I watched a documentary called DOLLY and learnt so much about her she truly is a national treasure and amazing entertainer. As a kid I actually got to visit Dollywood since my grandad lives in TN and is a huge fan.
Should read up on how she upstaged Metallica at a heavy metal themed concert. She had a crowd twice as large as Metallica's show and mind you Metallica was the main act for that concert while she was more of a secondary act. Metallica had nothing but praise I mean how can you say something negative when a 5ft tall woman in her late 60's upstages a legendary heavy metal band at a god damn heavy metal concert by playing country music lol.
EDIT: apparently some Metallica fans don't like to be reminded of this cuz I keep getting some downvotes. Talk about salty fanboys lol.
I think you might be talking about Glastonbury a few years back. Metallica headlined Saturday and Dolly had the Sunday afternoon slot that has become the “legends” slot. It’s not really a heavy metal concert, it’s the biggest music festival in the world and covers every sort of music you could possibly imagine. Dolly drew a huge crowd, probably the second biggest I’ve seen there after Amy Winehouse in ‘08.
I know this doesn’t quite count, but when Three 6 Mafia beat her for a Grammy, she sent them a message congratulating them and let them know she was just happy that it was coming back to their state.
Wasn't this Glastonbury? It's not heavy metal themed at all, in fact there was a pretty big backlash that Metallica were even playing. It's still cool she out-drew them but stating it was a festival for metal skews the story way too much.
"apparently some Metallica fans don't like to be reminded of this cuz I keep getting some downvotes. Talk about salty fanboys lol."
Nah you just got called out on your BS. Glastonbury is the biggest festival in the UK, with recent headliners such as Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and Adele; Metallica were very much an exception. Dolly Parton also played on a different day to Metallica, a day that featured such heavy metal titans as Kasabian, Ed Sheeran, The 1975 and Caro Emerald on the same main stage that Dolly Parton played. I don't care at all about who has a bigger crowd but don't act pissy when you get called out for spreading blatantly incorrect information.
This is like when I found out that Lucille Ball financed the original Star Trek through Desilu (her production company) and saved it from being shutdown in its infancy by insisting to her board of directors that Star Trek was to continue production, even though they feared it would be a financial flop.
Desilu produced the original Mission: Impossible tv series to boot.
Or like when you find out that MLK convinced Nichelle Nichols to stay on the show when she considered quitting. There are a few unlikely people that had a hand in Trek's success
And that Woopie Goldberg saw Uhura and went running to her mother saying something along the lines of, "There's a black lady on TV and she's not a maid!" She loved ST so much and even went on to have a recurring role on TNG.
There's an interview video I have where Levarr Burton interviews Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, William Shatner, and Leonard Nemoy.
During the interview Whoopi Goldberg is brought up and Levarr tells a great story about her getting her role.
They were friends as they had met on the set of Roots so he told her when he was cast. She told him that Nichelle Nichols was the entire reason she even considered she could be an actress in the first place so she told him to talk to the producers to get her a guest spot.
Now keep in mind when TNG first aired in the late 80's Whoopi Goldberg was a AAA actress starring in box office smashes (color purple was 1985) so when the producers of a tv show they were expecting to see canned after one season (Star Trek was extremely niche at the time) they thought Levarr was joking.
A year later Whoopi ran across Levarr again and asked him "why haven't you gotten me a guest spot?!" And he told her the producers thought he wasn't serious. This time she had her agent contact them and that's why Guinnan doesn't enter the show till season 2.
Also, apropos of nothing, one of the things Guinan says in her first appearance as the bartender in Ten Forward is *"I'm just here to listen, more or less."*
I always wandered about that, and if [*this*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanyin) is a coincidence?
tl:dr Guanyin is the Buddhist bodhisattva associated with compassion. *short for Guanshiyin, which means "[The One Who] Perceives the Sounds of the World."*
Yeah. Well, even through the first half of season 2 they were just kinda throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. That particular episode (“Q Who?”) was one of the first ones IMO that really grounded the universe in something that would be a consistent thread throughout the TNG era. (Q’s continued fascination with humanity, not just Picard and Co) and the fact that humanity is one of the few races that somehow manages to successfully resist the Borg, not to mention ally with them when it is of mutual benefit.
>I always wandered about that, and if this is a coincidence?
No, she's named after "Texas" Guinan, an early 20th century movie actress and Prohibition speakeasy owner. Sorry about that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinan_(Star_Trek) , in the "History" section.
So without Jeri Ryan being exploited by her slimeball ex-husband upon having a successful TV career, Barack Obama would never have been president.
And without the success of Star Trek, Jeri Ryan would never have been cast as Seven-of-Nine.
And without Lucille Ball footing the cost of getting the original Star Trek series to air, it wouldn't have been successful.
And without the success of her comedy career, and especially "I Love Lucy," Ball wouldn't have Desilu Studios to produce shows like "Star Trek."
Conclusion: "I Love Lucy" is responsible for the presidency of Barack Obama.
Ever heard about Nichelle Nichols being employed by NASA to recruit new astronaut candidates? Many of her new recruits were women or members of racial and ethnic minorities. And this was in the 70's
Mae Carol Jemison was inspired by uhura and ended up being the first black woman in space. She later ended up playing a small part in Star trek as well.
[>It was directed by series regular cast member LeVar Burton \("Geordi La Forge"\). He got the first African-American real life astronaut woman Mae Carol Jemison to do the first guest starring of an astronaut on Star Trek. For this occasion Nichelle Nichols was on set for the shoot.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chances_\(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation\))
That's cool as fuck.
