This Day in Pop Culture for September 21

1984: Heaven Comes Down to Earth

Created by John Masius and produced by Martha Williamson, Touched by an Angel followed Monica, an angel, (Roma Downey) as she brought hope to the hopeless. She was assisted by Tess (Della Reese) and Andrew (John Dye), the angel of death.

When Williamson signed on to the project, the show was much different than it actually turned out. She described the series as portraying angels as “recycled dead people with power over life and death.” She told CBS that she was a Christian and could only portray the angels in a way that she felt was true and respectful.

Like other shows like Murder She Wrote or Elsbeth, Touched by an Angel was sort of a “Who’s Who” featuring many notable guest stars including Maya Angelou, Natalie Cole, Tara Lipinski, Luther Vandross, Muhammad Ali, Celine Dion, Toby Keith, B.B. King, Rosa Parks, Sally Ride, Bryan Cranston and America Ferrera.

Some guest stars played angelic characters and others not-so-much. Cloris Leachman played an archangel, Bruce Altman and Charles Rocket played angels of death, Keb’ Mo’ played the angel of music and Bill Cosby played the angel of restoration (Yikes). Jasmine Guy was a fallen angel and at least three actors ended up playing Satan including Mandy Patinkin, John Schneider and David Ogden Stiers.

Valerie Bertinelli was added as the fourth main angel for seasons 8 and 9. She played Gloria, an angel who was accident prone. (Image: CBS)

1937: ‘The Hobbit’ Gets Published

J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit or There and Back Again was a huge hit when it was published. It was nominated for the Carnegie Medal, an award for best juvenile fiction from the New York Herald Tribune.

This much-loved story about Bilbo Baggin’s adventures has been turned into various television and film adaptations with Peter Jackson’s trilogy of films being the grandest. Perhaps the strangest adaptation has been the video game by LEGO. (Image: Wikimedia)

1957: Perry Mason Enters the Courtroom for the First Time

Based on the character from the books of Erle Stanley Gardner, Raymond Burr starred in the legal drama series known as Perry Mason which premiered on CBS on this day. The show was the first weekly hour-long drama series.

Lasting nine seasons, the original show was nominated nine times for an Emmy and won five including Best Actor in a Leading Role (Burr, 1959 and 1960) and Best Supporting Actress (Barbara Hale, 1959).

The show has been shown in syndication ever since it went off the air on May 22, 1966. In 1973, CBS attempted a revival of the series with a new cast (Monte Markham and Sharon Acker) but it wasn’t well received, and it only ran for half a season. Then, magic struck a second time in 1985 when NBC created a made-for-TV movie starring Burr and Hale once again. It did so well that the network created 29 other Perry Mason movies. Burr starred in 26 of them before his death in 1993. The last four were filmed after his death but Mason absence was explained that he was on vacation. (Image: TVDB)