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Friday, December 02, 2011

TGIF: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Before I kick off today's blog entry, I'd like to post a little mood music, if you don't mind.



There. That's better.

You know, today is December 2, and we're just 23 days until Christmas. But, looking outside my window, you'd never know it. The weather's been unseasonably warm (which delights some people in my area, but depresses me), and instead of there being snow on the ground, we have green grass. Again, some may be enjoying it, but I like me some snow on Christmas. But, there's still time yet for the snowflakes to fall.

I get so much delight out of the little things that make Christmas seem more...Christmasy. Snow on the ground, the various lights and decorations on trees, the happiness that people are supposed to feel.

The key word there is 'supposed'.

Lately, it seems as though the closer and closer we get to Christmas, the more and more grouchier some people seem to get.

And why are these select people getting so grouchy?

I think it's because of the fact that Christmas has gotten incredibly commercial.  So commercial that the various advertisements, store flyers, and catalogues are practically in your face saying 'BUY ME!'

I mean, all you need to do is take a look back to last Friday to get some examples of what I'm talking about. As many of you know, last Friday was the shopping holiday known as 'Black Friday', a magical day where stores slash the prices of such items as video game consoles, television sets, clothing, and bedding accessories in hopes of getting major profit. They say that day is the kickoff towards the holiday shopping season.

But reading about some of the horror stories that have emerged from Black Friday over the years, one has to wonder if the day is really worth it?

Sure, the stores and merchants make a killing in profits and cash. But the people who are buying the items that are on sale are making a killing themselves, as in they're literally trying to kill each other in hopes of snatching a $99 television or $3 bath towel. A couple of years ago, a Walmart associate was trampled to death when a crowd of anxious shoppers stormed the doors. Last week, a woman in California pepper-sprayed other customers in front of her in hopes of getting a discounted XBOX 360. And I watched a clip of another Walmart location on the local news where people were literally crawling over top of each other just to get bath towels.

And, I just shake my head with a combination of disgust and disappointment. Is this REALLY what Christmas is all about? Waiting in line hours before the store opens up and practically risking yourself bodily harm just to get a stupid hunk of plastic that one can use to waste more time with? That's shameful. Although I do understand the rush one feels when they save a fortune on an item that they get on sale, there's nothing in the world that I would want that badly that would involve me pushing someone out of the way to get. If they don't have the item I want, I'll just wait until it becomes available. I may pay more money, but at least I'll keep all of my fingers and toes. And for those of you who say that Black Friday is fun, remind me never to come by any of your holiday parties.

But you know, I'm probably not the only one to question the true meaning of Christmas. Back in 1965, another person had those same feelings of what the true meaning of Christmas really was. Like myself, he didn't think it was about the presents, and the spending, and the huge bills people rack up. And like myself, he seemed to be one against everyone else in the world.




Yet in Charlie Brown's case, it all seemed to work out.



Yes, today's blog entry (and the first of many holiday themed entries for the month of December), happens to be about the very first Peanuts themed prime-time special that aired on television. That special being 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'. The show made its debut on December 9, 1965. Just like 'It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown', the special aired exclusively on CBS until the year 2000, and was moved to ABC in 2001, where it has aired since. This special has become a holiday tradition for many generations, and sometimes airs twice, even thrice, during the month of December.

Here's a little bit of irony in regards to the special. Many people don't know this, as the special has been edited since the original broadcast, but the special was sponsored by Coca-Cola. Seems kind of bizarre that a special about finding out the real meaning of Christmas was sponsored by a soft drink company, but it was the only way that creator Charles M. Schulz could get the money to finance the special. During the first three years the program was aired, there were references to Coca-Cola present in a couple of scenes, but by 1968, they were removed. Part of the reason why the final song in the special was cut off was because of a Coca-Cola message that originally aired during the closing credits, which said “Brought to you by the people in your town who bottle Coca-Cola”. That's your trivia fact for today.



The special was the first one in a long series of television specials starring the Peanuts gang, and it was completed on a shoestring budget. As a result of this, the animation in some places looked choppy. To add to the hardships in producing the special, a lot of the child actors that were cast had no experience in the field of voice acting. A couple of them had difficulty reading the script, so their lines had to be cued one line at a time. As a result, a lot of editing had to be done regarding the voice tracks, which lead to lines being poorly delivered and with a lack of enunciation.

It should also be known that after the special was completed, network executives from CBS had several complaints about it, such as the production team's refusal to add a laugh track, as well as the use of children as voice actors. They also had two majorly huge complaints that had they gotten their way would have changed the course of the special forever. But, I'll get to that in a second.




'A Charlie Brown Christmas' starts off at an ice skating rink that nature created by freezing a pond. Charlie Brown is talking with Linus about how upset he is about Christmas being over-commercialized. Despite the presents, the cards, and the tree decorating, he can't bring himself to get excited over Christmas.

As the show continues, Charlie Brown's disillusionment rises. He doesn't receive any Christmas cards from anyone, and his younger sister writes Santa a letter asking him to bring her cold hard cash in lieu of presents. Even his dog Snoopy seems to be caught up in the commercialism of Christmas, as the sole reason behind Snoopy decorating his dog house is to win a holiday display contest.



But then Charlie Brown gets a brilliant idea, courtesy of Lucy and her psychiatric help stand. Although Lucy gets a little too nickel happy, she suggests that Charlie Brown direct their school play involving the Nativity. Charlie Brown thinks this is a great idea, and the perfect way for him to experience Christmas in a more traditional manner.



