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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Tuesday Night At The Movies: Honey, I Shrunk The Kids

One thing that I was always known for in my grade school years was my obscenely tall frame (well, that, plus my chubbiness, but that is another issue altogether).

For many years, I was usually either the tallest or second-tallest kid in the entire class. And I was mostly okay with that. Nobody could make short jokes at my expense since hardly anyone in the class was my height. Certainly as we approached adulthood, many of them caught up to my height, but for those few years, I always seemed to stick out in a crowd because of my height.

I admit that maybe there were a couple of instances where I wished that I could have blended in more with my classmates, at least sizewise. Sometimes it wasn't always such a good thing to be so tall. I was always the prime target for gym class dodge ball games, and sometimes it was a bit annoying to have to be called 'big guy' all the time. Maybe it would have been nice to have been a smaller size so that I wouldn't stick out so long.

That was the case until 1989 when a particular Disney movie was released, and after seeing it, it made me reconsider my thoughts.



Honey, I Shrunk The Kids was released in theaters nationwide on June 23, 1989, and the movie starred Rick Moranis, Marcia Strassman, and Matt Frewer. The film did very well financially, making over $220 million worldwide, and spawning two sequels (one released in theaters, one direct-to-video).

The movie detailed the adventures of four children who were accidentally shrunk down in size to no bigger than a quarter of an inch tall, and their struggle to get back to normal size.



Wayne Szalinski (Moranis) is a struggling inventor, desperately trying to come up with a successful invention, much to the annoyance of his wife Diane (Strassman). They have two children together. Amy (Amy O'Neill) is their teenage daughter who is addicted to rock music and shopping, while Nick (Robert Oliveri) wants to be an inventor/scientist just like his father.



The Szalinski's next door neighbours are the Thompsons. Russ Thompson Sr. (Frewer) gets increasingly annoyed by Wayne's inventions, and dismisses the Szalinski family as being one of the weirdest families he's ever laid eyes on. He and his wife Mae have two children of their own. Ron (Jared Rushton), a teenage boy who loves baseball and loves picking on Nick Szalinski), and Russ Jr. (Thomas Wilson Brown), the Thompson's older son who appears to have a crush on Amy.



One fateful day, Ron is playing baseball in his backyard and accidentally hits a baseball through the attic window of the Szalinski home. The baseball manages to hit one of Wayne's inventions, a shrink ray that hadn't been perfected yet (rather than shrinking things, it made them explode). Ron, Russ, Nick, and Amy head upstairs to the attic so Ron can retrieve their ball, not realizing that the ball had turned the machine on. The positive was that the ball ended up blocking one of the laser beams, so the machine wasn't powerful enough to make the kids explode. But it did shrink them, Wayne's thinking couch, and a nearby chair to miniature size.



As if this situation wasn't bad enough, Wayne comes home after a very bad day at work, and takes out his frustration on his machine. To the horror of the shrunken children, Wayne destroys the shrink ray and the pieces scatter all over the floor. Afterwards, Wayne grabs a broom and dustpan and cleans up the mess he made, not even aware of the fact that he was sweeping up the four children right into the trash. The kids were bagged, tagged, and left out in the backyard.

The kids manage to find a way out of the trash bag, and find themselves in the middle of their backyard, which greatly resembles an oversized jungle of weeds, grass, and flowers. The task for the kids now was to get back home. However, being small in size, what normally would have taken a few seconds would now take several hours. They decide to climb up a flower stem in order to see just how far away the house was from where they were, almost getting attacked by a gigantic bee in the process. During the struggle with the bee, Nick and Russ end up separated from Amy and Ron.

As all this is going on, Wayne discovers the remains of what was left of his thinking couch (he accidentally stepped on it while he was cleaning up the attic). He then comes to the grave realization that he accidentally shrunk his own children, who had not been seen for several hours by this point. He informs his wife about this development (which she does not take well at all, but then again, how would you react if you were told that your children accidentally got shrunk?), and then decide to tell the neighbours, who are also worried about where their children might be.

Not realizing that their children were just a few feet away.

Wayne decides to check out in the backyard in order to find his children (who ended up reuniting with each other after the bee incident). Unfortunately, while he searched for the children, he accidentally turns on the sprinkler system, causing Amy to almost drown. Luckily for Amy, Russ saves her life by giving her CPR. Afterwards, the group decides to try and find their way back home. Along the way they find a meal in a gigantic cookie, they sleep inside a Lego block, and they encounter a friendly ant (whom Ron gives the name of Antie) who helps them travel at a much faster rate of speed. Sadly, along the way, the kids are attacked by a scorpion who has every intention of killing them, and Antie ends up making the ultimate sacrifice to save them.



An act of heroism and selflessness if ever I saw one.

It certainly makes one take a second glance at things that may seem insignificant at first look, doesn't it?

I guess in this case, it is all a matter of perspective. On any given day to those kids, they may not have thought anything of a small ant. It was only after they shrunk down to smaller than an ant that they realized just how much they owed their lives to their ant friend.

I guess that's the whole point to why I wanted to talk about this movie in general, and how it kind of relates to my opening paragraph. Certainly my size growing up was much bigger than that of my classmates, but it didn't really define who I was as a person. It was just one characteristic that in the long run didn't really matter. It didn't matter how small or how tall a person really was. All that mattered is the skills that a person had.

Now, I know I promised that I would not reveal any ending of a Monday Matinee, and I still stand by this position.



Seeing as how this is a Tuesday though, I suppose I could let some secrets slip if you haven't seen this movie yet. Obviously, I let it slip that this movie had two sequels, so it's a given that somehow all four kids get back to normal size. But how they get that way is an adventure and a half.

I know I'll never look at a bowl of Cheerios quite the same way again.


Monday, September 19, 2011

Just Another Arcade Monday: Super Mario Kart

I'm going to begin this blog entry by making a confession.

I am a far better driver on arcade games than I am in real life.

