SUPER-SIX LIST - ACTORS & THEIR CHARACTERS SHARING BIRTHDAYS

THE SUPER SIX LIST

ACTORS WHO SHARE BIRTHDAYS 

WITH THEIR CHARACTERS

1] Patrick McGoohan & Number Six (March 19)
2] James Garner & Bret Maverick (April 7) 
3] Patrick Stewart & Jean-Luc Picard (July 13)
4] Don Galloway & Sgt. Ed Brown (July 27)
5] Lucille Ball & Lucy Ricardo (August 6)
6] Frankie Muniz & Malcolm Wilkerson (December 5) 

The idea for this Super Six List came to me in March but too late for marking McGoohan's birthday.  I had known about that commonality with Number Six for years but had no others at the time.  It was the mention of Sgt. Brown's birthday in an episode of 'Ironside' and then checking Don Galloway's birth date which made me realize that McGoohan and Number Six might not have been so unique.

Still, I did nothing about it at the time.  So when I learned of a third one on April 7, in which Bret Maverick and James Garner shared the same birth day (O'Bviously not the same year), and it was too late to do it up properly, then I knew it was time to do the research.

And because it was Galloway and Brown who put the idea in my head, I decided to save it for today.  

Why today?  For one thing, Ed Brown and Don Galloway share today as their birthday.

But I also wanted to give Sgt. Ed Brown a surprise birthday present....

WELCOME TO THE TV CROSSOVER HALL OF FAME!

SURPRISE!  SURPRISE!  SURPRISE!

Sgt. Brown is being inducted into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame on his birthday which also happens to fit right in with our new Friday feature!

Here are the reasons why Ed Brown of the SFPD deserves to be in the TVXOHOF:

'Ironside' 
195 episodes
1967-1975

From Wikipedia:
'Ironside' is an American television crime drama that aired on NBC over 8 seasons from 1967 to 1975. The show starred Raymond Burr as Robert T. Ironside, a consultant for the San Francisco police (usually addressed by the title Chief Ironside), who was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot while on vacation.

Ed Brown figured in crossovers with two other TV series.  In 1971, 'Ironside' served as the launch pad for a two-hour pilot for 'Sarge'.

From the IMDb:
A police chief who is confined to a wheelchair and a former cop who is now a priest team up to discover who has been committing a series of murders of local priests.

From Wikipedia:
NBC's 1971 fall TV season opened with a two-hour crossover between 'Ironside' and a new series, 'Sarge' starring George Kennedy as a cop-turned-priest. Kennedy's San Diego–based Father Samuel Cavanaugh comes to San Francisco because of the death of a friend and fellow priest and his investigation gets him embroiled with Ironside and his staff. The special consolidated the two shows' consecutive time slots and has been subsequently seen as a TV movie, "The Priest Killer".

One of those other 'Ironside' episodes was "Five Days In The Death Of Sgt. Brown, Part I" from 1972.  This was the first episode in a crossover with one of the TV shows which rotated under the umbrella title of 'The Bold Ones':

'The Bold Ones: The New Doctors'
- "Five Days in the Death of Sgt. Brown: Part II"
(1972)

From the IMDb:
Sgt. Ed Brown decides to go through with the surgical procedure that will hopefully restore mobility to his legs. The procedure involves the a process where his nerves will be reconnected in a procedure invented by Dr. Ritter as well as an infusion of polypeptides administered by Dr. Paul Hunter. However, a complication arises when the daughter of Dr. Ritter, the man who will be performing the surgery, is kidnapped by someone who was hired by the person who wants to see Ed dead. Also, Chief Ironside has flashbacks to the events surrounding his own paralysis and confinement to a wheelchair.

From Wikipedia:

At the start of its sixth season, Ironside did a two-part crossover episode with 'The Bold Ones: The New Doctors' titled "Five Days in the Death of Sergeant Brown" where Ed is critically injured by a sniper and is treated by Dr. David Craig and his medical staff. Part 1 was broadcast on 'Ironside' and part 2 on 'The New Doctors'. (Part 2 is now shown in reruns as an episode of 'Ironside'.) 

1993

"The Return of Ironside" 

From the IMDb:

Chief Ironside has just retired and is looking forward to running his vineyard with his wife. But his retirement is interrupted when his old friend and colleague Ed Brown, who is now working for the Denver police department comes to him and asks him to fill in the vacancy left by the untimely death of the Chief. Ironside does so but with condition that it will only be temporary. But things are further complicated when Suzanne Dwyer, the daughter of his old friend and colleague, Eve Whitfield, is the prime suspect in the murder of her boyfriend, Mike Quinn, whom she suspected was seeing someone else. Though Ironside refuses to believe that Suzanne is guilty; the evidence is all against her. So, Ironside's other old friends, Mark Sanger and Fran Belding come to Denver to help. It also seems that this whole matter could be connected with the previous Chief's death (murder?), and also seems that someone in the department is responsible.

From Wikipedia:
Burr and the main cast reunited for a made-for-TV movie in 1993, "The Return of Ironside", which aired on May 4, 1993 on NBC, not long before Burr's death. At the time, Burr was starring in a series of telefilms for NBC playing his most famous character, Perry Mason. In the intervening years between the end of Ironside in 1975 and the first Perry Mason movie in 1985, Burr's appearance had undergone some changes. His hair was grayer, he had gained a significant amount of weight, and after years of playing clean shaven characters he grew a beard.

Unlike the original series, which took place in San Francisco, California, the reunion was set and filmed in Denver, Colorado, with the justification that the character Ed Brown had become the city's deputy chief of police. (Denver was also where most of Burr's Perry Mason TV movies were produced.) Galloway, Mitchell, Anderson, and Baur re-created their roles for the movie even though Anderson and Baur had not worked together at the same time on the original series. 

Those are quite impressive when it comes to an official tally, covering all the bases - series, pilot, guest appearance, and reunion movie.  Just need a distinctive commercial appearance!

But there could be theoretical connections which could be made via Ed Brown.  For instance, how about that he was named after his father's brother?  That Ed Brown was a cantankerous old crank of a coot who owned a car garage in Los Angeles' inner city. 

(I used to claim that they were father and son, but as I still haven't seen all of the 'Ironside' episodes yet, I'm going to stick with the uncle/nephew relationship.  There may be some upcoming reference to his father in those unseen episodes which would have negated my other idea.)

This is more than just a trivial honorific or theoretical crossover; it just happens to be falling on a Friday because of Don Galloway's birthday.  But this should be awarded full honors with our other major July induction for private eye Jeff Spencer.

Mr. Galloway is sadly no longer with us, but it's not unreasonable to believe that Ed Brown, the retired Chief of the Denver Police, is still alive in Toobworld.

I tip my hat to both of them.

Welcome to the Hall, Ed.  As mystery writer Abigail Mitchell would put it, the Chief will spit when he hears.  (He's still not a member!)
And thanks to Lucy, Jim, Frankie, and the two Patricks for helping out....

BCnU!