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39 Random Bits of Trivia About the TV and Movies That Defined Their Generations

How much do you really know about your favorite movies and shows?

39 Random Bits of Trivia About the TV and Movies That Defined Their Generations

November 20, 2024

You little movie and TV trivia nerds think you’re so hot, don’t you? Flooding the pubs on a Monday night with your like-minded pals and your funny group name like “The Quizzards of Oz” in the hopes of winning a free round of drinks and a basket of waffle fries!

If keeping these facts for ourselves and starting our own group didn’t go against our strict fact-sharing code of ethics, we’d own all of you. We’d be called “The Fast and the Curious” by the way.

Pretty cool huh?

39

The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music was the third film about the Von Trapp family. Two movies convent were made in Germany in the 1950s, all based on the same book as the play that was then turned into the classic Julie Andrews musical. — Source: Prologue Magazine

38

Harold and Maude

In order to get the classic 1971 film Harold and Maude made, producer Robert Evans lied to the executives and didn't tell them that the movie's romanc

37

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The plot of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly was improvised during a meeting. The story of the film was improvised in a meeting between the Italian director and American movie executives. They asked him what film he had in mind, and in the span of a couple minutes, they quickly improvised the entire story. CRACKED.COM — History by Day

36

Dr. Strangelove

MOVIES SAVED BY RESHOOTS DR. STRANGELOVE THE JOKE (AND THE PIE) WERE A LITTLE ON THE NOSE. The film originally ended with a pie fight in the war room, but it was too silly for the more subtle, satirical film. Stanley Kubrick later called the scene a disaster of Homeric proportions. CRACKED — Source

35

Ted Lasso

TeD LASSO'S HOMAGE TO Scorsese's CLASSIC Season 2's Beard After Hours episode pays homage to the 1985 dark comedy After Hours and drew inspiration from the film to create the entire plot of the episode. CRACKED.COM — Source

34

Gremlins

Gremlins Gremlins is partly responsible for the PG-13 rating. C 3 7 4 5 8 O DANIEL RICE INCH STUDI Prior to 1984, movies either had a PG or an R rating. Following the release of Gremlins (with its PG rating), people were upset about the movie's level of violence, with some arguing that the film tricked kids into watching a movie that's actually meant for their parents. Spielberg said he agreed, and argued for tougher ratings. Two months later the first PG-13 rated film, Red Dawn, was released. CRACKED.COM — Source: IndieWire

33

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON THIS WAS ZHANG ZIYI'S SECOND FILM. The 19-year-old didn't even have her first film appearance released before she was signed on for the Ang Lee classic. Lee chose her due to Zhang's innate cinematic charisma. CRACKED.COM — Source

32

Clerks

CLERKS ALMOST HAD A BIZARRELY DARK ENDING. 150 Unsure of how else to finish his cult classic film, Kevin Smith decided to just kill Dante in a robbery

31

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War was partly based on 1990s heist movies, it turns out. Co-director Joe Russo said that Structurally, with this first film, Avengers 3, we've been using the smash-n-grab '90s heist films, so there's a real urgency to the film. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

The Nightmare Before Christmas

CRACKED COM The Nightmare Before christmas Each minute of movie took around one week to film. Since each second of film consists of 24 frames, each character had to be posed 24 times per a single second of footage. This is why this holiday classic took over three years to complete. — Source

29

The Tracey Ullman Show

The Simpsons CRACKED COM America's favorite jaundiced family first appeared as a short on The Tracey Ullman Show. — Source

28

All in the Family

The first content warning 1971 The program you are about to see is ALL IN THE FAMILY. It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices and concerns. CRACKED.COM All in the Family featured several of the first slurs to appear on TV, and was preempted by this warning to contextualize them-kind of like how Disney+ warns kids about their racist crows and cats. — Source

27

Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad took many, many style cues straight from The Godfather. In particular, Breaking Bad's use of color filters and different lighting schemes for different scenes, to give each one its own look and feel, is based on The Godfather. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Home Improvement

Home Improvement BUDDIES Dave Chappelle and Jim Breuer made a cameo on Tool Time that became an instant classic. They were rewarded with a spinoff sta — Source: CBS News

25

Dunkirk

Historical war drama Dunkirk was partly based on a sci-fi horror movie. ALLEN In space no one can have you scream Director Christopher Nolan says Ridley Scott's Alien inspired him-it might be from a different genre, but it's an established classic of tension. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

The Exorcist

Pop culture inspirations The Exorcist René Magritte's series THE EMPIRE OF LIGHTS explores mind-bending oxymorons, and William Friedkin recreated this work for the movie, capturing the disharmonious spiritual aura that surrounds the home. CRACKED — Source

23

House of the Dragon

Pop culture inspirations House of the Dragon Director Greg Yaitanes watched HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON to prepare for the dragon fight inthe Season 1 finale. Не took inspiration from the film's cinematography for the scene. CRACKED — Source

22

It’s A Wonderful Life

It became a Christmas classic thanks to a lapsed copyright and TV. R oy The film accidentally became public domain after Republic Pictures forgot to r — Slate

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21

The Muppet Show

The Muppet Show CRACKED COM Before there were Muppets, there were just freaky-ass puppets. Kermit looks positively traumatized by his first castmates on Jim Henson's Sam and Friends, a local Washington DC kids' show. — Source

