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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thursday Night At The Arcade: Final Fantasy VII's Midgar

I'm just an average guy of average age living in an average town working an average job. Sounds pretty average, right?

I don't claim to know much about economics, finances, or the stock market. I imagine that if I had, I wouldn't have nearly the average life I currently live today, now would I? But, I don't really get what's going on with the economy, and it's not because of ignorance as much as it is me just being completely clueless.



I keep reading about all of these Occupy Wall Street movements that are popping up all over the world.  It is true that as of this writing, most of these groups have been dispelled or asked to vacate their protest spots, but there's still a few people protesting away.

It all kicked off in September 2011 when a group of people started protesting in Zuccotti Park, which was near New York City's Wall Street financial district. Some of the things the group was protesting were economic and social inequality, high unemployment, greed, corruption amongst financial leaders, and undue influences of corporations and the government.

I'm also hearing a lot of talk about the 99% and the 1%. The 1% supposedly representing the wealthiest people in the world, and the other 99% being the rest of the world, and how the divide between rich and poor keeps dividing.

But, is it really that dire?

Some statistics and charts seem to say that it is. Reportedly, in 2006, the top 1% of the world earned 18.8% of all income made...which is a little more than double the percentage of the same amount earned by the top 1% in 1980. And a study done in 2007 reported that only 20% of all Americans owned 85% of the country's wealth, while the bottom 80% only owned 15%.

Some rather sobering statistics there.

And, I'm not saying that things aren't grim in the economical aspect. I'm getting by, yes, but I certainly would not classify my own status as being within the 1%. And yes, I'm sure that there are some business owners and heads of huge conglomerates that have done some rather shady business dealings, and have ended up causing more harm than good. Just Google Bernie Madoff to see what I mean.

But at the same time, there are lots of people who have legitimately worked their fingers to the bone to get everything that they have gotten in their lives. They've scrimped and saved everything to be able to afford the lifestyle they live, much to the expense of spending time away from their homes and families to do this.

So, I guess my opinion of Occupy Wall Street is this. I can understand the message behind it, and I can even understand the frustration that a lot of people are feeling over it...but I don't think I myself can fully support the movement...at least not one hundred per cent. If I knew that everyone in the 1% was a corrupt, evil individual whose only purpose in life is to make money, I suppose I might feel differently. It would be so much simpler if everything was so cut and dry, but the truth is, it just isn't so.

That's really all I have to say about that. But it's interesting that today's featured video game is set in a world that much like ours seemed to be experiencing the same thing in regards to the 1% vs. 99% mentality that some in our world seem to have.



Have any of you played the video game Final Fantasy VII? It was released worldwide in 1997 by Square, and depending on who you ask, it can either be the best game in the whole Final Fantasy franchise, or the most overrated.

Myself? I enjoyed the game very much. Apparently, so did a lot of others. There were spinoffs, and mobile games, and movies made from Final Fantasy VII. And nearly fifteen years since its release on the PlayStation console, the game is still debated and discussed by players all over the world.

(SPOILER ALERT: Yes, Aeris Gainsborough dies in the game, and no, you CANNOT bring her back to life. EVER.)

Final Fantasy VII is a HUGE game to get through. The last time I played the game myself, I think the timer read something like fifty-six hours or somewhere around that number.  And, no, I didn't play those fifty-six hours consecutively. That would be insanely stupid.  And besides, I saw the episode of 1000 Ways To Die that dealt with people dying after marathon video game sessions to verify my stance on the matter.

But just to give you an idea as to how big the game was to play, the first six to eight hours of the game are spent in ONE city. One gigantic metropolis of a city which could have easily had an Occupy Wall Street protest group within its limits if it were real.



And that city is what this blog topic is about.



Welcome to Midgar. The largest city in the entire world of Final Fantasy VII. A city where some of the richest and most prosperous people in the world live on the upper levels of the city. The city is divided into nine sectors, numbered from 0-8. There's always lots to do on the upper levels of the town. If you wanted to see a play called Loveless, you could. If you wanted to buy a car, you could. If you wanted to live a life of luxury, you could.



The centerpiece of MIdgar was the massive skyscraper, located in the heart of Sector 0. The skyscraper was the official headquarters of the Shinra Electric Power Company. The employees of the company were well paid, and the company was a moneymaker from the get-go. It originally started off as a weapons manufacturer, but over the last few years, the company made the decision to provide electric power to the global population. The more that people paid, the easier life became. The way that Shinra provided the electric power was through the use of newly discovered mako energy. The company initially started extracting mako from the planet to use for powering up appliances and keeping lights turned on, but soon the company got greedy. Headed by President Shinra, his son Rufus, and such minions as Heidegger, Scarlet, Palmer, and Professor Hojo, the Shinra Company started building reactors in other towns, and began infusing mako energy into powerful weapons. The company used some of the profits to hire a huge military force, even building a military base in the town of Junon to send a message to the world.

The message was that they were in full control, and that the world better appreciate them or else.

The company even injected young men with mako energy to turn them into SOLDIERS, whose sole purpose was to defend the company against everyone who tried to stop them.

And certainly, there were people who wanted to stop them.

