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Tuesday, November 06, 2012

November 6, 1967


It’s time for another look back through time in another installment of the Tuesday Timeline.

Today is November 6, and I will warn you ahead of time...this will not be a story that has a happy ending.  You’ll soon figure out why that is the case as we proceed.

For now, let’s have a look at some of the events that have taken place on November 6th throughout history.

On this day in...

1528 – Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca becomes the first known European to set foot on the land mass that would come to be known as the state of Texas

1789 – Pope Pius the VI appoints Father John Carroll as the first Catholic bishop in the United States

1844 – The first constitution of the Dominican Republic is adopted

1854 – Composer John Philip Sousa is born in Washington D.C.

1856 – The first work of fiction by author George Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life, is submitted for publication

1861 – Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America on the same day that James Naismith, inventor of basketball is born

1865 – CSS Shenandoah is the last Confederate combat unit to surrender towards the end of the American Civil War

1869 – The first intercollegiate football game is held with Rutgers defeating the College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton)

1913 – Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa

1917 – The Third Battle of Ypres ends in Belgium

1934 – Memphis, Tennessee becomes the first major city to join the Tennessee Valley Authority

1935 – Parker Brothers acquires the patent for the board game Monopoly from Elizabeth Magie

1941 – Joseph Stalin, Soviet leader, addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time in his whole reign during World War II

1943 – The city of Kiev is recaptured by the Soviet Red Army during World War II

1944 – The element of plutonium is first produced at the Hanford Atomic Facility

1947 – Meet the Press debuts on television

1962 – The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa’s racist apartheid policies and calls forth the measure for all UN states to cease military and economic relations with the nation

1963 – Duong Van Minh takes over leadership of South Vietnam following the coup of November 1 which lead to the death of previous leader Ngo Dinh Diem

1965 – Cuba and the United States reach an agreement to begin airlifting Cubans who wish to go to the United States

1971 – The United States Atomic Energy Commission tests the largest American underground hydrogen bomb on Amchitka Island

1977 – The Kelly Barnes Dam fails, killing 39 people in Toccoa, Georgia

1986 – A British International Helicopters Boeing 234LR Chinook crashes east of Sumburgh Airport killing 45 people

1995 – Art Modell announces that he signed a deal that would relocate the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore and the team name would change to the Baltimore Ravens

2012 – Barack Obama is re-elected President of the United States

(That last one I added in...and once we know who won, I’ll update that last fact accordingly).

There are also a slew of celebrity birthdays on this Election Day Tuesday.  Happy birthday to Mike Nichols, Stonewall Jackson, Johnny Giles, Guy Clark, Sally Field, Fred Penner, Sidney Blumenthal, Glenn Frey, Nigel Havers, Michael Cunningham, Catherine Crier, Maria Shriver, Cam Clarke, Siobhan McCarthy, Lori Singer, Trace Beaulieu, Bruce Holland Rogers, Michael Cerveris, Craig Goldy (Dio), Kerry Conran, Paul Gilbert, Peter DeLuise, Caesar Meadows, Kelly Rutherford, Alfred Williams, Ethan Hawke, Thandie Newton, Rebecca Romijn, Zoe McLellan, Taryn Manning, Zak Morioka, Adam LaRoche, Lamar Odom, and Emma Stone.

Today’s featured subject is of a woman who had she lived would be celebrating her 45th birthday right now.


She was born on November 6, 1967.

Tragically, she never saw her twenty-second birthday.  She was cut down in the prime of her life by a man who was so obsessed with her that he would do anything in order to be near her.  When the affection was rebuffed, it was the beginning of the end.


This is the tragic story of Rebecca Schaeffer.

To be completely honest with most of you, I didn’t really hear of Rebecca until after she died.  I was a bit too young to really remember her from any of her film or television projects.  It wasn’t until after I saw some clips of her in action that I really began to understand who she was, and why her death was so tragic.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, Rebecca Lucile Schaeffer was born on November 6, 1967 in the city of Eugene, Oregon.  She was the only child of a writer and a child psychologist.  She attended Lincoln High School (graduating in 1985), and initially she had plans to become a rabbi.

