33 Trivia Nuggets From Pop Culture History About TV For Tuesday, December 23rd

Good or bad, TV has us right where it wants us
33 Trivia Nuggets From Pop Culture History About TV For Tuesday, December 23rd
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We know TV isn’t perfect. We know it reuses plots, recycles characters, and occasionally insults our intelligence. And yet, we keep watching. See, here at Cracked, our love of TV comes from its resilience. No matter how many times it messes up, it comes back next season with a new cast, a bold reboot, or a spin-off no one asked for. It’s a real rollercoaster of emotions!

It panics and overcorrects, but sometimes all that insanity helps create brilliance. We watch because we want to see what works, what fails, and what somehow becomes iconic. Most importantly, we watch for those sweet, sweet behind-the-scenes facts! Ooh, here are some now.

Judge Judy

Judy Sheindlin just set her own salary for Judge Judy. Every three years, she'd discuss her contract over dinner with the president of CBS Television Distribution - which meant she'd write down the number she wanted, put it in an envelope, and give it to him after dinner. The one time he tried to hand her an envelope, she didn't even open it, and told him This isn't a negotiation. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM

How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother A real engagement happened on the show. Timothy Russo was friends with one of the writers, and used that connection to get him and his girlfriend Jana Rugan a gig as extras. It was there that he proposed to Jana, and it stayed in the episode. CRACKED.COM

Batman Cameos

EASTER EGGSTRA HIDDEN MEANINGS & REFERENCES ONCE UPON A TIME IN... HOLLYWOOD ADAM WEST'S BATMAN CAMEO At the end of BOSS 30 the credits, there's FROM 93/KHJ an audio clip of the real YES, MIGHTY MITCHELL, HOLY TV SETS, BUT WE DON'T LET BATMAN, THAT 1966 JUST ANYONE RIDE BATPHONE SECRET IN THE BATMOBILE! NUMBER IS TOUGH! Batphone Secret Number Contest, featuring the voices of Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. CRACKED GOM

Schitt's Creek

EASTER EGGSTRA REFERENCES & HIDDEN MEANINGS CRACKED.COM SCHITT'S CREEK David's sweaters. In the series finale, the show pays tribute to all of David's signature sweaters by having them neatly stacked in a drawer in the background.

Community

EASTER EGGSTRA REFERENCES & HIDDEN MEANINGS SAY BEETLEJUICE community THREE TIMES It's many people's favorite Easter egg in the show. In season 3's Halloween episode, Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps, Annie says Beetlejuice while going through Britta's playlist. It's the third time the name has been said throughout the show, and someone dressed as Beetlejuice can be seen strolling by the study room. CRACKED.COM

TV Crossovers

CRACKED.COM CROSSOVER EASTER EGGS COMMUNITY AND COUGAR TOWN Abed appears in the background of an episode of Cougar Town. On Community he reveals he pooped himself during the scene.

Peabody's Improbable History

33 Trivia Nuggets From Pop Culture History About TV For Tuesday, December 23rd

House M.D.

In House M.D., House lives at 221B Baker Street. 221B Sherlock Holmes, the inspiration for House, has the exact same address. CRACKED.COM

Soap

SOAPWAS A 70s PRIME-TIME SOAP OPERA SPOOF. AND IT enDeD WITH JESSICA ABOUT TO ве SHOT BY A FIRING SQUAD. Soap was a mostly lighthearted comedy that focused on shenanigans and convoluted plotlines. So it was wildly out of character for the show to finish its fourth season with main character Jessica Tate facing a South American firing squad. The final episode of the final season concluded with her bracing for the incoming bullets. CRACKED.COM https://youtu be/HoMLspq6H9s

Letterman

David 2009 Letterman CRACKED.COM revealed to his studio audience that he was being blackmailed. The Late Show host was being extorted by a CBS executive for $2 million for having affairs with female staffers, specifically Stephanie Birkitt, who made appearances on the show for over 10 years. Letterman did not pay the money; instead he chose to come clean on his show.

Mulholland Drive on TV

David Lynch's Mulholland Drive was intended to be a pilot for a TV show for ABC, but it was ultimately rejected due to its violence. Не later added an ending and turned it into a critically- acclaimed feature film. CRACKED.COM

Seinfeld

The pilot led to the smallest Truth sitcom order in TV history. SEASONS 1 & 2 Seinfeld DVD VILLE - After initially turning them down, NBC picked up four episodes. Larry David wasn't sure they'd even be able to fill that order: my initial reaction was not joy CRACKED.COM

Crossroads

Crossroads CRACKED COM A wildly successful British soap opera in the 70's and 80's, its short-lived revival in the early 2000's used its finale to claim that it had all been a bored cashier's daydream.

CBS and NBC

The first commercial license... S 1941 CBS NETWORK NBC PRESENTATION IN RCA COLOR CRACKED.COM CBS and NBC were issued licenses at the same time, so neither could claim to be first.

