MYTH DEBUNKED: Mr. Rogers was not a Navy SEAL, or a Scout Marine Sniper.

By: Jack Martin 
Article last updated on November 22nd, 2022  

^^^Fred Rogers (aka Mister Rogers) was an American television host, author, and producer. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001. 

Over the years it has been reported by several websites that Mr. Rogers, the host of the internationally acclaimed TV show for children – "Mister Roger’s Neighborhood", served as a Navy SEAL or a Marine Scout Sniper during the Vietnam War with a large number of confirmed kills. This myth has been floating around on the web for a long time, but today we will debunk it once and for all.

- Was Mr. Rogers was a Navy SEAL, or a Scout Marine Sniper?No, Mr. Rogers was never a Navy SEAL or a Scout Marine Sniper or even in the military. That is a total myth.

- How did this myth get started? 

Well, based on what I've been able to find during my research, the origin of this myth comes from confusion with another Fred Rogers. In an episode of the Moviemakers Podcast, host Tim Molloy interviewed “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” screenwriters Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue, along with author Tom Junod. During the interview they discussed this myth, and gave some background on how it may have been started. “So there was actually a guy named Fred Rogers, who was a Marine, who was a sharpshooter, who started a security business. And he for a moment put up FredRogers.com as his business,” And it was almost immediately taken down. But people found that.” - Noah Harpster

^^^This was a very easy myth to debunk because, like all myths we've covered on this blog, it does not hold up under the scrutiny of known facts. Our friends at navyseals.com perfectly explain why Mr. Rogers was not a Navy Seal or a Marine Scout Sniper: "Firstly, Mr. Rogers was born in 1928 and thus at the time of the US involvement in the Vietnam conflict was too old to enlist in the US Navy. Secondly, he had no time to do so. Right after finishing high school, Mr. Rogers went straight into college, and after graduating college directly into TV work. From the above mentioned reasons, it is clear that Mr. Rogers could never have served in the military."

Mr. Rogers was NOT a Navy Seal or a Scout Marine Sniper. Case closed. 

Please share this report with your friends, family, social media followers, co-workers or anyone else you think would enjoy it. If you are a member of the media and would like to re-post this report on your website or blog feel free to contact me via email [ at reddeadpl@gmail.com  ] . Thanks for reading!

 

MYTH DEBUNKED: "The Wizard of Oz" Did NOT Have a Hanging Munchkin

 

By: Jack Martin 
Article last updated on October 12th, 2022  

Today we will be covering The Wizard of Oz Hanging Munchkin Scene myth. This myth is so old that it actually pre-dates social media and the Internet itself. This myth has been able to survive and find its way around the web for many, many years, but today we will debunk it once and for all. ***(I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors you may find while reading this report.)*** Now, let's get into it...

We have debunked many ridiculous myths on this blog, but this one might be the most ridiculous (remember that for later). The Hanging Munchkin is a very well-known myth that some people claim appears in the original print of the classic film "The Wizard of Oz". People who believe this myth claim the film contains accidental footage of an onset suicide by an actor who played one of the Munchkins. Although this myth dates back to the 1990s, it became mainstream in 2011 when a YouTube video was posted by the now-defunct channel called SuicidalMunchkin. 