It's absolutely true. Whenever I play any sort of video game that has to do with any form of simulated driving, I can usually figure my way around the various courses and do fairly well. I may even end up winning a particular race or two, or beat a time trial.

I just only wish I could translate my stellar driving abilities from video games to the real world. But, alas, my absolute fear of driving has mostly given me feelings of paralysis behind the wheel.

I was just shy of my 30th birthday when I got my learner's permit to drive...basically, just a few months ago. It was one of the hardest and most frightening decisions for me to make personally, but I knew that I had to do it. For one, I needed a valid source of identification, since I was tired of having to show three separate pieces of ID trying to confirm that I was who I was all the time. Getting a license definitely put an end to that problem.

But secondly, I realized that it was all about looking fear in the eyes, and I knew that if I had any shot of making it big in this world, learning how to drive would probably be an asset.

My biggest problem with learning to drive is twofold. I don't nearly have enough skills behind the wheel to feel comfortable on the road. I reckon I could get those skills if I could find someone patient and understanding to sit in the passenger seat with me as I drive, because I have learned the hard way that family members are too high-strung.

But the very fact that I do have my learner's permit is a good first step, and I would think that most people would agree that I'm beginning to come out of my shell.

That being said, is it wrong for me to admit that I wish that driving a car on the highways was as simple as using a joystick to control a pixelated car across a screen?

Of course, anyone who HAS driven a car on the roads before knows that it isn't NEARLY that easy. A little more fun, but not easy.

In fact, I would like to dedicate this blog entry to one of my all-time favourite driving simulation games of all time. I would rent this game at the video store at least once a month, and although I never actually owned the original game, I did end up purchasing the Nintendo DS version, which I admittedly still play today.



The date was September 1, 1992. By this date, the Super Mario franchise had grown considerably. With the first three Nintendo games selling millions of copies worldwide, and Super Mario World helping the Super Nintendo skyrocket in sales, the Nintendo company knew that it had a winning representative. But, how to keep Mario relevant in a rapidly changing gaming world, Nintendo had to come up with some new, fresh ideas to keep people from losing interest.

Hence the idea of Super Mario Kart.



Super Mario Kart was a racing game starring Mario and his friends (and enemies). Representing the good guys were Mario, of course, but you could also play as Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad. Coincidentally, you could also play as three bad guys. Bowser and a Koopa Troopa were able to drive cars as well. Donkey Kong Jr. also made an appearance as one of the drivers.



Otherwise, the game was set in various areas around the setting of Super Mario World. You had courses in Bowser's Castle, Vanilla Lake, Chocolate Island, Ghost Houses, and Donut Plains. Each one provided a different challenge that drivers would have to overcome. On the Chocolate Island courses, you would have to contend with mud pools (which I always liked to say were melted pools of chocolate sauce). In Vanilla Lake, you had to deal with icy road conditions as well as thin ice that would make your cars sink to the bottom of the frozen lake. And, well...there's other courses that would make your head spin.

But fear not. There are ways in which one could overcome those obstacles.

For the real thing that made the game fun to play was the various objects one could use to dispatch your racing companions so that you could zoom ahead of them.

See, unlike respected race car sports like soap box derbies, the Indy 500, and NASCAR, this game actually encouraged you to cheat.

All one had to do was drive over top of one of the question mark blocks that would pave each course (which was a nice little throwback to the original video game series), and they would get a special item.



Some of the items benefitted the players themselves. Mushrooms would give them a speed boost, while starmen would make the racer invincible. Really, nothing that much different from the item uses in the Mario series.

There were a dozen items that could be used to cause a lot of havoc towards your opponents.

The most common item that could be used are banana peels, which are used to make racers spin out of control. Other items included two different coloured turtle shells. Green ones could be shot at racers, but weren't very accurate. If you happened to get a red shell, then they acted as homing beacons, which automatically aimed towards the racer directly in front of them. In later Mario Kart sequels, a third shell would be added. If one were to get a winged blue shell, the shell would go after the racer in the pole position and cause some serious damage.

Believe me. As the courses grew harder, those items would prove to be a major asset. You'll be glad you have them.

Particularly with one multi-coloured race track in particular.



On every version of Super Mario Kart, there happens to be a track called 'Rainbow Road'. On the surface, they are the most beautiful looking courses in the whole game with brilliant shades of colour and twists and turns.



But don't let their beauty fool you. All of those courses will have you wanting to throw your controller through your television screens. For Rainbow Road is the ultimate test of your skills, and you'll need to have mastered all your driving skills in order to make it through.

I guess if I were to compare my own driving skills, that final road test would essentially be my own version of Rainbow Road, only with a lot less sheen and colour. For Mario and his friends to actually make it to Rainbow Road, they would have had to have performed some stellar driving skills, and earn their way to that place.

Just as one day, I'll have to do the same.

But I know that if I can overcome my fears, my Rainbow Road will be in my future very soon.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

A Sunday Across The Pond With Paddington Bear

NOTE:  In case you're wondering why this Sunday doesn't have a jukebox inside it, read yesterday's entry, and you'll see why.  Don't worry, the jukebox returns next week!

I would make a safe assumption to say that everyone has owned a teddy bear at one point in their lifetimes. Some may have a collection of teddy bears that run into the hundreds, while others only had one bear that they have held onto for years and years.

As far as my own experiences with teddy bears go, I did own my share of them over the years. As of now, I currently only have two. One was given to me as a gift by a neighbour friend who passed away a couple of years ago. The other one was given to me as a 'Get Well Soon' gift by my niece when I was recovering from a health scare a few months ago.

Over my childhood though, I reckon that I have had several stuffed bears in my lifetime. I already told you thew story about how I received Good Luck Bear as a Christmas present, but I imagine that at some point, I had gone through dozens of bears, and that each one of them had some significance in my life.

As it turns out, a teddy bear turned out have such an impact on one man that it ended up changing his life forever.

The story takes place in London, on December 24, 1956. A young man was walking around Paddington Station, glancing at nearby shops surrounding the area. He happened to pass by one particular store where there were several things available for sale. Inside this store was a particular shelf where something immediately caught his eye.

