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Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website. This post is in honor of The Simpsons anniversary tomorrow.
On December 17, 1989 The Simpsons made its debut on Fox TV. What can you say about The Simpsons? Now in its 23rd season, it is, without a doubt, one of the most brilliant television shows of all time. Let’s take a look at some Simpsons trivia you may not have known
Why are they yellow?
Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, said he made the characters yellow to grab the attention of channel surfers.
How much does Maggie cost in the opening sequence?
O.K. we’re all familiar with the classic opening sequence on the show, where Marge and Maggie are at the supermarket checkout line and Maggie goes through the market scanner. Ever wonder how much she scans for? Maggie originally scanned for $847.63, which was the price of raising a baby for one month back in 1989 (when the show debuted). Now things have changed and Marge’s groceries add up to $243.36. When Maggie is added and scanned, she doubles the tab to $486.52.
Tracy Ullman sued the show.
The Simpsons is one of the most successful spinoffs in history, spawning from The Tracy Ullman Show. Tracy Ullman’s variety show ran for three years on Fox, and The Simpsons originated as brief cartoon vignettes on the show. Dan Castellanetta (the voice of “Homer”) and Julie Kavner (“Marge”) were regulars on the series, nancy Cartwright (“Bart”) and Yeardley Smith (“Lisa”) were brought in to do the voiceovers for the cartoons. After The Simpsons took off on its own, Tracy Ullman sued, unsuccessfully, to earn a share of The Simpsons‘ merchandising bonanza. (So far, The Simpsons has lasted twenty years longer than the show that spawned it.)
Most unnecessary translation switch.
The Simpsons is dubbed in by foreign-speaking actors for its runs in many different countries. In episodes dubbed in French, Homer’s catchphrase “D’oh!” is translated and read as “T’oh!”
Most Parodied movie?
The Simpsons is always incredibly clever satire. One of the show’s favorite satire targets is, of course, the movies. According to the show’s creators, the show’s most parodied film is Citizen Kane. “They could create an entire film from Simpsons clips,” a Simpsons writer has stated, referring to the amount of Citizen Kane gags they’ve used.he added that The Godfather films were very popular targets, too. Specifically, the show’s creators listed the show’s four most popular movie targets for satire as:
1. Citizen Kane
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. The Shining
4. A Clockwork Orange
What celebrity guest star has played the most roles?
The Simpsons is not only the longest-running animated TV show in history, but it holds the record for the most celebrity guest star appearances. Albert Brooks has made the most guest appearances in the most different roles: five different appearances as five different characters.
Many last names come from actual streets.
Matt Groening got many of the last names of characters on the show from streets in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Lovejoy, Quimby, Flanders, Kearney, Terwilliger, and Burnside are all actual street names in Portland.
Who is the only character on The Simpsons to have five fingers on a hand?
The Simpsons characters, like almost all animated characters, have only four fingers on each hand.Only one Simpsons character has ever had five fingers. “God” is the only character portrayed on The Simpsons to ever have five fingers.
Secret Hidden Beatles Message
Of all the hundreds of Simpsons celebrity guest voices, just six have appeared in episodes as both themselves and as a fictional character. They are Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Mark Hamill, Steve Buscemi, and Joe Montagna.
Sensitive guest voice.
Former heavyweight boxing champion “Smokin’” Joe Frazier guested on a Simpsons episode. In the episode, Joe gets into a fight with the local drunk, Barney Gumbel. Joe objected to Barney beating him in a fight, so the writers changed the scene so Joe would win.
For more on The Simpsons, see The Birth of The Simpsons, Life Imitates The Simpsons, and Meet Omar Shamshoon.
Designer Yoni Alter made this adorable print featuring the eyes of a variety of famous cartoon characters? Can you name them all? If not, don’t worry, she also released a cheat sheet for the poster.
Link Via BoingBoing
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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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
While those of you with kids might have gone to see the Smurfs movie, I’m assuming the rest of you haven’t. From what I’ve heard, you aren’t missing much if you haven’t seen it, but I can’t talk from first-hand experience because I haven’t gone either. Regardless of what you think of the new movie, it’s always nice to look back at the things that made The Smurfs so great in the first place.
Image via It’s Meng! [Flickr]
You may have wondered where the heck the word “smurf” came from and why the characters use it so often in the show, but as it turns out, the original characters weren’t “smurfs,” they were “schtroumpfs.” The whole thing started when the creator of the comics, Peyo, was at lunch with a fellow Belgian comic artist named André Franquin. If you’ve ever had a moment where you forgot the name of something, then you’ll understand Peyo’s frustration when he couldn’t remember the word “salt.” Being a goofy guy, he instead pointed at the salt and asked his friend to pass the schtroumpf. Franquin responded, “Here’s the schtroumpf — when you are done schtroumpfing, schtroumpf it back.” The rest of the meal, the two joked around using the word “schtroumpf” periodically throughout their conversation.
Now you know why the characters use their name so much in conversation, but suddenly, the question of how the comics became The Smurfs instead of The Schtroumpfs. Well, as I said, this all happened in Belgium, where the native language is French. The first language the comic was translated to was Dutch and while the name could have stayed the same (do you really need to translate an imaginary word?), Schtroumpfs didn’t quite sound right to Dutch speakers, so the name was instead changed to smurfen. When the comic was translated to English, the word “smurf” sounded good, so it was based on the Dutch version.
Image via Stephen and Claire Farnsworth [Flickr]
The first introduction of the Smurf characters started in Peyo’s earlier comic, Johan and Pirlouit. This strip took place in the Middle Ages and incorporated elements of sorcery and sword fights. In 1958, Peyo started a new series of the strip, which revolved around the characters searching for a magic flute. At one point in the story, the characters run into a number of schtroumpfs, small creatures with blue skin and human-like features. The smurf characters were a smashing success, so Peyo wrote them their own strip that first appeared in 1959. Although the smurfs would periodically interact with Johan and Pirlouit, the spin off was largely based on their own stories.
Technically there are two girls, Smurfette, who everyone is familiar with, and Sassette, who first appeared in the fifth season of the cartoon. According to the smurf back story though, there are actually no smurf females. Smurfette was actually created by Gargamel in part of an evil plan to cause jealousy amongst the smurfs and Sassette was created by the smurfs using the same magic formula they stole from Gargamel. Sassette was intended to provide Smurfette with a female friend, but because Sassette was a pretty big tom boy, the two didn’t get along at first. If you’re wondering why Sassette is so much smaller than the adult smurfs if she’s not supposed to be a baby, it’s because all adult smurfs stand 3 crab apples tall, but they only had two crab apples worth of clay when they created her.
Strangely, after making sure the two female characters were both made from clay and magic spells, season 8 featured another female, Nanny Smurf, with no background story explaining her creation. Nanny Smurf was Grandpa Smurf’s gal, but she disappeared in a haunted house for 500 years before the smurfs rescued her. She only lasted one season and appeared in one episode in season 9 before disappearing forever again.
If you’ve been itching for more female characters in the comic, Peyo’s son who is the current writer of the French comics has promised that he will be introducing more females in upcoming years.
Image via Scottobear [Flickr]
Most people seem to think that smurf berries aren’t real, but as it turns out, they are really supposed to be the berries from the sarsaparilla tree. Interestingly, in the comics, the smurfs don’t eat smurf berries, but instead gorge on the leaves of the plant.
If you’ve ever watched the cartoon and thought that Papa Smurf or Gargamel’s voices sounded familiar, you’re right, you probably have heard them somewhere else. Papa Smurf was voiced by legendary cartoon voice actor Don Messick who also did the voices of Boo Boob Bear, Ranger Smith, Astro, Muttley, Scooby Doo, Scrappy Doo and Droopy. As for Gargamel, his voice was performed by Paul Winchell, a professional ventriloquist who became a voice actor later in life. Some of Winchell’s more famous roles included Dick Dastardly (that’s right, he and Mesick worked together before) and everyone’s favorite spring-tailed predator, Tigger.
Image via DNNYA17 [Flickr]
Do you guys dig The Smurfs? What about the movie, if you’ve seen it, what did you think?
Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, #3, Smurfs Wiki #1, #2, #3
I can understand a writer making this mistake in the midst of writing dozens of questions a day, but shouldn’t an editor have caught this?
Inception is one of those rare movies that has gotten rave reviews from nearly everyone who has seen it, critics and the public alike (it’s currently 87% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes). If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t worry – there’s a spoiler warning if you scroll down. Just don’t read past that point if you don’t want to know anything until you see it for yourself!
Inception was originally written as a horror film about dream-stealers. It developed over a period of nine to ten years, and somewhere during that time it evolved into more of a heist movie.
Christopher Nolan tried to work with Leonardo DiCaprio for years, but Inception was the first script of his that DiCaprio was really interested in.
When Nolan first started writing the movie, he was influenced by The Matrix, Dark City and The Thirteenth Floor, movies that were supposed to make you wonder how real the world around you really is.
Without Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, there would have been no Inception. Although Nolan had the basic idea ready in 2001, he felt he needed more experience making large-scale films. Once he had proved himself with the smash success of the Batman movies, he thought he was ready to pitch and make his own large-scale, big-budget idea.
Production took the cast and crew all over the world. Locations included Tokyo, London, Paris, Tangiers, L.A. and Canada.
Instead of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it could have been James Franco playing Cobb’s right-hand-man Arthur. Franco had to drop out due to “scheduling conflicts.” One source reports that he was busy working on Your Highness, the sequel to Pineapple Express.
Despite the difficult and surreal subject matter, Christopher Nolan tried to limit the use of computer-generated effects as much as possible.
The guitar parts of the soundtrack were played by Johnny Marr, former guitarist of The Smiths.
Some critics said Nolan ripped off a 1961 French movie called Last Year at Marienbad, but Nolan says he didn’t see it until after Inception had wrapped.
According to Box Office Mojo, as of last week, Inception is the highest-grossing film ever in three categories: Crime Time, Heist/Cape, and Mindbender.
Ariadne, the character Ellen Page plays, was originally supposed to be played by Evan Rachel Wood. When she turned it down, Nolan considered Emily Blunt, Emma Roberts and Rachel McAdams before deciding on the Juno star.
This movie is proof that some child stars grow up to be wildly successful in their careers: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Lukas Haas were all working in the entertainment industry before they were 10.