The main group being that of AVALANCHE, a group that Shinra has dubbed a terrorist organization. When we first meet the group, there are a total of six members. There's Barret Wallace, the leader of the group, who orders the team to destroy each and every one of Midgar's Mako Reactors. There's Tifa Lockhart, a bartender who doubles as an expert in martial arts. Then there's Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie, a trio of people who specialize in building bombs, breaking codes to secret rooms, and creating fake identification cards.

And then we have Cloud Strife, the newest member of AVALANCHE, who has a childhood connection to Tifa, and who seems to have brief moments of deja vu during the course of the game, but he's unsure of what they mean.



We quickly learn by playing through the first few minutes of the game, and blowing up Sector 1's reactor why AVALANCHE is against Shinra.

Immediately after blowing up Sector 1's reactor, the group escape to Sector 7. But, not the part of the sector that is above ground, where all the nice, rich folk live their lives. No, the group's hideout in Sector 7 is actually below the upper level of the city of Midgar.

It could be best described as this. On the upper level of Midgar, the whole city (save for Sector 6 which at the time of the game was still under construction) was built on a gigantic platform, which could be described as a gigantic pizza. On top of the plate were lavish condos, expensive stores, and multimillion dollar factories.

Underneath the plate though were a whole bunch of towns. It was said that long before the construction of upper Midgar, the towns all had their own names and individual identities, but since Midgar was built, the towns lost their names, and are now referred to by the sector number directly above them.

There was another side effect to being underneath the plate. The people who lived underneath them lived a life of poverty. The homes they lived in were run-down and usually haphazardly constructed from old cardboard boxes and pieces of torn down buildings. The people in the slums basically did whatever they could to survive. They sold broken objects and repaired used things to make a living. Some got lucky by setting up shop in the seedy Sector 6 Wall Market. Mostly, they resorted to mugging and stealing from people to get money for food. Things were that bad.



The AVALANCHE headquarters were located underneath Sector 7, and unlike most of the other slums, Sector 7 at least had a tight-knit community feel to it. Sure, the structures were dilapidated and falling apart, but the people of Sector 7 were like a family to one another. Tifa ran a bar in the area called Tifa's Seventh Heaven, and this bar was the meeting spot for AVALANCHE. It was where they spied on Shinra from below, and where they plotted their next attacks against their reactors.

But before you go thinking that AVALANCHE was a bunch of terrorists who just wanted to cause trouble, consider this. You've seen pictures of Midgar in this blog entry. Does it not seem a little dark to you? That's because one side effect of the extraction of Mako energy for electric power was the huge levels of pollution it caused. Sure, the people in Midgar lived in climate-control comfort inside their towers of glass and steel, but the people in the slums had to breathe in all the smoke and pollution that billowed from the city. Many got sick and even died as a result of it. And the effects weren't just being felt in Midgar.  In Shinra's secondary base at Junon, the fish nearby were dying, and the water was too polluted to fish or even swim in. A real devastating blow to the community, considering that it once had a great fishing industry prior to Shinra's expansion.

There's also some personal reasons behind why AVALANCHE wants to shut Shinra down.



For Barret, his hometown of Corel was razed to the ground by Shinra after the reactor there went haywire, and Shinra blamed the town, despite the fact that Shinra's cutting of costs in building the reactor was likely to blame.  The same could be said for Tifa and Cloud, as the same fate befell their hometown of Nibelheim (though ironically enough, not by Shinra). Another reactor exploded in the village of Gongaga, which is how Aeris joins the party (her boyfriend Zack lived in Gongaga and was executed by Shinra SOLDIERS).



You see what's happening here? Seems as though everything Shinra touches turns to dust. Nibelheim, Corel, Gongaga, and Junon were all negatively affected by Shinra. Some of these towns suffered hardships, and some were even destroyed.

You can see why Barret, Tifa, Cloud, and the others want to do everything in their power to stop Shinra from destroying even more lives.

So, on their next journey, they successfully destroy Sector 5's Reactor, but in the struggle, Cloud ends up separated from the rest of the group, and it's in the slums of Sector 5 that Cloud meets Aeris. An interesting note to make in Cloud's meeting of Aeris is that around Aeris' house, flowers and plants are not only growing, but thriving nearby. Odd that this one place in Midgar looks like a happy, serene place, while the rest of the city is dark and gloomy. But, that's a different story altogether. Just a little bit of a footnote.

Anyway, Cloud and Aeris manage to reunite with Tifa in the middle of Wall Market, and end up arriving in Sector 7 just in time to witness a Shinra attack outside of the pillar separating the upper plate from the slums. Cloud and Tifa rush up the pillar where Barret is holding off the troops, and try to fight the Shinra people off to their best advantage. But when Aeris is kidnapped, and taken off to Shinra Headquarters, AVALANCHE is forced to withdraw. To add insult to injury, a time bomb, ordered to be placed by President Shinra, explodes just as Barret, Cloud, and Tifa escape. 



The bomb takes out the pillar, and the upper portion of Sector 7 collapses right onto the Sector 7 slums. Everyone underneath the plate is killed instantly, including Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. The only survivor from Sector 7 is Barret's daughter, Marlene, who Aeris took to safety just before she was kidnapped by the Shinra.

