Late To The Party: Obvious Things About Shows You Realized Embarrasingly Late

[Katy M]

3 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

I can one up you on this.  The soap I refer to is still on.  I have no idea if the character still lives.  But if she doesn't or when she doesn't, I would greatly appreciate it if the reading of her will revealed that she was practically destitute and left behind only a crippling debt.  I always thought it should have been a major issue in her marriage.  It wasn't. But I can never forget that the fiscally irresponsible Felicia Scorpio-Jones bought her share of he Outback with credit cards.  Credit cards.  The moron.

Oh come on. Once she figures out how to get her hands on her ancestral treasure, she'll be richer than the Quartermaines.  A couple of years back, she sold the one piece she had of it to buy a digital camera of all things.  A family heirloom.  To buy a digital camera.  She could just use her phone if she was that strapped for cash.

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, Katy M said:

Oh come on. Once she figures out how to get her hands on her ancestral treasure, she'll be richer than the Quartermaines.  A couple of years back, she sold the one piece she had of it to buy a digital camera of all things.  A family heirloom.  To buy a digital camera.  She could just use her phone if she was that strapped for cash.

I expect no better of her.  I'm pretty sure she cheated on her husband just to reunite a pair of shoes.  That shoe was the final straw.  I quit once she had her grubby little hand on it.

[roseha]

On 12/9/2018 at 1:03 PM, GaT said:

I don't know why I suddenly remembered this, but it just popped into my head. I was a full grown adult before I realized that James Doohan (Scotty on Star Trek), wasn't actually Scottish & didn't have a Scottish accent IRL. I guess it never occured to me that he wasn't Scottish when I was a kid, & I never questioned it growing up. I remember it was an eye popping moment when I saw him on some talk show, & there was no accent.

This reminds me of the wonderful Barry Morse, who played Lt. Gerard on the Fugitive. That was probably one of the first adult shows I ever watched while it was still on, and I was amazed when I saw him on a TV interview while he was doing a stage play, and found out that he was actually British.  His American accent was impeccable. (I have seen been equally impressed with Linus Roche's accent on Law and Order for the same reason).

[SVNBob]

15 hours ago, MissAlmond said:

Once, when reminiscing about (cartoon) Speed Racer as an adult, it dawned on me all those little sounds Speed always made sounded like something else . . . 

In the early '90s, there was a club remix of the Speed Racer theme that made use of those sounds, from both Speed and Trixie.  And this made regular radio airplay.  Late at night, sure, but still broadcast for free over the air.

[Sandman87]

I remember that Speed Racer remix. I also heard one which some fan cobbled together from various episodes of Teen Titans, with all the yelling and groaning and gasping that went on in that show. "Boo-yah!" indeed.

[DrSpaceman73]

I didn't understand how game shows made any money when I was younger. 

They were giving away all these prizes and money, how do they do it?  Then they had to pay Bob (mostly wondered about The Price is Right) and all those other people.  How do they do it? 

Now of course I know all those prizes are donated (I assume) for advertising purposes and the commercials pay for it all. 

[Blergh]

Speaking of commercials paying for it all. That reminds me of when I first saw  cable TV  in college- and I was very disillusioned that it actually had COMMERCIALS on. I mean, I'd always thought that since folks were PAYING for the service that meant that they wouldn't be having commercials on since customers were paying for it. I didn't get  until that moment that commercials were put on due to greed rather than actual need.  

[GreekGeek]

I'd love to watch the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons again to catch all the references that flew over my head as a kid. I thought "Boris Badenov" just meant he was bad. I didn't realize until years later that it was a pun on the name of "Boris Godunov," the czar.
 

[Guest]

Obvious things I still haven't realized...

I don't know how BSG went to Earth twice when they knew the constellations that would tell them they were in the right place.

Some day when I complain about this, someone is going to answer me.

As it is I don't know if I'm that dense that I can't see the obvious or if no one wants to admit that they didn't get it either.

[Bastet]

4 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

I don't know how BSG went to Earth twice when they knew the constellations that would tell them they were in the right place.

