35 TV & Film Firsts We Didn't Realize Changed Everything

All too often, we take the commonplace things we see in film and television for granted. We assume that someone, somewhere, must have done the first-- but who?

Toilet flushes, pregnancy, husbands and wives are sharing a bed-- these are all things that we see on a regular basis, but somebody had to do them first. In many cases, these things were actually quite controversial when they were first depicted onscreen. The flush toilet was invented in 1596, but it wasn't until the late 1800s that it started appearing in films. In 1901's 'Cinderella,' one of the first-ever animated films, the titular character is shown flushing a toilet-- though this scene was cut from later versions of the film due to its controversial nature. Pregnancy was another taboo subject that was frequently censored in early films. It wasn't until 1945's 'Leave Her to Heaven' that a pregnant woman was shown onscreen. The film caused such a stir that the Motion Picture Association of America introduced a new code limiting the depiction of pregnancy in films. And finally, there's the issue of husbands and wives sharing a bed. This might seem like a no-brainer today, but it was actually quite scandalous when it was first.

35

The first spit-take. 1906 GRACKED.COM Dream of a Rarebit Scheme was a 7-minute long comic strip adaptation that marketed itself as a revolution in special effects. It's true legacy would be: the first time a guy didn't fully drink a glass of water. — **Source:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

34

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:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

33

The first full frontal nudity. 1916 CRACKED.COM Annette Kellermann was an Australian swimmer who broke barriers by wearing a scandalous one-piece bathing suit (instead of pantaloons). She later had a robust, nautical-themed film career, including her nude turn in A Daughter of the Gods. — **Source:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

32

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:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

31

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:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

30

The first 24-hour newsday 1963 CRACKED.COM The networks threw their regular programming out the window to cover the assassination of JFK around the clock. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

29

The first televised face 1925 CRACKED.COM Scottish inventor John Logie Baird televised his ventriloquist dummy, Stooky Bill, because the system couldn't detect the contrast of a human face. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

28

The first live news story 1938 CRACKED.COM NBC New York interrupted its scheduled programming to report on a fire on Ward's Island, home to both an Inebriate Asylum and an Idiot Asylum. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

27

The first sci-fi series 1949 CARTAIN VIDEO CRACKED.COM Captain Video and His Video Rangers was a kids' show with a $25 prop budget per episode. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

26

The first kids' show 1955 CRACKED.COM Captain Kangaroo was a show based on the warm relationship between grandparents and children and inspired all your favorite shows when you were a wee lad or lass. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

25

The first soap opera 1946 the entire production Faraway written and directed by Hill DAVID P. LEWIS GRACKED.COM Farway Hill, about a New York City widow who finds herself upstate in a love triangle, was the first to port the soap opera from radio to TV. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

24

The first infertility arc 1963 CRACKED.COM After Pebbles is added to the Flintstones crew, Barney and Betty work through their depression over being unable to have kids themselves. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

23

The first GPS device. 1964 OUTHEND CIN 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:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

22

The first karate fight. 1962 CRACKED.COM Frank Sinatra has the honor of inciting the first-ever karate fight in American cinema in The Manchurian Candidate. It looks exactly like a man who is horny for a living pretending to get beat up. — **Source:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

21

The first interracial kiss. 1957 CRACKED.COME Although it was highly controversial, Island in the Sun, a film about interracial romance, was also a box office success. — **Source:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

20

The first toilet flush. 1960 altogether erent- PET 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:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

19

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:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

18

The first motion picture. 1885 GRAGKED.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:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

17

The first televised hip-hop song 1981 CRACKED.COM The Sugar Hill Gang performed Rapper's Delight on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

16

The first commercial license... S 1941 CBS NETWORK NBC PRESENTATION IN RCA COLOR CRACKED.COM CBS and NBC were issued licenses at the same time, so neither could claim to be first. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

15

The first ads with semi-naked women 1987 GRACKED.COM Playtex didn't invent impossible beauty standards, but it was the first underwear company to figure out how to profit off of them on TV. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

14

The first televised World Series 1947 CRACKED.COM The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers - featuring a rookie Jackie Robinson. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

13

The first toilet flush 1971 CRACKED.COM Leave It To Beaver was the first to show a toilet (tank only!) in 1957, but All In The Family really went there with a daring toilet flush sound effect. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

12

The first wardrobe malfunction 1950 CRACKED.COM The Faye Emerson Show's host had a boob pop out when Janet Jackson was still but a twinkle in her parents' eyes. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

11

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:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

10

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:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

9

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:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

8

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:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

7

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:** **16 Game-Changing Movie Firsts**

6

The first commercial mention of diarrhea 1990 diarrhea CRACKED.COM These days we hear diarrhea in drug commercials more often than we hear catchphrases from wacky neighbors. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

5

The first laugh track 1950 CRACKED.COM The Hank McCune Show, a TV show about a guy running a variety show, was kind of like an early 30 Rock, except it was cancelled after 3 weeks. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

4

The first televised incumbent 1939 ST CRACKED.COM FDR's opening address to the World's Fair made him the first incumbent President to appear on the tube. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

3

The first instant replay 1963 CRACKED.COM The technology was ready just in time for the big Army-Navy game... at John F. Kennedy Stadium! — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

2

The first home computer 1965 CRACKED.COM In The Addams Family, the gigantic family computer, Whizzo, is used to cheat at gambling and help rig an election. Pretty spot-on. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

1

The first morning news 1952 CRACKED.COM NBC's Today premiered with Dave Garroway and J. Fred Muggs. — **Source:** **19 Television Firsts (That We Never Really Recovered From)**

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