The loss of Sector 7 is a devastating one for all involved, as the AVALANCHE team lost three members as well as everything they owned. Yet, it gave them even more ammunition for them to use against the Shinra company. For the Shinra company in that moment proved that they weren't above killing hundreds of innocent people just to protect their wealth and their prestige against those who wanted to take it away.

It was almost as if the company was getting a high from making the lives of those around them as miserable as possible, all for the incentive of a high salary and a life of luxury.

And really, corporations like that (and believe me, I'm sure that a few of them do exist in the world), are the types of corporations that the Occupy movement SHOULD be protesting against. Not the entire 1%. Just the part of the 1% that really need it.

I won't go on with describing the rest of the game in detail as it would take forever to talk about all the twists and turns. Heck, I'd need to do a whole entry on Sephiroth (the main antagonist of the game) alone. You'll just have to play it yourself.

But, I really wanted to talk about the city of Midgar in this blog entry. Because it's probably the best example I can think of to describe a worst case scenario. A place where dreams go to die a painful death, and where your every move is controlled by a corporation. I would also like to think that we're nowhere near experiencing this in the real world as of now, but you don't need to tell me how uncertain the future is. As I explained in this blog entry earlier, it would be easy to protest against companies like this if they all acted like Shinra Electric Power Company in Midgar, but we don't know that they are ALL like that. If they were, I would say, bring on the protest.

I guess for now, all we can hope for (especially for all of you in America who are celebrating Thanksgiving right now) is to look back, even if just for one day, and think how grateful we are to have what we have right now in the moment. Maybe some of you will take a look and see that you might have it pretty good right now, even if you are in the bottom 99% of the world.

After all...you could be in Midgar where the divide between rich and poor is so great that you could put the entire Midwest in that gap.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Across The Pond and Beyond - The 11 Doctor Whos

One thing that I find fascinating about the world of pop culture is the fact that whenever a beloved character in a television show gets recast by a different actor, the massive outcry that stems from it all.

You see it all the time in daytime dramas. Whenever a popular soap opera hero or villain gets recast, the outcry that appears on message boards and forums demanding that the original actor/actress return immediately is apparent right away.

Sometimes you see it happen in movies as well. Case in point, the James Bond franchise. There have been several actors to play the iconic role of James Bond over the last fifty years, and everyone has their preferences. I personally prefer Sean Connery in the role myself, though Pierce Brosnan comes a close second. Daniel Craig is okay in the role, and Roger Moore can be hit or miss depending on the movie.

We will NOT discuss Timothy Dalton.

But that's the whole thing about shows and movies that recast characters. We all have our own preferences as to which one we like best. Certainly not all of us are going to agree with each other, and there are some instances in which may have differing opinions. But, that's life. There's some circumstances where nobody could ever replace the original actor, while in others, the replacement ends up the bigger star. But that happens all the time in the world of Hollywood, and in shows that air outside the United States.

Today's blog topic deals with the subject of recasting, and this show probably has done it in a rather ingenious way. Did you know that the main character of the program has been recast TEN times since the show debuted? It's true! And the show is definitely one that is well known within the science-fiction crowd. Especially if you happen to live in the United Kingdom.



That show happens to be the BBC production, Doctor Who. And the show debuted in the UK on November 23, 1963, making the show 48 years young today.



Doctor Who is a show that I probably only caught sporadically in my youth. At the time, the only station that the program aired on was TVOntario, and if I remember correctly, the show only lasted on that network a few years before being pulled (which made sense, if you read further down).

The original run for the television series lasted several years. From 1963-1989, the show ran on BBC for 26 seasons, and was immediately praised by the viewing public for its electronic theme, its well-written storylines, and creative, low-budget sound effects.



The show depicted the adventures of a time-traveling alien, who took on the appearance of a humanoid doctor, exploring the universe in a time-traveling device known as the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space). It has the capability to zoom between time and space, and can send the Doctor anywhere in the world at any given time period. The problem was that the TARDIS took on the appearance of a dark blue police box, circa 1963, due to a faulty mechanism in the TARDIS that prevented it from changing appearance.

During the many adventures that Doctor Who encountered, he faced many foes and villains along the way. There's far too many to list here, as this blog entry could have the potential to be more than two hundred pages long. But, the majority of them can be found on Wikipedia right here. I suppose that like anything on Wikipedia, it's subject to little white lies and half-truths, but I figure I'd post it anyway so that the hardcore Doctor Who fans could get a laugh.

The Doctor wasn't entirely alone in his adventures. He would often have companions tagging along with him (usually in the form of a young, attractive woman), and during the series run, it was estimated that over 35 people served as companions to Doctor Who. Over the course of the series, the Doctor would take on new companions while saying goodbye to others, be it through them leaving of their own accord, or them being killed off.

Anyway, the original series ran until 1989. It was put on hiatus that year, putting the brakes on the 1990 season, due to a change in time slot, and declining public interest in the series. The BBC did make the promise that the show could return one day.

