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31 Trivia Tidbits About Movies and TV Shows

October 03, 2024

Sensitive movie and TV show fans should be a little wary of this list. Don’t worry, we didn’t include any controversial facts or anything. It’s just that some of the tidbits below will probably affect your image of these movies and shows forever. For example, Bob’s Burgers was originally supposed to be about a family of cannibals. That fact will now be all up in your brain the next time you watch an episode.

So if you’re nervous about any other movie and/or TV show tainting factoids, maybe skip this list.

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31

THE CONQUEROR was the most carcinogenic set of all time They filmed so close to an atomic bomb test site that 91 out of the 220 cast and crew members got cancer later in life. 46 of those, including John Wayne, died from it. Radiologist Dr. Robert Pendleton said, Blame for their exposure on set would hold up in a court of law. CRACKED — Source

30

Illegal filmmaking David Fincher took matters into his own hands on Alien 3. Producers thought the drooling Xenormorph was too much, so Fincher took a rogue crew, stole an alien costume, and took Sigourney Weaver to another location (without a permit) to shoot the scene against their wishes. CRACKED — Source

29

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 — Source

28

Bob's Burgers The show was supposed to be about a cannibal family. In Loren Bouchard's original pitch, the quirky, loving family made their burgers out of people meat. Coming from Adult Swim, he figured a dark angle was the best way to get the show noticed. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Desperate Housewives The show was meant to be a 30-minute comedy. Marc Cherry noticed the pilot script he was writing kept getting longer and a bit more dramatic. Instead of fighting this, he decided it would be a different kind of show. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Brooklyn Nine-Nine The cast all got police gun safety training. Andy Samberg stated that he and the rest of the cast went through gun training before shooting the series. The producers wanted the police to be portrayed as accurately as possible with firearms. CEWTON CRACKED.COM — Source

25

aff ewsle COMPLE eon T - LIM ! MIFF The Office Phyllis had her role made up for her. Phyllis Smith was working as a casting assistant as the show was being put together. Everyone was impressed by her performance as she read opposite other actors at the auditions, so they wrote a part for her. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Happy Days Ron Howard joined to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Since the government wasn't accepting college deferment for service, Howard auditioned and got the acting job to get a work deferment. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

CRACKED.COM DE - Twin Peaks David Lynch cast the Log Lady 13 years before the first episode aired. Catherine Coulson got her start as an actor in Lynch's Eraserhead. During the shoot, Lynch told to her, Someday, I'll do a series and you'll play a girl with a log. — Source

22

CRACKED.COM Arrested Development David Cross had to fight for Tobias' mustache. The head of FOX had a no mustache rule as part of her 3 Rules of Comedy, but Cross just couldn't see the character without it. Не saw no logic with that rule, along with the other two: no baseball caps and no puffy sleeves. — Source

21

Hunger Games: Catching Fire was heavily influenced by Breaking Bad. Director Francis Lawrence binge-watched the show while making the movie, and its cliffhangers inspired him to end his own movie on a cliffhanger. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

Canadian spy Sir William Stephenson inspired James Bond. Bond creator lan Fleming met Stephenson at Camp X, an Ontario espionage school -- they became friends, and eventually even bought real estate in Jamaica together. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

Brad Bird's loss of his sister partly inspired The Iron Giant. She died of gun violence, and he approached the movie from the angle of What if a gun had a soul? The connection was subconscious when he pitched it, but his feelings about gun violence definitely ended up in the movie, he says. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

The first season finale of the show Mr Robot was inspired by Fight Club. Fight Club was one of my big inspirations for the show, said creator Sam Esmail, and The Pixies' Where Is My Mind in S1E9 was a nod to that. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

CAPTAIN PHASMA IS A TRIBUTE TO A 1979 CULT CLASSIC. If this one doesn't scare you... You're Already Dead! PHANTASM PHANTASM -MICHAEL BALDWIN BILL THORNBURY, REGGIE BANNISTER KATHY LESTER and ANGUS SCRIMM . The Tall Man = - DON COSCARELI - DA COSCARELLI PALL PEPPERMAN + FRED MYROW MALCOL SEAGRAVE these to DI R AVEC EMBASSY ENCILURED Gwendoline Christie's shiny stormtrooper commander is a riff on the equally shiny Phantasm, one of J.J. Abrams' favorite films. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

