Minor Seinfeld character, Lloyd Braun, was named for real life TV executive who served as Lary David’s lawyer.

You may remember the Seinfeld character as a childhood friend of George. In “The Non-Fay Yogurt” he suggested everyone in New York wear nametags, in “The Gum” he helped Kramer get historical status for a local theater, and in “The Serenity Now” he “sold” computers for Frank Costanza.

The real-life Braun was a chairman for ABC greenlighting shows such as Lost, Desperate Whores, and Grey’s Boobs, before he left to run Yahoo! Media Group.

Sources: Wiki and wiki.

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (nicknamed MH2 by fans) was a syndicated soap opera parody which ran from 1976 to 1978. The name came from the name of the main character and the fact that the writers said everything in soap operas was repeated twice. The show was very tongue-and-cheek, and dealt overtly with racy themes such as impotence and sexual perversio, and often had main characters killed off in odd ways such as bathtub electrocution, drowning in chicken soup, and impalement on an aluminum Christmas tree.

At the end of season 1, Mary Hartman had a nervous breakdown. The actress who played her left the show, and it was renamed Forever Fernwood (named after the fictional town the series took place in). There was also a talk show parody spin-off named Fernwood 2-Night.

Sounds like a funny show to me, but it was well before my time.

Source:  My trivia calendar and Wiki.

Way to strike while the iron is hot, guys.

I admit it, I’m a sucker for the “Where are they now: sitcoms” series that Fox has been running on the web.  They usually end with at least one cast member in prison, dead, or addicted to meth.  (Jodie Sweeten, I’m looking in your direction)

The latest was Step By Step.

Surprisingly, the cast fared pretty well, in that no one had a tragic ending.  Yet, to call the show a launching pad for a long term acting career would not be accurate either.

One kid works at a gas station, one is a political science teacher, and one is listed as a “renaissance fair enthusiast.”  Three have had bit parts since leaving the show.

The closest thing to a tragedy is that one of the girls started a charity organization for child actors after finding out that her parents stole and spent all of her money from the show.

Brooke Shields was originally set to play the lead role in the movie A League of Their Own.  Shields was written out (something to do with a writers strike) and was replaced by Debra Winger.  Madonna was cast a few days before filming was to begin.  Winger, complaining of “stunt casting,” backed out, and the part went to Geena Davis.

As it turns out, Winger was right to complain.  Madonna was “miserable” on the set.  She wrote to her friend, “I cannot suffer any more than I have in the past month, learning how to play baseball with a bunch of girls (yuk) in Chicago (double yuk). I have a tan, I’m dirty all day, and I hardly ever wear make up. Penny Marshall, Lavern (sic), Geena Davis is a Barbie Doll, and when God decided where the beautiful men were going to live in the world, he did not choose Chicago. I have made a few friends but they are athletes, not actresses. They have nothing on the house of extravaganza. I wish I could come to N.Y.”

Even with Madonna and without Winger, movie went on to be a success.  Funny thing, this isn’t the first time Debra Winger turned down roles and the movie was successful.  It wasn’t even the first time Winger turned down a role relating to Shields or Davis!

Per IMDB:

She [Winger] became notorious for turning down worthy roles in many popular films, such as Jodie Foster’s roles in Taxi Driver (1976), The Accused (1988) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Brooke Shields’ roles in Pretty Baby (1978) and The Blue Lagoon (1980), Daryl Hannah’s role in Splash (1984), Linda Hamilton’s role in The Terminator (1984), Kathleen Turner’s role in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Susan Sarandon’s role in Bull Durham (1988), Michelle Pfeiffer’s role in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Jessica Lange’s role in Music Box (1989), Julia Roberts’ role in Pretty Woman (1990), Demi Moore’s role in Ghost (1990), Geena Davis’ roles in Thelma & Louise (1991) A League of Their Own (1992), Sharon Stone’s role in Basic Instinct (1992), Meg Ryan’s  role in Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Sandra Bullock’s role in Speed (1994/I) and Nicole Kidman’s role in To Die For (1995).

Lastly, there was a League of Their Own TV show.  They got a whopping 4 people to reprise their role in the film.  The show was, “quickly canceled.”

