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Friday, November 23, 2012

CSI: Miami


In keeping with the spirit of the last few weeks, this week's version of the Friday spotlight on television will once again feature a CBS dramatic series that was recently canceled.

I swear to you, I don't usually plan theme days or theme weeks unless I put a lot of thought behind them. In this case, I just got lucky, I suppose.

To kick off today's look back on television of the past, why don't we begin by talking about one of the most successful shows of the last few years?



By now, I'm sure that most of you have seen at least one full episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The show debuted in 2000, and is currently airing it's thirteenth season! The show, whose original stars included William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, George Eads, Gary Dourdan, Jorja Fox, and Paul Guilfoyle was a revolutionary one for its time. At the time, there really wasn't any show quite like it (CBS' last attempt at a show that dealt with murder investigations prior to CSI was “Murder...She Wrote”, which ended in 1996). The show displayed a rather sobering look at what the investigation process was like at crime scenes.

Granted, the way that the show did this was by showing graphic flashbacks of bugs eating away at the flesh of deceased humans, violent images of people getting murdered, and grotesque autopsy scenes...but hey, nobody ever said that fighting crime was filled with glitz and glamour, right? At least the show didn't try to sugarcoat anything. In fact, the show was responsible for causing a surge in enrollment to various college courses in forensics and crime scene investigations during the early to mid-2000s.

The show became so popular that it spawned not one, but two spin-offs!

Now, the original CSI is set in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the crime scenes were illuminated with the lights of Fremont Street. In 2004, another spin-off, CSI: New York, debuted on CBS, and is currently in season nine.

And then there's the third spin-off, which unfortunately is no longer on the air, but managed to run a grand total of ten seasons overall.

And this spin-off took place in one of the hottest spots in the entire United States.



Yes, we're going to be taking a look at the now defunct CBS series, CSI: Miami. The show ran from September 23, 2002 until April 8, 2012, and was created by Anthony Zuiker, Carol Mendelsohn, and Ann Donahue.



With the exception of the setting, CSI: Miami was almost exactly like the original series. In fact, many might not know this, but the show CSI: Miami actually began as an episode of the original CSI series.

Towards the end of CSI's second season, the episode “Cross Jurisdictions” aired on May 9, 2002. In that episode, a former chief of police from Las Vegas is murdered, and his wife and young daughter are abducted. The same day, a dead body is found inside of a trunk of a car with the former police chief's hat, leaving Gil Grissom (Petersen) and his team to suspect that the two murders are related.

At the same time, a police report from Miami is brought forth, stating that they believe they have located the young girl who was kidnapped in Las Vegas. Catherine Willows (Helgenberger) and Warrick Brown (Dourdan) fly to Miami to track down this lead so that they can hopefully locate the girl and bring her back home. And it is here that the CSI: Las Vegas team meets up with the team from CSI: Miami.

Okay, from left to right...



Khandi Alexander as Dr. Alexx Woods – Medical Examiner
Rory Cochrane as Tim Speedle – Trace Evidence and Impressions Expert
David Caruso as Horatio Caine – Head of the Miami-Dade Crime Lab
Emily Procter as Calleigh Duquesne – Ballistics Expert
Adam Rodriguez as Eric Delko – Fingerprints and Drug Identification Expert

The two teams seem to work well together, and both of them have definite similarities with how they work as individual teams. There is one major difference that sets the CSI: Las Vegas team apart from the CSI: Miami team, and that is the fact that the Miami team tends to hypothesize theories about what could have happened, while the Vegas team relied solely on evidence that was gathered.

Now, I won't spoil the ending of the episode in case you might not have seen it, but with Catherine and Warrick working with the Miami team while the rest of Grissom's team did what they could in Las Vegas, the girl was found and returned safely, and the real criminal was caught and prosecuted.

And beginning that September, Horatio, Calleigh, Delko, Speedle, and Alexx ended up getting their own series. They were initially joined by Megan Donner (Kim Delaney), but she left the series after only a few episodes.

And since I bring that up, why don't I use this opportunity to have a little bit of a Q & A session, just so we can learn some more trivia about this CSI spinoff.

Q: Which two original cast members of CSI: Miami ended up staying on the entire ten season run?



A: That would be David Caruso and Emily Procter, who appeared in all ten seasons of the show. I suppose you could also add Adam Rodriguez to the list as he appeared in every season too, but he spent the middle of the series in a recurring role when he left to join the cast of ABC's “Ugly Betty”.

