Vega$
Encyclopedia
Vega$ is an American detective television drama series that aired on ABC
between 1978 and 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling
. The series, (with the exception of special episodes in Hawaii & San Francisco) was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada
, which is believed to be the first television series produced entirely in Las Vegas. The show starred Robert Urich
as private detective Dan Tanna, who drove around the streets of Las Vegas in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird
solving crimes and making Las Vegas a better place for residents and tourists alike. The series was one of the first shows to air on the FX Network when it began in 1994 but has not aired in the U.S. in over a decade.
), aka Slick, the owner of multiple hotel casinos including the Maxim Hotel and Desert Inn
Hotel & Country Club, in Las Vegas. Tanna was always called in when something was awry at the hotel. Many times this involved the criminal element, though he was sometimes brought in to investigate the absurd. One example included a nun who claimed to own the land on which the Desert Inn stood, when she was bequeathed an old deed from a prospector who died. (To further complicate matters, she initially wanted to turn the hotel into a convent.)
Tanna lived on the Las Vegas Strip
next to Circus Circus
Hotel/Casino, in the theatrical props warehouse owned by the Desert Inn Hotel and Country Club, which he converted into his living place. The design of Tanna's pad (long before the popularity of loft space) allowed him to park his T-bird in his living room. Tanna also used gadgets that were very high-tech for the time (but are pretty commonplace today), such as a car-phone and an answering machine (that physically picked the phone up off the hook and the receiver spoke directly into the microphone of a tape recorder). This warehouse in reality no longer exists, as it was replaced by a shopping center which included an Arby's and a museum; which in turn has been replaced with a new high-rise condominium tower.
For most of the series Tanna's choice of weapon was a Dan Wesson Firearms
.357 magnum
that he didn't like to use, but would if the situation deemed necessary. During the first season Tanna carried a Smith & Wesson Model 28
.357 magnum
. Most often Tanna would use more non-lethal means, such as his fists.
Tanna often did battle with many of the various criminal element that would threaten the desert oasis. Some villains he faced include a psychopath who thought he was Wayne Newton
(and subsequently Newton was impersonating him), as well as a mafia
boss named Martin Gleaver (Tom Simcox
) who blackmailed a magic sisters act with photographs of "all the sick/weird things they used to do" referring to when they used to host risque Hollywood parties.
Tanna was a veteran of the Vietnam War
. This was illustrated through flashbacks in various episodes. It is curious, however, that during these flashbacks, he was participating in ground combat. In the first season episode "Kill Dan Tanna", Tanna is address by his former commanding officer Captain North (Richard Lynch), a crippled ex-POW and former member of 5th Special Forces Group, as lieutenant
. In a later episode, where he gets mixed up with a case involving a defector from the Soviet Union
, he shows up at Nellis Air Force Base
in his old United States Air Force
uniform. (The Air Force was rarely, but occasionally, involved in direct ground combat during Vietnam.) He is also referred to as "Captain Tanna", indicating that he was an officer. He served with his best friends Harlon Two-Leaf (Will Sampson
), the chief of a local Native American
tribe, and Mitch Costigan (Chick Venerra), a Vegas lounge singer. In the second season episode "Casualty of War", Costigan mentions that he served in 93rd Rangers (a fictional United States Army Rangers
unit) and in a Vietnam flashback scene he is wearing an United States Army
uniform with the 101st Airborne Division
patch on it. Though the 93rd Rangers is fictional the 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War
did have Ranger-Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol
units. Also shown in that episode is a picture of Tanna, Costigan, and Two-Leaf taken in Vietnam, all are wearing tiger-stripe camouflage uniforms and black berets- which was the common but unofficial headgear of Ranger units in Vietnam. Two-Leaf and Costigan would occasionally join Tanna in investigating various mysteries.
