Search This Blog

Friday, September 20, 2013

Mrs. Krabappel - World's Worst Teacher?

All right...so over the last couple of weeks, I've talked about teachers and teaching, and how if you have a teacher who really cares about their job, chances are you'll learn just as many lessons outside of the classroom as well as within.

Two weeks ago, we talked about a fictional teacher by the name of Miss Bliss. She didn't appear on television very long (only about a quarter of a year), but in the thirteen episodes we got to know her, she showed that she was a great teacher. Her patience with her class could be tested (especially with Zack Morris and Screech Powers being in her class), but she genuinely knew what she was doing.

Today, we're going to be looking at what one could call the anti-Miss Bliss. Or, I suppose one could call her something along the lines of Miss Apathetic.

I'm sure we have all had at least one teacher out there who simply doesn't care about teaching at all. They're either in the classroom just to get their pay, because they have absolutely nothing else to do with their time, or because they have been left so jaded over the education system that they've seemingly given up.

I'll be the first to tell you that when I was in school, I recall having at least three teachers in my lifetime who simply didn't really have any desire to be there. Granted, in the case of one teacher, he retired shortly after I was a student in his class, so naturally I can't be surprised if he spent more time counting the days to freedom instead of teaching us all about just how evil Caligula really was. But the other two I think were suffering from either an extreme case of burnout, or they were simply in the wrong profession.

Coincidentally, while I won't reveal the identities of people who I have not really had that positive of an experience with...I will state that the teachers who simply didn't care about teaching certainly reflected in the grades I received in said class. After all, if the teacher didn't have any sort of interest in what they were teaching us, how could we as students attempt to even care? It was certainly one of those Catch-22 situations.

But then I thought about looking at it through the teacher's eyes. Maybe there's a reason why they were the way they were. Maybe something happened along the way that caused them to abandon everything they were ever taught about teaching and they built up this impenetrable force field that prevented them from being as good a teacher as they once were.

Or maybe they were just born jerks and there was absolutely nothing that I could do about it.

Well, in today's look back through the pages of TV Guide, we're going to look at a teacher who has seemingly lost her way. Oh, don't let the fact that this teacher is an animated cartoon character fool you. She is the very definition of someone who has seemingly lost sight of what being a teacher is all about, and she literally makes no effort in making sure that her students learn anything. I mean, when you stop and think about it, she's been teaching the same exact children for a grand total of twenty-four years and counting! Frankly, if I knew that a kid in my class was held back twenty-four years, I would be seriously questioning the quality of education my teacher was giving us.

Of course, I try to take a look at the good in everyone. Though it took me some time to find it, I did manage to come up with a list of pros in addition to the cons.

So, let's go over the clues. She's an animated figure, she's been teaching for almost a quarter of a century (even though she nor her students have aged a day), and she is so bitter about her job and placement in life that she has basically given the world of public school a huge “Screw You!”.

Have you figured it out yet?



If you guessed Edna Krabappel, you're absolutely correct! Since “The Simpsons” debuted on FOX in 1989, she has taught the fourth grade students of Springfield Elementary. And, considering the students that are in her class, it's no wonder why she seems to have given up on her once loved career.



Let's see. Well, we have Martin Prince. He's a self-confessed genius who knows everything there is to know about anything. Easily Mrs. Krabappel's best student. Of course, this sets the stage for Martin to outshine his teacher, which makes Mrs. Krabappel even more jaded than ever before.

There's twins Sherri and Terri, who are also bright students but could easily be classified as snobby mean girls who just want to make everyone else who doesn't have a twin feel self-conscious. Trust me, I went to school with a ton of Sherri and Terri's.

There's Nelson Muntz, the class bully who spends more time beating up the weaker kids of Springfield Elementary than cracking open his math books. There's Milhouse Van Houten, who spends more time hiding from Nelson Muntz than brushing up on American History.



And then there's Bartholomew J. Simpson. The very bane of Mrs. Krabappel's existence. The boy who has kept our teacher spotlight on a steady diet of dinners-for-one, cigarettes, and cheap wine for years.

Just how much trouble has Bart caused towards Mrs. Krabappel? Well...

  • He pretended to pose as a love interest for her to get revenge for her taking away his yo-yo.
  • He consistently gets horrible grades in her class, making her doubt her ability to even teach anybody.
  • He pulls pranks on her and all the other students and faculty in the school.
  • When Mrs. Krabappel embarked on a secret affair with Principal Skinner, Bart exposed their torrid little affair.

No wonder Mrs. Krabappel has absolutely no love for her job anymore.

But wait. There's a lot more to this story than what we're lead to believe. Yes, Mrs. Krabappel is a lost soul on the campus grounds of Springfield Elementary. But she certainly didn't start off that way.

To be honest, the origin story of Mrs. Krabappel has changed and been retconned so much that not even I know what the real story is. But the one that seems to make the most sense is the one theory that was explained in the episode “The Seemingly Never-Ending Story”, which originally aired on March 12, 2006.

In that episode, we learn that the summer before she began teaching at Springfield Elementary, she was in a relationship with Moe Szyslak of all people! The relationship between both of them was absolutely perfect, but Edna didn't particularly care for tavern owners, prompting Moe to come up with a way to abandon his business without Edna finding out the truth. The rest of the plot was kind of contrived involving known criminal Snake and a bunch of Mayan coins, but how the love story ended really sets the stage for Edna Krabappel's life.

You see, Edna and Moe were about to leave Springfield for good and one of the last things that she had to do was resign from her new job at Springfield Elementary. The problem was that there was one person who prevented her from doing exactly that.

