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Sunday, October 02, 2011

Sunday Jukebox: Eternal Flame by the Bangles



I have always been fascinated by flames. And no, I don't mean that in the sense that I love starting fires, because I am definitely not that kind of guy.

I mean I've always been drawn to places that have the nice warm, comforting glow of a flame nearby. Whether it be lit candles, a warm fireplace or a bonfire, there's just something so cozy, warm, and I suppose even romantic about getting close to that beautiful orange glow.

Well, as close as one can get without setting their clothes ablaze and making you practice the stop, drop, and roll lesson you learned all about in elementary school from the firemen who visited the school during safety assemblies.

The point I'm trying to make is that under the right conditions and circumstances, a single flame can be quite comforting to watch and behold. In some cases, it can bring back memories of a former person, or remember a tragic event, and having the flame there can bring some peace of mind to those who gaze upon it.

Have you ever heard of something called an 'eternal flame'? It's a flame that is lit that burns day and night for an indefinite period of time. It's origins are both cultural and religious in nature. It is a religious aspect of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem where the Menorah would burn continually. The practice began when Moses oversaw the construction of the original menorah for the Israeli Tabernacle. The concept was also assimilated from Persian religions Zoroastrianism and later used into other Abrahamic religions as well.

During the earliest years that eternal flames came into existence, they were fueled by wood or olive oil, but in recent years, propane or natural gas is used. Some eternal flames exist in nature as well.

The reason for eternal flames are largely for memorial purposes...either to remember a historical event with major significance, or to honour a public figure who passed away.

There are several eternal flames that are currently lit all over the world, all for various reasons. Some of the more famous ones include...

  • One lit in memory of John F. Kennedy, lit on November 25, 1963 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis on the day of his funeral at Arlington National Cemetery.
  • Several eternal flames are lit in various locations in memory of those lost on September 11, 2001. These locations include New York, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and Honolulu, Hawaii.
  • One lit in memory of Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia
  • One lit in memory of Elvis Presley at his gravesite in Memphis, Tennessee
  • The Centennial flame celebrating Canada's 100th birthday in 1967 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • One lit underneath the Arc du Triomphe in Paris, France in 1921 in memory of those who lost their lives in World War I.
  • One lit in Sarajevo in memory of those who lost their lives in World War II.
  • Two eternal flames are set up in Saint Petersburg, Russia in memory of those who perished in both the Bolshevik Revolution and the Siege of Leningrad.

Some other eternal flames have been lit until the day something historic happens, and once it does, the flame will be extinguished. One such example is in the city of London, Ontario, Canada, where the eternal flame is called the Flame Of Hope. The flame is lit at 442 Adelaide Street, where Sir Frederic Banting did research that lead to the discovery of human insulin. The flame will be extinguished the moment a permanent cure for diabetes is found.

And some former eternal flames have already been extinguished. When Estonia gained independence following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the eternal flame in that city went out. And in 1997, a group of students attending Oral Roberts University extinguished the eternal flame on campus as part of a prank...a prank that got them severe punishment.

So, that is your history lesson on the eternal flame. I promise I won't bore you too much with too many of these...it was just a nice little introduction to today's blog post on a different kind of 'Eternal Flame'.

An eternal flame that was 'lit' in 1988 and released as one of the first singles of 1989.



ARTIST: The Bangles
SONG: Eternal Flame
ALBUM: Everything
DATE RELEASED: January 20, 1989
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 1 week



Eternal Flame was released in early 1989, and hit the top of the charts on April Fools Day, 1989, the band's second #1 hit since 1986's 'Walk Like An Egyptian'. The song was really one of the only ballads done by all girl group The Bangles, and immediately became one of their best known hits. The group was made up of Susanna Hoffs, Debbi Peterson, Vicki Peterson, and Michael Steele.

To say that this song was a huge hit was actually kind of an understatement when you consider just how many compilation albums this song appeared in. I guarantee you that if you go to a record store, or the music section at a Walmart or Target location and browse through the 1980s compilation albums, you'll likely find 'Eternal Flame' on at least half of the albums alone. I actually have four different copies of Eternal Flame thanks to the song appearing on four different compilations that I own!

Of course, the song originally was released on The Bangles 1988 album, Everything. When Everything was released, it was released with the lead-off single, 'In Your Room', which was a decent effort. That song reached #5 on the charts in late 1988. But when it came time for the album's second song to be released, the song Eternal Flame was chosen.



The song itself was actually inspired by a couple of eternal flames, one of which I listed above. Inspired by the eternal flame at the gravesite of Elvis Presley when the Bangles visited Graceland, as well as one that was lit at a synagogue in Palm Springs visited by the writer of the song's lyrics, Billy Steinberg. Steinberg recalls Susanna Hoffs talking about the flame at Graceland which was meant to serve as a shrine to Elvis, and immediate after hearing Hoffs describe the flame as being an 'eternal flame', the memories came flooding back to Steinberg. He thought back to when he was living in Palm Springs and attending the synagogue as a child. During Sunday school classes, the teacher would take the group of children on a walk through the sanctuary where they saw a little red light inside. It was explained to the class that the red light was what they called an 'eternal flame'.

The name stuck, the song recorded and released, and it immediately became a huge hit. The sound was a big departure for the Bangles, who were previously known for having a hard, edgy sound in their previous releases. Billy Steinberg described the song as being one that sounded like what might have came to be had 'The Beatles met The Byrds'. And here's a bit of trivia for all of you regarding this song. When it was recorded, Susanna Hoffs sang the song completely in the nude!

Eternal Flame became one of the Bangles biggest hits. Sadly, it also was one of the Bangles last hits. Shortly after Eternal Flame was released, the band went its separate ways with Susanna Hoffs going on a solo career, although the band did get back together in the late 1990s, and a new album was released on September 27, 2011 entitled Sweetheart Of The Sun. And Eternal Flame has been covered by a few artists over the years, with British pop group Atomic Kitten having released their own version in the 2000s (though I personally prefer the original. Judge for yourself though).

Of course, there is more than one meaning to the phrase 'eternal flame'. I've already talked about the literal meaning of the phrase.

But what about the emotional meaning?



Listen very closely to the lyrics of the song. Obviously, Susanna Hoffs is singing about being in love with someone but somehow feels a little bit insecure in the relationship. She clearly loves him, and wants to be with him, but is unsure if he feels the same way about her. She knows that she belongs with him, but she wants to know if he feels the same.

Is she only dreaming, or is their relationship burning an eternal flame?

