The second part of one of my favorite Babylon 5 episodes A Voice in the Wilderness aired August 3, 1994. In the first part, Epsilon III, the planet below the space station, woke up and Babylon 5 officers go to investigate. Soon, other races lay claim to Epsilon III and threaten to attack the station.
Hot l Baltimore (a neon sign Hotel Baltimore with "e" burnt out) premiered January 24, 1975 on ABC. It was produced by Norman Lear and became the first series to feature a gay couple in a recurring role. It also included primary characters who were prostitutes, one of whom was an illegal immigrant.
It starred Lee Bergere and Henry Calvert as a middled-aged gay couple. James Cromwell was the desk clerk and Conchata Ferrell as a prostitute. Charlotte Rae appeared as Mrs. Bellotti.
Unfortunately, the series never gained an audience and was canceled after just 13 episodes.
The twenty-fourth episode of the sixth season of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was the last of the series, airing March 12, 1973. The first episode aired January 22, 1968. Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Gary Owens, and Ruth Buzzi appeared in all seasons.
The final episode starred Ernest Borgnine, Sammy Davis Jr., Robert Goulet, and Jo Anne Worley. The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate was awarded to the show itself. The Cleveland Plain Dealer claimed that the show's jokes about Cleveland had caused economic damage to the city.
It was nominated for 32 Primetime Emmy Awards and won seven:
Outstanding Individual Achievement in Electronic Production for Arthur Schneider (1967)
Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety (1968)
Outstanding Musical or Variety Program for the 9/9/1967 episode (1968)
Outstanding Musical or Variety Series (1968)
Special Classification Achievements-Individuals (Variety Performances) for Arte Johnson (1969)
Outstanding variety or Musical Series
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Variety or Music for Mark Warren
The series was nominated for 6 Golden Globes and won two:
Best TV Show (1969)
Best Supporting Actress-Television for Ruth Buzzi (1973)
Mirror Image, the twenty-first episode of the first season of The Twilight Zone aired February 26, 1960. It starred Vera Miles as Millicent Barnes, waiting at a bus stop for the bus to Cortland, but due to bad weather, it is half an hour late.
When she asks the station clerk about when it will arrive, he scolds her for constantly asking him, even though she thinks it's the first time she's asked him. When she goes into the ladies' room, the cleaning woman suggests she was just in there. She sees a bag that resembles hers behind the counter. The gripey clerk insists she just checked it, but when she turns around her back isn't there.
Creepy things continue to happen. Then a man, played by Martin Milner, tries to help her figure out what's going on. Until strange things start happening to him.
Lena Richard, born September 9, 1892 in New Roads, Louisiana, moved to New Orleans to help her mother and aunt working as domestic servants. She helped them prepare food, and the family who employed her, sent her to Fannie Farmer's School of Cookery in Boston. After graduating she returned to New Orleans.
She started a catering business, serving parties, weddings, and debutante balls. She started multiple businesses and worked as a cook at the Orleans Club, an elite organization for white women.
In 1937, Richard and her daughter Marie started a cooking school for black students, teaching them how to succeed as business owners. As interest in her recipes increased, Richard published Lean Richard's Cook Book in 1939, She travelled across the country to promote her book, and was featured in the New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune.
She returned to New Orleans, she opened Lena's Eatery in November 1941. In 1946, she started a frozen food business, fully cooked packaged meals flown all over the US.
In 1949, Richard opened her second restaurant, The Gumbo House. From 1949 to 1950, she hosted a 30-minute cooking show, Lena Richard's New Orleans Cook Book, on TV. It aired twice weekly, broadcast on New Orleans first television station, WDSU. She was the first African American to host a cooking show, in an era where not many households owned television sets.
Her cooking show continued until she passed away of a heart attack November 27, 1950.
Dan Rowan, born July 22, 1922 in Beggs, Oklahoma, is best known for his comedy show with partner Dick Martin, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. He graduated from Pueblo, Colorado after being orphaned and then taken in by a foster family.
In 1940, he hitchhiked to Los Angeles and got a job in the mailroom at Paramount Pictures. During WWII, Rowan served as a fighter pilot in the 8th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group of the US Army Air Forces. He shot down two Japanese aircraft before being shot down himself and being seriously wounded. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Air Medal, and the Purple Heart.
After the war, he returned to California and teamed up with Dick Martin and created a successful nightclub act. They took their act to television and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In debuted in 1967. The show lasted until 1973. He won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Variety or Musical Series in 1969 with Martin, Paul Keyes, and Carolyn Raskin.
ITV Play of the Week was a British anthology series which ran from 1955-1974, airing about 500 hundred 90-minute episodes. The thirteenth episode of the fifth season, South, is considered to be the first gay drama on television. It is the story of a Polish Army lieutenant Jan Wicziewsky, played by Peter Wyngarde, exiled to the deep South prior to the Civil War. He meets and falls in love with a tall, handsome, blond officer Eric MacClure, played by Graydon Gould.
