Week of December 21, 1986
Pilots Dick Rutan and Jeana
Yeager make history in their
Voyager airplane, completing
a journey of 26,000 miles
without stopping or refueling.
The trip lasted 9 days, 3
minutes and 44 seconds and
averaged 115mph. The flight
almost suffered a near-
disaster when the craft’s rear-
engine, the only one running
at the time, suddenly died 450
miles short of its goal. Both
pilots managed to start the front engine and about 4 hours later, the plane landed
at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California. Ms Yeager is no relation to
famed test pilot Chuck Yeager.
White House spokesman Larry Speaks says that President Reagan has no plan
to use his power of granting pardons to lure former aides John Poindexter and
Oliver North to the congressional witness table. “The President is not planning a
pardon for them, but of course, as chief executive, always retains the right to
executive clemency.” Reagan agrees with Vice President George Bush’s recent
call for Poindexter and North to come forward now and tell the truth. Poindexter,
who was Regan’s national security adviser, and North, who was on the National
Security Council staff, were named last month by Atty Gen Edwin Meese as the
only two people in the government who knew that Iran arms money was being
slipped to the contras in Nicaragua.
The Kremlin says it has freed dissident
Andrei Sakharov
from internal exile and
pardoned his wife - making it possible for
both of them to return to Moscow from
their exile city of Gorky. Sakharov, a
physicist and winner of the 1975 Nobel
Peace Prize, was banished to Gorky in
early 1980 after criticizing the Soviet
military intervention in Afghanistan a
month earlier. His wife, Yelena Bonner
was able to visit him in Gorky, until 1984
when he was convicted of anti-Soviet
slander and confined to Gorkey herself.
Week of December 21, 1986
President Reagan names NATO Ambassador David Abshire as his special
counselor to coordinate White House responses to investigations of the Iran-
contra scandal.
Singer/songwriter
Peter Gabriel
says to keep his
music fresh, you have to renew yourself: “the two things
that strike me as important in renewing yourself are
sabbaticals and learning to live with the idea of failure. If
you don’t take time off to get out of the rock machine
and explore the things that excite you and interest you,
then you don’t regenerate your batteries. I’ve seen so
many rock no roll zombies who move in ever
decreasing circles ... tour/album, tour/album ... and they
end up eating their own tail. You’ve sometimes got to kill what already exists to
get the space for a new life.”
This week on HBO - “One Voice” - Barbra Streisand’s first full-length TV concert
in 20 years. The broadcast was taped at a fund-raising event held outdoors at the
singer’s Malibu estate in September.
Passing - actress
Elsa Lanchester
(84). She was
the widow of Academy Award-winning actor Charles
Laughton. Her death was attributed to bronchial
pneumonia.
TV Ratings -
The Cosby Show -35.1
Family Ties - 33.1
Cheers - 28.4
Night Court - 27.3
Moonlighting - 26.1
60 Minutes - 24.1
Growing Pains - 24.1
Golden Girls -23.5
Who’s The Boss? - 22.8
Monday Night Football - 21.9
Murder She Wrote - 21.5
Dallas - 21.2
Newhart - 20.5
Bob Hope Special - The Christmas Gift - 20.2
Magnum, PI - 19.7
Amen - 19.5
Week of December 21, 1986
Sunday NFL Football (CBS) - 19.1
Falcon Crest - 19.1
Highway To Heaven - 19.1
LA Law - 18.8
Kate & Allie - 18.1
The Cavanaughs - 17.8
Movie - A Year in the Life (part 3) - 17.1
Mickey’s Christmas Carol
- 17.1
Movie - A Year In The Life - (part 2_ - 17.0
Knots Landing - 16.9
My Sister Sam - 16.9
Dynasty - 16.7
Stereo TV update - Television Digest reports
that just over 25% or 337 television stations are broadcasting some stereo
sound. The figure was about 250 stations at the beginning of the year. NBC
broadcasts the most stereo for a network - 70% of its programming which
included the World Series for the first time. NBC began accepting and
broadcasting advertisements in stereo on a full time basis on September 22. It
also broadcast the first Dolby surround-sound program - “Amazing Stories” on
October 27.