Assuming you mean the remake, and not the original (which I know nothing about), they didn't go twice; they found Earth, and later they found a different planet they decided to call Earth. 

They finally found the Earth of their history, the one they were looking for the whole time (where the 13th tribe went when everyone left Kobol, the place from which you can see all 12 constellations in the sky, etc.), at the midpoint of season four.  But it turned out to be uninhabitable because of the prior nuclear destruction, so they had to go back into space and look for a planet that was habitable.  They found one, via Starbuck's jump, in the series finale and settled on it.  When Laura asked what it's called, Bill said "Earth."  She laughed at him, but he explained his logic as being after all they'd been through and having finally reached a place they could make their new home, this planet could be their new Earth.  (It's like Caprica & New Caprica -- Caprica got nuked, they couldn't live there anymore, they stumbled across a habitable planet where they could settle, and Baltar decreed it New Caprica.)  The confusion probably comes from the fact this planet they settled on for good in the end, turned out to be our Earth, 150,000 years ago.  And you can see those constellations from here, too.  But not all at the same time, like on their original Earth.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Bastet

[Kel Varnsen]

It was years after they stopped making new King of the Hill episodes before I realized that Hank's love of propane and "taste the meat not the heat" was kind of a joke about Texans and their love of wood fired BBQ.

[shapeshifter]

On December 21, 2018 at 3:05 PM, GreekGeek said:

I'd love to watch the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons again to catch all the references that flew over my head as a kid. I thought "Boris Badenov" just meant he was bad. I didn't realize until years later that it was a pun on the name of "Boris Godunov," the czar.
 

And now there's another project I'm not going to complete in my lifetime. But it's also a double entendre for "Bad enough" too, right?

[AimingforYoko]

On 12/21/2018 at 3:05 PM, GreekGeek said:

I'd love to watch the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons again to catch all the references that flew over my head as a kid. I thought "Boris Badenov" just meant he was bad. I didn't realize until years later that it was a pun on the name of "Boris Godunov," the czar.
 

My favorite 'adult' joke on Bullwinkle:

[DrSpaceman73]

It wasn't until I started watching Designated Survivor a few years back that I realized Maggie Q and Sandra Oh are different people. 

And yes, I know, they don't even look alike, just similar names. 

I'd been somehow interchanging them for years. 

[Blergh]

14 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

My favorite 'adult' joke on Bullwinkle:

 

  That  'adult' joke would be considered so tame these days that even Sesame Street would have no problems using it!  LOL

 

 However; something that I didn't realize at the time I watched that particular cartoon that I know was (and still is a fact) - institutions of higher learning often DO tend to eagerly give coaches and athletic departments the lion's share of any and all monies yet expect their actual teachers and academics to exist on widow's mites even with extra boosts from athletics. Yes, this was played for laughs but in hindsight I'm extra embarrassed I didn't catch this at the time since I had academics in my own family and I often heard them relate this rather lopsided deal. 

[DrSpaceman73]

I didn't realize until about last year that Katherine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn aren't related. 

Score another one for random IMDB searches on that one. 

[Bastet]

28 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Katherine Hepburn

Another bit of belated trivia for you (and others, because this happens a lot):  Her name was Katharine, not Katherine.

[Rosiejuliemom]

I used to think that everyone who was friends on TV must be friends in real life, and that everything was filmed live. Even cartoons. I thought that the animation was done ahead of time but that the voices were done while the show was airing.

 

Of course, I thought that money laundering involved a washer and dryer until I was older than I'll ever admit, so I may have been a particularly thick-headed child.

[Annber03]

3 minutes ago, Rosiejuliemom said:

I used to think that everyone who was friends on TV must be friends in real life, and that everything was filmed live.

I used to think that, too.

And even as an adult it's still nice to think that people who play friends on TV are friends off set, too. It's always a bit sad when you find out about cast members not getting along off the show. I mean, granted, lots of people don't befriend every single co-worker they have at other jobs out there, and many people have experience working with somebody they can't stand, so it shouldn't be surprising that the same thing would apply to a TV show, too, but still... Makes the stories you do hear about cast members being close off set all the more special, though :). 

