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Friday, February 24, 2012

Who Shot J.R. Ewing?



How many of you love a good mystery?

I know I do. Some of my favourite forms of entertainment involve trying to piece together a mystery of some sort. Picking out all the clues, examining evidence, trying to point a finger at a suspect. I love stuff like that. It's a wonder that I didn't pursue a career in detective work or forensics.

No, actually, there's a couple of reasons. My suspicions are usually wrong, and I hate the sight of blood that is not my own. That's why I didn't go down that career path.

But I can't remember one instance in which I wasn't absolutely fascinated by the idea of mystery. Even as early as my formative years, I used to read mystery books. I was quite into the Hardy Boys Mystery books, as well as a special set of books called the Clue Mystery novel series that would have a bunch of mini-mysteries in each book. It was fun to read through the book and attempt to have the mystery solved before I got to the end of the story, seeing if I was on the right track or way off course.

It wasn't just books that got me hooked. I play a lot of video games on my Nintendo DS that have to do with mystery themes. Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk are a couple of my favourites, as well as the various games that require you to locate Carmen Sandiego.

In television, I'm also drawn to mystery related shows and storylines. I admit to actually getting hooked on a soap opera because they had a really big murder mystery going on in one of its plots (and admittedly kept watching said soap opera until it was cancelled). That's how much I love the genre known as mystery.

Today's blog topic has to do with one of the biggest mysteries in the history of prime time television. And, unfortunately for me, it aired the year before I was born, so I missed it when it originally aired. But, those of you who were lucky enough to have lived through the year 1980 might remember this 'who done it' mystery quite well. It was widely reported in newspapers and magazines for a six month period, and reportedly the Queen tried to get one of the stars of the program to spill the secret. Of course, he never told.



The mystery? Who shot J.R. Ewing on Dallas?

The mystery began on March 21, 1980. That was the day that the Dallas episode “A House Divided” aired. It was the final episode of the show's second season. And, J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) had been a very, very naughty man.



In the course of the season, J.R. Ewing had alienated almost everyone in his life. His younger brother Bobby was tired of J.R.'s ruthless scheming. His wife, Sue Ellen was an alcoholic who wanted to see her husband in a casket. Sue Ellen's scheming sister, Kristin was also angry at him for backing out on a promise he made her during an affair they had. There was Cliff Barnes, who had been J.R. Ewing's nemesis for years. Oh heck, why don't we just add Ellie, Jock, Pam, Lucy, Ray, and pretty much anyone else who had set foot in Southfork Ranch during late 1979 and early 1980? J.R. Ewing was that hated.

On March 21, 1980, someone took their revenge out on J.R. Ewing. And they did it with a bang.



That was quite typical of Dallas cliffhanger episodes. Some event would happen that would get people talking around office water coolers for weeks after the fact. Whether it was getting blown up in a car accident, or falling off of a building, or waking up and realizing that a whole season was just a bad dream, Dallas certainly didn't skimp on the dramatics and shock value with their end of season episode cliffhangers. In fact, it was the 1980 cliffhanger that could be considered the granddaddy of all Dallas cliffhangers that have ever aired.

Who shot J.R.?

The cliffhanger episode was elaborately done. Throughout the whole episode, almost everyone in J.R. Ewing's inner circle was rightfully annoyed at him for whatever reason, and throughout the whole episode, we saw everyone utter at least one threat against him. The list of suspects kept growing and growing. When the moment came, and the shot rang out, viewers were left wondering which person pulled the trigger.



And, unfortunately for viewers, the answer to that question wouldn't be revealed for quite some time.

Shortly after “A House Divided” screened on CBS, there was an actors strike that postponed filming of almost every prime time show for three months. Soon after that, in July 1980, another strike had taken place, this one being orchestrated by the Screen Actors' Guild. That strike delayed production by another eight weeks. Viewers had to wait until at least November 1980 before they learned whether J.R. Ewing would even survive being shot, and who the perpetrator was.

That must have been absolutely agonizing for viewers having to wait eight whole months for a conclusion to be brought forth. I know that had I been old enough to watch that storyline as it originally aired, I would have been on pins and needles waiting for the answers.

But with the longer than normal wait came lucrative advertising opportunities for retail outlets to cash in on the 'Who Shot J.R.” pandemonium.



During the summer of 1980, it wasn't an uncommon sight to see people wearing T-shirts and other articles of clothing asking the question 'Who Shot J.R.?”. Some even took it one step further, and wore clothing items reading “I Shot J.R.!”

Many betting places in the United Kingdom and the United States actually took bets from people who tried to predict who the shooter was. During the 1980 American presidential campaign, people from the Republican party passed out campaign buttons, insisting that a Democrat shot J.R.! Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter fired back by stating that he'd have no problem financing his campaign had he known who had pulled the trigger.

