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Monday, November 07, 2011

Monday Matinee - Aladdin

For today's blog entry, I thought that I would take this opportunity to ask all of you a question. You don't have to feel obligated to record your answers in the comment box down below, although if you'd like to, you're more than welcome to.

Today's question is...if you had been given the ability to have three wishes, what three things would you wish for?

(Keeping in mind that the only restrictions for the three wishes are that you cannot use the wishes to wish death on anyone, bring someone back from the dead, or make someone fall in love with someone else.)

That may seem quite easy for some people to come up with three things they desire most out of life, but for other people, having only three wishes may not seem like enough.

There's really a lot of ways that people could go when it comes to being granted three wishes. I imagine some people would have wishes that were purely materialistic. They would want a new house, a new car, lots of money, expensive jewelry, an advance copy of the new Call Of Duty video game...you know, things like that.

Sometimes people would choose to wish for more practical things, such as wanting to find a decent place to live, or wishing for a good job, or money to go back to school.

And sometimes, people would want to wish for something miraculous, such as world peace, or curing the illness of a loved one.

There's really no shortage of choice out there for people. If you were granted three wishes, how would you use them up?

I thought about this for quite some time and as I was doing some research on this blog entry, I managed to come up with three wishes of my own that I would use for myself (and no, I did not use the cop-out of having one of my wishes be for more wishes...that would be cheating, and dodging my question).

What are those three wishes? Well, the first one that I have is that I would love to be able to find a way to explore more of the world. Not with the hectic pace that some of the contestants on The Amazing Race see the world, mind you, but a more relaxing pace. I've really only seen just a small part of this big, beautiful planet that you and I call home, and to me, that's never really been enough. Of course, in order for one to see the world, one would have to find a way to be able to afford to pay for it, and well, I haven't managed to win the lottery yet. So, yeah, that would be my first wish. My first wish would be to see the world. Who knows, maybe my first wish will allow me to look at the world through different eyes. A whole new world, if you will.



What an appropriate song to post for this blog entry! The song, recorded by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle hit the top of the Billboard charts in March 1993, and happens to be the main theme song for the Disney movie that is featured in today's blog.



The song 'A Whole New World' comes from the soundtrack to the movie Aladdin, which was released in theaters on November 25, 1992.

(And just on a side note, Aladdin happens to be one of my all-time favourite Disney movies, so I was really looking forward to doing a piece on this film anyways!)



The movie itself was unique in that the two lead characters were voiced by people who very well could have been newbies to the voice acting scene. The voice of Aladdin, for instance, was played by actor Scott Weinger. If that name sounds somewhat familiar to some of you, you may remember him from his role as Steve Hale on the television sitcom Full House during the sixth and seventh seasons of the show's eight year run. Prior to Aladdin though, he had only made appearances on Life Goes On and a failed television sitcom. As for Princess Jasmine, she was played by Linda Larkin, another relative newcomer to show business, having only had guest appearances in Murder, She Wrote, and Doogie Howser M.D to her credit.

And yet, watching the movie, it's hard to picture anyone else in the roles, isn't it? Both Scott and Linda did a fantastic job in the movie.

Of course, you had your big named heavyweights too. Both Frank Welker and Jim Cummings made appearances in the movie, and both of them have had humongous success in the world of voice acting, as had Jonathan Freeman who played the evil Jafar. Gilbert Gottfried's voice is easily recognized as Jafar's sidekick, Iago.

Of course, the really big heavyweight was the casting of Robin Williams as the Genie, which Williams agreed to do to show his gratitude in response to the success he enjoyed starring in the Disney/Touchstone produced Good Morning, Vietnam. He did have a couple of conditions though. He agreed to do it provided that his name or image wasn't used to promote the film, and that the character he played would not take up more than 25% of the space used in the promotional materials for the film, including movie posters, toys, and even the cover of the VHS tapes when the film was released on video.

Here's one of the promotional posters for Aladdin. Can you see where they completely ignored Robin's demands right off the bat here?



I'd say that's a bit more than 25% of the poster, don't you?

Apparently Williams wasn't too pleased by this, and in the weeks after Aladdin was released, he and Disney had a falling out that reeked in bitterness. In some of the future Aladdin projects, Dan Castellaneta (who you may know best as Homer Simpson), took over the voice of the Genie, but when Jeffrey Katzenberg was fired from Disney and replaced by Joe Roth, Disney issued a formal public apology to Williams, who accepted.

