# 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:** 34
**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 22, 2015, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/661 "2015-01-22T15:42:00Z")
After hosting the _Manhattan Showcase_ TV series in the '40s, future two-time Tony winner and three-time Emmy winner **Helen Gallagher** was singing on _The Colgate Comedy Hour_ and acting on _Kraft Theatre_ before the end of '57; you could also see her on episodes of _The Ed Sullivan Show_ and _Don Ameche’s Musical Playhouse_ and _The Paul Whiteman’s Goodyear Revue_ and et cetera. ---
**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 23, 2015, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/662 "2015-01-23T17:12:54Z")
**Zohra Lampert** was acting on TV back as far back as '56, and after doing episodes of _Decoy_ in the late '50s spent the '60s on classic shows like _The Defenders_ and _The Alfred Hitchcock Hour_ and _I SPY_ and _The Man From UNCLE_, and kept at it in the '70s (when she won an Emmy on _Kojack_) and '80s (when she got work on _Knight Rider_ and _Airwolf_ and et cetera) before sticking exclusively to movies in the '90s and '00s and '10s. ---
**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:** [January 24, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/663 "2015-01-24T20:24:47Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > **Jerry Maren** was a frickin’ Munchkin in _The Wizard of Oz_, had his most recent movie credit in 2010, was the _Hamburglar_ in between, and worked on the _Andy’s Gang_ TV series back in '55 even if you don’t count how _Superman and the Mole Men_ got turned into episodes of the show with George Reeves back when. > > Oh, and he was the diminutive dad from the “Yada Yada” episode of _Seinfeld_. Happy 96[sup]th[/sup], Jerry! ---
**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 24, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/664 "2015-01-24T20:37:08Z")
Michael Learned, who back in the 1970s was nominated for six consecutive Emmys on _The Waltons_ – and won half of 'em, which is pretty good – did a TV miniseries back in 1963, and a made-for-TV version of _Great Expectations_ in 1962, after earning her first TV credit back in 1961. So she doesn’t qualify. But her ex-husband **Peter Donat** – yeah, he’s good back to '57 (_Producers’ Showcase_), and '56 (_Camera Three_), and '55 (_Showcase_, again), and '54 (_Kraft Theatre_), and '53 (_Robert Montgomery Presents_). And, man, he’s a That Guy Who Was In That Thing if anyone ever was. ---
**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 26, 2015, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/665 "2015-01-26T00:45:13Z")
**Corinne Conley** is still getting work in her eighties – just a few months ago she was on TV acting alongside Erica _“Smallville”_ Durance and Michael _“Stargate”_ Shanks – and in her seventies she voiced Gran Berenstain on the _Berenstain Bears_ cartoon and played Rose Kennedy in that made-for-TV movie about _RFK_ with Linus Roache in the role he was born to play. (Seriously, how did he only top out at a Golden Globe nomination for that one?) Anyhow, in her sixties she was doing episodes of _Forever Knight_, and in her fifties she was doing episodes of _Quincy M.E._, and in her forties it was _Hogan’s Heroes_, and in her thirties she was frickin’ Dolly on _Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer_, so, yeah. And in her twenties she was beating the deadline on (a) TV show after TV show after TV show, and on (b) the _Flight Into Danger_ TV movie, where she played the stewardess on a plane where the pilot and co-pilot have succumbed to food poisoning after eating the fish, which means a passenger has to take the controls even though he maybe has a drinking problem and maybe isn’t over Macho Grande. ---
**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 26, 2015, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/666 "2015-01-26T12:33:22Z")
To bump this for post 666, I’ll note that **Keely Smith** did “That Old Black Magic” at the fiftieth Grammy Awards with Kid Rock – which was only fair, since that song won big for her and Louis Prima at the first Grammy Awards way back in 1959, the year they sang together on _The Ed Sullivan Show_. And they were still singing together on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ in 1960, when she was appearing on _The Jack Paar Tonight Show_. Heck, they were still singing together on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ even after she did _The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson_. And after acting on _The Loretta Young Show_ and _The Red Skelton Hour_, she made the rounds on _The Dean Martin Show_ and _The Joey Bishop Show_ and so on… …but, for purposes of the thread, I’ll of course add that, yes, before she and Prima were doing their thing on _The Frank Sinatra Show_ in 1958, she was appearing on TV back in 1957, the year her first album came out. ---
