Search This Blog

Friday, December 27, 2013

Best and Worst of 2013 - The Television Portion

All right! We're just a few days away from saying goodbye to the year 2013, and this week, I've got a special treat for you!

You know how in most cases, I have brought up pop culture references from the past? In some cases, I've gone so far back through the history books that many of you were not born yet when the event took place.

(Case in point...the oldest year that I have ever done in a Tuesday Timeline entry was 1888!)

Well, since the year 2013 is almost at a close, I thought...why don't I do a retrospective list of the year gone by? Why don't I make a list of all the best of 2013 moments, and the worst of 2013 moments (which of course is subjective, as these are merely just my opinions and may not necessarily match yours), and celebrate this past year in style?

Now, granted, 2013 was a rather weird year in the world of pop culture. We've had everything from wacky celebrity marriages, to celebrity Twitter meltdowns, to sudden celebrity deaths, and we quickly learned what “twerking” really was. As I said, it's been an interesting year.

And, on this...the first day of this retrospective of 2013, we'll be taking a look back at some of the television moments that really defined the year 2013. We'll take a look at the good, the bad, and the downright ugly that took place over the course of this year, and to begin with, let's take a look at how some shows concluded. After all, in 2013, we said goodbye to quite a few shows.



BREAKING BAD

This series is probably one of the most watched and most talked about series of the entire decade, and certainly the team of Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul made the show very watchable.  When the show first began in 2008, you really felt for Walter White, who was a high school chemistry teacher who was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and had no way to pay the bills or secure his family's future.  So, he did the only thing he could do...he teamed up with his former student, Jesse Pinkman to create his own meth lab, cooking and selling it for extra cash to make sure that his family was well taken care of.  It involved a lot of crime, a lot of passion, a lot of deception, and a lot of scenes with Bryan Cranston in his underwear.

Of course, we all knew that Walter White's life of crime would come to a grotesque and tragic end.  What we didn't know was that it wouldn't be the cancer that killed Walter White, but a fatal gunshot wound after a clash with a neo-Nazi gang who kidnapped Jesse and left Walter with only a fraction of the earnings he made while making a living as a drug dealer and manufacturer.

It was a truly tragic end for a character who only wanted to ensure that his family was well taken care of after he was gone.  And the series finale could be considered one of the finest series finales of all time.




DEXTER

If only the series finale of Dexter only ended in such a fashion.  When the eighth and final season of Dexter concluded, it made lots of people feel as though they had been cheated.

As everyone knows, Dexter is someone who has an unhealthy fascination with blood and who possessed unhealthy homicidal tendencies.  He worked as a blood splatter analyst for the police department in his day job, and by night, he goes out and murders people who have committed unspeakable crimes against humanity.  I guess you could call him an angel of sorts...cleaning up the streets of Miami by murdering those who caused the most damage.  The very definition of irony, don't you think?

Anyway, the television series "Dexter" did very well in the ratings early in its run, and it eventually saw itself getting renewed year after year with compelling storylines and great character development.  But when it was announced that the eighth season would be its last, everyone expected an ending that would have been explosive.  And to the credit of the writers of the final episode, it started off that way.  With Dexter's sister suffering a stroke which has left her in a vegetative state, Dexter being forced to abandon his girlfriend and child, and him seeking out to kill the man responsible for shooting his sister, which caused her to go into the vegetative state, Dexter comes to the conclusion that all he does is hurt people, and therefore can't live the happy life he wants.  So, he pulls the plug on his sister, murders the man responsible for her death in prison, and sets out on a boat in the middle of a storm to kill himself.

So, imagine our shock when we not only learn that Dexter is not only alive, but working as a LUMBERJACK of all things!  I mean, I suppose I understand that Dexter was living a life of solitude - something that he actually craved - but come on!  Had the show left the last scene as Dexter heading out to sea, it would have made more of an impact.  That extra lumberjack scene ruined the whole finale, as far as I'm concerned.




GOODBYE, ALL MY CHILDREN AND ONE LIFE TO LIVE - AGAIN

In 2011 and 2012 respectively, ABC cancelled both All My Children and One Life To Live - two shows that aired for well over forty years - to replace them with a cooking show starring Mario Batali and the guy from What Not To Wear and a talk show hosted by Katie Couric.  In 2013, production company Prospect Park resurrected both shows for an online audience, which made soap fans rejoice.  And for what it was worth, many of the cast members returned, having high hopes for the shows online.

Unfortunately, in-fighting and lawsuits within Prospect Park productions caused both shows to be cancelled yet again in late 2013.  And, needless to say, if I were part of the cast and crew of either show, I would be absolutely pissed off.





MEANWHILE, IN SOAP OPERA LAND...

In December 2013, The Young and the Restless reached a major milestone.  Since 1988, the daytime serial has been the #1 daytime drama, watched by more people than any other soap opera.  Congratulations on being #1 for 25 years!

Although, given that as of 2013, four soap operas remain from the twelve that were on the air when Y&R first hit the top of the ratings heap, I suppose it's not really that big of a deal.  

Though, on a sad note, the show lost a great talent in Jeanne Cooper, who played the role of Katherine Chancellor for thirty-nine of the show's forty year history.  She passed away on May 8, 2013.




THE REVOLVING DOOR OF TALENT JUDGES

It's been a tumultuous year for reality television as several judges left their posts to be replaced by other people.


