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Saturday, June 02, 2012

Rocky and Bullwinkle's Backstory


Do you remember when your family first got hooked up to cable television?

Provided that you’re old enough to remember a time when the television dial only went up to channel 13, I imagine most of us remember when we finally got cable television hooked up.  In my case, it was shortly after my parents got their television and VCR combo for their 23rd wedding anniversary in August 1988.  One morning, I woke up, headed downstairs, and there were thirty additional channels to choose from.  It was absolutely incredible to a seven-year-old boy the number of choices there were. 

Of course, there were some channels that were generally useless.  Five of them were French language only (Canada is a bilingual country after all), and the Weather Channel can only be entertaining for all of five minutes.  Most of them were fantastic, and I’d say that most of the topics that I have brought up in this blog have been a direct result of watching cable television.

And my siblings and I all had our favourite networks.  My eldest sister was glued to A&E, while the middle sibling was into MuchMusic.

My favourite channel was this one.


YTV (or, Youth Television) actually debuted on September 1, 1988, which was maybe about a week before we got cable television.  As far back as I can remember, it was (and still is) on channel 16 in our listings, and when we first got cable, I was constantly watching it.  The network aired some wonderful Canadian kids programs, as well as popular American cartoons and live-action shows such as Garfield, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Nick Arcade.  Even their evening programming was suitable for families, as they aired British sitcoms, Australian dramas, and Canadian classics such as “The Edison Twins” or “You Can’t Do That On Television”.

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, YTV was one of the only channels that I watched.  But as I grew older, I tuned into YTV less and less.  Nowadays, I don’t even recognize the station anymore.  But those first few years of YTV are ones that I’ll always treasure.

I think one of the reasons why I enjoyed YTV in its early years the most was because it was a brand new network.  It was very much in an experimental phase the first few years, and I think by 1991, they had found a formula that worked.  Before, their programming was a collection of hodge-podge.  There was a lot of contemporary cartoons, but there were a lot of cartoon classics that aired as well.

And, for today’s blog topic, I thought we’d discuss one of the classic cartoons that I watched on YTV all those years ago.  Take a look below.


And now for something we hope you’ll really like...The Rocky & Bullwinkle blog entry!


Rocky &  Bullwinkle of course details the adventures of Rocket J. “Rocky” Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose.  Rocky was a flying squirrel, and Bullwinkle was good-natured, but a bit thick in the head.  They both lived in the fictional town of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, and both of them lived relatively peaceful lives...well, aside from having to deal with the antagonistic Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale.


And just because the show was called “The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show” didn’t mean that Rocky and Bullwinkle were the only characters we saw in the program.  Much like “Bugs Bunny & Tweety” and “Tiny Toon Adventures”, the show also had a slew of guest characters appearing in their own segments.  In addition to the moose and the flying squirrel, we had Dudley Do-Right, Peabody & Sherman, and a segment known as “Fractured Fairy Tales”.  I’m sure that at some point, I’ll be dedicating a blog entry to each of these minor segments, because they are all interesting enough on their own.

For now, we’ll just focus on the moose and the squirrel, as well as some of the trivia that is associated with this program.

The show is one of the few cartoons out there that have aired on more than one network, and under more than one title.  When the show first debuted on November 19, 1959, it was on ABC under the title of “Rocky and His Friends”.  And, the show initially didn’t air on Saturday mornings.  It aired twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday after “American Bandstand”.  Believe it or not, the show was highly successful on ABC, and it was once ranked the highest rating daytime television program at the time.  It stayed on ABC until 1961, when it was moved to the NBC network on September 24 of that year.  It was a revolutionary move for two reasons.  One, it was moved to a Sunday night time slot (just before Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color), and secondly because it was the first time that the cartoon was broadcast in color television.  The name of the show changed as well, to simply “The Bullwinkle Show”.

While the show was huge on ABC, The Bullwinkle Show struggled in the ratings upon its move to NBC...mostly because of the fact that it often competed head to head with a show about another animal, “Lassie”.

The show was almost moved to CBS around 1963, but NBC still wanted to broadcast the program, and rescheduled it to Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  This move wasn’t enough to keep the show running, and it was cancelled in 1964.  However, the show itself continued on in syndication, and was once a regular fixture of ABC’s Saturday morning line-up during the 1981-1982 season.  Currently, the program can be seen on the Boomerang channel, and once aired on Nickelodeon during the 1990s.