Q: How many main characters were killed off during the show's series run?



A: Two. Tim Speedle was shot to death during a robbery, and Jesse Cardoza (Eddie Cibrian) died of head trauma after being poisoned by halon gas in the eighth season finale and hitting his head.

Q: Why did Kim Delaney only last a few episodes before being written out?



A: The short answer is that she lacked chemistry with David Caruso. The initial backstory of Kim Delaney's character of Megan Donner was that she had just come back from being on leave after her husband's death. Her former job was the one that Horatio Caine had at the start of the series, and she was written out of the series explaining that she could no longer handle the job any more. She was temporarily replaced by Wanda DeJesus, and later by Yelina Salas (Sofia Milos), the former sister-in-law of Horatio Caine.

Q: What is the deal with Horatio Caine and those sunglasses?



Don't ask me the answer...I have no idea myself!

Q: What were some of the reasons why some of the characters left CSI: Miami?

Well, we already know the story behind Megan's, Tim's, and Jesse's departures. But did you know that Alexx, Delko, Yelina, and medical examiner Tara Price (Megalyn Echikunwoke) also left the series? Alexx left the series after trying to clear her son's name from a murder, and realizing that she needed to spend more time with the living rather than the dead. Eric Delko left the series after sustaining a gunshot wound and almost died. He left the team because he felt that life was too short. Yelina left the series several times, each for a different reason. And Tara ended up getting fired from the Miami-Dade Crime Lab after developing an addiction to Oxycodone, stealing a bottle from a deceased victim, and pinning the blame on Julia Winston (Elizabeth Berkley) who proceeded to hold everyone in the autopsy room hostage.

TRIVIA: Eric Delko would return to the series full-time, and Alexx Woods made a couple of guest appearances.

Q: How many times did CSI: Miami cross over to other programs?

A: Four. Besides the original crossover on CSI, there was a 2004 crossover with CSI: New York, another one in 2005 which saw CSI: New York team leader Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) visit Miami to solve a case. And finally in 2008, CSI: Miami crossed over with both CSI and CSI: New York.

There were other characters added onto CSI: Miami as the show progressed. These included the following:



Natalia Boa Vista (Eva LaRue) is a DNA specialist who found herself involved in an abusive marriage, trying to help her sister get out of trouble, temporarily losing her hearing after a lab explosion, and was even outed as a mole for the FBI!



Ryan Wolfe (Jonathan Togo) was a former police officer who was hired as a lab technician on the spot shortly after Tim Speedle was killed. He was once fired from the job for not disclosing the fact that he was linked to a murder as a possible suspect, but was reinstated. He was also the only CSI who has ever been shot in the face with a nail gun! What a painful way to make a name, huh?



Frank Tripp (Rex Linn) accompanies the team on the majority of the crime scenes, offering his input and advice. Though he comes across as gruff and sarcastic with suspects, he is often good-natured with his fellow CSI's.



And Walter Simmons (Omar Miller) is a specialist in art theft and he specifically wanted to join Horatio's team, even leaving his post on the night shift to do it.

And, that's about all that I have to say about CSI: Miami. I figure with all the punches and shoving that will be taking place today on Black Friday, the TV show discussion seemed to fit the mood.

Oh, and one funny story I have to tell...my late neighbour HATED Horatio, and would call him a few choice words whenever she saw him.

I guess she was never a David Caruso fan.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

I'm Dreaming Of A Black Friday...NOT!!!


Before I get started with the second edition of the new blog feature I like to call the “Thursday Diaries”, I would like to take the opportunity to wish every single one of my American friends and readers a Happy Thanksgiving!

You know, I’ve always said that Thanksgiving (whether you celebrate it tomorrow or back in October as I do) is supposed to be a time of year in which we reflect back on what we’re most thankful for.  But for some people, American Thanksgiving means the beginning of one of the biggest retail experiences of the whole year.

And that’s basically what this “diary entry” is all about. 

November 22, 2012

It seems hard to believe that it is just a month and three days until Christmas arrives!  I tell you, it seems like it was only yesterday that I was walking down the street in just shorts and a polo shirt.  As I get older, I realize that time does not stand still.  In fact, as I grow older, that time seems to flow faster and faster.

