Welcome to Salter's TV Wisdom, a collection of useless information from Salter-Path's Daily Dish column.
Of course if you're ever on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," and they ask
you something you learned here, it's not really useless.
 Tom
Hanks used to be one of the guys in the early 80's smash TV comedy, "Bosom
Buddies," where they (Tom Hanks and Peter Scholari) dress up as women in
order to live in a cheap all-women's apartment.
 Brad
Pitt guest starred on an episode of the short-lived TV series based on the
classic horror film series "A Nightmare on Elm Street" called
"Freddy's Nightmares".
 Allan
Melvin, the actor who played Sam the Butcher on "The Brady Bunch," was the voice
of cartoon characters, including: Bluto in "Popeye," "Magilla Gorilla," Bristle Hound
in "The Cattanooga Cats" and about a dozen others, all while dating Alice
and being Archie's buddy, Barney Hefner on "All in the Family."
 Russell Johnson, who played the Professor on
"Gilligan's Island" was not a bright student and was in fact held back a grade. Johnson did redeem himself later on in his school career and made the National Honor Society in high school. He joined the Army Air Corps in World War II, and earned the Purple Heart when his B-24 Liberator was shot down in the Philippines during a bombing run in March, 1945. After the war, he used the G.I. Bill to enroll in acting school to ply his new trade.
Johnson currently lives in the state of Washington, on an island,
 George Barris, creator of the Batmobile
and dozens of other famous TV cars, transformed a
used Lincoln convertible into the famous Batmobile in only three weeks and on a
budget of $15,000.
 The famous map of the Ponderosa Ranch featured in
opening sequence of "Bonanza" is actually wrong. The artists placed Carson City to
the north of Ponderosa rather than east. To fix this problem, producer David Dortort came up with the ingenious idea of turning the compass so that north
faced to the corner rather than straight up.
The famous vista where Mr. Roarke used to greet his
guests on "Fantasy Island" was none other than the
 Queen Anne’s cottage located
deep in the Los Angeles Arboretum. It was built in the 1880’s and has appeared
in over 200 movies and TV shows.
 A total of 369 Dodge Chargers were used to play the
General Lee car throughout the course of the "Dukes of Hazzard" series because the
car took so much wear and tear.
 Ben Jones “Cooter”
on "The Dukes of Hazzard," was actually a U.S. Congressman in
the 1980’s but eventually lost his re-election bid to Newt Gingrich.
 Kenny Kramer, the inspiration for the wacky character
“Cosmo Kramer” made famous by Michael Richards in "Seinfeld," once lived across
the hall from Seinfeld’s creator Larry David. He reportedly sold the rights to
his character for $1,000 before "Seinfeld" hit Nielsen gold.
 The creators of
"The Cosby Show" actually changed the Huxatbles' professions so that they could realistically afford a Brownstone in
Brooklyn Heights. On the original show proposal, the mother was supposed to be a
plumber and the father was supposed to be a limo driver but the house was too
expensive, so they made them into a lawyer and a doctor.
 At the end of each
"Waltons" show, the signature
goodnight sequence was based on the real life experience of series creator Earl
Hamner (who narrated each episode). It took about ten minutes for Earl’s seven
brothers and sisters to bid each other goodnight until Earl’s father finally
said, “That’s enough.”
 During the first three seasons of
"Good Times" that John
Amos was with the show, the closing credits showed a portrait of the Evans
family painted by J.J. After Amos was killed off, a mural that J.J. painted for
the local bank was shown.[/
 Webster used the dumbwaiter in the kitchen to get from
the upper level of the house to the lower level.
 On
"Knight Rider," K.I.T.T.'s name stood for "Knight
Industries Two Thousand".
A
Dish of Will & Grace: In the "Will and
Grace" episode "The Young and the Tactless", Will and Jack go to the opening
of "The Adam Bar". 'Adam Barr' is a writer and producer of the show. Due to Debra Messing's pregnancy during the sixth
season, Grace did not appear in five episodes: 6.6 "Heart Like a Wheelchair",
6.21 "I Never Cheered for my Father", 6.22 "Speechless", 6.23/6.24 "I Do. Oh,
No, You Didn't". The Grace Adler Designs office is located in
the Puck Building at 295 Lafayette St., South of Houston St. Will's apartment building is at 155
Riverside Drive, Upper West Side Manhattan. Nicollette Sheridan lost the part of Grace Adler to
Debra Messing at the final auditions.
Jack's full name is John Phillip
McFarland. His drag name is Glen 125th (first pet's name + first street you
lived on). His dog's name is Klaus Von Puppy (the one he got in "The Truth About
Will And Dogs" S01E09). He's also got a bird named Guapo. During the
episode in which Will and Grace compete for the Tenants Association Presidency,
one tenant complains that her missing umbrella closely resembles the one
belonging to "Tim Kaiser in apartment 12-B." Tim Kaiser was a producer of the
episode.
 A
Helping of "The Jeffersons:" The picture on
"The Jeffersons" desk by the telephone
changes in every episode. It alternates between shots of Louise, George, Lionel,
and Mother Jefferson. George Jefferson was a Navy veteran.
Though it is rarely mentioned on the show, the name of the building The Jeffersons live in is called "Colby East".
CBS never gave "The Jeffersons" a proper series
finale. The cast, bitter that they never got a chance to say goodbye, reunited
years later for a stage play based on the sitcom. Sherman Hemsley said he found
out the show was canceled by reading it in the paper.
 Serving Up
Some "Fresh Prince:"
Will Smith's character name in the show is actually
different than in real life. In the show, he is "William" Smith, in real life
he's "Willard" Smith. This is referred to when one of Will's girlfriend's father
calls him Williard as a joke. The term "Fresh Prince" in the title of Fresh Prince
of Bel Air is a reference to the stage name used by Will Smith as a rap artist
in the 1980s.
The running gag of the "Carlton Dance" throughout the
show was actually a parody of the dance Courteney Cox did on the Bruce
Springsteen music video "Dancing in the Dark" in 1984.
Extra
Helpings of "Roseanne:"
Early during the first season, Roseanne frequently
butted heads with the show's creator Matt Williams. Williams worked as the
executive producer for the show's first thirteen episodes, but quit when
Roseanne vehemently refused to say to her on-screen husband, "Well, you're my
equal in bed, but that's it." Roseanne felt it was a line her character would
never say.
All three of Roseanne's husbands (Bill Pentland, Tom
Arnold, and Ben Thomas) made at least one guest appearance on the show.
Shelley Winters plays Estelle Parsons' mother in the
show, but she is only seven years older in real life.
Sometimes, posters for the comic book "The Sandman"
can be seen in Darlene's bedroom. These were suggested by then-writer
Joss Whedon.
In the first episode featuring David Healy,
he is introduced as Kevin Healy. However, in the episode "Everyone Comes to
Jackie's", Roseanne says (speaking of Darlene's control over David), "David
isn't even his real name - she just made that up!" On another episode, Darlene
and David are filling out their college applications in the car, and Darlene
points out that David left the space for his middle name blank. He admits that
his middle name is Maurice. |
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