That’s Entertainment
They seemed like a novelty or passing fad when they first arrived in the ‘70s…but it’s fairly evident now that video games are here to stay. Here are some landmarks moments in the history of what toy makers once called “TV games.” First cartridge system Home video game systems, with their abilities to play a […]
Old shows coming back dominates TV — Will & Grace, Murphy Brown, Full House, The X-Files and more have saturated the airwaves with nostalgia. Here are some fun facts about this strange cultural fad. First TV reboot Reboots of old shows is nothing new. In fact, it goes back to when TV wasn’t that old […]
Prepare for the final season of the HBO mega-hit so that, unlike Jon Snow, you won’t “know nothing.” Most expensive TV show It’s the most expensive TV show in history. Every episode is like a cinema-quality movie, with location shoots and special effects making everything look top notch. Estimated cost: Around $10 million per episode. […]
A lot of enduring television classics first aired 40 years ago, in the 1978-79 TV season. Here are some weird stories about them. Fantasy Island It’s a 1970s trivia overload! The plane that brought guests to the show’s Fantasy Island—the one that made Tattoo (Hervé Villechaize) shout “de plane!”—was previously owned by Jonathan Livingston Seagull […]
We all know they’re wrong, and over-generalizations, but there are certain clichés about different nationalities that persist…particularly the ones that seem the weirdest or most inexplicable. For example, there’s the idea that Germans adore Baywatch star David Hasselhoff, or that Canadians love hockey and Tim Hortons donuts. Arguably the most famous of these stereotypes — […]
The rule of thumb for a successful TV series is that it gets to stay on the air for years. Not so for these shows. Twin Peaks (1990-1991) In 1990, millions of American wanted to know “Who killed Laura Palmer?” That was the central mystery of Twin Peaks, an ABC mystery series co-created by cult […]
Around the year and throughout the world, big clothing designers unveil their latest looks through elaborate presentations. They’re not just models walking down a runway anymore. How weird are these shows? So weird that we’re writing about them here, where we rarely cover anything as fancy as fashion. WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE Jana Nedzvetskaya’s spring 2015 […]
Dolly Parton recently signed a deal with Netflix to turn a number of her biggest hits into movies. Her songs are often stories, so it’s a natural progression. The same should have happened for these songs turned movies…which all tuned out a little odd. Monster Mash (1995) The monster-centric novelty song “Monster Mash” was a […]
Winning an Academy Award is an achievement some actors and actresses wait their whole lives and careers for. And then there are these performers who were so impressive in their first ever film roles that they took home Oscars for it. LUPITA NYONG’O Born in Mexico to a Kenyan family, Nyong’o built up an impressive […]
The Academy Awards are around the corner. Here are some of the weirdest nominations and wins in the ceremony’s long history. THERE’S GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS The Razzies, or “Golden Raspberry Awards” are the anti-Oscar and hand out cheap plastic trophies to the year’s worst movies. While many performers have won both awards for […]
If some old science-fiction movies set in the once distant year of 2019, are to be believed, we’re all in for a terrible time. Hunted for sport Criminals convicted under America’s totalitarian police system are creatively sentenced to star on a reality game show called The Running Man, where they’re hunted for sport by professional […]
Star Wars is an undeniable part of the collective cultural consciousness. It’s probably shaped fiction and storytelling as much as Shakespeare. And, like Shakespeare, people keep adapting it and presenting it different ways. Here are some of the wildest ways the story of Star Wars has been told. Ballet In 2015, The Star Wars Tribute […]
From The Muppet Movie to The Muppet Show to Sesame Street, everybody loves the Muppets, the brilliant puppet comic creations of Jim Henson and company. But not everything with “Muppets” in its name has been a success. Here are some rare Muppet misses. Little Muppet Monsters (1985) It’s kind of hard to believe, but a spinoff of one of the most popular […]
Uncle John loves toilets, of course…even make-believe ones. Here are some of the best, not-quite-real commodes to ever grace movies and TV. Mr. Toilet Man The talking baby movie Look Who’s Talking proved so popular in 1989 that a sequel, Look Who’s Talking Too, hit theaters a year later. This one finds babies (voiced by […]
In the late 1970s, disco so dominated the musical landscape that a lot of major bands and singers thought that it was here to stay…and that they best get on board or get left in the dust. Here are some of those wild (and mostly forgotten) attempts to go disco. Paul McCartney As one of […]
It takes a lot of money to buy even a portion of a pro sports team. How’s someone supposed to get those millions of dollars together? Try being a huge success in the world of entertainment! Who has stakes in the Arena Football League? Over the last 30 years, lots of upstart football leagues have […]
We can’t look into the future…but these people with psychic abilities say that they can. Here are some major events we can all apparently look forward to this year. The celebrity update Nicolas Aujula is technically 33, but at the age of 17 he claims he discovered that he’d been re-incarnated several times. In one […]
Many of the first major players in cable TV in the early 1980s are still intact today — CNN is still a 24-news network, ESPN is all sports all the time, and HBO plays movies and sports events. Elsewhere, there’s been a lot of “changing channels” so to speak, as lots of networks have changed […]
