Steve Martin was vying for love on 'The Dating Game' before he was selling out arenas

Steve Martin was a wildly successful stand-up—and abruptly quit doing it

In the ‘70s, few stand-up comics were bigger than Steve Martin, who released multiplatinum albums and regularly sold out arenas. As he detailed in his 2007 memoir, Martin had grown disillusioned with his success as a stand-up and pivoted into film.

Before he had his own show, Pee-wee Herman appeared on 'The Dating Game'

Paul Reubens' character Pee-wee Herman would become a sensation with his 1986 children's show "Pee-wee's Playhouse," but in 1979 he appeared as the hilariously naive character on "the Dating Game." It's not clear if the show (or its audience) understood what they were seeing.

Winning a Steve Martin look-alike contest led Bill Nye to pursue comedy

Doing impressions helped Nye realize he enjoyed making people laugh, and he pursued stand-up and comedy writing gigs while working at Boeing after college. On October 3, 1986, he left his engineering job to pursue a full-time career in the entertainment industry.

Steve Martin and Robin Williams once starred in 'Waiting for Godot'

The duo starred as Vladimir and Estragon, respectively, in a 1988 production of Samuel Beckett's play. Since then, the show has become an opportunity for other famous duos to engage with the theater of the absurd, including Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen (in 2009, and then again from 2013 to 2014) and Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves (from 2025 to 2026). The only complete recording of a Williams and Martin production is available for researchers at The New York Public Library, though you can watch a few scenes below.

The host of ‘The Dating Game’ claimed it was a CIA front

In his 1984 autobiography, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” “Dating Game” host Chuck Barris claimed the show was a front concealing his true job as a contract assassin for the CIA. Despite skeptical responses and a lack of evidence, Barris continued to say the story was true. In 2002, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman adapted the book for the screen.

Dylan opened for Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington

The apex of Dylan’s era as a “protest singer” was his appearance, alongside collaborator and sometimes-lover Joan Baez, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was the same demonstration where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Dylan performed four songs, including a scathing version of “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” a ballad about Medgar Evers, an activist who was murdered at his home in Mississippi by a white supremacist.

Before 'Saturday Night Live,' Chevy Chase played in a band with the members of Steely Dan

Chase attended Bard College in the 1960s with Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, who'd later form the group Steely Dan, known for hits like "Reelin' in the Years" and "Peg." Chase played drums for the college band, which, at one point, was called the Very Bad Jazz Band.

Before 'SNL,' producer Lorne Michaels was a performer

Michaels was a costar on "The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour," a popular show on the Canadian network CBC. As these clips show, it was a standard variety show, something Michaels would intentionally react against with "SNL."

Bob Hope's radio shows brought stand-up to the masses

Bob Hope’s 1930s variety shows featured comedic monologues. Unlike the tightly scripted and evergreen sets of vaudeville, Hope’s monologues leaned into topical and political humor, sometimes to the disapproval of his network.

Claims about 'Twenty-One' weren't taken seriously until other quiz shows were exposed

Contestant Herb Stempel alleged that “Twenty-One” was fixed after his loss to Charles Van Doren, saying that everything on the show was “carefully choreographed,” though his claims were dismissed as mere bitterness. In truth, Stempel had been promised a network job if he went along with the con and became outspoken when it didn’t materialize. Van Doren, meanwhile, became a celebrity, donning the cover of Time magazine.

Jean Carroll was one of the first women to make a name in stand-up comedy

Carroll cut her teeth in vaudeville alongside Buddy Howe, her husband, who later became her manager. Despite operating in a male-dominated field, she became a popular headliner and was a mainstay as a stand-up on "The Ed Sullivan Show," which led to her own sitcom.

Ed Sullivan launched Beatlemania in America

By 1964, The Beatles were relative unknowns in the US, due to Capitol's lukewarm support. That changed when they were booked on The Ed Sullivan Show, a popular program that hosted Elvis Presley's breakout performance. The Beatles' appearance introduced them to an American audience.

Rick James and Neil Young both played in a band that was signed to Motown

The Mynah Birds were a short-lived Canadian rock group active before either artist's career took off. In 1966, the band signed to Motown Records and released a single. That same year, they were dropped by the label after it was revealed that James had settled down in Canada to avoid US military service.