A lone teddy bear, sat on the shelf.

A teddy bear that the young man thought would make a fantastic Christmas present for his wife.

After the Christmas holidays ended, the young man kept thinking about that lonely bear sitting on the shelf. He thought, and thought, and somehow came up with the idea that he could write a story about the bear. Over the next ten days, he worked hard on the story, and by the end of the tenth day, he had composed a book about the bear.

It was quite a heartwarming tale, really. At Paddington railway station in London, a family happens to come across the bear, who is sitting at the station with a suitcase and a note attached to him reading 'Please look after this bear'.

The family happens to be the Brown family, comprised of Mr. and Mrs. Brown, and their two children Jonathan and Judy. And, after hearing the tale of the poor bear, about how his aunt Lucy was too old to look after him anymore, the family decided to take him in, calling him by the same name as that of the station they found him in.



And that is how Paddington Bear came to be.

The man who bought his wife the teddy bear for Christmas was Michael Bond, the creator of Paddington Bear. And the story that he wrote about Paddington became his first published work.



A Bear Called Paddington was released on October 13, 1958, and ten more books about the bear followed over the years, with the most recent Paddington Bear book released in 2008. A few years later, in 1972, a company by the name of Gabrielle Designs came up with the prototype of the Paddington Bear stuffed toy (complete with the signature trenchcoat and hat, plus Wellington boots to keep the bear standing upright). It eventually became one of the biggest selling toys of the 1970s in the United Kingdom.

The book series became so popular that in 1975, they were adapted into film shorts. Below is a clip of the very first episode of the series, which was based on the very first book in the Paddington series.



So now that you know how Paddington came to be, it's quite interesting to note the parallels between how the Brown family came to adopt Paddington Bear, and how Michael Bond ended up giving the bear that inspired the Paddington series to his wife.

In the case of Paddington Bear, he was found all alone in the middle of Paddington Station by the Brown family, who immediately decided to take him in. Which if you think about it wasn't that much different from how Michael Bond found the bear. Like Paddington, the bear he bought was the only one on the shelf, and when he bought the bear, he was giving it a home too.

I remember having fond memories of watching Paddington Bear on television when I was growing up, and I absolutely remember wanting my own Paddington Bear. Unfortunately, I never did get one. I did however have the next best thing.

When I was in elementary school, every year (usually around the first week of June), our school library would often go through their entire collection of books and purge some of the ones that were basically on their last legs. Pages torn, bindings coming unglued, covers so wrinkled that they were on the verge of falling off. New books were ordered to replace those ones that were deemed too unworthy to be checked out of the library.

However, the library's loss was the student body's gain. For every June, they would have a used book sale in the library of the school. For mere pocket change, we could buy some of these used books and magazines for our own collections. Sure, they were past their best before date, but that didn't mean that the stories on the inside weren't any good.

Anyways, I think I must have been in the fifth or sixth grade or something like that when I went to that particular book sale. There were dozens and dozens of books that were for sale, and it seemed like depending on what gender you were, certain books got snapped up quicker than others. The boys in my class bought up old issues of Sports Illustrated magazines and books about cars, trucks, and other modes of transportation. The girls snapped up as many issues of Seventeen magazine as they could, as well as fighting over the dog-eared copies of the Sweet Valley High series that occasionally popped up at those sales.

I was not one to follow along with the crowd back then.

All I was interested in was looking for a book that sounded interesting and that I could read and re-read over and over again.



It was there that I found a copy of A Bear Called Paddington. The above cover is the same exact one that was on this copy (only picture it with faded colours and a torn bottom right hand corner.

The pages inside were all there, and I must have spent hours reading all of the stories and mishaps that Paddington got himself into.

Paddington was a friendly, polite bear from Peru who happened to have a voracious appetite for marmalade, and although he often got into trouble with his many adventures, he really did mean well. Reading about how Paddington would go shopping at the Portobello Road markets and how he was respected by the shopkeepers and market vendors.  How Mr. Gruber would take Paddington on special outings in town.  Those stories just made me love the bear even more. It was a great thing to see Paddington adjust to life at the Brown household because the family took a chance and invited the bear into their lives.

Well, kind of like I invited Paddington into my life by picking up that used book at that book sale.


Saturday, September 17, 2011

TGI...S: Jack Tripper from Three's Company

Today is September 17, 2011, and because it's Saturday, I should be talking about Saturday Morning cartoons, right?

Not this week.

This happens to be the first day of the September Switcheroo. For one week, I take the theme days and mix them all up, to keep you readers guessing as to what the possible topics could be. This week will last from the 17th to the 23rd and here are the switches that will be happening this week.

Saturday Morning Cartoons changes to TGI...S.
Sunday Jukebox changes to A Sunday Across The Pond
Monday Matinee changes to Just Another Arcade Monday
Tuesday Leftovers changes to Tuesday Night At The Movies
Across The Pond And Beyond changes to Wednesday Afterschool Cartoons
Thursday Night At The Arcade changes to Anything Goes Thursday
TGIF changes to Friday Night Videos

These changes will only last for ONE WEEK and then will go back to the regular schedule beginning September 24.

So, for now, let's continue on. We had a feature on one sitcom star yesterday...we may as well have an encore of it today.

It's fitting that I am posting the first day of the September switcheroo on September 17, because it happened to be the birthdate of the actor who played today's featured character.



It seems hard to believe, but if he were still alive, John Ritter would be 63 years old today. The actor passed away eight years ago, on September 11, 2003 after suffering a heart attack caused by an aortic dissection. At the time of his death, he was filming episodes for the sitcom '8 Simple Rules (For Dating My Teenage Daughter), and his death was such a tragedy for those who worked closely with the actor, and knew him. What made it even more tragic was that he died on the same day as his daughter's fifth birthday. 8 Simple Rules continued on the air until 2005 with new characters added, and some of the film projects that he completed prior to his death were dedicated in his memory. Ritter's widow, Amy Yasbeck, has also spearheaded a research study to determine the factors that caused her husband's death, so that they could find a way to prevent aortic dissections from causing any further deaths.

