40 Groundbreaking Moments in TV and Movies That Prove There’s A First Time for Everything

All those MCU post-credit scenes have a very obscure 1960s movie parody to thank
40 Groundbreaking Moments in TV and Movies That Prove There’s A First Time for Everything

Sometimes we forget that motion pictures started in the late 1800s. What’s extra cool about that is that they really dove right into some groundbreaking stuff. It wasn’t enough for them to just film some dude walking around, but some huge stunts and special effects were going down before the year 1900! 

Luckily for us, the rapid progression just wouldn’t quit, so here’s more than 130 years of film firsts and overall groundbreaking moments in movies and TV.

Benson

GRACKED.COM Benson A 1982 episode depicts a woman being encouraged by her friends to name and shame her sexual harasser. And she does. This was decades before #MeToo, during a time when female victims would either stay silent or not be believed.

Kelly Marie Tran

KELLY MARIE TRAN is the first Southeast Asian actress to lead a Disney animated film...in 2021. Disney RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON Tran did the voice of Raya in Raya and the Last Dragon. GRACKED COM

Hedy Lamarr

HEDY KIESLER (later turned Hedy Lamarr) was the first actress to perform an onscreen orgasm. The controversial moment happened in the 1933 film, Ecstasy, which was non-pornographic but had everybody in an uproar at the time. CRACKED.COM

Diahann Carroll

DIAHANN CARROLL was the first Black actress to be cast in a role other than a servant in 1968. She was also the first Black actress to get her own TV show. CRACKED.COM

Joanne Woodward

JOANNE WOODWARD got the first Hollywood Walk of Fame star. JOANNE WOODWARD The Academy Award-winning actress for The Three Faces of Eve (1957) was the first to receive this dedication in 1960. CRACKED.COM

Riz Ahmed

RIZ AHMED was the first Muslim actor to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. The 2021 nomination was for his lead role in the movie Sound of Metal. CRACKED.COM

Jim Carrey

JIM CARREY ACE VENTURA was the first actor to have three films go straight to number one at the Box Office in the same year. In 1994, The Mask, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and Dumb and Dumber all made number one. CRACKED.COM

Jaws

The first-ever film to hit $100 million at the box office was a little horror movie called Jaws. The famous shark film is widely considered to be the movie that kicked off the summer blockbuster trend. It won all of its nominated Oscar categories except Best Picture. Steven Spielberg wasn't nominated for Best Director. CRACKED.COM

The Silence of the Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs was the first movie to be released on home video before winning the Best Picture Oscar. It was also the first ever horror movie to win the award (Hitchcock's work was famously snubbed). CRACKED COM

Westworld

40 Groundbreaking Moments in TV and Movies That Prove There’s A First Time for Everything

The Cabbage Fairy

The first narrative film wasn't The Great Train Robbery (1903) as many people might think. It was The Cabbage Fairy released in 1896, written and directed by a woman. Alice Guy-Blaché used some of the first special effects, and experimented with running film backwards. She produced, directed, or commissioned nearly 1000 movies. GRACKED.COM

Snow White

40 Groundbreaking Moments in TV and Movies That Prove There’s A First Time for Everything

Thomas Edison

40 Groundbreaking Moments in TV and Movies That Prove There’s A First Time for Everything

Casper

Casper was the first ever CGI lead character in a feature film. It beat Toy Story by six months. CRACKED.COM

Candyman

40 Groundbreaking Moments in TV and Movies That Prove There’s A First Time for Everything

The Silencers

The first post-credits footage slapped onto our screens was in a James Bond spoof in 1966. The Silencers was the first movie to show a scene after the end credits, with Dean Martin's character teasing the next film installment. It was a riff on how the Bond movies would display text cards of upcoming movies after the credits. CRACKED.COM

Joker

Joker is the first $1 billion R-rated movie in history. With a $62.5 million budget, it's the most profitable comic book film to date. CRACKED COM

Sex Drive

40 Groundbreaking Moments in TV and Movies That Prove There’s A First Time for Everything

Happy Days

Happy Days tackled the issue of racial segregation in 1974. In The Best Man, the Cunninghams offer their home for the wedding of Howard's Army buddy Fred, to the consternation of their neighbors. The episode aired in 1974, when civil unrest was rampant. CRACKED.COM

Twin Peaks

CRACKED.COM David Lynch's Twin Peaks is a cult classic that altered modern TV more than 25 years ago in 1990... ...and featured David Duchovny as a trans FBI agent that isn't played up for laughs. BUT ACTUALLY I PREFER DENISE IF YOU DON'T MIND. (also making her the FBI chief of staff in the 2017 revival.)

