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The Pee Wee’s Playhouse set was pretty cute already, but when handcrafted at home, it’s downright adorable. Better still, you can even have your own version at home and this Jambi even comes with an interchangeable screen.
You might know all about the show, but what do you know of the men who played the Doctor? If you want to increase your knowledge of the subject, then don’t miss this great Mental Floss article filled with fascinating trivia on the actors and the show. Personally, I didn’t know the story of how Tom Baker’s scarf was born:
The Fourth Doctor is particularly famous for his ridiculously long scarf, which resulted from a miscommunication between costume designer James Acheson and the knitter hired to produce it; Acheson never specified a length, and bought far too much yarn, so the knitter just kept going until it was all used up.
Up until now, if you wanted to actually have paper from Dunder Mifflin, the company made famous from NBC’s The Office, you would have to print out your own box labels and affix them to another brand of paper. Fortunately for those obsessive people who demand everything to be branded with a name they’ve seen on television, NBC has struck up a deal with Quill.com, a subsidiary of Staples, to sell official Dunder Mifflin paper.
No word yet on how it competes with the big office chains, but I hear their customer service is simply unbeatable.
Link Via The Consumerist
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Rock stars aren’t generally known for their amazing acting skills, but that doesn’t stop television executives from working them into different cameo roles whenever possible. Mental Floss has a great article with some of the greatest (and most terrible) musician cameos ever made. My personal favorite was Michael Stipe in The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Any of you remember these episodes?
Ever since NBC announced that Community would be put on a temporary (read:possibly permanent) hiatus, fans have been rallying behind the show. Here’s my personal favorite effort to bring support to the show.
What do you guys think about the show? Are you upset about the hiatus?
I don’t know about you guys, but I desperately miss seeing David Tennant, Catherine Tate and John Borrowman on Doctor Who. That being said, I’ll watch any video with the three of them these days. Particularly when they involve the three singing songs and wearing goofy outfits.
Via The Mary Sue
Those of you who grew up on Pete & Pete are certain to appreciate this great shot for shot remake of the intro by the band Tara Melos.
Via BuzzFeed
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Animated for the Italian channel FOX Retro, the animated video features popular 80s TV show characters in classic video game environments. The game was beat with Wonder Woman being saved by Fonzie from Happy Days. Then I inserted another coin to replay. -via Laughing Squid
This great Doctor Who mini-episode premiered on the recently canned Doctor Who Confidential. It’s not a full episode or anything, but it’s pretty fun.
Via Geekosystem
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard that Arrested Development will not only be getting made into a movie, but that they’ll also be making a few more new episodes. To celebrate, enjoy this great collection of Arrested Development fan art.
I know it’s been off the air for a while now, but the X-Files still has a huge following, enough that we even carry this great parody shirt in the Neatoshop. If you’re a fan of the show, then you’ll love the Mental Floss coverage of it.
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Who knew that Grant from Mythbusters is actually a Doctor Who nut? Hopefully this means fans of the Time Lord can hope for a Doctor Who Mythbusters episode at some point.
Link Via The Mary Sue
If you aren’t familiar with the show, none of this really matters -but if that’s the case, you should go rent the DVDs from Netflix and then return here promptly after viewing.
Via Geekosystem
If you’ve been looking for some paper dolls to play with that are actually designed for adults instead of kiddos, then BuzzFeed has a great collection of them for your paper-playing pleasure. Time to get printing!
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If you’re a regular Simpsons viewer, then you already know that the show occasionally features some utterly disgusting foodstuffs. If you’ve ever wondered how to make a Tom Collins pot pie or some corn nog, then Warming Glow has you covered with a great list of horrendously disgusting recipes.
What Simpsons foods would you want to try? Personally, I’m curious about tomacco.
While not everyone likes Parks & Recreation, practically all of those who do love the character of Ron Swanson.That’s why there’s so many awesome artworks based on him you can find 29 more of them over at BuzzFeed.
Apparently Two and A Half Men will soon be killing off Charlie Sheen’s character in order to make room for Ashton Kutcher. In honor of the characters demise, Mental floss has a great article reflecting on 11 other shows who killed off characters in memorable manners. My personal favorite was Susan’s death in Seinfeld. While I knew the story line, the article still has other great bits about the episode that I didn’t know -like the fact that the show was temporarily pulled from syndication after the anthrax attacks of 2001.