The soundtrack for the film was absolutely incredible as well. I mean, you already heard one song up above, but there were twenty other original songs and compositions that appeared on the soundtrack and in the film, which showcased the work of composer Alan Menken, and songwriters Tim Rice and Howard Ashman, both of whom had worked on Disney feature films before. In fact, it was Ashman who actually came up with the idea to make Aladdin into a movie. Sadly, Howard Ashman passed away in March of 1991 due to complications from AIDS, so he wasn't able to see his work pan out on the big screen. Ashman's death was the reason behind why Tim Rice was brought onto the project...to finish the work that Ashman had started.

The end result was a film that had a lot of heart and a powerful message.

The movie is about a young street kid named Aladdin who along with his sidekick, a monkey named Abu, has to resort to stealing things from the marketplace in the kingdom of Agrabah. One day, he happens to bump into Princess Jasmine, who had arrived in the marketplace after being frustrated with her privileged, yet suffocating lifestyle at the palace of Agrabah. Though both of their backgrounds are as different as night and day, the two find themselves having quite a lot in common, and Aladdin manages to save Jasmine from losing her hand from a merchant after taking an apple without paying for it to feed a hungry young boy.



Alas, the newfound friendship between Aladdin and Jasmine is short-lived when Aladdin is arrested for thievery. Despite Jasmine's pleas for Aladdin's release from custody, but Jafar, the Grand Vizier to the Sultan of Agrabah (the Sultan being the father of Jasmine), tells the princess a rather cruel lie, saying that he had been executed for his crimes.



In reality, Jafar had planned to use Aladdin in his quest to get the magic lamp inside of the mystical Cave of Wonders. It was rumoured that the magic lamp contained a genie who had the power to grant its holder any three wishes they desired. Jafar wanted to get access to the lamp so that he could use the powers to take over control of Agrabah. But any attempt to get a thief inside the cave lead to disaster, as anyone who tried to get inside was promptly killed. Only a 'diamond in the rough' could enter the cave to retrieve the lamp.

And Aladdin was that diamond.

In the disguise of an old man, Jafar releases Aladdin and Abu from the prison, and takes them to the Cave of Wonders. After getting a warning from the tiger head at the front of the cave, telling Aladdin and Abu not to touch anything except for the magic lamp, the two head into the depths of the cave, a salivating Jafar standing close by. With help from a magic carpet, who Aladdin and Abu found on their way through the cave, Aladdin manages to get his hands on the lamp. But when Abu carelessly grabs a ruby from the cave, the cave starts to collapse on itself. The carpet manages to be a huge ally in helping Aladdin and Abu escape to the entrance, but their escape is short lived as Jafar tries to kill Aladdin in order to get the lamp. Cleverly, Abu manages to bite Jafar, which distracts him long enough for Abu to steal the lamp from Jafar, but the end result has Aladdin, Abu, and the magic carpet remaining trapped inside the now collapsed Cave of Wonders.

Feeling trapped, and maybe even a little bit claustrophobic, and with his only friends being a monkey and a carpet, Aladdin decides that maybe the best thing he could do is rub the lamp to see what happens.

What happens is this.



Now, I don't know about you, but if some larger than life blue guy happened to pop out of a magic lamp and was as in your face as this guy was, I may want to run and hide. But, you know, the guy had pizzazz and charisma. How could you not love him?

And, Aladdin (after tricking the genie into letting them out of the cave without using one of his three wishes) decided to use his very first wish to transform himself from street kid to rich prince, so that he could have a better shot at love with Princess Jasmine.

You see, there was a rule that had been crafted into the book of laws for the kingdom of Agrabah, which stated that the princess could only marry someone who was already a prince, or who was descended from royal blood. The problem was that unbeknownst to Aladdin, Jasmine was sick and tired of being set up with the spoiled, jerky princes by her father. Aladdin was different, but Jasmine believed Jafar's lie that he was dead. And yet Aladdin mistakenly presumed that Jasmine was only interested in guys who were rich and royal.

Hey, there's a life lesson...never change who you are to attract someone else's affections. It never works.

Aladdin also hears what one of the genie's wishes was, which was to be freed from the confines of his magic lamp. Remember this for later.

