Roxie Roker’s Interracial Marriage Wasn’t Just a Storyline
TLDR: Roxie Roker had to prove her own marriage was real before producers would believe she could play a woman in one. She spent a … Read more
The Maid Everyone Loved Is Still Working at 94
TLDR: Marla Gibbs was only ever supposed to appear in one episode of The Jeffersons. Nearly fifty years later, at 94, she’s still working, and … Read more
A Fictional Brother Filled In Until Sherman Hemsley Was Ready
TLDR: Sherman Hemsley spent nearly two decades playing one of television’s loudest, proudest characters, a role that only existed because a fictional brother filled in … Read more
Mike Evans Left The Jeffersons for a Show He Helped Create
TLDR: Mike Evans played Lionel Jefferson first, then walked away from his own hit show to help build a different one. He’d started that second … Read more
WKRP in Cincinnati, the Real Story Behind the Radio Station
TLDR: WKRP in Cincinnati only ran four seasons, but its ensemble cast built something that outlasted the show by decades. Four of its eight stars … Read more
Head of the Class, the Real Cast Story
TLDR: Head of the Class ran five seasons on ABC before its star walked away and got replaced by a completely different kind of teacher. … Read more
He Walked by Night Was Real, Right Down to the Storm Drains
TLDR: He Walked by Night wasn’t just inspired by a true story, it was based closely enough on a real 1946 Los Angeles manhunt that … Read more
Jack Webb Was the First Civilian LAPD Ever Buried With Honors
TLDR: Jack Webb didn’t just play a police sergeant, he spent years earning the department’s real trust to do it convincingly. When he died, the … Read more
Dragnet’s Cast Kept Changing Because Real Life Kept Intervening
TLDR: Dragnet became the template every television cop show since has copied in some form. Behind that template was a revolving door of partners for … Read more
Howard Hesseman Played a DJ Because He’d Actually Been One
TLDR: Howard Hesseman didn’t have to research what it felt like to be a burned-out counterculture radio DJ. He’d already lived it, right down to … Read more
Gordon Jump Played the Maytag Man, Then a Truly Dark Role
TLDR: Gordon Jump spent WKRP in Cincinnati as the lovable, bumbling boss everyone remembers fondly. A few years after the show ended, he took a … Read more
Loni Anderson Refused to Play the Dumb Blonde, Then Married Bigger
TLDR: Loni Anderson was a teenage bride and single mother years before anyone in Hollywood knew her name. She built Jennifer Marlowe specifically to subvert … Read more
Frank Bonner Cared More About Directing Than Wearing Plaid on WKRP
TLDR: Frank Bonner spent WKRP in Cincinnati playing the station’s perpetually unsuccessful, plaid-suited ad salesman, a character based on a real person creator Hugh Wilson … Read more
A Canadian Rock Band Wrote a Whole Song About Herb Tarlek
TLDR: A Toronto rock band once built an entire song around a plaid-suited fictional ad salesman from a 1970s American sitcom. Frank Bonner didn’t just … Read more
Norman Lear Built Four Hit Sitcoms From the Same Uncomfortable Idea
TLDR: Norman Lear spent one decade in the 1970s changing what network television was allowed to talk about. He built that entire run on a … Read more
Maude’s Most Famous Episode Aired Two Months Before Roe v. Wade
TLDR: Maude spent six seasons doing exactly what its network worried it might do too much of: making a sitcom out of subjects most shows … Read more