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Tim_Tex
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11 Oct 2016, 5:33 am

This is a thread where you can post interesting facts about TV shows, or even entire genres. They can range from memorable episodes and scenes, facts about characters, to production and off-screen trivia.

(Mods, if you can give this thread the ol' sticky-roo, that would be wonderful! :) )


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Tim_Tex
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11 Oct 2016, 5:40 am

First entry: U.S. Soap Operas

1. Guiding Light, the longest scripted series of all time, premiered on radio in 1937, and went on to enjoy a 72-year run (15 in radio, 57 on TV)

2. The Edge of Night was one of only two daytime soaps to have aired on two networks (the other being Search for Tomorrow), and was the only one to have a predominately male audience.

3. General Hospital introduced the term "supercouple" to everyday vocabulary with Luke and Laura--which began in rape (shown as a "seduction" on screen).

4. Two well-known pop songs have become synonymous with Luke and Laura: the instrumental "Rise" by Herb Alpert, which played during the aforementioned rape/seduction; and "Think of Laura" by Christopher Cross.

5. Another well-known supercouple was Steve and Betsy Andropoulos (As the World Turns). Betsy was played by none other than Meg Ryan.

6. Soap operas launched the careers of such people as Meg Ryan, Marisa Tomei, and Julianne Moore. Likewise, many iconic stars ended their careers in soaps, such as Joan Crawford, Rory Calhoun, and Carolyn Jones.

7. At the height of All My Children's popularity, in the 70s and 80s, Erica was among the most common baby names.

8. Earl Hindman played highly visible Bob Reid on Ryan's Hope before going on to play highly obscure Wilson on Home Improvement.

9. Loving and One Life to Live were notable for their theme songs, performed by Johnny Mathis and Peabo Bryson, respectively.

10. The state where Monticello, the city where the Edge of Night was set, was never revealed, but the Cincinnati skyline was shown in the opening credits. Cincinnati is the headquarters of sponsor Proctor and Gamble.

11. The longest running soap opera (Guiding Light) and the longest running sitcom (The Simpsons) have a common mystery: "Where is Springfield?"

12. The following soaps were set in real life cities rather than fictional ones: Santa Barbara, The Bold and the Beautiful (Beverly Hills), Ryan's Hope (NYC), and Capitol (Washington, DC)

13. One of the top stars of Days of Our Lives in the late 80s/early 90s was Josh Taylor (Chris Kositchek and Roman Brady). He is perhaps better known as Michael Hogan from The Hogan Family. He performed on both shows simultaneously, despite the latter having moved to CBS in its final season.

14. Lois Kibbee, who played Geraldine Whitney-Saxon on the Edge of Night, is perhaps more widely known as Mrs. Smails, who fainted in the iconic Baby Ruth scene in Caddyshack.


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19 Oct 2016, 2:16 pm

When extras are shown talking to each other in the background, they're actually saying "walla walla" to make it look as if they're having a real conversation.

Oscar the Grouch was originally orange instead of green.

In the first season of The Simpsons, Waylon Smithers was black. Or maybe just really tanned? :)

The people you hear in sitcom laugh tracks may actually be dead because they were first recorded in the 50's and 60's and just reused over and over. 8O

The first TV married couple to share the same bed was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Cartoon voice actor Mel Blanc was once in a near-fatal car accident that left him in a coma for two weeks, when one of the doctors asked him "How are you feeling today, Bugs Bunny?" Mel than answered in a weak voice, "Eh... just fine, doc. How are you?"



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23 Feb 2017, 12:28 pm

Latest installment of Fun TV Facts: All in the Family (and its many spinoffs)

1. All in the Family, by far, holds the all-time records for most spin-offs, including spin-offs of spin-offs.

2. The spinoffs of AITF are: Maude, the Jeffersons, Gloria, and 704 Hauser. Good Times is a spinoff of Maude, and Checking In (the shortest-lived show in the Bunkerverse) is a spinoff of the Jeffersons.

3. Archie Bunker's Place is technically not a spinoff, but a continuation of AITF, where Archie owns a bar.

4. Because issues ranging from politics to rape to race relations are dealt with, AITF was certainly ahead of its time. When it premiered in 1971, it almost didn't last, partly because of the content. "Sammy's Visit" and "Edith's 50th Birthday" are among the most well-known and most talked about episodes, as well as "Archie Alone", an episode of ABP.

5. AITF is derived from the British sitcom "Til Death Us Do Part". While Archie and Meathead are constantly at each others' throats, Alf Garnett (Archie's UK counterpart), and his son-in-law are way more civil, despite being further apart on the political spectrum.

