100 Fun Facts About 50s TV

I Love Lucy premiered in October 1951 on which network?

It ran for 180 half-hour episodes over six seasons and was still the most-watched show in America when it ended in 1957.

Where did the name of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's studio, Desilu, come from?

Desilu later produced Star Trek, Mission: Impossible and The Untouchables, and Ball ran it herself after the divorce.

What happens in the record-setting January 1953 I Love Lucy episode watched by 71.7 percent of TV homes?

The birth episode aired the night before Eisenhower's inauguration and drew more viewers than the swearing-in did.

I Love Lucy pioneered filming a sitcom in front of a live audience with how many cameras?

Cinematographer Karl Freund, who had shot Metropolis, worked out how to light the set evenly for all the cameras at once, and the format is still standard for sitcoms.

What job did Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden hold on The Honeymooners?

He worked for the fictional Gotham Bus Company but was almost never seen actually driving; a Brooklyn bus depot was later named for Gleason.

Where did Ralph's upstairs neighbour Ed Norton work?

Norton described himself as a 'sub-supervisor in the sub-division of the department of subterranean sanitation'.

Before the "Classic 39" on CBS, The Honeymooners began as sketches on Cavalcade of Stars on which network?

When Gleason moved to CBS, Audrey Meadows took over as Alice because original Alice Pert Kelton had been blacklisted.

Who played Marshal Matt Dillon on the TV version of Gunsmoke?

William Conrad had voiced Dillon on radio; the popular story that John Wayne was offered the TV role is disputed by cast members.

Gunsmoke was set in which frontier town?

The show's Long Branch Saloon was a real Dodge City establishment, and the modern town's Boot Hill museum trades on the connection.

How many seasons did the TV Gunsmoke run after its 1955 debut?

Its 635 episodes made it the longest-running scripted primetime series in America until The Simpsons passed it.

Who created and hosted The Twilight Zone, which premiered on CBS in October 1959?

The show's first season earned him an unprecedented fourth Emmy for dramatic writing.

Of The Twilight Zone's 156 episodes, how many did its creator write or co-write himself?

Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson wrote most of the rest; the three of them account for 127 of the 156 scripts.

In which fictional town do the Cleavers live in Leave It to Beaver?

The family moved from 485 Mapleton Drive to 211 Pine Street for season three, and June was later elected to the town council.

'Beaver' Cleaver's real first name is what?

The nickname supposedly came from big brother Wally mispronouncing it when Beaver was a baby.

Which Leave It to Beaver character was polite to adults and a wise guy behind their backs?

Ken Osmond played him for the whole run and, in the 1980s sequel, an adult Haskell running a contracting business with a son just like him.

Under what title did The Ed Sullivan Show originally air from 1948?

It was widely called The Ed Sullivan Show for years before that became the official name in September 1955.

Elvis Presley's first Ed Sullivan appearance in September 1956 drew what record share of the TV audience?

The famous 'from the waist up' camera order only applied to his third and final appearance, not this one.

Twenty-One champion Charles Van Doren, later exposed as having been fed the answers, taught at which university?

His run made the cover of Time and briefly pushed Twenty-One past I Love Lucy in the ratings before it all unravelled.

Herb Stempel was ordered to lose on Twenty-One by missing which Best Picture winner?

He was told to answer with the previous year's winner instead, and it was one of his favourite films, which made the dive sting all the more.

How much had Van Doren won on Twenty-One by the time he was finally beaten in March 1957?

He was unseated by lawyer Vivienne Nearing; his defeat came before the fixing was exposed and he later lost his job on NBC's Today.

Which 1994 Robert Redford film dramatised the Twenty-One scandal?

Stempel consulted on the film; Van Doren turned down $100,000 to do the same.

How many freckles did the Howdy Doody marionette have?

One for every state in the union at the time he was built, a count that went out of date when Alaska joined in January 1959.

Which future children's TV star first played Howdy Doody's mute clown?

The clown didn't speak because a speaking actor would have had to be paid union scale on the low-budget show.

Howdy Doody's onstage kids' bleachers inspired a syndicate to rename which Charles Schulz comic strip?

Schulz reportedly hated the name for the rest of his life; his strip had been called Li'l Folks.

Jack Webb played which Los Angeles police sergeant on Dragnet?

Webb also created the show and had wanted Lloyd Nolan for the TV role before agreeing to play it himself.

Under what title was the 1950s Dragnet later syndicated?

714 was Friday's badge number, and the real LAPD later retired it in Webb's honour.

Which cosmetics company sponsored The $64,000 Question, lending its name to the isolation booth?

