Legendary words

"Beam me up, Scotty" was never said: Revisiting classic TV catchphrases

Some lines are so famous that our brains can complete them after hearing the first two words. Writers and stars of some of the most successful TV shows in history made sure of that. An estimated 93 million Americans watched the finale of Cheers, and tens of millions more grew up with Star Trek and I Love Lucy. How could we not remember the words most often associated with them? There may have been a time when expressions like "Ayyyy," "D’oh!", or "Yabba dabba doo!" made no sense. But these 10 catchphrases have become cultural icons in their own right.

True Star Trek fans know that Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty" in any television episode or film. Not once, across three seasons, six movies, and hundreds of hours of footage.

Kirk came close several times. For example, in a 1967 episode, he said "beam me up," in a 1969 episode, he said "Scotty, beam us up, fast!" and in the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, he said, "Scotty, beam me up". But the exact, iconic phrase, as it is so often repeated, was never spoken.

The misquote took on a life of its own through parody, merchandise, and decades of retelling. The misquotation's influence even led James Doohan, who played Scotty, to use the phrase as the title of his 1996 autobiography.

The second great misquote in television history, and arguably the most astonishing one. I Love Lucy ran for 180 episodes across six seasons and is one of the most-watched shows in American TV history. But Ricky Ricardo never said the line that the whole world attributes to him.

He did say variations like "Lucy, 'splain" or "All right, start 'splaining," but never the famous combined phrase. The line grew in the cultural imagination through decades of impersonation, parody, and retelling. But it’s close enough to be recognizable.

Fred Flintstone's thunderous victory cry stems from a hair product jingle. When he was recording lines for an episode of The Flintstones, Alan Reed stepped up to the microphone. The script indicated only one word: "Yahoo!" But Reed had heard his mother repeatedly use the phrase "A little dab'll do ya", an advertising jingle for Brylcreem hair cream, and from that memory, he ad-libbed "Yabba dabba doo!" on the spot.

The producers loved it immediately and kept it in. The Flintstones, which premiered on ABC in 1960, became the first animated series to air in primetime, running for six seasons and 166 episodes. Fred's cry became so embedded in American culture that it outlasted the show by decades; it was used in advertising, politics, sports arenas, and everyday life.

Screenwriter Ben Starr said that young star Gary Coleman was "a born showman who read lines like an old pro." That was because, while Starr had originally written the more mundane "What are you talking about, Willis?", the 8-year-old actor gave the line the twist that made it a phenomenon.

His portrayal of Arnold Jackson, small, sharp, and endlessly suspicious of his older brother's schemes, made him one of the most recognizable child stars in America. Coleman spent much of his adult life being asked to repeat it, and reportedly came to resent it.

Every episode, the same ritual: the bar door swings open, a large man in a rumpled suit shuffles in, and the entire room erupts in a single, joyful shout: "Norm!" It happened 270 times over eleven seasons.

Actor George Wendt, who played Norm Peterson, later said the live audience’s response to his entrance was so overwhelming that the cast would sometimes have to pause several seconds before continuing. Cheers premiered on NBC in 1982, ran for 275 episodes, and won 28 Emmy Awards, which was a record at the time. Its finale in 1993 drew 80.4 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched television episodes in American history.

Unexpectedly, the most famous grunt in television history traces back to a mustachioed Scottish character actor from the 1930s. Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson, explained that his choice of the exclamation was an homage to comic Scottish actor James Finlayson, who used a drawn-out "Do-o-o-o!" as a stand-in for a stronger word.

First heard in a Tracey Ullman Show short in 1988, it became Homer's defining sound when the series premiered in 1989. The screenwriters for The Simpsons never wrote the word "D'oh"; it appears only as "annoyed grunt." Despite this, it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2001, the only TV catchphrase to earn that distinction.

The sound is difficult to spell and instantly recognizable to anyone who watched American television in the 1970s. Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli's leather-jacketed, thumbs-up greeting merited a bronze statue on the Milwaukee Riverwalk in Wisconsin, the city where the show was set. And yet, did you know that the creators never planned for this signature gesture?

Actor Henry Winkler developed it organically as the character took shape. Happy Days, created by Garry Marshall, premiered on ABC in 1974 and ran for eleven seasons. Winkler's Fonz was supposed to be a supporting character; instead, he became the most famous person on the show.

The cultural footprint was massive. In 1980, Winkler donated one of Fonzie's leather jackets to the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where it has been exhibited since.

Walter Cronkite's CBS Evening News became the first half-hour network weeknight news broadcast in 1963. In an effort to punctuate the longer format and personalize it, Cronkite conceived and delivered for the first time his iconic sign-off: "And that's the way it is."

He used it for the next eighteen years, through the Kennedy assassination, the Moon landing, Vietnam, and Watergate. Every event that defined a generation concluded with the same seven quiet, certain words. Of course, keeping to the standards of objective journalism, he deliberately omitted the phrase on nights when he ended the broadcast with his own opinion rather than reported facts.

The discipline of knowing when the phrase applied may have contributed to making him the most trusted man in America, as a poll in 1972 indicated.

