a show of its own
until 1971. Columbo aired regularly from 1971 to 1978 on NBC, and then
more infrequently on ABC as TV movies beginning in 1989. The most recent
episode was broadcast in 2003.
The Bob
Newhart Show premiered on CBS-TV.
The Bob Newhart Show is an American sitcom produced
by MTM Enterprises that aired on CBS from September
16, 1972, to April 1, 1978, with a total of 142 half-hour episodes spanning
over six seasons. Comedian Bob
Newhart portrays a psychologist having
to deal with his patients and fellow office workers. The show was filmed before
a live audience.
September
16, 1987
The first episode of Wiseguy aired on CBS.
Wiseguy is
an American crime
drama series that aired on CBS from September
16, 1987 to December 8, 1990, for a total of 75 episodes over four seasons. The
series was produced by Stephen J. Cannell and was filmed in Vancouver, British
Columbia, to avoid the higher studio costs associated with filming in Los
Angeles.
Wiseguy originally starred Ken Wahl as
Vinnie Terranova, a Brooklyn native and deep cover operative for the FBI under the supervision of
senior agent Frank McPike, played by Jonathan
Banks. The primary cast was rounded out by Jim Byrnes, who played an information operative
known as Lifeguard (real name Daniel Burroughs) who assisted Vinnie in the
field. This cast remained together for three full seasons, after which Wahl
left the series. The writers conceived a new lead character Michael Santana,
and brought on Steven Bauer to fill the role.
The
show placed #74 on Entertainment
Weekly's "New TV Classics" list.
September 17, 1972
M*A*S*H first aired
M*A*S*H (the television series) developed by Larry
Gelbart, adapted from the 1970 feature film MASH (which was itself based on the
1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, by Richard Hooker). The series is a medical drama that was produced in
association with 20th Century Fox Television for CBS.
It follows a team of
doctors and support staff stationed at the "4077th Mobile Army Surgical
Hospital" in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War. M*A*S*H's
title sequence featured an instrumental version of the song "Suicide Is
Painless", which also appears in the original film. The show was created
after an attempt to film the original book's sequel, M*A*S*H Goes to Maine,
failed. It is the most well known version of the M*A*S*H works.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
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"
Monday, September 11, 2017
This Week in Television History: September 2017 PART II
Friday, September 08, 2017
Your Mental Sorbet: Arthur Hanlon - En Mi Viejo San Juan (Live From Puerto Rico) ft. Marc Anthony
| As you can imagine Puerto Rico in on my mind. |
| The Ballaja Barracks (Cuartel de Ballaja). The building is a former military barracks that is currently used for cultural education programs. I was born here when it was the Rodriguez (161st) General Hospital, in honor of Major Fernando E. RodrÃguez Vargas. |
Here is another "Mental Sorbet"
that we could use to momentarily forget about those
things that leave a bad taste in our mouths
Music video by Arthur Hanlon featuring Marc Anthony performing En Mi Viejo San Juan. (C) 2012 Universal Music Latino
Tony Figueroa
Thursday, September 07, 2017
Remembering June Foray and Richard Anderson: Next on TVC
Animation guru Jerry Beck and radio host David Cummings will join us this weekend on TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing Sept. 8-11 at the following times and venues:
Share-a-Vision Radio
San Francisco Bay Area
Friday 9/4
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at KSAV.org
Use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSAV
Hear us on the KSAV channel on CX Radio Brazil
Hear us on your cell phone or landline number by dialing 712-432-4235
Indiana Talks
Marion, IN
Saturday 9/9
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Sunday 9/10
10am ET, 7am PT
Click on the player at IndianaTalks.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in Indiana Talks
WON 920 The Apple
Brooklyn, NY
Saturday 9/10
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Streaming at www.920won.caster.fm
KSCO AM-1080 and FM-104.1
San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA
KOMY AM-1340