If I were in the United States right now, I’d be celebrating Thanksgiving today.  In Canada, we always celebrate our Thanksgiving in October because our harvest season is a lot sooner than it is in the United States...which makes sense, since some people actually believe that winter in Canada lasts for ten months out of the year!

I remember as a little boy being incredibly confused over why the United States would have their Thanksgiving six weeks after we did.  I also remember being upset that Canada never had an elaborate celebration for Thanksgiving as the United States did.  After all, the United States goes all out for Thanksgiving with events such as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I watched a couple of the parades when I was younger, and I remember being fascinated by the amount of balloons and floats that veered their way down Times Square in New York City.  It wasn’t fair that the United States had a Thanksgiving Day parade, and Canada didn’t.  Sure, we have the annual Santa Claus parade in Toronto around the same time as the American Thanksgiving, but it just wasn’t the same thing. 

I wouldn’t mind Canada borrowing the tradition of having an elaborate Thanksgiving Day parade on our actual Thanksgiving Day in October.  That’s a tradition that I could stand behind, and I’m sure millions of Canadian children might feel the same way I do about it.

There is ONE tradition that is associated with the American Thanksgiving that I am NOT happy with though.  And this is a tradition that always takes place the morning after the American Thanksgiving.

I’m talking about the event known as BLACK FRIDAY!!!


I’m just going to be brutally honest here.  I despise Black Friday with the heat of a thousand suns.  I personally think that Black Friday does more harm than good, and the day actually brings out some of the worst characteristics in human beings.

Do you know why the event is called “Black Friday”?  Apparently the term was coined in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania around 1961, as a term that people used to describe the increase in both pedestrian and vehicle traffic the day after Thanksgiving.  It wasn’t until the mid-1970s that the term began to be used outside of the United States.  By then, an alternate definition of the day was coined by other people, as many retailers noted that the day after American Thanksgiving was the key date in which retailers began turning a profit...taking them out of the “red” and into the “black”.

Although a lot of people have claimed that Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, it wasn’t always the case.  I know that growing up in Canada, the busiest days for shopping during the holiday season was the Saturday before Christmas and the day after Christmas.  It really wasn’t until the mid-2000s that Black Friday became the massive event that it currently is today, with some stores opening as early as four o’clock in the morning to hock their discounted wares to the public.


However, I need to make one thing perfectly clear.  I make absolutely no apologies in expressing how much I hate what Black Friday has turned into.  A day filled with disgusting displays of misguided need and total greed.

I searched various video sharing sites to find examples of what Black Friday was like in 2011...and well...maybe it’s best if I show a few visual aids.  This first clip is from a Walmart location in La Quinta, California.


And, here’s a scene outside of an Urban Outfitters store just one minute after midnight on Black Friday.


And what happens when you reduce the price of a towel to $1.28?  This.


Okay, you know what?  I’ve seen enough.  These videos are getting me riled up and angry.

I can’t believe that people would act so savagely just to get a deal on a discounted bath towel!  There were people being knocked down on the floor, people getting attacked by flying boxes, people walking around expressionless as they grab items without any sense of awareness to anything and everything around them.


But I suppose it’s nothing new when it comes to Black Friday...at least in recent years anyway.  It seems that every year, the levels of violent outbursts and horror stories increase exponentially, with one terrible event after another.  I looked for some examples, and here are some of the worst Black Friday stories that I’ve ever heard of.

-      2006, Roanoke, Virginia – A man assaults another shopper at a Best Buy location.

-      2008, Valley Stream, New York – A 34-year-old employee of the store’s Walmart location is trampled to death as an estimated 2,000 customers walked over top of him as they charged through the doors looking for Black Friday deals.

-      2010, Madison, Wisconsin – A woman is arrested outside of a Toys R Us location after she threatened to shoot other customers in the line waiting to enter the store.

-      2010, Buffalo, New York – A man is trampled by customers at a Target location, in an incident eerily similar to the 2008 Valley Stream, New York incident.  Luckily, the man survived his injuries.

-      2011, Porter Ranch, California – A woman is arrested after she pepper sprays several customers at a Walmart in order to secure an XBOX console at a discounted price.  At least 20 injuries were reported.

