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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

March 13, 1939

I think that the Tuesday Timeline is becoming one of my favourite days to write this blog, mostly because depending on the day, I can find out some interesting information about a lot of different topics that I may not have known before.

We’ll get to the main subject of today’s flashback through time in just a minute, but since today is the thirteenth of March, I thought that I would take a look back on significant events that happened on this date years, decades, even centuries ago.

So, on this date during each of the following years...

1639 – Harvard College is named after clergyman John Howard

1781 – Astronomer William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus

1881 – Alexander II of Russia is killed when a bomb launched near his palace detonates

1897 – San Diego State University is founded

1921 – Mongolia declares independence from China

1925 – Tennessee law prohibits teaching of evolution in wake of Scopes trial

1938 – World News Roundup is presented for the first time on CBS Radio

1964 – Kitty Genovese is murdered in New York City in front of neighbours who reportedly did nothing to stop it, prompting research into the bystander effect

1988 – The Seiken Tunnel, the largest undersea tunnel in the world, is opened in Japan

1996 – A school shooting in Dunblane, Scotland leaves a teacher and sixteen children dead

2008 – The price of gold on the New York Mercantile Exchange reaches a value of $1,000 an ounce, the first time in its history

So, those are the events that happened on March 13th.  Some were happy memories, while others were quite tragic.  But, none of those entries are the subject for today.

We’re also not going to feature anybody who has died on this date, although we have had a few famous faces who took their final breath on the thirteenth of March.  Amongst some are American president Benjamin Harrison (1901), Clarence Darrow (1938), Maureen Stapleton and Peter Tomarken (both 2006).

So, by process of elimination, it’s become apparent that the subject of today’s blog happens to have a March 13th birthdate.  And, this is very much true.

Unfortunately, I only have time to talk about one famous face.  So if your name happens to be William H. Macy, Dana Delany, Kathy Hilton, Adam Clayton, Annabeth Gish, Common, Danny Masterson, Toccara Jones, or Emile Hirsch, I am sorry to say that you are not the subject of this blog entry.  I would however like to wish all of you a happy birthday, as well as everyone else in the world celebrating a birthday today.

So, what’s the date that we’ll be looking back on?


March 13, 1939.

It was on this date seventy-three years ago today that a singer was born in Brooklyn, New York.  And, the accomplishments of this singer are nothing short of extraordinary.  His singing career has spanned SEVEN decades now, and at the age of 73, he shows absolutely no sign of slowing down.  He formed his first band when he was a teenager, had his first song published at the age of sixteen, recorded many of his hits in no less than six different languages, wrote songs for several artists, and has had a total of eight Top 10 hits, three of which hit #1.  In fact, if you watch the video below, you can hear one of his #1 songs below.



ARTIST:  Neil Sedaka
SONG:  Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
ALBUM:  Neil Sedaka Sings His Greatest Hits
DATE RELEASED:  June 30, 1962
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 2 weeks

The song above is the 1962 classic “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”, the first #1 hit for singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka.


Neil Sedaka also happens to be the subject for the Tuesday Timeline this week.

Born in Brooklyn on March 13, 1939, Neil Sedaka knew at an early age that he wanted to have a life that was surrounded with music.  When Neil was in the second grade, his performance in his choral class impressed his teacher so much, she recommended to his parents that Neil take up piano lessons.  Neil’s mother took a part-time job at a department store for six months to be able to buy Neil a second-hand piano for him to play on.  In 1947, when Neil was just eight years old, he successfully auditioned for a piano scholarship to the Julliard School of Music’s Prepatory Division for Children, of which Neil attended on weekends.  Though his parents were proud of Neil’s accomplishments and talents with the piano, their interests greatly differed.  His mother would have loved nothing more than to see her son make a living as a classical pianist, but unfortunately for her, Neil was more interested in the pop music scene, and opted to follow that path.


In 1952, when Neil was thirteen, he befriended a young man three years older than him named Howard Greenfield, who aspired to make a career in either poetry or writing song lyrics.  With Neil’s natural talent in playing music, and Greenfield’s natural ability to create song lyrics, it wasn’t long before their friendship turned into a business partnership.

When Sedaka graduated from high school, he formed a band with some of his classmates, a group known as “The Tokens”.  The band had some minor hits, but ironically enough, it wasn’t until Sedaka ventured out on a solo career in the late 1950s that the band would have their first mainstream success with a #1 hit titled “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”.  But that was fine, as Sedaka would have his own success in music.

It just took Neil some time for his name to get out there.

His first three singles were released between 1958 and 1959, and all three singles didn’t make much of an impression on the charts, although his single “Ring-A-Rockin’” did make enough of an impression for Dick Clark to invite him onto his show, “American Bandstand”.  His early singles also attracted the attention of record label RCA Victor, who immediately signed Sedaka to a recording contract.


It was also around this time that Sedaka, along with Howard Greenfield, began writing songs for other artists at the time.  One of these artists was singer Connie Francis (whose song “Where The Boys Are” was written by Sedaka and Greenfield).  One day, Neil Sedaka spotted Connie’s diary lying out in the open during a session of brainstorming for a new song.  He asked Connie if he could look at it (whether it was for ideas or whether he just wanted to be nosy though was not made clear).  Connie refused to let Neil anywhere near the diary.  I can see her point.  Would YOU want some strange young man reading your private thoughts?  And, no, your Facebook status updates don’t count!