La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA
Sunday 9/11
9am ET, 6am PT
Also streaming at KSCO.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSCO
CROC Radio
Kimberley, British Columbia, Canada
Sunday 9/10
1pm ET, 10am PT
Streaming at CROCRadio.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in CROC
KHMB AM-1710
KHMV-LP 100.9 FM
Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 9/10
9pm PT
Monday 9/11
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at KHMBRadio.com
RadioSlot.com
San Francisco, CA
Monday 9/11
10pm ET, 7pm PT
with replays Tuesday thru Friday at 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Talk Slot button at RadioSlot.com
PWRNetwork
A member of the Truli Media Group
Ann Arbor, MI ~ Boston, MA ~ Chicago, IL ~ Melrose, FL ~ Los Angeles, CA
Various times throughout the week
on the Entertainment Channel on PWRNetwork.com
and the PWR channel on TuneIn
The first hour of this week’s program will be dedicated to Emmy Award-winning actress June Foray, the prolific voice artist who passed away on Tuesday, July 26 at the age of 99. The voice of Rocket J. Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Nell Fenwick, Cindy Lou Who, Witch Hazel, Talky Tina, and countless other classic film and TV characters, Foray was also a tireless activist, philanthropist and animation advocate who remained a viable force in the industry well into her nineties.
Animation historian Jerry Beck will join us to talk about Foray’s legacy, in front of and behind the camera, while radio host David Cummings will share some memories of his friendship with the actress, which lasted more than ten years. We’ll also discuss Foray’s many contributions to the record industry, her occasional on-camera appearances on such shows as The Johnny Carson Show, and more.
For our listeners in Southern California, the Motion Picture Academy will celebrate the life and career of Ju... at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, Sept. 19. The event is free and is open to the public, but will likely be Standing Room Only. For more information, email friendsofjuneforay@gmail.com.
Our second hour this week will be devoted to Richard Anderson, the actor known around the world as Oscar Goldman on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. Richard Anderson passed away on Thursday, Aug. 31 at the age of 91.
We were fortunate enough to interview Richard Anderson on several occasions over the past twenty-five years, the most recent of which was recorded for broadcast on TV Confidential in August 2015. It was a well-rounded conversation in which we discussed not only his career-changing role of Oscar Goldman (and how he played him differently on each Bionic series), but his early career as a contract player with MGM, as well as his work in such films as Seconds and Paths of Glory.
TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Fri 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org and CX Radio Brazil
Sat 8pm ET, 5pm PT and Sun 6pm ET, 3pm PT on Indiana Talks (Marion, IN)
Sat 10pm ET, 7pm PT on WON 920 The Apple (Brooklyn, NY)
Sun 9am ET, 6am PT KSCO-AM 1080 (San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA)
Sun 9am ET, 6am PT KOMY-AM 1340 (La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA)
Sun 1pm ET, 10am PT CROC Radio (British Columbia, Canada)
Sun 9pm PT, Mon Mid ET on KHMB-AM and FM (Half Moon Bay, CA)
Mon 10pm ET, 7pm PT on The Radio Slot Network (San Francisco, CA)
Replays various times throughout the week on the Entertainment Channel at PWRNetwork
Tape us now, listen to us later, using DAR.fm/tvconfidential
Also available as a podcast via iTunes, FeedBurner, SoundCloud
and now on your mobile phone via Stitcher.com
Follow us online at www.tvconfidential.net
Follow us now on Twitter: Twitter.com/tvconfidential
Like our Fan Page at www.facebook.com/tvconfidential
If you listen to TV CONFIDENTIAL, and like what you’ve heard, please consider supporting our efforts by becoming a patron of our show through Patreon. It’s easy to do, it does not cost much, plus you can receive some cool rewards (such as coupons that will allow you to download up to six free programs every month from the TV CONFIDENTIAL Archives store). For more information, please visit www.Patreon.com/tvconfidential... and thanks!
