5 facts about 5 past TV shows. . .
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M*A*S*H
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Some of the cast served in the military:
Alda (Hawkeye Pierce) was in the Army Reserve for six months in Korea.
Jamie Farr (Max Klinger) enlisted, and was stationed in Japan when Red Skelton requested his services on his USO Tour through Korea.
Wayne Rogers (Trapper John McIntyre) joined the U.S. Navy for a time as a ship navigator.
Mike Farrell (B.J. Hunnicut) served in the U.S. Marine Corps.
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The episode “Abyssinia, Henry” ends on one of the saddest moments that I have ever seen on TV. Colonel Henry Blake having received an honorable discharge, leaves for home. Radar enters the operating theatre ungowned and without a mask. Hawk yells to him to put on a mask. A stunned and distraught Radar tells everyone that he has received a message: Colonel Blake’s plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan, there were no survivors.
See the scene by clicking on:
Until M*A*S*H, whenever an actor left a television show, they’d be written off in a way that could be temporary. M*A*S*H changed that.
The main actors were shown the final page of the script, with Colonel Blake’s death, just before filming the scene. All the extras, however, had genuine shock when his death was announced.
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M*A*S*H ran for 11 years, 11 seasons (1972 – 1983), telling the story of Army doctors and nurses dealing with the Korean War. The actual war lasted three years, one month, and two days,
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Alan Alda co-wrote and directed 31 episodes of the series, being the first person to ever win an Emmy for acting, directing, and writing on the same program.
That 31 count includes the series finale - around 106 million viewers tuned in to watch the MASH finale, making it the most-watched TV episode of all time. It kept that record for 25 years until Super Bowl XLIV surpassed it.
A few minutes after MASH's final episode, "Goodbye, Farewell And Amen," many New Yorkers headed straight to the bathroom. In fact, according to UPI, approximately one million people in New York went to the toilet at the same time, as the city's sewers were flooded with 6.7 million gallons of water at once. According to the city's Department of Environmental Protection at the time, the flow rate in the water tunnels leapt by 150 million gallons at around 11:03 pm, exactly three minutes after the finale finished.
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A number of stars got their break on M*A*S*H. Ron Howard played an underage Marine. Leslie Nielsen played a Colonel. Patrick Swayze portrayed an injured soldier with leukemia. John Ritter, Laurence Fishburne, Pat Morita, Rita Wilson, George Wendt, Shelley Long, Ed Begley Jr., Blythe Danner, Teri Garr, and even Andrew Dice Clay also all visited the 4077th.
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Robert Alda, Alan Alda’s father appeared in two episodes of M*A*S*H as Doctor Anthony B. Borelli, a visiting surgeon and Civilian Medical consultant (seasons 3 and 8). He portrayed George Gershwin in the 1945 biopic Rhapsody in Blue, where he had a female love interest. It was never mentioned that Gershwin was gay.
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Bonanza
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“Bonanza” was a hit TV show, a western series telling the story of the Cartwright family, that premiered in 1959 and ran for over 14 years. When it finished in 1973, Bonanza’s 14 seasons and 440 episodes made it the second-longest-running western in broadcast history, after Gunsmoke.
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In this era, TV shows were typically 30 minutes in length. Producer David Dortort wanted to change this, and asked that the show get rid of the 30 minute length and move to one hour. His reasoning was he wanted more time to get in depth with the characters and thought an hour would be better suited for the task. Typically fathers in sitcoms at this time were portrayed as bumblers, with the wives being the responsible ones, Dortort wished to change that.
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The Cartwrights were an all-male family headed by Ben (played by Lorne Greene), thrice a widower with a son from each marriage: Adam (Pernell Roberts), Hoss (Dan Blocker), and Little Joe (Michael Landon).
Roberts left Bonanza in 1965, but the popularity of the show, now with only two sons, remained undiminished. However, the unexpected death of Blocker in 1972 left a bigger hole, and Bonanza ended one season later.
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Dortort envisioned Bonanza as an Old West presentation of the legend of King Arthur. Ben Cartwright was King Arthur and his sons were his knights.
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Most of the show's actors created musical albums, and all four Cartwrights sang in a 1964 album called "Christmas at the Ponderosa." Greene was especially successful in this field, and his single "Ringo" was a huge hit in the US and Canada.
