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This Day in Pop Culture

This Day in Pop Culture for September 27

The first man to exceed Mach 3, “Square Pegs” and the seven men who have hosted “The Tonight Show.”

September 27, 2020

2–3 minutes

1956: First Man to Exceed Mach 3

Flying an X-2 rocket-powered plane on this day in 1956, a bizarre set of events happened to Captain Milburn G. Apt. After being launched from a B-50 bomber over the Mojave Desert in California, Apt set a record speed of 3,377 km/h or Mach 3. Unfortunately, due to a loss of control from inertia, the aircraft broke up and caused his death as well. His death was recorded by a stop-frame camera that was mounted behind him in the cockpit. While he did not survive, his video did. (Image: Wikimedia)

1982: CBS Debuts ‘Square Pegs’

Lauren Hutchinson (Amy Linker) and Patty Greene (Sarah Jessica Parker) were just two of eight freshmen wanting to fit in at Weemawee High School near New York City in the TV sitcom, Square Pegs. The CBS show was created by former Saturday Night Live writer Anne Beatts.

Despite good reviews from critics, Square Pegs struggled in the ratings, but ultimately, it wasn’t the ratings that did the show in. During production of the show, which took place at the abandoned Excelsior High School about 20 miles from CBS Television in Los Angeles, Embassy Television received a number of reports of drugs and alcohol abuse on the set in the presence of minors. There was apparent rampant drug abuse among the teen cast as well causing Embassy to cancel production of the show.

1954: A Brief History of ‘The Tonight Show’

Steve Allen, Ernie Kovacs, Jack Parr, Johnny Carson, Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon (Wikimedia)

Though a regular staple now, The Tonight Show was originally a 40-minute local TV show that aired from 11:20 p.m. to midnight on WNBT in New York. On this day in 1954, Tonight Starring Steve Allen took flight on NBC with Gene Rayburn serving as his announcer. This led to Allen receiving his own primetime Sunday night show which then led him to give up the Monday and Tuesday night slots to Ernie Kovacs. In January of 1957, both Allen and Kovac were dropped from the show, and it became Tonight! America After Dark which became a news and features show. That format didn’t do so well.

On July 29, 1957, Jack Paar began being the host of The Tonight Show. Parr left the show in March of 1962, and it wasn’t until October before the show became The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson with Ed McMahon serving as the announcer. Carson kept the job until May 22, 1992, when Jay Leno took the reins. That lasted until June 1, 2009, when Conan O’Brien took over the main desk and Leno moved to a nightly 10:00 p.m. timeslot. However, the new Jay Leno Show didn’t work out all that well, so NBC bumped Conan O’Brien out of the Tonight Show on Friday, January 22, 2010 and Leno jumped back in on March 1, 2010.

Leno continued on through February 6, 2014. Jimmy Fallon took over on February 17, 2014, and has been in the captain’s chair ever since. Whew.