Monday Night Television -
CBS - Kate & Allie, My Sister Sam, Newhart, The Cavanaughs, Barbara
Mandrell’s Christmas
NBC - Alf, Amazing Stories, Movie
ABC - MacGyver, Monday Night Football
PBS - Nature, Santeros, Fritz Scholder: An American Portrait, World of Strange
Powers, Faces of Japan, Mystery!
HBO - The Bells of Fraggle Rock, Bill Cosby, Himself, Movie-Rocky IV, Not
Necessarily the Year In Review
Lifetime -
Dr Ruth
, Movie-Elvira Madigan (1967),
Everybody’s Money Matters
Nick - Route 66, Donna Reed, Mr. Ed, My Three Sons,
The Monkees, I Spy, Route 66
Alf - Alf becomes a bit disillusioned by Christmas in
Southern California.
Week of December 21, 1986
Pop charts -
Walk Like An Egyptian - The Bangles
The Way It Is - Bruce Hornsby & The Range
Everybody Have Fun Tonight - Wang Chung
Hip To Be Square - Huey Lewis & The News
The Next Time I Fall - Peter
Cetera/Amy Grant
To Be A Lover - Billy Idol
War - Bruce Springsteen
Hip To Be Square - Huey Lewis &
The News
Stand By Me - Ben E. King
Notorious - Duran Duran
Don’t Get Me Wrong - The
Pretenders
C’est La Vie - Robbie Nevil
Word Up - Cameo
Shake You Down - Gregory Abbott
Love is Forever - Billy Ocean
True Blue - Madonna
At This Moment - Billy Vera & The
Beaters
(Forever) Live and Die - Orchestral
Manoeuvres In The Dark
You Know I Love You .. Don’t You? - Howard Jones
The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear
Shades - Timbuk 3
Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads
You Be Illin’ - Run-D.M.C.
Top Country single - Too Much is Not
Enough - The Bellamy Brothers
Top Albums -
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Live/1975-85
Third Stage - Boston
Slippery When Wet - Bon Jovi
Fore! - Huey Lewis & The News
Week of December 21, 1986
The Way It Is - Bruce Hornsby & The Range
Every Breath You Take - Singles - The Police
True Blue - Madonna
Whiplash Smile - Billy Idol
Graceland - Paul Simon
Word Up! - Cameo
Dancing On The Ceiling - Lionel
Ritchie
Rapture - Anita Baker
Night Songs - Cinderella
Raising Hell - Run D.M.C.
True Colors - Cyndi Lauper
Give Me The Reason - Luther
Vandross
Different Light - The Bangles
Control - Janet Jackson
Break Every Rule - Tina Turner
More Albums -
The Bridge - Billy Joel
Can’t Hold Back - Eddie Money
Somewhere In Time - Iron Maiden
Invisible - Touch - Genesis
Notorious - Duran Duran
True Stories - Talking Heads
Get Close - The Pretenders
Just Like The First Time -
Freddie Jackson
Top Gun - soundtrack
Back in the High Life - Steve
Winwood
Solitude/Solitaire - Peter Cetera
Stand By Me -
soundtrack/various artists
Crash - Human League
Aretha - Aretha Franklin
Riptide - Robert Palmer
To Hell With The Devil - Stryper
Georgia Satellites - Georgia
Satellites
Thin Redline - Glass Tiger
So - Peter Gabriel
Forever - Kool & The Gang
Week of December 21, 1986
At the movies -
Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home - William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest
Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Michelle Nichols,
Catherine Hicks
Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs - Slythe Danner, Bob Dishy, Judith Ivey
Top Gun
Changes of The Heart - Jessica Lange
Little Shop of Horrors - Steve Martin
The Golden Child - Eddie Murphy
The Morning After - Jane Fonda
Heartbreak Ridge - Clint Eastwood
An American Tail
Soul Man - C. Thomas Howell
King Kong Lives
Crocodile Dundee - Paul Hogan
No Mercy - Richard Gere, Kim Basinger
Mona Lisa - Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Michael Caine
Miss Mary - Julie Christie, Nacha Guevara
Week of December 21, 1986
Week of December 21, 1986
