Answered questions about specific movies, TV shows and more

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Season 2 generally

Question: In season 2, there were 5 episodes made without one of the kids appearing in the episode. (Marcia, Jan, Cindy, Peter, and Bobby were each absent one episode). What was the reason behind this?

Answer: Much trivia has been written about "The Brady Bunch, " including the various interrelationships and dynamics among the members of the cast. For example, much has been written about why Robert Reed's Mike Brady did not appear in a couple of episodes, including the series finale, due to rancorous creative and artistic differences with series creator, Sherwood Schwartz. However, in contrast, I have never run across any reasons given why a particular child did not appear in specific episodes - only that the episodes were missed. This suggests the causes were likely unexceptional, such as illness, injuries, vacations, or real-life family obligations.

Michael Albert

Although those options ARE possible reasons, it just seems a bit ironic that this happened all in Season 2 ONLY and within a short amount of nearly consecutive episodes. Never happened during the other 5 years of the show at all.

Answer: According to Lloyd Schwartz, in the book he wrote with his dad, Paramount studios made the decision to remove one child from each episode to save money. Sherwood Schwartz eventually told the studio that this was a mistake because "viewers have their favorites." The practice was eventually stopped.

No Hope With Dope - S3-E21

Question: At the start of the episode "No Hope With Dope", Lisa runs into the hallway with exciting news, and Zack responds to Lisa using a sentence ending with "you'll crack your makeup." The audience (primarily young females) starts screaming and cheering very loudly to that line. I am trying to understand what about that "crack your makeup" line was there to scream and go ga-ga about.

Answer: Zack is always good for a sarcastic jibe. Lisa was written as the most fashion and make-up conscious of the Bayside High girls. She was also portrayed as serious and somewhat prissy. The "crack your makeup" comment was a throwaway line. Zack was suggesting Lisa doesn't often get overly excited for fear of having to reapply her face. The line is met by laughter and screeches from largely adolescent female audience that seem out of proportion to the humor. "Saved By the Bell" audiences were rather prone to such excessive ebullience for no apparent reason. The reaction didn't last long, and the scene moved on quickly.

Michael Albert

Yeah that doesn't make any sense.

Answer: If there is a reference to "cracking" make-up, the inference would be that the person piles it on or simply wears way too much make-up; the more make-up is caked (or piled) on, the less of the person's real face is visible. The implication is that deep down (i.e, underneath all the make-up), the person's face is actually UGLY.

KeyZOid

Zack and Lisa are friends (in fact the briefly date in one episode). He is definitely not calling her ugly. After re-watching the episode, it seems like some of the girls in the audience loved Lisa and wanted to cheer her in when she entered a scene. It happens another time when she walks in and it sounds like these same girls scream as soon as she enters the shot.

Question: On Bond's obituary page M is typing up, after Bond's name is "C.M.G." and "R.N." What do these stand for?

Bishop73

Chosen answer: Companion of the Order of Saints Michael and George and Royal Navy.

Captain Defenestrator

Chosen answer: No one can explain how time travel works. If by committing suicide Barry's mom survived, then there would be no Flash nor Eobard Thawne. So Eddie wouldn't commit suicide in the first place, because nothing would have happened.

Answer: The show explains in another episode that The Speed Force leaves copies of characters that no longer exist in the past to avoid paradoxes such as this example.

Question: The Gorg almost got an invitation from Oh, but didn't get it. So, how did it know to come to Earth?

Answer: Gorg was tracking the "shusher"

Answer: It was tracking the "shusher" or his kids.

Episode #3.6 - S3-E6

Question: When Robert and Cora come to see the doctor at the end of the episode to hear his explanation about Cybil's death, who shows them into the room? It looks a lot like Bates, who hasn't been released from prison yet.

Answer: Although this looks a bit like Bates with a similar build and darker coloring, it is actually Lady Violet Crawley's butler, Spratt, who is showing them into the drawing room. They are meeting at Violet's house to talk with Dr. Clarkson about Sybil's death. Also, Bates was never a butler, he was a valet, and would never be the one to show people into a drawing room or anywhere else. Servants' roles and duties were strictly defined.

raywest

Question: After Wallace was found as a walrus, why couldn't his friends get him to a hospital to surgically make him human again?

Answer: There's no clear answer but after defeating and killing Howe, Wallace seemed resigned to his fate that he was now living as a walrus and may have refused corrective surgery. It wasn't until the end when Ally said that she still loved him that his humanity began to resurface.

