99 Fun Facts About 50s TV

I Love Lucy premiered in October 1951 on which network?

CBS aired I Love Lucy from October 1951 to 1957: 180 half-hour episodes over six seasons, and it ended its run as America's top-rated show.

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

Desilu came from "The couple's first names", Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball; after their 1960 divorce Ball bought out Arnaz and ran the studio that made Star Trek and Mission: Impossible.

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

"Little Ricky is born" in 'Lucy Goes to the Hospital', aired 19 January 1953, the night before Eisenhower's inauguration; about 44 million viewers watched, more than saw the swearing-in.

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

Three cameras filmed each scene at once; cinematographer Karl Freund, who had shot Metropolis, devised flat, even lighting so every angle worked, and the multi-camera sitcom became an industry standard.

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

Ralph was a Bus driver for the fictional Gotham Bus Company, though he was almost never shown behind the wheel; New York City later named a Brooklyn bus depot after Gleason.

Where did Ralph's upstairs neighbour Ed Norton work?

Ed Norton, played by Art Carney, worked underground in The city sewers; Carney's Norton won him Emmy Awards in 1954, 1955 and 1956.

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

The Honeymooners debuted as a sketch on DuMont's Cavalcade of Stars in 1951; when Gleason left DuMont the next year, Audrey Meadows replaced Pert Kelton, who had been blacklisted, as Alice.

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

James Arness, six foot seven, played Dillon for the show's entire run; William Conrad had voiced the marshal on radio, and John Wayne introduced the 1955 premiere, recommending Arness to viewers.

Gunsmoke was set in which frontier town?

Gunsmoke was set in Dodge City, Kansas, where the Long Branch Saloon had been a real 1880s establishment; the modern town's Boot Hill Museum trades on the connection.

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

Gunsmoke ran 20 seasons, from 1955 to 1975, and its 635 episodes stood as the record for an American scripted primetime series until The Simpsons passed the mark in 2018.

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

Rod Serling created, narrated and wrote most of the series; its first season earned him his fourth Emmy for dramatic writing, after wins for Patterns, Requiem for a Heavyweight and The Comedian.

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

Serling wrote or co-wrote 92 of the 156 scripts himself; Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson supplied most of the remainder.

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

The Cleavers lived in the fictional town of Mayfield, first at 485 Mapleton Drive and, from the third season, at 211 Pine Street.

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

Beaver was christened Theodore; the show explained that toddler Wally mangled "Theodore" into "Tweeder", which the family softened into Beaver.

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

Eddie Haskell, played by Ken Osmond for the whole run, returned in the 1980s sequel as an adult contractor with a son, played by Osmond's real son, who was just as two-faced.

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

Toast of the Town premiered in June 1948; viewers called it The Ed Sullivan Show for years before that became the official title in September 1955.

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

Elvis drew an 82.6% share, about 60 million viewers, on 9 September 1956; the famous waist-up camera order applied only to his third and final appearance in January 1957.

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

Van Doren was an English instructor at Columbia, where his father Mark was a celebrated professor; his run made the cover of Time in February 1957 before the fixing was exposed.

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

Stempel was told to miss Marty, the 1955 Best Picture winner, and name the prior year's winner instead; Marty was one of his favourite films, which made the dive sting more.

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

Van Doren left with $129,000 after lawyer Vivienne Nearing beat him in March 1957; the scandal later cost him his job on NBC's Today show.

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

Quiz Show, directed by Redford, cast Ralph Fiennes as Van Doren and John Turturro as Stempel; Stempel consulted on the film while Van Doren declined a $100,000 offer to do the same.

How many freckles did the Howdy Doody marionette have?

Howdy had 48 freckles, one for each state in the union when the marionette was built; the count went out of date when Alaska became the 49th state in January 1959.

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

Bob Keeshan, who later created and starred as Captain Kangaroo, was the original Clarabell; the clown communicated only with a horn and a seltzer bottle.

Jack Webb played which Los Angeles police sergeant on Dragnet?

Webb created, produced and directed Dragnet as well as playing Sergeant Joe Friday; the cases were drawn from real LAPD files, with names changed to protect the innocent.

