130 Fun Facts About 60s TV

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

North Carolina was Andy Griffith's home state too, and his home town, Mount Airy, celebrates the show with an annual Mayberry Days festival.

Which actor played Deputy Barney Fife, winning multiple Emmys for the role?

Don Knotts won five Emmys as Barney and Frances Bavier one as Aunt Bee, yet Andy Griffith and the show itself never won any.

Which two series, besides The Andy Griffith Show, ended their runs ranked number one before 2000?

I Love Lucy and Seinfeld bowed out on top in 1957 and 1998; Andy Griffith chose to leave his show at number one in 1968, and CBS carried on without him as Mayberry R.F.D.

Bonanza's Cartwright family lived on the Ponderosa ranch near which Nevada mining town?

Virginia City, the Comstock Lode silver boomtown, lay near the Ponderosa; Ben Cartwright was written as a three-time widower, which is why his three sons each had a different mother.

What was the given first name of Hoss Cartwright, the Bonanza son played by Dan Blocker?

Eric was the name he got from his mother Inger, Ben's Swedish second wife, who was killed on the trail west soon after he was born; everyone called the gentle giant Hoss.

Which Western's 635 episodes over 20 years stood as a scripted primetime record until The Simpsons passed it?

Gunsmoke ran on CBS from 1955 to 1975; John Wayne, who had suggested his friend James Arness for Marshal Matt Dillon, introduced the very first episode on camera.

Who created The Twilight Zone and wrote more than half its episodes himself?

Rod Serling turned to fantasy after sponsors and network censors kept gutting his realistic dramas; he hoped a science-fiction setting would let him air controversial ideas with less interference.

NBC cancelled the original Star Trek in 1969 after how many episodes?

NBC ended the series after 79 episodes; a fan letter-writing campaign, quietly backed by creator Gene Roddenberry, had won it a final season.

Which 1968 Star Trek episode featured Kirk and Uhura's kiss, one of the first interracial kisses on US TV?

Plato's Stepchildren has telekinetic aliens force the kiss. NBC feared Southern stations would object and wanted a version without it, but by Nichelle Nichols's account she and William Shatner spoiled every such take.

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

The Ozarks were home to Jed Clampett, who struck oil on his land while out hunting; the show topped the ratings in its first two seasons, yet CBS axed it in 1971 with its other rural comedies.

The Beverly Hillbillies theme, 'The Ballad of Jed Clampett', was performed by which bluegrass duo?

Flatt and Scruggs' single of 'The Ballad of Jed Clampett' reached number one on Billboard's country chart in early 1963; Jerry Scoggins sang the version heard on the show while the duo played.

The castaways of Gilligan's Island were shipwrecked after setting out from Honolulu on what kind of trip?

A three-hour tour is how the theme song describes the S.S. Minnow's trip from Honolulu; the boat is said to be named in mockery of FCC chairman Newton Minow, who had called television a 'vast wasteland'.

Which producer created both Gilligan's Island and, at the end of the decade, The Brady Bunch?

Sherwood Schwartz created Gilligan's Island in 1964 and The Brady Bunch five years later; the latter was never a ratings hit in its original five-season run but thrived in syndication.

On Bewitched, which actor replaced the ailing original Darrin Stephens for the final three seasons?

Dick Sargent took over as Darrin from the sixth season; Dick York left because of chronic back pain from an old film-set injury, and the show had been the Nielsen runner-up in its 1964-65 debut season.

I Dream of Jeannie was created by which novelist, later famous for The Other Side of Midnight?

Sidney Sheldon created the series in 1965 and wrote most of its episodes; his first novel, The Naked Face, came in 1970, followed by The Other Side of Midnight in 1973.

Rob Petrie, played by Dick Van Dyke, was head writer for which fictional variety programme?

Rob Petrie wrote for The Alan Brady Show alongside Buddy Sorrell and Sally Rogers; the set-up drew on the creator's own years writing for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows.

Batman's twice-weekly cliffhangers ended with the narrator urging viewers to tune in 'same Bat-time, same' what?

Bat-channel closed the sign-off voiced by executive producer William Dozier; each story ran over two nights, the first ending with the heroes caught in a death trap.

The Flintstones was inspired in part by which earlier live-action sitcom, whose star considered suing?

The Honeymooners' Ralph and Ed were the models for Fred and Barney; Jackie Gleason said he thought about suing but did not want to be known as the man who took Fred Flintstone off the air.

