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From legal battles forcing creative workarounds to peculiar on-set demands, we're counting down the most insane rules that film and television shows were not allowed to break. Get ready for some of the wildest stories in production history.
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00:00So at its core, filmmaking is a feat of both collaboration and compromise, of hundreds of
00:05artists pooling their talents to produce art under a set series of constraints. But some
00:10of the requests that had to be met in order to get films off the ground were pretty mad.
00:14Blofeld couldn't be named on screen or have his face shown. For Your Eyes Only
00:201981's Roger Moore-starring Bond film For Your Eyes Only kicks off with a pre-titled
00:24sequence in which 007 dispatches a bald-headed, wheelchair-bound white cat owning antagonist
00:29by dropping him down a bloody chimney. The villain is credited as, ahem, bold-headed
00:33man with white cat, yet obviously bears an uncanny resemblance to iconic Bond baddie Ernst
00:38Stavro Blofeld. However, due to an ongoing legal dispute between Thunderball producer Kevin
00:43McClory and Eon Productions over the rights to Thunderball and by extension Blofeld, he
00:47could only be included in the film as a Blofeld-adjacent facsimile. Even though it's hilariously
00:52obvious to any fan watching that this is a Blofeld stand-in, the production had to ensure
00:56not to show the character's face or mention him by name for fear of triggering a massive
01:00lawsuit from McClory. And so, that pre-titled sequence is infamous for its awkward not-depiction
01:05of the character, which is made all the more bizarre given that there wasn't really any
01:09urgent need to put him in the movie at all.
01:11Contestants Can't Be Shorter Than Pat Sajak
01:14Wheel of Fortune
01:15Now, game shows are a staple of television, and have been so for several decades. Their enduring
01:21nature has allowed for a variety of these shows to emerge, and one of the most prolific examples
01:25of this is Wheel of Fortune. The nearly 50-year-old show's premise is rather straightforward, yet
01:31very, very appealing, and has seen dozens of contestants and winners over the years. In
01:35addition to this, hosts like Pat Sajak have made for truly affable hosts.
01:39All this said, the show has an odd rule that, while not harmful, is very, very strange. Players
01:45shorter than Sajak should stand on risers to appear to be the same height as the host. Before
01:50this, shorter players would stand on boxes, and this most likely made for an amusing sight behind
01:55the scenes. It might help level out the contestants on screen, but it's just so weirdly specific,
02:00and rather unnecessary. Despite this, the requirement is one of the show's unseen staples, and definitely
02:05adds to its weird charm.
02:06Only Deadpool can break the fourth wall. Deadpool and Wolverine
02:11Deadpool and Wolverine marked the official debut of Ryan Reynolds' fourth wall breaking
02:16Motormouth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and despite some sceptical expectations to the
02:22contrary, he indeed rocked up in full R-rated glory.
02:27Many also wondered precisely how Deadpool would be integrated into the MCU, given his tendency
02:33to address the audience with meta quips and gags, something the MCU is decidedly not really
02:39known for, even if a lot of scenes are basically poking fun at the fact that they're in a comic
02:45book movie. And as director Sean Levy revealed in an interview shortly before the film's
02:50release, himself, Reynolds, the screenwriters, and producer Kevin Feige agreed on a system
02:56whereby Deadpool would be the only character capable of breaking the fourth wall. The purpose
03:02of this was to preserve Deadpool's stature as the only unreliable narrator, whilst also ensuring
03:08that everyone else without this ability could be taken as seriously as possible and not be reduced
03:14to a mere gag. From that perspective, it totally makes sense, and it's fairly comic accurate too,
03:20which is a neat little bonus. Hugh Jackman even initially suggested that Wolverine also break the
03:26fourth wall during the movie, only for the idea to be swiftly shot down as Reynolds explained the
03:32system they were going with to him. It's fair to assume that this rule will remain in place for
03:37any future MCU films Deadpool appears in, most likely at least one of the two upcoming Avengers
03:42movies, which fill me with great fear and dread.
03:47No direct references to the MCU
03:49Deadpool
03:50Though Deadpool is of course a Marvel character, it's only recently that he's been included under
03:54the Marvel Studios banner, following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox. But when the first
03:59Deadpool movie was released back in 2016, it was a Fox property entirely unrelated to the MCU,
04:05and so couldn't in any direct way interact with aspects of that franchise. As a result,
04:09director Tim Miller had to be extremely careful with how he staged the film's finale between
04:13Deadpool and Ajax, which appears to take place on a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. But because a
04:17Fox
04:17Marvel movie couldn't legally include assets or designs owned by Marvel, during production the
04:22concept artist was ordered to ensure the totally-not-a-helicarrier wasn't an exact replica of the MCU's own
04:28version. And for his part as well, director Tim Miller offered up his own denial that it was intended to
04:32be a
04:32S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. But now that Disney owns Fox, I think it's going to be smooth
04:36sailing from here on out.