(Assuming that there was a reward for finding the shooter, that is.)

Did I mention that the general public were getting so antsy about who had shot J.R. Ewing that the cast members were often asked ad nauseum who had done it? Radio stations offered up speculation. Television interviews with actors were conducted, in which every single one kept quiet. As mentioned before, one cast member was vacationing in the United Kingdom while Dallas was on hiatus, and he happened to meet with the Queen Mother, who promptly asked him who the perpetrator was.

Alas, not even being the ruler of a nation was enough to get Larry Hagman to spill the secret. Larry Hagman was even offered a nice chunk of change in exchange for the name of the shooter. But, Larry later explained that anyone who did attempt to bribe them for information was simply wasting their time and money. At the time of the hiatus, Hagman claimed that nobody in the cast knew anything about the identity of the shooter. Whether or not there was any truth to that statement, it's hard to say. For the sake of this entry, let's just go ahead and believe it.

Viewers had to wait until November 21, 1980 until the answer revealed itself. A full eight months since J.R. Ewing was shot. Miraculously (despite the fact that in the real world, a person who was shot eight months ago would have likely died of blood loss if not by anything else), J.R. Ewing survived his shooting, but he was unable to identify his shooter, on account that the crime took place in darkness. It wasn't until Sue Ellen started to do a little bit of digging, and realized that there was only one person who could have done the dastardly deed.

Would you like to know who it is? Scroll down.













Keep scrollin'...you're almost there...













That's right. The shooter was none other than Kristin Shepard, revealed in the episode 'Who Done It?'



Sue Ellen explained that she stopped by Kristin's apartment holding the gun (at first, it was widely believed that Sue Ellen was the main suspect). Kristin had offered Sue Ellen a drink, knowing full well that Sue Ellen had been drinking quite a bit before arriving at her place, and knowing that Sue Ellen would more than likely pass out if she drank any more alcohol on top of the amount that she had already drank. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened.

Kristin picked up an unconscious Sue Ellen and helped her back into her car, but Kristin pocketed Sue Ellen's gun and kept it on her person. With Sue Ellen unable to do anything about it, Kristin snuck into J.R. Ewing's office and shot him. A few hours later, Kristin found a way into Sue Ellen's place, and stuffed the gun inside Sue Ellen's closet, in an attempt to frame her for the crime.

But, Sue Ellen discovered the nasty plan, and spilled every little detail to J.R., all in front of Kristin, effectively throwing her under the bus (and rightfully so). And, J.R. Is naturally furious about the whole thing, and is ready to call the police to have Kristin arrested. But then Kristin reveals that she has gotten pregnant, and well, you guessed it. J.R. Ewing just happened to be the father.

And since Maury Povich didn't have a talk show back in 1980, J.R. Ewing just had to take her word for it. After all, the scandal that would take place if Kristin gave birth to an Ewing heir in prison would spell financial disaster for Ewing Oil.

Oh, but don't worry. Karma has a way of working itself out. And, when the third season came to its conclusion in May 1981, Kristin received the ultimate comeuppance. And, in this case, J.R. Ewing had nothing to do with it.

At least, physically.

Since the 'Who Shot J.R.' storyline wrapped up, there have been many, many carbon copies and parodies released. In 1990, everyone was asking the question 'Who Killed Laura Palmer?' on the television series 'Twin Peaks' (it was Leland Palmer). Five years later, people wondered who shot Mr. Burns on the long-running animated series 'The Simpsons'. (It was Maggie Simpson)

Even soap operas had their own version of 'who done it' storylines, and on the British soap EastEnders, a storyline ran during early 2001 which posed the question 'Who Shot Phil Mitchell?' (It was Lisa.)

But, I think that it's a safe bet to say that the most memorable one was 'Who Shot J.R.?' Considering that at one time it was the most watched television program ever (until it was dethroned by the M*A*S*H series finale in 1983), I think it speaks for itself just how big it got.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

No More Copying For You!!!

This week on the Thursday Confessional, I thought that I would confess a regret that I have carried around with me for quite a while.

And, to lead up to this, a story about one of the worst years in my school career.

For any of you who have been following along with this blog, you might know that first grade was an absolute nightmare for me. The teacher made me feel like I was useless, I was treated terribly by some of the kids in the class, and it was just a mess of a year.

As it so happens, first grade was a year in which I did something that I'm ashamed of now.

Now, I hear some of you saying...first grade? Really? That was twenty-five years ago!

Yes, this much is true. I've held onto a regret for that long. But, my hope is that once I explain what that regret is that most of you will understand.

Prior to first grade, I would watch quite a lot of educational television, read a lot of educational books, and play with educational toys. And, it wasn't because my parents made me either. I wanted to. They were things that I enjoyed to do. I certainly didn't think that I had an edge over any of the other children in my class, but looking back on it, I think that may have been the case.

