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Friday, November 04, 2011

TGIF: Small Wonder

Typically speaking, I tend to be somewhat easily pleased when it comes to television sitcoms. As long as there's at least one funny joke, or a kitschy gag, I'm good to go.

Certainly there are some sitcoms that I find a little less stellar than others. I know everyone that I knew was really into Seinfeld, and watched it every day, but for whatever reason, it wasn't a program that I could get into. I get that the running gag of the show was the fact that the show was all about nothing, and granted, a couple of episodes I found funny (like the one about the Soup Nazi), but other than that, I never could get into it.

Another sitcom that I never watched that much was Murphy Brown. It was a show that was critically acclaimed, and won dozens of awards, but I think the problem with that show was that I was simply too young to appreciate it when it was fresh and current. That's not to say that I thought it was a bad show. I just didn't understand it as well as people who were old enough to understand all of the jokes and punchlines.

Can I share a bit of a confession with all of you? Just a teeny weeny confession?  Part of the reason why I love doing this blog is talking about some of those obscure sitcoms that most never watched because they aired at odd times in syndication, or because they never got properly promoted, or just simply because they were terrible!

And you know what? Most of the sitcoms that were deemed the worst of the worst, I ended up watching as a young boy. And as a young boy, I just didn't understand television ratings or anything like that. I was entertained by anything that broadcast on television back then. Heck, I probably even watched the weather channel at some point.

So, for today's blog entry, I thought we'd take a trip back to the year 1985. That was the year that a sitcom debuted in first-run syndication for four years. A sitcom that many critics and viewers declared to be one of the worst sitcoms ever made.

The show had a very low budget, and the plot line for the series was something out of a badly written science fiction book. Though, I'm willing to point out a few positives in a show that otherwise reeked of cheapness, bad writing, and every possible cliché ever existing in a television show.



When Small Wonder premiered on September 7, 1985, you have to admit that the idea for the show was rather unique. The sitcom revolved around the Lawson family. Ted Lawson (Dick Christie) is a robotics engineer working at a company called United Robotics. His latest project involves working on a prototype for a robot that was specifically designed to assist children who are handicapped.



The project that he came up with was one that had the code name of V.I.C.I., which was an acronym for Voice Input Child Identicant. The project was an android that took on the appearance of a ten-year-old girl, and was given the name Vicki, after the name of the project itself. Vicki was played by ten-year-old actress Tiffany Brissette.

Vicki is designed to resemble an average child, but is really anything but. She was programmed with superhuman speed and strength, an AC outlet underneath her right arm, a serial port after her left arm, and an access panel in her back. The downside to Vicki is that she is unable to process human emotion, and speaks in a monotone voice. She also doesn't understand sarcasm and humour, which can lead to some mistranslations and misunderstandings. Case in point, in one episode, when she overhears Ted making an off the cuff remark about being 'dead meat', Vicki happens to misunderstand this and starts telling people that Ted really did die, which leads to a fake funeral.

Yeah...now you know why some people deemed this show to be a major cheese fest.

Anyway, Ted's prototype of Vicki looked incredibly realistic, even using real hair and realistic skin to design her. But Ted knew that in order to help his creation grow and develop that he needed to place her in a real stable (well, as stable as you could get given the show's nature anyway) family environment.

So he decides to bring Vicki home, and have her mingle with the rest of his family, including his wife Joan (Marla Pennington), and his twelve-year-old son, Jamie (Jerry Supiran).



The way that the family tried to account for Vicki's appearance at the Lawson household to strangers and neighbours was that she was their adopted daughter. And for the most part, the family kept up the charade as best they could. Ted continued to make improvements on Vicki, including redesigning her so that she could age naturally, being able to eat and drink just like a real human being, and allowing her to wear normal clothes, finally ditching the red and white dress that she wore right up until the beginning of the show's third season. Joan was very loving and devoted to Vicki and often doted on her the same way a mother would treat her own daughter. As for Jamie, he got along with Vicki as well, though sometimes he and Vicki didn't see eye to eye. Vicki and Jamie ended up sharing a bedroom, with Vicki sleeping inside a full-length cabinet located near Jamie's bed.

Vicki also possessed a capability to learn new things at a speedy and powerful pace, which lead to Vicki coming up with new discoveries such as inventing a new laundry detergent, or increasing the gas mileage on a car. Naturally Ted and Jamie tried to capitalize on Vicki's discoveries as a way to make a boatload of cash, but in almost every episode, they would often find out the hard way that the improvements that Vicki made on the products were not perfect, and ended badly a lot of the time.

Of course, the Lawson family really had to work together to try and keep Vicki's real identity a secret, which was not easy. Especially when you had neighbours like the Brindles who kept sticking their noses in where they didn't belong. Brandon Brindle (William Bogert) was one of Ted's co-workers who later became his boss, and he and his wife, Bonnie (Edie McClurg, who left after season two to star in Valerie) kept dropping by the house unannounced, often at the most inopportune moments. Their daughter Harriet (Emily Schulman), was just as nosy as her parents, but her motivation was her long standing crush on Jamie Lawson.



Now, Small Wonder was declared to be a mess of a sitcom. Despite the fact that the show managed to run until May 20, 1989, and despite the fact that actress Emily Schulman won back to back Young Artist Awards in 1986 and 1987 for her role in the show, Small Wonder was critically savaged. In 2002, Robert Bianco, a critic for USA Today listed it as a contender for the worst program of all time...an opinion shared by many people years after the fact.

Yet, for some reason, people all over the world are still fascinated by this show.  As low-budget and cheesy as it was, you have to admit that it was somewhat memorable...maybe for all the wrong reasons, but memorable.

