This is the second in a series of examinations of TV legends and whether they are true or false.

Let’s begin!

TV LEGEND: Spike Milligan wore a shirt that said “Hashish” on it when he was on the Muppet Show.

STATUS: False

Spike Milligan (1918-2002) was one of England’s leading comedians from his days with The Goon Show in the 1950s (along with Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe)

to his days with Q during the 1970s (and lots of projects in between over the many, many years he was a performer – he was performing and especially writing right up to his death in 2002).

In 1978, Milligan hosted the third season of The Muppet Show, for an episode about international good will, etc.

At one point during the show, Milligan is wearing a T-Shirt with Arabic lettering on it…

For years, it has been said that Milligan’s shirt translated to “hashish,” and this was a sly opportunity by Milligan to sneak a drug reference into the show (hashish is a preparation of cannabis). As the story goes, no one noticed what he was doing until the episode had already aired.

That is not true.

What Milligan’s shirt translates to is “Kuwait.”

Why Kuwait?

Well, Milligan was, at the time, doing the TV series Q, which was a sketch comedy show that had a different number attached to it for each season it was on the air, beginning with Q5 in 1969. Because of the similar Monty Python’s Flying Circus program, which ran from 1969-1974 (it began a few months after Milligan’s series), it would not be until 1975 that Milligan was allowed a second season/series of Q, titled Q6. Q7 followed in 1977, and in 1978, as the time of the Muppet Show taping, Milligan was doing Q8.

Q8 was, appropriately enough, nicknamed “Kuwait” because of the fact that, well, you know, Q8 sounds like Kuwait!

So no, no sneaky drug references for Spike Milligan!

TV LEGEND: One of TV’s Friends had a painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

STATUS: True

Friends was one of TV’s most popular sitcoms, playing on Thursday nights for NBC from 1994 until 2003, for a total of ten seasons. The finale in 2003 was the fourth most-watched series finale in television history.

But was one of the actors who played the “friends” an artist?

The answer is a surprising yes. One of the actors who portrayed one of the friends on the show has a painting of theirs featured in an exhibit in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

But which one? Jennifer Aniston? Courteney Cox? Lisa Kudrow? Matt LeBlanc? Matthew Perry? David Schwimmer?

The answer, oddly enough, is Jennifer Aniston.

The young Aniston was the daughter of actor John Aniston (nee Yannis Anastassakis) and actress Nancy Dow. As a child, living in New York City with her parents, she soon became interested in their profession. For elementary school, she attended the Rudolf Steiner School in her pursuit of a career in acting. The school featured a multi-disciplinary arts-based curriculum that includes visual arts, drama, artistic movement, vocal and instrumental music, and crafts.

Even though Aniston attended the school specifically for acting training, she picked up a number of other artistic skills, including an interest in painting.

When she was 11, one of her paintings was exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I presume it was a special “young artists” exhibit, but still, that’s extremely impressive, nonetheless.

TV LEGEND: One of the stunt shots in the beginning of the Fall Guy was not even done by a stuntman.

STATUS: True

The theme song to Lee Majors’ TV series, The Fall Guy, about a Hollywood stuntman, was titled “The Unknown Stuntman,” and had lyrics such as:

I might fall from a tall building,
I might roll a brand new car.
‘Cause I’m the unknown stuntman that made Redford such a star.

I never spend much time in school
But I taught ladies plenty.
It’s true I hire my body out for pay, Hey Hey.

and

I might jump an open drawbridge,
Or Tarzan from a vine.
‘Cause I’m the unknown stuntman that makes Eastwood look so fine.

The opening credits for the series always had a number of notable film and TV stunt shots.

Amazingly enough, one of the more prominent stunts (it appeared in the opening credits the whole run of the show, unlike most of the other stunts, which were cycled out over the years) was actually NOT performed by a stuntman, but by the actual actor from the film!!!

In the 1976 film, The Sky Riders, James Coburn plays a man who….okay, prepare yourself for the plot of this film….must help his ex-wife’s new husband when Coburn’s ex-wife and his children are kidnapped by terrorists. All attempts to rescue her have failed because the bad guys are hold up in a mountain cliffside fortress that is inaccessible by most means of transportation. So Coburn hires a crack team of (wait for it) hang gliders and he and the hang gliders go to rescue his kids and his ex-wife.

Well, at one point in the film, the bad guys are attacking Coburn with a helicopter, and he actually jumps on to the chopper!

The picture quality isn’t great, but you can tell that it IS Coburn (I’ve watched the scene – we don’t actually get to see him jump on, we just see him later as he is hanging on to the helicoptor).

Well, during the Fall Guy opening credits…

There is Coburn, featured as Lee Majors sings about being the “Unknown Stuntman” subbing in for all the stars!

Pretty funny (and quite impressive on the part of the late, great James Coburn to be willing to do that stunt himself, even if they were certainly hooked up with lots of safety equipment).

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com