played Beatrice, his assistant who is a single mom and a former showgirl
. There is evidence that she was married before, but her husband had died. Although she and Tanna made a dashing couple, their relationship seemed to be purely platonic. Greg Morris
played Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
Lt. David Nelson. Nelson was a no-nonsense cop who often had Tanna's back (and he, his). While Nelson was never one to breach protocol, he often secretly assisted Tanna in cases Metro Police couldn't officially touch. Actress Naomi Stevens
played police sergeant Bella Archer, who also assisted Tanna and Nelson. Bart Braverman
played Binzer, a college student who did Dan Tanna's leg work and usually provided comic relief. In the beginning of the series, Binzer was a petty thief who fled to Vegas to escape his former partners in crime from back east, as described in one episode, where his real name is revealed to be Robert Borso. Tanna seemed to have taken him under his wing and used his knowledge and connections of the street. Judy Landers
played Dan Tanna's other assistant, Angie, who was also a showgirl, but unlike the savvy Beatrice was usually an airhead and would get things screwed up. She appeared only during the first season. Despite being initially billed as a co-star, Tony Curtis appeared infrequently during the first season, and only made a few appearances in subesequent years.
, Kim Basinger
, Melanie Griffith
, Kim Cattrall
, Abe Vigoda
, Morey Amsterdam
, Shelley Fabares
, Shelley Berman
, Savannah Smith Boucher
, Alex Trebek
, Sid Caesar
, Slim Pickens
, Isabel Sanford
, Maureen McCormick
, Cesar Romero
, Doc Severinsen
, Mamie Van Doren
, Muhammad Ali
, Robert Loggia
, Kurt Krakowian
, Leslie Nielsen
, Lola Falana
, Rudolph "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, Heather Menzies
(Urich's real-life wife), Eve Arden
, Barbi Benton
, Lisa Hartman
, Shelley Winters
, Wayne Newton
, Captain & Tennille
, Wolfman Jack
, Tanya Roberts
, Lorne Greene
, Erin Gray
, Gary Lockwood
, William Garbacz, June Lockhart
, Michael Cole
, and Dick Butkus
.
titled "Angels in Vegas", Robert Urich does a cameo as his Vega$ character Dan Tanna at the end of the episode. This episode aired the week before the Vega$ series premiere.
) has released the first and seconds seasons of Vega$ on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.
In Region 4, Madman Entertainment
has released the first season on DVD in Australia.
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
between 1978 and 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...
. The series, (with the exception of special episodes in Hawaii & San Francisco) was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, which is believed to be the first television series produced entirely in Las Vegas. The show starred Robert Urich
Robert Urich
Robert Urich was an American actor. He played the starring roles in the television series Vega$ and Spenser: For Hire...
as private detective Dan Tanna, who drove around the streets of Las Vegas in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird
Ford Thunderbird
The Thunderbird , is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States over eleven model generations from 1955 through 2005...
solving crimes and making Las Vegas a better place for residents and tourists alike. The series was one of the first shows to air on the FX Network when it began in 1994 but has not aired in the U.S. in over a decade.
Plot
Dan Tanna was a detective available for private hire. One of his chief clients was Phillip Roth (Tony CurtisTony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
), aka Slick, the owner of multiple hotel casinos including the Maxim Hotel and Desert Inn
Desert Inn
The Desert Inn was a Paradise, Nevada, hotel/casino that operated from April 24, 1950, to August 28, 2000. Designed by noted New York architect Jac Lessman, it was the fifth resort to open on the Las Vegas Strip. The property included an 18-hole golf course. Locals nicknamed the resort "The D.I."...
Hotel & Country Club, in Las Vegas. Tanna was always called in when something was awry at the hotel. Many times this involved the criminal element, though he was sometimes brought in to investigate the absurd. One example included a nun who claimed to own the land on which the Desert Inn stood, when she was bequeathed an old deed from a prospector who died. (To further complicate matters, she initially wanted to turn the hotel into a convent.)
Tanna lived on the Las Vegas Strip
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
next to Circus Circus
Circus Circus Las Vegas
Circus Circus Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by MGM Resorts International. Circus Circus features circus acts and carnival type games daily on the Midway...
