Trivia: Intending to become a dentist like his father, American actor Edgar Buchanan wound up with grades so bad in college that he was compelled to take an "easy" course to improve his average. Buchanan chose a course in play interpretation, and after listening to a few recitations of Shakespeare he was stagestruck. After completing dental school, Buchanan plied his oral surgery skills in the summertime, devoting the fall, winter and spring months to acting in stock companies and at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. He was given a screen test by Warner Bros. studios in 1940, received several bit roles, then worked himself up to supporting parts upon transferring to Columbia Pictures. Though still comparatively youthful, Buchanan specialized in grizzled old westerners, with a propensity towards villainy or at least larceny. The actor worked at every major studio (and not a few minor ones) over the next few years, still holding onto his dentist's license just in case he needed something to fall back on. Though he preferred movie work to the hurried pace of TV filming, Buchanan was quite busy in television's first decade, costarring with William Boyd on the immensely popular Hopalong Cassidy series, then receiving a starring series of his own, Judge Roy Bean, in 1954. Buchanan became an international success in 1963 thanks to his regular role as the lovably lazy Uncle Joe Carson on the classic sitcom Petticoat Junction, which ran until 1970. After that, the actor experienced a considerably shorter run on the adventure series Cade's County, which starred Buchanan's close friend Glenn Ford. Buchanan's last movie role was in Benji (1974), which reunited him with the titular doggie star, who had first appeared as the family mutt on Petticoat Junction.

Trivia: Delightful hatchet-faced character comedian Elvia Allman made quite a few screen appearances in the 1940s but is today much better remembered for her television work. It was Allman who, as the factory foreman, introduced Lucy and Ethel to the chocolate assembly line in the classic 1951 I Love Lucy episode "Job Switching"; and she appeared in no less than three of the most fondly remembered situation comedies, playing memorable supporting roles: Cora Dithers in Blondie, Selma Plout in Petticoat Junction, and Elverna Bradshaw in The Beverly Hillbillies. Allman also created the voice for the Disney cartoon character Clarabelle Cow and played Aunt Sally in a 1981 television version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Trivia: Dark-haired actress Lori Saunders is probably best remembered for her six season (1966-1972) portrayal of Bobbie Jo Bradley on the long-running sitcom Petticoat Junction. But she did appear in feature films, as well, including adventure and horror pictures, usually working under the name Linda Saunders, and even got to play the title-role in one such vehicle during the early/middle 1960s. Born Linda Marie Hines in Kansas City, Missouri in 1941, she began working as Linda Hines on television during the early 1960s, appearing in episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie And Harriet playing various characters. By the time she started showing up on episodes of Burke's Law and Bob Hope's TV specials, she was working as Linda Saunders, and it was under that name that she made her feature film debut in 1965, in The Girls On The Beach. Later that same year, Saunders played the title-role, a sort of distaff Tarzan, raised by wolves in the Alaskan wild, in Mara of the Wilderness, an adventure film that got a fairly wide theatrical release at the time, aimed primarily at younger audiences -- additionally, because it also starred Adam West, the movie was re-released following the premiere of the Batman television series in 1966, and was later shown on network television. By the time that movie had made its initial bow in theaters, however, Saunders had also appeared in a lead role in the Jack Hill/Stephanie Rothman-directed horror film Blood Bath (1966) (aka Track of the Vampire). In the year of that movie's release, however, Saunders redirected her work and career toward comedy, taking over the role of Bobbie Jo Bradley, the cerebral, studious middle daughter in the sitcom Petticoat Junction (and its sister series, Green Acres) from actress Pat Woodell. In contrast to Woodell, who had emphasized the character's braininess, Saunders' portrayal made the character a bit more boy-crazy and charmingly goofy -- one might think of a very young, slightly ditsy Phyllis Kirk -- and during the final season the writers gave her an on-going romantic interest in the guise of game warden Orrin Pike (Jonathan Daly). She also appeared in episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies and Love American Style and, following the cancellation of Petticoat Junction, worked in the comedy western series Dusty's Trail, as well as showing up in various feature films. Saunders retired from acting in the 1980s.

Trivia: The daughter of Sheila and Gordon MacRae, actress/singer Meredith MacRae was virtually born into a show business career, and with her voice and good looks it would have been difficult for her to have avoided such a choice, even if she'd wanted to. Her parents actually led a surprisingly unpretentious middle-class life-style, and she earned all of her breaks, whether they were roles in movies (Bikini Beach) or a chance at a recording career -- she cut a handful of records in the early/middle 1960s. But it was on the series My Three Sons in 1963 that she first became widely known on the small-screen, when she took the role of Sally Morrison. After two years in that part, she moved on to Petticoat Junction, where she took over the role of Billie Jo Bradley from Guinilla Hutton -- she kept the part for the five years remaining in the series' run, and the producers enabled MacRae to feature her singing ability in the part. Following the cancellation of the series, MacRae went on to do guest spots of series ranging from Fantasy Island to The Rackford Files, and she was also a frequence guest on game shows. She was also active in summer stock and regional theater productions of such shows as Bye Bye Birdie and Take Me Along, and raised money for various medical charities. MacRae died of complications from brain cancer in the summer of 2000.

Trivia: The daughter of actors Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, June Lockhart made her own acting bow at age 8. In 1938, the 12-year-old June appeared in her first film, A Christmas Carol (1938), in which her parents portrayed Mr. and Mrs. Bob Cratchit. Few of her ingenue roles of the 1940s were memorable, though Lockhart did get to play the title character in The She-Wolf of London (1945) (never mind that she turned out not to be a she-wolf by fadeout time). In 1958, Lockhart took over from a recalcitrant Cloris Leachman in the role of rural wife and mother Ruth Martin on the long-running TV series Lassie. Though she professed to despise the role, Lockhart remained with the series until 1964, and over 20 years later satirically reprised the character on an episode of It's Garry Shandling's Show. She went on to play the young matriarch of the "space family Robinson" on the Irwin Allen TV endeavor Lost in Space (1965-68), and portrayed a lady doctor on the last two seasons of the bucolic sitcom Petticoat Junction. In deliberate contrast to her TV image, Lockhart enjoyed a bohemian, kick-up-your-heels offscreen existence. At one juncture, she was fired from her co-hosting chores at the Miss USA pageant when it was revealed that (gasp!) she was living with a man much younger than herself. June Lockhart is the mother of Anne Lockhart, a prolific TV actress in her own right.