The Flintstones was the first animated series to do what on American television?

The Flintstones was the first cartoon series to air in prime time, in 1960; its first two seasons were co-sponsored by Winston cigarettes, and the characters appeared in the brand's commercials.

What is the name of the Jetson family's talking dog in The Jetsons?

Astro growls an R onto the front of his words, a voice Don Messick later reused for Scooby-Doo; only 24 Jetsons episodes were made in 1962-63, with no more until 1985.

The Addams Family TV series was based on single-panel cartoons from which magazine?

The New Yorker printed Charles Addams's cartoons of the family, who went unnamed in print; they got names only in the 1960s, for a doll line and then the television series.

On The Munsters, the family pet Spot was what kind of creature?

A fire-breathing dragon, Spot had his lair under the stairs at 1313 Mockingbird Lane; the show was cancelled in 1966 after Batman drew its audience away.

Get Smart was created by Mel Brooks and which other writer?

Buck Henry and Mel Brooks wrote it to a producer's order for James Bond crossed with Inspector Clouseau; ABC rejected their script as 'un-American', and NBC picked the show up.

Hogan's Heroes followed Allied prisoners running sabotage missions from inside which German camp?

Stalag 13 sat close enough to the play and film Stalag 17 that its authors sued for plagiarism; a jury sided with them, but the judge overruled it, finding the two works very different in mood.

In The Fugitive, Dr. Richard Kimble spent four seasons hunting his wife's real killer, described as what?

The one-armed man, played by Bill Raisch, was finally cornered in the August 1967 finale, which drew a 72 percent audience share, a record until Dallas revealed who shot J.R. in 1980.

Which actor spent four seasons on the run as Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive?

David Janssen played the doctor wrongly convicted of killing his wife, who escapes when the train taking him to death row derails; William Conrad's narration retold the story every week.

Who composed the theme music for Mission: Impossible, first heard on CBS in 1966?

Lalo Schifrin, an Argentine-born jazz pianist, set the theme in an unusual 5/4 time; by his own estimate he wrote the main tune in about a minute and a half.

Which series won the 1967 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series in its first season on air?

The Monkees, built around a band cast for television, beat Bewitched, Get Smart and Hogan's Heroes to the award, yet the show was cancelled after its second season.

Which Laugh-In cast member was regularly tricked into saying 'Sock it to me' and then doused?

Judy Carne, the show's 'Sock It to Me' girl, was drenched, dropped through trapdoors or otherwise ambushed after saying the line; Richard Nixon said it as a 1968 cameo guest without getting wet.

Laugh-In began as a 1967 special and then took over the Monday 8 pm slot of which cancelled spy series?

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was cancelled midway through its fourth season in January 1968, and its replacement in the Monday 8 pm slot went on to top the Nielsens for two seasons and run until 1973.

The Beatles' first live US television appearance, in February 1964, drew a record 73 million viewers to which host's show?

Ed Sullivan's Sunday-night variety show gave the band its American debut, and the broadcast is credited with launching Beatlemania in the United States and the British Invasion that followed.

Johnny Carson took over The Tonight Show in October 1962 from which host?

Jack Paar left in March 1962, and guest hosts kept the chair warm for half a year while Carson finished his run on the ABC quiz show Who Do You Trust?

Which satirical variety show did CBS abruptly cancel in April 1969 after repeated fights over content?

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour drew young viewers with satire and guests like Pete Seeger; after CBS pulled it, the brothers sued for breach of contract and won in 1973.

Which 1968 sitcom starred Diahann Carroll as a widowed nurse whose husband had been shot down in Vietnam?

Julia was the first American series to star a Black woman who was not playing a servant; critics of the day still attacked its comfortable world as unrealistic, a worry Diahann Carroll voiced herself.

Which producer executive-produced The Mod Squad with Danny Thomas?

Aaron Spelling later produced Charlie's Angels and Dynasty; creator Bud Ruskin drew the idea from his own years in a squad of young undercover narcotics officers in the 1950s.

Steve McGarrett's catchphrase on Hawaii Five-O, which debuted in 1968, was 'Book 'em, ...' who?

Danny 'Danno' Williams, played by James MacArthur, was McGarrett's right-hand man; Jack Lord's task force ran for 12 seasons and Morton Stevens's theme became a hit for the Ventures the following year.