Hotel/Casino, in the theatrical props warehouse owned by the Desert Inn Hotel and Country Club, which he converted into his living place. The design of Tanna's pad (long before the popularity of loft space) allowed him to park his T-bird in his living room. Tanna also used gadgets that were very high-tech for the time (but are pretty commonplace today), such as a car-phone and an answering machine (that physically picked the phone up off the hook and the receiver spoke directly into the microphone of a tape recorder). This warehouse in reality no longer exists, as it was replaced by a shopping center which included an Arby's and a museum; which in turn has been replaced with a new high-rise condominium tower.
For most of the series Tanna's choice of weapon was a Dan Wesson Firearms
Dan Wesson Firearms
Dan Wesson Firearms , part of the CZ corporate group, is a manufacturer of handguns in the United States. The corporate headquarters is in Kansas City, Kansas, and the customer service and manufacturing plant is located in Norwich, New York...
.357 magnum
.357 Magnum
The .357 S&W Magnum , or simply .357 Magnum, is a revolver cartridge created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, Colonel D. B. Wesson of firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson, and Winchester. It is based upon Smith & Wesson's earlier .38 Special cartridge. The .357 Magnum cartridge was introduced in...
that he didn't like to use, but would if the situation deemed necessary. During the first season Tanna carried a Smith & Wesson Model 28
Smith & Wesson Model 28
The Smith & Wesson Model 28, also known as the Highway Patrolman, is a revolver chambered for the .357 Magnum cartridge, in production from 1954 to 1986. It is a budget version of the S&W Model 27.-Development:...
.357 magnum
.357 Magnum
The .357 S&W Magnum , or simply .357 Magnum, is a revolver cartridge created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, Colonel D. B. Wesson of firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson, and Winchester. It is based upon Smith & Wesson's earlier .38 Special cartridge. The .357 Magnum cartridge was introduced in...
. Most often Tanna would use more non-lethal means, such as his fists.
Tanna often did battle with many of the various criminal element that would threaten the desert oasis. Some villains he faced include a psychopath who thought he was Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton is an American singer and entertainer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He performed over 30,000 solo shows in Las Vegas over a period of over 40 years, earning him the nicknames The Midnight Idol, Mr. Las Vegas and Mr. Entertainment...
(and subsequently Newton was impersonating him), as well as a mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
boss named Martin Gleaver (Tom Simcox
Tom Simcox
Thomas William Simcox, known as Tom Simcox is a former actor who resides in the unincorporated community of Leona Valley west of Palmdale in Los Angeles County, California....
) who blackmailed a magic sisters act with photographs of "all the sick/weird things they used to do" referring to when they used to host risque Hollywood parties.
Tanna was a veteran of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. This was illustrated through flashbacks in various episodes. It is curious, however, that during these flashbacks, he was participating in ground combat. In the first season episode "Kill Dan Tanna", Tanna is address by his former commanding officer Captain North (Richard Lynch), a crippled ex-POW and former member of 5th Special Forces Group, as lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
. In a later episode, where he gets mixed up with a case involving a defector from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, he shows up at Nellis Air Force Base
Nellis Air Force Base
Nellis Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is under the jurisdiction of Air Combat Command .-Overview:...
in his old United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
uniform. (The Air Force was rarely, but occasionally, involved in direct ground combat during Vietnam.) He is also referred to as "Captain Tanna", indicating that he was an officer. He served with his best friends Harlon Two-Leaf (Will Sampson
Will Sampson
Will Sampson was an American actor and artist.-Life and career:Sampson, a Native American Muscogee , was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Sampson's most notable roles were as "Chief Bromden" in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and as "Taylor the Medicine Man" in the horror film Poltergeist II...
