“Don’t Shoot the Pianist” was an episode in the story arc “The Gunfighters”, in the third season of “Doctor Who”, where the good Doctor (William Hartnell) and the TARDIS arrive in Tombstone, Arizona just in time for the Shootout at the OK Corral. They were the first “Doctor Who” episodes to include musical narration, and the last to have individual episode titles.
Doctor Who episodes do indeed still have individual episode titles, and have for a long time. And the next Doctor will be a woman!
Robert Picardo initially auditioned for the role of Neelix on Star Trek Voyager. Despite Ethan Phillips getting the part, Picardo was asked by the producers to come back and audition for The Doctor, an Emergency Medical Hologram, which shocked him, because usually actors would be passed over completely.During his audition for the role of The Doctor, Picardo was asked only to say, “Somebody forgot to terminate my program.” However, he then ad libbed, “I’m a doctor, not a nightlight!” He got the role.
(EH, would Wikipedia lie to me? Don’t answer that.)
For the 2004 remake of “Battlestar Galactica”, producers Ronald Moore and David Eick initially auditioned Donnelly Rhodes for the role of Col. Saul Tigh. Although they gave the role to Michael Hogan, they liked Rhodes so much that they created the role of Dr. Sherman Cottle, the Galactica’s medical officer, for him.
The Mercedes touring car used on the show Hogan’s Heroes was one of only three in existence at the time. General Burkalter would wheel up to the camp in the stylish Mercedes-Benz W31. Only 57 of the black and gray convertibles were constructed, and just three remained after the war — one belonged to the Spanish monarchy, another became a fire engine, and the last ended up in Hollywood.
Leon Askin (1907 – 2005) was an Austrian actor best known for portraying the character General Burkhalter on the TV situation comedy Hogan’s Heroes. Askin was born in Vienna and emigrated to the US in 1940. He served in World War II as a Staff Sergeant in the US Army Air Forces.
Other TV shows in which he appeared include The Monkees, Happy Days, and Three’s Company.
Leon Askin was a Jew. So was Werner Klemperer, John Banner, and Robert Clary of Hogan’s Heroes. Robert Clary is a French Jew who was in the Nazi concentration camps Ottmuth and Buchenwald and still has his serial number tattooed on his arm. Clary is one of two surviving cast members of Hogan’s Heroes (the other being Kenneth Washington).
The coat of arms of Gen. George Washington, and a profile of Washington himself, appear on the Purple Heart. The medal is awarded to those wounded or killed in the military service of the United States: Purple Heart - Wikipedia
With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, which took the form of a heart made of purple cloth, the Purple Heart is the oldest military award still given to U.S. military members – the only earlier award being the obsolete Fidelity Medallion.
The Defense Department ordered a new supply of Purple Hearts in 2000, since it had finally begun to run low on the batch that was made late in WW2 for expected casualties in Operations Olympic and Coronet, the invasion of the Japanese home islands. The combined Korean and Vietnam Wars did not use them up. Even so, almost 125,000 were scrapped because they had deteriorated in storage.
The coronet of a British Duke has eight strawberry leaves.
Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, two of her three sons and two of her grandsons are all royal dukes - of Edinburgh, Cornwall, York, Cambridge and Sussex, respectively.
“Duke of Earl” was a number one hit song in the USA in 1962.
For scenes in which the Earl of Grantham serves during World War I on Downtown Abbey, the show’s costume designers consulted with the Imperial War Museum to come up with an appropriate badge for his fictional regiment.
Abby, a girl’s name, is short for Abigail. “Abigail“ means “my father’s joy”.
Abigail Smith Adams, the first Second Lady and the second First Lady of the United States, was the mother of John Quincy Adams, who was appointed by President James Madison as the first United States Minister to Russia in 1809.
Daniel Wesson (1825-1906) and Horace Smith (1808-1893) of Massachusetts founded Smith & Wesson in 1852 to manufacture the Volcanic rifle. Smith and Wesson also formed Volcanic Repeating Arms in 1855.
According to AOL.com, Smith & Wesson is the largest firearms manufacturer in the United States. The second-largest, Remington Arms, was founded in 1816 and has been producing guns in America for more than two centuries.
Remington filed for bankruptcy in March of 2018 but was able to exit from bankruptcy in May, due to a restructuring plan that was approved by 97% of its creditors.
The largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history was that of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. on Sept. 15, 2008, as to more than $691 billion in assets. The second-largest came just 11 days later, when Washington Mutual filed, with assets of more than $327 billion.
A failure of a nation to meet bond repayments has been seen on many occasions. Philip II of Spain had to declare four state bankruptcies in 1557, 1560, 1575 and 1596.