Great Moments In Television History #36: The Sopranos Premieres On HBO

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

On this day, 26 years ago, The Sopranos premiered on HBO and television (not to mention organized crime) would never be the same. Today, it can be easy to forget just how revolutionary that first season of The Sopranos was. What originally sounded like a joke — a gangster goes into therapy (a plot that had already been used in the film Analyze This) — turned out to be a powerful portrait of American society at the crossroads.

And it all started on January 10th, 1999.

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Great Moments In Television History #35: The 33rd NFL Championship Game Is Broadcast In Color

Posted on January 2, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

60 years ago today, the Cleveland Browns and the Green Bay Packers met in the 33rd Championship Game of the National Football League. The Packers were led by Vince Lombardi while the returning champions, the Browns, were coached by Blanton Collier and had all-star fullback Jim Brown on its offensive roster. The game was played at Lambeau Field in Wisconsin, in the middle of a snowstorm that soon turned the field into a mud pit. 50,777 fans showed up for the game, braving freezing weather and paying ten dollars per ticket. The Packers defeated the Browns, 23-12.

This game was significant for many reasons. It was the last NFL Championship Game to be played before the Super Bowl era. With the exception of that year’s Probowl, it was Jim Brown’s final game before he retired to concentrate on his acting career. It was Lombardi’s 3rd NFL Championship. (The next year, he would catch the Packers to victory at the first Super Bowl.)

It was also the first NFL title game to be broadcast in color. Airing on CBS and announced by Ray Scott, Ken Coleman, and Frank Gifford, the game was broadcast into American household in full, glorious color. It was both a worthy send-off to the Championship Game era and a welcome to the future of the NFL.

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Great Moments In Television History #34: The Hosts of Real People Say “Get High On Yourself!”

Posted on May 4, 2024 by Jedadiah Leland

In the fall of 1981, producer Robert Evans and NBC collaborated on Get High On Yourself week. For one week, the network featured its stars encouraging viewers to “Get High On Yourself!:” It all led up to a Get High On Yourself special, which Evans supervised as a part of the community service to which he was sentenced after he was caught getting high on cocaine.

In this clip, the hosts of an early reality show called Real People encourage viewers to “get high on yourself.” Of the hosts, Fred Willard was probably the only one who wasn’t high when this was filmed. Seen today, it’s impossible to watch this without feeling like Willard is doing a bit in an unreleased Christopher Guest movie.

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Great Moments In Television History #33: The Thighmaster Commercial Premieres

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

Rest in peace, Suzanne Somers. Whether she was mouthing “I Love You” to Richard Dreyfuss in American Graffiti or playing Chrissy Snow on Three’s Company or playing the mother of a blended family on Step By Step, Suzanne Somers was long a part of our shared pop culture.

In 1991, after having been out of the spotlight for a few years, Suzanne Somers made a comeback with The Thighmaster.

Today, it’s hard to explain just how popular this commercial was in 1991. Adding to its notoriety was that many stations would not play the commercial except as a part of their late night programming. In the days before YouTube and DVRs, people would actually stay up late to catch the Suzanne Somers Thighmaster commercial. For a while, this commercial revived Somers’s career as an actress and a talk show host. Needless to say, it also sold a lot of Thighmasters.

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Great Moments In Television History #32: The Doors Are Open

Posted on October 6, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

55 years ago today, The Doors Are Open aired on Granada TV in the United Kingdom. This documentary featured The Doors performing at The Roadhouse in London, along with interviews with the members of the band and also clips of the turmoil that was occurring across the world at the time. The documentary takes a look at The Doors as both musicians and activists.

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Great Moments In Television History #31: Rodney Dangerfield On The Tonight Show

Posted on May 7, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

Since we could all probably use a laugh or two right now, here’s ten minutes of Rodney Dangerfield doing what he did best on the May 30th, 1979 episode of The Tonight Show.

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Great Moments In Television History #30: The Greatest American Hero Premieres

Posted on March 18, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

43 years ago today, The Greatest American Hero premiered on ABC and America first heard the theme song that no one would ever forget.

The show only lasted for three seasons and it was never a huge success in the ratings. The mix of comedy and super heroics was unusual for the time and audiences, critics, and network executives didn’t know what to make of it. But even if the show struggled, people loved the theme song. “Believe It or Not” was composed by Mike Post and Stephen Geyer. Sung by Joey Scarbury, the song debuted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number 2 on the charts.

A decade after The Greatest American Hero was canceled, audiences still got the joke as soon as they heard George Costanza’s answering machine message.

When The Greatest American Hero premiered, William Katt was playing a teacher named Ralph Hinkley. After John W. Hinkley tried to assassinate President Reagan, Ralph’s last name suddenly become Hanley and remained that for the rest of the first season. By the time the second season began, he was back to being Ralph Hinkley.

Even though the show wasn’t a ratings success when it first aired, it has since developed a strong cult following. Some shows are just ahead of their time.

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Great Moments In Television History #29: Barney Pops On National TV

Posted on November 25, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Twenty-five years ago today, a horrified nation watched as Barney The Dinosaur fell victim to high winds and a street light. It was a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade that will never be forgotten.

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Great Moments in Television History #28: The WKRP Turkey Drop

Posted on November 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

On October 30, 1978, WKRP in Cincinnati changed Thanksgiving forever.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Great Moments In Television History #27: The Final Scene of Dark Shadows

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

After five years of enthralling audiences with the story of Barnabas Collins and his family, Dark Shadows came to an end on April 2nd, 1971. By this point, the show itself had tried to return to its gothic roots by setting its latest storyline in 1841. During the show’s final episodes, Jonathan Frid played not Barnabas but instead, Bramwell Collins. Unfortunately, this didn’t help the show’s once strong ratings and ABC abruptly canceled Dark Shadows in 1971.

When the show ended, it did so in typical tongue-in-cheek fashion. With Bramwell and his love, Catharine Harridge, preparing to leave Collinsport, news suddenly came that there had been a vampire attack!

Or was it?