Under what title was the 1950s Dragnet later syndicated?

Reruns of the 1950s series went out as Badge 714, after Friday's badge number; the real LAPD retired badge 714 when Webb died in 1982 and buried him with police honours.

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

Revlon sponsored the show and gave its name to the Revlon isolation booth; broadcasts went out live from Studio 52 in New York, the building that later housed the disco Studio 54.

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

Brothers won the top prize in 1955 answering questions on Boxing, a subject she had crammed from reference books; the win launched four decades of advice columns and television.

Raymond Burr originally auditioned for which role on Perry Mason?

Burr tested for Prosecutor Hamilton Burger, but the novels' author, watching the screen test, insisted he was Perry Mason; after slimming down he played the lawyer for nine seasons and 271 episodes.

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

Erle Stanley Gardner, a practising California lawyer before he turned to fiction, wrote more than eighty Perry Mason novels, beginning with The Case of the Velvet Claws in 1933.

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

Bandstand began locally on Philadelphia's WFIL-TV in 1952 and went national on ABC in August 1957 with Dick Clark hosting; it stayed in Philadelphia until the 1964 move west.

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

Annette Funicello was written into Zorro as Anita Cabrillo as a birthday present from Walt; Guy Williams, the object of her crush, was married, and she went on to pop hits and the beach-party films.

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

Jeff Miller, played by Tommy Rettig, owned Lassie for the first four seasons; after George Cleveland, who played Gramps, died in 1957, the Millers left and Lassie stayed with Timmy and the Martins.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents opened to which piece of music?

The theme was Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette; the profile caricature the camera fades in on was Hitchcock's own drawing, and he stepped into its outline each week.

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

Imogene Coca partnered Caesar through the 1950–54 run, notably as the bickering Hickenloopers; the writers included Mel Brooks and Neil Simon, and Carl Reiner was a featured performer.

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

Texaco Star Theater ran on NBC from 1948 to 1953 and made Berle's Tuesday night appointment viewing, credited with selling millions of television sets; Buick took over the sponsorship in 1953.

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

Benny claimed to be 39 for decades and the joke outlived him; born in February 1894, he really was 39 in 1933 and died aged 80 in 1974.

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

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet ran 435 episodes between 1952 and 1966, more than any other live-action American sitcom of the twentieth century; exteriors were shot at the Nelsons' real Hollywood house.

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

Kellogg's sponsored the series, which shot its last four seasons in colour though stations aired them in black and white; viewers first saw those episodes in colour in 1965 syndication.

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

The knight chess piece, a paladin being one of Charlemagne's legendary knights, marked Richard Boone's card, which read "Have Gun – Will Travel, Wire Paladin, San Francisco"; he lived at the Hotel Carlton between jobs.

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

Bart Maverick, Jack Kelly's character, first appeared in the eighth episode; the show alternated the two poker-playing brothers because a single unit could not turn out an hour-long episode every week.

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

RCA wanted programming to sell Colour television sets, which is why NBC kept the low-rated early Bonanza on; its Lake Tahoe scenery was some of the first regular series footage broadcast in colour.

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

Steve Allen had launched Tonight in 1954; after his departure NBC tried the news-style Tonight! America After Dark, which flopped, and Paar restored the desk-and-guests format in July 1957.

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

A chimpanzee named J. Fred Muggs joined Today in January 1953 and is credited with helping Dave Garroway's struggling morning show find an audience; he left the programme in 1957.

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

Edward R. Murrow hosted See It Now from 1951 to 1958, producing it with Fred W. Friendly as an outgrowth of their radio programme Hear It Now; its March 1954 McCarthy episode is the best remembered.

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

The panel asked yes-or-no questions to deduce each contestant's Occupation; for the weekly mystery guest they were blindfolded, and on the 1967 network finale the last mystery guest was host John Daly himself.

Where did Captain Kangaroo get his name?

The big pockets on his coat, roomy as a kangaroo's pouch, gave the Captain his name; the show ran from October 1955 to December 1984, nearly thirty years.

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

Bill Cullen hosted the original from its 1956 debut until it ended in 1965, moving with it from NBC to ABC; the closest-bid-without-going-over rule was there from the start.

