Busy Former Actor Is Now a Retired Professor and KY Businessman

You never know what you'll find if you dig deep enough into YouTube. The Google-run platform is nearly 20 years old, so there's no telling HOW many videos are on it.

Dig Deep on YouTube and Kentucky Stories Might Emerge

And don't think for one second you can't find something obscure. I do it all the time, and one such viewing experience has led me to this story. I came across an episode of an old anthology series called Love, American Style. It ran on ABC from 1969 through 1974. We watched them when I was a little kid, although it's practically UNwatchable now, other than as a time capsule of what was considered "daring" television 50 years ago.

If I hadn't stayed the course on the episode I clicked on, I wouldn't be writing this. For reference, this is it (fast forward to the 8:44 mark where the point of this story begins):

Listen, I'm not kidding. There was an audience for this back then; I'm sure there wouldn't be now. Posts of old episodes like this, in my opinion, simply satisfy a nostalgia craving and not much else.

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A Very Busy Former Actor Gave It Up for Academia

Anyway, the above episode's second half story line featured a cast of actors I didn't recognize, so I did a search on each one. That's when I learned about actor Michael Burns. He was vaguely familiar to me, and after browsing his credits, I knew why. He'd done so many guest shots, his face was in my memory banks, even if his name wasn't. And VERY early on, he was interviewed by an icon on an iconic TV series:

If you visit the "michsylvan" YouTube page, you'll find a 69-vid playlist featuring Michael Burns. "Michsylvan" is obviously a big fan.

And Now That Very Busy Former Actor Is Retired and Lives in Kentucky

But I wonder if "michsylvan" knows what FORMER actor Michael Burns has been doing the last several years--and I mean going all the way back to 1980. That's when ACTOR Michael Burns became PROFESSOR Michael Burns at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts where he taught history until he retired in 2002 with a "professor emeritus" designation. Burns is also a published author.

And since his retirement, he and his wife Elizabeth have been living in Danville KY where they've been keeping themselves quite busy. They restored the Cambus-Kenneth Estate and have been successfully raising thoroughbreds to the tune of over $274,000 in annual revenue.

So, if you're ever in Danville and you run INTO Professor Michael Burns, ask him about the time Dick Clark interviewed him when he was a teenager. Or chat him up about his appearances on Love, American Style or Wagon Train.

I'd be interested to know if that actually happens to him.