Carter Country was a U.S. television sitcom, which aired on ABC for two seasons, from 1977 through 1979.
Intended to capitalize on interest in the South stemming from the election of Jimmy Carter as U.S. President in 1976, the show centered on the police department in a small Georgia town (presumably, near Carter’s home town of Plains). It starred Victor French as the police chief, Kene Holliday as a city-bred, college-educated black police sergeant, and Richard Paul as the town’s mayor.
Kene Holliday’s actual first name is Kenneth. After Carter Country was cancelled, the actor was part of the cast of Matlock for four years. Allegedly fired for substance abuse, he has since become a traveling evangelist. His last showbiz credit was in 2009, for a character voiced on the videogame Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. He is now 74.
Matlock is being rebooted, with Kathy Bates now playing the main character. The Andy Griffith Matlock exists as a TV series in that universe
Andy Griffith used his home-spun country persona in a commercial for AT&T. This was when the federal government forced Bell Systems (“Ma Bell”) to divest itself of its local service, ending a monopoly and allowing entry of several competing phone companies. Many landline users were fearful of losing local phone service; Griffith’s calm demeanor reassured folks they didn’t have to do anything, the local “Baby Bell” phone system would be available for them to use.
Sorry @Bullitt I didn’t see you!
The Andy Griffith Show TV series ended in 1968 while still at the top of the Nielsen’s Ratings. It is one of only three shows to have done so, along with I Love Lucy (1951) and Seinfeld (1989).
ETA — ninja’d, but it still works!
ETA2 — don’t worry about it, @knoodler, it’s all good!
Arthur Nielsen Sr. was a pioneering market researcher, and founder of the A.C. Nielsen Company, known for providing viewership ratings for U.S. television programs.
Arthur Nielsen attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he received a degree in electrical engineering. He was also captain of the school’s tennis team, and the university’s tennis stadium is named for him.
The first Nielsen television ratings were begun in 1950. The highest rated TV show for 1950-1951 was Texaco Star Theater. The next season the top spot was held by Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts. The following three seasons the top-rated show was I Love Lucy.
Actor and comedian Leslie Nielsen was legally deaf and wore hearing aids most of his life.
Before his deadpan comedy breakthrough as a doctor in Airplane!, Leslie Nielsen played a very serious pair of captains - of a starship and an ocean liner, respectively - in Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure.
Leslie Nielsen was notorious for keeping his fellow actors (and even the directors) on their toes by concealing and manipulating a whoopee cushion, making farting noises with it at unexpected times, often cracking the whole cast and crew up.
The same person who was responsible for overseeing the construction of the Pentagon in the early 1940s also directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb: General Leslie (Dick) Groves.
In August 1941, Groves was appointed to create the Pentagon.
In September 1942, Groves took charge of the Manhattan Project.
Matt Damon plays Gen. Leslie Groves, military head of the Manhattan Project, in the current hit biopic Oppenheimer despite not looking all that much like the character.
Paul Newman looked better in Fat Man and Little Boy.
Not sure if that last post was meant to be trivia so next poster take your pick of these two.
General Groves’s codename during the Manhattan Project was 99 based on how he signed his initials.
General Stanley Newman, the last man to shot down a Nazi plane in World War 2 died at age 99.
Bolding mine.
Got a cite for the 99 code name for Groves? I’ve searched but could not find that.
It may incite rolling of eyes, but “99 Bottles of Beer (On the Wall)” is one of the most popular road trip songs.
American jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd has collected dozens of variants of “99 Bottles of Beer” inspired by mathematical concepts and written by himself and others, including “Infinity bottles of beer on the wall”. If one bottle is taken down, there are still infinite bottles of beer on the wall. This variant thus creates an unending sequence much like “The Song That Never Ends”.
And @knoodler, please stop rolling your eyes.
The Codebreakers by David Kahn
In play: The main difference between a trumpet and a cornet is that a trumpet has a cylindrical bore while a cornet had a conical one.
Jazz musician Chuck Mangione is known for playing the flugelhorn: a brass instrument which is similar to the cornet, but has an even wider, more conical bore.
Mangione is best known for his 1977 hit, “Feels So Good.” He also had a recurring role on the animated comedy series King of the Hill, in which he played a fictionalized version of himself.