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This Day in Comedy History
October 15 - October 21
October 15
1920 - French-Armenian filmmaker and playwright Henri Verneuil is born Ashot Malakian in Rodosto, Ottoman Turkey. The Academy Award and Palme d'Or nominee is known for such films as Public Enemy No. 1 (1953), The Sheep Has Five Legs (1954), Paris, Palace Hotel (1956), Sois belle et tais-toi (1958), La Vache et le Prisonnier (1959) and Les Lions sont lâchés (1961).
1940 - Charlie Chaplin’s political satire The Great Dictator has its debut in New York City. Chaplin’s first true sound film, the story acts as a condemnation of facism, and would go on to become the actor/director’s most popular movie.
1943 - As an actress she was a regular on the sitcom The Odd Couple before becoming one of the stars of the sitcom Laverne & Shirley, then directed films including Big and A League Of Her Own, Penny Marshall is born in New York City.
1951 - I Love Lucy debuts on CBS. It would end up doing pretty well.
1952 - I Married Joan, starring Joan Davis as the scatterbrained wife of a judge, premieres on NBC and runs until 1955.
1953 - Polished stand-up also known for his work in Pretty Woman, Mad About You, The Nutty Professor and the Christopher Guest series of mockumentary films, Larry Miller is born in Brooklyn, New York.
1955 - Grand Ole Opry made its TV debut on ABC.
1979 - Gary Burgoff’s final appearance playing the role of Walter “Radar” O’Reilly, the M*A*S*H episode Good Bye, Radar: Part 2 airs on CBS.
1984 - His first series back in the U.S. lasted four episodes, his second show, this time in the UK, did a little better... After a five-year run, the final Kelly Monteith Show airs on the BBC.
2001 - Whoopi Goldberg becomes the first female recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
2002 - The Tom Green/Drew Barrymore divorce becomes final.
2002 - Just For Laughs Tour kicks off with Harland Williams hosting, openers are Brent Butt, Supergirly, Emo Phillips, and Ron White. Mike Wilmot headlines.
2006 - Broadway’s father of musical comedies, George M. Cohan, is inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.
2010 - Aziz Ansari and Kevin Hart headline the Gator Growl for 70,000 fans at the University of Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
2010 - Larry David’s series about himself, Curb Your Enthusiasm debuts on HBO.
2012 - The comedy album Katt Williams: Live is released.
2015 - Eddie Murphy was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Those who honored Murphy at the event included Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Trevor Noah, George Lopez, Kevin Nealon, Kathy Griffin, Tracy Morgan, Joe Piscopo, Jay Pharoah and Dick Gregory.
October 16
1922 - Max Bygraves is born Walter William Bygraves in Rotherhithe, London, England. The English comedian and variety performer took the stage name Max in honour of Max “The Cheeky Chappy” Miller (which coincidentally was also a stage name). A fixture on British variety television as a stand-up and sketch comedian as well as a host, he made twenty Royal Variety Performance appearances. FUN FACT: His catchphrase "I wanna tell you a story…”, an integral part of his act later in his career, originated from an impersonation of Bygraves by fellow comedian and impressionist Mike Yarwood.
1925 - The winner of a Golden Globe and five Tony Awards, as well as an Oscar, Emmy and Grammy nominee, Angela Lansbury is born in Regent’s Park, London, England. Her comedy credits include The Court Jester (1956), The Long, Hot Summer (1958) and Nanny McPhee (2005).
1936 - Actor Peter Bowles is born in London, England. He is best known for his roles in British comedy TV series, especially the sitcoms To the Manor Born, The Bounder, Executive Stress and Only When I Laugh.
1940 - Prolific character actor best known for his two time Emmy nominated performance as former astronaut Maurice Minnifield in CBS's comedy-drama series Northern Exposure, Barry Corbin is born in Lamesa, Texas.
1946 - Star of the sitcoms Three’s Company, She’s the Sheriff and Step By Step, and famed Thighmaster endorser, Suzanne Somers is born in San Bruno, CA.
1947 - A huge date in parody history as David S. Zucker is born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His credits include writing and directing Airplane!, Top Secret! and BASEketball, as well as creating the Police Squad/Naked Gun TV and movie franchise, and working as a writer and director on the Scary Movie films.
1952 - Her best known film role is as sorority babe Barbara "Babs" Jansen in National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978). Martha Smith is born in Cleveland, Ohio.