I can recall being a member of a webpage forum for all things nostalgia about ten years ago, and one of the most frequent questions on the Lost and Found sub-board asked by new members was if anyone remembered watching a show with a little robot girl who lived in a cabinet in a boy's room. The fact that so many people asked about Small Wonder at any given time just showed that while it may not have been good, it did leave an impression.

I suppose in some aspect, that's good.

I remember watching Small Wonder when I was a little kid, and of course watching it through adult eyes, I do agree that it has not aged well at all. But as a kid, I loved it. It was something new, and it was something that had not really been seen before. Back in 1985, robots were very big in pop culture, and it seemed that everyone was talking about robots. So, at least in that sense, the sitcom tried its best to create a relevant sitcom based on what was popular at the time. May not have been executed as well as they wanted, but they did try.



And the show didn't exactly make any of the actors and actresses huge name stars or anything, but it was Tiffany Brissette's first big break, and landed her other jobs all throughout the 1980s, including a couple of stints on The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin cartoon and a guest appearance on the television sitcom 'Parker Lewis Can't Lose'. Tiffany stopped acting in 1992, but made an appearance on the January 14, 2009 broadcast of 'The Morning Show With Mike And Juliet', where she was reunited with her co-stars Dick Christie, Marla Pennington, and Edie McClurg. She's currently studying to become a nurse nowadays, but still had fond memories of working on the sitcom.

I think that the show was one that most people didn't understand, or didn't like even. But, I wouldn't say that it was the worst sitcom ever. I mean, it lasted a lot longer than some other sitcoms out there. Most sitcoms would kill for a four season run these days.

Small Wonder may have been a big gamble that didn't get executed very well...but at the same time, there just may have been a few small wonders that could be found.

Just like small wonders can be found in almost everything.


Thursday, November 03, 2011

Thursday Night At The Arcade: My Very First Game Console

Let me preface this blog entry by sharing a couple of facts about myself when I was younger.

One, I was a child who grew up in a family that had huge financial struggles, and more often than not, there wasn't a whole lot of disposable income readily available. I guess in some way, it's kind of reminiscent to the current struggles some families are having as this recession drones on.

Two, I was a child who was constantly picked on by his peers for not being able to wear the latest fashions, or own all the latest toys, or being able to afford family vacations. As much as I boast now that I happily don't follow the crowd for trends and the like, back then, I did care. An awful lot.

Now that we have all of this established, we can continue.



Christmas 1989 was one of those Christmases that was memorable, but not exactly for the reasons most people remember Christmas. Certainly we had gotten presents from our families, and of course we all got visited by Santa. But with my sister's wedding happening earlier in the year, and with her leaving the house to start her new life, this Christmas just didn't seem like it was quite the same as it had been in previous years.

I also remember the letter that I mailed off to Santa that particular Christmas. Back in 1989, we would send our letters to a special address, which lead to a P.O. Box number, and during the month of December, the letters would happen to be published in the local newspaper. I admit that it was neat to see my name in the newspaper in print, and it was actually a neat idea to have our want lists put in the newspapers so that our family members could get ideas as to what to buy us for Christmas presents.

Well, you know...in case Santa didn't have enough room in the sleigh. ;)

That particular Christmas, I remember coming up with a list that I thought was a little bit ridiculous. If I remember correctly, I had asked for a computer, a Nintendo system, and about every board game ever made. It was quite an ambitious wish list, and when they printed it, it definitely stood out.

Now here's a part of the problem. There was no way that my parents could have afforded all of those things on the list. I mean, a personal computer back in 1989 cost a fortune alone. I ended up getting the Whiz-Kid toy computer as a consolation prize gift...but hey, I liked it all the same, so I didn't complain.

The main gift that I really wanted that Christmas was the Nintendo. By 1989, it seemed as if almost every boy and girl in my class...heck, almost every boy and girl in my SCHOOL ended up having a Nintendo to play with. They kept talking about all the cool games they had, and they would have birthday parties where they would play Nintendo games.

Basically, if you had a Nintendo, it seemed as though you were a popular kid. And while systems like Sega and Turbo Grafx 16 existed back in those days, nobody seemed to have one of those systems.

It was Nintendo or nothing back in those days.

And I wanted one so badly.

I had tried to ask for one for my 8th birthday in May of 1989, but unfortunately, it just wasn't to be. So, for the next seven months, I tried extra hard to be good, in hopes that Santa was watching me closely, and that he would bring me a Nintendo for Christmas.

December 25, 1989 had been just like any other Christmas. Lots of stocking stuffers, and lots of presents, and although I didn't get every board game ever made, I did get Yahtzee and Pictionary Junior, which was great.

But the main present that I was looking for was my Nintendo. Santa had to have brought it, right?

And when I saw a great big box wrapped in bright red paper, I was thinking that Santa had come through! Knowing that a Nintendo came in a big box (as I had seen them displayed in toy and department stores), I had a feeling that this was going to be a great Christmas present!

But as I tore apart that shiny red paper apart, what I found inside was not a Nintendo.

Instead, it was one of these.



The Intellivision video game console, put out by Mattel. A console that was celebrating its tenth anniversary in 1989.

And yet, here I was, an eight year old boy, wondering why I didn't get my Nintendo.

It wasn't until years later that I ended up discovering the truth about the gift. My parents knew how much that I wanted a Nintendo. Heck, it was all that I could talk about during the whole of 1989. But at a retail value of almost two hundred dollars, and money being tight that holiday season, my parents just couldn't afford to spend that much on a single present. Still, they knew how much I wanted one, and while they couldn't afford to buy a new Nintendo, they had attempted to look around for a used Nintendo so that I would still get what I asked for.

Unfortunately, 1989 was a time before eBay, Kijiji, and even advanced classified ads, and the odds of finding a used Nintendo were slim.

