# Silly, weird, perhaps unanswerable questions about movies and TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401 "2013-03-31T03:09:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/201 "2014-05-11T22:10:57Z")
In Star Wars what was the emperor’s long term plan for the empire? Presumably Darth Vader was supposed to take over after the emperor dies but there’s no one after that. They only find out Luke is alive in _Empire strikes back_. No apprentices for Vader had apparently been considered. The Emperor was probably in his eighties and Vader was as middle aged. Both didn’t really have the best of health. Kind of a short Sith empire if you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/202 "2014-05-11T23:03:49Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > In Star Wars what was the emperor’s long term plan for the empire? Presumably Darth Vader was supposed to take over after the emperor dies but there’s no one after that. They only find out Luke is alive in _Empire strikes back_. No apprentices for Vader had apparently been considered. The Emperor was probably in his eighties and Vader was as middle aged. Both didn’t really have the best of health. Kind of a short Sith empire if you ask me. The Rule Of Two was to be replaced with the Rule Of One. If selected parts of the EU can still be taken as canon, Palpatine/Sideous’s plan was to live forever. He was working to perfect a way of transferring his consciousness via the Force to clone bodies. This is hinted at in _Revenge Of The Sith_, when Palpatine tells Anakin that the Dark Side offered a path to immortality. The Dark Side would have found the perfect vessel for itself and would rule the galaxy forever. So in the end Sideous was stringing Vader along- Vader would never even become the Master Sith. In contrast Qui-Gon, Kenobi and Yoda found a way to yield to death that would make them one with the Force. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2014, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/203 "2014-05-11T23:32:44Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > In the original Law and order Episode where the player’s father kills the hockey coach, Sam Watterson is wearing this huge golden ring on his right hand during closing arguments. What is that ring? TNT’s exclusive deal must have run out; _L&O_ reruns (including the very early ones) have been showing up on a few other channels lately. There are cast combinations that I didn’t know existed. I don’t know about McCoy’s ring, but I think that guy only owns about two neckties. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/204 "2014-05-16T18:32:09Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Was being gay actually less controversial than unmarried men and women sharing an apartment in 3’s company? Previous thread on this very topic: [How (un)realistic a premise was _Three’s Company_’s?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=622272) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/205 "2017-01-18T02:42:23Z")
Just occurred to me out of the blue, I couldn’t tell you why: “It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!”. Charlie Brown botched his ghost costume and ended up with a sheet full of holes. The gang (sans Linus) go trick-or-treating, and everyone else gets candy or other goodies; Charlie Brown gets rocks. Repeatedly. Now I don’t care how big a loser Charlie Brown is, what kind of cruel bastards give a little kid trick-or-treater a rock just for having a crappy costume? And a whole neighborhood of them! ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/206 "2017-01-18T02:54:49Z")
Maybe they all gave him chocolate pebbles, and he didn’t notice. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/207 "2017-01-18T03:35:42Z")
They probably figured that the kid with the crappy costume had to be Charlie Brown, who deserved a rock on general principles. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/208 "2017-01-18T04:57:52Z")
In Uncle Buck, Amy Madigan Knocks on the door and looks in the window. She spies Macaulay Culkin peeking through the mailslot. She Knocks again, and mack opens the mailslot to see: [![](https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/thedbag/buckletter.jpg) ](https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/thedbag/buckletter.jpg) 😕 In 2001: A Space Odyssey, a helmetless Dave Bowman braves the airless void of space in order to gain acces to the USS Discovery via the airlock. Once inside the repressurised airlock a helmet appears out of nowhere. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/209 "2017-01-18T15:31:18Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > [http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/thedbag/buckletter.jpg](http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/thedbag/buckletter.jpg) > > In 2001: A Space Odyssey, a helmetless Dave Bowman braves the airless void of space in order to gain acces to the USS Discovery via the airlock. Once inside the repressurised airlock a helmet appears out of nowhere. :dubious: Erp. Photobucket. He went back to the pod bay and got a helmet. Why HAL didn’t open the pod bay doors (among others) to ensure Dave couldn’t leave the airlock is the real mystery. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/210 "2017-01-18T16:01:34Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > In Uncle Buck, Amy Madigan Knocks on the door and looks in the window. > > She spies Macaulay Culkin peeking through the mailslot. > > She Knocks again, and mack opens the mailslot to see: > > [http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/thedbag/buckletter.jpg](http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f319/thedbag/buckletter.jpg) > > 😕 Because he’s a kid, and he imagines it’s robbers or home invaders or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2017, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/211 "2017-01-18T22:32:05Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Erp. Photobucket. > > He went back to the pod bay and got a helmet. Why HAL didn’t open the pod bay doors (among others) to ensure Dave couldn’t leave the airlock is the real mystery. He goes to the pod bay to retrieve a green helmet, goes back to the airlock to put it on, then comes back out of the airlock again? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/212 "2017-01-19T01:29:50Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Robot Arm had it pretty close. The genius behind it all wasn’t Klink, but Schultz. But, but, but… I thought Schultz was a business owner. There was one episode where he and Klink were tricked into thinking the war was over(fake radio broadcast) Klink asked Schulz what he would do now and Schulz said he would go back to Schazi Toys. Klink said “Oh, you work for Schazi Toys?” and Schulz, in a smug fashion, replied “I _own_ Schazi Toys!” Before the war wouldn’t that have made him awfully busy, too busy to start an underground? ---
