TV Trivia - Triple!

TAKING A SPIN (OFF)

Writer/actor Jack Webb created the cop show Dragnet in the 1950s and revived it in the late 1960s. The new show then spun off another police drama called Adam-12, which in turn begat Emergency!, about a pair of paramedics/firefighters. And a 1975 episode of Emergency! served as a pilot for yet another Dragnet-derived show. 905-Wild, as it was to be titled (based on police code for “wild animal, loose and threatening”), followed a Los Angeles animal control worker (portrayed by Mark Harmon). Most of the pilot episode showed Harmon fighting off a tiger in a grocery store and saving dogs caught in a brush fire. Apparently, the Dragnet magic didn’t transfer to the animal kingdom—NBC passed on 905-Wild.

The first experimental 3-D TV broadcast took place on April 29, 1953.

VIOLENCE ON TV

In 1979, Erik Estrada was riding a motorcycle in a scene for the show CHiPs when he lost control of it. The 900-pound bike flew into the air and landed on top of Estrada. He fractured several ribs, broke both wrists, and was in the hospital for ten days. It was one of the worst on-set accidents in TV history (but Estrada ultimately recovered).

Number of TV sets in the US in 1955: 25 million. In 2005: 247 million.

HOW ’BOUT A CALLBACK?

On a 1987 episode of Newhart, Michael (Peter Scolari) mentions star Bob Newhart’s old show, The Bob Newhart Show, to innkeeper Dick Loudon (played by Newhart). Michael calls it “the one with the shrink who stutters.” Dick replies, “He didn’t stutter, he … he … he stammered.”

That’s a bunch: 464 children auditioned for the six kids’ roles on The Brady Bunch.