And, of course, it aired on YTV for a brief period in the late 1980s and early 1990s as well.  J

That’s about all that I have to say about the broadcast history of the show.  Now, let’s talk a bit about how the show was produced.

The idea for Rocky & Bullwinkle was conceived in the mid-1950s by Jay Ward and Alex Anderson, who previously worked together on “Crusader Rabbit”.  The original concept of the show was to have a group of forest animals running a television studio.  Now, some aspects of the show carried over into the show which would become “Rocky & Bullwinkle”, such as the character of Rocky itself.  But there were some other characters that were created that didn’t make the final cut.  Amongst these creations were Oski Bear, Sylvester Fox, Floral Fauna, and Blackstone Crow.

Oh, and Bullwinkle was there as well, only his original name was going to be “Canadian Moose”.  And, given that Bullwinkle was designed to be a character that wasn’t very bright, I don’t know whether I should be insulted or not!  Regardless, Canadian Moose was changed to Bullwinkle after being inspired by the name of a Berkeley, California car dealership named “Bullwinkel Motors”.


The voice cast was hired in early 1958, and the cast of characters included Paul Frees, William Conrad, Bill Scott, and the legendary voice actress June Foray.  Shortly after, General Mills signed on to be the cartoon’s sponsor on the condition that the program air in a late afternoon time slot, in which their ads would most certainly be seen by their target audience.  Children.

All that was left to do was hire the production staff for the cartoon, and Jay Ward was responsible for hiring the writers and designers.  Curiously, no animators were hired, which was unusual, given that it was a cartoon show.  But there was a reason behind that.  Ward had convinced some friends on his from an advertising agency to buy an animation studio located in Mexico called Gamma Productions to do the animation for the show.  This decision had its pros and cons.  The move to outsource the work to Mexico was a financially economical solution for the sponsors of the program.  But Mexico wasn’t exactly known as being the animation capital of the world, and their work was filled with mistakes.  Certainly the animation cels were churned out quickly, but due to the lack of quality control, there were colour and design discrepancies, and the final result was choppy and inconsistent animation during the show’s entire run.

In spite of this though, the show’s writing saved the program, as the writing was quite witty and satirical in nature.  The show was marketed for children, but there was a lot of humour and inside jokes for adults to enjoy as well, and some critics actually called the show a well-written radio program with pictures!

So, let’s end this blog with a couple of Rocky & Bullwinkle episodes, courtesy of YouTube!



Friday, June 01, 2012

America's Funniest Videos...Behind The Lens Cap


Welcome to the first day of June, everyone!  You know something?  2012 is going incredibly fast!  We’re just a month away from the halfway point of this year.  I guess it’s true what adults say.  Time flows quicker as you get older.

Fortunately, I am only adult in size.

Looking back on the month of May, I’ve definitely had a lot of ups and downs.  I turned 31, I kicked off a contest (which is still open until the end of this month, by the way), and I wrote some of my most heartfelt entries to date (or, so I’d like to think, anyway).

On the downside, I’ve had a bit of a struggle bringing traffic to the site this month, particularly due to the fact that I can no longer use Facebook directly to promote my work (at least, not without some ingenuity on my part anyway).  But, with a brand new look for the blog, and a new month on the horizon, I think that I’ll survive anything thrown my way.

It’s all about staying focused and staying positive about everything that happens.  It’s so easy to fall into the pit of negativity, and it’s so easy to get in a bad mood when things get out of your control, or when the people closest to you are determined to spread their negativity.  So, for the first entry of June, I’m going to post a blog entry about a show that has made people laugh for over two decades.  After all, laughter IS the best medicine for bad moods.

Or, so Reader’s Digest always told me.

So, how many of you out there have a video camera in your home?  I imagine most of you probably do.  Heck, about 99% of all mobile phones made these days have a built in video camera inside of them. 

But, how many of you had them in the 1980s?


You know the ones I mean?  The big and bulky black cameras, where you had to record by using a big, bulky VHS tape?  My family never owned one because back in those days, video cameras were quite expensive.  Could you imagine paying $400 for a video camera these days?  It seems bizarre...until you realize that VCR’s cost at least half that price alone.  I even remember when DVD players were first released, and the asking price was $500 in 1999.  Now, you can find DVD players for as little as $25!