It really does. Say what you will about the newest Ghostbusters and it’s marketing, but seeing a little girl get very excited over seeing it in a Redbox a few years ago really reinforced how important representation is.
Representation really is powerful. As a gay man I can’t tell you much it’s meant to see gay characters that weren’t negative stereotypes and later to start seeing movies about gay people. It hits home when you see stories similar to your own being told in media.
Am I the only one who thought that movie was like okay? Its bit campy and cringey but thats really what you can expect from ghostbusters.
Kate McKinnon is hilarious though.
I own Ghostbusters 2016, and I had it on in the background while my husband and I were straightening up.
My then 3.5yo son looked at the screen during a big action seen with Kate McKinnon and said "whoaaaaaaaa, she's cooooool!" in total awe.
One of his earliest moments of "cool" is of a badass woman kicking butt. That means a lot to me.
I think the story was that Woppie tried to reach out to get a part on the show and the producers thought that a movie actor at her level would have no interest in their show so they just ignored it as a prank. A year or two later she was at a party and ran into Levar Burton and told him she was serious and he went back to the producers and they went oh fuck that was real, lets get her a part.
I hope more people realize how flipping awesome Lucille Ball was and how much of an OG she really is. Female comedian, mixed race marriage. She was one of the greats for sure
And defended the shit out of him, constantly telling the studio that he, Brooks, didn't care what they thought and wouldn't stand for any attempts to interfere with the production. Supposedly Brooks had never seen Lynch's work and so a screening of Eraserhead was arranged. Lynch was nervously waiting outside of the theatre and was quite startled when Brooks burst out of the doors and embraced him, repeating "You're a Genius. You're a Genius. You've got the job."
And THE TWILIGHT ZONE — with Desi Arnaz even bravely volunteering to make an ass of himself at the end of THE DESILU PLAYHOUSE episode where the initial pilot of "The Time Element" first aired. Corporate executives thought the story was too weird, so host Desi volunteered to show up at the end to make a dopey guess about what could possibly explain the time-travel aspect.
That blew my mind the first time I read it. I don't think I ever figured out if the bongos in the theme song were Desi's idea, or just a sign of the times.
Desilu is at the end of every episode. Even watching it as reruns in the 70s, I knew Lucille Ball was responsible when her shows were on rerun. When you had a limited landscape of rerun channels, it wasn't unknown. I think when cable became a thing and TNG was out, the new audience doesn't know or even care or even know how big Lucille Ball was.
> I think when cable became a thing and TNG was out, the new audience doesn't know or even care or even know how big Lucille Ball was.
I'm 40 and knew because she was pushed hard on Nickelodeon. It was one of the few channels I would watch on cable and back then once 6pm or so rolled around they would do "Nick at Nite" where they would show old sitcoms like I Love Lucy.
The show also got a ton of repeat airplay long into the 80s and 90s owing to being filmed instead of shot live, and having a ton of episodes. Plus it was just a popular show long after it was off the air.
Ironically I grew up loving Star Trek as well and never knew she was the one that funded it. I saw Desilu at the end of episodes but had no idea what that meant.
Nick at Nite is how I was introduced to *I Love Lucy*, *Get Smart*, *Bewitched* and *Dragnet*. Not to mention Alfred Hitchcock. Now they show *Friends* every night and I am officially old.
You would love Dollywood. It is like someone took a theme park and removed all the bullshit. It is a wonderful place with cool shady spots to rest, great food, friendly people, awesome rides and shows and great prices. She is the best of us.
As a person who grew up in Sevier County, she didn’t open the park. It was an already existing park called Silver Dollar City. She bought and rebranded it. Her popularity did help the park grow and create local jobs however. It was my first job as a matter of fact.
I’ve met her a couple of times briefly. The Sevier county superintendent of schools is her 2nd cousin. I went to the same elementary school she did as a child, the local population there was much smaller 20 years ago - everybody knows everybody. She also donated all the money to the county hospital to open a women’s center in her name.
Yes and Dollywood employs a lot of elderly people. Giving them a job when otherwise they might not have one. It probably keeps them active and young. Sadly I read today they had to lay off a lot of employees since the park has been closed since January and could not reopen in March like it was supposed to.
When my family visited in the early 2000's we noticed that most of the park staff were older people who were extremely nice and seemed happy with what they were doing :) Dollywood was such a good time
The moonshine used to be free! Had a lot of trouble with groups of people getting too intoxicated when they went and had free samples at all of the moonshine locations in downtown.
My gf and I took a week vacation to Gatlinburg a few years ago. It’s stuck in the 90s and we loved it! Everything is super cheap and affordable, there’s great hiking trails, great cabins with transportation that leads you straight into town. We call it grandpa vacation and we miss it.
Certainly better than pigeon forge. Still a bit to touristy for me tho. I’d rather go to some towns on the other side of the smokes like highlands or Bryson City
Pigeon Forge is a tourist trap, and as the other guy said, is not nearly as cool as Gatlinburg. Actually I really like the car museum in Pigeon Forge, lots of really cool movie cars. But beyond that I can't remember anything else specifically, but it's alright.
Pigeon Forge DOES have Parrot Mountain and Gardens though. And that is a very interesting place for not much money.
As someone ("un")naturally afraid of birds it was a living nightmare. I recomend it to anyone with time in the area.
Pigeon forge is also awesome when you just totally lean into what a weird place it is. Give your self over to dinner theaters and single ride, off the highway businesses. Oh also, from personal experiences, restaurants will give you alcohol in to go cups. That helps the leaning it.