Share-a-Vision Radio
San Francisco Bay Area
Friday 9/4
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Listen Live button at KSAV.org
Use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSAV
Hear us on the KSAV channel on CX Radio Brazil
Hear us on your cell phone or landline number by dialing 712-432-4235
Indiana Talks
Marion, IN
Saturday 9/9
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Sunday 9/10
10am ET, 7am PT
Click on the player at IndianaTalks.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in Indiana Talks
WON 920 The Apple
Brooklyn, NY
Saturday 9/10
10pm ET, 7pm PT
Streaming at www.920won.caster.fm
KSCO AM-1080 and FM-104.1
San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA
KOMY AM-1340
La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA
Sunday 9/11
9am ET, 6am PT
Also streaming at KSCO.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in KSCO
CROC Radio
Kimberley, British Columbia, Canada
Sunday 9/10
1pm ET, 10am PT
Streaming at CROCRadio.com
or use the TuneIn app on your smartphone and type in CROC
KHMB AM-1710
KHMV-LP 100.9 FM
Half Moon Bay, CA
Sunday 9/10
9pm PT
Monday 9/11
Midnight ET
Click on the Listen Live button at KHMBRadio.com
RadioSlot.com
San Francisco, CA
Monday 9/11
10pm ET, 7pm PT
with replays Tuesday thru Friday at 10pm ET, 7pm PT
Click on the Talk Slot button at RadioSlot.com
PWRNetwork
A member of the Truli Media Group
Ann Arbor, MI ~ Boston, MA ~ Chicago, IL ~ Melrose, FL ~ Los Angeles, CA
Various times throughout the week
on the Entertainment Channel on PWRNetwork.com
and the PWR channel on TuneIn
Animation historian Jerry Beck will join us to talk about Foray’s legacy, in front of and behind the camera, while radio host David Cummings will share some memories of his friendship with the actress, which lasted more than ten years. We’ll also discuss Foray’s many contributions to the record industry, her occasional on-camera appearances on such shows as The Johnny Carson Show, and more.
For our listeners in Southern California, the Motion Picture Academy will celebrate the life and career of Ju... at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, Sept. 19. The event is free and is open to the public, but will likely be Standing Room Only. For more information, email friendsofjuneforay@gmail.com.
We were fortunate enough to interview Richard Anderson on several occasions over the past twenty-five years, the most recent of which was recorded for broadcast on TV Confidential in August 2015. It was a well-rounded conversation in which we discussed not only his career-changing role of Oscar Goldman (and how he played him differently on each Bionic series), but his early career as a contract player with MGM, as well as his work in such films as Seconds and Paths of Glory.
TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Fri 7pm ET and PT on Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org and CX Radio Brazil
Sat 8pm ET, 5pm PT and Sun 6pm ET, 3pm PT on Indiana Talks (Marion, IN)
Sat 10pm ET, 7pm PT on WON 920 The Apple (Brooklyn, NY)
Sun 9am ET, 6am PT KSCO-AM 1080 (San Jose, Santa Cruz and Salinas, CA)
Sun 9am ET, 6am PT KOMY-AM 1340 (La Selva Beach and Watsonville, CA)
Sun 1pm ET, 10am PT CROC Radio (British Columbia, Canada)
Sun 9pm PT, Mon Mid ET on KHMB-AM and FM (Half Moon Bay, CA)
Mon 10pm ET, 7pm PT on The Radio Slot Network (San Francisco, CA)
Replays various times throughout the week on the Entertainment Channel at PWRNetwork
Tape us now, listen to us later, using DAR.fm/tvconfidential
Also available as a podcast via iTunes, FeedBurner, SoundCloud
and now on your mobile phone via Stitcher.com
Follow us online at www.tvconfidential.net
Follow us now on Twitter: Twitter.com/tvconfidential
Like our Fan Page at www.facebook.com/tvconfidential
If you listen to TV CONFIDENTIAL, and like what you’ve heard, please consider supporting our efforts by becoming a patron of our show through Patreon. It’s easy to do, it does not cost much, plus you can receive some cool rewards (such as coupons that will allow you to download up to six free programs every month from the TV CONFIDENTIAL Archives store). For more information, please visit www.Patreon.com/tvconfidential... and thanks!