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

A duck wearing Groucho's glasses and moustache dropped from the ceiling whenever a contestant said the secret word, bringing a $100 prize; George Fenneman was the announcer.

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

Jim Anderson was an Insurance agent, manager of the General Insurance Company in Springfield; the show began on radio in 1949, where Jim was far more sarcastic than the gentle television father.

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

Jay Silverheels was a Mohawk, born on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Ontario; he played Tonto for the show's entire 1949–57 run and had been a champion lacrosse player in his youth.

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

ABC agreed to help fund The Disneyland park in exchange for the weekly series after the two bigger networks passed; 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?

Fess Parker, in the coonskin cap, became a national star; Americans bought an estimated $300 million of Crockett merchandise in 1955, and Parker later played Daniel Boone for six seasons.

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

Peter Pan, with Mary Martin flying as Peter and Cyril Ritchard as Hook, drew a then-record audience on 7 March 1955; the cast restaged it live on television again in January 1956.

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

Fort Baxter, in the fictional town of Roseville, was the post where Bilko ran the motor pool; creator Nat Hiken took the name from minor-league slugger Steve Bilko, with a nod to bilking people.

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

Ollie, short for Oliver J. Dragon, was A one-toothed dragon; Burr Tillstrom voiced and operated every puppet himself, and 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'?

The NAACP condemned the show at its 1951 convention and called for a boycott of its sponsor; the series ended network production in 1953 but stayed in syndicated reruns until 1966.

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?

Ward Bond, a John Ford regular, led the train until his death in November 1960; Ford directed the episode The Colter Craven Story as a favour to him, slipping John Wayne in under the name Michael Morris.

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

Rowdy Yates, ramrod of Gil Favor's cattle drive, was Eastwood's role for the show's whole 1959–66 run; Frankie Laine sang the Dimitri Tiomkin theme.

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

Kookie's habit of Combing his hair became a national catchphrase and spawned the 1959 novelty hit "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)", a duet with Connie Stevens that reached the top five.

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

Joseph Welch, of the Boston firm Hale and Dorr, delivered the famous "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" rebuke on 9 June 1954; the Senate censured McCarthy that December.

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

Checkers was a black-and-white Cocker spaniel, a gift to the family that Nixon vowed to keep; about 60 million Americans watched the September 1952 broadcast, and it kept him on Eisenhower's ticket.

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

Winston Churchill and the Cabinet advised against live cameras at the ceremony, but the Queen insisted; more than twenty 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?

The Mare's Leg was a Winchester Model 1892 rifle with barrel and stock cut down so Josh Randall could draw it from a leg holster; the show ran from 1958 to 1961.

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

Crawford's Dan Mathews barked "10-4" into his radio microphone in nearly every episode, pushing the police code for "acknowledged" into everyday American speech; the show ran in syndication from 1955 to 1959.

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

Bob Denver's Maynard was briefly written out in 1959 when the actor was drafted; he failed the Army physical and returned, and later became Gilligan.

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

Songbird was really a twin-engine Cessna, first a T-50 "Bamboo Bomber" and later a 1957 Cessna 310B; Sky King flew it from the Flying Crown Ranch.

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

Alex Stone, played by Carl Betz, was a Paediatrician; the show ran on ABC from 1958 to 1966, and Reed's friends said Donna Stone was essentially Reed herself.

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

A static-cling vinyl sheet, sold in a 50-cent kit with crayons, stuck to the screen so children could draw bridges and ladders for Winky Dink; Jack Barry hosted the show.

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

Walter Brennan, a triple Best Supporting Actor winner, played Grandpa Amos; Danny Thomas's company co-produced the San Fernando Valley farm sitcom.

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

Cheyenne was the Earliest hour-long western, and the first hour-long drama of any kind with continuing characters to last beyond one season; Clint Walker starred as drifter Cheyenne Bodie.

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

Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn music won the first-ever Grammy for Album of the Year in 1959; Blake Edwards created the show, which starred Craig Stevens.

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

The series opens in 1820, placing Don Diego's masked exploits in Spanish California just before Mexican independence; a colourised version followed in 1992.

