I wasn't forgetting GSA; it simply didn't have any bearing on the matter at hand. I did see the reboot film; it was better than The Nude Bomb (but then, that could be said of the worst episodes of both the TV series), but not as good as GSA. I saw TNB more than once, and I don't recall 99 ever being referenced. It was as if she didn't exist. And everything is easier to get away with on a sitcom.
Well, you were saying that in all of 99's appearances, her real name never came up, so I figured you were going for a comprehensive list. The problem with The Nude Bomb is that, instead of making a Get Smart movie, they just grafted Maxwell Smart into a James Bond spoof movie. As a Bond spoof, it's not that bad. It's just not Get Smart. It's bizarre... I could swear I remember a conversation between Max and Agent 13 where it was mentioned that 99 had passed away or left Max sometime before. But all the online references say 99 isn't mentioned at all.
Precisely. And the Max/99 chemistry was essential to Get Smart. (Which is to say, I vaguely recall Buck Henry asserting that it was a mistake for Max and 99 to get married; I could not possibly disagree more.)
I just recently came to the realization that in 11 seasons, including her wedding and appearances from multiple family members, Penny from The Big Bang Theory never got a last name. I watched the show from the beginning, and I never noticed it until I saw it mentioned online somewhere.
I'm shocked that the writers didn't give her a name like Penny Lane and do a series of lame and obvious jokes where the other main characters fail to recognize the name as a Beatles song title.
In my own novel-kinda-sorta-in-progress, and in some offshoot short stories, Spoiler: In case this might be construed as a "story idea" I have a character named Lucy. She's a pilot, and works for a small regional airline called Diamond Air.
The challenge with Penny's last name, after several seasons had passed, is that presumably it wasn't a mystery to her friends, neighbors, and boyfriend, just to the viewer. So how do you do a Big Reveal where everybody reacts to the name they've presumably known all along? "Wait! Your name is Penny Lane?" says her long-time friends and associates.
If I ever had daughters their names would have been Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields and Abbey Road. Never, in the years of watching the show and being a Beatles fan, did the idea that Penny's last name could be "Lane" cross my mind.
I find myself thinking of an episode of Major Dad, in which we learn that Polly has a middle name: Esther.
I was thinking how Homer Simpson didn’t know what the J initial for his middle name stood for until he found a mural painted by his mother and learned it was Jay.
Giving Homer and Bart the middle initial J, as well as revealing what it stood for in Homer's case, was an homage to Jay Ward cartoons such as Rocky and Bullwinkle, where every character was given the middle initial J as a joking reference to their creator -- Bullwinkle J. Moose, Rocket J. Squirrel, etc. (And gags such as a character referring to an "archfiend" and Bullwinkle asking, "Is that Arch J. Fiend?")
She did, in the series finale. During his Nobel acceptance speech, Sheldon introduces her as "Penny Hofstadter," indicating that she took Leonard's surname when they married. So she did get a last name — but her maiden name remains a mystery.
I remember an old episode of MASH in which Hawkeye was trying to get BJ to tell him what BJ stood for: one of the many answers he gave was that he was named after his aunt (Bea) and uncle (Jay).
Penny's father is named Wyatt Teller (Keith Carradine). Of course, that doesn't mean it's her surname, too. Strangely enough, Amy's father is played by Raymond Joseph Teller, the silent half of magician team Penn & Teller. Well, he did have that yellow crayon in his ear...
It wasn't his aunt and uncle, it was his parents. And he never gave an answer to the question directly. Throughout, Hawkeye kept asking what "B.J." stood for, and the only answer B.J. gave was "anything you want." In the end, they checked his service record, which just said "B.J. Hunnicutt." In frustration, Hawkeye asks, "Who names their kid B.J.?" He replied, "My mother, Bea Hunnicutt, and my father, Jay Hunnicutt." Hawkeye, completely flabbergasted, insists he say what it really stands for. B.J. smiles and says once again, "anything you want," and walks off.
I always interpreted that final answer as the actual truth -- that his legal name really is B.J., not short for anything (except Bea-Jay indirectly), and Hawkeye just wouldn't accept it. And since it doesn't actually stand for anything, B.J. was being truthful when he said it could stand for whatever you want.
Harry Truman's middle name was also just the letter "S," so it could stand for the names of both his grandfathers. I'd initially thought that that story was about Ulysses S. Grant, but it turns out that, while his middle name was also just the initial, he wasn't born with it, it was the result of a clerical error on his West Point admissions papers and it was just easier to go by a different name than to fix it.
I love this idea. I can't believe I missed both of those. I've always wondered about that. Wouldn't the fact that it was on his service record mean that it would have to be his legal name?