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ONLY IN LOS ANGELES!!!
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Where else can you find too many traffic problems, or where else can you come late, leave early, or even better, where else can you dine with the stars? And name me one other city with a region locally nicknamed "The Valley." It's another unusual day. Only in Los Angeles.

GO DODGERS! And take the Lakers with you.

UNUSUAL NICKNAMES FOR TV STATIONS!

Here is a list of very unusual nicknames for TV stations:


KABC "abc7 EYEWITNESS NEWS"
Motto: The Southland's #1 News
KNBC's "Channel 4 News" has been California's Number One Newscast since 1985-86.   However, CBS2 now wins at 11pm.
"

CLASSIC TELEVISION CATCHPHRASES!

Here is a brief sampling of classic TV catchphrases. I will add more as I go along.

"Oh my God, they killed Kenny!"
Kenny on "South Park" was always killed in every episode.
"Remember: when you get mad, don't take the law into your own hands. Take 'em to court."
Doug Llewellyn at the end of each episode of the original "People's Court."
"Elizabeth, I'm coming to join you!"
Fred Sanford on "Sanford and Son" faked heart attacks.
"You EEDIOT!"
Ren, to Stimpy, on "The Ren and Stimpy Show."
"Alice-baby, you're the greatest."
Ralph Kramden, to Alice, on "The Honeymooners."
"I don't have to take this crap!"
Tammi Tyler on "Strip Mall" was a frequent sufferer of sexual harrassment due to her larger-than-normal bust. Any man who ran into her was not supposed to talk to her about her bust. If they did, she would look down at her bust, say this line, and slap them on the face.
"In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts in living color, you will see another first--attempted suicide."
Chris Chubbuck, a newscaster in Sarasota, Florida, in 1973, on the air. She then shot her self in the head--and on live TV. The attempt was a success.
"Will you come back tomorrow?"
Game show legend Jack Barry continued to ask this at the end of each episode of every Los Angeles-based game show he hosted during the 1970's and into the 1980's until his death in 1984, as he was used to both 1950's live TV and New York-based game show production, and, in response the contestants returned the next day, as the next episode was taped in 20 minutes.
"Take me to a commercial...We'll be back with more stuff right after this."
Chuck Barris, segueing to a commercial break on "The Gong Show."
"Oh My!"
Favorite expression of legendary sportscaster Dick Enberg.
"If nominated I will not run, and if elected I will not serve."
Pat Paulsen running for president.

Dialogue written by Dan Gates. Any reprinting of this stuff is prohibited. All rights have been reserved under international conventions.

E-mail your contributions to rdg17@hotmail.com

PRESSED FOR TIME

This week on "Pressed for Time" (Remember the old program "Eye on Hollywood", or, if you live in L.A., the old KABC-TV program "Eye on L.A." we spotlight the...
MARCH MADNESS

THE BRUINS ARE IN FIRST PLACE IN THE PACIFIC 10!
 
THE WRITERS STRIKE IS OVER!
 
COENS WIN 4 OSCARS!

THE WALK OF SHAME!

This week, we induct...
DONALD CORSINI

The Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show is proof that history does repeat itself.  The end of the halftime show became a replay of what happened on May 6, 1997, on KCAL-Channel 9.  On that day, Channel 9 was airing an Anaheim Mighty Ducks Stanley Cup playoff game.  Prior to the start of that game, Lucy Lawless of "Xena:Warrior Princess" fame sang the National Anthem (why get a New Zealander to sing our National Anthem?)  Near the conclusion of the Anthem, Lucy's left breast popped out of her red bodysuit--her "out-of-bodice" experience--and this ultimately embarrassed Channel 9 and its GM, Don Corsini.  Angry viewers called K-CAL 9.  The FCC fined K-CAL 9 thousands of dollars for violation of FCC obscenity rules.  KCAL lost Mighty Ducks rights in 2003.  Flash forward to February 1, 2004.  KCBS CBS2 was one of the many affiliates carrying the Super Bowl.  The halftime show ended when Timberlake unexpectedly ripped Jackson's top apart, doing the same thing that happened to Lawless seven years before.  Angry viewers soon called every CBS affiliate including CBS2.  CBS has been fined for violation of FCC obscenity rules.  The GM of CBS2?  Don Corsini, who also is the head of --you guessed it--K-CAL 9.

