The Alan Parsons Project released its debut album Tales of Mystery and Imagination June 25, 1976. The songs and music are based upon the writings of Edgar Allan Poe.
It generated two singles (The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether, which reached #37 on the Billboard Hot 100, and The Raven, which reached #80.
Despite its humble beginnings, the album has gained a cult following and has been listed on Classic Rock magazine's 50 Albums That Build Prog Rock.
Pepe LePew, everyone's favorite lovestruck skunk, made his debut in Odor-able Kitty, January 6, 1945. He joined the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon lineup with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig.
Intended as a country version of Laugh-In, Hee Haw aired its first episode June 15, 1969. Buck Owens and Roy Clark hosted the show, which featured comic skits, jokes, and country music. Hee Haw helped boost careers of many budding music stars.
Loretta Lynn and Charley Pride appeared in the first episode. The series ran for twenty-six seasons, finally wrapping up in 2003.
The first issue of Captain America was published on December 20, 1940, although the cover had a date of March 1941. The issue focuses on the creating of Captain America by injecting a super-serum into the scrawny form of Steve Rogers, who, as a result, becomes the super-hero Captain America. The issue ends with the scientist who created the super-serum is killed by a Nazi sympathizer. The assassin is electrocuted in his attempts to escape an attack from Captain America.
The cover art shows Captain America hitting Adolph Hitler. After publication, members of an American Nazi organization sent threatening letters and phone calls to Timely, the publishers of Captain America. New York City police were assigned to ensure the employees of Timely.
The first episode of the long-running series The Beverly Hillbillies aired September 26, 1962. It starred Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer as a poor family living in rural Missouri, who discover oil on their land. The backwoods folks become instant millionaires and move to Beverly Hills. Although critics panned the series, it became one of the most-watched programs for eight of its nine seasons. It was nominated for 7 Primetime Emmys, including one for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Comedy for Nancy Kulp.
The Happy Days spin-off, Laverne & Shirley, aired its first episode January 27, 1976. It starred Penny Marshall as Laverne DeFazio and Cindy Williams and Shirley Feeney, two working class girls, making it through the latter part of the 1950s in Milwaukee. In the last three seasons, they move to Burbank, California in 1965 when they are replaced by automatic bottle cappers.
The show ran for 8 seasons, ending in 1983, racking up numerous awards nominations. Although Marshall and Williams had many fights during filming, Cindy Williams stated later that they still remained good friends.
One of the classic episodes from the original series Star Trek, Arena, first aired January 19, 1967. Outpost Cestus III has been destroyed and the crew of the Enterprise retaliates against the killers, a reptilian race known as the Gorn. As the ships battle, another alien race, the Metrons, stop them and place Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and the Gorn captain on a planet to solve their dispute one-on-one.
It is the first episode to feature photon torpedoes and the first to establish transporters cannot beam through deflector shields.
Ted Cassidy of the Addams Family provided the voice of the Gorn.
The Mythbusters investigated the diamond cannon Kirk used to defeat the Gorn, and found it to be implausible. The bamboo used to make the cannon would have been destroyed in the explosion and killed Kirk. But the episode takes place on an alien planet so you never know.
Meredith Willson's musical The Music Man made its debut on Broadway December 19, 1957 at the Majestic Theater. It is the story of a con-man who bamboozles the residents of a backwater Iowa town into investing in instruments and uniforms for a boys band.
The Music Man won five Tonys in 1958: Best Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Male in a Musical for Robert Preston, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Barbara Cook, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for David Burns, Best Conductor and Musical Director for Herbert Greene.
Iggie Wolfington was also nominated for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. The Music Man was also nominated for Best Choreography, Best Direction of a Musical, and Best Stage Technician.
The first Pink Panther episode, Pink Phink, aired December 18, 1964. The animated short would win Best Animated Short at the 37th Academy Awards.
It features the Pink Panther and a painter known as "Little Man" battling for the color of a house. Little Man wants it blue, but the Pink Panther undoes his hard work by re-painting everything pink.
The studio DePatie-Freleng Enterprises is the first studio to win the award for their first short. Pink Phink is the only short from the studio that won any Academy Awards. The Pink Panther shorts used the music from Henry Mancini's Academy Award nominated soundtrack to the Pink Panther movie series staring Peter Sellers.
DC's mightiest heroine Wonder Woman, based on the character developed by William Moulton Marston,debuted on television November 7, 1975, with the incomparable, beautiful Lynda Carter in the title role. The pilot episode featured Lyle Waggoner (Steve Trevor), the amazing Cloris Leachman (Queen Hippolyta), Red Buttons, Stella Stevens, Fannie Flagg, Henry Gibson, Anne Ramsey, and Kenneth Mars.
The pilot episode was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design and Title Sequences.
The series ran for three seasons from 1975 until 1979.
