Writer of Pop Culture

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This Day in Pop Culture for October 26

On this day in pop culture history, Arnold Schwarzenegger starred as the “Terminator” for the first time and Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke returned to CBS for a short while.

October 26, 2020

2–3 minutes

1984: The ‘Terminator’ Comes to Earth for the First Time

James Cameron’s iconic science fiction movie, The Terminator which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, was released in theaters on this day. Schwarzenegger was the “terminator,” a cyborg from the year 2029 sent to 1984 to kill the woman who would one day be the mother of the son – a hero who would become a “savior against machines.”

Terminator was the top film for two weeks and received favorable reviews from fans and critics alike. So popular, the film inspired five sequels (Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003, Terminator Salvation in 2009; Terminator Genisys in 2015 and Terminator: Dark Fate in 2015) as well as the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles which only ran for two seasons.

Will he be back? Hasn’t he already done enough? (Image: TVDB)

1988: Two TV Icons Together Again…Sort Of

Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore made a good pair for the original Dyke Van Dyke Show during the 1960s, so CBS thought that they would try it again – but in two separate sitcoms, both of which debuted on this day. The network might have done better if instead they tried to reboot the original show.

Annie McGuire did the better of the two which starred Tyler Moore as a newlywed to Nick McGuire (Denis Arndt). She had a job in politics while he worked in engineering. Both had kids from previous marriages and parents with differing political views of their own. Despite its good reviews and stylistic approach to modern sitcom, the show just couldn’t bring in the ratings.

The Van Dyke Show was called that because it starred not one Van Dyke, but two. Dick shared the limelight with his son Barry (something the two would do again during Diagnosis Murder). Barry played a small regional theater owner in Pennsylvania. Dick was a Broadway veteran who gave up the big stage to work with his son on the small one. While the premise sounds good, the show got terrible reviews. It was cancelled after six episodes.