6. The liberal, progressive political views of Maude Findlay very closely mirror those of Bea Arthur (who played Maude) and of producer Norman Lear. Arthur was very active in women's and LGBT rights, and built a shelter for homeless LGBT teens. The original was destroyed during Hurricane Sandy, but later rebuilt.

7. The Jeffersons lasted two years than its parent show, if Archie Bunker's Place is excluded. The chemistry between Isabel Sanford and Sherman Hemsley was so profound that few noticed that Sanford was 20 years older.

8. George and "Weezie" would appear on the final episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air, as the people who bought the Banks' mansion. George and Florence would also appear on Tyler Perry's House of Payne in 2011 (Isabel Sanford died in 2004)

9. Until surpassed by Tyler Perry's House of Payne, the Jeffersons was the longest-running sitcom with a predominantly African-American cast. It was also the first sitcom to feature an interracial couple.

10. Roxie Roker, who played Helen Willis, was the mother of Lenny Kravitz, and a cousin of Al Roker. She died in 1995.

11. Harry Bentley, the British next-door neighbor, was played by New Mexico native Paul Benedict.

12. With the death of Sherman Hemsley in 2012, Marla Gibbs is the only surviving major cast member of the Jeffersons.

13. Checking In was a Jeffersons spinoff in which Florence became the executive housekeeper of a posh NYC hotel. The series lasted 4 episodes in 1981, and Florence was re-hired as the Jeffersons' housekeeper.

14. Gloria was an AITF spinoff in which a divorced Gloria Stivic worked at a veterinary clinic and raised her young son Joey.

15. 704 Hauser, the last AITF spinoff, dealt with an African-American family living in the Bunkers' old house. The parents were liberal and had a conservative son, the opposite of its parent series. It lasted 6 episodes in 1994.

16. Good Times was set in a Chicago housing project, whereas its parent series, Maude, was set in Tuckahoe, NY.

17. The line "Damn, Damn, Damn", uttered by Florida in the episode "The Big Move", is considered the most touching sitcom quote of all time.

18. Good Times introduced a very young Janet Jackson to the world, long before the days of wardrobe malfunctions.

19. Good Times is also infamous for its theme song having hard to understand, and often misinterpreted lyrics.


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23 Feb 2017, 12:31 pm

After a taping of an episode of The Royal Family, Redd Foxx suffered a fatal heart attack. The rest of the cast thought he was just doing his "Elizabeth" bit from Sanford and Son, and didn't think he was really having one.


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05 Mar 2017, 4:26 pm

Newest installment of Fun TV Facts: The Love Boat

1. The Love Boat was based on the real-life accounts of cruise director Jeraldine Saunders.

2. Two pilot movies aired before the series began. The only established star was Dick Van Patten, who played the ship's doctor. The doctor would be played by Bernie Kopell in the series. Sandy Helberg played the yeoman purser. He is the father of Simon Helberg, of Big Bang Theory fame. None of the cast of the pilots would make it to the series.

3. Likewise, three reunion movies were made after the show ended. Only Gavin Macleod, Ted Lange, and Bernie Kopell would star in every episode and all three subsequent movies. Fred Grandy appeared in every series episode, but not the post-series movies.

4. Two frequent guest stars were Ted Knight and Betty White, who worked with Gavin Macleod on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

5. Like many of Aaron Spelling's shows, the Love Boat was able to include classic Hollywood big-screen stars as guests.

6. In a 1985 episode, Marion Ross and Tom Bosley would reunite for an episode in which Ross' character was a former Warhol girl, and was painted by Andy Warhol himself. This would be one of Warhol's final TV appearances. Besides Ross and Bosley, Ted McGinley, who played Ace, was also a former Happy Days cast member. The episode also introduced the Mermaids, the ship's singing group. A then-unknown Teri Hatcher was one of the singers. Hatcher went on to lead roles in Lois and Clark and Desperate Housewives. This was ranked as the #3 TV episode of all time.

7. Patti Macleod, Gavin's real-life wife, made frequent guest appearances. They divorced during the series' run, but remarried a year later, and became born-again Christians as well.

8. Along with Eight is Enough, the Love Boat was one of only two one-hour series at the time to include a laugh track.

9. The Pacific Princess, the ship used on the show, changed hands numerous times after being sold by Princess Cruises. After finding no permanent buyers, the ship was scrapped in Turkey in 2013.