Billie Jean King's victory at the 'Battle of the Sexes' drew over 90 million viewers

After Bobby Riggs trounced No. 2-ranked Margaret Court in the first Battle of the Sexes, he challenged superstar Billie Jean King to a match. King beat Bobby Riggs in a match at the Astrodome, which drew 90 million viewers worldwide, leading to the WTA's first TV deal in 1975. Using historic photos, this Sports Illustrated story dives into the spectacle surrounding the event, why King agreed this time, and the impact the match had on King, as well as the future of women's tennis as a whole.

Watch one of country music's most infamous performances

Jerry Lee Lewis started in the 50s as a supercharged rock ‘n’ roll star. His career imploded when it was revealed he’d married his teenaged cousin. By the time he was invited to the Grand Ole Opry, he’d reinvented himself as a country troubadour and promised to play by the venue’s strict rules. But as this infamous performance shows, Lewis couldn’t help bringing some of his past to the stage, much to the audience’s delight.

Rob Reiner fell in love while working on the romantic comedy 'When Harry Met Sally'

The director was divorced when he began shooting the movie, which was loosely based on his own experiences dating. He was introduced to his eventual wife, Michele Singer, by a cameraman on the production, who told Reiner that he and Singer would wind up married.

Computer scientists first started trying to optimize dating using computers in the 1950s

Although early dating sites like Match.com weren't launched until the 1990s, the history of dating apps dates arguably back to the mid-1900s when computer scientists used IBM computers to solve matchmaking and compatibility problems.

Watch Salvador Dalí's surreal appearance on 'The Dick Cavett Show'

During this 1971 talk show episode, Dalí enters the stage with his pet anteater, flinging it onto an actress' lap. He proceeds to talk strangely about the significance of anteaters and his mustache. Many argue such public appearances were examples of Dalí's performance art, where he made real interactions surreal.

Meet the real-life 'Marty Supreme,' table tennis champ Marty Reisman

The hit 2025 film starring Timothée Chalamet is loosely based on the 1950s Manhattan ping-pong bad boy known for his decadent lifestyle and showmanship. Known as a hustler, Reisman would win 20 major titles representing the US around the world.

Listen to an interview with Martha Graham from 1974

This interview, from the "Bernard Gabriel Views the Music Scene" program, features a candid conversation in which Graham discusses how her career did not take off until her 30s and how she learned to ignore criticism.

A 1973 ad is credited with accelerating the Super Bowl advertising craze

The Super Bowl’s history as an advertising phenomenon began in earnest during the 1970s. In 1973, for instance, Joe Namath and Farrah Fawcett starred in Noxzema’s “Cream Your Face” ad, which Smithsonian Magazine says helped establish the game “as an event for advertisers.” Read this article to learn more about how the Super Bowl became advertising’s, well, Super Bowl.

The Shirelles' 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' was the first girl group record to reach number one

The 1960 song, composed by husband-and-wife Brill Building occupants Gerry Goffin and Carole King, was more than a little suggestive. The main character wondered if her partner would abandon her after a night of passion, leading to some stations banning the record. But it also propelled the song to the top of the Billboard Hot 100.

Gypsy Boots was a proto-hippie and health food entrepreneur

The Southern Californian was an eccentric businessman who opened several health food businesses, wrote books on healthy living, and frequently appeared on late-night television, including 28 appearances on “The Steve Allen Show.” He’d also attend Los Angeles area football games and chant “Don’t panic, go organic.”

Stephen King’s wife rescued his first hit from the trash

In 1972, King began working on a story about a telekinetic high school girl but abandoned the story just a few pages into the first draft. Luckily, his wife, Tabitha, found the manuscript in a trash bin and encouraged him to continue working on it. That story would become King’s first book, “Carrie,” which was published in 1974 and went on to sell millions of copies, establishing King as a household name following Brian De Palma’s 1976 film adaptation.

Desi Arnaz devised the three-camera method for sitcoms

Early television shows were filmed with a single camera capturing multiple takes from numerous angles, making for an arduous filming process that sucked the energy from comedies filmed in front of live studio audiences. Arnaz proposed a three-camera setup that allowed the show to be filmed like a play, which soon become an industry standard.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.