In the movie, Saito owns an interesting set of barrel chairs. Those were originally designed for the famous Frank Lloyd Wright house, Fallingwater, but the owners of the house didn’t particularly care for them.
An Edith Piaf song – “Rien de rien” – is used in the movie. Because Marion Cotillard (Mal) played Ms. Piaf in La vie en rose in 2007, the song was nearly pulled because Christopher Nolan didn’t want viewers to think he was making an inside joke. Composer Hans Zimmer convinced him the song was too perfect to get rid of.
Many of the names in the movie have hidden (or not-so-hidden) meaning.
• Cillian Murphy’s character, Robert Fischer, Jr., is named after chess player Bobby Fischer.
• Maurice Fischer is named after M.C. (Maurits Cornelis) Escher.
• Eames is a reference to Charles and Ray Eames, a couple who designed furniture and architecture and made avant-garde films.
• The word “Cobb,” the last name of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, means “dream” in Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi.
• “Mal” is short for ‘Mallorie’ from the French word Malheur – misfortune. And of course, in lots of languages “mal” translates to something along the lines of “bad.”
• Ariadne is part of the Greek Minotaur myth. Legend has it she helped Theseus find his way out of the Minotaur’s maze by giving him a ball of red fleece.
• Yusuf is the Arabic form of Joseph. In the Bible, Joseph had the gift of dream interpretation.
There’s another reference to M.C. Escher in the movie – the “paradox staircase.” It’s an homage to Escher’s “The Infinite Staircase” or “Ascending and Descending.”
A long hotel corridor was constructed that actually rotated 360 degrees to create strange gravity effects. The hallway was originally only supposed to be 40 feet long but expanded to 100 feet as the action sequence was written to be more elaborate and in depth. Joseph Gordon-Levitt did all of his own stunts in the hallway, by the way, and spent time practicing in a “human hamster wheel.”
Ariadne’s tight bun hairstyle in some scenes is more for practical reasons than aesthetic ones: during the anti-gravity parts, filmmakers didn’t want to worry about how her hair should be reacting.
Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy have worked together three times in the past few years (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and Inception) and each time, Cillian Murphy has spent the majority of his time onscreen with a bag over his head. Hmm. Coincidence, I’m sure.
Bewitched was an American television series that ran from 1964 to 1972. The premise was that a witch (Samantha Stephens) married an advertising executive (Darrin Stephens), but in order to blend in with “mortals”, Samantha had to keep her supernatural powers secret. However, neither she nor Darrin could control her wacky relatives -particularly Samantha’s magically meddling mother Endora! In most episodes their cover was nearly blown, but the couple explained away the most ridiculous situations as a “demonstration” of a creative new advertising campaign.
1. The biggest controversy on Bewitched was the sudden switch in Darrins. Dick York played Darrin from 1964 to 1969, when Dick Sargent slipped into the role with no explanation. Dick York had suffered a back injury while filming a movie in 1959. Continued pain left him addicted to prescription painkillers, which damaged his health as years went by. By 1969, he was suffering blackouts on the set. In January York was rushed from the set to the hospital and never returned to Bewitched. After he left the show, he was flat on his back for a year. York also suffered financial losses from bad investments and he and his wife cleaned houses for a living at one point. By 1980 he kicked the drugs and began acting again. York died of emphysema in 1992.
(Image source: TV Trivia)
2. Ratings for Bewitched fell in its final three years, which many blamed on the Darrin switch. It wasn’t Dick Sargent’s fault; people just didn’t like the change from a more familiar face. In fact, Dick Sargent could have very well been the original Darrin! He auditioned for the show in 1964 and was actually offered the job, even before Elizabeth Montgomery was cast as Samantha. However, he had to decline as he was under contract to Universal Studios, which wanted him for the series Broadside.
3. A few new phrases were born from Bewitched. Darrin Syndrome is the term for replacing the actor of a main character with no explanation. This situation is sometimes called The Other Darrin. It happens a lot, but in the case of the character Becky in the series Roseanne, there were constant jokes about the switch. In one episode, the family watched Bewitched on TV and actress Sarah Chalke (the second Becky) remarked that she preferred the second Darrin. Of course.
4. Darrin was not the only character played by two actors in Bewitched. Among others, the neighbor Gladys Kravitz was portrayed by Alice Pearce at first, then by Sandra Gould. However, Gladys Kravitz Syndrome has nothing to do with TV casting. It’s a term used when people are just too nosy about the lives of their neighbors.
5. The characters on Bewitched drank so much alcohol that a fan website created a database of the drinking incidents with locations and episode numbers.
6. Elizabeth Montgomery, who played Samantha, also played her deliciously mischievous cousin Serena in several episodes. She was not credited for the role, as producers figured it would be obvious. The role was credited to “Pandora Spocks”, who didn’t exist but received fan mail from viewers who didn’t get the joke. Spocks eventually received her own biography from a fan site.
7. The real house used in the 1959 movie Gidget was copied, but reversed, to build the set for Bewitched. The patio and living rooms were copied from those used in the 1963 movie Gidget Goes to Rome. The exterior set used for the home of nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz later became the home of The Partridge Family.
8. The Stephens had two children during the run of the series, but they were not ratings gimmicks. Elizabeth Montgomery produced two children, her second and third, as she played Samantha in Bewitched, and both pregnancies were written into the show. Her son Robert Asher was born in 1965 as daughter Tabitha appeared in the series, and daughter Rebecca Asher was born in 1969 as Adam Stephens was born in the series.
9. In the last year of the series, Bewitched was cursed with terrible time slots. Already showing its age, the series’ ratings fell faster than ever in 1971-72 when it was scheduled against the very popular Carol Burnett Show and then moved opposite the powerhouse series All in the Family.
10. Elizabeth Montgomery cherished her privacy, and felt no need to make her vital statistics public. When she died in 1995, her age was published as 57, although she was actually 62. She had married Robert Foxworth a couple of years before her death, but few knew about it, so some obituaries said she was single. Her death certificate said “Elizabeth A. Montgomery”, but her actual middle name was Victoria.
Neatorama and mental_floss have teamed up for another chance for you to win prizes! The latest How Did You Know contest starts today at mental_floss. Every day this week, you’ll get two challenges at noon and another at 8PM. Every day, someone who solves the Level 3 challenge will win a prize from the NeatoShop ($25 limit)! Be sure to post your answer at the proper place by 10PM. Solve the ultimate week-long puzzle and win a prize from the NeatoShop PLUS a mental_floss t-shirt and your picture posted on the blog! Good luck. Link
Comments Off It’s been 15 years since the first Toy Story came out. I have to say, I can’t think of many movies with great sequels, let alone movies that are still good by the time #3 rolls around. But from everything I’ve been hearing, Toy Story 3 is every bit as good as the original, if not better. Having an infant in the house makes it a bit challenging to get to the movies, so I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s definitely on my list as soon as I get the chance. In the meantime, let’s flashback to the movie that put the franchise on the map back in 1995.
You probably know it’s common practice for animators to act out a scene or movement to get an idea of how the action would really look. But those green plastic army men obviously don’t move in real life, so the animation team had to come up with a creative solution: they glued some sneakers to pieces of plywood and tried to walk using that.
An early version of the script portrayed Woody as a sarcastic jerk who was constantly berating and insulting his fellow toy box members. It just didn’t feel right, so writers went back to the drawing board and spent a week making Woody the nice guy we know today.
Barbie is in the movies now, of course, along with her on-again-off-again beau, Ken. But the first time around, Mattel passed on letting their iconic doll be featured in the movie. They claimed that they didn’t want Barbie to have a personality defined by a company; they wanted kids to provide the personality when they played with the dolls. Hmm. Considering all of the Barbie videos already out on the market, I call shenanigans on that one. After Toy Story was a confirmed hit, Mattel gave their approval for the sequels. Go figure.
Can you imagine Billy Crystal as the voice of Buzz Lightyear? It could have happened. Disney and Pixar were wooing Crystal, but Billy declined, feeling his voice just wan’t a good fit. “It’s the only regret I have in the business of something I passed on,” he has said. I’m sure Tim Allen is grateful. But no harm, no foul – Crystal went on to voice Mike in Monsters, Inc., which did pretty well at the box office too.
Any Far Side Neatoramanauts out there? If you’ve seen Toy Story, it’s likely you’ve already spotted this tribute to Gary Larson: it’s when the toy shark does a Woody impression, saying, “Look at me, I’m Woody! Howdy Howdy Howdy!” A Far Side strip from the early ’80s macabrely shows a vulture wearing a dead cowboy’s Stetson, declaring, “Hey everyone, look at me, I’m a cowboy! Howdy! Howdy! Howdy!” Check it out here.
Pixar is famous for their Easter eggs – fun little bits hidden in the movie for viewers to find. Here are just a few of them:
• All vehicles in the movie have license plate stickers that are dated November ’95, which is when the movie was first released.
• Woody gets trapped in a milk crate with a toolbox perched on top of it. The toolbox is labeled “Binford,” which is the company that sponsored Tim “The Toolman” Taylor’s show on Home Improvement, starring, of course, Tim Allen.
• Many of the Easter eggs won’t mean anything to you unless you worked on the film or are very familiar with the people who did. For instance, many of the “authors” of the books on Andy’s shelves are actually the names of people who worked on the movie. Even the character of Andy has meaning – his name comes from Brown University Professor Andries Van Dam, a computer animation guru who taught many Pixar employees. Similarly, the letter/number combo “A113″ is worked into all Pixar movies – this is the room number of the animation department at the California Institute for the Arts, where a lot of staffers went to school. In Toy Story, it’s on the license plate of Andy’s mom’s car.
Toy Story was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2005, the very first year it was eligible for inclusion. By contrast, Beauty and the Beast took 21 years to be inducted.
Buzz Lightyear is named after astronaut Buzz Aldrin, obviously. Buzz Aldrin seems to enjoy this fact, as he pulled a Buzz Lightyear action figure out to great applause during a speech at NASA. NASA likes him, too – on May 31, 2008, a Buzz accompanied the real-life astronauts of the space Shuttle Discovery on a mission. He docked with the International Space Station and became the first toy to walk on the moon.
(Image credit: NASA)
Woody is voiced by Tom Hanks, obviously, but in non-movie media, he is usually voiced by Jim Hanks – Tom’s brother.