However, those plans were soon placed on the backburner permanently as Rebecca developed another love...the love of performance art.


When Rebecca was still in high school, she began to do some modelling for various magazines and advertisements, and was even cast in a few television commercials.  She also landed a role as an extra in a made for television movie.  After graduating from high school, she moved to New York City in an attempt to make it big as an actress.  It didn’t take her too long to get work.  She played a small role in the television soap opera “One Life to Live” as Annie Barnes in 1985, followed by an appearance on the cover of Seventeen magazine.

The following year, Rebecca Schaeffer tested for a role in a brand new sitcom that was set to air on Monday nights for the 1986-1987 television season.


That show was “My Sister Sam”.

On the show, Rebecca played the role of Patti Russell, a teenage girl who moves in with her sister, Sam (Pam Dawber) in San Francisco, California.  The series also starred Jenny O’Hara, Joel Brooks, and David Naughton.  It debuted on CBS on October 6, 1986.


The show’s first year was a moderate success, airing on Monday nights.  But during the period between the show’s first and second seasons, CBS made the decision to move the show to Saturday nights.  Given that at the time, NBC was airing “The Facts of Life” and “The Golden Girls” on Saturdays, “My Sister Sam” could not compete against the huge ratings that the NBC Saturday Night line-up of comedies, and it was cancelled in April 1988, with half of the episodes of the second season unaired.

TRIVIA:  When USA Network bought the syndication rights to the series, the unaired episodes aired for the first time on that network, and all 44 taped episodes were eventually shown.

With the show wrapping up production in 1988, Schaeffer found herself looking for work once more.  After having a role in “Radio Days” (which to Rebecca’s disappointment was mostly left on the cutting room floor), she won the role of Zandra in the film “Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills”, directed by Paul Bartel.  The film role was Rebecca’s first in a major motion picture, and her performance was critically praised.  Many people deemed it to be Rebecca’s breakout role, and although her role was a minor one, she really seemed to shine in it.


The movie was released on June 3, 1989.  Little did Rebecca know that just weeks later, she would end up dead.


You see, when the movie was first released, a man by the name of Robert John Bardo watched her performance and was not happy with her adult performance, including scenes of her in bed with a male actor.  He was enraged that Schaeffer had become “another Hollywood whore”, and was determined to make her pay for shedding the wholesome image that Schaeffer had presented on the sitcom “My Sister Sam”.

The truth is that Robert John Bardo had begun stalking Rebecca shortly after “My Sister Sam” debuted in 1986.  The scary thing was that Schaeffer wasn’t his first obsession.  When Bardo was just in his teens, he developed an obsession with child peace activist Samantha Smith.  But when Smith was killed in a plane crash in 1985, his attention soon diverted towards the then 19-year-old Rebecca. 

Between 1986 and 1988, Bardo reportedly sent Schaeffer dozens of fan letters, each one showcasing his love for the young starlet.  And at least once, his letter got a response from an employee of Rebecca’s fan service, which fueled his obsession even further.

Bardo’s obsession with Schaeffer intensified in 1987 when he actually took a trip to the California studios where “My Sister Sam” was taped, hoping that he would end up meeting her in person.  He tried twice to get inside the studios, but both times he was stopped by security.  His second attempt was particularly alarming as he had arrived carrying a knife with him.  After his second attempt to meet Schaeffer, Bardo returned to his home state of Arizona and began to put all of his energies into other starlets, in particular the teenage breakout acts of 1987, Tiffany and Debbie Gibson.

But by 1989, Rebecca Schaeffer was back on the radar of Robert John Bardo, and not in the loving, caring, adoring way that he was three years earlier.  Bardo made plans to take care of Rebecca once and for all, and he did this by doing a little bit of detective work into trying to track down her whereabouts.

