98 Fun Facts About 1960s Television

The first Kennedy-Nixon debate of September 1960 was held in the studios of WBBM-TV in which city?

Chicago. Nixon, weakened by a knee infection that had put him in hospital, sweated under the studio lights, and presidential nominees did not debate again until 1976.

Which writer created Coronation Street, basing its fictional Weatherfield on Salford?

Tony Warren. Granada's founder Sidney Bernstein disliked the idea, but producer Harry Elton talked the company's sceptical bosses into a 13-episode run.

The Flintstones, launched on ABC in 1960, was the first animated series to do what?

Air in prime time. Built like The Honeymooners to draw adults as well as children, it might have been set in ancient Rome, an idea its makers weighed before choosing the Stone Age.

The Andy Griffith Show was set in Mayberry, a fictional small town in which state?

North Carolina. Andy Griffith's home town of Mount Airy, which many take for the real Mayberry, now holds an annual Mayberry Days festival in the show's honour.

The Andy Griffith Show originated from an episode of which comedian's sitcom?

Danny Thomas. In a 1960 episode of his sitcom, his character was arrested by a small-town sheriff played by Andy Griffith, and that try-out became a series the same autumn.

Rob Petrie of The Dick Van Dyke Show was head writer for a fictional TV variety star with what name?

Alan Brady. Series creator Carl Reiner played the vain star himself, and for the first seasons kept his face off camera.

Rod Serling created which anthology series in 1959?

The Twilight Zone. Sponsors and network censors had rewritten his dramas about lynching, and he reckoned science fiction would let controversial ideas slip past them.

On The Avengers, which actress played Emma Peel opposite Patrick Macnee's John Steed?

Diana Rigg. On learning she earned less than the cameraman, she threatened to leave unless her pay rose, and the producers gave in.

The Beverly Hillbillies' Clampett family struck oil and moved to California from which mountains?

The Ozarks. Creator Paul Henning, a Missourian, drew on his own camping trips there, and the cast later filmed episodes at Silver Dollar City, a real Ozark theme park.

Which 1962 satellite relayed the first transatlantic television pictures?

Telstar. It fell silent within months, probably crippled by radiation from American nuclear weapons tests high above the Earth.

The Jetsons holds what distinction in ABC's history?

First programme broadcast in colour. Hardly anyone saw it that way in 1962, when few homes had colour sets and few ABC stations could transmit it, and the show lasted a single season.

Steptoe and Son's rag-and-bone men lived at 26a Oil Drum Lane in which part of London?

Shepherd's Bush. The series grew out of 'The Offer', a one-off play that Ray Galton and Alan Simpson wrote for Comedy Playhouse after their partnership with Tony Hancock ended.

Who presented the BBC's ground-breaking 1962-63 satire show That Was the Week That Was?

David Frost. When the BBC scheduled repeats of The Third Man straight after the show to stop it overrunning, he read out their plots on air until the repeats were dropped.

Doctor Who's 1963 debut aired eighty seconds late because of news about what?

The assassination of John F. Kennedy. Fearing the news and a run of power cuts had cost it viewers, the BBC showed the first episode again a week later, just before the second.

In The Fugitive, Dr Richard Kimble hunts the real killer of his wife, a man distinguished by what?

One arm. When Kimble finally cornered the one-armed man in the 1967 finale, nearly half of all American homes with a television were watching.

The Beatles' live American television debut, watched by about 73 million in February 1964, came on which show?

The Ed Sullivan Show. Seeing some 1,500 screaming fans greet the band at London's airport in October 1963 convinced Sullivan to pursue a booking.

The first Top of the Pops, in 1964, came from a converted chapel in which northern English city?

Manchester. Stars had to travel up from London to mime in a former Methodist chapel in Rusholme until the BBC moved the show south.

Ready Steady Go! opened every Friday evening with which slogan?

The weekend starts here! Manfred Mann wrote the show a new theme as a countdown to launch it, and '5-4-3-2-1' became the band's first hit.

Gilligan's Island's castaways left Honolulu on the SS Minnow for how long a tour?

Three hours. The wrecked boat was reputedly named to mock Newton Minow, the broadcasting regulator who in 1961 had called American television a 'vast wasteland'.

The Munsters lived at what address?

1313 Mockingbird Lane. The mansion survives on the Universal lot, where it was remodelled to play a neighbour's house on Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives.

The Addams Family sitcom of 1964 was based on cartoons from which magazine?

