Author Archives: dcaligari

October 3, 1953 – The final installment of the Looney Tunes “Hunting Trilogy“, Duck! Rabbit, Duck!, premiered on this date. Bugs Bunny stuck out four signs to lead Elmer Fudd to shoot Daffy Duck. In order they are: 1st GOAT SEASON OPEN;2nd, DIRTY SKUNK SEASON;3rd, PIGEON SEASON;4th and last, MONGOOSE SEASON.

October 3, 1980 –A & M Records released the third album by The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta, on this date. The race horse Zenyatta is named after the album Zenyatta Mondatta. The horse is owned by Jerry Moss, who signed The Police to his label A&M Records.

October 3, 2003 –The documentary film directed by David Leland about the tribute concert for George Harrison held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on November 29, 2002, Concert for George, opened on this date. This was the first time that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr performed together on stage since the breakup ofContinue reading “Concert for George premiered”

October 2, 1950 –The comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles Schulz, debuted in nine newspapers with the characters of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Patty and Sherman. It is still the most-read comic strip in the world. And yet, Charlie still hasn’t kicked that damn football.

October 2, 1983 –Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler’s single Total Eclipse Of The Heart was No. 1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date. The song, which was Tyler’s biggest hit of her career, made her the only Welsh artist to score a U.S. No. 1 hit. The song was written and produced by Jim Steinman,Continue reading “A UN commission has adviced this trigger warning – major earworm ahead.”

October 2, 1959 –…a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind…. The first episode of the anthology series The Twilight Zone, Where is Everybody?, premiered on this date Rod Serling wanted Richard Egan to do the narration because of his rich, deep voice. However, due to strict studio contracts of the time,Continue reading “That’s a signpost up ahead”

October 2, 1955 – Revenge, the very first story on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents show premieres on this date. The sponsors, who had great influence regarding the presentation of the show, insisted that for the episodes ending with the perpetrator “getting away with a crime,” Alfred Hitchcock provide a statement in his closing monologue thatContinue reading “You probably heard Funeral March of a Marionette for the first time”

Three of the past century’s finest comedians were born on October 2: Groucho Marx (1890), Bud Abbott (1895), and Mahatma Gandhi (1869). Groucho and Abbott were funny enough, but they pale beside the towering comic greatness of Gandhi. “When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have alwaysContinue reading “There are no coincidences in life”

October is the tenth month of the year and its name is therefore derived from Octo, the Latin word for eight (as the vegetables in V8 well knows.) October is often preceded by September and sometimes followed by November. There are 31 days in October, many of which are Wednesdays. (Wednesday is the fourth dayContinue reading “The month is a riot to the senses”

October 1, 1971 –The comedy-variety sketch series, The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine, starring, Marty Feldman, Spike Milligan, John Junkin, Hugh Paddick, Frances de la Tour, and Barry Levinson, frist aired on ABC-TV on this date. Terry Gilliam’s animation contributions for this series were the opening and closing credits. The opening was a production line makingContinue reading “The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine premiered”