However, this incident inspired Neil to write a song entitled “The Diary”, which would eventually become his first single for RCA.  And, to Neil’s surprise, the song did modestly well on the charts, peaking at #14.  But after his next two singles barely made an impact on the charts, Sedaka decided to buy a whole bunch of records containing the top hits on the charts and figured out that each of the songs followed a specific formula.  So for his next release, he decided to try and emulate the formula as best he could, and it ended up being successful.  The next release from Sedaka, “Oh, Carol!” became Sedaka’s first American Top 10 hit, peaking at #9.  In Italy, the song did even better, landing on the top of the charts.


TRIVIA:  The song “Oh, Carol!” was written for Neil’s girlfriend at the time.  Singer/songwriter Carole King.

By the early 1960s, Neil Sedaka was on a roll.  He released several singles between 1960 and 1963.  “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”, as mentioned before, was Sedaka’s first #1 hit.  But other songs did quite well.  “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen” peaked at #6 on the charts.  “Next Door To An Angel” made it to #5 in 1962.  And, “Calendar Girl” also became a Top 5 smash, peaking at #4 in 1961.  “Calendar Girl” was also a notable song because it was one of the earliest songs with an accompanying music video (though back in those days, they were known as ‘Scopitones’ or ‘Cinebox’).  Below is the Scopitone of “Calendar Girl”.


I know what you’re thinking...quite scary upon retrospect, no?  But, again, it was the early 1960s.


But by 1964, Sedaka’s popularity seemed to waver, at least in the United States.  In other parts of the world, Sedaka was still considered to be an icon of sorts.  In particular, Sedaka really had a number of fans in Italy.  Sedaka was so impressed by the loyalty of his Italian fans that he re-recorded some of his biggest hits in Italian.  And, that wasn’t the only language he recorded songs in.  Aside from English and Italian, Sedaka also managed to record songs in Spanish, Japanese, German, and Hebrew (Sedaka was born with a Jewish background). 

However, with the arrival of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones onto the music scene, Sedaka found it quite difficult to compete.  He still recorded albums and singles throughout the 1960s, but he failed to make as huge of an impact as he once had just a few years earlier.  And, Sedaka’s record company also seemed to lose faith in him, actually refusing to release his single “It Hurts To Be In Love” because he didn’t record it in their studios.  The song was offered to singer Gene Pitney.

So, throughout the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Sedaka was more or less ignored on the pop charts...at least as a singer.  He did, however, make an impact as a songwriter.  The Monkees ended up recording a couple of songs he had wrote, and Sedaka also wrote hits for The Cyrkle, Patti Drew, and The 5th Dimension.  I should also note that while his success in America was at an all-time low, Sedaka was still widely popular in the United Kingdom, and Australia.

But then a funny thing happened.  At some point during the 1970s, Neil Sedaka’s popularity got a second wind.


It all began around 1972 when Sedaka began touring with a band (who would come to be known as 10cc), and during this time, recorded the album “Solitaire”.  Solitaire was a modest hit, and the album spawned the modest hit “Beautiful You”, which charted in America, the first time in ten years that Neil had a song chart on the Billboard Charts.  It should also be noted that while Sedaka's version of the title track from “Solitaire” did not chart, it was covered by Andy Williams who did have a hit with the song.


Two years later, Sedaka would sign a contract with Rocket Records, a record label started up by Elton John in 1972.  Immediately upon signing the contract, Sedaka released an album in the United States under the title “Sedaka’s Back”.  The album was actually a compilation of the various albums he had released in the United Kingdom.  And, the first single release from the album helped Sedaka get his second #1 hit thirteen years after his first.


“Laughter In The Rain” peaked at #1 in early 1975, and the single was highly regarded as a comeback single for Sedaka.  During the mid-1970s, Sedaka would have a creative renaissance of sorts.  His 1975 single “The Immigrant” was critically praised.  A 1975 remake of his classic song “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do” was also a chart-topper (making Sedaka one of the few artists to have the same song hit #1 twice), and in 1976, he had another #1 single with “Bad Blood” (which had Elton John providing background vocals).  And, many artists also found success with Sedaka’s songs, as both Elvis Presley and The Carpenters found success with their own versions of Sedaka’s “Solitaire”.

By the time the 1980s rolled around, Sedaka’s second chance was winding down, and his chart success soon faded once more.  His last Top 20 hit was in 1980, a duet he recorded with his daughter titled “Should’ve Never Let You Go”.  By 1985, Sedaka was once again without a recording contract.  In 1986, his longtime friend and collaborator, Howard Greenfield, passed away, just days before his 50th birthday. 


But Neil Sedaka is still a huge force in the world of music.  With Sedaka turning 73 today, he shows no sign of slowing down.  He was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 1983, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006.  As of this writing, the only honour Sedaka has yet to achieve is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, though thousands of fans have reportedly launched a campaign to see that he gets recognized with the honour before long.

And, I think ultimately that is what keeps Sedaka in the spotlight.  The fans.