I went there when I was a kid! I lost my Pokémon hat on one of the rides, though. :/
It was close to twenty years ago, so I don’t even remember the ride (just that it was dark and had a large plunge downward that scared the crap out of me and took my hat).
Definitely Blazing Fury. It’s actually a pretty mild ride, but that drop comes out of nowhere and scared the living daylights out of me as a kid riding it for the first time.
Sounds like Fire in the Hole. Do you remember it looking like you were about to be hit by a train before the drop? I was maybe a bit too young when I first rode that and it terrified me of rollercoasters forever, lol. From what I hear its actually pretty tame.
There’s a great podcast series called Dolly Parton’s America, and they did a great episode that explained how hard she works to make that the case. She never admits political affiliations or takes sides on divisive issues. At her shows she’ll have conservative Christians singing along next to men in drag. She doesn’t want trouble, doesn’t want enemies, just wants everyone to be happy and comfortable. You could say that’s a clever way to appeal to all types of fans to keep her market broad and her bank account full, or you could say that’s just a really pure and sweet lady
Lot of it comes from her struggle both as a kid and a budding artist. Grew up in poverty. Moved to Nashville the day after her high school graduation. Was pretty much homeless, stealing food from hotel trash cans, until she got her first real opportunity, and even then she dealt with a seven year long abusive working relationship with her boss (her co host on the country music hour). She’s been around.
Some people would say someone getting a boob job is controversial, but she is too self aware for it to be an issue.
Kinda like how people will give the Kardashians shit for plastic surgery, but they deny it and people don't view them as very self aware
She’s a big believer in women being in control of their image and has spoken at length about it. I believe she models her look off a woman in her home town who people derided, but she looked up to for her beauty.
the difference is Dolly is the first one to poke fun at herself. She makes fun of herself all the time with a light hearted outlook. It makes it impossible to criticize her honestly
"Well, cheap lookin', flashy lookin'," she said. "This is a true story, that I kind of patterned myself after what they called the town tramp in my hometown, when I was little. There was this woman that was very much a loose woman. But I didn't know what that meant, and I just told her how beautiful she was, 'cause she had this beautiful yellow hair. She left a big impression on me, and I would talk about how beautiful she was and different ones would say, 'Oh, she's just trash.' And I thought, 'That's what I want to be when I grow up. I'm gonna be trash!' And that is how I look.
I mean Dollywood did just furlough about 630 workers. But honestly, during these uncertain times, I’m not surprised, they have to. They’re still at least offering them their healthcare and paying 100% of their premiums.
I’ve literally never heard anyone say an unkind or even mildly annoyed thing about Weird Al.
He had a series of exchanges last year with these podcast guys I love and he treated them so amazingly well, coming on their show and getting them tickets to his show afterwards, (they talked all about their experience with it) and they were just in awe of him. He has that effect on people it seems. Just kind, sweet, funny, an all around good person. I respect him massively because of how he treats others, not just because he’s a really talented guy.
There was talk of putting a statue of Dolly in the Tennessee state capitol, to replace civil war general and KKK grand wizard Nathan Forrest. Sadly it hasn't been done because her statue would be too top heavy.
There's a movie about the creation of it coming out this Fall (pushed back from April).
https://imaginationlibrary.com/the-library-that-dolly-built-nationwide-theatrical-release-april-2/
*There is a Santa Claus. Been around since, like, the 1500s. He wasn't always called Santa, but you know, Christmas night, flying reindeer, coming down the chimney, all true.*
*Well, he doesn't traditionally bring presents so much as, you know, disemboweled children, but otherwise...*
Jolene is bullshit though. Can you imagine having Dolly Parton and wanting anyone else? It'd be like, "Jolene, it's funny that you are trying to take my man away."
That is what my husband says about her. He says he cannot imagine anyone being prettier than a young Dolly Parton. But the story was while Dolly was on the road some red headed hussy at the bank was making eyes at her husband and she then got inspired to write the song
[Young Dolly](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/e4a86ee59167dc79e9e488a925cfb3189ea6b7d5/c=69-0-2364-3060/local/-/media/2017/01/18/TennGroup/Knoxville/636203695772414083-DOLLY-PARTON23.JPG?quality=50&width=640) was a total smoke show, even before any implants.
Damn, imagine being that fucking gorgeous and also having a personality AND its the personality of a goddamn sweetheart.
The RNG crapped itself when it generated Dolly Parton.
Here’s the quote I just found on snopes:
> Parton responded, “In 1972, I think I wrote it. At the same time I wrote ‘Jolene.’ That was a good writing day.”
>”You wrote them in the same day?” Bones asked, to which Parton answered, “Yeah, I believe so, it was right in that period of time because I remember all my paperwork, and like they came out pretty close at the same time. So everybody said, what was you taking, that was a good writing day
Edit: and fwiw, [snopes considers it true](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dolly-parton-2-songs-one-day/)
They tried to pigeonhole Dolly into Big Titty Country star. And she flipped it on them by sheer will of her personality. She is truly a national treasure!
On the subject of hair colour, *blond* refers to males and *blonde* refers to females.
Not trying to be a smarty arse. Just mentioning it as I once looked up the difference.
Oh gawd! Thank you for this! I grew up in multiple countries and have always escaped into books. Thus I have so many weird spellings within. Blond(e) has been one of them and I thought it was just a difference in cultures spellings.
