26 The Simpsons’ 2011 Pay Cut
In 2011, FOX threatened to cancel The Simpsons (1989-present) unless production costs were reduced. To save the show, the main voice cast-including Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer-agreed to a 30% pay cut. Even after the reduction, each actor still earned around $300,000 per episode, making them among the highest-paid voice actors in television history.
27. Several high-profile filmmakers directed episodes of The Office (U.S., 2005-2013). These included J.J. Abrams, Joss Whedon, Harold Ramis, Jon Favreau, Bryan Cranston, and Jason Reitman.
28. In the Seinfeld episode The Masseuse (1993), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) tries to persuade her boyfriend, Joel Rifkin, to change his name because it matches that of a notorious serial killer. She jokingly suggests “O.J.” as an alternative, referencing football star O.J. Simpson. Just seven months later, Simpson was arrested and put on trial for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in what became one of the most infamous cases of the 1990s.
29. Throughout all 403 episodes of The Joy of Painting (1983-1994), Bob Ross used the same eight core oil paints on his palette. He intentionally limited his color set so viewers could easily follow along without needing to buy dozens of expensive paints.
30. During the filming of the Friends (1994-2004) Season 3 episode The One Where No One’s Ready (1996), Matt LeBlanc, who played Joey Tribbiani, dislocated his shoulder while performing a stunt. Production had to halt due to the accident, forcing the live studio audience, who had won tickets through a Pepsi contest, to return home. Warner Bros. later flew them back out to attend the rescheduled taping, ensuring they still got the full Friends experience.
31 Goosebumps (1997) Inspires Click (2006)
In 1997, the TV series Goosebumps aired an episode called Click, based on R.L. Stine’s short story. In it, a boy acquires a universal remote control that can pause his sister, fast-forward through time, and even change the color of his pet fish. Nine years later, Adam Sandler starred in the film Click (2006), which featured a strikingly similar premise of a magical remote that controls reality.
32. In 2016, Honda sponsored a storyline in the sitcom Community during Season 6, poking fun at corporate product placement and guerrilla marketing. The episodes featured Dean Pelton becoming obsessed with Honda vehicles, while other characters ironically shilled for the brand. After airing, brand recall surveys indicated that viewers were 50% more likely to consider buying a Honda, proving the parody worked as effective advertising.
33. The BBC once planned an unproduced Doctor Who episode for the 2008 Christmas special, in which an alien parasite would attach itself to author J.K. Rowling. The creature would project her imagination into reality, forcing the Doctor to fight wizards, witches, and magical creatures to save Earth. The concept was ultimately abandoned.
34. In 1977, Saturday Night Live held its first and only “Anyone Can Host” contest, allowing a non-celebrity to host the show. The winner, 80-year-old grandmother Miskel Spillman, hosted the December 17, 1977 episode. That episode is also remembered for Elvis Costello’s infamous performance, where he cut off his planned song midway to play “Radio Radio,” a stunt that got him banned from SNL for more than a decade.
35. Following NBC’s cancellation of Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969) after three seasons, its reruns experienced immense popularity in syndication. Unlike most television shows, whose value typically declined over time, Star Trek rerun prices rose because fans watched each episode repeatedly. The overwhelming success of the reruns directly led to the franchise’s revival in the 1970s, eventually spawning new films, series, and one of the most dedicated fanbases in pop culture.
36 Homer Simpson Voice on L.A. Law (1992)
In 1992, Dan Castellaneta, the longtime voice actor of Homer Simpson on The Simpsons (1989-present), guest-starred in an episode of L.A. Law. He played a fired theme park employee who dressed in a Homer Simpson costume.
37. Cartoon Network produced a one-hour crossover episode in 2007 titled The Grim Adventures of the Kids Next Door. The special brought together characters from multiple shows, including Ed, Edd n’ Eddy, The Powerpuff Girls, and Dexter’s Laboratory, with cameos from others across the Cartoon Network lineup.
38. Before becoming a household name, Bill Nye worked on the Seattle sketch comedy show Almost Live! in the 1980s. During one episode, the host mispronounced “gigawatts” as “jiggawatts,” prompting Nye, an engineer at Boeing at the time, to correct him. The host jokingly fired back, “Who do you think you are, Bill Nye the Science Guy?”-a nickname that stuck and later became the title of his iconic PBS show Bill Nye the Science Guy (1993-1999).
39. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Inner Light” (1992), Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, lives an entire lifetime in a dreamlike state and learns to play a simple alien flute. The prop, known as Picard’s Ressikan flute, became one of the most beloved artifacts from the series. When Christie’s auctioned it in 2006 as part of a large Star Trek memorabilia sale, it was expected to fetch only $300, but a bidding war drove the final price to $48,000.
40. Comedian Jenny Slate joined Saturday Night Live in 2009, but her very first sketch went awry when she accidentally said the word “fu*king” instead of “freaking” on live television. Although the slip was not intentional, the incident overshadowed her debut and led NBC to sideline her from the show. Slate later revealed that the experience gave her stage fright, which she eventually overcame through therapy.
41 He-Man’s Nonviolent Swordplay
In the original animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983-1985), He-Man never used his sword to harm or kill another living creature across all 130 episodes. Instead, he wielded it primarily as a tool to deflect energy blasts, break objects, or perform heroic feats of strength. This creative choice was due to the strict broadcast standards of 1980s children’s television, which emphasized non-lethal conflict resolution in cartoons aimed at young audiences.
42. Before creating The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in 1978, Douglas Adams briefly worked with the comedy troupe Monty Python. He appeared in two sketches, the first being in Monty Python’s Flying Circus episode 42, aired in 1974.
43. When Steve Carell auditioned for the U.S. version of The Office (2005-2013), he deliberately avoided watching the full British original. He had seen only about half of the pilot episode of Ricky Gervais’s The Office (2001-2003) before deciding not to continue. Carell feared that studying Gervais’s performance as David Brent would subconsciously lead him to mimic it, rather than creating his own interpretation of Michael Scott.
44. In 2006, Reverend Al Sharpton demanded an apology from Cartoon Network over the Boondocks episode “Return of the King.” The episode portrayed a fictional version of Martin Luther King Jr. using the term “nigga” to criticize modern Black culture, which Sharpton called offensive and disrespectful. Instead of apologizing, Cartoon Network responded by mocking Sharpton in a satirical radio broadcast during a later episode of the series.
45. Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute on the U.S. version of The Office, was the only cast member to appear and have speaking lines in every single episode of the series. From the pilot in 2005 to the finale in 2013, his character remained central to the series’ storylines.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Pokémon’s Unused Ending Revealed
Takeshi Shudo, the original head writer for the Pokémon anime, revealed that he once drafted an ending intended to conclude the series during the Gold and Silver era. His proposed finale imagined an elderly Ash Ketchum, now bedridden, realizing that his entire journey as a Pokémon trainer had been a hallucination.
47. In The Simpsons episode “El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)” (1997), Homer eats extremely hot chili peppers that send him on a hallucinogenic journey. During this vision, he encounters a mystical coyote serving as his spirit guide. The legendary country singer Johnny Cash provided the coyote’s voice.
48. Director M. Night Shyamalan once admitted that Nickelodeon’s horror anthology Are You Afraid of the Dark? influenced his work. He particularly admired the 1994 episode The Tale of the Dream Girl, which tells the story of a teenager who discovers he is dead and can only interact with certain people. This concept later inspired Shyamalan’s screenplay for The Sixth Sense (1999), which became a cultural phenomenon.
49. On the sitcom Married with Children (1987-1997), the character Seven Bundy appeared briefly as a foster child taken in by the Bundy family. Introduced in Season 7, he appeared in only seven episodes before vanishing without explanation from the show. The sudden disappearance became a running joke among fans, and Seven is now remembered as one of television’s most infamous “forgotten characters.”
50. A 1976 episode of Doctor Who titled “The Deadly Assassin” featured the Doctor trapped inside a virtual reality simulation called “The Matrix.” Within the dreamworld, the Doctor faced deadly illusions and was warned that dying inside the Matrix would kill him in reality. This storyline was one of the earliest science fiction portrayals of a computer-generated reality, predating similar concepts popularized decades later in films like The Matrix (1999).
RE: Fact #40 (Jenny Slate’s SNL Stage Fright) – I was feeling for her until she said blaming gender for still talking about it all these years was the reason. I bet Bill Buckner got asked about a mistake he made in 1986 right up until he passed away. If you mess up when you’re first in the spotlight, of course people are gonna wanna talk about it.