You’ve probably already heard that Nickelodeon has started replaying their most popular 90′s shows again, but have you wondered whatever happened to the creators of the shows? Wonder no more with this great Split Sider article.
Did you know the guys who created Pete & Pete wrote Snow Day, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and The Tale of Despereaux since their show was cancelled?
If you love Ron Swanson from Parks & Recreation, then rejoice, you can finally have your own version at home thanks to these delightful paper dolls. He even comes with his own Mulligan’s restaurant bib.
If you guys have IFC, I highly recommend checking out one of their newest shows, Rhett & Link: Commercial Kings. Essentially, the show follows around these two video-makers who create hilarious local commercials that are pretty much all destined to become viral successes. The one above is my favorite so far.
Have you guys checked it out? If so, do you like it?
We’ve all seen sea lion shows where someone is asked to give the animal a hug, but few of us have ever seen the volunteer end up in the pool. The result is pretty funny, even though I can’t help but feel bad for the poor girl.
The Enchanted Tiki Room is kind of like It’s A Small World –people either love it or hate it and no matter how you actually feel about it, you’re guaranteed to have the songs stuck in your head after you leave. Personally, I’m one of those people who loves the show–not least of all because it means getting to sit in a nice air conditioned room while eating pineapple soft serve while the temperature outside exceeds 90 degrees.
Image via CarterHawk [Wikipedia]
When Walt originally started work on the Tiki Room, he envisioned it as a restaurant where guests would be entertained by animatronic birds performing for the diners. It was intended to share a kitchen with the Plaza Pavilion and Tahitian Terrace. Interestingly, now none of these locations operates as a restaurant, the Plaza Pavilion is now used as an Annual Passport processing center and the Tahitian Terrace is now Aladdin’s Oasis, which mostly serves as a meet and greet area for those looking to take pictures with Aladdin and Jasmine.
Image via Loren Javier [Flickr]
There are still aspects of the building that give away its original nature. For one, it is the only attraction to include its own restrooms. Another mark of the planned restaurant, the magic fountain in the center of the room was originally planned to be a coffee station –which is why there is a storage compartment build into the base.
Of course, Walt and his crew soon realized the property would be too popular and was too small to seat all of the people who would want to see the show. Rather than scrapping the idea, the design was altered to accommodate rows of benches for guests to sit and watch the show.
The Tiki Room was the first Disney attraction to feature Audio-Animatronics and since it required the use of computers (the operations room is located under the attraction), this also meant that it was the first ride to offer air conditioning –a factor that has continued to add to its popularity during hot Southern California summers.
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On November 26, 1956, a television revolution took place. A price-bidding game allowed coupon-clipping housewives to finally feel as smart as the PHD-holding contestants seen on the many quiz shows popular at the time. And when the quiz show scandal of 1959 broke, The Price Is Right managed to maintain its integrity and take its place as a legendary show destined to become the longest running American game show in the world. But how did The Price Is Right get started and how has it ensured such eternal success? Read on to get a full taste of the brilliance and luck that has allowed The Price Is Right to reach such incredible levels of game show domination.
Image via beITRON [Flickr]
Did you know Drew Carey is actually the third host of the show, not the second? That’s because before Bob Barker was hired to host The New Price Is Right (the “New” was dropped from the title within the same year it premiered), the original show started Bill Cullen and was created by producer Bob Stewart, who also invented such classics as Password and The $10,000 Pyramid. Steward was inspired to create The Price is Right after watching an auctioneer in New York City.
Unlike the current show we all know and love, this was a much more basic format. There were no Showcase Showdowns or pricing games. The entire show consisted of contestants bidding on expensive products, attempting to get as close to the actual retail price without going over (similar to the first round of the current show except this would keep going for a long time and the item would be expensive rather than the dish soap and soup cans they start off with now). If a contestant worried they were getting too close to the final price, they could seal their price and stop bidding. The contestant who was closest without going over won the prize, which was usually rather big and sometimes pretty crazy.
“How big and crazy?” you might ask. Well, remember the Simpson’s episode where Bart wins an elephant? It turns out that was based on an incident that occurred during this first version of the Price Is Right. The elephant, and its “extra ivory,” was a bonus prize for a grand piano. In actuality, the show meant to give the contestant the cash equivalent of $4000, but the winner wanted a real elephant, so he was eventually given a live pet flown in all the way from Kenya.