Although John Ritter has been gone for eight years, his talent and his humour will continue to live on from his recurring role on 'The Waltons' to his last role in the movie 'Bad Santa'. He even had roles that attracted young children, as he was the voice of Clifford The Big Red Dog in the PBS series that aired from 2000-2003.

All of those roles certainly contributed to the success that he had as an actor, but his most famous role was one that he played on one show from 1977-1984, and then again in a spin-off that ran from 1984-1985.



When Three's Company first debuted on ABC on March 15, 1977, nobody knew how much of an impact the show would have on prime-time television. Almost immediately, the show skyrocketed in the ratings. The show first hit #1 on the Nielsen ratings on Valentine's Day, 1978, and the show as a whole hovered in the top ten for six of its eight seasons.



A large reason why the show worked so well was because of the chemistry between each of the cast members, although there were a couple of memorable ones in the show's eight season history. In 1979, the Ropers moved on from the show to star in their own short-lived sitcom, and were replaced by Mr. Furley (Don Knotts). And I'm sure everyone remembers the scandal surrounding Suzanne Somers' exit in mid-1981, which lead to her role being replaced twice (first by Jenilee Harrison, and then by Priscilla Barnes who played Cindy Snow and Terri Alden respectively).

There were two constants on the show that seemed to link everything together. One was Janet Wood, played by Joyce DeWitt.

The other one was the character that John Ritter played.

And what a character Jack Tripper was!



When Jack first hit our screens, we actually met him in the bathtub. And he wasn't in there getting cleaned up. He had actually passed out in the bathroom of the apartment that Janet Wood and Chrissy Snow shared. He had actually been snuck into the apartment by a friend who knew one of the gate-crashers. At the time, the girls had thrown a party for their departing roommate Eleanor. When Jack was found sleeping in the bathtub, Janet and Chrissy were shocked to find him there in the first place, but thanks to Jack's charm and the fact that the girls needed another roommate to keep paying the rent, they decided to let Jack move in.

There was one problem. The landlord at the time, Stanley Roper, would have had a major issue with an unmarried man living with two unmarried women, so to keep him from being an issue, Janet tells Mr. Roper that Jack is gay, and Mr. Roper backs off, even though the very conservative Mr. Roper often made jokes at Jack's expense. Stanley's wife, Helen knew the truth, and unlike her husband was okay with Jack, Janet, and Chrissy sharing an apartment together.

Now, Mr. Roper certainly gave Jack a lot of grief for the way he lived his life (not realizing that it was all a ruse), and he often kidded around with him because he displayed personality traits that were in his opinion not 'masculine' or 'manly', or 'tough'.

Though if you really want my honest opinion, I thought that it was those very qualities that made Jack Tripper the great person he was. In fact, I would have to say that Mr. Roper couldn't be further from the truth when it came to his overall impressions of Jack Tripper.



Let's start with one quality right off the bat. Jack Tripper loved to cook. Part of the reason why Janet and Chrissy agreed to take Jack on as a roommate was because of his cooking skills. Jack loved baking and cooking. His hobby soon developed into a passion, and he enrolled in cooking school. A lot of the early episodes of Three's Company were centered around Jack's ability to cook, and his adventures during cooking school, which lead to him eventually opening up his own bistro. In most cases, Jack was incredibly confident about his cooking abilities and he often had great success with it. There were a few blips along the way though. It's hard to forget the time where he was in a cooking contest dressed as a woman (as the contest was only open to women), and he ended up making cookies that were flavoured with cough drops. And then there was this mishap that occurred when Jack entered a pie-baking contest. Clicking on this link will take you to a clip of the episode 'The Bake-Off', originally airing on February 27, 1979, where you'll see one of these mishaps in action.

The point is that while Mr. Roper may have dismissed a man knowing how to cook as being feminine, in all actuality, it make Jack more of a man. Certainly any of the women who he dated over the show's eight season one appreciated the fact that they were dating a man who knew his way around the kitchen. Sure enough, in a few cases, Jack wooed them over with the promise of a gourmet dinner, or a dessert, or what have you. He certainly did a better job of attracting the women, whereas Mr. Roper likely hadn't had any sort of intimacy with Mrs. Roper since 1957 (much to her chagrin).

In all honesty, I wish I had as much talent as Jack did in the kitchen. I probably would find a way to burn ice. But, hey, Jack Tripper gives all of us guys hope that we all can become great chefs, and be respected for it.

Another thing that Mr. Roper used to chide Jack on was the fact that he avoided conflict to the point where he was seen as being wimpy.

I actually don't believe this to be completely true.

Yes, it is very much true that Jack would rather not deal with conflict through physical means. When one of Jack's 'buddies' from the Navy came by for a visit, Jack was shocked to find that he had become blind. He was even more shocked to find that his 'buddy' wouldn't leave until Jack hit him! For the whole length of the episode, Jack waffled on the idea, which of course made the audience howl with laughter. Finally, when Jack developed the courage to finally try to hit him, he was flattened by the guy!

With 'buddies' like him, is it any wonder he avoided resolving conflicts with physical force?

The real irony of this is that while Jack served in the Navy, he took up the sport of boxing! Yet he hated having to use physical force in order to defend himself.

According to Mr. Roper, Jack Tripper was a wimp.

According to myself, Jack Tripper is a lot like me.

I am what you say a fairly big guy. 6'2”, around 230-ish. By all accounts, I should be a powerhouse. But I actually don't like physical violence to settle a score. It's just not my thing. I much prefer the art of conflict resolution through spoken word, or by writing it out.

Mind you, as a result of not fighting back, I tended to get beat up in the schoolyard where kids tried to give me wedgies and 'Hurtz Donuts', but that was who I was. I certainly don't consider myself to be a wimp for that. I just prefer not to resolve conflicts by force.

And neither did Jack.