No catchphrase on this list required more work to maintain. In 120 episodes across three seasons, Burt Ward's Robin delivered the phrase to Adam West’s Batman with a different word every single time. It meant the writers needed to take meticulous records to ensure they never repeated themselves.

The collection became known among fans as "the Holyism." The results ranged from the logical "Holy smoke!" to the creative "Holy bijou!", and the gloriously absurd "Holy uncanny photographic mental processes!".

The show premiered on ABC in 1966 and ran twice a week in its first season, with a scheduling innovation that left audiences on a cliffhanger every Wednesday and resolved it every Thursday.

On CBS, Edward R. Murrow chose these five words to close every broadcast of "See It Now," the newsmagazine and documentary series. The most noted episode of the program came in March 1954, when Murrow used the broadcast to take on Senator Joseph McCarthy directly, letting the senator condemn himself through his own recorded words.

Murrow's closing that night was precise: "Cassius was right: 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.' Good night, and good luck." The broadcast is credited with significantly contributing to McCarthy's political downfall.

NAME ANCESTRY

14 Surprising Origin Stories Behind State Names In The USA

Image: Pin Adventure Map

Ever wondered where most US states’ names come from? From Native American roots to foreign or made-up words, the stories behind many of them are riddled with surprising historical references. Although the origin of some US states’ names is fairly obvious, many derive from unexpected people or places. The origin of names like Colorado, Montana, or Nevada are easy to infer —especially if you know a bit of Spanish— but many others have Native American origins with intriguing meanings. Some are even derived from fiction. If you ever wanted to know where names like Oregon, Connecticut, or Wisconsin come from, you are in the right place. Enjoy the surprising etymologies behind some of the names that make our country.

Image: Joshua Woroniecki

Interestingly, for a state whose main economic activity is agriculture, the word Alabama comes from the Choctaw language and can be translated as "plant-cutters" or "vegetation pickers", recalling the farming practices of the Native Americans that lived in this area.

Image: olio creative

Alaska is a corruption of an Aleut word that means "mainland", but can be translated literally as "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed". This is one of those names that manage to bring poetry into a word as simple and down-to-earth as land.

Image: Vital Sinkevich

This one comes from… a Spanish adventure novel! Bet you didn’t expect that. In Las Sergas de Esplandin by Garcia Ordez de Montalvo, a book from the 1500s, there is a fictional place called the "Island of California". Even when the modern state of California is clearly not an island, some die-hard fanatic of the novel decided to bring the name to life here in the U.S.

Image: Juliette Dickens

Derived from the Algonquian word quinnehtukqut, which can be translated as "besides the long tidal river", in reference to the river Connecticut. If you are wondering what the "tidal" part means exactly, this is because the Connecticut River's flow and level are effectively influenced by tides along much of its course. Certainly some amazing insight into the rigorous knowledge of local hydrology that Native Americans managed to accrue over the centuries.

Image: Luke McKeown

Although the origin of this name is disputed, there are two main theories. One suggests that the islands may have been named after Hawaii Loa, their traditional discoverer. However, others have speculated that it is actually derived from the ancient Polynesian word hawaiki, meaning "place of the gods".

Image: NEOM

Another crazy one. Although the name was first claimed to be derived from a Shoshone word that meant "Gem of the Mountains", it is highly likely that the word was fabricated by George M. Willing, and meant as a practical joke.

Image: Stéfano Girardelli

Quite literally, "land of Indians", using a Latin suffix. The word Indians originally referred to the ancient dwellers of the shores of the Indus River, in South and Central Asia.

Image: NOAA

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!" said Dorothy, from The Wizard of Oz, right after a rampant tornado literally lifted her house in the air and took it to God knows where. Well, this US state’s fame for violent winds predates even the first settlers, since Kansas is a Native American word used by the Dakota, strongly related to the idea of "wind".

Image: Drew Beamer

This state owes its name to an Iroquoian word that means "land of tomorrow". Quite a blockbuster-worthy movie title, if you ask me.

Image: Mercedes Mehling

The origin story behind the name of "The Pine Tree State" is still disputed. However, there are some interesting theories. One states that it derives from "mainland", as a form of distinction from the many coastal islands in the vicinity. Other theories propose that it was named in honor of Henrietta Maria, queen of England, or after the province of Mayne in France.

Image: Anthony Cantin

To the Native Americans that lived in this region, Missouri meant "town of the large canoes", as the Missouri tribes were renowned for their skill in making dugout canoes.

Image: Ashley Levinson

A largely disputed one. Many suggest that the name has Spanish origins, being similar to other words like orejón (meaning "big ear") or orégano, in reference to a type of plant (similar to the Mediterranean oregano) that grows in the southern part of the state.

Image: Donnie Rosie

This is the only state that has a part of its founder’s name in it. It is widely believed that Pennsylvania means "Penn’s Woodland", and was named as such in honor of Sir William Penn, father of its founder William Penn.

Image: Brydon McCluskey

This is probably a French corruption of a native Miami word that meant "it lies red" or "river running through a red place", in reference to the bed of the river Wisconsin.

If our quick dive into the peculiar world of US state names wasn’t enough to quench your curiosity, stay around! We will keep uploading more content related to language and the weird stories and etymologies behind many English and foreign words.