But then fate stepped in somewhat.

When my family moved into the home where I grew up in 1986, it had a whole bunch of treasures stashed away in the basement that the previous owners had left behind. As time passed, my parents went through the stuff thoroughly, checking to see if there was anything that they wanted for the home.

As it so happened, my parents ended up finding an Intellivision console in the depths of the basement in perfect working condition along with two dozen game cartridges to go along with it. As Christmas 1989 approached, and my parents had come up empty with trying to get my Nintendo. So, they came up with the alternative. Give me the Intellivision for Christmas, and then see if they could find a way to save up for a Nintendo for next year. I know they tried their best though, and when I ended up getting the Intellvision hooked up to the television, I have to admit that I liked playing it, even though it wasn't a Nintendo.

Of course, I couldn't very well let the kids at school know that I had gotten a video game system that was older than quite a few of them. So, I initially kept quiet. But then one nosy kid named Andrew, and his friends Joel and James kept asking me if I had a Nintendo, and they would not let up. I told them that yes, I did get a video game system, and that it was an Intellivision, and that I loved playing it.

First they ended up staring at me, as if I was talking a different language...and then they made fun of me for not getting a Nintendo, and then they went off on their separate ways, making me feel like a real tool in the process. Of course, back in those days, I couldn't understand why they acted this way, because I thought that if I had video games to play, it wouldn't have mattered. But because I didn't have a Nintendo, I was suddenly deemed unworthy to hang around.

Man, the saying was right. Kids could be cruel.

But here's the thing. I loved my second-hand Intellivision console. I had probably more Intellivision games to play than the other kids had Nintendo games (I mean, seriously, the games for the Nintendo cost up to and including $69.99 at the time). I mean, yeah, the graphics weren't as good on Astrosmash as they were for Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers, but it was still a fun game to play!



And at the time of its release, the Intellivision proved to be stiff competition for its only gaming rival at the time, which was Atari. Back in 1979, the Intellivision was test marketed in Fresno, California, and four game titles were available. The following year, the game system was released all across the United States and Canada. The game console cost a staggering $299, and included the game cartridge Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack (one of the many games I owned for the console).



By 1981, the game library grew to over 35 game titles, and the following year, Mattel reported that the Intellivision unit had sold upwards of two million consoles, netting the company a profit of over one hundred million dollars!

Alas, all good things eventually had to come to an end. In the case of the Intellivision, the end began with the video game crash of 1983.

The video game crash of 1983 was blamed on a variety of factors, but the main cause of it seemed to be the oversaturation of video game consoles and games.  Back in 1980, the Intellvision and Atari were the only game in town. By 1983, you had at least a dozen consoles, each with games that could be considered below standard.

I mean, do we really have to go into the Atari 2600 video game based on the 1982 movie E.T. The Extra Terrestrial? Not in this blog entry, but next week, stay tuned for an extended discussion on this.

The point is that the poor sales of these poorly developed games, as well as competition from home computer systems offering games to play caused the video game industry to suffer a devastating blow in 1983.

The Intellivision console was one of the first casualties of the crash of '83. In 1984, the Intellivision division was closed by Mattel. New games were released as recently as the early 1990s by individual liquidators who purchased the rights and inventory left over from before the crash, but by 1991, the Intellivision console ceased production.

Of course, we all know that by 1986, the video game industry rebounded with the introduction of the Nintendo console a year earlier, but the crash of 1983 ended the run of what was a powerhouse in the world of early 1980s electronic games.

The Intellivision though was a fun game system. It was quite different from some of the current systems being offered today. Yes, the game system worked like a lot of the other systems. You had a base where you inserted a game cartridge into the system. That was nothing new.



The controllers were something unique though. The bottom of the control had a disc at the bottom which worked as a control pad. Wherever you pressed the disc, the thing you were to control moved along with it. In addition, there were twelve individual keys, designed to look like a cordless phone keypad or a remote control for a television. Each game came with a set of plastic inlays that one would place over top of the keypad. Each number from 0-9 corresponded with an action. Like, say, suppose you were playing the boxing game. One number would correspond with a blocking move, the other would be a jab, another would be a punch, etc. It was a crafty way to play the game, because each game was designed with a different configuration of moves and actions.

And some of the games produced for the console don't have the graphics and realism that they have now, but at the time, they were considered cutting edge, and realistic as compared to the Atari console. As I said above, I owned about two dozen cartridges, and some of them were kind of unimpressive, but some of them were addicting as well.

Some of my favourites?



Astrosmash was probably my all-time favourite game. It was a simple space game where you had a laser gun shooting at asteroids and missiles, and UFO's. The whole point of the game was to destroy as much as possible so your score would get higher. A simple game that I found very addicting.



Night Stalker was another fun game. You had to run around a maze, defending yourself against giant spiders, bats, and robots eager to kill you.



Remember the fun of the Sims and Sim City? There was a game called Utopia that could easily be called one of the first simulation games created. You had an island nation that you had to develop by planting fields, building schools and hospitals, and catching fish all while dealing with pirate boats, acid rain, and hurricanes. It was a fun game, but boy was it tough.



You could even play BurgerTime, Mouse Trap, Carnival, Venture, and a couple of Sesame Street themed games for the Intellvision.

Really, if one could look past the graphical limitations and really allow themselves to get into the games themselves, they'd find them almost as fun as some of the new generation games.

Everything old becoming new again.

Now here's the kicker. Eventually, I did end up getting my Nintendo console. With help from my family, I saved up for it for nine whole months before buying it from the local Woolco (remember that name, Canadians?) store in September 1990. It came with the Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt cartridge, and I loved it. Eventually the Intellivision console got boxed up and put away in the closet. But, I still have it today. How could I get rid of it? It provided so many memories, and how much Christmas 1989 was made so much more special because of it.

