The Pee Wee’s Playhouse set was pretty cute already, but when handcrafted at home, it’s downright adorable. Better still, you can even have your own version at home and this Jambi even comes with an interchangeable screen.

Link Via CraftZine

Let your geekiness show in the valentines you send! Express your love for your sweetie plus your love for your favorite video game, online community, scientific discipline, movie, or TV show. There are lots to select from, but you won’t find them in your local greeting card store -no, these out-of-the ordinary valentines are found on the internet. Shown here are some valentines based on the TV series Breaking Bad, by Beth at Butt Horn. See the rest of the collection at mental_floss. Link

A cat makes a great listener, and therefore makes a great sidekick for pop culture characters. How well do you know feline sidekicks from movies, and TV? The challenge at today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss is to match 10 kitty sidekicks with the main character he/she goes with. I only got half of them correct. You will do better! Link

AMC is promoting the return of the TV show Mad Men with a minimalist poster showing a falling man, with a blank expanse around him. The only other thing the poster contains is the date at the bottom right. That’s just asking to be embellished, and plenty of folks have great ideas about what to add. Gothamist asked for submissions,  and has been collecting the “improvements” to post for your pleasure. Link to gallery one. Link to gallery two. -via Laughing Squid

Now this is advertising so clever it's criminal: Y&R agency in Amsterdam, The Netherlands came up with an unusual ad to feature the slim LG's new TV. Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Ads of the World

“Soul Train” was one of the longest-running syndicated shows in television history and played a critical role in spreading the music of black America to the world, offering wide exposure to musicians such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson in the 1970s and 1980s.

“I am shocked and deeply saddened at the sudden passing of my friend, colleague and business partner Don Cornelius,” said Quincy Jones, according to the Associated Press. “Don was a visionary pioneer and a giant in our business. Before MTV there was ‘Soul Train.’ That will be the great legacy of Don Cornelius. His contributions to television, music and our culture as a whole will never be matched. My heart goes out to Don’s family and loved ones.”

Mr. Cornelius, a former disc jockey, created the show in 1970 in Chicago on WCIU-TV and served as its writer, producer and host. Quickly becoming a success, the show was broadcast nationally in 1971, beginning its 35-year run. Besides the performers, the program showcased young dancers who would strut their stuff, laying the groundwork for countless dance programs , including current hits like Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance?” and MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew.” “We had a show that kids gravitated to,” Mr. Cornelius said.

Cornelius’ death is being investigated as a possible suicide. He was 75. Link

(Image credit: MadVision Entertainment)

U.S. TV networks take shows from other countries and rework them to show to American audiences. In the same way, other countries do their own versions of American TV shows -but they often end up being quite different. Check out this list of 10 Foreign Remakes of American TV Shows Very Different Than the Original, with clips showing what some of your favorite sitcoms, cartoons, and dramas look  like in other parts of the world. Pictured here are the Russian versions of How I Met Your Mother, The Nanny, and Everybody Loves Raymond. Link -Thanks, Katina!

Who knew Homer was speaking dragon this whole time?

Link Via The Daily What

The final episode of M*A*S*H aired on February 28, 1983. It wasn’t just a “TV event” …it was the most-watched episode in scripted TV history.

WAR IS SWELL

M*A*S*H was a sitcom based on a cynical movie inspired by a cynical book about an unpopular war. It was also one of the most successful TV shows of all time. Chronicling the doctors and nurses of the 4077TH Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War (1950-1953), the first season in 1972 drew such low ratings that CBS nearly canceled it. But they gave it a chance, and by season two, M*A*S*H was a top 10 show. For the remainder of its 11-year run, it never fell out of the top 20.

Until 1983, M*A*S*H was a fixture on Monday night at 9:00 PM on CBS. But by the time it ended, it had evolved into a much different show than it had been at the start.

FROM SILLY TO SERIOUS

The biggest reason for M*A*S*H‘s change in tone was Alan Alda, who starred as Captain “Hawkeye” Pierce, the unit’s chief surgeon. After series creator Larry Gelbart left the show in 1976, Alda took over as head writer. He, along with executive producer Burt Metcalfe, convinced CBS to phase out the laugh track and focus less on the doctors’ womanizing and pranks and more on character development and honest depictions of the horrors of war.

Result: M*A*S*H was no longer a comedy with occasional drama, but a drama with occasional comedy. “We’re recreating a time of suffering and joy and revelation that happened to real people at a real time,” said Alda. “We know what they went through. We can’t be casual in the face of that.”

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

M*A*S*H remained popular through all the changes, but after 10 seasons, Alda and company were running out of stories to tell about a three-year war. CBS wasn’t willing to call it a day, though, and convinced Metcalfe and Alda to return for a final season that would conclude in February 1983 with a movie-length finale.

That wasn’t Alda’s first choice. He wanted the last M*A*S*H to be a regular 30-minute episode. At the end of his version, the audience would hear the director yell “Cut!” and the camera would move back to reveal the crew. Alda would take off his surgical mask and address the viewers with a short, heartfelt tribute to veterans.

CBS nixed that plan, so Alda and eight other writers began penning “Goodby, Farewell, and Amen.”

THE WAR AT HOME

When M*A*S*H‘s end date was announced in the fall of 1982, it became the biggest story in entertainment. Many fans mourned the show’s end. “The general viewing audience will feel a tremendous disappointment when M*A*S*H finally goes off the air,” reported Dr. Robert London, a psychiatrist at the NYU Medical Center, adding that viewers might even suffer withdrawal symptoms. (CBS mourned the end of its hit show by 30-second advertising spots on its finale for $450,000 each -about a millions dollars in today’s money.)

In fact, M*A*S*H fans were so eager to find out what would become of Hawkeye, B.J., Col. Potter, Charles, Margaret, Klinger, and Father Mulcahy that a Fall 1982 edition of the National Enquirer promising exclusive scoops on the final episode sold out: “One character goes crazy, one is wounded in action, one leaves early, and one remains in Korea!” (They were right.)

PLAYING CHICKEN

While the final episode was being filmed, a forest fire swept through the outdoor set in the hills outside Malibu, leaving only a burned-out Jeep and the “Best Care Anywhere” sign standing. And only half of the scenes had been shot. Undeterred, Alda wrote the fire into the story: North Koreans had set off incendiary devices, causing a blaze and the evacuation of the 4077th.

(Image credit: Flickr user Danielle Directo-Meston)

On February 28, 1983, “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen” aired on CBS. Directed by Alda, it was unlike any other M*A*S*H episode. It opens with Hawkeye in a mental institution, recalling a horrific experience to Dr. Sidney Freedman (Alan Arbus), M*A*S*H‘s psychiatrist. Over the course of the first hour, Hawkeye reveals a horrific ordeal he experienced while hiding in a bus with some Korean refugees. (A chicken was making noise, putting them all in danger of being captured by the Chinese, so Hawkeye told the woman to “shut the chicken up!” Hawkeye soon remembers that it wasn’t a chicken but a baby, and that the mother had smothered it.) Later, he’s deemed fit to return to duty, but it’s obvious that he’s damaged -especially when he risks his life to drive an abandoned tank out of camp to draw enemy fire away from the hospital.

That took up the first hour; the second hour and a half was about the cease-fire ending the Korean War, and saying goodbye. In the iconic final scene, Hawkeye boards a helicopter and looks down at the camp from above. He sees someone had written “GOODBYE” in rocks on the ground. The helicopter flies away.

THE AFTERM*A*T*H

Even now, 28 years later, “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen” still holds the record for the most-watched scripted TV episode. (The previous record holder was 1980′s “Who Shot J.R?” episode of Dallas.) It’s estimated that between 105 million and 121 million people tuned in, more than half of the U.S. population at the time. No single American TV broadcast surpassed the finale until the 2010 Super Bowl. And it’s likely that M*A*S*H will hold on to this record for a long time, perhaps forever. Why? In the early 1980s, network television was the biggest thing going in home entertainment. But today, audiences are divided among hundreds of cable channels, DVDs, video games, and the Internet.