And of course, when Aladdin strolls into the palace as Prince Ali Ababwa, Jasmine is immediately turned off, thinking him to be no better than the suitors she kicked to the curb.

And to think that if it wasn't for the idea of social customs, and silly rules designed to keep people from growing, and learning about themselves, Aladdin and Jasmine would not have nearly the struggles they faced.

You know what? This inspires my second wish. My second wish is for everyone to have the courage to be true to themselves and follow their hearts no matter what. I honestly believe that a lot of us don't pursue our dreams is because we had restrictions placed on us, or because we were told by others that it wouldn't be possible for us to achieve those dreams.

So, my wish is for people to find that inner strength and their resilience to pursue their dreams.

Okay, so this is two wishes down. One to go. But first, we need to see how Aladdin...oh, I mean, Prince Ali woos Jasmine with help from his magic carpet.



Of course, Jasmine starts to see through the Prince Ali disguise, and somehow figures out that Ali and Aladdin are one in the same, but Aladdin lies to Jasmine, and says that he sometimes dresses up as a commoner to escape the pressures of palace life, which Jasmine can definitely relate to.

But, Jafar ends up capturing Aladdin immediately after his outing with Jasmine, and he tries to kill him by drowning him in the ocean. But thanks to Aladdin using his second wish, the Genie saves his life. Aladdin soon discovers the evil plot that Jafar has planned, and runs to the palace in the hopes of exposing Jafar's true colours. However, when Iago manages to steal the lamp away from Aladdin, bringing it to Jafar, the genie is forced to become Jafar's master, reluctantly being forced to grant his first two wishes, which were to become Sultan of Agrabah, and to become a powerful sorcerer. He then uses his powers to enslave the former Sultan and Jasmine, and to expose Aladdin and banish him out of the kingdom.

Of course, this doesn't seem to stop Aladdin. For Aladdin also had Abu and the magic carpet with him. He flies the carpet back to Agrabah in an effort to rescue Jasmine from Jafar's clutches and to get control of the magic lamp back again. Jasmine tries to distract Jafar with a sultry dance long enough for Aladdin to hopefully seize control of the lamp again. Unfortunately, the plan didn't work out and Jafar transforms himself into a giant cobra, determined to squeeze the life out of Aladdin. Jafar thinks he has won, and he boasts about being powerful. Aladdin comes up with a spur-of-the-moment plan to tell Jafar that he thought the genie was more powerful than Jafar, so Jafar uses his third and final wish to transform himself into a genie.

And, it is this final wish that ends up being the end of Jafar...well, at least until the next sequel. Let's just say that genies aren't nearly as...um...free...as people think.

So now Aladdin has one final wish left to go...there really was nothing stopping him from using his last wish as a way to finally become a real prince in order to marry Jasmine. But his decision to use his final wish in a selfless manner by...

...ah, well, rent the movie and see it yourself. :D

But you know, that's probably how I would use my third wish too. I know there's a lot of things that I do want in my life, but honestly if I had used up two of my three wishes, I would like to think that I would use my last wish to grant someone else's wish, whatever it may be. I think that would be a great way to use a last wish.

And if my last wish ended up helping so many other people in the process, then it would be worth it.

I guess that's the reason why I wanted to choose Aladdin as the subject for today, aside from the fact that it is one of my favourite Disney movies. It's really a movie that has a great message. It shows people that they don't have to lie about themselves to make a good impression on others. It shows people that they don't need material things in order to feel great. And probably most important, it shows people the true meaning of friendship and sacrifice...and it shows people that escape is possible in any bad or dire situation if you have the courage inside yourself to make it happen.

Hmmmm...maybe that's a lesson that I need to imprint in my subconscious.



Sunday, November 06, 2011

Sunday Jukebox - Weird by Hanson

Welcome to Sunday, November 6th, and to those of you who turned your clocks back one whole hour, I hope you all survived...though given that you got an extra hour to rest and relax, I can't see how any of you would have struggled.

For today's topic, I have a story about a band who seemed to come out from the 'middle of nowhere' and dominated the charts throughout much of 1997 and 1998, then seemed to disappear for a while. The band of brothers certainly hasn't given up on their musical dreams and still tour today, but they're not quite as popular or successful as they were back in their heyday.