She mentions in the bridge of the song that whenever he says her name, the sun shines through the rain, and her pain is eased. She no longer feels lonely whenever he's near her, and she loves the feeling of that so much that she doesn't want to lose it.

Which I guess could explain the questioning that she has throughout the song.

And you know, I do understand this. Despite the fact that my romantic history hasn't really been all that memorable (not that you needed to know that per se, just bringing it up because it ties into the conversation), I can see where she's coming from. Sometimes if a person hasn't been on the dating scene for a while, or has been through one loser after another, they may feel as though they are doomed to a life of celebacy, or at the very least, loneliness. I guess the reason why I feel the singer may be questioning the validity of the 'eternal flame' burning inside both of them may be because it really has been the first time she's ever experienced such feelings, and with one false move, that flame could be extinguished faster than those students at Oral Roberts University did with their own flame.

I don't think there's any of us out there who are necessarily 100 per cent secure with their feelings when they first enter a relationship. Those feelings grow over time as they do in any sort of relationship. In many ways, it's up to the people themselves to keep those home fires burning, and it is up to them to keep their flame eternally burning.

Kind of like real life eternal flames. In order to keep them burning, it takes effort, hard work, and maybe even a little bit of luck to keep the winds of change, the bitter coldness...and even a few hooligans away!



Saturday, October 01, 2011

Saturday Morning - Pee-wee's Playhouse

Hello, everybody, and welcome to October!

Can you believe that 2012 is just a little over 90 days away from now? It's absolutely crazy how fast 2011 has flown by. Of course, as I pick and choose topics to talk about in this blog each day, it almost amazes me just how much time really has passed. It seems hard to believe that it was twenty-five years ago on a Saturday morning where I would run downstairs in my pajamas, grab a bowl of whatever sugar-loaded cereal happened to be in the pantry at the time (usually Corn Pops or Cap'n Crunch at my household), and just stare at the television watching cartoons.

The show that I'm featuring in today's blog entry debuted on September 13, 1986. I was only five years old then. Just even looking at that date and realizing that I was old enough to remember watching the first episode of the show makes me feel old. Really old.

Wow. You know, just re-reading that last paragraph, I have used the word old quite a bit. You know what? Just for today, I'm going to make the word old the secret word of the day.

Why have I done this? I'll explain it later. For now, let's take a look at the opening theme of today's blog subject.



Today we're going to take a look at the cult classic Pee-wee's Playhouse, which ran from 1986-1991 on the CBS Saturday morning line-up.



The star of the show obviously needs no introduction as I'm sure anybody who is roughly my age probably knows who he is. Pee-wee Herman (a.k.a. Paul Reubens) could be best described as an overgrown man-child who has a playhouse filled with gadgets and friends and furniture that comes to life. Yet the kids loved him and his show. I can actually remember watching the show as a youngster trying to write a letter to Pee-wee asking him if I could come and see the playhouse close-up in between heaping spoonfuls of Corn Pops.

Of course, the letters never did get mailed, and I never did get to see the playhouse close up, but man, oh, man it was cool.



The whole house looked almost like the entire decade of the 1980s threw up all over it...but in a fantastic way! Bright colours, goofy gadgets, claymation segments...it was basically an visual acid trip for people who grew up in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

It was so engrossing and so eye-catching that you really could not look away.



Pee-wee's Playhouse was a huge hit for CBS, and millions of kids tuned in each Saturday morning to watch Pee-Wee interacting his friends, both human (such as Miss Yvonne and Captain Carl) and non-human (such as Pterri and Chairy). But, did you know that the concept for Pee-wee's Playhouse actually kicked off six years before the debut of the show? And that when it first kicked off, it wasn't exactly suitable for minors?

The year was 1980. That year, Paul Reubens had tried out to become a cast member for the NBC late night show Saturday Night Live. As many of you who watched Saturday Night Live know, 1980 was a year filled with changes. It was the first year that Lorne Michaels stepped down as producer, and it was also the year that many longstanding cast members left the show due to a myriad of reasons. As a result, the show was forced to find all new cast members to replace the ones who had left the series, and Reubens was one of twenty-two finalists to be chosen as a regular cast member. Unfortunately for Reubens, he lost to Gilbert Gottfried, and Reubens was ready to give up on the dream of having a career in the entertainment industry.

But then he came up with an idea to start up a stage show using a character that he created back in 1977. A character that had a cameo in a Cheech & Chong movie.

The character? Pee-wee Herman.

So, with $3,000 cash (funded by his parents), as well as a work force of sixty people (one of which was the late Phil Hartman who like Reubens was a member of the improv group The Groundlings), he created The Pee-wee Herman Show, for the cable channel HBO for the 1980/1981 television season.



There really wasn't a whole lot of difference between the Pee-wee Herman Show and Pee-wee's Playhouse. They both took place inside a giant playhouse. Pee-wee entertained guests by showing old...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!

Oh...erm...sorry about that.

Anyways, the show showed cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s (as those were the cartoons that Reubens himself grew up with), and had a lot of the same characters in both shows. But as I said earlier, the 1980 version was a lot more adult oriented. For example, Pee-wee would often get pen pals from prison in the 'Pen Pals Around The World' segment. Yeah, I can see that not working on a kids show, can you? And in some instances there were segments where Pee-wee conducts a puppet show where a puppet hypnotizes a female audience member to undress.

Needless to say, the CBS version was a lot tamer in nature.

Whatever the case was, Pee-wee's Playhouse was a program that attracted a lot of attention, and quite a few celebrities either appeared on the program or got their start on the program.



Did you know that before Laurence Fishburne made a name for himself as a well-known film and television actor that he was the original 'Cowboy Curtis'? And before S. Epatha Merkerson achieved fame on the television drama Law & Order, she played Reba the mail lady? Of course, everyone knows that Phil Hartman (Captain Carl) made a name for himself on Saturday Night Live, Newsradio, and The Simpsons before his tragic death in 1998. And Rob Zombie actually worked on the show as a production assistant before embarking on a recording career.


And when Pee-wee's Playhouse aired a Christmas special during its third season run, lots of stars signed on for a cameo role. Stars such as Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Charo, Whoopi Goldberg, and Zsa Zsa Gabor made guest appearances on the show, which added to the success of the program.

The show was very successful with children, but a lot of adults watched the show as well, based on the retro feel of the show, and because of the classic cartoons that the King Of Cartoons would bring with him each episode.