Monday, September 04, 2017
This Week in Television History: September 2017 PART I
As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history,
the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.
September 4, 1967
Gilligan's Island, The classic TV comedy about seven people stranded on a deserted island, airs its last episode.
Although the show
ran for only three years, it aired in reruns for decades. The characters were
resurrected in three TV movies.
September 4, 2002
Kelly Clarkson wins first American Idol.
On this day in 2002, Kelly
Clarkson, a 20-year-old cocktail waitress from Texas, wins Season One of American
Idol in a live television broadcast from Hollywood’s Kodak Theater.
Clarkson came out on top in the amateur singing contest over 23-year-old
runner-up Justin Guarini after millions of viewers cast their votes for her by
phone. She was awarded a recording contract and went on to sell millions of
albums and establish a successful music career. (Clarkson and Guarnini also
co-starred in the 2003 box-office bomb From Justin to Kelly, which was
nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for that year’s worst film but lost to
the Jennifer Lopez-Ben Affleck vehicle Gigli.) Starting with its first
season, American Idol became one of the most popular TV programs in U.S.
history and spawned a slew of talent-competition shows.
September 5, 1972
Munich massacre.
The Games were largely overshadowed by what has come
to be known as the Munich massacre. On September 5 a group of eight Palestinian
terrorists belonging to the Black
September organization broke into the
Olympic
Village and took nine Israeli
athletes, coaches and officials hostage in their apartments. Two of the
hostages who resisted were killed in the first moments of the break-in; the
subsequent standoff in the Olympic Village lasted for almost 18 hours.
Late in the evening of September 5, the terrorists and
their hostages were transferred by helicopter to the military airport of Fürstenfeldbruck, ostensibly to board a plane bound for an
undetermined Arab country. The German authorities planned to ambush them there,
but under-estimated the number of terrorists and were thus undermanned. During
a botched rescue attempt, all of the Israeli hostages were killed. Four of them
were shot, then incinerated when a Palestinian detonated a grenade inside the
helicopter in which the hostages were sitting. The five remaining hostages were
then machine-gunned by another terrorist.
All but three of the Palestinians were killed as well.
Although arrested and imprisoned pending trial, the three PLO survivors were
released by the West German government on October 29, 1972 in exchange for a
hijacked Lufthansa jet. Two of those three were supposedly hunted down
and assassinated later by the Mossad. Jamal Al-Gashey, who is believed to be the sole survivor, and is
still living today in hiding in an unspecified African country with his wife
and two children. The Olympic events were suspended several hours after the
initial attack, but once the incident was concluded Avery Brundage, the International Olympic Committee president, declared that "the Games must go
on". A memorial ceremony was then held in the Olympic stadium, and the
competitions resumed after a stoppage of 24 hours. The attack prompted
heightened security at subsequent Olympics beginning with the 1976
Winter Olympics.
The massacre led the German federal government to
re-examine its anti-terrorism policies, which at the time were dominated by a
pacifist approach adopted post-World War II. This led to the creation of the
elite counter-terrorist unit GSG 9, similar to the British SAS. It also led Israel to
launch an aggressive counterterrorism campaign known as Operation
Wrath of God, in which those
suspected of involvement were systematically tracked down and assassinated. The
events of the Munich massacre were chronicled in the Oscar-winning documentary,
One
Day in September. An account of
the aftermath is dramatized in Steven Spielberg's 2005 film Munich.
September 6, 1947
Jane Therese
Curtin actor, comedian and ignorant slut was born.
