Brian Blessed played Augustus, George Baker played Tiberius, John Hurt played Caligula, and Derek Jacobi played Claudius, on the TV series “I, Claudius” (BBC, 1976).
Two people: Ethel Waters (1950-52) and Louise Beavers (1952-53) played Beulah the maid in “Beulah” (ABC, 1950-53). Shirley Booth was Hazel Burke the maid in “Hazel” (NBC, CBS, 1961-66). Ann B. Davis played Alice Nelson, the housekeeper in “The Brady Bunch” (ABC, 1969-70).
Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) on the TV series “Bewitched” worked her magic by wiggling her nose. Jeannie on “I Dream of Jeannie” (NBC, 1965-70) folded her arms in front of her and blinked. Uncle Martin on “My Favorite Martian” (CBS, 1963-66) pointed at objects to levitate them and raised his antennae to become invisible.
The name of the puppet-king in “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” was King Friday XIII.
Yes, before “The Tonight Show,” Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon worked together on a TV game show called “Do You Trust Your Wife?” (CBS, 1956-57). On the show, Edgar Bergen was the host, Johnny Carson was the emcee, and Ed McMahon was the announcer.
The characters in the original TV series “Mission: Impossible” (CBS, 1966-73) were: Agent Briggs (Steven Hill), Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), Barney Collier (Greg Morris), Willie Armitage (Peter Lupus), and Rollin Hand (Martin Landau). James Phelps (Peter Graves) joined the cast in 1968.
Yes, the TV series “Dragnet” (NBC, 1952-59, 1967-70) was based on real cases. It may have been the original true crime drama, with all shows fashioned from cases found in Los Angeles police files. All scripts were reviewed by the police and the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office.