32 Old-Fashioned Bits of Classic TV Trivia That Don’t Care About ‘Getting With the Times’

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32 Old-Fashioned Bits of Classic TV Trivia That Don’t Care About ‘Getting With the Times’
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We’ve always found it a little strange that some middle-aged or golden-aged folks care to keep up with whatever the kids are doing these days. Like, why would any mature adult look to a 14-year-old as a guide for fashion, music or any other trendy nonsense? 

Maybe we’re just salty old dogs who are stuck in our ways, but we love these old TV shows and would much rather give them another once over than check out any new crud that’s out there. Having all of these available on streaming services is nice, so we guess we do have to give this modern age some credit.

The Brady Bunch

THE BRADY BUNCH The Bradys' back door has no glass. Producers needed to avoid glare, so they pulled the old glasses-with-no-lenses trick. CRACKED.COM

The Rifleman

THE RIFLEMAN The Rifleman uses a rifle from the future. The Rifleman Не uses a Winchester 1892, but the show takes place in the 1870s and 80s. CRACKED.COM

Mork & Mindy

MORK & MINDY Mork's jumpsuit was originally a Star Trek costume. It's from The Savage Curtain, the third-to-last episode in the series. CRACKED.COM

Charlie’s Angels

CHARLIE'S ANGELS The show would have been Alley Cats if it weren't for Frank Sinatra. CHARLIE'S ANGELS While brainstorming less awful names, someone looked around the room and saw a painting of angels, previously owned by Sinatra. CRACKED.COM

Star Trek

Star Trek came up with transporters to make the TV show filmable. Initially, the Enterprise crew was supposed to use shuttles to land on planets. But that would have a) been too expensive, and b) ruined the show's pacing (imagine having to watch Kirk, Spock, and Bones sitting around and waiting for backup). The solution? Fancy, hi-tech, instantaneous teleportation. CRACKED.COM

Here’s Lucy

Lucille Ball wrote a full season arc around a skiing accident. HERE'S LUCY GRACKED.COM Four seasons into her follow-up to I Love Lucy, Ball fractured her leg skiing. Season five largely revolved around her sitting stationary in a hospital bed, falling in love with a doctor, and having to rely on dialogue rather than slapstick.

This Is Your Life

This is Your Life surprised a Hiroshima survivor with the pilot who dropped the bomb. Bishop Kiyoshi Tanimoto believed he'd be interviewed about his work, but the show brought out Major Robert А. Lewis, the co-pilot of the Enola Gay (the B-29 that dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima) for the most uncomfortable reunion of all time. Tanimoto's daughter later said the experience was surprisingly cathartic - but it's hard to believe that was the producers' intent. CRACKED

Tic Tac Dough

Thom McKee held the game show winnings record for 2 decades. Tic Tac Dough X X For 9 weeks in 1980, he took down 43 fellow contestants, and won $312,700 (roughly $1.1 million today), which was a game show record that stood until Michael Shutterly won $500,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 1999. CRACKED

Family Feud

Orange is the new Yellow. Family Feud There have been a million terrible answers on the show, but Joanne's is just the best of the worst. When asked to name a yellow fruit, she confidently yells orange before immediately squirming in embarrassment. CRACKED

Taxi

Canceled? Really? ABC canceled CAUSE FOR to MISSAL DE NT TAXI who for no good reason. The ratings were good, and it had 55 Emmy nominations with 27 wins. Creator James L. Brooks said, The one thing that's clear is that the network is saying to everybody, 'Don't think Emmys will do you any good when it comes to scheduling. CRACKED

Monty Python

CRACKED THANKS, MONTY PYTHON, FOR BLESSING US WITH THE GIFT OF SPAM. The word spam to describe unwanted mass emails came from a Monty Python skit that was on TV back in 1970-it didn't come directly from commercials for the food. SPAM M 10 of DE VON - more un Soup - UND WITH SPAM Classic THAN SPAM % LESS SODIUM CLASSIC nag gestion NET WT S 12 OZ Glorious SPA Glorious (340g) SPAM Classic

Fred Rogers

Speaking Freddish Two writers on the show called the show's required precise language Freddish and went on to create a parody pamphlet detailing the lengthy process to write for Rogers. The pamphlet's 9 steps are below. CRACKED.COM

The Addams Family

The first home computer 1965 CRACKED.COM In The Addams Family, the gigantic family computer, Whizzo, is used to cheat at gambling and help rig an election. Pretty spot-on.

SCTV

A Canadian comedy show that ran from 1976-1981 called Second City Television (better known as SCTV) turned second rate actors into first rate actors in a short time. PROTEIN PURCHASE I OR COLOR Eugene Catherine Harold Levy Ramis O'Hara CRACKED.COM Rick John Andrea Moranis Martin Candy

Queen for a Day

The First Reality TV Show 1956's Queen for a Day had women take turns talking about their struggles. One was crowned the winner, seated on a throne, and showered with gifts. CRACKED.COM

The Vampira Show

The Vampira Show CRACKED.COM Widely regarded as the first horror show on TV, the cult hit only ever aired in Los Angeles, and every live episode is completely lost to time.

The Shari Lewis Show

The Shari Lewis Show CRACKED.COM The tapes of nearly every episode of the beloved precursor to Lamb Chop's Play-Along were used to record coverage of the 1964 Democratic and Republican national conventions.

John Cleese

At Last The 1948 Show CRACKED.COM This was essentially a precursor to Monty Python, featuring a pre-fame John Cleese and Graham Chapham. 10 of the 12 episodes have been recovered, but 2 remain elusive.

The DuMont Network

The DuMont Network CRACKED.COM DuMont aired almost 200 series during the 1940's and 50's. In the 70's, thousands of episodes recorded on kinescope were unceremoniously dumped into the New York Harbor. That's where we put our sewage, not artifacts of television history!

The Vulcan Salute

The Vulcan Star Trek salute Leonard Nimoy based the live long and prosper hand sign on a blessing he had seen as a child, during a synagogue service. CRACKED.COM

All in the Family

The first goddammit 1973 CRACKED.COM On All in the Family, Archie defends his cussing thusly: The first word is God. How can that be a swear word? Edith, beautiful words right out of the Holy Book. Don't show your ignorance!

Jackie Gleason

JACKIE GLEASON BUS DRIVER'S OUTFIT m-m-m what Boy a toy! Jackie Gleason BUS DRIVER'S OUTFIT - im TV - عشد Kingdom AM Nom caree - ... - CRACKED.COM Make change! Switch lanes without warning! Pull away from old women running in the rain!

Batman

Canceled? Really? R BATMAN ABC decided not to renew the '60s series, but NBC offered to pick it up. ABC agreed but didn't tell the art/props department, so the sets were destroyed. NBC wasn't willing to build a whole new Batcave, so Batman met an untimely end. CRACKED

The First Color Broadcast

The First Color Broadcast Guhisson Epiphage Naturall A 1951 variety show called Premiere finally validated anyone who, for whatever reason, bought a color TV before TV was in color. CRACKED.COM

Source

The Incredible Hulk

CRACKED In the classic The Incredible Hulk TV series, as in the comics, the Hulk owes his powers to an overdose of gamma radiation. Unfortunately, gamma radiation plus human body equals diarrhea, radiation sickness, infertility and even cancer. Nothing incredible about that.

Source

Daniel Striped Tiger

DANIEL STRIPED TIGER WAS CREATED WHEN A CHEAP STRIP OF FILM BROKE AND LEFT MR. ROGERS' FIRST SHOW WITH DEAD AIR. During the live airing of an episode

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