A few other grandiose prizes included fully furnished homes in brand new subdivisions, small business franchises, business stock, a Ferris wheel, a private island, a 1926 Rolls Royce with a chauffeur, a mile of hot dogs, a live peacock to serve as a color guide to a brand new TV and a full barbecue pit with a live Angus steer.
This first version lasted until 1965, and viewers had to wait seven years before it was reworked into the modern format and added to the programming schedule again.
Image via Adam Foster [Flickr]
The New Price Is Right premiered on September 4, 1972. It contained some of the old elements of the show, but added a number of new elements that we still enjoy to this day. Even though the early incarnation of the show doesn’t count towards its record of aired shows, there have been over 7,300 episodes aired and the program has still managed to become second only to the Mexican television show Sabado Gigante when it comes to the longest-running game show in the world, and it is the longest-running game show in America.
The modern version starts out with a bidding game and then moves on to more games until the guests get to compete for a chance to bid on the grand prize showcase at the end of the game. During the Showcase portion of the game, the guest that comes closest to the price of their showcase without going over wins and gets to keep their showcase. If they come close enough to the price of their showcase, they not only win their grand prize, but the one offered to the other player as well.
Image via Douglas Coulter [Flickr]
You probably know that Bob Barker’s charisma played a big role in keeping the show alive so long (he has 17 Emmy awards to prove it) , but you might not know that he had such a major role in the show behind the scenes. Barker invented many of the pricing games on the show, including three baring his name that were retired after he left the show. He also put a lot of restrictions in place that stayed in effect until Drew Carrey became the host.
In 1979, Bob Barker went vegetarian and demanded the show stop giving away anything on the show made from leather or fur. He also ensured that showcases could no longer show fake meat props on the barbecues. From that point on, he also started signing off every episode by saying, “Help control the pet population—have your pets spayed or neutered.” This is one tradition that Drew Carey has upheld with the utmost respect although furs and leather are now back on the prize list.
Interestingly, Barker’s first episode started out with a prize of a fur coat, but you won’t see that on any reruns or DVDs because he has kept the stations from releasing any shows showing episodes with fur coats.
Barker did more than just preach about the importance of spaying and neutering though. He even started his own foundation, the DJ&T Foundation (named for his mother and his wife), that is dedicated to controlling the dog and cat population. The organization helps support low-cost and free spay and neuter clinics around the country. Barker still funds the foundation to this day.
Animal population control isn’t the only cause Barker was dedicated to though. In 1991, he instilled another prohibition on the show banning any foreign automobiles from being given away as prizes. He did this as a patriotic measure during the first Iraq War, but once again, this rule has been lifted since his retirement and cars from all over the world have now been offered as prizes.
Image via laksge [Wikipedia]
In June of 2006, Barker announced his intention to retire from hosting the show. His decision coincided with the show’s 35th anniversary and his 50th anniversary of hosting shows on TV (He previously hosted Truth Or Consequences). During that time he was named in the Guinness Book of World Records, once for being TV’s Most Durable Performer for doing 3524 consecutive performances on Truth Or Consequences and once of being the Most Generous Host in Television History for giving away over $55 million in cash and prizes, although by the time he retired that number had risen to $200 million. Obviously, his successor had some mighty big shoes to fill.
Producers looked all over the place for new hosts and Rosie O’Donnell seemed to be the top contender until she insisted that the show be moved to New York so she wouldn’t have to move. Drew Carey was hesitant to host the show at first, so CBS producers actually had to convince him that he would be good at it. Reading comments on forums about the subject, you might see a lot of people upset that Carey was replacing Bob, but they all seem to be glad that at least he’s not Rosie. And that seems alright with Drew, who never thought he could contend with the original host anyway, “You can’t replace Bob Barker. I don’t compare myself to anybody… It’s only about what you’re doing and supposed to do, and I feel like I’m supposed to be doing this.”
Barker’s last episode premiered on June 15, 2007, but reruns continued to air until Drew Carey’s first episode premiered on October 15.
Image via sexiestgeeksalive [Flickr]
If you read the part about crazy prizes on the earlier version and thought there is no way the current game could compete, you might be right about wackiness, but not about monetary value. While CBS used to impose a prize cap on their game shows, it was revoked in the late 1990’s. Since then, there have been some incredibly lucky winners. Vickyann Sadowski won both showcases, including two cars and ended up scoring $147,517, making her the single-day winnings record holder for daytime network game shows. But the records don’t stop there. The show once held a prime time Million Dollar Spectacular series for a few weeks in 2008. Adam Rose managed to win both showcases, a $20,000 prize during one of the challenges and a bonus $1,000,000 for getting so close to the right value on his showcase. His final winnings? $1,153,908.