The New Yorker. Charles Addams's cartoon family went nameless for decades; Gomez and Pugsley only got their names when the television series needed them.

Which actor replaced the ailing original Darrin in Bewitched for its final three seasons?

Dick Sargent. Dick York was in crippling pain from a back injury suffered filming a 1959 western, and writers had already been sending Darrin away on business to cover his absences.

Which suave agent of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was co-conceived by the creator of James Bond?

Napoleon Solo. Ian Fleming supplied the name, then withdrew when the Bond film producers objected, and the pilot's title, Ian Fleming's Solo, had to go.

The 1964 'Daisy' political advertisement, aired only once, was made for which presidential candidate's campaign?

Lyndon B. Johnson. The spot never named Barry Goldwater: a girl counting daisy petals gave way to a countdown and a nuclear blast, and news programmes replayed it after it was pulled.

Which ABC prime-time soap, shown up to three nights a week from 1965, made stars of Mia Farrow and Ryan O'Neal?

Peyton Place. Farrow quit in 1966 at the urging of Frank Sinatra, whom she married that July, and her character was written out by having her walk out of town and disappear.

Merv Griffin's Jeopardy! debuted in 1964 with which original host?

Art Fleming. Merv Griffin said the format came from his wife: with networks wary after the quiz-show scandals, why not hand contestants the answers and have them supply the questions?

I Dream of Jeannie's Tony Nelson, played by Larry Hagman, worked for which organisation?

NASA. Tony lived in Cocoa Beach, beside the Florida launch pads, yet the show was filmed in California and its cast visited the real town only twice, both times in 1969.

Get Smart was created by Buck Henry and which comedy legend?

Mel Brooks. With spy shows everywhere after James Bond, producer Daniel Melnick of Talent Associates paired him with Henry to send the whole genre up.

Which Gerry Anderson puppet series named its five hero brothers after America's Mercury astronauts?

Thunderbirds. Gerry Anderson got the idea from a 1963 West German mine disaster, in which the drill needed to reach the trapped men took hours to arrive by train.

Hogan's Heroes was set in which fictional German prisoner-of-war camp?

Stalag 13. Werner Klemperer, who came from a Jewish family, agreed to play its commandant, Colonel Klink, only on condition that Klink was a fool who never came out on top.

Which East End bigot, played by Warren Mitchell, inspired America's Archie Bunker?

Alf Garnett. Warren Mitchell was his opposite, a lifelong socialist playing a Conservative-voting bigot in a series that set out to satirise racism.

Which American network put almost all its prime-time schedule in colour in autumn 1965?

NBC. Its parent company RCA made colour sets, so it billed itself as 'The Full Color Network' while CBS and ABC, with no sets to sell, took another year to catch up.

Which sitcom star's studio first produced Star Trek?

Lucille Ball. She had bought out Desi Arnaz in 1962 and was running Desilu alone when she approved the costly series, which was cancelled after three seasons and 79 episodes.

Gene Roddenberry pitched Star Trek in his first draft as which Western 'to the stars'?

Wagon Train. Roddenberry had written for westerns such as Have Gun – Will Travel, and he borrowed the hit's format: a self-contained adventure at each stop of one long journey.

Which actor played Batman in ABC's 1966 series, which aired twice a week with a cliffhanger in between?

Adam West. Producer William Dozier cast him after seeing him play a James Bond-style spy, Captain Q, in a commercial for Nestlé Quik.

Which actor played the Joker in the 1960s Batman series?

Cesar Romero. He refused to shave off his moustache, so the white make-up was simply applied over it, and it stays visible throughout the series.

Which TV band was cast through a 1965 advert seeking 'Folk & Roll Musicians-Singers' to play '4 insane boys'?

The Monkees. Stephen Stills auditioned and was turned down, but he recommended his friend Peter Tork, who got the part.

Which actor joined Mission: Impossible in season two as the team's new leader, Jim Phelps?

Peter Graves. He replaced Steven Hill, an Orthodox Jew who left the set before sundown every Friday, a routine the producers had not planned around.

The Prisoner's Village exteriors were filmed in which Welsh seaside spot?

Portmeirion. Patrick McGoohan had filmed there for his spy series Danger Man and returned to Clough Williams-Ellis's Mediterranean-style village to make it the Village.

Which US president-to-be uttered 'Sock it to me' as a cameo guest on Laugh-In in 1968?

Richard Nixon. Regular Judy Carne was soaked or dropped through a trapdoor whenever she said the line, but the candidate, like most guest stars, got away dry.