But before we get into further discussion about this band, as well as the song that I plan to feature, I want to tell all of you a little bit of a story about my life and times that is linked to this Sunday Jukebox entry.

I was what you would consider to be a rather...upon lack of better word...whimsical kind of kid. I tended to like things that other kids had no use for, and partook in activities that not a lot of other kids wanted to take part in.

I mean, a few days ago, I wrote about how I ended up getting the ancient game console known as the Intellivision, when everyone else in my class had a Nintendo. And, I also talked about how I was made fun of and ignored because my video game system was one that was older than even I was. They had thought that I was weird for not having a Nintendo. But that's fine. That was their opinion. My opinion clearly didn't match theirs as I loved my Intellivision. But, no, I was the weird one.

There were other instances in which I was classified as being the weird kid in the class though. By the time I was in sixth grade, I was the kind of kid who basically stuck to himself, doing solo activities. Of course, there was nothing wrong with this, as many kids probably did a lot of things by themselves all the time. I know when I was younger, one of my favourite activities was to stick around the house, grab my favourite book, and sit on the front porch to read it. Another favourite activity involved turning on the garden hose on hot summer days to cool off in the backyard. Yet another activity that I took part in was getting an early interest in writing by using Crayola crayons and lined paper in the house. Again, I thought they were typical activities that most kids my age did.

But according to some of the neighbours that lived on my street at the same time my family did, they considered it weird that I chose to spend my free time off to myself rather than around other kids. One nasty woman who lived across the street from us even went to my parents, and told them that she thought it was strange.

I mean, first of all, who the hell asked her opinion? I was only a little kid back then. Secondly, I did have some childhood friends but the problem was that they all lived quite far away, and it wasn't exactly ideal to drop in on them all the time, and lastly, a lot of the kids who did live close by me (with some exceptions) were the ones who used to beat me up or made fun of me. Whatever would make me WANT to have anything to do with them?

I guess in some way I was too young to understand what the nosy neighbours were like back then because admittedly I was in my own little world back then. It's not until becoming an adult that I realized that the neighbours opinions about me were anything but justifiable. They may have thought that I was weird for not playing with other kids when I was younger (a blatant disregard of fact-checking, by the way), but you know, I find their opinions just as weird right back. To make judgments on someone without even getting to know the people they are...yeah, that's weird to me.

You know what else is weird? Today's blog subject.



ARTIST: Hanson
SONG: Weird
ALBUM: Middle Of Nowhere
DATE RELEASED: March 16, 1998
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #31



You know, the song 'Weird' by the band Hanson (who you may remember as the band behind the infectious 1997 single MmmBop), may not be their most well-known, or even their highest charting single ever released. But of all of the singles that Hanson has released, I would say that this one is probably my favourite single by the group, just because the lyrics really hit close to home. Even the video has examples of people, places, and an underwater subway car scene...things that some people may consider to be weird.

But, is this really the case?

I mean, let's take a look at how Hanson came to be. Hanson is made up of a trio of brothers, who all happen to have the last name of Hanson. (Go figure, really?)



Anyway, the trio is comprised of Clarke 'Isaac' Hanson (30), Jordan 'Taylor' Hanson (28), and Zac Hanson (26). When the band was at the height of their success, they were aged 17, 14, and 12 respectively. They started out performing in and around their hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma when they were young children. Their first performance in front of a crowd was back in 1992 at the Tulsa Mayfair Arts Festival. The three boys all began learning music the same way that a lot of kids learned music, which was through piano lessons. Shortly after, Isaac got his hands on a guitar, and Zac borrowed an old set of drums, leaving Taylor to assume the role of keyboardist. The band started up the way many bands did back in those days...rehearsing and playing in the family garage. The group even managed to release a couple of independently produced albums in the mid-nineties before getting their big break in the summer of 1996.

That summer, the band was a scheduled act at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, where they were signed by manager Christopher Sabec, who promptly tried to get them signed to a record company. Many of the record companies passed on the trio of brothers simply because they declared them as nothing more than a novelty act, or because they didn't believe they could garner the success needed to sell a lot of records.

I guess in some ways, the record companies found them just a little bit too...weird for their tastes.

But then fate stepped in. And fate's name was Steve Greenberg, who was a representative for Mercury Records. He happened to be at the Kansas State Fair at the time that Hanson was performing on stage, and with backing from Greenberg, the band was immediately signed to a contract with Mercury Records.



