Category Archives: Uncategorized

September 29, 1991 – MTV debuts Nirvana’s video for their single Smells Like Teen Spirit on this date, giving most Americans their first look at the band. A little over a month later, the song is #1 on the Hot 100. The girls who played the cheerleaders in the video were originally supposed to beContinue reading “… Entertain us …”

September 28, 1967 –Gladys Knight & the Pips‘ single, (written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown Records,) I Heard It Through the Grapevine was released on this date. Along with Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone, Barrett Strong considers this the best song he wrote with Norman Whitfield. Other hits they wrote together includeContinue reading “I Heard It Through the Grapevine dropped”

September 28, 1987 – Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered on CBS-TV with the episode Encounter at Farpoint on this date. The original version of the Starfleet uniform was very uncomfortable for the actors and actresses, leading to a change of design from one-piece to a two-piece outfit in season three. Although the new uniformsContinue reading “We continued to go where no person has gone before”

September 28, 1980 –Billions and billions of brilliant moments on TV are about to be aired – Carl Sagan’s 13 part Cosmos premiered on PBS. The filming of the series lasted one year during which Carl Sagan and his production team traveled around the world, filming in places like India, Egypt, Italy, Cambodia, France, Alaska,Continue reading “We explored the Cosmos for the first time”

September 28, 1961 –Viewers got to spend time with the Baxter’s and their wise-cracking maid when Hazel premiered on CBS-TV on this date The house where Hazel and the Baxters lived was also used as the home of Gidget Lawrence and her father on the 1965 TV sitcom Gidget. It also served as the homeContinue reading “Hazel premiered”

September 28, 1963 –Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales cartoon debuts on CBS-TV on this date. This show was produced at the same animation studio as The Bullwinkle Show and other Jay Ward cartoons. Many of the same animators who had previously worked on some of the Jay Ward cartoons, worked on this.

September 27, 1954 –Steve Allen sat down at his piano and the Tonight Show premiered nationally on NBC on this date. The show began in 1953 as a local show on WNBT-TV, the NBC station in New York City. Tonight! began in 1954 when Sylvester L. Weaver Jr., the president of NBC, decided to expandContinue reading “The Tonight Show first aired nationally”

September 27, 1976 –The TV drama Dawn: Portrait of A Teenage Runaway, starring Eve Plumb premiered on NBC-TV, on this date. Eve Plumb has said in interviews that to this day she still “gets crap” from hardcore Brady Bunch fans who didn’t like that she did this movie instead of doing the Brady Bunch VarietyContinue reading “Dawn: Portrait of A Teenage Runaway premiered”

September 27, 1980 –Kurtis Blow becomes the first rapper to perform on national television when he does The Breaks on Soul Train. The Breaks was the first rap song to sell over 500,000 copies, earning a certified Gold record. Rapper’s Delight, released a year earlier, certainly sold a lot more (as Kurtis attests), but thatContinue reading “Kurtis Blow appeared on Soul Train”

September 26, 1945 –Secretly, I wanted to look like Jimi Hendrix, but I could never quite pull it off. Bryan Ferry (the Lord of Louche) lead singer of the group Roxy Music and solo artist, was born on this date.