I guess one of the shows that really didn't see much backlash was "The Voice".  Arguably the best talent show on the air these days, fans seemed to accept Shakira and Usher as suitable replacements for Christina Aguilera and Cee-Lo Green.  Even though Aguilera and Green returned for the following season, I think that the new judges really worked well together.  I suppose it also proves that Blake Shelton and Adam Levine have chemistry with just about anybody.

Which is certainly more than I can say for the train-wreck known as American Idol.  I don't know which producer thought that putting Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey together in the same room was a good idea, but the infighting between the two overshadowed the actual talent competition, which was a waste.  We can only hope that Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez, and Harry Connick Jr. can breathe new life into an aging, stale show.

As for the X-Factor, I'm kind of happy that Demi Lovato stayed and Britney Spears left.  Did anyone really understand her ramblings?





DEJA VU ON HAWAII FIVE-0

Once upon a time, in 1968, a television show debuted which was called Hawaii Five-0.  Sometime during that series' sixth season, in 1973, the episode "Hookman" aired, which featured a man who was killing off members of the Honolulu Police Department because he blamed them for the loss of his hands.  Flash forward 40 years later, and the current reboot of Hawaii Five-0 re-enacted the script word for word using the new actors of the series.  It was an interesting look back through history to redo a script from the original series and put a modern twist to it.  It seemed to work out well, as Hawaii Five-0 still receives huge ratings.

(CONFESSION:  I admit that when I heard that they were remaking Hawaii Five-0, I didn't think it would last.  I'm happy to admit that I was wrong.  It's actually a decent show.)





MEET THE MOTHER

One of the most frustrating things about the show How I Met Your Mother was the fact that we were in season eight, and we still had no idea who Ted married.  And, by the time the eighth season finale aired in May 2013, people were starting to not care.


And then we finally met the girl with the yellow umbrella (no relation to the man with the yellow hat from Curious George).  Played by Christin Milioti, she was just simply credited as the "girl with the yellow umbrella" in the credits.  When the show announced that the ninth season would be its last, it was decided that Christin would join the cast as a regular for the last season, which depicts how Ted ends up proposing to the woman who would become his future wife.

The funniest thing?  We still don't know her name as of December 2013.  She's just known as "The Mother"!





VALERIE HARPER'S BRAVE FIGHT

You really think that the diagnosis of leptomeningeal carcinomatosis (a.k.a. a rare form of brain cancer) was going to stop television actress Valerie Harper from living?  Hardly.  The inspirational story of Harper - who has so far outlived the three months to live diagnosis that she was originally given in the spring of 2013 - showed that she still had some fight in her from appearing on an episode of "Hot in Cleveland" to participating on the latest season of "Dancing With The Stars", Valerie Harper has shown all of us that she is a fighter, and we all respected and loved her for her bravery and honesty regarding everything that she was going through.




PAULA DEEN'S NOT-SO-BRAVE COMMENTARY

On the flipside, Paula Deen ended up losing her contract with The Food Network after uttering some not so kind racial slurs in the presence of her employees.  Even though these events took place some time before, I do understand why The Food Network let her go.  After all, the Food Network is a business, and if someone is representing the business in a negative fashion, then the business has every right to distance themselves from controversy.


Just as A&E has done with the recent Duck Dynasty scandal after Phil Robertson was suspended from the series for uttering controversial statements about homosexuality.  Again, I do understand that people have the right to free speech, and that's all that Deen and Robertson were doing...but regardless, it doesn't make the comments that they said acceptable.  Even though I don't support what they said, I certainly won't get mad with people if they decide to continue watching Duck Dynasty while cooking with Paula Deen cookbooks.  



THE DEATH OF BRIAN?


Family Guy caused a huge outcry recently when it aired an episode in which Brian got hit by a car and died of his injuries.  Many fans thought that the show had jumped the shark, and many more refused to watch it.  Even I talked about the event in this very blog!

But just because Brian died...didn't mean he stayed dead.  And, just a few weeks later, Brian was brought back to the show, courtesy of Stewie's time machine.  And, all was well.  I certainly hope that guy who got the R.I.P. Brian tattoo didn't feel too silly.




THE DEATH OF MRS. K...

Although The Simpsons still has yet to address the future of Mrs. Krabappel, the world was saddened to hear of the death of Marcia Wallace a few weeks ago.  And, to honour Wallace's memory...this simple, heartwarming blackboard gag.





THE TWELFTH DOCTOR

Finally, I don't think there was a dry eye in the house when Matt Smith (The Eleventh Doctor) left the series and regenerated into Peter Capaldi on Christmas Day, 2013.  

On that note, can you believe that Doctor Who just celebrated its fiftieth anniversary this past year?  That's a lot of TARDIS-travelling and Daleks!

So, that wraps up our look back on 2013 in television.  Coming up tomorrow, we take a look at the world of toys and games.  Which were the top toys of 2013?  What video games smashed records all over the world?  And, just how much did people want a PlayStation 4 or XBOX One?

Thursday, December 26, 2013

A Comparison Between a Fictional Pigeon Lady and a Real Blogger

So, how many of you are suffering from post-holiday depression now that Christmas is over for yet another year?