Yet when he gets to the school auditorium, he sees the cast members of the play dancing to modernized music and dancing, basically going against all of the traditional values that he had hoped to exhibit during the school play.

And it is here that we come across one of the major complaints that the network executives had against the program when it was first developed.



The music.

I know it seems hard to believe that the music would be something that the executives would want to get rid of. The music made the special. The track entitled “Linus and Lucy” was one of the best pieces of music ever created! Have a listen to it!



And the network executives HATED it! They had felt that the music (composed by the Vince Guaraldi trio) was too jazzy for a children's program. I'm guessing that they probably wanted something more...traditional. Or maybe something more childlike? Who can say really? But I really can't imagine Charlie Brown without that iconic music, and I'm glad that Charles M. Schulz and Bill Melendez stuck to their guns and fought for the music to be heard.

Anyway, back to the story. Seems Charlie Brown really wanted a chance to prove himself to the rest of the cast, and he had a vision of making the school play one filled with tradition and getting rid of the commercialism altogether.

And what better way to capture the spirit of Christmas than by having an old-fashioned Christmas tree as the centerpiece of their school play? Of course when he shares the idea with the rest of the gang, Lucy and the others are all for the idea.

Provided that Charlie Brown bought one of those shiny, pink-tinted aluminum trees that looked like nothing that could ever come out of nature, but because it was modern and looked groovy, it had to be great.

So Lucy and the others give Charlie Brown the money to buy the tree, and Charlie Brown and Linus head down to the Christmas tree lot, eager to find a real, traditional Christmas tree to use in the production. But when they get there, all they see are those tacky looking aluminum trees in every colour imaginable except green. Hmm...so maybe people aren't so into the modern aspect of Christmas after all.

Without a real tree to be found, Charlie Brown and Linus almost give up. But then, Charlie Brown sees it.



Now to most of us, this looks like a branch that one might come across after the tree has been trimmed and pruned to make them suitable for decorating purposes. But to Charlie Brown, this little tree was perfect for exhibiting the point that he wanted to make about Christmas being traditional. Linus is concerned that Charlie Brown might be making a mistake in selecting the tree, but Charlie Brown insists that with some lights and decorations, it will be the perfect tree to use.

If only snobby Lucy and the others could see things the way that Charlie Brown could. For when Charlie Brown brought in the little twig of a tree, he got laughed at and made fun of. According to the Peanuts gang, the blockhead screwed up again, and they wasted no time in making fun at his expense, taking glee and delight in what he thought was a great tree.

Sigh...so much for the Christmas spirit spreading amongst that mob.

Charlie Brown is naturally upset. I mean, wouldn't you be if you were in his shoes? He wonders if anyone actually knows what Christmas is all about.

It is here that Linus steps up to the stage, symbolically drops his blanket on the ground, and in one of the most poignant scenes in the whole show makes this speech, taken from the Gospel according to Luke.



Wasn't that a beautiful moment? I'm hardly considered to be the religious type myself, and even I was moved by it. Linus' monologue brought everyone to silence, and the way he delivered it in his childlike manner was just...wonderful.

So therefore it gave me great shock to learn that Linus' monologue could have ended up on the cutting room floor if network executives had their way!

I know...it seems shocking that such a wonderful scene would even be considered to be edited out of the final production. Apparently, network executives didn't think that the average person wanted to sit through Bible passages in a special about Christmas. This was a battle that Melendez and Schulz refused to back down on. Schulz was adamant that the scene be kept in, because according to Schulz, if they didn't show the real meaning of Christmas in the show, who would?

The network executives finally gave in, and aired the show as it was produced, but they didn't expect the show to last beyond one airing. Boy, were they wrong!

So, inspired by Linus' words of wisdom, a newly revigorated Charlie Brown takes his little tree and vows to decorate it himself. He leaves the auditorium, places the tree next to Snoopy's doghouse (which ended up winning the contest), and starts decorating the tree by placing a bright red ornament ball on the branch. The tree immediately wilts and Charlie Brown is distraught, thinking that he has killed it. He's about ready to dejectedly give up on the idea of having a real, true, Christmas.

But, wait. It appears as though Linus' words have melted the hearts of the Peanuts gang who moments ago showered Charlie Brown with cruelty and hurt feelings. With Linus following behind, the Peanuts gang come across the tree where Linus says that it's not a bad tree after all. Having lots of decorations to choose from in regards to Snoopy's doghouse, the Peanuts gang to to work on the tree in hopes of surprising Charlie Brown. This was the end result.



Wasn't that sweet?

I have been in love with this show since the first time I saw it on television years ago. In the end, Charlie Brown got his wish. He got to experience a real traditional Christmas filled with carols, friendship, and tradition. The Peanuts gang learned a valuable lesson about how sometimes being modern and materialistic wasn't always the way to go. And I think that the viewer can take a lot out of this Christmas special.

That Christmas isn't about battling with people over Black Friday deals. It's not about outdoing one another with holiday light displays. It's not about shopping at the most expensive stores, buying the most expensive wrapping paper, sending the most expensive Christmas cards.

I think ultimately, Christmas is what you make of it. But as far as I'm concerned, Christmas is about spreading love and joy to others around you, and finding joy in giving, rather than receiving.

