Category Archives: The Little Screen (Television)

Anniversary of White Christmas

Posted on October 14, 2025 by James| Comments Off

White Christmas is a 1954 movie starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye that featured the songs of Irving Berlin, including the titular White Christmas.

Wikipedia Link

Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, On This Day, The Little Screen (Television)

Vincent Price Performs Thriller!

Posted on October 7, 2025 by James| Comments Off

On Friday the 13th in February in 1987, the legendary Vincent Price showed up as a guest on the Late Show starring Joan Rivers. While on the show, Price performed his classic segment from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.

Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, Music, The Little Screen (Television)

70th Anniversary of The Mickey Mouse Club

Posted on October 3, 2025 by James| Comments Off

70 years ago today, October 3, 1955, The Mickey Mouse Club premiered. It was an American variety television show that aired intermittently from 1955 to 1996 and returned to social media in 2017. Created by the late Walt Disney and produced by Walt Disney Productions, the program was first televised for four seasons, from 1955 to 1959, by ABC. This original run featured a regular, but ever-changing cast of mostly teen performers. ABC broadcast reruns weekday afternoons during the 1958–1959 season, airing right after American Bandstand. The show was revived three times after its initial 1955–1959 run on ABC, first from 1977 to 1979 for first-run syndication as The New Mickey Mouse Club, then from 1989 to 1996 as The All-New Mickey Mouse Club (also known to fans as MMC from 1993 to 1996) airing exclusively on cable television’s The Disney Channel, and again in 2017 with the moniker Club Mickey Mouse airing exclusively on internet social media. It ended in 2018.

The character of Mickey Mouse appeared in every show, not only in vintage cartoons originally made for theatrical release, but also in the opening, interstitial, and closing segments made especially for the show. In both the vintage cartoons and new animated segments, Mickey was voiced by his creator Walt Disney (Disney had previously voiced the character theatrically from 1928 to 1947 before being replaced by sound effects artist Jimmy MacDonald).

Posted in Anniversary, Humor, The Little Screen (Television)

Good Morning, Captain (Kangaroo) – 70th Anniversary

Posted on October 3, 2025 by James| Comments Off

Captain Kangaroo ran from October 3, 1955 – December 8, 1984.

From Wikipedia:

Captain Kangaroo was an American children’s television series that aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for 29 years, from 1955 to 1984, making it the longest-running nationally broadcast children’s television program of its day. In 1986, the American Program Service (now American Public Television, Boston) integrated some newly produced segments into reruns of past episodes, distributing the newer version of the series to PBS and independent public stations until 1993.

The show was conceived by Bob Keeshan, who also played the title character “Captain Kangaroo”, and who based the show on “the warm relationship between grandparents and children”. Keeshan had portrayed the original Clarabell the Clown on NBC’s The Howdy Doody Show during the network’s early years.

Captain Kangaroo had a loose structure, built around life in the “Treasure House” where the Captain (the name “kangaroo” came from the big pockets in his coat) would tell stories, meet guests, and indulge in silly stunts with regular characters, both humans and puppets. Keeshan performed as the Captain more than 9,000 times over the nearly 30-year run of the show.

Wikipedia Article

Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, The Little Screen (Television)

The Andy Griffith show premiered – 65th Anniversary

Posted on October 3, 2025 by James| Comments Off

The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom television series that was aired on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968, with a total of 249 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons—159 in black and white and 90 in color.