Bart Simpson.

Turns out that Bart Simpson was feeling sorry for himself. At that time, Bart was a year or two away from being a student in Mrs. Krabappel's class, and he told her a huge sob story about how he constantly was getting into trouble and that he wouldn't amount to anything and that he was a lost cause. At that point in her life, Mrs. Krabappel didn't like to see anybody fall through the cracks, so she bought into Bart's cries for help hook, line, and sinker - unaware that Bart was only acting that way to cause a distraction for Nelson himself to steal some equipment from Springfield Elementary.

And, the rest, shall we say...is history. In just two short years, Mrs. Krabappel went from a teacher who wanted to change the world, to becoming a woman who was so jaded and so bitter about life that she just stopped caring. A rather depressing display, don't you think?



Ah, but wait. What if I told you that inside that battered, bruised, and broken heart lay a single ray of hope? What if I told you that despite all of the hurt in her life, there's still a little piece of her that still cared? You'd think I was nuts, right?

Well, consider this.

At some point before the show began, we know that Mrs. Krabappel was married. We can only assume that her former husband's last name was Krabappel. And we can assume that based on how she belittles herself and has a bit of a warped view on love that her husband certainly lived up to his name. The divorce was finalized by the time the show began, and we are constantly reminded that for the first few seasons of the show that Mrs. Krabappel was a lonely woman. She frequently bought soup servings for one, watched trashy television, engrossed herself in romance novels, and basically jumped all over every single man who crossed her path be it a high school principal, a Japanese sushi chef, or even a member of rock band Aerosmith!



That's why some people really considered it cruel when Bart created the mystery man of “Woodrow” (in the guise of hockey player Gordie Howe) in a fit of revenge against his teacher for spoiling his fun. 



However, when Bart witnessed his teacher breaking down in a fancy restaurant after “Woodrow” stood her up, he really felt horrible. With help from the rest of his family (well, with help from everyone except Maggie and Homer to a lesser extent), Bart wrote Mrs. Krabappel a final letter from “Woodrow”, which broke things off with her, but let her know that she was loved. And, you know, I do think that while Bart's intentions were initially mean-spirited, by reading Edna's letters to “Woodrow”, he got a better sense of who she was.



And hey, it's not as if Mrs. Krabappel took great pleasure in failing her students. Sure, when Bart kept failing her tests, she did take some joy in using her faithful red pen to mark off every question that Bart got wrong. But in the season two opener, Bart really did study hard for a test when he prayed for a snow day (and magically got one), and he missed passing by one mark. He broke down in tears in front of a shocked Mrs. Krabappel who actually attempted to comfort him. And in what could have been one of Mrs. K's greatest moments, she actually awarded Bart an extra credit point when during his meltdown he revealed a fact about American History that was correct. She found it within the kindness of her broken heart to award Bart an extra point bringing his final grade to a D-minus.



All right, so a D-minus is nothing special. To Bart, it was worth everything. And, he thanked his teacher by kissing her on the cheek...and promptly regretting it once he came to his senses!



Basically, Mrs. Krabappel could be a great teacher if she put out the effort to make it happen. And, I think at times when she was at her most happiest in life, those were the times in which she was at her happiest. In particular when she was in a relationship with someone else. She and Principal Skinner had a little fling going on for a few seasons (in which Bart accidentally discovered their secret which caused both Skinner and Krabappel to blackmail him into doing their dirty work, which lead to Bart exposing the affair), but we all knew that Principal Skinner's only commitment was to his mother. The relationship was doomed to fail from the very beginning.



Although, Mrs. Krabappel has apparently fallen for Ned Flanders of all people, which kind of makes me chuckle. The so-called scarlet woman of Springfield entering into a romance with the purest man in Springfield. Sigh...the writers of The Simpsons clearly know the definition of irony, that's for sure.

So, I suppose looking back on the life and times of Mrs. Krabappel, it's easy to see how she ended up the way she did. She came into the world of education ready to change the world and be a positive role model for her students. Unfortunately, she became a victim of the American public school system and was placed in what could easily be one of the worst elementary schools in the entire continent of North America, and the more problems she had in her class, combined with the general apathy of the school board and school staff who worked at Springfield Elementary...well, again, it's easy to see where her dreams got derailed along the way and she retreated into her shell of bitterness.

However, several people over the course of her life have gotten her to open up more and in some aspects, they have reminded her why she came to Springfield in the first place. Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders...heck, even Bart Simpson helped her.


Perhaps there may come a time in which Mrs. Krabappel finally sees her purpose, and she may end up getting her second wind yet. But, I'm not exactly holding my breath on that one.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Gym-Dandy? Not Very! (Part II of II)

Before I go ahead with today's blog entry, I just wanted to take the time to pay my respect to those who were killed or injured in the deadly double decker bus crash in Ottawa, Ontario yesterday morning. It was a devastating crash with at least six people dead and several others seriously injured, and I can't even imagine the terror that the people on the bus, as well as the people on the train that the bus collided with went through.

Ottawa is almost considered to be like a second home to me. I lived in that city for two years and loved every single minute of it. I rode on the OC Transpo buses almost daily when I did live in the city. Having a parent who worked for a railroad for over thirty years helped me understand railway crossing safety better than anyone else that I know. We don't know how the accident unfolded, and with the driver of the bus being one of the victims, we might never understand what happened. All I know is that my heart definitely goes out to the victims of the accident.