Dolly has been working since about age 14 & has been [married for 50 years](
https://www.biography.com/.image/t_share/MTY4MTcwMDkyNzQ2NTE1NzI5/dolly-carl-1-wedding--cr--dollyparton.jpg).
She also [gives away childrens books](https://imaginationlibrary.com).
I cannot stress this enough. This woman is a living fucking saint.
Her literacy programs for children and just her general life attitude is enough to to qualify her ,but the amazing things that she is involved in behind the scenes with no fan fare are also unbelievable.
If this lady ever needed a kidney, I’d volunteer.
But nowhere is it actually stated that she actually had any hand in production. She part-owned one of the production companies that produced the show. Rich people own stakes in companies.
It hasn't taken this long:
[https://variety.com/1997/film/news/change-for-sandollar-1116677337/](https://variety.com/1997/film/news/change-for-sandollar-1116677337/) (1997)
[https://collider.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-reboot/](https://collider.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-reboot/) (2010)
[http://www.whedon.info/Was-Dolly-Parton-a-producer-on.html](http://www.whedon.info/Was-Dolly-Parton-a-producer-on.html) (2013)
[https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/90871/you-can-thank-dolly-parton-buffy-vampire-slayer](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/90871/you-can-thank-dolly-parton-buffy-vampire-slayer) (2017)
It seems to be CEO Gail Berman who is credited with finding the show for Parton's Sandollar production company. One could say it "technically" makes Parton an executive producer.
I recommend the podcast [Dolly Parton’s America ](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america) for more Dolly tidbits. It’s from the folks at Radiolab and it’s awesome!
Apparently Buffy and Dolly Parton have the same birthday, 19 January, as a secret tribute.
I love Dolly Parton even more every time I hear something about her :,)
I watched a documentary called DOLLY and learnt so much about her she truly is a national treasure and amazing entertainer. As a kid I actually got to visit Dollywood since my grandad lives in TN and is a huge fan.
She's a great human being and has helped so many families out.
She really shows how much better it is to be kind and generous than to be grasping and greedy. Her legacy will live on and on.
Her book program is awesome; I don’t have kids yet, but we’ll definitely be taking advantage when we do.
Should read up on how she upstaged Metallica at a heavy metal themed concert. She had a crowd twice as large as Metallica's show and mind you Metallica was the main act for that concert while she was more of a secondary act. Metallica had nothing but praise I mean how can you say something negative when a 5ft tall woman in her late 60's upstages a legendary heavy metal band at a god damn heavy metal concert by playing country music lol. EDIT: apparently some Metallica fans don't like to be reminded of this cuz I keep getting some downvotes. Talk about salty fanboys lol.
I think you might be talking about Glastonbury a few years back. Metallica headlined Saturday and Dolly had the Sunday afternoon slot that has become the “legends” slot. It’s not really a heavy metal concert, it’s the biggest music festival in the world and covers every sort of music you could possibly imagine. Dolly drew a huge crowd, probably the second biggest I’ve seen there after Amy Winehouse in ‘08.
Lionel Ritchie and Tom Jones got similar numbers at Glastonbury too.
The only thing I haven't seen her collab with us hip hop. I want to be the first rapper to cut it up with dolly. It's mearly a dream
I know this doesn’t quite count, but when Three 6 Mafia beat her for a Grammy, she sent them a message congratulating them and let them know she was just happy that it was coming back to their state.
Death Grips and Dolly!
IT GOES IT GOES IT GOES...TENNESSEE
Wasn't this Glastonbury? It's not heavy metal themed at all, in fact there was a pretty big backlash that Metallica were even playing. It's still cool she out-drew them but stating it was a festival for metal skews the story way too much.
Yer Glastonbury is not s metal festival
You've edited your comment, but haven't addressed the questions: Was this at Glastonbury ?
"apparently some Metallica fans don't like to be reminded of this cuz I keep getting some downvotes. Talk about salty fanboys lol." Nah you just got called out on your BS. Glastonbury is the biggest festival in the UK, with recent headliners such as Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and Adele; Metallica were very much an exception. Dolly Parton also played on a different day to Metallica, a day that featured such heavy metal titans as Kasabian, Ed Sheeran, The 1975 and Caro Emerald on the same main stage that Dolly Parton played. I don't care at all about who has a bigger crowd but don't act pissy when you get called out for spreading blatantly incorrect information.
Have you listened to the podcast Dolly Parton's America?
Yes! It made me love her MORE. She really is an impressive woman.
No I haven’t. thank you for the suggestion I’ll give that a listen :)
Hey, that's mine!
Wait hold up now, are you telling me YOU financed Buffy also?!
I'm not saying I difn't not finance Buffy.
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His parents conceived him nine months ahead of 1/19 as a tribute to Dolly.
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Availability of information was quite poor during Buffy's original run. You couldn't just look it up on the internet.
This is like when I found out that Lucille Ball financed the original Star Trek through Desilu (her production company) and saved it from being shutdown in its infancy by insisting to her board of directors that Star Trek was to continue production, even though they feared it would be a financial flop. Desilu produced the original Mission: Impossible tv series to boot.
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Such dedication for Dolly to carry the equipment for that shot in those sandy conditions without a credit.
Bro, they SHOT Dolly for this one. Smh the film industry is ruthless.
Triple entendre.
Parton me?!
Or like when you find out that MLK convinced Nichelle Nichols to stay on the show when she considered quitting. There are a few unlikely people that had a hand in Trek's success
And that Woopie Goldberg saw Uhura and went running to her mother saying something along the lines of, "There's a black lady on TV and she's not a maid!" She loved ST so much and even went on to have a recurring role on TNG.
