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Tuesday, May 08, 2012

May 8, 1999


It’s that time of week again!  Today is the day we open up our history textbooks and pop culture reference books for another trip back through time.

The Tuesday Timeline has had phenomenal success since I kicked off this theme day at the beginning of 2012, and it is now my most viewed day of the week.  I know success when I see it, so the Tuesday Timeline will be continuing for the foreseeable future.

Today happens to be the 8th of May, and I have a topic that looks back on a supposed “curse”.  But, we’ll get to that a little bit later.

We have quite a few celebrities celebrating a birthday today.  Blowing out the candles on their birthday cakes today are David Attenborough, Don Rickles, Toni Tennille, Emilio Delgado (better known as Luis from Sesame Street), Gary Glitter, Bill Legend (T. Rex), Philip Bailey (Earth, Wind & Fire), Chris Frantz (Talking Heads), Alex Van Halen, Melissa Gilbert, Darren Hayes, Enrique Iglesias, Martha Wainwright, and Matthew Davis.

Wow...lots of musical talents celebrating a May 8 birthday...who knew?

And, some of the happenings in history for May 8 include the following...

1794 – Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror, Antoine Lavoisier, a French chemist is tried, convicted, and guillotined on the same day in Paris...talk about the worst day of your life!

1861 – Richmond, Virginia is named the capital of the Confederate States of America

1877 – The first Westminster Kennel Dog Show is held in New York City

1886 – Chemist John Smyth Pemberton begins selling a patent medication...a carbonated beverage known as Coca-Cola

1902 – Mount Pelee erupts in Martinique, killing over 30,000 people, and destroying the town of Saint-Pierre

1912 – Paramount Pictures is founded

1919 – The proposal of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistace of World War I is made by Edward George Honey, leading to the creation of Remembrance Day and Veterans Day

1927 – French war heroes Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli disappear in the attempt to make the first transatlantic flight from Paris to New York

1945 – Combat ends in Europe, one day after V-E Day is established

1970 – Hard Hat Riot erupts in New York City as blue-collar workers clash with demonstrators opposing Vietnam War.

1972 – Four Black September terrorists hijack Sabena Flight 571

1976 – First steel roller coaster with vertical loop, Revolution, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain

1980 – The eradication of smallpox is announced by the World Health Organization

1984 – The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California

1988 – A fire at Illinois Bell’s Hinsdale Central Office triggers a wide spread telephone outage...the worst telecommunications disaster to happen on Mother’s Day (Mother’s Day was on May 8 in ’88)

Quite a list of achievements, don’t you think?  We saw the birth of a soft drink, the end of conflict in Europe during World War II, and the end of smallpox. 

So, what date are we going to focus on today?


We’re going to take a look back on May 8, 1999.  On that date, a former child actress ended up taking her final breath in what could be considered a life filled with addiction and terrible choices.  But she wasn’t the only one from the show that made her a star that ended up having a terrible fate.

In fact, this blog entry will talk about a so-called “curse” that befell many of the young stars of a particular sitcom which aired between 1978 and 1986 on both NBC and ABC.  As we talk about the life and death of today’s blog subject, I’ll also bring up some information about this “curse” along the way.


On May 8, 1999, actress Dana Plato was found dead inside an RV in Moore, Oklahoma.  The cause of death was linked to an overdose of Vanadom and Lortab.  She was just 34 years old.

Certainly Dana Plato’s death was a shock to the entertainment world back in 1999.  But, looking back on it, I don’t think that anybody was all that surprised.  And as we look back on Dana Plato’s life, we’ll also talk a bit about the show that made her famous.

Dana Plato was born as Dana Michelle Strain on the 7th of November, 1964 in the town of Maywood, California.  Dana was born to a sixteen-year-old unwed mother who already had an 18-month-old at the time she was born.  Unable to take care of two children, Dana’s biological mother put her up for adoption.  She was adopted by Dean and Florine “Kay” Plato in the summer of 1965, and was raised in the San Fernando Valley.


Dana’s childhood suffered a setback when her adopted parents divorced when she was just three, but as Dana grew up, her mother took her on various auditions all over Los Angeles.  By the time Dana was seven years old, she had already filmed commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dole, and Atlantic Richfield.  A few years later, when Dana was just thirteen years old, she made her film debut in the 1977 feature film, “Return to Boggy Creek”.

TRIVIA:  During this period, Dana Plato had a keen interest in figure skating, and she even went into training to join the American figure skating team for the 1980 Winter Olympics!

But then came the year 1978, and Dana Plato was offered a lucrative acting gig on a new sitcom set to debut on NBC.  Dana’s mother felt that she should cut back on skating so she could take on the new role, and Dana decided that her mother was right.

So, Dana hung up her ice skates and joined the cast of this show, which debuted on November 3, 1978.


