I made that mistake when I was young, too. I thought it was some sort of political round-table type of show.

These days, my husband and I joke that it's been replaced with the new show "Info not available". However, the other day I was quite excited to see that TBA was back on the air. (And yes, I'm kidding).

I think about 100 pages or so ago, there were many of us that had the same impression of To Be Announced.

With these two, all you have to do is remember that Patty is gay. She wears the triangle earrings. Triangles are a recognized gay symbol (usually pointed downwards but it still works). Whether they meant it that way, I have no idea, but it's an easy way to tell them apart.

She is? I have missed a few episodes....

Patty's hair is a round up-do (similar to but shorter & grayer than Marge's), while Selma's is parted in the middle & worn in a chin-length bob.

Patty's hair is united & Selma's is divided!

And some of us thought it was either a late night infomercial type of show, or a religious show. Personally I assumed religious as a child since I'd see the TBA listings on Sundays so much (and when I'd flip to a channel with TBA on, I'd usually find church programming instead). For a while I had some crazy anti-religioin consiracy theory about it (I mentioned it back when this came up in this thread 100 pages ago) but I can't seem to recall what it was now.

I would usually see To Be Announced in the listings for our local PBS station, so I always assumed it was an arts show, like an opera, or Masterpiece Theatre or something like that.

Man, I'd forgotten all about that. Good times.

Lol........you must've missed her lesbian wedding where her bride turned out to really be a guy!

From the Simpsons wiki

"In a ground-breaking 2005 episode, Patty came out of the closet as a lesbian, although clues to her sexual preference have been given out numerous times throughout the series, such as in Bart after dark, when she is seen coming out of a burlesque house.

In the February 20, 2005 episode, "There's Something About Marrying", Patty came out as a lesbian after Springfield legalized same-sex marriage. Marge was initially hurt that Patty had hidden her sexuality for years, though as Patty put it when Marge stated she "hadn't seen it coming" "You could see it from Space!". However, before their own wedding, Patty's partner Veronica was revealed to be a man who had disguised his gender to get into the LPGA tour. Patty's sexuality had earlier been hinted at when her voice was recognizably coming from an "in the closet" float on the Springfield Gay Pride Parade."


My most recent duh moment came just recently......I was watching SATC on TBS and saw this clip about a couple, Max and Katie...except it went on for longer than 30 secs. I really thought it was a revamped Taster's Choice but it's actually a show called Lovebites!

It's pretty cute and they're still showing it during SATC.

When I was a kid, in the pre-cable era, when there were technical problems you'd get the "please stand by" card. And when I was very young I thought that if we stood closer to the TV, it would help the antenna pick up the signal. (Which, y'know, kind of did help sometimes. That and aluminum foil. And wire hangers.)

I just found this thread, and that quote was back on the first page, but it reminds me of my favorite Simpsons 'D'oh' moment.

I had put off taking English 102 until my senior year of college (this was about four years ago). One part of the class was devoted to plays, and one day our professor started reading 'Hamlet' to us. All (I thought) I knew about Hamlet was that it was kind of amazing that I was so old and had never had to read it until now. As the professor got into it, it started to sound really familiar. I was wracking my brain, trying to remember if I actually had read it. Then all of a sudden I remembered - it was a Simpsons episode! With CrazyLisa and Homer's head yelling "Avenge Me!" I was thisclose to not being able to contain the laughter in my head.

Good times.

That is adorable. I bet you did help!

I too looked long and hard for this show. I thought it was one of Canada's versions of a 60 minutes format. I think because one time I tuned in to see it and it was CBC news or something I was 12 or so before I went "ohhh".

From my young viewings of Rescue 911, Unsolved Mysteries, and American Most Wanted, I thought all the "reenactments" were actual footage of the victims perils. Which, would scare the shit out of me, and have me sleeping with my mother, because of the pending nightmares.

The Wild Sow, I use the hair to tell them apart too!

I always remember it as Selma's hair has a Split (i.e., a part) while Patty's hair is Poofy!