Those are just five of many incidents that have happened on Black Friday.  And, I’m sorry, but no XBOX, 46-inch television, or bath towel is worth risking your life for.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing that I read while doing research on these Black Friday incidents goes back to the incident in which that poor man ended up spending his last moments of his life being crushed to death underneath the sneakers and slippers of two thousand people.  From what I understand, the shoppers at that particular store refused to stop shopping even after several employees of the store did their best to try and save the man’s life.  Even more chilling was the general reaction of the majority of the crowd.  They didn’t seem to care that a man had died...they just wanted their ten dollar toasters. 

Even worse, some of the customers seemed to be upset when the police attempted to close the store to conduct a police investigation into how the man died, allegedly claiming that they had waited a long time to get inside to get the best deals on the stock inside the store, and that they saw it as unfair that they had to leave the store early.

If this is the truth, then I have officially lost all faith in mankind.

As far as I am concerned, nothing is worth losing your life over.  Not even a ten dollar toaster.

I think the biggest tragedy of Black Friday is the fact that some Americans seem to have completely forgotten what the real spirit of Thanksgiving is all about.  The Pilgrims never waited outside of Old Navy for sixteen hours to get a great deal on performance fleece, and the Indians never pushed people out of the way to save fifty dollars on a cashmere sweater. 

Thanksgiving is all about being grateful for what we have, not dreaming about what we want.  Thanksgiving shouldn’t involve standing outside of a store shivering in the cold, crisp air just to snag a good deal on a discounted Keurig coffee maker or the latest Super Mario Brothers game.  Thanksgiving is all about spending time with your family and friends, enjoying each other’s company, and counting yourself lucky that you get to spend one more holiday together.


(And no, camping outside of a Best Buy store in sleeping bags doesn’t count as quality family time as far as I’m concerned.)

Now, I realize that for those of us who have to work a job in retail, having to work on Black Friday is a real possibility (and as someone who currently works retail, my heart definitely goes out to all of you tomorrow).

But I will say this.  Since I began working in retail, I have made a commitment to myself to try and get all my holiday shopping before Black Friday so I have an excuse not to shop.  Black Friday is way too claustrophobic and chaotic for me to even buy so much as a package of gum that day, let alone a home entertainment system.

As it stands this year, I have about 75% of my holiday shopping completed.  I think I’ll finish up the rest sometime next week, just so I can avoid all the crowds.

There is nothing in this world that I want bad enough for me to endure that hassle.  And now that Canada is starting to have Black Friday events in order to keep people from cross-border shopping, I feel even more strongly about that stance.


Wake me up when Saturday gets here, will ya?

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Barbie's Background


I thought that I would begin today’s blog entry by talking about a particular event that happened during my high school career, and how it actually relates to the topic that I have chosen for today.

My eleventh grade year was probably one of the toughest years that I have had to go through.  That period where I was sixteen going on seventeen was probably one of the biggest hardships that I have ever had to overcome.  I’m not just talking about teen angst either...I’m talking incredibly serious issues that I still have no idea how I managed to get through them in one piece.  My eleventh grade year was filled with surviving a serious ice storm, surviving some of the toughest high school classes that I have ever taken...hell, surviving eleventh grade alone was enough of a challenge.

Now, I don’t know about most of you out there, but would you like to know how I ended up dealing with some of the most frustrating periods of my eleventh grade year?  I turned on my stereo as loud as it could go without damaging my eardrums (but yet my parents still complained that it was too loud...go figure), and listened to whatever songs would fit my mood.

Most of the time, I listened to loud 1980s new wave and pop, as it was music that cheered me up.  Sometimes, if I were feeling down, I’d listen to rather depressing ballads and slow songs (don’t make fun, I know some of you do the same), and if I were feeling mad at the world, I’d have lots of Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails, and yes, even a Nirvana song or two blasting out of my stereo.

But I very rarely turned my radio dial to Top 40 stations around that time. 

You see, my high school experience was filled with incredibly horrible music.  It seemed as though the whole period between 1997 and 1998 was filled with new boy bands being born every five minutes, the Spice Girls practically screeching “Girl Power” at every opportunity, and Hanson creating a song out of gibberish.

(I still shake my head in amazement wondering how the heck “Mmmbop” became a number one hit, by the way.)

Oh, and here’s a perfect example of some of the horrible music that I had to endure during my eleventh grade year.


ARTIST:  Aqua
SONG:  Barbie Girl
ALBUM:  Aquarium
DATE RELEASED:  May 14, 1997
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #7

At first I was thinking that it was incomprehensible for this song to make it to the top of the charts...until I did a little bit of research and found that this song became an actual number one hit in the United Kingdom.  For THREE WEEKS! 