[Joe]

55 minutes ago, Rosiejuliemom said:

I used to think that everyone who was friends on TV must be friends in real life, and that everything was filmed live. Even cartoons. I thought that the animation was done ahead of time but that the voices were done while the show was airing.

 

Of course, I thought that money laundering involved a washer and dryer until I was older than I'll ever admit, so I may have been a particularly thick-headed child.

I thought 'unmarked bills' for paying ransom meant fresh out of the bank. Not used or folded, etc. Later I learned it meant without any kind of bug or tracking hidden among the money or in the packaging. From the spam/phishing I get these days, criminals want bitcoin.

[Kel Varnsen]

I have seen every episode of Parks & Recreation and every episode of Brooklyn 99 but it was only a few weeks ago that I realized it was Nick Offerman saying "Fremulon" (Mike Schur's company name) at the end of every 99 episode.

[MissAlmond]

I grew up watching "The Wizard of Oz" when it was shown on TV.  It took adulthood to realize how ultra shady "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" is.  The Munchkins happily sang and danced on the Wicked Witch's grave and didn't give a damn Dorothy witnessed it either.  They only stopped for a hot second to confirm with the coroner they weren't celebrating prematurely.  

Edited February 14, 2019 by MissAlmond

[ABay]

With The Wizard of Oz, It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out the joke of "I think he's saying 'oil can.'" "Oil can what?"

[Katy M]

2 hours ago, ABay said:

With The Wizard of Oz, It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out the joke of "I think he's saying 'oil can.'" "Oil can what?"

Oops.  I think you just had to point that out to me.  I've never caught that.

[Raja]

On 9/21/2018 at 6:19 AM, Danny Franks said:

When I was a kid, watching 'Allo, 'Allo!, I never realised that the girls who worked as waitresses at the cafe also worked as prostitutes, servicing the German soldiers. Watching old episodes of it today, it was pretty bloody obvious. Perhaps I just didn't really know what prostitution was, then, because I definitely always knew that Rene was sleeping with both waitresses on the side. Really, it was surprising that the BBC were prepared to put that sort of thing on at 7pm on a Saturday evening.

The American kid (me) version would be seeing the older black & white episodes of Gunsmoke and not recognizing that Miss Kitty was a brothel madame.   But then  the color episodes which were more often shown in syndication where her primary income was more hidden. I never had that problem with Huggy Bear on Starsky & Hutch about his "player" being an ex pimp. Maybe because Rooster on Baretta was an active pimp during the same era.

[GreekGeek]

On 2/14/2019 at 9:56 AM, MissAlmond said:

I grew up watching "The Wizard of Oz" when it was shown on TV.  It took adulthood to realize how ultra shady "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" is.  The Munchkins happily sang and danced on the Wicked Witch's grave and didn't give a damn Dorothy witnessed it either.  They only stopped for a hot second to confirm with the coroner they weren't celebrating prematurely.  

I'm not sure I understand. There's a whole song just before "Ding Dong" where Dorothy tells them what happened and they thank her. Lyrics.

[theredhead77]

On 1/8/2019 at 10:09 PM, Rosiejuliemom said:

Of course, I thought that money laundering involved a washer and dryer until I was older than I'll ever admit, so I may have been a particularly thick-headed child.

Same!! Nothing more to add, didn't want you to be alone on this island.

[Anela]

On 1/8/2019 at 10:09 PM, Rosiejuliemom said:

I used to think that everyone who was friends on TV must be friends in real life, and that everything was filmed live. Even cartoons. I thought that the animation was done ahead of time but that the voices were done while the show was airing.

Of course, I thought that money laundering involved a washer and dryer until I was older than I'll ever admit, so I may have been a particularly thick-headed child.

Same. 🙂 I had no idea what it involved, until I watched Ozark. 

[ABay]

What confused me about money laundering is that, if I have it right now, you lose part of your overall take in the process. That makes no sense to me.

[Katy M]

59 minutes ago, ABay said:

What confused me about money laundering is that, if I have it right now, you lose part of your overall take in the process. That makes no sense to me.

It makes no sense as to why you would agree to that or how it would happen?