Though one thing I will say about Jack (and this is a fantastic quality to have in my opinion) is that he is fiercely protective of his female roommates. Certainly he wasn't possessive or hovering...he did let them have their space. But if someone tried to hurt them, Jack could be set off.

Sometimes, it backfired on him. Jack attempted to subdue a drunk person at the Regal Beagle, but when he failed, Terri ended up taking care of the goon with her newly acquired karate skills. Had Mr. Roper still lived at the apartment complex, he probably would have never let Jack live it down.

Or, there was the time when Chrissy came home in tears because her date mistook her friendliness for something else, and the 'guy' happened to drop by the apartment. Jack wanting to protect Chrissy ended up punching the guy in the face. What Jack didn't realize was that the man he punched was a police detective. Ironically enough, Mr. Roper convinced the detective to drop the charges.

So, Jack's intentions were good, but his klutzy nature kind of worked against him. Still, there were other times where his protectiveness towards Janet and Chrissy was receptive. He helped Janet a few times by making her see that some of the guys that she was interested in were using her. This included a high school friend that Janet had a crush on, but who ended up treating her like nothing more than a big score. Jack and Chrissy sent him on his way fairly quickly. There was also the time in which Janet was interested in taking a dance class, and how she had a teacher build up her confidence to the point where she was going to quit her job as a florist to pursue dancing as a career. But when Jack discovered that her instructor was a sleaze ball, he made Janet see that he was a jerk, and he ended up being a real friend to her.

I mean, certainly Jack could have just punched them out, but that wasn't his style. You could see that the only way Jack even would remotely use physical force is when he believed that someone physically harmed one of his roommates. Instead, he chose to focus his attention on trying to help his roommates feel better. For as much as he drove his roommates crazy, he really did love them, and wanted them to feel better. That took precedence over anything else. And, that was a quality that made Jack stand out in a good way.



And, sometimes, Jack ended up embarrassing his roommates (though in most cases it was not intentional), and quite often than not, Jack would have to eat a lot of humble pie in order to make it up to them. I cite May 4, 1982 as a prime example of this. That was the episode in which Jack was dragged to a stuffy cocktail party by Janet, and Jack decides to have a drink to loosen up. Well, he certainly did that.

After the party, Janet was deeply embarrassed, and it took a while for her to look Jack in the eye. But Jack somehow ended up getting her forgiveness because he really didn't feel good about himself when he hurt those closest to him.

He wasn't weak. He was sensitive. And, really, that's a quality that I think more men should have.

Of course the one thing that made Jack Tripper most memorable was the actor who played him. Through his physical comedy and his quick wit, John Ritter was truly the embodiment of everything that Three's Company stood for. He even brought his quick wit on times when they screwed up with bloopers...



...and he even poked fun at his most famous role on what would be his final sitcom.



John Ritter will never be forgotten, and he is sadly missed. A life taken far too soon. However, if there is one thing that is of comfort, it is that he brought us a character that was well-rounded, kind-hearted, and incredibly clumsy.

Jack Tripper will continue to live on.

Thank you, John Ritter. Thank you for the memories.



Friday, September 16, 2011

TGIF Episode Spotlight: 'The Puppy Episode' from Ellen

I have always admired people who have natural courage.

I also admire people who are absolutely true to themselves and who aren't afraid to admit who they are, even if they may suffer public backlash as a direct result of it.

In the case of today's subject, this woman was faced with exactly that.

Imagine having a very successful sitcom airing on one of the big three networks. Having millions of people tuning in to watch you act in a sitcom, and you're enjoying the fruits of your creation. And then something happens where you decide to let the world know something about yourself that may be considered taboo, and before you know it, your sitcom is being cancelled. And somehow you have to start all over from scratch.



The above situation happened to stand-up comedienne and current talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.

And Ellen DeGeneres is the subject of the very first 'episode spotlight' for this edition of TGIF.



Watching Ellen on television now, it seems a little hard to believe that she could ever have been on the forefront of a maelstrom of controversy and criticism. Her talk show recently debuted the premiere of its ninth season on daytime television, and currently pulls in millions of viewers all over the world. With a mix of witty conversations with A-list actors, the various games that she plays with her audience and her snappy, hilarious monologues that she performs at the beginning of each episode have helped make it the great talk show it is. Especially compared to some of the other ones out there that deal with chair throwing, hair pulling, and dozens and dozens of paternity tests.

I mean, with spontaneous moments like this one appearing on her talk show daily, it makes the show even more fun to watch.



But what some people may not realize was that Ellen DeGeneres' big break came years earlier, when she was a young woman.

Ellen DeGeneres began a career in stand-up comedy shortly after she graduated from high school in 1976. Like most people wanting a career in comedy, she started off performing at small local clubs and coffee houses around her hometown of New Orleans. By 1981, she had already become the emcee at Clyde's Comedy Club in New Orleans, and in 1982, she was awarded the honour of being named Showtime's Funniest Person In America. Four years later, Ellen DeGeneres appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and she proved to be such a hit that Johnny had asked her to sit by his desk for an onscreen chat (the first time that a comedienne had been given the honour). Below is a clip of that memorable appearance, which first aired on November 28, 1986.



That appearance on Johnny Carson's show was her very first appearance on network television, but it certainly wouldn't be the last. She would make several appearances on comedy specials, and had small roles in the movies Coneheads and Wisecracks.

By 1994, Ellen DeGeneres' star continued to be on the rise, and it was in that year that the opportunity for her to star in her own sitcom would come up.

On March 29, 1994, Ellen's sitcom debuted on ABC, under the original title of 'These Friends Of Mine'. Set in Los Angeles, Ellen played the character of Ellen Morgan, who worked at a bookstore called 'Buy The Book'. Ellen was considered by everyone around her to be cheerful and likeable, but she had a tendency to be clumsy. She also tended to ramble on and on when nervous or embarrassed. As the original title suggested, the show focused on Ellen and her friends. These friends included Holly (Holly Fulger), Adam (Arye Gross), Joe (David Anthony Higgins) and Anita (Maggie Wheeler).



