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Straight from the fun section of Hollywood’s history book

36 Bits of TV and Movie Trivia We Rescued From the Ever-Falling Sands of Time

August 31, 2024

Don’t get us wrong, we love a good documentary about Hollywood. Even the classics. The Warner Bros. doc on HBO (sorry, Max) is pretty good. They do spend a ton of time acknowledging all the blackface. Yeesh. Check some of those moments out in our “Pop Culture That Doesn’t Hold Up” lists.

Anywho, as interesting as “making-of” docs can be, they’re usually missing a ton of the quirky facts that get us riled up. So if you’re also into some silly facts that stuffy docs leave out, you’ll definitely get a kick out of the ones below.

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36

Film Firsts

The first cell phone. 1987 CRACKED.COM It's roughly the size and shape of a decent vacuum, but that's in fact Murtaugh barking into film's first cell phone in Lethal Weapon. — Source

35

The PG-13 Rating

The first PG-13 rating 1984 CRACKED.COM Even though it clocked in at 134 acts of violence per hour (Guinness counted), Red Dawn was the first film to officially find itself between PG and R. — Source

34

The first $100 million movie. 1975 CRACKED.COM Jaws was one of the first films to be released nationwide, all at once, instead of slowly rolled out across the country. That helped it crush the barrier and score $260 million on its first run. — Source

33

The first CGI. 1973 CRACKED.COM We get to see through the eyes of an evil robot in a scene in Westworld, and it's... boring. The motif was inspired by the first images of the surface of Mars. — Source

32

The first 555- phone number. 1961 KEN ER SCOTT CRACKED.COM JACK COMMINGS The Second Time Around is the first instance of a production using the false phone number prefix. Nowadays, most 555's are needed for actual phone stuff, but 555-0100 through 555-0199 are still reserved for works of fiction. — Source

31

The First Movie

The first motion picture. 1885 CRACKED.COM Louis Le Prince, aka The Zaddy of Cinematography, was the first to film a moving sequence on a film-like strip with a single lense camera. — Source

30

The first copyrighted motion picture. 1894 CRACKED.COM W.K. Dickson copyrighted Fred Ott's Sneeze, a 5-second film of Thomas Edison's assistant snorting some sketchy 1800's stimulant and then, spoiler alert, sneezing. — Source

29

The first toilet flush. 1960 ertogether erent- PE een VERA itement!!! COM Alfred Hitchcock was the only man brave enough to imply that someone would go #1 or #2 before taking a shower, when he made Marion Crane flush the toilet at the start of the infamous shower scene in Psycho. — Source

28

The first interracial kiss. 1957 CRACKED.COM Although it was highly controversial, Island in the Sun, a film about interracial romance, was also a box office success. — Source

27

The first GPS device. 1964 OUTHEND ON SEA CRACKED.COM Not surprisingly, James Bond is the first movie character to use a tracking device and fire up his archaic Garmin predecessor in Goldfinger. — Source

26

The first to credit the full crew. 1977 CRACKED.COM George Lucas decided to list every last crew member in the Star Wars final credit crawl. Before that, only department heads would get their moment in the limelight. — Source

25

The first movie filmed in color. 1922 CRACKED.COM There are color films that predate this one, but they all required post-production coloring processes. The Toll of the Sea was the first movie actually filmed in color. — Source

24

The first movie studio. 1893 CRACKED.COM Thomas Edison's New Jersey studio, The Black Maria, was built for about $600 to produce short films for the Kinetoscope. — Source

23

JIM CARREY ACE VENTURA was the first actor to have three films go straight to number one at the Box Office in the same year. In 1994, The Mask, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and Dumb and Dumber all made number one. GRACKED.COM — Source

22

TIME FIFTEEN CENTS The Weekly News-Magazine CHARLIE CHAPLIN was the first actor to appear on the cover of Time magazine. The magazine was first published in 1923. Chaplin made it onto the cover in 1925. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

MARK HAMILL was the first actor to top both film and video game charts. Star Wars: A New Норе, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi were all #1 box office hits. In 1994, Hamill played the role of Colonel Christopher Blair in the top of the charts PC game Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger. Не also starred in the two sequels, which means he was in a top movie trilogy as well as a top game trilogy. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

