Blog Post If at First You Don’t Succeed ... Recast: "The Dick Van Dyke Show" Celebrates 50 Years Back in the summer of 1958, Carl Reiner , already an established writer and supporting actor on Sid Caesar ’s Your Show of Shows , sought to create a sitcom in which he would star. He followed the adage of “write what you know” and created thirteen scripts of Head of the Family , a largely...
Blog Post Prohibition? The Civil War? The Brooklyn Bridge? Filmmaker Ken Burns on How He Chooses his Projects Prohibition , a new three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary series by Ken Burns ( The Civil War , Jazz, Baseball, Huey Long, National Parks: America's Best Idea; Brooklyn Bridge, and many more) and Lynn Novick, airs October 2, 3 and 4, 2011, 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET on PBS . Set in the era of...
Blog Post "The password is...FIFTY!" -- It's "Password's" Golden Anniversary On October 2, 1961, the popular game show Password , hosted by Allen Ludden, premiered in daytime (a nighttime version was launched in January of 1962). Two teams (consisting of a celebrity and a contestant) competed. The "password" was given to one player on each team. The player who was given the...
Blog Post "You've never heard of a talking horse?" 50 Years of Mister Ed October 1st marks the 50th anniversary of the sitcom Mister Ed , which began its five-year network run on CBS on October 1, 1961. (The show initially ran in limited first-run syndication from January to July of 1961.) The premise, was simple, Mister Ed was a talking horse who only spoke openly to...
Blog Post Dr. Kildare Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary! Fifty years ago today, on September 28, 1961, long before McDreamy and McSteamy, the strikingly handsome Dr. Kildare first graced our television sets. Swoon. One of television's first medical dramas, alongside ABC's Ben Casey , Dr. Kildare followed a young intern, Dr. James Kildare (played by...
Blog Post Ladies and gentleman, it's the MUPPET SHOW! "It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights, it's time to meet the Muppets on The Muppet Show tonight!" Thirty-five years ago this month, The Muppet Show premiered. Its creator, Jim Henson, had a vision to create a program with his Sesame Street puppets that would appeal to both...
Blog Post Ay Caramba! "The Simpsons" start Season 23 and Bart's still 10 Though Bart remains 10 years old, The Simpsons begins its 23rd season Sunday, September 25th on FOX. Not just the longest-running animated program in American television history, The Simpsons is also the longest-running American sitcom, and beat out Gunsmoke to become the longest-running primetime...
Blog Post Backstage and red carpet interviews from the Emmys are now online! The Archive was on the red carpet at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards and backstage during the show. A full playlist of the red carpet interviews is online , and some excerpts below. Thanks to Pop Culture Passionistas for shooting and editing these interviews! Martin Scorsese (Winner, Outstanding...
Blog Post Good Work, Angels! Charlie's Angels Turns 35 and the Series Remake Premieres Tonight! Thirty-five years ago today, on September 22, 1976, Executive Producers Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg introduced the world to Charlie's Angels -- detectives Sabrina, Kelly, and Jill, played by Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett. As the title sequence explained, the women attended...
Blog Post Would you believe... Bill Dana is 87! The Archive wishes a very happy birthday to comedy legend Bill Dana, born October 5, 1924 as William Szathmary in Quincy, MA. Bill Dana is best-known for his alter-ego, José Jiménez : a character he played from 1959 until 1969 which garnered him international attention. What few may recall is that...