And, Sedaka seems to still be with it when it comes to making appearances to keep his name fresh on people’s minds.  In 2003, he made an appearance on “American Idol” as the guest judge and mentor to the final five contestants of Season 2.  Sedaka was particularly impressed by contestants Kimberley Locke (who sang the Connie Francis song “Where The Boys Are”), and Clay Aiken’s performance of “Solitaire”.  Aiken’s performance reportedly was so well done that a visibly moved Sedaka passed ownership of the song to Aiken, even offering to record the single should Clay not win the competition!


So, Clay recorded the song “Solitaire”, and it became the top-selling single of 2004!  So, not only was Clay Aiken getting huge success, but so was Neil Sedaka.

And Neil Sedaka’s latest recordings were a couple of duets with singer Jim Van Slyke in August 2011, which means that Neil Sedaka’s career has spanned the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.  That’s SEVEN decades!

Really, when looking back on March 13th, Neil Sedaka was the perfect choice for a subject.  He really shows all of us that we can all have success...at any age, and we can also have a second chance, a third chance, even a fourth chance, to become relevant and respected.


That’s our look back on March 13, 1939.  I hope you enjoyed the trip!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Despicable Me

It has been in my experience that for the most part, there is absolutely nobody on this Earth who is one hundred per cent good, or one hundred per cent evil. 

Well, okay, I suppose there are notable exceptions.  Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein...I really am struggling to find an ounce of goodness in any of those men whatsoever.

For the most part, I believe this to be the truth.  I can’t say that I myself am one hundred per cent good, because I know that would be an absolute lie.  I definitely try to be kind to others, and treat others with respect, but sometimes, it’s not easy to do...particularly if there is somebody constantly pushing your buttons.  Mind you, I’m not likely going to push somebody down a flight of stairs, or tamper with the brakes on their car.  I don’t have it in me to be that evil.  But, at the same time, if there is someone who I don’t particularly like for whatever reason, I don’t hold my feelings back.  And, you know, I think most of us who are generally law-abiding citizens who are kind and respectful are capable of having a mean streak.  It’s really all about self-control as far as I’m concerned.

It also works the other way.  Just as mostly good people can possess some unsavoury qualities that could be frowned upon, I also believe that people who are judged as bad can have some good in them.  Why, today’s edition of the Monday Matinee features a man who is exactly that.  By all accounts, he is a self-confessed super-villain who causes all sorts of evil and mayhem in the world, all for the purpose of getting people to fear him.  But, when you peel back the layers of rottenness, you might be surprised to find that he not only has a soft side, but he seems to show it a lot more often than you’d think he would.


I’d like to introduce you to a man named Gru.  He’s got a huge nose, an even larger ego, and a desire to steal things.  His ambition is to be respected as the super-villain he desperately wants to be (even though villainous behaviour and respect aren’t usually synonymous with each other). 

The only problem is that Gru isn’t very good at it.


We learn this by watching the first few minutes of the animated movie “Despicable Me”, the subject of today’s blog.

Released in theatres nationwide in 2D and 3D on July 9, 2010 and directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, “Despicable Me” features the voice talents of Steve Carell, Russell Brand, Jason Segel, Will Arnett, and Miranda Cosgrove (who younger readers of this blog might know from the sitcom “iCarly” as well as the song release below).  






The film made over five hundred million dollars worldwide, making it one of the biggest movies of 2010.  Miranda's single did not.  But that's another topic altogether.

Anyway, Gru (Carell) tries his best to be as bad as he could.  With his secret laboratory hidden away in suburbia, Gru plots to steal all of the landmarks of the world.  But, as I stated before, he just isn’t that good at it.  His idea of stealing landmarks like the Eiffel Tower is taking the model version from the famous casino in Las Vegas.  Sure, he has his team of “minions” (little yellow creatures with glasses and blue jumpsuits with limited vocabulary) cheering him on, as well as the technical support of his friend, Dr. Nefario (Brand), even though Nefario is hard of hearing and not really at his prime.

But, when Gru’s plot to steal the Great Pyramid of Giza is foiled after a new villain who goes by the name of Vector (Segel), ends up getting there first, Gru’s pride is shattered. 


But however down Gru was about losing the chance to own an ancient pyramid, he was not defeated yet.  He had a childhood desire to build a spaceship and board it.  Then, armed with a ray gun that had the power to shrink things, he would use the ray on the moon, shrink it to the size of a pebble, and steal the moon.  It was a great plan, and Gru believed in himself enough to know that if given the opportunity.

The problem was that the opportunity required a ton of cash to make happen.  And, poor Gru was as broke as a cheap dinner plate.  To further complicate things, the bank manager of the Bank of Evil (Arnett) refused to give Gru a loan large enough for him to build his spaceship. 

However, if Gru managed to obtain the shrink ray that was another key element of Gru’s original plan, the bank manager told Gru that he may reconsider giving him the loan he wanted.  So, Gru’s next move was to get the shrink ray.

The shrink ray is kept inside of a secret base in the middle of Asia, and Gru and his minions manage to get their hands on the ray without any trouble...


...and then one minute later, Vector arrives on the scene and steals the gun from Gru.

Angered that Vector has bested him once again, Gru does his best to try to infiltrate Vector’s hideout, but cannot find a way to thwart his sophisticated traps.  It seems all is lost.

