My Geeky Trivia

 By Geeky Gem

 When I was a teenager, it was hard for me to find something that made me laugh. Yes there was Friends, but that didn’t always make me laugh out loud or scream as my ribs hurt so much. However there was one show that did just that, and came from the minds of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, possibly two of the biggest geeks out their, so how can I not do some trivia on the fantastic Spaced?

The series is full of references to, and pastiches of movies/TV series, some quite obvious and some amazingly obscure. The more prominent references include The Star Wars Trilogy, The Shining, The Evil Dead Series, Scooby-Doo, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The A-Team, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Matrix, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Taxi Driver, Pulp Fiction and The Omen.

Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes originally pitched the show as “a cross between The Simpsons, The X-Files and Northern Exposure”.

The inside of Tim and Daisy’s flat was filmed in the same studio as the scene in the local pub at the beginning of An American Werewolf in London.

Edgar Wright was originally sceptical of casting Nick Frost in the role of Mike, as at the time, Frost was a waiter with no prior acting experience. In fact, the character of Mike was born out of Frost making Simon Pegg (his flatmate) laugh, and Wright later said that Frost was brilliant in the part.

Julia Deakin said she drew inspiration from a male friend (who’s voice is similar to Deakin’s character Marsha), and also from a woman she met once on a Greek island who was ‘permanently pissed on red wine’.

 Channel 4 commissioned a second series before the first series was even transmitted.

 As they were making a documentary about the series, Jessica Hynes, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright were looking around the ‘Spaced house’, and one the people who lived there came and told them that there were Spaced fans outside taking pictures of the house. As a joke, Simon and Jessica went outside and said “are you taking pictures of our house?” The fans just stood there for a few seconds, stunned. In good nature they chatted and then posed for photos.

Many bit-parts, non-speaking roles and extras are played by crew members and friends and family of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nira Park.

Tim’s surname is a homage to comic artist Simon Bailey.

Brian’s character was originally written for Julian Barrett. However, Barrett couldn’t commit to the role, so Mark Heap was cast instead.

If you haven’t seen Spaced and like the work of the cast and crew mentioned above, then I would highly recommend that you get hold of this quite frankly excellent show and watch it. Don’t forget to come back next week and see what other treats I have for you.

 

My Geeky Trivia

By Geeky Gem

Now I don’t need to tell you how much I love cartoons, I think from articles I have written here, and of course, if you know me, then it is fairly evident that I love cartoons. Most of the cartoons I love are the ones I grew up with as a child, this includes the one I am here to share some trivia about. Transformers was the love of my life, with a number of other cartoons, for the best part of my child hood, here are some things you may ,or may not have known, about those robots in disguise.

  

The first ever Transformer to appear in the series is Wheeljack.

Peter Cullen, voice of Opitmus Prime, based the voice on John Wayne.

Cliffjumper was originally going to be named “Blow-Out”, due to his tendency to suffer from blown tires.

Ted Schwartz was originally to be the voice for Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime for the post movie episodes.

Omega Supreme was originally going to be called “Fortress Maximus”. Although his name was changed, the name Fortress Maximus is later given to a character who first appears in the series-ending.

Voice director Wally Burr occasionally filled in for voice actors that were unavailable for a given episode. For example, he provides Thundercracker’s voice in The Transformers: War Dawn.

Optimus Prime was never intended to return to the series after the movie, but a public outcry (which surprised the producers) resulted in him returning.

Skyfire is the only Transformer in the series who changed his alliance.

Alpha Trion is the only Transformer in the series who aged since the beginning of the war between Autobots and Decepticons till the present time.

Starscream was originally called Ulchtar, according to comic writer ‘Bob Budiansky’, the “grandfather” of Transformers. He is not sure how the name was spelled exactly, though.

I could go on and on with trivia about this fantastic cartoon, but as I am in the geek cave I can already hear Mr Beefnuts telling me to stop and move on, so join me next week for something new.

My Geeky Trivia

By Geeky Gem

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away there was me, the bringer of trivia. In the darkest parts of space, where Hmsbeefnuts’ screams could not be heard, he had a trivia break down and as regular readers know, Beefnuts and I normally share trivia duty, but seeing as he has been taken to a trivia rehabilitation clinic, on the 3^rd Moon of Endor, and isn’t aloud near trivia for a while, that leaves the job down to me. Back in 1977 a small film by the name of Star Wars was released, you may have heard of it? Here are some tid bits for you.

