(Margot Robbie), a real-life ingenue who was eight and a half months pregnant and married to the Polish
director Roman Polanski when she was brutally murdered along with other house guests by members of the
cult led by Charles Manson.
Here’s a glossary to sort out the real references from the fake ones.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead
Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie
The actors who played the star’s sidekicks on The Dick Van Dyke Show are mentioned as next week’s
guests by Allen Kincaid (Spencer Garrett), a fictional Hollywood journalist who opens the movie by
interviewing Rick and Cliff.
Batman
The 1966-68 TV series is mockingly mentioned by Al Pacino’s character, an invented bigwig named Marvin
Schwarzs – not to be confused with Marvin Schwarz, who produced the 1969 hitman drama Hard
Contract. Batman stars Adam West and Burt Ward can also be heard during the closing credits promoting a
contest on the real radio station KHJ-AM.
The Big Valley and Bonanza
These TV westerns – the first one starred Barbara Stanwyck, the other Lorne Greene – are derided by Sam
Wanamaker (the real-life actor-turned-director played by Nicholas Hammond). Wanamaker tells Rick he
wants the TV western they’re making together, Lancer, to be hipper than those old-fashioned series.
CC and Company
This 1970 biker drama starring Joe Namath and Ann-Margret is promoted in a trailer when Tate goes to see
herself at the movies.
Cinerama Dome and the Vine Theatre
These actual movie palaces pop up in a montage of local landmarks that also includes the hot dog chain Der
Wienerschnitzel, the restaurants El Coyote, Casa Vega and Chili John’s, and the period prop and costume
shop the Supply Sergeant.
Combat!
This war drama starring Vic Morrow is advertised on the side of a bus.
Sergio Corbucci
The real Italian filmmaker is namechecked as “the second-best director of spaghetti westerns in the whole
wide world” (presumably after Leone). Corbucci’s actual movies included the recently re-released 1968 cult
favourite The Great Silence, but Once Upon a Time credits him with directing Rick in the imaginary flick
Nebraska Jim. During Rick’s time in Europe he acts opposite Telly Savalas, the Kojak star who did actually
appear in several Italian westerns, and marries Francesca Capucci, a fictitious actress.
Don’t Make Waves
Tate’s 1967 sex comedy, co-starring Tony Curtis and Claudia Cardinale, is memorialised in a poster at her
home on Cielo Drive.
Ron Ely
The star of the 1966-68 TV series Tarzan is mentioned by Rick – who had a recent guest shot on the jungle
show – as well as by the Pacino character, who mispronounces the star’s last name as “Ee-lie”. (It’s “Ee-