In 1996, the show was temporarily brought back as a film, meant to serve as a backdoor pilot to another Doctor Who revival. It wasn't until 2005 though that Doctor Who returned to the airwaves with all new episodes. The revival proved to be a huge hit with audiences, winning a BAFTA award (think the British version of the Emmy Awards) in 2006 for 'Best Drama Series'. As of 2011, the show still continues to air today.

The show is beloved by many who have watched it over the years, and it appears in the Guinness Book Of World Records as the longest running science-fiction television show in the world, and is widely regarded to be one of the highest rated science-fiction programs of all time.

But Doctor Who is one of those shows in which if you asked someone on the street who their favourite version of the Doctor was, it may have the potential to cause arguments and quite possibly if you were the type to see the worst in everything, social anarchy as we know it.

Since the program debuted in 1963, a total of eleven actors have portrayed Doctor Who. On the show, they explained the ever-changing face by stating that when the Doctor is near death, he has the ability to regenerate his body, at the cost of a different physical appearance. 






Hence the reason why the Doctor has looked like eleven different men. Sometimes, the present Doctor Who can even cross paths with his previous and future incarnations.

Here are the eleven actors who have played the role of Doctor Who below.



Beginning at the top, and then going across the rows, the eleven actors to play Doctor Who are...


Here's a little bit of trivia about Doctor Who, as well as some of the actors themselves.

Did you know that Matt Smith was the only Doctor Who to be nominated for a BAFTA award? Unfortunately, he lost to actor Daniel Rigby.

The premiere of Doctor Who aired one day after American president John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the premiere was understandably overshadowed by the event. The pilot was rebroadcast just before the second episode aired to much higher ratings.

As of 2011, 783 episodes of Doctor Who have been produced.

The show was extremely popular in the United Kingdom, but the suitability of the program for children was questioned throughout the show's original run. Mary Whitehouse, a morality campaigner in the UK during the 1970s, repeatedly campaigned against the BBC for airing Doctor Who, because she claimed it to be excessively gory and frightening for young children. Despite her pleas, more and more children watched the show. It almost became a recurring joke. John Nathan-Turner, who worked as a producer of Doctor Who during the 1980s, stated that he actually looked forward to the comments made by Whitehouse, as it usually meant a spike in ratings during the following episode.

Some of the earlier episodes focused on historical events, which was meant as a way to help teach children about history, while the shows that were set in the future were meant to educate children about science. By 1968, though, the historical episodes were dropped in favour of the science ones, as the production team were vocal about their dislike of them. The show continued to have the Doctor go back in time, but the scenes were mostly used as a backdrop.



The show had many, many writers during its run. While Robert Holmes is widely considered to be the writer most commonly associated with the series, Douglas Adams would end up making a success of himself in the literary world with the book “A Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy”.

Many of the episodes of Doctor Who recorded between 1964 and 1973 were destroyed, and about 108 episodes during the first six seasons of the show are considered missing. The BBC is now trying to find a way to restore these lost episodes, and children's show Blue Peter actually offered up a reward of a full-scale Dalek model as a reward to anyone who found one of these missing episodes.

Reportedly, as a Time Lord, the Doctor can only regenerate twelve times in his lifetime, leading to thirteen different looks. Doctor Who is currently in his eleventh. But lest you think that the series is about to come to an end, there is evidence that a Time Lord can circumvent this.

The first Doctor Who crossover occurred in 1973. Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee all appeared on screen together. This would end up being one of Hartnell's last television appearances before his death in 1975.

Doctor Who's real name has, as of 2011, never been revealed.

The first country to screen Doctor Who outside of the UK was New Zealand. They started airing episodes in September 1964. Since then, a total of fifty different countries currently airs episodes of Doctor Who past and present.

Doctor Who is also a series that has participated with various charitable organizations over the years. One charity that the show has been involved with since 1983 is Children In Need. During the Children In Need telethon, various shows would come up with comedy sketches to air in the hopes of raising money. Doctor Who was no exception. Take a look!


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Life And Times Of Regis Philbin

I tend to work a lot of afternoon and evening shifts at my current 'real job' (also known as the job I do outside of blogging that I actually make money from). My schedule bounces around quite often with my job. Some days, I work from 7am-3pm. Some days, I work 2pm-10pm. There are some days in which I even work...




...yeah...you knew I had to post that, didn't you?

At any rate, my schedule allows me to watch a bit of daytime television, and the only thing I have to say about the world of daytime television is, boy, oh, boy, is it trashy!

Well, okay, maybe not ALL of it is trashy. Certainly, I've briefly talked about how I developed a mild addiction to 'The Young And The Restless' when I was in college, and still watch the occasional episode today. Sure, some people may consider soap operas to be a bit on the trashy side, but a lot of people watched them.

I also like to tune in to the various game shows that air during the daytime slot.  The Price Is Right has been a favourite for many years, even now that Drew Carey has succeeded Bob Barker as host. And while some people have panned the remake of 'Let's Make A Deal', I don't mind Wayne Brady as host. And then there are all the daytime game shows of the past that I used to watch when I was sick from school or home for summer vacation. Shows like Supermarket Sweep, the daytime version of Wheel Of Fortune, and Chain Reaction.

Then there are all of those daytime talk shows. Boy, now those shows are something special, aren't they?