The show broadcast live from CBS Studio 52 in New York, a building that later became the disco Studio 54.

Psychologist Joyce Brothers became famous by winning The $64,000 Question on which subject?

She parlayed the win into four decades of advice columns and TV appearances, the most durable career the show produced.

Raymond Burr originally auditioned for which role on Perry Mason?

Burr lost 100 pounds for the part and went on to play Mason for nine seasons and 271 episodes.

Perry Mason was based on detective novels by which lawyer-turned-writer?

Over nine seasons Mason lost only three cases on screen, and even those were quietly declared mistrials.

American Bandstand was broadcast from which city before it moved to Los Angeles in 1964?

It began locally on WFIL-TV in 1952 as Bandstand and went national on ABC in August 1957 with Dick Clark hosting.

Which Mouseketeer got a Zorro role as a birthday present from Walt because of her crush on the star?

Guy Williams, the object of the crush, was married; Funicello went on to record hits and star in the beach-party movies.

In Lassie's first four seasons, before Timmy, the collie belonged to a farm boy named what?

The Miller family left after actor George Cleveland, who played Gramps, died, and Lassie stayed on the farm with Timmy and the Martins.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents opened to which piece of music?

Bernard Herrmann suggested the Gounod piece, and Hitchcock drew the line caricature of his own profile that the camera fades in on.

Who was Sid Caesar's co-star on the live 90-minute Your Show of Shows?

The writers' room included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Carl Reiner, and inspired the film My Favorite Year.

Which company sponsored Milton Berle's Tuesday-night hit that made him 'Mr. Television'?

TV set ownership was said to grow from about 500,000 to more than 30 million during Berle's run, and Buick took over the sponsorship in 1953.

What age did Jack Benny's stingy TV persona insist he was, year after year?

Rod Serling once guested to inform him that anyone 39 for that long must live in a certain 'Zone'.

Which 1952–66 sitcom starred a real family, with son Ricky becoming a rock 'n' roll star during the run?

Exteriors were shot at the Nelsons' actual Hollywood house, and its 435 episodes are still the most of any live-action US sitcom.

Which cereal maker sponsored Adventures of Superman, starring George Reeves?

The last four seasons were shot in colour but broadcast in black and white; audiences didn't see them in colour until 1965.

Which chess piece appears on Paladin's calling card in Have Gun – Will Travel?

Richard Boone's gunfighter took his name from Charlemagne's knights and lived in luxury at San Francisco's Hotel Carlton between jobs.

From episode eight, Bret Maverick was joined by a brother, played by Jack Kelly, named what?

The show alternated the two poker-playing brothers because one unit could not shoot a weekly hour fast enough.

NBC's parent company RCA kept Bonanza on the air in its early days partly to sell what?

The Ponderosa's Lake Tahoe scenery was among the first regular series footage broadcast in colour, and RCA was the show's main sponsor for two seasons.

Jack Paar took over NBC's Tonight in July 1957, restoring the format of which original host?

In between, the network had tried a news-oriented 'Tonight! America After Dark' that flopped.

J. Fred Muggs, a regular on NBC's Today from 1953 to 1957, was what kind of animal?

Host Dave Garroway reportedly loathed him; the ape's antics were credited with helping the struggling morning show find an audience.

Which CBS newsman hosted See It Now, the documentary series remembered for its Red Scare episodes?

The show grew out of Murrow's radio programme Hear It Now, produced with Fred W. Friendly.

On What's My Line?, the celebrity panel questioned each contestant to guess their what?

For the weekly mystery guest the panel was blindfolded; the last one on the 1967 CBS finale was host John Daly himself.

Where did Captain Kangaroo get his name?

The show ran from 1955 to 1984, the longest-running children's programme on a commercial network.

Who hosted the original The Price Is Right when it launched on NBC in 1956?

The bidding rule was already there: closest without going over won the prize.

On Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life, what dropped from the ceiling on the secret word?

The duck wore Groucho's glasses and moustache and carried a $100 prize; sidekick George Fenneman handled the announcing.

What did Robert Young's Jim Anderson do for a living on Father Knows Best?

The show began on radio in 1949, where Jim was far more sarcastic than the gentle TV father.

Jay Silverheels, who played Tonto on The Lone Ranger, was a member of which First Nation?

Clayton Moore was briefly replaced by John Hart for 52 episodes and then rehired when the show changed owners.

Walt Disney's 1954 anthology series was created largely to finance what?

CBS and NBC both turned it down; ABC took it, and the show's Davy Crockett episodes set off the coonskin-cap craze of 1955.

Who played Davy Crockett in Disney's 1954–55 episodes that spawned a national merchandise craze?