And for those of you who still have yet to learn that lesson, I hope that it will come to you, no matter what holiday you celebrate this month.


Thursday, December 01, 2011

Thursday Night At The Arcade - StarTropics

It seems hard to believe, but we're now in the final month of 2011. Crazy how this year has flown by, huh?

Anyways, for the month of December, I have a whole bunch of holiday themed entries planned, but they won't start until tomorrow. Rather than oversaturate you with twenty-five days of Christmas goodness, I'll designate one or more day of the week to a regular topic (but if I can make a connection to Christmas, all the better). Reason for this? There's not a lot of video games made where you have to rescue Santa, nor is there a Christmas carol version of Singstar or Guitar Hero, or Dance Dance Revolution.

Although the four games that I'll be featuring in the weeks before Christmas WERE Christmas gifts I received as a child, so at least we have that going for us.

Okay, so let's get started.

When it comes to logic puzzles, and games that force you to use your brain, they can be both a blessing and/or a curse. I've always loved video games and brain teasers that make you think. In fact, if one were to go through my collection of video games for the various consoles that I've played over the years, most of them are puzzle games, role playing games...heck, I even have a video game for Sudoku.

Because I think that a good video game, much like a good jigsaw puzzle or brain teaser, should make a person think. They should make a person want to play it because of the challenge level. That's not to say that I want to play games that require you to have a degree in physics or robotics, or anything like that. I just like games that require a lot of intelligent thought. Which is probably why you'd never see games such as Halo, Call of Duty, or Grand Theft Auto in my gaming library. Not saying that they're bad games, but they don't really make one think about much except stabbing, shooting, and bludgeoning people to death.

But, hey, those are the games that the so-called “cool” kids play, and I never really saw myself as “cool”. Isn't cool such an overused word, come to think of it?

So, wouldn't it just absolutely terrible if you were putting together a puzzle that was, oh, say...1000 pieces, and you only ended up having 999? That would be absolutely frustrating. It was as if you had spent all that time working on that puzzle only for it to be incomplete.

Or how about when you're playing a role playing game, and you have come to a point in the game where you're absolutely stuck in the game and don't know what your next move is? You might come across a boss that you're unable to defeat. Or maybe you're stuck in a dungeon that is like a maze and you can't get out. Or maybe you have absolutely no idea what town to go to in order to make the story advance. These events may make one want to pull out all the hair on their head, but nowadays people can visit websites like www.gamefaqs.com to get any information that they need to get through the game without difficulty.

Or, maybe you get a game for Christmas one year, and your first instinct is to throw away all the non-essential pieces in the game that you don't need (instruction booklet, maps, etc), and it turns out that one of the pieces that may have been thrown out is a piece that you actually need to COMPLETE the game? And because the game came out in 1990, you were literally as a loss as to how you would get the information needed to solve this impossible puzzle.

That was the situation that many, many people who had this game faced, and as a result of this, unless they had a lot of free time on their hands, the game was pretty much unbeatable.



That was the situation that many people who owned a copy of the 1990 Nintendo game, StarTropics, faced.

But before we get into that situation that caused gamers to down an entire bottle of Advil to get rid of the stress related headaches caused from the frustration of the game, let's talk a little bit about StarTropics.



StarTropics was released in North America exactly twenty-one years ago today, on December 1, 1990. It was released in Europe two years later. Surprisingly enough, it never saw a release date in Japan, which was odd, since many of the Nintendo games that were released came out of Japan.

The best way that I can describe this game is that it is a tropical island version of 'The Legend Of Zelda'. In fact, the gameplay is almost exactly like the gameplay of the Zelda series. The only difference was that StarTropics had a clear cut storyline that was linear, whereas Zelda was more open-ended. Even so, it was still a fun game to play, where you'd have to move and leap and boeing...ahem...boing across gaps and chasms.



You take on the role of Mike Jones, a teenaged boy who went to the fictional C-Island, to visit his Uncle Steve, an archaeologist who lived and worked on C-Island. However when Mike arrives on C-Island, he finds that his uncle has gone missing without a trace. Mike is naturally worried about his uncle, and sets off to find him. With assistance from Baboo, who worked as the assistant of Mike's uncle, Mike takes off in his uncle's submarine to travel to different island nations in hopes of finding his uncle alive. Shortly after Mike takes off from Coralcola (the main settlement of C-Island), he discovers a message in a bottle sent from his Uncle Steve. The letter explained that he had been abducted by an alien race, and that the only way he can escape is by rescuing him.

Wow...tropical islands AND aliens? This game just got a whole lot cooler!

With the help of the robotic control system in his uncle's submarine (affectionately named NAV-COM), Mike could travel from island to island in hopes of finding out what happened to his uncle. But along the way, Mike will be sidetracked by various villagers and people on the islands, and he will have to help them with their problems in order to continue his quest. For instance, in one level, he has to help reunite a mother dolphin with her baby, who had been kidnapped by a giant octopus. In another level, he has to help the Chief of Miracola revive his daughter, who fell into a deep sleep as a result of a curse. In one level, you even have to dress up as a woman in order to get help from the female-run village of Shecola. Some of the puzzles are rather ingenious as well.  You have to play a keyboard to open a door, based on clues given by a bright red parrot. You have to enter an abandoned village to fight off a whole bunch of ghosts. You even get swallowed whole by a gigantic whale in the middle of the game!