1956 - Stand-up comedian and actor (Everybody Loves Raymond), Andy Kindler is born in Queens, New York City.
1958 - Winner of an Academy Award and multiple Golden Globes, actor and director Tim Robbins is born in West Covina, CA. He has starred in such comedies as Short Cuts (1993), The Player (1992), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Bull Durham (1988), and Bob Roberts (1992), which he also wrote and directed. On TV, he co-starred with Jack Black in HBO’s The Brink (2015).
1960 - A tubby little, bug-eyed man - and one of Australia’s greatest ever comedians - George Wallace died of bronchitis and emphysema at his home in Kensington, New South Wales, at age 65. For four decades, from the 1920s-1960s, he had been of the nation’s most popular entertainers, known for his live shows as well as TV appearances and films.
1962 - He played the chief appraiser in The Onion's web series Lake Dredge Appraisal. Christian Stolte is born in St. Louis, Missouri.
1969 - Terri J. Vaughn is born in San Francisco, CA. She is known for acting in three sitcoms: The Steve Harvey Show (1997–2002) on WB, All of Us (2003–2005) on UPN/CW, and Meet the Browns (2009–2011) on TBS.
1971 - His comedy credits include The Missing Person (2008), Thoroughbreds (2017), The Understudy (2008), Please Give (2010) and Trust Me (2013). Actor Paul Sparks is born in Lawton, Oklahoma... and no, he's not related to Canadian comedian Ron Sparks.
1972 – Happy Birthday to The Daily Show’s Adrianne Frost! The comedian was born on this day in 1972.
1973 - The comedy-drama The Paper Chase is released, written and directed by James Bridges and based on the novel by John Jay Osborn Jr. The film stars Timothy Bottoms as a first year Harvard law student, John Houseman as his brilliant professor, and Lindsay Wagner as his girlfriend, who is also the professor’s daughter. Houseman would win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the role.
1979 - Not The 9 O’Clock News makes its debut on BBC Two. It introduces viewers to a cast comprised of Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith, Chris Langham (only for the first series), and a shy young comic from Newcastle named Rowan Atkinson.
1988 - The pilot episode of the Kids In The Hall airs.
1991 - Despite already having more than 40 TV appearances and 15 films to his credit, Philip Baker Hall has a career-boosting guest shot as Lt. Joe Bookman, the in-house cop on the Seinfeld episode The Library.
1992 - Still angry about the singer’s appearance on Saturday Night Live in which she tore up a picture of the Pope, the crowd at a Madison Square Garden show honoring Bob Dylan’s 30 years of music boos Sinead O’Connor offstage.
2007 - Ellen DeGeneres opens her talk show in tears because she had adopted a dog and gave it to her hairdresser’s daughters. The dog had been taken away by the adoption agency and DeGeneres felt bad for the girls.
2015 - Servant of the People debuts on Ukrainian television. A political satire comedy, the show stars comic Volodymyr Zelensky as a high school teacher who becomes the President of Ukraine. The show was produced by Zelensky’s company Kvartal 95 and would run for four seasons, at which point Zelensky would become the actual President of Ukraine.
2018 - Roseanne the character may have been gone (killed off after Roseanne the comedian made some very Roseanne the racist comments on Roseanne the twitter feed)... but the family was still going strong. Roseanne spinoff/followup The Conners premieres on ABC.
2019 - Co-stars from The Office, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey re-watch an episode of the show filling in all the back story, sometimes with guests. The podcast Office Ladies debuts on Earwolf.
October 17
1902 - Best known for her role as Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies, actress Irene Ryan is born in El Paso, Texas.
1908 - Veteran Swedish actress Hjördis Petterson is born in Visby, Sweden. In her long career Petterson appeared in more than 140 films, most of them comedies, such as: The Adventures of Picasso, SOPOR, Fröken Chic, The Pleasure Garden, Mannen som blev miljonär, Miss April, Lasse Maja, Anderssonskans Kalle, Dum-Bom, Bom the Flyer, Sexlingar, Kungliga patrasket, Little Martin Returns, Sängkammartjuven, The Gay Party and Wandering with the Moon.
1917 - Her career spanned more than seven decades and her acting resume includes such comedies as The Human Comedy (1943), Actor’s and Sin (1952) and The Happy Time (1952), Marsha Hunt is born in Chicago, Illinois.