Though, I suppose one positive that I can say about this song...the music video still makes me laugh uncontrollably fifteen years earlier.

But one company that wasn’t laughing was Mattel Toys.  Mattel launched a lawsuit against the Danish band, Aqua, claiming that the band not only violated their trademark, but took one of their most prized toys in their entire catalogue and devalued it, claiming that the band turned their toy into nothing more than a sex object by referring to it as a “blonde bimbo girl”.  The case was eventually dismissed by the lower courts, and in 2002, a Court of Appeals ruled that the song had been protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution because it was a parody.  Ironically enough, seven years later, Mattel began using a modified version of the song “Barbie Girl” to promote the very toys that they fought to protect.


But then again, Barbie was always a figure of controversy, wasn’t she?


Okay, so I know what you all must be saying...a male doing a blog entry on Barbie of all things?  No, I am not crazy, and no, I have not given up my man card.  In fact, I’ll be the first one to confess that the only time I ever held a Barbie doll was when I was burying them in the backyard.

(I may have been a little bit sadistic in my youth when it came to my sister’s toys.)

The truth is that I want my blog to appeal to a wide audience.  I want people to read my blog and find at least one topic that they can identify with.  So sometimes I may end up doing a blog entry on a topic that I know little to nothing about.

You know what though?  I love a challenge.  So, let’s get on with it.

It seems really hard to believe, but if Barbie was a real-live person, she would be fifty-three years old.  Funny how she doesn’t look a day over, say, twenty-six.  Must be all the plastic surgery she had.


(Oh, yes.  I did go there.)


In all seriousness, the first Barbie doll was released on March 3, 1959 by American businesswoman Ruth Handler (1916-2002).  Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts – the first name coming from Handler’s daughter, Barbara.

Ruth got the idea to create the Barbie doll by watching her daughter playing with a set of paper dolls, noticing that Barbara liked to give her dolls more grown-up roles.  During the mid-1950’s, almost all dolls manufactured looked like infants or toddlers, and Handler believed that there could be a market towards dolls that looked like adults.  Unfortunately, not even her husband Elliot (who co-founded the Mattel toy company) was convinced.


It wasn’t until Ruth took a trip to Europe with her children that she discovered a German doll known by the name of Bild Lilli.  The doll’s design was based from a popular comic series illustrated by Reinhard Beuthin.  Lilli’s look was that of a blonde bombshell and working girl who often used men in order to get whatever she wanted.

Some classy role model, huh?

Apparently, Bild Lilli was the perfect embodiment of the very doll that she had hoped to create.  Buying three Lilli dolls (giving one to Barbara and keeping two for herself).

Upon returning to the United States (and with assistance from engineer Jack Ryan), Handler redesigned the look of the Lilli doll, and after giving the doll the brand new name of “Barbie”, debuted the toy at the American International Toy Fair in 1959...and the rest is history.

I suppose you want to know what a Barbie doll looked like in 1959.  Well, here she is.


TRIVIA:  Although most people associate blonde hair with Barbie, the Barbie doll originally came in both blonde and brunette versions.


The Barbie doll was marketed with the slogan “The Teen-Age Fashion Model”, and her outfits were created by fashion designer Charlotte Johnson.  When Barbie was first created, the first dolls were manufactured in Japan, and her clothing items were hand-stitched by Japanese homeworkers.  Within the first year of production, around 350,000 dolls were sold.

The earliest designs of Barbie didn’t come without controversy.  You see, Ruth Handler had always intended for the Barbie doll to have an adult appearance to set it apart from other dolls, but some parents had issues with the distinct chest that Barbie sported.  As a result, some of Barbie’s body parts were augmented over the doll’s fifty-three year history.  The most glaring change occurred in 1971, when Barbie’s eyes were changed to have her looking forward, rather than side-to-side.

It is currently estimated that over one billion Barbie dolls have been sold in 150 different countries.  Mattel has actually made the claim that three Barbie dolls are sold every second!  I’m not sure if anyone has ever proven that to be true, but I can attest that at the store I work at, Barbie dolls consistently sell quite well year round.

So, what exactly makes Barbie so popular?