After the first eleven episodes that made up season one, the show was retooled, and Holly and Anita were phased out, with Adam leaving at the end of season three. The show's name was changed to simply 'Ellen', and new cast members included Joely Fisher, Clea Lewis, and Jeremy Piven. The show did very well during its run, scoring within the top 20 shows watched during the 1994/1995 season alone. The show averaged over eleven million viewers per season, and helped catapult Ellen to success.

But then The Puppy Episode aired, and with the airing of The Puppy Episode came a time that was filled with many personal highs and lows for Ellen DeGeneres. One may end up calling the whole episode a bittersweet one for Ellen, as it provided her with the most viewed episode of the entire series.  At the same time it ended up making her the target of some rather unfortunate and unfair criticism as a direct result of this episode.

The Puppy Episode's concept was born during the filming of the show's fourth season. During a meeting in late 1996, Ellen DeGeneres began negotiating with the ABC network to have the character of Ellen Morgan come out as a lesbian. Word got out about the negotiations, and soon she found herself in the middle of intense speculation. People wondered whether Ellen's character would come out on the show, or whether Ellen DeGeneres would come out in real life, or possibly both.



As we all know, in the real world, Ellen DeGeneres did come out as openly gay in early 1997. She disclosed this information in an interview in TIME magazine, as well as talking about it on the Oprah Winfrey show. And in March 1997, production of The Puppy Episode began, confirming the rumour that Ellen's character would come out as a lesbian.

Already even before the episode aired, the backlash began. Conservative groups like the American Family Association pressured ABC to drop the coming out storyline, and a couple of advertisers decided not to have their commercials air during commercial breaks of the episode. The studio where Ellen was filmed received a bomb threat, and critics of the storyline claimed that it was nothing more than a ratings stunt.

To her credit though, Ellen DeGeneres stood firm on the decision to have The Puppy Episode go ahead. To the critics accusing her of doing it solely for ratings, she had said this at the time, “I did it selfishly for myself and because I thought it was a great thing for the show, which desperately needed a point of view”.

And this was true. As much of a success Ellen was, the show was often criticized for having a lack of focus, and Ellen Morgan was criticized for having a lack of interest in romantic relationships. When the suggestion was made by a producer that Ellen should get a puppy to compensate for her dry romantic life, executive producer Mark Driscoll had stated that the suggestion for Ellen to get a puppy was just one of the many indications that the show had lost its focus.

So when the coming out episode was being planned out, the producers decided to give the episode the title of “The Puppy Episode”, in response.

When the green-light was given by ABC to go ahead with the episode, many guest stars were desperate to get a role on the episode.



As it so happened, lots of famous faces ended up being on the show. Probably the biggest name to sign on to be a guest of the show was Oprah Winfrey, who had the first interview with Ellen on her show since coming out as a lesbian. On the show, Oprah played Ellen's therapist who helped her come to terms with the revelation. Other famous faces who guest starred on the episode included Laura Dern, Steven Eckholdt, Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, Gina Gershon, Melissa Etheridge, Dwight Yoakam, Jorja Fox (before CSI fame), Jenny Shimizu, k.d. lang, and even Ellen's mother Betty made a cameo appearance.

The Puppy Episode debuted on April 30, 1997, and the episode started off just like any other episode of Ellen. In the episode, she goes out with an old friend named Richard (Steven Eckholdt), who happens to be in Los Angeles to cover a news story. During dessert, his producer comes to join the couple. The producer happens to be a woman named Susan (Laura Dern), whom Ellen seems to strike an instant friendship with. After Susan leaves, Richard invites Ellen up to his room, where he immediately tries to come on to her. Ellen, however, is uncomfortable with the idea and leaves the room. In the hallway, she happens to run into Susan, and Susan invites Ellen inside where the two of them enjoy each other's company. Things take a sudden turn when Susan tells Ellen that she happens to be gay, and she just assumed that Ellen was too. Ellen is taken aback by Susan's comment, and outrightly accuses her of trying to 'recruit' her. Susan sarcastically retorts that she would call the national headquarters to let them know that one more got away, and that she was just one away from getting a free toaster oven.

Ellen is left even more confused by this encounter, so she quickly leaves Susan's room and makes her way back to Richard's room, determined to prove to herself that she isn't gay. The following day, she's telling her friends that the date with Richard went extremely well, and that they had a fantastic night together.

But to her therapist, Ellen reveals the truth. She didn't sleep with Richard. She couldn't go through with it. Deep down inside, she wanted to be with someone that she really clicked with. And that person happened to be Susan.

So when Ellen gets a message from Richard, saying that he is being forced to leave Los Angeles ahead of schedule, Ellen rushes to the airport. But not to see Richard. Rather, she wants to try and get a hold of Susan before she leaves with Richard. It is here that she finally admits the truth once and for all.



Okay, so maybe it wasn't the most ideal way for Ellen to reveal such personal information. But that wasn't what mattered. The truth was finally out. And Ellen had felt much better for admitting it once and for all.

The rest of the plot involves Ellen coming to terms with who she is now, and what was next for her. She had to tell her friends that she was gay, though for the record, all of them were accepting of it with exception of Paige who was hesitant to accept it. This didn't last long though, and by season five, even she had come to terms with it. She also had to deal with her feelings for Susan, and what the future might hold for both of them. Although the ending for the two women wasn't a happy one, Ellen still felt good about her decision to finally admit that she was gay once and for all.

In a case of life imitating art, Ellen DeGeneres was feeling good about her decision as well.

And why shouldn't she? Let's forget about the fact that The Puppy Episode was the highest rated episode of the season, as well as the whole series. An estimated 42 million people tuned in to watch The Puppy Episode (and I'll admit to being one of those who watched the episode when it first aired as well). The episode ended up winning a Peabody Award, and Ellen herself won a GLAAD (The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) award in 1998. The Puppy Episode was seen as paving the way for television shows such as 'Will & Grace', 'The L Word', and 'Ugly Betty' (all shows having at least one character who is openly gay or lesbian), and many people believe that this episode was pivotal for reducing the social prejudice against people who are in the LGBT community.