I’m sure most of you know what the show is about.  The show chronicled the life of wealthy businessman Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain) who adopted two African-American brothers named Willis and Arnold after their mother passed away.  Willis was played by Todd Bridges, Arnold by Gary Coleman.

And Dana Plato assumed the role of Kimberly Drummond, the daughter of Phillip.


For the first few seasons, Dana seemed to thrive on the show, and Diff’rent Strokes quickly rose up in the ratings.  A spin-off show, The Facts Of Life, came along in 1979, and new cast members eventually joined the program including Dixie Carter and Danny Cooksey.

But by 1983, things began to go sour for the young starlet.

Plato would later reveal in an interview that she had started doing recreational drugs and consuming alcohol while she filmed the series.  In late 1983, Dana had gotten pregnant by her boyfriend, Lanny Lambert, which normally would have been a happy occasion...but when you consider the fact that Kimberly Drummond was being raised as the all-American girl who never acted out at all, the pregnancy caused quite a problem for producers.  So, the decision was made to write out Kimberly Drummond, and Dana was dropped from the show in early 1984.  There were rumours at the time that proclaimed that Dana was fired for her excessive drug use on set, but the producers denied this.

Whatever the case, Dana ended up giving birth to her only son, Tyler, in July 1984.  Afterwards, Dana was invited back for sporadic guest star appearances on Diff’rent Strokes right up until the show’s cancellation in 1986.

With Diff’rent Strokes off the air, Dana Plato tried to get back into the limelight as a serious actress, but ended up doing spreads in Playboy magazine and even consented to her appearance being used in the 1992 video game “Night Trap”.

But a series of personal tragedies in her life would inevitably send Dana Plato down a steep slope of self-destruction.


Nineteen-eighty-eight was a rough year for Dana.  On January 2, 1988, her mother died of scleroderma at the age of 49.  Not even seven days later, her marriage to Lanny Lambert busted up, the divorce finalized in 1990.  To add salt to the wound, custody of Tyler went to Lanny, with Dana only being granted visitation rights.


Three years later, Dana was arrested in Las Vegas for robbing a video store at gunpoint.  The arrest made headlines all over the world, and many people were left wondering what went wrong...not just with Dana Plato, but with the other child stars of Diff’rent Strokes.

With the exception of Danny Cooksey (who has lived a relatively normal life in comparison), all the child stars of Diff’rent Strokes had trouble with the law.  Todd Bridges was arrested in 1994 following an incident involving him ramming into another person’s car following an argument, and his drug use has been widely covered in the media.  But, Todd managed to break his addiction, and can still be seen acting in bit parts today.

Gary Coleman’s story didn’t have a happy ending.  He died on May 28, 2010 at the age of 42 following a fall which caused a fatal hemorrhage.  Prior to his death, he had a charge of assault laid against him in 1998, filed for bankruptcy in 1999, and cited for disorderly conduct in 2007.


Is it any wonder why some people believed in the “Curse of Diff’rent Strokes”?

Dana Plato’s story would end a lot like Gary Coleman’s did.  Desperation soon set in, and eventually, Dana would end up doing acting in roles that could be considered soft core pornography, and ended up getting arrested once more for forging a prescription for Diazepam in the early 1990s, of which she served a 30-day stint in jail for violating her probation.

Dana’s final appearance in the media was an interview that she did with Howard Stern less than 24 hours before her death.  In the interview, she discussed her engagement, her past run-ins with the law, as well as her financial situation.  She was incredibly open about her life.  Looking back on it, I wonder if she was trying to make peace with everything she did, as if she knew that this interview would end up being her last. 

Of course, Howard Stern allowed listeners to call in to ask Dana questions, and while some were quite supportive of her, and offered her nothing but support, there were a few who made fun of her, calling her everything from a ‘has-been’ to an ‘ex-con lesbian drug addict with mental problems’.  But, to Stern’s credit, he defended Dana, and Dana herself even said that she would take a drug test on the show to prove that she was sober.

After that interview, Dana and her fiancé were driving back to California.  Along the way, they stopped off to visit the mother of her fiancé in Moore, Oklahoma, and not feeling well, Dana would go inside their RV to take a nap.


She never woke up.

Thus ended the life of Dana Plato...on May 8, 1999.

So, what have we learned about the life and times of Dana Plato?  There are a couple of things, actually.  Firstly, I don’t believe in curses, and I certainly don’t think that there is such a thing as the Diff’rent Strokes curse.  It was a coincidence that three of the four child stars ended up riding off the rails, but other child stars have had the same problems.  In the case of Coleman, Bridges, and Plato, all three of them were bestowed with success and fame at early ages, and I’m not entirely sure that they were quite ready to deal with the stress and the expectations that the film industry had.  I’m certainly not excusing their behaviour...certainly none of the three child stars of Diff’rent Strokes even attempted to make excuses.  They owned up to their mistakes several times since then.  At the same time, I think that more could have been done.  What exactly could have been done, however, is hard to say.