The M*A*S*H finale was such an event that it affected everyday life. Newspapers reported that more than a million New Yorkers all flushed their toilets at once immediately after the show ended (they’d all waited until the end). According to “The Straight Dope’s” Cecil Adams, it nearly brought on a plumbing catastrophe: “The resultant pressure drop caused a pronounced surge in the two huge tunnels that bring water into New York each day.” And according to New York Magazine, classical radio stations across the country were inundated with requests for a Mozart piece called “Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K 581″ just after the show. The music figured into a poignant subplot where the snooty Major Charles Emerson Winchester II (David Ogden Stiers) teaches a group of Chinese prisoners of war how to play it.

F*A*C*T*S

* Each main characters exits the show in a different form of vehicle: Hawkeye in a helicopter, B.J. on a motorcycle, Col. Potter (Harry Morgan) on his horse, Charles in a garbage truck, Margaret in a Jeep, Father Mulcahy (William Christopher) in an ambulance, and Corporal Kinger (Jamie Farr) in the back of an oxcart.

* Klinger, Potter, and Mulcahy reunited in the CBS spinoff series AfterMASH, which lasted two seasons (1983-1985). In 1984, CBS aired a pilot called W*A*L*T*E*R about Radar (Gary Burghoff), the camp’s original company clerk, but the show was not picked up.

* During the filming of the finale, the Smithsonian Institution requested that set pieces, props, and costumes be set aside for the Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Later, the M*A*S*H exhibit broke so many attendance records that it was extended for six months, and a few items are still on display today. And if you go to Malibu Creek State Park, about 25 miles north of Los Angeles, you can touch a piece of TV history -a burned-out Jeep carcass from the old 4077th.

___________________

The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Tunes Into TV.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

After all the fan movements to save the show, some artists are celebrating with Community-inspired fan art. While there are a bunch out there, this X-Men one might just be the best I’ve seen so far.

Link Via The Mary Sue

Brainstorm Digital clues us in on how they provide effects for television, specifically for the second season of Boardwalk Empire. And it’s not all “special” effects, either. Productions now can do away with makeup, props, and even sets! It’s all computer magic. Warning: may cause disillusionment. -Thanks, özi!

Who was it: Stefani Germanotta or Jerrica Benton? These singers are better known as pop star Lady Gaga and ’80s cartoon rock star Jem. In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you’ll be given twelve statements, and you decide which diva it applies to. Believe it or not, I scored 75% without knowing anything about either of them! How did you do? Link

Nick Bertke, also known as Pogo, loans his signature style of remixing to the ’90s TV sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The result is both hypnotic and nostalgic. -via The Daily What

Previously: Other Pogo remixes.

There are all kinds of reality-based television shows built around what people do: their workday, their obsessions, their love lives -so why don’t television producers reach out to the world of gamers? Unreality has some suggestions for show premises that would draw in gamers, if the production is entertaining enough to make them put down their controllers! Link

Neatorama presents

Why do nerds so often wear glasses? This is an interesting question, and obviously it has a significance in my own life and career.

The word “nerd” was actually coined by my favorite fiction writer, the great Dr. Seuss. In 1950, in Dr. Seuss’s book If I Ran the Zoo, Seuss drew a non-human creature called a ‘nerd” from the land of Ka-roo. This is the first instance of the word “nerd” in print. Some theorists believe the word started at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the 1940s. The students who liked to party there were called “drunks” and the quieter, less-inclined-to-party types were labeled “knurds.” See, “drunk” spelled backwards is “knurd,” the precursor to the modern “nerd.”

In 1957, in Glasgow, Scotland, “nerd” was first defined as “square.”

Motion pictures, the most powerful medium of communication in human history (before television) had, of course, a huge impact on the lives of almost everyone on earth. The “nerd” in movie history has not, to my knowledge, ever been fully written. As far as I can determine, the first nerd in movie history was the popular silent comedian Harold Lloyd. Lloyd played a weak, underdog type of comedic character, one bullied by men and ignored by women. But in the end, he would triumph and inevitably get the girl of his dreams. The Lloyd character wore trademark glasses. In fact, Lloyd always referred to his character as the “glasses” or “glass” character, much as Charlie Chaplin was “the Tramp.”

After Lloyd, the nerd character was on the shelf for many years in movies -with sporadic exceptions. Ironically, Cary Grant, perhaps the most dapper actor in movie history, donned glasses and played a nerd character in 1938′s classic comedy Bringing Up Baby.

In the 1950s and ’60s, the great Jerry Lewis often played a nerd-type character in his wonderful comedies. Once in a while, Jerry would wear glasses in his films, notably The Nutty Professor and The Ladies Man. One of his early films with Dean Martin (That’s My Boy) Jerry played a classic glasses-wearing nerd. Jerry as “Junior Jackson” is a shy, clumsy nerd who is trained to be a football player by the handsome, popular Dean Martin. Lewis almost always played a semi-nerd, but it was always a bit of a very cool nerd with Jerry Lewis. While Jerry was always a dumb klutz in his films, he always danced gracefully and also, Jerry was a relatively good-looking fellow, unlike most nerds (or comedians) in comedies. And of course, Jerry did not usually wear glasses. But the movies next classic nerd did.

Woody Allen made his movie debut in 1965 in the smash hit What’s New, Pussycat? Allen, besides being Lewis’ successor as the next great movie comedian, also took over the crown as “movies’ next great nerd.” By the late 1970s, Allen had stopped playing a nerd in hilarious comedies and took his bespectacled character into more serious films.

In 1972, in a homage to the film Bringing Up Baby, Ryan O’Neal dons glasses and plays a nerd character in What’s Up, Doc?, one of the last great screwball comedies (and the only Barbra Streisand film I ever liked).

It was in the wonderful classic American Graffiti (1973) that Charles Martin Smith played a 1950s-type nerd character named “Toad.” Smith was wonderful and his portrayal was the first modern movie “nerd.” Smith’s brilliant portrayal set the standard for the modern nerd as we all know him -glasses, pocket protector, unkempt hair, etc.

About five years later, after a fallow “no nerd” period in the mid-1970s, I started playing the nerd character as my one and only character. I may be a lot of things, but a versatile actor is not one of them. Maybe because I grew up worshiping the great comedians: Chaplin, Buster Keaton, The Three Stooges, The Marx Brothers, Dean and Jerry, Laurel and Hardy, et. al., I early on decided that I would only ever play one character. These classic comedians always played just one basic character.

I just did a slight variation on the person I am in real life. I was always the offbeat character, never a handsome guy, never a great athlete, never a ladies’ man. But I was always a relatively funny guy; I always enjoyed making people laugh. I wore glasses naturally and because I was skinny and had scoliosis (my spine is curved), I always moved in a comic way.

(YouTube link)

I started churning out films -mostly B-movies, but a few good ones. Grease is the standout, although ironically Grease is actually the movie I have the smallest role in. I started playing the squeaky-voiced, spastic, clumsy nerd character and soon, a lot of nerd movie (and TV) characters followed. Okay, enough of my autobiography.

Nerds quickly spread like wildfire in many movies, A-movies and B-movies alike. The nerd character was frequently featured in 1980s low-budget films, and it became a standard movie “type,” much like the “jock,” the “spoiled rich kid,” the “dumb blonde.” the “best friend,” and the “gay guy.” In 1984, the nerd in movies reached its peak in Revenge of the Nerds, a comedy classic.

The last truly great nerd character was in one of my all-time favorite films Superbad (2007). Christopher Mintz-Plasse as “Fogel” creates a hilarious nerd character and almost steals this excellent movie, except for the fact that the entire cast is great.

Okay, enough movie history- Why do nerds so often wear glasses? I have always had three theories about this…

1. The nerd is always an outsider. Glasses immediately make a person appear different. In a random group of ten men (or ten women), if one person in that group is wearing glasses, he or she is very easily identifiable. In a quick glance at any group, a person wearing glasses is immediately seen as somehow looking different. The ‘different one” in almost any group is the one who is laughed at, and put at a distance from the other, more “normal” group members.