In the case of the former, if you don't have a way to show that you got your illegitimately gotten goods legally (which of course you didn't), then you'll end up in jail.

And in the case of the latter, this is a service that you are basically now paying for in order to keep you out of jail.

[ABay]

It's because you go through the trouble of stealing loads of money from Peter, and then you deliberately give some back to Paul. You still get some ill-gotten gains, but not the full amount that you stole.

[biakbiak]

5 hours ago, ABay said:

It's because you go through the trouble of stealing loads of money from Peter, and then you deliberately give some back to Paul. You still get some ill-gotten gains, but not the full amount that you stole.

But you remain able to continue stealing (though it’s not always stealing) loads of money from Peter without attracting the attention of law enforcement. It’s like a criminal business tax and is built into the price of doing criminal acts.

[Katy M]

42 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

But you remain able to continue stealing (though it’s not always stealing) loads of money from Peter without attracting the attention of law enforcement. It’s like a criminal business tax and is built into the price of doing criminal acts.

But, take a lesson from  Al Capone.  That does not replace your actual taxes:)

[Crs97]

Random comment about Al Capone:

I always loved my corporate tax law professor who said go watch The Untouchables and squeal that Sean Connery and Kevin Costner are being all bad ass, but just remember that it was a bespectacled guy in a cubicle, probably wearing a pocket protector, who actually took Capone down. 😊

I now return you to your regularly scheduled forum.

[Moose135]

5 hours ago, biakbiak said:

It’s like a criminal business tax and is built into the price of doing criminal acts.

We call that the vig...

[GaT]

On the very first page of this thread I posted this comment 

On 9/17/2018 at 11:16 AM, GaT said:

I'm not sure if this counts, but I watched Mad Men for 2 seasons before I realized that the actor who played Pete Campbell was the same actor who played Connor on Angel, a show I have seen at least 5 times all the way through. I'm still amazed it took me that long.

So, tonight I'm watching "Proven Innocent" & decide to look in the thread for the show when I saw this comment

Quote

I was never the biggest Pete fan on Mad Men but Vincent K deserves better than being the third string sidekick. 

WTF????? It's the same guy, Vincent Kartheiser, & I didn't pick it up again!!!! I don't know if it's just me, or if this guy really is that much of a chameleon. 

[biakbiak]

9 minutes ago, GaT said:

WTF????? It's the same guy, Vincent Kartheiser, & I didn't pick it up again!!!! I don't know if it's just me

It’s probably a good thing you weren’t invited to Alexis Bledel’s wedding!

[Blergh]

I didn't realize it the first time I saw them as a kid but only after later viewings as a teen did I get that Charlie Brown was being VERY stupid and a glutton for punishment by seeking out 'therapy' from the quack Lucy Van Pelt immediately after she pulled the football away he'd attempted to kick or was otherwise just snotty to him! I also didn't realize during first viewing childhood  of A Boy Named Charlie Brown when our hero blew the spelling bee and retreated to bed in  his dark  curtained  bedroom that this was NOT a comical reaction but a rather serious manifestation of depression!  I mean, where were his parents and why hadn't they called a REAL shrink to get him out of bed  or tried to get him out themselves instead of just leaving him all alone in the house in his bedroom like that? 

[Crs97]

I also remember being angry that Linus told him the world didn’t end because of his failure.  Failure?!?  He came in second in a national spelling bee!  He did better than every one of his friends and then almost won the whole thing.  How is that not celebrated, other than it’s Charlie Brown?  As he would say, “Good grief!”

I always thought Charlie Brown needed a complete new set of friends.  Don’t even get me started on Linus kissing the red headed girl. . .

Okay, I forgot this was about obvious things we missed rather than our feelings about CB.  Back to topic -I didn’t realize dances were choreographed.  For too long I thought Gene Kelly was walking down the street and it started raining and he thought it would be fun to dance in it.

Edited March 2, 2019 by Crs97

[BuyMoreAndSave]

On 9/17/2018 at 7:28 PM, forumfish said:

As a little girl watching PBS, I thought "Viewers Like You" was the name of a corporation that supported the station.