Which vampire became the breakout character of the gothic daytime soap Dark Shadows?

Barnabas Collins, a vampire played by Jonathan Frid, arrived in April 1967 and turned a struggling soap into a hit; the show later added werewolves, witches and time travel.

The Prisoner's mysterious Village was filmed in which real Welsh location?

Portmeirion, the coastal village Clough Williams-Ellis spent fifty years building, played the Village; Patrick McGoohan pitched the series after tiring of his spy hit Danger Man and asking to quit it.

Which armoured mutants from Skaro first menaced Doctor Who in its second serial, in 1963?

The Daleks, created by writer Terry Nation, lifted the new show's audience by half over their seven episodes and set off a craze known as Dalekmania.

Which heroine of The Avengers was named for the 'man appeal' her creators wanted?

Emma Peel is 'M Appeal' said aloud, shorthand for the 'man appeal' the new heroine was meant to have; Diana Rigg played her from 1965, in op-art outfits by designer John Bates.

Lost in Space, which premiered on CBS in 1965, was inspired by which 1812 novel?

Johann David Wyss's The Swiss Family Robinson gave the show its Robinson family; Dr. Smith's sabotage of the Jupiter 2's robot is what got them lost in the first place.

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

David McCallum's Kuryakin became a heart-throb, said to have drawn more fan mail than any MGM star before him; U.N.C.L.E. stood for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

The Wild Wild West was pitched by its creator Michael Garrison as 'James Bond on' what?

Horseback was the pitch: 'James Bond on horseback'. Robert Conrad did nearly all his own stunts and fractured his skull in 1968 when he fell from a chandelier while filming.

Mister Ed, television's talking horse, would speak only to which character, his owner?

Wilbur Post, played by Alan Young, was the only human Ed would talk to; director Arthur Lubin, who had made the Francis the Talking Mule films, turned to a talking horse for television.

Before starring in Daniel Boone on NBC, Fess Parker played which frontiersman for Disney?

Davy Crockett, in Disney's 1954-55 episodes, set off a coonskin-cap craze worth millions in merchandise; Parker put the cap back on to play Boone.

Which 1965-66 'Supermarionation' series ended when its backer failed to sell it to a US network?

Thunderbirds was a hit in Britain; backer Lew Grade, who had insisted its episodes be stretched to fill an hour, cancelled it in 1966 when no American network would buy it.

Which disc jockey first voiced Scooby-Doo's friend Shaggy in 1969?

Casey Kasem voiced Shaggy for decades; a strict vegetarian, he quit in the 1990s over a Burger King advert and came back in 2002 once Shaggy was made a vegetarian too.

Which spin-off did The Andy Griffith Show launch in 1964?

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. sent Jim Nabors's gas-station attendant into the Marines for five seasons; though it aired at the height of the Vietnam War, the show never mentioned it.

Which 1963-65 anthology series opened with 'There is nothing wrong with your television set'?

The Outer Limits had its Control Voice warn viewers 'we are controlling transmission'; ABC then moved the show to Saturdays against Jackie Gleason, and it was cancelled midway through its second season.

Who played Samantha's disapproving witch mother, Endora, on Bewitched?

Agnes Moorehead, a four-time Oscar nominee, played Endora, who so disapproved of her mortal son-in-law that she would not say his name right, calling him Darwin, Durwood or worse.

Which Paul Henning rural CBS sitcom was set at the Shady Rest Hotel?

Petticoat Junction, set at Kate Bradley's Shady Rest Hotel in Hooterville, ran from 1963 to 1970; its success led to the spin-off Green Acres, which sent city folk to the country instead.

Which stars played the New Yorkers who move to a farm in Green Acres?

Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor played Oliver and Lisa Douglas, who swapped Manhattan for Hooterville; despite solid ratings, CBS cancelled the show in 1971 in the 'rural purge' of its country comedies.

Who played the Penguin in the 1960s Batman series?

Burgess Meredith found the Penguin's quacking laugh by accident, improvising it to cover the coughs the character's cigarette smoke set off; Cesar Romero played the Joker and Frank Gorshin the Riddler.

Who created The Dick Van Dyke Show?

Carl Reiner created the show from his own years writing for Sid Caesar, originally casting himself as Rob Petrie in the 1960 pilot 'Head of the Family' before Dick Van Dyke took the role.

Which 1960s Western starred Barbara Stanwyck as ranch matriarch Victoria Barkley?