), the chief of a local Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribe, and Mitch Costigan (Chick Venerra), a Vegas lounge singer. In the second season episode "Casualty of War", Costigan mentions that he served in 93rd Rangers (a fictional United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers are elite members of the United States Army. Rangers have served in recognized U.S. Army Ranger units or have graduated from the U.S. Army's Ranger School...
unit) and in a Vietnam flashback scene he is wearing an United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
uniform with the 101st Airborne Division
101st Airborne Division
The 101st Airborne Division—the "Screaming Eagles"—is a U.S. Army modular light infantry division trained for air assault operations. During World War II, it was renowned for its role in Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944, in Normandy, France, Operation Market Garden, the...
patch on it. Though the 93rd Rangers is fictional the 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
did have Ranger-Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol
Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol
Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols, or LRRPs , were special small four to six-man teams in the Vietnam War on highly dangerous special reconnaissance missions deep into enemy territory....
units. Also shown in that episode is a picture of Tanna, Costigan, and Two-Leaf taken in Vietnam, all are wearing tiger-stripe camouflage uniforms and black berets- which was the common but unofficial headgear of Ranger units in Vietnam. Two-Leaf and Costigan would occasionally join Tanna in investigating various mysteries.
Supporting cast
Phyllis DavisPhyllis Davis
Phyllis Davis is an American actress who appeared primarily on television. She was most notably a part of the cast of Aaron Spelling's dramatic series Vega$, playing the character Beatrice Travis....
played Beatrice, his assistant who is a single mom and a former showgirl
Showgirl
A showgirl is a dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show. Showgirl is also often used as a term for a promotional model in trade fairs and car shows, etc...
. There is evidence that she was married before, but her husband had died. Although she and Tanna made a dashing couple, their relationship seemed to be purely platonic. Greg Morris
Greg Morris
Francis Gregory Alan "Greg" Morris was an American television and movie actor.Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Morris began his acting career in the 1960s making guest appearances on many TV shows such as The Twilight Zone and Ben Casey...
played Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is a joint city-county police force for the City of Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada. It is run by the Sheriff of Clark County, elected every four years. The current Sheriff of Clark County is Douglas C...
Lt. David Nelson. Nelson was a no-nonsense cop who often had Tanna's back (and he, his). While Nelson was never one to breach protocol, he often secretly assisted Tanna in cases Metro Police couldn't officially touch. Actress Naomi Stevens
Naomi Stevens
Naomi Stevens was a prolific character actress of film and television from the 1950s through the 1980s. She has appeared in almost 100 roles over the years, usually depicting someone's ethnic mother, or neighbor...
played police sergeant Bella Archer, who also assisted Tanna and Nelson. Bart Braverman
Bart Braverman
Bartley Louis "Bart" Braverman is an actor who is well known for guest starring on many shows. He is probably best known today for his Match Game appearances...
played Binzer, a college student who did Dan Tanna's leg work and usually provided comic relief. In the beginning of the series, Binzer was a petty thief who fled to Vegas to escape his former partners in crime from back east, as described in one episode, where his real name is revealed to be Robert Borso. Tanna seemed to have taken him under his wing and used his knowledge and connections of the street. Judy Landers
Judy Landers
Judy Landers is an American film and television actress.-Early years:Landers was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was raised in Rockland County, New York. She is the daughter of Ruth Landers, and is the younger sister of fellow actress Audrey Landers...
played Dan Tanna's other assistant, Angie, who was also a showgirl, but unlike the savvy Beatrice was usually an airhead and would get things screwed up. She appeared only during the first season. Despite being initially billed as a co-star, Tony Curtis appeared infrequently during the first season, and only made a few appearances in subesequent years.
Guest stars
The series featured numerous performances and cameos by notable guest stars including: Dean MartinDean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
, Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger
Kimila Ann "Kim" Basinger is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for her portrayals of Domino Petachi, the Bond girl in Never Say Never Again , and Vicki Vale, the female lead in Batman . Basinger received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture...
, Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith
Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...
, Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
, Abe Vigoda
Abe Vigoda
Abe Vigoda is an American movie and television actor. Vigoda is well known for his portrayal of Sal Tessio in The Godfather, and for his portrayal of Detective Sgt. Phil Fish on the sitcom television series Barney Miller from 1975–1977 and on its spinoff show Fish that aired from February 1977 to...