1921 - Tom Poston (Newhart, Grace Under Fire) is born in Columbus, Ohio.
1947 - Actor from Laverne & Shirley, Saturday Night Live, This Is Spinal Tap, Earth Girls Are Easy, The Big Picture and the Christopher Guest mockumentaries, who started out as a member of famed comedy troupe The Credibility Gap, Michael McKean is born in New York City.
1948 - “Norm!” George Wendt, famous for playing one of the most beloved characters in sitcom history, Norm Peterson on Cheers (1982–1993), is born in Chicago (home of, of course, “Da Bears!”). The role earned him six consecutive Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Film credits include Fletch, Gung Ho, House, John Candy’s Hostage for a Day and Man of the House.
1949 - Bill Hudson, the eldest member of The Hudson Brothers band, is born in Portland. Apart from their own comedy-variety series, The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show, he also appeared in such films as Zero to Sixty (1978), Hysterical (1983), and Big Shots (1987).
1959 - Norm Macdonald is born in Quebec City. The Canadian stand-up legend is best remembered for starring in Saturday Night Live, where he anchored the Weekend Update segment for three years, as well as for his own sitcoms, The Norm Show and A Minute with Stan Hooper. He also starred in the films Dirty Work and Screwed.
1961 - Miles Silverberg in the sitcom Murphy Brown - actor Grant Shaud is born in Evanston, Illinois.
1962 - Creator behind the TV series Beavis and Butt-Head (1993–present), King of the Hill (1997–2010), The Goode Family (2009), Silicon Valley (2014–2019), and Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus (2017–2018), who wrote and directed the films Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), Office Space (1999), Idiocracy (2006), and Extract (2009), Mike Judge is born in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
1966 - Hollywood Squares premieres on NBC.
1966 - Four days ahead of its release in the UK, the British comedy Georgy Girl, based on the Margaret Forster novel, premieres in New York City. The first movie to carry a Mature Audiences Only rating in the US, it’s the story of a virginal young lady in Swinging London who is pursued by two very different men. Despite the rating, it went on to be a box office success, and even spawned a musical adaptation on Broadway in 1970: Georgy.
1969 - This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Made In Canada and The Rick Mercer Report star, Rick Mercer born in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
1970 - The Partridge Family appear on the cover of TV Guide. Like most families, they will soon replace their youngest son with a better looking one (we still miss you, Jeremy Gelbwaks).
1972 - Known for her roles in the films This Christmas, Why Did I Get Married? and Why Did I Get Married Too?, actor Sharon Leal is born in Tucson, Arizona.
1978 - Best known as the star of the CBC series Being Erica, actress Erin Karpluk is born in Jasper, Alberta.
1978 - The title song from the movie Grease, performed by Frankie Valli, hits #1.
1984 - Chris Lowell is born in Atlanta, Georgia. He’s best known for playing Sebastian "Bash" Howard in GLOW (2017–2019). Film credits include Up in the Air (2009), Promising Young Woman (2020), Brightest Star (2013) and Chronically Metropolitan (2016).
1988 - In Montclair, CA, Dee Jay Daniels is born. He is known for playing D.L. Hughley’s son Michael Hughley on the sitcom The Hughleys.
1997 - The Comedy Network makes its debut.
2000 - Don Rickles receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2005 - The Colbert Report debuts on Comedy Central.
2012 - On Key and Peele, Mr. Garvey - Substitute Teacher makes his debut.
2014 - The first film featuring Robin Williams released following his death, and with an ensemble that includes Joel McHale, Lauren Graham, Clark Duke, Candice Bergen and Oliver Platt, the black comedy A Merry Friggin’ Christmas has its premiere at the Carmel International Film Festival.
2015 - While still a relative newcomer to stand-up, Paris Sashay, after a gig at Takoma Station Tavern, was cat-called and assaulted by a group of men on the streets of Washington, D.C. It was just days before she was booked for her debut at the DC Improv Comedy Club - which she still did.
2016 - Eddie Applegate, best remembered for playing Richard, Patty Duke’s boyfriend (that would be Patty Duke as Patty Lane, not Patty Duke as her own identical cousin Cathy Lane) on The Patty Duke Show, passes away after a long illness in a Los Angeles nursing home, at age 81.