Another part of the charm that Pee-wee's Playhouse had were the various collection of running gags that the show would have. Probably the one that most everyone remembers is the one that involves the secret word of the day. Usually within the first three minutes of each episode, Conky the Robot would print out the secret word of the day. Pee-wee would show the audience the word, and if any character on the show said the word, then everyone (including presumably the television audience) would have to scream really loud. Because the words were different each episode, the gag never got old.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Oh, yeah, that's right...I had forgotten that the secret word for today's blog was old.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

Of course, that was just one of the many gags that was present in the show's five year run. Another gag involved the character known as Magic Screen. Pee-wee would hop into the screen through a portal, take out a bunch of dots from his pockets, throw them up into the air and sing the Connect The Dots song. Here's an example of this below.



Other running gags involved the pen pals sketch that Pee-wee acted in the original HBO show (with Globey the globe pointing out the locations to teach kids about geography), the refrigerator where claymation animation was used to make the food in Pee-wee's fridge come to life, and the 'Marry It' joke, where whenever someone admitted that they loved something, Pee-wee would retort 'if you love it so much, why don't you marry it?'

The joke backfired though in one episode, which saw us witness the marriage of Pee-wee to a bowl of fruit salad.

The show was quite a spectacle to be had, and upon its debut in 1986 attracted mostly positive responses from media sources and television viewers. Most praised the show's postmodernistic tendencies and wide array of characterization by representing all kinds of people from all walks of life. During the whole run of the series, the show won fifteen Emmy awards. Bob Keeshan (who most know as Captain Kangaroo) had nothing but praise for the show, citing its 'awesome production values' and creativity.

So, why did the show end in 1991 after five seasons?



I'm sure most of you will probably remember the incident that happened back in July of 1991. For those of you who don't, or were too young to understand what had happened, here's the basic info. Paul Reubens was arrested in Florida for allegedly committing lewd acts inside of an adult movie theater. This incident caused CBS to pull the show off of the airwaves, but I want to make clear that by this time, Pee-wee's Playhouse was on hiatus anyways. His arrest had nothing to do with the show stopping production, as the last original episode had aired eight months prior to the arrest, on November 10, 1990.

Still, with the news of Paul's arrest being front page news in the summer of 1991, it proved to be quite damaging to his career. While hardly his first brush with the law (he was arrested twice in his lifetime when he was younger), the fact that it had been made so public definitely caused Paul Reubens' career to stall. With the television show being pulled off the air, many other companies followed suit in removing Pee-wee Herman memorabilia from their stores and projects. A home video that showcased Pee-wee talking about how voiceovers were made was suspended, and Toys R Us pulled all Pee-wee Herman merchandise from its store shelves.

Paul Reubens attempted to try and clear his name, and issued a statement proclaiming his innocence, but by then, the media was so engrossed in the scandal that his pleas went ignored. Eventually, Paul made a plea of no contest while maintaining his innocence to avoid what would have likely been a highly publicized trial. The charges were not listed on his record, but he did have to perform seventy-five hours of community service, including filming a public service announcement that he would write, produce, and finance. I believe this is the very ad that he in fact did as part of his community service.


Although the publicity surrounding Paul's arrest was decidedly negative, he did have quite a few supporters in his corner. His Pee-wee's Playhouse co-star, S. Epatha Merkerson, and several crew members spoke out on his behalf and criticized the media for treating Reubens like a monster. Other people who spoke out defending Reubens included many of the people who starred in the Christmas special, like Annette Funicello and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Cyndi Lauper (who sang the theme song for the show, albeit under a different name) also defended Reubens, as did Bill Cosby, who believed that the story was being blown way out of proportion. Many people took to the streets of major cities, protesting the arrest, and many polls at the time supported Reubens. However, the shock of the arrest and surrounding media coverage really affected Reubens, and he refused to give any more interviews or make talk show appearances for several years after the fact.

At this point in time, I don't know whether Reubens was guilty of what he allegedly did in that movie theater twenty years ago. So much time has passed now that I honestly don't care whether he did do it or not. I really don't want to make this blog one that accuses him or clears him either way, as everyone has their own opinions about the case. Certainly his 2002 arrest for possession of pornography got tongues wagging, but when the allegations were that he was in possession of child pornography, he immediately went on the offense, stating that he would never support that. Eventually, the child pornography charges were dropped, although he still had to register his address with the sheriff's office for the next three years.

It's really all a matter of perspective really. I mean, keep in mind that when the arrest occurred, I had just turned ten, and wasn't really at the age where I even knew what Paul Reubens was being charged with. My perspective might be different than that of say, someone who was thirty years old...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!

...at the time, or someone who had a child that watched the show. The only one who really knows the truth about what happened is Reubens himself, so it's not really my business to judge him at all. I do have my own thoughts about what really happened on that fateful day in 1991, but this isn't the place to talk about it.  Though just to put it out there, it is telling just how many of his work colleagues went to bat for him, and who continue to work with him even today despite the allegations.  Just a little food for thought there.

Anyways, I want this blog to have as much positivity as possible, and in the case of Paul Reubens, he certainly found a way to make lemonade out of the lemons that were dealt to him. By 1992, he had taken bit parts in feature films such as Batman Returns and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and in 1995, he received his one and only non Pee-wee Emmy nomination for his guest role on the sitcom Murphy Brown. His role proved to be such a hit that he appeared on the show for six guest appearances in total, the last one being in 1997. He also earned critical acclaim for his role in the movie Blow.

In 2009, he revived The Pee-wee Herman show as a Broadway stage show, and had hosted performances in various cities all over the United States between 2009 and 2011. He guest starred on Saturday Night Live as Pee-Wee on January 15, 2011, and he has talked about wanting to bring Pee-wee Herman back to the big screen. If successful, it would be the first motion picture made since 1988's Big Top Pee-wee.

There does seem to be a resurgence of people who are rediscovering the program. A retrospective book entitled Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Untold, Unauthorized, and Unpredictable Story of a Pop Phenomenon is slated for release on November 1, 2011, and with the success of the Broadway show, it appears as though Reubens has moved on from the scandal, which has since become old...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

...news.

Regardless of what his personal life was like back then, you can't deny that Pee-wee's Playhouse was the pinnacle of 1980s entertainment for children, and that it remains one of the most creative and outstanding shows of the entire decade. Paul Reubens actually said this about the show in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

I'm just trying to illustrate that it's okay to be different – not that it's good, not that it's bad, but that it's all right. I'm trying to tell kids to have a good time and to encourage them to be creative and to question things'.