Well, that is until Gru manages to see that a trio of young girls happens to get inside the front door.  Apparently, they had cookies to sell, and Vector happens to have a sweet tooth.


And the appearance of the young girls gives Gru a rather wicked scheme.  Figuring out rather quickly that the three girls are orphans, Gru did some thinking and came up with a solution.  If he went to the orphanage where the three girls came from, and adopted them as his own, then he could use them to get access to the shrink ray needed for Gru to get the loan from the bank.

On the surface, it sounds like a really crummy thing to do, even for someone like Gru.  But, then again, Gru always wanted to be seen as a super-villain, and certainly using three young girls as a manner to get something that he wanted for himself qualifies as being quite villainous. 

So, Gru files the necessary paperwork to bring home the three girls.  There’s Agnes (Elsie Fisher), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Margo (Cosgrove), and at first, Edith and Agnes are excited to finally have a home to call their own.  Margo, though, is sceptical.  She doesn’t really trust Gru at all, and basically sees him as being a rather oafish and self-centered character (which, granted at first that’s exactly what Gru is). 


And Gru quickly realizes that becoming the instant father of three young girls is not as easy as he thought it would be.  As much as Gru wanted to do nothing more than be the #1 super-villain in the whole world, between the ballet classes, and school, and taking care of the basic needs of Margo, Edith, and Agnes are almost an impossibility.  But despite his uneasiness (and general apathy towards becoming a responsible parent), Gru sticks with it.

Why wouldn’t he?  Those girls were the ticket to getting the shrink ray back from Vector.

Needless to say, the girls prove to be a huge help for Gru, as Gru easily manages to steal the shrink ray back from Vector.  The girls are so proud of themselves for being able to help Gru out that they suggest an idea to celebrate.  Since there is an amusement park in town, the girls persuade Gru to take them there for a day of fun.  Gru agrees, thinking that he can now abandon the girls at the park since he had what he wanted.

But then an event takes place at the park that makes Gru rethink his plan.


When Agnes spots a giant unicorn doll available as a prize, she immediately wants it.  And with pleading from Margo and Edith, Gru gives them the money to try to win the prize.  But when it becomes obvious that the scheming game operator has rigged the game to make it impossible to win, it causes Gru to react in a rather uncharacteristic way for him.


I mean, sure, the idea that Gru had a weapon powerful enough to make an entire carnival game blow up can be seen as dangerous and evil.  But the fact that Gru used his power to do something nice for Agnes really was uncharacteristic for Gru.  But, it was in that moment that Gru realized that maybe having the girls made him happier. 

If there was any doubt about Gru’s change of heart regarding his feelings for the girls, it was erased following Gru’s second attempt at getting the loan for his spaceship.  As it turned out, the president of the Bank of Evil wouldn’t have given Gru the money anyways, because we learn a little later on in the film that the president of the bank has a son named Victor Perkins.  But, Gru knows him best under the name of (spoiler alert) Vector!

So, Gru is still without the money necessary to complete his ultimate plan to shrink the moon, and he is very unhappy...

...that is until Margo, Edith, and Agnes do something incredibly nice.  They gather all of the money that they have saved inside their piggy bank to help Gru finance his spaceship project.  This causes Gru to make some sacrifices of his own.  He dismantles part of his lair to help build his spaceship, and newly inspired, he comes up with his foolproof plan to steal the moon.  Gru figures that the best chance he has to make the plan a guaranteed success is to act on the very day that the moon was closest to the Earth. 


The only flaw in his perfect plan was the fact that the girls had a very important ballet recital booked on the SAME EXACT DAY.  Hence the quandary that Gru faced.  Would he continue on with his life-long ambition to steal the moon, with the risk of destroying the trust that he had built with Margo, Edith, and Agnes?  Or would he abandon the very dream that he had since childhood to do the right thing and watch his girls dance on stage?

And when Vector strikes again, hitting Gru where it really hurt, would Gru be able to find a way to stop Vector, while simultaneously being in two places at once?

You’re going to have to watch the movie yourselves to find out the answer.

However, I think I’ve posted enough information in this review of “Despicable Me” to give you a bit of an idea that leads back to my opening paragraph.  Just as it’s impossible for almost everybody to be completely good...in the case of Gru, he showed in many ways that underneath his super-villain exterior beats a heart of pure gold.

Well, okay, maybe not pure gold.  Gold-plated perhaps.

And, I just found out news that a sequel to “Despicable Me” is in the works, slated for a July 2013 release.  So, the story of Gru and his girls continues...



Sunday, March 11, 2012

Murder In Hazard, Nebraska - Who Killed Mary?

I may have touched upon this before in a previous entry, but I have always loved songs that told a story. To me, the songs were just much better if you could follow along with the story as the lead singer belts out each lyric.

The latest entry in the Sunday Jukebox portion of the blog can definitely be classified as a story song. However, unlike most storytelling songs, this one never really had a resolution. The song was a big hit all over the world, and its accompanying music video only served to provide the listener with more questions than answers.



Set in a fictionalized version of a real life small town in the state of Nebraska, the lyrics of the song are haunting, powerful, and by the end of the song, you're left wondering what the solution to the mystery is. The song's lyrics have all the makings of a soap opera. It has affairs, it has childhood trauma, it has bullying...it even has murder. Somebody ends up dead during the song, and it is assumed that we're supposed to know who the murderer is. But do we?

