Did No One Guess the Right Answer in The Simpsons’ “Who Shot Mr. Burns” Contest?

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.

TV URBAN LEGEND: In The Simpsons contest “Who Shot Mr. Burns?,” no one guessed the correct answer.

Fan contests have a long history in film and television. Most famously is when fans win “Walk-on” roles (quick minor appearances where they essentially just walk on and then walk off the set), like the two teens who won DC Comics “The Great Superman Movie Contest” and appeared briefly in 1978’s Superman. Just in the last year, the new Star Wars film, the Dumb and Dumber film sequel and TV shows Teen Wolf and The Exes have all either had contests where fans could win a walk-on role or had auctions where people could bid to win a walk-on role (one of the rewards in the Veronica Mars Kickstarter was a walk-on role in the film).

In 1995, The Simpsons offered their own unique fan contest when they offered up a chance for a fan to be drawn with The Simpsons. How would a fan win the chance? Simply correctly answer the question, “Who Shot Mr. Burns?”

BurnsShot

How many fans got it right? Read on to find out!
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June 18th, 2015 | Posted in TV Legends Revealed | No Comments

Was 50 Cent Sued Over the Use of the Phrase “It’s Your Birthday” in His Hit Song “In Da Club”?

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: 50 Cent was sued over the use of the term “it’s your birthday” in “In Da Club.”

50 Cent’s debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ was a monster smash hit.

The biggest single off of the album was the resounding dance club song, “In Da Club.”

While obviously the beat is the most memorable part of the song, the most repeated lyrics from the song is likely the introduction of the tune, where 50 Cent notes:

Go, go, go, go
Go, go, go shawty
It’s your birthday
We gon’ party like it’s yo birthday
We gon’ sip Bacardi like it’s your birthday
And you know we don’t give a f***
It’s not your birthday!

Amazingly enough, 50 Cent was actually sued by Joseph Weinberger, former manager of 2 Live Crew, who owns the rights to the 2 Live Crew catalog. Weinberger contested that 50 Cent plagiarized the lines “its your birthday” from Luther Campbell (lead singer for 2 Live Crew) from the 2 Live Crew album Still a Freak for Life.
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Did Harrison Ford Accidentally Audition for the Role of Han Solo in Star Wars?

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the Movie urban legends featured so far.

MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Harrison Ford accidentally auditioned for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars.

While he has been lucky enough to play many different roles in a series of blockbuster films over his long movie career, the most important role in Harrison Ford’s career is still likely that of smuggler Han Solo in 1977’s Star Wars.

hansolo

The success of that film directly led to him going from a little-known actor already in his mid-30s to a guy who you would hire to star in your big budget film. With all respect to his other famous role, Indiana Jones, if it were not for Solo we wouldn’t know Harrison Ford’s name today (outside of obsessed American Graffiti fans, of course). Ford eventually had a sort of love/hate relationship with the role that made him a star (as we’ve covered in an old Movie Legends Revealed, he even asked Star Wars Director George Lucas to kill off Han in the third Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi), but he also noted in a Reddit AMA that “Han Solo was also a huge part of my life.” But how did Ford get the chance to play Han Solo in the first place? Did it tie in with his famed early career in carpentry? Read on to find out!
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June 16th, 2015 | Posted in Movie Legends Revealed | 9 Comments

Did a Play About Daniel Boone Invent the Fiction That he Wore Coonskin Caps?

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about theater and whether they are true or false.

THEATER URBAN LEGEND: The idea that Daniel Boone wore coonskin caps came from an 1822 theater production about Boone.

Actor Fess Parker portrayed both Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett in popular television series (the latter was a mini-series), with both characters wearing coonskin caps.

Crockett came first and made coonskin caps big business in the United States and the United Kingdom, with it becoming practically a staple of young boys, but Boone continued the trend with the hit 1960s TV series.

Here is Parker as Boone…

danielboonefessparker

(click on the image of Boone to enlarge)

The problem was that while Crockett definitely did, in fact, wear a coonskin cap (at least a times), Boone hated them. He wore felted beaver hats. He felt that coonskin caps for “uncivilized.”

And the weird thing is, we really don’t know exactly how we got from “Boone hated coonskin caps” to “Boone wore coonskin caps all the time,” which was part of the Daniel Boone myth well before Fess Parker started to play him on television.
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Did Ellen Burstyn Get an Emmy Nomination for a 14 Second Appearance in a TV Movie?

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.

TV URBAN LEGEND: Ellen Burstyn was nominated for an Emmy Award for an appearance that lasted fourteen seconds.