Now, when we last left off, I was doing a two-part blog entry. In the first part of the entry, I talked about my overall dislike of gym class, why I hated it, and why looking back on it all, they were just excuses that I had come up with to try and justify why I wasn't the most active kid in the world.

As we go ahead towards part two of this diary entry, I talk about how my general distaste for gym class affected me in my adult life...and how there's a certain kind of place that I am sort of nervous to venture into as a result of it. Not because of the things inside of it...but because of something else. It could very well be one of the most emotional things that I have ever revealed in this blog entry.

September 19, 2013

Okay, so where did I last leave off? Oh, yes. I remember now. I was making all sorts of excuses over why I was not the best student in any of my gym classes, and how those excuses seemed to give me a negative view on keeping fit while having fun.



Oh, dear lord...did I just channel Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod in this blog entry? Yikes.

Anyway, I have a bit of a confession to make that is related to the post that I made yesterday...and it is my hope that with this confession that I will be making that I will not only help people understand why my opinions of healthy wellness were always tinted in shades of self-loathing, but I also hope that with my confession, I start to understand myself a little better.

My confession is this.



You know all of those gyms that seem to pop up every so often? Be it a 24-Hour Fitness, or a GoodLife fitness club, or the gym at the YMCA, or a Bally's Total Fitness, or a Curves fitness club...they seem to be all over the place. Sign up today at one, and you can get right to work building your muscles and losing inches off of your waist, all while having fun doing it.



Would you believe that I've never set foot inside of a Curves gym? It's true. Of course, I suppose that the main reason is because it's a gym that only has female members.



But, here's the real confession. I've never been inside of a 24-Hour Fitness, a Bally's Total Fitness, a GoodLife Fitness, and the closest I ever got to the YMCA gym was when I had my birthday party at the YMCA when I turned eight years old. That's twenty-four years ago, people.

Truth be told, I'm afraid of going to a gym even though I have heard some people tell me that they are really fun places to go to and I can meet a whole lot of people there. The thought of even going inside the door makes my heart beat twice as fast, and I break out into a sweat even before I attempt to go on one of the various strength building machines scattered throughout the place.

But why would a bunch of machines cause me so much terror? Well, aside from not knowing how to use them, that is. And even so, I'm sure that most gyms would have people working there that would show you how to operate them so that you don't inadvertently become the next YouTube sensation.

I guess in some ways, it all boils down to the self-confidence that I still somewhat lack. I don't feel comfortable working out in front of other people in a gym setting.

Yes, I'm aware that a grade school gym class is way different than an adult gym where you see people running on treadmills and pedalling away on stationary exercise bikes. But I still feel like a fish out of water at places like a gym.

I'll put it out there. I'm a lot smaller than I was when I was in high school, but because of my surgery a couple of years ago, I've gained some weight back. And try as I might, I'm having a difficult time shedding the pounds the second time around.

I'm thinking to myself that enrolling at a gym would be a good step to try and tone up and lose some more weight. Not a fix all, end all solution, but a great asset. After all, you see people on “The Biggest Loser” and “Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition” working out on the show and getting amazing results. And yet, I can't bring myself to call up the number, pay the member activation fee, and work, work, work.

Sounds kind of strange, doesn't it? I'm someone who could benefit from working out at a gym, but yet I'm too chicken to go into one.

I guess there's that little part of me that thinks that I'm going to go in there, have no idea what I'm doing, and somehow end up being the butt of everyone's jokes...taking me back to the time in my life that I want desperately to forget.

It just sounds so incredibly silly for me to have these feelings of inadequacy when it comes to my health and how I look because I know that I have come a long way. I can do a 5K walk with absolutely no problems whatsoever (well, aside from overactive sweat glands which I wish I could do something about). I've participated in charity events in which I have had to do several endurance exercise activities and lived to tell the tale. And, would I have done an eight and a half mile circuit around a track at the Relay for Life back in June if I were as out of shape as I think I am? Of course not!

The truth is, I've overcome a lot of personal challenges in hopes of becoming a better, more active person. My childhood asthma is no longer as much of a hindrance as it was when I was a child, and I have actually found a way to make walking a lot more fun (mind you, it involves strapping on my fully-charged iPod).

I just have to try and find a way to translate that fun into working out at a gym.

But you know what? I've come to the conclusion that if I am really serious about making even more changes to my health and my wellness...I don't think I can do it on my own.

Remember how I told you yesterday about how I entered a weight loss competition at work, and I did especially well? That was only because I had a great group of people who really cared about me. They threw their love and support towards me. They made sure that I didn't eat or drink too much junk food, and they kept me motivated towards the goal. Granted, I came in second in the whole competition, but it was worth it because in the end, I was the healthiest I have ever felt.

I guess I need that support more than ever before in the next phase of my life. I guess I'm reaching out to everyone here, both in my real life, and to all of you who are reading this right now. I guess what I want to do is to feel more confident about myself. That ability has dwindled a bit since 2009, when I had my wake-up call. I guess what I need is people to continue to support me instead of tearing me down, and what I need is people to believe in me so that I can start to believe in myself again.

It's not going to be easy, but I think there's a way that I can become a better person than ever before. I just need help in making it happen.

So, who wants to help me pick out a gym and be my work-out buddy? I figure that my reluctance to drop trou in the locker room after a great workout will be lessened if I know someone who has my back will be there to support me in my goals.


