Question of the Day - 22 July 2006

This one took some serious sleuthing, but we hope we've put together a pretty good list for you. No doubt we'll have missed some, so if anyone has more to add, please let us know. We've excluded factual programs, game shows, reality shows, and drama series that are entirely based in Las Vegas like "CSI," "Las Vegas," "State Trooper" (1956-'59), "Blansky's Beauties" (1977), "Vega$" (1978-'81), "Crime Story" (1986-'88), "The Tortellis" (1987 failed "Cheers" spinoff), "The Watcher" (1995), and "Nikki" (2000-2002). Seems there's nothing new about cashing in on Vegas' appeal for an occasional ratings boost -- series have been basing one-off episodes here for decades. So, in chronological order, here goes:

• The earliest show we found was "Topper," a 1950s comedy series about Cosmo Topper, a grumpy banker and two ghosts who only he can see or hear (reminds us of the cartoon "Fairly Odd Parents"). We haven't seen it, but Season 1, episode 29 (April 23, 1954) was titled "Cosmo Goes to Las Vegas," so we're guessing that's what he did.

• Next comes "The Beverly Hillbillies" - Season 4, episode 13 (Dec. 8, 1965), titled "Mr Farquhar Stays On," in which Mrs. Drysdale's aristocratic -- and perennially broke -- father, Lowell Farquhar, invites Granny to accompany him to Vegas. She thinks he's trying to elope with her, rather than take her (and her money) on a gambling spree.

• "Starsky and Hutch" - Season 2 (October 1976) opened with a two-parter titled "The Las Vegas Strangler," in which the duo goes undercover as garish gamblers and an old-school buddy of Hutch's turns out to be the bad guy ...

• "Charlie's Angels" - Season 1 (1977), episode 17 was titled "The Vegas Connection," in which Jill and Kelly (Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith) pose as aspiring showgirls and Bosely poses as a high roller, in order to bust a prostitution ring. In fact, Las Vegas was not the true location of this show at all: Stock shots of the interior and exterior of Caesars Palace were used to represent the fictional Versailles Hotel & Casino in the show. The cast and crew never actually left California for the filming.

• "The Incredible Hulk" - Season 1, episode 6 (1978) was titled "The Hulk Breaks Las Vegas" and featured David working undercover in a casino as a shill while trying to bust a crime syndicate.

• "Alice" - The TV version of the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, in which Linda Lavin played Alice Hyatt, a widow who ends up working in a diner in Phoenix when her car breaks down on the way to Hollywood. The series featured an episode titled "Hello Vegas, Goodbye Diner," but we've been unable to verify exactly when it aired (November 1980?)

• "Married With Children" - Season 4, episodes 16 and 17 (1987) consisted of a 2-parter called "You Gotta Know When to Fold 'Em," where Peggy and Marcy go to Vegas and lose $5K of Al's money. He finds out and takes off after them, with the kids in tow ...

• "Roseanne" - Season 4 (1991) also featured a 2-parter (episodes 7 & 8, titled "Vegas" and "Vegas Vegas," respectively), in which Nancy and Arnie tie the knot in a Las Vegas wedding chapel. Features guest appearances by Wayne Newton and Danny Gans (impersonating Wayne Newton).

• "X Files" - Season 6, episode 20 (1993) was titled "Three of a Kind," in which Scully is tricked into coming to Las Vegas by the Lone Gunmen, who are at a defense contractors convention, trying to get inside information on military secrets.

• "Alias" - Season 1, episode 14 (February 24, 2002, was titled "The Coup" and sent agent Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) to Las Vegas on a mission that involved her posing as a casino cocktail waitress.

• "Lexx" - Perhaps the most contrived and random use of Las Vegas as a staging post, Season 4, episode 21 (April 5, 2002) of this sci-fi series was titled "Viva Lexx Vegas" and apparently featured characters Kai, Xev, and Stan stopping off in Las Vegas while they waited for a space shuttle to take them back to the Lexx.

• "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" - Season 3 of this (dark) British comedy series about a group of construction workers featured a double bill set in Las Vegas and the Nevada desert (episodes 31 & 32, May 2002), when the crew is hired to build a bridge across a canyon for a Native American tribe wanting better access to their casino.

• "Friends" - Season 5 ends with the triple bill of "The One With Joey's Big Break," "The One in Vegas Part One" and "The One in Vegas Part Two," in which Joey goes to Vegas to make a movie that's already wrapped by the time he gets there. He ends up working as a gladiator at Caesars and the rest of the cast comes out to join him for drunken high jinks and casino capering.

• "Joey" - In what can only have been a desperate bid for ratings, Season 1, episode 11 of this "Friends" spinoff, which we proudly confess to never having seen, apparently featured Joey being invited to be a celebrity judge at a Las Vegas beauty pageant and somehow learning to count cards. The show was titled "Joey and the Roadtrip."

Wow! The response to today's QoD has been fantastic -- thank you so much to everyone who's taken the time to write in. There are so many more shows to add to the list that it's too much for a simple "Update" -- we'll run it as a Part Two in the near future, when all your feedback is in (plus a summary of the ones we already had, so you should wind up with a pretty complete list). Thanks again and stay tuned!