Yeah, so Bill Buckner got a sort of public forgiveness back in 2004, right after the Red Sox won the World Series. I think they even had him throw out the first pitch for the opening game of the 2005 season.
Yeah, SNL definitely had a reputation for being pretty sexist and tough on their female staff for a long time. It’s not to say what happened to her was sexist, but that history is definitely there. And hey, Charles Rocket got fired for saying a fu*k too, but that was also around the same time they let go of most of the SNL cast, keeping only Piscipo and Murphy.
Losing one of the most unforgettable World Series games ever feels pretty different from someone dropping a swear word on a long-running comedy show, at least to me. But hey, I’m not pinning it on gender or anything like that.
RE: Fact #3 (Teen Titans Go’s Honest Tribute) – I wasn’t a fan of TTG when it first came out, but my kids watched it, and I’d overhear some of the jokes while I was in the kitchen. Honestly, a lot of the show is pretty hilarious.
It’s also super meta. Like, in the background, there’s this urn that says “Robin II” on it.
Cyborg’s music episode is my favorite. It totally feels like a tribute to those late 70s animated movies with that wasteland vibe. It’s like they took “Heavy Metal” and mashed it with Teen Titans.
They even recreated the props from that movie with their special effects. It’s pretty wild.
RE: Fact #18 (Misplaced Complaints About Fireman Sam) – I was having trouble figuring out what the complaints were about. I thought maybe people thought the page was trying to send subliminal messages or endorse Islam, but it turns out Muslims were offended because the character was seen as disrespecting the Quran.
RE: Fact #37 (Cartoon Network’s Epic Crossover Episode) – I’m a big fan of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy!
RE: Fact #18 (Misplaced Complaints About Fireman Sam) – My kids watched Fireman Sam, and I guess the big takeaway I got was that things just randomly catch fire without any warning.
My son really enjoyed Fireman Sam when he was about two. We couldn’t light his birthday candles because he was worried he’d set himself on fire.
That YouTube video, “Arsonist Sam,” is pretty neat! They basically just play it backward, and it makes it look like he’s starting fires, shutting down fire trucks, and then heading off to bed.
RE: Fact #23 (Conan O’Brien’s Simpsons Influence) – This episode has one of my all-time favorite scenes: Marge says, “Homer, there’s a man here who thinks he can help you.” Homer asks, “Batman?” Marge replies, “No, he’s a scientist.” Homer then says, “Batman’s a scientist.” And Marge clarifies, “It’s NOT Batman.”
RE: Fact #16 (Rob McElhenney’s Breakthrough with Sunny) – They also got the camcorder they used for the pilot back for a full refund.
RE: Fact #8 (Cersei and Bronn’s Contract Clause) – Yeah, they’re actors. They could totally pretend to get along for the show.
RE: Fact #23 (Conan O’Brien’s Simpsons Influence) – Marge vs the Monorail was a classic, and I totally disagree that it caused the show to go downhill afterward. No way, my friend!
George Takei was originally supposed to have a quick appearance in that episode. However, he backed out once he heard what it was about. Apparently, he’s a board member for a public transportation group in California and told Conan he “takes public transportation very seriously.”
Yeah, I think the producers changing in Season 9 is what really messed up the show. Even though Conan’s episodes were a bit wild, you could still feel the heart and effort he put into them.
RE: Fact #31 (Goosebumps (1997) Inspires Click (2006)) – Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s just a coincidence! I don’t think the premise is all that unique.
Yeah, that’s basically the only title you could call it.
This idea goes back to a Twilight Zone episode called “A Kind of Stopwatch.” That episode might have been inspired by a novel called “The Girl, The Stopwatch and Everything.” It’s really wild how many common tropes started with The Twilight Zone. Think about evil talking dolls, creatures on the outside of planes or cars, or tiny civilizations. The Twilight Zone was kind of the “Simpsons Did It” for its time, and honestly, for ours too.
RE: Fact #21 (Disney’s 65-Episode Rule) – Ending a show while it’s still great so it doesn’t have a chance to get worse? That’s a smart move.
RE: Fact #24 (Gilbert Gottfried’s Hollywood Squares Moment) – That was way funnier than I thought it would be. A lot of people find Gilbert annoying, but this is a great example of what a fantastic comedian he was. Plus, a new version of Hollywood Squares would be awesome, or at least way better than whatever Ellen’s show was, which was so painfully scripted.