During the last half of 1996 and first half of 1997, the band recorded their first mainstream album, an effort entitled “Middle Of Nowhere”, and the album first hit stores on May 6, 1997. That same day was declared 'Hanson Day' in Tulsa, Oklahoma by the governor of the state at the time, Frank Keating. The album was hugely successful, with the lead single, MmmBop staying on the airwaves for most of 1997.

But again, we're not here to talk about MmmBop. We're here to talk about 'Weird'.



And, basically, the song Weird is one that has a really powerful message, which is why I enjoy it so much.

And the reason being that it's almost kind of a song that described how I felt as a kid. Particularly the bridge of the song.

Sitting on the side waiting for a sign hoping that my luck will change
Reaching for a hand that can understand, someone who feels the same
When you live in a cookie cutter world, being different is a sin
So you don't stand out, but you don't fit in. Weird.

Boy...if a song didn't speak out like that one, and resonate a chord in me, I don't know what one will.

Do you know how long I waited to try and find people who could understand who I was, why I was the way I was, and still accept me and all my quirks? It took a very long time. Of course, part of that was due to me finally allowing myself to tear down that wall that I had built up to try and deflect all the names and terrible things that happened to be because I was supposedly the 'weird' kid. Still though, to be able to try and find someone who could understand the frustration over being unlike everyone else around me was a bit of a challenge, especially since some of the people who were a part of my life back then weren't necessarily those of the open-minded variety.

So, yeah...I can identify with that song lyric, as I can the following one.

You know, sometimes I consider my schoolyard years to be like living in that very same cookie cutter world that the band sings about in 'Weird'. A world where being different wasn't necessarily a sin, but it wasn't exactly embraced with open arms either.

So, what was the best way for me to counteract that? I tried to hide into the background, stayed away from where the crowds were and kept to myself.

I didn't stand out, but at the same time, I didn't fit in.

Weird, no?

The truth is though that at times, every single one of us feels 'weird' at some point in our lives. And also, keep in mind that the very definition of 'weird' is in the eye of the beholder.

I imagine that when Hanson first came out with the song 'MmmBop', a lot of people found the song to be a bit 'weird' because the chorus was basically just the word 'MmmBop' repeated a whole bunch of times along with some other words that may or may not have been in English. But looking back on the song now, it's actually got a pretty good beat, and surprisingly seems to hold up very well. But while one person may have seen Hanson as 'weird', other people may have deemed them a great band.

I imagine that there were things that I did in my life and times that other people have deemed weird, but there are others who would say that it wasn't the case.

Again, there's nothing wrong with being weird. Sometimes the people who are deemed the weirdest of the bunch can also be the most creative and interesting people one could meet. Conversely, some of those people who take pride in their normalcy could end up being anything but. Again, it's all a matter of perspective.

But just as Hanson says during the song, isn't it strange how we all get a little bit weird sometimes?

I say no. I don't find it strange at all that everyone can have feelings of being weird.

I actually find that quite normal.


Saturday, November 05, 2011

Saturday Morning: That's So Raven

Before I get into talking about today's blog topic, I want to just offer up a little reminder for most of you reading this.

For a good number of you, November 6th (tomorrow) is the date we are supposed to turn our clocks back one whole hour, beginning at two in the morning. Since most of us probably won't be up at 2am, most of us do this the night before. So, just to once again reiterate this message, don't forget to set your clocks back one hour this weekend.

Now that this has been said, we can continue. Ironically enough, this entry is sort of contrary to the Daylight Savings Time practice we'll be observing this weekend. Whereas this weekend is about turning the clocks back, this blog entry is about looking ahead into the future.

How many of you have wanted to gaze into the future, wondering how your life would turn out? If you were granted the opportunity to see your future unfold right in front of your eyes? If you were given flashes of visions that would be linked to an event happening in your direct future, would you want to know?

I'll admit that when I was growing up, the idea of wanting to know what the future held was there. Everyone wonders what kind of people they would grow up to become ten, twenty, even thirty years down the road.

