Brilliant Stars, Movies, TV Shows Virtually Unknown to Millennials and Gen Z

W.C. Fields

Deservedly world famous for decades, I once had a millennial, who had at least heard of him, say he imagined he must be a "diarist," because of the quotations he had heard. Certainly most have never heard the name.

Fearless Fosdick
String puppets depict Al Capp's (of Lil Abner fame) detective with a face reminiscent of Dick Tracy. Comedy detective stories.

Sid Caesar and Your Show of Shows.

Medic
Starring Richard Boone

Tv series 'M Squad' starring Lee Marvin as Lt. Frank Ballinger

Found by chance while reading about Lee Marvin, presently watching one episode a day on youtube

The were dozens of westerns; new ones seemed to appear every year.
"Have Gun, Will Travel" (also with Richard Boone) was better than most of them and might be memorable for its theme song alone!


Rescue Eight ran for two seasons, '59 and '60. It starred Jim Davis and Lang Jeffries, and anticipated later shows like "Emergency".

Brandon and I have already discussed "The Time Tunnel" ('66-'67) on another thread – it had some good writing and decent plot devices.

The Steve Allen Show
competed with Ed Sullivan

I certainly agree about "Have Gun, Will Travel."

Have Gun Will Travel is my favorite TV western

Inner Sanctum
TV version of the radio series Inner Sanctum Mystery

Movies like The Americanization of Emily seem to have vanished. The movie stars James Garner, Julie Andrews, and James Coburn. An admiral has a mental episode and sends the James boys to film the first dead man on Omaha Beach. When it doesn't work out, over-achiever Coburn takes out his gun to make the film anyway, with Garner being the dead man.

I love the "issues of Scientific American" on the desk – nice touch!

Yes, an excellent show.

Harold Clayton Lloyd Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.[1]

One of the most influential film comedians of the silent era, Lloyd made nearly 200 comedy films, both silent and talkies, from 1914 to 1947. His bespectacled "glasses character" was a resourceful, ambitious go-getter who reflected the zeitgeist of the 1920s-era United States.[2][3]

His films frequently contained "thrill sequences" of extended chase scenes and daredevil physical feats. Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street (dangerous, but risk exaggerated by camera angles) in Safety Last! (1923) is considered one of the more enduring images in cinema.[4] Lloyd performed lesser stunts himself despite having injured himself in August 1919 while doing publicity pictures for the Roach studio. An accident with a bomb mistaken as a prop resulted in the loss of the thumb and index finger of his right hand (the injury was disguised on future films with the use of a special prosthetic glove, and it was almost undetectable on the screen

The Westerner, starring Brian Keith

Ramar of the Jungle TV series - 1952-54
Missionaries' kid Tom Reynolds returns to the jungle as a doctor where he treats natives ("Ramar" means "White Medicine Man") and takes care of bad guys, aided by Prof. Ogden.

People who haven't seen a few episodes of "Leave it to Beaver" as adults will never believe that it's one of the best sitcoms in history, and that certainly includes essentially 100% of Millennials and Gen Z.

This was a big favorite with me. Btian Keith as The Westerner