› added 8 years ago

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TIL that M&M’s were originally asked to be included in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. After Mars (The company that makes M&M’s) refused, their competitor Hershey was asked, and Reese’s Pieces were added to the movie instead, resulting in Reese’s Pieces sales going up as much as 300%

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OoQAX TIL of recently discovered photos that showed Japanese military using Sikh POW (fighting under the British Empire) as target practice after the fall of Singapore during World War II.
kPW1 TIL that Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz were both retired from The Simpsons after their voice actor, Phil Hartman, was murdered. Philip J. Fry was named in his honour and, before his death, the character Zapp Branigan had been written specifically for him.
j5oQ TIL that abstract paintings by a previously unknown artist “Pierre Brassau” were exhibited at a gallery in Sweden, earning praise for his “powerful brushstrokes” and the “delicacy of a ballet dancer”. None knew that Pierre Brassau was actually a 4 year old chimp from the local zoo.
4KJJ TIL that during the filming of Ghostbusters, Bill Murray would pass out thousands of dollars in small bills to homeless people on the streets of New York.
W7r1N TIL roughly 30 writers passed on writing the screenplay for Iron Man due to the obscurity of the character & the fact it was solely a Marvel Studios production. To build public awareness & remove the perception that Iron Man is a robot, Marvel released 3 animated shorts called Iron Man Advertorials.