The Lone Ranger, the masked hero rode onto the fledgling ABC network for the first time on this date
In the early 1950s, the show was so popular that ABC briefly repeated it late on Friday nights for those who missed the Thursday night broadcast.
Oh, Lenny Bruce had something to say on the subject
September 15, 1965 -
This was an incredibly busy day in TV History:
Irwin Allen pitched his idea for the series to CBS programmer James Aubrey, who immediately snapped it up. A few weeks later Gene Roddenberry pitched his idea for Star Trek: The Original Series to Aubrey, who turned him down. He felt that this show was the more commercial of the two.
The Big Valley premiered on this date.
Victoria (Barbara Stanwyck) is the only Barkley who was never shot throughout the run of the series. Heath (Lee Majors) was shot the most, while Nick (Peter Breck) was shot twice in the same episode.
American started really liking Sally Fields when Gidget premiered on ABC-TV on this date.
The show was the TV debut for Sally Field. She auditioned for the role on a lark and was astonished when they offered her the part.
We got to meet the folks from Hootersville when Lisa and Oliver move to Green Acres, which premiered on this date.
It was reported that Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor were extremely close friends during the run of the show and the chemistry between them often showed in scenes where they were in close proximity, as one is often always touching the other. Their friendship was said to be very similar to how they played as husband and wife, and when Gabor died on 7/4/95, Albert was extremely devastated and deeply heartbroken.
And last, but not least, the first American television drama to feature an African-American actor in a lead role, I Spy, starring Bill Cosby and Robert Culp, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.
Bill Cosby's character, Alexander Scott, was originally intended to be an older mentor to Robert Culp's trainee agent, Kelly Robinson. Executive producer Sheldon Leonard cast Cosby in the role after seeing one of his routines (Scott was originally intended to be a Caucasian). Due to this casting change, the writers thought an occasional reference to Cosby's race would be a necessity, given the tumult of the times.
September 15, 1967 -
The Star Trek episode Amok Time aired on this date. In the episode, Kirk and Spock are pitted in a fight to the death against each other by Spock’s wife-to-be when Spock suffers his first pon farr (the Vulcan time of mating).
The episode is the first in which Spock uses either the phrase “live long and prosper” and makes the “Vulcan salute” gesture for the first time.
September 15, 1969 -
The gentle comedy based on the humor of James Thurber, My World ... and Welcome to It, starring William Windom, Lisa Gerritsen, Joan Hotchkis, Harold J. Stone, and Henry Morgan, premiered on CBS TV on this date.
Prior to working on this series, William Windom and Lisa Gerritsen appeared as father and daughter on the series Lancer.
September 15, 1971 -
Just one more thing...
The first episode of the Columbo series, Murder By The Book, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Bochco, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.
Peter Falk frequently added in unscripted improvisations such as asking for a pencil, searching for something in his pockets, asking a character to repeat something, rambling about irrelevant trivialities, or adding in a line about Mrs. Columbo. Falk did this to frustrate and annoy his fellow actor (usually the suspect) and generate a genuine "get to the point" moment.
September 15, 1986 –
Los Angeles law firm McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney and Kuzak first opened their doors to television viewer when LA Law premiered on NBC-TV on this date.
Steven Bochco and James B. Sikking can be seen as party guests at McKenzie's house. Becker refers to Bochco as "Steven Spielberg" as he brags to his date of Hollywood heavies in attendance. Sikking can be seen shortly after.
Another ACME Safety Film
Today in History:
September 15, 1776 -
The British, led by General Howe, occupied Manhattan, capturing Kip's Bay, on this date.
Outraged by the rents, discouraged by the lack of parking and homesick for bubble and squeak and spotted dick, however, they left shortly afterwards, leaving only drunken journalists behind.
September 15, 1830 -
British MP William Huskisson was chatting amiably with the Duke of Wellington at the grand opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, when all at once the right honorable gentleman distinguished himself for posterity by becoming the first human being in history to be run over by a train.
(The Duke of Wellington, on the other hand, is remembered for his Beef.)
September 15, 1864 -
Thirty-four years later, on this date, another hardy British soul, the explorer John Speke, distinguished himself by becoming the first European to see Africa's Lake Victoria, and then accidentally killing himself while hunting partridges.
(conveniently, the day before he was to debate his finding with his famous exploration partner, Richard Burton - no, not that Richard Burton, the other one, the famous self circumciser, and translator of 1001 Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra.)
September 15, 1885 -
Goodbye Jumbo.
Circus showman P.T. Barnum's prize elephant Jumbo was struck dead by a freight train in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. It took 150 men to haul the carcass up an embankment, from whence it is taken to a taxidermist.
The stuffed Jumbo became a featured attraction in Barnum's circus.
September 15, 1890 -
It's the birthday of Agatha Christie (Vanessa Redgrave), born in Devon, England. She was a Red Cross nurse during World War I. She started reading detective novels because she found they took her mind off her troubles (her husband couldn't help sleeping with other women) and soon after, started writing her own.
Her big breakthrough book was her novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which came out in 1926. It was the same year in which Christie had a fight with her husband, fled her own home, and was missing for ten days. There was a nationwide search. It was on the front pages of all the papers. And when she finally turned up, she was famous and all of her books were best-sellers.
September 15, 1922 -
According to fashion arbiters from days gone by - you should not be wearing your straw hats any longer this season -
In 1922, a group of men and boy, 1,000 strong from the Five Points neighborhood sparked a bizarre riot that shook New York City from the Battery to the Bronx, as they prowled the city, beating men, who refused to remove their straw hats.
And whatever you do, don't mention The Susquehanna Hat Company.
September 15, 1928 -
Scottish bacteriologist and noted slob Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered that the mold penicillin had an antibiotic effect, on this date. Had he cleaned his laboratory every night and put all his things away like a good little boy, he never would have discovered penicillin, and half of us would be dead right now.
As I am deathly allergic to penicillin, his discovery has done little for me but I pass this along to you all.
September 15, 1954 -
In front of thousands of spectating New Yorkers at 51st and Lexington, Marilyn Monroe performed the now-famous skirt blowing scene during filming for The Seven Year Itch. The event basically boils down to a publicity stunt, as the whole thing was reshot later on a Hollywood soundstage.
Unfortunately, this event is the final straw in the Monroe - Dimaggio marriage and it soon comes undone.
September 15, 1963 -
In Birmingham, Alabama, Bobby Frank Cherry, Thomas Blanton, Herman Frank Cash and Robert Chambliss planted 15 dynamite sticks in the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church, below the women's restroom. When the dynamite exploded, four little girls in the bathroom and were killed (Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley); more than 20 other parishioners also were injured.
Chambliss was later tried and convicted of murder; he was sentenced to life in prison in 1977. Two of his accomplices also were later sentenced to life in prison (Herman Cash died in 1994 without having been charged.)
September 15, 1972 -
September 15, 2008 -
14 years ago, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy (the largest so far in the United States) on this date and is seen as the beginning of the global financial crisis (The Great Recession.)
I'm not sure what the correct anniversary gift should be - but once again, may I suggest, just find a banker or hedge fund manager and take a baseball bat to his groin (repeatedly.)
And so it goes
1 comment:
homesick for spotted dick, indeed
Post a Comment