While Terry Kniess may not have won as much as either of those contestants, his accomplishment is even more impressive: Terry is the only person to have ever guessed the exact price of their showcase down to the dollar. Thanks to his incredible ability to notice patterns and a little bit of luck, he guessed the approximate value of the showcase and then used his and his wife’s pin numbers to round out his bid. The guess was so perfect that behind the scenes everyone was frantically trying to find out how he cheated and when Carey announced that he was right on the money, he seems angry –something which seriously irritated home viewers.
Image via dayseraph [Flickr]
Despite his flub when announcing Terry’s incredible accuracy, Drew still seems to be doing an alright job with the show and ratings certainly aren’t suffering –the show is still one of the top daytime game shows. So what do you think, should Carey stay on or is the price wrong these days?
Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, #3, #4, Variety, JS Online, Esquire and CBS
The A-Team movie is coming out soon and its sure to stir up the standard anger from the show’s loyal fans like most of these things do, but what is it about the A-Team that has made it such a cultural icon? Is there more to this ragtag group of mercenaries than meets the eye? You bet there is. So let’s take a deep look at the je nais sais quoi that allowed this somewhat formulaic show filled with cartoonish levels of violence to become a long-standing success story.
Image via Wikipedia
Almost everyone’s favorite character in the show is B.A. Barracus, played by Mr. T. The funny thing is that the entire concept of the character, and largely the overall show, was based around Mr. T’s public persona. In fact, when NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff pitched the show, he presented is as a blend of The Dirty Dozen, Mission Impossible, Seven Samurai, Mad Max and Hill Street Blues, with “Mr. T driving the car.”
Naturally the character based after Mr. T shares his love of gold and his mohawk. In the show, he got to point out that the look is not related to the Mohawk people, but is instead an African symbol.
Image via Wikipedia
Since the show’s inception, B.A. was said to stand for “Bad Attitude.” It was even spelled out in the pilot episode when reporter Amy Allen explains, “Bosco Baracus. Known as B.A. for ‘bad attitude.’ The man is a mechanical genius. He also has one of the worst conduct records in the army. He likes to slug officers.” In season 4, you learn that the letters are actually his real initials, as his real full name is actually Bosco Albert Baracas.
In other countries (the show has been notably popular outside the U.S., particularly in the U.K.), his character’s name changed so he could maintain a cool nickname. In Spanish-speaking countries, his character is named Mario Baracas, so the M.A. can stand for “Mala Actitud,” which is an accurate translation of the original. In Russian, he is D.N., or “Durnoi Nrav,” which similarly means “Bad Attitude.” In Italian, his name is P.E. Baracas, which stands for “Pessimo Elemento,” which is similar to saying “Bad Guy.” In Hungary, his name also means Bad Guy, but they simply call him “Rosszfiu.” The weirdest translation I found was the name they give the character in Taiwan, “Guay Tou” which seems to translate to “Wacky Head.”
The members of the A-Team are often referred to as mercenaries because they are such tough guys who are willing to kick butt for money, but the plots almost always required them to fight bad guys for an innocent client (usually a girl) and they often refuse to accept payment in the end.
Additionally, the team is made up of loyal Army soldiers who are only on the run due to a serious misunderstanding. The story is that during the Vietnam War, they were given orders by their original commanding officer to rob the Bank of Hanoi to help put an end to the war. Unfortunately, when they returned to base after the mission, they find that it was burned down and that their commander was killed by the Viet Cong. This erased all evidence that they robbed the bank under orders and they were court-martialed for the crime. They were sent to Fort Bragg, but escaped prison.
Image via herzogbr [Flickr]
When the show came out, it was incredibly successful. The first episode was broadcast after Super Bowl XVII on January 30, 1983 and reached over 25% of the viewing audience. Over the first three season, ratings continued to place the show consistently in the top ten for its time slot, but by the fourth season, viewership started to decline. Some people say this was because more people started to watch family-friendly programs like The Cosby Show, but the network execs thought it might have to do with the show’s predictable plot lines. As a result, they changed things up in the fifth season by letting the team get captured by the Army and work to do suicide missions in exchange for a pardon. Unfortunately, fans hated the idea of the team working under someone else’s orders and viewership decreased even more, resulting in the cancellation of the show after a total of 98 episodes.
