“Dinner For One,” The British Comedy Sketch That’s A New Year’s Eve Tradition In Germany
Watching TV on the last night of the year? That's fine; in fact, there’s a tradition on German TV of showing a classic comedy sketch every December 31.
Animation Legend Chuck Jones Made Dr. Seuss’s Grinch A Part Of TV History
Today in 1966 CBS first broadcast a holiday classic, “Dr. Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas.” It came to the small screen largely because a giant in the cartoon industry happened to be an old friend of the author.
Charlie Brown Is A Blockhead, But He Did Star In A Great Christmas Special
Today in 1965, CBS broadcast “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” It's one of the iconic TV holiday specials today, but pretty much everyone who put the TV special together thought it was going to be a failure.
The Really (Expletive) Complicated History Of Swearing On TV
Today in 1965, a landmark moment in the history of televised profanity: an f-bomb live on the BBC! We'll look back at some choice moments where people used choice words on the air.
Why Did The Fonz Jump The Shark In The First Place?
The phrase “jump the shark” is now a shorthand we use for the moment a show or a story turns absolutely ridiculous and keeps heading downhill. But why the heck did it happen at all?
Communist Countries Thought The TV Show “Dallas” Would Scare Citizens Away From Capitalism, But It Backfired
The iconic TV show was just supposed to be a miniseries, but it kept winning over audience after audience - even some behind the Iron Curtain.
If This TV Show Hadn’t Been Canceled, We Might Not Have Had The Original Versions of “Star Trek” and TV’s “Batman”
Today in 1931, the birthday of William Shatner, Captain Kirk from the original “Star Trek” series. Of course, if a different show he was supposed to star in had gone ahead, Shatner might not have ended up as Captain Kirk.
Police Squad! The TV Comedy That Got Canceled For Being Too Funny
Today in 1982, the premiere of the short-lived but critically acclaimed cop spoof Police Squad, a show TV executives said was essentially too funny to stay on the air.
Jean Carroll, TV’s First Female Standup Comedy Star
Today in 1949, a first for American network TV: a female comedian did a standup routine on the air. Here's the story of comic Jean Carroll.
Schoolhouse Rock Taught Generations About Bills, Adverbs And Magic Numbers
This week in 1973, the premiere of Schoolhouse Rock! We'll explain how this show got kids singing and learning every Saturday morning.