Question of the Day - 11 August 2006

It's taken us a while to compile, but here, in chronological order, is what we believe is a pretty comprehensive list of all the shows, from sitcoms to cop shows via cartoons, that have set at least one episode in our fair city. A big thank you to everyone who took the time and trouble to write in with suggestions. Here goes:

• Topper "Cosmo Goes to Las Vegas" Season 1 Episode 29 Aired: 4/23/54 Topper is to go on a short trip with Henrietta sailing. The trip gets stopped because he needs for business reasons to go make a bid for a client on a hotel in Las Vegas. He takes Henrietta, George, and Marion with him to Las Vegas. Marion and George teach Topper to gamble.

• I Love Lucy Lucy & Desi Comedy Hour "Lucy Hunts Uranium" CBS Specials Episode 3 Aired: 1/03/58 Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethyl drive from California to Las Vegas. Ethyl meets Fred MacMurray.

• Phil Silver's: SGT Bilko "Bilko Retires from Gambling" Season 3 Episode 101 Aired: 5/13/58 Colonel Hall hires a professional card player to beat Bilko at cards. He’s so upset at losing that he gives up gambling.

• Twilight Zone "The Fever" Season 1 Episode 17 Aired: 1/29/60 Tight-fisted Franklin Gibbs is not pleased when his wife wins a trip for two to Las Vegas. But things change when he falls under the spell of a slot machine that calls his name.

• The Flintstones "The Rock Vegas Story" Season 2 Episode 56 Aired: 3/30/62 Fred and Barney run into old friend Sherman Cobblehead, owner of the Golden Cactus Hotel in Rock Vegas, at an eatery. Cobblehead's casual promise to "take care of" Fred should he ever come to Vegas is misinterpreted as a guarantee that Fred will be a big winner in the casino.

• The Beverly Hillbillies "Mr. Farguhar Stays On" Season 2 Episode 13 Aired: 12/08/65 Mrs. Drysdale's father, an aristocratic Bostonian, is coming to visit and invites Granny to accompany him to Vegas. She thinks he's trying to elope with her, rather than take her (and her money).

• Gomer Pyle USMC "Vacation in Vegas" Season 2 Episode 25 Aired: 3/11/66 Gomer wins a trip for two to Las Vegas, and he and Carter win a fortune gambling.

• Rockford Files "Dexter Crisis" Season 1 Episode 10 Aired: 11/15/74 Jim meets Susan's roommate Louise Henderson, a law student, who demands to come along on the case. They go to Las Vegas and find Susan playing at the gambling tables.

• Starsky and Hutch "Vegas Strangler 1 & 2" Season 2 Episodes 24 & 25 Aired: 9/25/76 Starsky and Hutch are loaned to the Las Vegas Police Department to snare a serial killer who has strangled a string of chorus girls.

• Charlie's Angels "The Vegas Connection" Season 1 Episode 17 Aired: 2/9/77 Charlie's Angels stage an elaborate con to hoist a Las Vegas blackmailer on his own petard. As part of the ruse, Sabrina poses as an investigator, Bosley a high-roller, and Kelly as an aspiring showgirl.

• Rockford Files "Dirty Money, Black Light" Season 3 Episode 67 Aired: 4/01/77 Something is delivering thousands of dollars in the mail to Rocky and someone is desperate to get it back.

• The Incredible Hulk "The Hulk Breaks Las Vegas" Season 1 Episode 8 Aired: 4/21/78 While working in a casino, David helps a Las Vegas reporter with a gambling scandal, only to discover that the reporter is Jack McGee's partner.

• Charlie’s Angels "Angels in Vegas" Season 4 Episodes 49 & 50 Aired: 9/13/78 While undercover at the Tropicana Casino, the Angels must discover the culprit behind a series of mysterious murders before it's too late.

• Rockford Files "The Battle-ax and the Exploding Cigar" Season 5, Episode 103 Aired: 1/12/79 Jim is driving himself and a man named Potrankis in a car from Las Vegas, when they’re pulled over by the police and guns are discovered in the trunk of the car –- which happens to be stolen...

• "Alice" "Hello Vegas, Goodbye Diner" Season 5, Episode 3 Aired: 11/16/80 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. In this episode, "the gang" follows Vera to Las Vegas after she wins a trip.

• "Valerie" "Viva Las Vegas Season 4, Episode 15 Aired: 3/6/89 The big brother goes to Vegas with a fake ID, hits a jackpot, but gets in trouble with that ID...

• "Married With Children" "You Gotta Know When to Fold 'Em" Season 4, episodes 16 & 17 Aired: 2/11/90 and 2/18/90 A 2-parter in which Peggy and Marcy go to Vegas and lose $5,000 of Al's money. He finds out and takes off after them, with the kids in tow...

• "Roseanne" "Vegas" and "Vegas Vegas" Season 4, Episodes 7 & 8 Aired: 11/5/91 & 11/12/91 Nancy and Arnie tie the knot in a Las Vegas wedding chapel, with guest appearances by Wayne Newton and Danny Gans (impersonating Wayne Newton).

• "Beverly Hills, 90210" "And Did It... My Way" Season 4, Episode 10 Aired: 11/10/93 When their wedding plans become too much of a hassle, Stuart convinces Brenda that they should elope to Las Vegas. After Brandon finds out, he gets the rest of the gang to drop what they are doing and they all fly out to Vegas to try to discourage them...

Thanks to the reader who wrote in with the following addition: "On 8/11/2006 you ran an update to a QoD about TV shows that went to Las Vegas. Here's a new one for you: Banacek - 'A Million The Hard Way, 1972, starring George Peppard." You're correct. We double-checked and this episode of the crime series that starred Polish-American Thomas Banacek as an insurance investigator first aired Nov. 1, 1972. We understand that it was filmed at Circus Circus, although it borrowed the concept of the million-dollar display from Binion's Horseshoe. Here's the episode synopsis from imdb.com: "A million dollars in cash sits under a glass dome in a crowded casino, guards ever at the ready while tourists have their picture taken. A few brief seconds of distraction, and the cash is gone. How can Banacek 'account' for the eccentric casino owner's lost funds." 08/07/2006 Oops -- thanks to Steve for spotting our deliberate mistake in placing the Gomer Pyle show in '96 rather than '66. We blame repetitive stress injuries incurred during the compilation of this epic for the slip-up! Now rectified. LATEST UPDATE: Here's another one that a reader just brought to our attention: "Almost afraid to admit this, but I remember on Blossom, older brother Anthony falls off the wagon in Vegas (not sure if whole family was there) and wakes up the next morning with a stranger who had also gone on a bender. They also find they got married the night before. The couple decide instead of annulling the marriage, to stay together and get to know one another. Episodes 77 and 78 ('Big Doings' Pts. 1 and 2) aired Nov. 22, 1993 and Nov. 29, 1993 (show info from tv.com)."