As weird and strange as that sounds, believe me, it comes from the heart.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Gym-Dandy? Not Very! (Part I of II)



In case you're just joining us after a long absence away from “A Pop Culture Addict's Guide To Life”, you're just in time to witness the second installment of “Whatever Wednesday”. Previously known as “All-Request Wednesday”. Previously known as “The Wednesday Gift Shop”. Previously known as “Across The Pond and Beyond Wednesdays”.

Yep, as you can see, Wednesdays have always been a point of frustration for this blogger.

So for Wednesdays, I thought that I would leave it up to fate to choose my topic of discussion.

I managed to find an old “Clue” board game and grabbed all of the different coloured character cards from the game. I then assigned each card one of the theme days that you might see later on in the week. To recap, here's the character cards and the theme days that they represent.

MISS SCARLET: Sunday Jukebox
COLONEL MUSTARD: Monday Matinee
MRS. WHITE: Saturday Smorgasbord (weeks 3-5)
MR. GREEN: Saturday Smorgasbord (weeks 1-2)
MRS. PEACOCK: Friday Night in the TV Guide
PROFESSOR PLUM: Thursday Diary

So, I have all of the cards inside of a plastic bag, and I will now draw one at random.



Looks like today is a Professor Plum kind of day. So, this week, I'll be doing a Wednesday Diary entry in addition to a Thursday Diary entry. But that's cool. I have plenty to talk about.

So, what will I be talking about in the first of two diary entries? Well, I've decided to make this a 2-parter.  Part 2 will begin tomorrow, but here's Part 1 for you. It will set up the story for tomorrow.

September 18, 2013



I have to come clean to all of you reading this right now. I've had kind of a love-hate relationship with physical activity.

I'm not exactly sure where this volatile relationship started, but when I was a child, I was not exactly the most active person out there...which probably might explain why I ballooned up to over 300 pounds by the time I was in high school. But when it came to physical activity, I really found it a bother to even try getting healthy. I kind of laughed it off in a sense.

Now, before you hang that necklace with the scarlet “L” on it (the “L” standing for laziness) around my neck, I just want to make a few things clear.



Firstly, I was a kid who suffered from childhood asthma to the point where I was hospitalized for a severe attack when I was seven, and which forced me to miss approximately eighteen days of school throughout the fifth grade. Trying to keep up to the other kids in the class was extremely hard for me back then because I was always winded and out of breath. I just could not do it.



Secondly, I have already expressed my dislike of physical education classes in both elementary and high school. I hated the fact that my teachers would only grade me on athletic ability instead of the effort I gave in class. It wasn't fair that kids who hardly even tried in class received a better grade than I did.

And lastly, I was someone who try as he might was never skilled in any sport. I couldn't dunk a basketball into a basket, I couldn't kick a soccer ball into a net, and when I tried to hit a baseball with a bat, I ended up nearly breaking my nose in the ninth grade.

You want to know what all of those things are? They're excuses.

Of course as a child who was tired of getting picked on by classmates and teachers about his lack of athletic ability, I never saw it that way. But now that I am an adult now and look back at that time, I can see why I was such a poor student in gym class.

I mean, sure, my asthma did cause me a whole lot of childhood health problems which affected my stamina in gym class. That was something that I couldn't change back then. I just sort of learned to adapt to having it. Now I'm at the point where it is a non-issue and I have a better grasp at controlling my breathing to the point where I am no longer winded. I suppose if I really wanted to, I could have done some exercises that would have improved my breathing abilities so I didn't tire out in gym class all the time.

And when it came down to my grades in physical education classes, I have to say that yes, it was frustrating to be graded down by my teachers. But given how much grief I got over my athletic ability (or lack thereof), I guess it got to the point where I simply stopped caring. I even went out of my way to get out of doing activities by pretending that I didn't know how to do them.

As for my athletic ability? Well, I still suck at sports. I make no apologies for that. I don't even think I know how to toss a football correctly. I still don't know how to use a skipping rope. And, don't even get me started on hula hoops!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, yes, gym class was rough. Gym class was terrible. Gym class probably did more harm to my self-worth than any other class in school – and that is unfortunate, given that gym class was supposed to teach a person how to live a healthy, active lifestyle.

As a result of my bad experiences in gym class, I decided that staying active and getting exercise was not worth it. In gym class, I asked for people to help me improve my skills, and I asked the teachers to consider the fact that while I was not the best student in class, I was trying. But instead, they completely ignored me and left me behind to play with those stupid scooters while they focused their attentions on the star athletes in the class. I seem to even remember one instance in eighth grade where I was actually thrown out of gym class for defending myself against the kids in my class who were teasing me.

With the attitudes that I was shown in those classes, it's not hard to see why I turned my back on a healthy lifestyle. If a supposed “healthy lifestyle” meant being harassed and made fun of by the students and teachers in the class, my attitude was like “no thank you, please pass the triple chocolate fudge ice cream and I'll just eat the whole carton”.



Is it any wonder why I spent the majority of my teenage years binge eating?

And you know something? When I look back on it, I think to myself that when it came to all of the abuse that I took in gym class, I didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve any of it. The more I look back on it, if one person even so much as cared to help me learn and grow, and taught me that getting active didn't mean being the best at everything, it would have made all the difference in the world. My elementary and high schools had this whole idea that “winning was everything”. With the exception of my ninth grade gym teacher who was absolutely fair and just in his grading and who actually took the time to get to know me, the rest just walked away and focused on the kids who actually could win the sports tournaments.

It hurt. I won't lie.

It really wasn't until the last couple of years that I decided to do a complete turn around. I joined a competition at work in which the goal was to lose weight, and I did extremely well. For the first time since I was...well...a teenager, I actually felt great and looked great.