Any doubt that I may have had about that was more or less eliminated during our journal time. What we had to do was draw a picture of something that we did during the day (which granted most of my journal entries were made up, but the teacher didn't need to know that minor detail), and then underneath we would write down what the activity was that we were doing in the picture.



The problem was that a select few lacked the ability to spell basic words. Which was fine. I mean, it was first grade, and not everyone could spell. But when I was in the first grade, spelling was just something that I was always did well in. Looking back on it, I did watch a lot of Sesame Street and Readalong back in the day, and probably learned how to spell from watching those shows. As a result, I probably could spell better than most in my grade. I'm definitely not stating this to brag about my abilities though. Just because I could spell well meant that I had weaknesses in other areas. I could tell you dozens of stories about how horribly I did in gym class. But, that's a different story.

But, when the other kids in my class got word that I knew how to spell many words, they took advantage in a big way. It wasn't an uncommon sight to see a group of kids running up to my desk to ask me how to spell a word or two to finish their homework. They never went to the teacher, because the teacher always told them to figure it out for themselves the best way they knew how.

Unfortunately, the best way they knew how was to ask the big tall kid wearing the green and navy blue sweatshirt how to spell 'cat', 'dog', 'ball', and 'snowman'.

Even more unfortunate was the fact that I was the type of kid who would gladly tell the kids how to spell anything they wanted because I had the misconception that by helping them out, they would become my best friend, and that we'd hang out by the monkey bars all recess long.

It was a fleeting dream, and I wished for it to become true.

But once I helped them out with their schoolwork and the recess bell sounded, the very kids I helped out either ignored me, or made fun of me. I couldn't understand it as a kid. I helped them with their schoolwork, and they still were just as mean to me as they were before.



Then I had the ridiculous idea that maybe telling them how to spell words in their journals wasn't enough. Over the next little while, I took it one step further. When we had to do assignments that were given a grade, such as a spelling test, or a math assignment, I would write my test in such a way that it made it incredibly easy for my neighbours to copy every answer that I had written. Never mind the fact that I was unsure that my own answers were absolutely correct. Because the kids in my first grade class had deduced that I was the 'smart kid', they felt as though they needed to be 'smart kids' too. And, my thinking was that if I helped them become 'smart kids' by letting them copy off of my paper, then that would get me true friendship.

As I stated before, just because I was great at spelling meant that I was weak in other areas. And, in this case, my brain definitely was not working right.

Eventually, the French language teacher that would come to teach us for an hour a day got wise to the whole plan, and she purposely made me sit in a spot away from all of the other kids. She saw that the other kids were copying off of my work, and she wanted to nip it in the bud. So, I was isolated from the other kids in the class as a result.

Here's the thing though. When this had first happened, I remember being so angry and upset at the teacher. She was taking me away from my “friends”. I didn't understand why she had to be so mean by separating me from my friends. It's not until now that I realized that she probably did me the biggest favour that anyone ever really could. So, before I continue on with this, I want to send a shout out to Madame Ruston. Thank you for doing what you did.

Because it wasn't until years later that I realized that I totally regretted doing what I did back in the first grade. And, this leads to today's confession.



THURSDAY CONFESSION #8: I regret letting my classmates copy off of my schoolwork, if only for the reason that it made me feel like less of a person as a result.

Let's start with the obvious reason why right off the bat. It didn't get me any further ahead with my peers. In fact, I probably kicked myself down a couple of notches by letting people copy off of my work. Let's be realistic here. Some of those kids that I let copy off of my work had absolutely no intention of becoming my friend whatsoever. They got what they wanted out of me, and once they had it, I was of no use to them anymore.

I mean, granted, these are six year old children that I'm speaking of here, and six year old children can be quite fickle at times, changing their minds faster than most people change their socks. But when they kept doing it on a repeated basis, it really spoke volumes about the type of kids they were. At the same time, it also spoke volumes over how gullible and naïve I was as a six year old boy. But, at least I can look back and own up to it now.



If I had the brains back then, what I wished I had done was set up a wooden stand similar to the Psychiatric Help stand that Lucy Van Pelt had in Peanuts cartoons, and charged the kids in the class five cents per letter for each word they wanted spelled. If I had done that in first grade, I reckon that by eighth grade, I would have made enough money to retire in Cabo San Lucas.

(A gross exaggeration, mind you, but at least I would've gotten something out of the deal.)

Alas, not even charging kids for spelling words would have made me feel better about it.

Looking back on it, it's easy to say that I “helped” my classmates learn how to spell by telling them how to spell the words. But, did I really “help” them? I have to say, no.



Let's face it. If someone is given the answer without attempting to figure it out for themselves, I can't really classify that as learning anything. And, every kid that I just told the answer to didn't really learn how to spell any of those words whatsoever. If there was a kid in the class that would just give them the answers any time they wanted them, then what was the point of figuring out how to do things for themselves, right?

