September 17, 1956 -
Vincente Minnelli's brilliant bio-pix, Lust for Life, opened in NYC on this date.
A very young Michael Douglas and his brother ran screaming from the theater during the scene where Van Gogh severs his own ear because they believed their father, Kirk Douglas, had actually harmed himself.
September 17, 1961 -
William Faulkner's favorite TV show, Car 54 Where are You?, premiered on NBC-TV, on this date.
For the black-and-white location shots, the green parts of the normally black, white, and green patrol cars were painted red so as not to confuse the neighborhood people.
September 17, 1963 -
David Janssen started running when ABC-TV premiered The Fugitive, on this date.
Richard Kimble was originally fleeing his hometown in Wisconsin, until the producers discovered that Wisconsin did not execute murderers. The locale was quickly changed to Indiana.
September 17, 1964 -
United Artists released the third James Bond thriller (in the UK,) Goldfinger, starring Sean Connery, on this date.
Sean Connery never traveled to the United States to film this movie. Every scene in which he appears to be in the U.S. was filmed at Pinewood Studios outside London. This explains why Bond flips a light switch down to discover the golden corpse of Jill, as British light switches are generally turned on by flicking them down instead of up. According to director Guy Hamilton, Cec Linder (Felix) was the only main actor in the Miami sequence who was actually there. Connery, Gert Fröbe, Shirley Eaton, Margaret Nolan, and Austin Wallis, who played Goldfinger's card victim, all filmed their parts when filming started in Britain, with rear projections used, and in the case of Fröbe and Wallis, stand-ins used for the long shots.
September 17, 1964 -
Dick York started out as Durwood, I mean, Darrin as Bewitched premieres on ABC-TV on this date.
(sorry about the colorized version)
When it became clear that Dick York could not continue with the series, William Asher considered canceling it, not only because of York's departure, but because he and Elizabeth Montgomery wanted to move on. However, the ratings were still high enough that the network wanted the show to go on. Dick Sargent was brought in to replace York, but there was still one problem: how to explain why Darrin looked and sounded different. Many people working on the show came up with ideas, but Asher thought the viewers understood this was an actor playing a role, so he decided that the best explanation was no explanation.
September 17, 1965 -
CBS-TV premiered Hogan's Heroes, the first and perhaps only sitcom based in a German prisoner-of-war camp on this date.
Early in production planning, it was decided to make it always be winter, with snow on the ground, and frost on the windows. This was to prevent problems with continuity, and to allow the episodes to be shown in any order (it also makes prison life seem bleaker, and being winter adds even more of a menace whenever Klink or Schultz are being threatened with being sent to the Russian front). Since much of the filming was done in the summer, the cast members had to wear coats and act cold, even when the temperature was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
September 17, 1965 -
Robert Conrad has stated that the very tight pants he wore on the show often split open during action scenes. This is especially obvious in several wide angle shots of fight scenes in which Conrad's period incorrect Jockey shorts are clearly visible.
September 17, 1966 -
The first mission from the IMF team from Mission Impossible premiered on CBS-TV on this date.
Greg Morris and Peter Lupus were the only original cast members to remain on the show throughout the entire run, although Lupus was replaced by Sam Elliott for approximately half of the episodes in season five.
September 17, 1967 -
The Doors appear on The Ed Sullivan Show on this date and things did not go as smoothly as the producers may have hoped.
The band had been asked by producer Bob Precht of The Ed Sullivan Show, to alter the lyrics of the song, Light My Fire, so as to eliminate the phrase “we couldn’t get much higher.” The band agreed to change the lyrics but come show time, Jim Morrison sang the lyrics as originally written. As a result, The Doors were banned from ever again appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show.
September 17, 1968 -
The TV series Julia premiered on this date, starring Diahann Carroll (as a nurse with a young son whose husband was killed in Vietnam), Lloyd Nolan, and Marc Copage. Carroll was the first African-American woman to star in a non-servant role in a TV series.
Diahann Carroll said in interview that the show ended when she asked to be let out of her television contract, having grown tired of the controversy surrounding the show from its inception.
September 17, 1969 -
The TV comedy sereis based of the 1963 film with the same name, The Courtdhip of Eddie's Father, starring Bill Bixby, Brandon Cruz, and Miyoshi Umeki premiered on ABC TV, on this date.
In real life, Bill Bixby became a surrogate father to Brandon Cruz, who came from a broken home, and Bixby took him in.
September 17, 1969 -
It was everyone's first day at Walt Whitman High School, when ABC TV premiered Room 222 starring Lloyd Haynes, Denise Nicholas, Michael Constantine, and Karen Valentine, aired on this date.
This was the first of three long-running sitcom franchises created or developed by James L. Brooks that are currently the property of 20th Television, the other two are The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Simpsons. The shows from the first season included a laugh track. However, by the second season the laugh track was gone to help emphasize that the show was a drama, rather than a comedy.
September 17, 1972 -
We got to meet the staff of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital for the first time (on TV) when M*A*S*H, premiered on CBS TV on this date. The series was on TV for 11 years, the Korea War only lasted three years - you figure it out.