And then I had my gall bladder removed and I gained half of the weight back as a side effect of the surgery, and went right back to being self-conscious again. Not as bad as I used to be, mind you...but still, there's a little inkling of doubt that I have about myself.

I mean, I look at where I am now, and I've overcome a lot of obstacles to get to this point.

But yet, there's more that I could be doing to make sure that I have the healthiest life possible...and yet, it's also the one thing that causes me the most fear.


TO BE CONTINUED 9/19/2013...

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

September 17, 1948

Is it just me, or is September really flashing by this year? I mean, I can't believe that the month is over half over!

Maybe I'm just getting older, and with each year that passes, the hourglass of life slowly depletes itself of sand. Kind of a scary thought if you think of it long enough.

So let's stop talking about that for now. Instead, let's do the Tuesday Timeline again!

It's September 17. Let's see what happened on this date throughout history, shall we?

1630 – The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded

1716 – At the age of seventeen, Jean Thurel enlists in the Touraine Regiment – the first day of what would become a military career lasting NINE DECADES!

1775 – The Invasion of Canada begins with the Siege of Fort St. Jean during the American Revolutionary War

1776 – The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain

1787 – The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1814 – Francis Scott Key finishes his poem entitled “Defence of Fort McHenry” - an early draft of the song which would come to be known as “The Star-Spangled Banner”

1849 – Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery

1862 – The “bloodiest day in American History” – The Battle of Antietam coincides with the Allegheny Arsenal explosion during the American Civil War

1908 – The first airplane fatality takes place on this date as passenger Thomas Selfridge is killed while in the Wright Flyer piloted by Orville Wright, which crashed

1916 – Manfred von Richthofen (better known by his nickname of “The Red Baron”) wins his first aerial combat in France

1923 – Country music legend Hank Williams (d. 1953) is born in Butler County, Alabama

1931 – American actress Anne Bancroft (d. 2005) is born in The Bronx, New York

1939 – German U-boat U 29 sinks British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous

1947 – Jeff MacNelly (d. 2000), creator of the comic strip “Shoe” is born in New York City

1949 – Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour, killing 118

1961 – The world's first retractable dome stadium – The Civic Arena – opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1976 – Enterprise, the first Space Shuttle, is unveiled by NASA

1983 – Vanessa Williams is crowned Miss America – the first African-American woman to earn the title

1987 – Pope John Paul II embraces an AIDS-infected boy while on a tour of San Francisco, showing the world that one cannot catch the virus simply by touching someone infected with it

1991 – The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet

2000 - “The Big Breakfast” host Paula Yates is found dead of an accidental heroin overdose at the age of 41

2001 – The New York Stock Exchange re-opens six days after the September 11 terrorist attacks – the longest the stock exchange has ever closed since The Great Depression

2006 – Eruption of Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska

2011 – The “Occupy Wall Street” movement kicks off at Zuccotti Park in New York City

Wow, oh, wow, was September 17 a huge day in history! You can see that I was not at a shortage of topics for sure!

September 17 also has its share of celebrity birthdays. Blowing out candles on their cakes today are the following people; Mary Stewart, Pat Crowley, Phil Jackson, Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson, Tamasin Day-Lewis, Charles Martinet, Rita Rudner, Charles Lawson, Kevin Clash, Baz Luhrmann, Dustin Nguyen, BeBe Winans, William Shockley, Kyle Chandler, Bryan Singer, Doug E. Fresh, Malik Yoba, Anastacia, Marie-Chantal – Crown Princess of Greece, Matthew Settle, Nate Berkus, Bobby Lee, Jimmie Johnson, Austin St. John, Billy Miller, Wade Robson, and Jennifer Pena.

Whew...apparently September 17 was a huge day for birthdays too!

Actually, as it so happens, today's date happens to be a birthday as well. Unfortunately, he is no longer around to celebrate it as he passed away ten years ago.



But had he lived, he'd be turning sixty-five years old, making his date of birth September 17, 1948.

Now, here's the interesting part. I was worried at first that I would be repeating a blog topic because exactly two years ago today on September 17, 2011 (yes, on Occupy Wall Street Day), I wrote a blog entry that featured him heavily. But when I re-read that blog entry, I only really focused on one of the many roles he played in his lengthy career.



I mean, yeah, Jack Tripper from Three's Company was one fantastic character...but I only scratched the surface of the man who played him for eight seasons...and so, on what would have been his sixty-fifth birthday, I thought I'd pay tribute to the actor behind the character.



Today's Tuesday Timeline will focus on the life of Jonathan Southworth Ritter – better known to most everyone else as John Ritter.

From an early age, John Ritter was always surrounded by the world of Hollywood. He and his older brother Thomas were born to two parents who were stars in their own right in the entertainment industry. Their mother, Dorothy Fay was an actress, and their father Tex Ritter had an already established career as a country music singer later turned actor whose career spanned nearly four decades. It almost seemed written in the stars that at least one of the two Ritter siblings would find their way into the entertainment industry.

And as luck would have it, John Ritter was the one to make it big.

Of course, for John to earn his way into the Hollywood scene, as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he had to do it his own way.

Certainly as a student at Hollywood High School, Ritter excelled. He was voted student body president and graduated from high school as part of the Class of 1966. Amusingly enough, his first appearance in front of the camera occurred that same year...as a contestant on “The Dating Game”! Check out this appearance of John Ritter as an eighteen year old bachelor below! It's absolutely surreal!