2. Glasses symbolize weakness or a low confront. The nerd is thought to be a not very strong character. Let’s face it, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, etc. would not wear glasses in their movie roles. Neither would James Bond or Rambo. Superman wore no glasses. Clark Kent did. Whereas Superman could and would confront anything, Clark Kent would inevitably run away. The typical guy hero can face evil or villains or tough situations. Glasses symbolize a type of low confront or non-confront. Where a typical guy hero has a “high confront” of life, a guy wearing glasses apparently has a “low confront” level. There is also something inherently funny about a guy who is in fear.

It is worth noting that almost every great comedian in movie history had a cowardly side: from Bob Hope to Jerry Lewis to the Three Stooges to Laurel and Hardy to Don Knotts to Abbot and Costello. Pretty much every great comedian has been in a haunted house and ran away scared and screaming from ghosts or whatever. The sight of a man running away in fear is just naturally comical. The nerd wearing glasses appears to be a “low confront” guy.

3. Glasses symbolize sexual unattractiveness. This generally seems to hold true for both men and women. Remember Dorothy Parker’s famous quote: “Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.” The nerd is thought to be sexually unattractive and thus wears glasses. Interestingly, I have never though this about women or girls. On the contrary, I have always been very attracted to girls and women who wear glasses. I never thought they lessened a woman’s attractiveness.

Miss C says: Glasses may designate a nerd character, but we aren't really fooled.

Four years ago, we published an article called Life Imitates The Simpsons, containing six plots from the TV show The Simpsons which later happened in the real world. In the years since, many more Simpsons plots were prescient of, or else inspired, real-life incidents. Ranker now has a list of 13 Simpsons Jokes That Actually Came True, and I was amazed to find no overlap in the two lists! Check this out: the picture on the left shows a promotional billboard for Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie, which was featured on The Simpsons in 1992. On the right is a billboard for Kill Bill, which came out in 2003. Read all the details at Ranker. Link

If you watch Arrested Development, then you know there’s always money in the Banana Stand,  which is why this is such a great gift for any fan of the show.

Link

TV Line has a schedule of Christmas movies, specials, and marathons for today through Sunday. The marathons provide relief for those who like TV but need a break from relentless holiday cheer. And you’re going to need something to do when the relatives starts getting on each other’s nerves. Link

Apollo 8 wasn’t just a NASA mission; it was the biggest, coolest, most mind-blowing Christmas special of all time.

The men of Apollo 8 -Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders- had their work cut out for them. They were slated to become the first humans ever to leave the Earth’s orbit, enter lunar orbit, and see the far side of the Moon. But as their launch date approached in December 1968, NASA added an even more terrifying task to the crew’s to-do list: public speaking. The agency wanted the astronauts to host a live broadcast from the spacecraft on Christmas Eve. Worse still, the men were given only one cryptic instruction: “Say something appropriate.”

The astronauts were in a tough spot. When millions of people of different faiths and backgrounds are listening, what exactly constitutes appropriate? To make matters trickier, 1968 had been a grim year for Americans -the Vietnam War was raging, and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. had both been assassinated. How could the astronauts simultaneously orbit the Moon, introduce millions to outer space on TV, and buoy the American spirit?

The men were stumped. They began enlisting the help of media experts, who were mostly just as clueless as they were. The answer finally came from the wife of Joe Laitin, a former reporter who’d worked as a public affairs officer under five presidents. She made an elegant, simple suggestion: Why not just read from the book of Genesis?

The astronauts jumped at the idea. They reasoned that genesis had a broad enough appeal across religions to add a hint of spirituality without ostracizing non-Christians. Borman, the mission’s commander, had the first ten verses typed onto fireproof paper and tucked the sheet into his flight plan. The astronauts had their script.

The broadcast began with the crew showing some of the first images of Earth ever seen from space. Lovell remarked, “The vast loneliness up here of the Moon is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize just what you have back there in Earth.”

Viewers were captivated. But as airtime dwindled, Anders revealed that the crew had a special message for all the people of the planet. He started with the familiar “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth…”

He read the first four verses; Lovell read four more. Borman recited the last two and ended the show, saying, “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with a good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you -all of you on the good Earth.”

In the end, the crew’s effort paid off. Half a billion people tuned in, making it the largest TV event in history at the time, and the reception was overwhelmingly positive; even Walter Cronkite admitted that he had tears in his eyes. Of course, not everyone on Earth was thrilled; one atheist activist sued NASA for interjecting religion into a government project, but the Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit. Enough nitpicking! The Christmas Eve special won an Emmy, and Time made the crew the magazine’s “Men of the Year” for 1968. The broadcast was truly out of this world.

(YouTube link)

_______________________

The article above, written by Ethan Trex, is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the November-December 2011 issue of mental_floss magazine. Get a subscription to mental_floss and never miss an issue!

Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ website and blog for more fun stuff!

The 1966 TV show intro recreated, to the smallest detail, in LEGO bricks! For comparison purposes, here is the original. (via Buzzfeed)

Neatorama presents

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

When TV characters cook, the results are often disgusting.

Drink: Flaming Homer

Show: The Simpsons (1991)

Origin: Homer is bored at home one night -forced to watch his in-law’s vacation slides- and he doesn’t have any beer, so he makes a cocktail from whatever he can find. He pours the leftover bits from several liquor bottles into a blender, along with the accidental addition of “Krusty’s Non-Narkotic Kough Syrup.” Homer thinks it tastes okay… but it’s even better after it’s lit afire by a stray cigarette ash. “I don’t know the scientific explanation, but fire made it good,” Homer says when he recreates the “Flaming Homer” at Moe’s Tavern. Moe then steals the idea and starts serving the drink (for $6.95) and renames it “The Flaming Moe.”

Food: Chocolate Salty Balls

Show: South Park (1998)

Origin: When the Sundance Film Festival comes to town, the soul-singing school cafeteria cook Chef (voice of Isaac Hayes) opens a stand to sell cookies to tourists. His most popular item: His “Chocolate Salty Balls.” It’s a blatant double entendre, and Chef even sings a song about them: “Hey, everybody, have you seen my balls? They’re big and salty and brown!” The song (which reached #1 in England) gives the recipe: cinnamon, egg whites, melted butter, flour, unsweetened chocolate, brandy, vanilla, and sugar. (Curiously, it doesn’t call for salt.)

(Image credit: Garnished Adventures)

Drink: Thankstini

Show: How I Met Your Mother (2005)

Origins: This cocktail, a martini, invented by booze-swilling playboy Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), combines Thanksgiving food with booze. It’s made from two ounces of potato vodka, four ounces of cranberry juice …and a bouillon cube for that poultry flavor. Barney remarks that it “tastes just like a turkey dinner.”

Food: Skip’s Scramble

Show: Arrested Development (2005)

Origin: On one episode, characters eat Sunday brunch at a bistro called Skip’s Church (the joke being that people “skip church” to go there). A brief shot of the menu shows standard brunch fare, along with an omelet called Skips Scramble. Its description: “Too many choices? Menu too big to swallow? Let Skip serve you up a scram that has something from every dish on the menu. It will knock you into next week!” Price: $47.95. The dish includes eggs, ten slices of bacon, ham, peppers, onion, sausage, and a chocolate glazed doughnut. (The menu also features the disclaimer that Skip’s Church is “not responsible for medical bills of deformities resulting from the digestion of its menu items.”)

(YouTube link)

Drink: Killer Shrew

Show: Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1992)

Origin: On an episode of the movie send-up show revolving around the 1959 movie called Killer Shrews, Joel (Joel Hodgson) and his robot companions devise the “Killer Shrew,” a cocktail that’s non-alcoholic but not very healthy. The recipe: combine chocolate chip ice cream, Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries, Peanut M&Ms, pancake syrup, Circus Peanuts, Mr. Pibb, Marshmallow Peeps, Sweet Tarts candies, vanilla cake frosting, and Good & Plenty in a blender. Then, “pour into a plastic tulip vase” and throw in a wind-up toy shrew. Joel took a sip… and fell into a diabetic coma from all the sugar. (Note: If you throw in wax lips, it’s no longer a Killer Shrew; it’s a “Vulcan Mind Probe.”)