^^^Here is a screenshot of the scene in question. This scene takes place in the forest shortly after Dorothy and The Scarecrow meet The Tin Man. The person who started this myth claims you can see someone hanging, but in reality, it was just a bird brought on set from the Los Angeles Zoo. As you can see the figure in the background is clearly a bird and not a person. If you watch this scene while using a digital copy of the film and look in the background, you'll see the bird, but if you watch the film on a grainy VHS tape, what you'll see appears to be a small person hanging from a rope. The story attached to this myth goes something like this...during the filming of the movie; one of the Munchkins died by suicide perhaps due to loss of family member or lover, and hung himself from the roof of the studio and the filmmakers later accidentally captured the aftermath of it on the film. This "theory" is totally false. No one, actor, crew member or otherwise, died on-set during the filming of this movie. However, people who believe this myth claim that during the 1989 restoration of the movie, this hanging was edited out and replaced with the bird seen in all modern versions of the movie. The video was proven false by many people online, but that doesn't mean people have stopped believing in this myth. Still to this day people keep posting it on social media. This is and isn't surprising to me. It isn't surprising because social media is a toxic place that loves stuff like this, but at the same time, it is a bit surprising that this myth still continues to live because David Mikkelson debunked it way back in 1997. "No one, munchkin or otherwise, died on-set during the filming of this cinematic classic, much less in a cut that was used in the finished version of the movie. To give the indoor set used in this Oz sequence a more “outdoors” feel, several birds of various sizes were borrowed from the Los Angeles Zoo and allowed to roam the set. (A peacock, for example, can be seen wandering around just outside the Tin Woodsman’s shack while Dorothy and the Scarecrow attempt to revive him with oil.) At the very end of this sequence, as the three main characters move down the road and away from the camera, one of the larger birds (often said to be an emu, but more probably a crane) standing at the back of the set moves around and spreads its wings. No munchkin, no hanging — just a big bird. The unusual movement in the background of the scene described above was noticed years ago, and it was often attributed to a stagehand’s accidentally being caught on the set after the cameras started rolling (or, more spectacularly, a stagehand’s falling out of a prop tree into the scene). With the advent of home video, viewing audiences were able to rewind and replay the scene in question, view it in slow-motion, and look at individual frames in the sequence (all on screens smaller and less distinct than those of theaters), and imaginations ran wild. 
The change in focus of the rumor from a hapless stagehand to a suicidal munchkin (driven to despair over his unrequited love for a female munchkin) seems to have coincided with the heavy promotion and special video re-release of The Wizard of Oz in celebration of its 50th anniversary in 1989: someone made up the story of a diminutive actor who, suffering the pangs of unrequited love for a female “little person,” decided to end it all right there on the set, and soon everyone was eager to share this special little film “secret” with others. Since (grossly exaggerated) tales of munchkin lechery and drunken misbehavior on the “Oz” set had been circulating for years (primarily spread by Judy Garland herself in television talk show appearances), the wild suicide story had some seeming background plausibility to it. (Other versions of the rumor combined elements from both explanations, such as the claim that the strange figure was actually a stagehand hanging himself.) The logistics of this alleged hanging defy all credulity. First of all, the forest scenes in The Wizard of Oz were filmed before the Munchkinland scenes, and thus none of the munchkin actors would yet have been present at MGM. And whether one believes that the figure on the film is a munchkin or a stagehand, it is simply impossible that a human being could have fallen onto a set actively being used for filming, and yet none of the dozens of people present — actors, directors, cameramen, sound technicians, light operators — noticed or reacted to the occurrence. (The tragic incident would also had to have been overlooked by all the directors, editors, film cutters, musicians, and others who worked on the film in post-production as well.) That anyone could believe a scene featuring a real suicide would have been left intact in a classic film for over fifty years is simply incredible." 

-David Mikkelson, Snopes.com founder 

Remember earlier when I wrote that this myth might be the most ridiculous one we've covered on this blog? Well, the reason why I wrote that is summed up perfectly by Mikkelson in this quote:"And whether one believes that the figure on the film is a munchkin or a stagehand, it is simply impossible that a human being could have fallen onto a set actively being used for filming, and yet none of the dozens of people present — actors, directors, cameramen, sound technicians, light operators — noticed or reacted to the occurrence. (The tragic incident would also had to have been overlooked by all the directors, editors, film cutters, musicians, and others who worked on the film in post-production as well.) That anyone could believe a scene featuring a real suicide would have been left intact in a classic film for over fifty years is simply incredible." You see, when you study this myth beyond face value it quickly falls apart just like all of the other myths we've covered. Come on, you really think someone killed themselves on the set of this movie and the studio left it in there? So just to wrap up..."The Wizard of Oz" Did NOT Have a Hanging Munchkin. Case closed. 

Please share this report with your friends, family, social media followers, co-workers or anyone else you think would enjoy it. If you are a member of the media and would like to re-post this report on your website or blog feel free to contact me via email [ at reddeadpl@gmail.com  ] . Thanks for reading!

MYTH DEBUNKED: Spider-Man: The Animated Series was NOT Censored as Much as Everyone Believes

 

By: Jack Martin 
Article last updated on August 16th, 2022  

^^^"Spider-Man: The Animated Series" was an animated television series based on the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name. The series aired on the Fox Kids Network from November 19, 1994, to January 31, 1998, for a total of five seasons comprising sixty-five episodes. The series was produced by Marvel Films Animation and animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha. 

Today we will be covering the Spider-Man: The Animated Series Censorship myth. This myth is so old that it actually pre-dates social media and the Internet itself. This myth has been able to survive and find its way around the web for many, many years, but today we will debunk it once and for all. ***(I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors you may find while reading this report.)*** Now, let's get into it.

-Who started this myth?

The answer will shock you. Continue reading to find out.

^^^Here is a photo of Stan Lee and John Semper Jr. (Right). John Semper Jr. is a screenwriter, producer and story editor with numerous credits in animation for television. Semper was producer/story editor of Spider-Man The Animated Series and the man who started this myth. Yes, you read that correctly. This myth was started by Semper. And why? Well, I could tell you myself, but  I'll just have John Semper tell you.

