There’s a theme that’s played when a train is approaching the heroine who is tied to the tracks. Everybody has heard it, but only classical music lovers know it’s from Schubert’s “Der Erlkoenig”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5B6nysheec
I don’t consider myself an expert, but IIRC it would show up on Cartoon Network when they were still airing Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies. And as a kid I saw it many times in the 50s and 60s on kids’ tv shows, long before I knew it was Porky’s first cartoon.
Who know how many Americans had their first exposure to both William Shakespeare and Georges Bizet simultaneously on Gilligan’s Island ?
Yup. See post #23.
People are a lot more familiar with Mae West than they are of any of her movies. The same with Greta Garbo.
“Luthy! You got some ‘splainin’ to do!”
And I didn’t know that until I read The Onion AV Club yesterday. 
I think an entire thread could be devoted to songs written for movies / TV that far outlasted the show in terms of public awareness. Secret Agent Man comes to mind. And Rock N’ Roll High School. And Theme from A Summer Place - see? this practically writes itself. 
I can’t think of anything.
Sorry about that, Chief.
The Peter Gunn Theme is classic. And nobody I know has ever seen the old TV show it came from!
You could probably also devote an entire thread to classical pieces that have long been divorced from their original context: everyone knows “The Wedding March”, but not many people know it comes from Mendelsohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Ditto Bach’s Toccata And Fugue In D Minor, which for most people is just the creepy organ music that vampires play when hapless visitors arrive at their castles late at night. And my personal favourite for well-known obscurity is Hearts And Flowers {third listing down}: everyone recognises the cliched maudlin violin tune; no-one know where it comes from.
Do you really think so? That’s so disappointing… All the Jaws fans I know did squeal the first time they saw the opening credits of The Usual Suspects, though.
I got a strange one: The phrase “Perfect Storm” was apparently coined by author Sebastian Junger in 1993 to describe the Halloween 1991 storm that hit New England and was the basis for the book and movie of the same name.
That phrase has seemingly entered mainstream American English to describe a confluence of events that make something worse then it might otherwise have been. It has certainly outlived most peoples memories of the storm and I expect will eventually outlive the memories of the book and movie.
I have. NickatNite I think it was or something similar.
I doubt anyone has ever heard of the opera Clari, Maid of Milan. Yet everyone has heard of one tune from it: Home Sweet Home. ("Be it ever so humble . . . . ").
As it happens, I always associate it with the '70s James Caan thriller Rollerball; it’s played over the opening credits.
“Rule Britannia” and “God Bless America” were both written for long-forgotten vaudeville shows, IIRC.
An Australian Idol judge down here constantly tells contestants “to thine own self be true”, seemingly completely missing the irony behind the statement given the character who uttered it. (Most of the ‘advice’ given by Polonius in that speech were clichés at the time of writing.)
Your post reminded me of the line “The dingo ate my baby.” It’s used in this country a lot, but most people here couldn’t tell you who Lyndsey Chamberlain is.
It also survives in the expression “Spare me the Hearts & Flowers”, meaning to stop ladling on the maudlin whining. However, I imagine that there are people who don’t know that “Hearts & Flowers” in that context is musical. So I guess both versions have become detached from their original contexts, to a certain extent.
“The horror, the horror”
Probably most people don’t realize it comes from a book over 100 years old, “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad. Rather they probably picked it up from “Apocalypse Now” but I’ve also seen it referenced in “Rugrats” and many other places.
Or, for that matter, Talk Talk.
nice use of white, kc
My contribution?
I always assumed it was from Shakespeare, or some other learned source.
I don’t watch Star Trek