Trivia: Intending to become a dentist like his father, American actor Edgar Buchanan wound up with grades so bad in college that he was compelled to take an "easy" course to improve his average. Buchanan chose a course in play interpretation, and after listening to a few recitations of Shakespeare he was stagestruck. After completing dental school, Buchanan plied his oral surgery skills in the summertime, devoting the fall, winter and spring months to acting in stock companies and at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. He was given a screen test by Warner Bros. studios in 1940, received several bit roles, then worked himself up to supporting parts upon transferring to Columbia Pictures. Though still comparatively youthful, Buchanan specialized in grizzled old westerners, with a propensity towards villainy or at least larceny. The actor worked at every major studio (and not a few minor ones) over the next few years, still holding onto his dentist's license just in case he needed something to fall back on. Though he preferred movie work to the hurried pace of TV filming, Buchanan was quite busy in television's first decade, costarring with William Boyd on the immensely popular Hopalong Cassidy series, then receiving a starring series of his own, Judge Roy Bean, in 1954. Buchanan became an international success in 1963 thanks to his regular role as the lovably lazy Uncle Joe Carson on the classic sitcom Petticoat Junction, which ran until 1970. After that, the actor experienced a considerably shorter run on the adventure series Cade's County, which starred Buchanan's close friend Glenn Ford. Buchanan's last movie role was in Benji (1974), which reunited him with the titular doggie star, who had first appeared as the family mutt on Petticoat Junction.

Trivia: Dark-haired actress Lori Saunders is probably best remembered for her six season (1966-1972) portrayal of Bobbie Jo Bradley on the long-running sitcom Petticoat Junction. But she did appear in feature films, as well, including adventure and horror pictures, usually working under the name Linda Saunders, and even got to play the title-role in one such vehicle during the early/middle 1960s. Born Linda Marie Hines in Kansas City, Missouri in 1941, she began working as Linda Hines on television during the early 1960s, appearing in episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie And Harriet playing various characters. By the time she started showing up on episodes of Burke's Law and Bob Hope's TV specials, she was working as Linda Saunders, and it was under that name that she made her feature film debut in 1965, in The Girls On The Beach. Later that same year, Saunders played the title-role, a sort of distaff Tarzan, raised by wolves in the Alaskan wild, in Mara of the Wilderness, an adventure film that got a fairly wide theatrical release at the time, aimed primarily at younger audiences -- additionally, because it also starred Adam West, the movie was re-released following the premiere of the Batman television series in 1966, and was later shown on network television. By the time that movie had made its initial bow in theaters, however, Saunders had also appeared in a lead role in the Jack Hill/Stephanie Rothman-directed horror film Blood Bath (1966) (aka Track of the Vampire). In the year of that movie's release, however, Saunders redirected her work and career toward comedy, taking over the role of Bobbie Jo Bradley, the cerebral, studious middle daughter in the sitcom Petticoat Junction (and its sister series, Green Acres) from actress Pat Woodell. In contrast to Woodell, who had emphasized the character's braininess, Saunders' portrayal made the character a bit more boy-crazy and charmingly goofy -- one might think of a very young, slightly ditsy Phyllis Kirk -- and during the final season the writers gave her an on-going romantic interest in the guise of game warden Orrin Pike (Jonathan Daly). She also appeared in episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies and Love American Style and, following the cancellation of Petticoat Junction, worked in the comedy western series Dusty's Trail, as well as showing up in various feature films. Saunders retired from acting in the 1980s.

Trivia: Bobby "Boris" Pickett was, of course, the man doing the Boris Karloff impression on the Halloween hit "Monster Mash" (basso voice: "Tell them Boris sent you..."), hence the middle nickname. Born Robert George Pickett in Somerville, MA, on September 11, 1938 -- the son of a movie theater manager -- Pickett spent an inordinate amount of time watching horror movies as a youngster. He moved to L.A. in 1961 following his discharge from the army, hoping to become an actor. Many pop-music aficionados may not realize that this dream did actualize; as a kind of crazy quirk, the overnight fame as a novelty act happened first and shaped Pickett's occasional acting turns. Before he reached the silver screen, Pickett first honed a nightclub act that featured a prominent Karloff impersonation, then joined a singing group called the Cordials, and after perfecting his Karloff voice, used it on the deep-voiced spoken part of the seminal single "Little Darlin'" by the Diamonds. The success of that effort inspired Pickett to co-write "Monster Mash" with Cordials member Leonard Capizzi to take advantage of the Mashed Potato dance craze. (Leon Russell, Johnny McCrae, Rickie Page, and producer Gary Paxton comprised his backup band, the Crypt-Kickers). The novelty tune, of course, became a towering hit, reaching number one on October 20, 1962, and also charting on two subsequent occasions: August 1970 and May 1973. Doubtless thanks to the success of this single, it laid the foundation for Pickett's occasional acting work in Z-grade exploitation and occasional horror fare. After a couple of turns on the rural sitcom Petticoat Junction and the Western series Gunsmoke, Pickett appeared in studio by-product such as It's a Bikini World (1967), The Deathmaster (1972), Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988), and Lobster Man from Mars (1989). In the mid-'90s, the single "Monster Mash," spawned a fairly horrendous, family-friendly Halloween musical, Monster Mash: The Movie (1995), starring Pickett (and Full House's Candace Cameron), as well as a cartoon based on the song four years after that. In 2004, Pickett provided a voice for the children's animated feature Spookley: The Square Pumpkin. "Monster Mash," of course, is ever-present on movie soundtracks.Pickett died of leukemia on April 25, 2007. He was 69 years old.