I'll be the first to admit that I sometimes get that way within the first week after the holidays.  Once Christmas is over, everything and everyone goes back to normal, and it's somewhat sad to see.  How just a day before, everyone was happily singing Christmas carols, and laughing and telling jokes, and now we're right back to pushing people out of the way to grab items for those after-Christmas sales.

(And while we're on the subject, what is the deal with people who absolutely have to go shopping on the day after Christmas?  Did you not get enough on Christmas Day?  Sheesh.  Talk about commercialism run amok!)

Anyway, for this edition of the day after Christmas blog, I decided that I'm not quite ready to let go of the Christmas spirit just yet.  In fact, today's video blog essay deals with a character from a film that I admit that I've already covered in this blog before.

And, this is the character!



Now, here's the kicker.  What if I told you that the Pigeon Lady from "Home Alone 2" and I have a LOT in common?  You wouldn't believe it, would you?

Well, here...let me explain.




Okay, so maybe I didn't explain it as clearly as I had intended.  But perhaps this photo below best sums it up.



And therein lies the problem that I have had my entire life.

You see, I came to a bit of a conclusion yesterday.  Don't get me wrong, Christmas Day was fantastic - one of the best ever, actually.  And, I don't need to be told that I completely spoiled my niece and nephews...I know that I did!

But that's the thing...I spoil them because I really don't have anyone else to.  I have no children of my own because I am currently not in a relationship with anybody.  


And, I'm not in a relationship with anyone because I never trusted anybody enough to take that chance.

But, Kevin McCallister said a very wise thing.  If I don't ever trust anybody, then how will I know what true joy is.  And, while I admit that I love my moments of solitude...life would be a lot more fun if I had somebody to share it with.

So, maybe what I need to do for next year is put myself out there.  I mean, I don't see myself putting an ad on Match.com anytime soon...but I suppose that there are ways around that.

I suppose if the alternative is living in a park with birds swooping around me...what is there to lose?

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Concluding the Calendar - Video Style!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!



Well, here we are! The twenty-fifth and final day of THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR”! And, since this is the grand conclusion of the advent calendar, I thought that rather than use an ornament, I would go ahead and make the final day logo a Christmas angel that can be found on top of many Christmas trees all over the world!



I trust that most of you out there in the world are busy with Christmas celebrations and traditions. I know that my entire day is essentially booked up solid with Christmas dinner, Christmas gift exchanges, and Christmas traditions, so as a result, this particular entry is not going to be very long at all.

In fact, I'm actually kind of breathing a sigh of relief for today because in addition to it being Christmas Day, it is also time for a Whatever Wednesday entry. And, although some might not consider purple to be a colour that really represents Christmas (well, unless you happen to shun traditional Christmas decorations for a more modern look at the holiday), today's Clue character card happens to be Professor Plum!



Now, if you've been following along with the Whatever Wednesday feature, then you'll know exactly what that means. When I draw the Plum card, it means that I open up to all of you via a diary entry.

Or, in this case, a video blog entry.

Yeah, yeah...I know what you're saying. You're probably thinking that I'm a bit of a hypocrite doing a video blog entry for Christmas when just last week, I was wishing that people would actually put down the electronic devices so that they really could enjoy the holiday season with their loved ones.

Well, what if I told you that this video was actually filmed on Christmas Eve night at approximately 11:00pm? Technically, the video was not done on Christmas Day, so technically, I'm still holding true to my word!

(Though, I'm trying to figure out what to do for the Boxing Day video blog...I guess I'll have to wait until after midnight to film that one...or just write out an entry. And, I'm rambling when I really don't mean to. I blame it on an overdose of Terry's Chocolate Orange – the Mint edition.)

So, what's the subject of today's video blog entry? Well, a holiday greeting of course! Look! I even decided to wear my Christmas PJ's especially for the occasion!




Now, to end off this blog entry for today, I do once again want to wish all of you the very best for your holiday plans. I hope that you enjoy the blessings of the season, that you enjoy the company you're with, and that you stay safe on the roads as you make your way to your holiday destinations. And, I suppose that if you get some Christmas swag along the way, that's cool too, though it should never be the basis of a happy holiday.

I also want to continue showing support to those families who are still affected by the December 2013 ice storm which clobbered parts of Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes, and parts of the United States. As I understand, some of you still do not have any power at your homes at all, and I just want to extend my thoughts to all of you, hoping that the lights come back on sooner rather than later. Believe me, as someone who lived through the Ice Storm of 1998, I sympathize.




And, with that comes the finale of the advent calendar for 2013. But, don't worry. This next week of entries will act as a countdown of sorts. Because in the last week of 2013, every single entry (barring the Tuesday Timeline) will feature either a movie, television show, event, or song that I feel defined this past year. Consider it a flashback of the year gone by. And, it will run from December 27, 2013 until January 2, 2014!



Until then, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

December 24, 1955

Happy eve before Christmas, everybody! I can't believe that we're on the twenty-fourth day of December already! Just one more day to go before we open up presents, sing Christmas carols, and gather together with our families and enjoying their company...

...or, at the very least, setting aside one day of the year where you promise that you will not kill them.



It also happens to be the second last day of the 2013 edition of “THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR”. Can you believe that we're almost finished wrapping up yet another Christmas season? I know that I am conflicted. I'm happy that we're celebrating Christmas...but sad to see it end. Christmas – despite the fact that I work a job in retail which can be quite frustrating during the holidays – is still one of my all-time favourite holidays, and I imagine that once December 26th rolls around, I'll be having a little dose of post-holiday blues. I'll likely be talking about that a little bit later this week.

