# Little Things You Didn't Notice About TV Shows Till You Watched In Reruns **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 7, 2011, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082 "2011-05-07T18:26:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/61 "2011-05-12T01:04:43Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I saw a show about Will Smith that mentioned how bad an actor he was when he started on _The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air_. He ain’t changed much since then, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/62 "2011-05-12T01:18:50Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > In the Seinfeld episode where they get stuck in Long Island, then the guy shows up at Jerry’s apartment and wants to party, winds up getting drunk with Kramer, etc. The guy is Michael Chiklis, a long way from _The Shield_. A few months ago I was watching an episode of the Golden Girls and noticed a [familiar face](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgcsHqgfm-Y) in the background. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/63 "2011-05-12T02:26:55Z")
Something I started noticed recently while watching some older episodes of HIMYM, when Robin get’s worked up, her Canadian accent comes out. She does a good job of it, it really seems like it’s happening by accident, almost as if she, the actor, is slipping. Of course, checking IMDB just now, I see she’s from Vancouver, so maybe she, the actor, really is slipping. Either way, I think it adds something to her character. Especially since one of the running gags is that Robin is trying to act like an ‘American’ but normally when the Canadian in her comes though the make a big deal about it…at the very least they point and laugh, sometimes they even make an entire episode around it, so it’s kinda neat when it just shows up here and there and no one points it out. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/64 "2011-05-12T13:16:05Z")
Fame/Glee Comparison So with rerun weeks and less work from home days I’ve been running low on TV to watch during my commute so I went digging through some old series I have on DVD and converted them to iTunes. Last week I started watching Season 1 of Fame and I was struck by how many of the same things that we complain about in Glee that existed in Fame. First of all – Debbie Allen is clearly a role model for Mr.Shue’s teacher inserting themselves in student productions. She hasn’t danced a lead yet but she has jumped into their performance for talent scouts, at a benefit concert and in the cafeteria. The last episode I watched was about the students putting on a musical version of Othello during a teachers strike. In less than a week they scored, choreographed, rehearsed and costumed the entire performance. Maybe creating a Nationals set list the night before isn’t so amazing after all. I’m sure there will be more, I loaded up the iPad with another 5 episodes. ETA: I forgot the amazing piano! Obviously being a school for the Arts with music majors gives them a better premise for it, but man these kids jam together like they’ve been practising for months and instruments are always where they need to be. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/65 "2011-05-12T13:29:56Z")
In a 2 1/2 Men rerun about the “ugly high school girl who got beautiful so she could return and cuss out the guys that rejected her”, the now beautiful woman cussing out Alan and Charlie is played by a pre-Criminal Minds Paige Brewster. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/66 "2011-05-12T13:38:12Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Sheldon’s shirts have a theme? I’m not sure “uber-geek” is a theme. The thing is, a genuine uber-geek wouldn’t own that many cool shirts. Geeky shirts are in. Socially maladjusted people wouldn’t know to wear such shirts and probably wouldn’t own that many T-shirts used in regular rotation at all. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/67 "2011-05-12T13:43:36Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The thing is, a genuine uber-geek wouldn’t own that many cool shirts. Geeky shirts are in. Socially maladjusted people wouldn’t know to wear such shirts and probably wouldn’t own that many T-shirts used in regular rotation at all. Bull. Sheldon, Leonard… and me for that matter… don’t wear those shirts because they’re in but because they’re awesome. And you have confused geek with nerd, for shame. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/68 "2011-05-12T13:45:06Z")
Besides, they were probably on sale at the comic book store. Sheldon had to buy them to avoid being mocked by Captain Sweatpants. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/69 "2011-05-12T14:08:38Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Universal’s [New York Street](http://www.thestudiotour.com/ush/backlot/newyorkstreet.shtml). [Paramount’s](http://www.paramountstudios.com/stages-backlots/backlots/ny-streets.html). Ah, THAT’S IT! Now whenever I see a scene set in Chicago that has red no-parking paint on the curb near the intersections, I know who to blame. It’s Paramount’s backlot. (Seriously, it’s YELLOW paint here! How hard is that to get right?!) ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/70 "2011-05-12T14:28:36Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > A few months ago I was watching an episode of the Golden Girls and noticed a [familiar face](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgcsHqgfm-Y) in the background. Speaking of Golden Girls, there’s also George Clooney who played a cop on one episode. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/71 "2011-11-23T23:49:57Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Amusing in **Seinfeld** reruns to notice that > > \ there’s a Superman visible somewhere in every episode, usually in Jerry’s apartment, usually as a fridge magnet. The best one was the “Bizarro Jerry” episode - there was a Bizarro Superman in Bizarro Jerry’s apartment. This is a popular myth. The fridge magnet didn’t show up until the fourth season and most episodes before that have no Superman references. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/72 "2011-11-24T02:35:06Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Yes, including George Plimpton, which is awesome. > (I’m assuming of course you are referring to the real Nero on A&E, not the fake one which ran on ABC a few years before, and which sucked. Archie walking past a marina, in Manhattan? :eek: ) Well, [this marina](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:79st_Boat_Basin_float_jeh.JPG) has been in [Manhattan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/79th_Street_Boat_Basin) since 1937. There’s a [smaller one](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NYfromWTC2.jpg) down by the World Financial Center as well. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/73 "2011-11-24T02:49:09Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Being 30, I’ve only ever watched it in reruns, but after watching 4 or 5 seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in a short amount of time I noticed the exact same thing. That is, each episode seemed to have about 4 or 5 actors in it and typically 1 or 2 of them seemed to be from a pool of (I’d guess) about 20. I kinda liked it. After a while I got to know them and it kinda felt like going to watch a play every night. The 1960s incarnation of **Dragnet** did the same thing – the same actors seemed to show up over and over. I have to admit that I noticed it the ffirst time I saw the A&E Nero Wolfe. The actors had distinctive looks, and James Tolkan was already well-known for his movie work. It was interesting to see him playing outside the “type” he seemed inevitably cast as in the movies (tough-guy authoritarian figure) ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/74 "2011-11-24T03:54:16Z")
I bought the DVDs for the Diana Rigg episodes of the Avengers. The show really holds up well, but the stunt doubles for the fight scenes are laughably obvious. It looked to me like they were using a guy in a wig to play Diana Rigg in some of the fight scenes. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/75 "2011-11-24T04:36:08Z")
After watching Dick Van Dyke reruns for decades, I finally realized this just a few years ago. The background music playing whenever Rob gets involved with the police and tries playing junior detective/G-man is almost identical to the music played on the “Andy Griffith Show” when Barney Fife starts acting (ineffectively) like some super-tough policeman. The shows first aired on CBS and were in production at about the same time, so sharing the music is plausible. Similarly, just a few years ago, I finally realized Mr. Peabody (of Rocky and Bullwinkle) was a shaggy dog. Since all his cartoons end with rotten, tangential puns, that makes them shaggy dog stories both figuratively AND literally. [Shaggy dog story - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaggy_dog_story#Pun) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/76 "2011-11-24T05:16:30Z")
I was just thinking about this thread a few weeks ago. I was watching a rerun of Malcolm in the Middle. A show that I’ve seen every single episode of at least 5 times. But this time, as I was watching a scene of two of the characters talking I noticed a cockroach crawl across the wall. No attention was brought to it, neither of the characters noticed it, it had nothing to do with the scene or any the plot of the episode in any way at all. It was just a nice little background touch that I completely missed the first however many times I’d seen that episode. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/77 "2011-11-24T18:00:17Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > After the oddly-serious-in-retrospect pilot, the 60s _Batman_ was nothing but silly. That oddly-serious pilot with the Bat Shark Repellent, the dehydrated diplomats, and “some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb?” Or was there another, even more serious, pilot? Anyway, \*Batman \*was what I came in here to mention. I first saw it when I was 6 or 8, and it was a thrilling adventure story. The next time I saw it I was in college–how did it become a comedy? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/78 "2011-11-24T18:34:45Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada](#): > > That oddly-serious pilot with the Bat Shark Repellent, the dehydrated diplomats, and “some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb?” Or was there another, even more serious, pilot? It was only serious relative to other Batman episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/79 "2011-11-24T18:50:31Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada](#): > > That oddly-serious pilot with the Bat Shark Repellent, the dehydrated diplomats, and “some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb?” Or was there another, even more serious, pilot? > > Anyway, \*Batman \*was what I came in here to mention. I first saw it when I was 6 or 8, and it was a thrilling adventure story. The next time I saw it I was in college–how did it become a comedy? The movie with the dehydrated diplomats wasn’t the pilot - it was a theatrical movie shown after the first season had aired. This was the pilot [Hi Diddle Riddle - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi_Diddle_Riddle) ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082/80 "2011-11-24T19:13:25Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I thought it was kind of funny but not very surprising to notice when I was watching I Dream Of Jeannie that considering the fact that even though she’s a hot babe wearing a bikini she’s very rarely sexy. I also noticed that people are offering each other drinks all the time in the old Bewitched and no one ever refuses, I wonder what teetotalers did back then?. Tony Nelson and Roger Healy are apparently the only bachelor astronauts, are best friends, and spent alot of time together. Tony also has an attractive blonde slave girl living in his house and constantly throwing herself at him. This was all pointed out to me in high school. > [@Baker](#): > > I was a kid when I first watched The Addams Family on television, and the passion between Morticia and Gomez went right over my head. > > Then I saw the movies and thought that passion was something added to the storyline. > > THEN I watched the television series as an adult and thought “OMG, they were really into each other!” The movies really play the S&M aspect to their relationship up, but it was still present in the original TV series. I’m guessing Standards & Practices missed that entirely. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-things-you-didnt-notice-about-tv-shows-till-you-watched-in-reruns/581082.md?page=5)