30 Bits of Classic TV Trivia You’d Get Up to Physically Turn A Dial For

It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your facts are?
30 Bits of Classic TV Trivia You’d Get Up to Physically Turn A Dial For

Like classic TV, you’ve waited all week for these classic TV facts, and you have no idea when you’ll be able to see them again. Miss them now, and you’ll be frantically rooting through TV guides for reruns for who knows how long.

This fear is what has you glued to the couch — popcorn in hand, drink on the side table and the widest eyes you can physically muster. The only issue now would be a bathroom break that takes slightly longer than a commercial break.

Spock

The Vulcan Star Trek salute Leonard Nimoy based the live long and prosper hand sign on a blessing he had seen as a child, during a synagogue service. CRACKED.COM

Laugh-In

A comedy show predicted when the Berlin Wall would fall. In 1969, Laugh-In reported a piece of news from the future about the Berlin Wall being torn down in 1989. The show also joked that Ronald Reagan would be elected president in the '80s. CRACKED.COM

Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball was actually a very serious and responsible person, despite being famous for playing silly and funny characters. And her natural hair color was brown. CRACKED.COM

Real Life

ALBERT BROOKS PREDICTED REALITY me TV IN 1979. FILMING THANKSGIVING His mockumentary film Real Life featured an obnoxious, intrusive camera crew trailing a family and deliberately stirring up conflict. It was meant as a sendup of a PBS documentary series, but with the twist that most of the drama was generated artificially by the producer. CRACKED.COM http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/real-life-1979

Henry Blake

HENRY BLAKE M*A*S*H SI GRACKED COM Blake was one of the first major sitcom characters to die, rather than being recast or written out of a series. Most of the cast didn't know Blake's fate until moments before filming the scene when Radar announces the sad news.

I Love Lucy

The First Live Studio Audience SHARP I Love Lucy beat All In The Family to the punch by 20 years. CRACKED.COM

Steambath

The First Female Nudity Wardrobe malfunctions date back to at least the 1950's, but the first scripted nudity was on PBS' Steambath in 1973. CRACKED.COM

Star Trek Predictions

Star Trek 20th-century sci-fi predicts 21st- century agriculture. In The Trouble with Tribbles, Quadrotriticale is a genetically- engineered hybrid grain, predicting GMO, and used in 2268 to attempt to develop Sherman's Planet as an agrarian colony. CRACKED

Hot I Baltimore

The First Gay Couple HOTEL BACTIMORE George and Gordon from Hot I Baltimore, a short-lived but groundbreaking show in 1975, were the first gay couple on screen. CRACKED.COM

Maude

The first decision to get an abortion 1972 CRACKED COM 2 months before Roe v. Wade, Bea Arthur's titular character on Maude chose to get an abortion at age 47. Or, actually, her husband decided on the abortion. Baby steps.

All in the Family

The first goddammit 1973 CRACKED.COM On All in the Family, Archie defends his cussing thusly: The first word is God. How can that be a swear word? Edith, beautiful words right out of the Holy Book. Don't show your ignorance!

The First TV Pregnancy

The First Birth I Love Lucy would never say the word pregnant, only that Lucy was expecting. But it still featured the first (semi-) on-screen birth, in 1953. CRACKED.COM

M*A*S*H

The First Male Nudity Radar went whole-hog on a 1973 episode of M*A*S*H, when he lost his towel while evading a sniper. CRACKED.COM

Mork & Mindy

MORK & &MINDY WOUND DOWN WITH A THRee-PART STORY. YeT THE PAIR STILL WOUND UP STRANDED FOR eTeRNITY. What's regarded as the series finale of Mork & Mindy found the title characters running from an evil, gun-wielding alien. Pretty dark stuff for a fish-out-of water romp. Anyway, Mork decided to use time-travel shoes to escape, sending himself and Mindy back in time. The shoes malfunctioned, first dropping them in a prehistoric cave, then throwing them into a time vortex. Roll credits. CRACKED.COM http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1vvrzl_mork-and-mindy-gotta-run-part-3_fun