First coming to prominence as an original cast member
on Saturday Night
Live in 1975, she would go on to
win back-to-back Emmy Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series on the 1980s
sitcom Kate & Allie.
Curtin later starred in the hit series 3rd Rock from
the Sun. She recreated her SNL character for the
film The Coneheads
September 6, 1997
Some 2.5 billion
TV viewers watch Princess Diana’s funeral.
Diana, Princess of Wales, who died at the age of 36 in a car crash in
Paris the week before. During her 15-year marriage to Prince Charles, the son
of Queen Elizabeth II and the heir to the British throne, Diana became one of
the most famous, most photographed people on the planet. Her life story was
fodder for numerous books, television programs and movies and her image appeared
on countless magazine covers, including those of People and Vanity Fair. After
her death, she remained an iconic figure and a continual source of fascination
to the media and entertainment world.
September 7, 1927
Philo Taylor
Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 – March 11, 1971) best known for inventing the first
completely electronic television.
In particular, he was the first to make a working
electronic image pickup device (video camera tube), and the first to demonstrate an all-electronic television system to
the public. Largely self-educated, Farnsworth grew up on farms in Utah and
Idaho. As a boy he took an interest in electricity and electrons, and it's said
he came up with the idea of electronically scanning images for transmission
while he was in high school.
On September 7, 1927, Farnsworth's Image dissector
camera tube transmitted its first image, a simple straight line, at his
laboratory at 202 Green Street in San Francisco. The source of the image
was a glass slide, backlit by an arc lamp. This was due to the lack of light
sensitivity of the tube design, a problem Farnsworth never managed to resolve
independently. On September 1, 1928, Farnsworth had
developed the system sufficiently to hold a demonstration for the press—2 years
after John Logie Baird had demonstrated his mechanical Television system
in London. His backers had demanded to know when they would see dollars from the
invention. The first image shown to them was a dollar sign. In 1929, the system
was further improved by elimination of a motor-generator; the television
system now had no mechanical moving parts. That year, Farnsworth transmitted
the first live human images using his television system, including a three and
a half-inch image of his wife, Pem—with her eyes closed because of the blinding
light required.
Farnsworth spent the next decade arguing over patent rights in legal battles
with David
Sarnoff and engineer Vladimir Zworykin of RCA. In 1934 the U.S. Patent
Office sided with Farnsworth, and in 1939 he sold his various patents to RCA.
Although Farnsworth was awarded more than a hundred patents related to
television, he did not become famous as "the inventor of television."
Now it is generally agreed that the development of television involved many
individuals, but it is also the consensus that Farnsworth deserves the lion's
share of the credit.
September 8, 1922
Isaac Sidney "Sid"
Caesar was born.
The comic actor
and writer known best as the star of the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows
and Caesar's Hour. Caesar began his
television career when he made an appearance on Milton Berle's Texaco Star
Theater.
In early 1949, Sid and Max met with Pat Weaver, vice president of television at
NBC (and father of Sigourney Weaver),
which led to Caesar's appearance in his first series The
Admiral Broadway Revue with Imogene Coca. The Friday show,
simultaneously broadcast on NBC
and the DuMont
network (in order for the show to be carried on the only TV station then
operating in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania- DuMont's WDTV- the sponsor had to agree
to a simulcast) was an immediate success, but its sponsor, Admiral,
an appliance company, could not keep up with the demand for its new television
sets, so the show was cancelled after 26 weeks on account of its runaway
success. According to Sid, an Admiral executive later told him the company had
the choice of building a new factory, or continuing their sponsorship of the Revue
for another season.
September 8, 1997
The television show Ally McBeal debuted on Fox.