^^^Here is an interview Jon Semper did back in 2016 with Amazing Spider-Talk. At the 54:30 mark of this video is when Semper debunks this myth.

Now, if you don't have time to listen to that part of the interview here is all the info you'll need in written form from John Semper, Producer/Head writer of Spider-Man: The Animated Series:

"Here's something I wrote six years ago for my Facebook page and it's still pertinent today. It has to do with censorship:

Examine this picture carefully. It accurately depicts everything we were NOT ALLOWED to do on a cartoon show in the mid-nineties. A patently FALSE RUMOR was started some years ago that, on "SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES," we suffered from a great deal of CENSORSHIP by the network. This FALSE RUMOR has since been perpetuated by sources like Wikipedia (a veritable cornucopia of flawed and false information) and such bastions of misinformation as online critics. This FALSE RUMOR always frustrates me. I'd like to get my hands on the IDIOT who started that rumor. Oh, wait a minute. It was ME!

You see, when I appeared at fan conventions way back when the show was still on the air, JUST for fun and entertainment, I would read notes that I got from the network's Broadcast Standards and Practices Department. Things like, "Be careful that when Spider-Man lands on the roof, he doesn't harm any pigeons." Funny stuff like that. I thought it was good for laughs. But apparently, the whole notion of getting notes from BS&P was so completely foreign to you folks out there that it hit you all by surprise. What I thought was a silly joke suddenly became A BIG REVELATION!

My second mistake was not realizing that, one day, there would be this monster called "The Internet." And the Internet soon would be so hungry for things to talk about that it would take this little bit of information and blow it up all out of proportion. It didn't help that the Internet also would become a tool for the ignorant and uninformed (like certain online "nostalgic critics"- oh, okay, specifically "The Nostalgia Critic") to make money off of being hyper-critical of everything under the sun, whether it deserves it or not. So, this little bit of information - that my cartoon show was subject to review by the Broadcast Standards and Practices Department - got turned into a major criticism and then a war cry: "Spider-Man has CENSORSHIP! LOTS AND LOTS OF CENSORSHIP!!"

Now, you might ask, "Why isn't it true?" Well, to begin with, the BS&P department placed the same restrictions on EVERY cartoon show on the air in exactly the same way. So, if you think about it, all of the shows were limited in certain ways as to what they could do or show. There were rules that we all had to play by, as shown in the illustration. That's why, for instance, on "X-Men," you never saw Wolverine use his claws on anybody human and rip them to shreds. Usually he'd just swipe at mechanical robots and stuff like that. Producers, writers, etc., all had to play by the same rules. As a show creator, you could always argue with BS&P for some things more than others. A punch in the face might slip by here. A fire causing jeopardy might happen there. But basically, every show had to deal with the same fundamental restrictions. Those were the rules of the game.

Where did those rules come from, anyway? Let me take you back to the nineteen-sixties. After the successive assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, it was decided by the powers-that-be that all television was too violent, and, in particular, children's TV was too violent for kids to watch. Remember when someone could shoot a gun at Huckleberry Hound and the resulting gunpowder would blacken his face? Or when Quick Draw McGraw wore guns and often used them? That's what I'm talking about. So, suddenly, very stiff restrictions were placed on TV cartoons that remained in place for decades to follow.

So here's why all the whining and complaining about "censorship" drives me crazy. Because, in the nineties, we were finally allowed to do things in action-adventure cartoons that we hadn't been able to do for decades. Starting with "Batman," and moving on to "X-Men," "Spider-Man," et al, the Broadcast Standards and Practices Departments were finally loosening the shackles just a bit and allowing us to be more violent than kids' TV had been for most of my lifetime. And that, my friends, is how you got the exciting "Spider-Man:TAS" show that you got, instead of "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and Puppies."

Therefore, instead of complaining about a gun having to look like a "laser rifle" as opposed to a real gun, you ought to be reveling in the fact that we were finally able to do stories that approached the sophistication of the comic books.

But now you might be asking, "Yes, but how can you say you weren't censored when BS&P clearly told you what you could and could not do? Isn't that a form of censorship?" Again the answer is a resounding "NO." I wasn't hired to do whatever the hell I wanted. I was hired to deliver to the network a show that was what they asked for - BUILT TO THEIR SPECIFICATIONS. They were the client and I was the hired help.

Let's say that you are a house builder, and you're hired to build a house, and you want to paint it green, but the person who is hiring you wants the house to be red. You can't scream "Help, I'm being censored. I can't paint the house the color I want!" It's not your house! You just shut up and paint it red! End of story. It's the same with "Spider-Man TAS" or any of the other cartoon shows on their network. Ultimately, the Network was paying for the show. They were hiring me to deliver the show to their specifications. It's their show. If they tell me to do something, then ultimately it's my job to do it. I can't legitimately scream "Censorship!" And neither can you.