Presidential Debates

The First Presidential Debate The 1960 debate between Nixon and JFK was the first time America collectively decided we want a hot president. CRACKED.COM

William Shatner

The First JV Cuss Word William Shatner had to fight hard to keep his big line Let's get the hell outta here from being cut in season one of Star Trek. CRACKED.COM

Quantum Leap

in QUANTUM LEAP, SAM BeCKeTT SPenT HIS DAYS TIME-HOPPING INTO OTHER People's BODIES. lon Dr. Sam Becket 65 never returned home. AND не neveR FOUND HIS WAY Home. Each episode of the series opened with a brief narration explaining the premise, concluding that Sam hopes his next leap will take him home. In the last episode, Sam somehow leapt into his own body in some kind of odd purgatory-like dimension that looked like a bar. It concluded with a title card (with his name misspelled) stating that he never got home. CRACKED COM http:/www.nbc.com/classic-tv/quantum-leap/video/mirror-image-august-8-1953/2927336

Leave It to Beaver

The First Toilet In an episode of Leave It To Beaver, the boys hide an illicit pet alligator in the toilet. The network thought America wasn't ready to see a shitter, so they allowed the tank only to appear on screen. CRACKED.COM

Cher

The First Belly Button After half a decade being denied Barbara Eden's navel in I Dream of Jeannie, America got to see Cher's, like, all the time, on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. CRACKED.COM

Happy Days

on HAPPY DAYS, RICHIE HAD An OLDER BROTHER nameD CHUCK. OR не DID, unTIL THE seconD SEASON. Chuck was away at college for much of the first season, and his defining characteristic was that he always carried a basketball. Не didn't just disappear without explanation- he completely ceased to exist. In later seasons Howard Cunningham would claim that he had just two children. CRACKED.COM

Soap

SOAPWAS A 70s PRIME-TIME SOAP OPERA SPOOF. AND IT enDeD WITH JESSICA ABOUT TO ве SHOT BY A FIRING SQUAD. Soap was a mostly lighthearted comedy that focused on shenanigans and convoluted plotlines. So it was wildly out of character for the show to finish its fourth season with main character Jessica Tate facing a South American firing squad. The final episode of the final season concluded with her bracing for the incoming bullets. CRACKED COM https://youtu be/HoMLspq6H9s

The Flintstones

Adult Jokes in Children's Entertainment The Flintstones Barney's New Head While looking for a costume, Fred makes a joke about Barney getting a costume with a second head. Barney jokes back, Why do I need three of 'em? CRACKED.COM

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.

The Incredible Hulk

CRACKED.COM Jaws from James Bond was almost the Hulk. Richard Kiel was the first actor to be painted green for the pilot of The Incredible Hulk. Не was replaced by bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno after a few days, as Kiel, big as he was, wasn't bulky enough to make a good Hulk.

The A-Team

30 Bits of Classic TV Trivia You’d Get Up to Physically Turn A Dial For

Star Trek

Uhura STAR TREK CRACKED.COM Uhura's full name is Nyota Uhura, which is Swahili for Star Freedom. You know, for a series that's meant to show the future, the creators really overestimated the beehive haircut's staying power.

What the Blank!

What The Blank! MICHA ENNIS LAND EAVER 5.75 3.00 This remake of Match Game from the '70s, hosted by Fred Willard, was inexplicably dropped by 3 different networks! CRACKED.COM

The Robert Taylor Show

The Robert Taylor Show A 1963 drama based on real 3.00 stories from the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and 350 Welfare's official files. The network realized no one had gotten the government's permission, and canned it. CRACKED.COM

Three’s Company

CRACKED.COM Three's Company is a show that could only be made in the '70s - but to make up for that, it was made twice. The American series is a remake of the British Man About the House. Even the spin-offs of both shows are similar.

The Dukes of Hazzard

CRACKED.COM Во and Luke Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard were called Grady and Bobby Lee Hagg in 1975's Moonrunners. Writer/director Gy Waldron changed the names and turned his own movie into a hit series.

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