04:37An unsettling lack of privacy. Jersey Shore
04:40Now, reality TV is one of the most baffling trends that has emerged from the 21st century.
04:45And it does not seem to be dying down any time soon. The idea of following people around as they
04:50live
04:50their lives, however scripted that may be, seems very trite and invasive in some cases. The latter
04:56is most definitely the case with Jersey Shore, one of MTV's most enduring, and not in a good way,
05:01reality shows. But one of the weird stipulations is that the show's cast was not allowed to use
05:05cell phones in its early days, and in its place, they had to use the duck phone. The duck-shaped
05:10phone was the primary communication device between the castmate's house and all of their conversations
05:15bar one were recorded. The latter was a strange mandate and made some newbies to the show wonder
05:20why the cast's private conversations were recorded in the first place. It was probably meant to
05:24manufacture tension or big reveals, but it was so odd to see that these sometimes very personal
05:29conversations were just played out on screen for audiences.
05:33Godzilla Can't Eat People
05:35Godzilla Minus One
05:38Toho, the Japanese studio behind Godzilla, revealed a new set of rules which govern all
05:43Godzilla movies from 2024 onward, including the recent Godzilla X Kong The New Empire and
05:51Godzilla Minus One. I'll let you figure out which one of those movies has the, uh, the
05:57better title, and is also a better movie. Hint, it's not the American one.
06:03Now, one of the more obvious rules is that Godzilla cannot die, though presumably he can still be
06:09mortally wounded as long as he is shown to be regenerating by the film's ending, but more
06:14intriguingly, Toho has also mandated that Godzilla can't eat people. The wording actually says
06:21that Godzilla can't quote unquote prey upon humans. And given that he generally has little
06:27regard for human safety in Minus One in particular, it's a fair interpretation that Toho is actually
06:33referring to the notion of Godzilla hunting humans for food. Or sport. Pick your poison.
06:39Also, Q putting an image of Tommy Lee Jones' K in front of Zilla and screaming,
06:43EAT ME and being ignored repeatedly.
06:46And while the knee-jerk reaction is to question why this even needs to be a written rule at all,
06:53in the context of Godzilla's legacy and audience expectations, it does seem fair enough. Like,
06:59you wanna go for a drink and hang out with Godzilla and don't really be chewed up by him, not
07:05gonna lie.
07:06Like, nobody's watching a Godzilla movie to see him chug down a skyscraper full of office workers,
07:10like a pack of Skittles, as fun as that honestly sounds.
07:15Actually, yeah. Let Godzilla have one human. That's a treat.
07:20The villain couldn't use an iPhone. Knives Out.
07:23Rian Johnson is just one of many filmmakers who's had to deal with this restriction,
07:27but he is definitely the director who's been most vocal about it in recent years.
07:30Though Apple did indeed provide iPhones for Johnson's brilliant murder mystery Knives Out,
07:35it did come with a strict caveat that the phones not be used by any villainous characters on screen.
07:39Like most major companies, Apple are extremely, one could argue,
07:43pathetically protective over how their brand is portrayed, and were seemingly fearful that having
07:47a murderer use an iPhone could create an unsavory connection in audiences' minds.
07:51Tellingly, then, most of Knives Out's suspects can be seen using an iPhone at one time or another,
07:56except for Ransom, who of course turns out to be the killer. Johnson was reluctant to reveal this
08:00deal, as he's effectively given away the game for not only his fellow filmmakers, but for himself.
08:04Basically, if you see any character in a movie using an iPhone, they're not going to be the bad guy.
08:10Referencing the movie was forbidden.
08:12Hannibal The short-lived but much-beloved
08:14Hannibal prequel series worked due to its captivating lead performances,
08:18unique visual style, and brutal but well-crafted storytelling.
08:22Its nature as a prequel meant that the series was not going to touch on key elements of The Silence
08:26of the Lambs, or at least not in the earlier episodes. This was further compounded by various
08:31rights-wrangles surrounding the ownership of the film and the book that it was based on.
