TV is a whole lot better than it used to be.
Over the past decade or so, so-called "prestige TV" has offered audiences superb acting, cinematic
style, unpredictable storylines, and an epic scope never before seen on the small screen.
Many of these shows are serious, sometimes devastating dramas with important things to
say.
But even brilliant productions like these crank out plenty of ridiculous and hilarious
bloopers and outtakes.
Breaking Bad
Child actors are unpredictable.
And the younger they are, the more unpredictable they can be.
But productions only have a limited time each day to use babies, so they can't wait around
for when the baby "feels" like acting, especially since they don't really know they're acting.
Nor do they care.
Take this Breaking Bad outtake, for example, in which the infant playing Holly White makes
some very interesting "choices" for her character …
"The kids, they, they, they are safe.
Of course they are."
"I don't think she feels very safe."
Game of Thrones
In this blooper from HBO's fantasy epic Game of Thrones, Kit Harington plays the corpse
of Jon Snow, his body laid out on a table for what will ultimately be his spooky resurrection
from the dead.
Snow is supposed to be naked in this scene, with only a modest, genital-concealing garment
preventing everyone on set from seeing Little Jon …
Deadwood
So many gag reels consist of actors forgetting their lines and swearing up a storm.
But what happens on a show like HBO's gritty western Deadwood, in which half of the dialogue
is already swearing?
The actors simply burst into song.
Or at least that's what happens when apparent Rolling Stones fan Ian McShane can't remember
what comes after a line that includes the words "start me" …
"Don't start me … Don't start me?
Oh!
'Start me up!
And you start me up, you whip me up, you put me down …'"
Sons of Anarchy
There's a lot of platonic male-on-male affection on Sons of Anarchy, especially in the form
of back-slapping bro hugs.
But while shooting one of the show's many action sequences, actor Ryan Hurst overestimates
how far he needs to move and winds up unusually close to his fellow gun-toting, cover-seeking
costar Charlie Hunnam …
"What do you want for Christmas?"
Hannibal
Bryan Fuller's artfully gory television adaptation of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter novels featured
many scenes of its central cannibalistic serial killer intricately preparing gourmet meals
in his beautiful kitchen.
A lot of that was likely achieved through the magic of editing, because in this blooper,
actor Mads Mikkelsen can't quite master the show-offy knife skills that would be second
nature to the character ...
"...invented in the 19th century."
Criminal Minds
Despite the gruesome subject matter of Criminal Minds, it looks like the cast and crew keep
things pretty light and loose on set.
He's no longer with the show, but Thomas Gibson seemed to have a pretty good time while he
was starring on the long-running CBS crime procedural — like the time it took him a
comically long time to put a pair of rubber gloves on …
"Y'know, your prostate is the, about the right size for a man your age."
Law & Order: SVU
When you're making a long-running crime series about the most appalling of crimes, allowing
yourself to laugh here and there on set is a good way for actors to cope with the depressing
material.
Case in point: former Law & Order:SVU star Christopher Meloni can't get over how funny
it is—and how utterly creepy he sounds—to ask a suspect for something rather unusual
"Would you mind if we took a DNA swab from inside your mouth?
Even I felt creepy."
"Would you mind if we took a DNA swab from inside your mouth?
It'll help us — Even I, I felt creepy again."
ER
The hit NBC hospital drama ER made George Clooney a superstar, and not long after, he
became one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.
He also had a unique way of coming up with some dialogue in the event that he forgot
a line while filming the incredibly fast-paced show …
"We're gonna try something.
I want you to close your eyes, I want you to think of — Think of me, with no clothes
on."
"Would you just shut up and kiss me?"
"Kiss me!"
Orphan Black
Tatiana Maslany plays many different clones on Orphan Black, but they're all pretty different.
For example, Alison Hendrix is a high-strung Type-A kind of person, Sarah Manning is a
self-sufficient and streetwise rogue, and the Ukrainian clone Helena always seems to
have really bad things happen to her.
In this scene, there's a scorpion that's supposed to be crawling all over Helena, but Maslany
just can't keep it together …
"Inside of …"
"It was perfect."
"That was so good!"
"So good!"
"I'm so sorry."
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