DARRY NETSON EST ERT - DA CHRISTI The first actor who played James Bond was BARRY NELSON. Many people think Sean Connery was the first to portray the 007 character. Not so. Nelson did it first in a 1954 TV adaptation for the show, Climax! The Bond story was taken from the first book, Casino Royale, but saw an American version of Bond in Nelson working for the Combined Intelligence Agency. CRACKED.COM — Source

19

PETER FINCH 3 was the first actor to receive an Academy Award posthumously. MID 12 11 The English-Australian actor won for his role as TV news anchor Howard Beale in Network in 1977. Не died in January that year during a promotional tour for the film. CRACKED COM — Source

18

House of Cards is a remake of a British TV series from 1990... в В с THE OF which was in turn based on a 1989 book by the same name. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

JOANNE WOODWARD got the first Hollywood Walk of Fame star. JOANNE WOODWARD The Academy Award-winning actress for The Three Faces of Eve (1957) was the first to receive this dedication in 1960. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

MARLON BRANDO was the first actor to get paid $1 million for his work. It might not seem a lot today (ugh), but in 1962 it sure was, and it set the precedent for actor salaries to come. Brando paved that way by becoming the highest paid actor for his work in Mutiny on the Bounty. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Gilda Radner

GILDA RADNER was the very first hire for Saturday Night Live. The actress was the first to be cast in SNL in 1975. She stayed for five years. GRACKED GOM — Source

14

DIAHANN CARROLL was the first Black actress to be cast in a role other than a servant in 1968. She was also the first Black actress to get her own TV show. GRACKED COM — Source

13

CRACKED COM Disney's 1993 pet adventure was the feel-good film of the year, but wasn't an original. HOMEWARD BOUND THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY It was based on a Disney movie The Incredible from 1963 just called fourney The Incredible Journey, which in turn was based on a 1961 British children's book. in SAURA BURNFORD — Source

12

DID YOU THINK ADAM WEST WAS THE FIRST LIVE-ACTION BATMAN? BA 1943 SERIAL WILSON, VERSION OF N BATMAN. LEWIS THE (PLEASE IGNORE THE EARS) GRAGKED.COM — Source

11

CRACKED.COM 1939's The Wizard of Oz wasn't the first big-deal Hollywood version of that story. The first one came out in 1925, and had a weird plot where all the male characters (including the Scarecrow and Tin Man) wanted to marry Dorothy. — Source

10

CRACKED.COM The first animated Aladdin movie, The Adventures of Prince Achmed came out in 1926. The German silent film adaptation of One Thousand and One Nights is the oldest surviving animated feature film. It was animated using Silhouette animation technique, with carefully designed cardboard and tin cut-outs. Prince Achmed even made a cameo appearance in the 1992 version of Aladdin. — Source

9

We think of AI Pacino as Scarface, but he was not the first one. Brian De Palma's movie was a remake, dedicated to Ben Hecht, one of the writers of the original from 1932. CRACKED COM — Source

8

THE BRADY BUNCH The Bradys' back door has no glass. Producers needed to avoid glare, so they pulled the old glasses-with-no-lenses trick. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

THE RIFLEMAN The Rifleman uses a rifle from the future. The Rifleman Не uses a Winchester 1892, but the show takes place in the 1870s and 80s. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

Mork & Mindy

MORK & MINDY Mork's jumpsuit was originally a Star Trek costume. It's from The Savage Curtain, the third-to-last episode in the series. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW Andy's maps are upside-down. Weirder still: why does a sheriff in North Carolina need maps of Idaho and Nevada? CRACKED.COM — Source

4

THE LOVE BOAT Those aren't paid actors or extras in the background. They're regular people who paid up to $8,000 to take a highly restricted cruise in the viscinity of celebrities. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

CHARLIE'S ANGELS The show would have been Alley Cats if it weren't for Frank Sinatra. CHARLIE'S ANGELS While brainstorming less awful names, someone looked around the room and saw a painting of angels, previously owned by Sinatra. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

MISTER ED They smeared peanut butter around Mr. Ed's mouth to make him speak. Не also had a rider of 20 pounds of hay and a gallon of sweet tea per day. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Alan Hale could've at least removed his hat

GILLIGAN'S ISLAND You can see a flag at half-mast in the intro sequence. MINNOW CHARTER P-FREE LUNCHES President Kennedy was assassinated just before they filmed it. CRACKED.COM — Source

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