This Day in Pop Culture for January 23

2003: Jamie and Adam Bust a Few Myths

If your are a fan of Mythbusters, you may have thought that the antagonistic relationship between hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage was all an act, but it wasn’t. At least, not completely.

Originally, the show was pitched with the title of Tall Tales or True, to Discovery, but they rejected it because they already had a similar show about tall tales in the works. When producer Peter Rees changed the pitch of the show to focus more on the testing elements, they agreed to a three-episode series pilot. It was a hit.

Mythbusters would usually present two or three different common myths and would do whatever it took to “bust” them and often to extreme experiments. A few myths were rejected like those that involved aliens or ghosts (because they would be hard to perform with scientific methods) and they usually avoided experiments that would be harmful to animals. However, they didn’t mind experimenting on each other…for science. At the end, the myth was given the distinction of becoming “busted” or “plausible”.

Hyneman, a special-effects artist was approached to host the show, but he asked Savage if he would host the show with him. Hyneman had worked with Savage in the past and thought that he himself wouldn’t be too interesting to watch on TV by himself. With two personalities that were opposite of each other, the pair made a great team for the first season.

For season 2, Tory Belleci, Kari Byron and Grant Imahara were added to the show to become “The Build Team” working on their own myth experiments. A few other busters would come and go during the show’s 16-year history. Just like they started, the last two seasons of the show were solely hosted by Hyneman and Savage yet again. Altogether, 296 episodes were made for the show.

In 2018, Savage returned to do the spin-off series, Mythbusters Jr. with kids and Tory Belleci hosted a unique Motor Mythbusters in 2021 for Motor Trend’s TV channel.

When asked if Savage planned on ever reuniting with Hyneman for future shows, he admitted that the two often clashed off-screen as well as on-screen and that he thought he and Hyneman were enjoying their time apart. (Image: Max Goldberg/Wikipedia)

1977: ‘Roots’ Miniseries Airs for the First Time

Roots, a miniseries based on Alex Haley’s novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, aired its first night of a 4-night, 10-hour presentation on this day on ABC. The miniseries received huge Nielsen ratings for the finale, which continues to hold the record for the third highest-rated US television program (36.38 million).

Roots received 37 Emmy Award nominations and won nine. It won also a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. A remake of Roots was shown on the History Channel in 2016. It too was a ratings and critical success.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame *(Derek Jensen/Wikimedia)*

1986: The Rock and Roll Hall Selects the First Inductees

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was created in 1983, but it wasn’t until this day in 1986 that the first inductees were chosen: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. Architect I. M. Pei designed the new museum which had its groundbreaking ceremony on June 7, 1993 in Cleveland, Ohio and was dedicated on and it was dedicated on September 1, 1995. (Image: Derek Jensen/Wikimedia)

1976: ‘Donny & Marie’ Airs for the First Time

Donnie and Marie Osmond — Marie Osmond and Donnie Osmond *(Wikimedia Commons)*

“I’m a little bit country/I’m a little bit rock n’ roll” was sung for the first time on this day in 1976 during the Donny & Marie variety show shown on ABC. Born into the famous Osmond family, Donny and Marie were and still are the most popular of the bunch.

The Friday night show was unlike most other variety shows at the time. Each evening’s presentation opened with a group of female ice skaters performing a dance routine much like Vegas showgirls. The siblings would then come out, Marie would tell a few jokes at Donnie’s expense and then announce who would be guest-starring that night.

Created by Sid & Marty Krofft of H.R. Pufnstuf fame, Donnie & Marie consisted of musical numbers, comedy sketches and the forementioned segment where Marie would sing a country song and then Donnie would sing a rock song. Each show ended with the famous closing song, “May Tomorrow Be a Perfect Day”.

The show was pretty silly with spoofs of Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz, a laugh track and guest stars like Bob Hope, Paul Lynde, Charo, Ruth Buzzi and a couple of Miss Americas.

Ratings for the show were fair for the first two seasons but dropped significantly for the show’s third year. It is said the demise of the show came from the fact that Donnie had become engaged and young women were no longer interested in watching. (He and his wife are still happily married.)

In 1998, the duo returned to TV to host their own talk show together with the same name as before, but no ice skaters or laugh tracks.