THE SCIENCE OF TV
Multiple personality disorder
ON TV: Used on dozens of shows, including Criminal Minds and Lie to Me, this dramatic psychiatric disorder causes characters to suddenly change personalities. They have no control over the switch, and they won’t remember what they did when one of their alternate personalities took over. On The United States of Tara, for example, the title character (Toni Collete) had seven different alternate personalities, one of which is a 15-year-old; another is a male trucker.
IN REAL LIFE: It is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but many psychiatrists question whether or not this condition really exists at all.
Country with the most TV sets per capita: Norway, with 1.5 sets per person. (The US is sixth.)
HOW ’BOUT A CALLBACK?
Two in-jokes from Michael J. Fox’s Spin City
* Fox’s Back to the Future costar Christopher Lloyd guest-starred on Spin City as Owen, a politician who mentored Fox’s character, Mike. After the two old friends embrace, Mike says, “This is like stepping back in time!” Lloyd, as Owen, replies in his trademark gravelly voice, “The past is prologue, Michael. Men like us have to keep looking … to the future!” Mike asks, “What the hell are you talking about?” Lloyd replies, “I don’t know.”
* On Fox’s final episode of Spin City, he references the role that made him famous: Alex, the conservative son of liberal parents on Family Ties. Mike complains about a Republican Congressman named Alex P. Keaton, remarking, “What a stiff!”
“The real ‘seven words you can’t say on TV’ are ‘and the Emmy goes to Bob Saget.’”—Jeffrey Ross
IT’S IN MY CONTRACT
In 1964, singer Dean Martin had an unexpected comeback with his #1 hit “Everybody Loves Somebody.” NBC offered him a weekly variety series, The Dean Martin Show. The $20,000-a-week salary ($140,000 in today’s money) was too good to turn down, so Martin jokingly told NBC executives that he’d do it on the condition that he’d only have to show up for the weekly tapings—about two hours a week, always on a Sunday afternoon. To his surprise, NBC agreed, and the arrangement stood for nine years. One of the show’s trademarks was an onstage door, through which a celebrity would enter for an unannounced cameo. The reason Martin always looked so surprised was that he genuinely was—he never attended a rehearsal.
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan turned down a $1 million offer to guest star on Dynasty.
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