October 18
1927 - Oscar winning film and Broadway actor George C. Scott is born in Wise, Virginia. Though best known for his dramatic work, he also did plenty of comedy, including co-starring with Tony Curtis in Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966), Bank Shot (1974), They Might Be Giants (1971), and his Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Golden Globe nominated double-performance in Movie Movie (1978). He was also a five time Tony Award nominee, who starred in such plays as Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite (1968), Larry Gelbart's Sly Fox (1976), and the Broadway revival of Noel Coward's Design for Living (1984), which he also directed.
1938 - Dawn Wells (Gilligan’s Island) is born.
1947 - Joe Morton is born in Harlem, NYC. He starred in John Sayles’ The Brother from Another Planet (1984). Other acting credits include Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), The Inkwell (1994), Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), The Pest (1997), Lenny the Wonder Dog (2005) and Wherever You Are (2008).
1950 - Mork & Mindy’s Pam Dawber was born on this day in 1950.
1960 - Action superstar who has also made some pretty funny comedies (Jean-Claude Van Johnson, anyone?), “the muscles from Brussels,” Jean-Claude Van Damme was born in Belgium on this day in 1960.
1964 - On the Ed Sullivan Show, which had begun 20 minutes late as a result of a Presidential speech, stand-up and Sullivan favourite Jackie Mason performs The host, worried about time on the now-condensed episode, starts waving two fingers at Mason to let him know to only do two more minutes, which distracts Mason, who jokes “We’re talking with fingers now?” and starts waving fingers around. Sullivan believes the comic flashed the middle finger at him and bans him, as well as cancelling his $45,000 contract with the show. After a lawsuit filed by Mason, and a two year wait, Sullivan asks Mason back and apologizes.
1967 - The satiric film How I Won the War, starring John Lennon as Private Gripweed, premieres in London.
1974 - Joy Bryant is born in The Bronx, NYC. She played Jasmine in NBC’s comedy-drama Parenthood.
1975 - Paul Simon becomes the first SNL guest host who also serves as the show’s musical guest… It didn’t take him long; it was just Saturday Night Live’s second episode! He has since returned to the show several times, becoming a member of the prestigious “Five Timers Club”.
1978 - Wesley Jonathan is born Wesley Jonathan Waples in Los Angeles. He’s best known for starring as Jamal Grant in NBC’s family comedy-drama series, City Guys (1997-2001), Gary in the sitcom What I Like About You (2002-2006), and Burrell "Stamps" Ballentine on TV Land's The Soul Man (2012-2016).
1987 - Zac Efron, who starring in the High School Musical trilogy (2006-2008), is born in San Luis Obispo, CA. He has also starred in the comedies Hairspray (2007), 17 Again (2009), New Year's Eve (2011), Neighbors (2014), Dirty Grandpa (2016) and Baywatch (2017).
1988 - Roseanne debuts on ABC and becomes a huge hit, making stars of Roseanne Barr and John Goodman.
1989 - Joy Lauren, who played Danielle Van de Kamp in ABC’s hit comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives, is born.
1996 - The lives of young, unemployed actors in Hollywood are put on screen, intersecting with the revival of swing music, as the Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Heather Graham and Ron Livingston movie Swingers opens in theatres.
2014 - Artie Lange’s one hour standup special The Stench of Failure airs on Comedy Central.
October 19
1948 - Off the Record premieres on The DuMont Network.
1948 - Best known for his work as a member of CODCO, Newfoundland comic and actor Greg Malone is born in St. John’s.
1960 – RIP, Onkus! Renowned Australian vaudevillian comic and film star George Wallace passes away. He was arguably Australia’s biggest comedy star of the first half of the 20th century.
1964 - 30 or so performances into the more than 3000 appearances it would have on Broadway, Fiddler On The Roof’s star Zero Mostel fiddles his way onto the cover of Newsweek.
1968 – American comedian-slash-country musician Rodney Carrington is born in Longview, Texas.
1969 - On the third episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (titled How To Recognize Different Types Of Trees From Quite A Long Way Away), sketches include the super hero Bicycle Repair Man, Milkman Seduction and Candid Photography, more commonly referred to as Nudge, Nudge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V8KdGqUfek
1974 - Chico and the Man hits the cover of TV Guide for the first time.
1977 - Director Jason Reitman born in Montreal.
1977 – French-Canadian comedian and actor known for such films as Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2006), Father and Guns (2009), A Sense of Humour (2011) and Compulsive Liar (2019), Louis-José Houde is born in Saint-Apollinaire, Quebec.