08:35This meant that any character who originated in the above-mentioned story could not appear in the
08:39show, as well as the only characters available to the showrunner and writers were from the
08:43relatively lesser-known books, such as Red Dragon. Therefore, its overall plot had to be
08:47structured around the book and adapt a rather convoluted timeline, at least for those that have read the
08:52books. Despite this, the show worked on its merits and was able to deliver a captivating tale in its
08:57brief time on air. Peter Parker can't use Google. The Amazing Spider-Man.
09:03When The Amazing Spider-Man was released back in 2012, many fans poked fun at the fact that Peter
09:08Parker, played by Andrew Garfield, used Microsoft's unpopular search engine Bing rather than Google,
09:16like, you know, just about everyone else in the western world. This was, of course, because Microsoft
09:21paid the production to feature Bing, resulting in several scenes where the web slinger is shown
09:27researching information using said search engine. To many, it just didn't track that a person as
09:33smart as Peter would be using such an objectively inferior search engine when Google is, you know,
09:40right there. But of course, Peter was contractually prohibited from using Google because it would
09:46cause a conflict of interest with the Bing product placement and open the production up to
09:51a legal challenge from Microsoft. However, Sony evidently took all that mockery to heart,
09:56as by the time The Amazing Spider-Man 2 rolled into theatres two years later and Bing had failed to
10:02make much of an impression for anyone, Peter jumped ship to Google. The irony now of course being that
10:09not only is The Amazing Spider-Man a relic for its Bing inclusion, but so is its sequel, given it
10:14depicts
10:15a time and place where Google had, you know, a functioning search engine that wasn't full of AI slop.
10:22Yeah, yeah, take that Google.
10:24No Guns For The Angels
10:26Charlie's Angels
10:28So in addition to being one of the film's three stars, Drew Barrymore was also a producer on the
10:332000 blockbuster adaptation of Charlie's Angels, having acquired the movie rights to the property
10:37years earlier. This gave Barrymore major creative control over the film, and one of her primary
10:42mandates was that the Angels never fire guns throughout. Now, it was an odd choice, given that
10:46the original TV show had regularly featured the trio operating firearms, and yet Barrymore preferred
10:50to have them triumph through their martial arts abilities and tech skills. As creative impositions go,
10:55it's at least somewhat admirable from a moral perspective, even if the No Guns rule probably felt like
10:59a rather extreme restriction to the screenwriters and was totally ignored in the reboot.
11:03He wouldn't ever hurt a pigeon. Spider-Man
11:07The 1994 Spider-Man animated series is considered to be one of the best superhero animated shows,
11:13and with good reason. It was a faithful adaptation of the classic tales featuring Spidey and handled
11:19the characters and arcs with a reverence that was not even found in live-action comic book adaptations
11:23at the time. Despite all of this, Spider-Man's action set pieces were a bit wanting due to
11:28censorship rules. This meant that punches couldn't be thrown by characters, breaking windows and fires
11:33were seen as taboo, blood could definitely not be shown on screen, and that the Sinister Six
11:38oddly had to have its name changed to the Insidious Six. However, none of these rules can even hold a
11:43candle to the weirdness that is its pigeon censorship. For some inexplicable reason, Fox Kids couldn't show
11:49Spider-Man imperiling the bird on screen, and landing on rooftops could not disturb a group of pigeons.
11:55This request, as amusing as it is, makes one wonder. Who would want to show Spider-Man fighting pigeons?
12:02That's just odd.
12:03No scenes of excess passion. It Happened One Night
12:091934's iconic romantic comedy, It Happened One Night, was released a few short months before the MPPDA
12:16began strictly enforcing the Hays Code, a set of self-censorship guidelines in an attempt to cut down on
12:23quote-unquote, objectionable content in Hollywood movies. Though It Happened One Night was produced
12:29and released before The Code came into effect, director Frank Capra nevertheless appreciated that
12:36adhering to its rulings would allow his film to be far more commercially successful, and so he did.
12:42The Code had specific guidelines about filmmakers avoiding depictions of sexuality and, as they put it,
12:49excess passion. Yet, with Capra's movie revolving around the charged romance between saucepot Clark
12:55Gable and Claudette Colbert's characters, he found himself in a bit of a bind. As the two leads spend
13:02much the film in isolation together, Capra came up with a clever compromise. When they sleep in the
13:08same room for the first time, Gable's protagonist Peter hangs a blanket over a clothesline, creating a
13:15barrier between him and Colbert's Ellie. At film's end, this blanket falls straight to the floor,
13:21emphatically implying that the sexual union between the two finally happens, even while showing nothing
13:27that could be considered even remotely racy, adhering to the Code's rules in the process.