Hear them sing by clicking on:
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Wanted: Dead or Alive
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Western television series Wanted: Dead or Alive ran from 1958 to 196. A switch to Wednesday nights for the third season opposite the established “Ozzie and Harriet” on ABC and the color “Price Is Right” on NBC caused “Wanted…” to falter, dropping below the Top 25, and it was canceled
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The Mare's Leg weapon carried by Josh Randall (Steve McQueen) is a cut down Winchester model 1892 carbine in 44-40 caliber, but the bullets in his cartridge belt are 45-70 caliber rounds used in the larger, more powerful rifles of the day. The producers wanted to use the 45-70s because they were more visually impressive than the relatively small, pistol sized rounds actually used in the 1892 carbine. The use of the 1892 carbine is itself an anachronism as the series is set in the 1870s.
You can buy a working model of the Mare's Leg today for about a grand. Rifle manufacturer Henry currently sells three iterations of the Mare's Leg as a .44 for $975, inspired by the Western series.
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After getting offered the chance to star in The Magnificent Seven (1960), McQueen found out that the only way he could do the film, which was being shot simultaneously with "Wanted: Dead or Alive", was to fake an accident or illness and get a medical leave from the series. According to his first wife, Neile, McQueen accomplished this feat by "faking" a car crash in which he merely crashed his car into a tree, receiving minor cuts, muscle pulls, and bruises, and getting his medical leave. The series' production went on temporary hiatus while McQueen filmed "The Magnificent Seven".
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Initially, the creators of the series had a hard time selling the show because bounty hunters were thought to be unsavory characters and have been portrayed as such in numerous western shows and movies. The creators overcame this obstacle by having Josh Randall give most, sometimes ALL, of his earnings to help people such as the families of people murdered by the men Randall brings in, thus making Randall a sympathetic and likable character.
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After a blazing big screen career, McQueen died at 50 of cancer November 7, 1980, with his third wife and two children at his side.
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The Fugitive
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The series (1963 – 1967) tells the story of Dr. Richard Kimble who is accused as the murderer of his wife, tried and convicted. On his way to be executed, he escapes. The only chance to prove his innocence is to find the man who killed his wife. Kimble, pursued by Lt. Gerard, risks his life several times when he shows his identity to help other people out of trouble.
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This was the first series to feature a "final episode" in which all the plot lines were resolved, and all questions answered.
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While originally conceived as a modern-day western, many plot points were also taken from Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. Like Jean Valjean, Richard Kimble is on the run from the law, and must frequently change locales to stay free. His pursuer, Gerard, is both inspired by, and named after, Inspector Javert.
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The show appears to be based on the Samuel Sheppard murder case of 1954. While the show does feature some similarities to the case, Roy Huggins consistently denied that he based Richard Kimble on Sheppard, or the fictional murder on the real one. Claiming that he was unfamiliar with the Sheppard case until the series began, he said the show was actually influenced by his love for Westerns, and he wanted to do a series about a modern character roaming around the country, in a similar fashion to a mythic cowboy.
Sam Sheppard was an American neurosurgeon. He was convicted of the 1954 murder of his pregnant wife, Marilyn Reese Sheppard, but the conviction was eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, which cited a "carnival atmosphere" at the trial. Sheppard was acquitted at a retrial in 1966.
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Barry Morse had said that on more than one occasion, he was accosted by elderly ladies in supermarkets, telling him to "leave that nice Dr. Kimble alone", telling him that a one-armed man is the true killer.
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Happy Days
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Happy Days is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, it was one of the most successful series of the 1970s. The series presented an idealized vision of life in the 1950s and early 1960s Midwestern United States, and it starred Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham, Henry Winkler as his friend Fonzie, and Tom Bosley and Marion Ross as Richie's parents, Howard and Marion Cunningham.
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Although Fonzie loved motorcycles, Henry Winkler was terrified of them. Most of the scenes of Fonzie riding the motorcycle were shot with the bike attached to a platform, and being pulled by a truck.
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Many fans agree that the show's quality deteriorated after the three-part season 5 opener, "Hollywood", where Fonzie jumps a shark while water-skiing. Today, when a show takes a sharp drop in quality, has strayed from its original premise beyond the point of no return, or has writers insert desperate attempts for ratings, it's said to have "jumped the shark".
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Its ratings were so low at the end of its second season (and first full season) that it came close to being cancelled. Then Henry Winkler's "Fonzie" character started to catch on with viewers, the ratings took a turn for the better, and the show wound up running another nine years.
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In the final episode, Tom Bosley stepped out of character and turned to the camera thanking the viewers for being part of the Cunningham family for the many years the show had been on.