Posted in Anniversary, Humor, On This Day, The Little Screen (Television)

75th Anniversary of Peanuts

Posted on October 2, 2025 by James| Comments Off

From Wikipedia (article here):

Peanuts (briefly subtitled featuring Good ol’ Charlie Brown) is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip’s original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. Peanuts is among the most popular and influential in the history of comic strips, with 17,897 strips published in all,^[1] making it “arguably the longest story ever told by one human being”.^[2] At the time of Schulz’s death in 2000, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of roughly 355 million across 75 countries, and had been translated into 21 languages.^[3] It helped to cement the four-panel gag strip^[4] as the standard in the United States,^[5] and together with its merchandise earned Schulz more than $1 billion.^[1] Following successful TV and theatrical adaptations over the years, a movie adaptation was released by Blue Sky Studios in 2015.^[6]

Peanuts focuses on a social circle of young children, where adults exist but are rarely seen or heard. The main character, Charlie Brown, is meek, nervous, and lacks self-confidence. He is unable to fly a kite, win a baseball game, or kick a football held by his irascible friend Lucy, who always pulls it away at the last instant.^[7] Peanuts is a literate strip with philosophical, psychological, and sociological overtones, which was innovative in the 1950s.^[4] Its humor is psychologically complex and driven by the characters’ interactions and relationships. The comic strip has been adapted in animation and theater.

Schulz drew every strip, through nearly 50 years, with no assistants, including the lettering and coloring process.^[8]^[9]

Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, Humor, Literary, The Little Screen (Television)

75th Anniversary of Peanuts Drone Show at PNC Field

Posted on October 2, 2025 by James| Comments Off

Posted in Because I Can, Sports, The Little Screen (Television)

Happy 90th Birthday, Julie Andrews

Posted on October 1, 2025 by James| Comments Off

Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over eight decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, three Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and seven Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations for three Tony Awards. One of the biggest box office draws of the 1960s, Andrews has been honored with the Kennedy Center Honors in 2001, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2007, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2022. She was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2000 New Year Honors.

Wikipedia Article

Posted in Anniversary, Music, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)

65th Anniversary of The Flintstones

Posted on September 30, 2025 by James| Comments Off

The Flintstones was an animated American television sitcom that ran from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966 on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones is about a working class Stone Age man’s life with his family and his next door neighbor and best friend. It has since been re-released on both DVD and VHS.

Critics and fans alike agree that the show was an animated imitation of The Honeymooners with rock puns thrown in. William Hanna admitted that “At that time “The Honeymooners” was the most popular show on the air, and for my bill, it was the funniest show on the air. The characters, I thought, were terrific. Now, that influenced greatly what we did with “The Flintstones”… “The Honeymooners” was there, and we used that as a kind of basis for the concept.” However Joseph Barbera disavowed these claims in a separate interview, stating that “I don’t remember mentioning “The Honeymooners” when I sold the show, but if people want to compare “The Flintstones” to “The Honeymooners,” then great. It’s a total compliment. “The Honeymooners” was one of the greatest shows ever written.” Its popularity rested heavily on its juxtaposition of modern-day concerns in the Stone Age setting.

Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, On This Day, The Little Screen (Television)

RIP Kris Kristofferson

Posted on September 28, 2025 by James| Comments Off

**Kris Kristofferson** June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024

Kristoffer Kristofferson was an American country music singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, moving away from the polished Nashville sound and toward a more raw, introspective style. He was a three-time Grammy Award winner, out of 13 total nominations.

He was 88.

Wikipedia Article

Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, Music, News, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)

Anniversary of The Jetsons

Posted on September 23, 2025 by James| Comments Off

On September 23, 1962, the Jetsons premiered on ABC.

The Jetsons is a prime-time animated American sitcom that was produced by Hanna-Barbera, originally airing from 1962–63 and again from 1985–87. It was Hanna-Barbera’s Space Age counterpart to The Flintstones, a half-hour family sitcom projecting contemporary American culture and lifestyle into another time period. While the Flintstones live in a world with machines powered by birds and dinosaurs, the Jetsons live in a futuristic utopia in the year 2062 of elaborate robotic contraptions, aliens, holograms, and whimsical inventions.

