Pinky Lee Collapses on Live Television, September 20, 1955

By Greg Howell Posted in Greatest Television Events, Pinky Lee Show , , , , , , | Comments Off on Pinky Lee Collapses on Live Television, September 20, 1955

Frenetic, surreal, careless, and grotesque…these are just a few words to describe The Pinky Lee Show. Critics of children’s television in the early 1950’s were alarmed, and while parents and children welcomed Pinky Lee into their living rooms, it is hard to imagine that anyone would allow the checkered, silly clown through their front doors. This […]

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GREAT GRAAAPHICS!!! The Electric Company, 1972

By Greg Howell Posted in Electric Company, Iconography , , , , , , | Comments Off on GREAT GRAAAPHICS!!! The Electric Company, 1972

The 1971-1977 PBS production, The Electric Company, could be described as Laugh-In meets Sesame Street.  Aimed at grade school children, the show exemplified the 70’s subculture, and featured sketches and music, sometimes with a dark, deviant adult wink.  The graphics and blackouts for the show exploited the hallucinogenic tone of the “flower children” of the […]

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The Death of Barnabas Collins, September 11, 1969

By Greg Howell Posted in Dark Shadows, Greatest Television Events , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Death of Barnabas Collins, September 11, 1969

By the fall of 1969, ABC’s gothic romance and horror show Dark Shadows had crossed over from being just a daytime television show to a genuine cultural phenomenon. The recently released series soundtrack and massive hit single, Quentin’s Theme, had been released to great fanfare. Toys, books, comics, and board games were in high demand and selling in […]

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Trashing TV for Nielsen, October 1988

By Greg Howell Posted in Geraldo, Greatest Television Events , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Trashing TV for Nielsen, October 1988

Geraldo Rivera had taken note when his 1987 episode “Men in Lace Panties and the Women Who Love Them,” brought higher ratings. Disguising journalism and education with sensation, Rivera’s latest incarnation,Geraldo, intended to wring out the last drop of journalistic integrity for mass appeal and financial gain. In October, 1988, Geraldo put racism in the […]

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