29 Facts From TV History That Are Unwilling to Embrace Streaming

You kids can have your precious Hulus and Tubis and Gleep Glorps or whatever you call ‘em!
29 Facts From TV History That Are Unwilling to Embrace Streaming
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With all the funny streaming service names like Roku and Fubo, we thought we’d pitch one strictly for classic TV called Nanu Nanu. 

Actually, now that we think about it, while it’s a pretty sweet name, it might be too difficult to get older folks into a streaming service at all.

Ooh, maybe we could promise that they’d have to get up off the couch and crank a big dial on their TV to change the channel. Okay, you guys check out these classic TV facts while we pitch this gem to Apple! 

Nanu Nanu!

The Jeffersons

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM THE JEFFERSONS Spin-offs are often written off as money grabs, pushing comfort over substance. All In The Family spin-off The Jeffersons defies that characterization on every front. The Jeffersons was not only a success, but an incisive and fearless show, treading into topics that most current sitcoms would steer clear of.

All My Children

CRACKED.COM In the 1970s, soap opera All My Children was incredibly popular among college students. Reasons varied - some loved it because it was real, some because it was so unreal, but thousands of students were fans. Some students even went as far as planning their class schedules around it.

Mr. 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

Happy Days

CRACKED HAPPY DAYS RALPH MALPH Не originally dated cheerleaders and dressed more hip. In only the 4th episode of Season 1, he lost his slight Fonzie-esque traits and became the nerd he'd be for the next 250 episodes.

Mr. Ed

MISTER ED They smeared peanut butter around Mr. Ed's mouth to make him speak. Не also had a rider of 20 pounds of hay and a gallon of sweet tea per day. CRACKED.COM

The Love Boat

THE LOVE BOAT Those aren't paid actors or extras in the background. They're regular people who paid up to $8,000 to take a highly restricted cruise in the viscinity of celebrities. CRACKED.COM

Star Trek

Star Trek A German network classified Star Trek as a children's show in the 1970s, resulting in some inventive dubbing. In Amok Time, for example, Spock's terminal horniness becomes a space fever. 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

The Scooby Gang

The Scooby Gang was based on the characters in a 1960s TV show. It was called The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and it was a teen sitcom that the creators of Scooby-Doo basically just lifted the main characters from. CRACKED.COM

Second City Television

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

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.

The Muppet Show: Sex & Violence

The original pilot for The Muppet Show was called The Muppet Show: Sex & Violence. The title was a satirical take on violent and sexual television shows taking over the airways at the time. It was changed for obvious reasons. h 1000.com CRACKED.COM

The Admiral Broadway Revue

The television show The Admiral Broadway Revue was canceled because it was too popular. CRACKED.COM It had been sponsored by a TV manufacturer who couldn't keep up with the demand for new television sets.

Joan Lee

JOAN LEE SAYS STAN WROTE FOR EARLY 73 TELEVISION CRACKED.COM IN FACT. IN THE LATE 1950S. STAN CLAIMED TO BE A MEMBER OF THE ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS AND SCIENCES. THOUGH ITS DOCUMENTS AREN'T 100% COMPLETE, THE ACADEMY HAS NO RECORD OF STAN EVER BEING A MEMBER.

The National Lampoon Radio Hour

CRACKED.COM The NATIONAL LAMP ON Radio Hour GAVE US John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Richard Belzer, Christopher Guest, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and Harold Ramis. It was a weekly radio show that ran for about a year starting in 1973.

Movin’ with Nancy

A bald-faced lie helped get an interracial kiss on 1960s television. The TV special, Movin' with Nancy, featured Nancy Sinatra performing with other famous singers, like Sammy Davis Jr. At the end of their duet, they share a kiss on the cheek. The director, Jack Haley Jr., pre-planned to film the scene last, knowing that NBC would complain. Не also told the network that Davis Jr. had to catch a flight -- which was a lie.

Ant-Man

Ant-Man has an obscure SNL reference. It's Garrett Morris' cameo -- a nod to his playing Ant-Man in an old SNL sketch about a superhero party. CRACKED.COM

The General Lee

PING Golfer Bubba Watson SHIN owns the General Lee. a MILLE Over 300 Dodge Chargers were trashed during the run of The Dukes of Hazzard, but Watson has the original - the one that shows up in the opening credits. Не had the confederate flag painted over in 2015. 01 CRACKED.COM

The Smothers Brothers

CBS claimed it was canceling the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour due to its failure to meet deadlines. Behind the scenes, everyone knew the axing was due to the show's political content, including anti-Vietnam comedy sketches. CBS out-and-out refused to run one episode that featured folk singer and anti-war activist Joan Baez. CRACKED.COM

Batman

The actor for Robin did a lot of his own stunts BATMAN (1966) Burt Ward had a stuntman, but the assistant director made him do his own stunts because because his stuntman didn't look enough like him. Не went to the emergency room four of the first five days of shooting. CRACKED.COM

Star Trek (Again)

STAR TREK was saved by writing letters to the studio. Now Paramount's leading franchise, Star Trek was saved in its second season by thousands of fans protesting the show's cancellation. Back when this entailed purchasing stamps, writing letters, and sometimes actually trekking to post offices to mail them, the studio received enough complaints to persuade them to create enough episodes to syndicate the series, forging a path for it to become the juggernaut it is today. CRACKED.COM

Joe Namath

Joe Namath THE BRADY BUNCH CRACKED.G COM Bobby hatches an elaborate scheme to bait Joe Namath into his bedroom by faking a terminal illness. Think Make A Wish Foundation meets To Catch A Predator.

Mr. Magoo

Mr. Magoo CRACKED COME Animation director John Hubley created the bumbling grump as a combo of comedian W. C. Fields and his own uncle.

The First Bond

DARRY NETSON 1950 DA CHRISTI The first actor who played James Bond was BARRY NELSON. Many people think Sean Connery was the first to portray the 007 character. Not so. Nelson did it first in a 1954 TV adaptation for the show, Climax! The Bond story was taken from the first book, Casino Royale, but saw an American version of Bond in Nelson working for the Combined Intelligence Agency. CRACKED.COM

South Park

BEHIND-THE-SCENES FACTS THE ART STYLE WAS INSPIRED BY TERRY GILLIAM. SOUTH PARK The art style of the earlier seasons was inspired by Gilliam's Monty Python animation. Both Trey Parker and Matt Stone were huge Python fans since childhood. CRACKED.COM

Get Smart

CRACKED SORRY ABOUT THAT This expression of regret was popularized by the 1960's show Get Smart. It's one of many of the show's popular catch phrases, like Missed it by that much, and The old (so-and-so) trick. 86

The Batmobile

The Batmobile was purchased for $4.2 million BATMAN (1966) An Arizonian resident bought the Batmobile from the 1966 series for millions in 2013. CRACKED.COM

Oscar the Grouch

CRACKED.COM Oscar the Grouch is weirdly related to racism. Oscar isn't a grouch just because he's cranky - grouch is canonically his race. Не hails from a city where everyone is a grouch. It's not such a stretch to call that segregation - he was intentionally created to represent racial and ethnic diversity.

Monty Python

BEHINO-THE-SCENES FACTS It's a stiff! Bereft of life! It's a DEAD PARROT MONTY PYTHON CRACKED.COM John Cleese wrote a sketch about returning a faulty toaster and was mad that he had to do all the work. Graham Chapman wasn't having it, remarking It's boring, why not make it a parrot instead? The offhand criticism transformed the sketch into Python's most famous.

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