45 Eerie Photos Captured Behind-The-Scenes

You could depend on audiences to know (or at least guess) that a show called Laverne & Shirley would be about two women, one named Laverne and the other Shirley. But would they remember, week-to-week, which one was Laverne and which was Shirley? Arguably not -- and when this is a concern, writers often will work a character's name into the opening lines of a show to establish who's who.

It's a clumsy bit of exposition, and actress Penny Marshall felt there had to be a better way. She decided upon a visual clue: Laverne's famous "L" monogram. Just as Batman doesn't really need to say "I'm Batman" (although, for some reason, he does) because he has a big bat icon on his chest, Laverne never needed to remind the audience that she was Laverne -- it was always right there in that flowing script "L."

Top actors of short stature often get the chance to play numerous memorable roles, though you don't always see their faces. Warwick Davis, for example, played the hero of Willow, but his first movie role was as the Ewok Wicket in Return of the Jedi. Kenny Baker, who played Fidget in Time Bandits, has a massive legacy as the man inside the R2D2 suit in six Star Wars movies. But do you know Felix Silla?

You know Felix Silla, even if you don't recognize him. Born in Italy and trained as a circus performer, Silla attained TV immortality by playing Cousin Itt on The Addams Family. A couple of years after that series ended, he played the young gorilla in Planet of the Apes. But Silla really hit the double TV sci-fi jackpot in 1978. That's the year he started playing Lucifer on Battlestar Galactica. Shortly thereafter he got the call to play Twiki on the related-but-different show Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (both Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers were produced by Glen Larson). And if you're a fan of really bad sequels, you saw Silla in Meatballs Part II as Meathead the Alien.

Yvonne Craig joined the Batman TV series in its third season, playing the dual role of Barbara Gordon and Batgirl -- and the new blood was just what the show needed, as its popularity had begun to flag. Craig was a dynamic presence on screen, and not just because she was drop-dead gorgeous. She brought a physicality to her performance that was years in the making.

Craig had studied ballet since she was 10 years old, and had been very successful at it, attending the School of American Ballet in New York. At just 17 years of age, Craig was the youngest member of the touring Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She ditched ballet for acting, doing guest spots on TV shows and appearing in two Elvis movies before getting the Batman gig. 

Working on the show was physically taxing, and while Adam West and Burt Ward had stunt doubles for the run of the series, Craig insisted that she do her own stunts. Her ballet training was integral to her work on the show, and it’s one of the reasons that she was able to convince the producers to let her jump around on camera.

His character was a virtuous do-gooder, but TV's Batman, Adam West, had a love life that viewers could hardly have imagined. It turns out that when he wasn’t performing as a saintly hero fighting dastardly villains, just like in the comic books -- a medium for children, especially back then -- he was engaging in free love and reaping the benefits of being a Hollywood star in the Swinging Sixties.


According to a story published soon after his death, West reportedly slept with as many as eight women a night and even had quickies between scenes on the set of Batman. He wasn’t the only one. Just as many women were eager to sleep with Burt Ward, who played Batman’s sidekick, Robin. The Dynamic Duo, according to the stories, did much of their extracurricular work while still wearing their iconic Batman and Robin costumes.

In the last film Presley made as an actor, the very forgettable Change of Habit, he was teamed with a sitcom actress who would be arguably the biggest star out of all his leading ladies (with the possible exception of Ann-Margret). Mary Tyler Moore was famous for playing Laura Petrie when Change of Habit opened in 1969. She became much more famous the following year, when The Mary Tyler Moore Show premiered to instant success. In fact, TV success kept Moore so busy that she didn't make another theatrical movie until 1980's Ordinary People.

In fact, Cassidy was notably insensitive to Dey's feelings, hooking up with groupies and often parading the flavor of the week in front of a crushed Dey. But hope springs eternal -- and after The Partridge Family had stopped taping, they did get together for a single night of passion. Cassidy later wrote about the tryst in a memoir, and said that he regretted it, which further hurt Dey. Although the pair had managed to become friendly, they reportedly never spoke again after Cassidy spilled the beans.