In the Summer of 2006, Ellen Burstyn received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for the HBO film Mrs. Harris (about the murder trial of a Scarsdale, NY socialite).

The film was an acclaimed drama (it received twelve Emmy nominations as a whole), so an acclaimed actress like Burstyn getting a nomination would not seem like much of a surprise.

Here’s the catch, though – she only appeared in the film for fourteen seconds!!
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Were the Foo Fighters Originally the FooD Fighters?

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: Due to a marquee missing a “D,” the Food Fighters became the Foo Fighters.

The Foo Fighters are a popular rock band formed by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl in 1994, soon after Nirvana disbanded (following the death of lead singer Kurt Cobain).

A story about their unusual name was that the original name for the band was the Food Fighters, possibly named after the obscure late 1980s action figures…

foodfighters

, but when they were to play at a local theater in an early appearance of the band, the marquee at the theater was shy a letter D, so the band just went on as the “Foo Fighters.”

Is that true?
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Did Milton Bradley Invent the Paper Cutter?

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends related to board games and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of all board game urban legends so far.

BOARD GAME URBAN LEGEND: Milton Bradley invented the paper cutter.

It is pretty weird that in the relaof Board Game Legends Revealed, TWO of them involve the life of Milton Bradley (here‘s the earlier one).

In any event, last time around, I told the tale of how Milton Bradley’s career as a lithographer was turned upside down by Abraham Lincoln growing a beard, which led Bradley to try out different enterprises, ending up with the creation of the board game The Checkered Game of Life.

However, Bradley is ALSO credited in many places with inventing the paper cutter (just tossing one recent one out there, in Samuel Greengard’s 2008 book, AARP Crash Course in Finding the Work You Love: The Essential Guide to Reinventing Your Life, he states declaratively “Bradley, who also invented the paper cutter”).

This is untrue.

It is basically a mixture between the standard “telephone game” approach to urban legends as well as the adage “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”

Bradley received a patent in 1881 for a one-armed paper cutter. That much is true. However, the patent was for an IMPROVEMENT on the paper cutter, which had existed in the modern form for nearly forty years at that point. Guillaume Massiquot developed the basic design of the modern paper cutter.

Here’s an 1878 advertisement for a paper cutter…

However, earlier versions of the device dated back even earlier to the 1820s…

So the little knowledge of Bradley patenting a paper cutter soon developed into Bradley inventing the paper cutter.

But hey, nothing wrong with improving a good invention! That’s still quite commendable.

The legend is…

STATUS: False

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future urban legends columns! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

Did George Lucas Add a Scene to Star Wars to Make Sure That It Wouldn’t Be G-Rated?

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.

MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: George Lucas added a scene involving a severed arm to assure that Star Wars would be rated PG rather than G.

When the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) instituted the film rating system in 1968, the approach was a good deal different than it is now. There were four ratings, G (for general audiences), M (for mature audiences, which became PG in 1972), R (restricted) and X (adults only, which became NC-17 in 1990). The only ratings that required age restrictions were R (no one admitted under 16 without a guardian – later changed to no one under 17) and X (no one admitted under 18 period – later changed to no one under 17). The G rating at the time was not intended to mean fare for children, it was meant that the film was simply suitable for a “general audience.” As a result, a number of films in the late 1960s and early 1970s were released with G ratings that would seem surprising today, such as True Grit, Planet of the Apes, The Odd Couple and Airport. Over a third of the films released in 1968 were rated G. These films were likely rated the way they were due to confusion over the M rating, the middle ground between “open to general audiences” and “restricted.” “Mature” gave off the wrong connotation, as M-rated films held no age restrictions, but it seemed like “mature” was suggesting more adult fare while it was just meant to let parents know that the film might be particularly unsuitable for small children. The PG rating was introduced in 1972 and soon became the most popular rating for non-R films (as you might imagine, since PG was just for all films that didn’t meet the standard for an R, the content in PG films varied dramatically, ultimately leading to the introduction of the PG-13 rating, which also carried no age restriction, but at least gave parents the warning that kids under the age of 13 likely shouldn’t watch the film). Of the six Star Wars films by George Lucas, all but one of them were rated PG (just the final prequel, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, received a PG-13). The first three films predated the PG-13 rating, but when they were re-released in the 1990s, they maintained their PG rating.

star_wars_iv___a_new_hope___movie_poster_by_nei1b-d5t3cw9

However, legend has it (suggested to me by reader Mike J.) that Star Wars nearly received a G rating but actually added a scene to assure a PG rating. From a 1980 article about the shrinking amount of G-rated fare in 1980, it stated:

Even Star Wars didn’t risk the jinx of the G…the preliminary version initially earned a G rating from the MPAA. To get the desired PG, however, a scene depicting a dismembered arm was added to the cantina sequence.