Roseanne

40 Groundbreaking Moments in TV and Movies That Prove There’s A First Time for Everything

Robin Hood

In The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Lady Marian comes up with a plan to free Robin from captivity. A female character credited with a plan to save a male character in distress is pretty freaking progressive for a 1938 movie. CRACKED.COM

Tiny Toons

In a 1990 Tiny Toon Adventures episode, Babs is angry because she can't find anyone to look up to. Decades before everyone started talking about media representation, she says it's not fair that all the old Warner Bros. stars were guys - not one girl! Later, she finds Honey, a female Warner Bros. star who's everything she wanted. CRACKED.COM

Golden Girls

In the 1991 Golden Girls episode Sister of the Bride, Sophia beautifully defends gay marriage, to Blanche. EVERYONE WANTS SOMEONE TO GROW OLD WITH, AND SHOULDN'T EVERYONE HAVE THAT CHANCE? It was 24 years before the Supreme Court's historic ruling on marriage equality. CRACKED.COM

The Fifth Element

In 1997's The Fifth Element, the president of the galactic federation is black. Nobody ever brings up his race. From the '70s to the '00s, having a black president seemed so laughably impossible to black people that it was one of black comedians' staple jokes. CRACKED.COM

King Kong

Historical Firsts in Practical Effects Bear projection: 1930s A staple in filmmaking Literally filming someone in front of a projector, it was first tried by Norman 0. Dawn in 1913, but standardized with a special screen for 1933's King Kong. Fox won a Technical Achievement Oscar for its use in the 1934 film Liliom. CRACKED

Stop Motion

Historical Firsts in Practical Effects The first full-length 1925 stop-motion animation Stop-motion pioneer Willis O'Brien developed several innovations for The Lost World that are still used today. Не created a technique that joined stop- motion and live-action onscreen at the same time. CRACKED

Green Screens

Historical Firsts in Practical Effects Hg1 Frank Williams: Grandfather 1916 of the green screen 5 Fig.2. 6 Williams' traveling matte system shot actors or vehicles against a black background and isolated them to be placed on other moving images. It could only work in black and white, but is a direct precursor of blue/green screen technology. CRACKED

The Glass Shot

Historical Firsts in Practical Effects 1907 The glass shot Known as Hollywood's first effects man, Norman 0. Dawn shot real-life footage through painted settings on glass in 1907's Missions of California. This layering could place an in-studio actor on the edge of a cliff, like Chaplin in 1925's The Gold Rush. CRACKED

Double Exposure

Historical Firsts in Practical Effects 1909 George Albert Smith patents double exposure Не built his own movie camera and used his newly patented double exposure technique to make a ghost for his 1909 short The Corsican Brothers. CRACKED

Color Film

Historical Firsts in Practical Effects The earliest known 1902 color film footage British inventors Edward Turner and Frederick Lee produced color motion picture tests of Turner's children playing. Не died before perfecting it, but his work led to Kinemacolor in 1906 (the world's first motion picture in natural colors.) CRACKED

SFX

Historical Firsts in Practical Effects The first-ever special effect 1895 Shot at Edison Labs in New Jersey, 1895's Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots was the first film to use a visual effect. They used stop- action for her beheading, and since no one had ever seen special effects, viewers thought they actually killed the actress. CRACKED

Bruce Lee

Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The rise of martial arts 1970s in western cinema America's fascination with kung fu saw the first Asian leads in U.S movies. Bruce Lee had a formal approach, and Jackie Chan used (and still uses) a more comical Buster Keaton style. For action or comedy, their cinematic martial arts are still a gold standard. CRACKED

Car Stunts

Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first car chase stunts 1958 Car stunts had been done (notably 1955's Rebel Without A Cause), but Cary Loftin and his team's work on Thunder Road was ground zero for the modern action movie (although driver safety became a new issue). CRACKED

Screen Fighting

Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first screen 1930s fighting techniques John Wayne and Yakima Canutt began working closely after Canutt stunt-doubled for Wayne in 1932. They pioneered techniques (still in use today) that make fake punches look real on camera. CRACKED

Buster Keaton

Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first quantum 1920s leap in danger Buster Keaton's hilarious and life-threatening stunts raised the bar. In 1928's Steamboat Bill, Jr. a two- ton house falls as he stands precisely in its open window, and in 1924's Sherlock, Jr. a gush of water breaks his neck! Let's not forget 1926's The General. CRACKED

Swords

Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first realistic 1920 sword fighting In 1920's The Mark of Zorro, Douglas Fairbanks brought in a fencing master, creating the first realistic on-screen swordplay. Prior to this, films had primitive whacking, but this opened doors for the countless swashbuckling films to come. CRACKED

Charlie Chaplin

Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts Charlie Chaplin 1914 Beginning in 1914, Chaplin became known as one of Hollywood's first stars, and had the second- ever million dollar contract. As a vaudevillian and slapstick comic, he did all of his own stunts. CRACKED

The First Stuntman

Historical Firsts in The World of Stunts The first stuntman 1903 In the Guinness Book of World Records as the first stuntman, Frank Hanaway landed a part in 1903's The Great Train Robbery for his ability to fall off a horse without injuring himself. CRACKED

Jerry Lewis

GRAGKED.COM JERRY LEWIS was a filmmaking innovator. While making his first movie as a director, Lewis had the idea of mounting a video camera next to the film camera, allowing him to review takes instantly. This technique is still widely used.

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