But for now, I have a Christmas Eve blog to write. And, since Christmas Eve falls on a Tuesday this year, it's time for a holiday version of the Tuesday Timeline! So, let's go ahead with the events that took place throughout history on Christmas Eve.

640 – Pope John IV is elected

1777 – The island nation of Kiritimati (Christmas Island) is founded by James Cook

1814 – The War of 1812 officially ends with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent



1818 – The first performance of Silent Night takes place in the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria

1826 – The “Eggnog Riot” begins at the United States Naval Academy (I almost selected this topic to write about before I discovered another topic to cover instead!)

1851 – Fire destroys the Library of Congress

1906 – Reginald Fessenden transmits the very first radio broadcast

1914 – A “Christmas Truce” between Germany and Great Britain took place during World War I

1922 – Actress Ava Gardner (d. 1990) is born in Smithfield, North Carolina

1939 – A Christmas Eve appeal for peace is made by Pope Pius XII during the first year of combat for World War II

1968 – The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon – the first humans to achieve such a feat

1969 – Charles Manson is granted the right to act as his own lawyer at the Sharon Tate/Leno and Rosemary LaBianca murder trial

1974 – Darwin, Australia is nearly obliterated as Cyclone Tracy makes landfall

1992 – Peyo (b. 1928) – the creator of The Smurfs – dies at the age of 64

1994 – The hijacking of Air France Flight 8969 begins

2003 – Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate explosives inside Madrid, Spain's Chamartin Station during the afternoon hours of Christmas Eve

2012 – The world says goodbye to two American actors – Charles Durning and Jack Klugman

And, the following famous faces are celebrating a birthday this December 24th. So, on the slices of cake (or yule log, if you will), you can find candles being blown out by Mary Higgins Clark, Barry Chuckle, Lemmy Kilmister, Nicholas Meyer, Steve “Red Green” Smith, Warwick Brown, Timothy Carhart, Clarence Gilyard, Anil Kapoor, Kate Spade, Darren Wharton, Mary Ramsey, Mark Valley, Diedrich Bader, Ricky Martin, Stephenie Meyer, Ryan Seacrest, Louis Tomlinson (One Direction), and Melissa Suffield.

So, now that we have that all out of the way...which year will we be going back in time to visit?



Well, it happens to be December 24, 1955!

And, what was so special about this date in history some fifty-eight years in the past? Just an annual holiday tradition that children of all ages and generations have taken part in for years!

How many of you reading this remember trying to stay awake all night long on Christmas Eve, hoping to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus sliding down your chimney and laying presents underneath the Christmas tree?  I have to admit that when I was a little kid, I always seemed to have a very hard time staying asleep on Christmas Eve night.  I would always want to stay up as late as possible to see if I could catch Santa in the act.  I even staged a camp out right next to the cookies and carrots that I left for Santa and the reindeer for a snack one year, determined to catch a glimpse of him.  Somehow, I ended up falling asleep, and when I woke up, I was in my bedroom and the cookies and carrots were gone.  

He had to have carried me upstairs to bed without waking me.  Yep.  That was it.  Somehow, Santa sprinkled sleeping powder all over me and carried me upstairs to bed so that I wouldn't interrupt him in scattering more gifts underneath the tree.  That had to be it.

Okay, okay.  So when I was a kid, my attempts to chat with Santa fell flat.  And, believe me, I'm sure that I'm not the only one who tried to find out when Santa would come and visit our homes.  After all, I'm sure almost all of us tried to stay up late at some point hoping to see him.

And, on December 24, 1955, the method in which we could try and track Santa down was first established!



I'm sure most of you kids nowadays can find out exactly where Santa Claus is at any hour of the day with just a click of a mouse or the touch of a screen, thanks to the feature known as "NORAD Tracks Santa".  It's been an institution for nearly six decades, after all.  And, if you click HERE, then you can see exactly where Santa is flying right now!  Go on, click the link!  As of right now, Santa is apparently flying over Tokyo, Japan as I post this (circa 8:50 a.m. EST)!

But did you know that when the program first began, it originated in an ad for a department store?

These days, the department store chain known as "Sears" is somewhat struggling in a rather interesting economic period.  But for many decades, Sears was somewhat synonymous with the Christmas season.  How else can you explain why Sears' "Wish Book" catalogue is considered to be one of the first signs that the holidays are fast approaching.  Oh, the stories I could tell of flipping through that book, writing my initials beside every toy and game that my little heart desired.

Well, in 1955, the Sears location in Colorado Springs, Colorado put a full length advertisement in the newspaper which was specifically addressed to children.  And, as luck (and a quick Google search) would have it, I just so happen to have that very advertisement below!  Have a look!




So, according to the ad, kids could call the number up above (in this case, it would be 632-6681), which would allow them to speak with Santa himself!

(Actually, come to think of it, I remember that there was a show that aired on YTV with the title "Santa Calls", which allowed kids to call into a television studio, in which Santa would be hosting a show.  Funny how silly things can jog silly memories, huh?)


