General TV trivia questions

Kid_Gilligan:

Howard Cosell. The ABC prime-time variety series Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell debuted shortly before Lorne Michaels’s famous late-night comedy show, and claimed the name.

Michaels’s show was originally NBC’s Saturday Night. After Cosell’s show was cancelled, Michaels changed the title of his.

  1. The only unusual thing I can thing of about Miles Silverberg was, as Kinseyp said, that he was about half the age of his reporters.

  2. Jim Davis (not the Garfield creator) played paterfamilias Jock Ewing on Dallas.

Not sure if she was the first, but Kathy Griffith did it with Suddenly Susan and News Radio

FWIW, News Radio and Suddenly Susan were both NBC programs. It would have been impossible for them to be on at the same time, same day.

Vicki Lewis was the one on NewsRadio, not Kathy Griffin. To confuse things even more, Kathy Griffin’s character’s name on Suddenly Susan was Vicki. Similar type, though…skinny smart-mouth redheads.

  1. I don’t know if this is what you were looking for, RealityChuck, but William Daniels played Dr. Mark Craig on St. Elsewhere during some of the same years he was the voice of KITT on Knight Rider.

I’m not sure if the two shows were on the same night, or even if they were different networks. Then, there’s that word “appeared,” all of which, taken together, make me wonder if you’re looking for a different answer.

Also, xizor, it’s Kathy Griffin, not Griffith. And also again, apropos of nothing, she sucks. I can’t stand her work.

  1. What actor has played the same role in three TV shows - a minor role in one, a more major role in another, and one of the principles in the third?

Kelsey Grammer, as Frasier?

  1. Richard Belzer, as Munch …he appeared in an episode of “The X-Files”, has been on “Law and Order”, “Homicide” and “Law and Order-Special Victims Unit”

Keith

Ok, Richard Belzer is right, but so is my answer.
He played Frasier Crane on Cheers, played Frasier on a guest spot on Wings, and now plays him again on Frasier

Kinsey, Odieman, I’m pretty sure iampunha is looking for an actor who played the same role as a regular on three different shows. Not someone whose character did a walk-on guest spot as a ratings stunt, as Kelsey Grammer and Richard Belzer did in your two examples. If we counted those then there are probably a jillion different shows where Bob Denver came in as Gilligan in a dream sequence or something like that.

No, I have the answer iampunha is looking for: Frank Cady, who played general store proprietor Sam Drucker in The Beverly Hillbillies (minor role), Green Acres (more major role), and Petticoat Junction (one of the principles).

OK, I had the right actress, but the wrong shows. I should have said -
Not sure if she was the first, but Kathy Griffin did it with Suddenly Susan and Dilbert

In the film, it was Chicago, Ill, so that would be my guess. **
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Richard Kimble lived in Chicago in the film, but on TV he was from Stafford, Indiana.

Here’s one, based on my all-time favorite show:

On “WKRP In Cincinnati,” what is Les Nessman’s explanation to Mr. Carlson for the disastrous turkey drop?

Regards,

Zappo
Who spends too damn much time in front of the TV

Les thought all birds could fly, not “drop like sacks of wet cement”

lurkernomore:

Nope. The turkey drop was all Mr. Carlson’s idea; Les had nothing to do with it beyond being the station’s on-the-spot reporter, who broadcast the horror as it was happening.

When Mr. Carlson got back to the WKRP office after the debacle, he declared to all present, “As God is my witness: I thought turkeys could fly.”

I have no idea what “explanation” Zappo is looking for from Les to Mr. Carlson.

[Johnny Fever]For those of you just tuning in, the Southside Mall is being bombed by live turkeys. Film at 11.[/Johnny Fever]

Five, you are of course totally and completely correct. Somewhere between the brain and the fingers I added Les and mixed him up with Mr. Carlson. And I reviewed the post twice! :o

Goes to show what happens when you don’t drink enough coffee, I guess.

Apologetically bowing and scraping my way backwards out of the room,

Zappo

Here are a few more. Even I don’t know the answer to the first one!
25. When Joey Heatherton appeared on the dance show Hullaballoo in the sixties, she performed one dance in such a way that the “network Standards and Practices office was embarrased,” according to our local TV magazine (published by the Los Angeles Times.) Why? Did Joey expose herself on TV? :eek:
26. What relation to Jed Clampett, on The Beverly Hillbillies, was Jethro?
27. What was Granny’s full name (same series)?
28. What stupid remark did President Gerald Ford make in the second Presidential debate with Jimmy Carter in 1976?
29. On 3rd Rock from the Sun, what connection does Dick Solomon have with Tommy’s girfriend?
30. What satirist wrote songs for a 1960s variety series?

Re: the turkey drop “As God is my witness, I thought that turkeys could fly.”

  1. What relation to Jed Clampett, on The Beverly Hillbillies, was Jethro?

Jethro was his nephew. (woo-hoo, I got one - uh, I think)

He said that Eastern Europe was not under Communist domination. D’oh!

Tom Lehrer, who composed such hits as “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” and “The Vatican Rag” wrote several songs for “That Was The Week That Was.” He’s the only one I can think of.

Special super-doozy bonus question: What PBS children’s show did Tom Lehrer write at least two songs for?

Extra special bonus: Name the songs!

Regards,

Zappo