A surprising number of horror movies that were the stuff of nightmares for baby boomers are a source of laughter for younger viewers.

Some movie moments feel so inevitable that imagining the film without them is almost impossible. Yet a surprising number of 1980s classics came dangerously close to losing the very scenes audiences would spend decades quoting, imitating, and remembering.

Sometimes, deeply flawed or bizarre films gain a second life and become cult classics—not for their brilliance, but for how bad they are.

Discover famous actors who became unrecognizable beneath terrifying horror movie makeup, from Boris Karloff's Frankenstein monster to Nicolas Cage in Longlegs, and explore Hollywood's most shocking and unforgettable onscreen transformations.

There was a time when television viewers could identify a detective by his car, coat, hat, voice, or favorite expression before the opening credits even finished. Many of those characters once returned to living rooms every week, yet some have quietly slipped out of everyday pop-culture memory.

The 80s gave us some TV dramas that seemingly never went away. Mention Dallas, Magnum, P.I., or Miami Vice and almost everyone immediately knows what you’re talking about. But then there are these shows. Seriously, how many do you remember?

WKRP in Cincinnati was one of TV's most unforgettable sitcoms. But the show struggled to survive on the network that made it famous.

Joan Crawford spent decades making sure Hollywood remembered her. But when she passed away in 1977, she left behind something her children would have a much harder time forgetting. It wasn’t a movie, an interview, or some unfortunate remark overheard at a party. This time, she had put it in writing.

Sally Kellerman became a Hollywood sensation playing Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan in 1970's *M*A*S*H*, but she reportedly faced doubts about being too attractive for the role. After landing the part, she faced an even bigger challenge: filming a notorious practical joke shower scene that left her character in an embarrassing and revealing situation. Kellerman later admitted she felt absolutely horrified and humiliated by the experience. But the bizarre lengths director Robert Altman went to capture her reaction, and the surprising effect the scene had on her career, made the story far more complicated than it first appeared.

Barbara Barrie seemed to disappear from Barney Miller just as the sitcom found its classic rhythm. Her quieter exit, however, was only one turn in a career that had already reached Cannes and Broadway, and still had decades of acting ahead.

Elizabeth Short became the Black Dahlia after her chilling 1947 murder launched one of Hollywood’s most haunting unsolved mysteries.