After high school, John attended the University of Southern California where he majored in psychology and became a member of the campus fraternity Phi Gamma Delta. But it was while he was in college that John Ritter became bitten by the acting bug. He would often spend his free time touring around Europe, performing in stage plays before graduating from the school in 1970. That same year, he received his very first role in the television series “Dan August”, which in addition to star Burt Reynolds also starred a man named Norman Fell...who would happen to cross paths with Ritter a little further into the 1970s.



One year later, Ritter would make his film debut in the 1971 film “The Barefoot Executive”, and over the next few years, Ritter would hone his craft by making guest appearances on “Hawaii Five-O” and “M*A*S*H”, and beginning in 1972, Ritter would have a recurring role on “The Waltons” as Reverend Matthew Fordwick that would last a total of four years! Of course, during this time, Ritter would audition for other roles. After all, a recurring gig only paid so much. And in the spring of 1977, Ritter would be given the role of a lifetime.



Now, I could go on about John Ritter's portrayal of Jack Tripper on the long-running sitcom “Three's Company”, but rather than do that, I thought that I would just post the link to the September 17, 2011 entry on Jack Tripper HERE. Mind you, some of the links and videos no longer work, but the words still remain. You'll get more insight into the wonderful character he played.

And to John's credit, everyone whom he worked with on “Three's Company” loved him. Joyce DeWitt and John Ritter had a very close relationship. John and Suzanne Somers got along well (well, at least until Suzanne's contract negotiations for the 1980/1981 season of “Three's Company” lead to her getting canned from the show and her being in both Ritter's and DeWitt's bad books for years). Even Jenilee Harrison and Priscilla Barnes who subsequently took over for Somers felt respected by Ritter.



John Ritter appeared in every single episode of “Three's Company”, right up until the season's end on September 18, 1984. He even appeared in the spin-off program “Three's A Crowd”, which lasted one season before wrapping up for good in April 1985.

John Ritter played Jack Tripper a total of eight and a half years, and he was rewarded with a Golden Globe, an Emmy Award, and millions of fans all over the world. I suppose that being in a role that demanded a lot of slapstick comedy and being a walking punchline meant that there was a possibility of being typecast...but in Ritter's case, he seemed all right with that. He did appear in both “Problem Child” and “Problem Child 2”, as well as “Stay Tuned”, all three of which were comedies that did somewhat well at the box office. But Ritter also proved that he could act in a drama series when he was cast in the role of Harry Hooperman in the series “Hooperman”. You can watch a clip of the show below.



Although “Hooperman” only managed to last two seasons, ending its run in 1989, the series was critically acclaimed, and it earned John a People's Choice Award as well as nominations for a Golden Globe and Emmy. Ritter also enjoyed another successful run in sitcom television with the 1992-1995 series “Hearts Afire”, which co-starred former “Night Court” actress Markie Post.



After “Hearts Afire” wrapped up, Ritter turned his focus towards making more films. Although he had been acting in films on and off since the 1980s, Ritter's film work in the 1990s were among some of his best work. His performance as a gay store manager in 1996's “Sling Blade” (alongside former “Hearts Afire” star Billy Bob Thornton) earned rave reviews, and he was one of the actors who helped make the Stephen King film “It” really, really creepy. In 2000, he took a turn on the Broadway stage performing in such musicals as “The Dinner Party” (earning him a Theatre World Award in 2001), and he even voiced the role of Clifford the Big Red Dog in the animated series of the same name that aired on PBS beginning in September 2000. He earned a total of four Emmy nominations for that role alone.



As September 2003 arrived, Ritter was on top of the world. He was enjoying his latest role in the sitcom “8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter”, which he starred in alongside Katey Sagal and future “The Big Bang Theory” star Kaley Cuoco. He had just finished filming a role in the film “Bad Santa”. And his personal life was at an all-time high. After divorcing his first wife, Nancy Morgan, Ritter had found love once more with actress Amy Yasbeck. They had a child together, Stella, on September 11, 1998 (joining John's three other children, Jason, Carly, and Tyler from his first marriage), and in September 1999, Ritter and Yasbeck got married. By all accounts, 2003 was set to end on a high note for Ritter.

And then came the events of September 11, 2003.

While the day began well for Ritter, sometime that afternoon he started feeling poorly while on the set of “8 Simple Rules”. He started to have severe chest pains, and had broken out in a sweating fit. At first, Ritter believed to have contracted some sort of flu bug, but as the pains got worse, the decision was made to send him to a nearby hospital in order to find out what was wrong.

Five hours later, Ritter would stop breathing.



On September 11, 2003, at 10:45pm, John Ritter passed away. The cause of death was a heart attack brought upon by a condition known as aortic dissection. He died just seven days before his fourth wedding anniversary, six days before his 55th birthday, a day before wife Amy Yasbeck's 41st birthday, and on the very day his daughter turned five.

It was an incredibly sad loss to the world of Hollywood. I still remember hearing the news that Ritter had passed away, and I was completely in shock. I was also very sad too. Watching John on television, he always seemed so full of life. The amount of effort he put into the physical comedy he performed and the joy that he had for his job, and the amount of love and respect he gave to his fans...it just seemed so unfair that the world lost someone who was so giving to the world. Even ten years after his death, it still doesn't seem right.