Over lunch, director John Landis used reverse psychology:

I said, ‘Listen, Chevy, our picture is an ensemble, a collaborative group effort like Saturday Night Live. You’d fit right in, whereas in Foul Play, that’s like being Cary Grant or Paul Newman, a real movie-star part. Don’t you think you’d be better off surrounded by really gifted comedians?’

Of course, that was exactly what Chase didn't want. He wanted to be a big star. He told Landis he'd be making Foul Play with Goldie Hawn, not Animal House.

Wrong. Caddyshack is the story of a groundskeeper who is vexed by a gopher.

Harold Ramis's directorial debut had clocked in at four and a half hours, which was way too long. An editor cut the film down to an acceptable length, but also cut out much of the coherent story involving Danny and his girlfriend and their fellow caddies. Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Rodney Dangerfield were not intended to be the main story of the movie, but they were better than the main story, and something had to be sacrificed. Feeling like the movie was a collection of funny vignettes without enough connective tissue, Ramis agreed to make the gopher an impish character who gets the last laugh.

But that's not how they were originally described in Roald Dahl's book. In the first edition, published in 1964, the Oompa Loompas weren't fantastic or supernatural beings; they were slave laborers imported from Africa. According to Dahl's biographer, the Oompa Loompas in that edition were "a tribe of 3,000 amiable black pygmies who have been imported by Mr. Willy Wonka from 'the very deepest and darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had been before.'" Dahl revised the description of the Oompa Loompas, making them merry hippies from a made-up land, but only after the movie came out.

Actress Yvonne De Carlo had her own hot-and-heavy struggle: her wig reportedly weighed about 20 pounds. Her transformation to Lily Munster required two hours in the makeup chair, and the results were horrifying -- to her, at least. The first time she saw herself made up as Lily, the veteran actress broke down crying, asking "So it's come to this?" The shock wore off, though, and over time, she came to understand the show better, and to love it.

Spinoff shows had become common, with shows such as The Andy Griffith Show and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. giving us characters who went on to have their own series (Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., respectively). The producers of The Mary Tyler Moore Show were legitimately concerned that confused audiences would assume the character was Laura Petrie, so Moore started the new show wearing a large, dark wig. The wig disappeared after the first season, and nobody said anything.

This terrible fate befell the character played by Anne Francis on a 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone about a woman who goes into a department store and ends up becoming a mannequin. To shoot the story, the show needed the real woman (Ms. Francis) and a mannequin that looked just like her -- but was clearly a mannequin if you look closely. In this picture, we see the prop and the actress side-by-side, and the resemblance is uncanny. Actor James Millhollin seems at a loss to tell which is which (hint: look at the eyes and the hands).

The McKenzie brothers ended up being one of the most successful bits on SCTV, even getting its own movie. For the big screen, the comedians flirted with highbrow literature by borrowing their plot from Shakespeare. In Hamlet, a Danish prince returns home to Elsinore castle to find that his father has been murdered and his mother has shacked up with the culprit, his uncle. In Strange Brew, the Mackenzie brothers learn that the owner of their favorite brewery has been killed by an evil brewmaster, the owner's daughter is in cahoots, her uncle is trying to cover it up, etc. -- it's not an exact rip of the plot, but there are similarities. And Moranis and Thomas tipped their hand with the name of the company at the center of the story: the Elsinore Brewery.

The secret of Max Headroom was that he wasn't computer generated at all. The character's look was achieved by encasing actor Matt Frewer in a stiff suit-and-tie shell and applying makeup to make his skin look all smooth and plasticky. Under the harsh lights, and set against a background of careening parallel lines (ok, that part was computer generated), Frewer did indeed look very artificial. TV critics didn't know how the effect was achieved, but they were impressed by what they assumed was some serious technology. In 1986, the show won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for Graphics -- even though, apart from the lines in the background, the show didn't employ any graphic effects.

What viewers often don't know -- and indeed couldn't have known when the movie was released -- is that the briefly-glimpsed blonde was played by Suzanne Somers. Though Somers would soon become a big star thanks to Three's Company, she wasn't famous at all in 1973. In fact, "Blonde in T-Bird" was Somers' first credited screen role.

