Florida Today from Cocoa, Florida • Page 131

FLORIDA TODAY TV WEEK Oct. 1-7, 2000 3 Darren McGavin, Burt Reynolds starred in NBC's 'Riverboat' QUESTION: My husband remembers a television show from his childhood called "Riverboat." Do you have any info about it? MRS. LOUISVILLE, KY. ANSWER: "Riverboat" ran on NBC from September 1959 until January 1961. It was set during the 1840s and dealt with the exploits of Gray Holden (Darren McGavin), the rough-and-tumble captain and owner of the Enterprise, which traveled the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

The boat's pilot was Ben Frazier, played by a very young Burt Reynolds. Reynolds clashed with McGavin, however, and left the show after one season. He later remarked to TV Guide, "Darren McGavin is going to be a very disappointed man on the first Easter after his death." My wife and I vaguely remember the theme song of INCREDIBLE INMAN DAVE "Route 66" and the Corvette and George Maharis but couldn't really remember what happened on the show. And what became of Maharis after the show ended? Also, during the mid to late 1960s I used to watch a show called "The Outcasts." I remember it as an intelligently written Western drama about a former rebel soldier and an exslave who form a partnership as bounty hunters. Like "Star Trek," it addressed some of the era's controversial issues within its format.

Who played the leading roles, and what became of the show? B. AND ROCHESTER, N.Y. "Route 66" ran on CBS from 1960 until 1964. Initially, it was about the cross-country travels of Tod Stiles (Martin Milner) and Buz Murdock (Maharis). Stiles was from a wealthy family, but hit the road in his Corvette after his father died and the family discovered they were penniless.

Buz was a rather hotheaded type who grew up in Hell's Kitchen and had been an employee of Tod's father. The show was never a huge hit, but it was very popular with young people. Maharis became associated with his surly character and gained a reputation as a kind of small-screen Marlon Brando. In 1962, Maharis recorded a record album, and soon after trouble began. He missed several episodes of the show after contracting hepatitis and claimed he was rushed back to work too soon.

Then he was put out because the show's producers wouldn't give him time off to promote his album on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Milner let it be known that Maharis wouldn't be missed if he left "Route 66," and Maharis took off for the movies in late 1962, although episodes featuring him aired into early 1963. Maharis was replaced by Glenn Corbett, who played Linc Case, a disillusioned Vietnam War veteran. Maharis' movie career didn't exactly set the world on fire, and by the late 1960s he was back making the game-show rounds and guest-starring on episodes of everything from "Medical Center" to "The Bionic Woman." His last TV role that I can find was on a 1990 INCREDIBLE She episode Wrote." of "Murder, As for "The OutINMAN casts," it ran just one season on ABC in 1968-69. Don Murray, later Sid Fairgate on "Knots Landing," played Earl Corey, and Otis Young played freed slave Jemal David. 1.

I know that the character of Carlton the doorman was on "Rhoda," but was he also on "The Mary Tyler Moore A few friends of mine are having a little disagreement about this. L.M., VIA E-MAIL Carlton, the unseen doorman whose voice was heard over an intercom, was played by Lorenzo Music and only on "Rhoda," which ran on CBS from 1974 until 1978. We were watching an old game show the other day and one of the celebrities was Didi Conn. She was so perky. What ever became of her? VIA E-MAIL Well, Conn is now 49, and let's just say it's a lot easier to sell perky when there aren't quite as many miles on the old odometer.

Conn is best known, of course, as the star of the 1977 film "You Light Up My Life." She also played Denise on "Benson" (ABC, 1981-85) and Stacy Jones on "Shining Time Station" (PBS, 1989-95). She was a regular on the ABC soap "The City" in 1996-97. I have been trying to find a made-for-TV movie for my aunt. She says it starred Richard Kiley and Joanne Woodward, and it has something to do with "remember love." Can you tell us the title and if it's on video? VIA E-MAIL That's the 1985 TV movie "Do You Remember Love," and it's not yet on video. Woodward won an Emmy for her portrayal of a college professor with Alzheimer's disease.

Could you please tell me if Vincent Price ever appeared on "The $64,000 Question" answering questions in the category of cooking? D.A., VIA E-MAIL "The $64,000 Question," which ran on CBS from 1955 until 1958, was the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" of its day. It began as a summer show in which contestants answered progressively more difficult questions to win progressively bigger amounts of money, having the option to quit and take the winnings at any time. Just for the record, the show's second $64,000 winner was Dr. Joyce Brothers, whose special area of knowledge was boxing. Please tell me the name of a movie I saw as a child.

I believe it starred Fred MacMurray as a distraught storeowner who had a guardian angel. At the end of the movie he was almost shot but the angel caught the bullet. Is it on video? N.G., VIA E-MAIL That's the 1973 film "Charley and the Angel," which also stars Cloris Leachman, Henry Morgan and Kurt Russell. It's on video, from Disney Home Video. Burt Reynolds Also like "Millionaire," "The $64,000 Question" featured celebrity contestants, and Vincent Price appeared on the show in 1956.

His chosen category of expertise, however, was art, not cooking. Perhaps you're confusing him with the show's first $64,000 winner, Richard S. McCutchen, who answered a multipart question on cooking and won the money on Sept. 13, 1955. Send your questions to The Incredible Inman, GNS TV and The Courier-Journal, 525 W.

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