But secondly, I think that when it all comes down to it, Dana Plato had her own personal demons, and she honestly had no idea what to do to slay them.  Despite the fact that people tried to help her (Wayne Newton reportedly posted her $13,000 bail when she was arrested for the 1991 robbery), Plato somehow ended up losing her way.  I think that had she not felt that drugs, alcohol, and appearing in soft core movies was the only way to get noticed in the entertainment industry, she could have found her way back again.  It may have taken a great many years, but I believe that she could have found a way.  Unfortunately, Dana threw it all away, and we’ll never know now.


One final footnote to add to this grim story...on May 6, 2010, almost eleven years to the day that Dana passed away, her son Tyler committed suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  He was only twenty-six years old.

Before his death, it was reported that he had been experimenting with drugs and alcohol before he died, and that he had never really gotten over his mother’s death.

I know that history sometimes has a way of repeating itself...but having it happen like this...it kind of makes one speechless, doesn’t it?

Monday, May 07, 2012

Caddyshack




I don’t know about anybody else, but for the most part, I have a strong dislike for golf.

To me, golf is one of those sports that I haven’t any interest in.  I may have enjoyed playing the odd game of miniature golf in my youth, but miniature golf was fun!  Trying to avoid windmills, pitfalls, and rainbow coloured obstacles was my idea of fun.

It’s the adult version of golf that I don’t enjoy.

And this isn’t a slam against professional golfers such as Arnold Palmer, Vijay Singh, Mike Weir, Phil Mickelson, or Tiger Woods.  All five of those men have earned much respect in the sport of professional golf, and are widely respected in the world of sports.

It’s just that I always saw golf as being one of those sports that ended up being a great cure for insomnia.  For whatever reason, I find that watching the sport of golf on television bores me to tears.

The same deal goes for entertainment based on the sport of golf.  I tried playing golf themed video games only to turn it off fifteen minutes later in favour of Tetris.  I tried watching golf themed television shows, and ended up changing the channel.

And there are all of those golf-themed movies that have been released over the years.  In most cases, I find most of these golf movies to be just as uninteresting as the sport itself.  “Happy Gilmour” had that lovely scene where Adam Sandler and Bob Barker got into a catfight, but that was the only moment of that film that stood out.  “Tin Cup” was a movie that didn’t garner much of an impact at all on me.  And, I would comment on “The Legend Of Bagger Vance”, but I think that movie ended up putting me in a coma.

Try as I might, there was no way that I could make the sport of golf entertaining or interesting.  Not even the world of pop culture could change my mind about the sport...

...or could it?

It wasn’t until I watched a particular movie on a cable channel that made me look at the sport of golf at a different angle.  I didn’t get a chance to see the film when it originally came out (it was released in 1980, which was the year before I was born), but watching this film for the first time, I found it quite funny.  To my surprise, the film actually made golf seem fun.  And, the film itself didn’t just focus on golf.  It had a decent story (aside from the crude humour peppered throughout the film), a fantastic cast, and iconic scenes that everybody remembers...such as this clip in which a “Baby Ruth” candy bar ended up causing so much trouble.


I’m sure that you know what the movie we’re discussing is by now, but here’s one more clue.


“Caddyshack” was released in the summer of 1980, and starred Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Michael O’Keefe, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray.  The film was written by Douglas Kenney and Brian Doyle-Murray (who also had a minor role in the movie), and was the directing debut of Harold Ramis.  And what made the film stand out was that the plot was largely based on the real-life experiences of both the writer and director of the film.

For instance, you know the Baby Ruth scene that I showed you earlier?  That was based on a real-life incident that occurred at the high school that Doyle-Murray attended in his youth!  So, believe it or not, that scene was inspired by a true story!  Who would have thought it?


Truth be told, the whole plot of Caddyshack was based entirely on one of Doyle-Murray’s first jobs.  He worked as a caddy at a Illinois country club, and as it turned out, Harold Ramis and Bill Murray also had experience working as caddies.

TRIVIA:  I’m sure you’ve figured this out by now, but Brian Doyle-Murray and Bill Murray are brothers. 

I actually have a lot more trivia that I’ve found out about this movie, but I want to save that until the end of the blog.  For now, here’s a brief summary of the plot.


We’re introduced to Danny Noonan (O’Keefe), a teenager who is eager to get into college.  Problem is, his family can’t afford to send him, and his grades were too poor to get an academic scholarship.  His only hope was to get a job and raise the money himself.


So, he gets a job at Bushwood Country Club working as the caddy for Ty Webb (Chase), the playboy son of one of the club founders.  At first, the pairing worked great, as Ty taught Danny all about the finer things in life in between practicing trick shots.