Well said, Mr. Reubens.


Friday, September 30, 2011

TGIF - Gimme A Break!

It's hard to believe that we are at the end of September already, isn't it? Only a few weeks ago, the hot sun was shining down and people were at the beach sucking back ice cold sodas and walking around in bathing suits. Now as I look outside my window, the leaves on the trees are changing colour, and the temperature is dropping one degree at a time. It's funny how time flies.

I think that is mainly why I started up this blog, and why I chose to make the main subject on pop culture. Pop culture trends are always constantly changing and it's hard to keep up with what is in and what is out. By talking about the trends of the past, present, and future, I want to open this blog up to a wider audience, and I hope that most of you can see that I'm trying to open this blog up more to talk about shows, movies, and songs from all eras. As we approach October and Halloween, I have some spooky entries coming up from all different eras, and it is my hope that you will all take something from at least one of the October entries.

But before we get into October, we have to wrap up September.

Have you ever had days where you feel as though everybody and everyone is on your case at every turn? Days where you feel as though you have a hundred and twenty different things to do and only twenty-four hours a day to get them all done? Days where you are so stressed out that you aren't sure of what to do next?

Days where you just want to cry out 'GIMME A BREAK!!!'

I'm sure we all have had those days. I know there are instances in which I have had lots of days where I wish that people would have given me a well-deserved break. We all have them.



Certainly in the NBC sitcom Gimme A Break (which ran from 1981-1987), Nellie Ruth Harper (played by the late Nell Carter) definitely had moments in which she wanted a break. With good reason too. If you had to move into the Kanisky household as the housekeeper to a police chief and his three teenage daughters, it would probably make you a little bit crazy as well. I know it certainly would me if I were in that situation.



The thing is that Nell genuinely enjoyed taking care of the chief and his girls. And the reason Nell took on the job as housekeeper was as a favour to the chief's late wife, Margaret. Margaret and Nell were friends during the time that she was alive, and before she died, she made Nell promise to look after her husband and their children. Nell said that she would, and when Margaret passed away, Nell moved into the family household in Glenlawn, California.

Gimme A Break managed to attract a few celebrity guests during its six season run. Notable celebrities that appeared on the program included Pat Sajak, Whitney Houston, Ray Parker Jr, Andy Gibb, and Sammy Davis Jr, amongst others. And while the show never managed to get past the top thirty in the Neilsen ratings, the show still garnered enough interest from viewers to stay on the air.



Over the years, more cast members would come and go, and by the end of the series, Nell Carter was the only cast member to last the entire run of the series. Other cast members over the years included Telma Hopkins, Rosetta LeNoire, John Hoyt, Rosie O'Donnell, Jonathan Silverman, and Joey and Matthew Lawrence. So, as you can see, Gimme A Break really ended up being the big breakout show for many of these stars, in particular with O'Donnell, Silverman, and the Lawrence brothers.



Gimme A Break also had some behind the scenes drama associated with it as well. It was widely reported that upon Rosie O'Donnell joining the cast of the show in its final season that O'Donnell and Carter did not get along. According to O'Donnell, Nell wasn't overly friendly with her, and rather than call her by her real name, called her 'Maggie', which was the name of the character she played on the show. In Carter's defense, she claimed to have had done this with all the actors who were on the show as a way to help Joey and Matthew Lawrence (who at the time were ten and six) focus on their lines and give better performances. O'Donnell later told an interviewer that while initially excited to be a part of a big named show like Gimme A Break, she soon grew disappointed, as she felt snubbed by most of the cast that was there.

There was also some controversy at the beginning of the show's run when reports of the stormy, friction-filled relationship between Nell Carter and the original producers of the show came to light. The show's original producers (Coleman Mitchell and Geoffrey Neigher) clashed with Carter over creative differences and personality conflicts. Things had gotten so strained that by the beginning of the third season, Mitchell and Neigher were dismissed from the show as a result of this. For the next few months, Mort Lachman (who had co-created the sitcom) served as co-producer until the team of Rod Parker and Hal Cooper were brought in to serve as producers for the rest of the show's run. This was a team that Carter firmly stood behind, and because she and the team of Parker and Cooper saw eye to eye more often than she had with the previous team, it helped Nell reach the decision to stay on with the series.

Now that you know a little bit about the history of the program, let's meet the characters of Gimme A Break (or at least the ones that were heavily featured).



Clearly, Nell Carter was the star of the show, having been the only character to stay on the show's full six season run. Her character Nell Harper was an interesting sort of character in itself. Born in the state of Alabama, Nell had aspirations of becoming a singer. She ran away from home at eighteen to pursue her dream, and it is on that pursuit that she meets Margaret Kanisky. In the episode 'Flashback', it is shown that Nell meets Margaret in 1974, after Margaret catches her act. It is explained that Nell ends up quitting a job because her boss tries to hit on her, and feeling sympathy for the woman, Margaret takes her into her home to meet the family. Of course, once Nell meets Margaret's husband, Carl, there is an immediate dislike between Carl and Nell, and after a few days, grows sick of Nell being there, as she doesn't have a job. Eventually, Nell ends up getting a job in Bakersfield, California but before she can go, Margaret reveals to Nell that she is dying of cancer, and asks Nell if she would stay behind to look after Carl and the girls. Margaret feels terrible for even asking Nell of this request, but knows that Nell would take good care of her family. Nell eventually honours Margaret's last request, and the rest is history.

Nell is best described as being a sassy, sarcastic, sharp-tongued woman when the need arises, and usually saves some of her best comebacks and barbs towards Carl. She is also a kind, gentle, loving woman though who would do anything to help Carl and Margaret's daughters get through boy troubles, school troubles, medical emergencies, and much more. In 1983, Nell became a foster mother to Joey Donovan, and in 1986, Joey's brother Matthew would become Nell's second foster child. So clearly, Nell's maternal instincts kicked in, even though Nell herself never had children of her own.

One of the running gags of Gimme A Break was Nell's attempts to lose weight. A heavier woman, Carl would often make jokes about Nell's size at Nell's expense, but to Nell's credit, she often gave it as good as he could give it. In some early episodes, Nell became a member of a weight-loss group called PORKO'S, and while she had some success and some failures along the way, Nell never let what other people said about her get to her. She actually had one of the best self-images and self-perception out of all the cast members of the show, which was pretty cool to see upon retrospect.



