Lumley actually played the Doctor, briefly, in the spoof The Curse of the Fatal Death.

That was my immediate thought as well. The Queen from Disney's Snow White would have been a better example.

My father's department at work had a number that was one different from a pizza parlor, and he and his co-workers would cheerfully "take orders"/screw around with callers.

The morons are the ones complaining about it.

Herbert Solow and Robert Justman's book Inside Star Trek details this, too. So, yeah, it happened. Gene Roddenberry had his good points, but he was a money-grubber.

What are those Ewoks doing on Hoth?

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

But of course, they ain't gonna include anything by a horror author..

Futurama did a bit with a product like this, leading to:

"There. How do I look?"
"Like a cheap French harlot."
"FRENCH!?"

My father worked at an ABC network affiliate, and saw then ABC anchorman Peter Jennings doing the same thing while reporting from a motel balcony somewhere. (The viewers at home didn't see it..)

The sad thing is, that second head is almost as good as the one they used on the Hitchhiker's TV series...

I've started using "hir" instead of his or her. Maybe I'll start a trend...

I'd been more embarrassed that my dad was carrying a purse.

This attitude really annoys me. Purses are -useful-. But no, I'm only a man if I cram all my stuff into sixteen pockets instead..

Pete Ross turned up as a character on the TV show Smallville; in some quarters, he earned the nickname "Product Placement Pete", for his relentless in-character shilling of sponsors' products. (Maybe that was his real superpower all along..)

I would have put spammers a lot further down..

What? No public stoning or being tossed on a bonfire? They're getting soft.