My vote for most outrageous TV episode

[Eva Elisabeth]

May be this is well-known stuff to you, but there's an image of Jack Lemmon as JWB on:

http://ikindalikejacklemmon.tumblr.com/p...was-shot-a

The cutline says:
Jack on the set of The Day Lincoln Was Shot, a television special from 1956. This photo was taken just after Jack, playing John Wilkes Booth (Lincoln’s assassinator), sprained his ankle whilst rehearsing a jump from the balcony behind him. Almost deja vu as Booth in real life had actually broke his ankle doing the same thing.


I found it due to the following article by John Dean:

…For example, still unpublished, but available in archival depositories, is the truly sympathetic, masterful, and Hamlet-like portrayal of that otherwise totally odious figure John Booth by U.S. comedy actor Jack Lemmon. This was in the 1956, live, TV production The Day Lincoln Was Shot.9 It is an excellent example of a popular presentation where villain matches hero, not unlike Shakespeare’s Gloucester and Lear or Iago and Othello….

http://www.asjournal.org/archive/53/172.html

[scldrgnfly]

I wonder if "The Shat" ever tackled the Lincoln Conspiracy on "Startrek??" Or, was he off at his "Shateau?" He was quite the classical actor. Did anyone ever see him in "The Brothers Kamarazov?" He was a younger, less bulkier youth.

Did "The Twilight Zone" ever do one...or, "The Outer Limits?"

It's a far cry from when I was young, but it's kind of funny, too...how things remain the same, but different. My mom and dad got an adapter plug for our TV so we could only watch what they deemed appropriate.

Wonder where the "Kardashians" would be on their list, or "The Simpson's?"

That just made me think, "The Three Stooges" didn't ever do one, did they?

Funny stuff! Interesting, what Lincoln Scholars do on their off - off time!! LOL!

[Gene C]

There was a Twilight Zone episode titled "Back There" staring the Professor from Giligans Island
If my computer ever comes back from the twilight zone I will post the web site from hulu

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734556/ (Lincoln is never shown, but Booth is) and

the Passerby http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734671/ (Lincoln makes a brief appearance at the end)

---

there was a terrible Star Trek episone, so bad I am almost embarressed to post it....

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708477/

[LincolnMan]

I remember that episode of The Rifleman too. Yes, the guy was delusional or something to that effect. Also, Lucus McCain was a Union soldier veteran in the series. One of the episodes had Sherman visiting his homestead.

[LincolnMan]

I just finished watching another episode of the 1960s TV series "The Rifleman" with Chuck Conners. This episode opens with Lucas and Mark McCain having dinner with Abraham Lincoln. (For those that are not familiar with the series, its time frame is the late 1870s in the Western part of the United States - the city of North Fork. Also, this Abe is a man whom has a complex that makes him think he is actually Abraham Lincoln!)

At any rate, Lucas takes Abe into town to visit. Abe goes into the saloon for a drink of water. The other saloon customers say their hellos to Abe. One man is a southern sympathizer and he claims to be John Wilkes Booth! Imagine that!!! Of course, Booth still wants to kill Lincoln. However, as in most episodes, Lucas comes to the rescue in the end.

Rick Brown
HistoryBuff.com
A Nonprofit Organization

And speaking of Chuck Connors, there was an episode of Branded (that he also starred in) that featured William H. Seward. Seward mentions the Lincoln assassination in the episode.

[Jim Garrett]

I just finished watching another episode of the 1960s TV series "The Rifleman" with Chuck Conners. This episode opens with Lucas and Mark McCain having dinner with Abraham Lincoln. (For those that are not familiar with the series, its time frame is the late 1870s in the Western part of the United States - the city of North Fork. Also, this Abe is a man whom has a complex that makes him think he is actually Abraham Lincoln!)

At any rate, Lucas takes Abe into town to visit. Abe goes into the saloon for a drink of water. The other saloon customers say their hellos to Abe. One man is a southern sympathizer and he claims to be John Wilkes Booth! Imagine that!!! Of course, Booth still wants to kill Lincoln. However, as in most episodes, Lucas comes to the rescue in the end.

