... Let's be serious.
And the suggestion that the Beach Boys and Lucille are somehow not deserving famous Americans is insane.
That isn't his claim. Your claim is that the pictures show the cream of the crop of fame in order. You seem to think it is significant that not only is the Shatner on the list but he comes first.
"Shatner is the 1st person shown in the rotation of photos, obviously because the website thinks he is the most famous."
Beach Boys significant. Yes. Famous. Yes Deserving of being on a list and high up. Yes. More so than Elvis? Seriously? The King of Rock and Roll? Sorry but you can't be serious.
Being number 2 and beating out Elvis and Wacko Jacko, hell no. Purer evidence that your assumptions are wrong and mine are right. The lists are samples and not meant to indicate any order ranking.
Also consider their list in order
Andrew Carnegie
Beach Boys
Bob Dylan
Henry Ford
John Adams
Lucille Ball
Martin Luther King
Douglas MacArthur
George Washington
Seriously. John Adams over George Washington. Is he even on a coin or a bill. That right there should give you cause for pause. The people on that list are significant in their own way, even the IIRC 1 termer Adams but there is no way that this list would ever be considered a list of the top most famous Americans, never mind in order. Hell where is Abe Lincoln, you know the guy who hunted the vampires and took on Chuck Norris in an epic rap battle. If they ever had Adams do an epic rap battles [either 1 or 2] I'd hazard a guess that most Americans would go huh? never mind anyone else in the world.
Also I question if even the expanded lists are even can claim to be a list of the most famous as opposed to some names that happen to pop into the mind of the compiler on that day.
Likewise Elvis didn't even make the list, never mind making it over the Beach Boys and Bob Dylan. Elvis didn't even make the side list. Neither did Babe Ruth who for non baseball people is probably to baseball what Pele, Gretzky, and Ali are to soccer, hockey and Boxing. BTW guess who else didn't make the list. Guess. He floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee. Neither Clay or Ali show up. Jackie Robinson, I've seen those Heritage commercials, I know the story, but he ain't no Ali or Ruth.
Never mind that their side list has Eleanor but not FDR. FDR IIRC won was it 3 or 4 elections. The New Deal guy. War time leader. Not even on the expanded list.
Famous, sure. However as far as I am concerned either they were not trying to make a list of the most famous, or they did and don't have the knowledge base to do it right.
We do have the strongest man in the world, the most beautiful singer and the most out-of-this-world actor, so I don't see any inferiority complex. Oh, and like the best sex industry in north america...
Strongest? Perhaps, back then. Most Beautiful singer? Seriously. I kind of have a thing for ugly chicks, but dang, I wouldn't go that far. She makes me recoil in mild disgust. Always had a thing for Mitsou who seems to be still holding it together pretty well.