Archive for the ‘Old Television’ Category

On this day in 1961, Mr. Ed debuted on television.

From stables to breeches, Mr. Ed was an awesome show (of course I saw it in reruns).

The stars of the show are Mister Ed, an intelligent palomino American Saddlebred who could talk (“played” by gelding Bamboo Harvester and voiced by Allan Lane), and his owner, an eccentric and enormously klutzy architect named Wilbur Post (portrayed by Alan Young). Much of the program’s humor stemmed from the fact Mister Ed would speak only to Wilbur, as well as Ed’s notoriety as a troublemaker. According to the show’s producer, Arthur Lubin, Young was chosen as the lead character because he “just seemed like the sort of guy a horse would talk to.”Lubin, a friend of Mae West, scored a coup by persuading the screen icon to guest star in one episode.

Find out more about Mr. Ed at wikipedia.

On this day in 1955, the Lennon Sisters debuted on the Lawrence Welk Show, and they stayed for 13 years. Remember, this was in the day of no treadmills, no fitness centers, and no obsession with losing weight. Of course, we weren’t as obese then, and fast-food restaurants we just a small blip on the radar too.

The Lennon Sisters were a class act, you can’t find organic music like that anymore, not without hunting for a long, long time.

You can find out more about this day in history at Those Were The Days, and InfoPlease.

In 1985, ABC announced they were severing ties with Howard Cosell.

Many of us knew him simply as television commentator, but he started down a different road early in life.

Cosell was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Nellie and Isidore Cohen, who was an accountant. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York. His parents had wanted him to become a lawyer. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from New York University, where he was a member of Pi Lambda Phi. He then went to the New York University School of Law where he earned his JD, and was a member of the NYU Law Review.

Howard Cosell sold a lot of products in his day, I just can’t remember if he ever pitched the best hair loss products or not. Do you even remember Howard Cosell?

Meet The Press has been a staple for years now and they cover every topic you could think of. The show includes everything, except kitchen sinks (and the faucets) that go with them.

Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television show in worldwide broadcasting history, having made its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been hosted by eleven moderators; the current host is David Gregory, who assumed the role in December 2008.

Meet the Press and similar shows specialize in interviewing national leaders on issues of politics, economics, foreign policy and other public affairs. These shows help fulfill the obligations of the networks to provide a public service to the community.

Meet the Press is the highest-rated of the American television Sunday morning talk shows.

Wow. I just mentioned Lucille Ball in my previous post and there we are celebrating the debut of “I Love Lucy”.

I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom, starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951 to April 1, 1960 on CBS (including The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour). Although the original series ended in 1957, the show continued on for three more seasons with 13 one-hour specials, running from 1957 to 1960, known first as The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and later in reruns as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.

I Love Lucy was the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons, and was the first to end its run at the top of the ratings (to be matched only by The Andy Griffith Show and Seinfeld), although it did not have a formal series finale episode. I Love Lucy is still syndicated in dozens of languages across the world.

Now stop looking for vacation hotspots at those orlando florida hotels, and watch an episode of Lucy. You’ll be glad you did.

On this day in 1969, my sister was born. That makes her 40! Wow. Happy birthday sis! Also on this day, in 1960, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy took part in the first televised presidential debate.

Look how far we’ve come in 50 years. From the first television debate to the first youtube debates in the previous election. From black and white ads on tv to free online auctions. Where will be in the next 50 years?

On this day in 1965, Green Acres debuted on CBS in an age of television free of wall-to-wall commercials and fast paced speakers trying to push the latest deal at the electronics store. The commercials were friendlier and actually contained products people would actually want to buy. Too bad they weren’t advertising, because we could have used some Medifast coupons back then too. The again, we can use them now, can’t we?

After the success of The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, CBS offered producer Paul Henning another half-hour on the schedule with no pilot required. Lacking the time to commit to another project himself, he encouraged colleague Jay Sommers to create the series. Sommers used his 1950 radio series, Granby’s Green Acres, as the basis for the new television series. The 13-episode radio series had starred Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet (who also appeared in the TV version) as a big-city family who move to the country.

In pre-production, two proposed titles were Country Cousins and The Eddie Albert Show.[1] Green Acres was about Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert), an accomplished and erudite New York attorney who was acting on his lifelong dream to be a farmer, and Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor), his glamorously bejeweled Hungarian wife, dragged unwillingly from the privileged city life she adored to a bucolic life on a ramshackle farm. The debut episode was a mock documentary about this big-city attorney’s decision to move to a rural area, narrated by CBS newscaster (and host of the popular game show What’s My Line) John Charles Daly. A few weeks after the show’s debut, Albert and Gabor returned the favor by appearing on What’s My Line as that episode’s Mystery Guests, and afterward publicly thanked Daly for helping to successfully launch their series.

On this day in history, Walter Cronkite started showing up in our living rooms.

Walter Cronkite started showing up in living rooms during the dinner hour, starting this night in 1963 as anchor of the CBS Evening News (a job he took over from Douglas Edwards on April 16, 1962). Previous to this night, CBS Evening News had been shown from 7:30-7:45 p.m. and 7:15-7:30 p.m.

A familiar face to TV audiences, Walter Cronkite had been the host of You Are There, a CBS Sunday night program that ran from 1953 through 1957. A CBS news correspondent, Walter Cronkite served as reporter, host, and anchorman as major events in history were reenacted. Those who were viewers of You Are There can probably still recite Walter’s closing lines: “What sort of a day was it? A day like all days, filled with those events that alter and illuminate our times … and you were there.”

Ah yes, that was the golden age of news reporting. Ever since he left, even the strongest wind deflectors cannot deter many news anchors from bloviating nightly when they should be reporting the news.

Thank you Walter.

On this day in 1981, Charlie’s Angels was seen for the last time on ABC. It was almost the end of an era, but not really.

Three women, the Angels (originally Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, and Jaclyn Smith), graduated from the Los Angeles police academy only to be assigned such duties as handling switchboards and directing traffic. They quit and were hired to work for the Charles Townsend Agency as private investigators. Their boss, Charlie (voiced by John Forsythe), is never seen full face — in some episodes the viewer gets to see the back of his head and his arms, talking through a phone while surrounded by beautiful women — assigning cases to the Angels and his liaison, Bosley (played by David Doyle), via a speaker phone.

Although it’s never been duplicated, Charlie’s Angels set the stage for many different type of detective shows, and of course set the stage for the other beautiful women of the world to get in shape. I bet diet pill reviews went through the roof when women saw the Angels take to the screen.

On this day in 1982, Search for Tomorrow made the move from CBS to NBC and no one really noticed.