In fact, I even picked up the Intellivision Lives game for the PlayStation 2 console a few years ago for kicks, and as it turned out, the game had several games on it that I had never played before the first time around. It was great, and it really took me back.

Oh, and those three boys who made fun of me? I don't talk to them anymore. They really didn't like me for me, so who needed them? My Intellivision had more character and heart than they did anyways, and ended up providing me with hours and hours of fun.

My parents tried their best to give me a wonderful Christmas present in 1989, and honestly thought that I would be disappointed and initially felt bad...but it turned out to be one of the nicest Christmas memories that I can ever recall.  


Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Across The Pond and Beyond - Samantha Fox

Unless you've been living under a rock, don't subscribe to entertainment news, or simply just don't care one way or another, you may have heard that Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries have ended their marriage after just seventy-two days of wedded...well, something. What that something is, I do not know, but rest assured, as of right now, the marriage is over.

And, yeah, I don't really care one way or another as to whether they split up or reconcile. I mean, yes, it's sad when a marriage ends, but that one has been the subject of many rumours, some even doubting the fact that the marriage was even considered to be real. But, that's a whole different story.

With some of my friends, I was actually discussing Kim Kardashian, and the rest of her family, which include sisters Khloe and Kourtney, and brother Rob (what, no K name?) who is a contestant on Dancing With The Stars (or, maybe as of today WAS a contestant...I don't watch the show, so I don't know for sure who is still competing this season), and we all came to one conclusion.

We don't know how the heck they became famous.

I mean, we know that they were all the children of lawyer Robert Kardashian, who passed away in 2003. Robert Kardashian gained notoriety for being a part of the legal team representing O.J. Simpson in his murder trial where Simpson was accused of killing his ex-wife, and her 25-year-old friend in June 1994. But, that was Robert's brush with celebrity. It's hard to determine how their father representing a celebrity in a murder trial somehow warrants the Kardashians to become famous. I mean, did they really do anything other than have a father who was a part of one of the most watched trials in recent history? Not that I can see.

And the Kardashians are no exception to this rule either. I mean, all you have to do is mention other self-dubbed "stars" like Paris Hilton, Snooki, and anyone who ever appeared in a show starting with 'Flavor Of...', 'Rock Of...', or 'I Love Money', and you have people who are basically famous for doing, well...nothing.

I certainly am not trying to be nasty here. I don't know any of the Kardashians, and for all I know, they could be salt of the earth people who may be misunderstood (though given the sex tapes and reported DUI's, that's gonna be a tough pill to swallow). I certainly would not say anything derogatory on purpose against any of them, as I don't know who they are...but sometimes I wonder why people seem to want to keep up with them when it's hard to figure out what exactly they did to become famous in the first place.

And today's blog post subject is someone who back in the 1980s was a person that seemed to get similar criticism for the various things she did (or didn't do).  A lot of people questioned why she, like Kim Kardashian, was famous.  Yet, she persevered and managed to have a song that hit the pole position in seventeen countries, and had great musical success in her native UK. And while she may not have had much success in recent years, at the age of 45, she still seems to want to continue with her career goals, proving that she at least has the drive and the ambition to want something more in her goals towards life.



Samantha Fox is our subject matter for today.

A lot of you younger readers of this blog may not have heard the name before, and that's fine. Her heyday on the charts here in North America was back in the late 1980s, and quite a bit of time has passed since then. Don't worry though. I'll catch you up.

Samantha Karen Fox was born in Mile End, London, England, on April 15, 1966. At an early age, Samantha had the dream of becoming an actress, and had wanted to perform in theatre arts. In 1969, at the age of three, Samantha made her first on-stage appearance, and two years later, began attending the Anna Scher Theatre School at the age of five.

Samantha made her first appearance on television in 1976, at the age of 10. She had a part in the BBC play entitled no way out, and a year later began attending school at the Judi Dench Mountview Theatre School.

At 14, Samantha also discovered her musical side, and wanting the experience of being a singer formed a band. While she did end up signing a contract with Lamborghini Records in 1983, the plans for any career in music and the arts was put on hold after her mother decided to enter her in a contest.

And this is where some of the public criticism against Samantha Fox began to fester. Admittedly, after doing the research on this article, I must say that I'm not so sure that if I had a sixteen year old daughter that I would be so...um...liberal, but as you read on, it may start to make sense to you.

At any rate, 1983 was a life-changing year for Samantha, as her mother had decided to enter Samantha in an amateur modelling contest that the newspaper 'The Sunday People' was putting on, looking for the 'face and shape of 1983'.

Samantha ended up placing second in the contest, which I have to admit was quite good. The controversy stems from how her mother sent in her application.  You see, when her mother sent off the application, she had included several photos of the 16-year-old Samantha posing in lingerie to the judges.  I don't know about you, but if I had a 16-year-old daughter, that would be the last thing I would think of to give her an edge in any competition.  I mean, maybe in 1983, sixteen was the age of consent in the UK for such things, but even so, I personally would feel a bit uneasy about doing something like that.  Of course, one can argue that at least she had a mother who did encourage her to follow her dreams, albeit in an unconventional way.

Shortly after placing second in the contest, Samantha Fox was approached by UK newspaper The Sun to pose for a test shoot for the newspaper's 'Page Three' feature.

In case you're wondering, a 'Page Three' girl is a photo of a woman who may or may not be topless, but usually scantily clad, posing in a provocative manner. In order for her to be photographed topless for the feature, her parents had to give their consent (which they did), and Samantha Fox made her first 'Page Three' appearance on February 22, 1983, just three months shy of turning 17.