Growing up, I remember going to various events where people often had video cameras filming everything that went on.  Weddings, school carnivals, family picnics, funera...well, okay, maybe scratch that last one. 

And I’m sure that we all have been witness to watching an old family home video and seeing something happen on the tape that just made everybody laugh out loud.  Something like...these clips for example.


Now, I imagine that in the days in which video cameras first started appearing in households, people never imagined that their video of Grandpa losing his dentures biting into a candied apple would net them a huge cash prize.

That is until a man by the name of Vin de Bona decided to come up with an idea for a show, which was inspired by a Japanese program that was airing at the time.

That show was a program known as “Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan”.  On that particular show, there was a segment that had home viewers sending in video clips from their collection of home movies.  The concept was a simple one, but de Bona believed that he could create a television show from this idea.  Teaming up with Todd Thicke and Michele Nasraway, de Bona developed a show where people from all over the United States and Canada could send their funny videos in, and the winning video would win a cash prize.

Beginning in the summer of 1989, de Bona took out advertising space in TV Guide magazine, asking people to send in their funniest home videos to a specific address within the ABC Television Network.  The program was supposed to be a one-off television special, airing on November 26, 1989.  But to everyone’s surprise, the show ranked #9 in the Nielsen ratings scale for that night.  This huge reaction caused ABC to take the special and air it as a half-hour television program.  The show began airing as a regular television series on January 14, 1990, and as of 2012, has now finished its twenty-second season, and is renewed for a twenty-third!


That show is America’s Funniest Videos (previously known as America’s Funniest Home Videos). 

Now, the show itself has some interesting history behind it, and I thought that I would best explain the history of the show in a bullet point list, peppering it along the way with examples of some of the videos that the show has aired over its 23-year-history.  There’s been some host changes, lots of prize money given away, and believe it or not, the show was almost cancelled!  There is a lot to talk about, so let’s get started.


1 – The first episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos aired as an hour-long special.  In addition to Bob Saget hosting the show, he had a guest co-host, Kellie Martin.  At the time, Martin was starring in the ABC show “Life Goes On”, which aired directly before the program.

2 – The grand prize for America’s Funniest Home Videos has changed slightly since it debuted.  The first prize winner of the show’s pilot won $5,000, while the second and third place winners would take home a brand new television and video camera.  As the show went on, the prize increased to $10,000 for the first prize video, $3,000 for second, and $2,000 for third.  All the winning videos of the season would come back on the show to compete for the $100,000 grand prize at the end of the season.

3 – Would you like to know what the very first grand prize winning video was on America’s Funniest Home Videos was?  Have a look.


4 – The show’s success and relatively low cost to produce have spawned versions in other countries, including the UK, Australia, and Canada (well, Quebec, Canada, anyway).


5 – The show spawned a couple of spin-off programs that also aired on ABC.  “America’s Funniest People” aired on the network from 1990-1994, and “World’s Funniest Videos” aired during 1996.  Strangely enough, both shows had Saget’s “Full House” co-star Dave Coulier as one of the co-hosts.


6 – The show changed hosts three times during its entire run.  Bob Saget was the programs original host from the beginning of the series to May 1997.  In 1998, the show was hosted by the duo of Daisy Fuentes and John Fugelsang, but they only managed to last a couple of years.  Finally, in the summer of 2001, Tom Bergeron assumed hosting duties, the longest-serving host of America’s Funniest Home Videos thus far.


7 – In 1999, after the departure of Fugelsang and Fuentes as hosts, ABC considered pulling the plug on the program.  It was decided that the show would air sporadic specials throughout 2000 hosted by then ABC sitcom stars Richard Kind and D.L. Hughley.  The show returned as a weekly series in 2001.

8 – At one point during the show’s hiatus as a weekly program from 1999-2001, future “The Office” star Steve Carell would host a one-off special entitled “America’s Funniest Home Videos: Deluxe Uncensored”.

9 – At the end of each episode during Saget’s tenure, he would utter the catchphrase “Keep those cameras safely rolling!”.

10 – The “Assignment America” segment, a segment which asked viewers to send in videos surrounding a specific theme such as weddings, trampolines, and sports disasters, was born midway through season one, and is the only feature that has remained constant throughout the show’s entire run.


11 – America’s Funniest Home Videos expanded into an hour-long program in 1995, following the cancellation of the short-lived ABC sitcom “On Our Own”.