It was a nice idea...but unfortunately, Sears goofed up in a HUGE way.  You see, when they printed off the ad, they inadvertently gave out the incorrect phone number!  My guess is that it was a minor error (two numbers got mixed up, for example).  But Sears was not getting any phone calls at any time on December 24.

Instead, the calls were being made to the Colorado Springs' Continental Air Defense Command (or CONAD, as it was referred to).  Manning the switchboard that night was Colonel Harry Shoup, who was at first confused as to why little boys and girls would be calling him, asking him about where Santa Claus was.

Now, most people whenever they get a phone call from someone who was intending to call someone else would hang up after telling them that they had dialed the wrong number.  But Shoup was not like most people.  In fact, he decided that he would give the kids what they wanted.  He actually got his operators to assist him in answering every single call that came in from a child by tracking down Santa's location and updating the child on where Santa was in the world.  It was a lovely gesture on all of their parts, and for years afterwards, Colonel Shoup was known as the "Santa Colonel".


Who knew that a mix up with phone numbers would spawn a yearly tradition that is observed just about anywhere where people celebrate Christmas?  By 1958, CONAD had been replaced with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (or NORAD), but the tradition of tracking down Santa Claus remained.

As time passed, more and more options for tracking Santa's journey across the world were added.  People could listen to the radio and hear up to date broadcasts, television meteorologist would interrupt the weather to talk about where Santa was, and as recently as 2011, had fan pages on Facebook and a Twitter account!  Talk about updating for the twenty-first century!

Now everybody knows that Santa has his helpers.  After all, his elves help him make all the toys for good little boys and girls, and he also has representatives all over the world pitching in at malls, holiday parties, and charity events to wish everybody a Merry Christmas.  Well, the NORAD Tracks Santa event is no exception!  The program is run entirely on volunteer basis, where thousands of people volunteer their time to answer calls and e-mail messages.  And, I imagine that they need those volunteers, considering that between the hours of 2:00 a.m. on December 24 and 3:00 a.m. on December 25, an estimated 70,000 calls and 12,000 e-mails are sent out!  



And, just who makes up this group of volunteers?  Well, military personnel, civilians, and even a few celebrities!  Did you know that Michelle Obama has volunteered for the program by answering telephone calls the last two years?  So, just imagine...when you call and ask where Santa is, the First Lady of America might just be the one taking your call!

The NORAD site also contains a lot of other cool features.  You can play games while you wait for Santa, you can watch Santa through the "SantaCam", and you can also track down the places that Santa has already visited (as well as just how many gifts Santa has delivered, which as of 8:50 a.m. has reached 828 MILLION!)


And to think that this annual tradition began with a misprint in a newspaper ad!  Talk about a mistake paying off in the long run!

And with that, I wish all of you a safe and merry Christmas Eve.  But, don't wait up for Santa TOO long.  You don't want to miss the final day of the advent calendar!  As far as the topic...well, I'm gonna surprise you!

Monday, December 23, 2013

A Mom For Christmas

Well, we're on the final few days of “THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR”, and I think that I have a great way to conclude the event. We have a television movie that is just plain weird, a Christmas Eve themed Tuesday Timeline, and a special surprise for Christmas Day itself.



But first things first, we have a Monday Matinee to talk about. This is the entry that is all about the made-for-TV movie that is a bit peculiar, but magical. It's a good entry to talk about for Day #23 of the calendar, because I get the feeling that not a lot of people know about it. And for those of you who might have seen it, it'll be a refresher to one of the strangest holiday movies ever made.

In case you haven't quite figured out the theme of the movie, it's all about strange magical happenings and how even the most bizarre things can bring forth Christmas miracles.

This movie originally aired on NBC on December 17, 1990, and its star was a woman who knew all about the joy of “magic”.



(Well, okay. The movie that we are discussing is not “Xanadu”. For one, that movie came out in 1980 in movie theatres and was a notorious box office bomb. However, since the theme of the movie was all about magic, I figured that it would fit the theme.)



The movie is called “A Mom For Christmas”, and in addition to Olivia Newton-John, the movie also starred Douglas Sheehan (of “Knots Landing”), Doris Roberts (of “Everybody Loves Raymond”), and Juliet Sorcey.

And, the movie's title reflects a wish that a little eleven-year-old girl made one Christmas season. A wish that by all accounts should never have come true...but did anyway, because of a little something known as Christmas magic.

But, you know...why don't I just begin this entry off by posting this LINK. Clicking here will take you to a link to the full movie.

So, the movie begins inside of a high-end department store, and right off the bat, you can tell that it was filmed in either the late 1980s or early 1990s just based on the décor of the store. With the big Cosby show style sweaters, neon lights on the walls, and bright colours, it almost appears as though the movie has been replaced with a Debbie Gibson music video.

Or, I suppose I should say, an Olivia Newton-John video. That is actually her singing in the opening song that plays in the department store.



And inside said department store is a sad little girl named Jessica (Sorcey) who is wandering the girls' wear department, watching all the other little girls shopping with their mothers, and she is feeling very much left out. Her own mother passed away when Jessica was a toddler, so she essentially grew up without a mother. Sure, her father Jim (Sheehan) has tried to give her the best life possible as a single parent, but because he has been working so hard to give Jessica everything she needs, he doesn't really have a whole lot of time to spend with her. So, as a result, Jessica has become quite a bit of a loner, and quite often the target of bullies and mean girls who go out of their way to make her feel bad. Jessica does have a friend in Stephanie (Erica Mitchell), who tries to make her feel better, but since Stephanie still has her mother in her own life, it's very difficult for Stephanie to really understand what Jessica is going through.