But then Danny started to caddy for Judge Elihu Smails (Knight), the stuffy co-founder of the club.  The reason Danny did this was to seek the approval of Smails, in hopes of netting the Caddy Scholarship, which could make his dream of going to college a reality.

Soon, Danny is suddenly surrounded by Smails’ golfing group, which includes his obnoxious grandson, Spaulding, Bishop Fred Pickering, Dr. Beeper, and Smails’ niece, Lacey Underall, who is visiting for the summer.

At the same time, a subplot is happening which has Carl Spackler (Murray), the assistant of the Bushwood Country Club head greenskeeper searching for gophers...in particular one mischievous gopher who likes to dig tunnels underneath the green.

During a golf game, Smails is constantly picked on by the larger-than-life Al Czervik (Dangerfield), a real estate tycoon, who boasts that he will wager a thousand dollars that Smails will miss the putt.  Czernik’s loud speech attracts a crowd of spectators, which makes Smails incredibly nervous.  He misses the putt, and is so angry that...well...this happens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB0YmVrOPS0

Unfortunately, the clip cuts out before the end, but long story short, the club hits a woman, and Smails thinks that he will get in serious trouble.  But Danny, in an effort to get Smails to respect him, takes the blame.  Smails is impressed that Danny would do such a thing, and encourages him to apply for the Caddy Scholarship.  Shortly after that, Danny and his girlfriend Maggie are working as servers for the 4th of July banquet where Danny instantly takes notice of the sensuous Lacey.  Maggie warns Danny that Lacey is very promiscuous, but Danny doesn’t seem fazed by it.  In fact, Danny isn’t the only one who seems to be taken in by Lacey’s good looks, as Ty is also left smitten by Lacey.

Some time passes, and Danny ends up winning the Caddy Day golf championship, seemingly sealing the deal for his scholarship for school.  Smails is thrilled for Danny, and immediately invites him to the christening of his new yacht.  During the christening, Danny and Lacey slip away towards Smails house as Smails takes his new boat out for its maiden voyage.

Too bad it ended up being the LAST voyage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGD-tUsySPs

As if Smails day wasn’t bad enough, imagine his surprise when he arrives back home to see Lacey and Danny in bed together.  A furious Smails chases Danny around the room and tries to beat him up with a golf club!  Goodbye scholarship...

...but wait!  Smails decides to give Danny the scholarship anyway...provided that he didn’t say a word of the embarrassing incident involving Lacey to anybody.  And when Czervik announces his plan to buy the country club to erect condominiums on the site, Ty Webb comes up with the idea to have a golf match contest for $20,000.  Both men agree to the terms, and the competition goes ahead.  Czervik and Ty against Beeper and Smails.

But when Czervik ends up tanking terribly after nine holes, he realizes that if the match was to go on, his team would lose.  So he stages an accident which would force Ty to choose a replacement.

And Ty decided to choose Danny for his replacement, and Smails is not happy about it.  He even threatens to take away Danny’s scholarship if he went along with Ty’s request.

So, what’s a guy, who has an entire scholarship riding on this game to do?

Well, first off, watch the movie.  You’ll love it.  There’s even a twist in the ending that involves the gopher subplot that I’m sure that all of you will love.  Just trust me on this one.

So, that’s Caddyshack in a nutshell.  I’d recommend this movie highly, and if you can get around the adult humour, it really does have a great story to it.  Hey, if it can give me a new appreciation for the sport of golf, it has to be good, right?



Now, as promised, some trivia about Caddyshack, courtesy of Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia...

1 – The film took eleven weeks to shoot, taking place during the autumn of 1979.

2 – The scene in which Ty Webb’s golf ball crashes into Carl Spackler’s house was not originally included in the movie.  Ramis noticed that in Caddyshack, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray didn’t share one scene together, so he ended up adding it into the movie after the three met for lunch one day.

3 – This movie is the only movie that has Chevy Chase and Bill Murray sharing a scene...they reportedly were feuding back when both appeared as cast members on Saturday Night Live.


4 – Bill Murray’s Cinderella story scene was completely improvised.

5 – Cindy Morgan (who played Lacey) is legally blind without contact lenses or glasses, so there was some concern about the scene where she was to dive into a pool from the diving board.  Morgan climbed up the ladder to the board, but a stunt double was used for the actual dive itself.

6 – Tiger Woods has listed Caddyshack as one of his favourite movies of all time.  I wonder if he still feels that way considering the reports of how his marriage ended...

7 – If the gopher’s voice sounds familiar, it’s because the same sounds were used for the 1960s television series “Flipper”.

8 – The movie made almost $40 million at the box office.