More controversy arose as a result of this. At the time, Samantha Fox was the youngest Page Three subject ever, and naturally, parents groups and women's rights groups protested this. Saying that she was too young, and ridiculing Fox and the newspaper for making her nothing more than a sex object. But, do you think that this fazed Fox? Not really. She would go on to make several more Page Three appearances between 1986 and 1995, would go on to model in several magazines, including Playboy, was a Penthouse pet in the United Kingdom, and it was reported that Samantha Fox had even insured her breasts for a quarter of a million pounds when she was a teenager!

So, yeah, you can only imagine just what kind of criticism that she may have gotten as a result of this. Oh, sure, teenage boys and young men were likely Samantha's biggest fans, but a lot of people shot bullets of criticism her way at all possible angles.

Still though, Samantha did at least make most of those decisions herself, and she would later admit in subsequent interviews that she had no regrets over anything that she did in her early career.

By 1986, Samantha Fox had grown tired of modeling, and wanted to do something more with her career. Remembering that she once had dreams of making it in the world of music, she decided to focus her attention on a music career. At the age of 19, she began work on her first single while beginning the transition from model to singer by retiring from her modeling career (though she would make one-off appearances in magazines as recently as 2008).

Nobody knew that Samantha Fox's first single would end up being a massive hit when it was released in early 1986, and I imagine that a lot of people initially dismissed it as a fluff piece by a 'simple Page Three girl'.

Ah, but this leads into a life lesson I've talked about beforehand, which is not to judge a book by its cover. Or, in this case, not to judge a song by its singer.



ARTIST: Samantha Fox
SONG: Touch Me (I Want Your Body)
ALBUM: Touch Me
DATE RELEASED: March 30, 1986
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #4



Samantha Fox's first single, Touch Me (I Want Your Body) was a worldwide smash. It may have only peaked at the fourth spot on the Billboard charts, but it peaked at #1 in seventeen countries including Canada, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, and South Africa.

It certainly wasn't the most original song out there. It was more or less another song about a woman who is looking for a man to love.

What made it stand out though was the fact that the music video was one that really stood out. Whether it was the sexy outfit that Samantha wore, or the sexual innuendos that blended into the song with lyrics such as “like a tramp in the night, I was begging for you, to treat my body like you wanted to”, or whether it was the close-up shot of Samantha moaning as if she was...well...you know.

And the audience ate it up.

Now some may argue that the only reason Samantha sold so many records was because of the fact that she was sexing it up in her music videos. But, then again, Madonna, Britney Spears, and several other female artists have done the same thing, so it wasn't like she was doing anything differently.

But I offer you this. If you really examine the lyrics behind some other Samantha Fox hits, you may see that the meanings of the songs are a lot deeper than you'd necessarily think.

Take Samantha's 1987 release 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now'.



Certainly, the music video shows Samantha gallovanting around the world in expensive cars, and boats, and helicopters, and the first impression some may get is that she is living a charmed life filled with entitlement and privilege, but if you listen to the lyrics, it's actually a song about female empowerment and moving on from a toxic, one-sided relationship. It's about a woman taking control of her life, walking away from the relationship, and enjoying her life the way that she wants to in her own way.

(Wow...come to think of it, I wonder if Ms. Kardashian will be downloading this song on her iPod soon?)

Or maybe we can take a look at her 1988 song 'Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)'.



I think this is a great song that could be somewhat autobiographical for Samantha in a way. Some of the choices she made in her youth, such as her Page Three modeling career could be considered by the public as being somewhat on the naughty side. But as Samantha sings in her song, even 'naughty girls' deserve to find real love, and in the lyrics, she actually shows a bit of a mature perspective towards the whole idea of love amidst a steady beat of loud music. She may have played mind games and played hard to get, and acted a bit easy before, but now that she's found sincere and true love, she realizes that is more important than just a cheap thrill. It really is a nice message, and one that some people could really benefit from today.

So, yeah...some rather positive and inspirational messages from a singer who some may have dismissed as being just a Page Three girl.



Samantha's career may not have lasted very long in North America. Aside from a couple of hit singles and a guest appearance on the sitcom 'Charles In Charge', she has more or less faded into obscurity around these parts. But her recording career continued. She managed to release five albums in five years from 1986-1991, released a few more albums sporadically over the last few years, and is still interested in recording today.

She has had quite a few happenings in her own personal life that have somewhat caused her hardships.  Remember how I explained that her own family life was kind of a bit on the unconventional side?  Apparently Samantha's father wasn't exactly the most supportive adult figure to her.  He managed Samantha's career until 1991.  By 1991, Samantha Fox's music career was stalling, and despite minor hits such as the one below, it was clear that the music industry was changing.





1991 was the year that Samantha fired her father from managing her career.  And, she had a very good reason for it too.  Mainly because that was the year she discovered him embezzling money from her to the tune of one million pounds.  She sued her father shortly after the discovery was made, and while it took time, she was eventually awarded a court settlement in May of 1995.  Still, the damage by this point had been done, and Samantha's father passed away in 2000, with Samantha still unable to forgive him for what he had done.

Samantha also had to deal with rumours and tabloid stories about her sexuality, as tabloids had repeatedly tried to 'out' her for years.  She finally admitted that she was a lesbian in 2003, citing the reason that she didn't come out earlier was because she was afraid of public reaction.  Although it became more acceptable to be gay or lesbian by 2003 as opposed to 1983, Samantha was worried about how her fans would react to her being involved in a relationship with a woman, as she had to deal with stalkers and obsessed fans since starting out in the world of show business.  As of right now, Samantha has found love with her partner of several years, and is reportedly happier than ever.