He consulted a private detective agency and paid the agents $250 to find out where Rebecca was living via the California Department of Motor Vehicles database.  Once he retrieved the most recent address listed for Schaeffer, he arrived back in California and made a beeline towards the apartment building where Rebecca was reportedly living.  The date was July 18, 1989.  After asking random people on the street if she really lived there, and certain that he was at the right spot, he rang the doorbell of Rebecca’s apartment.

When Rebecca opened the door, Bardo immediately showed her the autograph and letter that she had sent him, and tried to explain how much he idolized her and loved her, but Schaeffer was uncomfortable and asked Bardo to leave and not come back. 

Bardo left the apartment for about an hour and returned.  When Rebecca opened the door a second time and saw Bardo again, she gave him a really cold look (according to Bardo).  It was at that moment that Bardo pulled out a handgun (which had been purchased by his brother, as Bardo was too young at the time), aimed it towards Rebecca and shot her at point-blank range.


Bardo fled the scene after Rebecca screamed in pain.  A neighbour immediately called for help, and paramedics rushed her to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, but it was too late.  Half an hour after she was shot, Rebecca Schaeffer passed away at the age of 21.

As for her killer, Robert John Bardo was arrested the next day in Tuscon, Arizona, on July 19, 1989.

In his trial, Bardo was tried by prosecutor Marcia Clark (who would make an even bigger splash during the O.J. Simpson murder trial of 1995), and was convicted of capital murder.  He now is serving a life sentence without any possibility of parole.

As for Rebecca Schaeffer, a promising career was cut short that warm July morning in 1989.  At the time of her death, she was reportedly planning on auditioning for the 1990 film “The Godfather III”.  Her last film appearance was a posthumous one, playing the role of Stephanie in the 1990 movie, aptly titled “The End of Innocence”. 

Her former “My Sister Sam” co-workers were shocked and saddened by the loss of their friend, and after Schaeffer’s murder, the four surviving members of the cast teamed up in a public service announcement about violence prevention, in memory of Schaeffer.  And film director Brad Silberling (who was dating Schaeffer at the time of her death) released the film “Moonlight Mile” in 2002, which was inspired by Schaeffer’s murder.

Although the death of Rebecca Schaeffer was a tragic loss, I should note that her death was not completely in vain.  There were some major changes to various laws that has helped contribute to saving and protecting the lives of other people (both famous people and regular civilians).  For one, after Schaeffer’s death, California laws were amended in 1994 with the passage of the “Driver’s Privacy Protection Act”, which forbade the DMV from releasing any personal information about anybody, especially private addresses.  Anti-stalking laws were also made tighter and consequences were made much more severe following Schaeffer’s death.


I suppose in some ways, Rebecca Schaeffer’s legacy does live on through the passage of these laws.  It’s just a shame that she had to lose her life at the hands of an obsessed fan for that to happen. 

Rebecca Schaeffer would have been 45 today.  I often wonder what her career would have been like had she lived.  Sadly, we’ll never know.

Monday, November 05, 2012

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves




It is just me, or is Snow White one hot mama in the world of entertainment?



It seems as though Snow White has appeared in dozens of brand new movies and television shows over the last decade. In 2012, we have already had two Snow White themed film releases. In March, there was the Julia Roberts film “Mirror, Mirror”, and later this year we watched Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, and Charlize Theron acting in “Snow White and the Huntsman”.

But there are so many more interpretations and re-imagining of Snow White than just those two films. Would you believe that the following film and television projects have also featured Snow White?

There was a silent film released in 2012 entitled”Blancanieves”, which was set in 1920s era Andalusia, Spain.
A direct-to-video release was also released in 2012 which starred Jane March and Eliza Bennett.



Beginning in 2011, the television series “Once Upon A Time” , Jennifer Morrison began playing the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, who holds the key to dispelling a curse on a Maine town in which everybody is a storybook character whose happiness has been sucked away by the Evil Queen.
The 2007 film, “Sydney White”, which starred Amanda Bynes, is a modern retelling of the classic tale.
Snow White also made an appearance in the 2001 animated feature, "Shrek".
Perhaps one of the most macabre versions of the classic Snow White story was filmed in 1997, which was called “Snow White: A Tale of Terror”. This interpretation featured Sigourney Weaver and Sam Neill.