But wait...you have help in the form of weapons and items. When you first play the game, Mike is only armed with a yo-yo. Now, some may think that a yo-yo is no defense against evil monsters and scary things, but Mike must have won some yo-yo competitions in his youth because he can shoot off his yo-yo with deadly force. During the course of the game, his yo-yo can be upgraded into better weapons to use, but only if his health is high enough. There are also temporary weapons he can use as well, such as baseballs, baseball bats, and slingshots.
THE ANSWER IS 747
At the beginning of the game, Mike only starts off with just a few hearts. During the course of the game, Mike will be able to find large heart containers that will add hearts to Mike's life meter (a maximum of 22 hearts can be placed in the life meter during any game). And as the game progresses, he'll need EVERY heart he can get, as Mike only has three lives during the course of any game (unless he gets rare 1-UP's in the game through the Try-Your-Luck minigames that occasionally pop up). If Mike loses all of his lives, it's game over, and he'll have to start at the very beginning of the dungeon he was playing at the time.



At the end of each level, Mike will usually face some sort of boss character. And, each boss will have some sort of strategy to defeat them. For instance, when you're fighting the octopus that abducted the baby dolphin, you have to wait until he gets close, freeze him with a snowman doll, and attack away until the deep freeze melts. In another, you have to use a rod of sight to make a giant ghost appear to kill him. In another battle, you have to defeat a boss by making the platform that he's standing on sink into the ocean below. Some of these boss battles are fairly easy. Some are obscenely hard.

And once you rescue Uncle Steve, there's one level where Mike will have to board a spaceship...



...ahem...I said SPACESHIP...



...to defeat the head alien (named Zoda) once and for all to save not only the island nations that Mike visited, but also to rescue a treasure that Zoda had Steve take while he was under Zoda's control.

All in all, I though StarTropics was a decent game, and incredibly challenging. So challenging that I only really did manage to beat the game once and only once. But really, it was a fun game to play, and it turned out to be one of the better presents that I received from Santa back on Christmas 1991.

But now here's where the frustration comes into play. It was bad enough that the gameplay for StarTropics was challenging and difficult. Turns out that many gamers couldn't get past chapter four in the game at all.

Why was that?

Because in order to get through chapter four of the game, you needed to know what the secret code was to get a radio frequency needed to advance further in the game. And what was worse, the code was NEVER revealled in the gameplay at all.

Or, was it?

When most people got the StarTropics game brand new, they found the cartridge, an instruction booklet, and a letter written on parchment paper from Mike's Uncle Steve, congratulating Mike on his success with the high school baseball team, as well as his looking forward to his visit.

Now, if you're like a lot of game players, the most important part of the game was the cartridge itself, and it wasn't uncommon for people to think the letter was just some fancy added bonus and threw it away in the trash.

What many gamers didn't realize until it was too late was that the letter CONTAINED THE CODE NEEDED TO COMPLETE CHAPTER FOUR! Can you imagine a gamer getting to chapter four, and the game prompting you to enter the 3-digit code needed to advance, and you didn't have the letter? That would be frustrating!  



Gamers were so frustrated by it that Nintendo Power magazine was forced to publish the code in order to keep up with the demand of letters from fans asking about the code!

Here's the letter in question.


And, here's the message blown up in case you can't read it.



Thank goodness I was a bit of a packrat back in my childhood. I managed to still have the letter that came with the game, and I managed to get through without any problems. But it was an ingenious move by Nintendo, and it added an extra bit of challenge to the game. Those who didn't have the letter? Well, you could still play the game by guessing the code, but with one thousand different possibilities, needless to say you'd be wasting a lot of time.

But, you've now seen the letter, and I know what you're saying...there's no code on the letter at all.

Ah, but there is.



There's a point in the game that sounds like a cryptic clue that doesn't make a lot of sense the first playthrough. But the clue reads 'tell Mike to dip my letter in water'.

And that's all you needed to do. You didn't have to dunk the entire letter in a sink full of water, for that would destroy the letter. But, if you look at the empty space down below the letter, all you had to do was dip that part in water, and the code would appear, written in invisible ink.

Cool, huh?

Now, for people who bought the game used, or who lost their letters, they were pretty much out of luck until the Internet came along. And, I have revealled the code to all of you in this blog entry somewhere.

You just have to look for it. There's three clues that reveal the 3-digit number hidden somewhere on this entry.

Can you figure it out?



Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Across The Pond and Beyond - Sheena Easton

I have a question for you. Are you resistant to change?

Are you a person who is so set in your ways that you absolutely refuse to change anything about yourself, your surroundings, or your life for that matter?

Or, are you the type of person who embraces changes, and goes out of your way to get rid of everything old to bring in the new.

As far as my own life is concerned, I'll admit that there are some instances in which I'm reluctant to make changes. Not necessarily because I'm stubborn. Most certainly not because I'm one hundred per cent content in my life, because let's face it. None of us really are.

No, I think my biggest challenge to embracing change is the fact that I suffer from a bit of indecision in my life. I'm well-known around my friends and family for being a major flip-flopper when it comes to making decisions. I sometimes second guess, or even third and fourth guess every decision that I make. It can be a potentially annoying habit to overcome.

I see myself wanting to make some changes, but then I think things over, and I wonder, am I making the right decision? And then I think, I'm totally not making the right choice. Seconds later, I think that this choice could be the best thing for me.