**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:** [January 19, 2017, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/213 "2017-01-19T04:16:26Z")
In the **Black Mirror** episode “San Junipero”: After the dying ‘cross over’ and go to the tourist ‘town’ permanently, can they still go back and forth between different eras? If Yorkie and Kelly decide they’re sick of the “1987” scene, can they just snap their fingers and be in “1995” land? Or once they are there, is that the new ‘reality’? Will time pass similar to the way it does in the real world, and will their 1987 eventually advance to 1995 and 2002, or is it always 1987 for them forevermore? ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/214 "2017-01-19T04:37:42Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > A few more things: > > [li]**Why didn’t Uncle Charlie (or Bub for that matter) on My Three Sons have a girlfriend?** - I mean even in the 1960s I would have to assume that older men still liked women. Why didn’t they show them having any female companionship? Were they closeted gay men? Or was it ED?[/li] > [/LIST] In the last my Three Sons episode I happened to see, Uncle Charlie was conflicted because he wanted to move to Ireland with his girlfriend. He ended up staying. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/215 "2017-01-19T09:45:47Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > And what about Naomi? [referenced in the _Electric Company_ sketch “Love of Chair.”] Oh, that was just Jake and Maggie Gyllenhall’s [mom.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Foner_Gyllenhaal) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/216 "2017-01-19T16:00:38Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > In 2001: A Space Odyssey, a helmetless Dave Bowman braves the airless void of space in order to gain acces to the USS Discovery via the airlock. Once inside the repressurised airlock a helmet appears out of nowhere. :dubious: > [@ftg](#): > > Erp. Photobucket. > > He went back to the pod bay and got a helmet. Why HAL didn’t open the pod bay doors (among others) to ensure Dave couldn’t leave the airlock is the real mystery. I always thought there was a spacesuit in the airlock, and Dave took the helmet from that one. Here’s an [image](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/0*sqT-4rzYfkVtjlSB.jpg) from that scene. It’s just in that alcove behind the control panel; can’t see it too well, but it looks like it has the same chest pack as on Dave’s suit. And when we see Dave deactivating HAL, he has a green helmet. The suits in the pod bay were red, yellow, and blue. I remember thinking this was rather obvious in the movie, but I found the airlock scene on youtube and you don’t really see more than that image. Maybe there’s a better look at it at some other point in the movie, or it could be explained in the book and I’m just getting them confused. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/217 "2017-01-19T16:07:30Z")
AHA! You’re right! Mystery solved! ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/218 "2017-01-20T00:42:29Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > If selected parts of the EU can still be taken as canon, Palpatine/Sideous’s plan was to live forever. He was working to perfect a way of transferring his consciousness via the Force to clone bodies. This is hinted at in Revenge Of The Sith, when Palpatine tells Anakin that the Dark Side offered a path to immortality. If anyone still cares after all these years, it was more than hinted at in the no longer canon Dark Empire comics. He actually uses a clone body in the series, albeit one that looks more like it was cloned from Prince Lotor from Voltron than Palpatine himself. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/219 "2017-01-20T00:53:00Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > 1. Why was Janet Jackson a minor character on Good Times? Weren’t her brothers already huge stars at the time? Didn’t she at least qualify for the role of Tootie or Willis’ girlfriend? > 2. Who was Spiderman on the Electric Company? snipped 1. She apparently did qualify for the role of Willis’s gf, as she played such for a while. Tootie, i dunno, they just liked Kim Fields better. I think she was also younger (she was somewhat cast as a love interest for Arnold, not Willis on crossover eps) and more precocious. 2. Spider-Man, where are you coming from, Spider-Man? **Nobody knows who you are!** I know zombie, whatevs. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401/220 "2017-02-08T01:24:12Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > My questions: (sorry if they were asked/answered already): > > 1. Why was Janet Jackson a minor character on Good Times? Weren’t her brothers already huge stars at the time? Didn’t she at least qualify for the role of Tootie or Willis’ girlfriend? Janet Jackson was a main character on Good Times - she was in 48 episodes - but she was a new character added in season 6, and the show was cancelled the following year. She also was a character on “Diff’rent Strokes” - Charlene DuPrey. She did 10 episodes in '80 through '84. I don’t know if she auditioned for Tootie or not. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-weird-perhaps-unanswerable-questions-about-movies-and-tv/654401.md?page=12)