I'm telling you, Snow White is enjoying a comeback like no other. It's even more spectacular than Britney Spears becoming a judge on the X-Factor.



Of course, everyone knows the classic story of Snow White. It's been a story that has been told for at least two hundred years, with early origins dating back to Germany in 1812, when the Brothers Grimm included the story in one of their collections. In German, the title was Schneewiitchen und die sieben Zwerge. In English, it became Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Although several variations of Snow White were told all over Europe, the German version was the one that most people are familiar with. And, I'm just going under the assumption that you know what the story is about. I am only assuming that you know about the magic mirror telling the Wicked Queen that her stepdaughter, Snow White, is the fairest in the land, and that she summons a huntsman to kill her. You already know that the huntsman chickened out and abandoned Snow White where she stumbled upon a cottage filled with seven dwarves who basically made her their personal live-in maid. You probably even know that the Queen disguises herself as an old woman who puts Snow White into a magic-indused coma, courtesy of a poison filled apple, and that the only way she will come out of the coma is to be given “love's first kiss”.

Besides, this blog isn't about the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Instead, we're going to take a look at some of the behind the scenes moments and never before known facts about what is probably the most famous version of all of the various Snow White movie versions.



Yes, today's Monday Matinee is all about the 1937 classic Disney film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”.

And now, here's all the things about the film that you probably didn't know.

1 – The film premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre on December 21, 1937. It was released nationally on February 4, 1938.

2 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was a film that had a lot of firsts. It was the first full-length cel animated motion picture, the first film produced entirely in the United States, the first film to be produced in full colour, and the first full-length Walt Disney Productions film.

3 – A total of six people were credited as being a director of the movie; William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pierce, Benjamin Sharpsteen, and David Hand.

4 – The film was named as the greatest American animated film of all time by the American Film Institute in 2008.

5 – In 1989, the film was added to the United States National Film Registry due to its cultural significance.



6 – It was Walt Disney's idea to give names to the previously unnamed dwarves (although they were given names in the 1912 Broadway musical of the same name). As you all know, the names of the seven dwarves are Doc, Dopey, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy, and Bashful. But did you know that Jumpy, Deafy, Hickey, Wheezy, Baldy, Gabby, Nifty, Sniffy, Swift, Lazy, Puffy, Stuffy, Tubby, Shorty, and Burpy were also contenders? Could you imagine seeing dwarves named Deafy or Burpy featured in the film?



7 – The voice of Snow White was provided by Adriana Caselotti (1916-1997). She was a former MGM chorus girl and was paid less than a thousand dollars for her role. She was named a Disney Legend in 1994, the first female to earn such an honour in the voice category.

8 – When the film won an Academy Award, it was a rather “special one”. In addition to the main statuette, the award was accompanied by seven miniature ones, to represent each of the seven dwarves.

9 – Keep a close eye on the stone wall as the Queen walks down the steps to perform the spell that transforms her into the old woman. Three of them form the silhouette of Mickey Mouse.



10 – A total of twenty-five different songs were composed for the soundtrack of the film. Only eight ended up making the final cut.



11 – The Prince was supposed to have a larger part in the film, but when animators found it difficult to animate him, the role was reduced.

12 – Mel Blanc was originally considered to voice the part of Dopey, but the decision was later made to make Dopey a non-speaking role.

13 – The production team of the film included 32 animators, 102 assistants, 167 “in-betweeners”, 20 layout artists, 25 water colour artists, 65 effects animators, and 158 female inkers/painters.

14 – A total of two million illustrations were made while the film was being produced.



15 – Here's an interesting story about the actress who voiced the Queen, Lucille La Verne. Initially she was told by Walt Disney's animators that they needed a raspier, older version of the Queen's voice in order to play the old witch character. To their surprise, she pulled it off by taking out her false teeth!



16 – Animator Wolfgang Reitherman agonized over the animation process for the Magic Mirror for days. It took him nine times to get it right.