The show was big enough at its peak to attract a number of popular celebrities of the day, including Boy George, Isaac Hayes, Hulk Hogan, Rick James, Pat Sajak and Vanna White.
Also, a bit of merchandise was released during the show’s reign including everything from action figures to a Mr. T cola-flavored popsicle.
One of the most widely-remembered things about the show is its cartoonish levels of violence, which almost never actually resulted in injury or death. While some estimates claimed that the show often had as many as 46 different violent acts per episode, co-creator of the program Stephen J. Cannell argued that these acts were not of any consequence because the violence was so unrealistic.
Cannell also admitted that the violence without injuries even got to the point where it was a running joke for the writers, who would often test the limits of realism on purpose and incorporate things like unbelievable helicopter crashes where the victims would simply get up and walk away.
Image via SiamEye [Flickr]
During the show’s run, critics often called it sexist because the females on the show were almost always playing the damsel in distress. The only recurring female characters were those of the “assisting reporter.” It’s one thing to have the appearance of sexism on screen, but both of the actresses were notably disliked by other cast and crew members who simply didn’t think a woman needed to be on the show.
The first of these two actresses, Melinda Culea, was fired after she started demanding more lines and more action scenes. She was quickly replaced mid-season with Marla Heasley who was expected to be more fragile and feminine. Even so, she was quickly let go by the start of the third season when the producers decided they didn’t need a woman cast member.
Heasley claims that her first day on set she was approached by George Peppard, who played Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith on the show. He told her:
“We don’t want you on the show. None of the guys want you here. The only reason you’re here is because the network and the producers want you. For some reason they think they need a girl.”
Later on, he shared his same sentiments in an interview with the Australian paper, the Sunday Mail:
“Whenever the studio slips an actress on to the team, she becomes a distraction. She always slows down the action. She’s someone who’s only there for the glamor shots. Everything stops for the sexy smiles – and I can’t see why that’s necessary on The A-Team.”
Dirk Benedict (seen above), who played Lieutenant Templeton “Faceman,” recently remarked that the show was made to be a guy’s show and that if it had to be made in modern times, they would force it to me so much more feminine that a more proper name would be, “The Gay-Team.” I can’t help but wonder if he feels that way about the new movie, particularly considering that Jessica Beil is playing a ruthless Army officer dedicated to tracking them down.
Image via Marrevee1 [Wikipedia]
Speaking of the movie, that’s not the only major change that’s taking shape in the plot. Instead of being Vietnam vets, the team now served in The Gulf War. They are still on the run after being accused of a crime they did not do and are branded war criminals. Both Jules Daly and Stephen J. Cannell, the show’s original creators, are working on the project. One thing you’ll have to say goodbye to though is the cartoon violence as one of the lead writers has said they intend to have the film be far more gritty and in the vein of Casino Royale and Batman Begins.
Mr T. was offered a cameo, but he turned down the offer and Ice Cube was originally offered the role of B.A. Baracus and John Singleton was assigned to direct the film, but both ended out being pulled from the project. Instead of Mr. T or Ice Cube, MMA fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will be playing B.A. Baracus.
Poster image via Wikipedia
So how about it A-Team fans, are you going to check out the flick?
Sources: Imdb, Telegraph UK, Wikipedia #1, #2, #3
If you’re like me, you were counting the hours until the new season of Doctor Who premiered. For those of you who did watch it, did you like it? How did you feel about the new doctor, played by Matt Smith?
If you are a fan, then hopefully this bit of trivia about the show and The Doctor will help hold you over until the next episode comes on.
Running on more than 30 seasons, Doctor Who is the longest-running science fiction show in the world and considered the most successful science fiction show of all time based on ratings and sales. In fact, more than 750 episodes have been broadcast since the show started. (Take that Star Trek.)
Even one of the top directors of all time, Steven Spielberg has said that “the world would be a poorer place without Doctor Who.”
Image of writer/producer Steven Moffat with his Hugo Award via Dennis Schnapp [Flickr]
In addition to re-spawning the show in 2005, the Doctor Who series has resulted in at least five attempts at television spin-offs –the most successful of which is probably Torchwood –an anagram of Doctor Who. (On a side note, am I the only one who considers Jack Harkness, the main character of Torchwood, to have a name that’s almost too bizarrely close to my own? Think about it, Jill Harness & Jack Harkness…maybe we’re name soul mates.)
