Today in History: Thursday, September 14, 2023

Television
Five long-running series premiered: “Ironside,“ starring Raymond Burr, in 1965; family drama “The Waltons” on CBS in 1972; “Mork & Mindy,“ starring Robin Williams and Pam Dawber in 1978; and NBC’s “227” and “The Golden Girls” in 1985. Airing for nine seasons, “The Waltons” lived on in the form of six TV movies: three on NBC from 1981-82 and three on CBS in the 1990s..Special “Barbra Streisand: A Happening in Central Park” aired on CBS in 1968…Also debuting: Animated “The Archies,“ based on the comic book series, on CBS in 1968…ABC opened the fifth, and final, season of “The Brady Bunch” in 1973. Series “killer” Cousin Oliver (Robbie Rist) did not arrive until the 17th episode that season…Newsmagazine “Entertainment Tonight” launched in syndication in 1981. Its original anchors were Marjorie Wallace and Tom Hallick…The inaugural MTV Video Music Awards took place at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in 1984. The ceremony was hosted by Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler. Its most notable performance was Madonna for “Like a Virgin.” To cover up her accidentally kicking off one of her shoes, she — dressed as in bridal garb — rolled around on the floor of the stage while she sang. Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” music video was the biggest award winner of the night…In an attempt to successfully set up five new syndicated original sitcoms — “Marblehead Manor“, “She’s the Sheriff“, “You Can’t Take It With You“, “Out of This World” and “We’ve Got It Made” — NBC introduced its “Prime Time Starts at 7:30” promotional campaign in 1987. Only five major markets took part: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Cleveland. The experiment only lasted one season… “All-American Girl” starring Margaret Cho, the first American sitcom focused on an Asian-American family, launched on ABC in 1994. It only lasted one season…At age 97, Norman Lear became the oldest person to win an Emmy in the variety special category for ABC’s “Live in Front of a Studio Audience” in 2019.

Movies:
“Se7en” starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey premiered in New York in 1995.

Music:
“Total Request Live“, the daily afternoon music countdown show hosted by Carson Daly, premiered on MTV in 1998. Filmed at Viacom’s window-front studio in New York’s Times Square, it originally ran for 10 years; it was revived in 2017 and has since been known as “TRL Top 10″…Reaching No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart: “I Shot the Sheriff” by Eric Clapton in 1974; “The Promise of a New Day” by Paula Abdul in 1991.

Celebrity Birthdays
Actor Walter Koenig (“Star Trek”) is 87; legendary basketball coach Larry Brown is 83; actress Joey Heatherton (“Bluebeard”) is 80; actor Sam Neill (“Jurassic Park”) is 76; game show host Jon Bauman (“Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour”) is also 76; actress Mary Crosby (“Dallas”) is 64; Academy Award-winning actress Melissa Leo (“The Fighter”) is 63; “Shark Tank’s” Robert Herjavec is 61; actress Faith Ford (“Murphy Brown”) is 59; actress Michelle Stafford (“The Young and the Restless”) is 58; former MTV host Dan Cortese is 55; actress Kimberly Williams (“Father of the Bride”) is 52; “The Walking Dead” star Andrew Lincoln is 50; rapper Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones aka Nas is 50; Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler is 34; actress Jessica Brown Findlay (“Downton Abbey”) is also 34; actress Emma Kenney (“The Conners,” “Shameless”) is 24.

Did You Know?
In season two, “The Waltons” rose to second in the Nielsen ratings overall in primetime with a 28.1 household rating. First was sitcom “All in the Family” (with a 34.0 rating)…“The Golden Girls” is only one of hour comedies were all the principal stars (Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty) were awarded with an Emmy. The other three are “All in the Family”, “Will & Grace” and “Schitt’s Creek.“