What was the first television series to have its theme song sung by the leading actors in the cast?

Did you realize that we are getting closer and closer to the end of the year?  It is incredible how time flies so fast!

Before you know it, we’ll see the unofficial end of summer (Labor Day) followed by Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas … and what do you want to bet they already have Halloween stuff out for sale in the stores?

Wow … I just scared myself again.

Let’s back away from the edge of the abyss and console ourselves with some trivia, shall we?  Read on!

Did you know …

… people used to rent pineapples?  In the 1700s in England, pineapples were rare and were such a status symbol that it was possible to rent one for an evening to take to a party.  They were carried around by the people as a kind of bauble showing off their “wealth” – the fruits were very, very expensive to purchase at the time.  The going one-night rental rate for a pineapple in the 18th Century was the equivalent of $8,000 today.  Those who owned them kept them, too … sometimes for months, just rotting away on the mantle.  (You know you’re living in weirdness when a pineapple is a status symbol.)

… a classic unfinished poem was created in a dream?  Kubla Khan, the classic poem by Samuel Coleridge (1772-1834), came to its author in 1797 in a vivid opium-influenced dream.  When Coleridge awoke, he began transcribing the poem.  It is unfinished because, while Coleridge was writing, a visitor came to his door.  Coleridge greeted his guest and interacted with him, but when he returned to his work, he realized he had forgotten the rest of the poem.  (And the unnamed visitor was probably never welcomed again.)

… there are three continents on which bears do not live?  You won’t find bears in Antarctica, Australia, or Africa.  Bears have never lived in Antarctica or Australia, and though bear fossils have been found in Africa, there are no bears there now.  No one knows why bears died out in Africa.  (And before some wiseacre out there tries to say, “What about polar bears?” let me point out that they live in the Arctic, near the North Pole, not the Antarctic, where the South Pole is.)

… what the first television series was that had its theme song sung by the leading performers of the show?  That would be Green Acres, which debuted in 1965.  The show, a sister show of the popular Petticoat Junction, starred Eddie Albert (1906-2005) and Eva Gabor (1919-1995), who also performed the popular theme song.  The show was a re-formatting of a 1950 radio comedy, Granby’s Green Acres, adjusted to tie in to the world of Petticoat Junction.  Additional trivia note:  The radio show on which the series was based starred Bea Benaderet (1906-1968), who went on to play the lead in Petticoat Junction.  In a way, then, Benaderet’s old radio show became a spinoff of her new television show.  (Figure that one out, Oliver.)

… people who watch videos on YouTube see an awful lot?  According to Mental Floss, an informal analysis shows that collectively, viewers of the online video service watch more than two billion hours of videos every day.  That adds up to 200,000 cumulative years of content watched every day.  (Which is nice, since there isn’t anything on television worth watching any more.)

… honey bees can be taught to distinguish odd from even numbers?  According to Mental Floss, scientists in an experiment rewarded bees with sugar water when they landed on an image featuring an even number of shapes.  A separate group of bees received the same treat for landing on images with an odd number of shapes.  Both groups of insects quickly learned which grouping of shapes gave them the sweet treat.  (That’s odd.  Or even.  Bee-lieve it.)

… whales have no natural predators other than humans?  Human populations have hunted whales since at least 3000 BC, when Inuit people used stones, driftwood, and the body parts of other animals to hunt whales.  (But what did whales do to us?)

… only 14 nations participated in the first modern Olympic games in 1896?  A total of 484 athletes from Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States competed in nine different sports.  Additional trivia note:  Some histories say the first Games had 12 nations, excluding Chile and Bulgaria, while others list 13 and leave off Italy.  Belgium and Russia had entered names of competitors, but withdrew their lists before the Games began.  (That kept the band’s work on playing national anthems easy, anyway.)

… a well-known actor had a strange clause in his movie contracts?  Steve McQueen (1930-1980) would demand from the studios that hired him bulk amounts of electric razors, men’s blue jeans, and other items.  McQueen would then donate the items to the boy’s reformatory school in which he had spent his teenage years.  (By all accounts, McQueen was a pretty nice guy.)

… the first person to wear a bikini did so in 1946?  On July 5 of that year, Micheline Bernardini (born 1927), a French actress and dancer, wore the skimpy new two-piece bathing suit for the first time at a poolside fashion show in Paris.  Bernardini received more than 50,000 fan letters from all over the world following the publication of the photos of her in the bikini, which was created by designer Jacques Heim (1899-1967).

… jellyfish are 95% water?  (And five percent jelly, I suppose.)

… rats can tread water for three days?  (But on that fourth day, watch out, you rat.)

Now … you know!