The original incarnation of the series aired Sunday nights on ABC from September 23, 1962, to March 3, 1963. It comprised 24 episodes, and was re-run on Saturday morning for decades. At the time of its debut, it was the first program ever to be broadcast in color on ABC-TV (as The Flintstones, while always produced in color, was broadcast in black-and-white for its first two seasons). Its continuing popularity led to further episodes being produced for syndication between 1985 and 1987.

Wikipedia Link

Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, On This Day, The Little Screen (Television)

Anniversary of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

Posted on September 20, 2025 by James| Comments Off

Thank you Gil Girard, Erin Gray, Felix Silla, and, of course, Mel Blanc.

Wikipedia Article

Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, The Little Screen (Television)

Anniversary of WKRP in Cincinnati

Posted on September 18, 2025 by James| Comments Off

The Birth of Dr. Johnny Fever:

On this day, September 18, in 1978, CBS debuted WKRP in Cincinnati. WKRP in Cincinnati is an American sitcom television series about the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional AM radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. It lasted for 4 seasons, and a total of 90 episodes.

Wikipedia Article

Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, Humor, On This Day, The Little Screen (Television)

Anniversary of the Debut of MAS*H

Posted on September 17, 2025 by James| Comments Off

The series premiered on September 17, 1972, and ended February 28, 1983, with the finale becoming the most-watched television episode in U.S. television history.

Wikipedia Link

Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, On This Day, The Little Screen (Television)

Premier of Hogan’s Heroes

Posted on September 17, 2025 by James| Comments Off

Hogan’s Heroes premiered on September 17, 1965, and quickly became the most popular new show of the year. In fact, for several seasons it ranked in TV’s top 20 programs …but it never escaped the controversy it premise engendered: Was it immoral to portray history’s most evil killers as bumbling -even lovable- buffoons week after week, just to make a buck?

It ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to July 4, 1971, on the CBS network. Bob Crane starred as Colonel Robert E. Hogan, coordinating an international crew of Allied prisoners running a Special Operations group from the camp. Werner Klemperer played Colonel Wilhelm Klink, the incompetent commandant of the camp, and John Banner was the inept sergeant-of-the-guard, Hans Schultz.

168 Episodes, America must have decided it was ok… 🙂

Posted in Anniversary, On This Day, The Little Screen (Television)

Anniversary of Scooby Doo!

Posted on September 13, 2025 by James| Comments Off

The first episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! “What a Night for a Knight” debuted on the CBS network Saturday, September 13, 1969. The original voice cast featured veteran voice actor Don Messick as Scooby-Doo, radio DJ Casey Kasem (later host of radio’s syndicated American Top 40) as Shaggy, actor Frank Welker (later a veteran voice actor in his own right) as Fred, actress Nicole Jaffe as Velma, and musician Indira Stefanianna Christopherson as Daphne. Scooby’s speech patterns closely resembled an earlier cartoon dog, Astro from The Jetsons (1962–63), also voiced by Messick.

Posted in Anniversary, Because I Can, Critters, Humor, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)

RIP Flo (Polly Holliday)

Posted on September 10, 2025 by James| Comments Off

Polly Holliday (July 2, 1937 – September 9, 2025)

Polly Dean Holliday was an American actress who appeared on stage, television, and in film. She was best known for her portrayal of sassy waitress Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry on the 1970s sitcom Alice, which she reprised in its short-lived spin-off, Flo. Her character’s catchphrase of “Kiss my grits!” remains the most memorable line associated with the series Alice.

Everyone CAN now kiss her grits!

Wikipedia Article

Posted in Because I Can, News, The Little Screen (Television)

To Boldly Go (Star Trek)

Posted on September 8, 2025 by James| Comments Off

Star Trek is an American media franchise originating from the 1960s science fiction television series Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry. That series, now often known as “The Original Series“, debuted on September 8, 1966, and aired for three seasons on NBC. It followed the voyages of the starship USS Enterprise, a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century, on a mission “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before”. In creating Star Trek, Roddenberry was inspired by C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower series of novels, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and television westerns such as Wagon Train.