Phaneron

I agree with this, and I also think it wouldn't be worth correcting. He would still not look human.

Answer: They left him as a walrus because Kevin Smith wanted to leave the possibility for a sequel; which is slated for 2024 as "Tusks."

Question: During the assault on the machine gun nest, when Upham uses his scope to see the action, there is a scene which shows an ally tossing a grenade to the nest, but the enemy catches it and tosses it back. How did the ally manage to survive the blast? The grenade was tossed back straight to him and exploded where he was standing. I paused at the point of the blast and I could see some blood flying along with the explosion.

cryptical

Chosen answer: SGT. Horvath went right, so that was him throwing the grenade, which the German catches and throws back. When Horvath throws the grenade he is actually inside a bomb crater. When the grenade is thrown back by the German soldier, the blast happen on the grassy flat ground outside the bomb crater. So Horvath was sheltered by the blast being down inside the crater. Those are bullet holes in Wade's chest, and not grenade wounds.

Question: It says in Guinness world records 2013 that one of the scenes parodies Star Wars. Which scene?

Answer: It's at the end of both The Simpsons Movie and Return of the Jedi, during the celebrations, and it's not actually a scene parody. At the end of The Simpsons Movie, when Homer and Bart show up and the crowd gathers around them, we see Carl happily shaking his fist, and after Bart's dog shows up, when it cuts to the wideshot we see Carl raising his arm way up (as if he were showing something zooming up to the sky). At the end of Return of the Jedi, after Lando hugs Chewie, we see Lando shaking his fist in the background, and then in closeup raising his arm way up as he's explaining to Chewie what happened.

Super Grover

Question: How does the show account for money? Truman obviously has real money so he doesn't get tipped off that he's living in a fake town, but how do they go about money for everyone else and any change Truman might get when he purchases items? I don't think the director would risk having any movie money (used in TV and movies to stand in for real money) within the world in case Truman should be handed some by accident.

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: The world of "The Truman Show" is created as an actual functioning world. As such, even though Seahaven is a simulation, everything within it is made to seem as "real" as possible. There are actual newspapers and magazines. The snacks Marlon stocks in vending machines are actual snacks. The products in stores are real (and many are available for sale by catalog to the viewing audience). As such, there is every reason to believe that money used in Seahaven is actual legal tender. Why wouldn't it be? Every store and business can be stocked with money for change. Every actor and extra in Seahaven can be provided money for whatever transactions are needed, just as they are provided cars and briefcases and clothes and food. Accountants for the show can track the money just like everything else is probably tracked. The logistics seem overwhelming, but the economic operations of Seahaven have probably developed as the town has developed to meet Truman's needs.

Michael Albert

Question: This might be a dumb question and more character choice or ignorance, but when Mary Jane is fired from the play she asks "One critic?" to which she gets the response of "No. All of them." Why would she just read or hear of one review? Even if they all said the same thing she would have probably read more than one to look for even the slightest chance of a positive review.

Answer: She most likely knows how bad she was, has gotten poor reviews from previous plays, and couldn't bring herself to read or hear more than one terrible review this time. Nobody wants to read/hear negative things about themselves, and she may be hoping someone will tell her that there is at least one positive review about her.

raywest

Question: When the monkey puppet on Mrs. Doubtfire's show says "Here's a monkey bite!", sometimes the monkey is shown on the TV screen next to Lundy and sometimes it's not shown and only zoomed in on Lundy watching (without the monkey at all seen). It seems TV or cable stations/DVD all have one of these versions or the other. Why is it different? Was something inappropriate about a puppet monkey "biting"?

Answer: When movies are shown on TV they are often edited using what is called a "pan and scan" format to fit the television screen. Movie screens are much wider, and when movies are shown on television as they were originally filmed, the image on the sides are cut off. Sometimes movies are shown on TV in a "letter box" format, where you see the black lines at the top and bottom of the TV screen. This shows the entire scene, but it is much smaller overall. "Pan and scan" is edited to cut back and forth between the scene to show the different characters, usually when it is their time to be speaking. Otherwise, one character may be talking, but the audience cannot see them, confusing the plot. The version of "Mrs Doubtfire" that you were watching is done in "pan and scan."

raywest

Question: Why are Dr Lester and his friends all planning to go into one mind? Surely they'd want to go into a mind on their own, otherwise they'd be just trapped in someone else's head. Something that Dr Lester was afraid of in the first place?

