[WikiEN-l] Sourcing popular culture items

Fri Nov 10 20:20:59 UTC 2006

> jeff.raymond at internationalhouseofbacon.com wrote:
>> The fact that we can say "nn-bio" on someone who was on a well-known
>> television show is scary to me.
>>
> Yeah, I know what you mean, I'm practically trembling with fear. I've
> been on *several* well-known television shows, and nobody thinks I'm
> notable either! (Admittedly, the shows were news programs getting the
> reactions of passersby :-) but hey, why should that be an obstacle! I
> WAS ON TV! ZOMG!!)

Hey, hey, I was on TV, too!

I was an actor in the extremely notable television soap opera "Search  
For Tomorrow," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_For_Tomorrow.

You see, there was a tradition that the annual Christmas show was  
kinescoped[1] so that it could be aired on Christmas Day without  
performers having to work on that day. The storyline took some sort  
of departure from the main stream of the show; I believe it was set  
in the homes of various characters, who received Christmas day visits  
from other characters. The format was designed to allow the creation  
of numerous one-time-only bit parts, and various people who worked on  
the show had the opportunity of having their friends or kids get  
written into the show and play a part.

I had two lines:

a) "Daddy, Daddy, it's _my_ turn to play with the toy train."

b) "Goodbye! Goodbye! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas."

I delivered them superbly.

My dad had to drive me in to New York at 6 a.m. in the morning the  
day they were kinescoping the show.

The turkey shown in on the dining-room table in the show was not a  
prop, or at any rate I suppose it _was_ a prop but it what I mean is  
that it was a real, edible turkey, and I got to eat some of it. I got  
to watch them using an "RP" (rear projection) setup to film actors  
apparently driving in a car with filmed moving scenery behind them. I  
also got to keep the toy train (but I wasn't terribly thrilled with  
this as it was a spring wound train, not electric).

I was at the set the whole day. I believe I had to be enrolled in a  
union. I know for sure that I earned something like $80 for the day's  
work and my parent had to file an income tax return for me, which at  
the time was unusual for a kid, so that they could get the  
withholding back. The withholding was substantial, incidentally,  
because contrary to popular impression the income tax rates then were  
_vastly_ higher than they are today.

After this stellar success, I took a long break from the acting  
profession to deepen my knowledge and understanding of my craft,  
which was to culminate in 2002 when I landed the plum role of Max in  
a local church production of "The Sound of Music" (and knocked 'em  
dead with my rendition of "How Can Love Survive?")

So, when do I get my Wikipedia article?

[1] The fact that the show was "kinescoped," rather than "taped,"  
together with the age of my character as deduced from my lines and  
from my disdain of a spring wound train, should enable a shrewd  
reader to estimate the year of the show and my age to within a decade  
or so.