Truth and Rumors: The Reality Behind TV's Most Famous Myths Bill Brioux Praeger Truth and Rumors i Recent Titles in The Praeger Television Collection David Bianculli, Series Editor Spy Television Wesley Britton Science Fiction Television M. Keith Booker Christmas on Television Diane Werts Reality Television Richard M. Huff Drawn to Television: Prime-Time Animation from The Flintstones to Family Guy M. Keith Booker Crime Television Douglas Snauffer Big Pictures on the Small Screen: Made-for-TV Movies and Anthology Dramas Alvin H. Marill ii Truth and Rumors The Reality Behind TV’s Most Famous Myths BILL BRIOUX The Praeger Television Collection David Bianculli, Series Editor iii Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brioux, Bill. Truth and rumors : the reality behind TV’s most famous myths / Bill Brioux. p. cm. — (The Praeger television collection, ISSN 1549-2257) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–275–99247–7 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Television broadcasting—United States—Miscellanea. I. Title. PN1992.3.U5B75 2008 791.450973—dc22 2007037547 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2008 by Bill Brioux All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2007037547 ISBN: 978–0–275–99247–7 ISSN: 1549–2257 First published in 2008 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 iv To my parents, Margaret and Ross, for raising me right—in front of the television. v vi Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi 1 How False Was It? The Show That Spawned the Most Myths 1 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 2 Can We Talk? Other Famous Talk Show Rumors 9 3 Ward, I’m Worried about the Beaver 21 TV Rumors Involving Child Stars 4 Lucy, You’ve Got Some ‘Splainin’ to Do 33 A Couple of Persistent I Love Lucy Myths 5 Set Phasers for Stun 41 Some Enterprising Star Trek Legends 6 The Naked Truth 49 They Don’t Call It the “Boob Tube” for Nothing 7 A Word from Our Sponsor 51 Rumors and Myths and Commercials 8 Would You Believe . ? 61 Strange Stories from the ’60s vii viii Contents 9 That ’70s Show 69 Growing up with The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family 10 Monkee Business 73 Are You a Believer? Check out These Monkee Myths 11 Final Jeopardy 79 Game Show Myths and Rumors 12 Too Much Drama 91 Urban Legends about Drama Series 13 Reality: What a Concept 101 Reality Show Rumors 14 So Not Dead 113 TV Stars Who Supposedly Died but Didn’t 15 Didn’t You Used to Be What’s His Name? 121 A Few Cases of Mistaken Identity 16 Kids Say the Darndest Things 127 Rumors about Children’s Shows 17 Tall ‘Toon Tales 135 Urban Myths about Animated Series 18 Strikes, Spares, and Misses 141 TV’s Most Enduring Sports Myths 19 This Just In 149 Urban Myths about Newscasts 20 Miscellaneous Myths 159 Items That Simply Defy Categorization 21 Smile When You Say That, Pardner 163 TV’s Greatest Western Whoppers 22 Super Lie 171 A Rumor That Spread Faster Than a Speeding Bullet 23 Stars on Ice 175 Stars Who Supposedly Died on Television Appendix: Law and Order (terms and definitions) 181 Index 183 Acknowledgments Did you know that writing a book is roughly the equivalent of writing 100 daily newspaper columns? I know, big deal, there’s still no heavy lifting. As they would say on Seinfeld, “Yadda, yadda, yadda.” Still, sorting through 60 years of broadcasting truths and rumors involves a great deal of research and fact checking, and I am indebted to several people for helping me with those tasks. Former colleague Janet Rowe, who I worked with several years ago at TV Guide Canada, graciously offered to track down some key articles in the old TV Guide research department stacks. The librarians at the Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton, Ontario, Public Libraries, as well as the Ryerson University library staff, were all very helpful and efficient. If I sell enough copies of this book, maybe one day I can pay off all my library fines. A debt is owed to The Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio), both in New York and Los Angeles, where, over the years, I screened several of the programs discussed in this book. Their vast collections are a valuable resource in verifying some TV legends and debunking others. Former Toronto Sun entertainment editor Kathy Brooks, the best copy edi- tor I ever worked for, gave this entire manuscript a once over. There is no greater assurance for a writer than her set of eyes, and few rewards greater than making