Dad's Army, which began on BBC1 in July 1968, is about which wartime force?

The Home Guard. Co-writer Jimmy Perry had joined it as a teenager in 1940, and the mollycoddled Private Pike was partly a portrait of himself.

Star Trek's 'Plato's Stepchildren' (1968) featured an interracial kiss between which characters?

Kirk and Uhura. The network feared stations in the Deep South would object, and William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols later gave opposite accounts of whether their lips really touched.

Jim Henson supplied the Muppets, but which producer created Sesame Street with Lloyd Morrisett in 1969?

Joan Ganz Cooney. The idea began at a dinner party at her flat in 1966, when Morrisett asked whether television could be used to teach young children.

Which Frank Sinatra hit's scat gave Scooby-Doo his name?

Strangers in the Night. CBS executive Fred Silverman said he heard its closing 'doo-be-doo-be-doo' on a flight and renamed the dog, until then called Too Much.

Which creator of Gilligan's Island also created The Brady Bunch, which debuted on ABC in September 1969?

Sherwood Schwartz. He meant Carol to be a divorcee, but ABC would not allow it, so the series never says what became of her first husband.

Which American-born member of Monty Python's Flying Circus made the animations linking its sketches?

Terry Gilliam. He is also said to have picked the theme tune, Sousa's march The Liberty Bell, because it was out of copyright and free to use.

Bonanza's Cartwright family ranch, the Ponderosa, was near which Nevada mining town by Lake Tahoe?

Virginia City. The town stands on the Comstock Lode, the great silver strike, and 'bonanza' was mining slang, borrowed from Spanish, for just such a rich lode.

Gunsmoke, which ran through the whole decade, was set in which Kansas town?

Dodge City. John Wayne recommended his friend James Arness to play Marshal Matt Dillon, then appeared on screen himself to introduce the first episode.

Which producer created and packaged The Dating Game in 1965, the first of his many game shows?

Chuck Barris. He later claimed, in a memoir George Clooney filmed as Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, to have been a CIA assassin on the side, a story no one has substantiated.

Which anchorman fronted CBS's live coverage of the Apollo 11 Moon landing in July 1969?

Walter Cronkite. He shared the desk with Wally Schirra, who had commanded Apollo 7 the previous autumn and then left the astronaut corps to become CBS's space consultant.

Which actor played Detective Captain Steve McGarrett in the original Hawaii Five-O, from 1968?

Jack Lord. The part was first offered to Richard Boone, who turned it down; Lord was asked at the last moment and was filming in Hawaii within days.

Irwin Allen's Lost in Space (1965) was inspired by which 1812 novel?

The Swiss Family Robinson. Its castaways became the space-going Robinsons, but the scheming Dr Smith was added only after the pilot, and Jonathan Harris was billed as a 'special guest star' every week.

Green Acres shared its setting, the farm town of Hooterville, with which other CBS sitcom?

Petticoat Junction. Storekeeper Sam Drucker and other townsfolk appeared in both shows, and CBS dropped Green Acres in 1971 in its 'rural purge' of country comedies.

Mister Ed, television's talking horse, would speak only to which owner, played by Alan Young?

Wilbur Post. The series existed because director Arthur Lubin, who had made the Francis the Talking Mule films, could not get the television rights to Francis.

The Wild Wild West, pitched as "James Bond on horseback", was set under which president?

Ulysses S. Grant. Robert Conrad, who played the agent guarding him, did most of his own stunts until a fall from a chandelier in 1968 put him in hospital.

Which CBS variety show was abruptly pulled in 1969 after clashes with executives over its satire?

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. CBS said the brothers had missed its deadlines for handing over tapes for review; they sued for breach of contract and won in 1973.

Carol Burnett closed every episode of her variety show with which gesture, a message to her grandmother?

Tugging her ear. It told the grandmother who raised her that she was doing well and loved her, and Burnett kept up the signal after her grandmother died.

Before its 1968 US national debut, Fred Rogers' show began as Misterogers on which broadcaster?

CBC. Its head of children's programmes, Fred Rainsberry, persuaded Rogers to step in front of the camera for the first time instead of working only through puppets.

Which future Academy Award-winning director played Opie Taylor, the sheriff's son, on The Andy Griffith Show?

Ron Howard joined the sitcom as a small boy in 1960 and stayed until 1968. He later won the Academy Award for directing A Beautiful Mind.