And, lo and behold, in my first grade classroom, there was someone who was doling out answers as if they were instant intelligence pills.

Me.

And, looking back on it now, I am so absolutely ashamed of myself for allowing it to happen. Because, I can't help but think that in some way, I contributed to the problem that seems to be plaguing schools, places of employment, and life in general.



We now live in a world where people seem to expect instant gratification for the least amount of hard work and effort. I mean, the Kardashian Klan...um, er, ah...Clan is a prime example of this. What kind of hard word did Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, or any other woman whose names begin with the letter K do to achieve their success? You know, I'm really struggling to come up with anything. I'm certainly not saying that they copied off of test papers, and used people to get to where they were (though they very well could have), but let's make one this clear. I don't consider the Kardashians to be role models for anybody.

And, yet there they are front and center. Famous for doing absolutely nothing.

And, sadly there's examples of people who also do very little to get the maximum praise in the non-celebrity world.

You read of stories like this in the news and through online accounts. People who use cell phones to pass along answers to multiple choice tests. People who download essays written by other people, erase the name of the original author, put their name on it, and hand it in as a class assignment. People who take credit for the work of someone else.

These incidents by themselves now make me see red. It isn't fair that people resort to cheating and lying their way to get through life. What exactly are they learning? How to be a sponge to society? How to manipulate people into getting exactly what they want? How to get the maximum grade possible for the minimal amount of work? It's certainly not how to appreciate a job well done.



Yet there's something that I always wondered.  You know the kids that I helped out as a gesture of friendship, only for them to turn their backs when I needed them?  This is purely hypothetical, but I wonder if they ended up becoming the people who would tell outright lies to get something for free. If they ended up being the people who would blame the teacher for their child getting an F on their report card. If they grew up with the belief that they didn't need to put forth any effort to get what they wanted because they could always find a patsy that would do the hard work for them.

Granted, in a lot of cases, the ones who would take advantage of me the most are people I haven't seen in years (and those people who I HAVE remained in contact with from first grade were people who never did this), but if in fact they did turn out to be the very people that I described in the above paragraph, then I can't help but feel as though I was a smidgen to blame for how they turned out. Because I let them copy off of my work, they didn't really learn how to become self-sufficient, and because of that, there's a slim possibility they may have gotten the impression that they didn't need to be that way.  It sounds silly, but it has always bugged me for some reason.

I now see what my French teacher was doing that day she put me off by myself in class. It wasn't a message towards me saying that I was in trouble, or that I didn't deserve to have any friends. It was more of a message towards the rest of my class that they should learn how to do their own work by themselves, and not to become reliant on someone else to give them all the answers.

I think what eventually woke me up about how what I was doing was not the right way at all was a little project that my eighth grade teacher assigned us. He told us to anonymously write down all of our favourite memories of elementary school, and then he would read them aloud to the class without revealing who wrote what. The intention was for us to be able to look back fondly on our time at elementary school by sharing wonderful memories. Unfortunately, the kids in my class named names. And, from paper to paper, one recurring theme seemed to pop up in my description. One of the only things that the kids would remember me for was the fact that they used to copy off of my test papers.



It was absolutely disgusting and appalling. I felt absolutely sick to my stomach hearing that. Was that all that I was good for? A free ride through school? It was very sobering to hear, and honestly, I felt ashamed in myself that I wasn't able to make more of a positive impression. It's probably one of the biggest regrets that I have in my life. Sure, I gave away information for free so that the kids could get an A on their paper, but for what? I wasn't getting anything out of it, while they coasted through school being completely oblivious and ignorant to what it meant to do a job well done. While I admit my part in the whole shameful behaviour, I doubt that my peers would feel quite the same way. They're probably going around thinking that they were the most intelligent people in the world because they got the best grades in the school, not realizing that they got those grades through deceptive and effortless means.

Or, maybe they spent all their effort coming up with ways TO cheat in life. Who can say, really?

It makes me upset that people like that in the world exist...and it makes me even more upset to know that I very well could have assisted in that when I was a child.

These days though, I've learned from my mistakes, and I never let anyone walk all over me again. I feel that everyone has the responsibility to do their own work, and if they don't do it, they should be held accountable for it. No longer do I let people take credit for anything that I did. I'll help them figure out the answers, but I won't outright tell them what the answers are anymore. The way I see it, I'm doing THEM a disservice for voluntarily offering up answers without telling them how to show their work. I learned the lesson the hard way in that regard.