So, I thought that what we would do today is take a look at this song, examine it in detail (maybe give some information on the singer who performed the song), and give some possible explanations as to what we think really happened in the song. And, after that, I'll open up the floor to your own theories. Doesn't that sound like fun?

So, here's the video for the song in question. Be sure to watch it very closely.



ARTIST: Richard Marx
SONG: Hazard
ALBUM: Rush Street
DATE RELEASED: January 28, 1992
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: #9

Though, I should note that the song hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary Charts in May 1992.



First, we might as well talk about the artist who recorded the song. Richard Noel Marx, born September 16, 1963, got his start in the music business when he was just five! Having a father who worked in advertising writing commercial jingles, young Richard would sing on some of his father's jingles for such products as Nestle Crunch and Arm & Hammer.

In early 1981, when Marx was seventeen, he was living in Highland Park, Illinois sending out demo tapes, having decided that he wanted to get into the recording industry in some manner. Somehow, one of his demo tapes ended up in the hands of singer Lionel Richie, who liked what he heard so much that he recommended that Marx move to Los Angeles, in hopes of making his dream come true. Once Marx graduated high school, he boarded a plane to Los Angeles and quickly met up with Lionel Richie, who was in the process of recording his first solo album. Marx recalled that Richie was having a bit of trouble with the background harmony for a specific song, and Richie asked for his input on how it should sound by inviting him to sing it. Marx obliged, and as a result, he ended up providing background vocals on this Lionel Richie hit from early 1983.



And Lionel Richie wasn't the only singer who Richard Marx provided background vocals for. He also sang backing vocals on songs recorded by Whitney Houston, Madonna, and Luther Vandross, among others. He even got into the idea of writing songs for other artists. He penned hits for Kenny Rogers, Kim Carnes, Freddie Jackson, and rock band Chicago! Marx was only in his early twenties at the time he had all of these accomplishments, so that is definitely something to be commended.



Still though, as much success as he had behind the scenes, his real dream was to have his own record deal releasing solo albums and having his own success on the charts. It took Marx four years for his dream to become a reality, as almost every record label in Los Angeles rejected his demo tape. But in 1987, Bruce Lundvall, then head of EMI/Manhattan Records, took a chance on Marx, believing that he had the star power to make it huge in the world of music. In June of 1987, Marx released his self-titled debut, which skyrocketed up the music charts, as did his 1989 album 'Repeat Offender'. When Marx's first single, “Don't Mean Nothin'” was released, he was just a few months shy of turning twenty-four. His success with his first two albums was huge. He was nominated for two Grammy Awards between 1987 and 1990, having his first seven singles reach the Top 5 on the Billboard Music Charts (three of which were #1 hits), and his record sales and concert tours helped make him a household name.



By 1991, with the release of his third album, “Rush Street”, Marx's popularity on the main Billboard Charts was waning, but his performance on the Adult Contemporary Charts had grown, as it appeared as though Marx was taking a different direction with his music. A more mature direction.

Hence the creation of the song, “Hazard”, which was Marx's second single from “Rush Street”.

And what a song “Hazard” was. There's just as many things that by watching the video and listening to the lyrics that we know as fact. There are just as many unanswered questions though. First, as we would any murder mystery, we should state what we know.

FACT #1: A young woman is brutally murdered in the small community of Hazard, Nebraska. Her name is Mary. The cause of death is somewhat hazy, but based on the fact that she was found in the bottom of a river with a scarf tied around her neck, I think it's safe to say that Mary died of strangulation, and that her body was thrown into the river in an effort to hide the crime.

FACT #2: The main suspect in her murder is the character played by Richard Marx in the video (for argument's sake, let's refer to our unnamed man as Richard.

FACT #3: The scarf that was found around Mary's neck did belong to Richard. We know this because we saw Mary pulling on it when Richard was wearing it.

FACT #4: Richard was not very well liked in Hazard, even at an early age. He said that his mother moved to Hazard when he was just seven, and that the townspeople were quite judgmental in their assessment of him. They felt that there was something that was just not right with Richard.

FACT #5: At some point, three years before the murder took place, Mary and Richard meet, and they begin dating each other for a time.

FACT #6: The sheriff of the town of Hazard seems to have a lot of time on his hands, as he seems to view Richard and Mary as “cheap entertainment”, watching every single move they make. Which would have been fine if it were a reality television show, but in this case, it's just creepy.

FACT #7: At some point in the video, we see that Richard's parents split up when Richard was a young boy. His father left with another woman, and then Richard's mom appeared to have an affair of her own. Coincidentally, this brings us to...

FACT #8: Richard happens to come across a disturbing sight just hours before Mary breathed her last breath. He saw Mary cheating on him with another man.

So, it's pretty obvious what the solution is, right? You think you know who did the crime?

I admit that I thought I knew who it was too, but after doing a lot of research (which admittedly had me watching the video in a continuous loop for a 90-minute period), I realize that there are four possible scenarios that could have happened. Some of them are likelier than others, but the more I think of it, all four of them make sense.

We'll begin with tentative conclusion #1...