Although her early beginnings may have been a bit controversial at the time, and while some may have dismissed her as being just a 'tart', she really did have more depth to her than initially thought. I would actually go on the record to say that despite what people have said about her, her persistence and her dedication towards her career goals was greater than a lot of other people I know, and to me, that's worth something.

Who knows? Maybe the Kardashian sisters will prove me wrong like Samantha Fox did back in her heyday, and maybe they'll do something that will make me write a blog entry 15 years down the line about how they overcame their own negative labels to do something worth talking about and promoting.

All we can do is wait and see. Or, at least until more information about the Kardashian divorce is known.


If anyone still cares enough to want to know, that is...



Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Pop-Up Video!!!

One of things that I enjoy about writing this blog is the whole idea of everything old being new again. When I take something that hasn't been relevant for weeks, months, years, even decades, and look at it through a new perspective, and offer up some new discussions on pop culture fads gone by.

Today is of course, no exception.

Today's topic (and life lesson, for that matter) is that everything old can in fact be new again. Certainly with shows such as Storage Wars, Hardcore Pawn, and other related television programs, everything old is now suddenly back in style.

And today's blog subject is about a VH1 program that used to air for about six years, went away for a while, and on October 3, 2011, popped back up into relevance again.

A show that I used to watch for years when I was in high school, and probably was one of the main influences behind the creation of this blog.

What show am I talking about?



That's right! It's time for some Pop-Up Video!



The show was created by Tad Low and Woody Thompson, and premiered on VH1 on October 27, 1996. It was produced by Spin The Bottle Inc, and the first run of the program ran until the summer of 2002.



That's right. I said, first run. Because beginning on October 3 of this year, Pop-Up Video was resurrected from the ashes of pop culture trends gone by and it is said that the new videos are supposed to be debuting on MuchMoreMusic here in Canada (if it hasn't by now already).



The show's creation came about after both Low and Thompson found themselves out of a job in late 1994. Prior to 1994, Low and Thompson worked together on the late Brandon Tartikoff's late night talk show Last Call, but that year, the plug was pulled, and the two men spent the next couple of years working on ideas for new television shows to pitch to various networks.



The idea for Pop-Up Video came about in the last few months of 1995. The basic concept of what would become Pop-Up Video was presented to VH1 executives along with other similar themed variants which presented a whole new viewing experience for music videos.

The pilot episode only cost about $3000 to make, and the very first Pop-Up Video to air on VH1 was Tina Turner's 1996 cover version of John Waite's 'Missing You'. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find this video anywhere online to post here, but don't worry. I'll post some more examples as we continue.

At any rate, the VH1 executives were very impressed by the show, greenlighted it, and by the end of 1996 was VH1's highest rated program for two whole years.

How does a video become a Pop-Up Video? It takes a crack staff of researchers and writers, first of all. With each show containing an average of five music videos per show, one staff member was assigned to a particular video so that they could research it as much as possible. Each video would have a pop-up bubble that featured a piece of information. The logos seen below would be attached to the bubbles to let the viewer know what the subject of the pop-up bubble would be about.



Most of the pop-ups would feature some background information on the videos and artists themselves...



...but there are some other references as well. Sometimes, they offered trivia on movies and television shows.



Quite frequently, the pop-ups would contain some never known facts.



And in almost all the pop-up videos, there would be a lot of poking fun, quite often at the performer's expense.



Sometimes, the staff would even get full participation from the crew involved with making the music videos. Directors, choreographers, set designers, promoters. They all gave interviews with the staff of Pop-Up Video, giving the viewer an inside look behind what went on, confirming or denying diva behaviour. In rare cases, the artist themselves would appear in Pop-Up bubbles to talk about the video, such as in the case of Paula Abdul when she starred in a couple of bubbles during the 'Promise Of A New Day' Pop-Up Video.

When you put the icons and the bubbles and the research and the interviews and the lovely popping sound all together, you get something like this.



And that's how you create a Pop-Up Video. Pretty cool, huh?

(Oh, and a very happy belated birthday to Malin Berggren from Ace of Base, too!)

When Pop-Up Video first premiered in 1996, the earliest episodes were centered around a particular theme. In some cases, the episodes centered around a particular artist. Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, and several others had their own Pop-Up Video episodes, and if you click on the links of each artist in this paragraph, I've provided examples for each one.

Sometimes, the episodes would have a distinct theme. For Women First, all the episodes would have videos by female artists. For the Big 80s, all the videos would be videos that were released after 1979 but before 1990.

In March of 1998, VH1 hosted a special week of 1980s programming, and for one week only Pop-Up Video became Pop-Up '80s. Those episodes would have additional clips of 1980s events that were popped in between videos, such as the 1981 wedding of Charles and Diana, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The Pop-Up Video craze exploded between 1996 and 1999, with several television show episodes and television special airing pop-up bubbles throughout the duration of the show. Examples include the 1996 VH1 Fashion Awards, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, and in 2001, Nick At Nite popped several episodes of The Brady Bunch, in an event called Pop-Up Brady.

The show hasn't gone without controversy though. Some music videos were pulled...a process that became known as 'The Pops They Stopped', as some artists complained that they were being treated too harshly by the show, and were portrayed in a negative light. Some of the videos that were stopped were by the Wallflowers, The Police, and Billy Joel. And controversy arose when the video for Ben Folds Five's single 'Brick' was released. The song, which is about a young couple who tries to decide on whether to have an abortion or not featured a pop up of a wire coat hanger appearing to 'abort' one of the band members.

I can see how that might inspire an outcry.

By 2002, the Pop-Up Video well had apparently run dry, and the show last aired on VH1 on August 8, 2002.

But as I said before, everything old is new again, and now we can see pop-up videos by artists such as Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Beyonce, and Britney Spears. Who knows, with the way the music industry is these days, maybe Pop-Ups can make those videos better.