Speaking of the pull-string cowboy, Andy’s once-favorite toy was named after Woody Strode, an actor who appeared in quite a few Westerns in the ’50s and ’60s. Woody the doll does have a last name, but it’s not Strode. Editor and director Lee Unkrich revealed on his Twitter that since the very first Toy Story, Woody’s last name has been “Pride.”
We’re in the process of pimping our YouTube page. It would be really awesome if someone had the time to upload a video comment to the below video directly on our YouTube page so we can test that functionality. If it’s a good video, we’ll post it on our Facebook page (how’s that for incentive?!).
Ask Otis was animated by neatoramanaut kalapusa who you got to know last week when Alex posted his awesome Super Mario Bros. Piranha Plant Sculpture. We hope you enjoy the pilot episode. Leave comments below telling us what question you’d like to see Otis answer next, or, again, as already requested, leave video comments on our YouTube page. If we pick your question, you’ll win your pick of any neato-tee in our shop! So make sure you tell us which tee you want when you leave that comment, okay?
With the new Alice in Wonderland making its debut recently, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit one of the old ones. It’s not the original – Alice has been made many, many times – but the Disney version is definitely one of the most well-known. Enjoy the trivia, and if you don’t, well… off with your head!
Walt Disney had already had some success with Alice in Wonderland. Combining live action and animation, Walt had a little girl named Virginia Davis star as Alice in a series of shorts called “The Alice Comedies.” From 1923 to 1927, Davis starred in 57 of these short films, including titles like “Alice’s Egg Plant,” “Alice Chops the Suey,” “Alice the Whaler” and “Alice Rattled by Rats.”
Based on this earlier success, Disney thought he might do a full-length live action-animation combo movie. When the movie was in its early stages, Mary Pickford did some color screen tests as Alice. By 1945, Disney thought he might like Ginger Rogers to star as the precocious little girl. This fell through, and by 1946, work had begun on an animated version that would have art design quite similar to the Tenniel illustrations from the original Lewis Carroll book. This version even get as far as storyboards, but Walt ended up hating it and had changed his mind back to a movie that would combine live action and animation. As you might have guessed, this idea also fell through, and by the late ‘40s, animation was started for the movie we know today.
If you love the bright colors and modern design of the movie, you have Mary Blair to thank. Blair’s distinct style can also be seen in Peter Pan, Song of the South and Cinderella. She is probably best known for art not in a movie, though – Blair is responsible for the design of the famous (or infamous) ride It’s a Small World. She also made a 90-foot mural for the Disney’s Contemporary Resort.
If you’ve read the book, you know that there were a large number of songs and poems written by Lewis Carroll that didn’t make it into the movie. But it wasn’t for lack of trying. Disney hired more than 30 songwriters to try to transform Carroll’s whimsical words to music, but it was simply impossible to cram them all into a 75-minute movie. Still, the movie boasts the most songs ever used in an animated Disney film. Because some of them are just snippets of songs, though, most people don’t really realize this.
Alice was supposed to sing a ballad called “Beyond the Laughing Sky” that would be somewhat similar to Dorothy’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in The Wizard of Oz. It wasn’t well-suited to Kathryn Beaumont’s (the voice of Alice) vocal range, though, and it seemed to drag the movie down a little. The lyrics were later changed and it was repurposed for Peter Pan under the name “Second Star to the Right.”
The movie was kind of a flop. It wasn’t a total disaster, but just like with any book-to-film adaptation, there were literary fans waiting to pounce on inaccuracies and omitted scenes they felt were vital. It wasn’t a big hit until the 1960s and ‘70s, when it became associated with drug culture. This wasn’t exactly how Walt pictured the film succeeding, but Disney eventually rolled with it – the company re-released the movie in 1974 and again in 1981.
Do the voices in the movie seem slightly familiar? If you watch a lot of Disney movies, there’s a good reason for that. Walt was loyal to his actors and would use them in multiple movies. Alice’s voice, Kathryn Beaumont, was also Wendy in Peter Pan and still provides the voices for both today (she has been featured in the Kingdom Hearts video games and in the rides at Disney Parks). Ed Wynn, the Mad Hatter, can also be seen in Mary Poppins as the giggly Uncle Albert and as the toymaker in Babes in Toyland. Sterling Holloway, the Cheshire Cat, might have found the most success with Disney, though: he was the voice of Winnie the Pooh, the voice of Roquefort in The AristoCats, Kaa in The Jungle Book, and had bit parts in Bambi, Dumbo, The Three Caballeros and Snow White.
The movie is actually a combination of two books – the original Alice in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass.
Alice was originally going to encounter the Jabberwocky as she does in the books, but that scene was cut (rumor has it the beast was too scary). If you pay close attention, though, you can catch a couple of references to the creature: the Cheshire Cat sings a stanza from the poem, and there’s also an appearance by the Mome Raths, which are mentioned in the Jabberwocky poem.
So are you looking forward to the new movie? Think it can’t possibly top the original? Or are you strictly a book purist?
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a staple in our household, which is funny, because I remember being quite scared of the steamroller scene near the end when I was a kid. Now that I’m older, I appreciate it more from standpoint of how much work it took to get such a groundbreaking movie made – and here are some of the inside details on exactly what it took to make that happen. For the record, I still find the steamroller scene a little creepy.
Like so many movies, this one was a book before it ever hit the screen. In this case, the book was named Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, by Gary K. Wolf. But the film doesn’t follow the book exactly. For instance, the book took place in present day – which was 1981 – not 1947.
And instead of famous animated cartoon characters making appearances, famous cartoon strip characters pop up to chat with Roger, including Dick Tracy. Most Toons like Tracy “spoke” in the book the only way they knew how – through word bubbles. Some became “bilingual” and could speak without balloons. The only line in the whole book that made it to the silver screen was spoken by Baby Herman – “I’ve got a 50-year-old lust and a three-year-old dinky.” In the book, though, Baby Herman was actually 50, not 36. The ending is a lot different too, but I won’t spoil that for you (Google will tell you pretty quickly, if you’re dying to know).
After the movie became a success in 1988, Wolf wrote a second book (though not necessarily a sequel) that fell more in line with the movie than with his original book. It’s called Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?
It’s probably music to the ears of Roger Rabbit fans: a prequel. According to the prequel, Roger grew up on a farm in the midwest and headed out to California to try to find his real mother. That’s how he falls in love with Jessica Krupnick (Jessica Rabbit has a much better ring to it, don’t you think?) and eventually meets not only his mother, but his father too – none other than Bugs Bunny.
The movie would have been a direct-to-video release. As of 1997, Michael Eisner was onboard for the prequel and commissioned a rewrite of the script; in 1998 some test footage was even shot. After estimations brought the cost of the movie to about $100 million, the idea was more or less shelved.
However, just last year, Robert Zemeckis said he was interested in doing the prequel and it’s rumored that the script is being worked on again. I guess we’ll see. I’d certainly go see it.
I did. Here are some other fun facts from the movie.
Although Roger and his cartoon pals have largely been abandoned at Disney, you can still find traces of them here and there. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled the next time you’re at Disney Hollywood Studios – if you look in the right place, you’ll find Eddie Valiant’s office, complete with the “hole” where Roger busted through the glass. There’s also a billboard for R.K. Maroon Studios.
Kathleen Turner famously provided Jessica Rabbit’s sultry voice, but Amy Irving – then Steven Spielberg’s wife – was her singing voice.
This was the last film Mel Blanc provided his famous voices for, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat – with one exception. He did provide Daffy’s voice one more time in 1988 before passing away in 1989.
The movie’s original budget was $29.9 million dollars – the most an animated movie had ever cost at the time. But the price tag could have been even more astronomical – Roger was slated to cost $50 million at first, but Disney refused to shell out that much and wouldn’t approve production until costs were slashed. Rumor has it that by the time production was finished, the budget had soared to around $70 million.
Despite the cavalcade of characters from across the cartoon universe, a few that Disney wanted are missing: Popeye and Olive Oyl, Tom and Jerry, Casper the Friendly Ghost and Deputy Dawg. They couldn’t secure the rights for these in time for the movie.
Before the final title was finally settled on, others that were considered included Murder in Toontown, Dead Toons Don’t Pay Bills, Trouble in Toontown and Eddie Goes to Toontown.
The book has a question mark after the title, but the movie doesn’t – ending a movie title with a question mark is considered bad luck in the industry, apparently. This hasn’t stopped Who’s Harry Crumb?; What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?; or Dude, Where’s My Car?. The principle does apply to What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Who’s That Girl, however.
Warner Brothers would only allow the use of their toons if they got the same screen time as Disney’s toons. Thus, when you see Bugs, he’s usually with Mickey, and when you see Daffy, Donald is probably there too. Screencap from Obsessed with Film.
To make Judge Doom extra creepy, Robert Zemeckis had Christopher Lloyd refrain from blinking during his scenes. I’m tempted to watch just to see if I can catch him. Tim Curry auditioned for the role of Judge Doom, but he was so disturbingly sinister that Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner all nixed him for fear that he would give children nightmares.
The inspiration for Jessica Rabbit was taken from a bunch of Hollywood glamour girls, including Lauren Bacall, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth and Veronica Lake.
Zemeckis and Spielberg both really wanted Bill Murray for the role of Eddie Valiant, but Murray is notoriously hard to get a hold of, so it never happened. Murray has said that when he later found out that he was the number one choice for the role, he screamed out loud because he would have loved playing Eddie.
If you haven’t kept track of all of the animated cameos in the movie, here’s a list to watch for the next time you catch Roger on T.V.:
I like to think that I’ve picked up a lot of random trivia as a writer. I often blurt out trivia at really inappropriate moments in casual conversation. I like to think that I would rock on Jeopardy!, but I have taken the show’s sample audition quizzes before, and the fact is… I suck. However, if there’s ever a Jeopardy! category about Jeopardy!, I might just ace it… and now you can too.
1. The original name of the show was What’s the Question? After pitching it to the network brass, Merv Griffin decided to change the name to the catchier one we know today. The reason? One of the execs thought that the game was a great idea, but that the game needed more jeopardies. NBC ended up buying the show without even seeing a pilot.
