38 Impressive Historical Firsts from Entertainment and Technology Pioneers
The earliest known color film footage is way older than you think
![38 Impressive Historical Firsts from Entertainment and Technology Pioneers](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/2/1/995421_320x180.jpg)
History was not so kind to these industry pioneers. We should all be able to regurgitate these names like we can with George Washington, but alas (for them), we’re guessing you don’t know the name of the first ever stuntman, or the grandfather of the green screen. For shame! Study up, kiddos. There’ll be a test on these in the morning!
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![The first PG-13 rating 1984 CRACKED.COM Even though it clocked in at 134 acts of violence per hour (Guinness counted), Red Dawn was the first film to officially find itself between PG and R.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/3/990843.jpg)
![The first $100 million movie. 1975 CRACKED.COM Jaws was one of the first films to be released nationwide, all at once, instead of slowly rolled out across the country. That helped it crush the barrier and score $260 million on its first run.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/1/990841.jpg)
![The first CGI. 1973 CRACKED.COM We get to see through the eyes of an evil robot in a scene in Westworld, and it's... boring. The motif was inspired by the first images of the surface of Mars.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/2/990842.jpg)
![The first copyrighted motion picture. 1894 CRACKED.COM W.K. Dickson copyrighted Fred Ott's Sneeze, a 5-second film of Thomas Edison's assistant snorting some sketchy 1800's stimulant and then, spoiler alert, sneezing.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/4/0/990840.jpg)
![The first 24-hour newsday 1963 CRACKED.COM The networks threw their regular programming out the window to cover the assassination of JFK around the clock.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/9/990839.jpg)
![The first to credit the full crew. 1977 CRACKED.COM George Lucas decided to list every last crew member in the Star Wars final credit crawl. Before that, only department heads would get their moment in the limelight.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/6/990836.jpg)
![The first movie filmed in color. 1922 CRACKED.COM There are color films that predate this one, but they all required post-production coloring processes. The Toll of the Sea was the first movie actually filmed in color.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/7/990837.jpg)
![The first movie studio. 1893 CRACKED.COM Thomas Edison's New Jersey studio, The Black Maria, was built for about $600 to produce short films for the Kinetoscope.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/8/990838.jpg)
![Mary Kay and Johnny 1947-1950 CRACKED.COM The very first U.S. sitcom featured the first time a couple slept in the same bed and the first time a woman's pregnancy was shown on TV.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/5/990835.jpg)
![L.A. Law 1991 CRACKED.COM The show featured a bisexual woman who kissed a colleague. It was the first same-sex kiss shown on U.S. television.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/4/990834.jpg)
![Dawson's Creek 2000 CRACKED COM The first passionate kiss (not just a peck like Will & Grace) shared between two men was on the teen soap opera.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/3/990833.jpg)
![Candid Camera 1948 Candia Camera CRACKED COM The show (originally a radio show called Candid Microphone) was the first televised reality show, featuring regular members of the public as its stars.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/2/990832.jpg)
![Dirty Sexy Money 2007 CRACKED.COM The first TV show to feature a recurring trans actor playing a trans character was Candis Cayne's role in Dirty Sexy Money. Also noteable was Alexandra Billings, who played a trans character in the TV movie Romy and Michele: In the Beginning two years earlier.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/1/990831.jpg)
![The Ethel Waters Show 1939 N в C CRACKED.COM Ethel Waters was the first Black person to star in her own TV show. She would later be the first Black woman to be nominated for a primetime Emmy.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/9/990829.jpg)
![Hot L Baltimore 1975 CRACKED.COM George and Gordon were the first gay couple to be shown on TV. The show ran with a disclaimer about 'mature themes.'](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/3/0/990830.jpg)
![I Love Lucy 1953 CRACKED.COM The first televised birth (well, not graphic birth) goes to Lucille Ball, who wasn't even allowed to say the word 'pregnant' because it was too taboo.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/8/990828.jpg)
![The Adventures of Champion 1955 CRACKED.COM The first TV show spin-off was based on The Gene Autry Show, with the titular Champion being Gene Autry's horse.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/7/990827.jpg)
![CRACKED VULGARITY HISTORY The first F-bomb on SNL Letterman's bandleader Paul Schaffer was an SNL cast member in 1980, and is credited with the show's first F-bomb. During the show's 100th episode, he was meant to say the word flogging, but well, you know...](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/6/990826.jpg)
![CRACKED VULGARITY HISTORY The first scripted curse word on Network TV Yes, SNL and other live broadcasts accidentally cussed here and there, but the 1999 CBS show Chicago Hope dropped the first-ever scripted curse word. Mark Harmon (Dr. Jack McNeil) utters the phrase, s**t happens.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/5/990825.jpg)