I almost peed myself laughing once when Jason Alexander messed up a question. Then GG came in, doing a perfect impression of Jerry Seinfeld asking, “Why, did you put him on the show?” The host, players, and audience couldn’t stop laughing. That’s when I realized Gottfried could do impressions.
RE: Fact #21 (Disney’s 65-Episode Rule) – This rule makes total sense. If the show has live actors, they’ll eventually get too old for their roles. Plus, the kids watching also grow up and move on to stuff for older audiences. If the channel just made 65 episodes and then played reruns, most viewers probably wouldn’t even notice.
RE: Fact #27 (Star Directors on The Office) – Here’s a breakdown of some stuff I saw:
* J.J. Abrams: “Cocktails”
* Joss Whedon: “Business School,” “Branch Wars”
* Harold Ramis: “A Benihana Christmas,” “Safety Training,” “Beach Games,” “The Delivery: Part 2”
* Jon Favreau: “Moving On”
* Bryan Cranston: “Work Bus”
* Jason Reitman: “Local Ad,” “Frame Toby”
RE: Fact #5 (Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Alibi) – His daughter said he was with her at a game and he had ticket stubs, but someone claimed they saw him elsewhere. And that’s enough to try him for murder and potentially face the death penalty? That sounds like total b.s. to me. It seems like those prosecutors were just lazy and didn’t want to find the actual killer; they just wanted to close the case.
Here’s more info I found. as the story is even wilder than what I wrote. Juan’s brother and his buddy Ledesma are accused of a bunch of drive-by shootings. A 16-year-old girl named Martha Puebla warns her friends not to talk to the cops because the gang will retaliate.
Two cops then pull a trick on Ledesma, telling him Martha Puebla ratted him out. They show him a fake lineup card with her name on it and make up a statement to make him think she confessed.
Predictably, Ledesma calls someone from jail the next day and orders Martha Puebla to be killed. The police record this call but don’t listen to it properly for ages.
There are conflicting reports about whether her family turned down witness protection or was never offered it. Either way, Martha is shot and killed on the street a few months later.
After she’s dead, some witnesses say they saw someone who might have been Juan Catalan at the murder scene. And guess who swoops in to arrest him? The same two detectives who pulled the fake lineup trick on Ledesma, and they used the same tactic to try and get Juan to confess.
Eventually, the real killers were caught and convicted years later. Juan ended up getting $320,000 for this whole messed-up ordeal, by the way.
RE: Fact #15 (Shark Week’s Misleading Content) – In the U.S., there’s no law against broadcasters sharing wrong information, even if they know it’s incorrect and their main goal is to make money. TV ratings are super important.
RE: Fact #5 (Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Alibi) – Wow, that lawyer sounds incredibly sharp! It’s wild how that filming footage ended up being key evidence. Like something out of a movie, finding your client in the background of a show eating a hot dog with his daughter. What a stroke of luck!
He’s one in a million.
Honestly, I guess I’m pretty fortunate ’cause I’ve never been wrongly accused of murder.
So, when I first got my license, I was T-boned by a big F-350 pulling a cement mixer. My little Ford Escort got totally mangled – the driver’s side door was practically pushed to the gear shift. The trooper even told my mom he was sure I wouldn’t make it after seeing the car.
I broke my jaw and lost like 8 teeth, and my left leg was so badly bruised I was on crutches for a month. Honestly, it got really old hearing how lucky I was.
RE: Fact #43 (Steve Carell’s Unique Preparation) – Michael really evolved throughout the series. He started off as a bit of a jerk, but then he turned into more of a loveable goofball.
RE: Fact #40 (Jenny Slate’s SNL Stage Fright) – I think getting fired was a good thing for her, actually. She got to do other things then. She would’ve just disappeared on SNL because she didn’t really fit there. After she left, she started showing up a lot more and has had a pretty successful career.
It might not be her most famous part, but I seriously cracked up when she showed up on Parks and Rec as Mona Lisa Sapperstein.
Those two actors really look so much like siblings!
RE: Fact #8 (Cersei and Bronn’s Contract Clause) – Parties for cast members must be pretty strange.