Ally McBeal is an
American legal comedy-drama television series, originally
aired on Foxfrom
September 8, 1997 to May 20, 2002. Created by David E. Kelley, the series
stars Calista
Flockhart in the title
role as a young lawyer working in the fictional Boston law
firmCage and Fish, with other young lawyers whose lives and loves
were eccentric, humorous and dramatic. The series received critical acclaim in
its early seasons, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Television
Series – Musical or Comedy in 1997 and 1998, and also
winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in
1999.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
Stay Tuned Tony Figueroa |
Friday, September 01, 2017
Shelley Berman
As a culture I see us as presently deprived of subtleties. The music is loud, the anger is elevated, sex seems lacking in sweetness and privacy.
-Shelley Berman
| Sheldon "Shelley" Berman February 3, 1925 – September 1, 2017 |
Berman was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Irene (née Marks) and Nathan Berman. His acting career began with an acting company in Woodstock, Illinois. Leaving Woodstock in 1949, Shelley and his wife Sarah made their way to New York City. However, acting jobs were scarce. To make ends meet, Shelley found employment as a social director, cab driver, speech teacher, assistant manager of a drug store, and a dance instructor at Arthur Murray Dance Studios. Eventually, Berman found work as a sketch writer for The Steve Allen Plymouth Show.
Berman started as a straight actor, receiving his training at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, honing his acting skills in stock companies in and around Chicago and New York City. In the mid-1950s, he became a member of Chicago's Compass Players, which later evolved into The Second City. While performing improvised sketches with Compass, Berman began developing solo pieces, often employing an imaginary telephone to take the place of an onstage partner.
In 1957, Berman landed his first job as a comedian at Mister Kelly's in Chicago, which led to other nightclub bookings, and a recording contract with Verve Records. His comedy albums earned him three gold records and he won the first Grammy Award for a non-musical recording. He was the first standup comedian to perform at Carnegie Hall. Berman would go on to appear on numerous television specials and all of the major variety shows of the day.
He starred on Broadway in A Family Affair and continued with stage work in The Odd Couple, Damn Yankees, Where's Charley?, Fiddler on the Roof, Two by Two, I'm Not Rappaport, La Cage aux Folles, Prisoner of Second Avenue and Guys & Dolls.
Berman's voice was used as the inspiration for the voice of Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Fibber Fox, as done by Daws Butler.
Berman's success as a comedian enabled him to continue with his first love - acting.
In 1962, he portrayed the role of Mendel Sorkin in the episode, "The Peddler", on CBS's Rawhide. Comedic and dramatic acting roles on television began to come his way, including appearances on episodes of The Twilight Zone (both radio and TV versions), Bewitched, Peter Gunn, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Adam-12, Emergency!, Brothers, Night Court, MacGyver, L.A. Law, Friends, Walker, Texas Ranger, The King of Queens, Grey's Anatomy, Boston Legal, Hannah Montana, CSI: NY and Hawaii Five-0. He also had a recurring role on the short-lived sitcom Walter & Emily.
From 2002 to 2009, Berman appeared as Larry David's aged father on Curb Your Enthusiasm, a role for which he received a 2008 Emmy Award nomination.
Among Berman's film credits are Dementia (1955, with Shorty Rogers), The Best Man (1964, with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson), Divorce American Style (1967, with Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds), Every Home Should Have One (1970, with Marty Feldman), Beware! The Blob (1972, with Robert Walker Jr.), Rented Lips (1988, with Martin Mull and Robert Downey Jr.), Teen Witch (1989, with Robyn Lively and Zelda Rubinstein), The Last Producer (2000, with Burt Reynolds), Meet the Fockers (2004, with Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller), The Holiday (2006, with Cameron Diaz), and You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008, with Adam Sandler).
Your Mental Sorbet: Studio Tram Tour with King Kong Encounter
Here is another "Mental Sorbet"
that we could use to momentarily forget about those
things that leave a bad taste in our mouths
Virtual Recreation of a Hollywood Studio Tram Tour featuring famous attractions inspired by Universal Theme Parks like:
- The Parting of the Red Sea
- The Collapsing Bridge
- King Kong Encounter
Tony Figueroa
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