Today in History: Thursday, October 17, 2024

Television
Game show “The Hollywood Squares” debuted on NBC in 1966 in daytime with Ernest Borgnine in the center square. Peter Marshall was the host and the first week also featured Cliff Arquette (a.k.a. “Charlie Weaver”), Wally Cox, Morey Amsterdam, Rose Marie and Abby Dalton.

In 1999, HBO presented what it thought would be a one-time, one-hour special, “Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The show was presented as a mocumentary that followed David’s preparation for an upcoming HBO comedy special.

Docuseries “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” opened on E! in 2007… “Daily Show” spin-off “The Colbert Report” began its nine-year run on Comedy Central in 2005. It was co-created and hosted by former “Daily Show” correspondent Stephen Colbert, who portrayed a satirized version of a conservative-leaning political pundit a la Bill O’Reilly and his “The O’Reilly Factor” from Fox News. “The Colbert Report” managed to best its parent program at the Emmys in 2013 and 2014 winning as Outstanding Variety Series…Historical romantic drama “Reign” starring Adelaide Kane as Mary Queen of Scots launched on The CW in 2013. It ran for four seasons.

Sports:
The chess “game of the century” took place during the Rosenwald Memorial Tournament at the Marshall Chess Club in New York City in 1956 when Bobby Fischer, who was 13 years old at the time, defeated 1953 U.S. chess champion Donald Byrne.

Becoming MLB World Series champions: New York Yankees in 1962 and 1978, Pittsburgh Pirates in 1971 and 1979, Oakland Athletics in 1974…While broadcasters Al Michaels and Tim McCarver were previewing Game 3 of the Athletics-Giants World Series in 1989 for ABC, a deadly 6.9-measured earthquake rocked the city of San Francisco, causing some damage to the game’s stadium Candlestick Park and briefly knocked off transmission from ABC. The network swiftly aired a rerun of sitcom “Roseanne” in its place until ABC News came on.

Celebrity Birthdays:
Singer Gary Puckett is 82; actor Michael McKean (“Laverne & Shirley”, “Better Call Saul”) is 77; “Cheers” star George Wendt is 76; country singer Alan Jackson is 66; “Murphy Brown” star Grant Shaud is 64; animator Mike Judge (“Beavis and Butthead”, “King of the Hill”) is 62; reggae singer Ziggy Marley is 56; Fugees singer Wyclef Jean is 55; rapper Eminem is 52; actress Sharon Leal (“Boston Public”) is 52; actress Felicity Jones (“The Theory of Everything”) is 41; actor Chris Lowell (“Private Practice”, “GLOW”) is 40.

Did You Know?
Bert Parks was the host of “The Hollywood Squares” in the unaired pilot “Storybook Squares”… A children’s version of “The Hollywood Squares” aired on Saturday mornings on NBC from Jan. 4 to Aug. 30, 1969 and featured stars dressed as various fictional characters from television and fairy tales as well as historical figures from the past. It returned briefly in the 1976–77 season featuring entire families playing.