Certainly there are some rather decent ones such as the Ellen DeGeneres show.  And for those who want to cook and redecorate their homes, there's a purpose for shows such as Rachael Ray and the Nate Berkus show.

It hasn't been until the last few years that talk shows have gotten to the point where they just almost seem like parodies of their former selves.

(In fact, stay tuned for next Tuesday's entry, for a bigger discussion on these talk shows...I'm sure that there will be a lot of discussion indeed).

For now, I want to focus on a now former talk show host who many in the industry have declared a real class act. I tend to agree with those people. His career in television spanned several decades, and not only broke records, but smashed right through them! He sang, he hosted talk shows, he hosted game shows, he hosted reality shows. Is there any show he HASN'T been a part of?

At the age of 80, this man definitely started at the bottom and clawed his way to the top, and managed to gain quite a few fans in the process.



The subject for today's blog post is Regis Philbin. And on November 18, 2011, Regis made his final appearance as host of Live With Regis And Kelly. In fact, you can watch his goodbye message below.



Would you believe that Regis' career managed to span a total of SEVEN decades? Working steadily since the late 1950s and retiring in 2011, Regis Philbin's life in front of the camera has been quite dominant to say the least. In fact, in 2004, Regis Philbin surpassed former 20/20 anchor Hugh Downs as logging the most hours in front of a camera in the Guinness Book Of World Records. As of September 2009, Regis Philbin's total hours in front of a television camera was well over sixteen THOUSAND hours...a record that as of 2011 remains unbroken. That's quite an achievement, and I don't think that anybody else could stand a chance of breaking it.

Well, unless American Idol host Ryan Seacrest finds a way to live to be 130.

Whatever the case, part of the reason Regis maintained such longevity in the entertainment industry is because of his personality and warmth on screen, and a lot of people in the entertainment industry have nothing but high praise of the man.

And I think I know the reason why Regis Philbin seems to be held in such high regard by people all over the world...and it kind of ties in to a life lesson for today's blog.

That lesson is: If you want something bad enough, you have to work for it.

It's a lesson that I believe to be true. If someone wants something, they have to earn it. A very fitting lesson given the Occupy Wall Street movements happening all over the world, wouldn't you say?

But seriously here, Regis Philbin's story is one that is quite an interesting read.



Born Regis Francis Xavier Philbin on August 25, 1931 in New York City, Regis's upbringing was not uncommon from anyone else born during the 1930s. He was a member of the Class of '49 from Cardinal Hayes High School, graduated from Notre Dame University in 1953, and immediately enlisted in the United States Navy as a Supply Officer (which made sense, given that Regis' father was in the Marines). After his stint was over, he did a lot of behind-the-scenes work in the radio and television industry during the late 1950s. Which if you look at it is the way that most of us probably started our jobs. I know when I started in my current job, I did all the jobs that nobody else really wanted to do. But that was fine, because there was always the opportunity at moving up, especially if you did the job well.

For Regis, his move up the ladder began right around the time the 1960s began.   

He started off as a page for The Tonight Show, and from there ended up as a writer for then Los Angeles based talk show host Tom Duggan. As it turned out, this gig would inevitably lead to Regis' first on-camera appearance as a host. As it so happened, one night in 1962, Tom Duggan didn't show up for his show (rumour had it that he was a binge drinker, and was too drunk to appear on stage), and since talk shows back in those days were almost always filmed live, the producers needed someone to fill in.

Enter Regis Philbin.

Mind you, when Regis was put on camera to host someone else's show, he was a bundle of nerves, and probably wasn't at his best, but it definitely got people talking.

By 1964, Regis Philbin had taken over hosting the late night Westinghouse Tonight Show from Hollywood, after Steve Allen vacated the host position. Alas, the audience didn't warm up to Regis, and Regis' stint only lasted a few weeks. But this didn't stop Phibin one bit. He had the opportunity to host his own show, based out of San Diego, California, and because the show was so low-budget, he couldn't afford to hire writers. As a result, the first segments of his show were dedicated towards something known as a 'Host Chat', where he would interact with the audience over current events...a trait that ended up being used in some of Regis' future talk show projects. But even Regis had trouble getting an audience for all of his efforts.

But then a man named Joey Bishop walked into Regis' life one day in 1967. Joey Bishop had asked Regis to become his sidekick on his own talk show, The Joey Bishop Show, which ran for two years. If one were to have watched the show back when it aired, people may have confused the two with the popular team of Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon, as Bishop and Philbin traded barbs with each other all the time. For a while, it was playful banter, and both Bishop and Philbin seemed to enjoy working together.



Unfortunately, ABC executives didn't see the humour. In fact, it was reported that Regis Philbin had learned that they didn't like Philbin's thick New York accent, and felt that his work on the show was substandard. This really had hurt Regis' feelings, and one night in 1968, he actually walked off the set and quit on air! For a while, it seemed as though Regis' career was over, but one person refused to give up on Regis.

Joey Bishop.

After a long talk with Joey, and after Joey convinced Regis that he WAS wanted on the show, and that none of the barbs against him were personal, Regis returned to the show a few days later. Ironically enough, when Joey Bishop got the word that his show was going to be pulled off the air in 1969, Bishop actually walked off the air unannounced himself, leaving Philbin to successfully host the rest of the show.

