26 Facts About Character Origins That Are Like a Peek Into the Canonical Birth Canal

Quick! What TV character was actually born ‘Ystrepa Grokovitz?’
26 Facts About Character Origins That Are Like a Peek Into the Canonical Birth Canal
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While digging through the movie and TV attic, we stumbled upon a dusty old bin of photo albums. To our surprise, we realized that they were full of our favorite characters’ baby pictures. They’ve grown and changed so much over the years that we didn’t even recognize them at first.

Some depicted the “making-of” stories, but we won’t show you those pictures. This is a family site after all.

Casper the Friendly Ghost

CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST SURE IS A HAPPY LITTLE SPOOK. BUT in HIS eARLY YEARS не WAS SUICIDAL. HowtoWin YE FRIENDS and Love YE PEOPLE In his first appearance, Casper repeatedly tries to make friends and fails. Не becomes so despondent that he tries to commit suicide by lying on the railroad tracks. Most of his early cartoons and comic books follow the same formula. Не tries to off himself by jumping off a cliff, tying a rock around himself and jumping into the ocean, and so on. CRACKED.COM https://youtu.be/tw7AipHHBXE

Jenna Maroney

Jenna Maroney's (from 30 Rock) real name was actually Ystrepa Grokovitz. She grew up in Toilet Cove Swamp, Florida, participating in child pageants (and also at Christmas in malls, to distract staff while her mom shoplifted). CRACKED.COM

Smurfette

Smurfette was created to be a honey pot to trap the smurfs. The recipe Gargamel used to bring her to life called for sugar and spice but nothing nice, a dram of crocodile tears, half a pack of lies, a chatter of a magpie, and the hardest stone for her heart. Her hair turned blonde when Papa Smurf countered the spells. CRACKED.COM

Bugs Bunny

WHen YOU THINK ABOUT пт BUGS IS An ODD nAme FOR A BunnY. не ACTUALLY GOT HIS nAme BECAUSE OF A MISTAKE. BUGS BUNNY MODEL SWEET M.M.22. Animator Ben Bugs Hardaway asked one of the artists at Looney Toons to draw a rabbit. The artist complied, labeling the model sheet Bugs' Bunny. After the still-nameless rabbit had appeared in a few cartoons, producer Leon Schlesinger looked at the old sketch for its name. Не saw the caption, and the rest is history. CRACKED.COM Peter Bogdanovich, 2012: Who the Devil Made It?

Kramer

Kramer SEINFELD CRACKED.COM Kramer is based on Larry David's neighbor, Kenny Kramer. Не was actually named Kessler in the pilot, but the real Kramer reached an agreement with NBC to use the rights to his last name, which sounds like a genuine Kramer subplot.

The Starks and the Lannisters

Stark and Lannister GAME OF THRONES CRACKED.COM Stark and Lannister are a nod to York and Lancaster, the two British houses involved in the War of the Roses. GoT isn't historically accurate, of course. It has way more dragons, and surprisingly, way LESS incest.

Danny Mahealani

Danny Mahealani TEEN WOLF CRACKED.COM This Teen Wolf character's last name, Mahealani, is Hawaiian for full moon. Another Hawaiian television character whose name has a secret meaning: Johnny Tsunami's last name is actually a reference to his love for waves.

P.J. Sparkles

WHAT CHILD WOULDN'T LOVE P.J. SPARKLES? THeY'D BeTTeR LOVE HeR, OR CHILDREN WILL SUFFER. The doll comes packaged with an animated movie in which P.J. Sparkles is the savior of Twinkle Town, a town inhabited by lost children who wished on a star. As long as children love P.J., Twinkle Town will be a happy, sparkly, bright place. But if they don't, P.J. will fade away, and Twinkle Town will be plunged into darkness forever. CRACKED.COM https://youtu.be/gZdC0Fvlo3U

Uhura

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.

Sheldon and Leonard

Sheldon & Leonard THE BIG BANG THEORY CRACKED.COM AEH Sheldon and Leonard from The Big Bang Theory are named in tribute to Sheldon Leonard, the producer of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Lorre then honored hall of fame quarterback Steve Young with his next show, Young Sheldon. I think.

