Television has had a long and interesting history. During its reign over our lives, there have been a series of firsts which pushed back on society’s taboos. There have been many phrases that were given to us by our favorite shows, and so much more. So what don’t you know about television? Here are 12 fun facts that you never knew!
1. The first interracial kiss on TV was between Uhura and Kirk on Star Trek.
The show made history in 1968, but the kiss wasn’t exactly romantic. Kirk and Uhura kiss while being mind controlled by aliens. The aliens watch and laugh at the couple struggling to fight against their power.
2. By the age of 18, people will see 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence depicted on TV.
3. The first pregnancy depicted on TV was on I Love Lucy.
Lucille Ball got pregnant in real life, so it was written into the show. When she had her child, the first episode with Little Ricky aired 12 hours later. The episode got higher ratings than Eisenhower’s inauguration.
4. The Simpsons is the longest running show on TV with 27 seasons.
5. The most expensive show so far is ER which eventually had a budget of $13 million per episode!
6. Jerry Seinfeld decided to end Seinfeld after nine seasons because The Beatles broke up after nine years.
7. The series finale of M*A*S*H is the highest rated American TV show of all time with 125 million viewers.
8. Joey Tribbiani came up with the term, “friend zone” on Friends.
9. On Breaking Bad, actors were actually smoking rock candy and sugar when their characters smoked meth.
Don’t worry they didn’t inhale!
10. Barney on How I Met Your Mother is the true creator of the term, “The Bro Code.”
11. Orange Is the New Black is the only show in history to get Emmy nominations for Best Comedy Series and Best Drama Series.
Thanks to rules changing where shows longer than 30 minutes have to be considered dramas, the show was able to make history.
12. The Walking Dead is the most popular show on Twitter.
In 2015 it had 3.98 million people viewing it and tweeting each new episode.