**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 28, 2015, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/667 "2015-01-28T01:42:40Z")
Kiefer Sutherland’s mom (and Donald Sutherland’s ex-wife) **Shirley Douglas** is still up and around – that was her as Madeleine Albright in that _Path To 9/11_ TV movie just a few years back – but back before she was playing the Grandma in a _Barney_ video, and before she was on _Alfred Hitchcock Presents_ with Mike Connors, and even before she had a small role in _Lolita_ back when James Mason was at his best, she was acting on TV (a) before the deadline, and (b) with an intro from Douglas Fairbanks Jr. ---
**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 29, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/668 "2015-01-29T00:10:16Z")
Now in her eighties, **Betta St. John** made her screen debut alongside Jimmy Stewart way back when in _Destry Rides Again_, followed by an “Our Gang” short, followed by yet other movie work in the '40s and '50s before switching to TV roles in '55 and '56 and '57 (and '58 and '59, for that matter). She still makes the rounds on occasion: popping in when the surviving original-cast members from _South Pacific_ are reliving their glory days, or when she’s being interviewed about those _Tarzan_ movies she did in the '50s and '60s, and et cetera. ---
**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 29, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/669 "2015-01-29T16:37:46Z")
**Ed Ames** beat the deadline on _State Trooper_ and _Cavalcade of Stars_ and, y’know, _The Ames Brothers Show_, but you maybe remember him from his _Daniel Boone_ days as the tomahawk-thrower Johnny Carson didn’t know was Jewish. ---
**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 30, 2015, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/670 "2015-01-30T11:36:30Z")
Poor little rich girl **Gloria Vanderbilt** was acting on _Studio One In Hollywood_ and _Producers’ Showcase_ before the deadline, after which she spent the rest of the '50s acting on _Kraft Theatre_ and _Playhouse 90_ and so on, and then she kept acting in the '60s before of course making TV appearances as herself in the '70s and '80s and '90s and '00s and '10s, including rather a lot with son Anderson Cooper. ---
**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 31, 2015, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/671 "2015-01-31T13:54:36Z")
In the 1980s, Jennifer Grey had a promising career and a distinctive nose, both of which are long gone. But her famous dad Joel Grey is still around, and so has already been mentioned; and her less-famous mom, **Jo Wilder** , is also still around, more than fifty years after she was acting on _The Defenders_ and _The Detectives_ and so on: back in '56 she was acting on _Stanley_ with Buddy Hackett and Paul Lynde and appearing on _Washington Square_ like Vincent Price and Sammy Davis Jr. Note that this also makes Clark Gregg her son-in-law. ---
**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:** [February 1, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/672 "2015-02-01T15:55:52Z")
Korean War veteran **Sonny James** is still with us long after beating the deadline on everything from _The DuPont Show of the Month_ to _The Spike Jones Show_ to _The Ed Sullivan Show_, sure as he was plenty busy on _Hee Haw_ in the '60s and '70s and '80s. ---
**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:** [February 2, 2015, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/673 "2015-02-02T23:59:57Z")
Jerry Lewis has been mentioned, and with good reason. Jerry **Lee** Lewis, though, has so far escaped mention, despite racking up actor and singer credits on _The Steve Allen Plymouth Show_ as far back as 1957, the year he was appearing on episode after episode after episode of _American Bandstand_. Goodness gracious. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/674 "2015-02-04T00:56:37Z")
Iconic TV game-show host **Tom Kennedy** – that was him on _Hollywood Squares_, and on _Break The Bank_, and on _To Say The Least_, and on everything else from _Password Plus_ to _Password All-Stars_ to _Super Password_ – was earning paychecks as the announcer on _Date With The Angels_ in '57 and '58; after that, it was all _Match Game_ this and _Name That Tune_ that and _The Price Is Right_ the other and so on for decades. