Television of Temporary Interest

Categorized for your convenience.

Robby the Robot:

The hardest working robot in show business is without a doubt Robby, star of Forbidden Planet (1953). Beyond his film debut, he appeared in Mork and Mindy, The Addams Family and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Here's an episode of The Thin Man television series starring the robot.
The 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone starring Robby the Robot.
The 1964 episode of The Twilight Zone featuring Robby the Robot.

Jerry Lewis:

The nutty Jerry Lewis is obviously on the verge of a nervous breakdown in this series of clips. His anger and insecurities are painfully on display in this episode of his short lived talk show, The Jerry Lewis Show, airing just after the announcement of the program's cancellation.

Peter Lorre:

Here is a 1957 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents starring a bloated and aging Peter Lorre taking advantage of a young unknown named George Peppard!

Lots more fun after the jump...

Nancy Kulp:

Nancy Kulp is best remembered as the high strung, melodramatic receptionist Ms. Hathaway on The Beverly Hillbillies. For my money, she was the funniest thing about that sitcom (I guess that's still not much of an endorsement). She came out of the closet in the nineteen seventies and continued to show up as a pleasant surprise in countless shows. Here's a sample.

This is an extremely rare 1958 television show directed by Orson Welles titled The Fountain of Youth, featuring Ms. Kulp.
Nancy Kulp on The Twilight Zone
Nancy Kulp becomes a regular on Sanford and Son.
Nancy Kulp on The Jack Benny Program.
Nancy Kulp plays on the game show Password.
Nancy Kulp as a guest on The Steve Allen Show.

Alan Hale Jr:

The Skipper from Gilligan's Island was a prevalent character actor just like his father.

Alan Hale Jr. plays a short order cook named Gilligan in an episode of Batman.
Alan Hale Jr. in an episode of the sitcom My Favorite Martian.
The weird pilot episode of Gilligan's Island had a different professor. Skipper was there, tho.
Alan Hale plays a game of Family Feud.
Alan fights a colossal spider!

Don Rickles:

Don Rickles on a 1987 edition of Larry King Live.
Don Rickles guest hosts The Tonight Show.
Don Rickles on The Twilight Zone
1974 episode of The Tonight Show with guests Rickles and Michael Landon.
Don Rickles roasts Evel Knievel.

George Carlin:

Carlin does stand-up on a 1968 Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour appearance.
Carlin sings and does bad sketches on the full episode
George Carlin as a panelist on a game show!
George Carlin on the sitcom That Girl.

Murray Roman:
As you surely know by now, I spent a month or so researching the life of counterculture comedian Murray Roman for a piece on Beware of the Blog last autumn. Since then I've found this sitcom turn. His appearance on Batman, however, still eludes the internet. Watch Murray Roman as a bowling manager on That Girl.

Lenny Bruce:
Both Murray Roman and George Carlin were seriously influenced by Lenny. Here he is on Hugh Hefner's predecessor to Playboy After Dark.

Woody Allen:

Woody as a panelist on the game show What's My Line?
Clips of this appear on YouTube, but here is the entire Woody Allen special from beginning to end featuring Billy Graham, The Fifth Dimension and Candice Bergen.

Dr. Seuss:

Theodore Geisel had the whos of whoville shill for Ford back in the day. Who knew? I didn't.

Network Nights:

The Museum of Broadcast Communications uploaded a super fun series on to the internet a while back that delivers entire nights of network television, just as they aired originally in the fifties and sixties, commercials and all. Some of the pieces are up to four continuous hours and include a variant of rarities including Calvin and The Colonel (a controversial cartoon based on Amos n' Andy), Valentines Day (a sitcom starring Jack Soo, years before Barney Miller) and all kinds of other cool stuff. Check 'em out.

Comments

[Listener Rick]

Robby WAS the hardest-working 'bot in the business. He also starred in "The Invisible Boy," his own feature-film sequel to Forbidden Planet, and a memorable guest shot alongside Billy Mumy and The Robot on "Lost in Space."

[James]

Robby makes a cameo appearance in Gremlins, as well, in a very witty scene (which also includes the title device from the 1960 version of The Time Machine).

[TomB]

Nancy Kulp was also a recurrent birdwatcher interested in Bob Cummings in either Love That Bob! or possibly the later Bob Cummings Show. The former also featured a non-blonde pre-Dobie Dwayne Hickman.

[Dale Hazelton]

He has his own Wikipedia entry listing all his appearances. Interestingly, the guy who designed him was hired by Irwin Allen to do the B9 robot from Lost in Space, as well as the Jupitor 2.

Interesting post on Nancy Kulp, as well. My heart goes to Donna Douglas though, who was quite beautiful in the Twilight Zone episode "Eye of the Beholder," where everyone had the pig faces and she was considered to hideous.

[Lex10]

Robby spanks it:
http://www.glyphjockey.com/2007/09/more-robot-fun-what-does-robby-do-when.html