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Television
The Academy Awards were first televised in 1953. Broadcast on NBC, the 25th annual edition were held in both Hollywood and New York City and was hosted by Bob Hope, Conrad Nagel and Fredric March. That night, “The Greatest Show on Earth” won Best Picture, John Ford (“The Quiet Man”) won for Best Director, and acting Oscars went to Gary Cooper (“High Noon”), Shirley Booth (“Come Back, Little Sheba”), Anthony Quinn (“Viva Zapata!”) and Gloria Grahame (“The Bad and the Beautiful”)…“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” on CBS ended its seven season run in 1977. It produced 168 episodes and won 29 Emmys including acting trophies to Ed Asner, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Betty White, and, of course, Mary Tyler Moore. The show won Outstanding Comedy Series three times.
CBS sitcom “Kate & Allie,“ starring Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin, opened in 1984. It aired through May 22, 1989.
Also in 1984: After being canceled in May 1983, CBS crime solver “Cagney & Lacey” received a second chance thanks to a letter writing campaign by the fans. Seven new episodes were produced for that abbreviated third season, with an additional four full seasons (and four follow-up made-for television movies). A revival of “Cagney & Lacey” was in development on CBS, but it has not moved forward.
CBS debuted the animated special “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!” in 1970…The Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, better known as C-SPAN, launched in 1979. Known primarily for live coverage of government proceedings, its first day featured a speech by then-Tennessee congressmember Al Gore…Promoting her “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign, then-First Lady Nancy Reagan visits Arnold (Gary Coleman) at the Drummond household about his controversial article on drug abuse at his school on NBC’s “Diff’rent Strokes” in 1983…NBC premiered two series in 1987: the college-set sitcom “Roomies” starring Burt Young and Corey Haim and the high school drama “The Bronx Zoo” starring Ed Asner; the former would air for only eight episodes, the latter had 20 of its episodes aired across two seasons…Part one of the two-part miniseries “The Women of Brewster Place” starring Oprah Winfrey, Jackée Harry, Robin Givens, Lynn Whitfield and Cicely Tyson aired on the ABC Sunday Night Movie in 1989. Both parts attracted a large audience: part 1 scored a 23.5 U.S. household rating/36 share; part 2 delivered a 24.5/38. Only two episodes of ABC’s “Roseanne” and one episode of NBC’s “The Cosby Show” at the time rated higher. The miniseries spawned the ABC drama “Brewster Place” that had a brief run from May thru July in 1990.
In 1997, USA Network premiered the made-for-TV movie “Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story” starring Mario Lopez (“Saved by the Bell”) as the Olympic gold medalist diver… Barack Obama was a guest on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno“in 2009, making him the first sitting U.S. president to ever appear on a late-night talk show…Several short-lived series launched: Fox comedy “Andy Richter Controls the Universe” in 2002; legal drama “The D.A.” starring Steven Weber, Sarah Paulson and JK Simmons on ABC in 2004; performing arts high school docuseries “Taking the Stage” on MTV in 2009; celebrity diving competition “Splash” on ABC in 2013; teen murder mystery “Twisted” on ABC Family in 2013; family docuseries “For Peete’s Sake” with Rodney Peete and Holly Robinson Peete on OWN in 2016; trivia quiz show “Mental Samurai” hosted by Rob Lowe on Fox in 2019; “This Is Us”-esque drama “The Village” on NBC in 2019; comedy-drama “Lucky Hank” starring Bob Odenkirk on AMC in 2023…Sci-fi adventure “The 100” about a group of youths transported to a new world for the purposes of creating a better society debuted on The CW in 2014. The series ran for 100 episodes across seven seasons.
Comedy “Teachers” concluded its 3-season, 50-episode series run on TV Land in 2019… “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, Marvel Studios’ second series of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), premiered on Disney+ in 2021. The six-episode single season that served as a follow up to the film “Avengers: Endgame” starred Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan.
Movies:
“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”, starring Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, first premiered in Mexico City in 2016. It was a follow-up to “Man of Steel” in 2013 and the second installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU).
Books and Magazines:
Music-themed Spin Magazine began publishing in 1985. The final issue was in 2012.
News:
In 2012, Wendy’s surpassed Burger King to become the second best-selling hamburger chain.
Celebrity Birthdays:
Actress Renee Taylor (“The Nanny”) is 91; Ursula Andress (“Dr. No”) is 88; Pointer Sisters singer Ruth Pointer is 78; Oscar nominee Glenn Close is 77; “Die Hard” star Bruce Willis is 69; Kansas City Chiefs football head coach Andy Reid is 66.
Did You Know?
“Cagney & Lacey” stars Tyne Daly (Mary Beth Lacey) and Sharon Gless (Christine Cagney) dominated the Emmy Awards throughout the series run with four wins for Daly and two for Gless for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series from 1983 to 1988.