It is here that we meet our next cast member. Carl Kanisky, portrayed by Dolph Sweet. One thing you could say about Carl Kanisky is that he had a tough, no-nonsense exterior. This worked fine for the police station, where he was employed as a police chief. It didn't exactly work well for the home, especially one with three teenage daughters. One might say that Carl Kanisky was a little bit too rough with his daughters when it came to disciplining them. When his daughter Katie was caught shoplifting in the pilot episode and she sassed him back, he slapped her in the face. When Julie took up smoking and Carl found out, he slapped her. As for Samantha, I don't think he ever slapped her, but he certainly threatened to spank his girls a few times, such as in this clip from the first season of the show.



The only thing I can say was that it was the early 1980s and back in those days, television programs could get away with airing things that they probably couldn't get away with now thanks to political correctness.

But even though Carl had a tough exterior, he was often soft on the inside. He immediately felt terrible after punishing his daughters, and although he never really showed much affection towards Nell, he really did appreciate having her there deep down. Although it takes him some time to accept, he welcomes Joey into the Kanisky family with open arms.

Sadly, Dolph Sweet was diagnosed with cancer during the fourth season of Gimme A Break. Despite the fact that the cancer was wreaking havoc on his body, Dolph wanted to work as much as possible to get his mind off of the treatments that he was experiencing. He passed away on May 8, 1985, just three days before his final Gimme A Break episode aired. At the beginning of season five, the first episode addressed Dolph's death by killing off the character of Carl Kanisky, setting the stage for the revamping of the whole series just one year later.

The Kanisky kids were all different in personalities and character traits, but they all loved Nell, and in many ways were all the apples of their father's eyes. All three of them were mostly gone by the show's final season, but they made an impression on the seasons they were on.



We'll start with Kathleen Kanisky (Kari Michaelsen), who went by Katie. Katie's first appearance on the show wasn't all that great, as she had been caught shoplifting. Katie was the eldest of the three Kanisky girls, but she wasn't exactly the brightest penny in the fountain. She did enough work at school to get by, and she seemed more concerned with how she looked, rather than making a difference in the world. She opted not to go to college and opened up a boutique called 'Katie's Korner'. When the boutique closed up shop, Katie took a job in San Francisco and left the series in 1986.



Next comes Julie Kanisky (Lauri Hendler), who could be considered the polar opposite of Katie. Where Katie took great time and effort in making herself look beautful, Julie was content with her plain Jane bookish appearance. Where Katie wasn't all that interested in schoolwork, Julie was very intelligent and got really good grades. Where Katie was a hit with the boys, Julie sometimes struggled to get a date, and well, you get the idea. Therefore, it's interesting to note that Julie was the first of the Kanisky girls to get married, and have a child (whom she named Nell). Julie also left the series in 1986.



The youngest Kanisky daughter was Samantha (who liked to be called Sam). Sam (Lara Jill Miller) started off on the series as a tomboy type who loved playing sports and doing all the things that boys liked to do. As she matured, she grew into becoming a boy-crazy teenager. She was the only Kanisky daughter to stay on during season six, albeit in a recurring role rather than contract.

Samantha was involved in some of the most controversial storylines that Gimme A Break had ever done. One particular episode that starred Samantha dealt with the subject of race. It was an episode that was so shocking that it ranked #38 on TV Land's 100 Most Unexpected Moments list. The episode in question was one titled 'Baby Of The Family' which aired in December 1984. In the episode, Samantha is incredibly angry with Nell because she wouldn't let her go on an unchaperoned camping trip where boys would be present, and also because she feels that Nell favours Joey more than her. So when Joey is asked by Nell's church to sing in front of the congregation, Samantha decides to get even by tricking Joey into painting his face black for the concert. When Joey performs for the church with the face paint on, everyone is offended, and when Nell finds out the reason, the showdown between Nell and Samantha is not to be missed. In fact, you can view the episode by clicking here and here to see what I mean.

I should warn you though...the episode does contain a rather direct racial slur.  The only reason I posted the video is because the word is uttered to prove a point in the episode, but I figure that you should know that it is present before you click on the links in question.  You have been warned.  Again, let's just say that television (especially sitcoms) could get away with more back in the 1980s than it can nowadays.



Finally, we can't really end this note off without talking about the foster children that Nell took on responsibility for. Joey Donovan (Joey Lawrence) initially came onto the show as a seven year old boy con artist (who was raising money to see his uncle in Chicago). Nell decided to take Joey on as a foster child, and Joey ends up becoming an honorary member of the Kanisky family. There are some moments in which Nell is forced to say goodbye to Joey (especially when his father comes by with his little brother Matthew to take him back). But when Joey and Matthew's father admits that he cannot handle taking care of the two boys, Nell becomes their legal guardian, and the two boys stay with Nell when Nell relocates to New York during season six.

There are several life lessons that we can learn from Gimme A Break.

We have learned that sometimes keeping a promise to a friend can be quite rewarding in the long run.

We have learned that sometimes if your heart is big enough, you can really become a good influence to someone you never thought you would (as in the case with Nell being there for Matthew and Joey).

We have learned that sometimes the brainy girls CAN get everything they want.

Most importantly, I think the one lesson that Gimme A Break can teach us is that it doesn't matter what colour your skin is, or what size you are, or what economic background you have, or whether you have two different coloured eyes. Nell Harper showed that she had love for everybody. She may not have always shown it in the most gentle or appropriate ways (which could also be said for Chief Kanisky), but it was there. And, really, as long as you have love, isn't that the most important thing?

And so ends September. Stay tuned for October!




Thursday, September 29, 2011

Thursday Night At The Arcade: FarmVille



I can only imagine that the occupation of farming is one that can be both rewarding and exhausting at the same time.

While I've never really known anybody who has owned a farm, or even worked on a farm, I can appreciate the effort that they must put in on any given day. Spending long hours tending to their fruit trees and vegetable gardens, hoping that this year's crops are more bountiful than the year before. Working long hours feeding chickens, cows, and horses to make sure that they keep working. Spreading fertilizer and black earth all over the fields in the hot sun to keep your plants growing and nourished.

Still, though...to a lot of people out there in this world, they don't seem to have the same appreciation for farming and agriculture that I do. Many of them would have the opinion that farming is one of the dullest occupations that one can ever take part in. Of course, what some of these people don't seem to realize is that if we didn't have farming, our produce sections in grocery stores would look a little empty, but that is a different argument altogether.

A few people I have talked to have said that they would probably not last one whole day doing farming and agricultural tasks. They see it as way too much work and not enough play. A few of them have even said that farming seems boring to them. A couple of them would rather play video games or computer games.