10. The show was cancelled in 1987, being partially attributed to the addition of Ted McGinley to the cast three years prior. McGinley is known as the "Patron Saint of Shark Jumping", and was also considered the downfall of Happy Days. McGinley is perhaps most famous for playing Jefferson D'Arcy on Married With Children.

11. Gavin Macleod and Bernie Kopell used their characters to promote products. Macleod was a spokesman for Princess Cruises, the owner of the show's main ship. Kopell promoted an anti-snoring spray in the late 1990s.

12. Based on the opening credits, Acapulco, Mexico and San Juan, Puerto Rico were the two most common ports of call.

13. Bernie Kopell, Ted Lange, Lauren Tewes (prounounced Twees), and Jill Whelan reprised their roles on an episode of Martin in which the gang goes on a cruise. Lange would play a similar role on an episode of the Cleveland Show.

14. A revival series, "The Love Boat: The Next Wave", ran for two seasons on the now-defunct UPN. It starred Robert Urich as Capt. Jim Kennedy, in his final TV role. Urich had previously worked with Aaron Spelling on Vega$, where he played Dan Tanna, his most famous role. Macleod, Grandy, Kopell, Lange, Tewes, and Whelan reprised their roles on a special reunion episode.


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05 Mar 2017, 5:04 pm

Martin Landau was the original choice for Spock on Star Trek. He decided to do Mission: Impossible instead, and Leonard Nimoy was cast as Spock. When Landau left Mission: Impossible, he was replaced by Nimoy.



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01 Jun 2017, 10:06 am

In today's installment of Fun TV Facts: The Cosby Show
1. Seasons 6-7 were the only seasons to share a theme song, which usually changed every season. This was because of licensing rights to use a mural, which would ultimately be featured in the season 8 intro.
2. Theme songs varied from traditional sitcom fare, to salsa, to hip-hop, to a highly choreographed intro in season 5, in which the theme song was performed by the Oregon Symphony.
3. Earle Hyman and Clarice Taylor, who played Cliff Huxtable's parents, were roughly 10 years older than Bill Cosby. Phylicia Rashad, who played Claire, was only 10 years older than Sabrina Labeauf, portrayer of oldest daughter Sondra.
4. Though the show revolved around an African-American family, issues of race were rarely addressed. The show's spinoff, A Different World, set at a HBCU, addressed them extensively.
5. Whitney Houston was originally considered for the role of Sondra, but the role went to Sabrina Labeauf because of her theatrical experience.
6. Cliff and Claire were originally going to be in working-class jobs, but the decision was made to portray them as an obstetrician and lawyer, respectively.
7. In season 3, Lisa Bonet was cast in the movie Angel Heart, an erotic thriller. This caused major tension between Bonet and Cosby. Bonet went on to star in the spinoff, A Different World, for one season. At this time, she was pregnant with her first child, Zoe Kravitz, after eloping with Lenny Kravitz. Bonet returned to the series for seasons 6 and 7, before being fired for good.
8. Both Phylicia Rashad and Lisa Bonet were pregnant during the series run, so the characters of Claire and Denise (on A Different World) were featured to where their pregnancy would be concealed.
9. Phylicia Rashad and Sabrina Labeauf would make frequent guest appearances on Bill Cosby's later series, Cosby, which aired from 1996-2000. They also provided voices on Cosby's kid's series Little Bill.
10. Reruns, once a mainstay in syndication and cable, have been significantly reduced in response to the ongoing sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby.


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lostonearth35
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07 Jun 2017, 2:23 pm

Leave It To Beaver was the first TV program to show a toilet.



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15 Apr 2019, 3:06 pm

Sometimes Big Birds bff is Snuffy but other times it's Cookie Monster and other times it's Oscar the Grouch



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15 Apr 2019, 3:08 pm

Brooke and Chase were the names of a couple in One Tree Hill, they are also the names of a couple in an obscure Aussie comedy called "Chasing Comets"



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02 Oct 2019, 8:41 pm

This version of Fun TV Facts covers Eight is Enough

1. The show was based on the real-life saga of Tom Braden, a journalist with eight children. Braden and his fictional counterpart, Tom Bradford, both had a wife named Joan.

2. Joan Bradford was played by Diana Hyland, but only lasted four episodes due to the death of Hyland. Hyland was perhaps best known as the much older romantic partner of John Travolta, of whom she co-starred with in "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble", playing his mother. The character of Joan Bradford was written out of the series, also having died.

3. Betty Buckley, who played Tom's second wife, Abby Bradford, was 19 years younger than Dick Van Patten. Buckley was also the same age as Laurie Walters, who played daughter Joanie.