In fact, it seems as though there's only one person in the entire world who can understand what Jessica is feeling. That person is a store employee named Philomena (Roberts), who happens to have a bit of magic inside herself as well. You see, inside the department store is a wishing well, which allows kids to pick out a small present. I guess you could call it a holiday promotion of sorts. And, Jessica and Stephanie decide to take part. Most of the boxes in the well have nothing inside of them, as Stephanie quickly figures out. But Jessica ends up getting a box that allows her to have one holiday wish granted by Philomena herself.

So, when Jessica finally meets up with Philomena to redeem her wish, Philomena tells her that she can wish for anything that she wanted for the holidays. As luck would have it, this conversation takes place right in front of a beautiful looking mannequin (who surprisingly enough looks like Olivia Newton-John), and Philomena listens intently as Jessica wishes for a mother during the holidays.

But, that was nearly impossible. Jessica's mother had passed away, and with Christmas just a few days away, it would take a Christmas miracle for Jessica's wish to come true.

However, what if I told you that the Christmas miracle would come in the form of that very mannequin that Jessica made the wish in front of? And, what if I told you that the mannequin (who apparently has the name of Amy) just dropped by the house after midnight the very night Jessica made that wish, announcing that she was here to spend Christmas vacation with her and Jim? Well, Jim was quite shocked, and didn't exactly know what was going on...but Jessica knew. And, right off the bat, Jessica and Amy became firm friends.



Of course, since Amy had spent most of her...well...life...as a store mannequin, she didn't exactly know how to act in the human world. Jessica did her best to try and teach her things, but there's really only so much life experience that an eleven-year-old girl has. Though, I have to admit that it was kind of funny seeing Amy toss litter inside of a mailbox, and I have to agree that it was hysterical to see Amy give fashion advice to what appeared to be a city socialite, who was not all that impressed by Amy's advice at all!

Oh, and there's also the fact that Amy seems to talk to the other mannequins inside of the department store, even calling them by name. She described all of the personality traits of each mannequin to an excited Jessica, explaining to her that when the lights go out at the department store each night, magic happens.

And one night after Jessica and Amy go touring around the neighbourhood to see all of the beautifully lit Christmas displays, they sneak into the department store after hours so that Amy can introduce her to all of her “friends”.

Perhaps the coolest friend that Amy has is the mannequin who is placed inside of a car dressed like a chauffeur. His name is Wilkins (Jim Piddock), and let's just say that he gives both Amy and Jessica the ride of their lives...inside the department store!



Of course, it takes a while for Jim to warm up to Amy. Amy certainly does try her best to make the holiday a happy one for both Jim and Jessica, but her idea of decorating for the holidays almost cost them everything. I suppose it was kind of cute idea to have the tree decorated with household objects like clothespins, small toys, and tea bags. But the idea of lighting the tree with freshly lit candles? Bad idea. In the 1800s, it was all the people had. In the 1990s, the option of electric strings of lights was much safer. Had Amy used those, she wouldn't have started a fire which completely burned down a corner of the living room – destroying all of the photos of Jim with his first wife in the process! It took some time for Jim to deal with that loss, but he eventually began to warm up to Amy by the time Christmas came.

And I'm sure that Jessica didn't really appreciate Amy revealing a crush that she had on a boy TO the boy in question...but Jessica quickly forgave Amy for that little mishap...and hey, it did kind of work out in the end for Jessica and her crush. Somewhat.

Whatever the case, Jessica was pleased as punch that Amy was fitting into the family quite nicely, and Jessica was so caught up in the excitement of having a mother to talk to, share secrets with, and love that she almost forgot that her wish was only available for a limited time offer. You see, Jessica soon realized that her wish was only good until midnight on December 26th. As soon as Christmas ended, Amy would turn back into a mannequin permanently. A really cruel joke, especially given how much Amy had bonded with both Jim and Jessica. Desperate for the magic to last beyond Christmas for years to come, Jessica begged Philomena to help her keep Amy in her and her father's lives. After all, Philomena did help assist Jessica in bringing Amy to life. Unfortunately, there is very little Philomena can do on her own. She is only capable of granting holiday miracles. However, she leaves Jessica with the message that if she and her father hold on to Amy tightly, then there could be a small chance that there would be enough love generated in hopes for her to stay in the world as a human being.

But with time running out and Amy seemingly resigned to her ultimate fate, can Jim and Jessica reach Amy before the Boxing Day sales take place?

Well...don't look at me! I provided you with the link to the movie. Watch it yourselves and tell me how it ends!


And, do stay tuned for the penultimate day of the advent calendar. Because on the twenty-fourth day of the advent calendar, I will be sharing with you a holiday tradition that originated on Christmas Eve. A tradition that many boys and girls look forward to each year...

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Snoopy's Christmas



Here we are on Day #22 of “THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR”, and as of right now, we're still bathed in light. We've been getting some really wacky weather over the last couple of days (in the formation of freezing rain), and the last time we had a major freezing rain spell was “Ice Storm '98”, which knocked out power in my area for at least a week! All signs say that this storm will not be AS bad, but I don't want to take any chances. I suppose worst case scenario, I can use my iPad to post my blog for today.

