Trivia: Whitman College graduate Adam West began getting his first acting breaks in 1959. That was the year that West, newly signed to a Warner Bros. contract, was cast in the small but pivotal role of Diane Brewster's impotent husband in The Young Philadelphians. After two years' worth of guest-star assignments in Warners' TV product (he was hung by his heels and humiliated by James Garner in a memorable Maverick episode), West accepted the role of Sergeant Steve Nelson on the weekly TVer Robert Taylor's Detectives. In 1962, the series was cancelled, compelling West to free-lance in such films as Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964, as the astronaut who doesn't make it back) and Island of the Blue Dolphins (1964). In 1965, he landed his biggest and best role to date: Millionaire Bruce Wayne, aka the "Caped Crusader", on the smash TV series Batman. Approaching the role with the seriousness and sobriety usually afforded MacBeth or Hamlet, West struck the happy medium between "camp" and conviction. Though in recent years West has apparently basked in the adulation he has received for his two-year stint as Batman, at the time the series was cancelled in 1968, he vowed to distance himself as far from the character as possible, accepting villainous TV and film roles and even fitfully pursuing a singing career. His movie projects ranged from sublime (Marriage of a Young Stockbroker, Hooper) to ridiculous (The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington); no matter what the role, however, West's performance was invariably compared to his Batman work. Finally adopting an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" stance, West began making appearances at nostalgia conventions, supplied his vocal talents to the 1977 animated series The New Adventures of Batman, and publicly expressed disappointment that he was not offered a cameo role in the 1989 big-screen blockbuster Batman (he did however, provide a voice-over for the 1992 Fox TV series Batman: The New Adventures, not as Batman but as a washed-up superhero called the Gray Ghost). Adam West's most recent TV projects have included the weekly series The Last Precinct (1986) and Danger Theatre (1993); he also served as a spokesperson for the Nickelodeon cable network, a service specializing in nostalgia-inducing reruns.He continued to work steadily, often trading in on his own history as a caped crusader. He appeared in the comedy The New Age and Drop Dead Gorgeous. At the dawn of the 21st century he took a regular gig voicing the role of Mayor Adam West on the animated series The Family Guy., a gig that led to more animated work in projects such as Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons. He spoofed his superhero history yet again in 2008's Super Capers and appeared as himself on an episode of The Big Bang Theory. West died in 2017, at age 88.

Trivia: In vaudeville from the age of six, Nanette Fabray made her first film appearance (under her family name Fabares) as one of Bette Davis' ladies-in-waiting in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). She established herself as a Broadway star in the 1940s, starring in musicals ranging from 1947's High Button Shoes to 1962's Mister President, winning a brace of Donaldson awards along the way. In 1953, she played her most famous screen role as a Betty Comden-ish playwright in MGM's The Band Wagon (1953). On television, Fabray won three Emmies for her work on Sid Caesar's programs of 1954 and 1955; she also starred in her own 1961 sitcom, The Nanette Fabray Show, and was co-starred as Bonnie Franklin's mother in the 1970s series One Day at a Time. Legally deaf since the 1950s, Fabray has worked tirelessly on behalf of America's hearing impaired, and has been honored for her efforts by several presidents. Nanette Fabray is the widow of screenwriter/director Ranald McDougall, and the aunt of actress Shelley Fabares.

Trivia: Educated at Catholic University, American actress Pat Carroll trained for a career in musical comedy. From her 1950 off-Broadway debut in Come What May onward, the blonde, full-figured comedienne seldom lacked work. A busy television actress in the 1950s, Carroll won a 1956 Emmy for her work on Caesar's Hour. After starring in a 1959 Broadway revival of On the Town, Carroll settled in for a three-season run (1961-64) as Bunny Halper, wife of nightclub manager Charlie Halper (Sid Melton), on The Danny Thomas Show. The episode wherein Bunny has a baby garnered some of Danny Thomas' biggest ratings, encouraging the producers to develop a spin-off series for Carroll and Melton; this never materialized, nor did Carroll provide the voice of Jane Jetson on the cartoon series The Jetsons, as had been announced by Hanna-Barbera. Since the 1964 cancellation of Danny Thomas, Carroll has been a regular on such series as Getting Together (1971), Bustin' Loose (1977), The Ted Knight Show (1978) and She's the Sheriff (1986). During the last decade, Pat Carroll starred in the one-woman stage show Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, and provided the speaking and singing voice of flamboyant sea-witch Ursula in Disney's 1989 animated feature The Little Mermaid.

Trivia: A high school teacher and athletic coach in his native Alabama, George Lindsey decided in his early 20s that his destiny lay in the theater. Lindsey and his wife packed themselves off to New York, where he studied diligently at the American Theatre Wing. He spent a great deal of time losing his Southern accent, only to be forced to regain it when he found he couldn't get any work as a "Yankee." At first cast in unpleasant or sinister roles, Lindsey was forever pigeonholed as comedian when he played the one-shot role of Goober Beasley on a 1963 episode of The Andy Griffith Show, scoring a bull's-eye of hilarity with his inept celebrity impressions. When next he appeared on Griffith, he was Goober Pyle, cousin to Mayberry's resident village idiot Gomer Pyle. And when Gomer (aka Jim Nabors) was spun off into his own series, Lindsey became a Griffith regular. He stayed with Goober until 1971, by which time The Andy Griffith Show had evolved into the Griffith-less Mayberry RFD. He then joined the Hee Haw troupe, remaining with that popular syndicated TV variety series for two decades. Lindsey extended his oafish TV persona into his big-screen work, appearing in such films as Take This Job and Shove It and Cannonball Run II. Far wittier and more versatile than the hapless Goober, Lindsey has remained a popular attraction on the TV convention/country-western concert/rodeo circuit; he has made several singing appearances on The Grand Ole Opry, and for many years was a judge at the Miss USA pageant. In 1995, George Lindsey (assisted by Jim Beck and Ken Clark) published his autobiography, Goober in a Nutshell.