At any rate, moments after his passing, the world mourned. Both Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt expressed their sadness over losing their co-worker (Somers and Ritter had reconciled during the mid-1990s at some point), as did Katey Sagal, Markie Post, Kaley Cuoco, and Zach Braff (who worked with Ritter on the television series “Scrubs”). “8 Simple Rules” went on after Ritter's passing, killing off the character he played in a moving tribute and bringing on David Spade and James Garner to fill in the void left behind.

Amy Yasbeck has since lead the fight against aortic dissection and teamed up with the Thoracic Aortic Disease Coalition (through her husband's own John Ritter Foundation) to create “Ritter's Rules”, and worked with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston to establish the John Ritter Research Program in Aortic and Vascular Diseases. Yasbeck attempted to launch a lawsuit against Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center to the tune of sixty-seven million dollars which alleged that the doctors misdiagnosed his condition, and had they not, Ritter might possibly have survived. Although a court of law cleared the doctors of any wrongdoing in 2008, several of the defendant settled out of court to the tune of $14 million.



As for John's legacy, it lives on through his widow and his four children. And proving that acting continues to run in the lineage of the Ritter family tree, John's eldest son Jason has been making the rounds, starring in “Joan of Arcadia”, “The Event”, and “Parenthood”.

Although John's been gone for a decade, he'll never truly be gone. Anytime your children watch Clifford, or anytime you come across a rerun of “Three's Company”, he's there.

And perhaps one of the most touching tributes to Ritter ever created was a mural painted by Eloy Torrez in 2008 that was dedicated at the very high school that John Ritter attended in his teenage years...Hollywood High School.

And as we end this blog entry off, I will show you that mural.



Happy sixty-fifth, John...wherever you are.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Pretty In Pink

I'll readily be the first one to admit that coming up with blog topics for this venture is not always easy. And sometimes I resort to checking a variety of references in order to come up with a topic that will make people want to read it.

And just what are some of these sources of inspiration?

Well, I do have a small library of pop culture books that I flip through often. Sometimes I'll get an idea from inside the pages of a reference book and run with it. Not today though.

Sometimes I'll be inspired for topics by perusing social networking communities like Facebook. Occasionally, I'll see someone on my news feed commenting on a particular pop culture tidbit and it will inspire me to do a blog topic on the subject. In fact, a lot of the current event blogs that I have done were inspired as a result of scanning my Facebook news feed.

But while I am definitely one to get inspiration from Facebook...this is not one of these entries.

No, admittedly this blog was inspired by my tastes in music. Oh, and the pink text? We're getting to that.

Ever since I received my iPod as a gift, I have been downloading songs onto it like crazy. I have all of my favourite songs on it, and I listen to my iPod at least once a day. It's certainly a lot less bulkier than a Walkman or a Discman, and I can literally take it anywhere I want to.

So, when I knew that I had a Monday Matinee feature coming up in the future, I decided to consult the power of the iPod to help me make up my mind. I happen to have a rather large selection of songs that come from movie soundtracks in my collection, and my theory was that whatever the first soundtrack song that popped up when I set my iPod to shuffle would be the movie in which that song appears in. It was a great plan.

Unfortunately, the first three songs that popped up came from movies that I have already featured in the Monday Matinee (and in one case, a Tuesday Timeline entry). And, I never cover the same movie twice.

Then by around soundtrack song number four, the following song appeared. And it was there that I had my Monday Matinee for today!



ARTIST: The Psychadelic Furs
SONG: Pretty In Pink
ALBUM: Talk, Talk, Talk
DATE RELEASED: May 21, 1981
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #41*

Now, you might notice that there's a star beside the chart position. I'll get to that.

The song was originally released in 1981 with a slightly different arrangement by The Psychadelic Furs – a group based out of the UK that at the time of the song's release featured members Richard Butler, Tim Butler, Duncan Kilburn, Roger Morris, Vince Ely, and John Ashton.

Now in 1981, the song didn't exactly chart in the United States. In the United Kingdom, it just missed the Top 40.

So, how did the song end up eventually peaking at just under the Top 40 on the Billboard Charts?

Well, let's fast forward five years to 1986. In 1986, The Psychadelic Furs re-recorded the song “Pretty In Pink” for the soundtrack of a John Hughes written, Howard Deutch directed film. The 1986 version sounded almost identical to the 1981 version...the only difference was that it was slightly modernized. In 1986, the reworked version of “Pretty In Pink” was released on the Billboard Charts, and that's how it made it to #41. In the United Kingdom, the re-released “Pretty In Pink” charted even higher than its original version, peaking within the Top 20!

Pretty In Pink” was certainly very popular. My own sister even bought the cassette tape soundtrack for the film (which amusingly enough was pink), and the soundtrack boasted other singles from Echo and the Bunnymen, Suzanne Vega, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and INXS. No wonder the film soundtrack sold so well in record stores!

Ah, but what about the movie? Well, as it turned out, the movie also did very well at the box office. Many people would even consider it to be one of John Hughes' most memorable films!

And as it so happens, the name of the film happens to be the same as that Psychadelic Furs single.



This is the blog entry on the 1986 film “Pretty In Pink”.

The movie was released on February 28, 1986 and earned a total of $40 million at the box office. Molly Ringwald – who according to some people was the Queen of the Brat Pack – was the star of the film, and other actors who appeared in the film were Harry Dean Stanton, Andrew McCarthy, Jon Cryer, James Spader, Kate Vernon, and Annie Potts.

Now, “Pretty In Pink” is a film that could be classified as one of those romantic comedies, so naturally there has to be some sort of conflict in terms of finding one's true love.



In the case of high school senior Andie Walsh (Ringwald), it was class division that posed a huge problem when it came to love and romance. Trust me, I could definitely relate to that one.