17 – Animator Ward Kimball almost left the project after two of his main sequences were left on the cutting room floor. Walt Disney ended up convincing him to stay by offering him the chance to animate a character in his next planned feature film. That character ended up being Jiminy Cricket from “Pinocchio”.

18 – It seems strange to even write this down, but the film was reportedly the favourite film of Adolf Hitler!

19 – Sleepy is the only dwarf in the movie to NOT be kissed by Snow White

20 – If the scream that the Queen lets out towards the end of the film sounds familiar, it's because it was also used at the end of “Sleeping Beauty”.

21 – This film was the very first release in Disney's Platinum Edition DVD series in October 2001. It sold one million copies during its first day of release.

Sunday, November 04, 2012

Hands


I begin this Sunday Jukebox entry with a little bit of relief at this time.

I am thrilled to report that in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, my friends from the New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. and Massachusetts areas made it through the storm just fine, and all of them are safe and sound. A few of them lost power for several days, and in some instances a few trees were snapped like twigs, but otherwise they are all okay. It makes me feel so relieved in knowing that they are all safe.



You know, I can't help but look at all of the photos taken of the hardest hit areas. In my wildest dreams, I never thought that the subway system in New York City would be flooded, but they were. And the Jersey Shore now looks like the aftermath of what would happen after a three year old boy loses his temper and throws all of his toys across a living room floor. Seeing the damaged homes, the wrecked boardwalks of Atlantic City, and the half-submerged boats in what was left of docks and harbours makes me feel incredibly sad. I hear that at least 40 people have been confirmed dead, and many others injured.



Although I can't imagine what it would be like to have to endure a massive storm in a large urban setting like New York City, Atlantic City, or even Toronto (which suffered some damage and deaths from Sandy a few days ago), I do know what it is like to survive a freak natural storm.

Before I introduce the song for today, I would like to tell you about my brush with a natural disaster, and how my family and I survived it. And yes, there is a connection with these stories and today's song feature.



Our tale dates back almost fifteen years ago, to January 1998. It was January 7, 1998, and the radio stations were calling for some really nasty weather to arrive. Whether it was an effect of the weather phenomenon known as El Nino, or whether the weather ended up forming some freakish early Winter storm, it was expected to be bad. Ice rain for an extended period that was expected to cause hazardous conditions on the roads. They were predicting that schools and stores would be shut down, and that we should expect harsh conditions. But I wasn't really all that concerned. All I cared about was that there was a possibility of school being cancelled the next day so I could use the time to bone up on my chemistry and math grades (both of which were terrible). I never thought that things would ever get that bad.

And then the storm hit just twenty-four hours later in the early morning hours of January 8, 1998.

I was woken up fairly early by my mom, who announced that I didn't have to go to school that day, as all the schools were closed. At first, I was thrilled...but then I remembered that I lived in Canada. Unlike most states in the United States that cancel school when a couple of snowflakes fall on the ground, my town usually kept schools open on blizzards and winter storms. For the schools to close completely meant that the storm was a lot more serious.

A minute later, the lights shut off...and I knew that things had gotten a lot more serious.



It was considered to be one of the largest ice storms of the 20th century. A huge storm dumped inches of freezing rain over parts of Ontario, Quebec, and Upstate New York, cutting off power to thousands of people. Looking out of my bedroom window, it was the most contrary sight. On one hand, the street looked like a scene from the front of a Christmas card...the trees were coated with a shell of glistening ice, and the freshly fallen snow from a couple of days earlier sparkled like pieces of crystal. On the other hand, the freezing rain caused several hydro lines and poles to snap and fall down, making venturing outside a challenge, and trees were falling down all over town, blocking roads and train tracks.



My hometown was completely cut off from the outside world. The hospital in town had back-up generators, and weirdly enough, one of the supermarkets also had a generator which was powerful enough for the store to remain open for part of the ice storm. But unfortunately, my house at the time was heated via electricity, and the stove in our kitchen was electric powered. This left us in a precarious position.

Luckily, my maternal grandfather had a gas powered stove, and his house was heated by gas power, so my parents and I moved in with him until power was restored.