(Image source: iCarly)

Food: Spaghetti Tacos

Show: iCarly (2009)

Origin: One on episode of the popular nickelodeon comedy, Spencer (Jerry Trainor) had no idea what to make for dinner. So he invented spaghetti tacos, hard taco shells filled with noodles and marinara sauce. Since that episode aired in 2009, the food became a cultural phenomenon both on the show and in real life. In one episode, characters oversee a spaghetti-taco-making contest on a cable show, and in the real world, spaghetti tacos were the most-requested food item at American school cafeterias in 2010. “Spaghetti tacos made it possible to eat spaghetti in your car,” said Syracuse University pop-culture professor Robert Thompson in The New York Times. “It’s an important technological development.”

(YouTube link)

Drink: Bloody Awful

Show: Top Gear (2008)

Origin: This British show about cars and other manly stuff is co-hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, who came up with this recipe for what he calls “a man’s V8 smoothie.” And that’s not V8, as in the vegetable drink- that’s V8, as in the high-powered car engine, which he used to power a blender. Into that blender were placed a few pounds of raw beef with the bones, a dozen hot chilies, a half gallon of Bovril (a meat flavoring agent and tenderizer), two cups of Tabasco sauce…and a brick.

Food: Shepherd’s Pie Trifle

Show: Friends (1999)

Origin: In a Thanksgiving episode, chef Monica (Courtney Cox) makes a holiday feast, while Rachel (Jennifer Anniston) volunteers to make a trifle for dessert. The British dish is traditionally made up of cake, custard, and fruit, but when the pages of Rachel’s cookbook get stuck together, she inadvertently mixes in the ingredients of shepherd’s pie with the trifle, making for a disgusting crossbreed of the two. Joey (Matt LeBlanc), who has a huge appetite, doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with the dish, and eats the whole thing himself. “What’s not to like? Custard, good. Jam, good. Meat, good.” Ross disagrees, saying that it “tastes like feet.”

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The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Tunes Into TV.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

Rock stars aren’t generally known for their amazing acting skills, but that doesn’t stop television executives from working them into different cameo roles whenever possible. Mental Floss has a great article with some of the greatest (and most terrible) musician cameos ever made. My personal favorite was Michael Stipe in The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Any of you remember these episodes?

Link

A litter of six Bengal kittens and their mother watch Japanese skater Daisuke Takahashi perform on television. And try to catch him. I was surprised by this, as my cats prefer nature documentaries to sports.  -via Buzzfeed

In 1978, Glen A. Larson launched his ambitious space saga Battlestar Galactica. It was a grand story of a clash of civilizations and battle for survival. But its ratings could not justify its enormous production expense, and the show folded. A brief return in 1980 offered hope, but that came to nothing. For a generation, Battlestar Galactica fans lobbied for a revival and their efforts finally came to fruition in a re-imagined version of the show in a 2003 miniseries, followed by four seasons of storytelling. Here are eleven facts that you might not know about that latter series.

1. Laura Roslin’s swearing-in ceremony as the President of the Twelve Colonies was modeled after that of Lyndon Johnson onboard Air Force One after the assassination of President Kennedy.

2. Grace Park initially auditioned for role of Dualla. She was turned down, but told by directors to audition for the role of Starbuck. She did so, but was instead offered the role of Boomer.

3. At 22, Katee Sackoff was much younger than what the directors had in mind for Starbuck, but she aced the audition and was given the role. The decision to make Starbuck a woman although the original Starbuck had been a man was deeply controversial among BSG fans. Dirk Benedict, the actor who played Starbuck in the 1978 series, strongly and repeatedly objected to this change. But eventually he and Sackoff came to an understanding that allowed them to work together.

4. Sackoff has a tattoo of the Latin words bona fiscalia, which means “public property.” It’s a reminder to her that she is a role model to people and that this entails a high responsibility.

5. Producers wanted Lucy Lawless to audition for the role of Colonel Tigh’s adulterous wife. She turned them down, but was interested in the role of the Cylon agent D’Anna Biers.

6. Paul Campbell, who played Billy, was killed off in the episode “Sacrifice.” Producers wanted Campbell to take a 5-year contract, but he wouldn’t. Since they couldn’t be sure that his character would be in the story in the long run, they decided to kill him off so that they didn’t have to worry about Campbell leaving the show and disrupting the story arc.

(Video Link)

7. Chief Tyrol’s pro-union speech in “Lay Down Your Burdens” is a partial paraphrase of Mario Savio’s 1964 speech at the Berkeley Free Speech Movement.

8. At the end of “Maelstrom,” Admiral Adama wrecks a model ship in a fit of rage. This was one of the most expensive scenes in the show because that action was ad libbed. The model ship was a high-quality one borrowed from a museum. Olmos didn’t know this and treated it like a cheap prop — a decision that had expensive consequences.

9. Bill Adama’s office features a painting of a battle scene. It depicts the First Cylon War and was composed by Ken Rabehl.

10. The deadly accident scene in the Galactica hangar that takes place in the episode “Act of Contrition” was inspired by the terrible fire that almost sank the USS Forrestal in 1967.

11. One minor detail that sets BSG apart from other shows is that the main characters dress like ordinary people in the Western world of the 21st Century. Deborah Everton, the costume designer, made this decision to help viewers relate to the characters easier.

Sources:
Bassom, David. Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion. London: Titan Books, 2005. Print.
Storm, Jo. Frak You!: The Ultimate Unauthorized Guide to Battlestar Galactica. Chicago: ECW, 2007. Print.

Images: Cecil Stoughton, British Sky Broadcasting, NBC Universal, Propworx, US Navy.

Inspiring the Classics

We’ve talked about Jim Henson’s show Sam and Friends, where Kermit originated, before, but that wasn’t Jim Henson’s first experience working with puppets. It actually started all the way back in 1954 when Henson was still attending high school. He was quite ambitious because before he graduated, he already was creating puppets for a Saturday morning kid’s show called The Junior Morning Show featured on WTOP-TV.

Interestingly, Jim didn’t really intend to work on puppets for a career. He actually originally went to the University of Maryland, College Park, to become a commercial artist. But when he was only a freshman, he was asked to create a five-minute long puppet show for WRC-TV named Sam and Friends. The show ended up playing a huge role in the inspiration for The Muppets and featured a prototype version of Kermit the Frog.

Image Via zhurnaly [Flickr]

So Who Was Sam and What’s Up With His Friends?

(Video Link)

Well, Sam was a puppet that looked like a human and his friends were a variety of other human puppets, a few weird monstery creatures, a snake and a lizard that eventually morphed into the world’s most famous frog. The show started out just featuring the puppets lip-synching to popular songs, but as the show started gaining popularity, they started writing real sketches, many of which involved featured spoofs of popular TV shows.

One of the best-known sketches involved Kermit nibbling on something that looked like a worm, but eventually turned into the tongue or nose of the character Big V, a giant monster, who would eventually eat him. Near the end of the show’s run, Esskay Meats started showing ads at the end of the show, which would feature characters from Sam and Friends.

While the show was best known for introducing Kermit to the world, it also played a huge role in letting Henson perfect his puppetry techniques that would eventually change the way puppets were shown on television forever. One of his biggest innovations was setting up the camera shots so the people operating the puppets would not be seen on screen. He also made the puppets more flexible than puppets previously seen on television so they could express a wider array of emotions on screen.

Making It Big

(Video Link)

Humorously, after leaving school and the financially successful show, Henson still doubted that he would be able to make a career out of puppetry. Fortunately, like many recent graduates, he took a trip to Europe, where he could think about his future. While there, he spoke with a number of professional puppeteers who believed their work was a true art form. This sealed his interest in the field and ensured the success of the Muppets in the future.

Throughout the next decade, Jim focused all of his efforts on puppeteering. He appeared as a guest on a number of talk shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show, and created a number of commercials, a few of which led to the body styles and voices of future Muppet characters. He also made a number of short, experimental films, one of which was even nominated for an Oscar (that’s it above).

In 1963, Jim and his new wife moved to New York City, where they formed Muppets, Inc. When his wife quit working on the puppets so she could raise their children, Henson hired Jerry Juhl and Frank Oz, who both played crucial roles in the development of The Muppets.

Henson’s first big break occurred in 1966, when he started working on Sesame Street for PBS, which would finally give his Muppets a national audience. While the show was a massive success and Jim loved the idea of an educational show for children that was actually fun to watch, he was determined that the Muppets shouldn’t be pigeonholed as children’s characters. In 1974, he left the show and headed to London to start working on his dream creation The Muppet Show.