When I was a kid I thought "Viewers Like You" was a group of evil and paranormal Illuminati-esque entities who were watching us at all times. I thought they were watching us through the TV and for some reason, through the ceiling fans, and that they could possess people. This started when I asked my abusive mom what "Viewers Like You" meant and she said that it meant "people who watch" and I thought that meant people who were watching us, rather than people who watched the program, and my imagination ran wild with the rest of it. But the weird thing is she didn't correct it when she saw I got upset about it, even though for years later I had trouble sleeping because I thought "The Viewers" were going to kill me in my sleep. When I finally realized later on that "Viewers Like You" meant the actual people watching PBS, I wondered why the hell she didn't just tell me that. But this wasn't the only incident where she got enjoyment out of seeing me upset.

I also thought the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was an auxiliary branch of the Viewers.

Edited March 2, 2019 by BuyMoreAndSave

[Anela]

Oh, when I posted before, I didn't mean that I thought laundered money was literally washed, until I watched Ozark. I thought that as a kid. Just clarifying. I just didn't know the process, until I watched it. 

[ABay]

Yes, same--I didn't understand it and then figured it out. Apparently it wasn't clear in my earlier posts that I know how the process works.

[Anela]

2 minutes ago, ABay said:

Yes, same--I didn't understand it and then figured it out. Apparently it wasn't clear in my earlier posts that I know how the process works.

I was just posting because of my own post, nobody else's. 🙂 I saw it again, and realized that I sounded like I thought that until two years ago. 🙂 

[ABay]

No worries, @Anela! Your post just reminded me of replies by other posters earlier, which I realize probably weren't intended to be condescending but read that way to me it at the time.

Edited March 2, 2019 by ABay

[DrSpaceman]

I didn't understand money laundering and how it worked until another show I watched, Breaking Bad, explained it.  Thank you Saul Goodman!!

Reminds me of the scene in Office Space where they look up money laundering in the dictionary and no one really knows how to do it, not a clue in the least bit

[Blergh]

13 hours ago, Crs97 said:

I also remember being angry that Linus told him the world didn’t end because of his failure.  Failure?!?  He came in second in a national spelling bee!  He did better than every one of his friends and then almost won the whole thing.  How is that not celebrated, other than it’s Charlie Brown?  As he would say, “Good grief!”

I always thought Charlie Brown needed a complete new set of friends.  Don’t even get me started on Linus kissing the red headed girl. . . 

  The sad thing is that Linus's 'consolation' was the closest CB would get to any kind of support from that motley crew after all that.  However; even back then I thought they were being unreasonably harsh to the Round Head Kid re treating 2nd place in a national contest as though it was the LAST place in the world. I have to admit that there were times I sort of identified with CB back then- especially thinking that I'd have to take whatever my school peers had to offer since I literally couldn't imagine finding other friends outside that rather limited circle back then. Thankfully, as an adult, I've learned I don't have to settle and that it's better to be solo than to put up with snots. 

[shapeshifter]

On 2/14/2019 at 10:08 AM, ABay said:

With The Wizard of Oz, It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out the joke of "I think he's saying 'oil can.'" "Oil can what?"

On 2/14/2019 at 12:34 PM, Katy M said:

Oops.  I think you just had to point that out to me.  I've never caught that.

And I did not catch that until now, as a newly-minted senior citizen.

Edited March 3, 2019 by shapeshifter

[shapeshifter]

On 2/25/2019 at 11:21 AM, ABay said:

It's because you go through the trouble of stealing loads of money from Peter, and then you deliberately give some back to Paul. You still get some ill-gotten gains, but not the full amount that you stole.

It's called "the cost of doing business" and/or "you gotta spend money to make money" (my law-abiding, honest-to-a-fault businessman father).

[ABay]

Yes, I know.

[DrSpaceman]

I don't recall the specifics of Charlie Brown and that story, though it does sound bad.

But Charlie Brown/Peanuts never directly involved the adults except for the "Waaa Wooo Waaaa Waaa wooo" from the teachers, so I can see why the story did not involve the parents helping him out, even though that is a sad situation.  The parents were pretty non-existent to these kids at all times.