Definitely one of the strangest experiences that Philbin encountered, but it put his name on the map, and this experience would lead to many future opportunities for Philbin to hone his craft of being a successful talk show host.



During the mid-1970s, Philbin got the opportunity to host a show based out of Los Angeles entitled A.M. Los Angeles. He worked with female co-hosts Sarah Purcell (1975-1978) and Cyndy Garvey (1978-1981). And Regis' presence on the show helped it tremendously. In 1975, the show was at the bottom of the ratings, but it eventually became the number one morning show broadcast in Los Angeles at the time. What makes this even more spectacular was the fact that each weekend, Regis was commuting to St. Louis to host a late night weekend talk show! That's a lot of dedication.

Also in 1981, Regis Philbin teamed up with Mary Hart to host a morning variety series for NBC, but that show only lasted four and a half months. Nevertheless, it was just months after that show aired that Mary Hart would get her big break hosting Entertainment Tonight for some thirty years.

For Philbin, his most remembered contribution to the world of television would also come shortly after the cancellation of his NBC morning show.

In 1982, Regis Philbin relocated to New York City to rejoin his former co-host Cyndy Garvey to host ABC's The Morning Show, after Garvey had moved to New York a year earlier. At the time, the show was undergoing some really stiff competition from game shows and other morning program that was extremely popular in the ratings. Also, the show had to compete against the wildly popular talk show Donahue.

It wasn't until 1985 that the show began to have a fighting chance against those shows. And all it took was the right co-host. After Garvey left the morning show, and was briefly replaced by Ann Abernathy, Regis met his third co-host on the show. A young woman named Kathie Lee Johnson.

Who most of you probably know better by her married name of Kathie Lee Gifford.



Now, I know what you're saying, and I know that some of you have your own feelings about Kathie Lee Gifford, but this note isn't about Kathie Lee, so we'll keep that to ourselves. At any rate, Kathie Lee became Regis' co-host in June of 1985, and the ratings improved significantly when she took on the helm. Why? Because Regis and Kathie Lee had some wicked chemistry with each other. Here's a clip of both of them in action below.



Regis' good fortune would continue in the fall of 1988. That was the time in which Live With Regis and Kathie Lee began to air in syndication, and by 1991, when A.M. Los Angeles was cancelled, the show immediately took over the 9am slot in almost every ABC market in the United States. The show also began to air in Canada on CTV. This was the moment that Regis Philbin officially became a household name, and this was only scratching the surface.



In 1999, Regis took on another role. This time, he served as host of a British import game show entitled 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?'. The quiz show debuted during the summer of 1999, and became an instant hit for several years. In fact, I even tried out to be a part of the Canadian version of the show, but alas, I never got a call back. Still though, back in 1999, I remember that Millionaire was one of my favourite shows back around that time, and Regis was a great host. Watch this clip of him in action.



Regis would get another opportunity to host another game show for CBS in the late 00s when he became the host of the show Million Dollar Password.

In 2000, Kathie Lee Gifford made the decision to leave Live With Regis and Kathie Lee, and during the last half of 2000, the show temporarily changed its name to Live With Regis. Initially, the producers and audience were worried that Kathie Lee's departure would negatively affect the ratings, and a search for a new co-host was immediately launched.



By February 2001, Regis had selected soap opera actress Kelly Ripa to serve as his new permanent co-host, and the show's name was changed again to Live With Regis and Kelly. And in this case, lightning proved to strike twice, as viewers warmed up to the fantastic chemistry that Regis seemed to share with his co-star. But, hey, judge for yourself.



And Regis' career didn't just stop there. Regis filled in for Dick Clark for the Rockin' New Years Eve special to ring in the year 2005 after Clark suffered a devastating stroke. He also had a recurring role on Kelly Ripa's sitcom 'Hope & Faith' as a used car salesman named Handsome Hal. He also made guest appearances on The Simpsons, Spin City, How I Met Your Mother, Mad About You, Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show...

...you see how all those hours in front of the camera added up?






And, might I also add that during his career, he fathered four children, and was married twice?  His current wife Joy, occasionally co-hosted with him whenever Kathie Lee or Kelly were away, and you can tell just how much they love each other just by watching them interact with each other.

So, as Regis settles into live after Live, while Kelly Ripa now finds herself in the search for a new co-host, I wanted to write this blog about him because I think having a career as rewarding and exciting as he has is worth writing about, and I think it gives all of us some motivation to go after our dreams the way Regis did himself.

After all, we all start at the bottom...well, unless you were born a Trump, that is...

...still, it's worth the ride. I know Regis Philbin enjoyed it while it lasted.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Monday Matinee - Oliver & Company

What is your first impression when I mention the word Disney?

It's funny. Depending on who you speak to on your day-to-day travels, the word Disney can be a word which can polarize people straight down the middle.

Some people hear the word Disney, and they immediately think of Disneyland and Walt Disney World as being fun places to experience a vacation. They equate the word Disney to everything that is good and wholesome in the world, where morals and ethics are doled out in heaping spoonfuls, and where every ending is a happy one. To some people in the world, the word Disney is one to be celebrated, and has a lot of special meaning to them.