And, here's a 'shocking' admission. Anytime I tried to see my future, I would end up being completely wrong. I remember being ten years old, and predicting that I would be rich, famous, and married by the time I was 25, and well...that didn't happen. But, maybe my calculations were off that day. ;)

But I'm not the first person who have made incorrect predictions about what the future would hold. I mean, look at Miss Cleo who boasted that if you called her now, you would get a free psychic reading that would change your life forever. She managed to build a pretty lucrative business out of fortune telling before being exposed as a charlatan in the early 2000s. She wasn't even Jamaican!

Oh, and there's Harold Camping who predicted that the world would end not once, but twice in 2011. And yet when May 21 and October 21 came around, surprise, surprise, we're all still here, just as I expect that we'll all still be here in 2013 despite all the 2012 theories out there. Last reports state that Camping has now 'retired' from the business of predicting the apocalypse, but really, would we have really believed him a third time anyways if he had dropped another phony date?

The point is that as far as the future goes, for the most part, it is uncertain and unpredictable. We all can make predictions about how we think or want the future to be (in some cases, those predictions are more of a public spectacle than others), but most times those predictions don't usually amount to anything. I mean, if we could all predict the future, the odds of winning the lottery would greatly increase, right?

But what happens when you have a Saturday morning sitcom that features a girl who can see into the future? And what happens when the visions that this girl gets aren't exactly clear? Sometimes people can see into the future, have a vision about something that is going to happen, but can't quite understand what the meaning is, or misinterpret the vision completely, but in the case of this show, most of the time, it leads to hilarity, confusion, and sometimes can get the beholder of the vision into major trouble.



The name of the show is That's So Raven, and it just happens to be the subject of today's show. Part of the reason why I chose to talk about this show is because my goal with this blogging project is to bring up subjects from different eras and genres in the hopes of attracting an audience made up of all ages. But I also wanted to showcase this television series because I actually kind of liked it. And besides, it greatly showcases the life lesson that I want to feature in this blog for today, which is...

...the future isn't always set in stone. Only you can examine it, interpret it, and follow it to the best of your ability. Don't predict it, just live it.

Wow...that was kind of epic.



The show was named after its star. Raven Symone played Raven Baxter on the program, and for those of you who are at least as old as I am, you probably may remember Raven Symone best for her role on The Cosby Show, where she played the role of Olivia from 1989-1992. 



Wasn't she cute?

Or, if you're a little younger, you may remember her from the TGIF sitcom 'Hangin' With Mr. Cooper', which aired from 1992-1997. And she also made quite a number of guest appearances on several television shows over the years in everything from A Different World to Bill Nye The Science Guy.

The idea for That's So Raven was conceived during the summer of 2001. The basis of the program had shades of 'I Love Lucy' incorporated into it, as the program was designed to have a lot of slapstick comedy and sight gags blended into the show, but with a twist. The main character was to have supernatural abilities and the ability to see into the future. Sometimes these visions were very clear, and foreshadowed an event, but others were not quite so clear.

During the development of the show that became That's So Raven, the name of the show, as well as the main character was changed at least twice. Initially, the show was titled 'The Future Is On Me', where the main character was to be called Dawn Baxter. Then the show's name was to be known as 'Absolutely Psychic', and the character's name was changed again to Rose Baxter. Finally, when it was revealled that Raven-Symone had won the part of the main character, the character was changed to Raven Baxter, and That's So Raven became the show's official title.

The show's pilot was filmed during the summer of 2001, and during the 2001-2002 season, the first few episodes were filmed. Now, here's an interesting fact about the debut of the show. The show actually debuted four months earlier in Europe than it did in North America. Disney Channel UK began broadcasting the program in September 2002, but the American version of the Disney Channel chose to wait until the new year to broadcast the show.

On January 17, 2003, That's So Raven debuted on the Disney Channel, and the show was actually responsible for a series of 'firsts' for the Disney Channel during its entire run.

First #1 – The program was the highest-rated show in the history of The Disney Channel. As of November 2011, the show still performs well in syndication. The program was the first one in the history of Disney Channel to score a viewing audience of over three million people.

First #2 – The program was the first show ever aired on the Disney Channel to reach one hundred episodes (prior to this, the most a Disney show could hope for was 65 episodes).

First #3 – The program was the first sitcom to air on Disney Channel.

First #4 – The program was the first to have a direct spin-off (in this case, it would be the show Cory In The House, which ran for two seasons).

First #5 – The program was the first to be shot on videotape, use a multi-camera format, and filmed in front of a live studio audience.