1 – RICHARD KILLED MARY

We heard him protest his innocence throughout the whole song. He swore he left her by the river. He swore he left her safe and sound. According to Richard, there was absolutely no way that he would kill the one person who actually gave a damn about him in the whole community of Hazard, Nebraska. But, the evidence spoke volumes. Mary was found with Richard's scarf around her neck. The sheriff knew that Mary had cheated on Richard with a new squeeze (because as we know, the sheriff somehow knew everything that had gone on), and cited a motive of jealousy in regards to Mary's death. And thanks to flashbacks, we know that Richard didn't take the fact that his mother was getting involved with a new man so soon after his father abandoned them. We even see a child version of Richard running out of a burning building with his mother and her man still inside, but what exactly this represents, we don't know. I suppose one guess might be that Richard set the fire, which presumably ended the lives of his mother and her boyfriend, which could possibly explain the town hatred towards him. Of course, that's just a wild theory.

Do I believe that this is how the crime took place though? No. The reason being that when Richard happened to spot Mary and the man she was with in that car, he took off running, his scarf getting tangled up in a bush. I suppose it could have been possible for him to come back later on, but given how upset he was at his mobile home, I don't see it happening. Anything is possible, but I don't believe Richard to be the guilty party. The only thing that I think he did lie about was when he told the sheriff that he didn't date her during the interrogation. It was pretty clear that there had to be SOMETHING between the two.



2 – MARY'S LOVER KILLED MARY

I only entertain this theory because of the fact that we do see him in the video. Just imagine that Mary has started seeing this new man. Suppose she KNEW that Richard had come up at that moment and saw her in the embrace of another man, and she felt very guilty about what had happened. So guilty that she abruptly ended the lovemaking session that she was partaking in to chase after Richard to explain what happened. She doesn't find him, but she does find the scarf. Picture her putting on the scarf and dissolving in tears knowing that she hurt him terribly (remember, we see Mary crying just before she dies). I suppose it's entirely possible that the real jealous one was Mary's new love, who may have been so angry over the fact that Mary was still hung up over the town outcast that he decided to take matters in his own hands. It is a possible scenario, and definitely one that makes sense. But, I also dismiss this as being what really happened, because if it did go the way it did, wouldn't you think that Mary's secondary love interest would have a much larger role in the video?



3 – THE SHERIFF KILLED MARY

Now we're getting into the real questions. Why was the sheriff so preoccupied with Mary and Richard so much? I mean it, he was everywhere they were. It even got to the point where the sheriff creeped Mary out so much that she literally ran away in fear every time the police car came near. But, why was that?

Well, the reason why I thought this was the case was because I believe that the sheriff killed Mary. And, here's the scenario that I have outlined to support this.

We know that the townspeople of Hazard hated Richard. I provided a couple of theories behind why this was the case earlier in this entry, but let's just say it was because they saw him as threatening to the community. He didn't think the way they thought, he didn't look the way they did. Richard was basically an island community of one within the Nebraska town. Part of me thinks that the sheriff was part of the problem. How do we know that he didn't start all of the rumours that were circulating around Richard? One thing we know for sure though. The sheriff's obsession with Richard grew the very day that he met Mary and started to hang around her. The more fun that Richard and Mary had, the more that the sheriff's obsession grew. He knew that he wanted nothing more than to see Richard run out of town for good...but with his relationship with Mary growing stronger and stronger, the sheriff's anger seemed to grow and grow. The sheriff knew that as long as Mary was around, Richard would be too. That's when his evil scheming began.

But how does he succeed? I bet I have the answer. I'm figuring that maybe he hired the man who cheated with Mary, courtesy of the taxpayers of Hazard, Nebraska. I'm thinking that he told the man to seduce Mary with the intention of Richard coming across the pair of them, and erupting in anger. In fact, I think that is what he was counting on (which I suppose if the theory that I coined does amount to being true, it makes the relationship breaker an accessory to murder, but let's move on from that thought). The point is that by doing this, our sheriff provided a motive for Richard. Let's face it, I doubt the man hired by the sheriff would squeal. He was likely paid for his silence, and if he broke it, he could have done jail time or worse. The idea that the sheriff blackmailed the man to participate in his evil scheme is a possibility. Maybe he had something on him, and promised to wipe the record clean if he did what the sheriff wanted. Think about it, it could make sense.

The fact that Richard lost his scarf was also a prime opportunity for the sheriff to commit the perfect crime. Because Mary was holding onto the scarf that Richard dropped at the time she died, the sheriff thought that it was a perfect murder weapon. After strangling Mary with the scarf, he dumped the body in the river, partly for show (the river was a significant place for Mary and Richard), but partly to destroy evidence (as the water would have likely erased any traces of fingerprint evidence left on the scarf. Oh, but, seeing as how fingerprint dust was shown during the video, we can safely also assume that the sheriff probably used it to frame Richard. Though, this is merely speculation.

The fact remains that by the end, it appeared that the sheriff got what he wanted. It didn't matter whether the evidence was enough to convict Richard or not of murder. The town hated him even more than ever, as evidence by the fact that some townspeople set his home ablaze. People shielded their children's eyes when Richard looked at them. Meanwhile, the sheriff was treated like a hero, and he delighted in the fact that he successfully got the 'cancer of the town of Hazard' removed.

And, besides, his smug smile throughout the whole video was presented in a way that we knew he was hiding information.

