Today in History: Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Television
Happy 50th! “Kojak”, starring Telly Savalas, debuted on CBS in 1973. The series, which aired for five seasons, was introduced in the made-for television movie “The Marcus-Nelson Murders.” “Kojak” currently airs on Great Entertainment Television.

Short-lived NBC sitcom “The Michael Richards Show” launched in 2000, signaling what many referred to as the “Seinfeld Curse” (an assertion that the former cast from “Seinfeld” could not carry a series of their own). But with seven additional Emmys wins since “Seinfeld” (including six consecutive for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy for HBO’s ‘Veep”), Julia Louis-Dreyfus broke the “curse.”

Movies
Psychological political thriller “The Manchurian Candidate”, opened in theaters in 1962. It starred Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, and was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Lansbury) and Best Editing. It was remade in 2004 with Denzel Washington, John Voight and Meryl Streep.

News
The 40-hour workweek went into effect under the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

Sports
The Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Atlanta Braves to become the first team not based in the United States to win the World Series in 1992.

Celebrity Birthdays
Oscar winner Kevin Kline (“A Fish Called Wanda”) is 76; actor BD Wong is 73; “The Real” co-host Adrienne Bailon is 40; “90210” star Shenae Grimes is 34.

Did You Know?
“Kojak” with Telly Savalas was initially revived in two CBS movies: “Kojak: The Belarus Files” in 1985 and “Kojak: The Price of Justice” in 1987. In 1989, ABC revived the series again with five additional TV movies. Ving Rhames took over the role of Lt. Theo Kojak in a one season revival of “Kojak” on USA Network in 2005…The Tuesday 8 p.m. half-hour on NBC where “The Michael Richards Show” aired was the dumping ground for some of the worst comedies in the history of the network. “Emeril,” featuring Chef Emeril Lagasse, was housed there in the fall of 2001, followed by “The In-Laws” in 2002, and “Whoopi,” headlined by Whoopi Goldberg as the Archie Bunker-ish Mavis Rae, in the fall of 2003.