Mental Floss

POP CULTURE

Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, and Anthony Michael Hall in The Breakfast Club (1985).

On February 15, 1985, John Hughes's 'The Breakfast Club' showed that, despite their labels, a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal aren't really so different from one another.

Kate Erbland










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A 20-year-old script from the author of 'Jurassic Park' led to the creation of one of the longest-running dramas in TV history.

Roger Cormier


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Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction' is regularly cited as the film that resurrected John Travolta's then-sagging career. But it turns out that the part of Vincent Vega, which earned Travolta his first Oscar nomination in 17 years, was actually written for

Olivia Harrison


Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (2000).

'Requiem for a Dream'—the harrowing heroin film that brought Darren Aronofsky to the attention of mainstream moviegoers—arrived in theaters in 2000.

Eric D Snider


Kate Hudson and Patrick Fugit star in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (2000).

In 2000, 'Almost Famous'—Cameron Crowe’s poignant, semi-autobiographical film about going on tour with rock stars in the 1970s and writing about it for Rolling Stone—was released in theaters.

Garin Pirnia
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In the mid-'90s, Kermit the Frog was the face of the 40-year-old Muppet brand and had both a movie and a TV show to promote. So he did what any single-person empire does while sitting atop their celebrity throne: he released a fragrance.

Rebecca OConnell, Caitlin Schneider




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For a brief moment in Saturday morning cartoon history, 'The Jackson 5ive' saw cartoon versions of Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael embarking on adventures—and totally jamming out.

Sonia Weiser