Sources:  Here, here, and here

In my opinion, one of the more memorable Simpson’s episodes of the early (read: good) years was Homer at the Bat.  It was a third season episode in which the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant softball team, led by Homer and his “Wonder bat,” make the championship game.  Mr. Burns makes a $1,000,000 bet vs. the other team owner, and then hires Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Ken Griffey, Jr., Steve Sax, Ozzie Smith, José Canseco, Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry and Mike Scioscia as ringers (after he learns that his first choice for big-leaguers were all retired or dead).  Everyone but Strawberry is somehow incapacitated, forcing Burns to use mostly his original team anyway.

This, I knew.  What I didn’t know was all the other interesting facts about the episode.

This episode took a long time to make.  The voices of the baseball players took 6 months to record.  Each recorded their parts whenever they were playing the Los Angeles Dodgers or California Angels (to be close to the studio).  Per wiki, “Each player recorded their part in roughly five minutes and spent the next hour writing autographs for the staff.”

Most players were reported as being very friendly and cooperative, except for Ken Griffey Jr who didn’t understand the line, “There is a party in my mouth, and everyone’s invited” and Jose Conseco, who was intimidating and made the writers rewrite his part to make him as heroic as possible.

This was the first new episode of the Simpson’s to win the time slot vs. a new episode of The Cosby Show.

Also, sadly, there are at least 2 incidents where people claimed to have learned how to do the Heimlich maneuver, and later saved someone life, thanks to a poster describing it appearing in this episode.

As a recap, here are the baseball celebrities appearing in the episode, and what happened to them:

• Roger Clemens is made hypnotized to think he is a chicken.
• Wade Boggs is knocked unconscious by Barney at Moe’s Tavern in a argument over the greatest British prime minister of all time.
• Ken Griffey Jr. overdoses on nerve tonic resulting in gigantism.
• Steve Sax is arrested by Wiggim for every unsolved crime in New York City.
• Ozzie Smith disappears in the “Springfield Mystery Spot.”
• Jose Canseco is rescuing a woman and her possessions from a house fire.
• Don Mattingly is kicked off the team by Mr. Burns due to his sideburns (that don’t exist).
• Mike Scioscia is hospitalized due to radiation poisoning from working in the plant.
• Darryl Strawberry makes it to the game, taking Homer’s position on the field.  At the end, Burns takes him out of the game, and puts in Homer, who is subsequently beaned in the head, giving the team the game-winning “run.”

Source:  Mostly wiki, and this site for the softball lyrics

If you have 10 minutes, use them to enjoy watching CNN’s Wolf Blitzer get utterly destroyed on Celebrity Jeopardy by noted scholar… Andy Richter?

Oh, and this has nothing whatsoever to do with SNL. It’s all real, baby.

Best Part: Blitzer advancing to the final round only because of the dumbass celebrity mercy rule.

Second Best Part: Really Wolf? Jerusalem?

Show creator David Shore stated that the similarities between Dr. House and Sherlock Holmes were intentional, starting with House and the similar sounding Holmes. From there, both House and Holmes solve cases, play instruments, and use drugs (Holmes did coke, if you didn’t know). Also, as a shout-out, House lives in appartment 221B, which is a reference to Holmes’ street address (221B Baker Street).

Other connections include:
Holmes’ sidekick Dr. John Watson lead to Dr. James Wilson in House.
House pilot episode patient Rebecca Adler after Holmes first short story character Irene Adler.
Season 2 gunman nickname “Moriarty.”
and Season 5, a book written by Joseph Bell, which was the inspiration for Conan Doyle to write Sherlock Holmes, was given to House with a note which was signed by “Irene Adler” (see above).

Source: wiki

Whoopi Goldberg, is one of only 10 people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award (counting Daytime Emmy Awards).

Inspired to become an actress by watching Nichelle Nichols’s portrayal of Uhura on “Star Trek,” she later dropped out of high school and got addicted to heroin. After she married her drug counselor, she got cleaned up and divorced him. Later inspired by Uhura’s interracial kiss with Kirk, Goldberg decided to date Ted Danson.

She asked Roddenberry for a job on TNG, got cast as Guinan, and how has 4 action figures made after her.

Source: IMDB

College drop-out and famed news reporter Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. passed away yesterday from complications relating to dementia.

As anchor of the CBS Evening news, he covered such events as the Cuban missile crisis, JFK assassination, Vietnam War, Apollo 11 landing, Apollo 13 crisis, Watergate scandal, and the Iran hostage crisis (adding the length of hostage captivity to the end of the broadcast).

Source: Kalena and his wiki.