"Censorship" is when you do have a right or an understanding, or a reasonable expectation of freedom of personal expression and it is suddenly blocked or curtailed. That isn't the case when you're hired to deliver a show to a client's specifications. It's not what you agree to when you sign a contract to work-for-hire.

"Censorship" is when I take my own money and pay to have something produced, and I put it online and it suddenly gets pulled down against my will because somebody doesn't like some aspect of it. That's censorship.

Bottom line: We did NOT have "so much censorship" on Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Spread the word." -John Semper Jr.

^^^ You're all probably thinking: "If the show runner of "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" has already debunked this myth, and is also the person who started this myth, how is this still even a thing?" Answer: The Internet. People on the Internet don't want this myth to die because they want it to be true. Now, their motivations for why they want this myth to live on are unknown by this writer, but it's a fact. As you can see by the images above...Semper continues to debunk this myth still do this day. Only time will tell if his efforts to debunk this myth will be successful, but from what I know about these myths and how they get spread across the Internet, I have a feeling Semper will have to continue to post about it for years to come. Hopefully you (the reader) will help him out by posting this report the next time you see this myth online. 

So just to wrap up...Spider-Man: The Animated Series was NOT censored as much as everyone believes. Case closed. 

Please share this report with your friends, family, social media followers, co-workers or anyone else you think would enjoy it. If you are a member of the media and would like to re-post this report on your website or blog feel free to contact me via email [ at reddeadpl@gmail.com  ] . Thanks for reading!

MYTH DEBUNKED: David Schwimmer was NEVER in "Biloxi Blues" and is NOT related to Lacey Schwimmer

 

By: Jack Martin 
Article last updated on Jun 28th, 2022  

^^^David Schwimmer is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. Schwimmer is best known for playing Ross Geller on the hit TV sitcom "Friends".

Over the years it has been reported by several websites (including IMDB) that actor David Schwimmer appeared as a soldier on a train in the 1988 film "Biloxi Blues". Many have claimed that "Biloxi Blues" was his film debut. But that's not the only myth about Schwimmer you can find on the Internet...the other one is that he's related to dancer Lacey Schwimmer. These myths have been floating around on the web for a long time, but today we will debunk them once and for all. Today, you're getting two myths debunked for the price of one. Now, let's get into it. 

These myths are 100% false. David Schwimmer never appeared in "Biloxi Blues", and is not related to Lacey Schwimmer. Period. End of story. Still don't believe me? Well, let's just go right to the man himself: 

^^^Here is an interview David Schwimmer did with Newsday back in 2012. In this interview David addresses these myths. As you can see by his answers, the "Biloxi Blues" myth and the Lacey Schwimmer myth are both false. It amazes me how these myths were debunked way back in 2012 by Schwimmer, but people still to this day believe they are true and still post about them on social media. 

Here is a link to the full interview:

https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/celebrities/david-schwimmer-talks-madagascar-3-europe-s-most-wanted-b78147  

David Schwimmer NEVER appeared in "Biloxi Blues", and is NOT related to Lacey Schwimmer. Case closed. 

Please share this report with your friends, family, social media followers, co-workers or anyone else you think would enjoy it. If you are a member of the media and would like to re-post this report on your website or blog feel free to contact me via email [ at reddeadpl@gmail.com  ] . Thanks for reading!

MYTH DEBUNKED: Christian Bale NEVER Auditioned to Play Robin in "Batman Forever".

 

By: Jack Martin 
Article last updated on May 25th, 2022  

^^^This is a photoshopped image of what actor Christian Bale might have looked like as Robin in the 1995 film "Batman Forever". 

Christian Bale played Batman & Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight Trilogy. It has been reported by several websites that Bale had previously auditioned for the role of Robin in "Batman Forever", but lost out to Chris O'Donnell. This myth has been going around for several years, but today we will debunk it once and for all.  

This story/rumor is 100% false. Christian Bale never auditioned to play Robin in "Batman Forever". Period. End of Story. Still don't believe me? Well, let's just go right to the man himself: "I love the crap that is on the internet and on TV – everywhere – it’s not just on the net. Most of the time I never bother trying to put anything right because I’m an actor, and the whole point is it doesn’t matter what’s the truth. But I do have to take a stand on that because I would never have bloody auditioned to play Robin." -Christian Bale (in a 2008 interview with a British newspaper)

Christian Bale NEVER auditioned to play Robin in "Batman Forever". Case closed. 

Please share this report with your friends, family, social media followers, co-workers or anyone else you think would enjoy it. If you are a member of the media and would like to re-post this report on your website or blog feel free to contact me via email [ at reddeadpl@gmail.com  ] . Thanks for reading!