–I have followed Robert Conrad`s career with interest in his two TV series, ”Wild, Wild West” and ”Black Sheep Squadron.” What is he doing now?–T.P.
You`ve missed most of Conrad`s TV series. The line-up: ”Hawaiian Eye,”
ABC. `59-`63; ”Wild,. Wild West,” CBS, `65-`69; ”The D.A.,” NBC, `71-`72; ”Assignment: Vienna,” ABC, `71-`73; ”Baa Baa Black Sheep Squadron,”
NBC, `76-`78; ”Centennial,” NBC, `78-`79; ”A Man Called Sloane,” NBC, `79; ”The Duke,” NBC, `79. And there`s a chance for No. 9 later this season. He`ll star as a cop who adopts a troubled teen (played by Conrad`s son, Shane, 13) after accidentally killing the teen`s friend in ”Sullivan,” a two-hour ABC pilot movie.
–Tell me about Avery Brooks, who plays Hawk on ”Spenser: For Hire.”–
W.J.
Brooks, 35, was born in Evansville, Ind., grew up in Gary, Ind., attended Oberlin College, Indiana University and Rutgers, where he took his Master of Fine Arts degree. He`s still at Rutgers 13 years later as a tenured professor of theater. He`s practiced what he teaches on stage in Washington, D.C., and with the Shakespeare Festival and Negro Ensemble Company in New York. His only film credit is ”The Odyssey of Solomon Northrup,” seen last season on PBS`
”American Playhouse” series. He`s single.
–Is Dick Cavett back on television?–S.B.
Cavett joined the USA cable network in September with an hour that started out to be a combination of comedy and talk but has settled into a pure talk show, usually with two guests. It`s at 9 p.m. Mondays with a repeat at midnight Wednesdays.
–I hear there might be a ”Perry Mason” series with Raymond Burr back as Mason–O.W.
Burr isn`t interested in doing a series but, after the success of ”Perry Mason Returns,” the most watched TV movie of the season, NBC has another
”Mason” movie in the works for next May. Mason will defend a nun accused of murdering a priest in ”The Case of the Notorious Nun.” Says Burr: ”I think we can do things in `Perry Mason` movies that we could never do in a series. We did all but five of (author Erle) Gardner`s books, but we never did them fully.”
–Didn`t Victor French of ”Highway to Heaven” grow up in Wynnewood, Pa. ?–L.J.
French is a native Californian, born in Santa Barbara, the son of Hollywood stuntman Ted French, who doubled for most of the top western movie stars. ”I`ve got Buck Jones` hat and Tom Mix`s boots in my den at home,”
says Victor French, who started out to be a stuntman too but wound up teaching theater arts after graduating from college.
–Did David Hartman ever play on ”Bonanza?” For how long?–M.H.
Hartman was tall in the saddle in ”The Virginian,” for one season, 1968-69, his only TV western series. He left to be one of ”The New Doctors” on ”The Bold Ones,” 1969-72, and after that played teacher ”Lucas Tanner,” 1974-75. He joined ”Good Morning, America” in 1975.
–What`s happening with Terence Knox? When will we see him again?–S.S.
Knox, Dr. Peter White on NBC`s ”St. Elsewhere,” plays Bess Armstrong`s husband in ”All Is Forgiven,” a new NBC sitcom. Knox replaced Gary Sandy, of ”WKRP in Cincinnati,” who did the original ”Forgiven” pilot.
–Did Gene Raymond play the governor on ”Hawaii Five-O”?–M.A.
Richard Denning–who`s blond and looks something like Raymond–was the governor. Denning was one of those busy journeyman actors who played second leads in A pictures and leads in B pictures before World War II. He played Lucille Ball`s husband in the radio series ”My Favorite Husband” but lost the part to Ball`s real-life husband Desi Arnaz when the series was transformed into ”I Love Lucy” for TV. Denning didn`t suffer. He starred in ”Mr. and Mrs. North” for CBS, later did two syndicated series, ”The Flying Doctor” and ”Michael Shayne,” and ”Karen” for NBC. In 1970, Denning and his wife, actress Evelyn Ankers, moved to Hawaii where Jack Lord found him and persuaded him to do ”Five-O” as a semi-regular.
–Didn`t the late Rick Nelson star in a TV series that premiered this season?–K.W.
Nelson was a guest on an NBC summer 1985 series, ”Our Time.”
–Ever since ”Scarecrow and Mrs. King” came into being, I`ve been racking my brain as to why Beverly Garland is such a familiar name and face. I`m sure she had a cop show years ago–L.L.M.
Garland starred in ”Decoy,” a 1957 syndicated series that lasted only one season. It`s more likely you know her from her later series, ”The Bing Crosby Show,” ABC 1964-65; and the final three seasons, 1969-72, of ”My Three Sons” on CBS.
–Is Vanna White of ”Wheel of Fortune” from Myrtle Beach, S.C., or from a town in North Carolina? How long has she and Pat Sajak been married?–E.P.L. White gives N. Myrtle Beach, S.C., as her birthplace. She and Sajak are not and never have been married. She`s single. Sajak and his wife, Sherrill, are the parents of Mason, 16.