Then there are those people who see Disney as nothing more than a cash cow that just keeps mooing. A heartless corporation which brings pain and misery to all those who dare challenge it. A corporation which purposely peppers its animated features with images and symbolism that is completely inappropriate for children. A company that people have blamed for the cancellation of the soap opera 'All My Children'.

(And, no, I'm not kidding about that last one either...since ABC and Disney merged, soap fans have boycotted everything Disney since that soap opera went off the air two months ago.)

Certainly everyone has a right to their own opinion about the company, and my take is as long as one is respectful in presenting their stance about something, and why they may disagree with someone else, they're free to agree or disagree to their heart's content. It's only when they launch into profanity filled rants and posting disgusting insults towards others that it stops being okay.

I've heard lots of arguments from the pro-Disney and anti-Disney camps, and I can probably come up with arguments that I agree with on both sides. I'm certainly not a fan of Disney's meddling in the music industry lately to produce sub-standard cookie-cutter pop tarts that fill up the charts with bad cover versions of popular songs from before they were born. I find a lot of the recent television projects that Disney has produced to be filled with inane jokes that aren't funny and that are so overexposed in the media that you want to throw a boot through your television screen. Think Hannah Montana, Shake It Up, I'm In The Band, etc. In those ways, I can see how Disney has jumped the shark.

But then there's also the part of me that looks at all the movies that Disney has produced over the years, and I end up falling in love with the company all over again. Mostly I loved the Disney cartoons of yesteryear, like Cinderella, The Aristocats, Snow White And The Seven Dwarves, and 101 Dalmatians. But there was also a ton of great films that took place during Disney's Renaissance period which lasted from 1989-1999. The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Lion King being three of my favourites.

Then there was the period that was in between the Golden Age and the Renaissance period. Films that were produced by Disney that were perfectly good films, but somehow have been forgotten within the depths of the Disney vault. Back in those days, Disney seemed to be more focused on developing their Disney Afternoon block with animated shows. Shows like Winnie-The-Pooh, DuckTales, and The Adventures Of The Gummi Bears. Their movies admittedly got pushed to the side, prompting Don Bluth (who ironically enough worked for Disney until 1979) to strike out with his own animated features, such as An American Tail, The Secret of NIMH, and All Dogs Go To Heaven (which likely amped up Disney's effort to make their features shine even brighter).

And a lot of these movies that were released between 1978 and 1989 by Disney were critically panned, and garnered a lot of mixed reviews. And today's blog entry is all about one of these movies.

Yet ironically enough, this Disney movie is probably one of my favourites. It's not at the top of the list, mind you, but it's definitely in my own personal top ten list.



That movie is Oliver & Company.

The movie was released in November 1988, and it is widely regarded as the last Disney film made before the beginning of the 1989 Disney Renaissance. It was the 27th film in the Disney library of animated films, and it made a respectable $74 million at the box office. However, it took eight years for the movie to be officially released on VHS, and another six after that for it to be released on DVD. The reviews were mixed. Siskel and Ebert, for instance, were split in their assessment, with Siskel thumbing it down, while Ebert gave it his thumb of approval. It also didn't seem to have a lot of promotion surrounding it compared to past and future Disney releases. Sure, McDonald's once sold Christmas ornaments that featured characters from Oliver & Company during the 1988 holiday season, but other than that, were there many other promotional gimmicks? I was seven when the film was released, and I can't seem to recall there being a huge rush for Oliver & Company themed toys and games that year.

There's actually a lot of trivia surrounding the development of the film. When the idea was pitched in late 1987, and animated throughout 1988, it was originally designed to be a sequel to the 1977 film The Rescuers (though an eventual sequel, The Rescuers Down Under was released in 1990). It was also the first animated feature to be made since the original braintrust of Disney animators (affectionately known around the Disney company as 'The Nine Old Men' had retired, making way for a group of brand new animators at the helm. It was the first Disney film to fully utilize the art of computer animation, which had been used sparingly in previous films. It was also Disney's first attempt at a musical themed animated film since 1981's The Fox And The Hound. The film was also notable for having logos and real-world advertising from such companies as Ryder Truck Rental, Sony, and Coca-Cola. Disney defended this by stating that they did not do this for product placement. Rather, they did it for realistic purposes.

Which to me makes sense. When you consider that the film takes place in New York City circa 1988, you can't really walk down a street in that city without seeing some sort of billboard or neon sign advertising something, especially in places like Times Square.



And Oliver & Company's first few scenes are set right smack dab in the middle of Manhattan, New York. At the beginning, we meet an orange kitten who goes by the name of Oliver (the name being chosen due to the story's similarity to the classic Charles Dickens novel, Oliver Twist). Oliver is shown with quite a few other kittens in a box on a New York City street, where one by one, the other kittens are adopted by people walking past.

Every kitten, except Oliver (who was voiced by child actor Joey Lawrence).

Poor Oliver is left to wander the streets of New York City, looking for some place to call his home.