12 – Bob Saget left the program in May 1997, but had expressed desire to leave the show at least two seasons prior.  But because de Bona reminded him that he still had time left on his contract, Saget would often act out of character during his final few seasons, and made lots of blunt puns in relation to his contract negotiations.


13 – When Saget hosted his final show in May 1997, it doubled as a “Full House” reunion (the show aired its last episode in 1995).  With the exception of the Olsen Twins, the entire cast dropped by the soundstage to help Bob Saget say goodbye to America’s Funniest Home Videos.


14 – Bob Saget would return to co-host America’s Funniest Home Videos with Tom Bergeron in 2009, to help ring in the show’s 20th anniversary episode.

15 – America’s Funniest Home Videos also changed its show announcer three times.  The first one was Ernie Anderson, who served as announcer from 1989-1995 (he returned briefly in 1997 just before he passed away).  Gary Owens became the announcer in 1995 and stayed until the end of Saget’s tenure as host.  From 1998 onwards, the position has been filled by Jess Harnell.  And for those of you who are into voice acting credits, you may be surprised to know that Harnell voiced the character of Wakko in the cartoon “Animaniacs”.

16 – The winners of each episode were chosen by the studio audience.  They would press the button that corresponded with the finalist they liked best.  The video with the most votes won.

17 – The voting has undergone some changes over the years, particularly during the $100,000 shows.  Initially, the voting process incorporated anywhere from two to five ABC affiliates all across the country, where audiences were joined via satellite with Los Angeles to cast their votes simultaneously.  These days, viewers can now vote from home, using the ABC website.

18 – As of 2008, viewers can now upload their videos from camera phones and digital cameras onto the ABC website itself, in addition to sending in VHS tapes and DVD’s.

19 – The show has aired over 450 episodes during its entire run.

20 – The show’s original theme song was recorded by Jill Colucci.  It ran during the show’s first seven seasons on air, and once more during Saget’s 2009 guest appearance.  To conclude this blog entry, why not have a listen?



Thursday, May 31, 2012

Who Cares About Gender Roles?


If you’re just joining us on the blog after a bit of an absence, you may notice that the place looks a little bit different.


After a year of having the same design, logo, and colour scheme, I decided that this week was the week that we would switch things up a bit.  Don’t worry, though.  Unlike Facebook, which changes its design more often than some people change their jockey shorts, the new look will be sticking around for some time.



It was hard to say goodbye to the old logo that was crafted by hand by yours truly.  I made it with the utmost of care, joy, and blue and pink gel pens.  But, as we transition into the second year of the blog, I decided that I wanted to make it appear more professional looking.  So, gone went the pink and blue, and in came the yellow and purple.  I think it turned out decently.

I also experimented with computer paint shop programs, and designed an improved logo using the new colour scheme.  I’m not usually that skilled in computer graphic designs, but I think the new logo turned out better than I expected.  I also tweaked the font style of the main heading a smidgen to match the logo a bit.  But, the rest of the layout is exactly the same.  I didn’t want to change things too much.

I’m not going to let a silly little thing like being blocked by a social networking site stop me from sharing my thoughts and life lessons with the world.  If anything, I have a feeling that this next year will be the best yet.

So, now that we have that out of the way, we can begin with today’s Thursday Confessional. 



THURSDAY CONFESSION #22:  I don’t believe in the concept of gender roles, and believe that people who force children to adhere to certain gender-based stereotypes are doing more harm than good to them.

I don’t know if you noticed this, but I am a man.  Of course, I don’t really know too many women with the first name of Matthew, but I just wanted to clarify that.  And, of course, I do like a lot of things that were manufactured for boys.  I played with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and He-Man action figures, Hot Wheels cars, and was addicted to the various video game consoles of my youth.

But if you were to look at my last week of topics, they aren’t exactly considered to be male-friendly.  With my blog covering Jem and the Holograms and my not-so-secret desire to own an Easy-Bake Oven, some people may accuse me of having given up my so-called “man card”.

Well, you know what?  I say let them keep thinking that way.  I don’t particularly care.

I mean, yes, back when I was a kid, I rarely watched Jem and the Holograms, because I was lead to believe that it was a cartoon for girls.  And, yes, certainly the dolls that Hasbro released as a companion piece to the cartoon were meant to be marketed for young girls.  But when I watched old episodes of the series to do research on the blog entry, I found that for all the glamour and glitz the show had, there was also a lot of action and suspense.  And, hey, the music from that show was infinitely better than some of the garbage that passes as Top 40 radio these days.

