Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: March 9, 1979
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Perhaps you’ve heard of Oscar Isaac? The man behind Poe Dameron and Llewyn Davis? One of our favorite hotties of 2015? Deliverer of the second-best performance in a Coen brothers movie ever? Sexy disco dancer extraordinaire?
Yes, Oscar Isaac is mostly a movie star, and this is a column for TV anniversaries. But without that blessed day in March of 1979, we wouldn’t have gotten, say, for example, Oscar being adorable about Nicki Minaj on The Late Late Show With James Corden …
or performing a folk cover of “Roar” on The Tonight Show …
and most importantly, we wouldn’t have gotten Isaac’s blistering performance in the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero, which was one of the top TV achievements of the last five years, if not longer. Isaac’s noble, tragic, frustrated, compromised, and altogether complex performance may well be his greatest performance so far. And the crazy thing is, there’s absolutely no reason to think he won’t be able to top it soon.
Happy birthday, then, to a man who has quickly become one of our most exciting actors. Cheers!
[You can stream Show Me a Hero on HBO GO or HBO NOW.]
