Category: Today in TV History
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41 Years Ago Today: Beverly Hills Cop Explodes onto Screens at Los Angeles Premiere
On December 5, 1984, the red carpet outside the Avco Cinema Center in Westwood, Los Angeles, buzzed with anticipation as Beverly Hills Cop held its world premiere. The Martin Brest-directed action-comedy, starring Eddie Murphy in what would become his signature role, officially introduced audiences to the fast-talking Detroit detective Axel Foley and instantly reshaped the…
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32 Years Ago Today: Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List First Premiered
On November 30, 1993—exactly thirty-two years ago today—Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List held its world premiere at a few blocks from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The black-and-white historical drama, photographed almost entirely by Janusz Kamiński in stark monochrome, arrived with an intensity few films had ever carried. Running three hours and…
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34 Years Later Ago: “My Girl” Was Released & Remains a Bittersweet Touchstone of 1990s Coming-of-Age Cinema
This week marks 34 years since My Girl, the tender and tear-jerking drama that introduced the world to an 11-year-old Anna Chlumsky and a bowl-cut Macaulay Culkin, first arrived in U.S. theaters on November 27, 1991. You can find My Girl on Amazon HERE. Directed by Howard Zieff and written by Laurice Elehwany, My Girl…
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28 Years Ago Today: The End of an Era as ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ Bids Farewell to MTV In 1997 – A Look Back at the Iconic Duo
Today marks the 28th anniversary of a pivotal moment in television history: the airing of the final original episode of Beavis and Butt-Head on MTV. On November 28, 1997, fans tuned in for “Beavis and Butt-Head Are Dead,” the 200th episode that wrapped up the show’s initial run, leaving a void in the world of…
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41 Years Ago Today: George C. Scott’s Definitive A Christmas Carol First Haunted British Television Screens
On this day in 1984, British viewers settling in for their evening television were treated to one of the most revered adaptations ever made of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. The 1984 television film, directed by Clive Donner and starring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge, premiered on ITV in the United Kingdom exactly 41…
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30 Years Ago Today: “Toy Story” Changed Cinema Forever
Exactly thirty years ago, on November 22, 1995, a modest-looking animated film about sentient toys quietly rolled into theaters and rewrote the rulebook of moviemaking. Toy Story, the world’s first feature-length movie created entirely with computer-generated imagery (CGI), opened to $39.1 million domestically over the Thanksgiving weekend and eventually grossed $373 million worldwide on a…
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94 Years Ago Today: James Whale’s “Frankenstein” Premiered on November 21, 1931
94 years ago today, Universal Pictures unleashed one of the most enduring icons in cinema history when James Whale’s Frankenstein had its world premiere at the Mayfair Theatre in New York City on November 21, 1931. Starring a virtually unknown British actor named Boris Karloff as the tragic Monster, the film instantly electrified audiences and…
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49 Years Ago Today: “Rocky” Premiered and Changed Hollywood Forever
On November 21, 1976 — exactly 49 years ago this evening — a low-budget underdog story titled Rocky had its world premiere at the Baronet Theatre in Manhattan. What began as a desperate 3½-day writing sprint by an out-of-work actor named Sylvester Stallone would, within months, become a global phenomenon, win the Academy Award for…
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42 Years Ago Today: 100 Million Americans Watched “The Day After” – The Television Event That Froze a Nation
Exactly 42 years ago, on Sunday evening, November 20, 1983, an estimated 100 million people – roughly 38% of the entire U.S. population and the largest audience ever for a made-for-television movie – sat transfixed in front of their sets as ABC aired The Day After, a harrowing two-hour dramatization of the moments before, during,…
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67 Years Ago Today The Muppets Became A Reality With The Launch of The Jim Henson Company
Sixty-seven years ago today, on November 20, 1958, two young puppeteers in their early twenties formally incorporated Muppets, Inc. in New York City. Jim Henson, a 22-year-old University of Maryland graduate who had already been performing puppets on local Washington, D.C. television since high school, partnered with his creative and romantic collaborator Jane Nebel (whom…