And, my desire for an Easy-Bake Oven was simply to satisfy my sweet tooth.  I didn’t care if it was completely pink and decorated in flowers.  I just wanted it to eat all the mini-cakes I wanted.

I know that I don’t have to justify why I choose the blog topics that I do (though admittedly I did just this once to help explain my confession for today).  When I began this blog a little over a year ago, my intention was to have a variety of topics from different eras, and for different groups of people, so that everyone in the world could find something to enjoy.  As long as I keep writing in this blog, I’ll continue to make it this way.

But if I admit to wanting a toy marketed for girls, or liking some aspects of a cartoon marketed for girls, I wouldn’t classify that as being a sissy, or weak. 

Yet, you see it all the time in school playgrounds and on the streets.  You see boys getting made fun of for wearing a pink shirt, or because they like to play with Barbie dolls.  On the flipside, you might see girls being made fun of for wanting to play football, or choosing to play with a tool box instead of a jewelry box.

My honest opinion is that I believe that boys and girls should be able to play with whatever they want to play, or wear whatever they want to wear, or watch whatever they want to watch without the fear of bullying or abuse by people who disagree with their interests.

I have a couple of examples of this that I wish to share with you on the subject.  One example is a fictional one from a Saturday Morning live-action series that aired.  The other one is a real life example that hit the media a couple of years ago.  In both cases, the subjects had a keen interest in something that was atypical for their gender, and in both cases, the subjects were subject to much scrutiny.  Yet, both of them prevailed, and ended up not only surviving the abuse, but persevering in the process.

We’ll start off with the fictional character first.


I don’t know how many of you remember a show called “Hang Time” on television.  My guess is not a lot of you do.  The show aired as part of the TNBC programming block on the NBC network.  It debuted in 1995 and ran for six seasons, concluding its run in December 2000.  The show itself was set at a high school in Deering, Indiana, and the main plot surrounded the school’s basketball team.  Basketball player Reggie Theus and football player Dick Butkus had regular roles in the series, and athletes such as Damon Stoudamire, Kobe Bryant, and the late Florence Griffith-Joyner made guest appearances on the show.  The show itself was sandwiched between two episodes of Saved By The Bell: The New Class, but if one were to watch the show closely, it had its own distinct identity...or at least it did the first couple of seasons anyway.

When we’re first introduced to the Deering Tornadoes, the basketball team is just being formed, and Coach Fuller was anxious to assemble a team of nothing but the best guys in Deering High School.


So when new student Julie Connor decides to try out for the team, Coach Fuller and the majority of the players think that she’s playing a joke.  The school had the attitude that boys played basketball, and girls stood on the sidelines waving pom poms and yelling “Go Deering!”, a stereotype that head cheerleader Mary Beth Pepperton was more than willing to keep going.  But Julie was determined to try out for the team.  As she told Samantha, who was then the equipment manager for the team, she had been playing basketball since she was a little girl, and it was all that she wanted to do.  Unfortunately, with no girls basketball team at Deering, all hope was lost.

That is until Samantha helped Julie by convincing Coach Fuller to let Julie try out for the boys team.  Most of the boys on the team scoffed at the idea, but eventually most came around.  Of course, at the time Samantha was dating one of the team members, so I imagine she had a hand in making him convince the others that Julie would be an asset.  The captain of the team, Chris Atwater still wasn’t convinced that she would fit in, and it took a one-on-one match between Chris and Julie to make Chris see that she had some major skills.


Long story short, Julie ended up making the team, eventually became a co-captain of the Deering Tornadoes, and ended up getting a special award for the dedication and natural athletic ability when she graduated.  The show itself proved that a girl could succeed in the world of male sports, and I imagine that a lot of girls who watched the show were inspired by Julie Connor.

I just wish the show touched upon the discrepancy in that Julie ended up spending SIX YEARS in high school...but hey, the show wasn’t perfect.

For our second tale, I want everyone to take a look at the picture below.


On the surface, it looks like a lovely Halloween picture, and that’s really the way I see it.  Does it really matter that the person inside that Daphne costume was really a five-year-old boy?

It doesn’t to me.  But this picture certainly caused a lot of controversy due to the comments of some people...and it’s not the people who you might think either.