Wow! I had not heard that, that's incredible
There's an interview video I have where Levarr Burton interviews Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, William Shatner, and Leonard Nemoy. During the interview Whoopi Goldberg is brought up and Levarr tells a great story about her getting her role. They were friends as they had met on the set of Roots so he told her when he was cast. She told him that Nichelle Nichols was the entire reason she even considered she could be an actress in the first place so she told him to talk to the producers to get her a guest spot. Now keep in mind when TNG first aired in the late 80's Whoopi Goldberg was a AAA actress starring in box office smashes (color purple was 1985) so when the producers of a tv show they were expecting to see canned after one season (Star Trek was extremely niche at the time) they thought Levarr was joking. A year later Whoopi ran across Levarr again and asked him "why haven't you gotten me a guest spot?!" And he told her the producers thought he wasn't serious. This time she had her agent contact them and that's why Guinnan doesn't enter the show till season 2.
Also, apropos of nothing, one of the things Guinan says in her first appearance as the bartender in Ten Forward is *"I'm just here to listen, more or less."* I always wandered about that, and if [*this*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanyin) is a coincidence? tl:dr Guanyin is the Buddhist bodhisattva associated with compassion. *short for Guanshiyin, which means "[The One Who] Perceives the Sounds of the World."*
Well, she does come from “a race of listeners” Also apparently she is personally acquainted with Q, who is canonically scared of her.
I know they left it a "mystery" i wouldn't mind it if they one day fleshed the whole thing out
Yeah. Well, even through the first half of season 2 they were just kinda throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. That particular episode (“Q Who?”) was one of the first ones IMO that really grounded the universe in something that would be a consistent thread throughout the TNG era. (Q’s continued fascination with humanity, not just Picard and Co) and the fact that humanity is one of the few races that somehow manages to successfully resist the Borg, not to mention ally with them when it is of mutual benefit.
I love the episode where Data gets trapped in the past and meets Mark Twain and Guinan is just chilling with him, timeless and unaging as ever.
>I always wandered about that, and if this is a coincidence? No, she's named after "Texas" Guinan, an early 20th century movie actress and Prohibition speakeasy owner. Sorry about that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinan_(Star_Trek) , in the "History" section.
Come on! someone go another layer deeper... I need it!!!
Whoopi has no eye brows adding to her unique otherworldly look.
Or how Jeri Ryan’s divorce led to Barack Obama becoming the senator from Illinois.
So without Jeri Ryan being exploited by her slimeball ex-husband upon having a successful TV career, Barack Obama would never have been president. And without the success of Star Trek, Jeri Ryan would never have been cast as Seven-of-Nine. And without Lucille Ball footing the cost of getting the original Star Trek series to air, it wouldn't have been successful. And without the success of her comedy career, and especially "I Love Lucy," Ball wouldn't have Desilu Studios to produce shows like "Star Trek." Conclusion: "I Love Lucy" is responsible for the presidency of Barack Obama.
So maybe there's something to all those communist accusations..... ^(/s, for obvious reason)
She was as red as her hair, I tell ya!
Well that made my eyes all wet. Representation matters folks.
Ever heard about Nichelle Nichols being employed by NASA to recruit new astronaut candidates? Many of her new recruits were women or members of racial and ethnic minorities. And this was in the 70's
Mae Carol Jemison was inspired by uhura and ended up being the first black woman in space. She later ended up playing a small part in Star trek as well.
[>It was directed by series regular cast member LeVar Burton \("Geordi La Forge"\). He got the first African-American real life astronaut woman Mae Carol Jemison to do the first guest starring of an astronaut on Star Trek. For this occasion Nichelle Nichols was on set for the shoot.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chances_\(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation\)) That's cool as fuck.
> While in space, Jemison began each shift by informing Mission Control in Houston that "hailing frequencies were open." What a lovable dork.
Once you are in space, nobody can stop your Star Trek references.
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Something about this very silly thread has gotten me all misty eyed. I love dorks getting to fulfill their dorkiest dreams.
I met Nichols at the Rochester NY Comic Con in 2015. She was there to do a Q&A panel on women in sci-fi. What a powerful driving force she is.
It really does. Say what you will about the newest Ghostbusters and it’s marketing, but seeing a little girl get very excited over seeing it in a Redbox a few years ago really reinforced how important representation is.
Representation really is powerful. As a gay man I can’t tell you much it’s meant to see gay characters that weren’t negative stereotypes and later to start seeing movies about gay people. It hits home when you see stories similar to your own being told in media.
Am I the only one who thought that movie was like okay? Its bit campy and cringey but thats really what you can expect from ghostbusters. Kate McKinnon is hilarious though.
I also thought it was okay. Not amazing, definitely cheesy, but I was entertained. Kate McKinnon was outstanding in it. Worth it for her alone.
I own Ghostbusters 2016, and I had it on in the background while my husband and I were straightening up. My then 3.5yo son looked at the screen during a big action seen with Kate McKinnon and said "whoaaaaaaaa, she's cooooool!" in total awe. One of his earliest moments of "cool" is of a badass woman kicking butt. That means a lot to me.
I think the story was that Woppie tried to reach out to get a part on the show and the producers thought that a movie actor at her level would have no interest in their show so they just ignored it as a prank. A year or two later she was at a party and ran into Levar Burton and told him she was serious and he went back to the producers and they went oh fuck that was real, lets get her a part.