I guess looking at all that, the show was groundbreaking for its time, wasn't it?



The show also seemed to have a cast that really gelled together and worked together very well, which helped sell the show. I mean, Raven-Symone's portrayal of Raven Baxter was quite memorable, just because Raven was such a loud personality. She was feisty, stylish, and often uses expressions such as 'Oh snap!' and 'Oh, no he didn't!'. She often has visions that may or may not be clear, and her attempts to figure out what the visions were lead to some rather awkward moments, a lot of disguises, and a whole lot of everything going wrong. Want some examples? Okay.

Now, unlike a lot of shows dealing with the supernatural, in which they are forced to keep the secret of their powers, this doesn't happen in That's So Raven. Although the vast majority of the public are unaware of Raven's powers, most of Raven's family and her two closest friends knew all about her visions, and more often than not, became the unsuspecting victims of the very visions that she saw.



Take Raven's best friend Chelsea (Annaliese van der Pol). Chelsea was always a kind-hearted vegetarian environmentalist who loved animals and nature, but let's just say that her elevator didn't quite rise up to penthouse levels. As a result of this, sometimes Raven took advantage of her, and the two friends have gotten into fights because of it. But when Raven had a vision of Chelsea's art project breaking (which happened just seconds later), Raven dressed up in silver clothing and face paint to stand in for the statue until the art exhibit was over.



Raven's other best friend, basketball player and aspiring rapper Eddie (Orlando Jones) was also a victim of Raven's lost in translation visions. Once, at Eddie's birthday party, she had a vision that Eddie's divorced parents were getting back together again, but the vision proved to be mistaken, and almost ruined the party. But the misunderstanding was cleared up, and Eddie and Raven were cool again.



Then there are the visions surrounding her family. Raven had a traditional family which had her father Victor (Rondell Sheridan), mother Tonya (T'Keyah Crystal Keymah, who left the series during its final year), and younger brother Cory (Kyle Massey), who found themselves getting wrapped up in Raven's visions as well. In most cases, these visions lead to a whole lot of trouble for Raven.



When Raven has a vision that Victor is going to be fired from his job, Raven tries to go over to his workplace to try and stop the event from going on. Sadly, Raven's efforts only serve to get Victor fired anyways (thus proving her vision true). By the end of the episode, Raven, Chelsea, and Eddie manage to help Victor get his job back, but this would be a good example of how Raven's visions could have devastating consequences because of misreading them.

Or when Raven and her mother went off on a spa day, and Raven discovers her favourite singer, Miesha, is vacationing at the same spa, she has visions that she will end up meeting her under some wacky circumstance, but can't quite figure out what those are. Of course, when Miesha's dog happens to jump into Raven's bag, and she's accused of dognapping, it leads to chaos. Surprisingly enough, the episode ended off on a positive note.

So, here's something that is rather interesting. Despite Raven's visions usually leading to trouble, everything worked out in the end anyways.

Whoa...a second life lesson at work here! When something goes wrong, in most cases, the damage can be repaired over time if both parties are willing and able. Wow, I'm getting better at this life lesson thing than I thought!



And besides, in some cases, Raven's visions did end up proving to be very helpful. When she had a vision of Cory shoplifting from a store, coupled with Cory's strange reaction to a monkey keychain Raven had found (not realizing that Cory had stolen it after succumbing to peer pressure), Raven dressed up as a police officer to make her vision come true by convincing Cory to stop hanging around the friends who told him to steal, and to convince Cory to return the keychain he stole.



And when Raven and Chelsea were applying for a job at a trendy boutique where Chelsea ended up getting the job despite Raven having a better application, Raven was confused, yet happy for Chelsea. But when Raven had a vision of the saleslady telling someone that she didn't hire black people to work for her, she knew that she had become the victim of discrimination, and set out to use that vision to prove her point.

Raven's visions were pretty sporadic looking back on it. Sometimes, the visions were crystal clear, while other times, it was hazy.

But you know what the one common denominator for all of these visions was? Every single vision she had came from a direct result of an action that Raven did to set everything in motion. In that sense, she became the beholder of her own destiny. She was the one who controlled the visions, rather than the visions controlling her.

And really, isn't that the ultimate life lesson here? Not to let fate control you, but for you to control fate?

Think about it.

And, don't forget to set your clocks back!

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.