"He was always hitting on me from day one," Patricia Crane recalled for ABC News. "But he would hit on any bimbo that would walk on that set. It didn't matter. I mean, that was just Bob." Though Crane is remembered for his sexual appetite and mysterious death (in 1978), he romanced Patricia and -- after divorcing his wife of 20 years, who was his high school sweetheart -- put a ring on it in 1970. Their son, Scott Crane, was born the following year.

The bottle used on the show is a 1964 special edition Christmas decanter sold by Jim Beam -- for an estimated $5.99 at liquor stores of the day. The original bottle was smoke-green with a badge on it that said "Beam's Choice;" for the show it was painted with gold leaf accents and the badge was removed. Over the course of the series' five-season run, about 12 bottles were used. 

Badejo was an art student at the time. He was originally from Lagos, Nigeria, and had come to the UK to study graphic design after a stint in the United States. He never acted in another film again, and after returning to Nigeria opened an art gallery in 1983. Badejo died in 1992 of sickle cell anemia.

According to rumor one of the bodies belongs to a Spanish actress who wanted to act “even in death.” Not only is that commitment to the craft, but it’s a way to make the scene all the more real even if it is kind of gruesome. Or maybe this is just one of those cinematic rumors that’s gotten out of hand.

Although White wrote "Doin' The Bananan Split," he did not perform it -- it was sung by Drooper (a lion), with much of the lead vocal work done by Ricky Lancelotti, who was uncredited. “Doin the Banana Split" actually made it onto the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 96 on February 8, 1969. Other songs were performed by journeyman musicians and singers. 

These guys are out there zooming around to different planets wearing goofy color-coded sweaters. Spock had pointy ears like an elf! Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand) had a hairdo that was woven like an Easter basket! And at some point, no matter how serious an actor you are, you realize that the communicator prop you're holding, which helps you communicate with the pretend spaceship that is orbiting the planet you're pretending to be on, looks a hell of a lot like an electric shaver. And you shave with it.

The water in the lagoon became famously filthy as it stagnated over the months of shooting. To prove its toxicity, Bob Denver (Gilligan) and Alan Hale Jr. (the Skipper) released a live fish in the water -- and the fish died. The network eventually agreed to change the water when the show's stars demanded executives go for a swim in the lagoon.

The shark -- actually, there were three of them -- was named Bruce after Steven Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer. All Bruces were destroyed, but a fourth Bruce was made from the original mold, and was hung at Universal Studios for park guests to take pictures with. In around 1990, that Bruce was taken down and sent to a junkyard to make way for more current attractions. The owner of the junkyard held on to Bruce, knowing he had a curio worth preserving. When the junkyard closed down in 2016, Bruce was donated to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

But the most famous bit of movie magic -- the mask worn by killer Michael Myers -- is truly among the most legendary low-budget shortcuts. It was actually a Captain Kirk mask -- yes, in its original form it was supposed to make the wearer look something like William Shatner -- and it cost just $1.29. Carpenter painted it white, and liked it because of its blank stare.

After the film was over, car customizer George Barris bought the Futura for $1. In 1965, 20th Century Fox contracted Barris to create the car for a new television show based on the Batman comic book, but Barris was tasked with producing a Batmobile in three weeks with a budget of just $15,000. He decided to work with the Futura, modifying it so that it could appear on the show. The modifications were simple: the fin was extended to the windshield, bat-details were added, and it was painted black with fluorescent cerise trim. The customizing crew also added gadgets, such as the “jet drive,” which was simply a butane tank, and the chain cutter that popped out of the car’s nose.

Young actor Jack Wild, who played Jimmy on H.R. Pufnstuf, quietly speaks for us all in this photo. Just feet away from him sits Roberto Gamonet wearing the H.R. Pufnstuf costume without the head, as well as Johnny Silver, who has removed the head from his Ludicrous Lion costume. Krofft-world bodies with human heads on them -- does anyone want to witness that? Talk about moments that'll ruin your childhood!

Erin Murphy, the actress known for playing Tabatha, has a fraternal twin sister Diane, and for at least 18 episodes in 1966-67 the two of them shared the job of playing Samantha and Darrin's offspring. Erin eventually got the role all to herself, partially because, as fraternal (and not identical) twins, she and her sister began to look noticeably different from each other.