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2015, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/675 "2015-02-04T04:04:27Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Iconic TV game-show host **Tom Kennedy** – that was him on _Hollywood Squares_, and on _Break The Bank_, and on _To Say The Least_, and on everything else from _Password Plus_ to _Password All-Stars_ to _Super Password_ – was earning paychecks as the announcer on _Date With The Angels_ in '57 and '58; after that, it was all _Match Game_ this and _Name That Tune_ that and _The Price Is Right_ the other and so on for decades. Surely it was Peter Marshall on _ **Squares** _ and Gene Rayburn on _ **Match Game** _? Also, _ **To Say the Least** _? Are you sure it wasn’t _ **You Don’t Say** _? The only other thing I remember Tom on was _ **Split Second** _, but it’s not listed above. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/676 "2015-02-04T12:37:21Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Surely it was Peter Marshall on _ **Squares** _ and Gene Rayburn on _ **Match Game** _? > > Also, _ **To Say the Least** _? Are you sure it wasn’t _ **You Don’t Say** _? His [IMDB](http://m.imdb.com/name/nm0448368/) page credits him with roughly a dozen appearances on _Hollywood Squares_, as well as dozens of credits hosting _To Say The Least_, plus, y’know, _Match Game_. > [@](#): > > The only other thing I remember Tom on was _ **Split Second** _, but it’s not listed above. Oh, that’s on there too – and him hosting _Doctor IQ_ in the '50s, and hosting _About Faces_ in the '60s, and hosting _It’s Your Bet_ in the '70s, and hosting _Body Language_ in the '80s, and a bunch of other stuff. How much time have you got? Oh, and so long as I’m bumping this thread with that reply, I’ll add that your healthy skepticism brings to mind the SDMB’s favorite magician and constant inspiration to us all: **The Amazing Randi** , who beat the deadline on live national television by spending an hour and a half in a sealed metal coffin on the bottom of a swimming pool on the _Today_ show to beat Harry Houdini’s record. And then, sure, from 1959 to 1967 you could see him on _Wonderama_, and after doing _I’ve Got A Secret_ he was the magician in the pilot episode of _Sesame Street_ in 1969 – followed, of course, by all those appearances on _The Tonight Show_ in the 1970s and 1980s, followed by his own _James Randi: Psychic Investigator_ series in the 1990s, followed by various episodes of _Penn & Teller: Bullshit_ in the '00s, followed by plenty of stuff right here in the '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:** [February 5, 2015, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/677 "2015-02-05T20:06:44Z")
**Karen Pendleton** spent '55 and '56 and '57 as a _Mickey Mouse Club_ Mouseketeer, stopping off along the way to do _Along The Oregon Trail_ (and _Westward Ho, The Wagons_ up on the big screen, but that’s irrelevant). ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2015, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/678 "2015-02-06T05:10:04Z")
**Jolene Brand** has 3 tv appearances in 1957, one on Burns and Allen. She’s 81 now and has been married to George Schlatter since 1956! ---
**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:** [February 6, 2015, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/679 "2015-02-06T12:03:29Z")
I see she did an episode of _Zorro_ in '58 – alongside **Jack Lilley** , who’d been acting on that show since back in '57 (the year he was also acting on _Cheyenne_) and kept at it in '59 (when he was also on _Maverick_ and _Rawhide_ and _Bat Masterson_) and '60 (when he was also on _Sugarfoot_ and _Have Gun - Will Travel_ and _Wanted: Dead or Alive_). He then spent the '60s and '70s and '80s and '90s playing a stagecoach driver whenever they needed one on _The Wild Wild West_, or _Gunsmoke_, or _Little House on the Prairie_, or _Rough Riders_, and et cetera; in the '00s and '10s, he’s been working steadily as a wrangler on TV and in the movies; IMDB has his most recent credit right here in '15. ---
**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:** [February 7, 2015, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/680 "2015-02-07T22:32:55Z")
I see **Maureen O’Hara** is set to get special attention at the Oscars later this month, long after all that small-screen work she got in the '60s – that was her as Mrs. Miniver in the 1960 _Mrs. Miniver_ TV movie on CBS, and that was her as Lady Marguerite in the _DuPont Show of the Month_’s made-for-TV version of “The Scarlet Pimpernel” later the same year, and after that she was singing on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ in '61 and '62, sure as she was beating the deadline on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ back in the '50s well _before_ that, and likewise on _Lux Video Theatre_, sure as she made the 1950s rounds on _The Bob Hope Show_ and _The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show_ and so on and son, forever and ever, amen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=33) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=35)