Jamie Farr and Alan Alda were the only two main cast members to have actually served in the U.S. Army in South Korea. Both of them did their tours of duty after the 1953 cease fire. Farr was drafted, serving in Japan at Camp Drake before eventually touring and performing throughout South Korea with friend Red Skelton. Alda voluntarily joined the Army Reserve after graduating from Fordham, and completed the minimum six-month tour of duty as a gunnery officer.
September 17, 1991 -
ABC-TV introduced us the the Taylor family and the cast and crew of Tool Time when Home Improvement premiered on this date.
Patricia Richardson gave birth to twins three months before she began filming. In fact, she brought her twins to her initial interview and the producers built a nursery in the studio for them.
September 17, 2011 -
Adelle made everyone cry so much with her single Someone Like You that it hits no. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.
Adele had boundless resources at her disposal, but all this song needed was two people, two days, and a studio with a grand piano. She wrote and recorded it at Harmony Studios in Los Angeles with Dan Wilson of the band Semisonic, whose co-writing credits include Not Ready To Make Nice with Dixie Chicks and Hidden Away with Josh Groban. The demo they recorded at the end of their second day (with Wilson on piano) ended up being so good that Adele decided to use it as the actual recording. She tried recording it with a band and a full orchestra, but couldn't beat that demo.
Another book from the back shelves of The ACME Library
Today in History:
On July 4, 1776, the American colonies told Britain to kiss their hairy American asses. This occurred during the Revolutionary War, during which the Redcoats were coming, a shot was heard 'round the world' and Paul Revere could see the whites of their eyes and knew that their taxes were too high.
The complexities of war demanded organization between the states, so they established Articles of Confederation, which in turn created a Continental Congress. This Congress was adequate to see them through the war, but by the late 1780s it became clear that both the Continental Congress and the Articles of Confederation sucked.
Even way back then Americans didn't want anything to do with anything that sucked (unless it meant a substantial discount, which in this case it did not).
The Continental Congress tried to fix the Articles of Confederation in 1786. The Congress still sucked, of course, and so they failed.
In the spring of 1787 the states sent new delegates to a new convention designed to produce a government that wouldn't be so awful.
On September 17, 1787, the Constitutional Convention voted its approval of a new Constitution, which they immediately ran out to have printed.
The Continental Congress acted with its usual efficiency, and by July 2 of the following year, the Constitution had become the law of the land. The last act of the Continental Congress was to schedule federal elections for their replacements.
Today is Constitution Day in the U.S. Celebrate by refusing to allow soldiers to be billeted in your home.
September 17, 1778 -
The United States signed its first treaty with a Native American tribe, the Delaware Nation.
September 17, 1859 -
The successor to Emperor Norton I has still yet to be anointed. I am still consulting attorneys about this matter, as we speak.
September 17, 1908 -
Thomas E. Selfridge becomes the world's first airplane fatality when the Wright Flyer, a craft he's co-piloting with Orville Wright for the U.S. Army, crashed near Fort Meyer, Virginia on this date.
An untested propeller ripped apart the plane's structure, causing it to nosedive from an altitude of 75 feet.
Orville walks away unscathed and Wilber never quite trusted his brother again, as he was supposed to fly in the plane with his brother. And yet despite the tragic mishap, the War Department awarded the contract for the first military aircraft to Wright.
If you can, please seek out the Karpeles Manuscript Library branch (according to Wikipedia, the world's largest private holding of important original documents and manuscripts), located in Santa Barbara, CA. The museum has several items of correspondence between the Wright Brothers and the War Department on display, including the first contract for the Wright Flyer.
September 17, 1935 -
Len Koenecke was an outfielder with the Brooklyn Dodgers for most of 1935, but near the end of the season he was released for “behavior and erratic play.” The Dodger left St. Louis by passenger plane, but was ordered off in Detroit because of intoxication. Len chartered a three-seater plane for Buffalo that included both the pilot and the co-pilot.
The ballplayer began to play with the airplane controls, and would not stop when ordered. Koenecke and the pilot’s pal were soon fighting on the floor. Knowing that it was either him or us, the pilot grabbed a fire extinguisher and while still flying the plane he continued to whack on the offender’s head hard enough to knock him out. When the pilot finally landed near Toronto, Koenecke was dead at the age of 31.
So kids, please remain in you seat until the plane comes to a complete stop or the pilot may have to kill you.
September 17, 1939 -
The Soviet Union invaded Poland, to fulfill its end of the secret protocols contained in the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. They partition the country along pre-decided lines.
As you well know the last laugh will be on the Russian, when Hitler turns on them.
September 17, 1978 -
The Camp David Peace Accords, a set of agreements between Egypt and Israel was signed on this date. The agreements were the culmination of years of negotiations for peace in the Middle East. Acting as a peace broker, President Jimmy Carter convinced Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to reach a compromise in their disputes.
Mr. Carter, God bless him, is still with us.
And so it goes
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