Of course, reviews were mixed, with one reviewer describing it as "the agonies and ecstasies of a pervert". However, others were more objective in their criticism. The Stage reported that the "dialogue was so full of compassion, understanding and tenderness that his subject didn't seem distasteful".
The episode was based on a play by Julien Green, who is gay. The play was set to be performed in London in 1955, but the Lord Chamberlain banned it because of its gay themes, but he had mellowed out by 1959, and Gerald Savory adapted it for television.
I'm always looking for horror-comedies, so the sixth episode of the sixth season of the X-FilesHow the Ghosts Stole Christmas is a treat. It aired December 13, 1998. Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) explore a haunted house. Apparently, two lovers killed each other in a lovers' pact some 81 years before, but it seems they still reside there.
Lily Tomlin had previously mentioned her interest in appearing in an episode and Ed Asner was also on board for the episode. Scares and laughs abound. It is a great episode and I look forward to watching it again.
Diedre Hall, born October 31, 1947 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is best known for her work on Days of Our Lives, for which she has won numerous awards. However, I know her best as her role as Electra Woman on the Saturday morning TV show Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, a campy, low-budget superhero show that ran for 16 episodes in late 1976, with Judy Strangis as Dyna Girl. The show has become a cult classic.
She also appeared in an episode of Murder, She Wrote.
Irene Ryan, born Jessie Irene Noblitt in El Paso, Texas October 17, 1902, is best know for her role as the feisty mother-in-law to Buddy Ebsen's Jed Clampett in the long-running comedy Beverly Hillbillies. Ryan was only six years older than Ebsen at the time. She was already established as a celebrity for her work in vaudeville, radio, and movies.
In 1963 and 1964, she received two Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead).
When the series ended, Ryan fulfilled her life-long dream of performing on Broadway. She appeared in the musical Pippin, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Musical).
A month after the ceremony, Ryan passed away from heart disease in April 1973.
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.
Sergeant Matlovich vs. the US Air Force, first televised August 21, 1978, is the true story of Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, who was dismissed from the Air Force for being gay and his fight to be reinstated. Matlovich worked to combat racism in the Air Force in the early 1970s and realized that gays also face similar discrimination. He became an outspoken advocate for the gay community and was given and general discharge from the force.
His fight to be reinstated became a groundbreaking episode that helped rally the LGBT community. He took a settlement from the Air Force and he became an activist for gay rights. He was the first openly gay person to be featured on the cover of a major newsmagazine Time.
The movie starred Brad Dourif in the title role. David Ogden Stiers, Rue McClanahan, Marc Singer, and Mitchell Ryan.
Matlovich died in 1988 just before his 45th birthday. His tombstone in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington DC (since he wasn't allowed to be buried in Arlington Cemetery) does not bear his name, but has the inscription:
"When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one."
One of my favorite episodes of Babylon 5, Babylon Squared, first aired August 10, 1994. Babylon 5's predecessor station, Babylon 4, reappears after it vanished mysteriously four years prior. I've only seen it once, so I need to go back and re-watch it. I do remember that Babylon 4 and its disappearance figured prominently throughout the series.
It was the twentieth episode of the first season of Babylon 5, so Michael O'Hare was still on cast as Commander Jeffrey Sinclair, and Andrea Thompson as Talia Winters, although she did not appear in this episode. J. Michael Straczynski wrote the episode.
My man Billy Joel appeared on an episode of Sesame Street March 2, 1990. I can't find clips that are labeled from that episode, but here is a one from one of his appearances on the show. I think it's great to see him singing the ABCs to a group of children.
My girls showed up again on the Carol Burnett Show February 8, 1975. This time they are the panel for the game show Up Your Income as the Shana-Nana-Noonie Sisters. Ruth, Bonnie, and Anita appeared in the skit.
Watch Stella Toddler and the Pointer Sisters in Up Your Income!
The incomparable, irreplaceable Betty White won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series for her role as Elka Ovstrovsky.in Hot in Cleveland at the 17th annual ceremony January 30, 2011. It was the second of three SAGs for Betty. The year before, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement from the Screen Actors Guild.
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.
The A-Team, an action television show about a group of Vietnam vets that are on the lam, premiered January 23, 1983. Over its five seasons, it had plenty of car chases, car crashes, explosions, and shoot-outs for any action buff. The first episode, Mexican Slayride, starred George Peppard as Hannibal Smith, Dwight Shultz as Murdock, and Mr. T as B.A. Baracus. Tim Dunigan appeared as Templeton "Faceman" Peck, but was replaced by Dirk Benedict.
It was nominated for three Primetime Emmy awards for sound editing or sound mixing.
The show was never loved by critics but audiences loved it and made it a huge success.
Multi-talented actress Dame Angela Lansbury won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama for her role as Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote, at the 47th ceremony held January 20, 1990. It was her third win for playing Fletcher and fifth Golden Globe overall.
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.