It was really hard to be in that situation. I should explain that at the time of the Ice Storm of 1998, I was sixteen going on seventeen, and I was bored out of my mind. Without power, there was no video games, no television, no CD's to listen to...it was just listening to the AM radio for weather updates and hearing old fashioned records from the 1960s and 1970s from a battery powered record player. What was worse, my father was never there during the whole time we were staying there. He worked for the railroad at the time, and he was working sixteen hour shifts trying to repair the train tracks and signals that were completely destroyed by the ice storm. So, for the first couple of days, it was reading comic books and doing homework by candlelight, and enduring boredom from not having anyone close to my age to talk to.

Things got better around Day 3 when my Uncle Roger and Aunt Jennifer moved in to my grandfather's house. Their two boys were just a few years younger than I am (there's a five year age difference between myself and his oldest son). And when my cousins moved in, things got more fun. We played board games, did some Mad Libs...it was great. And time seemed to pass by quicker.

Then on January 13th, my family received some good news. Because my house was a block away from the hospital, my area was considered to be a top priority site for power restoration, and my home was one of the first in the town to get power back. So five days after the storm hit, we were back home.

Two days later, schools were reopened, and we had received word that all final exams for this semester were being cancelled. This was welcome news to me, as I knew that I would have likely failed math class had it not been for the storm. I got a 54, but in Canada, that's still a passing grade.

But even more importantly than a D- in math was the aftermath of Ice Storm 1998. I will never forget how the communities affected all came together to support and help each other out when times were tough. My grandfather's neighbours dropped by to check on him throughout the whole ordeal to make sure that he was okay. My father was on the team that helped restore train service to my hometown. I can only imagine the frustration and the harsh conditions that the workers of the power companies endured to restore power to communities.

And believe me...it may have taken me some time to get it, but I am eternally grateful for the roles that everyone took on in order to get life back to normal. As I'm sure the people who were most affected by Sandy's wrath are feeling right now with the volunteers gathering donations of food and clothing for those hardest hit, and the people trying to restore power to customers all over New York and New Jersey.



Think about it. People of all walks of life joining together, rolling up their sleeves to help others who may have lost everything get back on their feet. People using their hands to help rebuild homes, restore vital services, and support each other emotionally.

Nobody's hands are too small or too weak when it comes to helping others. And speaking of hands...



ARTIST: Jewel
SONG: Hands
ALBUM: Spirit
DATE RELEASED: November 17, 1998
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #6

Now, this song by Jewel is a powerful one (ironically enough, it was released the same year as the ice storm that plunged my hometown into darkness), and it was performed on the “Late Show with David Letterman” on September 18, 2001...just one week after the 9/11 attacks...another disaster which affected millions of people in the New York area. Another event in which people came together and supported each other in a time of need.



I think this song could also be used for recent events as well.

The song's video is quite impressive. It was directed by Nick Brandt, and shows Jewel driving down the street in the middle of a terrible thunderstorm. It seems like it is a typical rainy day until Jewel sees emergency workers sealing off the road. Turns out that an apartment building has collapsed, and the rescue workers are frantically trying to save the trapped residents still inside.

Rather than sit back and watch the scene unfold, Jewel gets out of the car, rolls up her sleeves, and helps out with the rescue efforts. As the video shows, Jewel is instrumental in rescuing a man that was buried alive underneath a bunch of rubble, as well as three children who are trapped inside a room.

Now, I imagine that most of us when faced with a situation like the one shown in the video might be shocked, scared, and unsure of what to do. Not Jewel though. She handled the situation like a pro, and she remained cool as a cucumber throughout the whole thing. Granted, the whole video shoot was a fictional encounter, but seeing all sorts of rescue efforts in the news and in online videos posted on social networking sites, Jewel's reaction is quite similar to the heroes who risked their lives to save others. Everyday people doing extraordinary things in the name of making someone else's life better, or preserving the lives of others in the worst possible tragedy.



Being filled with hope despite being surrounded by chaos.