(Video Link)

The first episode of The Muppet Show (above) premiered in September 1976. While kids enjoyed watching characters they recognized from Sesame Street, most of the jokes were written for adults, who enjoyed the slapstick plot lines and big name guest stars. Throughout the series’ six year-long run, over one hundred guest stars appeared on the show and no celebrity ever appeared twice on the show. In the beginning of the series, each star would receive a Muppet modeled after them as a parting gift, but because this practice was costly and time consuming, this policy was changed and characters based on stars were only created if they were intended to be used in the show.

Life After The Muppet Show

After the show finished its run, the characters went on to star in a number of popular movies featuring the characters interacting with humans in real life settings and an animated series called The Muppet Babies. In 1989, Henson made another TV show, called The Jim Henson Hour, which featured many of his most famous characters, but the show was cancelled after only one season due to low ratings. As it turned out, the show probably would have been cancelled soon after anyway, because Jim passed away in May of 1990. I know we’ve shown some videos of his memorial here before, but just in case you haven’t seen this touching, beautiful and depressing display, here it is (have some tissues handy):

(Video Link)

Fortunately, Jim’s legacy continued to thrive after his passing and The Muppet Show was revived as Muppets Tonight in 1996, bringing the characters a whole new generation of fans. New movies also continued to be created and the characters made a number of movie and television appearances throughout the years as well.

Disney bought the rights to The Muppets in 2004 (although they do not own the rights to Sesame Street characters or Fraggles) and helped push the characters back into the public eye, starting with a number of popular web shows, particularly the award winning series Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony. The company also opened a new attraction at their California Adventure park titled Muppet*Vision 3D, which features many of the show’s favorite characters attempting to put on a big new show that keeps going terribly wrong.

The characters have only gone up in popularity since then, appearing on a postage stamp and earning their own wing at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta (set to open next year). Fox is also in talks with Disney about making a new Muppets show, and, of course, there is the new movie coming out today as well.

Image Via Express Monorail [Flickr]

Fun Character Trivia

The Muppets wouldn’t be The Muppets if it weren’t for the individual characters, of course. So now that you know all about the history of the show, it’s time to take a look at some of the characters themselves.

• Kermit the Frog was the first Muppet, originally created in 1955 for Sam and Friends. He was first made from a turquoise woman’s coat that Jim’s mother had tossed in the trash. When he was adapted for Sesame Street, he was given his trademark collar to help hide the seam that attached his neck to his head. Kermit has reached #25 on the Billboard music charts with his hit song “The Rainbow Connection.
• Miss Piggy was only supposed to be a minor character on The Muppet show, but her obsession with Kermit and delusional view of herself quickly made her one of the central characters in the show.
• Animal has appeared in all of the Muppet movies and is undoubtedly the most famous member of the Electric Mayhem, making him the only one from the band to regularly appear on The Muppet Babies, where he was voiced by Howie Mandel. In 1998, he was named the official mascot of the U.S. Ski Team in that year’s Winter Olympics.
• Fozzie Bear was named for Faz Fazakas, who created the mechanism that allowed him to wiggle his ears. Fozzie’s jokes often include Jewish humor because he was origianally performed by Frank Oz, who is Jewish.
• Gonzo the Great was originally called a “whatever” or a “weirdo” when it came to his species, but in Muppets from Space, it was revealed that he is actually an alien from a distant planet. Of course, that doesn’t make his love for Camilla the Chicken any less strange.
• Rowlf the Dog was originally created for a 1962 Purina commercial, but his career really took off when he started regularly performing on The Jimmy Dean Show. Because Jimmy Dean did so much to help promote The Muppets, Henson even offered him a cut of his profits, but Dean refused, explaining that Jim did all the work and thus, deserved all the credit. In a 1966 IBM film, Rowlf lists his full name as Rowlf Cameron Swayze.

Image Via cmpalmer [Flickr]

Obviously in the almost sixty years since Jim Henson started creating Muppets, a lot has happened, so I can’t cover it all here. That being said do any of you have any favorite Muppet stories I may have left out here? Also are you guys excited about the new movie?

Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11

(YouTube Link)

Apparently Nissin instant ramen noodles are Jedi Council approved, since Yoda has now come forward with his endorsement of the Cup Noodle. I can totally imagine Yoda sitting down in his cave on Dagobah to a hot cup of ramen noodles, they’re good for those cold swamp days.

–via BuzzFeed

Ever since NBC announced that Community would be put on a temporary (read:possibly permanent) hiatus, fans have been rallying behind the show. Here’s my personal favorite effort to bring support to the show.

What do you guys think about the show? Are you upset about the hiatus?

Link Via Buzzfeed

Game of Thrones

This fantasy epic is filled with so many delicious food and drink ideas that there is already more than one blog out there dedicated to creating the tasty treats in real life. Inn At The Crossroads is the best known of these blogs and the site even has a cookbook coming out soon.

For those looking to spice up their Thanksgiving with some kingly delights, may I recommend the Rack of Lamb in a Crust of Garlic and Herbs served with a cup of Salladhor Saans Hot Wine. If you’d like something a little more exotic for your main course though, the Grilled Snake, served with a spicy mustard sauce, looks rather delightful.

Dune

If you’re familiar with Dune, then you know that it is all about the spices. That being said, the two best recipes from this story are both beverages. Whether you prefer Spice Beer or Spice Coffee, I’m sure either one would make a great contribution to your Thanksgiving menu. Grumpy Frenchman suggests adding cinnamon to your beer for Spice Beer, but he also warns that that makes the foam go crazy, so pour accordingly. Meanwhile, GeekChill has a fantastic recipe for Spice Coffee that blends Chai tea, coffee and cinnamon –yum!

Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit

Middle Earth is awash with great food and drink, but because most of Tolkien’s stories take place on the road, we tend to hear about the ones that are good for travel…which are not necessarily the most delicious treats around. That being said, while the hobbits seem to tire of Lembas bread, it is certainly the most delicious travel-friendly bread around and The Geeky Chef has a great recipe to make your own.

As for The Hobbit, the many mentions of seed cake seem to indicate that it is certainly one of Bilbo’s favorite foods and Historical Foods has an excellent recipe based on the time period for which Tolkien based the setting for his classic tales. That means, this seed cake is about as close to what Bilbo would eat as possible.

Harry Potter

Between the butterbeer, chocolate frogs and cauldron cakes, wizards and witches have quite a selection of tasty treats for any time of year. Of course, if there are any geek recipes that would actually go great with an otherwise traditional Thanksgiving feast, they would most certainly be Pumpkin Juice or Pumpkin Pasties. HarryPotterRecipes.Net has an absolutely delightful recipe for making your own Pumpkin Juice, sweetened with pineapple juice and spiced with a touch of nutmeg and allspice.

For your Pumpkin Pasties fix, stop by The Geeky Chef and try out this delicious recipe that imagines them as a sort of pumpkin-filled pastry…like pumpkin pie turnovers.

Star Wars

These films contain very few references to food. Even when the characters eat or drink, they never really seem to bring attention to what, exactly, they are putting in their mouths. That being said, Wookiee-Ookies are specifically mentioned in the Star Wars Holiday Special. Although they are best known for being a Christmas treat, they can undoubtedly still be served for Thanksgiving, just like eggnog.

You can find the recipe for these treats over on the website dedicated exclusively to the special, inventively called The Star Wars Holiday Special, and culled from The Star Wars Cookbook.

Firefly

Like Star Wars, while the characters on Firefly do eat and drink on screen, they rarely explain what it is they are actually eating. We know they get most of their vitamins through nutrient bars that can provide a month’s worth of nutrition to someone although they still need to drink water and ingest  calories, but aside from that, few foods are actually mentioned. A few exceptions are Mudder’s Milk, which is enjoyed in large quantities on Higgin’s Moon in the episode “Jaynestown,” and Ice Planets, which River Tam has difficulty eating in the episode “The Message.”