20

Happy Days

on HAPPYL DAYS, Richie HAD An OLDER BROTHER named CHUCK OR HE DID, UNTIL THE SECond season. Chuck was away at college for much of the first season, an

19

The Wedding Singer

CRACKED.COM THE WEDDING SINGER ADAM SANDLER WANTED TO MAKE A PRO-MARRIAGE MOVIE. Sandler said that he just wanted to make a movie that was pro-love and pro-marriage while still being heavy on the laughs. According to him, guys who are against love were just hurt. — Source

18

Willow

Fantasy movies There is a Willow expanded universe. Willow Besides board games and videogames, the movie was followed up by a trilogy of novels centered around Elora, the baby from the movie now grown up into a teenager. CRACKED.COM — Source: Screen Rant

17

Brokeback Mountain

Brokeback Mountain The movie almost starred Matt Damon and Joaquin Phoenix. Those were Gus Van Sant's choices, back when it was his project. Damon reportedly told him, Gus, I did a gay movie (The Talented Mr. Ripley), then a cowboy movie (All the Pretty Horses), I can't follow it up with a gay cowboy movie! CRACKED.COM — Source: Entertainment Weekly

16

Chernobyl

Chernobyl is connected to Scary Movie. Craig Mazin, author of Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4, and Superhero Movie, created Chernobyl. — Source: IMDb

15

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

I am the master of my fate, says Barbossa in On Stranger Tides, when he's telling the tale of how he lost his leg. That's a line from Robert Henley'

14

Lost

Lloyd Braun, the former chairman of ABC Entertainment, got the idea for the show Lost after he watched the movie Cast Away. LOST CAST AWAY CRACKED.COM — Source: 16 Movies That Owe Their Existence To Other Films

13

James Wan

JAMES WAN saw Poltergeist when he was very young, and the movie scarred for life with its creepy dolls. Billy the Puppet in Saw? The scary Annabelle in The Conjuring? Those all come from that childhood movie experience. CRACKED.COM — Vulture

12

School of Rock

There was a real School of Rock, that precedes the movie. NBC 1 un - ING Ministry The real School of Rock, started by Paul Green in Philadelphia, shared a lot of similarities to the movie - even down to Jack Black's look. Green considered suing, but thought the movie was ultimately good for business. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

The Lego Movie

CRACKED.COM THE POLIC LEGO MOVIE The movie caused a 15% worldwide increase in Lego sales. The year the film was released, Lego sold 62 billion Lego elements. That would equate to 102 Lego bricks per living person. — Source

10

A Christmas Story

It took Bob Clark 12 years to get the movie made. A period movie about a kid wanting a BB gun for Christmas? Hard pass, studios kept saying. MGM reluctantly agreed to pony up the money if Clark signed up to direct another movie for them. 8 CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Luca

Pixar's Luca was actually inspired by the style of Hayao Miyazaki movies. The village where the movie takes place, Portorosso, is even an homage to a Miyazaki movie - Porco Rosso. CRACKED. .COM — Source: 15 Movies We Didn’t Know Were Inspired By Other Movies

8

Monsters, Inc.

ONSTERS, INC. Roz's line I'm watching you, CRACKED.COM Wazowski. Always watching cleverly foreshadows the fact that she's the head of Monstropolis'

7

Rocky

Rocky and Adrian's lovely first date owes its magic to the movie running out of money. EL VISITOR THE IMPROVISATION: Rocky's ice rink date scene was supposed to have 300 extras. But the movie burned through cash too fast, so Rocky and Adrian had to be in an empty ice rink. THE RESULT: A surprisingly intimate atmosphere that made for one of the best ever movie first dates. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Hunger Games: Catching Fire was heavily influenced by Breaking Bad. Director Francis Lawrence binge-watched the show while making the movie, and its cliffhangers inspired him to end his own movie on a cliffhanger. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Dogma

Apparently, Dogma wasn't Kevin Smith's original title for the movie. The very first title was God: The Movie, and Smith tweeted about finding it on an ancient floppy disk (that had a big God: The Movie label). CRACKED COM — Source

4

Doctor Strange

CRACKED COM The 2016 Doctor Strange isn't the superhero's first live-action film. The 1978 Doctor Strange TV movie was initially created for CBS as a TV pilot, but was ultimately rejected. — Source: Pop Culture That's Older Than It Seems

3

Zombieland

Zombieland as a TV series. was created Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick's project was too expensive for TV-SO the script was taken to Sony, and turned into a movie. — Source: Reuters

2

Big Trouble in Little China

Big Trouble In Little China was heavily inspired by the 1980s movie Zu. Its full name is Zu: Warriors From The Magic Mountain, and it's a Hong Kong action movie that made John Carpenter get started on Big Trouble In Little China. CRACKED.COM — Source: 15 Movies We Didn’t Know Were Inspired By Other Movies

1

Mad Men

Mad Men was partly inspired by a particular old-school French movie. The movie is Les Bonnes Femmes, and it was shot in Paris, in the era in which Mad Men takes place-and it influenced the show's production design. CRACKED. .COM — Source: 15 Movies We Didn’t Know Were Inspired By Other Movies

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