Today in History – Friday, February 12, 2021

Television and Radio
Eunice (Carol Burnett) appeared on “The Gong Show” in 1977 in a “Family” sketch on CBS’ “The Carol Burnett Show.” “The Family,” which also featured Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper (Mama) and Harvey Korman as Eunice’s husband Ed, was spun-off into a made-for TV movie in 1982 called “Eunice” and sitcom “Mama’s Family” effective on January 22, 1983…NBC debuted the three-part miniseries, “King,”which chronicled the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in 1978. “King” earned nine Emmy Award nominations and it starred Paul Winfield, Ossie Davis, Cicely Tyson and Tony Bennett…The only American civilian edition of “Big Brother” to have its season take place in the winter was season nine, which began in 2008 on CBS. The writers’ strike at the time caused a dearth of scripted programming and CBS turned to its popular summer series to fill some of its primetime schedule…The 18th season of CBS reality competition “Survivor” entitled “Survivor: Tocantins — The Brazilian Highlands” premiered in 2009. Some of the castaways who competed were James “J.T.” Thomas Jr., Stephen Fishbach, Benjamin “Coach” Wade, Tyson Apostol and Miss Ohio USA 2003 Candace Smith… Reality series “Comic Book Men” premiered on AMC in 2012. The show, which followed “Clerks” writer/director Kevin Smith and the staff at Smith’s comic book store Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash in New Jersey, ran for seven seasons…Miniseries “The Slap“, based on the Australian series of the same name, premiered on NBC in 2015. The family drama starred Peter Sarsgaard, Uma Thurman, Thandie Newton, Zachary Quinto, Melissa George, Brian Cox and Lucas Hedges. Eight episodes had aired…Two cable comedy series launched in 2019: “Boomerang“, developed by Lena Waithe and based on the 1992 feature film, on BET; and anthology “Miracle Workers” starring Daniel Radcliffe and Steve Buscemi on TBS. Both shows will enter their respective third seasons in the coming year…The 2-hour premiere of “Survivor: Winners at War“, the 40th edition of “Survivor“, aired on CBS in 2020. Twenty former Survivor winners — “Boston” Rob and Amber Mariano, Natalie Anderson, Ethan Zohn, Parvati Shallow, Tony Vlachos and Sandra Diaz-Twine among them — competed for a $2 million grand prize.
 
Movies:
“The Squaw Man”, the first feature-length film shot in Hollywood, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel, was released in the U.S. in 1914.

Music:
Single “Sincerely” from the McGuire Sisters, went No. 1 on the Billboard charts and stayed there for 10 weeks in 1955…Canadian artists Nelly Furtado, Bryan Adams and k.d. lang performed at the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada in 2010. k.d. lang sang her version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah“…For the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012, British singer Adele won awards in all six of the categories in which she were nominated including Record of the Year and Song of the Year (for “Rolling in the Deep“), Album of the Year (for “21“) and Best New Artist. The ceremony took place one day after the death of music legend Whitney Houston. Jennifer Hudson performed “I Will Always Love You” in tribute. Drawing near 40 million viewers, it was the second-most watched Grammys in U.S. TV history, behind the 1984 ceremony (eight awards for Michael Jackson and his legendary album “Thriller”)… Adele was also the big winner at the 59th Grammy Awards in 2017 winning for Record of the Year and Song of the Year (for “Hello“). Upon receiving her Grammy for Album of the Year for “25“, Adele openly declared that Beyoncé should have won the award for her “Lemonade” album. Chance the Rapper won for Best New Artist.

News:
U.S. President Bill Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial in 1999.

Celebrity Birthdays:
Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell is 87; actor Joe Don Baker (“GoldenEye”) is 85; actress Maud Adams (“Octopussy”) is 76; actor Michael Ironside (“Total Recall”) is 71; singer Michael McDonald is 69; actress Joanna Kerns (“Growing Pains”) is 68; comedian/former late-night talk show Arsenio Hall is 65; game show host John Michael Higgins (“America Says”) is 58; actor Josh Brolin (“No Country For Old Men”) is 53; Wilson Phillips singer Chyna Phillips is 53; actor Jesse Spencer (“Chicago Fire”) is 42; actress Christina Ricci (“The Addams Family”) is 41.
 
Did You Know?
“Mama’s Family,” of course, was the spin-off sitcom featuring Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper. After a two season run on NBC (from 1983 to 1984), “Mama’s Family” returned in first-run syndication in the fall of 1986 where it ran for four additional seasons. Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman reprised their roles as Eunice and Ed in a handful of early episodes of “Mama’s Family” on NBC, but never appeared when it was syndicated. Korman, additionally, introduced the early episodes as the stuffed shirt Alistair Quince (an obvious parody of Alistair Cooke), who would soberly introduce the program in the style of “Masterpiece Theatre.” These monologues were cut out of the later syndicated reruns.”