TV Urban Legends Revealed #4
This is the fourth in a series of examinations of legends about television and the people involved in TV and whether they are true or false.
Click here to view an archive of the previous TV urban legends.
Let’s begin!
TV LEGEND: Warner Bros. sued a company over the rights to the term “Daisy Dukes.”
STATUS: True
Catharine Bach’s character on the TV series, Dukes of Hazzard, is one of the unique fictional characters out there to actually have something named after them.
In Bach’s case, the short denim shorts that she would often wear on the TV series have been now commonly referred to as “daisy dukes.”
While Warner Brothers, who owned the show, certainly enjoyed the fact that their character was becoming such a big part of American society that her name was becoming the name of a style of clothing, they did NOT like the fact that that ended up losing their rights to the trademark on the name!
That’s what happened when, in 2006, Warner Brothers attempted to sue a pornography site called DaisyDukes.com, citing the fact that the character’s name was a trademark of Warner Brothers.
Ultimately, when taken before the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) panel, Warner Brothers lost the claim, under the theory that daisy dukes has now become a generic term to describe women wearing short denim shorts.
In the end, it really did not matter much, as “DaisyDuke.com” takes you to a web site for Warner Brothers’ new Dukes of Hazzard Direct-to-DVD movie of the “origin” of the Dukes of Hazzard, while “DaisyDukes.com” is not even still a web site anymore, but still, it’s interesting to note that daisy dukes has now officially joined the ranks of generic terms for items such as aspirin, cellophane and escalator, all of which were once registered trademarks and are now free to be used by anyone by being ruled as “generic” terms.
TV LEGEND: The Simpsons edited a scene from re-airings of an episode because the original episode was offensive to those with Tourette’s Snydrome.
STATUS: True
The Simpsons are notable in being fairly equal opportunity offenders. They mock all sorts of people, places and things, even themselves, the company that airs them (they make fun of FOX a LOT) and even the corporate sponsors of the show (they made fun of Butterfingers while they were in the midst of doing an ad campaign for Butterfingers!).
However, the Simpsons apparently felt they went over the line with an episode in their fourth season titled “Marge Gets a Job.”
In the episode, well, as it says, Marge gets a job at the Nuclear Power Plant. Mr. Burns then falls in love with her and tries to woo her away from Homer.
That was the MAIN plot. In the secondary plot, Bart is living through a literal re-telling of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” He is being harassed by a wolf, but because he has told his teachers so many ridiculous stories over the years to explain why he was late and/or cut class, his teacher Mrs. Krabappel will not believe his current story about being attacked by a wolf. He actually is “the boy who cried wolf.”
While Krabappel is going through the various problems Bart had manufactured over the years, she mentions that he faked having Tourette’s Syndrome.
Tourette’s Syndrome is a neuropsychiatric disorder that appears in the form of a variety of motor tics (like twitching) and often verbal tics (like shouting out nonsense words or profanity).
Well, when Krabappel mentions that Bart has faked Tourette’s in the past, Bart responds by saying that he still has it, as he begins to snarl and bark and shout “Shove it, witch!”
When the episode aired, it was deemed quite offensive by people who HAD Tourette’s, including a young teenager from Washington state named Joshua Smith, who threatened legal action if the Simpsons did not agree to never repeat the episode and give an on-air apology.
The Simpsons certainly were not going to agree to do THAT, but in a surprise move for a show that does not like to apologize at all, they DID say that yes, they probably went a bit too far with that joke.
So in future airings of the episode (even including the DVDs), that scene stays the same (Bart snarls, barks and says “Shove it, witch!”) but Krabappel’s dialogue changes from “Tourette’s syndrome” to “rabies,” as that is now what Bart has claimed to have come down with.
It’s not a terrible solution, really, but it’s still interesting to see the Simpsons back down from a fight – I guess when your “foe” is a 13-year-old with Tourette’s Syndrome, you don’t exactly feel like fighting.
TV LEGEND: RTE turned down Father Ted because of a similar show already airing on RTE.
STATUS: False
Father Ted was an extremely popular British show (starring comedian Dermot Morgan) that aired on Channel 4 from 1995 until 1998. It told the story of an eccentric trio of Irish priests who lived on a remote island off the coast of Ireland in an archaic house along with their equally eccentric housekeeper, Mrs. Doyle.