I really don’t know as I have never owned a Barbie (and will likely never own a Barbie), but I can only speculate that the fact that Barbie dolls comes with an entire assortment of fashion items and accessories may have something to do with it.  After all, Barbie has so many miniature outfits that she could literally wear a new outfit every day of the year!

Barbie dolls were also manufactured in different races and cultures, such as the examples below.



  

Another reason could be the fact that Barbie was sort of an independent woman who owned several animals, a convertible, and a beach house.  And Barbie’s also held several career options during her lifetime.  She’s been a fashion model, a doctor, a nurse, a teacher, a lifeguard, a surfer, an astronaut, an olympic gymnast, a babysitter, a pop star, a princess...she’s even worked behind the counter of a McDonald’s!

(No...I’m not kidding about that last one.  Here’s visual proof.)


And, Barbie’s not the only doll in the Barbie line.  Did you know that Barbie actually has sisters? 


Obviously the one that most girls would remember is Skipper.  I can remember seeing a lot of commercials for Skipper dolls on television when I was a kid...wondering why a Barbie doll had the same name as a character from Gilligan’s Island.  There was also Stacie, Kelly, and Chelsea, who were also added to Barbie’s family, ranging in age from toddler to pre-teen.

(Boy, Barbie’s mother must have been exhausted.)

Of course, not all Barbie dolls were welcomed with such warmth.  There was an outcry in 1992 when the company released talking Barbie dolls.  Although the Barbie dolls were programmed to say a multitude of phrases, some people ended up with a doll that said "Math class is tough!", and the company did some damage control by offering to replace any doll that said that phrase. The scandal was parodied in the Simpsons episode "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy".


And then there’s Ken, Barbie’s plastic-haired beau whose underwear was permanently attached to his nether regions.  Barbie and Ken have had a rather interesting relationship.  They were together for decades before Barbie publicly threw Ken out of her dream house in 2004 in a very public break-up (though the break-up only lasted a couple of years). 


DISTURBING TRIVIA:  You remember how I said that Barbie was named after Ruth Handler’s daughter?  Well, Ken was named after Ruth Handler’s son, Kenneth.

Now just think about this for a second.  Barbie and Ken are two dolls who have been in love with each other forever - named after a real-life brother and sister. 

But no, that’s not disturbing at all...

And now I turn the floor over to you...


BONUS QUESTION:  What were some of your favourite Barbie memories?  Did you dress them up with love and care?  Have Barbie themed parties?  Do what I did and make your own Barbie graveyard?  I’m curious to know!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

November 20, 1983


Well, here we go with another edition of the Tuesday Timeline! This time around, we're going back to a year that we already visited not that long ago. I normally try to add a little bit of variety to the mix when it comes to featuring specific years, but in this case, the topic that I ended up selecting was just too good to pass up. I'm sure you'll understand as you read on.

This is the twentieth day of November, and as it so happens, a lot happened on this date. Take a look at the celebrity birthdays for today which include the following famous faces; Nadine Gordimer, Kaye Ballard, Estelle Parsons, Don DeLillo, Dick Smothers, Bob “Super Dave Osborne” Einstein, Joe Biden, Norman Greenbaum, Meredith Monk, Veronica Hamel, Louie Dampier, Rick Monday, Nanette Workman, Greg Cook, Joe Walsh, Richard Masur, Rodger Bumpass, Steve Dahl, Bo Derek, Mark Gastineau, Sean Young, Tim Harvey, Mike Diamond (Beastie Boys), Jimmy Vasser, Callie Thorne, Delia Gonzalez, Geoffrey Keezer, Sabrina Lloyd, Joe Zaso, Phife Dawg (A Tribe Called Quest), Joel McHale, Angelica Bridges, Dierks Bentley, Davey Havok (AFI), Joshua Gomez, Josh Turner, Kimberley Walsh (Girls Aloud), Margo Stilley, Carly Rae Jepsen, Rhys Wakefield, and Cody Linley.

I'm exhausted just typing all that out!

As it turns out, a lot of events took place on November 20 throughout history. Here's just a sampling.

