Over in the thread "From the Archives: Deck Log Entry # 90 Death in the Silver Age---Mark Merlin, R. I. P.," Commander Benson wrote:
Commander Benson said:
Fifteen years ago, on the Leave It to Beaver forum, at the SitcomsonLine.com site, I posted this, in response to some speculation as to what Ward Cleaver did for a living:
"Long before his Leave It to Beaver days, Hugh Beaumont played the pulp novel detective Michael Shayne in a series of five B-movies in 1946-7. He played a similar character--Dennis O'Brien--in a trio of low-budget films in 1951.
"Both of these characters were of the same moral rectitude as Ward Cleaver, although they were harder around the edges.
"I have often amused myself in the past by entertaining the playful notion that these B-movies showed us what Ward did when he was at work.
"Every day, he kisses June good-bye and heads off for work. He arrives at his second-floor-walk-up office, straps on his shoulder holster, exchanges some banter with his secretary, Phyllis, and cleans up crime and corruption in Mayfield. Fred Rutherford is one of his stoolies. Larry Mondello's almost-never-seen father isn't on a 'business trip'; that's just a white lie told Larry by his mother. Actually, Larry's dad is doing a stretch in prison, after Ward caught him embezzling from his employer.
"At the end of a day of detecting and knocking heads, Ward slips his .38 back in the desk drawer and drives home to June and the boys.
"At home, Ward dispenses moral guidance by patient lectures to Wally and the Beaver; at work, he dispenses it from the end of a gun."
I'm in a Barney Miller group on Facebook, and one day, somebody noted that Fish had a secret past as a mobster. Also, Chano became an anti-communist revolutionary in South America, and after the ol' One-Two was dissolved, Wojo moved to Washington and became the owner of a taxi company.
Any more examples we can name, friends?
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Captain James T. Kirk had a great, great, great grandfather who was a police officer in Southern California.