October 14, 2007: "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" Premieres

Left to right: Kris, Kylie, Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, Kendall

October 14, 2007: The "reality TV" series Keeping Up With the Kardashians premieres on the network E! It starts a media franchise that fascinates millions, and bothers many more.

Robert Kardashian was a lawyer who was well-known in his hometown of Los Angeles, but not outside the area, until he became part of O.J. Simpson's legal defense "dream team" in 1994. They had been neighbors and close friends for many years, and O.J. was accused of murder, Robert, who had stepped away from the legal profession to run a music-production company, took on what turned out to be one last legal case. He helped his friend gain an acquittal, but came to accept that he was actually guilty.

Robert married 3 times. His 1st wife was Kris Houghton, and, together, they had 4 children: 3 daughters, Kourtney in 1979, Kim in 1980, and Khloé in 1984; and a son, Rob in 1987. They split because Kris cheated, but they stayed close until Robert died from cancer in 2003.

The daughters were "nepo babies," something they couldn't possibly avoid. But they were no "heirheads," as Kim's friends Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were sometimes called: All 3 of them worked for their father's company, and knew how to run a business and create jobs better than most Republican politicians do.

But in 2007, the release of a sex tape with Kim and her then-boyfriend, rapper Ray J (brother of singer Brandy), introduced the next generation to the public in a way they hadn't wanted. So Kris, their "momager" -- mom and manager -- negotiated with E!, and got the reality show made.

By this point, Kris had remarried, to Bruce Jenner, winner of the decathlon in the 1976 Olympics. It was Jenner's 3rd marriage, and he already had 4 children. Together, Kris and Bruce became the parents of daughters Kendall in 1995 and Kylie in 1997. Unlike the earlier daughters, who kept the Kardashian name, the younger sisters' surname was Jenner. Still, like their mother, all of the girls (but none of the boys) had first names starting with K. (Shades of baseball pitcher Roger Clemens, whose 4 sons all had names starting with K, for "strikeout"; and boxing champion George Foreman, who named 5 sons George.)

At the time the show began, Kourtney was 28, Kim was about to turn 27, Khloé was 23, Rob was 20, Kendall was 12 and Kylie was 10. So, basically, the 2 younger sisters grew up in the public eye.

The show detailed the family's business moves, their search for ever more fame, and their turbulent love-lives, which always seem to end in disaster, including Kim's marriages to basketball player Kris Humphries and rapper/conspiracy theorist Kanye West. By October 2022, Kendall was the only 2nd-generation Kardashian/Jenner who hadn't become a parent, although Kylie -- believed to be, through her makeup line, the 1st American to have become a billionaire before turning 21 -- also hasn't gotten married. She could afford children, including nannies.

These breakups included Kris and Bruce, who split in 2013. People began to joke that Bruce started wearing makeup that made him look like a woman, but Bruce accepted that he was a she, underwent a surgical transition, and took the name Caitlyn, or Cait for short. She became America's most famous transgender person, making it all the more shocking that she supported Donald Trump. I suppose, once a Republican, always a Republican. (The rest of the family -- the far-right Kanye excepted -- have kept their political leanings quiet, so as not to offend either half of their fanbase.)

The show took off to the point where ABC News' Barbara Walters decided she had to interview Kris and the older sisters for one of her annual The 10 Most Fascinating People of the Year TV specials. She asked, "Which one is the most book-smart?" Kim and Khloé both said, "Kourtney." Barbara asked, "Which one is the most street-smart?" Kourtney and Kim both said, "Khloé." Kim's brainpower was not mentioned.

Spinoffs of the show have included:

* Kourtney and Khloé Take Miami, in 2009-10, in which those sisters open an outlet of their D-A-S-H clothing store in Miami, while Khloé, having gotten into shape, saying, "I'm tired of being the fat funny one," became a radio talk-show host there.

* Kourtney and Kim Take New York, in 2011, with a D-A-S-H store opening in SoHo in Lower Manhattan. Despite Kim being the most famous person of Armenian descent in the world, surpassing singer Cher, Kourtney got top billing because she was older.

* Khloe & Lamar, in 2011, about Khloé's struggles with infertility, and with the infidelity and substance abuse issues of her then-husband, basketball player Lamar Odom. She eventually divorced him, and married another basketball player, Tristan Thompson. By the time their daughter True Thompson was born in 2018, they were on the outs over his infidelity, but got back together. By the time their son Tatum was born through surrogacy in 2022, they had split for good.

* Kris, in 2013, a talk show hosted by the momager. It lasted 30 episodes.

* Kocktails with Khloé, in 2016. This talk show lasted only 14 episodes, although that was all that was intended for the 1st season, and a similar total probably would have been set for the 2nd season. It just didn't get a 2nd season.

* Rob & Chyna, in 2016. It was about son Rob and his then-wife, rapper Angela Renée White, a.k.a. Blac Chyna.

* Life of Kylie, in 2017. She was only 19 when the show premiered.

* Revenge Body with Khloé Kardashian, in 2017-19, a fitness series, interrupted, with some irony, because of her pregnancy.

In 2022, with the family's contract with E! having run out, Kris switched them to Hulu, and started a new series with them, titled simply The Kardashians.

One more aside: Once, while I was online, the subject of Khloé Kardashian came up. But when I tried to type "Khloe" (not knowing how to do the accent mark), my spellchecker tried to make it "Kylie." I don't know what any of the sisters would make of that.

*

October 14, 2007 was a Sunday. Game 3 of the National League Championship Series was played at Coors Field in Denver, between the 2 newest franchises in the NL. The Colorado Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-1. Matt Holliday and Yorvit Torrealba hit home runs. The next day, the Rockies completed the sweep, for their 1st Pennant. It was their 21st win in their last 22 games.