1739 – The beginning of the Battle of Porto Bello between Britain and Spain during the War of Jenkins' Ear

1789 – The state of New Jersey becomes the first state to ratify the U.S. Bill of Rights

1820 – An 80-ton sperm whale attacks The Essex off the coast of South America...this event later serves as the inspiration behind the classic story “Moby Dick”

1861 – Secession ordinance is filed by Kentucky's Confederate Government during the American Civil War

1917 – Ukraine is declared a republic

1923 – Rentenmark replaces the Papiermark as the official currency of Germany

1936 – The founder of the Falange, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, is killed by a republican execution squad

1940 – Hungary officially joins the Axis Powers during World War II, becoming a signatory of the Tripartite Pact

1945 – Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals begin at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg

1947 – Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Phillip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London

1962 – President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of Cuba in response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove all missiles from Cuba, effectively putting an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis

1969The Plain Dealer publishes photographs of slain villagers taken from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam

1974 – The U.S. Department of Justice files final anti-trust suit against AT&T, which leads to the breakup of AT&T and its Bell System

1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to visit Israel

1980 – Lake Peigneur drains into an underlying salt deposit due to a misplaced Texaco oil probe being drilled into the Crystal Salt Mine

1985 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released

1992 – A fire causes millions in damages at Windsor Castle in England

1998 – The first module of International Space Station, Zarya, is launched

2001 – George W. Bush dedicates the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building as the Robert F. Kennedy Justice building, on what would have been his 76th birthday

2006 – American film director Robert Altman passes away at the age of 81 due to complications from leukemia

2008 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average dips to its lowest level since 1997, kicking off the 2008 recession

So, what date are we flashing back to this week?



November 20, 1983.

And, what was so special about this date? Well, it was the day that a television movie aired on ABC. The movie itself did quite well in the ratings, with over one hundred MILLION people tuning in to watch it, making it one of the most successful made for television movies ever made.

Even if the movie did cause some tension, panic, and controversy.



You know, I have such fond memories of the 1980s. It was the decade that I was born in, and it was the decade that I associate with some of my fondest childhood memories. This is clearly subjective, but I think the 1980s had some of the best cartoons, the best music videos, the best movies, and the best toys. Being a kid in the 1980s was something very special and magical, and although I was only eight years old when the 1980s ended, I still have a lot of fond memories of that time.



I was so caught up in having as much fun as I could during the 1980s as a young boy that I didn't quite comprehend just how dire the world was during that time. Yes, the 1980s were a fun decade to experience, but it was also a very scary decade if you were an adult. You witnessed the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981, you witnessed a huge stock market crash in 1987, and in 1986, the world watched in horror as a nuclear accident in Chernobyl devastated the city of Pripyat.

That last event was one that weighed heavily on the minds of a lot of people, particularly since the threat of nuclear disaster was a huge possibility. Ever since the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan in 1945, the threat of nuclear weapons became a huge possibility. And seeing the images of the devastation coming from the aftereffects of the bombing likely made millions all over the world wonder “what if it happened here”?

Now, the Cold War officially ended in the early 1990s, but I imagine that many people are still worried about the threat of nuclear war possibly occurring during our lifetimes. What would happen if conflict arose between two nations and one nation decided to counterattack with nuclear weapons? How would it affect life in the affected areas? Would there be any chance of survival? Would there be any hope?

On November 20, 1983, one movie attempted to paint a rather dire and frightening picture of what life would be like if a nuclear bomb went off in a heavily populated area. And being only two years old at the time of this movie, I'm actually kind of glad that I was too young to remember watching it. I watched the whole movie in preparation for writing this entry, and I admit that I was a little bit frightened myself.



This blog is all about the movie “The Day After”.

This movie featured the acting talents of John Lithgow, JoBeth Williams, Jason Robards, Steve Guttenberg, John Cullum, and Amy Madigan, and was directed by Nicholas Meyer.

The idea for the movie came right around the time that the film “The China Syndrome” was released. ABC Motion Picture Division president Brandon Stoddard was so impressed by the film that he decided to come up with the idea to do a movie that explored the effects of a nuclear attack on American soil. He came up with the title “The Day After” because he never meant for the attack to be the main focus...his main goal was to show the aftermath of the attack, as well as the quest for survival.



The original setting for the film was the city of Kansas City, Missouri, but was changed to Lawrence, Kansas instead (though the film did make references to Kansas City). The reason for the change was due to the fact that Lawrence had some decent shooting locations, such as a hospital, university campus, sporting event stadiums, as well as farms and beautiful countryside. In fact, many of the extras in the film were college students from the university campus. The support for the film was definitely evident in Lawrence, Kansas.