But making a video game about farming? That's crazy talk, right? Right?



Enter social networking site Facebook and computer gaming company Zynga.

I'm sure that most of you reading this blog has at least one Facebook account. Don't be afraid to admit it. I use a Facebook page myself, and actually have a fan page for the Pop Culture Addict's Guide To Life (and while we're thinking of it, please like the page, because I post links to up to date entries there, and because I can promote my blog ON my blog. Thanks).

Okay, now that the shameless self-promotion period is over, I can continue.

Certainly, Facebook is one of the largest social networks online today despite all of the changes that people are having a huge difficulty keeping up with (or liking), and one of the reasons why it has grown so much is because of the millions of game applications that pop up each day. It's true what they say about being anything that you want to be on Facebook. You can have the opportunity to play simulated games that let you be whoever you want to be. If you want to be a crime scene investigator, there's a Facebook game based on the popular CSI show that will allow you to do this. If you always wanted to own a restaurant but are unable to get the loan to start one up, you can always go to Cafe World. And, well...if you always wanted to kill someone off without going to prison, you're in luck, because Mafia Wars will let you kill off an entire population of a whole town (albeit virtually).

And yes, there is a Facebook game that will let you become a farmer.



The game FarmVille was launched onto Facebook through Zynga on June 19, 2009. Since June 2009, the game has exploded onto the social media circuit with a reported 32 MILLION Facebook users playing this game at any given day. As of last September, FarmVille had reportedly 60 MILLION monthly active users...twice the amount of FrontierVille (also programmed by Zynga). It is currently the third most played Facebook game ever, behind CityVille and Sims Social.

Here's a sobering fact for everyone here. If you took every single Farmville player in the whole world and lined them up shoulder to shoulder, the line would stretch all the way from San Francisco, California to New York, New York. That's a distance of over 10,000 miles (16,100 km for those of you who still use metric).

That's a lot of virtual crops!

It honestly baffles me to see just how addicted some people are to FarmVille. I myself have never played it because my brainstorming for writing projects and my blogging ventures don't leave me with a whole lot of free time to play it. But at my real world job, I can probably gather a group of fifty together and find at least one person who has played FarmVille. Some people are almost obsessed with the game, spending hours on end harvesting virtual crops and tending to pixelated animals. I'm not talking about people spending just an hour or two on the game per day. I'm talking ENTIRE DAYS.

So, why is FarmVille so addictive?



I think a part of it has to do with competition. Certainly with millions and millions of people playing the game, you almost have to work extra hard to make your farm stand out in a crowd.

People can achieve that by buying items and animals. Certainly, there's the basic needs, such as plants, horses, cows, ducks, and chickens. You can also build structures such as houses and barns. You could even have specialty items such as ferris wheels, hot-air balloons, and merry-go-rounds.

However, to get the best items, as well as bragging rights, you're gonna have to spend the currency of FarmVille to buy these items. This currency is known as 'farm coins', and when a new player signs up for FarmVille, they get a fixed amount. They can also earn more coins by performing various tasks in the game, and they can even buy FarmVille gift cards at some retail stores so that they can afford to buy the best stuff. I suppose it also helps to have a lot of Facebook friends who also play FarmVille because that way you have the best chance of getting the rarest of gifts for their own farms.

Or, so I'm told.



The game has even gotten endorsements from businesses and major celebrities over the years. As of June 2011, McDonald's has become a big sponsor of the game, offering FarmVille gifts that are McDonald's themed, like McCafe items and hot-air balloons. Even Lady Gaga used FarmVille as a promotional tool to help sell her 'Born This Way' album by offering special Lady Gaga themed gifts for FarmVille users to purchase and give to friends. Proof that to some people, FarmVille can be more than just a game.



Of course, the game has been subject to controversy in regards to how the game is played. Because the game largely relies on a player to spend real world dollars to afford the most expensive luxuries for their own farms, and because of the largely competitive nature that can erupt between players, FarmVille has been linked to some rather unusual behaviour.

In April 2010, a 12-year-old boy from the United Kingdom made headlines after spending more that $1,370 US) on virtual items in FarmVille. Only about $440 of this was his own money. The rest he used with his mother's credit card without her knowledge. Whoops!

A few months later, in August 2011, a court had heard that a man by the name of Adam Hamnett of Greater Manchester, UK was so addicted to the FarmVille game that he even committed murder as a result! He was so desperate to purchase virtual animals for the game that he resorted to robbing a blind man for money to pay for these animals. When the victim threatened to report the crime to the police if he wasn't paid back, he then broke into the home of his mother's former beau and stabbed him for the cash!

Don't believe me? Here's the story in all its gory details.

Now, I ask you...is this not messed up or what?

I mean, certainly, video game addiction is one that a lot of people have. I myself can get pretty deep into a video game if I allow myself to be. But I would never think to steal from someone or kill someone just so I could buy a cow for a virtual farm. That's absolutely insane to me.

Still, though, those are just two of the most extreme cases. I'd like to believe that most FarmVille players aren't that crazy or addicted. I'd LIKE to believe that.

Certainly in moderation, FarmVille can be an enjoyable distraction from the day-to-day struggles of work and the home, and certainly there can be a few positives in the game. Still, though...one has to wonder if those playing the game would even last five minutes on a real farm, taking care of real animals, and harvesting real crops.

I'll wager a bet that most of them won't.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Across The Pond and Beyond: Coronation Street

Last week, I talked about soap operas and how in the United States, they seem to be on life-support. With a peak of seventeen soap operas airing during the 1970s, the fact that only five remain on the American airwaves shows that the genre is one that seems to be fading away.

But what about soap operas that air overseas?

It seems as though the soap operas based in countries like Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand seem to be trucking along quite nicely.

I think a part of it has to do with the various charm that each of these shows seem to have. Unlike most American soap operas, which are set in glamourous office buildings, fashionable coffee shops, and luxurious mansions, many of the overseas soap operas are a bit more realistic in nature. Some were set in gritty British neighbourhoods where the local pub was the center of all the action, while others were seaside towns with a surf club and fishing port.

A lot of the current overseas soap operas tend to hold onto their history much better than the American soaps. Whereas a lot of American soaps retcon their writing and their histories for a variety of reasons (bringing someone back from the dead, for example), overseas soaps only use such gimmicks sparingly.

