15 Odd Changes The U.S. Government Forced Into Movies & TV
If you lend a filmmaker your fighter jet, what do they owe you in return? Thanks to America's military might and the world's appetite for cinematic explosions, that weirdly specific question get asked a lot. Did you know the U.S. government influences dozens of movies and shows every year? Do you think Hollywood would pass up free Pentagon stuff to protect Hollywood's "artistic vision" for Transformers 8? And if you find out what the government cut out of movies and TV, does that tell you exactly what the government doesn't want you to know?
On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Adam Tod Brown (Unpopular Opinion) and Nic Wegener (American Dad) for a look back at America's strange history of government overreach into scripts, shoots, and entire concepts for movies and TV. You'll discover which movies traded script control for Air Force gear, which entire TV era sold out to Big Anti-Drug, and the exact Defense Department policy on what the military does in an alien invasion.
Footnotes:
Unpopular Opinion podcast network
Conspiracy! The Show (Unpopular Opinion)
Alias era Jennifer Garner ad for CIA recruitment (YouTube upload)
CIA enlists Jennifer Garner to help recruit spies (Entertainment Weekly)
12 Weird Changes The Government Asked Famous Movies to Make (Cracked)
5 Creepy Changes The Government Forced On Movies & TV Shows (Cracked)
5 Classic Movies That Were Made Possible By Insane Schemes (Cracked)
Washington DC's role behind the scenes in Hollywood goes deeper than you think (The Independent)
the website for the CIA Entertainment Industry Liaison
How the CIA Hoodwinked Hollywood (The Atlantic)
Tequila, Painted Pearls, and Prada - How the CIA Helped Produce 'Zero Dark Thirty' (VICE News)
6 Famous Movies You Probably Didn't Notice Are Propaganda (Cracked)
Lindsey Graham slams change to iconic bomber jacket for 'Top Gun: Maverick' (The Hill)
25 years later, how 'Top Gun' made America love war (The Washington Post)
Bombastic, monochrome and simplistic - and yet still I love Top Gun (The Guardian)
Air Force Fighter Pilot Qualifications (chron.com)
1986 L.A. Times article describing military recruiter strategy of tabling outside Top Gun screenings
Captain Marvel's Feminism Is All Tangled Up with Military Boosterism (Los Angeles Magazine)
Air Force Faces Pilot Shortage (NPR)
deleted scene in Iron Man (2008) featuring Ghostface Killah cameo (low quality YouTube upload)
How Barbra Streisand Inspired the "Streisand Effect" (Mental Floss)
Why Maria Butina' Guilty Plea Should Make The N.R.A. Nervous (Vanity Fair)
weird Tomorrow Never Dies scene to meet government needs on Vietnam policy (YouTube upload)
Remember When Tim Allen Nearly Got a Life Sentence For Trafficking Coke? (Defamer)
Exciting Tour News!
See our first-ever Cracked Podcast in LONDON at The London Podcast Festival! The show is one night only, and that night is Sunday 8th September at Kings Place. Get your ticket right here!