 Star Wars IV: A New Hope

 

In earlier drafts, including the ones that were used for audition readings, the planet Alderaan was known as Organa Major. Although the name was changed, the “Organa” was retained and became Leia’s adoptive family name.

 Stunt doubles were not used for the scenes in which Luke and Leia swing to safety. Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill performed that stunt themselves, shooting it in just one take.

 George Lucas based the character of Han Solo on his friend, director Francis Ford Coppola.

 The studio was unhappy with “Star Wars” as a title after negative market testing. A competition was held during shooting for cast and crew to come up with a better one, but nothing stuck.

Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back

The blasters used by the Stormtroopers were constructed from Sterling L2A3 Mk 4 submachine guns.

 The Dagobah set needed to be elevated to give Frank Oz and three other puppeteers room to control the Yoda puppet from below.

 Several crates of simulated snow as seen on the Hoth Hangar set were taken along to Finse, Norway, just in case there was not enough real snow lying about.

 Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

 

The dual stripes painted on rebel A-wing fighters were originally blue, but were changed to red because the blue made it a problem when filming blue-screen effects.

 At the time, the climactic battle in outer space featured more optical effects in one scene than had ever been previously committed to film.

 The film originally included a sandstorm scene that occurred after Han’s rescue. It was cut because it was unnecessary and was hectic to shoot.

 And there we have it, a very small amount of the massive trivia about Star Wars out there. Next time, I will be bringing something else, so make sure you come back and check it out.

 

Bigfoot Trivia

By @hmsbeefnuts

Happy Sunday to all. I am in a very good mood today as I have managed to convince Geeky Gem that she is much better at Trivia than I am, and that she should do it every week. I also demanded that I was allowed to write my last trivia articles, for the time being, on any subject that I want. She has agreed, and so in the first of my last two weeks on the job as trivia giver of the week, I shall be giving you, dear reader, 10 facts on one of my favourite subjects, Bigfoot, or Sasquatch if you prefer. Now, I don’t know if Bigfoots exist, I would really love them too. But there is enough weird stuff going on in the woods that it bares a closer look.

I have never seen one, but then I live in Wales, and Bigfoot doesn’t often venture across the pond. Here in Wales, we don’t have many big hairy hominids, apart from on the rugby pitches up and down the nation, we have ABC’s (Alien Big Cats), and the odd reports of flying snakes! I have never seen either of these cryptids either, especially winged snakes (I wonder why), but my fascination for cryptozoology continues, for proof see this, and this. Whatever your views, Bigfoot is cool, or at least the idea of Bigfoot is cool. Now I can’t very well give you 10 Bigfoot facts, as facts in this case, can not be determined. I shall however give you 10 famous encounters with the Big Hairy one throughout the ages.

 

In 1884 in British Columbia, a crew of railway workers claims to have seen an ‘ape man’ during the summer, walking near the tracks. The workers forced it into a carriage, and held the ape man in a jail cell for several days, feeding it berries. They named their captive Jacko.

 

Imagine getting kidnapped by Bigfoot! Well in 1924 a lumberjack called Albert Ostman, woke up whilst being carried away in his sleeping bag. After a few hours, Ostman was put down and found himself in the lair of a family of Bigfoots. It seems the adult male had carried him there. They didn’t hurt him, but wouldn’t let him leave. He escaped by feeding the big Sasquatch a can of snuff.

 

Also in 1924, Fred Beck and four other Gold miners claimed that their cabin in Mount St, Helens was put under attack by a number of ‘ape men’ who threw rocks and tried to get in to the cabin. The men grabbed their rifles and shot one of them, although the body fell off a cliff.

 

In the summer of 1958, Jerry Crew, a tractor operator at Bluff Creek noticed giant footprints all over the construction site. He cast the
footprints and sent them to a local news reporter. They dubbed the creature Bigfoot, and a legend was born.

 

Reports from Honey Island in Louisiana’s swamp land describe a monster that lives there. It is known as the Louisiana Wookie, because it looks like Chewbacca.

 

In 1976 Virgil Larson, an outdoors-man and hiker encountered a Bigfoot who he thought was a park ranger. He shouted a greeting and was shocked when the Big man just stared back at him. Larson left sharpish.

 

This next one is straight out of the X – Files. Apparently a rancher shot a Bigfoot in Big Sky County. The dead body was confiscated by the FBI. Seems like bollocks to me.

In 2008 a Bigfoot hoax was perpetrated on the world press by Rick Dyer and Mark Whitton. They claimed they had a dead Bigfoot, which they kept in a freezer. It turned out to be a costume, and the two claimed it was all a big joke.