1990 - At 2 Live Crew’s obscenity trial in Florida, the jury ask the judge for permission to laugh out loud. Some of the jurors complained that it was actually causing them physical pain to hold in their laughter.
1991 - Grant Turner, the voice of the Grand Ole Opry, passed away at age 79.
1994 – Honorary Oscar recipient Martha Raye, known as “The Big Mouth” for her comedy and singing performances in films and on Broadway, dies of pneumonia after several years of ill health.
2018 - The Fox network announces that they have ordered an additional nine episodes of their new sitcom The Cool Kids, bringing their total season one order to 22 episodes. The sitcom, created by Charlie Day and Paul Fruchbom, follows three male retirement community residents (David Alan Grier, Martin Mull and Leslie Jordan) who enjoy their status quo until the arrival of a rebellious new female occupant (Vicki Lawrence) forces them to adapt. After airing the episodes, the network would ultimately decide to cancel the show the following May.
October 20
1882 - Chief comedic foil to the Marx Brothers (she appeared in 7 of their films), as well as with W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, Jack Benny, Danny Kaye, Red Skelton and Abbott and Costello, Margaret Dumont is born in Brooklyn, New York.
1882 - Though obviously most famous for his many horror film roles, particularly for being “THE” dracula, he also starred in a number of comedy features - among them Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Ninotchka (1939), Vampire Over London (1952), King of Jazz (1930), International House (1933), The Black Cat (1941), Ghosts on the Loose (1943), The Death Kiss (1932), Spooks Run Wild (1941), You’ll Find Out (1940), Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952), One Body Too Many (1944), and opposite The Ritz Bros. in The Gorilla (1939). Classic movie icon Bela Lugosi is born Béla Ferenc DezsÅ‘ Blaskó in Lugos, Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania).
1938 - 1960s leading lady who starred in many films, among them Where the Boys Are (1960), Dolores Hart is born in Chicago. A remarkable woman, she stunned Hollywood when, at the height of her stardom, she decided to leave everything behind and became a nun.
1946 – American humorist and stand-up comedian Lewis Grizzard, known for his commentary on the American South, is born in Fort Benning, Georgia.
1948 - The Growing Paynes sitcom premieres on The DuMont Network.
1952 - Actor Melanie Mayron (Car Wash, The Great Smokey Roadblock, Girlfriends, Heartbeeps, Checking Out, The Boss' Wife, My Blue Heaven) is born in Philadelphia, PA.
1955 - First adapted as a teleplay, Ira Levin’s treatment of Mac Hyman’s No Time For Sergeants opens at Broadway’s Alvin Theatre. Andy Griffith reprises his role from the TV version in his Broadway debut, and a young Don Knotts joins the cast for the first time, beginning a comedic partnership that would last for decades.
1956 - Filmmaker Danny Boyle, who has directed such movies as Yesterday, Trainspotting and its sequel T2 Trainspotting, is born in Radcliffe, Lancashire, England.
1958 - Multiple Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominee Viggo Mortensen is born in Watertown, New York. He has starred in such comedies as 28 Days (2000), Captain Fantastic (2016) and Green Book (2018).
1959 – Australian comedian and actor Mark Little is born.
1962 - Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s novelty song “Monster Mash” peaks at #1 on the Billboard charts. The enduring Halloween classic would re-chart twice in subsequent years: 1970, and 1973.
1971 - Kennth Choi, who played Lewis in the FOX series The Last Man on Earth (2016-2017), is born in Chicago.
1974 - Happy Birthday, Limmy! Scottish comedian and content creator Brian Limond was born on this day in 1974.
1976 - Comedian and actor Dan Fogler is born in Brooklyn, NYC. Film credits include Balls of Fury, Good Luck Chuck, Kung Fu Panda, Horton Hears a Who!, and Mars Needs Moms. On Broadway, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
1977 - The Richard Pryor Show, a one hour variety series, didn’t last long, just a few episodes, but in that time Pryor & Co. did a lot of good things, including on this date when the show gave Native American comic Charlie Hill his first big break - a national television debut. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWaDJvSYusM
1977 - He played Aidan Waite in the US version of Being Human. Sam Witwer is born in Glenview, Illinois.