9 – A sequel to Caddyshack was released in 1988, but wasn’t as successful as the original film.

10 – The main theme song for Caddyshack was the first of many film soundtrack appearances by singer Kenny Loggins, who also released songs for the soundtracks of “Top Gun” and “Footloose”.  To end this entry off, here’s the song from Caddyshack that he released.


ARTIST:  Kenny Loggins
SONG:  I’m Alright
ALBUM:  Caddyshack Motion Picture Soundtrack
RELEASE DATE:  September 1980
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #7

Sunday, May 06, 2012

A Sunday Jukebox Smorgasbord


I have some wonderful news to share with all of you today!

After nearly a year of writing this blog, I am happy to announce that The Pop Culture Addict’s Guide To Life has won its first blogging award!  YAY!


The award is called “The Liebster Blog Award”, and I guess you could describe it as a People’s Choice Award within the blogging community.  It is given to bloggers by bloggers, and this award came courtesy of my blogging buddy M.E. Franco.  If you click here, you can get linked to her blog.  She is not only a blogger, but a published author as well.  In fact, there’s links to her blog where you can buy some of her books including her novel “Where Will You Run?”

I’m honoured to accept this award.  And, the only condition is that I have to now recognize five other bloggers with this award in order to accept it.  So, I will be sharing blog love with the following bloggers.  Just click on the blogger names to link directly to it.

Heidi Powers’ blog is called “Finishing The Hat”, which could very well be one of the coolest self-improvement blogs I’ve ever read.  It mixes wit with great advice and tips on staying healthy.

Rev.Ron Swanson is a man after my own heart.  His blog deals with various movie reviews, and one thing I’ll say about him is that he is quite accurate with his selection.

I’ve always been a fan of Archie Comics, so I have to link to an Archie themed blog.  This one is for Zack Ziggster (whether it’s his real name or not, only he will decide).

Mark David is probably the man who has helped me improve traffic on my own blog with his advice.  Whenever he has thoughts on his mind, he’ll have the honesty and courage to post them as is.  Whether you agree or disagree, it’s definitely worth the read.

And, last but not least, Frank Balara, a man who balances writing projects with fatherhood, and who seems to be doing a bang-up job on both!

Now, all you have to do to accept this award is the following:

-      Show thanks to the blogger who awarded you by linking back to their blog
-      Pick 5 blogs with less than 200 followers and let them know about your nomination by leaving them a comment on their own blog
-      Post the award on your blog

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  Well, it is!

And now, onto today’s entry.

Initially, my plan was to talk about a single artist, but given recent events, I feel it necessary to sneak in another song by a completely different group, because I wanted to have a little memoriam in honour of this person.

I’m sure that many of you who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s knew who the Beastie Boys were.  The three-man group consisted on Michael “Mike D” Diamond, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horowitz, and Adam “MCA” Yauch.  Since the Beastie Boys formed in 1979, they released several hit singles over the course of their career including “Hey Ladies”, “So What ‘Cha Want”, “Sabotage”, “Intergalactic”, and this classic smash released on February 22, 1987.


You gotta fight, for your right, to paaaaaaarty!

Although I never got to see them in concert, or even owned many of their albums, it’s hard to deny the vast contribution that the Beastie Boys made in the world of music.  They changed the face of rap music forever, and sold upwards of 40 million albums worldwide.  When you consider that their big break was being the opening act for Madonna in 1985, that’s when you knew that they had made it big.

But on May 4, 2012, Beastie Boys fans all over the world were left saddened and heartbroken, as one of the members passed away.

Diagnosed with cancer in 2009, Adam Yauch fought the disease for three long years.  He passed away just two days ago...a mere three weeks after the Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  He was just 47 years old.

So, for the first part of this blog entry, I’d like to dedicate this portion of today’s entry to Adam “MCA” Yauch, thanking him for his musical talents over the years.  He will be greatly missed.


Adam Yauch
1964-2012

As of right now, there is no word on whether or not the Beastie Boys will continue making music.  I imagine that for now, both Mike D and Ad-Rock are grieving the loss of their bandmate and friend.  On one hand, I could definitely see the surviving members of the band putting out a tribute album in memory of MCA...but on the other, I don’t know if anything like that would even be on the cards. 

It’s hard to say at this time what the future of the Beastie Boys will be.  However, my prediction is that after a few months, or even longer than that, they’ll be back in the recording studio.  A lot of bands have gone on to huge success after a member of their band passes away.  Chicago singer Terry Kath accidentally took his own life in the late 1970s, and yet the band managed to have hits well into the 1990s.  INXS regrouped after the death of lead singer Michael Hutchence, and found a suitable replacement with J.D. Fortune.