In Hollywood, on the other hand, the project was extremely controversial, and many people were opposed to the idea of making the movie in the first place. Initially, Robert Butler was hired on to direct the film, but had to leave due to contractual obligations for another project. And when Nicholas Meyer was offered the project, he was quite apprehensive about the project, believing that there was no way that network censors would allow a project to be greenlit without massive cuts. Once he read the script, he immediately jumped on board with the idea to make the film less about a Hollywood disaster, and more about illustrating the facts about the effects on nuclear war. He also wanted to cast the movie with relative unknows, but knew that he needed at least one Hollywood star to get people to tune in to the movie, and to attract the European audience. As luck would have it, Meyer was seated next to Jason Robards on a flight to New York, and Robards was talked into joining the cast.

The film opens up with a series of news reports depicting a fictional war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The conflict kicks off with the Soviet Union commencing a military buildup in East Germany in hopes of getting the United States to withdraw from West Berlin. When the United States refuses to back down, the conflict escalates. Tensions soon mount on both sides, and the United States issues an ultimatum to the Soviet Union. Stand down from the blockade they have set up by six o'clock the following morning, or it will be interpreted as an act of war.

Soon after, the city of Moscow issues a mandatory evacuation, and various American cities followed suit, as unconfirmed reports of nuclear weapons being detonated are broadcast over radio and television.

In the community of Lawrence, Kansas, pandemonium and hysteria seems to be the general mood. People crowd supermarkets and food stores trying to prepare for the worst, and thousands of people try desperately to get out of town before something terrible happens.

Unfortunately, for those people who are still in Lawrence, Kansas, it's a futile effort, as word gets out that the Soviet Union launched a massive attack against thirty-two different targets with ten projected impact points, while reporting that they had suffered catastrophic loss themselves. In fact, the film purposely makes it unknown as to which side launched the nuclear missiles first.

Whatever the case, here's the end result.



Now, I realize that the special effects are somewhat dated for 2012 standards. The film was made almost thirty years ago, after all. Back in 1983, I can only imagine just how frightening the scenes were. To add to the general mood, after the attack scene, the rest of the movie was broadcast without commercial breaks on its original airing.

And, not to spoil the plot too much, but here's some of the stories that people witnessed after the attack on Lawrence, Kansas.



  • Dr. Russell Oakes (Robards) is on his way to do a lecture at the University of Kansas as the attacks take place, and he ends up treating several patients at the university hospital with Dr. Sam Hachiya (Calvin Jung) and Nurse Bauer (Williams)
  • Science professor Joe Huxley (Lithgow) and his students construct a Geiger counter to monitor the levels of nuclear fallout outside while trying to use a radio to locate survivors outside of the impact area
  • Billy McCoy (William Allen Young), an Airman First Class in the U.S. Air Force, is the first to witness the initial missile launches, and tries to head back home in order to be with his family. When he ends up stranded, he has to fight to stay alive
  • The Dahlberg family, headed by Jim (Cullum) are located in Harrisonville, Missouri (just outside of Kansas City) where they are preparing for the wedding of eldest daughter, Denise. When the blast occurs, the Dahlberg's young son, Danny is blinded, and much of the family begins suffering from radiation poisoning
  • University student Stephen Klein (Guttenberg) is hitchhiking to Joplin, Missouri, but when the attacks occur, he is taken in by the Dahlberg family.

The whole movie definitely did what it set out to do...painted a realistic portrait of the despair and devastation that could come from a nuclear attack...but let's make one thing clear. There were no happy endings. Almost all the characters in the film ended up suffering from the aftermath of the movie.

The night the movie aired, several 1-800 hotlines were opened up with counselors standing by to help people deal with what they had just seen. Ted Koppel hosted a live debate immediately after the conclusion of the movie, which had several experts (both pro and con) arguing about the arms race and the use of nuclear weapons in conflict.

Peace vigils were held all over the United States in the days after the movie aired, and Lawrence, Kansas reported a record number of tourists visiting the city the year after the film aired, with many people wanting to visit the locations of those that were destroyed in the movie.

Even Fred Rogers devoted four episodes of the popular series “Mister Rogers Neighbourhood” to comfort and talk to young children who may have watched the movie on television. The film was even shown in the Soviet Union in 1987.

The Day After” was a realistic, yet fictionalized account of what might happen if the United States became the target of a nuclear war.

And it aired for the first time on November 20, 1983.