And then before I know it, by the time I come to a real decision about what I know it right, the moment has passed, and time has expired, and I'm left not really making any changes at all.

Of course, I'm not painting myself as some indecisive twit who is incapable of making decisions and embracing change. I'm not totally like that. I did make some positive decisions in my life that have helped out. I got healthier, I started up this writing venture, and I'm on the right track. I'm not exactly where I want to be in my life, but I'm getting there.

Perhaps if I weren't so indecisive about certain matters, it wouldn't have taken me this long to make this realization about myself. But, now that I have, I can now begin the process to embrace change even more.

(Wow...now that I've written that out, I guess all of you out there are gonna hold me to that promise now, aren't you?)

Anyway, that's what this blog post is all about. Embracing change, no matter how shocking or drastic it might be, and coming out of it a stronger person. A person who knows what he or she might want out of life.

Today's subject is a woman who seems to have left the demons of indecision behind in her wake, and who has embraced change completely. Granted, some of these decisions have been met with much criticism from parents groups, and even the people of her birth country, but in her eyes, she kept doing what she felt was best for herself and her career. And really, how could anyone get mad at her for that?



Today's Across The Pond and Beyond subject is singer Sheena Easton.

Born Sheena Shirley Orr in Scotland, on April 27, 1959, Sheena had always had a keen interest in music and singing. When she was only five years old, she sang a song called 'Early One Morning' at her aunt and uncle's 25th wedding anniversary party in front of a group of family and friends. Her early childhood was marked with sadness, as her father died when she was only ten years old. Although her mother worked hard to provide a living for Sheena and her five siblings, Sheena always seemed to speak very highly of her mother, as her mother made sure that she was always there for them whenever they needed her.



It wasn't until Sheena watched the film 'The Way We Were', starring Barbra Streisand that she made the decision to want to pursue a career in singing. Watching Barbra singing at the beginning of the movie while the opening credits were displayed on the screen really got to Sheena, and she wanted to have the same impact with people the same way that Barbra did.

(Ironically enough, Sheena would get her own opening credit moment when she sang the theme to the 1981 James Bond film 'For Your Eyes Only'.)

Sheena's hard work in school earned her high grades, which lead to her attending the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama on a scholarship. She graduated from the program in 1979, choosing to study teaching instead of performing, as Sheena felt the program would help her perfect her singing skills. That same year, she married a man named Sandi Easton. Although the marriage barely lasted a year, Sheena did end up taking his last name and using it as her own professional name. Thus Sheena Orr became Sheena Easton.

As it turned out, 1979 would also be a big year for Sheena in another way. One of the instructors of the school that Sheena attended convinced her to audition for Esther Rantzen, who was the producer of a BBC show called 'The Big Time'.  Way before the days of American Idol and The Voice, 'The Big Time' was a sort of reality show in the form of a documentary film, which detailed the life of an unknown singer hoping to make it big in the world of pop music.

Sheena Easton was chosen to be that unknown.

The show debuted in 1980, and showed Sheena's struggles with making it big in the world of music, which included footage of another singer named Lulu telling Sheena that she would NEVER make it as a singer.

I bet somewhere out there, Lulu is eating her words right about now.



Within a year of the program airing on television, Sheena was signed to EMI Records on a recording contract, and by 1980, she was recording songs for her first album, 'Take My Time'.

Sheena's first single, 'Modern Girl' was a modest hit in the United Kingdom. Released on February 29, 1980, the song came out just before 'The Big Time' aired, and only managed to reach #56 on the charts. After the show aired though, the song was re-released and made the Top 10 in the UK during the summer of 1980 (Top 20 in the United States). In August of 1980, Sheena's second single managed to hit the Top 10 the same time that 'Modern Girl' was still on the charts, making Sheena the first female artist ever to have two Top 10 hits on the same charts.

Now, in the United States, they wouldn't hear Sheena's second single until 1981...but in this case it was worth the wait, as the song became Sheena's first, and as of 2011, only #1 hit on the Billboard Charts.



ARTIST: Sheena Easton
SONG: Morning Train (9 to 5)
ALBUM: Take My Time
DATE RELEASED: May 16, 1980
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #1 for 1 week

In the United Kingdom, the song was simply titled '9 to 5', and peaked at #3 there. In the United States, the song title was changed to 'Morning Train' with the 9 to 5 in brackets. The reason? Well, at the same time, Dolly Parton had just released her own song called '9 to 5', for the soundtrack of the movie of the same name which had come out in 1980, and the name was changed in order to differentiate between the two songs. Morning Train hit the pole position on May 2, 1981, and that song became the first of several top ten hits for Easton.



But if you took a look at the video, you'd see that Sheena Easton's earliest works were quite tame and serene in nature. Heck, the whole Morning Train video shows Sheena riding a bicycle through the Scottish countryside and hopping a train. It was a nice video for the early 1980s, but watching it thirty years later, it does seem kind of bland.

Still, the success did put Sheena Easton on the map, and in 1981, Easton won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. By 1982, however, her record sales started to decline, and Sheena was starting to lose her footing on the music charts.

Certainly, Sheena continued to make music, and had a couple of hits in 1983, and earned a second Grammy that same year for her work on a Spanish language duet she sang with Luis Miguel. But it wasn't until 1984 that Sheena made the decision to go a completely different direction. If Sheena was to have any staying power on a music chart that was always changing, she would have to get edgy.



Enter her 1984 album, 'A Private Heaven'.