And then there’s the (originally intended) subject of today’s blog.  And this case is unique for a couple of reasons.  One, the group is one that you likely never heard of if you happen to live in Canada or the United States (but if you live overseas, you’ve likely heard all their songs).  And secondly, the group also had to deal with the loss of one of their members to cancer...and in this case, the group was a pair of sisters.  Losing your singing partner is bad enough...but when the singing partner was your sister, you’d find it hard to find the courage to find your way back on stage, wouldn’t you?

Try telling that to Kim Appleby.


Kim Appleby was one-half of the successful Stock, Aitken & Waterman produced duo “Mel and Kim”.  And, Mel and Kim first burst onto the music scene with this song.


ARTIST:  Mel and Kim
SONG:  Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend)
ALBUM:  F. L. M.
DATE RELEASED:  September 20, 1986
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #78

Yes, I know.  The song didn’t do so well on the American charts (though it did hit #1 on the dance music charts).  However, in the UK, the song peaked at #3 in November 1986, making it the first of several hits for Mel and Kim in the United Kingdom. 

TRIVIA:  Showing Out was originally offered to Bananarama, but they turned it down.


For nearly three years, Mel and Kim were a huge act, and between 1986 and 1989, they managed to sell three million copies worldwide of their debut album, had four UK top ten hits, and one UK #1 smash (with 1987’s Respectable).  And, I’m sure that they would have continued to do well on the charts had Melanie Appleby not gotten sick.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

I imagine that you might want to know which sister was which.  If you watch the above music video, Mel’s the one wearing the red hat, while Kim wore the black hat.  And, contrary to what you might think, the Appleby sisters are not twins.  Kim was born in 1961, Mel born in 1966.

They both grew up in London, and in 1985, Mel Appleby had decided that she wanted to embark on a career in music.  At the age of nineteen, she recorded two solo demo tapes under the management of Alan Whitehead.  The producers fell in love with Mel’s voice, but they also felt that her voice would work better if it were paired up with another vocalist.

Mel asked her older sister Kim if she wanted to sing some songs with her, and Kim agreed to it.

Throughout 1985 and 1986, Mel and Kim recorded at least five demos to be shopped around to record producers.  One of the songs the duo reportedly recorded for their demo was the song “Wild And Crazy Love”, originally done by the Mary Jane Girls.

The demos ended up doing the trick.  The girls were immediately signed with Supreme Records, and then president of the record company, Nick East, hooked them up with Stock, Aitken & Waterman, who would also produce songs for Rick Astley, Samantha Fox, Donna Summer, and Kylie Minogue.

Originally, the debut single for Mel and Kim was planned to be “System”, but producers didn’t feel that it was powerful enough for consideration on the charts.  It later became the B-side for what would become their debut “Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend).

Throughout 1986 and 1987, Mel and Kim’s popularity grew in the United Kingdom.  Because Mel had worked as a glamour model prior to starting her singing career, many fashion magazines reported on the group’s sense of style, which was emulated by the British public almost as much as Madonna’s look was.  With their debut album flying off the shelves, it seemed as though Mel and Kim had found their groove.

But in June 1987, things would take a stunning turn.


That month, Mel and Kim were doing a promotional tour in Japan when Mel Appleby started feeling incredible pain in her lower back.  She had been complaining of back problems for a few months prior, but by 1987, it was taking a toll on her.  At first, Mel and Kim had believed that Mel had simply had a spinal disc herniation.  But when the duo flew back home from Japan and Mel went to the hospital to get checked out, she got some horrible news.

She had cancer.  Even worse, this had been the second time she was diagnosed with cancer.

When Mel was eighteen, she was diagnosed with liver cancer, but went into remission shortly before starting up Mel and Kim.  But in 1987, the cancer had returned in the form of malignant paraganglioma, and Mel had to undergo chemotherapy immediately following the diagnosis.

It was a rough time for the duo, and both Mel and Kim went into seclusion shortly after while Kim took care of Mel.  As a result of this, Mel and Kim had an unfinished video for their single “F.M.L.”, which had to add clips of them performing at a festival to complete.  And for their 1988 video for “That’s The Way It Is” (pictured below), they didn’t even appear in the video at all. 


There was a reason for this though.  When the song was recorded, Mel temporarily checked herself out of the hospital to record the vocals with Kim for the song.  She was still too sick to do any of the dance steps or perform the song in front of the camera, so a dance crew was brought in as a replacement.

At first, the duo denied that Mel was terminally ill, issuing statements that Mel had a debilitating back injury, which lead to the group taking a break.  But by early 1988, the sisters decided to come clean with the real reason.  In April of that year, Mel and Kim appeared on the “Wogan” show while Mel was still undergoing treatment, as part of “European Cancer Week”, and if you click below you can watch the interview.




Did you notice how brave a face Mel put on during that interview?  That just went to show everyone just how determined she was to battle the disease, and how she never let anyone see her fear.  Her only intent was to beat cancer once and for all and get back in the recording studio with her sister.  Tragically, she would never get that chance.