Back in 2010, the mother of this young boy asked him who he wanted to be for Halloween, and he wanted to dress up like his favourite character from Scooby-Doo.  At that time, his favourite character was Daphne.  So the mother dressed him up in a flame orange wig, a purple dress, and purple leggings, and within moments, he was Daphne.  It was a very convincing costume, and I thought that it looked a lot like the cartoon character.  Judging by the smile on his face, I think he definitely approved of it.

And when he wore the costume to his preschool, his classmates didn’t seem taken aback, nor did they treat him any differently. 

The other mothers at the school playground, not so much.

The mother of the boy in the Daphne costume was shocked to hear some of the other mothers talking about his costume in a negative way.  One mother even accused the boy’s mother of opening him up to ridicule and teasing for dressing him that way.

It broke her heart to hear those women (who in my opinion really should have known better) saying such closed-minded and cruel things about her son, and by extension, herself just because of the choice of Halloween costume.  Yes, the choice of a Daphne costume was an inspired one for the five-year-old boy, but it was what he wanted to be.

And you notice that the children weren’t the ones who found it to be a big issue.  Instead, it was their parents who felt it necessary to bully and demean someone that they didn’t know because they crossed a gender line.

You know what, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a boy dressing up as a female for Halloween.  And, there’s nothing wrong with a girl wanting to play on a boys sports team.  As long as it makes the child happy, and as long as they’re growing up with a sense of knowing what is right and what is wrong, does it make a difference whether they play with a Barbie doll or a Tonka truck?

It shouldn’t.  If I had a son, and he wanted to dress up like Ariel from the Little Mermaid, I’d personally buy the red wig myself for him.  Or if I had a daughter, and she wanted to attend a monster truck rally, I’d sit down in the audience right beside her with pride.  Oh, and those people who claim that letting a boy play with dolls will turn them gay, or letting a girl playing football will turn them into a lesbian...I personally would like to see proof that this is the case.  And, even if it was the case, there’s nothing wrong with that at all.

So, I say, let your son bake cookies in an Easy-Bake Oven and let your daughter play football with the guys.  If it makes them happier, better people, then isn’t that all that matters?

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Easy-Bake Oven Deprivation Syndrome


Over the last few months, I’ve done quite a few blog entries on toys of the past.  And why wouldn’t I?  Like most kids, I loved playing with all sorts of different toys and games.  In fact, I reckon that I played with some toys that some of my peers never played with, simply because a good portion of my toys growing up were hand-me-downs, secondhand, or bought at garage sales.  I don’t remember too many kids my age who can say that they ever played an Intellivision, a Merlin, or an authentic Fisher-Price record player. 

There were some toys that came out when I was a little boy that I really wanted to play with, but for whatever reason never did.  I remember growing up, I always wanted to have so many toys that my classmates had.  When I was in school, I remember wanting to have a sandbox just like the one that we played in during kindergarten.  I loved the sandbox in school.  I built sandcastles in it, I drew my name with a twig in it, and one time in kindergarten, I tried to bury a kid who was teasing me inside of it.  That last one didn’t work out very well, for obvious reasons. 

Whatever the case, I really wanted my own sandbox, but my parents couldn’t afford to buy me one.  So instead, I had to settle for spraying the garden hose in the backyard and making a mud pit, which REALLY made my parents happy.

I also remember wanting to have that toy which contained a whole bunch of miniature muscle men figurines inside a small bucket.  I really don’t know what they were called upon retrospect, but I imagine a lot of men my age know what I am talking about.  When I did a brief stint with Beavers, we had a Christmas party where we all got presents, and I remember a lot of the boys there had gotten those muscle men figurines.  I wanted them too because I thought they were the coolest toys ever.  Imagine my disappointment when I got a Ninja costume instead.  A rather lame looking Ninja costume at that.  I never did get those muscle men.  Of course now I can look at that moment and think that it was lovely for the organization to give every child there a gift.  Back when I was five, I wanted desperately to trade with someone else.

But here’s a little bit of a confession for you.  There was one toy that I never got as a child, but somehow still wanted.  And, here’s the weird part.  This toy was one that was marketed towards girls!

For whatever reason, I wanted one of these.  Yet, I never got one.  And, even though I would have likely been made fun of mercilessly (even more than I usually did) for owning one, there was a part of me that still wanted one.  And, there’s still a part of me that feels as though I missed out on childhood for not having one.