4. Many of the real-life moments of the cast members were written into the series, such as the death of Hyland (see above), the birth of Susan Richardson's daughter, and Willie Aames' musical career.

5. In seasons 3-5, the theme song was sung by Grant Goodeve, who also played oldest child David. Of the child actors from EIE, Goodeve and Aames were by far the most successful.

6. The show launched the careers of Goodeve, Aames and Ralph Macchio, who played Abby's nephew.

7. Connie Needham, who played daughter Elizabeth, was sometimes credited as Connie Newton.

8. As with many child actors of the time, most of the kids from EIE, with the exception of Grant Goodeve, fell into a cycle of alcohol or substance abuse. Adam Rich (played youngest child Nicholas) nearly died in 1996 of a drug overdose. Lani O'Grady (played Mary) died of a drug overdose in 2001 at age 46. After her pregnancy, a rumor was spread that Susan Richardson would lose her job if she did not shed her pregnancy weight; she had gained 90 lb (41 kg). Finding it very difficult to slim down by normal means, she started using cocaine.

9. The series had two reunion movies on NBC. In An Eight Is Enough Reunion on October 18, 1987, Mary Frann (of Newhart fame) replaced Betty Buckley as Abby; Buckley had been filming Frantic during its production. This was followed by An Eight Is Enough Wedding on October 15, 1989, this time with Sandy Faison as Abby. By coincidence, both movies aired opposite game two of the World Series on ABC. ABC aired the original series from 1977-1981.

10. In the opening credits in the later seasons, there is a clip of a litter of puppies jumping all over Tom. Dick Van Patten was the founder of Natural Balance Pet Foods and National Guide Dog Month.


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08 Sep 2021, 10:55 pm

The episode of CSI "Shades of Gray" Stars the actresses Carlson Young and Molly Brunnet. Both of these actresses stared as girls named Brooke in Horror movies



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12 Sep 2021, 4:16 pm

Sunnydale High was also West Beverly Hills High in Beverly Hills, 90210. Maybe the Hellmouth explains some of that show’s bad behaviour too?

Speaking of, what’s with the attitude some of these TV show teenagers have? Who acts like that in high-school?


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12 Sep 2021, 7:20 pm

One house on the Universal backlot has been used more than any other at that same location...

• So Goes My Love, (1946) featuring Don Ameche and Myrna Loy
• Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), seen in the beginning as the physician's home and lab.
• Just Across the Street, (1952) starring Ann Sheridan
• All I Desire (1953) starring Barbara Stanwyck
• One Desire (1955) starring Anne Baxter and Rock Hudson
• Monster on the Campus (1958) starring Joanna Moore
• Rock-A-Bye Baby, (1958) starring Jerry Lewis
• Leave it to Beaver (1957-1963), as the series exteriors were filmed on River Road/Colonial Street
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents, seen in the 1961 Season 7 episode "Bang! You're Dead"
• Thriller (U.S. TV series), seen in the 1960 Season 1 episode 9 "Girl with a Secret", episode 32 "Mr. George", and 1962 Season 2 episode "Cousin Tundifer"
• Kraft Suspense Theatre (1964), seen in episode 13 of season one, "Who Is Jennifer?" starring Gloria Swanson & Brenda Scott.
• The Brass Bottle (1964) starring Tony Randall and Barbara Eden
The Munsters, as "1313 Mockingbird Lane" in Mockingbird Heights (1964-1966)
• Send Me No Flowers (1964) Seen in the background, near the end of the film
• The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) starring Don Knotts
• Dragnet (1967-1970), visible in the 1968 episode "The Big Clan"
• The Ballad of Josie (1967)
• Coogan's Bluff (1968)
• It Happened One Christmas (1977) (TV movie)
• Shirley (TV series) (1979), appearing as the house exterior
• The Incredible Hulk (1978-1982), as a backdrop in some episodes
• Dragnet (1987) as Dan Aykroyd's mother's house
• The 'Burbs (1989) as Ricky Butler's house
• Get A Life (1990-1992), as the backdrop at the end of the opening credits of every episode
• Murder, She Wrote (1984-1996), appearing as a sorority house in the season 5 episode "Alma Murder" (1989)
• Quantum Leap, TV Series, in the 1991 season 3 episode 16 "Southern Comforts"
• Everybody loves Raymond (1996-2005), in Season 3 Episode 5 (1999) "The Getaway" as a bed and breakfast
• Desperate Housewives (2004-2012), prominently featured in the second season (2005) as the Applewhite house


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