Since the 1965 debut of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charles Schulz’s Peanuts characters have appeared in more than 40 animated specials. The classics leave us feeling warm and fuzzy; others leave us wondering, “What were you thinking, Charlie Brown?” Charlie Brown’s All Stars! (1966) Plot: A recurring storyline in the Peanuts comic strip is Charlie Brown’s […]
For this tale, we take you back to the 1970s—to a time when the TV landscape was much more sparse, and political correctness was more than a decade away. It was the inaugural Battle of the Network Stars, a celebrity sports event chock full of drama, scandal, triumph, cigarettes, and a few ethnic slurs. MALIBU, […]
Celebrities who didn’t appear on Dancing with the Stars. Cindy McCain Shortly after John McCain lost the 2008 presidential election, DWTS producers signed up his wife, Cindy McCain. John nixed the idea. Vincent Pastore The Sopranos co-star Vincent Pastore, who once appeared on the weight-loss reality show Celebrity Fit Club, had to drop out during […]
The music-and-comedy variety show was a television mainstay until the 1980s. Why did the format die out? Probably because of shows like these. Joey and Dad After Sonny and Cher got divorced, Allan Blye, producer of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, attempted to create another variety show duo: sultry singer-dancer Joey Heatherton…and her father, […]
It’s always interesting to find out where the architects of pop culture get their ideas. Some of these may surprise you. Biff Tannen The jerk played by Tom Wilson in the 1985 film Back to the Future was named after studio executive Ned Tannen, who once acted like a jerk to director Robert Zemeckis and […]
Most TV game shows are made in Hollywood, so it makes sense that aspiring actors—a.k.a. Hollywood waitresses and dishwashers—would show up on game shows to get some face time on TV (and maybe win some cash). JOHN RITTER Appeared as a contestant on: The Dating Game Story: In 1967 Ritter was a 19-year-old freshman drama […]
More fascinating secrets behind where the architects of pop culture get their ideas. Some of these may surprise you. Annie Wilkes The psychotic nurse in Stephen King’s Misery (played by Kathy Bates in the 1990 movie) was based on pediatric nurse Genene Jones, imprisoned for overdosing kids and then reviving them so she would be […]
These stars jumped ship at maybe not the best time. The stories of why Dan Stevens, Wayne Rogers, and Mischa Barton left their hit shows.
Here are some fun things to listen for next time you see these films. JURASSIC PARK (1993) We Hear: The T-rex roaring and huffing as it chases a Jeep Actual Sound: The vocalizations of a whale, lion, alligator, elephant, and koala THE MATRIX (1999) We Hear: The “Matrix Code” scrolling rapidly across the screen Actual […]
This page isn’t a rerun—these facts are about shows from the 1970s. The Partridge Family Despite being a fictional band with songs performed almost entirely by studio musicians, the Partridge Family was nominated for Best New Artist at the 1971 Grammy Awards. (They lost to the Carpenters.) All in the Family Today, many shows carry […]
Stuff you didn’t know about the stuff on your TiVo. The Office In 2009 producers planned to spin off Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) to his own show. Following the same “mockumentary” format, the show was set to be about Bernard’s home life with his wife. Why didn’t it happen? Because Modern Family happened, and it […]
We recently told you about some arguably inappropriate cartoon remakes of R-rated movies, but here are some that make a little more sense: Saturday morning version of kid-friendly sitcoms. Gilligan’s Planet (1982-83) Gilligan’s Island was not a big hit when it originally aired from 1964-1967, but became a smash when it was endlessly repeated in […]
One way to inject new life into the Bard’s timeless plays: put some big stars in them!
In the 1993 action movie, Demolition Man, Sylvester Stallone plays John Spartan, a grizzled cop living in a nightmarish Los Angeles plagued by gang violence. Spartan gets frustrated with bizarre, futuristic technology, even in a precinct bathroom. Instead of toilet paper, the bathroom has a shelf with three seashells. He has no idea how they work, and the other officers just laugh at him.
Some TV shows are so synonymous with their hosts that when those hosts leave, the show doesn’t last much longer. In the 1980s, two versions of Wheel of Fortune ran simultaneously on American TV. One is the still-running syndicated nighttime version, and the other was a part of NBC’s daytime schedule. Pat Sajak hosted the […]
Friends had Joey. Happy Days had Laverne and Shirley. Every majorly successful sitcom, for better or for worse, produces at least one spinoff. Some never even make it to the air. Karen When Will and Grace went into its final season in 2005-06, plans were underway for the show to continue on with a spinoff […]
Many fictional characters have genders that aren’t as straightforward as you might have thought.
When TV shows from the United States are exported to other countries, they usually necessitate a title change—idioms, phrases, or wordplay used in English titles may not make sense if translated directly. The new titles are often very blunt or simplified, or even ruin the show’s big reveals. Game of Thrones. In Hungary, the fantasy […]