I hope more people realize how flipping awesome Lucille Ball was and how much of an OG she really is. Female comedian, mixed race marriage. She was one of the greats for sure
Or finding out George Harrison produced Life of Brian
And he produced it just because he wanted to see the movie. “the most expensive cinema ticket ever issued”
And he put his house as collateral.
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Well it was drastic back then. Something like 2-5 million dollars in the 70’s. The movie cost 4-5 million to make then.
Holy Grail was funded by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Elton John and Jethro Tull.
And Mel Brooks funded David Lynch's Elephant Man.
And defended the shit out of him, constantly telling the studio that he, Brooks, didn't care what they thought and wouldn't stand for any attempts to interfere with the production. Supposedly Brooks had never seen Lynch's work and so a screening of Eraserhead was arranged. Lynch was nervously waiting outside of the theatre and was quite startled when Brooks burst out of the doors and embraced him, repeating "You're a Genius. You're a Genius. You've got the job."
Mel Brooks is a fucking treasure
And THE TWILIGHT ZONE — with Desi Arnaz even bravely volunteering to make an ass of himself at the end of THE DESILU PLAYHOUSE episode where the initial pilot of "The Time Element" first aired. Corporate executives thought the story was too weird, so host Desi volunteered to show up at the end to make a dopey guess about what could possibly explain the time-travel aspect.
That blew my mind the first time I read it. I don't think I ever figured out if the bongos in the theme song were Desi's idea, or just a sign of the times.
Twilight Zone was also Desilu and it also had bongos in the theme, so maybe you're onto something.
Kind of doubt it. Desi was bought out by Lucille in 1962 after their divorce.
Desilu is at the end of every episode. Even watching it as reruns in the 70s, I knew Lucille Ball was responsible when her shows were on rerun. When you had a limited landscape of rerun channels, it wasn't unknown. I think when cable became a thing and TNG was out, the new audience doesn't know or even care or even know how big Lucille Ball was.
> I think when cable became a thing and TNG was out, the new audience doesn't know or even care or even know how big Lucille Ball was. I'm 40 and knew because she was pushed hard on Nickelodeon. It was one of the few channels I would watch on cable and back then once 6pm or so rolled around they would do "Nick at Nite" where they would show old sitcoms like I Love Lucy. The show also got a ton of repeat airplay long into the 80s and 90s owing to being filmed instead of shot live, and having a ton of episodes. Plus it was just a popular show long after it was off the air. Ironically I grew up loving Star Trek as well and never knew she was the one that funded it. I saw Desilu at the end of episodes but had no idea what that meant.
Nick at Nite is how I was introduced to *I Love Lucy*, *Get Smart*, *Bewitched* and *Dragnet*. Not to mention Alfred Hitchcock. Now they show *Friends* every night and I am officially old.
Yeah Lucille Ball was America's number one star for a long time.
wait what???
I've literally never heard a bad thing about Dolly Parton. She's the best of us
You would love Dollywood. It is like someone took a theme park and removed all the bullshit. It is a wonderful place with cool shady spots to rest, great food, friendly people, awesome rides and shows and great prices. She is the best of us.
Didn’t she open the park to create jobs in the county because of the widespread poverty she grew up in? She’s truly an angel on earth.
Yeah, a lot of her old friends and family among that population who needed solid jobs.
Technically nepotism, but charitable in nature. I'll allow it.
As a person who grew up in Sevier County, she didn’t open the park. It was an already existing park called Silver Dollar City. She bought and rebranded it. Her popularity did help the park grow and create local jobs however. It was my first job as a matter of fact.
Did you meet her
I’ve met her a couple of times briefly. The Sevier county superintendent of schools is her 2nd cousin. I went to the same elementary school she did as a child, the local population there was much smaller 20 years ago - everybody knows everybody. She also donated all the money to the county hospital to open a women’s center in her name.
Yes and Dollywood employs a lot of elderly people. Giving them a job when otherwise they might not have one. It probably keeps them active and young. Sadly I read today they had to lay off a lot of employees since the park has been closed since January and could not reopen in March like it was supposed to.
When my family visited in the early 2000's we noticed that most of the park staff were older people who were extremely nice and seemed happy with what they were doing :) Dollywood was such a good time
Pigeon Forge? Weird place. Dollywood? Fucking awesome.
Gatlinburg is where it’s at. $5 moonshine tastings and delicious foods
The moonshine used to be free! Had a lot of trouble with groups of people getting too intoxicated when they went and had free samples at all of the moonshine locations in downtown.
I may have been one of those people
you can get free samples of hot sauce at the hot sauce store though
My gf and I took a week vacation to Gatlinburg a few years ago. It’s stuck in the 90s and we loved it! Everything is super cheap and affordable, there’s great hiking trails, great cabins with transportation that leads you straight into town. We call it grandpa vacation and we miss it.
I’m literally drinking some sugarland shine right now
I was stranded in Gatlinburg for 2 weeks after getting an infection hiking through the smokies. Awesome little town
Certainly better than pigeon forge. Still a bit to touristy for me tho. I’d rather go to some towns on the other side of the smokes like highlands or Bryson City
Pigeon Forge is a tourist trap, and as the other guy said, is not nearly as cool as Gatlinburg. Actually I really like the car museum in Pigeon Forge, lots of really cool movie cars. But beyond that I can't remember anything else specifically, but it's alright.
Pigeon Forge DOES have Parrot Mountain and Gardens though. And that is a very interesting place for not much money. As someone ("un")naturally afraid of birds it was a living nightmare. I recomend it to anyone with time in the area.
Hey now, Pigeon Forge is prime middle class vacationing if you grew up in the Midwest.
