[5] Dana began his career as a page at NBC's famous Studio 6B while performing comedy in nightclubs around New York with partner Gene Wood.

[2] Dana's career took a major turn when he began writing stand-up routines for the young comedian Don Adams (including the now well-known "Would you believe?"

[2] On an Ed Sullivan Show appearance, Dana related a story of how a woman recognized him on the street, but knew him only as José Jiménez, and asked what his real name was.

One of the cuts; "The Astronaut (Part 1 & 2)"...an interview from news reporter, writer and producer Don Hinkley...made it to the Billboard Top 40 charts at #19 in September 1961.

[citation needed] In 1961, Dana made the first of eight appearances on The Danny Thomas Show, playing Jimenez as a bumbling but endearing elevator operator.

[8] That same year, the Jiménez character was animated for the Paramount cartoon I Want My Mummy, written by Dana in collaboration with Howard Post.

[9] Originated live from the Hotel Hacienda in Las Vegas, Nevada, the program was cancelled by the end of May when the United Network folded.

Dana wrote the script for possibly the best known episode of the situation comedy All in the Family, entitled "Sammy's Visit", which featured Sammy Davis Jr.[11] In 1976, he appeared in the "A Doctor's Doctor" episode of the NBC situation comedy The Practice as the hospital roommate of Danny Thomas's character Dr. Jules Bedford.

[citation needed] In early 1979, he appeared as Sampson in the episode "Dewey and Harold and Sarah and Maggie" of the NBC series $weepstake$.

The government officials watch The Ed Sullivan Show before recruiting Navy pilots for the early’60s Mercury Space Program.

[12] Dana reprised the role of Bernardo the servant on the CBS TV series Zorro and Son, but his performance was different from Gene Sheldon's pantomime counterpart on the 1950s live-action show.

[1] Bill Dana was integral in creating the American Comedy Archives, a series of audiovisual interviews with such comic luminaries as Phyllis Diller, Dick Gregory, Don Knotts, Norman Lear, Bob Newhart, Tom Poston, Paul Rodriguez, Dick Van Dyke, Betty White, and Jonathan Winters.