Soap Operas

The first soap opera 1946 the entire production Faraway written and directed by Hill DAVID P. LEWIS CRACKED.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.

Late-Night Comedy

Watching late-night comedy TV increases how much you talk about politics. Political satire was found to be just as effective as regular political news in encouraging discussion among its viewers. CRACKED.COM

King of the Hill

There was almost a live-action spin-off. CRACKED.COM A live-action adaptation of Monsignor Martinez, the Mexican soap opera show-within-the-show, was actually filmed. But Fox got cold feet about airing a whole movie about a gun-happy priest, and ultimately shelved it.

Freaks and Geeks

FREAKS AND GEEKSWAS PASSED ON BY FOX, CBS, AND ABC CRACKED.COM A development exec at NBC said, If we don't make this show, I'm quitting the television business.

Ted Lasso

BEHIND-THE-SCENES FACTS TED LASSO'S FIRST APPEARANCE WAS IN A COMMERCIAL. NBC CSN BARCLA PREMIER Sports TED LASSO Lasso made his first appearance all the way back in 2013. Jason Sudeikis portrayed the character in a series of promos announcing NBC Sports' broadcasting rights for the Premier League. CRACKED.COM

Party of Five

BEHIND-THE-SCENES FACTS CRACKED.COM THE SALINGERS WERE ALMOST EVEN WORSE OFF. party of five According to the show's creators, the Salinger family was much poorer in the original pilot. Fox executives made them change the family's finances to something that wouldn't freak out audiences.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS SITCOM ROYALTY CRACKED.COM STUCK WITH STRAIGHT-WOMAN ROLES ON 'SEXIST' SNL, LOUIS-DREYFUS BECAME ONE OF THE MOST SUCESSFUL SITCOM STARS OF ALL TIME, NABBING A MINDBLOWING 27 EMMY NOMS FOR WORK ON SEINFELD, OLD CHRISTINE, AND VEEP.

Scrubs

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM SCRUBS' BLACKFACE EPISODES ACTUALLY GOT PULLED FROM STREAMING SERVICE HULU. There were three episodes in total, and show creator Bill Lawrence and ABC Studios requested that they all be pulled.

30 Rock

COMEDY NERD GRACKED.COM SHE WAS AN NBC PAGE Aubrey wasn an NBC intern and later an NBC page, which is coincidental considering she played a page on an episode of 30 Rock. The gold standard of playing what you know.

Power Rangers

March on prime video March 8 Power Rangers Bryan Cranston, everyone's favorite meth maker and/or sitcom dad, voices Zordon in the film, but did you know he was on the original show? Snizzard and the Twin Man had his voice. CRACKED.COM

Chris Evans

CRACKED.COM Chris Evans His brother is also an actor. While he hasn't been in any Marvel films, Evans' brother Scott has a successful acting career as well. He's best known for the soap opera One Life to Live and the Netflix comedy Grace and Frankie.

TV Prediction

TV won't last 6 months. 20TH CENTURY FOX CRACKED.COM Studio exec Darryl Zanuck predicted that people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night. Staring at that box is the only thing that gets us through the day!

Family Guy

COMEDY NERD In the Family Guy pilot, Meg was actually voiced by Lacey Chabert. In a later episode where they revisit the pilot, Stewie hears her and says Oh my God, what's with Meg's voice? She sounds like someone who's about to give up a huge opportunity. CRACKED.COM

Timeless

CRACKED ures TO ASS GO BY Timeless was revived by NBC thanks to die-hard fans. Show co-creator Shawn Ryan was in disbelief when NBC reversed their decision to cancel the time- travel drama after only three days. Thanks to fans who created a devoted online community and negotiations between NBC and Sony (the show's producer), Timeless got ten more episodes.

Conan

Recurring at Late Night Conan's Walker Texas Ranger Lever When NBC acquired the rights to Walker Texas Ranger, Conan pounced. Out of nowhere, he'd pull a lever which showed a Walker clip out of context. The pinnacle was a clip of Haley Joel Osment saying, Walker told me I have A.I.D.S. CRACKED

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

Family Matters

Characters that weren't supposed to last Steve Urkel on Family Matters Jaleel White's nerdy neighbor was only supposed to be for one-off appearances, but got so popular with viewers that he eventually became the central character of the entire sitcom! CRACKED.COM

Euphoria

Behind-the-scenes Drama Euphoria Barbie Ferreira had a fight with sam Levinson. Anonymous reports and rampant internet speculation have blamed Kat's reduced role on fight between the actress and the show's creator. CRACKED.COM

M*A*S*H

M*A*S*H CRACKED COM With a 2 hour finale on February 28, 1983, CBS honorably discharged M*A*S*H. The famous ending had stones spelling out goodbye as Hawkeye flew off, and the 105.9 million viewers made it the most watched TV event of all time, until the 2010 Super Bowl nudged it out with 106.5 million viewers.

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