Is this true?
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June 9th, 2015 | Posted in Movie Legends Revealed | 2 Comments

Why Did the Board Game Version of the $25,000 Pyramid Not Actually Have a Pyramid In It?

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends related to board games and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of all board game urban legends so far.

BOARD GAME URBAN LEGEND: The Milton Bradley board game for the Pyramid television show was different from the game on the show because the show was worried that the gave would help potential contestants too much.

Created by legendary game show producer Bob Stewart, the Pyramid was a long-running game show based on celebrities pairing up with contestants to get their partner to guess words or phrases based on descriptions given by them.

It started as the $10,000 Pyramid, but gained its greatest popularity as the $25,000 Pyramid…

There was also a $100,000 Pyramid.

The name of the show comes from the famous conclusion of the show, where the contestant who won the regular game would go into the “Winner’s Circle” and go up a “pyramid” of six categories (each one more difficult as you went up the pyramid) where, in a reverse of the regular game, instead of guessing words within a category, you would have to guess a category through a list of words (“Andy, Anne, Andrea…” “Names beginning with A!” Stuff like that).

It was a very popular show, and naturally enough, it received a “play at home” board game edition from Milton Bradley.

In fact, there were EIGHT editions of the Milton Bradley board game…

However, there was a major problem with the board game, at least as far as the show’s producers saw it, which is why the Pyramid’s board game does not come with a Pyramid section!

You see, there were only a relatively small amount of possible categories for the Winner’s Circle. In fact, if you watch the show long enough, you’ll begin to see the same categories re-used fairly often.

So if they were to put those categories into the board game, prospective contestants would have a strong chance at being able to practice with categories that would actually end up being used ON the show!!

They did not like that idea, so the Milton Bradley game did NOT have a Winner’s Circle round. So the Pyramid did not have a Pyramid! Instead, for the final round, players would use the same categories that they played the regular rounds in, they’d just have to get all six of the words/phrases correct to win.

In 1986, Milton Bradley lost the license to a new company, Cardinal Games, which FINALLY were allowed to use the Winner’s Circle…

And the Winner’s Circle continues to the most recent home version, made by Endless Games…

It is good to know that their paranoia did not last to this day!

The legend is…

STATUS: True

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future urban legends columns! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

Did a Famous Lawyer Who Represented Blacklisted Movie Creators Miss Out on a Financial Windfall When it Came to Representing Harold Hecht?

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.

MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Edward Bennett Williams turned down 10% of the production company that made box office smashes Vera Cruz and Marty.

Edward Bennett Williams was one of the most prominent trial lawyers of the latter half of the 20th Century.

Based in Washington D.C. (he originally wanted to be a politician), he not only was a brilliant attorney, but he was also quite a businessman. His strategy when it came to taking clients was basically that he would give ANYone a defense, provided, of course, that they paid him (in HIS defense, his retort would be that he simply was a dedicated follower of the 6th Amendment right to a fair trial).

He was able to purchase both the Washington Redskins AND the Baltimore Orioles, so the guy was extremely wealthy.

Williams was close to both Democrats and Republicans, making for some interesting mixes when it came time for him to represent folks. For instance, he defended Senator Joseph McCarthy during the latter’s censure hearing (plus later trials over tax issues and claims of libel). But at least partially due to his close relationship with McCarthy and his people, Williams was in prime position to help those called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

He drove very tough bargains, but he almost always kept his client from being blacklisted. He almost represented Carl Foreman (writer of High Noon), but his demands (which included $50,000 and 10% of Foreman’s next picture) were not met. Foreman ended up getting blacklisted.

Williams’ main strategy in these cases were to insist his client name whatever names it took to get him off the blacklist. Interestingly enough, on at least one occasion, Williams played “hardball” and got Howard Koch (co-author of Casablanca) off of the blacklist without naming names, but rather through the threat of libel prosecution. Williams knew enough of what went on during the collection of the blacklist that his threats were imposing, so Koch was off of the list the next day. However, while Williams knew he COULD use leverage if need be, he seemed happier to not alienate HUAC and almost always went with counseling people to name names (assisting Koch might have actually been a personal favor on Williams’ part, hence the different strategy).

Anyhow, this was how Williams met Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster.
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