On January 18, 1990, Melanie Appleby passed away from pneumonia after her immune system was weakened by chemotherapy.  She was only 23 years old.

The loss shook Kim hard.  Kim had been by Mel’s side throughout her battle, and never gave up hope that Mel would beat the cancer.  I can only imagine how devastated she was to have to say goodbye to her sister.

But if you thought that Kim Appleby’s music career was over, think again.

Kim had long believed that the best way to honour her sister’s memory was to continue doing what she loved to do, which was sing.  And Kim had dozens of songs that were written by Mel (which were assumed to have been recorded by the duo for their follow-up album that never came to be).  Kim, with help from her boyfriend at the time, Craig Logan, recorded a solo album, “Kim Appleby”, and the first single off the album happened to hit #2 in November 1990 on the UK charts.


“Don’t Worry” became the first of many solo efforts by Kim Appleby, and almost all of the songs on Kim’s debut album were written by Mel.  It was an album that was largely filled with energetic, toe-tapping songs, but at the same time, they were some of the last words that Mel ever wrote.  Here’s another song that came from the Kim’s solo album, and if you watched the Wogan interview, you might find it a bit familiar.


And, I think that’s the point that I wanted to make with this blog entry.  Well, actually, there’s a couple.

Number one, it’s never easy to say goodbye to someone that you love.  Especially when they succumb to a disease such as Melanie Appleby or Adam Yauch did.  But, as long as we always remember them as well as the work they did while they were here, their legacy never really fades away.  With regards to Mel and Kim, Kim recorded a whole album filled with songs written by Mel, so in a way, Kim was sharing that success with her sister the whole time.  And, with Adam Yauch, millions of people took to Facebook and Twitter to share their thoughts of his passing, and many celebrity faces issued public statements dedicating their love and prayers for Yauch.

But secondly, the lesson that we can take from this blog entry is that it is okay to live our lives after someone passes on.  In fact, I would reckon that almost every dying person’s final wish is that their loved ones are taken care of after they pass away...and this includes living your life to the fullest.  Certainly Adam Yauch and Melanie Appleby did exactly that right up to their dying breaths.

It’s too soon to tell what the future of the Beastie Boys will hold, but for Kim Appleby, she has released a few more solo albums since the death of her sister (her last single release was in 2007), and has done a few interviews in regards to what her life is like now, as well as reminiscing about her sister Mel.  But Kim also found a way to balance the grief she had over losing her sister and maintaining her own happiness along the way.  It can be a very difficult thing to do after losing someone you love, but eventually we all get to a point where it gets easier.  The pain will never go away completely, but somehow you know that things are going to be all right.


“In no time, you’ll be fine, don’t worry”.

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Bill Nye The Science Guy




Science and I did not mix.

When I was in school, science was easily one of my least favourite subjects. I didn't quite understand the difference between inertia and kinetic energy, I bungled up the periodic table of elements on a regular basis, and I didn't particularly like working with bunsen burners for fear that the science experiment that I was working on would explode directly in my face.



My grades in science class were always on the low side. I didn't fail any science classes, but I didn't exactly do well in the subject either. Thankfully, I had lab partners who actually knew what they were doing or else I would have been stuck in high school science forever!

(I make a far better writer anyways.)

At the same time, there were instances in which we would have science tests and quizzes, and have to create science projects in school, and I would be a complete disaster at them. Whenever we had the school science fair where all the seventh and eighth grade students had to create their own science projects for display, my science fair projects were always considered to be among some of the worst ones. I ended up doing a science fair project on how to turn a mirror into a magnet using a makeup mirror from a discarded compact my sister owned, a bolt, and a fridge magnet shaped like the letter “W”.



At least they rewarded me with a participation certificate...

To say that I needed help in making sure that I didn't get an “F” in science class would be an understatement. Problem was, I didn't have a whole lot of options to get me through the pitfalls of science class. My parents were just as clueless about science class as I was, and although one of my siblings went through to become a registered nurse (which meant a lot of science classes for her), she could only help out with the biology portion.

I needed a miracle. And that miracle came on September 10, 1993.



That was the day that the television show “Bill Nye The Science Guy” debuted on PBS (or TVOntario, which was the station that I remember watching it on). Hosted by Bill Nye, the show ran until the spring of 1998, winning nineteen Emmy Awards and producing exactly one hundred episodes in total.



Even after nearly fifteen years since the last episode aired, Bill Nye The Science Guy still airs on some select PBS stations, and many schools all over the United States and Canada still use the program to supplement lesson plans in science curriculums.

This show made all the difference for me in science class. I watched this show religiously during the entire time it aired. I didn't care that I was 17 years old when the show finally aired. If it was helping me pass science, then it had to be good, right?