COMIC WEDDING CEREMONIES

June 18, 2000:  "Strip Mall's" first episode ever.  Created by lead actress Julie Brown, who also was the show's executive producer, this sitcom explained the lives of the people working in the Plaza del Toro shopping center in Van Nuys, California, a district of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley as well as Brown's hometown. Brown was cast as Tammi Tyler, a former child actress whose career had come to an unceremonious end in the late 1960's when Capt. Billy of the series "Here Comes Corky" on which Tammi appeared in was shot and killed.  Tyler, who had eaten a cupcake laced with PCP, was blamed for the murder.  Now she was working as a waitress at a restaurant at the plaza. In the pilot, Tammi and laundromat owner Harvey Krudup (Jim O'Heir) were married, just as Tammi's acting career was about to make a resurrection.  "I broke up with Blank (Bob Koherr, who also played Blair and, for the first two episodes, Blunt)!" Tammi sadly explained to close friend Patti (Victoria Jackson).  After Patti explained to Tammi that "you did the right thing," Tammi, drank a margarita but spit it out, adding, "Why do the good ones always have to go away?"  Blank had been Tammi's boyfriend before she married Harvey.  "Blunt's Bad Idea" was the hilarious pilot episode of this short-lived sitcom; in the second episode, "Tammi Settles In," Blunt was killed. 

LOS ANGELES' LITTLE IRONIES

-For the final season of the TV series "In Living Color," most of the cast members were white.
-The 1995-98 CBS sitcom "Cybill" was filmed in New York City (at Kauffman Astoria Studios)
-The 1988 movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" was filmed in England.
-The song "The Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun" was based, ironically, on the fact that its singer, actress and comedienne Julie Brown--who also cowrote the song--was almost elected homecoming queen at celebrity factory Van Nuys High School. Instead of being disappointed, she fought back and began writing and recording songs parodying everything her friends enjoyed. Songs like this, "'Cause I'm A Blond," "I Like Them Big and Stupid," "Earth Girls are Easy"(also the title of a 1989 movie which she cowrote and costarred) and "Girl Fight Tonight." Thus the career of one of the sexiest and most energetic (and one of the most uninhibited) comediennes of all time was born. Today, eighteen years after this song came out, Ms. Brown remains a comic sex symbol.
-Psychic Jeane Dixon in 1997 predicted that a famous person "would leave a nation in mourning within weeks." It turned out to be her last prediction ever; a few weeks afterwords, she died of a heart attack.
-When the NFL left Los Angeles for the first time in 1994, it drew protest from many Angelenos. It is hard to call a major league truly professional without Los Angeles.
-Los Angeles' economy during the 1980's was marred somewhat by the Great Actors' Strike of 1980 and the writers' strikes of 1981 and 1988.
-"L.A. Confidential," and TV movies of recent years set in Los Angeles during its past were filmed in parts of Australia (Melbourne now looks more like 1950's Los Angeles than today's Los Angeles does.)  In addition, 'Training Day," which starred Denzel Washington, was also filmed in Melbourne.
-KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles, and all of the Tribune O&Os, aired a TV special entitled "A Log's Life" which is produced by WPIX New York.  in December 2006.
February 1, 2004 was "the day Hollywood changed forever." That was the day of Super Bowl #######, which ironically was played in Houston; had L.A. received an NFL expansion team, either the Rose Bowl or L.A. Memorial Coliseum would have hosted the Super Bowl that year. -Any TV series nominated for 16 Emmys has been shut out.