Who shot JR?
I can remember the exact setting when I first saw this, the old lounge with its gold paisley pattern and my parents sitting on it - I was standing up and watched the whole thing with my mouth open. I was utterly knocked out by this - *sigh Michael …you were the best.
That’s what I came in here to mention. Oh well, some other big “events”:
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Luke & Laura getting married on “General Hospital.”
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The revelation as to “who shot J.R.” (spoiler - it was Sue-Ellen’s sister!)
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The last episodes of “Cheers” and “the Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson as host.
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The first “Itchy & Scratchy” that had Poochie on it.
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The first Challenger shuttle launch.
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The Christmas movie with Schultzie, who wanted an air-rifle but everybody kept telling him he’d shoot his eye out. (I don’t think I even ever knew what that movie was called, but it played on a continuous loop pretty much every December.)
ditto.
Wizard of Oz, 10 Commandments, Charlie Brown anything (though always called “Snoopy” in our house), Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Frosty, etc etc
I remember having quite a dilemma one year when I heard there was going to be a Munsters movie (THE MUNSTERS IN COLOR!) on at the same time as the Wizard of Oz.
That’s A Christmas Story, and his name was Ralphie.
Moon landing
Roots (the first one that came to mind!)
Luke and Laura’s wedding (we weren’t quite ‘kids’ still, but whatever)
That royal wedding thingy (ditto)
Who shot JR
Nixon’s resignation speech
Are you kidding?? Those first four notes: DUH DUH DUH-DUHHHHHH!! Followed by those brief doubled bass lines: NUH-NUH; NUH-NUH!! Cue Howard Cosell!!!
Actually, MNF had lots of themes and starts. “ROll tape! 3…2..”
Oh man televised football sucks now.
I would love to see the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella with Lesley Ann Warren and Stuart Damon. I know it is available on DVD, but it’s not the same if you can see it whenever you want.
The Wizard of Oz was eagerly anticipated every year and there was always fresh baked chocolate chip cookies to go with it. When we got the VCR tape this tradition evaporated.:(:o. Christmas isn’t Christmas without watching Rudolph. I have resisted buying the DVD.
I remember hating Richard Nixon’s speeches, though I couldn’t have told you why at the time. I used to amuse myself using the color adjust setting to turn him green or purple.
The Sound of Music was one we always watched whenever it was on, as well as the Ten Commandments. I usually watched the Miss America Pageant when I was a kid, too.
Heavyweight championship boxing bouts, especially those featuring Muhammad Ali, were huge because they were on free TV and people cared about boxing then.
Even Howard “DOWN GOES FRAZIER!” Cosell eventually got turned off by the sport.
The Wizard of Oz every Easter.
Watching every episode of Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” was an assignment for science class.
I was a kid in the 50s, so the big TV events were:
The coronation of Elizabeth II.
The political conventions and the inauguration (twice) of Eisenhower.
Miss America.
*Amahl and the Night Visitors, *every Christmas.
*Peter Pan *(Mary Martin) and Cinderella (Julie Andrews).
Elvis on Ed Sullivan.
Segregation protesters getting attacked by hoses and dogs.
Playhouse 90.
And later in the decade, Sputnik.
From a fellow Non-Whippersnapper, spot on! That’s also where we got the news regarding John Lennon’s murder, from Howard Cosell.
The Sound of Music, Wizard of Oz, Christmas specials, Billy Graham crusades, Olympics.
Yeah, definitely remember as a nipper being rousted out of bed at 0-dark-30 on the west coast for live coverage of an atom bomb test being televised live.
The final episode of THE FUGITIVE.
I recall in the 1970s, before the advent of the VCR, a friend of mine who lived in Canberra, drove to Sydney with his wife to watch a late night showing of Casablanca, which he had never seen, on Sydney TV. It would have been a 4 hour trip in those days. When the movie ended they jumped in the car and went home to work the next day.
Before the VCR I was often up at ridiculous hours catching up on old movies which was basically all they showed at night in those days. It was great.
There were folks where I grew up in the seventies who didn’t have cable where they lived (small towns and out in the country) but would go to the county seat and rent a cheap motel room to watch movies on cable TV. Usually, they’d load up with soft drinks, snacks and the whole family and just make an evening of it.
Yup.
Den and Angie’s bust-up on Eastenders.
Scott and Charlene’s wedding on Neighbours.
Charles and Di.
The FA cup final and other really big matches - similarly, Wimbledon, The Ashes, and the snooker world championship final, which is a much smaller affair these days.
The Brit awards. And Top of the Pops weekly, of course.
The news on the day that Thatcher got kicked out (woohoo!)
General election results.
Seems to me there’s still a lot of event television these days, despite the wider range of choices.
As mentioned by others, The Wizard of Oz every year and all the Christmas cartoons. But the networks also made a lot of hooplah when airing a top film like Doctor Zhivago or Patton.
There was also the JFK funeral, but I’m not sure that would be considered an “event” in the usual sense of the word.