# Obvious things about a creative work you realize after the millionth time (OPEN SPOILERS POSSIBLE) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2009, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117 "2009-07-24T13:20:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 145
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2881 "2018-01-07T03:49:01Z")
> [@Arizona\_Mike](#): > > This is really stupid, but I only recently realized that The Beatles intentionally misspelled their name as a play off “the beat”. > > Completely blipped over that for decades and didn’t even realize it was a misspelling of “Beetles.” > > I probably shouldn’t be allowed to drive. I didn’t realize that either until I read it in this thread like a year ago. And I’m a pretty big Beatles fan. It’s funny, you get so accustomed to their randomness that you just accept it (cranberry sauce? plastic soul? sure), but their band name actually makes a modicum of logical sense (though it did come in a dream, IRRC.) > [@Loach](#): > > Now the current conflict is sometimes being described as the Forever War without many knowing where the term comes from. This is how I’ve always interpreted Green Day’s ‘‘Wake Me Up When September Ends.’’ The album _American Idiot_ does a masterpiece job of tying together the zeitgeist of my generation with the (at the time) current Iraq war crisis. The album, in my view, is about who we were, and who we are now. The song is most explicitly a reference to the death of the songwriter’s father, which occurred in September. But I believe it’s also a reference to September 11 and the fact that the consequences have been endless. ---
**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:** [January 7, 2018, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2882 "2018-01-07T04:34:32Z")
> [@Arizona\_Mike](#): > > I only realized in the last couple of years that one of the two young shopkeepers they meet is a very young Michael Crawford, later to achieve fame in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s _Phantom of the Opera._ Want something even weirder? In the movie version of Thornton Wilder’s _The Matchmaker_ (the play that got turned into the musical _Hello Dolly_) the part played by Michael Crawford was played by a young Anthony Perkins – a few years before he would play Norman Bates in _Psycho_. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2883 "2018-01-07T05:35:24Z")
> [@Arizona\_Mike](#): > > This is really stupid, but I only recently realized that The Beatles intentionally misspelled their name as a play off “the beat”. > > Completely blipped over that for decades and didn’t even realize it was a misspelling of “Beetles.” > > I probably shouldn’t be allowed to drive. Dont feel too bad, it took me like a decade to figure that one out myself. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2884 "2018-01-07T05:46:28Z")
> [@Arizona\_Mike](#): > > This is really stupid, but I only recently realized that The Beatles intentionally misspelled their name as a play off “the beat”. > > Completely blipped over that for decades and didn’t even realize it was a misspelling of “Beetles.” > > I probably shouldn’t be allowed to drive. It’s sobering to admit to yourself that some of the best bands of your youth had… Really Stupid Names. The Beatles, the Who, Pink Floyd, the Doors (really, did that take a whole minute of looking around the room? “C’mon, we gotta pick a name! The Rugs, The Lamps, The Footstools… wait, I spy… something even lamer!”) If the Beatles weren’t so good, I’d hate their name. (“Whoa, dude, it’s like a bug, but it’s misspelled! So it spells BEAT! Hardy, har, har!”) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2885 "2018-01-07T05:52:39Z")
> [@Arizona\_Mike](#): > > This is really stupid, but I only recently realized that The Beatles intentionally misspelled their name as a play off “the beat”. > > Completely blipped over that for decades and didn’t even realize it was a misspelling of “Beetles.” > > I probably shouldn’t be allowed to drive. Don’t feel bad. While I did catch on to that long ago, as a young lad I figured it was just the British spelling of “beetles.” ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2886 "2018-01-07T08:07:49Z")
> [@digs](#): > > It’s sobering to admit to yourself that some of the best bands of your youth had… Really Stupid Names…the Doors (really, did that take a whole minute of looking around the room? “C’mon, we gotta pick a name! The Rugs, The Lamps, The Footstools… wait, I spy… something even lamer!”) Except that they took their name from the book “The Doors of Perception” by Aldous Huxley. Also, The Who chose their name because of the potential for Who’s-on-First misunderstandings. And Pink Floyd combined the names of two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Their original name was the Tea Set. Now _that’s_ lame, but some other band was also called that (!) so they changed it after flipping through Syd Barrett’s record collection. And Led Zeppelin took the A out of the first word in their name to avoid people pronouncing it “leed”. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2887 "2018-01-07T08:33:07Z")
> [@Arizona Mike](#): > > This is really stupid, but I only recently realized that The Beatles intentionally misspelled their name as a play off “the beat”. > > Completely blipped over that for decades and didn’t even realize it was a misspelling of “Beetles.” > > I probably shouldn’t be allowed to drive. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Dont feel too bad, it took me like a decade to figure that one out myself. :smack: Also, John, Paul, George, and Ringo were fans of Buddy Holly and named themselves The Beatles as an insect-themed tribute to Holly’s group, The Crickets. (There’s also the rumor that The Beatles were a reference to the motorcycle gang led by Lee Marvin in **The Wild One** but that has been discounted since the movie was banned from being shown in the UK until 1967.) ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2888 "2018-01-07T08:43:00Z")
Interestingly, _The Monkees_ (being essentially a parody band of the Beatles) already had a musical pun embedded in their name (Mon **KEYS** - as in the key of a musical scale or even keys of a piano), but had to remove it to get the same misspelling effect. ---
