Recalling stars who went tube to Strip

So Andy Griffith died last week and David Cassidy lost it onstage at the South Point. But Lynda Carter sounds as rock-solid as a former Wonder Woman should, and she's back in your service this coming weekend.

In the old Vegas, it was quite common for TV stars to have a showroom act. It's campy nostalgia now, but the Strip got kind of used to Jim Nabors and Suzanne Somers back in the day.

Actors are cross-trained and most of them probably had stories similar to Carter's. She sang in Las Vegas lounges as a teen before she went to Hollywood and became Wonder Woman, which let her headline Caesars Palace in 1978.

"I probably wouldn't have gotten the singing career afterwards if it wasn't for 'Wonder Woman' to make that jump," Carter says as she prepares to play the Suncoast on Saturday and Sunday.

Other stars, such as Griffith, didn't make Vegas a habit. But he did share the Caesars Palace stage with Don Knotts and Jerry Van Dyke in 1968.

In tribute to Griffith, and to celebrate Carter's return, here are some other surprising TV names to have worn a tux or gown on a showroom stage.

■ Lorne "Pa Cartwright" Greene. If any rural TV dad rivaled Griffith in the 1960s, it was "Bonanza" patriarch Lorne Greene. The Ponderosa Ranch was a popular Northern Nevada attraction for decades, but Greene sang "Ringo" at (where else?) the Bonanza Hotel on the Strip in 1971.

■ Irene "Granny" Ryan. A vaudeville trouper who made it big late in life, Ryan obligingly wore her "Beverly Hillbillies" get-up onstage at the Sahara, commuting back and forth from taping the series in 1965.

■ Barbara "Jeannie" Eden. Wonder Woman could spin up some superpowers, but the genie of "I Dream of Jeannie" could have ruled the world if her ambition wasn't limited by the tropes of '60s sitcoms. Barbara Eden had her sway over Vegas, too, helping open the first MGM Grand (now Bally's) in 1973.

■ Florence "Mrs. Brady" Henderson. If you play the Kevin Bacon game using George Burns instead, Henderson and Carter both worked as Burns' opening act at Caesars Palace on separate occasions: Carter in 1985, Henderson in 1993.

■ Redd "Fred Sanford" Foxx. Foxx went about the business of his ribald comedy in smoky clubs and showrooms before, during and after his "Sanford & Son" fame. But of all our sitcom-showroom icons, he was the only one who lived here; his compelling riches-to-rags story with the Internal Revenue Service was well-known to locals.

TV can be a strange calling card. But, as Carter said last week, "However I can put people in the seats, I'm thrilled."

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.