An early career break occurred when Pollard was brought in as a replacement during the first season of TV's "Dobie Gillis." Co-star Bob Denver, who was stealing the show as Dobie's beatnik buddy Maynard G. Krebs, was going to be drafted into the Army and had to exit the series. When Denver was classified "4-F" due to a longstanding neck injury and returned, Pollard's character of weird cousin Jerome Krebs was quickly written out.
Credited by Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi with coining the term "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys".
In 1966, at the age of 27, Michael Pollard was hired as a guest star on Star Trek, playing "Jahn" in the episode "Miri". The script called for an actor 14 years of age, but Pollard got the part anyway since his agent convinced the show's producers that he looked like a teenager even though he was close to 30.
One of the few actors to have appeared on both classic Sci -Fi shows "Lost In Space" and "Star Trek".
Played the role of "Hugo" in the original Broadway production of "Bye Bye Birdie" (costarring with Dick Van Dyke, Chita Rivera, Paul Lynde, and Dick Gautier) in the early 1960s.