2. The winner with the smallest amount of earnings at the end of the game managed to triumph over the other two contestants by keeping a mere dollar. On January 19, 1993, Air Force Lt. Col. Daryl Scott cleverly bid just enough to keep him afloat. The other contestants got the question wrong and lost everything. No one else has ever won by keeping a single George Washington. The answer? “His books ‘No Easy Walk to Freedom’ and ‘The Struggle is My Life’ were published during his imprisonment.” The question? “Who is Nelson Mandela.”
3. The infamous Final Jeopardy music has a name – it’s called “Time for Tony” and it was written by Merv Griffin as a lullaby for his son. If you’re familiar with the song, no doubt it’s not much of a lullaby to you – it serves more as a reminder that time is running out and you’d better hurry. It was tweaked a little bit and renamed “Think!” Over the years, Griffin estimated that royalties from the theme song earned him roughly $70 million.
4. The record for the largest one-day total ever belongs to Ken Jennings, of course. He’s the only contestant to surpass $52,000 in one day, and he surpassed it by a landslide with $75,000. Jennings actually holds 11 of the top 15 earnings spots. One of these top 15 spots was actually earned during Jeopardy! Kids Week by a 12-year-old from Virginia named Kunle Demuren, whose knowledge and quick buzzer finger earned him $49,000. Photo from Moore’s Lore.
5. Back in the pre-Trebek era when Art Fleming was the host, contestants could start the audition process by just giving the office in New York a call. They would pass preliminary tests over the phone and then set up a date and time to audition in person if the were eligible. Once they made it to the actual office, potential contestants went through a written test and a faux game. These days, the audition process often starts on the Internet during designated testing times. Sometimes a “Brain Bus” also roams the country and tests Ken Jennings-wannabes. If you think you have what it takes, one of the online testing periods is coming up soon – January 26-28 for adults.
6. In the show’s entire history, a three-way tie has only happened once. It happened fairly recently too – on March 16, 2007, every single contestant ended Final Jeopardy with $16,000. They all returned the following week to play again. You can see it happen here – Alex Trebek seems quite pleased.
7. “I Lost on Jeopardy” was released by Weird Al Yankovic in 1984. Original host Art Fleming has a cameo as himself and original announcer Don Pardo shows up to tell Yankovic all of the fabulous prizes he failed to win. The funny thing is, Weird Al was actually on Rock & Roll Jeopardy and lost to Gary Dell’Abate, better known as Howard Stern’s sidekick Baba Booey.
8. Julann Griffin, Merv’s wife, was integral to the development of the show. She helped him develop the unique answer-and-question format when they were on a plane ride to New York in the early ’60s. From 1964-1975, a piece Julann composed served as the theme to the show. It was called “Take Ten.”
9. If Alex Trebek seems a little condescending when he corrects players with wrong answers, as if he would know the answers himself even without his cheat sheet, well… he just might. Trebek is pretty brainy. Time magazine once asked him if there was an easy question that he ever didn’t know the answer to, and this was Trebek’s response:
We were doing some shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and during the commercial breaks I’d go out and talk to the people in the audience. And a little boy stood up and asked, When was the Magna Carta signed? I said 1216. I was off by a year. I know a lot about the Magna Carta, but unfortunately I got the date wrong in front of 6,000 people.
He admits that he probably wouldn’t do too well if he actually had to participate on the show, though, due to his slow reflexes.
Read more of that interview at Time.
We all know the tired old legends and facts – George Washington ‘fessed up to chopping down a cherry tree; Abraham Lincoln lived in a log cabin; JFK had an affair with Marilyn Monroe; Bill Clinton had some laundering issues with a Gap dress. But there’s more than meets the eye with the Presidents – here are a few lesser-known facts about each of them. And in case you’re wondering about the weird math, Grover Cleveland was President for non-consecutive terms (the only President to ever do so, actually), so he technically counts as Presidents #22 and #24.
1. George Washington indulged in luxuries such as leopard-skin blankets for all of his horses.
2. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day – July 4, 1826, which just so happened to be the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
3. Thomas Jefferson attributed his long life (he lived to the age of 83, which was pretty long in the tooth for the early 1800s) to his daily habit of cold foot baths.
4. James Madison is the shortest president to date, standing just 5’4”. His stature didn’t go unnoticed – John Quincy Adams’ wife once described him as “a very small man in his person with a very large head.”
5. James Monroe once chased William H. Crawford, his secretary of the treasury, out of the White House with a pair of red hot tongs from the fireplace. Crawford gave Monroe a list of people he wanted considered for “political patronage,” and when Monroe informed Crawford that his list was not needed or wanted, Crawford called the President “a damned infernal scoundrel.” When he brandished his cane at Monroe, Monroe went for the tongs.
6. John Quincy Adams didn’t have such a great relationship with his three sons. When one of them failed to make the top 10 in his class at Harvard, JQA wrote to him and said that he felt “Nothing but shame and sorrow in your presence.” That was his namesake, John, who later became an alcoholic, as did brother George. George later committed suicide.
7. Andrew Jackson was nearly assassinated. A man named Richard Lawrence decided that Jackson was the only thing keeping him from inheriting the British throne and tried to shoot him as Jackson was leaving the Capitol. The gun misfired. Lawrence came prepared with a backup gun, drew it, and fired again. It also misfired. Legend has it that about this time, Jackson started beating his would-be killer with his cane. Davy Crockett was one of the men who helped disarm Lawrence.
8. Martin Van Buren didn’t relish his days in the White House, to be sure. He once said, “As for the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it.” It didn’t stop him for running for a second term (he didn’t achieve it).
9. William Henry Harrison. His death is the reason we have firm plans in place for the presidential succession. Harrison served just 31 days, 12 hours and 30 minutes of his presidency; he died of pneumonia and septicemia and was the first American President to die in office. At the time, no one was sure if the Vice President should become President or would merely be Acting President. It was decided that since Harrison’s VP John Tyler took the Oath of Office, he would retain the title for the duration of Harrison’s original term.
10. John Tyler married a girl 30 years his junior (Julia, pictured) and began courting her just three months after his wife’s death. His youngest daughter – the fifteenth Tyler child – was born when Tyler was 70.
11. James K. Polk never vacationed, kept long hours and was always all business. He accomplished much during his presidency, including a victory in the Mexican-American War, founding an independent treasury, opened the Naval Academy, issued the first postage stamps, opened the Smithsonian Museum and oversaw the groundbreaking for the Washington Monument, and expanded the United States further west. He also died just three months after leaving office – most historians agree that he basically worked himself to death.
12. Zachary Taylor was a big fan of chewing tobacco and had no problems with spitting his chaw juice out on the White House carpet if a suitable urn wasn’t available.
13. Millard Fillmore met Queen Victoria in 1855. She promptly declared that Fillmore was the handsomest man she had ever laid eyes upon. He was also the last member of the Whig Party to be President.
14. Franklin Pierce was a rather tragic figure. His first two sons died in childhood – one at birth and one at the age of four. Young deaths were not uncommon at the time, but it caused his wife to become a bit overprotective of their third and last son, Bennie. Two months before Pierce took office, he and his family were traveling in a train that derailed and then slid down an embankment. The only fatality? Eleven-year-old Bennie.
15. James Buchanan is the only president who never married. He was engaged once, but it ended pretty badly – her parents convinced her that Buchanan wasn’t good enough for her, so she broke it off. She then took ill and died soon after. Buchanan wrote a letter to her father and asked to be allowed to follow after her coffin at the funeral; her father had it returned to sender.
16. Abraham Lincoln was notoriously messy. Legend has it that his office was a terrible mess and that he kept an envelope in his desk that said, “When you can’t find it anywhere else, look into this.”
17. Andrew Johnson was a tailor and absolutely loved his job. In fact, when he was governor of Tennessee, he took time out of his busy schedule to custom make a suit for a local blacksmith.
18. Ulysses S. Grant’s grandson, Ulysses S. Grant III, graduated sixth in his class at West Point Academy in 1903. The best student that year? Douglas MacArthur.
19. Rutherford B. Hayes didn’t actually win the presidential election – he lost to Samuel Tilden by about 250,000 votes. But the vote tallying was a mess and a bunch of the electoral votes were in dispute, so the Electoral Commission was quickly formed to determine the outcome. They obviously found in favor of Hayes, leaving Tilden supporters to dub Rutherford “Rutherfraud,” “His Fraudulency” and “His Accidency.”
20. James A. Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881, but he didn’t die until September 19. Most historians agree that the doctors who poked and prodded and used rather strange and unsanitary measures to try to “save” him are probably the ones that actually killed him.
21. Chester A. Arthur was a clotheshorse and was the first president to hire someone to attend to his wardrobe. He reportedly had more than 80 pairs of pants.
22. Grover Cleveland had a secret operation to remove a tumor in his mouth while he was president. He boarded a yacht headed upstate as if it were a fun diversion, but while he was tucked away from the public eye, doctors removed the tumor from his upper palette. No one knew about the incident until 24 years later, when one of the doctors who performed the surgery finally spilled the beans. You can now visit the tumor at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, which has an exhibit dedicated to the event.
23. Benjamin Harrison was the last president to wear a beard.
24. William McKinley’s wife had epileptic seizures on a fairly regular basis. He responded to them by arranging his handkerchief over her head – the darkness seemed to help – and carrying on as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening.
25. Theodore Roosevelt was a big fan of food. He drank about a gallon of coffee a day and would sometimes eat a dozen hard-boiled eggs for breakfast.
26. William Howard Taft is the only man, thus far, to have been the leader of both the Executive and Judicial branches of government. He became Chief Justice eight years after his term as President ended and considered this the highlight of his career – “I do not remember that I was ever President,” he once said.
27. Woodrow Wilson was one of the few Presidents to endure dating while acting as Commander in Chief. His first wife died of Bright’s Disease in 1914, and by 1915 he was dating his would-be second wife, Edith Boling Galt. As you might expect, the media followed them around mercilessly and reported on their dates. The Washington Post once typoed that President Wilson “spent most of his time entering Ms. Galt.” Whoops. Since they meant to write “entertaining,” that entire newspaper was recalled. Wilson also signed off some of his letters to Galt as “Tiger.”
28. Warren G. Harding loved gambling and once lost an entire box of White House china in a game.
29. Calvin Coolidge’s son is probably the only fatality to occur at the White House because of the White House. He was playing a game of tennis with his older brother and developed a blister on his big toe. The blister became infected and Cal Jr. died of blood poisoning within days.
