Category Archives: The Little Screen (Television)

RIP Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard)

Gil Gerard, star of ‘Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,’ dead at 82.

Gilbert Cyril Gerard (January 23, 1943 – December 16, 2025)

Gil Gerard was an American actor, whose roles include that of Captain William “Buck” Rogers in the 1979–1981 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

On December 16, 2025, Gerard’s wife, Janet, announced on Facebook that he had died earlier that day following a “rare and viciously aggressive form of cancer”. He was 82.

A post on Gil’s Facebook account reads:
“My life has been an amazing journey. The opportunities I’ve had, the people I’ve met and the love I have given and received have made my 82 years on the planet deeply satisfying. … Don’t waste your time on anything that doesn’t thrill you or bring you love. See you out somewhere in the cosmos.”

Happy 100th Birthday Dick Van Dyke!

Dick Van Dyke (December 13, 1925 – )

Richard Wayne Van Dyke is an American actor, entertainer and comedian. His work spans screen and stage, and his awards include six Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award and a Tony Award. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993, and has been honored with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2013, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2020, and was recognized as a Disney Legend in 1998.

Van Dyke began his career as an entertainer on radio, television and in nightclubs. He made his Broadway debut in the musical revue The Girls Against the Boys (1959). The following year he starred as Albert F. Peterson in the original production of Bye Bye Birdie (1960), a role which earned him the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. He returned to Broadway playing Harold Hill in a revival of The Music Man (1980).

On television, Van Dyke became a household name in the United States and Canada portraying Rob Petrie in the CBS sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966), which also earned him three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. He guest-starred on shows such as Columbo (1974) and The Carol Burnett Show (1977), and starred in The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971–1974), Diagnosis: Murder (1993–2001), and Murder 101 (2006–2008).

Van Dyke is also known for his role as Bert, the cockney chimney sweep in the Disney movie musical Mary Poppins (1964), for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. He starred in the movie musicals Bye Bye Birdie (1963) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), as well as the comedy-drama The Comic (1969). In his later years, Van Dyke has taken supporting roles in films such as Dick Tracy (1990), Curious George (2006), Night at the Museum (2006), its 2014 sequel, and Mary Poppins Returns (2018).

Dick as Bert in Mary Poppins (1964)

Wikipedia Article

60th Anniversary of “Charlie Brown Christmas”

A Charlie Brown Christmas is a 1965 American animated television special. It is the first TV special based on the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz, and features the voices of Peter Robbins, Christopher Shea, Kathy Steinberg, Tracy Stratford, and Bill Melendez. Produced by Lee Mendelson and directed by Melendez, the program made its debut on the CBS television network on December 9, 1965. In the special, Charlie Brown (Robbins) finds himself depressed despite the onset of the cheerful holiday season. After Lucy Van Pelt (Stratford) suggests he direct a neighborhood Christmas play, his best efforts are ignored and mocked by his peers when he chooses a puny Christmas tree as a centerpiece.

Wikipedia Link

No man is a failure…

Dear George:—
Remember no man is a failure who has friends.
Thanks for the wings!
Love
Clarence.

Peanuts: Happy Thanksgiving!

As God is my witness…

As God is my witnessI thought turkeys could fly.”

Anniversary of “Sesame Street” Debut

On November 10, 1969, “Sesame Street,” a pioneering TV show that would teach generations of young children the alphabet and how to count, makes its broadcast debut. “Sesame Street,” with its memorable theme song (“Can you tell me how to get/How to get to Sesame Street”), went on to become the most widely viewed children’s program in the world. It has aired in more than 120 countries.

Wikipedia Article

Red Bottles

Anniversary of White Christmas

White Christmas
The film was released in theaters October 14, 1954.

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

Vincent Price Performs Thriller!

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”.

70th Anniversary of The Mickey Mouse Club

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).

Good Morning, Captain (Kangaroo) – 70th Anniversary

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

The Andy Griffith show premiered – 65th Anniversary

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.

75th Anniversary of Peanuts

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]

75th Anniversary of Peanuts Drone Show at PNC Field

Happy 90th Birthday, Julie Andrews

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

65th Anniversary of The Flintstones

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.

RIP Kris Kristofferson

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

Anniversary of The Jetsons

Jetsons

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

Anniversary of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

September 20, 1979 – April 16, 1981

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

Wikipedia Article