It wasn't as though Andie's father Jack (Stanton) hasn't tried to give his little girl everything that she needed. But with jobs being scarce in town and Andie's mother not in the picture, Andie's family struggled financially, and Andie accepts her working-class background, albeit reluctantly.

Unfortunately, Andie has a crush on the preppy and insanely rich Blane McDonough (McCarthy). A boy who by all accounts would NEVER hang around with the offspring of blue-collar America. And certainly Blane's two friends Steff and Benny (Spader and Vernon) don't make it easy on Andie. Their arrogance turns her off in a huge way and they get their kicks by harassing and bullying Andie and her best friend Phil Dale (Cryer), who is better known by his nickname of “Duckie”.



RANDOM THOUGHT: Why in the world does Jon Cryer always get stuck playing geeks, nerds, and dweebs? From “Pretty In Pink” to “Two and a Half Men”, he is always shown as the geek! Poor guy can't get a break. But, I suppose if that makes him a millionaire, who is he to complain, right?

Anyway, one of the things that you need to know about Duckie is that he has had a crush on Andie dating back to even before they entered high school together, but he is too afraid to admit it to her. Instead, he turns his affection for Andie into a running gag of sorts.

The senior prom is fast approaching, and Andie is considering not even going as she is having trouble finding a date. But her friend/mentor Iona (Potts) who owns and runs TRAX, a record store specializing in New Wave music, encourages her to go to the prom anyway, with or without a date.

Of course, who ever wants to attend a senior prom by themselves? Or, at least, that's what the made-up high school guide to social life tells us anyway?



Well, as it turns out, unaware to all of Blane's inner social circle, Blane secretly has admiration for Andie as well, and he decides to make his move on her and asks her on a date.

But when Blane arrives late after promising to meet Andie at TRAX, Andie and Duckie get into an argument at the record store. Duckie is very concerned that Blane is only using Andie and that she will ultimately end up hurt. Still, Andie refuses to believe that Blane would do something so terrible and agrees to be Blane's date to a party that Steff is throwing.



So Andie and Blane arrive at the party and poor Andie has a miserable time. Because she is not a part of their inner circle, the party guests treat her horribly. The ringleaders of this are, of course, Benny and Steff. Andie suggests to Blane that they go to the local club instead, and when both of them arrive there, Duckie and Iona are already there. A war of words erupts between Duckie and Blane, and in the kerfuffle, Duckie plants a kiss on Iona to make Andie jealous. All it does is cause much more friction between Duckie, Andie, and Blane.

And such, a 1980s love triangle was born.

So, which guy does Andie pick? As if I'm going to tell you. Truth be told, two different endings were shot for the movie. There's one in which she chooses one man, and there's one where she chooses the other. And one ending was initially intended for the film, but after it was screened to a test audience, they didn't like it. Hence a new ending was tacked onto the film, which was then shown in theatres.

Either way, Andie does end up at the prom, looking pretty in pink, courtesy of a beautiful dress her father picked up for her at a thrift store. And, for someone who has normally shunned romantic comedies, I have to say that “Pretty In Pink” is a really decent film. I enjoyed it.

And, just for the record, I've seen both endings, and I thought either one would have worked. But that's just my opinion.

Anyway, sit back and grab yourself a pink lemonade or a strawberry daiquiri, or any other pink coloured drink. This blog isn't quite finished yet. There's a lot of behind the scenes trivia and goodies left to talk about within this piece.

For instance...did you know that...



1 – When the movie's endings were changed, it also meant a change in the soundtrack? Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark were already committed to the film and were going to submit their song “Goddess of Love” for the film. But with the last minute ending change, they were forced to come up with a new song. They composed the song “If You Leave” in just twenty-four hours for the re-shot ending. That song would later peak at #4 on the Billboard Charts in the spring of 1986.

2 – Anjelica Huston was once briefly considered for the role of Iona, but was forced to turn it down. Annie Potts was later given the role after John Hughes saw her in “Ghostbusters”. Just months later, she would be cast in the sitcom “Designing Women”.

3 – Anthony Michael Hall was initially considered for the role of Duckie, but he turned it down as he didn't want to be typecast as a nerd (he previously played nerds in “Sixteen Candles”, “The Breakfast Club”, and “Weird Science”).

4 – Charlie Sheen auditioned for the role of Blane. Given that Sheen would later work with Jon Cryer on “Two and a Half Men”, that could have been quite interesting.

5 – The high school where “Pretty In Pink” filmed was hardly the first time that the school was used in a film. It also served as the setting of Rydell High in the film “Grease”.

6 – The band “The Rave-Ups” (the band playing in the film) had a personal connection to star Molly Ringwald. Molly's sister gave birth to a child that was fathered by one of its members!

7 – Two cast/crew members died after the film wrapped up. Bruce Weintraub, the set designer for “Pretty In Pink” died of AIDS in December 1985 at the age of 33, while actress Alexa Kenin was found dead in New York City on September 10, 1985 at the age of just 23.

8 – Molly Ringwald lists this film as her most favourite film project that she has ever been in.

9 – Believe it or not, Robert Downey Jr. was almost cast as Duckie! Can you seriously picture Iron Man as Duckie? A strange image, I know.


10 – When the actors had to be called back onto the set to reshoot the ending, Andrew McCarthy had to wear a wig, as he had already shaved his head for a New York City play that he was involved in. He also looked considerably thinner, given that he had to lose weight to get the part in the play.