# Shows/Movies that reference now dead people **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 7, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647 "2009-05-07T12:42:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**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 7, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/1 "2009-05-07T12:42:30Z")
On _Gary Unmarried_ last night, the guys went to Las Vegas where they kept talking about having tickets to see [Danny Gans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Gans). Kind of creepy, though obviously when they shot the episode, Danny was alive and doing fine. Any other examples of shows that reference a now dead person as if they are still alive. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/2 "2009-05-07T13:24:34Z")
I have a lot of examples from the Fifties and Sixties, and a slightly lower count for the Seventies. For instance, I recall Nixon being mentioned often on “All in the Family.” Is this what you are looking for? ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/3 "2009-05-07T13:30:46Z")
It’s always weird to watch the _Seinfeld_ “Contest” episode, where John F. Kennedy Jr. is in Elaine’s aerobics class. Though, if you mean people who died between the filming of the episode and its initial airing, I can’t think of any… ---
**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 7, 2009, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/4 "2009-05-07T13:37:13Z")
Right. I’m looking for people who died between shooting & airing. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/5 "2009-05-07T15:39:51Z")
**Adrienne Shelley** - the writer/directer & co-star of [Waitress](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473308/). She was murdered three months before this movie (her feature film debut) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. (Photos of Shelley were also used in poster ads for the film festival, and had been plastered around Manhattan just days before her death.) Knowing that fact really made watching the film an odd experience, to say the least. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/6 "2009-05-07T15:50:36Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > **Adrienne Shelley** - the writer/directer & co-star of [Waitress](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473308/). She was murdered three months before this movie (her feature film debut) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. (Photos of Shelley were also used in poster ads for the film festival, and had been plastered around Manhattan just days before her death.) Knowing that fact really made watching the film an odd experience, to say the least. No way! I liked Waitress and had been hoping to see something else from the writer director, that’s crazy. I can’t think of any good examples off the top of my head. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/7 "2009-05-07T15:54:08Z")
There was a film that came out last year called “Synechdoche, New York” starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman. At one point, Hoffman’s character is reading the newspaper and says, “Harold Pinter died. (Pause) No, wait, he won the Nobel Prize.” When the film was shot, and indeed first released, Harold Pinter was still alive. But by the time I saw it (still in the theater) in January, Pinter was dead. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/8 "2009-05-07T16:11:04Z")
An episode of _The Simpsons_ featured a joke about a bug spray so strong, James Coburn’s picture was on the bottle. Coburn died a few weeks before the episode first aired, so the gag was changed to Lee Marvin instead. Coburn was reinstated in reruns and syndication. (This may not actually fit the thread- it’s more of a _preventing_-from-referencing-now-the-recently-deceased, sort of how like in another episode Homer’s stolen Oscar was changed to read “Don Ameche” instead of “Haing S. Ngor” after the latter was murdered to avoid any macabre inference.) ---
**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:** [May 7, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/9 "2009-05-07T20:24:52Z")
In **Back to the Future II** a USA Today headline from the year 2015 mentions _Queen Diana_’s upcoming state visit. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/10 "2009-05-07T22:58:41Z")
“Airheads” with Brendan Frasier and Adam Sandler. A struggling rock band takes a radio station hostage to get their music played. One of their insane demands of the police is for “naked pictures of Bea Arthur” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/11 "2009-05-08T01:30:53Z")
Not quite the same, but in **Dr. Strangelove** , Slim Pickens’ character, while briefing his crew on the contents of their survival kits, muses “A fellow could have himself a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all this.” After filming, but before the movie was released, JFK was killed in Dallas, and the line was redubbed “A fellow could have huimself a pretty good weekend in _Vegas_…” True story: When I was working in radio, we were running commercials for Six Flags over Mid-America that mentioned the Sky-Roll ride. One afternoon that summer, three people had died in an accident on the ride. We called the advertising agency and asked if we should pull the commercial. They told us to keep running it until the new commercials arrived. So for several days we ran commercials for a ride that had killed people. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/12 "2009-05-08T02:06:21Z")
In the movie _ **Shallow Hal** _ a character tells Jack Black he has tickets to a Beatles reunion, with Eric Clapton sitting in for Lennon. As I recall, George Harrison was dead before the movie came out. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shows-movies-that-reference-now-dead-people/495647/13 "2009-05-08T02:22:09Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > In **Back to the Future II** a USA Today headline from the year 2015 mentions _Queen Diana_’s upcoming state visit. **French Policeman:** Ze stupid bodyguard is drunk. He says he crashed because a car swept in front of him and disappeared in a flash, leaving fiery trails in the road.