The first release, 'Strut' was a catchy tune, and became Easton's fifth Top 10 single, and was nominated for another Grammy award for the single.

But then Sheena's second single from the album stirred up a lot of controversy for the singer, and made her the target of parents groups and Tipper Gore.



The song 'Sugar Walls', which came out around the end of 1984/beginning of 1985 was placed on the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Council) list of what they deemed one of the “Filthy Fifteen”, songs that were deemed indecent because of lyrical content. Many radio stations refused to play the song on air, and the music video was banned for a time on MTV, not because of visual content, but because of the lyrics.

I guess this is the time to inform everyone that the song 'Sugar Walls' refers to the walls of a woman's...ahem...private heaven, so to speak. Then again, the song was co-written by Prince (under the pseudonym of Alexander Nevermind), whose own song, 'Darling Nikki' was also on the Filthy Fifteen list, so it goes without saying that the song was dripping with controversy.

Of course, listening to some current songs that are out now, it does make 'Sugar Walls' seem like 'Amazing Grace' in comparison.

Of course, controversy sells, and 'Sugar Walls' ended up peaking at #9 on the Billboard Charts. And Sheena and Prince would work together once again, most notably for the 1987 single 'U Got The Look', prompting rumours of a romantic liaison between the two. Sheena has denied that anything romantic ever went on between her and Prince though.

By 1988, Sheena had changed her image and musical style once more. After a guest-starring role on the NBC drama 'Miami Vice', in which she played Caitlin Davies Crockett (who ended up being killed off five episodes later), Sheena released the album 'The Lover In Me'. This album was flavoured with R&B influences, and was produced by L.A. Reid, Babyface, and John “Jellybean” Benitez. Prince even contributed a song to her album.



In this case, this change proved to be a positive one for Easton. Just have a look at the video for the album's first single, which also happened to be the title track.



This song ended up being a huge hit for Easton. Some may even say that it was a comeback hit for her. It peaked at #2 on the Billboard Charts in early 1989, the first time in eight years that Sheena ever had a song chart that high. The song also did very well in the United Kingdom, as well as several other countries. Sheena had a couple of other singles which did very well on the R&B charts, and as the 1980s ended, Sheena was definitely in a good place.

Although her success in the United States seemed to be at its peak as the 1990s began, her popularity in her native Scotland seemed to dwindle, with many people claiming that Sheena had turned her back on her Scottish heritage to become more Americanized. In 1990, Sheena was asked to participate at a music festival in Glasgow, Scotland, and for a while, it seemed as though Sheena was keen to go back to her home country to perform for her fans...

...that is until she greeted the crowd in an American accent, and all hell broke loose. Fans grew rowdy and booed, chucking bottles at her while she was on stage, some of which were filled with urine. I know if I were in her shoes, I definitely wouldn't have appreciated that, and Sheena didn't appreciate it either. She cut her set short, and presumably was the last time that she performed in Scotland for a long time.

By 1991, however, Sheena's success on the pop charts had dried up, and her last Top 40 hit charted that same year. She still recorded music, and her 1993 album 'No Strings' was critically praised, yet made little impact on the charts.



These days, Sheena is keeping busy raising her adopted children, and taking on another career as a voice artist. She was a featured voice in the sequel to All Dogs Go To Heaven, as well as the animated version of the Charles Dickens tale 'David Copperfield'. She's starred in revivals of Broadway musicals, she's done voice work in video games, and she even co-hosted a talk show based out of Las Vegas, the city that Sheena Easton now calls her home.

Hmmm...maybe the crowd back in Scotland circa 1990 did have a point, even if they totally went about it the wrong way.

The point is that while some people may consider artists like Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna to be chameleons in that they're always constantly changing, Sheena Easton is one of those artists that had to do just that in order to survive in an already tough industry. And, just look at some of the accomplishments that she got as a result of these changes.

She won two Grammy Awards, and received five other nominations on top of that.

She's the only artist to have a Top 5 hit on FIVE different charts. In case you're wondering what charts, here's the list below.

POP – Morning Train (9 to 5) – 1981
ADULT CONTEMPORARY – Morning Train (9 to 5) – 1981
DANCE – Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair) – 1983
COUNTRY – We've Got Tonight (duet with Kenny Rogers) – 1983
R & B – Sugar Walls – 1985

She was the only singer of a James Bond theme to appear on screen singing the song. No other artist has had that same treatment. Not Madonna. Not Garbage.  Not even Shirley Bassey!

All this because Sheena wasn't afraid of change. She embraced it, and in many ways, these changes helped her become a better singer and performer.

You see? Change IS good!


Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Talk Show Scandals

Last week, I talked about Regis Philbin, and how he had a brilliant career in the field of television, and how his tenure in front of the camera broke records in the history of television broadcasting.

I think that part of the reason why this was the case with Regis was because of his charm and personality, and how he seemed so universally loved by the people who watched him on television for all those years.

Certainly there are a lot of daytime talk shows out there that have had the same impact that Regis' show had. You know the kind of shows that I mean, right? The ones that make a person feel good, make a person laugh, teaches people new things.

Of course everyone knows just how much of an impact the Oprah Winfrey show had in the world of daytime talk shows. For 25 years, Oprah was very much the queen of daytime television. The variety of guests (both celebrity and non-celebrity) she's had over the years, her book club, her Angel Network, even her own magazine and television network, it's hard to deny the impact that she's had in the world of talk. And yet, even the queen of daytime has had moments where she showed lapses of judgment and even controversy. Remember the whole controversy surrounding her refusing to eat meat because of the mad cow disease outbreak, and how she got negative publicity as a result of it?