Answer: Using John Malkovich extends their life. After Malkovich turns 44, the next portal is a newborn baby. So they couldn't, or didn't want to, wait for another mind to go into.

Bishop73

Answer: He's playing himself.

Bishop73

Question: Why does Major Koslova seem relaxed after the jackal presses her hand in the wound?

Answer: By putting pressure on the wound, blood flow was decreased and it can give some pain relief. It also increases her chance of survival, till someone can get to her.

She's also feeling the increased effects of blood loss and going into shock at this point.

raywest

Question: If the company knew about the Aliens from the start and coveted them as a bioweapon, why did it take 57 years and the reappearance of Ripley for someone from the company to make another effort to get one? In the intervening 57 years, wouldn't the company have sent someone out to the derelict spaceship wreckage?

Answer: The company doesn't wait 57 years, they built a colony on the planet over 20 years prior to finding Ripley. The company was apparently unaware of the exact location of the derelict spacecraft. After finding Ripley and obtaining information from her, Burke was able to send the Jorden family to the precise location of the derelict spacecraft.

Answer: For me anyway, the company doesn't seem to be as hostile as they do in Alien. Won't surprise me that in 57 years there has been a change in leadership and they are no longer interested in capturing the alien, Burke seems to operating on his own. Minor plot hole ultimately.

Sam Montgomery

I think the original answer is right and they simply didn't know where the crashed ship was located on the planet since the beacon was deactivated and all information was on the Nostromo and with Ripley. They built a colony there to find it eventually, just takes a long time. Until they got lucky and found Ripley. Burke is definitely not working on his own though, they still knew about the aliens and the original idea still remained, capture aliens and bring them back to study.

lionhead

Yes that's right, because when Ripley has a run in with Burke he says that this specimen is worth millions to the bio weapons division and if we bring it back we will be made for life.

Question: In one of the Orca scenes, when Quint shot a line and barrel into Jaws from the rear of the boat, the barrel then had to travel over the boat and almost hit Brody in the head. If you look closely, you can see his glasses getting ripped off by the barrel. Was this staged or an actual near-miss, just inches from his head?

Answer: We cut from Hooper fighting to untie the cleat, to the shot of the barrel launching past Brody's head. At the start, the camera has Brody in profile. In stop motion, you can briefly see that he's wearing the arms of his glasses on the (outside) of his ears - so they're not hooked to his face. He looks over his right shoulder (toward the approaching barrel) then whips his head left, toward the camera, and slings off his glasses, for a great effect.

Question: I was just curious, is there any significance behind why Samuel L. Jackson is the piano player in the church at the beginning of this film? Is it some kind of in-joke or did he just get that part by auditioning? Seems like a very small part for such a good actor.

Answer: He was brought in as a cameo because QT likes bringing in actors from his other movies. It is possible that Rufus is either a nod to or actually is Jules from Pulp Fiction, who said at the end of the movie that he was going to become a drifter. In Kill Bill Rufus was referenced as a drifter. Also, Tarantino has publicly stated (on the El Rey program "The Director's Chair") that he loves Sam Jackson on the set, he just enjoys his company; so it's probably just a buddy-buddy arrangement.

Question: As we know, the magnifying glass in Olaf's tower started the Baudelaire fire. This is the same tool that Klaus uses to burn up the marriage certificate. If the magnifying glass was powerful enough to cause the Baudelaire mansion to burst into flames, which was 37 blocks away, why didn't the stage burst into flames as well?

Answer: A magnifying glass concentrates all the light that goes through it at its focal point, and it is this focal point that needs to be placed on the object which one wants to set on fire. The distance of the focal point to the lens depends on the magnifying glass characteristics, and it is more than likely that Count Olaf chose a glass where the focal point would be situated exactly "37 blocks" away from his house, that is, at the Baudelaire's mansion. When trying to set on fire an object much, much closer, the glass would concentrate much, much less energy, and would only be able to set on fire easily burnt objects, such as thin paper.

AnthonyA

Question: After we learn Mr. Orange is the "rat", we see him talking to a co-worker in a diner, which looks really familiar. Is this the diner that Honey Bunny and Pumpkin attempted to rob in Pulp Fiction?

Answer: Yes. They were filmed in different locations in the diner.

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