# Odd television facts **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833 "2011-06-17T14:18:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/281 "2011-06-25T22:53:09Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > He appeared on I’ve Got a Secret and introducing that song was his secret. [Video](http://www.yourememberthat.com/media/2195/William_Frawley_sings/). He also introduced “My Mammy” and “Carolina in the Morning.” Fred Mertz made a helluva living for Al Jolson. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/282 "2011-06-25T22:55:34Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > _Hee Haw_ was conceived by Bernie Brillstein, who in later years would become the manager of such luminaries as John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Lorne Michaels, Dabney Coleman and others too numerous to mention. In time, Bernie Brillstein became as a second father to John Belushi, and the two really seemed to care about each other on a personal level, not just manager and star client. Brillstein tried on numerous occasions to confront Belushi about his addiction, and in fact was one of the only people (besides Aykroyd and John’s wife Judy) who John Belushi would ever let get emotionally close enough to him to implore him to clean up his life. Sadly, Brillstein wasn’t great at a tough-love approach, and ended up (along with just about every other power player in Hollywood at the time) more or less enabling J.B.'s lifestyle with access to unlimited cash and no real accountability for his clearly fucked up behavior, both on and off the set… ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/283 "2011-06-25T23:03:58Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I don’t think I’d bother keeping the costume without having Yvonne Craig in the costume. She was the green dancer on Star Trek. Her first husband was Jimmy Boyd whose claim to fame was that he was the kid who sang “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” He was also [not remotely attractive](http://famous-relationships.topsynergy.com/!photos/Jimmy-Boyd.jpg) so Ms Craig must be blind. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/284 "2011-06-26T01:29:11Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > She was the green dancer on Star Trek. Her first husband was Jimmy Boyd whose claim to fame was that he was the kid who sang “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” He was also [not remotely attractive](http://famous-relationships.topsynergy.com/!photos/Jimmy-Boyd.jpg) so Ms Craig must be blind. To clarify, Yvonne Craig was not in the pilot episode, “The Cage.” She appeared as an Orion woman in “Whom Gods Destroy” as a follower of Garth of Izar. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/285 "2011-06-26T01:35:00Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > To clarify, Yvonne Craig was not in the pilot episode, “The Cage.” She appeared as an Orion woman in “Whom Gods Destroy” as a follower of Garth of Izar. By the way, the Orion dancer scene in “The Cage/The Menagerie” has a strong resemblance to a dance scene in the 1955 movie “The Adventures of Hajji Baba.” I wish I still had it on my DVR so that I could post it for comparison. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/286 "2011-06-27T01:09:45Z")
Let’s tie Yvonne Craig and Perry Mason as this one is pretty interesting. In 1958, she appeared in “The Case of the Lazy Lover.” Playing her stepfather was Neil Hamilton. Nearly ten years later, they were reunited as father and daughter, Commissioner Gordon and Barbara Gordon in Batman. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/287 "2011-06-27T01:40:41Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Here is a list of all TV crossover universes: > > [Crossovers Spin Off Master Page](http://www.poobala.com/crossoverlistb.html) > > Group 2 (given at the bottom of the webpage) is enormous. Of course it is. That’s the [Tommy Westphall](http://home.vicnet.net.au/~kwgow/crossovers%28full%29.jpg) group. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/288 "2011-06-27T02:42:29Z")
One of the other guest stars in “Whom Gods Destroy” was Keye Luke, the all-purpose Chinese character actor who played everything from Lee “Number one son” Chan in Charlie Chan movies to Master Po in _Kung Fu_. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/289 "2011-06-27T12:42:19Z")
I have always questioned the color correction/green woman Star Trek story. Having done some color lab work in my time, I just don’t see how it would be possible to correct a green woman to normal flesh tones. I think the story is just that, a story. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/290 "2011-06-27T16:11:21Z")
Yet more Trek lore: NBC execs were afraid that there was going to be religious backlash against a character who looked so much like the Devil. They had an artist airbrush out Nimoy’s ears. When Spockmania broke out a few weeks later, that artist was fired. I wonder why there was no backlash against Eddie Munster. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/291 "2011-06-27T16:25:10Z")
Why would the artist be fired? He was told to airbrush out the ears, he airbrushed out the ears. Now the exec who decided it should be done, firing him makes sense. But the artist? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/292 "2011-06-27T18:23:48Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > In time, Bernie Brillstein became as a second father to John Belushi, and the two really seemed to care about each other on a personal level, not just manager and star client. > > Brillstein tried on numerous occasions to confront Belushi about his addiction, and in fact was one of the only people (besides Aykroyd and John’s wife Judy) who John Belushi would ever let get emotionally close enough to him to implore him to clean up his life. > > Sadly, Brillstein wasn’t great at a tough-love approach, and ended up (along with just about every other power player in Hollywood at the time) more or less enabling J.B.'s lifestyle with access to unlimited cash and no real accountability for his clearly fucked up behavior, both on and off the set… Jim Belushi himself has sad that, no mattr what your intentions were towards helping his brother John, five minutes whim and you’d be doing whatever John asked you to. That was just one aspect of his personality: People could not say no to John when he asked them for anything. Alas, it would prove fatal. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/293 "2011-06-27T20:44:17Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Why would the artist be fired? He was told to airbrush out the ears, he airbrushed out the ears. Now the exec who decided it should be done, firing him makes sense. But the artist? I guess because they needed someone to blame. I’m really not sure, I read that in a book many years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/294 "2011-06-27T21:01:57Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Jim Belushi himself has sad that, no mattr what your intentions were towards helping his brother John, five minutes whim and you’d be doing whatever John asked you to. That was just one aspect of his personality: People could not say no to John when he asked them for anything. > > Alas, it would prove fatal. Another factor was that most of the people around Belushi were drug users themselves. They weren’t using drugs at the same self-destructive level Belushi was but they saw a moral quandary in telling somebody else that he should stop using drugs when they were using the same drugs. And the size of Belsuhi’s drug use was only really apparent in retrospect. When he was working on SNL, the people on the show were more worried about Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman whose drug problems seemed worse than Belushi’s. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/295 "2011-06-27T21:15:22Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > One of the amusing continuity problems of _Star Trek_ is that the episode “Space Seed,” which introduced Ricardo Montalban as Khan, was broadcast in the first season, while Walter Koenig wasn’t added to the cast until the second season. Not only was Chekov not featured in the episode, he wasn’t even in the crew. That invalidates the scene in \*Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn \* where the two recognize each other. One piece of trivia that support that Khan and Chekov knew each other: “Space Seed” (SD 3141.9), when Khan was found, has a later stardate than “Catspaw” (SD 3018.2), Chekov’s first on-screen appearance. Granted, the former was a 1st-season episode and the latter was the 2nd-season premier. But the stardates definitely put Chekov on the Enterprise _before_ Khan was found. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/296 "2011-06-27T22:58:32Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] I wonder why there was no backlash against Eddie Munster. [/QUOTE] Ghouls apparently had some kind of exception to a lot of TV land taboos. Gomez and Morticia were one of the first couples on TV that you knew got their freak on and they even slept in the same bed (they weren’t the _first_ couple on TV to do so but they were early). The Brady Bunch didn’t come on for years but never allowed Carol and Mike to get as physical as _Mon Amour_ and _Cara Mia_. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/297 "2011-06-27T23:05:13Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Jim Belushi himself has sad that, no mattr what your intentions were towards helping his brother John, five minutes whim and you’d be doing whatever John asked you to. That was just one aspect of his personality: People could not say no to John when he asked them for anything. > > Alas, it would prove fatal. Apparently, he really was one of the most charismatic people in the world, at least when he was in good spirits and coherent—Even people who didn’t normally get high (Carly Simon, Gilda Radner) would often tag along with John, just because he was just so much fun to hang with, so wild and free… ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/298 "2011-06-27T23:56:29Z")
Belushi was also, by every account I’ve read, a voracious reader who could converse intelligently on many subjects. He particularly loved history and particularly particularly loved anything to do with Napoleon and had a collection of Napoleonic memorabilia. So trivial as to define trivial for those who don’t know the term: Paul Benedict, best known for playing Mr. Bentley on _The Jeffersons_ and for appearing in most of the Christopher Guest ensemble movies, died in what had once been Belushi’s house in Martha’s Vineyard. Two more super trivial pieces of Paul Benedict trivia: -He was nuts for raccoons and famous for it (he built special feeders for them wherever he lived and loved to feed them by hand- a major “don’t try this at home” trick as they carry rabies and other diseases and have very sharp teeth, but apparently he was never hurt). -He was a very close friend of Al Pacino, who actually delivered the eulogy at one of Benedict’s memorial services. Hard to picture them together- a very Felix:Oscar thing, but they were friends for many years which is why Benedict popped up in tiny roles in some Pacino movies (_Devil’s Advocate_ being one of them- he’s on screen for about 10 seconds). ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/299 "2011-06-28T00:07:25Z")
Not really TV trivia, as it only tangentially relates to John Belushi, but Cathy Smith, who served 15 months for injecting Belushi with that fatal mix of coke and heroine, was a backup singer and groupie who had a three-year affair with Gordon Lightfoot and is the subject of his hit song “Sundown.” ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833/300 "2011-06-28T00:46:23Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Not really TV trivia, as it only tangentially relates to John Belushi, but Cathy Smith, who served 15 months for injecting Belushi with that fatal mix of coke and heroine, was a backup singer and groupie who had a three-year affair with Gordon Lightfoot and is the subject of his hit song “Sundown.” She was also a heroin/fuck buddy of fellow Canadian Rick Danko, bass player for The Band. Cathy Smith was a real piece of human trash, and she made a life of glomming onto famous (or semi-famous) drug addicts like a leech clings to an engorged hemorrhoid… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-television-facts/585833.md?page=16)