RE: Fact #25 (Arrested Development’s Ann Gag) – Is Daario Naharis actually Ann? That’s wild.
RE: Fact #28 (Seinfeld’s O.J. Name Coincidence) – Whoa, I always figured that was the joke too.
Larry David knew he was helping OJ plan the murder for months.
RE: Fact #42 (Douglas Adams’ Monty Python Cameo) – I always feel like most people making 42 references haven’t even read the book.
Yeah, I guess that’s how it goes with anything super popular. I really dig the series myself, especially the first couple of books, though they all have their own cool vibe.
RE: Fact #30 (Matt LeBlanc’s Friends Injury) – Seriously, how much more dislocated can my shoulder get? And just so you know, the Friends fans don’t need to jump in and say Joey didn’t say this. Remember that episode where he made fun of Chandler by wearing all his clothes and asked, “Could I be wearing any more clothes?!” That’s all I wanted to say.
RE: Fact #46 (Pokémon’s Unused Ending Revealed) – Hey, just a thought – what if it’s not a hallucination but more like a dream? The story describes an old Satoshi reminiscing about his childhood adventures with Pokémon. It sounds like he’s recalling a fond, perhaps slightly made-up, memory of his younger days. The creatures and friendships he experienced might not be something he could find in the real world now, but it feels like he’s remembering them vividly. The passage even paints a picture of him hearing his mother’s voice, getting ready for his journey the next day, and then waking up as his younger self again.
Wow, that’s really sad. Seeing an older person just longing for their youth, knowing it’s just a fantasy.
Life is tough. What am I even doing with my life?
RE: Fact #35 (Star Trek’s Syndication Success Story) – Back in the 70s, there wasn’t much sci-fi around, and no VCRs or cable TV. People were really craving Star Trek. As kids, we watched it every weekday evening at 6 for about a decade before the station changed the schedule. We seriously never got tired of it.
RE: Fact #36 (Homer Simpson Voice on L.A. Law (1992)) – He was a really great guest star on Stargate SG-1 too!
RE: Fact #9 (Baby Yoda’s Pricey Production) – This totally looks like a way to launder money. Someone could probably make a doll just like this for under a thousand bucks, so paying 5 million for it is wild.
Another example is Johnny Depp’s outfit in Pirates of the Caribbean – makes no sense at all.
Hollywood accounting is such a joke, man. There’s no way that thing actually cost 5 million dollars. It’s like they had to create a living, breathing Yoda to justify that price tag.
They usually include R&D in those costs.
RE: Fact #25 (Arrested Development’s Ann Gag) – I had no clue there were two different actresses for Ann. Guess it’s time to rewatch Arrested Development!
I’m pretty sure it’s just for one episode.
Ann shows up for a short bit in one episode, talking to George Michael at the banana stand. Then, in the very next episode, he’s hanging out with Mae Whitman playing Ann. I had to watch the series a few times to even realize they were meant to be the same person.
RE: Fact #46 (Pokémon’s Unused Ending Revealed) – Waking up at the end or realizing it was all a hallucination is such a cliché, like something you’d learn in a basic English class is a bad idea. It’s one of the worst ways to wrap up a book, and it feels like a slap in the face to readers who stuck with it. Glad he snapped out of it.
I got in trouble in second grade for ending a two-page story that way. Even back then, I knew it was a lazy way to finish, but second-grade me also thought it was pretty smart. My teacher thankfully let me know I wasn’t clever, just lazy.
You were clever because in second grade, you didn’t have the experience to know any better.
RE: Fact #13 (Unscripted Moment in Breaking Bad) – Yeah, that Anthony Hopkins fan letter to Cranston totally fits!
RE: Fact #9 (Baby Yoda’s Pricey Production) – Just found out that baby Yoda gets punched.
RE: Fact #4 (Fred Rogers’ Playful Humor) – It’s really sweet that she still has those letters from when they were dating. She keeps them in a tote bag by her favorite chair so she can read them whenever she wants to feel connected to him. It’s been 16 years since Fred passed away, and those letters are the only memento of his that she’s kept for herself.
His fart made her cry.
I was so feeling the ending of Swiss Army Man!
RE: Fact #19 (Simpsons Episode Sparks Censorship) – This is easily my favorite Simpsons episode.