So, we're on Day #22 and the final Sunday Jukebox entry before Christmas. And because it's the final holiday song of the season, I really wanted to go all out and choose a song that was well-loved and incredibly symbolic. But, what song would actually make people sit up and take notice? Which song would be universally well-liked enough to have everybody singing along to the chorus and getting into the spirit of things?

Maybe this one?



Hmmm...not bad. But I prefer Eartha Kitt or Kylie Minogue's versions over Madonna's. How about this one?



Um...yeah, no. Okay, maybe this one?



YIKES! That's just plain disturbing! Sorry Cheeky Girls!

Sigh...maybe if I put on a Christmas special, it'll help me think of a possible song to talk about in today's entry.  Hmmm...

What about the Charlie Brown Christmas Special?  Oh, sure, today's song was never really featured in the television favourite - which has remained a holiday staple since its debut in the 1960s.

But what if I told you that one of the biggest stars of the holiday special ended up being the star of a single that originally debuted in 1967?




Well, Snoopy - the lovable beagle whose best friend is a bird named Woodstock and whose worst enemy is the annoying Lucy Van Pelt - became so popular that a particular group from Ocala, Florida decided to record a series of songs about him...including this holiday themed favourite below!





ARTIST:  The Royal Guardsmen
SONG:  Snoopy's Christmas
ALBUM:  Snoopy and His Friends
DATE RELEASED:  October 1967
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  N/A

(I should probably note that while circumstances prevented the single from charting on the Billboard Hot 100, the single did become a #1 hit on the "Best Bets for Christmas" chart!)

Anyway, would you like to know more about the band known as "The Royal Guardsmen", as well as the inspiration behind the song?

Okay, so the band was formed in Florida in the mid-1960s, and they adopted their name as kind of a spoof towards the British invasion that was taking place right around this time with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Dave Clark Five making their mark on the pop charts.  After all, what name sounded more British than the Royal Guardsmen, right?

The band's original line-up consisted of Bill Balough, John Burdett, Chris Nunley, Tom Richards, Billy Taylor, and Barry Winslow.  And, they had a bit of a tough time trying to get their name out there without the assistance of a familiar cartoon beagle.

It's not as though they didn't try.  But when their first single failed to make a dent on the pop and rock charts, the group decided that they would make their second single one in which they inserted Snoopy into the lyrics...and ended up getting into a small battle with the Peanuts creator in the process.

That song was "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron", which actually became a #2 hit on the Billboard charts during the first week of 1967!  And, just as the song lyrics said, the single was inspired by the Peanuts cartoon strip in which Snoopy imagines himself as a fighter pilot locked in combat with the Red Baron.  You know the comics I mean?  Where he pretends his doghouse is a plane and he puts on his helmet and shoots the enemy before the enemy can shoot him?  I used to love those comics!

But here's the shocking twist.  Around the same time that the song was gaining speed on the charts, Charles M. Schulz and United Features Syndicate threatened the band with a copyright infringement lawsuit, claiming that the Royal Guardsmen had used the name Snoopy without permission or an advertising license.  Of course, the band did lose their case, and the punishment was quite swift - all publishing revenues for the song would go to United Features Syndicates.  

But here's the funny part about the whole thing.  Charles M. Schulz actually liked the song, and not only allowed the band to record more Snoopy songs, but he even did the illustrations on the album covers!  Have a look!



And, this lead to the Christmas follow-up for the song, "Snoopy's Christmas".  And, here's an interesting bit of trivia about this song.  It's loosely based on a true story that took place during the first World War!  Or, at the very least, it makes reference to the event that took place during the first year of combat in 1914.

You see, on Christmas Day, 1914, German and British soldiers initiated "The Christmas Truce".  Soldiers exchanged small gifts with each other, bodies were cleared from "No Man's Land", and some soldiers even engaged in friendly football matches.  It was a rare moment of cease-fire during the war that would eventually span a four year period.

Interestingly enough, the "Christmas Truce" were the German soldiers...and in the song, it was the Red Baron himself that extended the olive branch to Snoopy.  

So, with that, I close the chapter on another Sunday Jukebox entry.  And, provided that the ice doesn't knock out my power, stay tuned for Day #23 in the advent calendar.  And in this edition, we'll be looking at what I consider to be one of the weirdest made for television movies I've ever seen...

Stay safe, Ontario!  And, don't go out unless you absolutely have to.  This freezing rain can be quite nasty.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

A Garfield Christmas



Welcome to the twenty-first day of “THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR”, and I hope that you're in a nice cozy place for today. As I type this entry out, we are experiencing bad weather conditions which include freezing rain, which means that the roads are going to be extremely difficult to navigate.

If you are in one of those areas which is seeing freezing rain right now, please stay safe if you have to venture outdoors. I know that Christmas is just days away now, but I'd rather you stay safe and go shopping another day instead of risking your life for a PlayStation 4. Really, a video game system is not worth losing your life over, especially so close to the holidays.

Of course, if you live in a place where the climate is always sunny and 75 degrees, well, you may as well just ignore that previous statement.

At any rate, today's Saturday Smorgasbord is supposed to have a theme of Saturday Morning cartoons, and of course I plan on having a cartoon featured in this very space.  It'll just be a cartoon that has a lot of Christmas references.