Bran Stark

Bran GAME OF THRONES CRACKED.COM Where does Westeros' most famous peeping tom get his name? Bran is an Irish name that means Raven, much like the title he later receives. It's also a bit ironic, since the first thing we learn about him is that he can't fly.

Donna Temple-Noble

Donna Temple-Noble DOCTOR WHO CRACKED.COM Donna Noble married Shaun Temple, becoming Donna Temple-Noble. Donna = Lady, Temple = Tempus = Time, and Noble = Lord, for... Lady Time Lord. Not only that, but the Doctor's true name is... Clocky McTravel.

Bender

Bender FUTURAMA CRACKED.COM In Futurama, Bender is named Bender because he was built to bend things. But he's actually named for John Bender from The Breakfast Club. Bender the character probably doesn't even know how much he loves fingerless gloves.

Liv Moore

Liv Moore IZOMBIE CRACKED.COM Olivia Liv Moore from iZombie is your classic protagonist: a zombie who eats victim's brains to solve crimes. Yes, she's a zombie named... Live More. Though a pun name is kind of perfect, since zombies are known for loud groaning.

Joey

Joey DAWSON'S CREEK CRACKED.COM Joey (short for Josephine) from Dawson's Creek is named for Jo from the Louisa May Alcott novel, Little Women. Dawson, of course, is named for his creek.

The Simpsons

GRACKED.COM The Simpsons have their iconic looks because Matt Groening believes that cartoon characters should be recognizable from a silhovette.

The Fonz

CRACKED.COM HAPPY DAYS Fonzie's famous ayyyy came about due to Henry Winkler's dyslexia. Не struggled to learn lines so he'd say ayyyy in lieu of dialogue.

Goku

DOOOS The reason Goku from Dragon Ball Z has blonde hair when he transforms into a Super Saiyan is because while making the comic book, it was incredibly time consuming to paint Goku's hair black. As such it was left white, the same color as the paper. CRACKED.COM

Jack Bauer

24's Jack Bauer keeps shouting Damn it! because that was the only option. The creators needed to have him yell something when he's angry, but anything other than a curse word felt forced. Damn it! was the only one they could run on network TV, so they used that every time. CRACKED.COM

Doctor Who

CRACKED.COM DOCTOR WHO Time Lords were given the ability to regenerate because of the First Doctor's illness. When William Hartnell began developing heart issues, the production team made up the ability as a way for the actor to make his exit without killing the show.

Gromit

Wallace & Gromic Nick Park originally intended for Gromit to be a cat, but thought it was easier to make a dog with clay. As he put it, you can roll it into larger sausages. CRACKED COM

Tina Belcher

CRACKED COM Tina Belcher's distinctive low voice is because she was originally going to be Bob's oldest son, Daniel. L BOB'S BURGERS ium While in development, producers felt like Daniel wasn't different enough from the youngest son, Gene, so they created the character of Tina. Since they had already hired Dan Mintz as the voice actor, they kept him on as Tina.

Timmy Turner

Timmy Turner, protagonist of Nickelodeon's The GRAGKED.COM Fairly OddParents, wears an iconic pink hat, which often serves as the subject of ridicule throughout the series. the fairy Odd PaRenTs NICKELODEON However, show creator Butch Hartman admitted that the only reason that Timmy's hat is pink is that his blue marker ran out of ink. Hartman even released an image of the original design for Timmy, complete with a blue hat.

Arthur

Tolon Brown, son of Arthur creator Marc Brown, asked his dad to tell him a bedtime story about a weird animal. Arthur CRACKED.COME Thinking alphabetically, Marc's first idea was 'aardvark'. The rest is history.

Rick

26 Facts About Character Origins That Are Like a Peek Into the Canonical Birth Canal

Marge Simpson

Marge Simpson has huge hair because she was originally going to be secretly a rabbit. Matt Groening had planned to reveal that Marge was hiding rabbit ears - like the ones characters in his comic book Life In Hell had-at the conclusion of the series. GRAGKED.COM

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