Sadly, for all the positives that this program had to offer, there were some negative media associated with this episode. Although Ellen was renewed for a fifth (and final season) in 1997, ABC began prefacing each episode of Ellen with a 'Parental Advisory' warning, a move which Ellen herself strongly criticized. Jerry Falwell referred to Ellen DeGeneres as the rather cruel and uncouth nickname of Ellen 'DeGenerate', but Ellen took the insults in stride, saying this about the remarks, “I've been getting that (name) since the fourth grade. I guess I'm happy I could give him work”.

Some conservative groups took great steps to try and boycott 'The Puppy Episode'. An ABC affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama, for instance, said that the episode was an attack against 'family values', and they lobbied to have ABC show the episode in the late night slot as opposed to the prime time slot it usually aired in. When ABC refused to budge, the affiliate refused to air the episode at all. This decision did not stop a LGBT organization based in Birmingham from arranging a satellite feed of the episode, and hosting a viewing party of the episode. Five thousand people showed up to the event in Birmingham the night the show aired.

Something similar was attempted in Abilene, Texas, where a group of people protested the affiliate airing The Puppy Episode, but the network went ahead with broadcasting the show anyway.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of the fallout after The Puppy Episode aired on television was the fact that after it aired, Ellen's show only lasted one more season. After the episode aired, people accused Ellen of being 'too gay', with every episode featuring Ellen looking for a romantic partner, or learning more about the LGBT community. After the initial buzz of The Puppy Episode, ratings took a nosedive, and the show was finally cancelled in May 1998.

Ellen's career seemed to stall after her show was cancelled, largely because of the criticism she still faced from right-wing and religious groups for having come out. Even guest star Laura Dern was blacklisted in a way, telling Ellen in an interview on her talk show that she didn't work for a year and a half after appearing on that episode. Nevertheless, Laura Dern also admitted that she was grateful for the opportunity of even being a part of that episode.

And after rewatching the episode on video-sharing sites, I have to say that the episode was a fantastic one to watch. I was barely sixteen years old when that episode first aired, and I found it quite funny. Yes, one might argue that The Puppy Episode could be held in the same regard as the tired old television cliché of 'very special episode'. But I think it was a brilliant episode myself. I know that there was talk of boycotts and lots of negative attention flying towards Ellen DeGeneres at the time, but I didn't feel that any of it was warranted. In fact, I was quite proud of Ellen for having the courage to look inside herself, accept that she was who she was, and OWN it.

The whole episode may have been a political maelstrom in the making, but the end result was something quite beautiful. The episode wasn't overly campy (well, aside from the grocery store dream sequence), and had some rather witty moments. It was even ranked at #46 on TV Guide's list of 'Top 100 Episodes Of All Time'.

Most importantly, I think the episode was trying to get the point across that whether a person is straight, gay, or bisexual, they are still people, and they are still worthy of getting respect and love. Ellen's friends and family accepted her regardless, and in the end, Ellen's life (on the sitcom at least) didn't really change all that much as a result of her coming out. Ellen even said this about the episode.

I think people sensed the honesty in it. I think it helped a lot of people, and to this day I hear about parents and children being able to have an honest conversation through watching that show. That's ultimately what television can be. It can get conversations started.”

Bravo, Ellen. You could not have said it better yourself.



It has been almost fifteen years since that episode aired on television. Since then, Ellen tried once more to get a sitcom up and running with 'The Ellen Show' in 2001, but the sitcom didn't last. On September 8, 2003, The Ellen DeGeneres talk show debuted, and has been on the air ever since. So Ellen has rebounded quite nicely, and is now thriving in her career.

And Ellen has become a real role model to the LGBT community by supporting such organizations as 'The Trevor Project' and filming promos for the 'It Gets Better' campaign against the bullying of LGBT teenagers in schools.


And although Ellen Morgan never did find real lasting love on her sitcom, Ellen DeGeneres managed to find love with former Ally McBeal actress Portia de Rossi. During the time when gay marriage was legal in California (before the passing of Proposition 8 in November 2008), Ellen and Portia got married on August 16, 2008, and have remained together ever since.

The Puppy Episode was one of those episodes that whether you loved it or were against it, still went ahead as planned. Ellen DeGeneres would not have wanted it any other way. It was of great importance to her that this episode came forward so that it could help people come to terms with who they were, be it gay, straight, bisexual, or transgendered. The episode showed people that they didn't have to be afraid of who they were. They could embrace who they were, and own it just like Ellen Morgan did on the episode (and the way Ellen DeGeneres did it in real life).

If anything, The Puppy Episode was a risky episode to air at the time, but Ellen DeGeneres thought the risk was worth it. In the end, not only was it a rather enjoyable episode to watch, but it also showcased the bravery and the passion that Ellen DeGeneres had for the episode. She was very proud of the way the episode came together, and even years after it aired, it remains probably one of the best things that Ellen DeGeneres has ever filmed, if not the most personal.

I know that I respect Ellen DeGeneres immensely because of it. She stood up to the critics and the bullies, told them all who she was and made absolutely no apologies about it because there really was nothing for her to apologize for.

If only everyone in the world could feel as secure and as confident about themselves as Ellen DeGeneres does, I have to think that the world would become a lot better of a place.

The Puppy Episode was a fine first step for a lot of people. I just hope Ellen DeGeneres knows just how many people she helped along the way by filming it. She probably helped a lot of gay and lesbian people come to terms with who they were. But in addition, I think the episode taught people of the straight community some lessons as well.  I know she taught me that no matter who tries to bring you down, as long as you stay true to who you are on the inside, it doesn't matter what other people think.

And that is one lesson that for me personally is worth its weight in gold.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Thursday Night At The Arcade: Deja Vu

In all of my thirty years of living, I have not yet encountered anybody who has been afflicted with the condition known as amnesia.

Or if I have, I clearly don't remember...

