Raf

Dusting this topic off... Longhunter: Without further research, I agree that you appear to have found an error. But I would not say it with 100 percent certainty before I could answer a host of questions, the first of which would be: How do we know there weren't two places named Dan? I live about 100 miles from Naples, but nowhere near Italy. I live a couple of miles from St. Petersburg, but nowhere near Russia... The fact that Moses did not write the first five books of the Bible should be readily apparent. The stronger likelihood is that Moses never existed at all: He's a fictional character invented as a unifying figure for a band of related tribes seeking political cohesion hundreds of years after he would have lived if there were a shred of truth to his history. To be continued...

Actually it wasn't. Jennings gave up his seat for the Big Bopper. Tommy Allsup (one of the Crickets) lost the coin toss). Dion (of Dion and the Belmonts, a headliner on the tour) claimed that there was no coin toss at that point, and he gave Ritchie his seat. Dion said he won his seat with the coin toss earlier. Blah blah blah, free post.

The show's theme song peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1987. It spent a week at number one on the Adult Contemporary chart.

By the way, Mamma Mia is a 4/5 decent musical and a 2/5 decent movie.

Ritchie Valens' sister was at the filming of the coin toss and broke down, urging him not to get on the plane and asking him why he did. Lou Diamond Phillips is 6 months older than Esai Morales, who played Valens' brother, Bob Morales. Phillips would indeed have made a LOUSY Frankie Valli.

Remember that bit about breaking the fourth wall? In one scene, the actors run off the set and around the studio chasing the bad guy.

The main character's brother was played by an actor who shared the brother's actual last name in real life. In a pivotal scene, one actor tosses a coin. It's based on a true event. The sister of the person who wins the coin toss in real life was present during filming. She cried uncontrollably. The actor playing her brother tried to console her. Seeming to forget that he was just an actor, she begged him to forego the victory.

No.

About 3,000 actors, no lie, tried out for the lead male role. The guy who got the part was the last to audition. He's kind of famous now. Like, really, really famous. A trademark of the series was to break the fourth wall, with the lead actors well aware that they were characters in a tv dra... com... show.

The lead actor's agent called him to audition for the part, mistakenly thinking he would be playing Frankie Valli. The actor thought he was all wrong for the part, but auditioned anyway. He got the part, which was decidedly NOT Frankie Valli (who is not even a character in the movie). He was also eight months older than the actor who played his older brother.

THUNDERCATS

Daredevil: The Ben Affleck Edition Michael Clarke Duncan was an awesome Kingpin. Movie was much better than people give it credit for.

The Jackson 5! Just kidding.

I thought saying the spinoff was "not a serial" was as dead a giveaway as I could come up with.

Jessica Tate is shot by South American guerillas in the series finale of Soap. She later appeared on an episode of Benson as either a ghost (my memory) or some other kind of apparition (imdb's memory) who needed Benson's help to do a good deed to get to heaven (or something). Robert Guillaume won an emmy for playing Benson on Soap. Billy Crystal's big break was on Soap as one of the first openly gay characters on a network tv series.

Good lord that took a long time.

The show (not the spinoff) featured (did not STAR... featured, in most episodes) a ventriloquist who was so good that it caused a technical screw-up during production. Seems the sound guy would point the mike at the dummy, not the ventriloquist, whenever the dummy had a line. The show featured the first black actor to win an Emmy as best supporting actor in a comedy series. He went on to star in the spinoff, which was named for his character. According to imdb trivia, my memory may have failed me on my original clue. So I MAY be right, but I may be wrong. If I'm wrong, here's what REALLY happened: One of the main characters in this series appears to be shot to death in the cliffhanger finale. We find out in a spinoff series that the character actually is in a coma, but shows up as an apparition who needs to do a good deed to get into heaven. So, if I'm wrong, she was only mostly dead, which is not the same as all dead. The actor known for that last joke had his big break in the original series.

The series I'm looking for parodied the genre for which it was named. The spinoff was more of a straightforward sitcom with stories that were largely non-serial.

Manhunter Brian Cox X2: X-Men United

If you put all the episodes of both series together, I would wager 1 percent or fewer dealt with the supernatural.

They are both sitcoms. The spinoff lasted much longer than the original.

One of the main characters in this series appears to be shot to death in the cliffhanger finale. We find out in a spinoff series that the character actually died, and shows up as a ghost who needs to do a good deed to get into heaven.

For pity's sake, PLEASE JOIN THE GAME!!!!

NOT a sequel. Cut your answer in half.

My first clue was exceptionally well timed. Name the actor: Walter Black Benjamin Martin Nick Marshall Rev. Graham Hess