Americans bought some $300 million of Crockett merchandise by the end of 1955; Parker later claimed his cut was voided on a technicality.

Which Mary Martin Broadway musical was broadcast live in colour on NBC in March 1955?

It was so popular that the whole cast restaged it live again on television in January 1956.

Sergeant Bilko ran the motor pool at which sleepy Army post on The Phil Silvers Show?

The name Bilko came from minor-league slugger Steve Bilko, with a nod to 'bilking' people out of money.

In the puppet show Kukla, Fran and Ollie, what kind of creature was Ollie?

Burr Tillstrom voiced and operated every puppet himself; Fran Allison was usually the only human on screen.

Which organisation formally protested the 1951 TV Amos 'n' Andy as 'a gross libel of the Negro'?

CBS kept the show in reruns until 1966, when pressure from the civil rights movement finally led it to withdraw the series.

In The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, orphan Rusty and his dog were adopted by cavalry at which post?

Rusty was made an honorary corporal of the 101st Cavalry; the show reused the Fort Apache movie set at Corriganville.

Which film actor starred as wagon master Major Seth Adams when Wagon Train debuted in 1957?

After Bond died in 1960, John Ford directed an episode as a favour that sneaked John Wayne in under the name Michael Morris.

Clint Eastwood played which cattle-drive character on Rawhide from 1959?

Frankie Laine sang the theme, with the orchestra conducted by a young John Williams billed as Johnny Williams.

Edd Byrnes's breakout character Kookie on 77 Sunset Strip was famous for constantly doing what?

It spawned the novelty hit 'Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)' with Connie Stevens on the chorus.

Which Boston lawyer served as the Army's special counsel in the televised 1954 Army–McCarthy hearings?

ABC and DuMont carried the hearings gavel to gavel, and McCarthy's approval rating collapsed over the summer.

In Richard Nixon's 1952 televised 'Checkers' speech, what breed of dog was Checkers?

About 60 million Americans watched, the biggest TV audience up to that time, and the speech kept Nixon on Eisenhower's ticket.

Which prime minister argued against televising the 1953 coronation, advice the Queen overruled?

Twenty-seven million Britons watched on the BBC, many buying or renting a set for the occasion.

Steve McQueen's bounty hunter in Wanted Dead or Alive carried a sawn-off Winchester nicknamed what?

McQueen couldn't ride a horse when he was cast and had to learn for the show.

Broderick Crawford's Highway Patrol popularised which radio code meaning 'acknowledged'?

Fans still hold a '10-4 Day' parade of vintage police cars in Hollywood every October 4.

Who played Maynard G. Krebs, television's first beatnik, on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis?

Denver was drafted midway through 1959, failed his Army physical and came back; he later became Gilligan.

What was the name of the aeroplane flown by rancher-hero Sky King?

It was really a twin-engine Cessna, first a T-50 'Bamboo Bomber' and later a 1957 Cessna 310B.

What was the profession of Donna Stone's husband Alex on The Donna Reed Show?

Reed's friends said Donna Stone was essentially Reed herself; the show ran on ABC from 1958 to 1966.

Winky Dink and You (1953-57), hailed as the first interactive TV show, had kids draw on the set using what?

The transparent sheet clung to the set by static electricity and came in a 50-cent kit with crayons.

Which Oscar-winning character actor starred as Grandpa Amos in The Real McCoys (1957-63)?

Danny Thomas's company co-produced the San Fernando Valley farm sitcom, which was filmed at Desilu.

Cheyenne, which debuted on ABC in 1955, holds what television distinction?

It was also the first hour-long drama of any kind with continuing characters to last beyond a single season.

Which composer wrote the famous theme for the 1958 private-eye series Peter Gunn?

Blake Edwards created the show, reportedly the first detective series written directly for television rather than adapted.

Disney's Zorro (1957-59), starring Guy Williams, is set in Los Angeles in which year?

That placed the story in Spanish California, before Mexican independence; a colourised remaster followed in 1992.

Lloyd Bridges played former Navy diver Mike Nelson in which syndicated 1958-61 series?

Ivan Tors produced 155 episodes of the underwater adventure, which stayed popular in reruns for decades.

In The Rifleman (1958-63), Chuck Connors's Lucas McCain raises his son in which fictional town?

His rapid-fire Winchester Model 1892 was an anachronism in a show set in the 1880s.

Which gossip columnist provided the terse narration on The Untouchables (1959-63)?

Robert Stack's Eliot Ness won him an Emmy in 1960, and Nelson Riddle wrote the ominous theme.

Why was CBS's live anthology series Playhouse 90 (1956-60) given that name?