When most people hear about amnesia, they automatically think that it's a condition that people on soap operas get, or that it's a medical condition that seems so farfetched that it can't possibly be gotten in real life.

But it can.

Amnesia can come in two recognized forms. There is anterograde amnesia, which is short-term memory loss, and retrograde amnesia, which is the condition that causes people to forget people, places, events, etc.



It's also the name of a forgotten song by Chumbawamba.

There's many ways that a person can be afflicted with amnesia as well. Drugs and alcohol consumption is one way that it could be inflicted (mostly the anterograde variety). Look at all the people who have blacked out after too much booze. It happens all the time.

There is also the science of repressed memories, where a memory might prove to be so traumatic for someone that they forget it even happened. Childhood amnesia is the inability to recall certain events from a person's childhood. Source amnesia occurs when a person can remember a specific piece of information, but is unable to remember where they got the information from in the first place. And lacunar amnesia is the inability to recall a specific event that happened to them in their lives.

Truth be told, almost all of us have been afflicted with some form of amnesia in some point of our lives, and we might not even realize it. In most cases though, this proves to be a mild inconvenience and doesn't affect our lives at all.



But what happens if you end up, say, waking up in a bathroom stall with a head wound and a gun in your pocket? And say you happen to exit said bathroom with a dead body on the second floor and your fingerprints are all over the gun in your pocket.

And you can't remember a thing.

Getting amnesia via a head wound is a definite possibility. It's a condition known as post-traumatic amnesia, and depending on the severity of the blunt force trauma one receives, the memory loss can last from a few hours to having it be permanent.

In the video game that I plan on spotlighting in today's trip to the arcade, we try to help one person suffering from post-traumatic amnesia get his memory (and in the process, his life) back.

In fact, I'll even provide the link to the online version of the game so you can play the game yourself, if you like. Don't you just love Internet technology?


Okay, so now that you have the game in your browser if you've chosen to play it, we can go on.



Right off the bat, you can tell from the title that the game would have something to do with memory, as the phrase 'deja vu' is French for 'already seen'. It's a term that is used to describe the feeling one gets when they cannot remember where they've seen or did something before, but can remember seeing or doing it. In this game, our main character will experience this more times than you could even count.

Picture it. The year is 1941. December 1941 to be exact. It was the month that Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was the month that the first appearance of Archie Andrews graced the pages of Pep Comics #22. It's also the month where the game is set.

And the above situation I described about waking up in a bathroom stall with a head injury and a gun in your pocket? That's the opening scene of the game.



Your name is Theodore 'Ace' Harding...but you don't know that. In fact, you don't know anything about who you are, how you got there, or why you are here in the first place. And as you progress through the game, you do encounter a dead body upstairs, and all evidence points towards YOU as being the guy's killer.

And you have absolutely no idea what the truth is.

So there's your mission. You have to figure out who you are. Then you have to figure out whether you really killed the man upstairs or not. And then you have to find a way to clear your name. But the road to finding the truth is not going to be an easy one. With muggers desperate to steal your money, women hiding handguns in purses, and stumbling onto a kidnapping plot, your search for the truth could cost you dear.

As it so happened, there are several possible endings that can come from this game. You obviously want the best one possible, which is to remember who you are, and clear your name in the process. But one false move, and you could end up sleeping with the fish.



The game Deja Vu first appeared on Macintosh computer systems in 1985, and was ported to several consoles over the next few years, including the Famicon in 1988, the NES in 1990, and the Game Boy Color a few years after that.
The game is your basic point and click venture. You move from screen to screen to search for clues, find the truth behind your unfortunate circumstance, and make your way through the dangerous streets of Chicago. All you have to do is move your arrow cursor to the command you want to do and click on it. If you want to open a door, you click on open and then click on the door. If you want to use some capsules that you found on yourself (because apparently ingesting foreign substances is encouraged in this game), just click on the self button after you click on the capsules in your inventory.

And if you decide to actually punch someone in the face in your travels, you can just click on that hit button, and they'll go down like an inflatable clown doll.

(And, I'll let you know that there are two people in the game that you will have to punch out. One repeatedly. Doesn't that sound like fun?)



But as I said, you really want to make your way through the game as carefully as possible, because one false move can make you lose more than your memory. You can also lose your life. Or get arrested. Neither choice sounds appealing, really.

Therefore, it's important that you keep a close eye on the clues you locate, and that you end up keeping only the ones that will prove your innocence. For if you go to the police with even one piece of incriminating evidence against you, then it is an automatic game over.

Fear not. There are dozens of clues available in the game that will help you remember who you are, as well as the reason why you are in this position in the first place. This is why it becomes so important to look at EVERYTHING in the area that you are in. Filing cabinets, desks, portraits on the walls, even something as simple as a garbage can will help you out. Maybe you'll see yourself in a photo, or maybe you'll find a key that will unlock a door, or maybe you can get an address to a place that you need to go.

(Just make sure you have the loose change to pay a taxi cab before you hail one, or else you could end up on a one-way ticket to jail as a result. You have been warned.)

In all honesty, I really get hooked on games like this one because you never know where you will find your next clue or where the game will take you. You could end up at your own office where you come across an intruder. You may end up looking in the trunk of your car and finding a surprise inside. You may even find yourself in an underground sewer where if you avoid any nasty creatures that live down there, you may find that illegal gambling runs rampant in Chicago!

Okay, enough spoilers. If you read this blog carefully, I've given you some tips as to how to get through the game, should you wish to play it. Just remember a few things. Twenty dollars is expensive in 1941, so you may want to try and protect your wallet from gun-wielding thugs. You may want to find a way to read about popular medicines before attempting to swallow them. You may also want to ditch that gun in your pocket somewhere where people won't be able to find them. I hear that black cars in Chicago have been recalled for faulty ignition switches, so you best not try to start one up. And never...NEVER...take a right turn near the police station. Trust me on that one.

Why? Well...I can't remember. Sorry. You just have to take my word for it.

If you survive, you might even get a chance to play the sequel...