A Boomers' General TV Trivia II Quiz

Answer: Steve Allen

The late Steve Allen was probably the most talented fellow to ever grace the small screen. This man was: a composer, an author, a top flight funnyman, a playwright, an actor who wrote scores of books, hundreds of songs, had at least five TV shows, all critically acclaimed and/or funny as the blazes and he was well-loved by every one of his colleagues and his legions of fans in at least three fields! Nobody has equaled his oeuvre yet in the entertainment business and he is sorely missed. His widow, Jayne Meadows, sister of Audrey Meadows, of "Honeymooner" fame, is no small talent herself!

Jerry Lester presided over a sort of "Tonight Show" predecessor, called "Broadway Open House". Jack Paar was the emotional, somewhat elitist successor to Allen, and you all know Johnny....

Answer: 39

Hard to believe, isn't it? Though there have been some extra episodes found in Jackie Gleason's vault, the 39 original episodes, co-starring Audrey Meadows, Art Carney and Joyce Randolph, are the ones we keep seeing rerun on TV, ad infinitum. That's barely two seasons' worth! These episodes were done so cleverly, however, and are so fresh with each viewing, we never get tired of them! Gleason was a very funny man with a huge ego, and was pretty much viewed as the Orson Welles of television. He was a wildly popular entertainer whose every TV project turned to gold. (With the exception of "You're In The Picture"!)

Like Allen, he was a bit of renaissance man, also being a bandleader known for very lush, Mantovani-esque dinner music.

Answer: True

"Casino Royale", the very first Bond novel Fleming wrote, was originally adapted in 1954 on CBS as an episode of their anthology series "Climax!", a "Playhouse 90"-type show. Bond was turned into an American agent, for "Combined Intelligence", going by the name of "Jimmy" Bond. American CIA agent Felix Leiter, conversely, was turned into a Brit named "Clarence" Leiter. The legendary Peter Lorre played the villain, "Le Chiffre", an agent working for SMERSH who has a major gambling habit.

This was all a gambit to turn Bond into an American TV franchise. Thank de lawd 'that' didn't happen!

Answer: Princess Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring

Judy Tyler, the actress who played the Indian princess with the intriguing name, was killed in an automobile accident on vacation with her husband in Wyoming in 1957. She was only 24 years old.

Answer: Lorelei Brown

Mrs. Brown, played by Pamela Britton, was the doting landlady of "Martin" and Tim O'Hara, the former of which was actually a visitor from the Angry Red Planet itself! Ms. Britton was actually an actress with a pretty good resumé, having starred in the original "D.O.A." with Edmund O'Brien, "Anchors Aweigh" with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly and the TV show "Blondie" which aired in 1957, where she played the title character. She played Mrs. Brown as a loveable ditz who had a slight affection for the secretly alien "Martin" O'Hara, who also shows an interest in her.

"Martin" was parlayed by brilliant stage and screen comic actor Ray Walston, who had a way of making you forget how hokey the technobabble on the show was simply by putting his own spin on the lines and scenes on this too-soon-canceled early sixties sitcom.

Answer: The Muppets

"Rowlf", the round-headed, floppy eared dog with Jim Henson's "gruff" voice, used to hold funny conversations with the sausagemeister in a five to ten minute segment of his show. This was the first steady appearance of any Muppet character in anything else but a commercial up to that point. After this, they went on to appear on Jack Paar's two NBC shows, then Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show", "The Mike Douglas Show", "Ed Sullivan" and then took over PBS with "Sesame Street"...Any entity of a show that lasts more than 37 years has to be some kind of record.

It might be pointed out, however, that, although they've been somewhat sullied by fame and fortune ("Muppet Babies" represented a significant dip in their quality control!) at one time they were very experimental, and for a while specialized in very trippy short films and skits. They haven't done that sort of thing in quite a while, these days usually mounting much more elaborate productions, either under their own auspices or a large studio like Disney.

Their movies, since 1979, are too numerous to mention, but a short list would include: "The Dark Crystal", "Labyrinth", "Return To Oz", "Dreamchild" and various "Muppet Movie" derivatives. They also had a big hand in the last five "Star Wars" movies. In many ways, they are unsurpassed in their artistry, but don't you miss those old string marionettes?

Answer: Tyrone S. Horneigh

Arte Johnson was the little guy who used to do about half of the male characters on the seminal late 60's/early 70s comedy/variety/vignette show. Other characters of his were the German soldier who didn't know that World War II was over, who uttered the trademark line: "Ve-r-r-r-r-y interesting!" and the guy on the tricycle who would tip over at the drop of a hat.

"Laugh-In" took the loopy ingenuity of Ernie Kovacs, the vaudeville technique of "blackouts" and various unexpected guest shots: Otto Preminger, Richard Nixon, John Wayne and Billy Graham, and mined it into TV gold. The show ran for five years and was top-rated its first two. It replaced another popular show, "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", that had, by 1968, worn out its welcome.