You can find a non-alcoholic version of Mudder’s Milk on the Firefly Wikia and learn how to make your own Ice Planet (essentially ice cream on a string) over on Tasty Planner.

Star Trek

Of course, geek Thanksgivings don’t have to ignore the turkey entirely. After all, in the Star Trek episode “Charlie X,” Captain Kirk is upset because he wants to celebrate Thanksgiving properly with a turkey, but there were none on board. Instead, the crew was going to have to eat meatloaf.

Strangely, while the meatloaf was cooking in the ovens, it suddenly transformed into turkey. It turns out that this was caused by Charles Evans, a young boy the crew recently brought on board, who has incredible powers. On the downside, he later uses those powers against everyone on board and tries to take over the ship, but hey, at least they got a nice Thanksgiving meal out of the ordeal. (For the record, yes, I know that is Picard and the Next Generation crew in the image, it was just the most holiday appropriate shot available.)

While you can always serve turkey as your main course and just reference this episode, you can also try blending the storyline in a little more and serve turkey meatloaf that has been cooked in a turkey-shaped baking pan.

What are your guy’s plans for Thanksgiving dinner? Are you planning to go traditional or do you guys like to mix things up a little more? Do any of you want to actually incorporate something from this article into your meal?

No matter how busy we are with family on Thanksgiving, we always find a way to watch a little TV around the holiday, and that includes Thanksgiving stories on our favorite series. Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will test your nostalgia for those shows. You’ll be given a Thanksgiving plot, and you guess what show its from. It’s not that hard; I scored 9/11 (82%) even though I hadn’t seen even half these shows. Link

The inspiring Rollin’ With Zach is centered around Zach Anner, a 26-year-old who has cerebral palsy, feeding his self-proclaimed “obsession” with travel on the show. Anner, who uses a wheelchair, participates in activities like rock climbing and sailing on the show.

“You really just have to have a good attitude, challenge yourself, and you can accomplish great things,” he says.

The theme song for the show was written and produced by John Mayer. See the promo video at People. Link -via reddit

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m excited as heck for the release of the new Muppet Movie and these cake pops seem like a perfect way to get in the spirit for the new film. If you want to make your own, Bakerella has the instructions.

Link via Laughing Squid

Did you know that there was a serious film produced about Karen Carpenter that used Barbie dolls instead of actors? That the first pressing of the Thriller LP was much longer than the finished product? That Quentin Tarantino’s first film was ruined by a fire at the film-processing lab? There are plenty of pop culture recordings that you might never get a chance to experience -or by luck, you just might. Read about a lot of lost art at Wired. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

By the way, the Carpenter biopic is available online.

How well do you remember the TV game shows of the 1980s and ’90s? Find out by taking this Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. Hint: there are a lot of kids’ game shows represented. I was lucky to score 60% because I haven’t watched them. Maybe you will do better! Link

Figure 1. A page from the survey form that was given to male participants.

by Jennifer A. Zimmerman
Psychology Department
Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York

This study investigates what effect, if any, watching television has on people’s sexual behavior.

The Population Problem

For populous countries such as China and India, population growth is seen as a major and vexing problem. The governments of these nations worry that soon there will be more people than the land can support.

The Chinese Crisis

Chinese officials are developing elaborate, expensive plans for more effective family planning, including the development and delivery of better birth-control services. The Chinese State Family Planning Commission recently announced a series of new scientific and technological projects for the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-2005). These include the production of 15 new contraceptives and abortificant medicines.

The technologies under consideration in China have serious drawbacks. They are costly, and are likely to be implemented inefficiently. It could take many years — perhaps decades — before their intended effects reached a satisfactory, or even noticeable level. Some different, better method is sorely wanted.

The Indian Innovation

This past year, an official in India proposed that televisions be given to the nation’s citizens, because televisions are an effective form of birth control.

The official explained that people would rather watch television than engage in sexual intercourse:

In a mark of frustration over India’s perennially stalled family planning efforts, the country’s health minister has come up with a somewhat Orwellian proposal: distribute telvisino sets to the masses to keep their minds off procreation…. Chandreshwar Prasad Thakur suggested last month to the Indian parliament that “entertainment is an important component of the population policy.” To drive down birth rates, he said, “we want people to watch television.” Population experts, meanwhile, say the minister’s proposal betrays the false assumption that India’s poor breed merely because they have nothing better to do. [Science, vol. 293, September 14, 2001, p. 1987.]

Perhaps for political reasons, the proposal was received with skepticism.

To Test the Television Theory

Is television-watching in fact an effective method for preventing sexual intercourse? If so, there are phenomenal implications for family planning.

Prior research strongly suggests that sexual intercourse is a cause of pregnancy. Therefore, if television prevents people from engaging in sexual intercourse, it might also prevent pregnancy. Furthermore, a decrease in the number of pregnancies might produce a lower birth rate. With that in mind, this study set out to determine whether television-watching is an effective form of birth control.

Methods

The study consists of two parts — a review of the literature on population, fertility rate, and television use; and a survey.

The study concentrates on North America, because that is the region in which television use is most widespread among a large population. If television-watching does prevent sexual intercourse, the effect should be most easily discerned in North America.

The survey consisted of eight questions. Each question involved a choice between two activities, where each activity was illustrated with a picture. Thus each question involved looking at a pair of photographs.

Figure 2. A page from the survey form that was given to female participants.

Female participants were shown photographs of males. Male participants were shown photographs of females.

For each pair of pictures, the participant was asked to choose between two options:
<> Engage in sexual intercourse with the individual in picture A; or
<> Watch individual B on television.

Figure 1 shows a page from the survey form that was given to female participants. Figure 2 shows a page from the survey form that was given to male participants.

Participants/Procedure

The subjects who took this study were college students in a physiological psychology course and a psychology-capping course at a liberal arts college in upstate New York. The sample group consisted of 35 individuals: 30 females and five males. Their ages ranged from 18 years to 22 years.

Beforehand, a prospectus for the study was submitted to the college’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), where it received approval.
The surveys were administered in a classroom setting. Subjects were asked to answer the questions honestly, and were told that all answers would remain anonymous. The surveys were collected after everyone was finished answering all of the questions.

Results, Part 1: Analysis of Historical Data

Figure 3. Number of television sets in use in North America

An analysis of several decades’ worth of statistical data concerning (a) the number of television sets in use in North America and (b) the birth rate in the United States reveals a simple relationship. As the number of television sets increases, the birth rate decreases. This is shown in Figures 3 and 4.

In the period since televisions were introduced into the American home, the average number of individuals per household has steadily decreased. In 1940, before television was available, 7.1 percent of households consisted of one person, and 9.3 percent consisted of seven persons. In 1940, these two types of households comprised nearly equal percentages of the total number of households. By 1950, 10.9 percent of households had one person, while only 4.9 percent had seven persons. By 1990, the percent of one-person households had increased to 24.5, while only 1.2 percent of households had seven persons living in them. This data is represented in Figure 5.

During the entire period, the national birth rate was decreasing.

Based on this information, one can conclude that as television-watching increases, the birth rate decreases.

Results, Part 2: The Survey Results

Figure 4. Birth rates in the United States.

The survey was designed to test a hypothesis — that individuals would rather watch members of the opposite sex on television than to engage in sexual intercourse with them.

The survey results were impressively clearcut.

All 35 subjects reported that they would rather watch the opposite sex on television than engage in sexual intercourse with them. In making an aggregate 240 choices, not one participant preferred sexual intercourse to watching television.

The test was re-administered four weeks later. This was done to investigate the re-test reliability for this instrument. There were 23 students in this new sample — 21 females and two males. Here too, all participants specified that they would prefer to watch members of the opposite sex on television than to engage in sexual intercourse with them.

Discussion

Figure 5. Percentage of all households that have 1 Person, 2 Persons, 3 Persons, etc.

As mentioned above, statistical analysis indicates that as the number of television sets increases, the birth rate decreases. In light of our survey results, this otherwise perplexing fact now makes sense. When people have access to a television set, they would rather watch television than engage in sexual intercourse.

Also as noted above, if individuals are not engaging in sexual intercourse, then they are less likely to get pregnant (this is especially true of females), and this in turn is likely to effect a decrease in the birth rate.