them dance. ix x Acknowledgments Fred Wostbrook, author of The Ultimate TV Game Show Book and agent to many of the stars of TV’s golden era, graciously helped connect me with a few of the key voices for this book. Truth and Rumors would not have been possible without the Television Critics Association’s (TCA) semiannual network press tour. Many of these stories were collected and banked while attending TCA tour sessions over the past 20 years. For a reporter, especially one from Canada, there is no greater access anywhere to TV’s movers and shakers. It was a colorful colleague on the TCA board of directors, New York Daily News TV columnist David Bianculli, who got this whole thing started by ask- ing, “Ever thought of writing a book about television?” This is what happens when you hang around TV critics who wear Hawaiian shirts. Finally, thanks to Daniel Harmon, my editor at Praeger, for being the most patient man in publishing. This book was started so long ago, Abe Vigoda was still dead! Introduction When people first heard it, they couldn‘t believe it: Jerry Mathers, the freckle-faced little tyke who played adorable Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver, was dead. The rumor quickly spread throughout North America that he had been killed in Vietnam. Turns out there was a good reason to be skeptical: it wasn’t true. Trouble is, there are still people to this day who insist Mathers is dead, even when he denies it to their face. It doesn’t stop there. For years, people have been convinced that Abe Vigoda, the actor who played curmudgeonly cop Fish on Barney Miller, is dead. People swear he has passed on, no matter how many times he appears decked out like a Christmas tree on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Or that Mikey, the kid who would eat anything as the Life cereal tyke, had eaten too many Pop Rocks and exploded. Or—and this is one everybody is sure they heard—that a contestant on The Newlywed Game once said the strangest place they ever made “whoopee” was “in the butt, Bob.” By the ’90s, people were certain that Steve, the dude who appeared in the animated kiddie show Blue’s Clues, had died of a heroin overdose. Or that watching Sailor Moon caused convulsions. Or that Josh Saviano, Kevin’s geeky pal on The Wonder Years, had grown up to become Marilyn Manson. It is still going on. Rumors persist that fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger made racist statements on Oprah Winfrey. Jared Fogle, the guy who lost all xi xii Introduction that weight eating Subway sandwiches, choked on one and died. One of the dudes from The Bachelor got three contestants pregnant. How did these and dozens of other TV-related rumors get started? How did they spread from classrooms to boardrooms across North America and sometimes beyond? How did they become so readily accepted as facts? The answer, of course, is the incredible reach and persuasiveness of tele- vision. Besides exposing us to things we can’t believe, it can convince us of things that never actually happened. The universal shared experience of attending the funeral of John F. Kennedy, seeing The Beatles for the first time on Ed Sullivan or Neil Armstrong’s step on the surface of the moon was historic and unprecedented. Even as TV viewing splintered with the arrival of hundreds of new channels, VCRs, and DVDs, millions still returned to share in the bizarre sight of a white Ford Bronco fleeing along a California highway or to witness the horrific destruc- tion of the World Trade Center towers. The dizzying highs and lows of those shared moments creates a “you are there” immediacy that no other medium can trigger. Is it any wonder, then, that similar urban legends and rumors grow out of those shared experiences? People always want to be in the know, even if it never happened. And with so many bizarre occurrences unfolding on television—such as the O.J. Simpson, Robert Blake, and Michael Jackson trials—many urban myths seem more and more plausible. An urban legend is basically a false truth that has taken root in people’s imaginations and has stood the test of time. Then there are rumors, basi- cally just unverified information that sounds tantalizingly real (and, in just enough cases to keep us keen, turn out to be true). While all the urban legends or rumors in this book originated through television, home comput- ers and the Internet have added fuel to this wildfire, spreading rumors from home to home with an immediate, high speed intensity.