January 10, 1971: Masterpiece Theatre premieres on PBS, introducing millions of Americans to some great British dramas. It has been named simply Masterpiece since 2008.
It was hosted by British journalist Alistair Cooke until 1992, then by New York Times columnist Russell Baker until 2004, and since then without a regular host. The theme song is "Suite de Symphonies," composed in 1729 by Jean-Joseph Mouret. (Cooke died in 2004, Baker in 2019.)
Among the presentations it has shown: Upstairs, Downstairs; I, Claudius; the 1981 version of Brideshead Revisited; and Downton Abbey. It has also shown the TV series based around the fictional private detectives Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Nero Wolfe and Hetty Wainthropp; and the fictional official police detectives Jules Maigret, Endeavour Morse (in Inspector Morse and the prequel series Endeavour) and Jane Tennison (in Prime Suspect). The PBS anthology series Mystery!, originally hosted by Vincent Price, was a spinoff of it.
The PBS kids' show Sesame Street parodied it as Monsterpiece Theater, hosted by Cookie Monster, as "Alistair Cookie," wearing a smoking jacket, smoking a pipe, and sitting in a stately library, showing brief sketches involving the show's monsters, usually including Grover; and always ending with Cookie eating his pipe.
Comedian Bill Maher, on his ABC talk show Politically Incorrect, had a regular bit, where he "translated" rap lyrics into words most white Middle Americans could understand. He called it Master P's Theater. He has admitted to having been influenced by Steve Allen, who, on his 1950s talk show, would recite rock and roll lyrics as if they were classic poetry.
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January 10, 1971 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between its Conference Championship Games and Super Bowl V. There were 5 games in the NBA:
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 115-107 at the Boston Garden. Billy Cunningham scored 31 points for the Sixers, John Havlicek 34 for the Celtics.
* The Phoenix Suns beat the Atlanta Hawks, 116-105 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum (now the McCamish Pavilion) in Atlanta.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 118-109 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.
* The Chicago Bulls beat the Buffalo Braves, 141-113 at the Chicago Stadium.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Baltimore Bullets, 151-99 at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA. (It's now named the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.) Bob Dandridge led the Bucks with 34 points. This turned out to be a preview of the NBA Finals, with a similarly stunning result: The Bucks swept the Bullets in 4 straight.
There were 4 games in the American Basketball Association:
* The New York Nets lost to the Virginia Squires, 117-107 in overtime at the Island Garden in West Hempstead, New York.
* The Memphis Pros beat the Pittsburgh Condors, 114-106 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.
* The Denver Rockets beat the Carolina Cougars, 124-118 in overtime at the Denver Auditorium Arena.
* And the Utah Stars beat the Miami Floridians, 129-116 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.
And there were 6 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-2 at the St. Louis Arena.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 at the Montreal Forum.
* The Boston Bruins beat the California Golden Seals, 7-4 at the Boston Garden.
* The Los Angeles Kings and the Buffalo Sabres played to a tie, 2-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* The Minnesota North stars beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-2 at the Chicago Stadium, which hosted an NBA game and an NHL game on the same day.
* And the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Vancouver Canucks were not scheduled.