But, you know, Richard also stated through the lyrics of “Hazard” that he and Mary both were desperate to dream a way out of town. So, by that argument, we can suggest that the sheriff didn't even need to kill Mary. Richard and Mary were supposedly leaving by their own accord, and had plans to do exactly that. Of course, the sheriff of town did not want to have a happy ending for Richard, and I honestly do believe that Mary paid the price for the sheriff's judgmental opinions.

Of course, there's another possible theory that we could bring up, as unbelievable as it could be.



4 – MARY KILLED HERSELF

You know, I never once thought that this could be a possible theory until quite recently. But the more I think about it, the more I think it could have happened. The reason why isn't quite clear, but my guess is that she felt guilty over cheating on Richard and hurting him just like everyone else did in his childhood. She may possibly have seen herself as being no better than the very people in town she despised, and maybe decided to do herself in. She wrapped the scarf around her neck and quite possibly passed out, falling over the side of the bridge, and drowning. It's a crazy theory, I know, but for whatever reason, I can't really eliminate it from being a possibility.

So, I guess after presenting my opinions, what do YOU think?

In Richard Marx's song “Hazard”, who do YOU think killed Mary? Richard? The Sheriff? Mary's lover? One of the Hazard citizens? Someone else unaccounted for? I'd like to hear your views, and if you can, how you came to that conclusion.

The one final question I have to bring up is Mary's final line in the video. “You know, everyone thinks I should be afraid of you, but I'm not.”

Who do you think Mary said this to?

I'll end this piece right here, and turn over discussion to you!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

On Tiny Toon Adventures Get A Dose Of Comedy!

Before I kick off today’s blog entry, I thought I should post a couple of important tidbits that you should probably know.

First things first, if you live in Canada and 49 of the 50 states of the USA (excluding Arizona), it is time for the Daylight Savings Time weekend.  This time around we are springing ahead.  If you happen to be still up at two o’clock in the morning on Sunday, March 11, 2012, then you need to turn your clock ahead one hour.  In short, there will be no two o’clock in the morning on the date of March 11, 2012.  Consider it lost in the clothes dryer of time and space.  If you are in bed at 2am though, don’t sweat it...just set your clock one hour ahead before you turn in. 

So, just as another reminder, don’t forget to set your clocks AHEAD one hour the weekend of March 10 and 11.

Secondly, I am writing this blog entry under the influence of cold medicine and a prescription for a sinus infection, so if I start sounding a bit lucid or trail off into tangents during this piece, all I can say is that it’s the drugs talking.  I normally try to let colds and illnesses peter out on their own, but this is one case where I readily admit to being a wimp, and I took the easy way out.

(When you consider that I work at a job where I am repeatedly in and out of the cold, it’s understandable.)

So, now that we have those two little things out of the way, we can jump right into the bulk of the blog entry for today, which is a cartoon show based on a series of popular classic cartoons...only different.

A few weeks ago, I was talking about how cartoons of the late 1980s/early 1990s used a technique known as the ‘juniorization effect’, where the subject was on “The New Archies”.  Well, today’s cartoon feature also happens to have elements of juniorization in it, but with a twist.

While it is very much true that the main stars of the cartoon are younger versions of the classic cartoon characters of the 1930s and 1940s, they all had their own distinct personalities, looks, and names.  Meanwhile, the very cartoons that these main characters were based off of also appeared in the series as teachers and mentors to these younger spinoff counterparts.


Today’s blog entry is all about the Steven Spielberg/Warner Brothers collaboration, “Tiny Toon Adventures”, a cartoon that was created by Tom Ruegger.



“Tiny Toon Adventures” debuted on September 14, 1990.  The pilot episode aired on CBS, and was syndicated on various cable channels over the next five years.  Ninety-eight episodes were produced, plus a direct-to-video movie, and two television specials.  The cartoon also spawned various merchandising opportunities including toys, books, school supplies, and video games.

At first glance, “Tiny Toon Adventures” looked like it was a reimagining of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig.  And, in many cases, it was exactly that.  A lot of the characters of “Tiny Toon Adventures” were junior versions of the classic cartoons.  They were given different looks, and were given different names, but they were essentially near carbon copies of the original versions.

Below, you can see a picture of most of the cast of the show. 


And, here were the names of some of these characters, as well as the original Bugs Bunny characters that they stemmed from.

BUSTER BUNNY – Bugs Bunny

BABS BUNNY – possibly Honey Bunny

PLUCKY DUCK – Daffy Duck

HAMTON J. PIG – Porky Pig

FURRBALL – Sylvester

SWEETIE PIE – Tweety

ELMYRA DUFF – Elmer Fudd

MONTANA MAX – Yosemite Sam

SHIRLEY McLOON – None, but she is based off of Shirley Maclaine.

GOGO DODO – Wackyland Dodo Bird

DIZZY DEVIL – The Tasmanian Devil

CALAMITY COYOTE – Wile E. Coyote

FIFI LA FUME – Pepe Le Pew

FOWLMOUTH – Foghorn Leghorn

LITTLE BEEPER – The Roadrunner

MARCIA THE MARTIAN – Marvin the Martian


TRIVIA:  There was originally supposed to be a character based off of Speedy Gonzalez known as Lightning Rodriguez, but it was scrapped.  You can see him make a couple of non-speaking appearances though.