Or, how about the moment when Oprah pulled out a little red wagon filled with all the fat she had lost back in 1988? Even Oprah herself had said that she regretted even doing it.

But hey, nobody is perfect, and for the most part, the scandals are just blips on an otherwise good show, and the hosts and shows move past it.

But then there are talk shows that seem to be filled with one scandal filled story after another, and the incidents can be talked about for weeks. Names get dragged through the mud, and people's reputations are ruined, and as you'll read on, some people can sometimes even pay with their lives.

This blog posting is all about some of the biggest scandals to have ever happened on the stage of American talk shows. Some are somewhat exaggerated, and some have ended on a light note, but there are some instances where feelings have been hurt, and some people have had tragic fates happen to them.

So, to kick off this blog entry, I thought I'd start with the light-hearted and make my way towards the heavy-handed stuff. Oh, and I will be offering up my own commentary about these scandals as well. And keep in mind that I'm going under the assumption that these stories are real and not fabricated, because we all know that talk shows NEVER make up stories to attract ratings, right?

Right?

At any rate, let's begin.



CLAY AIKEN AND KELLY RIPA IN TALK TO THE HAND (November 2006)

It was November 2006 on the Live With Regis And Kelly show, and Regis was off for the day. Kelly's special co-host for the day was American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken, and for a while there, the two seemed to get along well.

That is until during an interview with one of the Dancing With The Stars couples, Clay decided it would be great fun to cover Kelly's mouth with his hand.



A move that Kelly did not appreciate or like. She made it very clear that it was a no-no, saying that she didn't know where that hand had been.

To be perfectly honest, I think this was sort of blown out of proportion for a number of reasons. To be fair, I think Clay was only trying to be playful, and had no idea that he was offending Kelly when he did that. And, I can also see where Kelly was coming from, because I don't know if I necessarily would have wanted to have had my mouth covered up in that way.

But here's where the controversy comes in. Clay Aiken kind of poked fun at the whole situation, and made a bit of light out of it. Kelly, on the other hand was sort of thrown to the wolves with media outlets pointing out all the times that Kelly covered Regis' mouth on the show. And then somehow, Rosie O'Donnell, who was a co-host on The View at the time outright accused Kelly Ripa of being homophobic (even though Aiken hadn't officially come out as gay at the time of the show). It was then that Kelly fought back.



What a right mess that was, wasn't it? But, in the long run, I doubt this incident really hurt Kelly's reputation all that much. Rosie on the other hand...well...



ROSIE VS. MAGNUM P.I. (May 1999)

The date was May 19, 1999. Almost one month since the deadly school shooting at Columbine High School that left a teacher and several students dead. As a result of this tragedy, Rosie became a huge advocate of gun control, and was a major figure in the Million Mom March, a movement to keep guns out of the hands of the youth and criminals. This would have been fine if Rosie could have separated her beliefs from her job as host of The Rosie O'Donnell Show from 1996-2002.

But then Tom Selleck came on the show on that date to promote his new film, The Love Letter. It was supposed to have been a light-hearted interview about the movie. But Tom Selleck was also a huge supporter of the National Rifle Association (also known as the NRA), and well, that kind of conflicted with Rosie's gun control beliefs. This is a clip of that 1999 interview.



You know, I'm just gonna come out and say it. I thought Rosie was way out of line here. I know that at the time, the Columbine incident had just happened, and that the wounds and the anger was still fresh on people's minds, but when a guest goes on your show to promote a project that they starred in, and are attacked on a stance that differs from the way they think, it's a bit off-putting. In that moment, Rosie's reputation as being the “Queen Of Nice” may have been forever tarnished. And just eight years later, Rosie would get into another argument on another talk show.



THE QUEEN OF NICE VS. THE FORMER SURVIVOR (May 2007)

I know it seems that I'm unfairly attacking Rosie O'Donnell in this blog, I really don't mean to. And besides, in this case, I have to say that the person that Rosie was feuding with this time around came off worse than she did. Not necessarily because I agree or disagree with what they said, but because I thought lines were crossed.

Rosie O'Donnell, after ending her own talk show, became one of the moderators of The View in 2006. It was made clear that Rosie was only going to be on the show for one season. During that one season, Rosie's outspoken nature certainly got her all kinds of attention (both positive and negative), but it also got ratings. But Rosie's liberal nature severely clashed with the conservative stance of Elisabeth Hasselbeck (who some may know as being the fourth place finisher in the second season of Survivor).

And on May 23, 2007, it all came to a boiling point.



That incident would mark the end of Rosie's tenure on The View, as Rosie ended up ending her contract earlier than expected (she was originally scheduled to air right through the summer), and the fight between Elisabeth and Rosie divided the media, with the left-wing thinkers siding with Rosie, and the right-wingers on Team Elisabeth. I just thought the whole brouhaha was just incredibly tacky to be honest with you, and yeah, Rosie said some things that I personally didn't agree with, but then so did Elisabeth. Knowing that Rosie and Donald Trump were feuding at the time, I thought it was kind of a low blow for Elisabeth to use that as a way to defend herself against Rosie's allegations. In fact, to tell you the truth, I kind of lost respect for both of these women in those six minutes. Absolutely shameful that it got to that point.