With that, here’s the toy that I always wanted, but never got.

No, I didn’t post the wrong picture.  You are looking at a photograph of an Easy-Bake Oven, a toy that was originally manufactured by toy company Kenner in 1963, and have helped children make tasty treats for themselves and their families for almost fifty years.

I don’t care who knows it.  When I was a kid, I wanted an Easy-Bake Oven.

I know it sounds peculiar.  It actually sounds strange to me, especially as my idea of cooking is reheating something that was already previously cooked. 

I’m being absolutely serious about this as well.  You really don’t want me anywhere near a kitchen because I’ll either A) chop off two of my own fingers, B) somehow get a tablespoon of lemon juice sprayed into my eyes, or C) burn down the entire apartment building. 

My reason for wanting an Easy-Bake Oven as a boy was solely to satisfy my sweet tooth.  I have a condition known as an insatiable sweet tooth, and with dozens of recipe packets for cakes, cookies, and other delicious sweets, having my own Easy-Bake Oven would net me all the sweets I could eat.  And the best part about it was that I could make the treats myself.

You know, come to think of it, having an Easy-Bake Oven would have likely given me more confidence in the kitchen today had I owned one in my childhood.  But, alas, we’ll never know if that would have made a difference.

At any rate, the history behind the creation of the Easy-Bake Oven is a fascinating one.  The inventor of the Easy-Bake Oven was a man by the name of Ronald Howes, who in 1963 worked for Kenner Toys as an inventor and developer.  After hearing some Kenner salesmen talking about street vendors in New York City roasting chestnuts, Howes believed that he could use the process to develop a new toy.  He went out to the streets of New York to do his own observations, and found that street vendors used heat lamps to keep their food hot.

So, Howes’ idea was to design a base for the toy that looked like a then-modernized 1960s convection oven.  Then, Howes would place two one hundred watt incandescent light bulbs (in either yellow or turquoise colour) inside the oven.  He theorized that the heat given off by the two light bulbs would produce enough heat to cook a small cake (these days though, the newest models of the Easy-Bake Oven come equipped with a heating element, making the light bulbs obsolete). 

The first Easy-Bake Oven went on sale in 1963, and over the years would undergo several design and packaging changes.  Many commercials were made to promote the Easy-Bake Oven. 



Here’s one from the 1970s for you to watch above.

And here’s some trivia for you.  The Easy-Bake Oven featured several young girls on the packaging demonstrating how the toy worked.  One of these girls was actress Amy Yasbeck, of “Wings” and “Problem Child” fame.  The things you learn from the Internet Movie Database.  J

Each Easy-Bake Oven came with the oven playset, a set of small round pans, and three cake mixes.  There were dozens of other cake mixes in various flavours that were sold separately as well.  All one would have to do was mix the cake mix with water, pour the mixture in a pan, stick it in the Easy-Bake Oven through the designated slot for a few minutes, and when it was finished cooking, it would come out the other side.

One thing I’ve always wondered was if the cakes ended up tasting bakery fresh.  I’m 31, and I’ve never sampled anything that was cooked in an Easy-Bake Oven, so I’m not even aware of how good the food was inside of them.  But given that over twenty million units of the Easy-Bake Oven have been sold since they were first introduced, I’m sure that they ended up tasting all right.

Over the years, the Easy-Bake Oven has expanded its product line to include more desserts.  And with the creation of the Easy-Bake Oven and Snack Center in 1993, children could make cookies and brownies in addition to cake mixes.  And in 1997, Easy-Bake Oven would incorporate other brand names into their cake mixes such as Oreo and M&M’s.  Have a look!

Okay, now I want a green M&M Easy-Bake Oven cake.

Of course, the history of the Easy-Bake Oven hasn’t been without its blunders.  One of the biggest blunders of the company occurred just five years ago when almost one million units were forced to be recalled due to a manufacturing defect.

Oh, wait...that was a clip of an Easy-Bake Oven commercial spoof from MAD-TV. 

No, in 2006, Hasbro (which bought the rights to produce the toy from Kenner) released a new version of the oven, which introduced front-loading technology.  It was meant to be designed like a modernized range, where the front door opened up, and children could just stick the pans in the way a parent would normally use an adult oven.  But after the company received reports and complaints from parents whose children sustained serious injuries from the oven, the company was forced to recall the new design in early 2007.  As many as 249 children were injured, some sustaining second and third degree burns, and in some rare cases, even partial finger amputation!