I couldn't think of a better song to best sum up recent events than this one by Jewel, can you?

Oh, and while we are on the subject of hands, I hope that those of you in observance of daylight savings time have taken your hour hands and set them back one hour beginning at two o'clock this morning.  If not, better do it!  Otherwise, you will find your work schedules quite off kilter!

Saturday, November 03, 2012

Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears


Gummi bears are one of those confectionary treats that people either love or hate.

My stance? 100% Pure Love.

(And, no, I didn't just come up with that stance just because I have some Crystal Waters playing on my computer as I type this. I swear it.)



Seriously, as long as I can remember, I have always loved gummi bears. I would always go to the candy store (back when the most expensive penny candies cost a quarter) and always get a handful of gummi bears (or gummi worms if the bears weren't in stock) to eat whenever I was craving them. I don't think my dentist liked me very much for eating them, but I didn't care. I couldn't get enough of them.

To me, they were fruit flavoured morsels of goodness!

Depending on the brand name of the company that made the gummi bears, the flavours of the bears varied. The orange ones were always orange flavoured, and the yellow ones were always lemon flavoured. Green ones could be lime or strawberry flavoured (not real strawberry though...if they were, my allergy would act up). Red ones were usually raspberry or cherry flavoured. And the colourless ones? They were my favourite ones, because they were mostly pineapple flavoured. And anyone who knows me knows how much I love pineapple flavoured candy.

Oh, but those aren't the only gummi bears that I like. There's another version that I loved just as much as the ones that you eat.



Um...no. Not that one. Somehow, a giant green bear in jockey shorts would make me want to GIVE UP gummi bears for the rest of my life!

No, I'm talking about THESE gummi bears!



Yes, today is Saturday, and I thought that I would feature a television cartoon that ended up running for several seasons. It's actually one of Disney's longest running cartoon series!



Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears” debuted on NBC's Saturday Morning cartoon block on September 14, 1985. It remained on the network until 1989, when it moved to ABC for two more seasons, ending its original run in February 1991. And would you believe that the idea for the show was inspired by the tasty gummi bear candies? The inspiration came from the young son of Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who had asked his father for some gummi bear candies to eat.

The television show was pure magic from the memorable and catchy opening theme song to the various plots and stories that the main characters were a part of.

In case there are some of you out there who have never seen the show, allow me to give you a bit of a refresher.

Centuries ago there lived an entire race of anthropomorphic bears who called themselves the “Gummi Bears”, and they once ruled a great civilization which thrived. That was until humans who were jealous of the Gummi Bears' magical powers forced the species into a permanent exile from their own kingdom. It was widely thought by humans that the Gummi Bears faded away into the stories of legends and fables, but unbeknownst to them, a group of six (seven from the second season on) Gummi Bears still live nearby, making their homes underneath the medieval kingdom of Dunwyn in a series of subterranean tunnels affectionately called “Gummi Glen”.



And just who are these Gummi Bears? They are...



Gruffi Gummi (Bill Scott/Corey Burton) is incredibly old-fashioned, and wants to always do things the “old Gummi way. Despite this, he is the leader of the group, and is very skilled with making sure that the trap doors and other mechanical devices within Gummi Glen work properly.



Then you have Zummi Gummi (Paul Winchell/Jim Cummings), the oldest of the Gummi Bears. He is the “Keeper of Gummi Wisdom”, and the holder of the Gummi Medallion. He's the group's magician, and provided that he can remember the magic words, his spells can work perfectly. But most of the time, they backfire in a big way!



Grammi Gummi (June Foray) is the Gummi Bear matriarch. She cooks, cleans, and is one of only two Gummi Bears who know the recipe for...well...I'll tell you a little later in this blog.



There's Tummi Gummi (Lorenzo Music), a teenaged Gummi Bear whose heart is as big as his size. Sure, he's laid-back to the point where some would call him lazy, and his personality is easy going...but whenever the Gummi Bears find themselves in danger, he is always the first one to respond to the fight. If Tummi Gummi applies himself, he can be quite valuable.



