Author Archives: dcaligari

October 13, 1957 – CBS-TV broadcasts The Edsel Show, a one-hour live special starring Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong, designed to promote the new, ill-fated Ford automobile, on this date. It is the first and currently the oldest surviving show on videotape. It was aired live on this date in primeContinue reading “All that star power couldn’t save the car”

October 13, 1978 –Queen released their double A sided single Fat Bottomed Girls/ Bicycle Race on this date. The songs ran together on the album, and were often played that way by radio stations. The year before, Queen released We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions as a double A-side. They are stillContinue reading “Everybody likes to ride their bicycle”

It’s Friday the 13th. In most large cities in the United States, many building don’t have 13th floors. In Japan, they don’t have 4th floors, because the word for four sounds similar to the word for DEATH! Some say that the modern basis for Friday the 13th phobia dates back to Friday, October 13, 1307.Continue reading “Try to remain calm”

October 12, 1966 –Sammy Davis, Jr. makes a cameo appearance on the ABC-TV series Batman – The Clock King’s Crazy Crimes, during one of their legendary Batclimbs, on this date.

October 12, 1950 – One of the first comedy series to make the successful transition from radio to television The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, premiered on CBS-TV on this date. George Burns is regarded as being the first entertainer to step out of character and “break the fourth wall” by directly addressing theContinue reading “The first time we could say ‘Goodnight Gracie’ on TV”

October 12, 1968 –The second studio album by Big Brother and the Holding Company, Cheap Thrills, reached number one on the charts for eight nonconsecutive weeks on this date. It was their last album with Janis Joplin as lead singer before she started a solo career.

Today is the last day of International Cephalopod Awareness Days, and we are celebrating International Fossil Day (I’m terribly sorry folks but once again, National Fossil Day was rescheduled to be celebrated yesterday on October 11, according to the National Park Service website, and they don’t appear to have any reason to lie.) But todayContinue reading “So which day is it – I am confused”

October 11, 1980 –The Police’s third studio album Zenyatta Mondatta went to No.1 on the UK album charts, one week after it’s release, on this date. The album features the hits Don’t Stand So Close to Me, Canary in a Coalmine, and De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da and won the band twoContinue reading “Zenyatta Mondatta topped the charts”

October 11, 1975 – The long running (some say too long running) comedy variety show started at 11:30 PM, on this date, with George Carlin as its host. It was called NBC’s Saturday Night, because ABC featured a program at the same time titled Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. After ABC canceled the CosellContinue reading “I would like to feed your fingers to the wolverines”

October 11, 2006 –One of the funniest shows about TV (other than Mary Tyler Moore) 30 Rock, starring Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, and Tracy Morgan, premiered on NBC-TV on this date. In her 2011 book Bossypants, Tina Fey said that during the early years of the show, Donald Glover was its only black writer. SheContinue reading “30 Rock debuted”