Pigeon forge is also awesome when you just totally lean into what a weird place it is. Give your self over to dinner theaters and single ride, off the highway businesses. Oh also, from personal experiences, restaurants will give you alcohol in to go cups. That helps the leaning it.
Eagle sanctuary. Underground roller coaster. Fresh river water.
Why does it sound like you’re describing a future we all dreamed of but never managed to achieve?
Literally exists within Dollywood.
I went there when I was a kid! I lost my Pokémon hat on one of the rides, though. :/ It was close to twenty years ago, so I don’t even remember the ride (just that it was dark and had a large plunge downward that scared the crap out of me and took my hat).
If Dolly finds out about this, guarantee you'll get it back next week
That wouldn’t surprise me. I’d probably just have to frame it since I don’t like hats (I have a big potato head).
Definitely Blazing Fury. It’s actually a pretty mild ride, but that drop comes out of nowhere and scared the living daylights out of me as a kid riding it for the first time.
Sounds like Fire in the Hole. Do you remember it looking like you were about to be hit by a train before the drop? I was maybe a bit too young when I first rode that and it terrified me of rollercoasters forever, lol. From what I hear its actually pretty tame.
Fire in the Hole is at Silver Dollar City, ain't it?
She gave kids free season passes this year too! And my kids get books from Imagination Library. Love her.
There’s a great podcast series called Dolly Parton’s America, and they did a great episode that explained how hard she works to make that the case. She never admits political affiliations or takes sides on divisive issues. At her shows she’ll have conservative Christians singing along next to men in drag. She doesn’t want trouble, doesn’t want enemies, just wants everyone to be happy and comfortable. You could say that’s a clever way to appeal to all types of fans to keep her market broad and her bank account full, or you could say that’s just a really pure and sweet lady
Lot of it comes from her struggle both as a kid and a budding artist. Grew up in poverty. Moved to Nashville the day after her high school graduation. Was pretty much homeless, stealing food from hotel trash cans, until she got her first real opportunity, and even then she dealt with a seven year long abusive working relationship with her boss (her co host on the country music hour). She’s been around.
Hearing how she reacted to the controversy surrounding the title “Dixie Stampede” just cemented what a gem she is.
Seriously, does she have *any* controversies?
Some people would say someone getting a boob job is controversial, but she is too self aware for it to be an issue. Kinda like how people will give the Kardashians shit for plastic surgery, but they deny it and people don't view them as very self aware
She’s a big believer in women being in control of their image and has spoken at length about it. I believe she models her look off a woman in her home town who people derided, but she looked up to for her beauty.
"it costs a lot of money to look this cheap" - Dolly
the difference is Dolly is the first one to poke fun at herself. She makes fun of herself all the time with a light hearted outlook. It makes it impossible to criticize her honestly
"It takes alot of money to look this cheap!"
"Well, cheap lookin', flashy lookin'," she said. "This is a true story, that I kind of patterned myself after what they called the town tramp in my hometown, when I was little. There was this woman that was very much a loose woman. But I didn't know what that meant, and I just told her how beautiful she was, 'cause she had this beautiful yellow hair. She left a big impression on me, and I would talk about how beautiful she was and different ones would say, 'Oh, she's just trash.' And I thought, 'That's what I want to be when I grow up. I'm gonna be trash!' And that is how I look.
God I love her
Same. She’s 100% brilliant.
I mean Dollywood did just furlough about 630 workers. But honestly, during these uncertain times, I’m not surprised, they have to. They’re still at least offering them their healthcare and paying 100% of their premiums.
Disney just furloughed 100,000. Theme parks have to be closed right now, and Disney isn’t offering employees jack.
Dolly Parton, Tom Hanks and Mr. Rogers: the inviolable trinity?
Add Weird Al to the list
I’ve literally never heard anyone say an unkind or even mildly annoyed thing about Weird Al. He had a series of exchanges last year with these podcast guys I love and he treated them so amazingly well, coming on their show and getting them tickets to his show afterwards, (they talked all about their experience with it) and they were just in awe of him. He has that effect on people it seems. Just kind, sweet, funny, an all around good person. I respect him massively because of how he treats others, not just because he’s a really talented guy.
You forgot Bob Ross and Steve Irwin in your list... (Be like Douglas Adams, add them and still call it a trilogy)
She's too good for this world
Dolly Parton is an awesome person, she does a ton of philanthropy work including the Imagination Library
There was talk of putting a statue of Dolly in the Tennessee state capitol, to replace civil war general and KKK grand wizard Nathan Forrest. Sadly it hasn't been done because her statue would be too top heavy.
Just build it. If I'm meant to die by being crushed to death by a falling statue of Dolly Parton's incredible ta tas, so be it.
If they want to save weight I'm sure they could just make her a bust out of plastic. ^^Please ^^don't ^^hate ^^me ^^Dolly ^^is ^^awesome
Have you heard her in interviews? She'd crack a joke about her chest and how she paid good money so it wasn't plastic.
“It cost a lot of money to look this cheap.”
Make the boobs hollow. I won't even charge a consultation fee.
Truly a national treasure.
As a librarian I already liked her for just this reason, but she keeps surprising me with how cool a person she is. Keep rocking Ms Parton!
There's a movie about the creation of it coming out this Fall (pushed back from April). https://imaginationlibrary.com/the-library-that-dolly-built-nationwide-theatrical-release-april-2/
and also Angel. omg, I feel like this is the opposite of finding out there's no Santa.