 

Bigfoot has even made it to the Whitehouse. In 1892, President Roosevelt wrote a book called The Wilderness Hunter. In the book a man named Bauman and his partner are camping along Montana’s Wisdom River. In the night they are disturbed by an ‘ape man’. They fire their gun at the creature who runs off. The next day, Bauman woke up, but his friend didn’t, he was found with his neck snapped and teeth marks on his throat. Bauman ran off, gun in hand, it was the creature who was responsible.

 

1967, Patterson and Gimlin capture the best video footage of Bigfoot ever. In broad daylight, the two men filmed a large female Bigfoot across a sandbar. The film is the best evidence yet for Bigfoot’s existence, but is very controversial.

My Geeky Trivia

By Geeky Gem

For the final week of my current trivia run, I thought I would touch upon a series of films that I hold close to my heart as do many other people. It has become one of the biggest franchises to grace the world of movies, had it not been for the huge success of the original book we would not have these wonderful movies with us today. I am of course talking about Harry Potter, do you really think I could not do this as a subject matter. They have to be among some of favourite books and the movies are there to make that rich world come to life. Without further ado here is some Harry Potter trivia. I hope you enjoy this and will welcome Hmsbeefnuts back next week with open arms.

Philosophers Stone

The hut used for Hagrid’s home has since been torn down for fear that fan’s of the movie would swamp it.

The Tabby Cat that Professor McGonagall turned into ran away but came back two days later.

Chamber of Secrets

Hugh Grant was originally cast as Gilderoy Lockhart.

Fourteen Ford Anglia’s where made for the scene where Harry and Ron crash into the Whomping Willow.

Prisoner of Azkaban

The cast were told that all the sweets in Honeydukes were covered in lacquer, when in fact they weren’t they just didn’t want sweets to go missing during takes.

The director Alfonso Cuaron had never read the book or seen the first two movies when he took the job.

Goblet of Fire

There was at least one full size dragoon that was built on set, it even breathed fire.

When the contestants enter the area for the third task the girls from Beauxbatons are dancing the Macarena.

Order of the Phoenix

The radish earrings that Luna is wearing were actually made by Evanna Lynch.

Padfoot, Sirius Black’s canine form, was played by a Scottish Deerhound named Cleod.

Half-blood Prince

Jessie Cave beat over 7000 girls to get the role of Lavender Brown, Ron’s love interest from the book.

Mr Weasley’s shed of Muggle artefacts contains, among other things, two Remington Noiseless Portable Typewriters and an HP Laserjet 4.

Deathly Hollows Part 1

This movie was originally to be released in 3-D, this idea was scrapped just weeks before the movie came out, due to the difficulty of converting the film into the format.

There were 40 versions of Slytherin’s locket made for the scene in which Harry and Ron try to destroy it.

Deathly Hollows Part 2

Most of this movie takes place of the course of a single day from the raid on Gringotts to the Battle of Hogwarts.

For the scene at Gringotts over 210,000 coins were made for inside the vault.

And there we have an epic journey that barely scratches the surface of Harry Potter trivia that is out there. Well that would appear to be the end of my four week run, next week Hmsbeefnuts will be back with his own brand of trivia and I will be putting my feet up and mocking him.

My Geeky Trivia

By Geeky Gem

Well here we are week three of my four week run. I have sat and thought long and hard about what this week’s topic should be, so much so that I sat and looked at my DVD collection for a good five minutes, and then it hit me, they were just sitting there in there multi-coloured glory. Friends was a fantastic show that hit our screens in 1994 and here I am going to share some trivia about the show you may or may not know.

Jon Favreau was offered the part of Chandler, but he had to turn it down. He later returned as Monica’s boyfriend.

The show had a few different names before Friends was settled on, they were Friends Like Us, Six of One, Across the Hall and Insomnia Cafe.

The golden frame around the peephole originally had a mirror in it, which was accidentally smashed by a member of the crew, but they decided to leave it up as it looked nice.

Three cast members from The Simpsons make guest appearances in the series: Dan Castellaneta, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer.

Matthew Perry and Bruce Willis made a bet on the set of The Whole Nine Yards, which Perry won, leading to Willis having to appear in two episodes of the show free of charge.

In Chandler and Joey’s room there is a poster with some boxing kangaroos which says “Kangaroo Boxer” in Russian.

Gunther was not originally a speaking part.

Lisa Kudrow was terrified of the Duck in Season 3.