Bram Stocker's Dracula Dracula's castle is modeled after 1903's The Black Idol, by František Kupka - a Czech painter with a keen interest for the occult. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Peter Sellers based Dr. Strangelove's voice on a little-known photographer's. Sellers couldn't figure out what voice to do for Dr. Strangelove, so he eventually based it on the kind of strangled-sounding voice of the photographer Weegee, who Sellers had heard around the set. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

Sunnydale BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER CRACKED.COM Creator Joss Whedon has said the location was loosely based on Monterey, California, even if from the name alone, it would seem associated with Sunnyvale, California. — Source

13

Movie and TV Aliens Star Wars Chewbacca was inspired by George Lucas' dog. The dog lay next to Lucas as he was typing the first Star Wars script. Over time, the furry companion would bond with Han Solo just like Lucas with his pup. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Movie and TV Aliens Futurama Zoidberg's S voice is based on George Jessel and Lou Jacobi. Billy West figured that his name and his face tentacles made someone marble-mouthed with a Jewish background-just like those two actors. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

Movie and TV Aliens Invader Zim Zim was fully conceived in an hour (during a sleepless night). Johnen Vasquez couldn't fall sleep, so he thought up Invader Zim's characters and story beats within an hour's time. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

Movie and TV Aliens The Thing The Thing put its FX artist in the hospital. FX wizard Rob Bottin got pneumonia and bleeding ulcers for overworking himself. An up-and-coming Stan Winston stepped in to help (uncredited, as he insisted that it was Rob's film). CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Boy Meets world Three episodes are banned from Disney channel. One about getting drunk (If You Can't Be With the One You Love), one about sex (Prom-ises, Promises), and one about a lack of it (The Truth About Honesty). CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Based-one truestory REMEMBER THE TITANS Released in 2000, this Disney movie was allegedly based on a true story about a high school football team. It showed how the team overcame racial tensions, although quite a few of the facts were changed or left out. use CRACKED — Source

7

Celebrity Crowdfunding ZACH BRAFF's movie is funded by fans! (And a financier.) Braff raised $2 million through Kickstarter for his film Wish / Was Here, and secured millions in extra support from a traditional film financier. Braff denied that this changed the picture he initially presented to fans. CRACKED — Source

6

Early drafts of movies Toy Story LASER LIGHTYEAR SPALD notes Disney wanted Woody to be edgy. Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg said that the wooden cowboy had to have an edge to him - and the resulting storyboard reel tanked hard. Disney wanted to shut everything down, but Pixar instead made the movie they wanted to make. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Performers Bookends First episode / Last Episode Brittany Murphy Murphy started as Frank's Sister on an episode of Murphy Brown, and was last seen on our screens on the dramatic horror movie Something Wicked. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Kevin Smith's original ending for Clerks was extremely grim and brutal. Try for price. Stay Cambridge AMERICAN POR LESS Try for price. pendige - Car for - PARA Laste, 1.50- In that ending, Dante Hicks would get murdered by a robber, and the movie's last shot would be of Dante's dead body lying on the ground. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

There are dolphins aboard the Enterprise. According to The Next Generation Technical Manual, the crew of Captain Picard's ship includes twelve bottlenose dolphins and two orcas in a section called Cetacean Ops. These wet crewmembers were too expensive for TV, but they were mentioned in passing on a couple episodes. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

Pulp Fiction wouldn't have gotten made without Danny DeVito. His production company Jersey Films bought the Pulp Fiction script from Tarantino. DeVito was the person who then shopped the script around, and eventually brought it to Miramax, which made the movie. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

1

A deleted scene from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer explains why Cornelius licks his ax. After Rudolph guides Santa to the Island of Misfit Toys, Cornelius picks up his ax after throwing it in the air, then licks it and says Peppermint! What I've been searching for all my life! I've struck it rich. So he was just licking his ax to see if he'd finally found peppermint. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

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