Bishop73

Answer: I believe Rockne Tarkington (from season 7) was the only black person with a speaking line in the entire show, which is what I'd say qualifies someone to be an actor in the show. That being said, there were at least a handful of black and white episodes (season 1-5) where black extras were used and seen on screen. For example, "Barney Gets His Man" (season 1) and "Opie and the Carnival" (season 5). But none of them had any lines and weren't credited for their appearance.

Bishop73

Answer: Steering wheel looked like it was on the right hand side. Maybe the car was an import from England.

Answer: From what I see, the steering wheel is on the left hand side. She just happens to get in on the passenger side, to avoid going around the car into the street or the bushes were blocking her way.

Bishop73

Answer: I answered a similar question about this show, and I'll repost what was from the Internet as a possible reason: This could be production-related in setting up the shot. For example, getting in on the passenger side can be shot as a locked-down tripod shot. Getting in on the driver side means the character has to walk around the car, requiring at minimum a pan/tilt/zoom and probably a dolly shot to make it look good (they didn't have Steadicams back then, so any time the camera had to move, a dolly track had to built for it to roll on). That would add expense and time to what was really just an establishing shot. This was a low-budget, weekly TV show, and scenes would shot in the easiest, fastest, and most economical way possible, even if it seems somewhat illogical.

raywest ★