The Incredible Hulk, starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno as the titular character, debuted on November 4, 1977. Susan Sullivan appeared in the two-hour premiere. At one time three superhero series existed simultaneously. The Amazing Spider-Man premiered just two months prior and Wonder Woman debuted in 1975.
The Incredible Hulk ran for 5 seasons from 1977 to 1982. It was a ratings success, but was cancelled suddenly at the end of the fifth season. Throughout its run, it garnered three Primetime Emmy awards, winning one for Mariette Harley for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Series.
Billy Joel released his debut album Cold Spring Harbor November 1, 1971. A mixing error in post-production caused the songs to be played slightly faster, making Billy's voice sound a little high. It did not perform well and only reached #158 on the US Billboard 200.
He recorded and released live versions of She's Got a Way and Everybody Loves You on his Songs in the Attic album in 1981. She's Got a Way was released as a single in 1982 and peaked at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The Fixx, a new wave band from Great Britain, released their debut album Shuttered Room in August 1982. It had previously been released in England in May of that year.
It generated two singles, the first of which, Stand or Fall reached #7 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts, but only #76 on Billboard's Hot 100. The second single Red Skies reached #13 on the Mainstream Rock charts.
I'm a little surprised this album didn't do better, because I really like their sound, and they got a lot of airplay on MTV. I actually heard them as the background music of a commercial I just saw. Weird!
I suppose the success of Airport in 1970 was the main impetus behind the making of this movie, to which the only connection to Airport 1975 is George Kennedy as Joe Patroni. Airport 1975, released October 18, 1974, was a box office blockbuster, becoming the third largest grossing film of 1974 behind The Towering Inferno and Earthquake, which starred both George Kennedy and Charlton Heston (Alan Murdock in Airport 1975).
Critics were not impressed, and the movie has been inducted into the Razzie Awards' Hall of Shame (along with its two sequels).
Dana Andrews plays Scott Freeman, the pilot of a twin-engine private Beechcraft Baron, who has a heart attack in flight and crashes into the cockpit of a 747, killing two crew members and blinding the captain. Airport 1975 was heavily parodied in Airplane!, a comedy taken from Zero Hour! which also starred Dana Andrews.
The cast was star-studded with big names like Gloria Swanson, Karen Black, Efram Zimbalist, Jr., Susan Clark, Linda Blair, and Helen Reddy.
Reddy garnered the only award nomination as she was nominated for the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer - Female.
Cyndi Lauper released her debut album She's So Unusual October 14, 1983 to rave reviews. It sold six million albums in the U.S. making it six times platinum, and sold over 16M world wide. It got six Grammy Award nominations, winning Best New Artist and Best Album Package.
It generated six singles: Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Time After Time (her first number-one hit), She-Bop (my favorite), All Through the Night, Money Changes Everything, and When You Were Mine.
She's so Unusual was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2019 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Cecil B. DeMille's epic movie The Ten Commandments, was released into theaters October 5, 1956. The film followed the life of Moses and his journey with God, freeing the Israelites from Egypt, and delivering the Ten Commandments to the people.
Charlton Heston played Moses and Yul Brynner starred as the pharaoh Rameses. It featured many other big names such as Yvonne De Carlo, Judith Anderson, and Vincent Price.
It won an Academy Award for Best Special Effects and nominated for six more, including Best Picture. Charlton Heston was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance as Moses.
The Ten Commandments was added to the National Film Registry by the US Library of Congress in 1999.
Avalanche, starring Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow, was released in US theaters September 29, 1978. The disaster flick, produced by Roger Corman, was not a box office success. The special effects included Styrofoam to imitate snow and is apparently what made some movie-goers laugh.
Avalanche is included in the list of 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made. It was riffed in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. I enjoy watching it though.
The pilot for Gilligan's Island,Marooned was filmed first but by the time it was ready for release onto television, the cast had changed. The first episode to air was Two on a Raft, in which Gilligan and the Skipper build a raft and set back out to sea to find help. It debuted September 26, 1964.
The show starred Bob Denver as Gilligan, Alan Hale Jr. as the Skipper, Jim Backus as Thurston Howell III, Natalie Shafer as Mrs. Howell, Tina Louise as Ginger Grant, Russell Johnson as the professor, and Dawn Wells as Mary Ann.
Fiddler on the Roof, a musical by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, made its Broadway debut September 22, 1964. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters and other tales by Sholem Aleichem.
It was the first musical to surpass 3,000 performances and held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for 10 years until Grease surpassed it. It was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won 9.
Zero Mostel played Tevye and Bea Arthur appeared as the matchmaker Yente.
Cyndi Lauper released her debut single Girls Just Want to Have Fun from her debut album She's So Unusual, September 6, 1983. It reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was nominated for two Grammy Awards: Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. It reached #1 in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, and Norway.
The song was written and recorded by Robert Hazard, who released it as a single in 1979. His recording is from the male point of view.
The video won an American Video Award for Best Female Performance, and an MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video.
In January 2022, the video reached over one billion views on Youtube.com.
