Today in History: Sunday, August 13, 2023

Television
Military family drama “Call to Glory,” which was set at factionalized Edwards Air Force Base in the early 1960’s, premiered on ABC in 1984, The series, which starred Craig T. Nelson and Cindy Pickett, ran for one season…CBS debuted the newsmagazine “West 57th” in 1985. The program’s title is named after the location of the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City. It lasted four years…Animated “South Park” debuted on Comedy Central in 1997. To-date, 325 episodes have been produced…VH1 began airing the five-part music series “100 Greatest One Hit Wonders” in 2000…Dramedy “Californication” began its seven-season run on Showtime in 2007. The series starred David Duchovny as a troubled novelist with writer’s block who moved from New York to California to be near his girlfriend and their daughter…Fox-owned Spanish-language outlet MundoFox formally launched in 2012. Following 21st Century Fox’s sell-off of its stake in the venture just three years later, the network was rebranded as MundoMax before it officially folded in the fall of 2016…Action thriller “Legends” starring Sean Bean, Ali Larter and Morris Chestnut debuted on TNT in 2014. It concluded following its two-season, 20-episode run…HBO and Sesame Workshop agreed to a 5-year deal in 2015, granting the premium cable channel rights to Sesame’s archive as well as production on new projects and first broadcast rights to “Sesame Street”. The two entities have since continued their partnership with HBO Max as the streaming home for Sesame Workshop…“Get Shorty”, the mob comedy-drama based on the Elmore Leonard novel and hit 1995 film, premiered on EPIX in 2017. It starred Chris O’Dowd and Ray Romano and aired for 29 episodes across three abbreviated seasons…Comedic physical game show “Don’t”, hosted by Adam Scott and narrated by Ryan Reynolds (who also served as executive producer) concluded on ABC in 2020 after its brief eight-episode run.

Movies
One of Disney’s classic animated films, “Bambi“, premiered in 1942. The film received three Academy Award nominations (Best Original Song, Best Original Score, and Best Best Sound Mixing)…”Bonnie and Clyde“, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway was released in theaters in 1967. …”An Officer and a Gentleman” starring Richard Gere and Debra Winger opened in wide release in 1982. It was one of the year’s biggest box office hits and was atop several critics’ best-of lists of 1982. Louis Gossett Jr. won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor…Also released in 1982, the classic coming-of-age comedy “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” starring Sean Penn, Ray Walston, Phoebe Cates, Judge Reinhold, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Forest Whitaker.

Music:

Paul and Linda McCartney released single “Back Seat of My Car” in 1971… the soundtrack to the film “An Officer and a Gentleman” was released in 1982, on the same day the motion picture premiered nationwide. It featured the No. 1 hit “Up Where We Belong” by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes…“Crash My Party,“ the fourth studio album by Luke Bryan, was released in 2013. It was named Billboard Album of the Year in 2014.News:
Entertainment companies CBS and Viacom announced their merger in 2019, combining their revenues to $28 billion.

Sports:
The roller derby was born when the Transcontinental Roller Derby began at the Chicago Coliseum in 1935…American swimmer Michael Phelps won 3 gold medals, all in world record time, in the one day at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Celebrity Birthdays
The master of the macabre, Alfred Hitchcock, was born on this day in 1899. He died on April 29, 1980…Actor Kevin Tighe (“Emergency”) is 79; former child star Danny Bonaduce (“The Partridge Family”) is 64; “A Different World” star Dawnn Lewis is 62; actor John Slattery (“Mad Men”) is 61; actress Debi Mazar (“Younger”) is 59; former child star Quinn Cummings (“Family”) is 56; actor Sebastián Stan (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) is 41.

Did You Know?
From 1955 to 1965, Alfred Hitchcock was the host of the anthology television series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.“ The title-sequence of the show pictured a minimalist caricature of his profile (he drew it himself; which he drew and his real silhouette was then filled in…Danny Bonaduce was one of the endless personalities to host a syndicated daytime talk show, but his daily hour, “Danny!,” aired for only one season (in 1995-96). Bonaduce also appeared in the male-hosted “The View”-like “The Other Half” (opposite Dick Clark, Mario Lopez, cosmetic surgeon Dr. Jan Adams and, in season two, actor Dorian Gregory from 2001-03.