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

Sea Hunt ran 155 syndicated episodes produced by Ivan Tors; Bridges's Mike Nelson spent most of each one underwater, and the show stayed popular in reruns for decades.

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

North Fork, in New Mexico Territory, was the McCains' home; Lucas's 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)?

Walter Winchell's staccato narration opened every episode; 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?

It ran 90 minutes when most live anthology dramas ran an hour; its Requiem for a Heavyweight, with Jack Palance, 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?

John Beresford Tipton, voiced by Paul Frees, was seen only as an arm handing each cheque to his secretary Michael Anthony, played by Marvin Miller.

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

Connie Brooks was a High-school English teacher at Madison High, forever pursuing biology teacher Mr Boynton; the show had begun on radio in 1948 and became a feature film in 1956.

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

Champagne music was Welk's brand from the 1930s, after a dancer at Pittsburgh's William Penn Hotel called his band "light and bubbly as champagne"; the show's bubble machine made the tagline visual.

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

A peacock fanning eleven colourful feathers first appeared in 1956 to announce colour programmes; NBC's owner RCA built the receivers, so "the Bird" doubled as a sales tool.

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

Blowing a big kiss to the camera, with an exclaimed "MWAH!", was Shore's signature sign-off; her Chevrolet-sponsored show went out live in colour on NBC, and she sang "See the USA in Your Chevrolet".

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

Julie Andrews, then starring in My Fair Lady on Broadway, played Cinderella live on 31 March 1957 to an audience estimated at 107 million, the largest for any television broadcast to that date.

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

Red Skelton introduced Freddie in 1952, a year into his show's run, basing the clown makeup on that of his own father, a Hagenbeck–Wallace Circus clown who died before Red was born.

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

William Boyd sold or mortgaged nearly everything he owned to buy the rights, and in June 1949 Hopalong Cassidy on NBC became the first network western series; merchandising then made Boyd rich.

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

A trio of musicians in Gorilla suits, derby hats and overcoats mimed to the tune "Solfeggio" while the drummer bonked the conductor, Kovacs himself, on the head; Jack Lemmon once played one of the apes.

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

James Dean tested stunts for the show in the early 1950s, before East of Eden made him a star; 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?

A beam of light from the pistol-shaped Flash-Matic hit photocells in the set's corners, which could not tell it from sunlight, so channels sometimes changed by themselves; the 1956 Space Command switched to ultrasound.

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

The Sky at Night began on 24 April 1957 and Patrick Moore presented it until his death in December 2012, missing only one edition, in 2004, when salmonella put him out of action.

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

Studio One broadcast Reginald Rose's teleplay live in September 1954; Robert Cummings played the holdout juror and won an Emmy for it, and 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?

Quaker Oats put twenty-one million deeds to One square inch of Yukon land into cereal boxes in 1955; the plots were never registered, and the company's title lapsed in 1965 for unpaid taxes.

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

Sheen accepted the 1952 Emmy for Most Outstanding Television Personality by thanking his four writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; his Life Is Worth Living ran opposite Milton Berle on Tuesday nights.

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

Blacklisted Hollywood writers including Ring Lardner Jr. and Waldo Salt scripted episodes under pseudonyms; producer Hannah Weinstein, an American expatriate, set up the show partly to employ them.

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

Gian Carlo Menotti wrote Amahl on commission from NBC, inspired by Bosch's Adoration of the Magi; it premiered live on Christmas Eve 1951 as the first Hallmark Hall of Fame.

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

The Archers killed off Grace Archer on 22 September 1955, the evening ITV went on air: she ran into a burning stable to save a horse and died, five months after marrying Phil.

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)?

Ethel Waters played the title maid for the first season, filming in New York while appearing on Broadway in The Member of the Wedding; she quit in 1951 and Hattie McDaniel, then Louise Beavers, took over.

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

The Cisco Kid was shot in colour from its 1950 start, although almost every home set was black and white, so few viewers saw it that way until 1960s reruns; Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo starred.

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

The creature was confronted inside Westminster Abbey: writer Nigel Kneale's gloved hands, covered in plant matter, poked through a photographic blow-up of the interior, with help from his future wife Judith Kerr.