# Who's left from early TV? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 13, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218 "2014-02-13T03:45:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 33
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/641 "2015-01-06T19:01:51Z")
Fifty years ago, **Johnny Mathis** was acting on _The Red Skelton Hour_; before that, he was making the rounds on _What’s My Line_ and _This Is Your Life_ in the '50s, and before that he was of course performing on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ back in '57 – same year he was on _The Big Record_ and _The Julius LaRosa Show_ and _Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall_ and _American Bandstand_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/642 "2015-01-08T00:23:30Z")
**Ron Harper** was Uncle Jack on _Land of the Lost_ back in the '70s – and while he’s still working decades later now that _he’s_ in his seventies, he made his TV debut decades _earlier_, beating the deadline on _Kraft Theatre_ with a then-unknown Elizabeth Montgomery in the '50s before spending the '60s bouncing from western to western – _Big Valley_, _Laramie_, _Wagon Train_, _Shotgun Slade_, _Tales of Wells Fargo_, _The Deputy_, you name it – when he wasn’t busy doing light comedy with George Burns. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/643 "2015-01-08T17:40:35Z")
Holt McCallany is an actor with plenty of work on cop shows – CSI (and CSI: MIAMI), and LAW & ORDER (and LAW & ORDER: CI, and LAW & ORDER: SVU), and GOLDEN BOY, and BLUE BLOODS, and MONK, and et cetera; he’s set to play a detective up on the big screen later this year – and his dad was a Tony winner, and his mom is **Julie Wilson** , who did a 1956 TV movie before doing _Suspicion_ and _Kraft Theatre_ in 1957. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/644 "2015-01-10T03:14:07Z")
**Billy Graham** counts, right? ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/645 "2015-01-10T04:01:32Z")
[Noel de Souza](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0211808/?ref_=tt_cl_t8) was on the Big Bang Theory last night. He played a tutor on _the Loretta Young Show_ 60 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/646 "2015-01-11T01:03:23Z")
Wow, he went from playing Paco on _Zorro_ to playing Gandhi on _Star Trek_. Not a lot of guys can say that. In fact, I’m guessing nobody else can say that. So long as I’m bumping the thread, let me add that **Robert Crawford Jr** – who played the recurring role of _Pogo_ on _Zorro_ in '58, before earning an Emmy nomination for his work on _Playhouse 90_ in '59 – was acting on various TV shows in '57, after making his movie debut in '56; kept acting, on TV and in the movies, in the '60s; and then switched to producing in the '70s and '80s and '90s, before appearing As Himself in documentaries here and now in the '00s and '10s. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/647 "2015-01-11T13:50:52Z")
**Joan Hotchkis** was Oscar Madison’s girlfriend on _The Odd Couple_, but before that she was racking up small-screen credits in the 1960s – episodes of _Bewitched_, a TV movie with Jason Robards as Abe Lincoln, and so on – and before that, she was acting on _Robert Montgomery Presents_ in '57 and _Frontier_ in '56 and so on. Was still at it in a TV movie with John Stamos not too long ago, at that. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/648 "2015-01-12T13:19:34Z")
Roy Rogers of course starred in _The Roy Rogers Show_ back when, and is of course long dead, and so of course can’t tell you about how it used to be. But his _kids_ can, since **Cheryl Rogers** and **Roy Rogers Jr** are still with us the better part of a century after acting on that show, sure as they got work in between – this one on _Happy Days_, that one on _The Fall Guy_, one or the other on _Cagney & Lacey_, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/649 "2015-01-14T00:13:00Z")
Likewise, since Micky Dolenz was _Circus Boy_, his sister **Coco Dolenz** acted on episode after episode before the end of '57, because, well, she was right there, y’know? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/650 "2015-01-14T12:06:38Z")
**Bill Daily** is still making TV appearances in the '10s like he did in the '00s and the '90s and the '80s after spending all those years mooching off Bob Newhart in the '70s after all those years as Major Healy on _I Dream of Jeannie_ in the '60s, and as per IMDB he was acting on _The Farmer’s Daughter_ well before any of that – same year you could see him on _My Mother, The Car_ – and so on, dating back to when he was playing announcer on _Tonight!_ with Steve Allen back in '53 and '54 and '55. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/651 "2015-01-14T15:50:50Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > **Bill Daily** is still making TV appearances in the '10s like he did in the '00s and the '90s and the '80s after spending all those years mooching off Bob Newhart in the '70s after all those years as Major Healy on _I Dream of Jeannie_ in the '60s, and as per IMDB he was acting on _The Farmer’s Daughter_ well before any of that – same year you could see him on _My Mother, The Car_ – and so on, dating back to when he was playing announcer on _Tonight!_ with Steve Allen back in '53 and '54 and '55. Does he still do that cooking show in Albuquerque? That’s where he was living when I lived there. He had a local cooking show. I did not have a TV at the time but still managed to catch it occasionally at friends’ homes. ---
**Author:** ![susanlinda823](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@susanlinda823](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susanlinda823)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/652 "2015-01-14T15:52:39Z")
Betty White Baby!😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/653 "2015-01-15T12:01:30Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Does he still do that cooking show in Albuquerque? That’s where he was living when I lived there. He had a local cooking show. I did not have a TV at the time but still managed to catch it occasionally at friends’ homes. Wiki sez he effectively retired from regular broadcasting in '09 – when he stopped hosting an Albuquerque radio show – and now only makes occasional TV appearances. Speaking of which, wiki also sez TV legend **Garry Marshall** [_"is also an actor, making his TV acting debut starting as a child with a recurring role in the long-running CBS series The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950–58)"_](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Marshall) – which I can see mention of all over the web in general, but not on IMDB in particular, so I’m a little reluctant to use it to bump the thread. That said, there’s another octogenarian who I’m a bit reluctant to mention, but who _definitely_ qualifies, what with his time as a _What’s My Line?_ mystery guest, and his performing on _The Colgate Comedy Hour_ – and everything else from working with Wally Cox and Jonathan Winters on _The NBC Comedy Hour_ to making appearances on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ – all after appearing on TV in the 1951 World Series, not to mention all his pre-1957 appearances in All-Star Games, because **Willie Mays**. (He even beat the deadline on _Tonight!_ with Steve Allen, like I was just saying.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/654 "2015-01-15T13:09:34Z")
I believe Willie also made an appearance as a warlock on _ **Bewitched** _ in the '60s. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2015, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/655 "2015-01-16T13:05:09Z")
Emmy nominee **Meg Mundy** was still getting soap-opera work on _All My Children_ in the '00s after doing _LAW & ORDER_ episodes in the '90s after doing movies ranging from _Fatal Attraction_ in the '80s to _Eyes of Laura Mars_ in the '70s after doing TV shows like _Naked City_ and _Moment of Fear_ in the '60s – after acting on a dozen TV shows in the '50s, after earning '40s credits on _Suspense_ and _The Ford Theatre Hour_. (To put it the other way around, she’s gone from playing Jo in a made-for-TV version of “Little Women” to getting big-screen work as – well, “Grandmother”.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/656 "2015-01-17T22:24:07Z")
Johnny Carson’s [del]second banana Ed McMahon[/del] third banana **Doc Severinsen** was performing on television back in '57 – and '56, and '55, and '54, and '53. (He also has various TV acting credits: apparently not just stunt casting as Doc The Trumpeter, but as, like, the hotel manager in an episode of _Bonanza_. Why? I have no idea.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/657 "2015-01-18T13:55:33Z")
It’s a shame Rhodes Reason wasn’t mentioned earlier in this thread, since he racked up plenty of early TV credits long before passing away late last month. But his brother **Rex Reason** is still with us, long after starring as the title character in _Man Without A Gun_ in 1957 and 1958 and 1959, after acting on _Schlitz Playhouse_ and _Conflict_ and _Science Fiction Theatre_ and et cetera. (Rex also got plenty of big-screen roles back then: _Band of Angels_, with Clark Gable; _Salome_, with Rita Hayworth; _Taza, Son of Cochise_ with Rock Hudson; and so on. And, honestly: ROCK HUDSON AND REX REASON? Sounds like THEY FIGHT CRIME!) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/658 "2015-01-19T15:03:30Z")
Broadway actress **Allyn Ann McLerie** is still up and around, after landing a recurring role on _Brooklyn Bridge_ in the 1990s and one on _The Days And Nights Of Molly Dodd_ in the 1980s – and those years on _The Tony Randall Show_ in the 1970s after performing on the _Music For A Spring Night_ TV series in the 1960s – after beating the 1957 deadline on _Paul Whiteman’s Goodyear Revue_ and _The Ed Sullivan Show_. (Plenty of movie roles going back through the years, too: _All The President’s Men_, with Robert Redford; _The Way We Were_, with Redford; _Jeremiah Johnson_, with Redford; and so on.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2015, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/659 "2015-01-20T18:14:05Z")
Back in the 1950s, **Virginia McKenna** beat the deadline as a young Juliet in a made-for-TV version of “Romeo and Juliet”; by the 1970s, she was old enough to play Mrs. Darling in a made-for-TV version of “Peter Pan” with Mia Farrow as Peter Pan, and Danny Kaye as Captain Hook, and, honestly, that just sounds all _kinds_ of messed up. In between, she of course earned a 1960s Golden Globe nomination, for _Born Free_, and that’s probably going to be stuck in your head all day now, and I apologize. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/660 "2015-01-21T19:42:20Z")
Since there’s fresh discussion in another thread about _Raiders of the Lost Ark_, I’m reminded that **Nicole Maurey** of _Secret of the Incas_ fame is still with us sixty years after acting on _The Ford Television Theatre_ in '55. (She also beat the deadline on _Casablanca_ and _Overseas Press Club - Exclusive!_ – which weren’t, respectively, a movie and a tabloid news show, but classic 1950s TV fiction.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=32) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=34)