Before the show was cast, the main love story was going to be Monica and Joey.

Chandler is the only one that has no siblings.

This show will always remind me of my teenage years, I never missed an episode and when the last episode was shown, I waited with baited breath like every Friends fan to find out if Rachael got off the plane and went back to Ross. It was just one of those shows that I couldn’t miss and I stuck with for 10 years, I am so very glad I did. Next week in my final week of my current run we shall return to the world of movies and one of the biggest franchises in the world. Then I shall be handing you back to Hmsbeefnuts for another of his runs, and I bet he can’t wait. What’s that you say he’s already in the corner shaking? Oh well.

My Geeky Trivia

By Geeky Gem

Last week I shared with you some lovely trivia about one of my favourite movies of all time. This week I am going to share some trivia on one of my favourite shows. In 1999 The Simpsons was still a huge hit, then a new adult cartoon came one that wasn’t afraid to take the piss out of taboo subjects and have characters that you won’t find in a family cartoon. Family Guy is the brain child of Seth McFarlane, and has to be one the funniest shows on television at the moment, well to me it is any way.

Louis was originally drawn as blonde, but after much debate they changed her to a red head.

When the creators thought the series has been cancelled after season 2, many of the writers took jobs on other shows. The show was renewed for a third season at the last minute; many new writers were bought on for season 3.

The first part of the opening credits, where Louis plays the piano and Peter sings is a spoof from the US show All in the Family.

When the show did get cancelled by the 2^nd of May 2003, there was an online petition with over 111,000 names on it, to save the show.

When the series was first pitched for Fox, William H. Macy had auditioned for the role of Brian, a part that was later played by Seth McFarlane.

Bonnie Swanson would seemingly be pregnant thought out the entire show. Peter even mentions it in Season 4. She finally gives birth in Season 7.

The character of Neil Goldman, the boy who is always chasing Meg, is named after one of the shows writer’s.

The show has been cancelled more than once, the first time was as above and the second time and the longest time were between the third and fourth season, from 2002 to 2005.

Glen Quagmire’s facial features are modelled after Bob Hope.

The Chicken that Peter fights over a numbers of season’s is called Ernie.

I hope you enjoyed this Family Guy trivia, if you have never seen the show I recommend you do. It’s really funny and witty, like I said it doesn’t shy away from taboo subjects. This is what makes this show so great. Join me next week when I bring you some more trivia will it be another show or a movie?

My Geeky Trivia

By Geeky Gem

Well didn’t those four weeks with Hmsbeefnuts in charge of trivia just fly by? I was glad for the break and it was funny watching Hmsbeefnuts freak out about how time consuming writing up trivia can be. Well welcome to my world Hmsbeefnuts! Anyway, I am back for a new four week run and this time I am not going all things that go bump in the night.

I thought we could start my new run off with one of my all time favourite films, Back to the Future. Way back in 1985 this movie hit the big screen and made me want to jump for joy. I have seen this movie more times than I can count so here is some trivia about this awesome movie and it’s sequels.

Back to the Future

Musician Mark Campbell did all of Michael J. Fox’s singing. He is credited on the movie as Marty McFly.

This may not surprise you but this movie was highest grossing film in 1985.

There is a deleted scene that shows Marty peeking in to a class room back in 1955 and seeing his mother cheating on a test.

I have only recently noticed this little bit of information, In the opening sequence, all of Doc’s clock’s read 7:53am except one. It’s on the floor next to the case of plutonium and reads 8:20am.

Back to the Future Part 2

When Marty arrives in 2015, he looks in a window of an antique store, where you can see a denim jacket that he wore in 1955, a Roger Rabbit doll and a Jaws Nintendo game.

The shooting title for the movie was “Paradox”. On the DVD special features it can been seen written on the slate in the making of the movie feature.

This movie marks the on screen debut for Elijah Wood; he plays one the kids who want to play the video games in the Cafe 80’s. Who knew Frodo had been to the future he must have known Peter Jackson would cast him.

Back to the Future Part 3

In this movie Doc and Marty exchange catchphrases. Marty says “Great Scott” and Doc replays “Yeah this is heavy” while they are talking about the photo of the tombstone.

Thomas F. Wilson who plays Buford Tannen, performed all his own horse riding stunts, he even did the one where he lassos Marty just before we meet Doc in 1885.

The embroidery on Marty’s western costume is the symbol for atomic energy.

And there we have a week of Back to the Future goodness, come back next week to see what other delights I have for you. It may not even be a film.