I think that it's funny when I listen to the DVD commentaries and the producers, cast, etc. say they don't know which twin is which either!

You know those commercials for "Space Bags"? The bags you can put your off season clothes and unused comforters in, reverse the vacuum suction to suck out the air and have these nifty, flat, compressed bags that take up 2/3 less room. Well, I just realized something over the weekend. I thought they were called "Space Bags" b/c of the absence of oxygen/air in the bags (being sucked out) or b/c they were going with a futuristic sounding name. I was watching the commerical over the weekend and it hit me -- Space Bags -- maybe b/c they save space/provide extra space b/c they take up so little space.

I still like my idea that this is all connected to NASA somehow.

Me too!! When I was younger, we lived in Stillwater, Oklahoma and there were these woods behind my house and every time I was outside, I could picture the host of Unsolved Mysteries talking about how I was 'last scene in the woody area just behind him.." In that scary voice of his!

Count me in with the thinking of the reenactments being real footage of murders and kidnappings. When I was young I always thought it was so cruel of the Unsolved Mysteries camera crew to just stand there and film while people were assaulted/murdered/kidnapped/cut into pieces! I wanted them to turn off the cameras and help!

One holiday season, my family watched an episode of Unsolved Mysteries that involved some children being killed somewhere in Arkansas. At the end, they gave the description of the suspects and, as always, told the viewers to keep their eyes open, etc.

My niece was about 6 years old at the time and visiting for a few days. I don't think she'd ever seen the show before. At the end, she got very upset and almost started crying. She thought it was very unfair that she was responsible for solving this crime. "I'm only 6! I've never been to Arkansas! I don't even know where it is! I have to go to school! How am I supposed to find these guys when the police can't? Won't the bad guys kill me, too?" Poor kid. We tried to explain that Robert Stack wasn't talking to her personally but she wasn't really convinced.

I think I love your neice. Such a conscience at such a young age. Poor little thing. And also bwahahahahahhahaha. When she's old enough to have a sense of humour about it pass that on would ya?

This man voice was the embodiment of horror for me. Worst, when I find out he past away. So, here I am at 10, wondering if this is a ghost on tv (shut-up). I used to watch this show peeking through my fingers. I knew it was scay, but I had to watch. It's like looking at a car crash, even though you know its gruesome.

Poor kid! All that on top of being the only person that can prevent forest fires. (I always found that to be a mind-boggling responsibility at her age! Stupid Smokey Bear....)

A couple of visits later, we were debating what to watch on TV and she said something like, "As long as it's not that Unsolved Mysteries show. I really don't like it." and we all felt bad (again) about how upset she'd gotten.

It was years later before the subject came up again, when our family was having a conversion about our "Slow on the Uptake" life moments. She brought this up and asked how we kept from laughing at her. She's turned out great and doesn't seemed scarred by this experience.

Of course, she could still haul our butts onto Dr. Phil's show and take us to task for tormenting her.

On the subject of Smokey T. Bear, as a kid I was very confused about why we needed ads telling people to make sure their fires were out before leaving their campsite. As an adult, I am still very confused about the number of wildfires that are started by carelessness or even worse, arson. Smokey needs to smack some people upside their heads with his shovel.

Kindred! There is a picture of a 4-year-old me doing just that.


I also wondered how I, living in a working class neighboorhood in Cleveland (and being a child), could prevent forest fires. I didn't think we even had forests. Vacant lots, sure, but Smokey never said anything about preventing abandoned car fires.

All this talk of the "Please Stand by" messages on tv made me think of this: Remember the test patterns that would show during a station's off hours? Whenever I saw one of those, I thought it was a test for color blindness. I was really young at the time.

Contrary to what you may believe after reading this story, I was not, in fact, born yesterday.

