Wednesday, March 12, 2025

December 1976 - A Star is Born, Jack Cassidy

Dy-no-mite December 1976!

A number one hit on the Cash Box Top 100 list in December 1976 was 'You Make Me Feel Like Dancing' by Leo Sayer.

December 1 - C.P.O. Sharkey, The McLean Stevenson Show and Sirota's Court tv series premiere.

December 5 - Bound for Glory movie premieres.

December 6 - The Feather and Father Gang tv show premieres on ABC.

December 8 - The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is established by the five Latinos in the United States Congress: Herman Badillo of New York, E. de la Garza and Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas, Edward R. Roybal of California, and the nonvoting Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, Baltasar Corrada del Rio.

December 8 - A Star Is Born movie premieres.

December 10 - Nobel Prize winners include Saul Bellow ('Humboldt's Gift' writer) for Literature, Milton Friedman (laissez-faire economics) for Economics, and Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan (Northern Ireland peace advocates) for Peace.

December 12 – Jack Cassidy, actor and singer, dies in a fire. Father to both David and Shaun Cassidy, Jack has over 75 acting credits to his name. (born 1927)

December 13 - Double Dare game show premieres on CBS.

December 14 - Barbara Walters airs her first interview special for ABC, with guests Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Barbra Streisand, and Jon Peters.

December 15 - The Pink Panther Strikes Again movie premieres.

December 17 - At 1:00 p.m. (ET), Atlanta, Georgia station WTCG-TV begins satellite transmission of its regular programming to four cable systems, thus becoming the first superstation.

December 17 - The Shaggy D.A. and King Kong movies premiere.

December 20 – Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago for 21 years, dies while in office.

December 24 - The Town That Dreaded Sundown movie premieres.

December 31 - President Gerald Ford presents the last of the Bicentennial Minutes on CBS, which had been airing nightly since July 4, 1974.

Albums released in December (album / artist):

Still Stills: The Best of Stephen Stills / Stephen Stills

Hotel California / Eagles

A Day at the Races / Queen

Wings over America / Wings

Wind and Wuthering / Genesis

Nielsen top 20 shows for the week of Dec 6-12: Happy Days, Laverne

and Shirley, Charlie's Angels and Six Million Dollar Man, all on ABC; M-A-S-H, CBS; The Carpenters, ABC; 60 Minutes, All in the Family, Johnny Cash Special and The

Waltons, CBS; ABC Monday Night Football; One Day at a Time, CBS; Sanford and Son and Chico and the Man, NBC, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, Christmas in Disneyland and

Friday Movie, ABC; Phyllis, CBS; Little House on the Prairie, NBC; and

Rhoda, CBS

1976 Cadillac Coupe Deville:

JC Penney Christmas 1976 catalog:

Fisher-Price little people hospital (released 1976):

Playboy playmate of the month, Karen Hafter and Playgirl man for December, Ben Gallagher:

X-Men comic for December:

Jet for December:

Soap Opera Digest for December:

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine for December:

Peanuts comic strip from December 1976:

For detailed news/info on what happened each day in December 1976, check out this really good site: ultimate70s.com

Thursday, February 13, 2025

November 1976 - Jimmy Carter, Carrie, Went with the Wind

Far Out in November 1976!

A number one hit on the Cash Box Top 100 list in November 1976 was 'Tonight's the Night' by Rod Stewart.

November 2 – U.S. presidential election. Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Ford. Carter is the the first southern candidate to win since the Civil War.

November 3 - Carrie movie premieres, starring Sissy Spacek and based on Stephen King's novel. John Travolta's first major movie role.

November 5 - Assault on Precinct 13 movie premieres.

November 7–8 - The film Gone with the Wind makes its broadcast television debut on NBC.

November 9 - The Museum of Broadcasting opens on the first 3 floors of the Paley Foundation building in New York City.

November 12 - The Army selects the Chrysler Corporation to develop and build its new battle tank in a weapons program that is expected to cost $4.9 billion over the next decade.

November 13 - The Carol Burnett Show airs Went with the Wind!, a movie parody of Gone With the Wind, five days after the film's network TV debut. Carol's costume from this sketch is now in the Smithsonian. Mattel later sold a doll of this character.

November 13 - Alice, Sweet Alice movie premieres.

November 15 – The first megamouth shark is discovered off Oahu in Hawaii.

November 19 - The Last Tycoon movie premieres.

November 21 – Rocky, the first in the film series opens. It becomes the highest-grossing film released in the year and goes on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

November 22 - Jerry Lee Lewis was arrested outside Elvis Presley's Graceland home for allegedly intending to shoot him. Lewis had already nearly killed his own bass player, Butch Owens, on September 29, 1976 (Lewis's 41st birthday), when a .357 Magnum accidentally went off in his hand.

