My wife and I were watching “Edge of Tomorrow” a while back when it was on TV, and as the end credits were rolling I saw something that made me go “Wait… what?” and roll the DVR back to confirm I really did see what I thought I saw.
Executive Producer - Steven Mnuchin
I assume that is the same Steven Mnuchin that is now (or soon will be) our new Treasury Secretary?
Anybody else had a WTF moment while watching the credits roll?
There’s a mediocre sitcom on CBS called Superior Donuts. I was surprised to learn from the credits that it’s based on a play of the same name by Tracy Letts, better known for August: Osage County (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize).
Not exactly “reading the credits”, but recently (thanks to MeTV) I’ve been watching episodes of shows that I watched 20 or 30 years ago but haven’t watched in 20 or 30 years, so I’ve forgotten pretty much everything about them. So a while back I watch an episode of MacGyver that guest stars a ditsy trollop. A few days at most later, I watch an episode of The Love Boat that also guest stars the same actress and a ditsy trollop. I think “hm, she must have been kind of well-known back in the day” and did some googling–to learn that the actress was Teri Hatcher. Never for a moment would have realized it was her if I hadn’t read that.
It was a little odd to see Elmore Leonard credited on Justified, even though the connection is about as obvious as it gets.
It’s him. Mnuchin has invested in a number of movie projects.
I was watching and episode of the 50s TV show Topper and discover that it had been written Stephen Sondheim. Turns out he wrote 11 episodes several years before he was able to break in on Broadway.
There was a Dallas reunion where Charlene Tilton had the title of Executive Producer. It turned out she was the one who talked Larry Hagman into participating – without which there would have been no reunion, so she actually WAS the person most responsible for the show being on the air.
I’ve noticed that some episodes of shows such as Columbo have been directed by Nicholas Colosanto, who was most famous for playing coach Ernie Pantusso on Cheers.
I saw the name Hampton Fancher in the acting credits of a Mannix and an Adam-12 in quick succession. I only ever knew him as a screenwriter (Blade Runner) so it was a surprise to see him as an actor. According to imdb he had a lot of credits back in the day.
In the credits of an episode of Barbary Coast I was surprised to see the name Les Moonves listed as playing the part of a bellhop. Yes, the President of CBS started out as a bit player! Talk about mail room to board room.
The “set dresser” for “Phantom of the Paradise” was Sissy Spacek.
Probably the most surprising one I’ve seen was on GSN reruns of the old CBS Double Dare game show (this is not the show with the physical challenges and the slop, mind you): Associate Producer - Markie Post. This was before she became an actress.
#2 is probably: Choreographer - Courtney Galiano. What’s so surprising about a So You Think You Can Dance? finalist being a choreographer? It was for an episode of The Simpsons.
To be pedantic, it doesn’t count as “seeing,” since the credits were spoken aloud by the announcer, but anyway…
On one of the “trip to Hollywood” episodes of I Love Lucy, they stop to ask directions in Tennessee. The stereotypical hayseed guy they get directions from was played by future mega-producer Aaron Spelling.
Not the production credits, but I’ve been startled to see Werner Herzog in a couple of places, especially in an episode of Parks and Recreation
I was happily surprised to see Jonathan Frakes directed a number of episodes for the TV series The Librarians.
I was very surprised to see Tom Cruise’s name in the end credits of Tropic Thunder.
Not to spoil the move or anything, but go see the new Lego Batman movie. Guess who is right there in the end credits?
Also, it is a fun clever movie.
Oliver North credited as a writer on an episode of The Americans.
He has a lot of directing credits:
Joseph Heller, famous for the novel Catch-22, wrote an episode of the TV show McHale’s Navy. That seems appropriate, somehow
He also wrote the screenplay for the oddball Frank Sinatra western Dirty Dingus McGee
James Clavell, noted for Shogun, Noble House, Tai-Pan, King Rat, and other novels, contributed to the screenplays of the original movie The Fly and The Great Escape.
Harlan Ellison wrote TV scripts for other series besides science fiction. The most outrageous example being an episode of the Flying Nun. He also wrote for *Burke’s Law, Route 66, Ripcord, * and Cimarron Strip. If you read his The Glass Teat you already know that he wrote for The Young Lawyers.
I’ve been watching old episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents from the late 1950s and was surprised to see that Robert Altman directed several of them. Checking IMDB, it seems he directed a lot of TV episodes in the 1950s and 1960s including Bonanza, Combat, Whirlybirds, and others. Of course, everyone has to start somewhere.