(I intended to write this 5 days ago, the day I posted the Mini Quiz on Facebook; and if you have come looking for the “Before Black People Were Invented” entry, that’s the post below.)
Again, none of the 3 actors in this Mini Quiz are profiled on STVC but they are grouped here because their television oeuvres are large, and their names are gender-neutral, making them ideal for a multiple choice quiz.
I must begin with Parley Baer, pictured right, because it would almost be easier to name the TV series from the 50s to the 90s on which he did NOT appear than to list the ones on which he did. He worked constantly, having guest roles on practically everything from Dragnet to I Love Lucy, The Bill Cosby Show, Charlie’s Angels, Little House on the Prairie, Beverly Hills 90210 and even, late in his career, turned up in a recurring role for a while on the only soap opera he ever did: The Young and the Restless. Surprisingly, his acting credits end in 1996 though he lived until almost the end of 2002, dying at age 88.
The image of Dee Freeman, pictured left, is a young one dating back to 1995. This creative and versatile actor has played comedy and drama as a nurse, a judge, a server, a ghost, a police sergeant – you name it – on series such as Silk Stalkings, Bones, Dexter and more. She has portrayed quite a few doctors and has a doctor role again in Delicate State, a film that sounds like it might be innovative and is in post-production status at the time of this writing.
Of all of his prolific TV roles for over two decades, when I think of Robin Hughes, pictured in the middle, I think first of him caged in the “Howling Man” segment of the original Twilight Zone. I don’t think I’ve seen this movie, but he plays a talking head – not a broadcast journalist, mind you, but an actual talking severed head – in The Thing That Couldn’t Die (1958). Get me some popcorn, please.
~ FW