I’ve got that one too! But I think I’d have to go with the Hank Scorpio episode and the one where Homer’s an astronaut as being better.
RE: Fact #13 (Unscripted Moment in Breaking Bad) – That’s a cool title. “It was not scripted.” I didn’t realize babies could read scripts in the first place.
RE: Fact #20 (Supernatural’s Meta Episode) – This show is genuinely great. One of my all-time favorite episodes from any series is the one where they get stuck in a time loop and Dean keeps dying.
RE: Fact #11 (Iconic Star Trek Quote Myth) – Lots of famous quotes aren’t actually said word-for-word. It’s super common for well-known “quotes” to be paraphrased to make them clearer and cut out unnecessary words.
For example, Darth Vader says “No, I am your father.” People often add “Luke” to it, because “I am your father” alone isn’t a very impactful quote. People prefer a clear quote over a perfectly accurate one.
It seems like we’re just creating a Mandela effect for ourselves with those quotes. Pretty interesting!
RE: Fact #9 (Baby Yoda’s Pricey Production) – Cost: $5 million
Profit from merch and streaming: $5 billion
RE: Fact #20 (Supernatural’s Meta Episode) – This is one of those meta episodes of Supernatural, you know? They usually do one every year and it’s pretty much always the most fun one.
RE: Fact #15 (Shark Week’s Misleading Content) – Most news outlets don’t really have accurate science info. When it comes to sharks, I stopped paying attention after that super annoying, self-centered one who always wears a red watch started talking.
RE: Fact #48 (The Sixth Sense’s Unlikely Inspiration) – Man, I wish he’d watched the Nickelodeon show ‘Avatar: the Last Airbender’ before making the movie ‘the Last Airbender’.
RE: Fact #4 (Fred Rogers’ Playful Humor) – Honestly, for “raunchy” jokes, that was super mild and sounded like something a kid would say. Exactly what I figured!
RE: Fact #26 (The Simpsons’ 2011 Pay Cut) – Seriously, you have to admire how dedicated these actors are. They were willing to put their own paychecks and financial stability on the line, living paycheck to paycheck, all because they really believed in the show.
Here, it seems like people just don’t get sarcasm.
So, I was checking the wiki, and it looks like they attempted to get the pay bumped up to $500,000 before. From my perspective, it feels like they backed down on that.
RE: Fact #11 (Iconic Star Trek Quote Myth) – That line from “The Voyage Home” is pretty much as close as we get.
RE: Fact #22 (Wile E. Coyote’s Debut Episode) – That “Fast and Furious” phrase is pretty ancient.
RE: Fact #36 (Homer Simpson Voice on L.A. Law (1992)) – It’s wild that The Simpsons and L.A. Law were on at the same time; really makes you realize how long The Simpsons has been around. And, like, how old I’m getting too!
I was in kindergarten when The Simpsons first aired, and now my daughter is in kindergarten.
RE: Fact #37 (Cartoon Network’s Epic Crossover Episode) – This totally reminds me of those Fairly Odd Parents and Jimmy Neutron crossovers. I thought they were awesome.
RE: Fact #34 (SNL’s Unique Host Contest in 1977) – Crazy, but Elvis Costello got banned from SNL.
RE: Fact #1 (Natalia Tena’s Hair Battle) – She explained it pretty well herself. It seems like she was more bummed out that her idea for her character wasn’t used, rather than anything else. She said she doesn’t care about nudity, and as an actor, it’s fine if the role calls for it. She thinks you shouldn’t be a prude about it if it’s necessary for the part. What really bothered her was that they showed her pubic area without hair, because she felt her character should have had a “massive bush” and “muff coming down the thighs.”
Haha, I cracked up when she said “minge” and “muff.” I’m 38, and those words instantly took me back to middle school!
My friend knows her and we’ve met a few times. I can totally imagine her saying that. She’s got zero shame about being naked. The first time I met her, we were at a bar and she just blurted out to everyone if someone could zip up her dress. That was quite an introduction!
Plus, she’s got an awesome band. Seeing them live was seriously one of the best shows I’ve ever been to.
As an American, I’ve noticed those terms seem to pop up more in the UK.
I haven’t heard that word since the South Park Opera episode!
Sounds like she was mostly disappointed that her character ideas didn’t make it in, more than anything else.