And, really, while we're at it, shouldn't the teacher be responsible for making sure that the children in his/her classroom are fully capable of understanding the material before assigning them homework? My French teacher seemed to understand this lesson very well. My grade one teacher missed the boat. She didn't tell the kids in the class the answers, but yet, she didn't seem to object when I gladly told them the answers in a misguided belief that they would become my friends. You'd think that by seeing a group of kids around my desk asking me how to spell words would have been a clear indication to her that maybe the way she was handling it wasn't the best approach, but it didn't quite work that way.  I don't see it as making her out to be a scapegoat, just remembering what I saw at the time.  And, believe me, I've been told that my memory is quite good.

I guess the point that I'm trying to make is that I accept my part in what happened. I just wish everyone else could accept their part as well. But considering that society seems to value instant gratification above everything else, I'm not counting on that to happen any time soon.



But, at least by confessing all today, I can at least feel better about myself. At least that's worth something.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Charlie Brown 'Cyclopedia

When I was a child, I hated doing homework.
This isn’t much of a surprising admission, though.  I reckon that if you asked any random kid currently in school, most of them would have the same opinion as I.

Let’s face it.  Homework assignments were a drag.  It was as if you just sat through seven and a half hours of lesson plans, projects, and lectures, and yet the teacher expected you to do more on top of that.  It just wasn’t fair.
Doing homework took away time from watching television shows.  Doing homework prevented you from hanging out at the shopping mall, sipping on a root beer while window shopping.  Doing homework prevented you from having any sort of fun whatsoever! 

But, here’s a little mini confession for each of you reading this.  Despite my dislike of homework, I very rarely had any to bring home.  At least that was the case during elementary school.
I was one of those kids who would blow through assignments meant for homework really quickly.  I did my assignments so quickly that more often than not, I was finishing up the last question as the dismissal bell for the bus students sounded.

Ah, but before you accuse me of bragging, consider this.  Just because I had the assignments completed didn’t necessarily mean that I had done them correctly.  And, yes, in some cases, that ended up exactly what happened.  But, that was how much I hated homework.  I was so determined to finish it before the day was done that I didn’t care if the answers were right or wrong.  In most cases, I got through it just fine, but I did have my moments of epic failure.
That was during elementary school though.  The minute I entered high school was the minute that my homework load tripled.  Suddenly, I had homework in every single class that had to be done before the end of the week.  If I failed to complete one assignment, my grades would plummet.

So, out came the set of encyclopedias and checking out library books (because when I started high school, our technology was limited to Windows 95), and my free time was spent researching dozens of sources to put together the perfect essay, book report, or independent study.
I still remember one project that I had to do when I was in school.  If I remember correctly, it was a project that I had to do on holiday celebrations all over the world.  There was just one problem.  I had very limited resources to use for the project at the time.  By the time I had gotten to my school library, all the decent reference books had already been checked out.  I also couldn’t go and use the photo copier to copy articles from library exclusive periodicals because the copier was out of order at the time.

Just my luck, huh?
And, a trip to the town public library also turned up empty, as most of the books that were present were out of date, and had contradictory information.  And being that this was during a time in which the Internet wasn’t as huge as it is now, I was left without many options.

That was until I remembered that I had a set of books from my childhood that I could use for my project.  I knew that by citing the book as a reference for a high school project was a bit of a risk, given that the book was presented by a bunch of comic strip characters, but by this time, I was desperate for sources to footnote, and desperate times called for desperate measures.
So, I searched through my collection of childhood books and found the book that I needed.




Above is the picture of the book that I used for the project.  It was the eleventh book of the fifteen volume Charlie Brown’s ‘Cyclopedia series.  The above picture comes from the 1990 edition.  This particular volume dealt with holiday celebrations all over the world, which was what my project was based on.  The book detailed how celebrations began, when they were celebrated all over the world, and some of the customs that were associated with the holidays. 
Oh, I guess I should mention that the book was written in a style that was suitable for grade school children and that many of the facts were presented through illustrations created by Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz.  Hardly the most conventional research tool for a tenth grade student to be using.

But, when one was having trouble finding sources to use for a project that was due in less than 48 hours, one has to take the steps to succeed.  And, like it or not, Charlie Brown and Snoopy were the only ones who could help me type up a decent project.


So, using the information presented in that Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia, it allowed me to fill up some of the holes that I had in my project, and before long, I had a completed paper, suitable for grading.
One thing that I noticed though while I was flipping through the Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia set (and yes, I did own the entire 1990 set) of books were how informative they were.  I mean, yes, they were written for children.  However, if one sifted through the Peanuts references and the simplistic way in which the information was presented, they may find that the Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia was chock full of relevant information that might have helped thousands of children with their own homework assignments.

Mind you, those books were published over twenty years ago.  I imagine that depending on the subject, some of that information is grossly outdated by now.  But, at least I had the newer version of the Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia set. 



The original version of the series was published way back in 1980, and were based off of the popular Charlie Brown Super Book Of Questions and Answers series of books.  The order of the subjects of each volume swapped around between the 1980 version and the 1990 version, but the subjects remained the same in both versions.