Exactly twenty-six years ago, on December 21, 1987, this television special debuted on CBS (the same day that Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas special first aired).  And it happens to star a cat who at first appears to have absolutely zero Christmas spirit whatsoever.  He's notorious for despising Mondays, stealing his owner's food whenever possible, kicking his canine pal off of every possible countertop, and sending the world's cutest kitty cat on a first class trip to Abu Dhabi - well, with the right amount of postage stamps, that is.

It comes as no surprise that the Jim Davis created comic strip Garfield has been a huge hit since its debut in 1978.  With Garfield celebrating his thirty-fifth anniversary earlier this year, this lasagna-loving, diet-hating fat cat shows no sign of slowing down, even if he could give a sloth a run for its money in a laziness contest.




But when I first saw "A Garfield Christmas" air on television, I came to exactly three conclusions about the show.  Firstly, it proves that you can have a merry Christmas no matter where you are in the world.  Secondly, the people who you spend the holidays with can absolutely make all the difference in the world.  And lastly, even the most jaded of pussycats can have a large heart (which surprisingly doesn't have blocked arteries from the colossal amounts of food that Garfield eats).

Now, when the Garfield Christmas special first begins, Garfield is in one of his most favourite places in the whole world...his beloved cat bed snuggled up under the covers with his beloved teddy bear, Pooky.  And in typical Garfield fashion, he dreams about a magical gift-giving machine that Jon has installed that will give out presents just by thinking about them.  And, of course in Garfield's dream, he refuses to let anybody else use the machine and he hoards all of the goodies he thinks about for himself.  Typical Garfield behaviour.  Think of himself first, and all others come second.

But not even Garfield is prepared for the news he hears when he finally wakes up.  You see, Jon has decided that rather than spend another Christmas in suburbia, he would pack up Garfield and Odie and spend Christmas at the old farmhouse where he grew up.  Jon's whole family would be there.  His mother, his father, his grandmother, and his younger brother...who hated to be called Doc Boy.

And Garfield was NOT looking forward to it at all.  Half the time, he couldn't even stand living in the same house as Jon.  How in the world would he handle the rest of the Arbuckle crew?

More importantly...how would Santa know just where to deliver the presents?




Of course, Jon was really looking forward to coming home for the holidays.  After all, he hadn't seen his family in a long time.  In fact, he's so happy about it, he decided to sing a song about it (and Garfield interjects with his own sarcasm).

When the trio of Jon, Garfield, and Odie arrive at the Arbuckle farmhouse, we quickly get introduced to the family.  Jon's father is a typical farmer type with the stereotypical southern accent.  Jon's mother is a typical housewife who has a lot of charm and can prepare potatoes at least half a dozen ways.  And Doc Boy (voiced by "Laverne and Shirley" actor David L. Lander) is repeatedly picked on by Jon, who absolutely loves calling him Doc Boy.  But under the right circumstances, Jon and Doc can get along with each other...particularly when they team up to poke fun at their own father!

And then there's Jon's grandmother.  And, well...she's not like your typical grandmother.  She's got a sharp tongue, she's got spunk, and she appears to act the same way that a typical teenager would.




In short, she is the world's coolest grandmother ever!

And, let's just say that Jon's grandmother is very vocal about who she likes and who she doesn't.  She loves Jon and Doc Boy with all her heart, but she won't hesitate to add a little bit (or a ton) of spice to Jon's mother's recipe for sausage gravy.

In short, Grandma Arbuckle is basically the one member of the family who could probably understand Garfield better than anybody.  And as it turns out, Garfield hears a lot of stories from Grandma in between the tree trimming and the annual reading of "Binky, The Clown Who Saves Christmas", Grandma tells Garfield a story so touching that you would have to have a heart of stone not to be affected by it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uJeyEV6ifE

(By the way...most of the music here in this special was composed and performed by Lou Rawls and Desiree Goyette...both of whom did an absolute fantastic job.)

Meanwhile, there's something about Odie that has Garfield feeling quite suspicious.  Ever since they arrived at the farmhouse, Odie's been sneaking around the house, gathering random objects.  At first, it might appear as though Odie has turned into a compulsive hoarder, but there is a reason behind his strange behaviour, which Garfield is determined to find out.

Garfield's quest takes him to the barn, in which he spies Odie trying to build something out of the materials that he has found.  But before Garfield can investigate more, he ends up having an accident which nearly knocks him out.  However, there is a silver lining to all of this, as Garfield ends up discovering a stack of old letters.  Letters from fifty years ago that Grandpa Arbuckle wrote to Grandma Arbuckle when they were courting each other.

So, you can imagine how moved Grandma was when Garfield gave her the letters as a Christmas present.  It turned out that they were the best present that she had ever received.  And for Garfield, he too felt great joy in knowing that he had gotten the perfect gift for someone.

But as it would turn out, Garfield himself would get a gift of his own that was made with just as much love.  You see, Odie was busy making him his own personal scratching post, which turned out to be a fantastic gift for the fussy, finicky cat.  And in one of the kindest, yet rarest shows of affection Garfield ever gave, he gave Odie a thank you hug!



Isn't that sweet?

So, that wraps up the look back on "A Garfield Christmas".  Do tune in tomorrow to Day #22, where we take a look at a song that actually mentions another cartoon character!