The Rabbitt Ears Quiz (11 of 12)_ Hogan's Heroes

In hind sight, our blog series on "Dead or Alive" which ran on here a while back (and, yes, it was my idea) may not have been as brilliant as we thought it was. One of the things we feared was that one of the subjects might actually die between the time we posted the entry and revealed the answer.

So, while Topol of "Fiddler on the Roof" is still alive and well (to our knowledge), we regret to inform those of you may have been in a cave in Tajikistan for the last month that one of other subjects Richard Dawson (1932-2012), whom we reported as being alive, died at age 79 on June 2nd.

But, in Dawson's honor, we are posting an entry to the sitcom "Hogan's Heroes" where he starred Peter Newkirk. Dawson was an actor before becoming a game show host on the long-running "Family Feud," where he would frequently kiss female contestants.

"Hogan's Heroes," the only sitcom ever set in a Nazi POW camp, starred Bob Crane (1928-1978), who died from a still unresolved murder in 1978, as Col. Hogan. And, much has been made of Crane's dubious personal life, which was the subject of the film "Auto Focus" (2002), which starred Greg Kinnear as Crane.

In real life, Crane was married to actress Sigrid Valdis (1935-2007) who played the now politically incorrect character Hilda.

The show's successful run from 1965-71 can also be attributed to the lovable antagonists, such as Col. Klink (to the right of Hogan) who was played by the late Werner Klemperer, who was ironically known for his serious roles before being on the sitcom. And, the late John Banner played Sgt. Schultz (to the right of Hogan).

So, today, we are simply asking just how many episodes were there to "Hogan's Heroes." Is the answer:

A) 157

B) 168

C) 177

D) 181

Quote of the Day/Week- Albert Einstein

Today's quote of the day comes from Albert Einstein (1879-1955), the brilliant scientist who is considered the father of modern physics. Einstein also developed the theory of relativity. One has to wonder if he would agree with the assertion that the video game Angry Birds teaches children about physics.

We are quoting Einstein because this month we are quoting people associated with all 16 of the European teams competing in the Euro 2012 Cup in Poland and Ukraine. Though Einstein spent much of his adult life abroad, including here in the United States, where he died in Princeton, NJ, Einstein was German. Since he was Jewish, Einstein decided to leave Germany for good in 1933 when Adolf Hitler rose to power.

Einstein is also one of the famous figures who has been humorously merchandised by the American novelty company The Unemployed Philosophers Guild, though the Einstein plush toy, which retails for $17.95 is currently out of stock.

I happen to have an Einstein necktie which I found for five dollars from a street vendor in Washington, DC.

Here is his quote:

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

http://www.einstein.biz

http://www.philosophersguild.com

The Rabbit Ears Quiz- Space 1999 (2 of 12)

It just dawned on me that two future Academy Award-winners for Best Supporting Actor came to prominence thanks to two science-fiction oriented tv show. The two actors I'm thinking of are Robin Williams ("Mork and Mindy" is one of the few sci-fi sitcoms one can think of) and Martin Landau, who starred in the British tv cult classic "Space 1999," who won an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi in "Ed Wood."

I first came across "Space 1999," which ran for two seasons from 1975 until 1978, in a very unusual way. When I saw the show, it was actually called "Uzay 1999" and it aired on the TRT, Turkish Radio and Television. When I saw the show in the fall of 1977, there was only one channel of tv in Turkey and it only came on at certain hours of the day. Plus, virtually all of the tvs were in black and white. Of course, now one can watch hundreds of channels of tv in Turkey, which I would presume has posed challenged for the TRT, which was a state-run media monopoly at the time.

For its time, "Space 1999" was the most expensive television ever made. It drew inspiration from Stanley Kubrick's cinematic masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey"
(1968). In addition to Landau, the show featured his then-wife Barabara Bain.

So, for today's quiz, since it's a safe assumption that most science fiction fans are good at math (well, I'm certainly not!), we are going to ask what is mathematical difference between the number of episodes for "Space 1999" and "Star Trek," which was called "Uzay Yolu" in Turkey.

Is the answer:

A) 28
B) 29
C) 31
D) 33

SIDEBAR: While researching this piece, we learned that German television will air a 1968 episode of the original "Star Trek" series entitled "The Patterns of Force" for the very first time. The reason why the episode is being aired in Germany only now is fairly obvious: Captain Kirk and Mister Spock dress like Nazis to breech the third reich.

SIDEBAR TWO: Ironically, we found out today that this blog is apparently more popular in Greece as of late than Turkey (I happen to be a Turkish-American). Hmmmmm.....In all seriousness, we wish our followers in Greece good luck during this trying economic time. Of course, this doesn't mean that we recognize Kardak as being 'your island.'*

*- Kardak, which is called Imia in Greek, is an uninhabited goat island which actually caused a foreign relations fiasco between Turkey and Greece some years ago. It does in fact belong to Greece, and I hope this is ok with the goats!