TV Urban Legends History
Here are quick descriptions of each of the previous editions of TV Urban Legends Revealed.
To see if they are true or false, you have to click on the link!
* There were no black people in Mayberry.
* Spike Milligan wore a shirt that said “Hashish” on it when he was on the Muppet Show.
* One of TV’s Friends had a painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
* One of the stunt shots in the beginning of the Fall Guy was not even done by a stuntman.
* Aaron Spelling paid Luke Perry’s salary himself for the first two seasons of 90210.
* Warner Bros. sued a company over the rights to the term “Daisy Dukes.”
* RTE turned down Father Ted because of a similar show already airing on RTE.
#5 – Good Times was not originally a spin-off of Maude.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz divorced twice.
#6 – Clay Aiken learned of the results of American Idol Season 2 before they were revealed.
Allen Funt produced an adult version of Candid Camera called Candid Candid Camera.
An imposter came up on to the stage to accept Betty Thomas’ Emmy for her in 1985.
#9 – All My Children cut a storyline short in the middle of it because of the Oklahoma City bombing.
#10 – Jonathan Rollins on L.A. Law was based, at least in part, on Barack Obama.
The TV series Caprica was originally pitched NOT as a Battlestar Galactica tie-in!
A major character on Dark Shadows came into existence due to a typo!
Congressman Matt Santos was based on Barack Obama.
#12 – An episode of How I Met Your Mother contained an genuine wedding proposal!
James Michael Tyler’s ability to work a cappuccino machine got him a decade-long acting gig.
Rebecca Schaeffer’s murder led to the cancellation of My Sister Sam.
#13 – Before NBC got involved, Remington Steele was not going to exist…for real!
Pierce Brosnan had to turn down the role of James Bond because of his role on Remington Steele.
The DVD collection of the first season of Remington Steele had an embarrassing oversight.
#14 – 77 Sunset Strip was released in theaters specifically to take away rights from the show’s creator.
NBC’s “Must See TV” was created for its Thursday night sitcom lineup.
#15 – Baretta was originally intended as a continuation of a previous series.
Joanna Kerns and Sandra Kerns are sisters (in the alternative, they are related)
#16 – Julie Newmar once had a particularly cutting response to a crude remark by Michael Dunn.
The last episode of Ellery Queen aired as an episode of Murder…She Wrote!
#17 – Kirstie Alley once had a publicist provide mother’s milk for Alley’s pet opossum.
Harrison Page was nominated for a Best Lead Actor Emmy Award for…Quantum Leap??!
MTV canceled the TV series Fear because a contestant was killed during filming of an episode.
Star Trek once got John Drew Barrymore suspended from the Screen Actors Guild!
#19 – Omar was going to be killed off during Season 1 of The Wire.
Doris Roberts hid a back injury so that she could be cast on Remington Steele.
#20 – Dan Haggerty lost his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame because of a well-publicized drug bust.
Tom Selleck could have filmed Raiders of the Lost Ark AND done Magnum P.I.
Life Goes On changed their theme song for the series finale to give some justice to their dog.
Ron Howard was hired for Happy Days based on his performance in American Graffiti.
#22 – The actress who played Judy on Family Matters went into adult films.
60 Minutes gained its famous time slot due to an FCC regulation.
#23 – Lawrence Welk played “One Toke Over the Line” on his TV show.
Ken Osmond grew up to be the rock singer Alice Cooper.
#25 – Bill Cosby tried to purchase the rights to the Amos and Andy TV series to keep it off the air.
Penelope Pitstop had a vibrator among the various gadgets in her Compact Pussycat
Masi Oka appeared on the cover of Time Magazine as a kid!
#26 – Wacky Races was originally going to be a game show.
Mumbly was invented to replace Muttley in the Laff-A-lympics.
Muttley and Dick Dastardly were removed whole cloth from one show and added to another.
#27 – Seaquest correctly predicted the Florida Marlins’ 2003 World Series victory.
Studebaker came up with an interesting way to sponsor Mister Ed.
#28 – Oprah Winfrey got her name via a typo on her birth certificate.
A character on Seinfeld was named after a Producer of Smallville.
#29 – The phrase “Does Not Compute” debuted on Lost in Space
A TV series continued production even after one of the two leads on the show killed himself.
Ellen Burstyn was nominated for an Emmy Award for an appearance that lasted fourteen seconds.
#31 – Jackie Mason gave Ed Sullivan the “finger” on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Dick Gregory received almost 50,000 votes in the 1968 Presidential Election.
Gallagher sued his brother over the use of their last name in his brother’s act.
James Arness is the tallest person ever to be the lead in a television series in the United States.
David Brenner shaved nine years off of his age when he began doing comedy in the late 1960s.
All in the Family was re-named Archie Bunker’s Place once Jean Stapleton left the show.
A TV writer’s pseudonym had his own parking space at Paramount!
Lassie frequently saved Timmy after the boy fell down a well.
A blacklisted writer used his wife as a front to write episodes of Lassie.
#35 – The Golden Girls spun out of a joke at an NBC function introducing the 1984-85 NBC lineup.
Richard Dawson married a contestant from the Family Feud.
#36 – 227 used the same set as Sesame Street!
The Flintstones did commercials for Winston Cigarettes.
#37 – There is a special R-rated version of Dexter’s Labratory called “Dexter’s Rude Removal.”
A stripper appeared live on the Soupy Sales Show.
#38 – Activision sued Viacom for mis-handling the Star Trek franchise.
I Love Lucy invented the “three camera” approach for TV shows.
A character on ER was saved from death because of the name of the character.
Sally Jessy Raphael kept wearing glasses even after getting corrective eye surgery.
Ta da!
Interesting stuff. . .You got anything on the A-Team?
I shall see what I can see!