, Morey Amsterdam
Morey Amsterdam
Morey Amsterdam was an American television actor and comedian, best known for the role of Buddy Sorrell on The Dick Van Dyke Show in the early 1960s.-Early life:...
, Shelley Fabares
Shelley Fabares
Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares is an American actress and singer. Fabares is known for her roles as Donna Reed's oldest child, Mary Stone, on The Donna Reed Show , and as Craig T. Nelson's love interest and eventual wife, Christine Armstrong Fox, on the sitcom Coach. She also was Elvis...
, Shelley Berman
Shelley Berman
Sheldon "Shelley" Berman is an American comedian, actor, writer, teacher, lecturer, and poet.- Early life :Berman was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Irene and Nathan Berman.- Career :...
, Savannah Smith Boucher
Savannah Smith Boucher
Savannah Smith Boucher is an American actress originally from Springhill in Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana. Her younger sister, Sherry Boucher, is a former actress who was the third wife of the late actor George Peppard....
, Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek
George Alexander "Alex" Trebek is a Canadian American game show host who has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and prior to that, he hosted game shows such as Pitfall and High Rollers. He has appeared in numerous television series, usually as himself...
, Sid Caesar
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.- Early life :Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York,...
, Slim Pickens
Slim Pickens
Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. , better known by the stage name Slim Pickens, was an American rodeo performer and film and television actor who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, but who is best remembered for his comic roles, notably in Dr...
, Isabel Sanford
Isabel Sanford
Isabel Sanford was an American actress best known for her role as Louise "Weezy" Jefferson on the CBS television sitcoms All in the Family and The Jeffersons .-Career:...
, Maureen McCormick
Maureen McCormick
Maureen Denise McCormick is an American actress, celebrity and recording artist. She is most widely known as a child actress who played Marcia Brady in the television series The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974.- Early life and career :...
, Cesar Romero
Cesar Romero
Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years...
, Doc Severinsen
Doc Severinsen
Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen is an American pop and jazz trumpeter. He is best known for leading the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.-Early life:...
, Mamie Van Doren
Mamie Van Doren
Mamie Van Doren is an American actress and singer; who rose to popularity as Universal Pictures's version of 20th Century Fox's Marilyn Monroe....
, Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
, Robert Loggia
Robert Loggia
Robert Loggia is an American film and television actor and director.- Early life :Loggia, an Italian American, was born on Staten Island, the son of Elena Blandino, a homemaker, and Benjamin Loggia, a shoemaker, both of whom were born in Sicily, Italy...
, Kurt Krakowian
Kurt Krakowian
Kurt Krakowian is an American former child actor and a guest star in a few TV programs: Days of our Lives, Cheers, Vega$, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, The Love Boat, According to Jim and a few episodes of Saved by the Bell...
, Leslie Nielsen
Leslie Nielsen
Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...
, Lola Falana
Lola Falana
Lola Falana is an American singer, dancer, and actress of Cuban and African American descent. Falana's father left Cuba to become a welder in the United States, where he met his wife...
, Rudolph "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, Heather Menzies
Heather Menzies
Heather Urich , born December 3, 1949 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a Canadian-born actress who moved to California via Florida at the age of 11. She enrolled at the Falcon Studio’s University of the Arts, in Hollywood. Her first professional role at the age of 13 was on My Three Sons...
(Urich's real-life wife), Eve Arden
Eve Arden
Eve Arden was an American actress. Her almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and leading roles, but she may be best-remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging title character, a high school teacher, on Our Miss Brooks, and as the Rydell High School principal in...
, Barbi Benton
Barbi Benton
Barbi Benton is an American model, actress and singer.-Career:She was featured on the cover of Playboy several times and in nude photo layouts in the March 1970, December 1973, and January 1975 issues, although she was never one of the magazine's "Playmates of the Month".Benton is known for her...