I'm a huge Arrested Development fan and understand most of the references, catch the background jokes, etc. But I spent years being confused about the bolded line of this exchange:

Lindsay: Did you enjoy your meal, Mom? You drank it fast enough.
Lucille: Not as much as you enjoyed yours. You want the belt to buckle, not your chair.
[server sets a dessert of Bananas Foster on fire]
Lucille: You might want to let that fire go out before you stick your face in it.
Lindsay: That's funny, 'cause I was gonna say "You might wanna lean away from that fire since you're soaked in alcohol."
Lucille: Mine was better.

For some reason, I didn't realize that the plate was Bananas Foster, so I literally did not get what the joke was in that line until last week's Ugly Betty, when a woman in rehab tells her son she's getting the veal Marsala, which is made with wine, and he retorts that the alcohol burns off. "Then give me the glass of wine and set fire to me after I'm done," she says. (Thanks to Jessica's recap for the text!) I knew the line was a joke about her massive alcohol consumption, and yet the pieces weren't coming together. That's very sad.



I think I thought it was some British show. I don't know why.

Chiming in on the damage of Unsoved Mysteries, I didn't sleep for years due to some of the stuff on there. I loved Rescue 911, which was on just before then, but I can't even watch UM now to snark on the horrible reeenactments due to Robert Stack's voice.

Several years ago, I was watching TV, and I came across a short commercial that was literally, "Ask your doctor if ________ is right for you." No indication what it was for. So, the next time I saw my pediatrician, I asked if Viagra was right for me.

OK, so there's this show, The Brittas Empire, that I used to watch on some of my local PBS stations. It's a British comedy about the staff of a recreation ("leisure") center.

What was it that went over my head? Two of the main characters are a gay couple. I had watched the show for a while(years?) and never realized it. I'm not sure if it was mentioned in the 1st episode or not, but I only caught episodes here and there.

The thing is, unlike American shows where every other joke would reference the fact, this show was really subtle about it. It just wasn't that big a deal, and not even referenced in every episode. (Of course, they weren't the main characters, though.) A casual viewer might not be able to pick up on it. Another thing that kept the relationship under the radar, was that they had to keep the central character from finding out about it (although everyone else was privy to it).

Trini Girl, that reminds me - I think it was only shortly before John Ritter died that I knew Jack was pretending to be gay on Three's Company. Of course, I was fairly young when I watched it, but I'd caught it off and on over the years, and never figured it out. I thought Larry was gay, sure, but I never got the Jack thing. Duh.

Did anyone see Amy Sedaris on Craig Ferguson last night? She said she lived on the corner of "blank" and "blank" (they were beeped out). I suppose you could say this went over my head. Anyone know what they were?

I'd say take it at face value; even if Sedaris was all right with saying where she lives, the producers don't want to be responsible for stalkers turning up at her building. I'm not famous, and when I blog, I don't say the name of diner I frequent, or the building I work in.

I'm not sure if this IKEA commercial was shown only in Canada or in the States as well, but it opened with the Swedish voice-over guy singing, "Now the world doesn't move to the beat of just one drum..." I knew the words and melody were familiar, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out from where. Then a few days ago I stumbled upon the Diff'rent Strokes opening theme on YouTube, and I finally figured it out.

Hee. I was reading your post, Charlotte, and as soon as I got to, "Now the world...", I immediately started singing it on my head without thinking. How sad is that? Diff'rent Strokes must be completely ingrained in my memory.

Sweet Granny's molasses, I am SO glad you said this. Now I don't feel as bad about sharing that I was always confused when on the Price is Right, the annoucer would say "The Price Is Right is brought to you by". . . I thought it was one word, a big one that I did know. I had to ask my mom what "brocktubye" was before it made any sense.

Oh my gosh! I used to think he said, "The Price of Right will stop unless you buy..."

Ethereal Zoe, I think we're soulmates. Because back in the 1950s I was puzzled by that sentence every single time. And I understood about "brought to you," but I listened hard each week, and I swear the announces were saying "brock to you by." I even asked my parents, they explained "brought," and I protested "But no, they said 'brock'!" I thought it was so unfair that I got indulgent parental smiles, when I was hearing more clearly than they were!! (Of course I have no idea how my adult ears would hear it now.)