30. Herbert Hoover wrote a book called Fishing For Fun – And To Wash Your Soul. An excerpt: “Association with the placid ripples of the waves and the quiet chortle of the streams is soothing to our ‘het-up’ anxieties.”
31. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was driven around in a hand-me-down Cadillac that previously belonged to Al Capone. After Pearl Harbor, the Secret Service decided that the limo FDR was tooling around in wasn’t safe enough. Capone’s car was outfitted with a ton of armor since he was so commonly targeted, so it was deemed safe enough for Roosevelt.
32. Harry S Truman. The “S” in Harry S Truman doesn’t stand for anything. His parents argued over whether it should stand for “Shippe” or “Solomon,” his paternal and maternal grandparents respectively, and so it was just left as “S.”
33. Dwight D. Eisenhower desperately wanted to play professional baseball. Later in life, he said that “”not making the baseball team at West Point was one of the greatest disappointments of my life, maybe my greatest.”
34. John F. Kennedy’s 1935 yearbook named him “Most likely to become President.”
35. Lyndon B. Johnson. For two hours and eight minutes after JFK’s assassination, we had no President. LBJ was sworn in on Air Force One in Dallas at Love Field Airport; he is the only President to be sworn in on Texas soil. He was also the first President to be sworn in by a woman.
36. Richard Nixon always wore a coat and tie – even when he was at home by himself, according to one biography.
37. Gerald Ford is the only President who also had a modeling career. He was in Look magazine in 1939 and was on the cover of Cosmopolitan in 1942. He’s also the only President to ever tackle a future Heisman winner – when he played football for the University of Michigan Wolverines, he tackled University of Chicago running back Jay Berwanger, who won the first-ever Heisman Trophy the following year. 
38. Jimmy Carter is the only President to file an official report to detail a UFO sighting. He claimed he and several members of his Lion’s Club saw a UFO hovering about 900 yards away from them in Georgia in 1969.
39. Ronald Reagan was a notorious doodler and wasn’t immune to entertaining himself during “boring” meetings by doing such. Those are his scribbles to the left.
40. George H.W. Bush was awarded an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 1993. He’s just the third President to receive the honor – the other two were Eisenhower and Reagan.
41. Bill Clinton. There’s a statue of Clinton playing golf in Ballybunion, Ireland.
42. George W. Bush is the only U.S. President to have an MBA.
43. Barack Obama’s brother-in-law is the head men’s basketball coach at Oregon State University.
Sure, the boring facts about states have been drilled into you by teachers and history books over the years. You might even remember all of the state capitals. But here are 50 trivia tidbits that you probably didn’t learn in second grade.
1. Alabama. New Orleans might be the hot spot for Mardi Gras these days, but it was actually started as a sedate tradition in what is now modern-day Mobile, Alabama.
2. Alaska. The Alaskan flag was created by a 13-year-old-boy in 1926. For his efforts, Benny Benson received $1,000 and an engraved watch. Picture from Alaska.edu.
3. Arizona. London Bridge – yes, the London Bridge – was shipped stone by stone and reassembled in Lake Havasu City. It was meant to be a tourist attraction in the retirement community and was rebuilt over land, not water.
4. Arkansas. Sam Walton started a little store in Bentonville, Arkansas – today, it’s known as Walmart. However, Bentonville is also home to the headquarters of a lesser-known company: The Whistler Group, a company that makes radar detectors.
5. California. We all know Cali is known for its wine and grapes – but it’s also home to the self-proclaimed Avocado Capital of the World (Fallbrook), the Raisin Capital of the World (Fresno) and the Artichoke Capital of the World (Castroville). In fact, Marilyn Monroe was the first Artichoke Queen in 1947.
6. Colorado. Although the cheeseburger wasn’t invented in Colorado, a Denverite held the copyright to the word for a while. In 1935, Louis Ballast, owner of the Humpty Dumpty Drive-In, applied for and received the copyright to a food he didn’t invent. That distinction goes to Lionel Sternberger of Pasadena, California.
7. Connecticut. PEZ is made in Orange, Connecticut.
8. Delaware. There’s no National Park System unit of any kind in Delaware – no park, no historic site, no battlefield, no memorial or monument. It’s the only state that doesn’t have something denoted by the National Park System (you can check out other National Park units here, though).
9. Florida. The first ATM designed just for rollerbladers resides in Miami. Of course.
10. Georgia. The sweetest onion in the world, the Vidalia, can only be grown in specifc Vidalia and Glennville areas of Georgia – only 20 counties in total. The Vidalia Onion is Georgia’s state vegetable.
11. Hawaii. Back in 1874, the village of Kalaupapa on the Island of Molokai was once a leper colony. The act naming the village such wasn’t repealed until 1969.
12. Idaho is the only state that might have been named because of a hoax. A lobbyist suggested the name in the 1860s, claiming that it was an old Shoshone word meaning “the sun comes from the mountains” or “gem of the mountains.” After the name was adopted, the lobbyist admitted he made the word up.
13. Illinois was once home to the largest city in the United States – no, not Chicago. Up until about 1800, Cahokia, Illinois, had more than 40,000 residents in the area thanks to its strategic spot near the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois Rivers. Philadelphia outgrew it sometime near the turn of the century.
14. Indiana. Santa Claus, Indiana, gets more than half a million letters from kids during the holidays. “Santa’s Elves,” a group of local volunteers, makes sure that each letter gets a reply from the man himself.
15. Iowa is the only state whose east and west borders are totally formed by water – the Mississippi on the east and the Missouri on the west. It’s also the only state whose name begins with two vowels.
16. Kansas. Amelia Earhart was from Atchison, Kansas.
17. Kentucky. The song “Happy Birthday to You” was written by sisters Patty and Mildred Hill, Louisville residents. The women were kindergarten teachers who wrote the song as a ditty called “Good Morning to All” that would be easy for young kids to remember and sing.
18. Louisiana. There used to be more to Louisiana. Prior to 1856, there was an island southwest of New Orleans called Last Island. On August 11, 1856, it was completely and utterly destroyed by a category four hurricane. It was hit with such force that the island was split into five smaller islands. Everything on the island – which had been a popular resort destination – was gone. When the water levels went down five days later, the only evidence that there had been human life on the island was a wrecked steamer sent to save the people on the island at the time. More than 200 people died.
19. Maine. Up until a couple of years ago, a vast majority (90 percent) of the toothpicks used in the United States were made in Maine.
20. Maryland. Residents of Saint Michaels found out that the British were going to attack in 1813, so they strategically placed lit lanterns at the tops of ships and on high tree branches and cut all sources of light from the usual places on the ground. It confused the British and they overshot the town, hitting just one single house.
21. Massachusetts is home to the first U.S. zip code ever – 01001 in Agawam.
22. Michigan makes cars, yeah, you already knew that. But it also manufactures the most magic supplies in the world. The little town of Colon (population: 1200) was where magician Harry Blackstone made his home, including his headquarters and magic workshop. He invited other magicians to his abode, and the town eventually sprouted Abbott’s Magic Company, the world’s biggest producer of handmade illusions, and Abbott’s Magic Get-Together, an annual four-day convention. The high school nickname is “The Magi” and their mascot is a rabbit (rabbit out of the hat, get it?).
23. Minnesota. Minneapolis has 52 blocks of skyway – more than five miles – so people who work downtown in the frigid Minnesota winter can get around without getting frostbite.
24. Mississippi was the last state to end prohibition. Even though nationwide prohibition had ended more than 30 years earlier, Mississippi didn’t repeal it at a state level until 1966.
25. Missouri. With more than 200 fountains, Kansas City claims to have the most fountains of any city in the world, with a single exception: Rome.
26. Montana. The Montana Yogo Sapphire is the only North American gemstone to be included in the the royal Crown Jewels.
27. Nebraska. Kool-Aid was invented in Hastings, Nebraska. It was made in inventor Edwin Perkins’ mother’s kitchen and originated as a liquid called “Fruit Smack.” When he needed a cheaper way to ship it, Perkins figured out how to remove the liquid and leave only a powder, creating Kool-Aid.
28. Nevada. The first casino to open on the Las Vegas Strip (before it was the Strip) was called the Pair-O-Dice Club. It opened its doors in 1931.
29. New Hampshire has its own Stonehenge. “America’s Stonehenge” has had charcoal pits carbon dated to 2000 BC to 173 BC, potentially making the site 4,000 years old. It allegedly inspired H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.”
30. New Jersey has the most diners in the world – and the most shopping malls in one area (seven major malls in a 25 square mile radius).
31. New Mexico. The cub that became known as Smokey the Bear, the National Fire Safety Symbol, was found trapped in a tree in New Mexico’s Lincoln National Forest when it caught on fire in 1950. The black bear was chosen to be the official state animal in the little guy’s honor 13 years later.
32. New York isn’t home to Dorothy Gale – that’s Kansas, of course – but it does call her creator, L. Frank Baum, a native. In Chittenango, his hometown, yellow brick sidewalks lead to Oz-themed businesses, and you can go to the yearly Oz-Stravaganza every June.
33. North Carolina can boast that they had the first child born in America to English parents. Her name was Virginia Dare and she was born in Roanoke.
34. North Dakota is a great state to drive through if you can manage to make the Enchanted Highway part of your route. It’s a 32-mile stretch of highway with giant sculptures. This one, called “Theodore Roosevelt Rides Again,” is 51 feet tall and weighs more than 9,000 pounds. Photo from EnchantedHighway.net.
35. Ohio, so far, has been the home state of seven U.S. presidents, making it the state that has produced the second-most Commander in Chiefs (Virginia wins that title with eight). In case you’re wondering, they are: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding.
36. Oklahoma is where the first-ever parking meter was installed. Oklahoma City was the first to start charging for prime parking real estate in 1935.
37. Oregon has the most ghost towns of any U.S. state, with 18 spots officially designated as such.
38. Pennsylvania is where you’ll find the Mutter Museum, a museum dedicated to medical oddities (for educational purposes, of course). Exhibits include a woman whose corpse turned to soap, famous Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker, and the tumor removed from Grover Cleveland’s hard palate in a top-secret operation the world didn’t know about until years later.
39. Rhode Island claims the oldest, still-operating tavern in the U.S. The White Horse Tavern was built in 1673.
40. South Carolina. In case you’re interested in the first boll weevil ever found in South Carolina, don’t worry – you can still see it. The insect is on display at the Pendleton District Agricultural Museum.