![CRACKED VULGARITY HISTORY - a PORT The first ever X and R ratings Brian De Palma's 1968 film Greetings was slapped with the first ever X rating. Не cut some sexual content to be downgraded to an R rating, but Gordon Flemyng's film The Split was the first ever R rated movie (released one month before Greetings).](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/4/990824.jpg)
![CRACKED VULGARITY HISTORY The first audible curse words in film The 1929 Paramount film Glorifying the American Girl has the first curse words in cinema history. They say damn six times, and jackass twice.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/3/990823.jpg)
![CRACKED VULGARITY HISTORY The first TV show with a warning label In 1975, because of controversial characters like prostitutes, illegal immigrants, and one of the first gay couples on TV, the Norman Lear show Hot I Baltimore was the first TV show to be slapped with a warning label before each episode.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/2/990822.jpg)
![The first kids' show 1955 CRACKED.COM Captain Kangaroo was a show based on the warm relationship between grandparents and children and inspired all your favorite shows when you were a wee lad or lass.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/1/990821.jpg)
![The first instant replay 1963 CRACKED.COM The technology was ready just in time for the big Army-Navy game... at John F. Kennedy Stadium!](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/2/0/990820.jpg)
![The first laugh track 1950 CRACKED.COM The Hank McCune Show, a TV show about a guy running a variety show, was kind of like an early 30 Rock, except it was cancelled after 3 weeks.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/8/990818.jpg)
![The first sci-fi series 1949 CARTAIN VIDEO CRACKED.COM Captain Video and His Video Rangers was a kids' show with a $25 prop budget per episode.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/9/990819.jpg)
![The first televised World Series 1947 CRACKED.COM The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers - featuring a rookie Jackie Robinson.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/4/990814.jpg)
![The first soap opera 1946 the entire production Faraway written and directed by Hill DAVID P. LEWIS GRACKED.COM Farway Hill, about a New York City widow who finds herself upstate in a love triangle, was the first to port the soap opera from radio to TV.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/6/990816.jpg)
![The first live news story 1938 CRACKED.COM NBC New York interrupted its scheduled programming to report on a fire on Ward's Island, home to both an Inebriate Asylum and an Idiot Asylum.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/7/990817.jpg)
![Historical Firsts in Practical Effects The first full-length 1925 stop-motion animation Stop-motion pioneer Willis O'Brien developed several innovations for The Lost World that are still used today. Не created a technique that joined stop- motion and live-action onscreen at the same time. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/5/990815.jpg)
![Historical Firsts in Practical Effects Hg1 Frank Williams: Grandfather 1916 of the green screen 5 Fig.2. 6 Williams' traveling matte system shot actors or vehicles against a black background and isolated them to be placed on other moving images. It could only work in black and white, but is a direct precursor of blue/green screen technology. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/3/990813.jpg)
![Historical Firsts in Practical Effects 1909 George Albert Smith patents double exposure Не built his own movie camera and used his newly patented double exposure technique to make a ghost for his 1909 short The Corsican Brothers. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/6/990806.jpg)
![Historical Firsts in Practical Effects The earliest known 1902 color film footage British inventors Edward Turner and Frederick Lee produced color motion picture tests of Turner's children playing. Не died before perfecting it, but his work led to Kinemacolor in 1906 (the world's first motion picture in natural colors.) CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/9/990809.jpg)
![Historical Firsts in Practical Effects The first-ever special effect 1895 Shot at Edison Labs in New Jersey, 1895's Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots was the first film to use a visual effect. They used stop- action for her beheading, and since no one had ever seen special effects, viewers thought they actually killed the actress. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/8/990808.jpg)
![Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first car chase stunts 1958 Car stunts had been done (notably 1955's Rebel Without A Cause), but Cary Loftin and his team's work on Thunder Road was ground zero for the modern action movie (although driver safety became a new issue). CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/0/990810.jpg)
![Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first safety precautions 1923 I IV ESTIC E S I II 1 Hollywood realized their stars' worth and took precautions. Ironically titled Safety Last! the 1923 film's iconic clock scene used stunt doubles, safety nets, harnesses, and camera tricks to pull off Harold Lloyd's dangle from a skyscraper. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/2/990812.jpg)
![Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first realistic 1920 sword fighting In 1920's The Mark of Zorro, Douglas Fairbanks brought in a fencing master, creating the first realistic on-screen swordplay. Prior to this, films had primitive whacking, but this opened doors for the countless swashbuckling films to come. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/0/7/990807.jpg)
![Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first stuntman 1903 In the Guinness Book of World Records as the first stuntman, Frank Hanaway landed a part in 1903's The Great Train Robbery for his ability to fall off a horse without injuring himself. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/1/1/990811.jpg)