Author Archives: dcaligari

October 27, 1966 – The Star Trek episode, Miri, where the Enterprise discovers an exact duplicate of Earth, where the only survivors of a deadly plague are the planet’s prepubescent children, premiered on this date. The girl held by Kirk as he rushes to the lab with his newly-recovered communicator is played by William Shatner’sContinue reading “Star Trek TOS: Miri premiered”

October 27, 1966 – The third Charles Schultz Peanuts special, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, (directed again by Bill Melendez,) premiered on this date. This is the only special where Pig Pen is shown wearing glasses. You can see them when he is with the other kids at the Halloween party around the appleContinue reading “Maybe you got a rock too”

October 27, 1982 –Prince’s fifth album, 1999, was released on this date. It becomes his breakthrough, selling well over 5 million copies worldwide, thanks to Little Red Corvette and the title track. The album helped propel him to superstar status, a title he lived up to with electrifying live shows and a startlingly prolific outputContinue reading “And you say, “What have I got to lose?” …”

October 26, 1972 – Ringo Starr and singer Lulu appear in non-speaking cameos on the Monty Python’s Flying Circus episode Mr And Mrs Brian Norris’ Ford Popular on this date. The tramp (Michael Palin) enters and sits between them and begins his introduction, in David Frost style: “Hello, good evening, welcome … It’s …” aContinue reading “Mr And Mrs Brian Norris’ Ford Popular premiered”

October 26, 1982 – TV’s longest dream sequence, St. Elsewhere, first aired on NBC-TV on this date. The show never won high ratings but it lasted six seasons on NBC because it appealed to the desirable (for advertisers) educated 18-49 year old demographic.

October 26, 1970 –Elton John released his first hit single Your Song, on this date.< This was one of the first songs John wrote with Bernie Taupin. They met after a record company gave John some of Taupin’s lyrics to work with. Eventually, they both moved into John’s parents’ house, where they started working together.

October 25, 1975 –Paul Simon released his fourth solo album, Still Crazy After All These Years on this date. On the second episode of Saturday Night Live, Simon hosted the show, which he opened by singing Still Crazy alone on stage. This was the song’s debut, as the album was released a week later. WhenContinue reading “How crazy were they before”

October 25, 1971 –The PBS children’s show The Electric Company premiered on this date. Marvel Comics allowed the show to use the character Spider-Man for free. To commemorate the partnership between Marvel and the Children’s Television Workshop, Marvel published a special series called Spidey Super Stories, easy-to-read adventures of Spider-Man that occasionally featured members ofContinue reading “We got to turn on the power”

October 25, 1975 –Quite arguably the funniest episode ever broadcast on network TV, The Mary Tyler Moore Show – Chuckles Bites the Dust first aired on this date. Influential comedy writer Danny Simon used to read this script to his classes as an example of excellent writing.