I would also like to think that unlike the youth-obsessed culture that most American soap operas seem to embrace, the overseas soap operas utilize characters of all ages and backgrounds. I mean, yes, certainly there are exceptions on American soap operas. The Young and the Restless has Katherine Chancellor, The Bold and the Beautiful has Stephanie and Eric Forrester, and Days Of Our Lives has Jennifer Aniston's father.

(No, seriously, Jennifer Aniston's father, John, has a role on Days Of Our Lives.)

It's amazing to see how long of a shelf life some of these shows have on television overseas. Certainly, the vast majority of these programs haven't been on the air as long as General Hospital or One Life To Live, but where ratings seem to be eroding for American shows, overseas shows consistently do well over there.

In Australia, for instance, Neighbours (1985) and Home and Away (1988) are still screening, despite cancellation rumours for the first show. Partly because the shows have been marketed to British television networks, and both shows have developed as big a following in the United Kingdom as they have in their home country.

New Zealand's longest running soap opera happens to be Shortland Street, which has kept viewers on the edge of their seats since 1992.

And, of course we can't forget about British soap operas. You have Hollyoaks, which debuted in 1995. EastEnders debuted one decade earlier in 1985. Emmerdale has kept audiences watching day after day since 1972 (though back then it used to be called Emmerdale Farm). Even hospital dramas like Holby City and Casualty do consistently well. There was even a soap opera for teenagers called Grange Hill that wrapped up a thirty year long run in 2008.

There is one show that has surpassed all of those international dramas in terms of longevity, and show history. In fact, with the final episode of As The World Turns airing on September 17, 2010, this show entered the Guinness Book of World Records, for the longest running current soap opera on the air.


When Coronation Street debuted on Grenada Television (later renamed ITV) on December 9, 1960, it was originally going to last just thirteen episodes. Nobody ever expect the show to last over 7,700 episodes as of September 28, 2011. For over fifty years, Coronation Street has seen its share of weddings, affairs, funerals, explosions, murder, crime, and disaster, and for over fifty years, millions of viewers all around the world have watched the trials and tribulations of the thousands who have lived on the street.


In my home country of Canada, for instance, Coronation Street is probably one of CBC's highest rated programs. I can vouch that several of my co-workers tune in every day to catch the latest happenings of the people who lived in the fictional community of Weatherfield.

So in order to do this blog entry on Britain's longest running soap opera justice, I really had to do a lot of research on this program (as I myself have maybe only seen five episodes of the program in total). After watching the 50th anniversary special detailing 50 of the most exciting moments in Coronation Street's history, as well as some further research on various characters in the show, I'm going to give it my best shot. After all, Coronation Street is a very big deal to some people, and I would probably be blacklisted by some people if I didn't have this show as a feature in Across The Pond Wednesday.

So, I figure that I would cherry-pick some of these moments and we'll talk about them a bit.

Let's start off with the most recent happening.

THE TRAM CRASH OF 2010

Coronation Street celebrated its 50th anniversary on December 9, 2010. The creator of the show, Tony Warren, as well as the production team knew that they had to make the week of the golden anniversary a memorable one.

So they came up with the decision to destroy a portion of Coronation Street in a tram disaster.


How it came about was like this. A new bar had opened up underneath the viaduct on the street called The Joinery. It was opened up by Nick Tilsley and Leanne Battersby, and at the time of the disaster was packed full of people helping Peter Barlow celebrate his stag party. Peter's soon to be bride, Leanne, was just down the street at the Rover's Return where a party of her own was going on.


Without warning, a gigantic explosion occurs at the Joinery, destroying the tram track overhead, and putting the lives of everybody inside at risk. As if that weren't bad enough, a tram was on its way over the destroyed viaduct, and well...you can see in this clip what exactly happens.


As you saw, the train split into two sections. One half smashes into the corner shop, trapping Molly Dodds and her baby inside. The other half crashes into The Kabin, trapping Rita Sullivan inside. The very next day was when the show filmed a live episode, detailing the aftermath of the disaster. By the end, two people were killed in the wreck and many more injured. The disaster also was used to cover up a murder, and saw both a wedding and a birth happen at the same time. It was quite a memorable week of episodes, and the tram crash of 2010 netted huge ratings.

Of course, this has hardly been the only disaster that the street has faced over the years. The tram crash was actually the second one to happen on the street (the first one happened back in the 1960s). We also saw a truck crash into the Rovers Return in 1979, as well as witnessed the Rovers Return burn down seven years later.

A huge factory known as Underworld was destroyed in early 2010, as part of a special week of episodes known as 'Siege Week', and in 2004, we saw a Weatherfield resident wreak havoc on the residents of Coronation Street in a storyline called...

MAD MAYA MONDAY


Maya Sharma wasn't always so crazy, you know. When she first came on the show in 2003, she was a lawyer, who represented Roy and Hayley Cropper in a child custody battle. She immediately attracted the attention of shopkeeper Dev Alahan, and the two start seeing each other.

However, it became clear that not all was well with Maya. It all started off mildly with Maya getting involved with misdemeanors such as stealing vases and dognapping. She also seemed to partake in the act of dining and dashing, and took Dev on a ride where she would not stop speeding unless Dev agreed to marry her. By then, the residents of Coronation Street were starting to see Maya in a new ugly light, and Tyrone Dobbs accused Maya of murdering his dog, comparing her to the 101 Dalmatians villain, Cruella De Vil.


At this time, Dev's former love interest Sunita Parekh has developed a brain tumour, and Dev decides that he wants to be there for her. At first, even Maya has sympathy for Sunita, and acts as a caring friend to her. But when Maya discovers that Dev and Sunita have rekindled their love for each other, Maya becomes mad. She trashes Dev's store and destroys his home. Despite this, Dev and Sunita make plans to remarry each other.

Maya starts to go after Sunita in some vile ways. It was bad enough that she soaked Sunita's dress with urine (of all things), but things really went out of control when Maya stole Sunita's birth certificate and used it to marry illegal immigrants. The police barged into Dev and Sunita's wedding ceremony and arrested both of them for the charge of illegal marriage. Thanks to Dev convincing a taxi driver who helped transport Maya to the illegal wedding ceremonies, Maya is arrested. But she doesn't stay in jail for long because she is released on bail. Afterwards, she jets off around the city of Manchester, England, where she burns down almost every single store Dev owns.

The only store that Maya hadn't torched was the flagship store on Coronation Street. In November 2004 (on a Monday, no less), Maya took Sunita hostage as a way to get Dev's attention. When Dev arrives at his store and sees Sunita tied up, he tries to calm her down, but is knocked out by Maya and is taken hostage himself. Maya then sets the store ablaze with Dev and Sunita still inside. Luckily, thanks to the quick thinking of the residents of the street, Dev and Sunita are safely rescued from the building before it explodes.

