(Los Angeles) The moon landing, the Beatles’ first appearance on American television and the speech I Have a Dream of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. are among the 75 most memorable television moments according to the ranking produced by the Television Academy for the 75e edition of the Emmy awards, Monday.
Academy members collaborated with academics to bring together eight decades of television history and vote on the list revealed Friday. At the top they placed the first moon landingApollo 11 in 1969 and Neil Armstrong’s declaration that it was “a giant leap for humanity”. In second place, they chose coverage of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, and third, the Beatles’ 1964 appearance at the Ed Sullivan Show.
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The appearance of the Beatles in 1964 at Ed Sullivan Show
Reverend King’s speech I Have a Dream (“I have a dream”, in French), pronounced during the march on Washington in 1963, is ranked sixth. This year’s Emmy awards ceremony, delayed by four months due to strikes by Hollywood actors and writers, will take place on Martin Luther King Day, a public holiday in the United States.
Although the top of the list is dominated by current events, many fictional moments from classic television series, comedies, and specials appear. We notably find the scene where the character of Eagle Eye says goodbye to his best friend B.J. and to Korea, in the last episode of 1983 of the series MASH (number 8), as well as Linus reciting the Nativity story in A Charlie Brown Christmas, in 1965 (number 14). The very controversial last scene of the series The Sopranos also appears in 36e position.
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Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech I Have a Dream
The ranking includes a scene from a series nominated this year: the final moments of Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett in The Last of Us from HBO (in 65e place). Nick Offerman already won an Emmy for this episode last week and The Last of Us is among the shows with the most nominations, with Succession, The White Lotus And Ted Lassoin preparation for Monday’s ceremony.
Also on the list: the episode of Ellen in which Ellen DeGeneres reveals that she is gay (13e place), the infamous episode Soup Nazi of Seinfeld (27e place), the first music video of Thriller by Michael Jackson (48e place), Whitney Houston’s performance at the Super Bowl (65e place), as well as several moments of Sesame Street And Mister Roger’s Neighborhood.
The Emmys will be broadcast live from Los Angeles on Monday from 8 p.m. on Fox.