The American League Championship Series was between Games 2 and 3. The Boston Red Sox went on to beat the Cleveland Indians, and then beat the Rockies in the World Series.

The NBA season started 16 days later. There were 2 games in the NH, both of them in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Detroit Red Wings beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-1 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. And the Minnesota Wild beat the Anaheim Ducks, 2-0 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

And these games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Jets lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 16-9 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The Baltimore Ravens beat the St. Louis Rams, 22-3 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Houston Texans, 37-17 at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (now EverBank Stadium).

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Tennessee Titans, 13-10 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Miami Dolphins, 41-31 at Cleveland Browns Stadium (now Huntington Bank Stadium).

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Chicago Bears, 34-31 at the new Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Washington Redskins, 17-14 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 27-20 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The New England Patriots beat the Dallas Cowboys, 48-27 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The Carolina Panthers beat the Arizona Cardinals, 25-10 at University of Phoenix Stadium (now State Farm Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Oakland Raiders, 28-14 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium).

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Seattle Seahawks, 28-17 at Qwest Field (now Lumen Field) in Seattle.

* On ESPN Monday Night Football, the New York Giants beat the Atlanta Falcons, 31-10 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* And the Buffalo Bills, the Denver Broncos, the Detroit Lions, the Indianapolis Colts, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the San Francisco 49ers had a bye week.

July 30, 1976: Bruce Jenner Wins the Olympic Decathlon

July 30, 1976: Bruce Jenner, a 26-year-old native of Tarrytown, Westchester County, north of New York City, wins the Gold Medal in the Olympic decathlon, at the Stade Olympique in Montreal. This makes him, unofficially, "The World's Greatest Athlete." As far as I know, he remains the only lefthanded thrower (in the shot put, the discus throw and the javelin throw) to win it.

He joins previous American winners Jim Thorpe in 1912, Harold Osborn in 1924, James Bausch in 1932, Glenn Morris in 1936, Bob Mathias in 1948 and 1952, Milt Campbell in 1956, Rafer Johnson in 1960 and Bill Toomey in 1968. Since Jenner did it, 3 other Americans have: Dan O'Brien in 1996, Brian Clay in 2008, and Ashton Eaton in 2012.

But while Thorpe got a movie made of his life, and Johnson was given a job in the State Department, Jenner became the most famous, appearing on the Wheaties cereal box. (Thorpe would as well, many years later, but long after his death, and wearing a football uniform, not a track & field uniform.)

Jenner battled dyslexia as a child, and turned to acting after his triumph, including famously doing commercials for Wheaties breakfast cereal, which put his picture on their box. I was 6 years old at the time, and he's one of the earliest current sports heroes I can remember. I couldn't blame him for cashing in on it as much as possible: There's no National Decathlon League, anywhere in the world, so turning professional was not possible. His athletic career was over, although he did play quarterbacks in the 1981 film Grambling's White Tiger, and on a 1985 episode of Murder, She Wrote.

He was married and divorced 3 times, the last to Kris Kardashian, with a total of 6 children, including fashion moguls Kendall and Kylie Jenner with Kris. Even before they divorced, people watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians joked that Bruce seemed to be trying to look more like a woman. In 2015, at the age of 65, now calling herself Caitlyn Jenner, she came out as transgender in an interview with Diane Sawyer for the ABC News program 20/20. She completed her gender-affirming surgery in 2017.

These days, Caitlyn's biggest problem is explaining how she can be a spokesperson for the transgender community and still be a Republican. Actually, it's not that hard: Bruce/Caitlyn has always been attracted to money. Then again, here in the 2020s, people who complain about transgender women in women's sports never seem to complain that "a woman trapped in a man's body" beat all the men in the competition for that now-long-ago Gold Medal.

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July 30, 1976 was a Friday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ed Figueroa outpitched Luis Tiant. Mickey Rivers and Carlos May hit home runs. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3 with 2 walks.

* The New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Jerry Koosman outpitched Jim Kaat. Joe Torre went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Montreal Expos, 4-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Manny Sanguillén singled Willie Stargell home with the winning run in the bottom of the 13th inning. Stargell had gone 2-for-5. Dave Parker went 4-for-6.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the San Diego Padres, 13-8 and 4-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Over the 2 games, Johnny Bench went 2-for-7 with a home run and 6 RBIs, Pete Rose went 3-for-7 with a walk, Mike Ivie went 4-for-9 with 3 RBIs, Dave Winfield went 2-for-5 with a walk, and Willie McCovey, though available, did not play.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Doug DeCinces and Lee May, Carlos' brother, hit home runs. DeCinces played 3rd base in place of Brooks Robinson, who did not play. Reggie Jackson, in his only season with the O's, also did not play. Mickey Stanley hit 2 home runs for the Tigers.

* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-6 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. José Cardenal, Pete LaCock and George Mitterwald hit home runs for the Cubs. Lou Brock went 2-for-5.

* The Cleveland Indians were leading the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-2 in the top of the 8th inning at Milwaukee County Stadium, when the game was called due to rain, giving Cleveland the victory. Dennis Eckersley went as far as the weather would allow, striking out 12 in 7 innings. Tommy Smith went 3-for-4 with an RBI for the Indians. Player-manager Frank Robinson did not put himself into the game. Robin Yount went 1-for-3.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-7 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The A's led 7-1, but the Twins scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 5th, and 2 in the 8th, to win it. Butch Wynegar hit a grand slam. Rod Carew went 1-for-4.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Texas Rangers, 2-1 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Nolan Ryan pitched a 3-hit shutout, striking out 10, outpitching Ken Brett.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.