Monday, October 31, 2011

Monday Matinee - Halloween

Greetings, everybody, and a very happy Halloween to all of you!



Okay, okay. I couldn't resist posting one of the most talked about YouTube videos of October 2011. It's a great way to kick off Halloween, wouldn't you say?  And, I don't know whose house this belongs to, but kudos to them for doing such a creative and wicked Halloween display!

So, I'm sure that most of you will be celebrating the holiday in a variety of ways.  Perhaps you'll go out trick-or-treating for Snickers bars and snack size bags of Doritos. Perhaps you'll be attending a spooky Halloween party where you can sip on witches brew and dance the Monster Mash. Or, if you're one of those unlucky goblins such as myself who happens to be working all Halloween night, at the very least, you'll be making some money out of the deal.

So, did any of you wonder where the origins of Halloween came from?

While some folklorists believe that the origins of Halloween came from the Roman feast of Pomona (the goddess of fruits and seeds), or in the festival of the dead known as Parentalia, it is widely believed by many historians that the origin of Halloween came from the Celtic festival of Samhain. The festival name is derived from Old Irish and loosely translated means 'summer's end'.

The festival of Samhain was one that according to the Oxford Dictionary of English folk lore was a time for festive gatherings. Medieval Irish texts, and various folklore from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales state that the people who celebrate the festival use it as a setting for supernatural encounters. There is however no evidence that it was connected with the dead in pre-Christian times, nor is there evidence that pagan religious ceremonies were even held.

The Irish myths that mention the festival of Samhain were written around the tenth and eleventh centuries by Christian monks approximately 200 years after the Catholic church inaugurated All Saints Day.

As far as the origin for why the 31st of October is called Halloween goes, well, that first came about in the 16th century, and represents a Scottish variant of All-Hallows-Even. The night before All Hallows Day, a day in honour of all the saints known and unknown, which is celebrated on the first day of November.

Now that you know a little bit about how Halloween came to be founded, we can go ahead with today's discussion. You know that because Halloween falls on a Monday this year that the theme will have something to do with a scary movie. This is a movie that I first watched in my teenage years, and was the very first film for actress Jamie Lee Curtis. And, considering that Jamie Lee Curtis' mother was Psycho actress Janet Leigh, it seems only fitting that her debut would also take place in a horror film.



A horror film that bears the same name as today.



Although released six days before Halloween, 1978, Halloween was really no different than other horror films released before it. Yet over the next thirty years, Halloween would spawn seven sequels, as well as a remake in 2007, courtesy of Rob Zombie. We're going to talk about the film that started this franchise off.



Directed by John Carpenter, Halloween tells the story of a murderer who lives in the town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Back in 1963, a young boy named Michael Myers (who, I should note is not the same Michael Myers who starred in movies such as Shrek and Wayne's World) murdered his sister, Judith, with a kitchen knife on Halloween night. Myers was only six years old at the time. His sister, fifteen. As a result of his age, and the seriousness of the crime, prison simply was not an option for him. Instead, Michael is sent to Smith's Grove Sanitarium where he is placed in the care of Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance). As a result of the trauma associated with the crime, Myers lapses into a catatonic state for the next fifteen years. In 1978, at the age of 21, Michael comes out of catatonia and on the 30th of October, he escapes the sanitarium to make his way back to Haddonfield. Loomis, still concerned about what Myers might end up doing, follows him to town, hoping to subdue him before he hurts anyone else.

The following day, Halloween morning, 1978, a young girl named Laurie Strode (Curtis) constantly sees Michael Myers in a blue jumpsuit that he stole from a man he killed on the way, and a mask that he stole from a local store along with a knife. He keeps staring at her in various locations. Outside her house or on the street, it seemed as though everywhere she went, there he was.

No wonder Laurie Strode was always so creeped out.



Laurie tries to convince her friends from school, Annie and Linda (Nancy Kyes and P.J. Soles) about her visions of Michael, but they don't believe her, and eventually convince her that she must be imagining the whole thing.

By that night, Laurie and Annie both have babysitting jobs. Laurie is looking after Tommy Doyle, while Annie babysits a girl named Lindsay at the Wallace house across the street from the Doyle residence. It is here that things start to go from slightly creepy to full-on fright fest.

It all begins when Lindsay's dog is killed under mysterious circumstances. After that, Annie receives a call from her boyfriend, asking her to give him a ride. So, after taking Lindsay across the street to have her stay with Laurie and Tommy, Annie hurriedly hops inside her car to meet up with her boyfriend. She never makes it, as this clip will show, and fair warning to those of you reading, this clip may not be suitable for younger viewers. You have been warned.



Poor Annie. Never saw it coming, did she?

Of course, we all know that Michael Myers is the one responsible for Annie's death. But Laurie and the others have no clue. That is until Tommy happens to be watching outside the window and reports to Laurie and Lindsay that he had seen someone carrying Annie's body outside, claiming that the person is the boogeyman. Laurie and Lindsay are not very impressed by Tommy's claims, and insist that all he is trying to do is frighten them with some lame, unbelievable story.

If only they really knew.

Some time passes, and eventually, Linda and her boyfriend Bob arrive at the Wallace house where Annie is supposed to be babysitting. Apparently, they haven't heard from her in a while, and they have decided to check and see how she's doing, not realizing that Annie's killer is still skulking around inside. Of course, this is of no concern to Bob and Linda, and they casually stroll inside the house to find Annie.

I'm sure they'll be just fine...



...oops, my bad. I guess they weren't.

By this time, Laurie's thinking 'gee, maybe that little Doyle brat really was telling the truth about some boogeyman being out there...you think maybe I should abandon my babysitting responsibilities to check and see if they're all okay?'