Not all of the spin-offs are so good though; there’s a very good reason K-9 and Company, a very 80’s detective-like show featuring K-9 and Sarah Jane, never made it past the pilot episode.
Image via Foomandoonian [Flickr]
A lot of people who are familiar with the show but who don’t actually watch it wonder how one character can be portrayed by so many different actors. Those of you who do watch the show know that it’s because The Doctor is a Time Lord and his race regenerates every time they should die.
Not all fans of Doctor Who know that a Time Lord is only supposed to be able to regenerate a total of 12 times though and The Doctor has so far regenerated a total of 10 times (he’s on his 11th body now). Assuming the show continues to do well, do you think The Doctor may be able to cheat this standard Time Lord rule and regenerate more than 12 times, like his enemy The Master?
Unsurprisingly, the ability to regenerate was developed as a means to keep the doctor alive after the first actor, William Hartnell, announced his desire to leave the show in 1966. In fact, regeneration was never even conceived of until they needed an excuse to keep the show going.
A recent BBC archive release stated that the team based the regeneration cycle on bad LSD trips. The memos said the transformation was a horrifying experience, like the “hell and dank horror” associated with a bad acid dose.
Doctor collage via Wikipedia
After each regeneration, The Doctor looks completely different and takes on a slightly modified personality. This is because each body is supposed to represent a different aspect of the same character. He always maintains the same memories, but his emotions and personality will change to some extent.
Because the purpose of regeneration is partially to allow The Doctor to enjoy a new and youthful body, his character becomes younger every time he regenerates. Fans of the show may recall how old the first Doctors were, particularly when compared with 26 year-old Matt Smith.
Funny enough, Matt Smith is still much younger than anyone on the show or the network wanted The Doctor to be. Few people believed that a 26 year-old could adequately portray the knowledge and life-experience that helps to define The Doctor.
Even so, when he auditioned for the role on the first day, the production team, particularly head writer and producer Steven Moffat were so blown away by his acting abilities, that they immediately knew he was the one. When they announced their decision, they stood firm behind his casting, stating, it had “always been Matt.”
Because Matt was so unknown at the time, the announcement of his casting led both Reuters and The Independent to announce the news as a question, their headlines proclaiming, “Doctor Who?”
Image via Alun.Vega [Flickr]
Many people, including Caitlin Moran, a reviewer for The Times, have noted that Doctor Who is “quintessential to being British.” Many fans believe part of any English childhood should be spent watching Doctor Who from “behind the sofa” and popping your head out when the scary parts are over.
Unfortunately, it’s these scary bits that made the show a target for morality police during the 1970’s. Legendary campaigner Mary Whitehouse repeatedly filed complaints with the BBC about the show’s frightening and gory content. Every time she complained though, it only helped to boost the show’s rating. It got to the point where the show’s producer during the 80’s, John Nathan-Turner, said that he looked forward to her comments because the show’s ratings would jump as soon as she made them.
On the other hand, Whitehouse was definitely onto something. A BBC study in 1972 found that Doctor Who was the most violent of all dramatic programs produced by the network at the time.
Perhaps part of the reason the show survived throughout these controversies though was its noble goal of educating children and providing a family-oriented show for all ages. The plot originally alternated historical stories and futuristic stories in an attempt to get children interested in both history and science and The Doctor’s original companions were even a science teacher and a history teacher.
They soon started cutting back on the historical episodes though because the production team didn’t enjoy making them as much as the sci fi ones and the ratings were never as high anyway. (Personally, I’m a sucker for the historical episodes, but I’m a history nerd anyway.)
Image via Stuart Bryant [Flickr]
Another thing that always seemed to score high with the viewers were monsters, particularly the Daleks. To some extent, the Daleks, are even more famous than The Doctor himself. The Daleks became so popular during the 60’s that they even spawned what was known as Dalekmania, where the public would eat up anything related to the Daleks, including the 1964 board game, “Dodge The Daleks.” The phenomenon was so major, they even made a film titled Dalekmania in 1995 that focused on the fad obsession with the aliens.
In 1964, there was a single released by The Go-Go’s (not the 80’s girl band) called “I’m Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek.” The Clash even referenced them in the song “Remote Control,” saying “Repression — gonna be a Dalek / Repression — I am a robot / Repression — I obey.”
If you think the obsession was over, then consider the 2008 study that showed 9 out of 10 British children could correctly identify a Dalek and that Daleks were featured on an English postage stamp in 1999. In recent years, they were even featured in two separate, unauthorized pornographic movies.