I’m happy Peter Jackson listened to the actors and added some of their suggestions while filming Lord of the Rings. Like when Viggo Mortensen wanted more Elvish lines to show his character was raised by Elves for most of his life.
RE: Fact #45 (Rainn Wilson’s Consistent Presence) – He would have had perfect attendance.
RE: Fact #49 (Seven’s Mysterious Disappearance) – I remember when he was on the show, and I totally disliked him. He wasn’t a Bundy, just some really annoying little sh*t.
Yeah, I thought Fox would just do their usual thing: introduce a new character or idea, people don’t like it, and then they’d find a way to ditch it.
RE: Fact #50 (Doctor Who’s Matrix Predicament) – If you poop in your dreams, you actually poop in real life.
RE: Fact #29 (Bob Ross’s Consistent Palette) – That’s not quite right. Bob Ross actually used more than just “the same 8 colors.” If you watched the show regularly, you’d often see these colors:
Alizarin Crimson
Permanent Red
Cadmium Yellow
Dark Sienna
Indian Yellow
Midnight Black
Phthalo Blue
Phthalo Green
Prussian Blue
Sap Green
Titanium White
Van Dyke Brown
Yellow Ochre
These colors are pretty standard for anyone who watched the show a lot. And honestly, that might not even be the complete list, but it covers most of what he used. You can easily tell by watching any random episode of “The Joy of Painting” – the paints on his palette would change depending on the colors he was using for a particular painting.
Also, about your video, OP, it’s from the very first episode of the first season. The show was on for eleven years and had thirty seasons after that. So, it’s a bit much to take something he said right at the beginning of the show as the absolute final word, especially since you looked up on Wikipedia that there were exactly 403 episodes.
Hey, so I’m watching all the Joy of Painting episodes on Netflix lately, so I’m super ready to help out with any Bob Ross trivia questions!
RE: Fact #43 (Steve Carell’s Unique Preparation) – That’s awesome! Steve Carell was perfectly cast, seriously one of the best sitcom casting decisions ever.
Okay, so for Ron Swanson, April Ludgate, Andy Dwyer, Leslie Knope, Ben Wyatt, Tom Haverford, Donna Meagle, and Will Smith, I’m not saying they’re definitely better, but it’s definitely not a simple choice to pick just one.
RE: Fact #17 (Game of Thrones’ Rocky Start) – It’s pretty common for TV dramas to rewrite and reshoot their pilot episodes. For example, the original Star Trek pilot was thrown out, and they made a new one, even recasting almost everyone. It’s also not unusual for shows to be created by people new to TV. Even with the issues in the last season, I thought they did a great job.
RE: Fact #44 (Al Sharpton vs. The Boondocks) – This episode was definitely the best one of the show. It wasn’t so much funny as it was spot-on and a little sad.
RE: Fact #12 (Tom Cruise as Captain Planet) – I was really surprised by some of the actors who voiced characters in Captain Planet. Like, LeVar Burton, Whoopi Goldberg, Frank Welker, Ed Asner, Tim Curry, Mary Kay Bergman, Cliff from Cheers, Maurice LaMarche, James Coburn, and Meg Ryan were all in it!
RE: Fact #41 (He-Man’s Nonviolent Swordplay) – He never punches or kicks, not even in self-defense, unless he’s fighting a robot. I remember having a He-Man action figure that could literally punch with explosive power. You’d load a ring of caps into its back, twist its waist, and then press a button. This would release a spring, and he’d throw a punch, setting off a cap.
RE: Fact #26 (The Simpsons’ 2011 Pay Cut) – That’s still a lot of cash, $300,000 per episode. If I remember right, most of them are original episodes, and The Simpsons has been around for over 20 seasons with about 15 episodes per season. So they’ve all earned at least $10 million from the show.
RE: Fact #32 (Community (2009) Boosts Honda Sales) – This type of marketing is super tough to get right. Honda could have totally messed it up.
RE: Fact #25 (Arrested Development’s Ann Gag) – Why not? It worked for Marta.
RE: Fact #32 (Community (2009) Boosts Honda Sales) – Even though Community isn’t airing anymore, it’s still one of the most meta shows out there. It’s kind of wild that a company that sponsored an episode where they made fun of guerilla ads ended up running a guerilla ad
RE: Fact #7 (Costly Proposal in The Office) – Because rest stops are super hard to find?
