Did You Know …? When Did Television’s First Fantasy Situation Comedy Air?

By JACK BAGLEY
didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com
So, how did you do on the challenge last week?
Your challenge was to find the three items in last week’s column that were totally fake.  Did you find them?  Check your work:
Ronald Reagan was never the first choice for the hit movie Casablanca. Even though one of the first studio press releases about the movie mentioned Reagan or George Raft, the producers already knew Reagan would not be available. Besides, Humphrey Bogart was always their first choice for the role of Rick Blaine.
The law does not require anyone to accept currency. Silly as that may seem, the fact is, if it is accepted by a creditor, it must be treated as valid payment.
Norway does not have a 25-year statute of limitations on murder. They did, but it was repealed in 2014.
One other could be wrong – the number of pure-bred dog breeds. My source (Mental Floss) said 701, but other sources say 400.  If you chose that, I’ll give you credit.
Hope you all scored 100%! Now check out this week’s trivia, all on the correct side of correct. Enjoy!
Did you know …
… a person’s ability to lose weight is affected by the time in their life when they gain it? If a person gains a lot of weight during childhood and puberty, excess calories are converted into new fat cells, a condition called hyperplastic obesity. Excess calories consumed in adulthood only expand existing fat cells, known as hypertrophic obesity. So it’s actually easier to lose weight in the years during and immediately following childhood. (Now they tell me.)
… black tea is called “red tea” in China? (There’s a joke here about communism, but I’m not doing it.)
… teeth can reattach to their roots? You have to put them back into their place very quickly if they’re knocked out, but it is possible. (Or, you could just not get them knocked out in the first place.)
… derby hats were created as safety hats? Derbies, or bowlers, began as a practical item – riding helmets. The helmets were worn to protect horse riders from branches and other obstacles. The hats were designed by hatmakers Thomas (1812-1869) and William Bowler (1808-1878), which is why they’re called bowlers. (And they were made popular by that dashing Westerner, Bat Masterson.)
… a super-colony of ants is on the verge of taking over the world? First reported in 2009, a monstrous colony of ants – spreading across three continents – is growing and flourishing underground. At first the various groups were thought to be individual colonies, but scientists observing their behavior noted that the Argentine ants share similar chemical profiles, and do not attack each other. This leads the scientists to believe that all of these ants – and there are billions if not trillions of them – are inter-connected. (And I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords.)
… television’s first fantasy sitcom aired in the 1950s? In 1953, the situation comedy Topper began on CBS, and it ran until 1955. Leo G. Carroll (1886-1972) starred as Cosmo Topper, who along with his wife buys a house that was the home of a young couple who died in an avalanche. But the couple, George and Marion Kerby, played by Robert Sterling (1917-2006) and Anne Jeffreys (1923-2017), aren’t quite finished with their home – they’re still there as ghosts, which only Topper can see and hear. The comedy comes from the Kerby ghosts causing odd things to happen which bring excitement into the life of the stuffy, stodgy Topper. Adding to the fun is the ghost of Neil, the Kerby’s alcoholic St. Bernard dog, also lost in the avalanche. Additional trivia note: The series was based on the 1937 film of the same name, which was crafted from two novels by Thorne Smith (1892-1934).
… at some time in your life, you’ve probably used an abecedarium? What’s that – you don’t know what an abecedarium is? It’s a primer, the book used to introduce things like the alphabet to a child. Chances are pretty good that you used one in kindergarten or first grade. (I get it.)
… wars have gotten expensive over time? For example, the cost per day of fighting the Revolutionary War was about $27,000 in today’s dollars. For World War II, the per-day cost was $2.7 billion. (You can save a bunch of money by not having wars at all, though.)
… a popular old saying has its roots in an Irish legend? We’ve probably all heard the old saw, “A cat has nine lives,” but did you ever wonder where that came from? It’s from an Irish legend about witches. The belief was that a witch could turn herself into a cat eight times, but if she did it a ninth time she could not regain human form. Thus, the cat has nine lives. (I have a line here, but it would close the show.)
… the population of the Earth is expected to hit nine billion people by 2045? Also, since the dawn of humans, it is estimated that some 100 billion people have lived. (And the planet is still here. Imagine that.)
… German chocolate cake has nothing to do with Germany? It was named after an American baker, Samuel German (1802-1888), who developed a dark baking chocolate in 1852 and used it as the basis for the cake recipe. The cake became popular in the 1950s when the recipe for “German’s chocolate cake” was rediscovered. Additional trivia note: Sam German developed the dark, sweet chocolate for the Baker’s Chocolate Company, which still produces baking chocolate today. But the name of the company has nothing to do with baking; rather, it was named for the Baker family of Dorchester, Massachusetts. (Yummy!)
Now … you know!
Copyright © 2025 Jack Bagley