13:33None of Jimi Hendrix's music could be used. Jimi All Is By My Side
13:392013's Jimi Hendrix biopic Jimi All Is By My Side came and went without much of a peep,
13:44despite starring a perfectly cast Andre 3000 in the title role, in large part because the film didn't
13:49include any music written by Hendrix. The filmmakers were unable to secure Hendrix's songs from his estate for
13:54use in the film, forcing writer-director John Ridley to alter the scope of his movie,
13:58focusing it instead in Hendrix's early years as he rose to prominence. And so we never see Hendrix
14:03play any of his most beloved songs, instead largely playing covers of other people's songs
14:08that he was known to have performed in the mid-to-late 1960s. It seems like a movie-breaking
14:12restriction, really, and though the end result is still an interesting experiment topped by a
14:16fantastic performance from Andre 3000, it is absolutely missing the undeniable kick and pizzazz
14:21that Hendrix's music would have given it. As such, Jimi All Is By My Side fascinatingly
14:26underlines the tension inherent in making any musical biopic, and why so many of them end up
14:31as sanitized, estate-endorsed nonsense. The Walking Dead and Its Odd Choice of Language
14:36AMC's The Walking Dead is one of the goriest and most violent shows on cable television,
14:41and with good reason. It does not shy away from zombie and human carnage, often lingering on what
14:46surviving in such a world takes. Despite being on cable and featuring disturbing content, a particular
14:52swear word has never been uttered by the show's cast. Now, saying the word f**k is one of the more
14:57vulgar expletives out there, but it seems like it would definitely feel at home in such a show as this,
15:01right? Well, not quite, as AMC regulations stipulate that you could not say that, but every
15:06other curse word could be used. This is odd due to the aforementioned mature content of the show,
15:11and that other things like racial slurs were used in the show's earlier seasons.
15:14It also makes for clunky scenes where intense conversations between characters feel oddly
15:18sanitized compared to the violence surrounding them. It just goes to show how no one is safe
15:23from absurd rules and censors, not even gory, nihilistic zombie shows.
15:27No unbiblical behavior. The King of Kings, 1927.
15:32Cecil B. DeMille's 1927 biblical epic The King of Kings went to extreme lengths to ensure that it
15:38wouldn't suffer any negative PR blowback as a result of the conduct of its main cast.
15:43The Mill infamously had stars HB Warner and Dorothy Cumming, who played Jesus and Mary respectively,
15:50sign agreements to ensure they wouldn't do anything to compromise the film's public image.
15:56This included avoiding quote unquote unbiblical activities during shooting, such as going to
16:03ballgames or nightclubs, playing cards, swimming or even riding in a convertible.
16:10Because you know, the 11th commandment, we all remember that one, right?
16:14THOU SHALL NOT LOOK COOL AS HELL IN YOUR MOTOR VEHICLE.
16:19Really important.
16:20Ok, so beyond this, DeMille also demanded that the pair couldn't star in any other films that might
16:26compromise their quote unquote holy screen roles for an entire five year period.
16:33But worst of all, DeMille also attempted to prevent Cumming from divorcing her husband,
16:37Frank Elliott, during and after production for fear that it would upset Christian audiences.
16:43Though in this case, his demand was ultimately and rightly ignored.
16:48To call these rules extreme is quite the understatement, and certainly not something any filmmaker could
16:54get away with of asking talent today. At least I hope so.
16:58The Rules of the Dogma 95 Manifesto
17:00Festin
17:01Thomas Vinterberg's acclaimed 1998 black comedy Festin was the first entry into the Danish Dogma 95
17:08cinematic movement, started by Vinterberg and fellow Dane filmmaker Lars von Trier. The pair created an
17:13artistic manifesto, effectively a checklist of ten rules for films made under the Dogma 95 banner,
17:18in an attempt to create movies that deferred to a story and character over special effects.
17:22The rules were as follows. 1. Location shooting only, with no additional props. 2. No extra
17:27diegetic sound. 3. Handheld camera work only. 4. Shot in color, with no additional lighting.
17:325. No VFX or camera filters. 6. No superficial actions such as murder.
17:377. No temporal and geographical alienation. 8. No genre movies. 9. It must be projected in 35mm
17:43academy format. 10. The director goes uncredited.
17:47Vinterberg's Festin was the first film produced under these constraints, and though the director later
17:51admitted to bringing in an outside prop for lighting purposes, in turn breaking two rules at
17:55once, shock horror, for the most part he adhered rigidly to the agreed regulations. And truly,
17:59Festin is a technically stripped-back film free of typical cinematic affectations. It was shot on a
18:04Sony Handycam with regular mini-DV cassettes and without any sort of post-produced sound.