THE MAURY POVICH SHOW (a.k.a. THE WHO'S YOUR DADDY SHOW?)

I can remember a time in which Maury Povich once had a decent show. He once dealt with real people with real human interest topics. I can remember one show he did way back in the early 1990s where he interviewed all the voice actors of classic cartoons. That was great television. Interesting television.

But now, I just hate his show completely. It's just so trashy, and ridiculous, and I'm guessing the show is now with 65% more fabrication. Or, at least, I HOPE it's fake, because I can't imagine anyone really being as STUPID as any of his guests over the last five years or so.

On any given week of shows, about 4 out of the five episodes will deal with people who are trying to find the birth fathers of their children. 



The other random show is usually spent on rehabilitating controlling husbands, sending teens to boot camp, or trying to guess whether people are born male or female.

I'm not kidding either.

But anyway, on some of these shows, you have a woman who is distraught because she can't find her baby's father. I'm talking yelling, screaming, crying, the whole nine yards.

Because she KNOWS! She is TWO HUNDRED per cent sure that the 13th man she's testing is her baby's daddy! TWO HUNDRED! Wow, she must be right.

WRONG!



I tell you, sometimes with the reactions of these paternity tests, the toddlers act more mature than their supposed parents. Again, this is absolute trash television. I mean, even if the show was scripted, I don't find this to be very entertaining whatsoever, and Maury should really be ashamed of himself.



JERRY, JERRY, JERRY!!! (1991-present)

Certainly when you think of fist fights at the drop of a hat, you think Jerry Springer. Of course, Jerry was hardly the first one to have such fights on his television show. Geraldo Rivera and Morton Downey Jr. were all in the talk show fisticuff business long before Jerry Springer came around. Jerry Springer himself was no stranger to controversy, infamously losing his seat on the Cincinnati city council after it was revealed that he once hired a prostitute. Although he did get his seat back, and became mayor of Cincinnati in the late 1970s, his quest to become governor of Ohio was a failure as a result of his past dalliances with a prostitute.

In 1991, Jerry Springer got his own talk show, and it was very similar to shows like Donahue and Sally Jesse Raphael, in that Jerry would talk about politically-oriented subjects. But by 1994, with a change in producers, Jerry's show would soon become the show in which guests attacked each other with chairs, women tore off their shirts to get 'Jerry Beads', and guests like members of the Ku Klux Klan were frequent guests. Of course, Jerry being of Jewish heritage, and having racist guests on his show, you're bound to see sparks fly.



Jerry Springer's show is still on the air after 20 years, and some are left wondering how the heck it managed to stick around so long. One thing I can honestly say about the show is that watching it does make me feel better about my own life and times though, and I think that a lot of other people feel that way.

And Jerry Springer's show is sort of linked to the final topic I wish to discuss, as in 2002, the sons of a former guest filed a lawsuit against the show after the guest was murdered in 2000 by her ex-husband. The sons claimed that the show  created a mood that lead to murder.

And this final example is what can happen when a talk show appearance goes terribly wrong.



THE JENNY JONES SHOW SHOOTING (March 1995)

Remember the Jenny Jones show? It was hosted by Canadian born talk show host, Jenny Jones, and many of the shows I would classify as being a lot of mindless fluff. It certainly wasn't as punch-happy as Springer, but it wasn't fluffy tripe like you'd see on Live With Regis and Kelly either. Most of the shows Jenny did were about makeovers, and telling girls to stop dressing sexy, and confronting former bullies. You know, things like that.

On March 6, 1995, Jenny Jones taped a show entitled “Same Sex Secret Crushes”. The title basically described the show. People coming clean with their feelings towards a member of the same sex. Feelings that they kept to themselves.

A man named Scott Amedure appeared on the show, eager to confess the fact that he had a crush on his best friend, Jonathan Schmitz. At first, when the news came out, Schmitz appeared to be taking it all in stride, laughing about it with the audience, and joking around with Jenny Jones.

Three days later, Scott Amedure was dead. Murdered. The killer? Jonathan Schmitz. Turns out he wasn't quite as okay with the revelation that his best friend was in love with him, and he decided that his former friend had to go.

Schmitz was arrested for the murder, and in response to the shooting, the producers of the Jenny Jones show decided not to air the episode, with Jenny Jones appearing at the beginning of each episode following the shooting explaining the situation and how they were not planning to show the episode.

In 1996, Schmitz was convicted of second-degree murder, despite his defense team stating that he had a history of mental illness. An appeal was filed, and his conviction was briefly overturned, but when he was retried, he was found guilty of murder once again. He is now serving a 25-50 year sentence.

In 1999, Amedure's family sued The Jenny Jones Show, Telepictures, and Warner Brothers for Amedure's wrongful death at the hand of the show's negligence and ambush tactics used that they felt got the ball rolling. In May 1999, the Amedure family was awarded twenty-five million dollars as a settlement after a jury found that the show was both irresponsible and negligent, intentionally creating an explosive and volatile situation without any regard for any consequences.

It was a dark day for the show, and for the host herself. Just four years after the Amedure family won their lawsuit, the Jenny Jones show went off the air for good.

One could say that the tragedy could have been avoided. One could also say that the show made the tragedy happen. But either way, it is a sad instance in which one show ended up ruining several lives.

And for what? Ratings?