What they weren't aware of was that Maya watched the whole thing unfold and was very disgusted that Dev and Sunita survived, so she opted to try and run them down with her car. It didn't work. In fact, if you want, here's the link to the whole episode where Maya truly goes mad.

THE RAMPAGE OF RICHARD HILLMAN


'You're Norman Bates with a briefcase!'

Famous words uttered from a woman named Gail Platt...married to a man named Richard Hillman. A man who could easily have been named the most dangerous man on Coronation Street ever.


Lying from the start of his tenure in 2001 (he was brought onto the show by crashing the funeral of Alma Baldwin), he secured the attention of Gail Platt, who had recently split with her husband, Martin. The two fell in love, and eventually Gail's children, David and Sarah Louise grew to accept him as part of the family.

Of course, there was some talk of Richard's dodgy dealings right from the start. When reports surfaced that he had stolen money from trusting elderly people, the people of Coronation Street had questioned whether he really was a family member of Alma's, or if he was there to scam even more people out of their life savings.

During 2001 and the early part of 2002, Richard set up a business called Kellett Towers, and went into business with Duggie Ferguson, where they were in the process of building an estate of new homes. Sometime in 2002, Richard and Duggie got into an argument where Richard accused Duggie of shoddy workmanship. Of course, Richard's argument was proven to be sound when in the kerfuffle, Duggie ended up falling over a banister to his death below. Richard was panicked at first and started to dial for help...but in a cold twist, put the phone away and left Duggie to die.

This incident would trigger Richard's rampage. Nobody in Weatherfield was safe as Richard ended up killing people who ended up getting in his way. He murdered his ex-wife Patricia by bashing her head in with a garden spade. When his business started to go under and he learned that Gail's mother Audrey had an insurance policy that would bail him out, he tried to roast her alive in a house fire. Audrey had survived, and she tried to warn Gail about Richard, but Richard had convinced Gail that Audrey was senile, and Gail refused to believe him.


Richard's next victim was supposed to have been Emily Bishop, but before he could finish her off, Maxine Peacock entered the house at the worst possible time, and she ended up becoming the next to die.

Soon after, Richard's crime spree unravelled, and lies that he had told Gail and her family were starting to become unearthed. In 2003, Gail confronted Richard over everything, and in that moment, he confessed everything. He confessed to killing Maxine and Patricia, not calling for help for Duggie, and the attempted murders of Audrey and Emily. Gail pieced together the events, and when she realized that Richard was sterile and couldn't have kids, it became clear to her that he wasn't really in love with her...he was more in love with being a part of a real family. She called the police, and Richard fled.

However, two weeks later, Richard returned, and took his entire family hostage. Initially he was going to kill them by locking them in a garage and turning on the car, letting the carbon monoxide do the work for him, but when Gail's ex-husband, Martin was tipped off to the plan by Audrey, they foiled Richard's plan. Plan B was this.


Although Gail, Sarah Louise, David, and Sarah Louise's daughter Bethany survived the incident, Richard's body was found a short time later, ending the reign of terror he inflicted on Coronation Street.

OTHER ODDS AND ENDS

After talking about three of the most captivating storylines of Coronation Street, it is important to know that it isn't all doom and gloom there. Coronation Street has been at the forefront of many social issues and commentary since it began in 1960. Here are just a few of these social issues that the show has tackled.

The show is the only show to have both an openly gay couple (Karl Foster and Todd Grimshaw) and an openly lesbian couple (Sophie Webster and Sian Powers).

The show made history in 2000 when Sarah Louise Platt (then a thirteen year old girl), gave birth to her daughter, Bethany, and the next few years showed the struggles that a teenage mom had to endure raising a child. Think Teen Mom only scripted.


The show also has one of the first instances of a transsexual character appearing on a soap opera in the form of Hayley Patterson. Played by Julie Hesmondhalgh since 1998, Hayley was born as Harold Patterson, and was in the process of undergoing gender reassignment surgery when she debuted on the show. While the move to incorporate a transsexual character on a soap opera was quite controversial (only the American soap opera The City had introduced a transsexual character at the time, and she only managed to last eight months on the program), Hayley proved to become one of the most popular characters in the history of Coronation Street. She ended up falling in love with loner Roy Cropper, and despite the challenges they have faced over the years, they have managed to become one of Weatherfield's most solid couples.

Of course, they aren't the only ones. Until both of them died, Vera and Jack Duckworth managed to have a long-lasting marriage. Sally and Kevin Webster had a few challenges thrown their way, but they too stood the test of time...well, that is until the tram crash of 2010 and a dying Molly told Sally that she gave birth to Kevin's child...they're still feeling the effects of that storyline as of 2011, but those scenes haven't aired in Canada yet.

Some legacy characters have come and gone over the years. Many people couldn't forget Bet Lynch, the sassy barmaid at the Rovers Return for many, many years. Nor could they forget Mike Baldwin, who oversaw the workers at Underworld until his death in 2006. How could they? With Mike having four wives and 25 girlfriends in his twenty-nine and a half year run, and Bet having run-ins with almost every central character on the street between 1966 and 1995, the storyline possibilities were endless.


It's funny to see just how involved the viewers of Coronation Street get with the program. One of the most interesting moments of this in action took place in the spring of 1998, when Deirdre Rachid went to jail after being set up by con-man Jon Lindsey. A reported 19 million people watched Deirdre wrongfully imprisoned, and soon after, viewers sparked a media campaign by viewers urging the show to 'Free The Weatherfield One'. The media campaign grew so large that even then-Prime Minister of Britain, Tony Blair, couldn't help but comment on the storyline. Deirdre was eventually released from prison three weeks later (which is what the writers and producers of the show had planned for all along), but it was quite interesting to see the amount of attention that storyline ended up getting.

But that was the magic of Coronation Street. It was a show that was so captivating and so relevant with the times that viewers couldn't help but love it. I know that after writing this piece on Coronation Street, I have to admit that I have a whole new respect for the program, and I imagine that it must be a lot of work for everyone involved with the program's past, present, and future for consistently putting out original episodes for nearly fifty-one years.

To conclude this posting, I wanted to end it on a light note, because as I said before, Coronation Street isn't always about doom and gloom. Here's a couple of video clips that showcase the dry humour that can be associated with the show. Ironically enough, these instances of dry humour both involve water...