Here is a photo of the original 1980 version of the Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia down below.



And, each volume focused on a specific subject.  Here’s the list of the subjects talked about in each of the 15 volumes, according to the 1980 version.
1 – Featuring Your Body
2 – Featuring All Kinds Of Animals From Fish To Frogs
3 – Featuring All Kinds Of Animals From Dinosaurs To Elephants
4 – Featuring Cars And Trains And Other Things That Move
5 – Featuring Boats And Other Things That Float
6 – Featuring Planes And Other Things That Fly
7 – Featuring Space Travel
8 – Featuring Stars And Planets
9 – Featuring The Earth, Weather And Climate
10 – Featuring People Around The World
11 – Featuring What We Wear
12 – Featuring Holidays
13 – Featuring Machines And How They Work
14 – Featuring Sound, Light And Air
15 – Featuring Electricity And Magnetism
Again, as stated, the 1980 version and 1990 version were a bit different.  The book that I used for my project was the edition on holidays and celebrations, which in the 1980 version was book number 12.  But in the version I owned, it was book number 11.  For the most part though, that was the only difference.  In both the 1980 version and 1990 version, the format for how the information was displayed was exactly the same.



For most of the book, the information was presented in Question/Answer format.  A question would be asked, such as “Why is the sky blue?” or “Why is blood red?”.  In each case, the answer would be featured directly underneath the question asked, and it would often be an answer that was brief and to the point, yet still provided enough information to adequately answer the question properly.  The entire book was like this from start to finish.
Occasionally, you would see coloured boxes on certain pages that had exclamation points inside of them.  These were bonus trivia sections that were included in the book, usually as a supplement to a question that was already asked in the book.  It could be a translation of a word, a random fact about a flower, or even a world record or two.



And, of course, there would be comic strips and drawings of the Peanuts gang included all throughout the book.  Many of the drawings were actual comic strips that appeared in newspapers and Peanuts collections.  By including the Peanuts gang in the information, it made the book a lot more fun to read, and I certainly remember being more eager to learn from the book when the Peanuts characters were involved than just leafing through a standard encyclopedia.


That’s about all that I have to say about the Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia.  They were books that kept me informed about various subjects, and probably helped me through school more times than I could probably count on.
Oh, yeah.  One more thing.  You know that high school project that I used the Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia on?


I got an A+.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

February 21, 1990

I believe it was Andy Warhol who said that everyone in the world is deserving of their own ‘fifteen minutes of fame’, or something to that extent.  And, I believe that statement to be the absolute truth.
I believe that everybody gets their one moment to shine in their lives, and I believe that everyone has their crowning achievement at least once during their lifetime, whether it comes at age seven, or age 77.

For some people in show business or the entertainment industry, it could be the day they win an Academy Award, or star in their first movie, or have their first number one hit on the Billboard Charts.  But, for most of us, it could be something as simple as buying your first home, or having your first child, or getting a really nice promotion at work.  Even getting an A+ in science class could be considered a shining moment.
(Well, at least it was for this non-science geek, anyways.)

Today’s trip back through the Tuesday Timeline takes a look back at one duo’s crowning achievement, and the steps they took to get there.  Sadly, this story is one that does not have a happy ending, and it only showed that crowning achievements could be taken away as fast as they were earned.
But, what year are we going to go back in time to?

Well, first, let’s do what we usually do for the Tuesday Timeline.  Find out all the other important events that took place on February 21 in history.
If your name happens to be David Geffen, Tyne Daly, Alan Rickman, Christine Ebersol, William Petersen, Kelsey Grammer, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jack Coleman, Christopher Atkins, William Baldwin, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Charlotte Church, or Ellen Page, a very happy birthday to you all, and anyone else celebrating a February 21 birthday today.


And, some events that took place on February 21 include the following;

1842 – The first American patent for the sewing machine is granted to John Greenough.

1878 – The first telephone book is issued in the city of New Haven, Connecticut.

1885 – The Washington Monument is officially dedicated.

1918 – The last Carolina Parakeet dies in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.

1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.

1948 – NASCAR is founded.

1958 – The Peace symbol is created.

1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.

1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Saskatchewan, Canada after successfully being the first person to cross the Pacific Ocean in a hot-air balloon.

So, we have quite a few firsts that happened on this date...as well as the death of Malcolm X and extinction of a species. 
Today though, we’re going to go back in time to February 21, 1990.

And the significance of this date happens to be linked to my opening spiel.
On February 21, 1990, the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards aired, and among the big winners of the night were Bette Midler, Bonnie Raitt, Michael Bolton, Linda Ronstadt, and Aaron Neville.

