Comments on: TV Urban Legends Revealed #22

By: dom

dom — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 06:35:09 +0000

The name of the police officer Reginald VelJohnson played in Die Hard was Al Powell. He had also played a police officer several times before Die Hard. So no, the character of Carl Winslow did not originate from Die Hard.

By: Squashua

Squashua — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:52:27 +0000

Kroft Superstars / Wonderbuggy show – one of the actors became a pronstar.

By: Mike Blake

Mike Blake — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:10:15 +0000

Mary’s right about the Disney show. It ran on NBC from 1961 to 1981, first as The Wonderful World of Color (which is how I always think of it — I’ve got that theme song memorized) then as The Wonderful World of Disney.

I must say the Wikipedia article reveals a more complicated history to the show than I thought, and even mentions its rivalry with 60 Minutes!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderful_World_of_Disney#1960s_and_1970s

By: Mike Blake

Mike Blake — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:01:35 +0000

Time zones: but the networks themselves are headquartered in the Eastern zone, so that never bothered me.

Another thing about the access rule and the switch to syndicated programming by affiliates at 7 and 7:30pm: it’s what enabled game shows, specifically JEOPARDY! and WHEEL OF FORTUNE to become such popular rating powerhouses, surpassing their original (and since cancelled) daytime versions. I see Wikipedia notes of WHEEL:

[It} has been the most watched syndicated program since May 1984... It is the longest-running syndicated game show in American television history

By: John

John — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:52:52 +0000

Not bad, but this column could have been better.

Didn’t the character of Carl Winslow (also played by the same actor) originate in the first “Die Hard” movie? He was the cop that believed Bruce Willis’ story of terrorists in the building.
I think Harriet Winslow was a “family-friendly” way of introducing the characters since Die Hard was an R-rated action movie that may not have been suitable for the same audience as “Family Matters” or “Perfect Strangers”.

Also, the legend that Ken Osmond/ Eddie Haskell was an adult film star was debunked on Snopes ages ago (as was the urban legend of Josh Saviano of “The Wonder Years” becoming Marilyn Manson):
http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/marilyn.asp

I have to disagree with mary and Teebore: I would bet that the reason show-times are given in Eastern Standard Time is for two reasons:
1) Most TV-production studios are either in New York (Eastern Time Zone) or Los Angeles (Pacific Time Zone).
2) There are more people in the Eastern Time Zone: New York, Miami, Washington, Philadelphia, etc. compared to the number of cities in the Central Time Zone.

But, this would be a good topic for another Legends Revealed column.

By: Teebore

Teebore — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:08:14 +0000

Ha! I agree with Mary about the time zones.

By: mary warner

mary warner — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:36:53 +0000

I had heard the true story about Osmond suing to have his name removed from porno films before, but I never knew that it was John Holmes using the name. I wonder why that wasn’t mentioned in the sources I’d seen. And I knew that he was a cop but I never heard about him being shot before.
I remember ‘Wonderful World of Disney’ being on NBC in the mid-seventies. Are you sure you wrote that correctly?
And I’m always bothered by the use of Eastern time being used in everything I read about TV. I have to constantly shift everything one hour in my head. Why don’t you use Central time from now on and make the people on the East coast have to convert the times when they read this? It’s only fair that we take turns every few decades.

By: boxcuttah

boxcuttah — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:52:27 +0000

I’d never heard the Ken Osmond = John C. Holmes rumor before. The one I always heard was Ken Osmond = Alice Cooper, which is pretty much the predecessor of the Paul Saviano = Marilyn Manson rumor.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:48:24 +0000

Yeah, John, good point – the half hour did not HAVE to come from the 7 O’Clock hour, it could theoretically come at any time during prime time.

ABC did, in fact, give up the 10:30 PM slot at least one night a week, as you mention.

ABC, though, was also happy with the Access Rule because they had trouble filling their programming schedule as it was, so this actually helped to level the playing field a bit between them and NBC and CBS.

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:07:59 +0000

Great article. Another clue that Ken Osmond wasn’t John Holmes is the fact that he starred in a mid-80′s revival of “Leave It To Beaver” (called “Still The Beaver” and “The New Leave It To Beaver”), this time as a grown-up Eddie Haskell (the surviving original cast reprised their roles as well, with Osmond’s son, Eric, playing Eddie Haskell, Jr.). At that point, he and Holmes would’ve been recognizably different. Also, Osmond played Eddie Haskell’s father in the 1997 “Leave It To Beaver” movie, nearly a decade after Holmes had died.

This reminds me of the urban legend that Marilyn Manson was really Josh Saviano, a.k.a. Paul from “The Wonder Years”. Even though everyone involved has denied it, I still see websites for “Guess The Celebrity Based On Their High School Picture”-type games, with Saviano’s picture for Manson.