**Author:** ![Arizona\_Mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Arizona\_Mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arizona_Mike)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2889 "2018-01-07T14:58:02Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Except that they took their name from the book “The Doors of Perception” by Aldous Huxley. > > Also, The Who chose their name because of the potential for Who’s-on-First misunderstandings. And Pink Floyd combined the names of two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Their original name was the Tea Set. Now _that’s_ lame, but some other band was also called that (!) so they changed it after flipping through Syd Barrett’s record collection. And Led Zeppelin took the A out of the first word in their name to avoid people pronouncing it “leed”. I don’t know if we should bring up where 10cc and Steely Dan got their names… ---
**Author:** ![Arizona\_Mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Arizona\_Mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arizona_Mike)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2890 "2018-01-07T14:59:06Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Don’t feel bad. While I did catch on to that long ago, as a young lad I figured it was just the British spelling of “beetles.” I think that was my thought process, too - it was like “kerb” or “colour”… ---
**Author:** ![Arizona\_Mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Arizona\_Mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arizona_Mike)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2891 "2018-01-07T15:02:16Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Re: _Yellow Submarine_ > > If all of your friends are aboard, how can many more of them live next door? Huh. Never thought about that, either. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2892 "2018-01-07T20:35:45Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > There’s also the rumor that The Beatles were a reference to the motorcycle gang led by Lee Marvin in **The Wild One** but that has been discounted since the movie was banned from being shown in the UK until 1967. They couldn’t have seen it in, say, Hamburg? :dubious: 😕 ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2893 "2018-01-08T02:08:50Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I was watching the original _Ghostbusters_ the other night. There’s a moment in the scene where they get their first big client, the hotel. They’re surprised by a housekeeper with her cart, and she’s got a spray bottle of some cleaning fluid. They shoot her cart and start a few small fires. A few seconds later, after they apologize to her, you can see her in the background trying to put out the fire with her spray bottle. > > I never noticed it before, thought it was funny. I wonder if maybe that joke was a pan and scan victim? There are a few lost jokes in Ghostbusters thanks to that. Can’t blame anyone for missing a joke that’s not there. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2894 "2018-01-08T05:13:22Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > And Pink Floyd combined the names of two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. There’s a Pink Floyd tribute band called Anderson Council. Not sure if that’s very cool, or very lame (as is the case for most tribute acts). ---
**Author:** ![Bic\_D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bic\_D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bic_D)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2018, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2895 "2018-01-08T20:15:53Z")
One of my favorite movies when I was younger was “The Hollywood Knights”. Tony Danza was in the movie so when “Taxi” premiered and then Who’s the boss" I of course watched both. Then I heard an Elton John song one day and was amazed that Elton John would call out Tony Danza as being gay or at the very least, make a song about wanting to hook up with Tony Danza. I was very young at the time and just moved on or just plain forgot. Many years later I realized that Elton John was actually singing… Hold me closer Tiny Dancer…not Tony Danza. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2018, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2896 "2018-01-11T00:07:13Z")
Watching \*\*\*MTM \*\*\*the other night, I noticed for the first time that as you look at it, the right side of the house where Mary’s studio apartment was had a turret. This meant her bathroom, which we never saw, must have been circular. (Remember, she had no bedroom and had to sleep on a foldaway couch.) ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2018, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2897 "2018-01-11T00:39:40Z")
Actually Mary’s apt could be on the other side of the turret, the palladian trio of windows is repeated a couple of times in the house used for exteriors. The real question is: where does Rhoda live? there is no 3rd floor! [Here’s a look inside the real house/](https://metv.com/stories/check-out-the-inside-of-the-iconic-home-from-the-mary-tyler-moore-show) mc ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2018, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2898 "2018-01-11T00:55:46Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Re: _Yellow Submarine_ > > If all of your friends are aboard, how can many more of them live next door? And typically there’s nothing “next door” to a submarine. A year ago I was listening to “Mother Nature’s Son” and said, Hey wait a minute…! “Born a poor young country boy?” How could somone be anything BUT young when they were born? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2018, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2899 "2018-01-11T01:00:06Z")
> [@mikecurtis](#): > > Actually Mary’s apt could be on the other side of the turret, the palladian trio of windows is repeated a couple of times in the house used for exteriors. The real question is: where does Rhoda live? there is no 3rd floor! > > [Here’s a look inside the real house/](https://metv.com/stories/check-out-the-inside-of-the-iconic-home-from-the-mary-tyler-moore-show) > > mc The set they always zoom in on is in the center of the second floor, to the left of the turret. There’s a window to the left of that where the stairway is. It goes up to where Rhoda’s apartment is, in the peak over Mary’s picture windows. In other words, Rhoda lives in the attic. Phyllis, their landlady, lives on the first floor. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2018, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117/2900 "2018-01-11T10:24:27Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > And typically there’s nothing “next door” to a submarine. The “friends” are pills, and/or the Yellow Submarines are pills, though eventually we leave the realm of obvious things and enter that of ever-slightly-less-obvious things or even that of things subject to interpretation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=144) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obvious-things-about-a-creative-work-you-realize-after-the-millionth-time-open-spoilers-possible/504117.md?page=146)