Now, many of these characters acted a lot like the characters that they were based off of.  Furrball, like Sylvester, very rarely had any good luck happen to him, and ended up getting hurt almost every episode.  Dizzy Devil was just as spin-crazy and hard to understand as his adult counterpart.  And, Plucky Duck was almost an exact replica of Daffy Duck, only he was bright green in colour, as opposed to Daffy’s black feathers.


Notable differences involved the female characters mostly.  In Looney Tunes cartoons, Elmer Fudd’s motto was “kill da wabbit”, but Elmyra’s motto was “love the rabbit, hug the rabbit, squeeze the living daylights out of the rabbit”.  And, Fifi La Fume was in a gender swapped role, where she often chased after the male cats (Furrball being the object of Fifi’s affection most often).


And, just like Bugs Bunny, Buster was the star of the show.  Unlike Bugs, Buster shared the spotlight with Babs.

So, I know what you’re thinking.  “Tiny Toon Adventures” was a watered down version of previously established characters that lacked the warmth and hilarity of the original series.

Only, it didn’t.

You see, one perk of “Tiny Toon Adventures” was the idea that the show took place in the fictional community of Acme Acres.  One of the main buildings in the community was Acme Looniversity, which was a school for young cartoon characters to learn how to become funny, and become cartoon legends.

And who better to teach the students of Acme Looniversity than a faculty of cartoon legends?


Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Wile E. Coyote, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester...all of these classic cartoon characters were professors and teachers at the school.  We ended up getting a nice mix between the old characters and the new characters.  Certainly, most of the episodes of “Tiny Toon Adventures” focused on the students of Acme Looniversity, but it was nice to see the link to the past.  It was really an ingenious idea when you look at it...the past teaching the present to become the future.  I thought it was cool, anyway.

Another plus to “Tiny Toon Adventures” was the wide array of talent and experience that the voice cast had.  Reportedly, voice director Andrea Romano auditioned over twelve hundred actors in the casting process of the show!  When the cast was finally assembled in early 1990, the amount of experience amongst the cast was nothing short of outstanding. 

Most of the cast already had previous experience in voice work.  Charlie Adler, who played Buster, voiced the role of Eric Raymond on “Jem and the Holograms”, amongst other roles.  Joe Alaskey was cast as Plucky Duck, who worked on the series alongside his role on “Out of This World”.  Tress MacNeille, who has done voice work on hundreds of cartoon series was cast as Babs Bunny.  If Hamton’s voice sounded familiar, it’s probably because the actor who played him (the late Don Messick) was the voice of a little character known as Scooby-Doo for nearly three decades before his death in 1997).  Other voice actors in the series included Cree Summer, Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, Kath Soucie, Frank Welker, and Danny Cooksey (who some might remember as the little boy playing Sam on “Diff’rent Strokes”).

The show was also quite expensive to produce.  Made with a higher production value than most other animated programs at the time, it used more than double the animation cels used in comparison to other shows, giving it a cleaner and polished look where the characters moved more fluidly.  The show also boasted a full orchestra when it came to musical pieces, undoubtedly influenced by the background music of the classic Looney Tunes cartoons.

And, one final point...a lot of the episodes of “Tiny Toon Adventures” were fun to watch!  Many of them were spoofs of pop culture references from movies, television programs, even music videos.  There were even some episodes that were quite contemporary and daring for the 1990s, and also taught children morals and life lessons in ways the original Looney Tunes cartoons did not.


One of the first episodes of “Tiny Toon Adventures” I can recall vividly is the one that they did about Life in the 1990s.  Although the show is hopelessly outdated by two decades, the cartoons made could very well fit in with life in 2012.  The final part of that episode had to deal with the idea of smokers in non-smoking sections (a topic that is still getting a lot of attention twenty years later), and in the plot, Babs (having won a free treat at a trendy, expensive dessert spot) tries hard to enjoy her sundae but can’t because of a couple of rude smokers blowing their smoke in her face.  The episode was quite funny, but it also provided a social commentary as well, which was subtle, but important.  But, why should I tell you about it when you can watch it yourselves?  The episode is titled “Butt Out”, and clicking HERE will take you to the video.


Another topic that the show dealt with was the topic of alcohol consumption, which was very, very daring for a children’s cartoon.  It was so daring that the show only aired once in the United States before being banned in 1991.  But, I managed to find the episode online, and I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as censors thought.  It actually provided a great message.  The episode was called “One Beer”, and if you like, watch it HERE.

But, I think my all time favourite episode is THIS ONE.  It’s an episode titled “Sawdust and Toonsil”, which originally aired on November 5, 1990.  In the episode, we get a chance to have an episode centered on Gogo Dodo (who admittedly was one of my all time favourite characters on “Tiny Toon Adventures”) and his friends from Wackyland.  In the show, Gogo and his friends are kidnapped by a greedy circus owner who wants to exploit them.  The problem is that if the toons from Wackyland stay away too long, they’ll begin to fade away from existence.  So, Buster, Babs, and Plucky come up with a rescue mission to save Gogo and his friends before it is too late.  The ending is especially good.  Worth a look, as far as I’m concerned.

And that concludes our look back on Tiny Toon Adventures.  And now our song is done!