Conclusion

Television is an effective method of birth control. If the Chinese and Indian governments supplied televisions to every household, each country would see a dramatic drop in its birth rate.

References

“China to Make Population, Family Planning Law,” (article dated October, 2001). Available at http://www.cpirc.org.cn/e-policy5.htm

“Population, Top Challenge in China’s Western Development,” (article dated October, 2001). Available at http://www.cpirc.org.cn/enview1.htm

“SFPC Identifies Key Projects for Tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-2005),” (article dated October, 2001). Available at http://www.sfpc.gov.cn/en/enews20011017-3.htm

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This article is republished with permission from the March-April 2002 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!

Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

The Lego version of CSI is a lot like the real thing, bad puns and all, but the gore is plastic. -via Laughing Squid

In Japan, the goal of a TV game show is not so much to win, but to entertain the audience. This show that challenges players to climb a slime-ridden staircase is a case in point. Commenters at YouTube assure us that the stairs are made from a relatively soft material, so it doesn’t hurt as much as you’d think to fall on them. -via The Daily What

His demeanor alternated between intense concentration and jubilation. The strategy worked even better than he had anticipated due to the large number of Free Spin bonuses that appeared in his safe slots. Host Peter Tomarken became increasingly flabbergasted each time Larson made the “spin again” gesture. $30,000 was considered an extraordinary payoff for one day on any game show at that time, and the likelihood of missing the whammies for more than a dozen spins was considered to be vanishingly small. By his 13th spin Michael had $32,351 and nervous giggles. By his 21st spin he had $47,601 and conspicuous anxiety. But he pressed on.

The Press Your Luck control booth had grown silent as the show’s producers began to realize that Larson was consistently winning on the same two spaces. In a panic, the booth operators called Michael Brockman, CBS’s head of daytime programming. “Something was very wrong,” Brockman said in a TV Guide interview. “Here was this guy from nowhere, and he was hitting the bonus box every time. It was bedlam, I can tell you.” Producers asked if they should stop the show, but Larson did not appear to be breaking any rules so they were forced to allow the episode to play out.

The amount of game show money Larson won in one day was not eclipsed until 2006. Find out how he did it and what happened to Larson after his big win at Damn Interesting. Link

This flash game will test your knowledge, or memory, of TV shows from the 1990s. Select from the 72 squares and you’ll get a screenshot for each plus some theme music to jog your memory. The square will sprout a check mark if you are right. I must have missed the ’90s, because I only got 22 of them! But if you are Generation Y, you’ll get a real kick out this. Link

Michel and Sven show you the ultimate trick. Methinks there be shenanigans involved. But they practiced a lot to get it right! -via reddit

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

The “evil twin” is a very old plot device in many forms of entertainment. Edgar Allan Poe used the device in the short story William Wilson. The story (almost a perfect pattern to the much later “evil twins” of television) deals with two twin, one moral, one amoral. The evil twin keeps doing his bad deeds and the good twin is good and ethical -and, of course, the evil twin gets the good twin into lots of trouble. In a bizarre Poe twist, the evil twin happens to have the same name as the good twin (William Wilson) and he was born on the same day (January 19th -Poe’s birthday).

Evil twins were portrayed in the movies such as 1939′s The Man in the Iron Mask (based on the Alexander Dumas novel) and Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940) in which Charlie plays a nice Jewish barber, who has history’s ultimate “evil twin” Adenoid Hynkel (an obvious satire of Adolph Hitler).

Comic books have probably had more different and varied evil twins than any other entertainment genre, with Superman, Batman, Robin, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and almost every other classic superhero (or superheroine) worth their salt being plagued by their own “evil twin.”

OK, in doing research regarding TV’s evil twin characters, I really didn’t find that much material out there, so, I not only looked over the limited data available, but I racked my own memory of all the many “evil twins” on all the countless TV shows I have seen over the past 40 or so years. As far as I know, I believe the very first ever “evil twin” in TV series history was seen on The Adventures of Superman, a series I never missed as a kid, starring George Reeves, my first ever hero.

In 1953, Reeves played a dual role (he actually played three different roles, if you count Superman and Clark Kent as two) of a criminal named “Boulder,” who dressed up as Superman (complete with a bullet-proof vest) and extorts money from local merchants (I mean, who is going to turn down Superman?). Reeves, a brilliant and talented actor, never relished playing the role of Superman, and supposedly this was one of his favorite episodes.

“Evil twins” weren’t all that prevalent in the 1950s, but in the ’60s they were to skyrocket and achieve their greatest fame. In a 1960 episode of the popular Western Bonanza, called “The Outlaws,” the “evil twin that is portrayed in an episode that is a stretch” first comes to light. The odds against anyone having an actual “evil twin” who is not related to them in any way are, of course, pretty steep. But in this episode, two outlaw brothers who look exactly like both Hoss and Little Joe (Dan Blocker and Michael Landon) and use the old “switch identities” routine on the Cartwright brothers.

Bonanza, by the way, is TV’s all-time “evil twin” TV show -you’d never guess that, would you? “Alias Joe Cartwright,” a 1964 episode, features a second Little Joe “evil twin” so Little Joe Cartwright may be the only character in TV history to have two completely different evil twins in two completely different episodes. As if that wasn’t enough, the third Cartwright brother Adam (Pernell Roberts) is pitted against his own evil twin (whose name is Tom Burns) in another Bonanza episode. So, three of the four main characters in Bonanza had evil twins. That’s a mind-boggling 75% “evil twin” percentage!

The only show even close to Bonanza in evil twins is Gilligan’s Island. Seven castaways stranded on a remote, uncharted desert island, right? Nonetheless, three (count ‘em -three!) of the seven castaways will be plagued by evil twins: those being Gilligan (a Russian spy), Mr. Howell (by a guy who just wants to spend all his money), and Ginger (by Eva Grubb, a homely girl who becomes glamorous after Ginger gives her a makeover and goes to Hollywood to take over Ginger’s identity). So, Bob Denver, Jim Backus, and Tina Louise all got to chew up the scenery as an “evil twin” (that’s three of seven characters, almost a 50% evil twin ratio, second only to the aforementioned Bonanza). Of course, not only do the three evil twins somehow find Gilligan’s Island, but they also each managed to escape and make it back safely to the mainland.

In one of TV’s evil twin’s strangest coincidences, two TV Westerns both featured “evil twin” episodes with the very same title, “Deadly Image,” which were both aired within a year of each other. The Maverick episode was in 1961, and The Rifleman episode was in 1962.

Bewitched, a show I never watched, featured Elizabeth Montgomery playing the lead, a witch named Samantha, plus her cousin Serena, who is actually more mischievous than evil, and was a recurring role in the series.

Following the Bewitched pattern, I Dream of Jeannie, another of the classic ’60s fantasy series, starred Barbara Eden as Jeannie, who also played Jeannie’s evil twin sister(also named Jeannie). Jeannie (referred to as “Jeannie II” in the show’s scripts), like Montgomery’s Serena, was Barbara Eden in a black wig. The Jeannie II character became hugely popular in I Dream of Jeannie and she was featured in nine different episodes. Barbara Eden’s portrayal of Jeannie II is brilliant an extremely convincing (she reportedly received lots of fan mail asking “Who’s the actress playing Jeannie’s sister on the show?” Major Nelson (Larry Hagman) also got his own evil twin in a two-part I Dream of Jeannie episode (as another ’60s staple bad guy, a Russian spy).

An episode of another ’60s fantasy series, My Favorite Martian, features Tim (Bill Bixby) having his own evil twin, who, like every other evil twin, wreaks havoc before being stopped in the final climactic scene.

Lost in Space had an evil twin of Commander John Robinson (Guy Williams).

Even The Flintstones, the most popular animated show of the ’60s, had twin Fred ad Barney doubles. Created by the Great Gazoo, the twin Fred can only say “Yes, yes, yes,” and the twin Barney can only say “No, no, no.” Like some supposedly evil twins, they are really evil just mindless robots who get the real Fred and Barney into trouble.