41. South Dakota has the world’s only Corn Palace, a building entirely decorated in different varieties of corn kernels and cobs. Exterior murals on the palace are redesigned every year.
42. Tennessee has the largest underground lake in the United States (and the second-largest in the world). It’s part of Craighead Caverns in Sweetwater and is known as The Lost Sea.
43. Texas has the only hotel in North America entirely built over water. The Flagship Hotel in Galveston juts out 1,000 feet over the Gulf of Mexico.
44. Utah has a hotspot known as “Little Hollywood” – Kanab earned the nickname because so many movies and T.V. series have been filmed in the area. Which ones, you ask? To name a few: Gunsmoke, Planet of the Apes, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Lone Ranger and Stagecoach
45. Vermont’s capital, Montpelier, is the only state capital that lacks a McDonalds.
46. Virginia is where you’ll find a couple of Presidents’ mansions, including Jefferson’s Monticello, which is on the back of the $2 bill. Incidentally, the gift shop at Monticello is probably one of the only establishments in the country to routinely give $2 bills as change.
47. Washington is the only state named after a president.
48. West Virginia had a hand in the invention of billboards and outdoor advertising. A tobacco company there started painting barns and bridges with their slogan, “Treat Yourself to the Best, Chew Mail Pouch.”
49. Wisconsin. Love mustard? Then you’ll love Mount Horeb, which is where you’ll find the world’s largest collection of prepared mustards at the Mustard Museum. It is run by Barry Levenson, who used to be the Assistant Attorney General for the state.
50. Wyoming was the first state that gave women the right to vote.
UGO‘s Guess the Movie quizzes are challenging. This one I thought I’d ace, but had to settle for 6/10. All of their quizzes are hard, and categories vary from Coen Brothers Movies to the Halloween movies, and more.
Mental_floss is celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Twilight Zone in their own way, by bringing trivia about the show. For example, great acting wasn’t exactly a priority during filming of the episodes.
Interestingly enough, many of the actors in these pieces, when interviewed decades after the fact, confessed that they weren’t particularly proud of their performances. The Twilight Zone had a budget, just like any other series, and often the bulk of the money per episode had to be spent on sets and special effects. There was no luxury of multiple retakes until the actor felt just right about a particular scene. A sub-par performance wasn’t a matter of concern in most episodic television of that era, but, as William Shatner later mentioned in an interview, at that time a Twilight Zone appearance was just another job – no one ever suspected that these episodes would be aired over and over (and over!) again for years to come.
There’s more about your favorite episodes and about host Rod Serling. Link
Did you guys hear that Indiana Jones 5 is apparently in the works? Are you all as horrified as I am? If you’re like me and hated Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with a passion, then you prefer to dwell on the classics – Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Last Crusade, and yes, even Temple of Doom. Here’s some trivia to remind you of the good times.
The movie was filmed during the summer of 1980.
You’ve probably heard the rumors, and yes, they’re true – Indiana Jones was named after George Lucas’ dog, Indiana. He was the prototype for Chewbacca as well, so his old malamute had a pretty big impact on Lucas’ two biggest series.
“Indiana Smith?” Yep, almost, until Steven Spielberg told Lucas it just didn’t sound right. The equally-generic “Jones” was suggested and flowed much better.
According to George Lucas, almost every studio in town turned down the movie, feeling that it would cost too much money to make.
Tim Matheson and Tom Selleck both tested for Indiana Jones; Karen Allen actually screentested with Tim Matheson. Tom Selleck did very well and was the frontrunner, but had to bow out due to Magnum P.I. Harrison Ford was brought up early in the casting discussion, but George Lucas wanted to avoid casting him since he had already become so closely associated with Star Wars.
The role of Sallah was offered to Danny DeVito – he was Spielberg’s first choice – but was unable to do it because of Taxi. The job went to John Rhys-Davies instead. Picture from BlogCDN.
Indy’s leather jacket looks old and beat up, but in reality, it was brand new – and there were 10 of them. The costume director “aged” each jacket with a metal brush and Harrison Ford’s own pocket knife.
The famous hat is from Savile Row in London, a place called Herbert Johnson. The hat had a very wide brim and the crown was quite high, apparently the fashion Down Under since it was their Australian model. After a couple of fittings, it was declared the Indiana Jones fedora. When the customized hat arrived at the studio, the costume designer rolled it up and crushed it, then various members of the cast (including Harrison) took turns sitting on it to make it look like a very worn-in, well-loved hat.
Someone was actually sent out to find a mountain that specifically looked like the Paramount Studios logo mountain so they could create the opening shot of the movie. I suppose these days Lucas would have just made a CGI mountain…
There was a complication during the scene where Alfred Molina is covered in spiders – they didn’t want to move. They just sat stagnant on him, making the excitement of the scene rather… well, not exciting. They discovered that all of the spiders were male, so a female spider was put on Molina’s chest. It did the trick – the male spiders were immediately more active and started to crawl in the direction of the female.
The golden idol was based on an Incan fertility statue. Photo from FanPop.
The movie was filmed in Tunisia because it was a lot cheaper to shoot there than Egypt, and since the script never called for shots of the Sphinx or the pyramids, so they were able to get away with it. In fact, one of the scenes was shot in the exact same canyon where R2-D2 was stolen by Jawas in Star Wars.
The part where Indy watches a swordsman go through a very elaborate routine with his scimitar only to shoot him at the end of it happened because Harrison Ford really had to go to the bathroom. Indy was supposed to have a huge fight scene using his whip, but a bout of dysentery had left him weak and desperately needing the john. Because of this, someone – reports vary on whose idea it was – suggested that Indy just dispatch the dude like anyone who had a gun in his arsenal would.
Harrison wasn’t the only one who got sick – a majority of the cast and crew found themselves incapacitated at some point during filming in Tunisia. Steven Spielberg didn’t get sick because he ate only canned food from the U.K. Everyone else who ate food in the restaurants or at the hotel got horribly sick at least once during filming.
During the scene where Indy fights while the plane is rolling around, Harrison Ford actually sustained an injury when the wheels of the plane got too close and rolled right up onto his leg. It tore his ACL, but rather than submit to Tunisian hospitals, Ford wrapped it in ice and continued to shoot. He also bruised his ribs during the scene where he is dragged behind the truck.
Unlike his character counterpart, Harrison Ford isn’t afraid of snakes and had no problem working with them during the Well of Souls scene. Precautions were taken anyway – if you look closely, a reflection gives away the fact that a sheet of glass was placed between Ford and the cobra. It was a good thing, too – at one point the cobra actually sprayed venom onto the glass.
Some of the sound effects weren’t fancy at all: the sound of snakes slithering was really just the sound designer squishing his fingers through a cheese casserole, the sound of people getting punched was really a pile of leather coats being hit with a baseball bat, and the lid sliding off of the Ark was a toilet lid being slid off the back of a toilet. The sound designer was having trouble coming up with just the right sound for the rolling boulder at the beginning of the movie and ended up using the sound of a Honda Civic coasting down a gravel hill.
Marion was the writer’s grandmother-in-law’s name, and he had been mulling over a surname for a while when he came across a streetname called “Ravenwood” and loved the way the two names fit together. Photo from TheShadyCat.
The boat was actually the submarine model from Das Boot.
Although most shots were done in four takes or less because Lucas and Spielberg wanted a “quick and dirty” feel to the movie – nothing too perfect – there was one shot that took more than 50 takes. It was the scene where the monkey salutes with a “Heil Hitler” gesture. A grape was attached to fishing line and held just out of reach of the camera shot to achieve the salute, but it took a while to get it just right. It ended up being one of Steven Spielberg’s favorite moments in the movie.
Those of us who like little movie secrets know that George Lucas likes to include a reference to “1138” in all of his movies in homage to his first movie, THX 1138. You’ll find it in Raiders during the Nazi harbor scene if you listen to the numbers being read over the loudspeaker. It’s subtle, though, because the numbers are read in German – “Ein, ein, drei, acht.”
Ed McMahon always seemed like a great guy with a good sense of humor. He will be missed. These little known facts about the guy put a smile on my face.
From the list, here’s something about "the human laugh track" and Top Second Banana that you may not have known:
Ed always knew he had a voice destined to be heard by the masses—and he started his training early. In 1938, at age15, he became a bingo caller, but that wasn’t his only odd job over the years. To put himself through college, the Hollywood heavyweight worked as a pitchman for vegetable slicers on the boardwalk of Atlantic City and hawked pots and pans as a door-to-door salesman.Prior to that, he worked as a carnival barker for three years in Mexico, Maine.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by ahammel.
I missed last week’s Movie Trivia because I was on vacation, so I figured I’d make up for it today by doing a Tim Burton double feature. First up? Big Fish. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about William, a son (Billy Crudup) coming to terms with his relationship with his dying father (Albert Finney), who is prone to telling tall tales. William spends the movie sorting through his dad’s legends, trying to figure out which ones are real and which ones are just the products of an overactive imagination. His mom is played by Jessica Lange, and the younger versions of his parents are played by Ewan McGregor and Alison Lohman.
The movie was based on a 1998 book by Daniel Wallace called Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions.
There’s a parallel between the movie and what was going on in Burton’s own life at the time – his father had died two years earlier and his mother died just one month before he accepted the directing job. He said that filming the movie and thinking about father-son relationships and death was really cathartic for him.
Most of the scenes were shot on location in Wetumpka, Alabama, and Prattville, Alabama.
Jack Nicholson was the first choice to play Edward Bloom – both the older and younger versions. They were going to use computers to make him look younger so he could play the younger Edward. Burton has said that it became clear who to cast when he came across the pairing of Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney because the two of them seemed to have some sort of a spiritual connection that would be perfect for the movie.
Steven Spielberg was originally slated to direct as of 2000, but as the script went through several re-writer, Spielberg became engrossed in other projects. By the time the third draft was done, the directing job ended up in Burton’s hands.
Most of the scenes were shot on location in Wetumpka, Alabama, and Prattville, Alabama.
Matthew McGrory, who played Karl the Giant, was once in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the the largest feet in the world – size 29.5. Sadly, Matthew passed away in 2005. He was 7’6″ and only 32 years old at the time of his death.
The banjo player that you see when Ed first walks into Spectre is the same actor who played the banjo-playing kid in Deliverance.