The Big Valley made film veteran Barbara Stanwyck one of television's most popular actresses; her Victoria Barkley, as tough as any cowboy on the ranch, won her an Emmy in 1966.

Which actor played Herman Munster?

Fred Gwynne's 6 ft 5 in frame helped win him the part straight after Car 54, Where Are You?; as Herman he still wore 40 pounds or more of padding and thick-soled boots.

Which future Dallas star played astronaut Tony Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie?

Larry Hagman played astronaut Tony Nelson for all five seasons, a decade before J.R. Ewing; NBC's censors, for their part, insisted that Barbara Eden's harem costume cover her navel.

On Get Smart, where did secret agent Maxwell Smart keep his most famous hidden telephone?

In his shoe: the phone was an idea of co-creator Mel Brooks, and to take a call Max had to pull the shoe off; over the series the writers hid phones in dozens of other objects.

Which future Oscar winner was a Laugh-In regular alongside Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson and Lily Tomlin?

Goldie Hawn played the show's giggling 'dumb blonde', breaking up in the middle of her lines; she won the supporting-actress Oscar for the 1969 film Cactus Flower while Laugh-In was still on the air.

Who led the Impossible Missions Force in Mission: Impossible's first season, before Jim Phelps?

Steven Hill played Dan Briggs in 1966-67; an Orthodox Jew, he had to leave the set on Fridays in time to be home by sundown, and Peter Graves's Jim Phelps replaced him from season two.

Which now-green Sesame Street Muppet was orange in season one?

Oscar the Grouch was orange for the first season, which began in 1969; when he turned green, he explained that a damp holiday at Swamp Mushy Muddy had done it.

Which CBS news programme debuted in 1968 with Mike Wallace and Harry Reasoner as its first hosts?

60 Minutes was the idea of producer Don Hewitt, dreamed up after he was pushed out of running the CBS evening newscast; the ticking stopwatch between its stories became the show's trademark.

Who was the original host of Jeopardy! when it debuted on NBC in 1964?

Art Fleming hosted until 1975. The answer-first format was Merv Griffin's reply to the 1950s quiz-show scandals: his wife Julann suggested handing contestants the answers and asking for the questions.

The Wild Wild West's Secret Service agents James West and Artemus Gordon served under which president?

Ulysses S. Grant, played by James Gregory in the pilot and Roy Engel afterwards, sent the agents on their missions; CBS dropped the show after four seasons amid pressure from Congress over TV violence.

Which 1963 sitcom starred Ray Walston opposite Bill Bixby's newspaper reporter?

My Favorite Martian had Walston's stranded alien pass as reporter Tim O'Hara's Uncle Martin; it was one of the first fantasy sitcoms, ahead of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie.

Raymond Burr's 1967 series Ironside featured a police consultant who used what?

Ironside used a wheelchair after a sniper's bullet on a holiday left him paralysed from the waist down; Raymond Burr played the San Francisco police consultant for eight seasons, 1967 to 1975.

Which ABC soap made stars of Mia Farrow and Ryan O'Neal?

Peyton Place was ABC's attempt to copy the British hit Coronation Street by putting a soap in the evening; it ran 514 episodes from 1964, drawn from Grace Metalious's best-selling novel.

Which future James Bond played Simon Templar in the ITV series The Saint (1962-69)?

Roger Moore played Simon Templar for 118 episodes before he took over as James Bond; his white Volvo P1800 got the part only because Jaguar turned down the chance to supply a car.

Which future martial-arts star played the sidekick Kato in ABC's The Green Hornet (1966-67)?

Bruce Lee insisted Kato fight with kung fu, the first many American viewers had seen; in Hong Kong, where he grew up, the series became known as The Kato Show.

In I Spy (1965-68), Robert Culp and Bill Cosby's agents travelled the world undercover as what?

Tennis bums was the cover: Culp's agent posed as a touring player and Cosby's as his trainer. The pair were first planned as unequal partners, but once stand-up comedian Cosby was cast, the producers made the two agents equals.

In Flipper (1964-67), the dolphin is the pet of a chief warden at a marine park in which state?

Florida's Keys were the setting, with the Miami Seaquarium helping to film it; 'he' was played by several female dolphins, chosen because they are less aggressive and carry fewer scars than males.

Marlo Thomas's That Girl (1966-71) followed Ann Marie chasing what career in New York City?