, Lisa Hartman
Lisa Hartman
Lisa Hartman is an American actress and singer.After some minor television appearances, Lisa Hartman starred in the short-lived Bewitched spin-off, Tabitha during 1977-78...
, Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television; her career spanned over 50 years until her death in 2006...
, Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton
Wayne Newton is an American singer and entertainer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He performed over 30,000 solo shows in Las Vegas over a period of over 40 years, earning him the nicknames The Midnight Idol, Mr. Las Vegas and Mr. Entertainment...
, Captain & Tennille
Captain & Tennille
Captain & Tennille are American pop music recording artists who achieved chart success from 1975 to 1980. The duo consists of husband and wife duo "Captain" Daryl Dragon , and Cathryn Antoinette "Toni" Tennille . They are best known for their singles "Love Will Keep Us Together" and "Do That to Me...
, Wolfman Jack
Wolfman Jack
Robert Weston Smith, known commonly as Wolfman Jack was a gravelly voiced US disc jockey who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s.-Early career:...
, Tanya Roberts
Tanya Roberts
Tanya Roberts is an American actress best known for her roles in Charlie's Angels, The Beastmaster, A View to a Kill, Sheena and That '70s Show. Roberts was groomed as a Hollywood sex symbol during the early 1980s.- Early life :Blum was born in The Bronx, New York City, of Irish and Jewish descent...
, Lorne Greene
Lorne Greene
Lorne Greene , was the stage name of Lyon Himan Green, OC, a Canadian actor.His television roles include Ben Cartwright on the western Bonanza, and Commander Adama in the science fiction movie and subsequent TV Series Battlestar Galactica...
, Erin Gray
Erin Gray
Erin Gray is an American actress, perhaps best known for her roles as Kate Summers in the situation comedy Silver Spoons and as Colonel Wilma Deering in the science fiction television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century....
, Gary Lockwood
Gary Lockwood
Gary Lockwood is an American actor probably best known for his iconic 1968 role as the astronaut Dr. Frank Poole in 2001: A Space Odyssey.-Early life:...
, William Garbacz, June Lockhart
June Lockhart
June Lockhart is an American actress, primarily in 1950s and 1960s television, but with memorable performances on stage and in film too. She is remembered as the mother in two TV series, Lassie and Lost in Space. She also portrayed Dr...
, Michael Cole
Michael Cole
Michael Sean Coulthard , better known by his ring name Michael Cole, is an American professional wrestling commentator, currently signed to WWE on both its Rawand SmackDown brands. Coulthard is a former news journalist....
, and Dick Butkus
Dick Butkus
Richard Marvin "Dick" Butkus is a former American football player for the Chicago Bears. He was drafted in 1965 and he is also widely regarded as one of the best and most durable linebackers of all time. Butkus starred as a football player for the University of Illinois and the Chicago Bears. He...
.
Crossovers
In the Season 3 premiere of Charlie's AngelsCharlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...
titled "Angels in Vegas", Robert Urich does a cameo as his Vega$ character Dan Tanna at the end of the episode. This episode aired the week before the Vega$ series premiere.
DVD releases
CBS DVD (distributed by ParamountParamount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment is the division of Paramount Pictures dealing with home video founded in late 1975.-History:...
) has released the first and seconds seasons of Vega$ on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.
In Region 4, Madman Entertainment
Madman Entertainment
Madman Entertainment is an Australian company that distributes international films as well as Japanese anime and manga in Australia and New Zealand. The company is owned by Funtastic Limited and is one of the major entertainment companies in Australia. It employs 130 people and has an annual...
has released the first season on DVD in Australia.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Dates | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 4 | ||
| Season 1, Volume 1 | 11 | October 20, 2009 | July 14, 2010 |
| Season 1, Volume 2 | 12 | February 9, 2010 | September 27, 2010 |
| Season 2, Volume 1 | 11 | December 7, 2010 | TBA |
| Season 2, Volume 2 | 11 | March 29, 2011 | TBA |