1979 - Actor best known for starring as Jim Halpert in the US version of The Office, who also starred in such films as The Hollars (2016), License to Wed (2007), Leatherheads (2008), Away We Go (2009), It's Complicated (2009), Something Borrowed (2011), Aloha (2015) and Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009), John Krasinski is born in Boston.
1984 - Comedians Dawn French and Lenny Henry tie the knot in Covent Garden, London. They would stay together for 25 years.
1985 - In Long Beach, CA, Jennifer Freeman is born. She is known for the sitcom My Wife and Kids and the film Johnson Family Vacation (2004).
1995 - The John Travola, Gene Hackman, Renee Russo, Danny DeVito Miami mobster-turned-Hollywood-movie-producer comedy Get Shorty is released in theatres.
1998 - Richard Pryor becomes the inaugural recipient of the Mark Twain Prize For American Humor.
2008 - The retrial of music producer Phil Spector begins, for the shooting death of sword and sorcery and comedy actress Lana Clarkson (Amazon Women on the Moon, Fast Times at Ridgemont High), who was found dead in his mansion in February, 2003. The first trial has ended in a mistrial with the jury locked at a 10-2 vote to convict, but this time around he would not be so lucky, as this trial would end in a murder conviction.
October 21
1924 - Famous for playing Trixie Norton in The Honeymooners and The Jackie Gleason Show, Joyce Randolph is born Joyce Sirola in Detroit, Michigan.
1948 - Dick Christie, best known for playing Ted Lawson in the sitcom Small Wonder (1985-1989), is born in Long Beach, CA. He’s also a screenwriter, best known for the film Molly (1999), starring Elisabeth Shue.
1955 - Movie director Catherine Hardwicke, known for Miss You Already (2015), is born in Cameron, Texas.
1956 - Besides some Star Wars stuff, actress best known for The Blues Brothers, Hannah and Her Sisters, The ‘Burbs, When Harry Met Sally and Soapdish, Carrie Fisher is born in Burbank, California.
1959 - Her film credits include Speaking of Sex (2001), The Big Empty (2003), Matchstick Men (2003), The Young Kieslowski (2014), Sex, Death and Bowling (2015), The Lovers (2017) and Pink Skies Ahead (2020). Actor Melora Walters is born in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
1964 - Based on the Broadway hit, the musical comedy film My Fair Lady, starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn, premieres at the Criterion Theatre in New York City. Its production budget of $17 million made it the most expensive film produced in the US up to that time, and it would go on to win eight Oscars.
1965 - “Happy 100th Anniversary!” In The Munsters episode of that title, airing on this day, Herman and Lily both secretly take night jobs as ship welders to earn extra cash to buy each other special gifts for their 100th anniversary. The episode features guest stars Vinton Hayworth, and comedian Foster Brooks as the Admiral.
1972 - Carroll O'Connor and Cloris Leachman’s special makes the cover of TV Guide.
1972 - After 17 years of recording rock classics, Chuck Berry finally got a #1 hit... with the goofy novelty song “My Ding-A-Ling.”
1976 - He played Ben Seaver in the hit ABC sitcom Growing Pains (1985-1992), Jeremy Miller is born in Covina, CA.
1978 - Four weeks into its existence WKRP in Cincinnati makes the cover of TV Guide for the first time.
1978 - Actor best known for his sitcom roles, as Henry in What I Like About You and Owen in Hot in Cleveland, Michael McMillian is born in Colorado Springs, CO. He also played Tim in the comedy-musical series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
1982 – American comedian and podcaster Hari Kondabolu is born.
1983 - Actor Charlotte Sullivan, known for the movies Harriet the Spy (1996), How to Deal (2003) and Fever Pitch (2005), is born in Toronto, Canada.
1988 - Actor Glen Powell is born in Austin, TX. He’s best known for playing Chad Radwell in FOX’s comedy-horror series Scream Queens (2015–2016), and for starring in the films Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) and Set It Up (2018).
1996 - The Ken Finkleman series The Newsroom debuts on CBC.
2006 - Steven Wright’s first stand-up special in 16 years, Steven Wright: When the Leaves Blow Away, premieres on Comedy Central. The following year, this material would also be released as his second album, I Still Have a Pony, which, like his first album 22 years earlier, would be nominated for a Grammy.
2018 - With Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly in the roles of the legendary comedy team Laurel and Hardy, the film Stan & Ollie premieres as The London Film Festival’s Closing Night Gala.