Sunni Gummi (Katie Leigh) is the only teenaged girl Gummi, and she often closes the book on traditional Gummi history, and is fascinated by the world of human fashion and culture. She is the other one who knows the secret recipe for...yeah, yeah...I'll tell you later.



Cubbi Gummi (Noelle North) is the youngest of the Gummi Bears, and has dreams of becoming a Gummi Knight someday. But, Cubbi also has been cursed with a short attention span, and can easily get sidetracked by something mysterious and exciting.



The seventh gummi joins the cast in the second season. Gusto Gummi (Rob Paulsen) was stranded on a deserted island for a dozen years with his toucan, Artie Deco. He meets Tummi and Gruffi after they crash on his island, and brought Gusto home just before a volcanic eruption destroyed his island. Gusto is most known for thinking outside the box, which impresses both Sunni and Cubbi.

For years, the Gummi Bears have successfully managed to avoid any contact with humans...but in the very first episode of the series, the Gummi Bears cover is blown by a young boy named Cavin.

TRIVIA: Cavin was played by five different voice actors; Christian Jacobs, Brett Johnson, David Faustino, Jason Marsden, and R.J. Williams.



Anyway, Cavin ends up being abandoned in the woods after a group of ogres capture his human allies, and accidentally stumbles into Gummi Glen. It turns out that Cavin is in possession of a legendary Gummi Medallion (it was found by Cavin's grandfather years earlier), and the other Gummi Bears want to know exactly how he got the medal. At some point, Cavin manages to escape after Tummi Gummi ends up sipping a special concoction (yes, I promise that I will reveal what it is in due time). But when a common enemy presents himself (the evil Duke Sigmund Igthorn and his army of ogres), Cavin stands side by side with the Bears, and becomes one of their strongest allies.

Cavin becomes close with all of the Gummi Bears (in particular with Cubbi and Tummi), and Princess Calla also befriends the Gummi Bears sometime during the series.



But what exactly does Duke Sigmund Igthorn have against the humans and the Gummi Bears?

Well, in the case of the human population, it's simple. Igthorn was once considered the greatest knight in all of Dunwyn, but after he was exposed for plotting against King Gregor, he was exiled, finding refuge in Castle Drekmore. He formed his army of ogres and constantly seeks his revenge against Dunwyn.

And his beef with the Gummi Bears stems from one of their finest creations. A certain recipe for a certain kind of juice that makes Gummi Bears bounce and gives human beings temporary super strength. A recipe that only Grammi Gummi and Sunni Gummi know.

Don't worry though. I too know the secret that goes into making the perfect batch of Gummiberry Juice.



It's just unfortunate that Gummi Berries don't really exist in nature...so, the next best thing I can do is make substitutions with real fruits. I don't know if you want to try this recipe out, but hey, it's worth a shot, right?

Anyway, in the cartoon, the recipe went like this.

GUMMIBERRY JUICE

6 handfuls of red berries
4 orange berries
3 purple berries
4 blue berries
3 green berries
1 yellow berry

Once you have the ingredients in the right amount, all you have to do is the 3-step stir. Stir slow to the right, then slow to the left, and then tap the pot to banish the bubbles.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Now, here's my just made up spur-of-the-moment version of it using various fruit juices.

For the handful of red berries, try using a red juice as a base, such as cranberry cocktail or fruit punch.
For the orange berries, add in four cups of pulp-free orange juice.
For the purple berries, add three cups of grape juice.
For the blue berries, the closest thing I can think of is 4 cups of Ocean Spray Blueberry cocktail.
The green berries can be added in using three cups of lemonade or limeade.
As for the single yellow berry, a squirt of lemon juice can work.

Now the cartoon recipe states that you need to remove the bubbles, but if you want to make it fizzy, you can always add ginger ale or 7-Up, or Sprite.

Of course, this recipe works if you are making a big bowl of Gummiberry Juice. If you want to make a smaller version, use tablespoons instead of cups.

Now, this recipe is not one that I have tested, so I don't know how good it is. But maybe that's something that I will try out now that I have it written down. Hmmm...