This week’s “SWSK” takes you behind the scenes of movies and television. Here you’ll find out some backstage facts and happenings you may not have known about regarding 15 favorite shows, stars and movies. So, without further adieu let’s go ‘Behind the Scenes”.
When “I Love Lucy” ended Lucille Ball wanted to do a spinoff series called “The Mertzes”. Vivian Vance, who played Ethel, refused to do it. She and William Frawley actually hated each other off screen and she refused to work with him again.
In the movie “Dick Tracy” starring and directed by Warren Beatty, only seven colors were used in the entire film. Beatty wanted only red, green, yellow, black, brown, blue and orange used in the costumes, sets and backdrops just as they were used in each issue of the comic book.
When the film “Gone With the Wind” was being cast the first choice for the role of Rhett Butler was Gary Cooper, but he was under contract to Samuel Goldwyn who refused to loan him out for a film he thought would be a ‘bomb’, so Clark Gable got the role. For the role of Scarlett O’Hara, Paulette Goddard was the choice, but the studio was not in favor of her marriage to Charlie Chaplin so Vivien Leigh was given the role.
In 1957, “Leave it to Beaver” would become the first TV show to actually show a toilet on TV. They couldn’t show the actual toilet bowl because station execs thought it was too “personal”. So, they showed the tank and even that was not easy to get past the network executives. How times have changed!
Pamela Anderson was originally going to be cast as Agent Scully in the hit show “X-Files”. But creator Chris Carter changed his mind and instead of a sexy blonde, he went for a more serious character and chose Gillian Anderson for the role.
Ooops, sorry! In the 1959 epic film “Ben Hur” starring Charlton Heston, there is a major goof that was never edited. In one chariot race scene as the cameras follow them and the pull back, up in the top left hand corner of the screen is a commercial airliner in the sky! Even in the big budget films a little goof up can happen.
Carroll O’Connor was not the first choice to play Archie Bunker in “All in the Family”. The role was offered to Mickey Rooney but he refused to play a bigot so O’Connor, who basically played bad guys in films took the career changing role and the rest is history.
In the blockbuster film “Titanic”, the song “My Heart will go On” was disliked by Director James Cameron. Celine Dion did not like it and did not want to record it. But her husband convinced her it could be a major hit and Cameron changed his mind after hearing the demo.
One of the most popular shows on TV is “The Muppets” but here is a fact I bet you did not know, most of the Muppets are left-handed. Why? Most puppeteers use their dominant (right) hand to work the puppet’s mouth, which means they use their left hand to move the puppet’s left hand.
In the Humphrey Bogart classic film “Casablanca” in a scene at Rick’s Place, Dooley Wilson plays piano. While he was a legit musician and band leader, Wilson was a top notch drummer not a piano player and faked the entire scene. Then the song “As Time goes by” was later dubbed in.
One of the biggest films of 1977 was “Smokey and the Bandit” starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field and Jackie Gleason. A couple of fun facts here are that the director of the film, Hal Needham was at one time Reynolds stunt double. Jerry Reed wrote the film’s song “East Bound and Down” at the last minute and recorded it in one take.
Did you ever notice in the opening credits of “Gilligan’s Island”, where all of the flags can be seen at half-mast. The reason for that was because the pilot for the show was shot right after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
When they were preparing the movie “Forrest Gump”, the producers wanted John Travolta to play Gump, but he turned it down because he had just signed for another film. So Tom Hanks was offered the role and made it his own. By the way, the movie Travolta signed on for would become a major hit for him, “Pulp Fiction”.
One of TV’s most popular shows in the 80’s and 90’s was “The Golden Girls”. During it’s seven year run it was nominated for 68 Emmy’s and won 11 of them. Each of the four stars, Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty each won an Emmy for their acting.
Actor Gene Hackman had bought the rights to “The Silence of the Lambs” and he was going to star in it and direct it. But he backed off when he decided that the role was just too dark for him, so Anthony Hopkins took on the role instead.
That takes us to the end of this trip “Behind the Scenes”, but you can be sure we will do it again. In the meantime, we hope you have found out a few things you may not have known in television and the movies. Have a great week everyone!