RE: Fact #19 (Simpsons Episode Sparks Censorship) – I watched that episode like six times before I figured out Johnny Cash was the voice of the fox!
RE: Fact #18 (Misplaced Complaints About Fireman Sam) – So, back in July 2016, it came out that in an episode from Series 9, called “Troubled Waters,” something odd happened. During a scene where Elvis slips on some paper and falls into a bunch of sheets, making them go flying everywhere, one of those pages that flashed by was actually from the Quran – specifically, Surah Mulk, verses 13–26. The company that made it, Mattel, apologized for this mistake. They pulled the episode, and stopped working with Xing Xing, the animation company that messed up. Mattel mentioned that someone from the production crew thought they were just using random text, and they had no reason to think it was done on purpose.
Sh*t, 1000 complaints over that? I bet 500 were from Muslims because it looked like the Qur’an was being chopped up, and the other 500 were from the usual grumpy folks complaining about “forcing something Islamic down their throats.”
It sounds like a lot of the complaints might have come from Muslims, especially if a religious leader told them to report it. I remember reading about how the FCC looked into complaints about Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl halftime show. Apparently, after they took out all the form letters that came from evangelical Christian leaders, there weren’t that many complaints left.
RE: Fact #2 (Chris Pratt’s Jurassic Prediction) – After Shaun of the Dead did so well, Simon Pegg joked that he wouldn’t be in Mission Impossible 3, and then, well, he ended up in it.
RE: Fact #12 (Tom Cruise as Captain Planet) – Don Cheadle is the best Captain Planet.
RE: Fact #33 (Unmade Doctor Who Episode Revealed) – Featuring every actor from Harry Potter.
RE: Fact #39 (Star Trek TNG Flute Auction Surprise) – Who knew you could put a price on the last remaining piece of a dead civilization.
RE: Fact #31 (Goosebumps (1997) Inspires Click (2006)) – That movie was actually pretty good, especially considering it’s an Adam Sandler film.
Yeah, I agree. It felt a bit like a cheat that the remote malfunctioned to get the message across. It would have been way more impactful if Sandler’s character had messed it up himself, instead of him just ending up in a future he didn’t really have any part in creating.
RE: Fact #11 (Iconic Star Trek Quote Myth) – It’s like that famous line, ‘Luke, I am your father.’
RE: Fact #33 (Unmade Doctor Who Episode Revealed) – Even though I’ve seen so much Harry Potter stuff lately, I still think that would have been a more awesome Christmas special than most of them. Honestly, any episode that doesn’t have a bunch of things that shouldn’t be alive coming to life is fine with me.
Just wondering, how are you feeling totally swamped with HP stuff? I see the movies on ABC Family pretty often, but other than that, it feels pretty scarce to me.
Yeah, I get what you mean. It feels like we’ve been with these characters and this universe for ages, and honestly, I’m ready for something fresh. I bet I’ll feel the same way about the Avengers and their side stories in another five years.
RE: Fact #1 (Natalia Tena’s Hair Battle) – Seems like a strange thing for the directors to be so insistent about.
If you know who directed it, this makes a lot of sense.
The actors’ stories are bad enough, but then Dave and DB in interviews and commentaries will happily talk about how they went out of their way to antagonize the actors and loved making them do things they didn’t want to. Fu*king creeps.
But it has to be period-accurate! Which period are you talking about, the dragon ice zombie period?
It’s less about being historically accurate and more about fitting the character’s established look. Osha was messy and unhygienic, so it makes sense she wouldn’t be meticulously trimming or shaving just her pubic hair when she didn’t even bother brushing her head hair.
That’s a really lazy argument. Nobody’s saying it has to be historically accurate, but good world-building is what makes a fantasy series great. Dropping in silly anachronistic details that don’t fit ruins that. Wouldn’t it be terrible world-building if one of the knights suddenly had a submachine gun? A cave woman from the arctic circle having a perfectly done Brazilian is almost as out there.
RE: Fact #17 (Game of Thrones’ Rocky Start) – Man, I wish HBO had made them redo like 90% of that last season.
It’s pretty funny to think that I bet no Game of Thrones fan has rewatched the show during this quarantine. Like, what’s the point of doing that?
Yeah, me neither. The last season totally messed it up for me.