Most live dramas then ran an hour; its Requiem for a Heavyweight later ranked among TV Guide's greatest episodes.

In The Millionaire (1955-60), what was the name of the unseen benefactor who gave away a million dollars weekly?

Viewers saw only his arm handing the cheque to secretary Michael Anthony, played by Marvin Miller.

Eve Arden's Our Miss Brooks, a TV hit from 1952, cast her in what job?

It had begun on CBS radio in 1948 and was even turned into a feature film in 1956.

Lawrence Welk's ABC show, which went national in 1955, branded its easy-listening style as what?

A dancer at a Pittsburgh hotel had called his band 'light and bubbly as champagne', and the show's bubble machine was built to make the tagline visual.

NBC adopted which symbol in 1956 to flag its colour broadcasts?

NBC's owner RCA made colour sets, so 'the Bird' doubled as a sales tool; the chimes remained the network's official logo until 1959.

How did Dinah Shore always close her 1950s TV shows?

Her Chevrolet-sponsored show went out live in NBC's 'Living Color', and the kiss came with an exclaimed 'MWAH!' to the viewers at home.

Who played the title role in Rodgers and Hammerstein's live 1957 TV musical Cinderella?

She was starring in My Fair Lady on Broadway at the time; more than 107 million people watched, and no understudies were cast.

Which comedian's TV show, launched in 1951, featured the tramp character Freddie the Freeloader?

Freddie was created for television in 1952, and Skelton copied the clown makeup of his own father, who had worked for the Hagenbeck–Wallace Circus.

Which actor spent $350,000 buying the TV rights to his own Hopalong Cassidy films?

He sold or mortgaged nearly everything he owned to do it, and in June 1949 Hopalong Cassidy became the first network western series.

Ernie Kovacs's recurring Nairobi Trio sketch featured musicians in what kind of costume?

Jack Lemmon and Frank Sinatra both took turns as the mallet-wielding ape who bonked Kovacs on the head in time to 'Solfeggio'.

Which future film star worked as a stunt tester on Beat the Clock before he was famous?

He was reportedly let go for completing the stunts too quickly; playwright Neil Simon was one of the show's early stunt writers.

Zenith's 1955 Flash-Matic, the first wireless TV remote, worked by aiming what at the set?

Its photocells could not tell the remote from sunlight, so channels sometimes changed on their own; the 1956 Space Command switched to ultrasound.

Which BBC programme, first broadcast in April 1957, kept the same presenter for over 55 years?

Patrick Moore missed only one edition, in 2004, when salmonella put him out of action; many early episodes went out live and were never recorded.

Twelve Angry Men began in 1954 as a live teleplay on which anthology series?

Robert Cummings played the holdout juror and won an Emmy for it; Henry Fonda took the part in the 1957 film.

Sponsor Quaker Oats tied the Mountie series Sergeant Preston to a 1955 giveaway of deeds to what?

Twenty-one million deeds went into cereal boxes, but none were ever registered, and the Yukon land office still fields letters about them.

Accepting his Emmy, Bishop Fulton Sheen credited which 'four writers' for his success?

He borrowed the line from Milton Berle, his Tuesday-night ratings rival, who had joked that the bishop simply had better writers.

The 1955 ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood secretly gave work to which group?

Producer Hannah Weinstein created the show partly for that purpose; Ring Lardner Jr. and Waldo Salt wrote episodes under pseudonyms.

Who composed Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera written for American television?

It premiered live on Christmas Eve 1951 as the debut of the Hallmark Hall of Fame; his partner Samuel Barber had to finish the orchestrations in time.

To spoil ITV's launch night in September 1955, the BBC killed a character in which radio soap?

Grace Archer ran into a burning stable to save a horse and was dead on arrival at hospital; she had married Phil only five months earlier.

Which connect-the-dots game show was pulled in August 1958 after its producer admitted it was fixed?

A standby contestant found a rival's notebook of answers; host Jack Narz only learned of the cancellation after the final shows were taped.

Which singer became the first Black actress to star in a TV sitcom, in ABC's Beulah (1950)?

She filmed it in the Bronx while appearing on Broadway in The Member of the Wedding, then quit after one season.

Which 1950 syndicated western was the first television series to be filmed in colour?

Few viewers saw it that way until the 1960s; Duncan Renaldo's Cisco and Leo Carrillo's Pancho were technically wanted outlaws.

The BBC's 1953 serial The Quatermass Experiment reached its alien climax in which London landmark?

The monster was writer Nigel Kneale's gloved hands, covered in plant matter, poked through a photo blow-up of the Abbey; his future wife Judith Kerr helped make them.