I specifically want to highlight one award in particular.  There were five nominees for the Best New Artist award, all of whom had huge hits during 1989 and 1990.  At the time, all five were worthy of the honour, but as we all know, unless there was a rare tie, there could only be one winner.  You can watch the clip here.


So there you have it.  Milli Vanilli managed to triumph over The Indigo Girls, Soul II Soul, Tone Loc, and Neneh Cherry to win the Best New Artist award at the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards, and when you saw them run up on stage to collect their award, you could see the excitement on their faces.  They had arrived.  They made it big.  Nothing would stop their train to success.
That is until it all came crashing down all around them. 

Before we get to that, let’s take a look at how they got to this moment.


Milli Vanilli was formed in 1988 by record producer Frank Farian (also responsible for Boney M) in Munich, Germany.  The duo consisted of Rob Pilatus and Fabrice “Fab” Morvan, models that were discovered by Farian himself.  Farian had thought that Rob and Fab had the perfect look for a new band project that he had named ‘Milli Vanilli’.  Problem was that neither Rob nor Fab had any singing experience whatsoever.
This is where the ruse begins.



As it so happened, Rob and Fab didn’t NEED to sing.  Farian had that angle covered.  By using the vocal tracks of Charles Shaw, John Davis, Brad Howell, Jodie Rocco, and Linda Rocco (whom Farian had dismissed as not having the right look for Milli Vanilli), all Rob and Fab had to do was lip-synch the concert performances, and not let on that they weren’t really singing the records, and all would be fine, according to Farian.
So, Rob and Fab did exactly that.  Sure, in photos, promo shots, and interviews, they WERE Milli Vanilli.  But, they weren’t the REAL Milli Vanilli.

You’d think that the public would have gotten wise from the start, but consider this.  Milli Vanilli released their debut album in 1988 in Europe (an album with the rather prophetic title of ‘All Or Nothing’).  When it was released, there was no evidence in the album’s liner notes that Rob and Fab actually sang the songs on the album.  There was no evidence of anybody being credited for singing on the album at all.  So, when the album was released, and the pictures of Rob and Fab were prominently displayed front and center on the cover, nobody seemed to take any notice.



During the last part of 1988, the album ‘All Or Nothing’ sold extremely well in Europe, and the success was noticed by American record label, Arista Records.  Arista immediately signed Milli Vanilli to a recording contract, and plans were in the works to re-release the album ‘All or Nothing’ to an American audience.  There were some major changes to the album though.  First, the album was retitled to the rather ironic ‘Girl You Know It’s True’.  Secondly, many of the tracks were remixed to fit the American music scene.  Lastly, some of the tracks from ‘All Or Nothing’ were ditched entirely, and replaced with some brand new songs.  The song below just happened to be one of the songs that was written specifically for the American market (and admittedly is one of this blogger’s guilty pleasures).



ARTIST: Milli Vanilli
SONG:  Blame It On The Rain
ALBUM:  Girl You Know It’s True
DATE RELEASED:  July 13, 1989
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 1 week
‘Girl You Know Its True’ was released in North America on March 7, 1989, and immediately the song’s title track peaked at #2 on the Billboard Charts.  ‘Blame It On The Rain’, hit #1, as did ‘Baby Don’t Forget My Number’ and ‘Girl I’m Gonna Miss You’.  As 1989 turned into 1990, a fifth single ‘All Or Nothing’ also did very well on the charts.

And in February 1990, the duo seemed to be on top, winning the Best New Artist Grammy Award.
So, what went terribly wrong?

Signs that all was not what it was claimed to be in the world of Milli Vanilli were shown during a performance in 1989.  The duo was performing in Connecticut at the Lake Compounce theme park as part of a live remote that aired on MTV that night.  All was going according to plan until they began to sing lip-synch the song ‘Girl You Know It’s True’.  At some point during their performance, the recording that was playing had become jammed, and within seconds, the singing was stuck on a continuous loop.  Embarrassed, Rob and Fab did some impromptu dancing before running off the stage. 


Girl you know it’s true?
However, it didn’t seem as though the crowd in the concert seemed to pick up on anything wrong.  According to then MTV personality Downtown Julie Brown (in the Behind The Music special on the band), the concert continued on as if nothing strange had happened.  The fans in the concert were too busy enjoying the moment to put two and two together, which is what Farian and Milli Vanilli were counting on.

But then the scheme began to unravel.  Part of it had to do with the fact that Rob Pilatus was seemingly buying into his own hype.  He proudly proclaimed in an interview with TIME Magazine in 1990 that he believed Milli Vanilli was more talented than Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Mick Jagger.  Quite the boastful statement, especially since, well...you know.
There was also the fact that when Milli Vanilli’s album was released in America, all the songs were credited to Rob and Fab.  This revelation was enough for Charles Shaw to come forward to the media to let them know that he was one of the three male singers who DID sing on the Milli Vanilli record.  Frank Farian, worried that his house of cards would come crumbling down around him reportedly tried to get Shaw to recant his statements by paying him off to the tune of $150,000.  But, by this point, the public backlash had begun.

