June Lockhart (June 25, 1925 – October 23, 2025)

June Lockhart, a popular actress from the 1950s and ’60s,
has died.  Best known for her roles in "Lost in Space"
(1965 – 1969) and "Lassie" where she appeared from
1958 to 1964.

She was a two-time Emmy Award nominee and a Tony
Award winner. With a career spanning nearly 90 years,
Lockhart was one of the last surviving actors from the
Golden Age of Hollywood.

1960

On October 7, 1960, the first episode of the one-hour television
drama "Route 66" aired on CBS.

The program had a simple premise: It followed two young men,
Buz Murdock (George Maharis) and Tod Stiles (Martin Milner),
as they drove across the country in an inherited Corvette
(Chevrolet was one of the show’s sponsors), doing odd jobs
and looking for adventure.

“The motive power driving our two characters is not a Corvette:
it is the desire for knowledge—and for sentience; it is a quest
through the perennially fascinating cosmos of personal identity.”

On the evening of October 3, 1961, a future television classic
called “The Dick Van Dyke Show” debuted on CBS.

The sitcom’s inaugural episode—which revolves around the
lead couple bickering over leaving sick son, Ritchie, with a
babysitter while they go to a party—kicked off a beloved
show that would run for five seasons and receive 15 Emmy
awards.

The show, created by actor, writer and comedian Carl Reiner,
starred the titular Dick Van Dyke, along with a ensemble cast 
including Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam.   

Richard Wayne Van Dyke will be 100 on December 13th.

On September 25, 1970, in the 8:30 p.m. time slot immediately
following "The Brady Bunch," ABC premiered a program that
would give television production company Screen Gems its
second TV-to-pop-chart smash: "The Partridge Family."

Unwilling to rest as a one-hit wonder when its first big hit,
"The Monkees," went off the air in 1968, Screen Gems was
wasting no time in trying to repeat its success.

The series follows the lives of a fictional pop music band
formed by the titular family, including Shirley (Shirley Jones),
Keith (David Cassidy), Laurie (Susan Dey), and Danny (Danny
Bonaduce), as well as their manager Reuben Kincaid (Dave
Madden).

The family was loosely based on the real-life musical family
the Cowsills, a popular band in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

(June/July 1986)