When we see Steve Buscemi’s (Norther Winslow) poem about Spectre – “Grass so green/skies so blue/Spectre is really great! – that’s actually Tim Burton’s handwriting.
Somewhat surprisingly, Tim Burton hates the circus and is afraid of clowns. I knew there was a reason I liked him.
The guy who plays “Colossus” in the first circus scene is actually a circus performer.
In the book, the town of Spectre was depicted as incredibly dark and creepy. Tim Burton put his own spin on this and compared his version of Spectre to Burbank – it may look idyllic and sweet (and rather technicolor), but there’s something sinister lurking just beneath.
Alison Lohman was cast as Sandra Templeton Bloom because Tim Burton loved her silent movie-esque looks and felt that she was able to convey a whole range of emotions even when she was just standing still.
The part where the elephant takes a massive crap was, obviously, not scripted. Instead of calling that take a loss, Ewan McGregor just acted through it. The cast and crew thought the take with the elephant pooing in the background was hilarious, so it was kept in the final cut.
Ewan McGregor really did get to hang out in a cage with a lion when he filmed the scenes of him performing menial tasks around the circus. He also really learned Cantonese for the scene where he talks to the conjoined twins. I mean, just a couple of lines of Cantonese, but still…
Tim Burton has a very brief cameo – literally a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it situation. When the ringleader (Danny DeVito) and Edward Bloom burst out of his trailer because Calloway is morphing into a werewolf, keep your eye on the clowns that immediately scatter from their card-playing table. One of them is Tim.
Speaking of which, in case you’re wondering, that’s really Danny DeVito in the buff. No stunt doubles were required.
Another brief cameo: the author of the book, Daniel Wallace, can be seen as Sandra’s professor at Auburn.
If Sandra’s fiance (and Edward’s rival) looks familiar, I’d be willing to bet it’s because you know him as a slightly scruffier character: Roy on The Office. Poor dude is always getting his fiance stolen!
In the scene where Sandra opens the window to find Edward standing there in a field of daffodils that he planted for her, you’re really looking at daffodils. They weren’t digitally added in later. Tim Burton explains that his crew spent an entire weekend digging and planting and replanting when they didn’t look right, but he felt that it was extremely important to the reality of the scene.
Check out Jessica Lange’s outfit at the end of the movie during the funeral scene. Her character, Sandra, is the only one dressed in red. This is supposed to be symbolic of the fact that she was quirky and individualistic and the perfect match for Ed Bloom, who wouldn’t want her to be dressed in mourning black anyway.
Eddie Vedder composed “Man of the Hour,” the song that runs during the credits, after watching an early screening of the movie and adoring it. He apparently went home and wrote the music, had a demo for the band the next day and recorded it with them five days later.
There’s so much behind-the-scenes info on The Wizard of Oz, I couldn’t possibly touch on all of it in one Neatorama post. I just picked some of my favorites, but if I missed your favorite bit of Oz-related trivia, definitely leave a comment and let all of us know.
Poor Margaret Hamilton (the witch) was really injured in the scene where the Wicked Witch of the West departs Munchkinland in a huff after Dorothy arrives. She was standing on a trap door and was supposed to disappear down into it quickly when the smoke (followed by fire) puffed up, but during the second take of that scene, the fire came too early and her costume started burning. She suffered second and third degree burns and was unable to work for a month. When she came back, she refused to do any more work with fire.
Toto was played by a Cairn Terrier creatively named Terry. Because of her previous experience (she was “Rags” in Shirley Temple’s Bright Eyes) Terry got $125 a week for her efforts, which was more than twice what the actors playing the Munchkins got ($50/week). She got her foot broken during filming when an actor playing one of the guards stepped on her.
Margaret Hamilton’s son has said that she loved her “I’ll get you my pretty…” line so much, she used it in her personal life on a somewhat frequent basis, just for fun.
The date on the Wicked Witch of the East’s death certificate is actually the date of L. Frank Baum’s death. The 19th anniversary of his death, to be exact. We can’t read it, but this is what the Death Certificate says:
Certificate of Death
Name: The Wicked Witch of the East
Residence: The Land of OzI HEREBY CERTIFY that I attended deceased from May 6th to May 6th, 1938
I last saw her alive on May 6th 1938:
Death is said to have occurred on the date stated below at 12:30 p.m.
Date of Death: May 6th 1938
Month Day Year
Signature: W.W. Barister, M.D.
Address: Munchkin City
Can you imagine anyone but Judy Garland as Dorothy? How about Shirley Temple? Although producer Mervyn LeRoy had always had Judy in mind for the role, he was being pressured to “borrow” Shirley Temple from Fox. She was only 10 and Judy was 16 at the time; studio executives thought 10 was a much more appropriate age for this particular role. They ended up auditioning Shirley just to say they had, but in the end it didn’t matter anyway: Fox refused to loan her out.
The first film version of Dorothy depicted her as a blonde with baby doll-esque makeup because that’s the way Oz illustrator John R. Neill drew her in the books. Well, he was actually the second person to illustrate Dorothy for L. Frank Baum – the first was W.W. Denslow, who drew her the way we know her today: brunette pigtails and the blue-and-white Gingham dress. But Baum had a falling-out with Denslow and John R. Neill took over for the design from then on out, which amounted to more than 40 stories. People who are fans of the book series over the movie say that they usually picture a blonde Dorothy as opposed to the Judy Garland Dorothy.
When the song “If I Had a Heart” is playing and a girl speaks the words “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” the voice you’re hearing is Adriana Caselotti – Snow White.
The Horse of a Different Color was created by putting Jell-O paste onto a white horse. It was difficult to keep the horse from licking the paste, so the scene had to be shot quickly. If you look closely, you can see the driver of the buggy subtly restraining the horse from licking himself.
Originally, a scene with an insect called the Jitterbug was shot. It involved a dance sequence with our heroes but was ultimately cut due to time constraints. But you can still hear a reference to the scene in the movie when the Wicked Witch of the West sends the flying monkeys after the gang. She says,
“Take your army to the Haunted Forest, and bring me that girl and her dog. Do as you like with the others, but I want her alive and unharmed! They’ll give you no trouble. I promise you that. I’ve sent a little insect on ahead to take the fight out of them. Take special care of those ruby slippers. I want those most of all. Now fly!”
Bert Lahr, AKA the Cowardly Lion, was the first to use the phrase “Heavens to Murgatroyd!” that Snagglepuss later became famous for. Snagglepuss’ voice was based on Lahr’s. His son, John Lahr, is the senior drama critic at The New Yorker.
As most people know, the Tin Man was originally supposed to be played by Buddy Ebsen, but when Ebsen discovered he was severely allergic to the Tin Man’s makeup job, he was forced to drop the role. Jack Haley replaced him, using a voice that he used to tell his son bedtime stories. Somewhat strangely, Jack Haley, Jr., was married to Liza Minelli for about five years in the ‘70s.
When the witch first tries to take the ruby slippers from Dorothy at the beginning and her hands are zapped with fire, you’re actually seeing dark apple juice squirting out of the shoes. The footage was later sped up so the streams of apple juice resembled fire more closely. So says IMDB, anyway – I couldn’t verify that through any other source.
I loved looking for creepy things in movies when I was in high school, and I totally bought all of them – the “ghost” in Three Men and a Little Baby and the “munchkin suicide” in The Wizard of Oz among them. In case you haven’t seen it, it’s allegedly at the end of the Tin Man sequence, right before Dorothy and Co. head back down the Yellow Brick Road. I remember very clearly seeing this image back then (the clip below will show you exactly where) and having no doubt that it was clearly a suicide, and how creepy it was. Ever since I’ve discovered that it was just the wing of an exotic bird, that’s all I can see. I can’t even fathom how I used to buy that it was a munchkin suicide. Check out the clip below of TV Land’s “Myths and Legends” to get the whole scoop.
Here’s another myth, sort of. I tried this one in high school too – matching up Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon with the movie. And it works! It really does. But various members of Pink Floyd have denied that they wrote the album while watching The Wizard of Oz or that they were inspired by the movie or anything of that sort at all. But it does eerily match up. It gives the whole thing a very spooky vibe. If you don’t want to rely on YouTube and have both the album and the movie, here’s how to do it: start the album at the third lion’s roar in the MGM movie title right before the film starts. Otherwise, here’s the YouTube version. I suggest also checking out “The Great Gig in the Sky” which coincides with the tornado scene – it’s kind of amazing.
Look like a genius using these secrets for navigating everyday life
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by ahammel.
Is there anyone who doesn’t know at least 75 percent of the lines in Wayne’s World? It gets busted out in our house quite a bit. As much as we quote it, though, I certainly didn’t know most of the stuff below before I started researching, and hopefully you didn’t either. Party on.
Have a favorite Wayne’s World line or moment? Share it in the comments. Rumor has it that Mike Myers has been working on the script for WW 3 – what do you think about that? Could it be done so many years later, and would it be a flop like WW 2 was?
I have to admit, the first time I saw Step Brothers, my reaction was this: “Eh….”
But like all Will Ferrell movies, Step Brothers eventually wormed its way into my brain and now I love it. I felt the same way about Anchorman when I first saw it, and I really disliked Talladega Nights the first time around. Citizen Kane it’s not, but Step Brothers definitely makes me grin. Enjoy the trivia, and let me know what you think about the movie in the comments. Did you hate it or love it?
• The Director of Photography shot the Bourne films, so this is quite a departure for him, I would think.
• The driving scenes were all green screen so the actors would be free to improvise more.
• Richard Jenkins (he plays Dale’s dad) met John C. Reilly when he was only about four. He worked for Reilly’s dad when they both lived in Chicago. The “C” is for Christopher, by the way.
• The commentary was largely musical, which was weird.
• Pablo Cruise offered to play at the premiere when they saw that Will Ferrell was wearing a Pablo Cruise t-shirt in one of the trailers. Honestly, I didn’t even know that Pablo Cruise was a real band. They had a few fits in the ’70s, including “Whatcha Gonna Do?” and “Love Will Find a Way.”
• Writer/director Adam McKay says they shot something like 12 hours of the scene where the new family eats their first dinner together. Both actors commented on how sick they were of chicken nuggets and salty fast food afterward.
• Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins both improvised lots of different backstories for Brennan and Dale. Neither of them were really improv pros before, even though Steenburgen is on Larry David’s unscripted Curb Your Enthusiasm on a regular basis. Steenburgen said that even though Curb is unscripted, it was actually a lot harder shooting Step Brothers. With Curb, she said, although there was no script, there was a loose plot line. Step Brothers would veer so far off of script sometimes that the plot line would take a completely different direction.
• You’d never know it to look at them, but the prosthetic testicles Will Ferrell rubs on Dale’s drums were worth $25,000. Will got to keep them as a present when the movie wrapped.
• There’s a sign for Hugalo’s Pizza in Dale’s bedroom, which is the pizza joint Ricky Bobby (played by Will Ferrell) worked at in Talladega Nights.
• The drumset obsession was based on something that really happened to John C. Reilly – one of his brothers was apparently insanely possessive over his drum set when they were growing up and Reilly (I feel like I need to call him John C. Reilly at all times) used to sneak in and use them.
• John was not supposed to throw the glasses at the windows in the kitchen scene when the stepbrothers are sleepwalking, but Adam McKay encouraged him to when the set designers weren’t listening. When he threw glasses, he actually broke real windows because they weren’t made of breakaway glass since the set wasn’t planned for that purpose. The set designers were not pleased with them.
• John C. Reilly says he had to be careful not to choke on food when they were filming that scene. Will Ferrell accidentally ingested some coffee grounds (ew).
• The second dinner scene when Brennan’s jerk brother Derek is there took about seven hours to shoot. When Derek falls out of the treehouse after Dale punches him, the actor really got hurt: everyone was under the impression that there was a pad on the ground, but there wasn’t. No one was seriously hurt, though, and shooting continued.
• Right before Derek comes up to the clubhouse, the guys are in the clubhouse looking at porn and were holding a real “popular pornographic magazine” (Adam McKay referred to it as such) but later found out that they didn’t get clearance to use the brand in the movie, so they spent a lot of money to go back and add a fake cover to the magazines they were holding. I’m kind of curious about this myself, because at the end of the movie, they brothers hold up a bunch of Hustlers. So if they had the clearance for Hustler, why didn’t they just use those magazines earlier in the film? Hmmm.
• The scene where Brennan tries to bury Dale in the backyard was one of the first scenes they shot.
• If you’ve seen the movie, no doubt you’ve noticed the huge array of logo and band t-shirts the brothers wear in the movie. I’m partial to the Judds baseball tee, myself. Adam McKay said the costume designer found hundreds of suitable t-shirts and then he, Will and John would take turns removing 10 until the shirts got down to a manageable level.
• The Catalina Wine Mixer scene wasn’t actually filmed on Catalina Island. They scouted it out for location but didn’t care for the way things looked; however, you can actually see it in the background of the scene because they ended up shooting on the shore facing the island.
• Coincidentally, Will Ferrell sings Por Ti Volare at the end of the film, which is the song he and Jon Heder skate to in Blades of Glory. Will does his own singing in the movie, by the way, and John C. Reilly does his own drumming.
• At one point during the commentary, Baron Davis, point guard for the Clippers, randomly comes in and starts chatting with Adam McKay, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. A good 30 minutes of non-movie related basketball talk ensues, in which I discovered that Baron feels Shaq is the scariest dude to encounter on the court in the NBA. He also does some commentary even though he wasn’t there and had never seen the movie. He refers to John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell as “Adult Cabbage Patch Kids”. Also, Baron did not have bunk beds growing up; he slept on the floor in the living room. You know, just FYI.
I missed the Movie Trivia post for last week, so we’re doing a double feature today. Grab yourself a bowl of popcorn and some M&Ms and enjoy!
By the way, if you’re one of the few people who hasn’t seen The Sixth Sense by now, I’m going to recommend that you stop reading, because a lot of my trivia revolves around the plot twist. There, you’ve been warned. I’m jealous of people who have never seen the movie, actually – this is one of those films I wish I could go back and see again for the first time.
• We don’t see a drop in temperature when Malcolm (Bruce Willis) is around Cole (Haley Joel Osment) because the cold only occurs when a ghost is angry or upset. Malcolm is never angry or upset around Haley Joel.
• I knew there was a reason I liked this movie: M. Night Shyamalan says the movie was at least partially inspired by an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark, which was only like my favorite show on SNICK back in the day. The episode was called “Tale of the Dream Girl” and centered around characters who had died but didn’t know it.
• Lefty Bruce Willis learned to write righty so we couldn’t easily see that he wasn’t wearing a wedding band (presumably his wife received it when he died).
• The color red is used to represent “anything in the real world that has been tainted by the other world,” M. Night Shyamalan says. A few examples: the red sweater Cole wears when he gets attacked in the attic, the red dress Malcolm’s wife wears when she visits the restaurant where they got engaged, the doorknob in the scene pictured and right and the red tent where the little girl who was poisoned by her mom appears to Cole.
• I didn’t know that Malcolm’s old patient (and killer) Vincent Grey was played by Donnie Wahlberg until years after the fact. I probably didn’t recognize him from his New Kids days because he lost somewhere around 43 pounds for the role. He told M. Night Shyamalan that he was going to drop some weight for the role, and Night basically said, “Sure, you do that,” thinking somewhere along the lines of 5-10 pounds. Wahlberg showed up to the set to film his scenes and Night didn’t even recognize him at first because his frame had gone from muscular and athletic to extremely wispy and thin.
• This is probably common knowledge at this point, but in case you don’t know, the little girl who is poisoned by her mom is played by a young Mischa Barton. It was one of her first few roles.
• Michael Cera (Arrested Development and Superbad) has said that his first-ever audition was for the role of Cole Sear.
• Although he was only 11 at the time, The Sixth Sense was far from Haley Joel Osment’s first acting gig. He has been acting since the age of four, including notable roles such as Forrest Gump, Jr., and Avery Brown (Murphy Brown’s son).
• The whole movie was filmed in sequence.
• As with all of his movies, M. Night Shyamalan has a little cameo. You can catch him as the doctor who examines Cole after he has the incident in the closet at the birthday party.
• All of the clothes that Bruce Willis wears throughout the movie are variations on the clothes he was wearing the day he died.
It’s too bad that Shyamalan hasn’t had the critical success he had with The Sixth Sense. I really enjoyed Signs and am probably one of the few people who didn’t hate The Village, but yeah… they weren’t quite the same. Maybe it’s because we’re all expecting the plot twist at this point. Anyway, what did you think the first time you saw the movie?
• Michael Keaton has said that out of all of his films, this one is his favorite.
• …Which is perhaps because he only spent two weeks filming. Even though Keaton plays the movie’s title character, Beetlejuice is only in 17.5 minutes of the whole film.
• The screenplay was originally written by Michael McDowell, who also wrote the script for an episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents . The episode, “The Jar,” was directed by Tim Burton. McDowell also went to on write for Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.
• Warner Brothers really didn’t care for the original title, which happened to be Beetlejuice. They suggested House Ghosts, which Burton hated, so he retaliated with the equally horrible Scared Sheetless, just to annoy them. He was mortified when they loved it and considered using it.
• After the movie’s success – it grossed $73,707,461 in North America alone and was made for only $13 million – a sequel was considered. It was called – brace yourself – Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. The premise: the Deetzes move to Hawaii to develop a posh resort. Construction begins, and it’s quickly discovered that the hotel will be sitting on top of an ancient burial ground. Uh-huh. Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder were in, but Tim Burton was busy making Batman Returns and lost interest in the campy sequel. Thank God. I don’t think I could deal with Beetlejuice in a lei and flip-flops.
• The film won the Oscar for best makeup. It was up against Scrooged and Coming to America.
• Betelgeuse is a star in the constellation Orion – more specifically, it’s the star that represents his armpit. No coincidence, I’m sure.
• In the waiting room of the afterlife is a sign that says “No Exit” instead of “Exit.” That’s a reference to the Jean-Paul Sartre play, which is about three people stuck in a room together after they bite the big one.
• Tim Burton lobbied hard for Sylvia Sidney to play Juno the caseworker. She turned him down on multiple occasions, but finally said yes after some of the other stars (Michael Keaton in particular) confirmed. As an aside note, Sylvia Sidney’s first husband was Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss’ editor. And Sidney was certainly no newbie to the horror genre – she was the star of Alfred Hitchcock’s Sabotage in 1936.
• The guy who plays Otho, Glenn Shadix, can be found in some other Tim Burton productions as well. He’s the voice of the mayor in The Nightmare Before Christmas and was Senator Nado in Burton’s Planet of the Apes remake. He was also in the 1996 Michael Keaton movie Multiplicity. Photo from GlennShadix.com.
• Be sure to check out all of the guests at the famous dinner party scene – Bernard, the snobby dude who is clearly unimpressed with Delia’s “sculpture,” is played by Dick Cavett.
• Beetlejuice features our first-ever look at Jack Skellington, five years before Nightmare came out. He’s on the top of Beetlejuice’s carousel hat when he comes out during the seance.
As of 2005, Michael Keaton said he was still up for a Beetlejuice sequel. A year later, however, Tim Burton, said sequel plans were all but dead. What do you think? I could handle a sequel, just not a Brady Bunch-esque Hawaiian holiday. Maybe Lydia has grown up and our favorite Ghost with the Most comes calling again? Hmm. Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments.
A day late, (Or AM I… maybe I posted this yesterday and you’re reliving it) I’m sorry!
But despite the holiday theme, this movie is pretty fantastic year-round. Enjoy the trivia (sprinkled with video for your viewing pleasure).
The Stay Puft Marshmallow man doesnt only make an appearance at the end of the movie, he is also seen twice before. In Dana Barrett's apartment, next to the eggs on the counter there is a bag of Stay Puft, and in one of the outdoor scenes an ad for Stay Puft can be seen on one of the buildings.
The Ghostbusters Fire House is located at North Moore, & Varick St. in New York, NY. They have the large white Ghosbuster II sign hanging in their bay.
To promote the film, the Ectomobile was driven around Manhattan prior to the release. In the middle of the film's initial release, to keep interest going, Ivan Reitman had a trailer run, which was basically the commercial the Ghostbusters' use in the movie, but with the 555 number replaced with a 1-800 number, allowing people to call. They got a recorded message of Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd saying something to the effect of "Hi. We're out catching ghosts right now." They got 1,000 calls per hour, 24 hours a day, for six weeks.
From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by 