Star Trek had an episode, “Mirror, Mirror,” where the entire crew of the Enterprise each has their own evil twin counterpart. Leonard Nimoy plays Mr. Spock’s double, complete with a goatee (a later “evil twin guy” staple). Star Trek fans will point out that the evil twins are not really all that evil and a few of them are actually more friendly and docile, and in Spock’s case, more intensely logical, than their earthly counterparts.

Micky Dolenz of The Monkees played himself and his own evil twin in the Monkees episode “Alias Micky Dolenz.” Mocky played that evil twin staple -a gangster. (Hmmm, maybe their evil twins played the  Monkees instruments?)

Interestingly, the ’60s TV series you might expect to have the most “evil twins” would probably be Batman, being how it was so campy and was based on a comic book. But few evil twins episodes came out of the legendary series. The only know evil twin Batman episodes used Liberace as “Chandell” or “Fingers,” a great piano player. Chandell had an evil twin brother named Harry, who was played, of course, by Liberace, too. Although Chandell was a villian, he was actually forced into becoming one by Harry, who blackmailed him. The Liberace/Chandell episodes were actually the highest-ever rated episodes of the Batman series.

If you aren’t familiar with the show, none of this really matters -but if that’s the case, you should go rent the DVDs from Netflix and then return here promptly after viewing.

Via Geekosystem

If you’ve been looking for some paper dolls to play with that are actually designed for adults instead of kiddos, then BuzzFeed has a great collection of them for your paper-playing pleasure. Time to get printing!

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What Simpsons foods would you want to try? Personally, I’m curious about tomacco.

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If you’ve ever visited the Middle East, you know that when American TV programs are shown on Arab TV, culturally sensitive content is often altered or removed. Turns out some hows aren’t so easy to “Arabize.”

MUST-SEE TV

In late 1991, the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) went on the air for the first time. It was the Arab world’s first privately owned, independent satellite TV network, and the first to offer 24 hours of Arabic language television programming free of charge to anyone with a satellite dish.

Other networks soon sprung up, creating a huge demand for content to fill the airwaves. In the years that followed, countless American TV shows -everything from Friends to The Late Show with David Letterman to Two and a Half Man to McGyver to Dr. Phil and Oprah- found their way onto these channels, either dubbed into Arabic or broadcast with Arabic subtitles, and with culturally offensive subject matter toned down or removed entirely.

Shows that appealed to younger audiences were especially popular. In some countries as much as 60 percent of the population was under 20 years of age, and the numbers remain high today. So it was probably inevitable that sooner or later, one of the Arab networks would set its sights on The Simpsons, one of the most successful shows in American TV history, and try to bring it to the Middle East. In 2005, MBC did just that.

HOMER OF ARABIA

No expense was spared to prepare The Simpsons for the Arab market. The Arab world’s best TV writers were hired to translate episodes into Arabic, and A-list actors and actresses were hired to provide new voices for the characters. To make the show seem less “foreign,” Homer Simpson was renamed Omar Shamshoon, and the show itself was renamed Al Shamshoon -”The Shamshoons.” (Marge Simpson became Mona Shamshoon, Bart became Badr, and Lisa became Beesa.) Each episode that was selected for translation into Arabic was carefully reviewed to remove anything that might be offensive to Muslims. For example, where Homer Simpson drinks Duff beer (Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol), Omar Shamshoon drinks Duff fruit juice. Homer eats hot dogs (which commonly contain pork, also forbidden) and donuts (which are unfamiliar to most Arabs), but Omar eats Egyptian beef sausage links and khak cookies, which, like donuts, are often made with a hole in the middle.

Not every episode made the cut: Those with strong religious themes were out, as were the ones where the characters spent lots of time drinking beer in Moe’s Tavern. In episodes featuring shorter church and tavern scenes, they’re referred to as a “mosque” and a “coffeehouse.” And Ned Flanders? He became just an annoyingly perfect neighbor, not an annoyingly perfect Christian neighbor.

As for all the Simpsons-centric dialog, like “Don’t have a cow, man!” and “Hi-diddley-ho, neighbors!” …well, the writers just translated as best they could. (“D’oh!” was translated as “D’oh!”)

NEITHER HERE NOR THERE

The final product was a confusing mishmash of cultural references, something not really American, not really Arab (Marge Simpson and the other female characters don’t wear veils, for example) …and definitely not The Simpsons. It wasn’t very funny, either, and with all the translations, revisions, and deletions, the storylines could be maddeningly difficult to follow.

The premier episode of Al Shamshoon aired in October 2005, on the first night of the holy month of Ramadan -the biggest TV viewing night of the year. Muslims fast from sunup to sundown during Ramadan, and after the fast is broken with an evening meal, millions of the faithful settle in for a night of watching TV. Though 52 episodes were scheduled to air that month,  -with MBC looking forward to “Arabizing” all 17 seasons of The Simpsons in years to come- the series was pulled after only 34 shows. Why? Because not many people tuned in to watch it. Al Shamshoon turned out to be just too strange a show for many viewers, especially in a part of the world where cartoons were still seen as entertainment for children.

But what really killed Al Shamshoon may have been the very thing that brought it into being in the first place: Satellite TV channels. Arabs with satellite TV dishes can pull in non-Arab stations, and some of those broadcast The Simpsons in all its original, unadulterated glory. (The show is also available on DVD.) Many of the people who tuned in to watch Al Shamshoon were fans of The Simpsons who just wanted to see how badly MBC would botch the job, and after having a few laughs at the network’s expense, they went back to watching the real thing.

HOME GROWN

For Arab critics of Al Shamshoon, one of the most frustrating things about the show was knowing that if MBC had just taken a fraction of the money it spent on Al Shamshoon and hired Arab animators to create an entirely new, entirely Arab show from scratch, they might have come up with something funny and engaging that Arabs could understand and call their own.

Even as Al Shamshoon was falling flat on its face in 2005, work had already begun on just such a show. Freej (“Neighborhood”), a comedy about four grandmothers living in a quiet neighborhood of Dubai, a booming metropolis in the United Arab Emirates, was already in production. Freej was the brainchild of a twenty-something UAE national named Mohammed Saeed Harib, whose first exposure to animated shows came in the late 1990s when he was a student at Boston’s Northeastern University and his dormmates downloaded bootleg episodes of South Park and other shows to watch on their computers. Harib came up with Um Saeed, the first of his four grandmother characters, while he was still living in the dorm. By 2003, he’d developed a concept for an entire show, which he sold to the satellite channel Sama Dubai.

FULL CIRCLE

One year after Al Shashoon bit the dust, the first episode of Freej aired in the same coveted time slot -the first night of Ramadan. Unlike Al Shamshoon, Freej, the Arab world’s first 3D animated series, was a hit from the very start. By the time the second season of Freej aired the following year, half of all television viewers in the UAE were tuning in to watch the show. Stay tuned; you may be watching one of these days, too. In 2009, Harib entered into talks with American media companies to bring his show to the United States. (Until then, you can look for clips on YouTube.)

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The article above was reprinted with permission from the Bathroom Institute’s newest book, Uncle John’s Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute has published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

While not everyone likes Parks & Recreation, practically all of those who do love the character of Ron Swanson.That’s why there’s so many awesome artworks based on him you can find 29 more of them over at BuzzFeed.

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This graphic makes you think, but how true is it? When I watch TV, it’s usually crime shows, in which successful, independent woman are over-represented as cops, lawyers, scientists, politicians, and criminals. Maybe it all depends on the shows you choose to watch. Link -via @John Farrier

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A lot of people think their boss is a real “monster.” However this list imagines if your boss actually was monster from TV or film.   What monster would your boss be? Or what Monster would you WANT to be your boss.

5) The Jagrafess, from Doctor Who
The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe from Doctor Who is a pretty reasonable boss, and its underlings get to help influence public opinion. “I’d get to work at in Broadcasting!” exults Bradley. And to be fair, if you live in the Jagrafess’ world, then you already work for it one way or another. Just make sure you wear a sweater to work.

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If you are a fan of classic TV, you’ll enjoy today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss! How well do you know the secondary characters on your favorite TV series? Almost every sitcom had characters that didn’t appear in every episode. In this quiz, you’ll be given three choices for each show, and you decide which character appeared in the most episodes. I scored 60%, which isn’t bad, as I was correct on all the series I actually watched. Link