The show is interesting in that it is set in Ireland and is extremely popular in Ireland (for its more or less faithful adaptation of Irish mannerisms), and yet the show aired on a British television station instead of Radio Telefís Éireann (RTE), the Irish National Television station.
As I have mentioned in the past a few times, when there is an absence of a plain explanation, people will often fill in the blanks with their own explanations, and in this case, the story goes that RTE turned DOWN airing Father Ted, because they already had a fairly popular television program during the 1980s that was about a housekeeper and a group of priests.
It was called “Leave it to Mrs. O’Brien,” and it starred the late Anna Manahan as a wacky housekeeper for two priests in Ireland.
While that certainly is believable, it is not the case.
The show creators, Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, never pitched the show to RTE. They had already been working in British television before Father Ted, and that’s where they wanted to go with their new project, which, on top of being what they said happened, also makes a whole lot of sense, doesn’t it? You would prefer to pitch to a larger market than a smaller one if given the chance, right?
Okay, that’s it for this week!
Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com
Tags: "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", Anna Manahan, Arthur Mathews, Bart Simpson, Butterfingers, Catharine Bach, Daisy Dukes, Dermot Morgan, Dukes of Hazzard, Father Ted, Graham Linehan, Leave it to Mrs. O'Brien, Marge Simpson, Mr. Burns, Mrs. Doyle, Mrs. Krabappel, RTE, The Simpsons, Tourette's Syndrome, Warner Brothers
Speaking of retractions, did you know there was a Wayne’s World skit on SNL where they do a top 10 hottest chicks or something, and Chelsea Clinton was at the top of the list (as in, she’ll eventually get hot in the future; it was the early-to-mid 90′s). Subsequent re-broadcasts of the episode have had that one and I think the #2 slot (The Gore Sisters (Al Gore’s attractive daughters)) excised.
Interesting! I’ll take a look.
I don’t know how interesting this is, but since we’re talking about episodes altered between initial airing and repeats… I remember when the “ManBearPig” episode of South Park came out (that’s not the actual title, I don’t remember it now) the final shot of the episode was altered prior to the first repeat. I happened to catch both showings on my DVR so I was able to confirm it at the time.
The shot features the boys, including Cartman who happens to be farting treasure at the moment, and Al Gore wearing a cape like Superman. Al cries “Exclesior!” and then mimes flying off into the distance, exiting frame right. In the repeat, Al goes a few steps to the right, then pulls a quick 180 and leaves the frame to the left instead. (I may have my directions reversed but you get the idea.) I watched both versions a few times and couldn’t see any obvious reason for the change.
The South Park team can generate an episode in less than a week’s time. I’m sure they probably massage episodes to get a better final product. Your description of the turn-around version seems more amusing. Also, the broadcast edition may have been cut for time if leaving to the right takes less time to do.
“the final shot of the episode was altered prior to the first repeat.”
That would certainly be a good thing to look into if Brian ever needs filler for this column; ‘South Park’ does that at least twice a season. They do most of their work on a given episode the night before it airs, on the Tuesday, and then rush to deliver the episode to Comedy Central by whatever time it needs to be there (10AM, I think), so they often then go back and make slight adjustments to punch up specific jokes.
“Catharine Bach’s character on the TV series, Dukes of Hazzard, is one of the unique fictional characters out there to actually have something named after them.”
Misue of the word “unique” is a pet peeve of mine. Something can’t be “one of the unique” or “more unique” or anything like that. Unique is one-of-a-kind. It’s either unique or not, no intensifier needed. Something can be near unique or almost unique, though.
Fair enough, random surfer!
Thank you for your help!
Did Father Ted invent the fake-swear “feck” or did it just popularize it?
“And what do you say to a cup a tea, Father?” – Mrs. Doyle
“Feck off, cup!” – Father Jack
I don’t think Father Ted invented ‘feck’. The word appears a lot in ‘Angela’s Ashes’.
I remember being shocked when I first saw a rerun of that Simpson’s. It’s so sad that a show that works so hard to make fun of everybody knuckled under so meekily to one person’s complaints. I once saw a rerun in syndication, though, where it was Tourette’s again. Has it slipped back in in some copies?
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