18:09Festin went on to receive rave reviews from critics and won the jury prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.
18:14Despite Vinterberg being uncredited, it also helped establish his fledgling international career as a
18:19filmmaker. A pregnancy scare, just not the way you would expect. I Love Lucy.
18:24If you ever want a reminder of how prudish mainstream TV was, and sometimes still is,
18:29look back in time to 8 December 1952, the day that saw the release of the 10th episode of the
18:34second season of I Love Lucy. The beloved black-and-white sitcom was a mainstay in American
18:40households for the better part of the 1950s, and placed its cast in era-appropriate hijinks.
18:45The aforementioned episode saw Lucy discovering that she was pregnant,
18:48and hilarity ensues from her attempts to tell her husband of the good news.
18:52What was supposed to be a wholesome episode had the weirdest behind-the-scenes wrangles, though,
18:57as CBS executives balked at the idea of saying the word pregnant on air. This led to terms such as
19:03with child or expecting being used in its place. And while this did not detract from the episode's
19:08overall narrative, it's an amusing peek into the absurdly conservative sensibilities of studio
19:12executives back in the day. No eyebrow movement. Nosferatu, 2024.
19:19During the lead-up to the release of Robert Eggis' quite good reimagining of Nosferatu,
19:25star Nicholas Hoult revealed that the director had one very peculiar rule for the entire cast.
19:31Don't move those eyebrows!
19:37Halt arrived to shoot his role in the horror film, and soon discovered to his surprise that Eggis
19:43hates it when actors move their eyebrows during takes. Eggis himself has elaborated on this
19:49rationale, saying that, quote, I don't like actors to move their eyebrows, cause you just waste a lot
19:55of energy and the actor doesn't seem as focused and doesn't seem as committed. Okay, so in fairness,
20:01there's probably an argument to be made that if an actor has to spend time and energy focusing on
20:06their eyebrows, then they're probably not going to have their attention fully dialed in to performing
20:11the scene in question. I mean, it's kind of effortless for me, but like, maybe other people
20:16have to concentrate really, really hard to start their hairy caterpillars? Who knows? Let me know down
20:22in the comments below! Do you have to do a lot of concentration to do this? Or this? Or this?
20:28I'm curious.
20:29Okay, that's enough eyebrow malarkey. Clearly Eggis' track record shows that this is maybe
20:34a good idea, even if you watching Nosferatu have likely noticed the lack of eyebrow acrobatics.
20:41Heroic and more child-friendly turtles in the UK. TMNT
20:45At the height of its popularity, the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series encountered
20:52a most peculiar challenge across the pond. Its UK release saw the beloved Toon change its name
20:57to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and had scenes where Michelangelo wields his iconic nunchucks
21:02replaced by random clips from the show. This was due to the BBFC director James Furnan imposing
21:08strict guidelines on British film and television, specifically on the display and use of weapons
21:12in movies and series. It turns out that Furnan and many others of his ilk were worried by the
21:17weapon's rise of popularity following the release of Enter the Dragon 14 years prior. The ironic bit
21:23is that more dangerous weapons feature in the movie, but future shows and films never censor the use of
21:29guns or swords in their action set pieces. Ultimately, the series' animator had to replace
21:33Mikey's nunchucks with a grappling hook known as the turtle line for the show's fourth season.
21:38It didn't detract from the series as a whole, but it's definitely weird to watch the two versions
21:42side by side.
21:43Art the Clown can't explicitly kill children on screen. Terrifier 3.
21:50On paper, it sure seems like the Terrifier franchise is all about breaking the rules and tossing
21:56good taste into the wind, but even this gore-happy series appears to have its limits.
22:04In an interview shortly after the release of last year's smash hit Terrifier 3,
22:09filmmaker Damien Leone revealed that there was one line he simply couldn't bring himself to cross,
22:15explicitly showing Art the Clown killing children on screen. Leone certainly gets extremely close to
22:23this line though, given that the film opens up with the implication that Art butchers a young girl,
22:29and later in the movie he sets off bombs at a mall which very clearly kill a number of kids.
22:35Leone's distinction is that there is a measure of disconnection in these acts, because we never see
22:40Art directly murdering a child with his bare hands, such as stabbing or shooting them. The director
22:46ultimately felt that he'd risk alienating most of the audience by explicitly showing Art killing a
22:52kid and that he'd simply be deigning to cheap shock value in that particular instance. So, um,
22:59thanks for sparing us that Damien, I guess.