This History of Television: Friday, May 20, 2022

Television:
In 1973, “All in the Family” and “The Waltons“ both on CBS, were named Outstanding Comedy and Drama Series. It was the third consecutive win in the category for “All in the Family”…Animated “The Flintstones 25th Anniversary Celebration” aired on CBS in 1986. It was hosted by Tim Conway, Harvey Korman and Vanna White…ABC’s “Barney Miller” concluded after seven-and-one-half seasons in 1982. After seven consecutive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, it took home the trophy in that final season…NBC’s long-running “Cheers” concluded in 1993 after 11 seasons. Later that evening, the visibly intoxicated cast gathered for a live episode of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” telecast from Boston’s Bull and Finch Pub…Also ending their runs: syndicated sitcom “Small Wonder” after four seasons in 1989, NBC’s “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” after six seasons in 1996, the original run of ABC’s “Roseanne” after nine seasons in 1997, The WB’s “The Wayans Bros.” after five seasons in 1999, syndication’s “Baywatch” after 12 seasons in 2001, Fox’s “Ally McBeal” after five seasons in 2002, and “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer” (originally from The WB) on UPN in 2003. “Buffy” aired for seven seasons…Also in 2003 on UPN, the debut of reality competition “America’s Next Top Model” hosted by Tyra Banks…Toonces the Cat made his first appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” in 1989. In this first sketch Dana Carvey and Victoria Jackson played a couple who allowed their pet cat Toonces to drive, which resulted in him driving their car off a cliff…Olympic gold medalist figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi and her professional dancing partner Mark Ballas were crowned Mirror Ball champions on the sixth season finale of “Dancing With The Stars” on ABC in 2008. R&B superstar Usher was the featured guest performer on the night…Nearly 29 million viewers tuned in to see Kris Allen crowned as the winner of the eighth season of “American Idol” on Fox in 2009. Adam Lambert (currently, the front man of classic rock band Queen) placed runner-up. It was the first season that featured songwriter/producer Kara DioGuardi as a judge (she only spent two seasons on the show) and the final season that Paula Abdul would be on the judging panel…Former Texan oil driller Mike Holloway defeated Carolyn Rivera and Will Sims II in a 6–1–1 jury vote to win the 30th season of CBS’ “Survivor” in 2015, in the edition entitled “Survivor: Worlds Apart — White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar.“ Fellow castaways Sierra Dawn Thomas (5th place) and Joe Anglim (10th place) married each other four years later. In addition, they each re-appeared in subsequent “Survivor” seasons: Thomas on “Game Changers” (Spring 2017); Anglim on “Cambodia-Second Chance” (Fall 2015) and on “Edge of Extinction” (Spring 2019)…Eleven other series of note concluded: 1) UPN conspiracy thriller “Nowhere Man” in 1996; 2) UPN sci-fi drama “The Burning Zone” in 1997; 3) “Touched By An Angel” spinoff “Promised Land” on CBS in 1999; 4) UPN comedy “The Hughleys” and syndicated dramas 5 and 6) “Earth: Final Conflict” and “Relic Hunter” — all in 2002; 7) NBC comedy “Watching Ellie” starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus in 2003; 8) CBS legal drama “Shark” starring James Woods and Danielle Panabaker; 9) Cinemax action drama “Banshee” in 2016…and 10 and 11) dramas “The Enemy Within” on NBC and “The Fix” on ABC — both in 2019…Four syndicated programs ended their runs: teen sitcom “Malibu, CA” (after two seasons) and Naval action drama “Pensacola: Wings of Gold” (after three seasons) — both in 2000; court show “Texas Justice” (after five seasons) in 2005; and talk show “The Meredith Vieira Show” (after two seasons) in 2016…The newly-installed NBC executives pass on approving the comedy “Jerry” to series and Jerry and George (Jason Alexander) blame Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) for causing the executive who had championed their show to leave his job in the one-hour fourth season finale of NBC sitcom “Seinfeld” in 1993. Within the following months, the series would be honored as Outstanding Comedy Series at both the Primetime Emmys and Golden Globe Awards…In 2011, Mary Hart anchored syndicated celebrity newsmagazine “Entertainment Tonight” for the final time, capping her 29-year stint on the show…In 2013, the Leichtman Research Group released findings that the thirteen biggest U.S. cable, satellite and telco TV providers lost about 80,000 subscribers for the twelve-month time frame of April 1, 2012 thru March 31, 2013. The firm stated it was the first time a net industry-wide subscriber loss over a four-quarter period had occurred…Two series premiered in 2013: short-lived Fox sitcom “The Goodwin Games” and the U.S. debut of Canadian police procedural “Motive” on ABC; the latter two of its four seasons aired on USA Network…Comedy “Lady Dynamite”, co-created by Mitch Hurwitz (“Arrested Development”) and starring Maria Bamford, had its first season released on Netflix in 2016. Despite receiving critical raves, the series was canceled after two seasons…Athletic game show “Ultimate Tag” hosted by the Watt brothers from the NFL — J.J., T.J. and Derek — launched on Fox in 2020.

Movies:
Opened in U.S. theaters: “Beverly Hills Cop II” with Eddie Murphy in 1987, “Willow” in 1988, and “Godzilla” starring Matthew Broderick in 1998.

Music:
“Every Breath You Take” by The Police was released in 1983…”Forever Your Girl“, the title track from Paula Abdul‘s smash debut album, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1989.

Celebrity Birthdays:
Actor David Proval (“The Sopranos”) is 80; Oscar winner Cher is 76; actor Dave Thomas (“Grace Under Fire”) is 74; actor Dean Butler (“Little House on the Prairie”) is 66; guitarist Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go’s is 64; actor Bronson Pinchot (“Perfect Strangers”) is 63; singer Susan Cowsill of The Cowsills is also 63; actor Tony Goldwyn is 62; former N.Y. Yankees pitcher David Wells is 59; TV personality Ted Allen (“Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”) is 57; “The Facts of Life” star Mindy Cohen is 56; TV host Dan Abrams (“Live PD”) is 56; “Justified” star Timothy Olyphant is 54; race car driver Tony Stewart is 51; rapper Trevor Smith Jr. aka Busta Rhymes is 50; actor Matt Czuchry (“The Resident”) is 45; country singer Jon Pardi is 37.

-Did You Know?:
Everyone, of course, remembers long-running and multi-Emmy award winning “Cheers” spin-off “Frasier,“ which like its parent series ran for 11-seasons. But many forget there was another spin-off series from “Cheers,” “The Tortellis,” which followed the lives of Nick (Dan Hedaya) and Loretta (Jean Kasem) Tortelli. It ran for 13 episodes in early 1987 and featured guest appearances by Rhea Perlman, George Wendt and John Ratzenberger.