Crazy Jo Ann Worley, Rat Pack-er Sammy Davis Jr., Henry Gibson and half the cast of "Hogan's Heroes" also co-starred on this whacky show. This is also the show that gave the world Tiny Tim, the odd, stringy-haired ukulele player that revived the old novelty standard, "Tiptoe Through The Tulips".

Answer: Arthur Treacher

Arthur Treacher, a British actor best known for co-starring in Shirley Temple movies, was Merv Griffin's announcer in the second incarnation of his afternoon talk show. He was with "Merrrrvin" for 10 years.

Answer: nephew

In 1991, for about a year and a half, there was actually a first-run cartoon show called "James Bond Jr.", which had NONE of the panache of the original franchise. The "junior" in the title was actually the nephew of good old "007", not his son. Characters from the big guy's universe, such as Dr. No and Jaws, made appearances on the show.

Answer: He had short hair and was dressed in a suit and tie.

In yet another instance that spelled out in neon the end of hip, Frank Zappa himself, one of the most irreverent, anti-establishment artists around, appeared on "The Tonight Show" in the late eighties -early 90s, wearing an electric blue business suit with a black tie and a short haircut, and if I'm not mistaken, may have only had a moustache as well, instead of his trademark soul-patch goatee. Though he was still funny in his inimitable style, it was much more subdued than what many have come to expect from him. The man was an oddball comic and musical genius of the first water, with a "Son's dad's" sense of humor.

What's next...? Joan Baez doing Muzak? Judy Collins making movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger...?

Answer: Hugh Laurie

Yep...Hugh Laurie, of the Fox medical drama "House". How he can suppress that accent of his is beyond me, but he does a beautiful job, not betraying his origins one iota! British actors and actresses seem to be very good at that, with the exception of Michael Caine, whose cockney burr is just a little too ingrained, I guess, to shuck completely. Marina Sirtis of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and Bob Hoskins, in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", can also hide their British accents well. Sirtis had to do it for seven years in her role as Deanna Troi on the "Trek" franchise!

Laurie also starred in the two live action "Stuart Little" movies, also sans accent.

Answer: Sam Jaffee

Sam Jaffee, who portrayed "Gunga Din" in the movie of the same name, starring opposite Cary Grant, had a very distinguished early career, "Gunga Din" being only his fourth movie. He had also starred in "Lost Horizon", "13 Rue Madeliene", "The Asphalt Jungle" and shows like "Naked City" and "The Defenders".

"Ben Casey" was one of two competing medical shows of the early sixties, one, "Dr. Kildare", starring Richard Chamberlain and Raymond Massey as a young doctor/mentor symbiont, and this one, starring Sam Jaffee and Vince Edwards as the older/younger pair. Dr. Casey, played by Edwards, was a neurosurgeon at County General Hospital. Dr. David Zorba, portrayed by Jaffee, was chief neurosurgeon there.

Fellow veteran actor Franchot Tone replaced Jaffee in the last two years of the show. "Ben Casey" ran from 1961 to 1966 and was the very first show produced by Bing Crosby Productions, who were also responsible for "Hogan's Heroes".

Answer: The Tropicana

For the entire run of the show, when he wasn't traveling to Hollywood or Europe trying to break into movies, Ricky Ricardo entertained well-to-do customers at The Tropicana in good old Manhattan, though it's never revealed in what part of Manhattan the Tropicana's situated...

Answer: Jean Hagen and Marjorie Lord

Jean Hagen, who also had a part as the squeaky-voiced silent movie star in "Singing In The Rain", played Danny Williams' first wife, Margaret, on the venerable, long-lived show, which also co-starred Sherry Jackson as his daughter Terry and Rusty Hamer as his son, Rusty. Marjorie Lord was the second wife, Kathy, whom Danny called "Irish", and, with Terry married off, she was accompanied by Angela Cartwright, playing Danny's stepdaughter, Linda.

Amanda Randolph, one of the few black performers in 'any' sitcom then, though it was as a domestic, played their maid, the one everybody's familiar with, named Louise. Lousie Beavers orignally played "Louise", but left the show in 1955. Hans Conreid played Danny's comical Uncle Tonoose. The show ran from 1953 to 1965, and was revived for a short time as "Make Room For Granddaddy" in 1970.

Nobody could do a spit-take like Danny Thomas. You lived to see that cigar fly across a room when someone said something that flabbergasted him.

Answer: J. Carroll Naish

This short lived, but funny, sitcom starred Joanne Dru and Mark Miller as Babs and Bill Hooten, and Nash in this show about a family that decides to run a bed and breakfast in the wilds of New Mexico after tiring of the rat race.

Nash, a well known character actor in 30's and 40's movies, portrayed Chief Hawkeye as an Amerind con man who was constantly dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes that always blew up in his face and the face of whoever was gullible enough to go in with him. Babs and Bill were the heads of a four member family that felt like fish out of water in rural New Mexico.