Ann Marie moved to New York to pursue acting, taking odd jobs between small roles; the show was among the first sitcoms built around a single woman living on her own, paving the way for Mary Tyler Moore.

The Western sitcom F Troop (1965-67) featured a nightclub parody called what?

The Playbrave Club spoofed the Playboy Club, one of many anachronistic gags in the 1860s-set Fort Courage comedy, which also worked rock and roll bands into its slapstick and burlesque.

Which Oscar-winning actor played the PT-boat skipper in the sitcom McHale's Navy?

Ernest Borgnine, Best Actor for Marty, first played McHale in a one-hour drama, Seven Against the Sea, in April 1962; ABC rebuilt it as a sitcom that ran four years.

Which NBC Western, with James Drury as foreman of the Shiloh Ranch, was television's first with 90-minute episodes?

The Virginian never gave its hero any other name in nine seasons; for the last, in 1970, it was retitled The Men from Shiloh, with a new theme by Ennio Morricone.

Who co-created Let's Make a Deal in 1963 and hosted it, on and off, into the 1990s?

Monty Hall created the show with Stefan Hatos and hosted it from 1963 into the 1990s; its 'traders' swapping prizes for hidden ones inspired the Monty Hall problem in probability.

Hollywood Squares, which became a regular series in October 1966, is built around which game?

Two contestants play tic-tac-toe on a grid of nine celebrities, claiming a square by judging whether a star's answer, often preceded by a scripted zinger, is right.

What euphemism did The Newlywed Game (from 1966) use for sex to get past network censors?

'Making whoopee' was host Bob Eubanks's on-air stand-in for sex from the show's 1966 debut; he kept saying it for decades, long after the phrase was needed to satisfy the censors.

The Time Tunnel (1966-67) was the third science-fiction series from which producer, also behind Lost in Space?

Irwin Allen followed Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space with it, saving money by raiding 20th Century Fox's old period films for footage, sets and props.

Shirley Booth's live-in maid Hazel (1961-66) worked for which family?

The Baxters employed Hazel twice over: when the show moved from NBC to CBS for its last season, she went to work for George Baxter's brother Steve and his family.

Which redheaded sitcom star ran Desilu, the studio behind Star Trek and Mission: Impossible?

Lucille Ball bought out Desi Arnaz in 1962 and ran Desilu by herself. She approved the original concept for Star Trek to be developed into a series.

Which future Star Trek star played a passenger who sees a gremlin on the wing in The Twilight Zone?

William Shatner starred in the 1963 episode Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. Each time anyone else looks out of the window the creature hides, so his claims seem crazy.

Which actor, forced to quit as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, later played Jed Clampett?

Buddy Ebsen fell seriously ill from the aluminum dust in his Tin Man makeup and had to drop out. More than twenty years later he struck oil as the head of The Beverly Hillbillies.

Which actor played the Joker in ABC's 1960s Batman while refusing to shave off his moustache?

Cesar Romero kept his moustache, so the Joker's white face makeup was simply smeared over it. It stayed that way for the whole run and the 1966 film.

Which child actor spent eight seasons as Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show?

Ron Howard was cast as Opie in 1960 and stayed until 1968. He returned to the role one last time in the 1986 TV movie Return to Mayberry.

Which future film star rode the cattle trail as ramrod Rowdy Yates on the Western Rawhide?

Clint Eastwood played Rowdy Yates as the second lead for seven seasons, then took over as trail boss in the eighth. Later DVD covers put him in the foreground instead.

Which Star Trek actress was talked out of leaving the series by Martin Luther King Jr.?

Nichelle Nichols planned to quit for a Broadway role until Martin Luther King Jr. told her she could not. He said Star Trek was the only show his children were allowed to stay up and watch.

Which name did the wrecked charter boat on Gilligan's Island carry, a jab at an FCC chairman?

S.S. Minnow was a dig at Newton Minow, the FCC chairman whose 1961 speech lambasted television's formula comedies. Four different boats played the Minnow on screen.

Which children's host, seen nationally from 1968, began each episode by changing into a cardigan?

Fred Rogers wore cardigans knitted by his mother, Nancy. He donated one of them to the Smithsonian in 1984.

Herman, Lily and Grandpa of The Munsters shared a creaky mansion at which street address?

1313 Mockingbird Lane stood in fictional Mockingbird Heights. An early plan put the house at 43 Mockingbird Lane in Camelot, New Jersey.

