This Day in Pop Culture for September 16

1953: Release of ‘The Robe’

Billed as the “First motion picture in CinemaScope – The modern miracle you see without glasses!” The Robe was based on the novel of the same name written by Lloyd Douglas. Douglas said that the reason that he wrote the novel in the first place was to answer the question, “What happened to the Roman soldier who won Jesus’ robe through a dice game?”

The epic starred Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature and Michael Rennie. The film earned an estimated $17.5 million in North America, which warranted it for a sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators which released the following year and to date is the only biblical epic with a sequel. (Image: TVDB)

1964: Peter Potamus Sets Sail

The purple hippopotamus known as Peter and his first mate, So-So sailed on his “magic flying balloon” for the first time on this day in 1964. The Peter Potamus Show was a first-run syndication show before ABC picked it up in January 1966. Voiced by Daws Butler, Peter would travel the world and time. When in trouble, he would use his “Hippo Hurricane Holler” to blow his opponents away.

The show also featured episodes of polar bear Breezly and his buddy Sneezly the seal (who often broke into an army camp up north) and a take on the Three Musketeers featuring three dogs: Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey. (Image: Wikimedia/Warner Bros.)

1959: Making Copies for the First Time

The very first commercial plain paper photocopier was put in use on this day in New York. Introduced by Haloid/Xerox, the Xerox 914 changed the document-copying industry. This may not seem like exciting news, but it was fairly big news. Even a live demonstration was shown on TV. (Image: Wikimedia)

1984: Little Girl, Big Girl, Same Drama

Young Soleil Moon Frye was only seven years old when she starred in the NBC sitcom, Punky Brewster. Despite playing the happy-go-lucky girl with pigtails, Punky had a dark backstory. Her father walked out on the family. Then, while buying groceries, her mother abandoned the poor girl with her dog, Brandon at the shopping center. The plucky girl began squatting in the apartment across the hall from widowed Henry Warnimont (George Gaynes). After learning her story, Henry takes her in to live with him. Punky also made friends with Cherie Johnson, another young girl played by…Cherie Johnson.

Six episodes of the Punky series were just 15 minutes in length as the show would play right after football games on Sundays and NBC didn’t want its young audience to miss out of the first half of show being shown “already in progress”.

In 1985, an animated version of the show by Ruby-Spears Productions began airing on Saturday mornings. The cartoon was voiced by the same cast and a “leprechaun gopher” named Glomer was added.

Although a hit with young fans, the original show was never a ratings winner and was cancelled after just two seasons (with the ending episode focusing on Punky watching the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster). However, the show ran for more seasons in syndication which began airing in the fall of 1987.

Both Soleil and Punky returned to TV on February 25, 2021, with a new series airing on Peacock. Punky’s life hadn’t improved all that much. Although she was still best friends with Cherie, she was also a divorced mother of three living in the same apartment she grew up in Chicago. Freddie Prince Jr. played Travis, her ex-husband. The revival series was cancelled after 10 episodes. (Images: TVDB)