Rick Brown
HistoryBuff.com
A Nonprofit Organization

And speaking of Chuck Connors, there was an episode of Branded (that he also starred in) that featured William H. Seward. Seward mentions the Lincoln assassination in the episode.

WOW Bill! BRANDED!! Did that show last two seasons? I loved that show. It was a really quick blip on the radar.

[LincolnMan]

Yes, the show only lasted two seasons. I have both seasons on DVD. I don't care for the show as much as The Rifleman, but it was still a good one.

[Gene C]

This may not quite fit the thread topic, but it's close. While not the most outrageous, I did find this pretty funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifw2qw-D1d4

[LincolnMan]

A great episode. I remember it well.

[Gene C]

An episode from the old TV series, Yancy Derringer - The Gun That Murdered Lincoln.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dvcIpR5nO4

Wikipedia article about the TV series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yancy_Derringer

[Pamela]

This may not quite fit the thread topic, but it's close. While not the most outrageous, I did find this pretty funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifw2qw-D1d4

So funny, Gene!! Thanks for finding that, .

[maharba]

I should have bought up all the rights to the Rifleman in 1960, what would it have cost then maybe $50,000. And then syndicate them for countless millions later. The theme music was good. LOTS of killings (of the usually evil Southern hillbillies) in every episode. Though I haven't watched TV for awhile, I remember an episode where Mark McCain recites a poem about Sheridan miles away. Was that the same episode had the war-wounded (evil) Confederate in it? I think at the end of the episode, a Union doctor heals his wound. I haven't heard it in awhile but I can remember the themes to Johnny Yumaaaaaaah was a Rebel. And Yancey Derringer.
Compare those good gun-fighting 1/2 hour westerns to the boring 'horse opera' westerns like Bonanza, Wagon Train and other hour long ones.

[Jim Page]

I should have bought up all the rights to the Rifleman in 1960, what would it have cost then maybe $50,000. And then syndicate them for countless millions later.

A wonderful show. The most exciting one, or at least, to me, the most harrowing, was the last episode, when a rattlesnake crawled into Lukas' bedroll when they were transporting a prisoner.

Holy Moley. What a frightening episode. Another was the Bonanza episode when they were transporting nitroglycerin.

There were so many wonderful Westerns on TV when I was a kid. I loved them all, but the toy pistols and gunbelt I HAD to have in the first grade was my "Have Gun, Will Travel" set. Yep, there were few desperadoes in Pascagoula, Mississippi, who dared confront little Jimbo Page when I was wearing that rig.

--Jim

[maharba]

A story I've heard about Chuck Connors when he was out in California playing baseball. He hit a homerun and starts around the bases, then he charges into second base and makes a grandstand slide into a cloud of dust, gets up and finishes running around the bases to home plate. Of course, that sort of thing is never done, but it struck Chuck's mood to do it, and it is legal. Supposedly, a movie executive saw it and realized that Connors had some showmanship, and was a big likeable guy. Even at 6 foot seven, today Chuck Connors or Abraham Lincoln would be too short to make a good bigleague pitcher. They like em left-handed and very tall. I especially liked the theme songs to the TV westerns. HAVE GUN had a great opening, but it was usually too 'edgy' or nontraditional in the show, to suit my taste. I wanted gunfights like RIFLEMAN. I liked MAVERICK themesong, but it had no action at all, the gimmick to that western to avoid gunfights and use Jim Garner's oddball wry sense of humor.

[RJNorton]

A story I've heard about Chuck Connors when he was out in California playing baseball. He hit a homerun and starts around the bases, then he charges into second base and makes a grandstand slide into a cloud of dust, gets up and finishes running around the bases to home plate.

When I was very young Chuck Connors played briefly with the Chicago Cubs. He was a first baseman. As I recall, although a great athlete, he was not good enough to stick in the big leagues.