Marx was 86 at the time, and looked it. In fact, he was too feeble to perform the scene, so it was canceled. Marx shot a few publicity stills with the cast on set, but he wasn't in the episode. He died the following year.

The non-appearance was no doubt a disappointment for Kaplan, a Groucho Marx fan. You may detect occasional touches of Groucho in Kaplan's Kotter, but the actor went for the gusto in 1982 when he starred in Groucho, a one-man play written by Groucho Marx's son.

Barnes' most famous work is "Sugar Shack," and appearing at the end of Good Times isn't its only claim to fame -- it was also used as cover art for Marvin Gaye's 1976 album I Want You. Barnes, who died in 2009, also supplied other paintings attributed to J.J. on the show, and his art can be found on covers of albums by Curtis Mayfield, The Crusaders and B.B. King. 

Barnes has been recognized as an important 20th-century artist, although he might have painted less if he'd had better luck at football. Barnes was drafted out of college by the Baltimore Colts in 1959, and bounced to the New York Titans, San Diego Chargers, and Denver Broncos. Barnes was playing for the Saskatchewan Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League in 1965 when he suffered a career-ending foot fracture. New York Jets owner Sonny Werblin soon hired Barnes not to play, but to paint, telling him "You have more value to the country as an artist than as a football player."

Tracy failed his insurance physical before shooting began. Both Hepburn and director Stanley Kramer put up their salaries as collateral in case of Tracy's death. But the precautions went further: Kramer, Hepburn, and co-stars Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton worked on extra footage from a second script that accounted for the possible loss of Tracy. Spencer Tracy would come to the set in the morning and film his scenes, then leave by midday to rest up -- and the rest of the cast and crew would continue working without him. Tracy died 17 days after shooting wrapped.

Thankfully, producers of the show cleverly found a loophole. The Fonz would be permitted to wear his leather if he was near his motorcycle. Putting the Fonz astride his hog changed the leather jacket from gang colors to “a piece of safety equipment” in the eyes of higher-ups. Producers sold executives on the idea that without his leather Fonzie would be in danger on his bike. Once they got the green light on that incredible sell job, they decided to simply always put him next to a motorcycle. 

The Hansons were based on the Carlsons, an infamous and very real trio of brawlin' hockey brothers -- in fact, they weren't just based on the Carlsons. Jeff and Steve Hanson were portrayed by Jeff and Steve Carlson, who took a break from playing for the Johnstown (Pennsylvania) Jets to make the movie. The third Carlson brother, Jack, would have been in the movie too, but he was called up to play for the Edmonton Oilers, so Dave Hanson (another Johnstown Jet) filled in as Jack. The trios exploits on the ice in Slap Shot -- talking trash, playing dirty, fighting and bleeding all over the place -- bring an element of cinema verite to the movie, mainly because they were just doing what they'd done all their lives as athletes.

In the tense situation, with nuclear war imminent, those assembled in the War Room hatch a plan to wait out the decades of radiation in mine shafts -- and then the movie ends, with nuclear bombs exploding to the tune of "We'll Meet Again." 

But Kubrick had a more ridiculous ending in mind, and actually filmed it. When the Russian ambassador is threatened with a strip search, he throws a pie at President Muffley. "Our beloved president has been infamously struck down by a pie in the prime of his life!" exclaims General "Buck" Turgidson (George C. Scott), and a massive pie fight ensues. In test screenings, which took place right after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, viewers disliked the scene -- so Kubrick removed it.

His love of nature extended to animals, which caused some friction with his co-star Eva Gabor, who played Lisa Douglas. Lisa did not take to country life, and part of her shtick included her insistence on wearing very un-rural getups. At that time, high-class urban women were likely to wear furs and feathers. Albert protested, saying he did not want her to set a fashion example that might result in the sacrifice of more birds to make feather boas. 

Gabor reportedly replied to him that feathers don't come from birds -- they come from pillows.

