Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Mister Rogers answered over half a million fan letters
The highly beloved children's television host Fred Rogers patiently woke up daily at five in the morning just to passionately answer his massive pile of…
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The first TV commercial cost just nine dollars
In 1941, the highly innovative Bulova watch company paid only nine dollars to properly air a simple ten-second advertisement immediately before a baseball…
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Most famous movie alien was originally a guy in a suit
Long before Ridley Scott's deeply terrifying Xenomorph exclusively relied on advanced puppetry and seamless CGI, the imposing cinematic monster was simply…
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The remote control invented to silence commercials
The very first wireless control device for household screens was not heavily designed to easily flip through content channels. The frustrated inventor created…
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Thieves dug up a silent-film star for ransom
Months after a legendary silent film star was buried, bumbling local mechanics dug up his heavy coffin and actively demanded a massive cash ransom from his…
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Friends was almost called Six of One
Producers tossed around several lengthy, convoluted names before settling on the simplest, most iconic word possible. The ultimate title change profoundly…
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Warner Bros. opened before the Ottoman Empire fell
The iconic Hollywood film studio officially opened its doors for business before the ancient Turkish regime officially dissolved. It serves as a bizarre…
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How Night of the Living Dead entered the public domain
George A. Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead' accidentally tumbled into the public domain on the day it was released. The distributor changed the film's title…
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James Bond got his name from a bird expert
An ambitious author desperately wanted his new cold-blooded protagonist to have the most profoundly boring, forgettable name imaginable to help him secretly…
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Film editing can make the same neutral face look hungry or heartbroken
The Kuleshov effect is a foundational principle of film editing demonstrating how sequence entirely dictates meaning. If an actor's completely neutral face is…
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How filmmakers built impossible worlds before CGI
Before the invention of digital green screens, filmmakers relied on stunning matte paintings to generate massive sci-fi cities and endless alien canyons.…
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How cheap double features created new movie genres
B-movies originally emerged during the Great Depression when desperate theaters offered two films for the price of one to attract cash-strapped audiences.…
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How classical music made cartoon violence cheaper
Early theatrical animation heavily relied on complex classical symphonies, not out of sheer artistic integrity, but due to severe budget constraints and…
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The cartoon couple that first shared a TV bed
In early American television, strict broadcasting codes forced sitcom couples to be shown sleeping in completely separate twin beds to preserve modesty. The…
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Alfred Hitchcock never won a directing Oscar
Despite single-handedly redefining the modern suspense thriller with cinematic masterpieces like Psycho and Vertigo, the legendary director was notoriously…
Discover moreGeorge Lucas imagined Han Solo as a green alien
Long before Harrison Ford secured the legendary cinematic role, George Lucas initially envisioned the charming rogue smuggler as an incredibly slimy green…
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The real train crash in a Harrison Ford thriller
For the massive dramatic centerpiece of a famous Harrison Ford thriller, the Hollywood production crew decided CGI was too wildly expensive and completely…
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A legendary comedy film was entirely shot in thirty days
Despite being an iconic pillar of early nineties pop culture, Wayne's World was filmed at a staggeringly chaotic pace. The director rushed the actors through…
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A futuristic music video cost millions of dollars to make
Determined to radically redefine the highly competitive pop music landscape in 1995, an incredibly famous musical sibling duo filmed a dark, gravity-defying…
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The first surviving film lasts just two seconds
Captured dynamically on fragile paper film in 1888, the legendary Roundhay Garden Scene features completely blurry figures gleefully dancing in a rapid, jerky…
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A cinematic genius feared commercial flying
Despite directing sprawling, globe-trotting epics and deep-space cinematic masterpieces, legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was completely paralyzed by a…
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Kirk never said Beam me up, Scotty
Despite being the single most universally recognizable pop-culture quote aggressively associated with Star Trek, Captain Kirk never actually said 'Beam me up,…
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Why Goofy couldn't be drawn like Pluto
The rigid laws of early cartoon logic were dictated with absolute authority. Walt Disney notoriously issued an extremely strict mandate to his animators…
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The Lion King hides a medieval death chant
If a movie character is deeply marked for an impending tragedy, the intensely dramatic background score will likely quietly weave in the Dies Irae.…
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