14 Shocking, Funny, and Random Truths About Your Fave TV Shows

The Sopranos

The original concept behind the logo of the series was to show a bunch of singers. Why? The logo designer, Brett Wicks, mistakenly thought that The Sopranos is about, well, soprano singers and not mobsters. They fixed the problem by replacing the “r” with a picture of a gun in the title of the show.

Friends

Jennifer Aniston, who can take credit as a major member of the phenomenally popular sitcom, almost did not get the role of Rachel. This is because she was part of another pilot show. So for promo shots for Friends, she was excluded—in case she didn’t end up as Rachel.

The Office

The character Phyllis Vance, the motherly woman in the show, was an accidental casting. The actress, Phyllis Smith, was actually the show’s assistant casting director. But during the auditions, when Phyllis was reading lines opposite the actors, the producers discovered a real acting talent in her and offered her the role!

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Will Smith, in the earlier episodes of the sitcom, would actually memorize the entire script. As a result, you’d catch him unconsciously mouthing his co-stars’ lines. Sure, this exhibits some degree of amateurishness, but, hey, it was a great show and Will has since learned to close his mouth when it’s not his turn to speak yet!

The Cosby Show

The role of Sondra Huxtable, the show’s college-age daughter, was almost credited to the great Whitney Houston. But the singer turned down the role to focus on her singular passion: music. And to a huge degree, it was a wise decision.

The Muppet Show

Have you noticed that almost every Muppet in the show is left-handed? The reason behind this is puppeteers normally use their right hand—the dominant one—to move the puppet’s mouth. So their left hand would work on the puppet’s left hand.

The Flintstones

Here’s a fact that will shock you to some degree: Fred and Wilma’s cute red-haired daughter, Pebbles, was originally a boy. But a toy company suggested that Pebbles would be better off as a girl because then they can sell Pebbles dolls. They went ahead with the gender switch and the doll raked in $3 million in just a couple of months!

Seinfeld

Jonathan Wolff, credited as the show’s composer, slightly altered the opening theme music for every single episode. Was he bored? Constantly experimenting? Had chronic dissatisfaction? We’ll never know.

The Golden Girls

Blanche had an edgy sense of fashion in the famous sitcom, and to some degree, flirty. The actress who played her, Rue McClanahan, apparently loved her character’s wardrobe so much that she allegedly kept most of them!

The X-Files

There’s a huge degree of difference between the heights of lead stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, who famously played Mulder and Scully in the cult series. To fix the 10-inch difference, Anderson was asked to stand on a box in her scenes with Duchovny.

Saturday Night Live

Funny man Jim Carrey auditioned for a permanent role in comedy show SNL many, many times, but was always rejected.

A Different World

Debbie Allen, the show’s producer and director, wanted the series to exhibit a high degree of authenticity. A Different World focused on the lives of students in a historically black college, so Allen took the show’s writers on tours of real historically black colleges in Atlanta to give them a deeper understanding of the culture and environment.

Cheers

For his lead role as Sam Malone, bartender and owner of the bar named Cheers, actor Ted Danson enrolled in a bartending school and studied for two weeks as part of his preparation.

Breaking Bad

“Seven Thirty-Seven, Down, Over, ABQ” is what you get if you combine the titles of episodes 1, 4, 10, and 13 of the series’ second season. And it has a cryptic meaning: it’s a prophecy of the plane crash in the season finale.