November 25 – In San Francisco, The Band holds its farewell concert, The Last Waltz.

November 26 – Microsoft is officially registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico.

November 27 - Network movie premieres.

November 28 – Rosalind Russell, film actress dies. (born 1907)

Albums released in November 1976 (album / artist):

Greatest Hits / James Taylor

Water Babies / Miles Davis

Imaginary Voyage / Jean-Luc Ponty

All This and World War II / Various Artists

The Jacksons / The Jacksons

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers / Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Rock and Roll Over / Kiss

Have a Good Time / Al Green

Tejas / ZZ Top

Is This Whatcha Wont? / Barry White

Nielsen top 10 shows for the week ending November 21:

Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, NBC's First Fifty Years, Sybil Part 2, Billy Jack, John Denver Special, M-A-S-H, The Waltons, Good Times and The Jeffersons.

1976 Honda Civic:

Playboy playmate of the month (and later named playmate of the year), Patti McGuire and Playgirl man for November, Beau Lawrence.

Planet of the Apes comic for November:

Snoopy phone (released 1976):

Tiger Beat for November:

Newsweek for November:

Starlog for November:

'Sleeping Murder' by Agatha Christie moves to the top of the New York Times Fiction Best Seller list.

Peanuts cartoon strip from November 1976:

For detailed news/info on what happened each day in November 1976, check out this really good site: ultimate70s.com

Sunday, January 12, 2025

October 1976 - Jane Pauley, Cincinnati Reds, Quincy

Quack, Quack, it's October 1976!

A number one hit on the Cash Box Top 100 list in October 1976 was 'Disco Duck' by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots. Despite speculation to the contrary, Clarence Nash, the voice of Donald Duck, did not perform on this song...the duck was voiced by a guy Rick met at the gym!

October 4 - Barbara Walters joins Harry Reasoner as co-anchor of the ABC Evening News.

October 3 - Quincy, M.E. tv series premieres on NBC, starring Jack Klugman. Quincy's first name is never mentioned on the show, though a business card in one episode revealed his first initial is 'R'.

October 6 – During his second televised debate with Jimmy Carter, U.S. President Gerald Ford mistakenly says that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe".

October 8 - Marathon Man movies premieres.

October 11 - Jane Pauley makes her debut on NBC's Today.

October 13 – The United States Commission on Civil Rights releases the report, Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States: An Uncertain Future, which highlights Puerto Ricans high poverty rate.

October 15 - The Sylvia L. Ossa cargo ship is reported missing in the Bermuda Triangle. The ship did not send out an emergency distress message. Only some debris, an oil slick and a lifeboat were found.

October 16 - Most Wanted tv series premieres on ABC.

October 18 – Ford launches significant production of Fiesta at its Valencia plant in Spain.

October 18 - Burnt Offerings movie premieres.

October 20 – The Mississippi River ferry MV George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing from Destrehan, Louisiana to Luling, Louisiana, killing 78 passengers and crew.

October 21 – The Cincinnati Reds sweep the New York Yankees in four games to win the 1976 World Series.

October 21 - Willis Reed becomes the first New York Knicks basketball player to have his uniform number (19) retired.

October 22 - Car Wash movie premieres.

Albums released in October (album / artist):
Chestnut Street Incident / Johnny Cougar
Crystal Ball / Styx
Virgin Killer / Scorpions
Arrival / ABBA
Four Seasons of Love / Donna Summer
Hoppkorv / Hot Tuna
Triumph / Triumph
Johnny the Fox / Thin Lizzy
Zoot Allures / Frank Zappa
Blue Moves / Elton John
Night Moves / Bob Seger
The Song Remains the Same / Led Zeppelin Live 1973
On the Road to Kingdom Come / Harry Chapin
Calling Card / Rory Gallagher
Land of the Midnight Sun / Al Di Meola
Hardcore Jollies / Funkadelic
Brass Construction II / Brass Construction

Nielsen top 20 shows for the week of October 25-31:

Happy Days, Charlie's Angels, Bionic Woman and Laverne and Shirley (ABC); Bob Hope
Special ( NBC ); Baretta and Six Million Dollar Man (ABC); All in the Family (CBS); Amelia Earhart (NBC); M-A-S-H and The Waltons (CBS); Live and Let Die (ABC); Disney (NBC);
Alice and Hawaii Five-O (CBS); Welcome Back, Kotter (ABC); One Day at a Time and
Maude (CBS); NBC Saturday Movie; and NFL Monday Night Football.