This Day in Pop Culture for October 9

“The Phantom of the Opera”, the 4th TV Network and “Thomas and Friends”.

October 9, 2020

2–3 minutes

1986: The Phantom Drops the Chandelier

The Phantom of the Opera opened on this day in 1986 in London’s West End. With music written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Charles Hart, the musical is based on a French novel by Gaston Leroux about Christine, a beautiful opera singer who becomes the obsession of a mystery man. The musical won the 1986 Olivier Award as well the Tony Award in 1988 for Best Musical.

Michael Crawford played the disfigured and masked man who lives underneath the Paris Opera House. He won both awards for Best Actor in a Musical. Phantom has become Broadway’s longest running musical and the West End’s second longest after Les Misérables. Joel Schumacher directed a film version of the musical in 2004 that starred Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, Minnie Driver and Miranda Richardson.

In 2010, Webber along with Ben Elton, Frederick Forsyth and Glenn Slater created a sequel to the musical called Love Never Dies where the Phantom secretly invites Christine to Coney Island to perform at a new attraction. In ran for over 17 months at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End with plans to open on Broadway but was later cancelled.

1986: The 4th TV Network

On this day in 1986, FOX debuted as TV’s 4th major network after NBC, CBS and ABC. Owned by Fox Corporation and named after 20th Century Fox, the FOX network operated differently than the other three in that only three hours of the day were dedicated to the network. It had a rocky start, but FOX became the most-watched network during the 2007-2008 season. In 2019, the network was acquired by The Walt Disney Company.

1984: Thomas is a Hit Despite Earlier Train Wreck

Television’s first attempt to bring Thomas the Tank Engine and other characters from The Railway Series of books was made on June 14, 1953. The BBC used live-action model trains to tell the story of The Three Railway Engines. However, the live broadcast was a train wreck. The trains didn’t move well, and one train derailed having to be placed back by one of the operators. Of course, this made the papers, and the BBC was accused of making an “elementary mistake”. The series was cancelled.

On this day in 1984, Thomas & Friends debuted in the UK using stories from the first eight book. The new series used live-action model trains again but with much better luck. Human characters did appear, but they didn’t move or talk.

It wasn’t until 2008 that the show began using CGI elements to better animate the characters.