Which news anchor took off his glasses to announce President Kennedy's death in November 1963?

Walter Cronkite had broken into the soap opera As the World Turns with the first bulletins. An opinion poll later named him the most trusted man in America.

Which future two-time Oscar winner starred as the airborne Sister Bertrille in The Flying Nun?

Sally Field moved on from Gidget to The Flying Nun, whose novice took off whenever the wind caught her cornette. Her Oscars came for Norma Rae and Places in the Heart.

Which Canadian actor played Ben Cartwright, patriarch of the Ponderosa, on NBC's Bonanza?

Lorne Greene had read wartime news for Canada's CBC, where his deep delivery earned him the nickname The Voice of Doom. He later led another clan as Commander Adama in Battlestar Galactica.

Which actress played the catsuited secret agent Emma Peel opposite Patrick Macnee in The Avengers?

Diana Rigg played Emma Peel in 51 episodes from 1965 to 1968. Decades later she found a new audience as Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones.

Samantha Stephens, the suburban witch of Bewitched, works her magic by twitching which feature?

Her nose did the work, with help from the sound department: each twitch was given its own musical sound effect on the soundtrack.

Which announcer spent thirty years as Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show from 1962?

Ed McMahon first teamed with Carson in 1958 on Who Do You Trust?, an ABC game show. The pair moved to NBC together and stayed side by side until 1992.

Maxwell Smart's best-known gadget in Get Smart was a telephone built into which item of clothing?

His shoe had to come off every time he made or took a call. The gag kept changing, and one later episode disguised the phone as a golf shoe with cleats.

Patty Duke's sitcom cast her as look-alikes Patty and Cathy Lane, who were related in which way?

Cousins, not twins: Duke played both girls in the same frame through a split-screen effect, a rare trick for a sitcom of the early 1960s.

Gene Roddenberry pitched Star Trek to network executives as a space version of which hit TV Western?

Wagon Train gave Roddenberry his model: each episode would be a self-contained adventure inside a continuing voyage.

Rocky the flying squirrel and Bullwinkle the moose live in which fictional Minnesota town?

Frostbite Falls is purportedly based on the real Minnesota city of International Falls. The cartoon itself grew out of an earlier property called The Frostbite Falls Revue.

Vic Mizzy's harpsichord theme for The Addams Family is punctuated by which percussive sound?

Finger snaps kept time against a harpsichord and a bass clarinet. The theme was popular enough to be released as a single, though it failed to make the national charts.

Composer Earle Hagen personally performed which part of The Andy Griffith Show's opening theme?

The whistling was Hagen's own, on a tune he also composed. He wrote the instrumental Harlem Nocturne as well, later used as the theme for Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer.

Which instrumental rock band took a cover of the Hawaii Five-O theme into the US top five?

The Ventures peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed on the chart for 14 weeks. The single became one of the band's biggest hits.

Why did Gene Roddenberry write lyrics, never meant to be sung, for the Star Trek theme?

To share the royalties: registered as the lyricist, Roddenberry could claim half the performance money from composer Alexander Courage, who had not been told.

Which singer had a US top-three hit with the theme for the British spy import Secret Agent?

Johnny Rivers sang Secret Agent Man over the American titles of the British series Danger Man. It reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of his signature songs.

Which future film composer wrote a calypso theme song for the original Gilligan's Island pilot?

John Williams wrote the pilot's calypso songs and the first season's incidental music, years before Jaws and Star Wars. The broadcast series opened with a different theme.

Which composer won two Grammys for the driving theme and score of the detective series Peter Gunn?

Henry Mancini won Album of the Year and Best Arrangement for his Peter Gunn music. The theme itself was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2005.

Which teen idol co-wrote Johnny's Theme, the music that opened Johnny Carson's Tonight Show?

Paul Anka reworked Toot Sweet, an instrumental he had composed in 1959, and Carson shared the composing credit. The two had worked together on a 1961 television special in England.

Which singer first recorded Rawhide, Dimitri Tiomkin's theme song for the cattle-drive Western?

Frankie Laine sang words by Ned Washington, and the Western Writers of America later chose the song as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

Which jazz trumpeter and arranger composed the Batman theme, sung by an eight-voice chorus?

Neal Hefti gave his eight singers so little to sing that one of them jokingly wrote a credit for the word and music on his part. Hefti also wrote the music for The Odd Couple.