Walker says he was never friends with John Amos and Esther Rolle, who played J.J.'s parents. "I will honestly say, I don’t remember ever speaking a word to Esther the whole time she was there," Walker recalled in a 2018 interview. "I think the same basically goes for John. We talk more now but very, very little. We were never friends, never talked. If you said at that time ‘Call Esther and ask her about [something],’ I wouldn’t even have her number. I couldn’t have called John. I wouldn’t have had his number … We never spoke to each other."

When Roxie Roker was auditioning for the show, the producer raised the bizarre concern that she didn't look like she could be married to a white man. She countered this view by whipping out a family photo that showed yes, she could be married to a white man, and here he was.

Roker and Kravitz had a child together -- the rock star Lenny Kravitz.

Alice was definitely going to be wacky, and Davis, an Emmy-winning actress, was a catch. Producers went looking for an actress who could give a more sober portrayal of Carol Brady -- and ultimately Henderson was their choice for a dependable mom who wouldn't steal every scene. Casting the kids was a longer and more complex process -- in all, 464 boys and girls auditioned to play Marcia, Jan, Cindy, Greg, Peter, and Bobby. 

As a trained tenor, capable of singing opera in Italian and German, Morris often sang on Saturday Night Live in segments that had a funny concept while showing off his singing chops. He has also released a handful of albums, including Saturday Night Sweet (1980) and Black Creole Chronicles (2014). The latter explores the music of his hometown, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Monty Python And The Holy Grail, made on a shoestring budget and released in 1975, had been a raging financial success, so the group's production company EMI Films signed on to finance another movie. Just days before Life Of Brian shooting was to start, EMI's executive producer John Goldstone actually read the script -- and EMI promptly backed out, fearing the subject matter would be too controversial. In a desperate move, the Pythons called a meeting with George Harrison and asked him to read the script. He loved it, and felt the movie absolutely had to be made. Harrison put up 4 million pounds to fund the movie, and for his largesse was given the small role of Mr. Papadopoulos. 

And yet, screw it up he did. Thomas was a radio broadcaster in addition to being an actor, and one day on his radio show a listener called in and asked Thomas what it was like being on Cheers. Thomas said something to the effect of "It’s brutal. I have to kiss Rhea Perlman." Perlman was listening to the show, and did not like the comment -- not at all. Thomas never appeared on the show again, and the following season, Eddie LeBec was killed off in a freak Zamboni accident. 

The humans must fight for their dignity in the film, whereas the apes are hard pressed to see them as anything but inferior. But when the cameras aren't rolling on a movie set, everyone has to find something to do to pass the time. That's how we end up with this scene, which could never occur in the movie, as the intelligent apes wouldn't deign to play cards with humans any more than you would play cards with your cat.

Evie was one of two chimps enlisted to bring Moffit the daggit to life; the other was named Doc. But Evie did much more of the work. The suit she had to wear was cumbersome and uncomfortable, and it's a miracle that she even consented to wear it at all. But she was a professional by then, having already acted in five commercials, two TV shows and three movies.

Tarantino played one of many Elvis impersonators in the episode "Sophia's Wedding: Part I." And that gig paid -- and kept paying. "It became a two-part Golden Girls," he told Jimmy Fallon:

So I got paid residuals for both parts. And, It was so popular they put it on a Best of The Golden Girls, and I got residuals every time that showed. So I got paid maybe, I don’t know, $650 for the episode, but by the time the residuals were over, three years later, I made like $3,000. And that kept me going during our pre-production time trying to get Reservoir Dogs going.

So if you like Reservoir Dogs -- you can thank Golden Girls.

When something's working for you -- stick with it. That's a lesson Brynner seems to have taken to heart. When he moved on to other roles, Brynner continued to shave his head. In fact, since Brynner was one of the few celebrities with a bald head in that era, baldness itself was seen as the Yul Brynner look. He continued to shave his head for the rest of his career, and the Yul Brynner look made him one of the most iconic stars of his day.

Yes, this bearded revolutionary in military garb is modeled on Fidel Castro, and the episode relates his rise to power and subsequent abuse of that power. Seven years after "The Mirror," the actor who played the character of Ramos Clemente would become one of the most popular TV detectives of all time. Give him a shave, a trench coat, and a cigar, and you'd recognize him as Peter Falk, star of Columbo.