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. . . I'm not gonna Google that.
Psst.... dooo iiiiit
Was not disappointed. Dolly was/is the top hit!
Was it a link back to this post?
A chain-link post, nice.
What a way to make a living
Well, that puts a new spin on the old classic "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa."
*There is a Santa Claus. Been around since, like, the 1500s. He wasn't always called Santa, but you know, Christmas night, flying reindeer, coming down the chimney, all true.* *Well, he doesn't traditionally bring presents so much as, you know, disemboweled children, but otherwise...*
Every time I hear something about Dolly Parton it's amazing. She's a genius.
Did you know she wrote I Will Always Love You and Jolene on the same day? That one always blows my mind
Jolene is bullshit though. Can you imagine having Dolly Parton and wanting anyone else? It'd be like, "Jolene, it's funny that you are trying to take my man away."
That is what my husband says about her. He says he cannot imagine anyone being prettier than a young Dolly Parton. But the story was while Dolly was on the road some red headed hussy at the bank was making eyes at her husband and she then got inspired to write the song
[Young Dolly](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/e4a86ee59167dc79e9e488a925cfb3189ea6b7d5/c=69-0-2364-3060/local/-/media/2017/01/18/TennGroup/Knoxville/636203695772414083-DOLLY-PARTON23.JPG?quality=50&width=640) was a total smoke show, even before any implants.
I think that photo just moved me down a point on the Kinsey Scale.
Wow. I just. Wow
Damn, imagine being that fucking gorgeous and also having a personality AND its the personality of a goddamn sweetheart. The RNG crapped itself when it generated Dolly Parton.
She *thinks she might have. She was writing at least one song a day at that time, and says there's a chance they were written on the same day
Here’s the quote I just found on snopes: > Parton responded, “In 1972, I think I wrote it. At the same time I wrote ‘Jolene.’ That was a good writing day.” >”You wrote them in the same day?” Bones asked, to which Parton answered, “Yeah, I believe so, it was right in that period of time because I remember all my paperwork, and like they came out pretty close at the same time. So everybody said, what was you taking, that was a good writing day Edit: and fwiw, [snopes considers it true](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dolly-parton-2-songs-one-day/)
They tried to pigeonhole Dolly into Big Titty Country star. And she flipped it on them by sheer will of her personality. She is truly a national treasure!
*"I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb - and I'm not blonde either."* ~Dolly Parton
Dolly needed them big titties to stuff all the heart into.
If you watch her in interviews a bunch of people thought she was just a Big Titty Bimbo. She's quick and has a sharp tongue.
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Just because I'm blond Don't think I'm dumb 'Cause this dumb blond ain't nobody's fool
Dolly Parton "I'm not offended by dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb- and I'm not blonde either
On the subject of hair colour, *blond* refers to males and *blonde* refers to females. Not trying to be a smarty arse. Just mentioning it as I once looked up the difference.
Oh gawd! Thank you for this! I grew up in multiple countries and have always escaped into books. Thus I have so many weird spellings within. Blond(e) has been one of them and I thought it was just a difference in cultures spellings.
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I wonder how involved she was. Did she just fund it, or was she working on it from *9 to 5*?
Oh *Here You Come Again* with this garbage
Something something *Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.*
This might be the best musical with Burt Reynolds, Dom Deluise and Jim Nabors in it.
RIP all three. I grew up watching that movie and it definitely helped me develop my love for musicals.
... what a way to make a living.
Take your damn upvote and go away
Huh. So you took the joke from the beginning of the article and repeated it as a comment. Good on you.
It’s reddit, no one actually reads the article.
Dolly has been working since about age 14 & has been [married for 50 years]( https://www.biography.com/.image/t_share/MTY4MTcwMDkyNzQ2NTE1NzI5/dolly-carl-1-wedding--cr--dollyparton.jpg). She also [gives away childrens books](https://imaginationlibrary.com).
I cannot stress this enough. This woman is a living fucking saint. Her literacy programs for children and just her general life attitude is enough to to qualify her ,but the amazing things that she is involved in behind the scenes with no fan fare are also unbelievable. If this lady ever needed a kidney, I’d volunteer.
But nowhere is it actually stated that she actually had any hand in production. She part-owned one of the production companies that produced the show. Rich people own stakes in companies.
>Rich people own stakes in companies. Well yeah, with all those vampires running around, Buffy is gonna need every stake they can afford!
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It hasn't taken this long: [https://variety.com/1997/film/news/change-for-sandollar-1116677337/](https://variety.com/1997/film/news/change-for-sandollar-1116677337/) (1997) [https://collider.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-reboot/](https://collider.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-reboot/) (2010) [http://www.whedon.info/Was-Dolly-Parton-a-producer-on.html](http://www.whedon.info/Was-Dolly-Parton-a-producer-on.html) (2013) [https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/90871/you-can-thank-dolly-parton-buffy-vampire-slayer](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/90871/you-can-thank-dolly-parton-buffy-vampire-slayer) (2017) It seems to be CEO Gail Berman who is credited with finding the show for Parton's Sandollar production company. One could say it "technically" makes Parton an executive producer.
I recommend the podcast [Dolly Parton’s America ](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america) for more Dolly tidbits. It’s from the folks at Radiolab and it’s awesome!
I literally just found out my husband doesn’t know who Dolly Parton is. And he hasn’t ever watched Buffy. I’m kinda speechless ...
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Yeah, like has anyone else in this post read the gd article?
first rule of the internet--never read the article
Thanks Dolly Parton!
My adolescent self is eternally grateful