TOP TEN INITIALLY BAD FIRST DRAFTS OF WHAT LATER BECAME FAMOUS "RULE OF THREE" PHRASES

10) "I came, I saw, I grabbed a bite to eat." All that marching into the Battle of Zela had Caesar famished (and being in "Turkey" didn't help either). A little pasta and meatballs and "I conquered" was born.

9) "Bed, Bath and Happy Hour." Sure sounded good on paper. Until a few customers had a couple too many margaritas and took things well "beyond."

8) "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your wallets." Shakespeare initially thought it'd be a funny ice breaker at the opening of Mark Antony's speech in the play "Julius Caesar". The focus group?... not so much.

7) "It's a bird; it's a plane; it's Clark Kent without his hat and glasses, wearing some kind of leotard and a cape?" The copywriter was fired on the spot. You don't give up Superman's secret identity in the opening credits, dude!

6) "The R, the W and the A." Ya' know, for "Reading, Writing and Arithmetic"? "Not catchy enough; how 'bout we go with 'the three Rs'" were the notes.

5) "Once, Twice, Three Times as Shady." Early on Lionel Richie had trust issues with his sweetheart (who knew?). After a few heart-to-hearts and a lot of counseling he finally learned to believe in his "lady".

4) "Jean-Paul, Crackle and Pop." The Kellogg's brass thought Jean-Paul a bit pretentious, opting for something simple and quick. Ya' know, something with some "Snap" to it.

3) "Life, liberty and the pursuit of sappiness." A real head scratcher that was, thankfully, nixed. I mean, who pursues sappiness, except for the spelling-challenged producers of the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness"?

2) "Aerobics, lies and videotape." Initially this was to be a movie about dishonest exercise instructors who love being on camera but in the end the old "sex sells" adage prevailed.

And the number one initially bad first draft of what later became a famous "rule of three" phrase?

1) "The good, the bad and the indifferent."  Interestingly, the phrase actually caught on and was popular for a while... until things got "ugly".