But along the way, Oliver ends up crossing paths with a street-wise dog named Dodger (voiced by singer Billy Joel), who sees Oliver as being 'fresh meat'. Dodger manages to trick Oliver into stealing hot dogs from a hot dog vendor's cart, and in this scene, you'll hear Dodger sing for his supper.



Oh, by the way, Dodger eventually flees the scene with the grub, leaving poor Oliver hungry and alone. But despite the fact that Dodger basically used him to get a free meal, Oliver makes the choice to follow him to his hideout, a barge owned by a petty criminal named Fagin (Dom DeLuise).



It's here that Oliver comes face to face with Dodger's buddies. There's Tito the chihuahua (Cheech Marin), Einstein, the Great Dane (Richard Mulligan), Rita, a Saluki (Sheryl Lee Ralph), and Francis, a bulldog (Roscoe Lee Browne). It takes a while for the gang to accept Oliver, but after a while, they welcome him with open paws.



Of course, Oliver's timing could not be more wrong. Almost immediately after Oliver arrives, Fagin is confronted by an evil and creepy loan shark named Sykes (Robert Loggia). Apparently, Fagin borrowed money from Sykes some time ago, and now Sykes has come to collect what he is owed. For protection, he has brought his two Dobermans, Roscoe and DeSoto (Taurean Blacque and Carl Weintraub), who immediately try to attack poor Oliver. Luckily, Dodger and the rest of his gang fend the vicious dogs off. But Sykes means business with Fagin. If Fagin doesn't pay off the debt that he owes him within the following three days, Sykes would take possession of Fagin's home and destroy it.

Now with their backs and tails against the wall, Fagin and his pets grow determined to save their home. With Oliver on their side, they feel as though they have an extra mind to work with them. The group take to the streets of New York City, hocking counterfeit goods to unsuspecting people, and resorting to stealing from others to pay off the debt. Tito and Oliver break away from the group in an effort to sabotage a nearby limousine. Their plan is to stall the limousine so that they could steal something valuable from its owners. But somehow, Oliver accidentally slips on the ignition key and falls over the dashboard while Tito electrocutes himself. The resulting electrocution causes the wiring in the limo to go haywire, and in the confusion, Oliver ends up getting caught by the passengers of the limo...a young girl named Jenny and her butler.



Oliver is taken to Jenny's home, which could best be described as luxurious, gigantic, and filled with everything money could buy. It makes sense, given that Jenny's parents are rich and loaded, and therefore spend their money by going all over the world visiting country after country. Unfortunately, their frivolous spending has lead Jenny to feel like the 'poor little rich girl' who feels incredibly lonely. All she really has for companionship is her butler, and a French Poodle named Georgette (Bette Midler). Now that Oliver has come into Jenny's life, Jenny is overjoyed to have a new friend to play with, much to the chagrin of the incredibly jealous Georgette, who wants the cat gone.

At some point, Dodger and the rest of his gang manage to track Oliver down, and Georgette is more than happy to assist the group with not only finding Oliver, but getting him out of the home so he can go back with them. To Dodger's surprise though, Oliver proclaims that he didn't want to leave. He was well taken care of there, and he grew to adore Jenny. Dodger at first is hurt by Oliver's revelation, and feels as though Oliver was being very ungrateful towards him and his group, but does allow Oliver the opportunity to leave.

But before Oliver can come to that decision, a depressed Fagin arrives back home, seemingly accepting of the fact that he is about to lose everything. But then he discovers that Oliver was being taken care of by an owner who was extremely rich, and that he could maybe hold Oliver for ranson so he could raise enough money to pay off the debts he owed Sykes. He fills Sykes in on the plan before hand, and leaves the note. Jenny, who by this point is extremely heartsick over Oliver's disappearance, discovers the note, and taking Georgette with her, heads over to Fagin's barge in hopes that she can negotiate the demands that the ransom note stated. Once Fagin locks eyes on Jenny, and hears her story, he immediately has feelings of guilt, and pangs of conscience. The more Jenny tells Fagin how much she loves Oliver, the worse Fagin feels. Fagin is so moved by the little girl's pleas that he decides to renege on the deal he had made with Sykes earlier, and offers to give Oliver back to Jenny, free of charge.

It was supposed to have been a happy ending, but unbeknownst to Fagin and Jenny, Sykes watched the whole transaction unfold, and wasn't too happy. He pops out of the shadows, kidnaps Jenny, and makes off with her, telling Fagin that the debt was cleared provided he not say a word.

So now Fagin is feeling even more terrible about himself, letting Jenny get abducted, and he makes the choice to finally set things right and rescue Jenny from Sykes. Dodger, Oliver, and the rest of the gang follow along in the hopes of saving Jenny, and making Oliver's dream of finding a real home come true in the process.

All I'll say is that the last half hour of the movie is really worth watching, and karmic retribution seems to work in overdrive on both the positive and negative meters.

Now, rewatching this film, I don't quite understand why the film didn't get the recognition and the accolades it deserved. Yeah, the film had some parts in it that didn't make sense (I mean, why the heck would Fagin tell Sykes about the plan before it even happened...yeah, that worked out well). But even so, it was a great movie, with great character development, and had a great message. And really, when you have a movie like that, does it really matter what company produces it?



Not in my book.