Even Rob and Fab were starting to get a change of heart about success.  They were beginning to feel that taking credit for someone else’s talent was not the way to live life.  And when they approached Farian and demanded that they be able to sing on their next album, the pressure proved too much for Farian.  In November 1990, Farian revealed that Rob and Fab did NOT sing one note on the Milli Vanilli album.  The secret was finally out, and Rob and Fab paid the price in a big way.
On November 16, 1990, their Best New Artist Grammy Award was taken away, the first and only time in the fifty-four year history of the awards ceremony that this has happened.  Shortly thereafter, Arista Records deleted the entire Milli Vanilli catalog from their records, essentially putting ‘Girl You Know Its True’ out of print.

As many as twenty-seven different lawsuits were filed against Rob, Fab, and Arista Records.  In 1991, Arista Records agreed to refund people who purchased albums and concert tickets featuring Milli Vanilli.  The refund offer was good until March 1992.


As for Milli Vanilli’s recording career, it essentially ended in 1990.  At the time that the scandal was revealed, radio stations were playing the single ‘Keep On Running’, which was supposed to be the debut single for the band’s second album.  After the scandal broke, the album was repackaged to include the photos of the artists who sang for Milli Vanilli, removing all traces of Rob and Fab from the finished cover art, and the album was given the title of ‘The Real Milli Vanilli’ (‘Moment Of Truth’ in Europe).


By then, Rob and Fab were essentially outcasts.  Even Frank Farian had seemingly abandoned them.  Despite the scandal that plagued them, Rob and Fab never gave up on their music career.  The two moved to Los Angeles where in 1993, they recorded the album ‘Rob & Fab’.  However, due to poor promotion and the inability to shake their scandalous past, the album failed to make an impression.
In 1997, Frank Farian was brought back into the lives of Milli Vanilli when he agreed to produce a comeback album for the duo...this time with Rob and Fab on vocals.  Personally speaking, the last thing that I would do is make another deal with the devil who screwed things up for me the first time, but Rob and Fab agreed.  The album was going to be titled “Back And In Attack”, and was set to be released during the spring of 1998.  Sadly, the comeback album would be overshadowed by a shocking end to one of the key players.

On April 2, 1998, Rob Pilatus was found dead in a Frankfurt hotel room at the age of 32.  Though his death was ruled accidental, it was widely documented that Pilatus had a slew of problems in the months leading up to his death, including stints in jail for robbery, and reported abuse with drugs and alcohol.  Fabrice Morvan, on the other hand, is still active in the music industry, releasing singles as late as 2011.


Now that you know the story about the rise and fall of Milli Vanilli, the question that now comes is...who’s the most to blame?
I would personally point the finger of blame mostly on Frank Farian, just because he was the one who got the lie started.  Then when the lie grew bigger and bigger, he was unable to keep the truth from being exposed.  Then when the truth came out, it seemed as though he stepped away from the background while Rob, Fab, and the record company that signed on Milli Vanilli got the brunt of the anger.  It seemed to me to be incredibly cowardly on Farian’s part.

However, there isn’t anybody who can be considered completely blameless either.  Rob and Fab had lots of opportunity to come clean about what was really happening on multiple occasions.  Who knows?  Had they been the ones to out themselves as frauds instead of Farian, they might have ended up being treated like heroes, or at the very least wouldn’t have had to endure such poison from the general public.  The fact that they didn’t makes their fall from grace sadly deserving.  It’s commendable that Rob and Fab eventually saw that the way that they were getting success wasn’t the right way to go, but unfortunately it was a little late.
If there is any sympathy out there to be had, it probably should go to the people who called themselves the ‘Real Milli Vanilli’.  Despite the ruse that Farian put on, the vocalists who did sing for Rob and Fab were quite talented.  I have no doubt in my mind that had they not gotten entangled in the scheme that Farian had orchestrated from the beginning, they might have been discovered by some other record label who would have gladly given them a contract.  They might not have been commercially marketable, but talent they had by the ton.  It’s just a shame that their talent was overshadowed by a needless scandal.

Perhaps the saddest thing about Milli Vanilli is the fact that Rob and Fab got so used to living a lie that they ended up believing their own hype.  And when the rug got pulled out from underneath them, they were left completely exposed to the world, without any means to defend themselves.
It makes me wonder what might have happened had the lies not come undone.  Would Milli Vanilli have made their career last for years, or would they have simply become a flash in the pan?  Sadly, because of the lies and the scandal, we’ll never know.

And, that is the story of a band in which February 21, 1990 should have been the best time of their lives, but ended up being the beginning of a nightmare.