Blog Post The Monsters Were Due on Maple Street Fifty Years Ago Today One of The Twilight Zone 's best remembered episodes— and a staple of Twilight Zone marathons— is the first season's "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street." Scripted by Rod Serling, it's one of the series' social commentaries-- on how easily ones neighbors can turn against each other. It stars...
Blog Post "Moonlighting" Silver Anniversary Today 25 years and the Anselmo case is still unsolved. On March 3, 1985 Moonlighting debuted and a beloved television classic was born. Moonlighting fans have remained in such full force that an online petition prompted the release of all five seasons of the show on DVD. And could Bruce & Cybill and...
Blog Post As Leno Returns, a Look Back to Where NBC Late Night Began Starting tonight, Jay Leno returns to his Tonight Show berth, continuing the hosting duties he initially began in 1992. The Tonight Show 's long history started with Steve Allen (photo, left), who hosted the local WNBT-TV Tonight from June of 1953, going national on September 27, 1954. When Allen...
Blog Post "Today" Show Reunites Family Sitcoms Next Week Tune in next week for the Today show's reunions with Eight Is Enough (Monday, March 1), The Partridge Family (Tuesday, March 2), and 227 (Thursday, March 4). Under the banner Great TV Families Reunited , such stars as Dick Van Patten, Shirley Jones , and Marla Gibbs will take to the Today show...
Blog Post "Your Show of Shows" 60th Anniversary Sixty years ago today Your Show of Shows debuted, creating a blueprint for American TV sketch comedy to come. The forerunner of such shows as The Carol Burnett Show and Saturday Night Live , Your Show of Shows is a touchstone of the kind of programming for which the Golden Age of Television is...
Blog Post Jack Benny Puts Up His Own Money Jack Benny was pained to part with his money. So ingrained was this part of the Jack Benny persona that on his radio program, among his biggest laughs came when a robber held him up demanding "Your money or your life?" prompting a long pause from Benny... who finally said "I'm thinking it over!" In...
Blog Post David Canary Retiring from "All My Children" in April Daytime Emmy-winner David Canary, who has played one of soap's most famous dual roles-- twin brothers Adam & Stuart Chandler on All My Children -- is retiring from the series after a 27-year run. Canary is also known for two primetime '60s TV classics: western Bonanza (playing ranch foreman...
Blog Post New Archive Newsletter The first of the Archive of American Television's quarterly newsletters is out. If you'd like to be on our mailing list, enter your e-mail information in the box on the right column of our homepage .
Blog Post "Tonight Show" Walk Out Long before the Conan O'Brien-Jay Leno hubbub of the last several weeks, there was a much more famous and dramatic exit of a Tonight Show host: Jack Paar. Fifty years ago today, following his monologue, Jack Paar walked out on The Tonight Show (with his tearful utterance: "...there must be a better...
Blog Post The Archive of American Television Presents: "Orson Welles King Lear" Debuts on DVD The Archive of American Television Presents: King Lear features a "live" TV production of Orson Welles in the title role, in a 1953 Omnibus production directed by Peter Brook. In reviewing the show Variety raved: "Welles scored a notable triumph [and] on an equal level of attainment was Peter Brook...
