Monthly Archives: March 2013

‘Survival’ episode airs on ‘Combat!’ 50 years ago this hour (1963)


Video: 'COMBAT! s.1 ep.23: "Survival" (1963)' (Mar. 12, 1963)

(Tuesday, March 12, 1963, 7:30 p.m. EST) — Lt. Hanley and the squad escape capture during an artillery barrage, but Sgt. Saunders is unknowingly left behind in the fiery chaos on tonight’s episode of the ABC-TV war drama series Combat!.

In 1997, the episode was ranked #74 on TV Guide‘s 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.

Two LAPD officers taken to onion field in Bakersfield, one killed 50 years ago this hour (1963)


Video: 'The onion field (1979). Crime scene'

(Wednesday, March 9, 1963, after 10 p.m. local time) — Two Los Angeles police officers, Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger, were disarmed and abducted by ex-convicts Gregory Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith during a traffic stop today in Hollywood. The officers were taken to an onion field near Bakersfield, California, where Campbell was shot to death while Hettinger managed to escape. Powell and Smith were sent to prison; the case was detailed in the book “The Onion Field” by Joseph Wambaugh.

’42nd Street’ premieres in New York City 80 years ago tonight (1933)


Video: '42nd Street Trailer (1933)'

(Thursday, March 9, 1933)42nd Street, a musical film about a producer who puts on what may be his last Broadway show, and at the last moment a chorus girl has to replace the star, premiered today in New York City.

Directed by Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley, the film starred Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers.

Pat Loud asks husband Bill for a divorce on ‘An American Family’ 40 years ago this hour (1973)


Video: 'An American Family: Divorce'

(Thursday, March 8, 1973, 9:00 p.m. EST) — The first family of reality TV learned the hard lesson of transferring their lives from real to reel when Mrs. Loud asked for a divorce on tonight’s episode of An American Family.

TV Guide and TV Land ranked this episode #71 out the “100 Most Memorable TV Moments of All Time” in 2004.