Which actress rose to fame on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and won an Academy Award for Cactus Flower?

Goldie Hawn would break into high-pitched giggles mid-joke on the sketch show. Her supporting actress award came for her first major film role.

Which future Hollywood star spent eight seasons as Rowdy Yates on the cattle-drive Western series Rawhide?

Clint Eastwood played the ramrod under Eric Fleming's trail boss for seven seasons. Rowdy took charge of the herd himself in the last.

Which veteran horror film star both narrated and voiced the title villain in 1966's How the Grinch Stole Christmas?

Boris Karloff was the only narrator the special's director had in mind. Sound engineers removed the high pitches from his voice to give the Grinch a gravelly grunt.

Leonard Nimoy based Star Trek's split-fingered Vulcan salute on a priestly blessing from which religion?

Judaism's blessing of the kohanim uses the same hand shape. Nimoy peeked at it as a boy in an Orthodox synagogue, though the congregation was meant to look away.

Which future double Academy Award winner played Sister Bertrille, the airborne novice of the sitcom The Flying Nun?

Sally Field took off thanks to a starched cornette, high winds and a weight under 90 pounds. The convent comedy was built to keep her on air after Gidget was cancelled.

Arnold Ziffel, the television-watching 'son' of a childless farm couple on Green Acres, was what kind of animal?

A pig named Arnold could change television channels and write his name. The role won three Patsy Awards for animal performers during the decade.

Which future James Bond played Simon Templar, driving a white Volvo P1800, in the ITV adventure series The Saint?

Roger Moore was reportedly offered 007 at least twice during the run, but his television commitments ruled it out. He first played Bond in 1973's Live and Let Die.

The Beatles premiered which song live on Our World, the 1967 global satellite broadcast?

All You Need Is Love was written to order after the band was asked for a song with a positive message. An estimated 400 to 700 million people watched.

Hanna-Barbera modelled The Flintstones on the working-class couples of which 1950s sitcom?

The Honeymooners was, William Hanna said, the funniest show on the air. Jackie Gleason considered suing over the likeness but decided to let it pass.

Samantha Stephens, the suburban witch of the sitcom Bewitched, usually cast her spells with which small gesture?

A nose twitch from Elizabeth Montgomery came with its own synthesized sound effect. The sitcom ran on ABC for eight seasons from 1964.

Maxwell Smart of the spy spoof Get Smart had to take off which item of clothing to answer his best-known telephone?

His shoe held the phone that sent up James Bond's gadgets. Other handsets on the show were hidden in more than 50 objects, from a necktie to a comb.

Which Nebraska-raised comedian took over as host of Tonight from Jack Paar in October 1962 and stayed thirty years?

Johnny Carson first turned the job down, fearing the strain of interviewing celebrities for 105 minutes a day. He went on to host until 1992.

Which actor played Little Joe Cartwright on Bonanza before starring as Pa Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie?

Michael Landon was 22 when Bonanza made him a series regular in 1959. He appeared in all 14 seasons and went on to write and direct episodes.

Which legless alien villains, created by writer Terry Nation, first menaced Doctor Who on the planet Skaro in 1963?

The Daleks have no legs because Terry Nation's script demanded an alien that did not look like a man in a suit. Raymond Cusick designed their look.

Which member of The Addams Family's household was a disembodied hand that emerged from boxes around the mansion?

Thing was usually the forearm of 6-foot-9 Ted Cassidy, who also played the butler. His height made the box scenes a technical headache on set.

Which cookbook author brought French cuisine to American viewers as host of The French Chef, made in Boston from 1963?

Julia Child won the series after viewers loved an omelette she cooked on a Boston book review show. It became one of America's first television cooking programmes.

The teenagers of the 1969 cartoon Scooby-Doo travelled in a psychedelic flower-power van with what name?

The Mystery Machine carried Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and their Great Dane between haunted locations. The series began on Saturday mornings in September 1969.

Which actress played the 2,000-year-old genie of the title in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie?

Barbara Eden also played the genie's scheming sister, in a brunette wig. On the show, every female genie shares the same name.

In the opening titles of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Rob Petrie sometimes tripped over which piece of living-room furniture?

An ottoman sent him sprawling in some versions of the titles, while in others he stepped neatly around it. The versions were used at random.

Whose fatal shooting by nightclub owner Jack Ruby was broadcast live from a Dallas police basement in November 1963?

Lee Harvey Oswald was being transferred when a network pool camera caught the shot. Millions saw it as it happened, two days after the president's death.

The CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes, launched in 1968 by Don Hewitt, is known for which ticking on-screen timepiece?

A stopwatch became the trademark, yet it was missing from the first broadcast and arrived several episodes later. The show began as a fortnightly Tuesday programme.

Which singer relaunched his career in 1968 with a television concert later known as the Comeback Special?

Elvis Presley was meant to sing carols in a Christmas special, an idea that angered him. Director Steve Binder built a concert aimed at younger viewers instead.

Which picnic-basket thief of Jellystone Park was spun off from The Huckleberry Hound Show into his own 1961 series?

Yogi Bear arrived when baseball's Yogi Berra was a household name. Hanna-Barbera insisted that any resemblance was pure coincidence.

Which Muppet was orange throughout Sesame Street's first season in 1969 before turning his familiar green?

Oscar the Grouch changed shade for season two and kept it. The trash-can dweller has since joked that the green is moss and a bath would undo it.

Which singer with a famously purring voice took over as Catwoman for the third and final season of Batman?

Eartha Kitt inherited the role from Julie Newmar in 1967. Her American career stalled a year later, after she criticised the Vietnam War at a White House luncheon.

Which actor, forced out of the Tin Man role in The Wizard of Oz by toxic makeup, later played Jed Clampett?

Buddy Ebsen had recorded his songs and begun filming when aluminium dust from the makeup coated his lungs. The Beverly Hillbillies made him a household name 23 years later.

Patrick McGoohan's abducted secret agent in The Prisoner is stripped of his name and known only by which label?

Number Six spends the series refusing to say why he resigned. Another actor played him for one episode while McGoohan was away filming Ice Station Zebra.

Which composer wrote the pulsing five-beat theme tune of the spy series Mission: Impossible?

Lalo Schifrin, who was born in Argentina, joked that the unusual rhythm was for mutants with five legs. His working title for the tune was Burning Fuse.

Raymond Burr followed Perry Mason by playing which San Francisco police consultant, who works from a wheelchair?

Ironside is paralysed from the waist down after being shot on holiday, and stays on as a consultant. The series was made by Burr's own production company.

Which Winnipeg-born host launched Let's Make a Deal in 1963 and later gave his name to a famous probability puzzle?

Monty Hall was born Monte Halparin and moved to the United States in 1955 to work in broadcasting. He co-created and co-produced the game as well as hosting it.

Which actor played the Russian agent Illya Kuryakin in the spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.?

David McCallum, born in Glasgow, is said to have drawn more fan mail in the part than any other actor in MGM's history, Clark Gable included.

Which actress left her role as leather-clad Cathy Gale in The Avengers to play Pussy Galore in Goldfinger?

Honor Blackman was cast in the Bond film on the strength of her judo-throwing anthropologist. She and co-star Patrick Macnee also recorded a single called Kinky Boots.

Which fictional pub, built by the brewery Newton and Ridley, stands on the corner of Coronation Street in Weatherfield?

The Rovers Return was, in the soap's backstory, to be called The Coronation until the street took the name first. It opened in 1902, Edward VII's coronation year.

Captain Mainwaring's platoon in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army defends which seaside resort on England's south coast?

Walmington-on-Sea exists only on screen, and its outdoor scenes were shot far from the Channel at Thetford, an inland town in Norfolk.

Which John Philip Sousa march of 1893 served as the opening theme of Monty Python's Flying Circus?

The Liberty Bell was written for an operetta Sousa never finished. The same march has been played at several American presidential inaugurations.

Which children's film did a US network start on time in November 1968, cutting off a thrilling Jets–Raiders finish?

Heidi began at 7 pm just as Oakland scored two late touchdowns to win 43–32. Angry callers jammed the network's switchboards and reportedly blew their fuses.

Which actor, son of a famous orchestra conductor who left Germany in 1933, played Colonel Klink in Hogan's Heroes?

Werner Klemperer took the part only on condition that Klink would always be a fool who never succeeded. It won him two Emmy Awards.

Which singer and actress starred as widowed nurse Julia Baker in the groundbreaking 1968 sitcom Julia?

Diahann Carroll led the first American series to star an African American woman who was not playing a servant. Her character's husband had been shot down over Vietnam.

Which folk singer voiced Sam the Snowman, narrator of the 1964 stop-motion special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?

Burl Ives was brought in over the original voice actor to give the sponsor a star name. Two of his songs from the special became seasonal standards.