The medium of television has surely evolved a lot over the last decades. I remember back when my grandmother used to remember not even having a colored television, and a few months ago, I was watching a 3D movie about a doctor that loses mobility in his hands and decides to turn himself into a wizard.
So while the limits of what can be shown on television screens are growing larger and larger, there’s still this weird fascination with people. We still want to lift the veil on some of the greatest mysteries of the shows we watch. We want to know things that happen that don’t show up on the camera and aren’t mentioned in the special edition commentary DVD box set.
Let’s take a look at some interesting behind-the-scenes facts from your favorite TV shows.
American Horror Story
In season four of this awesome horror show, actor Evan Peters bent over in a hospital gown. In doing so, Peters flashed co-stars Sarah Paulson and Jessica Lange. Talk about a weird day at work.
Breaking Bad
While there’s certainly a lot of cursing in Breaking Bad, there was an AMC rule that they were only allowed one f-bomb to be dropped unbleeped every season. And this was already considered to be a huge exception for the show, but let’s be glad they didn’t censor it too much.
LOST
You’re expecting me to tell you what the ending means, don’t you? Nobody knows that. What we do know, however, is that the ABC chairman got fired for approving the wickedly expensive 12-million-dollar pilot episode for LOST. It might also be added that he didn’t even read the script before approving this.
The Office
Much like in a real office, whenever the attention wasn’t focused on the actors, they were browsing different web sites on their computers. You know, reading newspapers and ordering stuff from Amazon. That kind of thing.
American Idol
Well, there’s not much behind the scenes going on here that you don’t read about in the tabloids. But a fun fact is that performer Taylor Hicks actually got more votes in the American Idol final than Ronald Reagan got when he was elected to office as president of the United States. And how can you blame a country that cares more for their next pop idol than their president.
Friends
During the filming of Friends, Matthew Perry lost a bet to Courteney Cox. Because he lost, he had to be Courteney’s man-slave for six months. Jesus Matthew, why even go ahead with a bet like that in the first place?
Arrested Development
This comedy show had a weird rule enforced by the powers that be: there were no mustaches allowed on set. David Cross found this news quite alarming and had to fight to keep his character’s mustache on the show.
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Will Smith was a rookie actor when he started on the Fresh Prince, so you can actually see him mumbling everyone’s lines. He was so nervous he’d forget his own, that he figured he’d just memorize the entire goddamn script. You can pretty clearly see him mumbling along in the first few episodes.
How I Met Your Mother
During the episodes where Ted was dating Robin, actor Josh Radnor had to spend a lot of time with Robin’s dogs. Sadly, Josh is allergic to dog dander, so all the scenes had to pretty much be filmed in high speed before he turned into Allergy Ted.
Bones
One of the extras on the show, Dean Lopata, started talking to the important people that pay all the bills and wages, and suddenly found himself promoting from extra to an actual writer for the show. Let’s talk career moves, baby!
Modern Family
The character Luke might be pretty stupid, but his actor Nolan Gould is actually a member of Mensa. In case you don’t know what Mensa is, it’s where people with high IQ scores go to create a safe space in which they can pretend IQ is the only true measurement of intelligence and no other factors need ever apply into that equation.
