Dolly Parton produced the original 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' movie

Dolly Parton jumped to Hollywood in the 1980s

Costar Jane Fonda said she heard Parton’s song “Two Doors Down” on the radio while the movie was still being developed and knew she’d be a perfect fit for one of the starring roles. The success of that movie kickstarted an acting career, following up with roles in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” “Steel Magnolias,” and more.

Parton hosted two separate variety television shows called ‘Dolly’

Parton became a magnetic television performer on “The Porter Wagoner Show,” something that would pay off in dividends later in her career. Both her 1976 show “Dolly” and the 1987 series of the same name featured musical performances from Parton and various guests, along with lighthearted segments featuring contemporary stars. You can watch the fifth episode of 1987 below, with special guest Kermit the Frog.

Dolly Parton wrote the song '9 to 5' on the set of the movie '9 to 5'

She’d agreed to star in the film if she could write its theme song, which she began while shooting the movie. As Parton tells it, the song’s genesis was clacking her long acrylic nails together.

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program provides free books to kids

Parton launched the program in 1995 to benefit children in Tennessee by providing a free book every month. It began expanding across the country in 2000 and was eventually adopted in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The organization claims to provide over 1 million books to children every month.

Elvis Presley wanted to record 'I Will Always Love You,' but Dolly Parton refused

After scoring a hit with her own recording of the song, Presley made plans to record his own version, but stipulated that Parton would need to grant him 50% of the publishing rights—perhaps the most valuable asset for a songwriter. Parton politely refused.

'The Wizard of Oz' flopped in theaters but exploded on TV

The film cost $2.7M to make—$1M more than the average production in 1939, but didn’t recoup it for almost two decades. Its success is mainly due to television. It aired annually from 1956 to 1965 and was watched by more than 49% of all television viewers.

The studio behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled promotion before its national release

Before its national release in 1975, the studio behind "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" decided the musical movie was too strange, campy, and unwieldy for most audiences and cut its promotional efforts, hoping to minimize its losses. That decision led to the film flopping commercially. It wasn't until a theater began screening the film at midnight that it caught on, attracting a devoted fanbase who attended weekly screenings and dressed as their favorite characters—a tradition that continues to this day.

Dolly Parton is far more popular in the US than the world's politicians

An April 2026 survey conducted by the University of Massachusetts and YouGov found that 70% of the 1,000 Americans polled had a positive impression of the country icon. The next closest figure was former US President Barack Obama (50% favorable) and Vladimir Zelensky, the president of Ukraine (35% favorable).

Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd wanted the movie about her life shut down

Wolfe Herd was informed about the movie after its creation process had been started. Her lawyer told her there was nothing she could do. She said she was both terrified of the movie and slightly flattered by its existence.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

The first cast members were relatively unknown 'enlightened amateurs'

“SNL” producers aimed to cast relative newcomers for the show’s first season, convinced that amateurs would infuse the show with the countercultural spirit Lorne Michaels envisioned.

The 'Wicked' movie is based on several previous ‘Oz’ adaptations

Gregory Maguire's novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West," published in 1995, is based on"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." It offers an adult-oriented retelling of the Oz story, focusing on Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. The book was then adapted for the stage, which premiered on Broadway in 2003. The Broadway musical was then adapted for the screen—the first film in the series debuted in 2024.

‘Twin Peaks’ was David Lynch’s ode to the soap opera

In the 1980s, David Lynch was primarily known as the director of art films like “Eraserhead” and “Blue Velvet.” But “Twin Peaks,” his primetime ABC show with writer Mark Frost, was a take on the soap opera, leaning into the genre’s tropes: stilted dialogue, affairs, missing person, and melodrama.

Soap operas earned their name thanks to the sponsorships of soap brands

Many early 20th-century radio programs for women were sponsored by brands that introduced each new episode. Because these dramas were aimed at women, many of their sponsors were for household products, like soap. The association led some to refer to the shows as "soap operas," a title that stuck.

'Over the Rainbow' became a widely covered standard

Judy Garland’s original 1939 version won the Academy Award for best original song, though it never appeared on the Billboard pop singles chart (which didn’t appear until 1940). Twenty different versions of the song by other artists—including Willie Nelson, Patti LaBelle, and Israel "Iz" Kamakawiwo'ole—have appeared on numerous Billboard charts.

Diana Ross starred in a Motown-produced biopic about Billie Holiday

The 1972 film "Lady Sings the Blues" was loosely based on Holiday's autobiography and starred Ross, then pursuing her post-Supremes solo career. The Motown production had big names (including Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor) and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including one for Ross' performance. You can watch the film below.

Netflix's 'KPop Demon Hunters' is the streamer's most-watched original movie

The 2025 film, which combines K-pop music and Korean mythology, became a big hit on the streaming platform. It was equally successful in its limited theatrical release, shooting to the top of the box office rankings.

'Buffy coats': The 1% of blood that helps fight off disease

When blood is centrifuged, white blood cells and platelets form a layer called the buffy coat between the plasma and red blood cells. This layer makes up less than 1% of blood, but its heightened leukocyte concentration makes it useful for toxicology research.

'The Pitt' has found success following an old-school production model

Hollywood reporter Matthew Belloni interviews John Wells, executive producer of "The Pitt," an HBO Max drama that's found both critical and commercial success by leaning into the broadcast television model that has largely grown unfashionable in the streaming era. According to Wells, who also worked on "ER" and "The West Wing," modern audiences are eager for broad but well-written "water cooler" weekly shows.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

The 10 best TV spin-offs ever

The spin-off is a much-maligned genre, often seen as a cash grab more than an artistic enterprise. This list argues otherwise, offering 10 excellent series that come close to besting their source material.

The Tony Awards were founded by Brock Pemberton

A Kansas boy who went on to become a groundbreaking Broadway producer, Brock Pemberton is also the founder of the Tony Awards. He went from a prodigious Midwestern newspaper reporter to a New York drama critic and quickly caught the attention of a local producer, who offered Pemberton a job and kick-started his decades-long Broadway career, which included cofounding the influential American Theatre Wing.

The Sundance Film Festival is named after a Robert Redford character

Redford purchased a plot of land in Utah in 1969, calling it Sundance Mountain Resort, a nod to his role in the film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Soon after purchasing the land, he began hosting workshops to develop young artists. The Sundance Film Festival (originally called the Utah/US Film Festival) was first held in 1978 and was intended to draw attention to independent cinema.

Watch the 'Star Wars Holiday Special,' a 1978 spin-off that became a cult classic

The CBS television special is a hokey variety show that was widely panned after it aired and, as a result, was never officially released on home video. George Lucas had little involvement, though it did feature the original cast alongside guest stars like Bea Arthur. Interestingly, it also features Boba Fett's first appearance.

In its early years, HBO didn't air 24/7

In its earliest incarnation, HBO only aired content for about nine hours daily. After each day's programming, it'd play a cozy animated bumper. The network changed course when its primary competitor Showtime began airing for 24 hours in 1981.

'Steamboat Willie' was inspired by 'The Jazz Singer'

Walt Disney was mesmerized by Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer" and the way it used synchronized sound, which synced film with audio. He replicated that effect in “Steamboat Willie," producing the first animated film to do so.

The biopic 'Deliver Me From Nowhere' was inspired by a podcast episode

The film’s producers were inspired to pursue the project after hearing an episode of Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast with Warren Haynes, who wrote the book the film was based on.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

The 2026 Ebola outbreak in the DRC is spurring new Ebola vaccine development for the Bundibugyo species.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.