This Day in Pop Culture: April 9

A lot of firsts in pop culture history happened on this day. The first indoor baseball game was played, Bob Hope hosted his first TV special, Boeing’s 737 had its first flight and I guess you can count Parks and Recreation becoming the first mockumentary TV series to air after The Office.

"Parks and Recreation" — *Parks and Recreation (NBC)*

2009: The Spin-Off of ‘The Office’ That Wasn’t a Spin-Off

After the success of the American version of The Office, naturally creator Greg Daniels was asked by NBC to develop a spin-off series. According to Daniels, he and Michael Schur spent a number of months trying to come up with a suitable spin-off for the show. But The Office is a truly ensemble show where you need all of the characters to make it work. They finally abandoned all ideas related to The Office and instead, focused on something new…another mockumentary series.

In Parks and Recreation, Amy Poehler stars as Leslie Knope, the director for the small town of Pawnee, Indiana. Writers for the show met with local urban planners and elected officials in California for research.

Much like the former series, Parks and Recreation featured a large ensemble cast which inlcudes Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Adam Scott, Paul Schneider, Rob Lowe, Jim O’Heir, Retta, Billy Eichner and the then unknown Chris Pratt.

The series ran for seven seasons ending on February 24, 2015, but on April 30, 2020 – during the COVID-19 pandemic – the cast reunited for a special. Sort of. Since the country was in lockdown mode, each actor filmed their scenes with their iPhones in their homes. It took three weeks to edit the footage, and the end results looked a lot better than it sounds.

1976: ‘All the President’s Men’ is Released

Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in "All the King's Men" — Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in *All the King’s Men (TVDB)*

It was on this day in 1976 that one of the most successful films about the Watergate scandal was brought to theaters. Directed by Alan J. Pakula with a screenplay by William Goldman, All the President’s Men was based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.

Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford portrayed the journalists working for The Washington Post investigating the Watergate break-in which brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon.

The film grossed $7,016,001 in its first week from 604 theatres placing it number one at the US box office and eventually grossed $70.6 million. The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won four for Best Art Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound and Best Supporting Actor (Jason Robards).

1965: The First Indoor Baseball Game

The Houston Astrodome opened its doors for the first time on this day in 1965. It was the world’s first domed sports stadium and nicknamed, “The Eighth Wonder of the World.” On its opening day, 47,879 people watched the first indoor baseball game between the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees. The game was played on “Tifway 419 Bermuda Grass” which was created for indoor use.

The ceiling had many semitransparent panes of Lucite which caused a glare and made it difficult for the players to follow fly balls. Many of the panes were painted over with white paint, but then the grass died due to lack of sunlight. For the remaining season, the Astros played on green painted dirt.

For the next year, “ChemGrass” a new artificial grass, was installed in its place. It became better known as “AstroTurf” and a new pop culture item was born.

1950: Bob Hope’s 1st TV Special

Bob Hope was comedian and film actor (he did many “Road” pictures with buddy Bing Crosby) was also known for his many TV specials that aired on NBC. His first was broadcast on this day in 1950. He was one of the first people to use cue cards, a habit that he couldn’t seem to break.

Almost every Christmas there was a new Bob Hope special with the host singing “Silver Bells” with one of female guests. One of the high-est rated broadcasts in TV history was Hope’s 1970 Christmas special which was filmed in Vietnam in front of a military audience. It was the height of the war and over 60 percent of all U.S. households watched the show.

Hope made for a great emcee as well. He hosted the Academy Awards 19 times making him a pop culture legend.

1967: The First 737 Flight

Dreamed up in 1964, the narrow-body aircraft known as the Boeing 737 (100 series) made its maiden flight from its Renton, Washington factory on this day in 1967. It took another 10 months before one would go into service with Lufthansa Airlines. The lengthened 200 service entered service in April 1968. It was the highest-selling commercial aircraft until being surpassed by the competing Airbus A320 family in October 2019.