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GREAT TELEVISION MOMENTS: WHAT WE WATCHED: A
MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO TRIBUTE (TV)

Summary

Produced by The Museum of Television & Radio, this special pays tribute to the television medium at its best and features highlights spanning more than forty years of television history. Candice Bergen and co-hosts Richard Chamberlain, Louis Gossett, Jr., Marlo Thomas, Barbara Walters, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and James Woods introduce segments that feature a series of brief clips in a variety of genres, including comedy, drama, music, and news. In a segment that includes both comedy and drama, Gossett presents three quick-paced montages of television marriages, births, and deaths. The wedding montage includes clips from "Rhoda," "Get Smart," "Dynasty," "M*A*S*H," "Dallas," "Cheers," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and "Taxi"; the birth montage includes scenes from "Family Ties," "Mork & Mindy," "I Love Lucy," and "Murphy Brown"; and to illustrate how the subject of death has been dealt with on television, the final montage features clips from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "L.A. Law," "thirtysomething," "Hill Street Blues," and "M*A*S*H." Warner and Thomas each present clips that cover the broad scope of comedy, from variety series to situation comedy. Highlights of this portion include "The Steve Allen Show," "The Jack Benny Program," "The Honeymooners," "Your Show of Shows," "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," "The Carol Burnett Show," "The Flip Wilson Show," "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," "Saturday Night Live," "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," "The Cosby Show," "The Andy Griffith Show," "Happy Days," "Maude," "Roseanne," "The Phil Silvers Show," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Taxi," "The Bob Newhart Show," and "Seinfeld." Woods introduces highlights from dramatic series and specials, including "Gunsmoke," "Columbo," "Star Trek," "China Beach," "Hill Street Blues," the "Playhouse 90" presentations of "Marty" and "Requiem for a Heavyweight," "Hallmark Hall of Fame: Promise," "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," "NobodyÕs Child," "Something About Amelia," "Friendly Fire," "The Day After," and "The Missiles of October." Chamberlain presents scenes from notable miniseries, including "Rich Man, Poor Man," "Holocaust," "The Thorn Birds," "War and Remembrance," and "Lonesome Dove." In a segment that features memorable musical combinations, performances include Mary Martin and Ethel Merman, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong, Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett, Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland, The Jackson Five, Elton John with Bette Midler and Cher, and Ray Charles with Kermit the Frog. In the concluding segment, Walters examines television coverage of important news events. Footage includes Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy; excerpts from speeches by President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, President Lyndon B. Johnson, and President Richard M. Nixon; the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald; the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan; Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Conta hearings; the fall of the Berlin Wall; the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill; the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings; the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy at the Hotel Ambassador in Los Angeles; the Challenger space shuttle explosion; and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, covering the events from the earliest reports through the funeral procession and burial, including a report by CBS anchor Walter Cronkite. Commercials deleted.

Cataloging of this program was made possible by Daniel J. Grover.

Details

  • NETWORK: ABC
  • DATE: February 6, 1993 Saturday 8:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 1:34:12
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: T:27833
  • GENRE: Specials
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Television - History
  • SERIES RUN: ABC - TV, 1993
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Allan Burns … Executive Producer
  • Grant Tinker … Executive Producer
  • Karen Taylor … Coordinating Producer
  • Michael Hirsh … Producer, Director, Writer
  • Joel Lipman … Co-Producer, Writer
  • Melora Haeli Schroeder … Associate Producer
  • Patrick Williams … Music by
  • Candice Bergen … Host
  • Richard Chamberlain … Host
  • Louis Gossett … Host
  • Marlo Thomas … Host
  • Barbara Walters … Host
  • Malcolm-Jamal Warner … Host
  • James Woods … Host
  • Julie Andrews
  • Louis Armstrong
  • Carol Burnett
  • Ray Charles
  • Cher
  • Nat King Cole
  • Walter Cronkite
  • Ella Fitzgerald
  • Judy Garland
  • Anita Hill
  • Jackson Five, The
  • Elton John
  • Lyndon B. Johnson
  • John F. Kennedy
  • Robert F. Kennedy
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Mary Martin
  • Joseph McCarthy
  • Ethel Merman
  • Bette Midler
  • Edward R. Murrow
  • Richard M. Nixon
  • Oliver North
  • Lee Harvey Oswald
  • Ronald Reagan
  • Frank Sinatra
  • Barbra Streisand
  • Clarence Thomas
  • George C. Wallace