This Day in Pop Culture for October 18

2007: High Jackman’s Failed TV Show

You didn’t know that Hugh Jackman starred in his own TV series? That might be because it only aired for a few days.

“Sin has a new city” was the tagline for CBS’ musical drama series Viva Laughlin. Produced by four different companies and big stars attached to it, this was a pretty big deal. CBS expected great things and promoted the show heavily during the 61st Annual Tony Awards months earlier with excerpts presented during the broadcast. Eight episodes were filmed, and the pilot debuted on this day in 2007. It was cancelled after the show’s second episode aired just three days later.

Viva Laughlin’s story centered on Ripley Holden (played by Lloyd Owen) who wanted to open a casino in Laughlin, Nevada. When his financing fell through, he turned to Nicky Fontana (Jackman), a rival casino owner for help, but Nicky wanted to own the casino himself. So, Ripley turned downs Nicky’s deal but gets caught up in a murder investigation.

Like Cop Rock, another failed musical drama series, the show’s story would take a break from time to time so that the actors could belt out a tune and maybe dance a little. The show also starred Melanie Griffith, Mädchen Amick, Carter Jenkins, Eric Winter, D.B. Woodside and P.J. Byrne.

Although critics didn’t hate the show’s music, Viva Laughlin got terrible reviews. The New York Times stating that it “may be the worst new show of the season” and then asked the question, “But is it the worst show in the history of television?” Maybe it was.

1967: Disney’s ‘Jungle Book’ Comes to Theaters

Walt Disney created his 19th animated feature film inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s book, The Jungle Book. Directed by the appropriately named Wolfgang Reitherman, the movie tells the story about Mowgli, an orphan boy who is raised in the jungle by wolves and then later by Bagheera a black panther and Baloo the bear. The movie featured the voices of Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, George Sanders, Louis Prima, Sterling Holloway, J. Pat O’Malley and Verna Felton. Mowgli was voiced by Bruce Reitherman, the director’s son.

Disney passed away before the film made it to theaters on this day in 1967, but the film was a big success becoming the fourth highest-grossing movie of that year. The film was re-released in 1978, 1984 and 1990. In 1994, Disney came up with a live-action remake of the story as well as an animated sequel, The Jungle Book 2 in 2003. In 2016, Disney created yet another live-action version of the original film which was directed by Jon Favreau. A sequel to that production is currently in the works. (Image: Walt Disney Pictures)

1961: ‘West Side Story’ Dances its Way to the Oscars

Inspired by Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story became a Broadway sensation when it premiered in 1957. Four years later, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins directed the film version which debuted in theater on this day. The film starred Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris with music composed by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. However, it wasn’t Wood’s singing voice that audiences heard. that voice belonged to Marni Nixon.

The United Artists film not only became the highest-grossing film of 1961, but it was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won all but one including Best Picture. In 2021, Steven Spielberg released a remake of the movie which also starred Rita Moreno (in a different role) and was nominated for seven Academy Awards but only won one (Ariana DeBose for Best Supporting Actress). However, unlike its predecessor, it was considered a box office failure.