Dalek even appears in the Oxford English Dictionary, as does T.A.R.D.I.S., and is often used as a metaphor for authoritarian people who act robotically.
Image via Heath bar [Flickr]
Speaking of the T.A.R.D.I.S., it’s another classic Doctor Who staple that’s become more recognizable than the actual Time Lord inside of it. If you’re not an avid viewer of the show, you may wonder why the spaceship looks like a police box. All T.A.R.D.I.S.s are made with a Chameleon Circuit that allows them to blend in with the surroundings it lands in. The Doctor’s Chameleon Circuit broke when he was in 1960’s Britain when the ship was in the shape of a police box. He liked the look enough that he decided to not bother fixing the circuit.
When the BBC tried to trademark the famed blue police box in 1996, the Metropolitan Police filed an objection to the claim, arguing that they created and owned the rights to the box design. The Patent Office has since ruled in favor of the network, pointing out that the police never trademarked the box and that they never complained about the fact that the BBC was selling merchandise with the design for more than three decades. It’s also worth noting that the Doctor Who police box has never actually been a faithful replica of the real boxes used by the Metropolitan Police.
The “dimensionally transcendental” properties (as The Doctor says) of the T.A.R.D.I.S. make it much larger inside than it appears to be. While no one has ever made a map of the interior of the ship, it is quite expansive and contains living quarters, an art gallery, a greenhouse, a library, a bathroom, a swimming pool, a medical bay, a multi-storied wardrobe, storage areas, an attic and a secondary control room.
If you’ve ever wondered why such an incredible machine is always breaking down (aside from its age), then it may be beneficial for you to know that when The Doctor acquired his ship, he actually stole it from his home planet and the Type 40 T.A.R.D.I.S. he took was already unreliable and obsolete at the time.
Image via traed mawr [Flickr]
People who don’t watch the show often wonder things like, “what kind of a doctor steals space ships and fights off alien robots?” The thing is, no one actually knows if The Doctor is actually a doctor. At times seems to have some medical knowledge and he’s even claimed to have studied medicine, but he also has said specifically that he’s not a physician. When he’s with Martha Jones, he tends to insist on her doing anything medical-related, saying, “she’s a doctor; I’m The Doctor.”
Perhaps the person who explained it the best was his nemesis, The Master, who quipped that it was quite sanctimonious for The Doctor to label himself as “the man who makes people better.”
It’s not too surprising that a sci-fi show about time and space travel that’s lasted for so long has started to build up some inconsistencies. Fortunately, the new head writer/producer, Steven Moffat (who also created Coupling), has great ways to answer all of those burning fan questions regarding the show’s continuity problems.
One of the biggest issues with The Doctor is the matter of age. At first the writers decided that every time he regenerated, his age should be turned back, but this only lasted through the first regeneration and since then, his age was recorded as going forward. At times The Doctor claims to be 450 years old, 650 years old and even 906 years old. Steven Moffat has simply explained that The Doctor does not know his own age because his non-linear existence via time travel has made this calculation impossible.
In other situations, the entire history of races, such as the Daleks, have been rewritten as time has progressed. Steven Moffat simply explains these concerns away by noting, “a television series which embraces both the ideas of parallel universes and the concept of changing time can’t have a continuity error — it’s impossible for Doctor Who to get it wrong, because we can just say ‘he changed time’,”
Are you a fan of the show? And those of you who are fans, how do you feel about the spin offs and do you know any interesting trivia I didn’t mention here?
Image via Jim Linwood [Flickr]
Sources: BBC #1, #2, Dr. Who Profile, BBC News #1, #2, #3, #4, Wikipedia #1, #2, #3, #4, #5
Cinematical has a list of ideas for making movies based on classic 20th century TV shows. A couple of these I’d never seen, but I definitely remember tuning in to see Martin Landau and company fight to survive each week on Moonbase Alpha (Space:1999, pictured).
The list includes Earth 2, The Six Million Dollar Man, and others with video clips of their opening sequences. Here’s author Kevin Kelley’s take on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century:
We just want to see Buck back on the big screen, where he has never really been (the original TV pilot was edited into a theatrical release). Toss some up and coming young star with good looks and a strong chin in this, and revamp everything. Just keep the cool laser pistols in it, and for god’s sake don’t let Buck disco.
An impressive fan-made intro to that show… Link to Cinematical.