But, that's exactly what Bill Nye's show did. He made science easy to understand. He made learning about science FUN!



Each program dealt with a particular scientific concept. The episodes covered a wide variety of subjects such as buoyancy, blood and circulation, momentum, energy, and space exploration, and Bill Nye explained things so clearly. He made it easy to understand each of the scientific terms, but he didn't talk down to the viewer. It was absolutely perfect.

I suppose one of the best ways that I could best describe the show is what might happen when you infuse 1990s era MTV with a science lecture. The show itself was made up of quick cuts, flashy visuals, bold colours, and all the other things that were guaranteed to make a 12-year-old tune in.

The show even produced science-themed music videos designed to help kids understand scientific themes. They were more often than not a spoof of a popular song at the time the show aired.

Some examples of this featured the following videos...whether the show was spoofing Nirvana...



...Madonna...



...The B-52's...



...or even Billy Ray Cyrus...



...the show did a fantastic job combining music and science together...even if they seem horribly outdated and cheesy by 2012 standards. But here's a little bit of an admission for you. At times during science class, I ended up playing some of these Bill Nye songs in my brain while I was taking science exams, and believe it or not, it helped me improve my science grade!

But, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Bill Nye was so knowledgeable in the field of science. Don't let the sky blue lab coat and bowtie fool you, this was a man who really knew what he was talking about.



Nye was born on November 27, 1955 in Washington, D.C, and at an early age, he was almost destined to pursue a career in science. His family background was quite impressive, as his father was a prisoner of war during World War II, and his mother worked as a codebreaker during that same war.

Shortly after graduating high school in 1973, he enrolled in Cornell University's mechanical engineering program, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1977.

Nye began his career at Boeing Aircraft in Seattle, Washington, where he ended up getting his first taste of what life would be like in front of a camera...as the star of many of the training films that Boeing produced for new employees. But, while he was there, he also ended up doing some fantastic things for the company, including designing a hydraulic pressure resonance suppressor, which is currently used in the design of Boeing 747s.

Bill Nye also assisted in the development of a small sundial that was included in the Mars Exploration Rover missions (which had significant meaning considering that his father once made a living selling sundials upon his return home from his POW days). Nye was also the vice president of The Planetary Society for five years, and holds several patents for various scientific inventions including one for ballet pointe shoes!

So, as you can see, Nye wasn't just an actor pretending to be a scientist. He knew his stuff. But it wasn't until 1984 that Bill Nye would start to make an impact in the world of television.

According to the Internet Movie Database, Bill Nye ended up winning a Steve Martin lookalike contest! I myself don't see the resemblance, but maybe when he was younger, he did...whatever the case, this contest ended up kickstarting Bill Nye's desire to become an entertainer in addition to working in the field of science. In 1984, Nye joined the cast of a local sketch comedy show called “Almost Live!” in Seattle, where he first donned the signature lab coat and bowtie. In that sketch, the host of the show mispronounced the word 'gigawatt', and when Nye corrected it, the host responded “Who do you think you are? - Bill Nye the Science Guy?'

The name stuck.

A few years later, Bill Nye ended up joining the cast of the animated series based on the “Back To The Future” trilogy. He wasn't actually animated into the series though...instead he starred in a special live action segment that was hosted by Christopher Lloyd (who of course played Doc Brown in the movies). Here's a clip of Bill in action from the show.



Okay, okay, so Bill didn't exactly speak a word in this segment. But from 1991-1993, that was his job.

Well, until “Bill Nye The Science Guy” came along, that is.

But don't think for a minute that Bill Nye stopped appearing in front of the camera after production wrapped up on the series. He stayed just as busy in front of the camera as he was off screen. In 2005, Bill Nye produced another series for PBS entitled “The Eyes Of Nye”. It was aimed at an older audience, but still focused largely on scientific themed information, as well as discussing politically relevant themes such as global warming and genetically modified food.

Other television appearances that Bill Nye made over the years after “Bill Nye The Science Guy” wrapped up include the following...

  • Portraying a science teacher in the 1998 Disney film “The Principal Takes A Holiday
  • Was the technical expert for the 2000-2002 television series BattleBots
  • Hosted the Science Channel series “100 Greatest Discoveries” from 2004-2005
  • Guest-starred on the television series Numb3rs
  • Made guest appearances on the VH1 reality series “World's Most Smartest Model”
  • A regular contributor to TV Land discussions
  • Is frequently the “Ask The Expert” lifeline in the syndicated version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”
  • Countless appearances on various talk shows

That's about all that I have to say about Bill Nye the Science Guy. Not only did he make science fun to learn, but he saved me from getting terrible grades in my own science class.



Bill Nye the Science Guy, I salute you, good sir. Keep on doing what you've been doing.