No worries...I've seen older repeats of the show (PIR) and the announcer really did blend the words together that badly (I always felt it was because they spoke too quickly). I'm sure some people heard it correctly, but I suspect it was mainly because they expected the phrase and thus turned it into the correct syllables in their brains.

Okay on a Price is Right moment: It took me forever to figure out what they meant by "contestants not appearing on stage" I had no idea who they were talking about and for the longest time. I thought they meant the whole audience because they all had the potential to be contestants. Finally one day it just clicked and I realized they were referring to the four people still in contestants row.

My PIR secret is I could never, ever figure out why people in the lineup would be $1. Nothing is ever going to be ONLY A DOLLAR, especially not a chandelier!

I was, I think, 15, before my mom explained the strategy to me.

Along this same vein, in the old deoderant ads, when it would go, "By Mennen," I thought it was all one word, like "bymennen," and I thought that was like something in the deoderant or something. It took me years to realize that was who made it.

Second most annoying strategy ever. The first being the ubiquitous bidding $1 over the guy before you.

Annoying, yet effective.
I have nothing to add...I'm all about the Plinko. If there's no Plinko, I need not watch.

This isn't a 100% TV moment, but a video is involved so I'm counting it.

I grew up in the 80's and can sing along to "Pour Some Sugar On Me" as well as anyone else. While watching a show on 80's songs last night they talked about the song and about how it was about sex.

I. Had. No. Clue.

No, I didn't think it was actually about pouring sugar on someone, but I never got it. Even with all the innuendo, it flew right over my head.

It's about sex? Wow. I didn't know that until you just said it.

Which actually brings me to my slow on the uptake moment. I remember on SATC Samantha or whoever was talking about getting a pearl necklace. For the longest time I thought getting a pearl necklace was when you got a bunch of hickeys on your neck, like a necklace. I was quite wrong. Thankfully I know what it is now, though.

And tell us, Somebody did you get the matching earrings?

Heh. I really don't know what to say.

And then immediately bury them with it, far, far underground.


Actually you're right! They aren't saying those exact words of course, but it certainly is the message.

When I was a pretty young kid (maybe 8 or so), it was a special treat for me to be able to stay up late and watch Benny Hill. Pretty much that entire show went over my head. But I pretended to like it because I liked staying up late.

About that same age, the whole family would watch The Love Boat. I never understood Gopher's job as "ship's purser". I thought he collected all the women's purses and gave them special ones just for the cruise, but I didn't know why they never showed him doing what I thought his job was. I never said this to my siblings (all older than me), thank God, because I'm sure they would've teased me unmercifully.

I watched Twin peaks when it first came out. I was about 13 and since I wasn't allowed to stay up late and my family didn't have a VCR (my parents are technologically challenged), I watched it on tapes at my friend's house the next day.

The first time around, the whole incest part went straight over my head. I just thought that the evil Bob had possessed Leland Palmer and killed Laura because he was an evil spirit. I didn't get it that Leland was actually raping his own daughter. A few years later, at about the age of 18, I watched the show on reruns and then it hit home.

I'm actually glad that I was still so very innocent at 13 that the concept of incest was foreign to me.

I was studying Physiology today and I came across the term 'bradycardia' and it said that the prefix 'brady' means slow. Was The Brady Bunch a reference to that or was it just a randomly chosen name? If it was the former, it completely went over my head til now.

My brother and I were watching TV the other day when one of those Sleep Number bed commercials came on. Now, my brother is one of the smartest people I know. He's one of those people who can't understand why someone would hate math because he does calc problems for fun. So he really surprised me when he said "That mattress is a great idea and all, but how do you know which number to order? I'd hate to order the wrong number and then have to return that, cause it would be really hard to ship back."

Speaking of Gopher, I remember an episode in which he explained his nickname to someone. "I go-fer this, and go-fer that." I was delighted and thought that was extremely clever writing. I didn't find out until much later that using the nickname "Gopher" for your fetch-it person wasn't exactly original to The Love Boat.