And, so she goes to the Wallace house, wondering whatever happened to her friend Linda, and why the phone suddenly went dead. Did the Wallace family not keep up with the phone bill? Was Linda playing a practical joke? Was Annie in on it all?

Sadly, the grim realization that all of her friends are dead strikes Laurie as she wanders through the Wallace house. She finds Annie's body in a bedroom with a gravestone belonging to Judith Myers lying on top. Shortly after, the bodies of Bob and Linda are found in a closet, hanging like a couple of slabs of beef inside a meat cooler. Laurie is so shocked and frightened by the gruesome discovery that she doesn't realize that the killer is STILL INSIDE THE HOUSE!



Suddenly, Michael attacks Laurie, and tries to stab her with the kitchen knife he pilfered just hours earlier. Laurie manages to avoid the blade and manages to make a daring escape by flinging herself over a stairway railing and runs out of the house, her heart beating a million times a minute as Michael gives chase.

Of course by then, Laurie's realizing, 'The children! I must think of the children! My god, won't someone think of the children?'

And, how does she protect the children? She runs back to the Doyle house where the two children are staying and charges inside, knowing full well that Michael is on her like a heat-seeking missile aimed towards a moving target.

Yeah, nobody ever said that Laurie Strode had street smarts.

At any rate, I'm sure you already know how the movie ends...I mean, with six sequels, of which Jamie Lee Curtis appears in a couple of them, you already know that both the attempted victim and attempted murderer of said attempted victim survive. But, how they survive...well...that's up for you to watch for yourself. A couple of hints though...it involves Loomis, a knitting needle, the removal of the mask, and an ending with a twist.

What you may not know is some of the behind the scenes action that took place on the set of Halloween. The budget for the movie was a modest $325,000, and ended up earning sixty million dollars. A very nice profit for the movie, but because of the strict budget, the props department had to do their best to make the dollars stretch far. Tommy Lee Wallace had four different job titles to his credit. He was the production designer, art director, location scout, and co-editor. He was the one who ended up designing the signature mask that Michael Myers wore during the film. The secret behind the mask? It was a Captain Kirk mask purchased for $1.98, painted white and had modified eye holes so that it looked less like William Shatner and more like...well...Michael Myers.

Many of the actors wore their own clothing for the shoot, cutting the wardrobe budget down significantly. The exception was the wardrobe of Jamie Lee Curtis.  Her clothing was purchased at a JC Penney department store at a cost of just over one hundred dollars.

The filming schedule was also affected by the low-budget. It was filmed over a period of three weeks in the spring of 1978, so as a result, fake leaves had to be used to simulate an autumn theme. Pumpkins were also used sparingly, as they were out of season at the time the film was made. The Myers house set was an abandoned home owned by a church, and the Wallace and Doyle homes were two houses on a Hollywood street. Parents who lived on the street dressed up their children in costumes for the trick-or-treating scenes.

The pay scale for the actors involved in the filming of the movie was hardly anything to write home about, as the low-budget meant low pay. Donald Pleasance managed to earn a $20,000 payout for his role. Jamie Lee Curtis barely made half that amount, at $8,000. As for Nick Castle, the man who portrayed Michael Myers in the scenes where he is masked, the poor guy was only paid $25 a day. That's only about $525 for the entire production.

Hopefully the royalties were more decent. Hopefully.

Believe it or not, Jamie Lee Curtis was not Carpenter's first choice for the role of Laurie Strode. He initially wanted Anne Lockhart for the role, but at the time, Anne was heavily committed to other projects. But when Carpenter had heard of Jamie Lee's famous ties, he knew that it would be great publicity to cast the daughter of Janet Leigh, and that gamble seemed to pay off. And of course, Curtis wasn't the only cast member who had ties to horror film production, as P.J. Soles had a role in the 1976 movie, Carrie.

Donald Pleasance was the third actor to be offered the role of Dr. Loomis. Both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee turned the part down, citing the low pay as the reason why, although Lee would later admit that his turning down the part was an error in judgment.

It's also interesting to note that promotion for the film was on the light side, with many people finding out about the film through word of mouth from people who had viewed the movie before. Nevertheless, despite a lack of advertising, and some rather scathing reviews from critics, Halloween performed extremely well at the box office, and as a result, is probably considered to be one of the best movies filmed during the year 1978.

One common misconception for the film is the idea that the movie is a morality play, and a social commentary piece. The reason being that those who ended up dying in the film were those who partook in various social taboos. Underage drinking, sex, etc. Somehow, Laurie Strode ended up living through her ordeal, and people suspected it was because she was depicted as being 'pure' and 'virginal'. A theory that Carpenter deemed ridiculous. It was simply a horror movie as far as he was concerned. Nothing more. Nothing less.

And unlike a lot of horror movies that were released, Halloween was different in that the death scenes weren't overly gory or bloody. The death scenes were frightening enough, but the fact that the deaths weren't instant, and that we saw the struggles that the victims went through made it even more chilling than having them get decapitated or discombobulated or worse. In that sense, I think the movie set out what it had intended to do...scaring people without the need for excessive gore. It became a real psychological thriller, which are more my speed for scary movies.

Ultimately, Halloween remains one of the more interesting Halloween-themed movies of all time, and it brought star power to both John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis. Which is why Jamie Lee Curtis' current fate is made even more tragic and scary.



Oh well. That's the way the digestive system flows, isn't it?

I hope you all enjoyed these Halloween themed entries. I had a lot of fun writing each one. We're going back to a more general group of topics starting tomorrow, but for now, I wish all of you a very happy and safe Halloween, and don't eat too much candy. We wouldn't want you to have a nightmare...