Which actress met her husband, host Allen Ludden, as a celebrity guest on Password?

Betty White turned Ludden down more than once before she accepted his proposal. The greeting that opened his broadcasts was aimed at her mother, Tess.

What did the celebrity panel try to guess about each ordinary contestant on What's My Line?

Their job was the whole game, and the working title was Occupation Unknown. Panellists put on blindfolds only for the weekly celebrity mystery guest.

Which talk-show host created Jeopardy! and wrote its famous thinking music as a lullaby for his son?

Merv Griffin first called the tune A Time for Tony. He credited the quiz's answers-first idea to his wife Julann, who suggested it on a flight home from Duluth.

Which Bewitched guest star became the permanent centre square on The Hollywood Squares in 1968?

Paul Lynde's fixed spot meant contestants called on him in almost every round. On Bewitched he played the practical-joking Uncle Arthur.

Which Newlywed Game host also promoted the Beatles' Hollywood Bowl concerts in the mid-1960s?

Bob Eubanks was a disc jockey and concert promoter when he took the call to host The Newlywed Game, which premiered on ABC in 1966.

Which producer created The Dating Game in 1965 and went on to host The Gong Show himself?

Chuck Barris had his first success with The Dating Game on ABC. He launched The Newlywed Game a year later, then fronted The Gong Show from 1976 to 1980.

Bud Collyer, first host of To Tell the Truth, was earlier the radio voice of which superhero?

Superman and his alter ego Clark Kent were both Collyer's voices from 1940, on radio and in the animated shorts. He was also the first host of Beat the Clock.

Which Herb Alpert instrumental introduced the bachelors on ABC's The Dating Game?

Spanish Flea brought on the men, while a second Tijuana Brass tune introduced the bachelorette and a third played when the dates met.

Matching prizes on NBC's long-running Concentration gradually uncovered which kind of puzzle?

A rebus sat behind the board throughout NBC's daytime run of more than 14 years, the longest continuous run of any game show on that network.

Who hosted the original version of The Price Is Right from 1956, long before Bob Barker?

Bill Cullen fronted both the daytime and primetime versions until 1965. He did so despite a childhood bout of polio that left him with lasting physical limitations.

Which candidate refused make-up for the opening 1960 presidential debate against John F. Kennedy?

Richard Nixon's stubble showed on black-and-white screens and he began sweating under the studio lights. His mother phoned straight afterwards to ask whether he was sick.

Which singer made his first TV appearance after Army service on a 1960 Frank Sinatra special?

Elvis Presley had just returned from military service in West Germany. The ABC special also featured Nancy Sinatra, who starred opposite him eight years later in the film Speedway.

Which Looney Tunes star got his own Tuesday-evening ABC series in October 1960?

Bugs Bunny appeared in new linking scenes between theatrical cartoons each week at 7:30. The sponsor was General Foods, maker of Post cereals and Tang.

Fred and Barney of The Flintstones, new in 1960, appeared in early commercials for which product?

Cigarettes paid the bills: Winston co-sponsored the first two seasons. When the audience began to skew younger the brand pulled out, and Welch's grape juice took over.

The two young drifters of Route 66, which premiered in October 1960, crossed America in which car?

A Corvette convertible carried Tod Stiles and his friend to a new setting every week, with each episode shot on location.

Which Twilight Zone episode from November 1960 ends by revealing hospital staff with pig-like faces?

Eye of the Beholder drew a legal threat from a producer selling an educational film with the same title, so reruns were retitled The Private World of Darkness.

Which Hanna-Barbera character's show became the first cartoon honoured with an Emmy, in 1960?

Huckleberry Hound reached viewers through syndication rather than a network: the agency for sponsor Kellogg's bought air time on individual stations.

Which British soap opera, set in fictional Weatherfield, began on ITV in December 1960?

Coronation Street was recognised by Guinness World Records in 2010, on its 50th anniversary, as the world's longest-running television soap opera.

Andy Griffith's Mayberry comedy, new in October 1960, began as an episode of which sitcom?

The Danny Thomas Show aired the try-out episode in February 1960, with Griffith as a small-town justice of the peace and newspaper editor.

Which mute clown broke years of silence to speak the last words of Howdy Doody in September 1960?

Clarabell normally communicated only by mime, honking horns and squirts of seltzer. The farewell closed an episode titled Clarabell's Big Surprise.