For the most part though, the Easy-Bake Oven has been a well-loved toy for generations of children, and I’m sure that a lot of you have your own memories of baking tasty goodies in your own Easy-Bake Ovens.  What are some of your memories of this toy?  And was it worth having?

Sincerely yours,
An Easy-Bake Oven Deprived 30-Something.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

May 29, 1997



I really had a difficult time choosing the subject for today’s Tuesday Timeline.  And this time, it wasn’t because of a lack of material.  It turned out to be quite the opposite, actually.  May 29th seems to be one of the busiest days that I’ve done yet as far as the history behind the date goes.  We have tons of celebrity births, celebrity passings, and a lot of world history happening on this date.  So, let’s not waste any more time.

On this date in history;

1790 – Rhode Island is the last of the thirteen colonies to be recognized as a U.S. State, becoming the 13th state

1848 – Wisconsin becomes the 30th U.S. state

1861 – Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce is founded

1868 – The assassination of Michael Obrenovich III, the Prince of Serbia, in Belgrade

1886 – The first advertisement for Coca-Cola is placed in the Atlanta Journal by inventor John Pemberton

1903 – The King of Serbia, Alexander Obrenovich, and Queen Draga are assassinated in Belgrade by Black Hand organization in a May coup d’etat; also on this date, legendary comedian Bob Hope is born in London, England

1913 – Igor Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring’ premieres in Paris, sparking a riot

1914 – RMS Empress sinks in Gulf of St. Lawrence, killing 1,024 people

1917 – John F. Kennedy is born in Massachusetts, would later become 35th President of the United States

1919 – Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is tested by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Crommelin

1942 – Bing Crosby records “White Christmas”, which eventually becomes the best-selling Christmas song of all time

1945 – First combat mission of Consolidated B-32 Dominator Heavy Bomber

1950 – The St. Roch, docks in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, the first ship to circumnavigate North America

1953 – Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest

1973 – Tom Bradley becomes the first African-American mayor of Los Angeles

1985 – Amputee Steve Fonyo completes cross-Canada marathon at Victoria, British Columbia after fourteen months; that same day, the Heysel Stadium disaster occurs, where 39 football fans perish after a retaining wall collapses

1988 – President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union for a superpower summit with Mikhail Gorbachev

2004 – World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington D.C.

So, all in all, May 29th was an interesting date in history...well, unless you were unlucky enough to have been a part of the Serbian royal family, that is.

There’s quite a few celebrities blowing out candles on their birthday cakes today, so a happy birthday to all of you celebrating today, because you were born the same day as the following people; Clifton James, Gary Brooker (Procol Harem), Anthony Geary, Nick Mancuso, Rebbie Jackson, Danny Elfman, David Kirschner, Ken Schrader, LaToya Jackson, Ted Levine, Annette Bening, Rupert Everett, Melissa Etheridge, Lisa Whelchel, Blaze Bayley (Iron Maiden), Noel Gallagher (Oasis), Simon Jones (The Verve), Anthony Azizi, Melanie Brown (Spice Girls), David Burtka, Daniel Tosh, Adam Rickitt, Richard Lee Jackson, Jaslene Gonzalez, Riley Keough, Brandon Mychal Smith, and Kristen Alderson.

Phew...I’m exhausted.

Sadly, May 29th also happened to be the day in which a lot of celebrities breathed their last breath.  Dennis Hopper passed away on this date in 2010, and Harvey Korman passed away on this date in 2008.



And today’s blog subject died under mysterious circumstances on today’s featured date.  May 29, 1997.

May 29, 1997 was supposed to have been a great day for this singer-songwriter.  On this date in history, he was in Memphis, Tennessee, awaiting the arrival of his band at the recording studio.  He was in the midst of recording material for his second album, “My Sweetheart, The Drunk”.  While he waited for the band, our singer was getting a bit antsy, and he made the decision to go for a swim in the nearby Wolf River Harbor, which was near the Mississippi River.  It had been a favourite activity of his since he moved to Memphis just three months earlier.  With a roadie standing on shore as a witness, the man dove into the river still fully clothed, singing the chorus to a Led Zeppelin classic.  The roadie turned his back for just a few minutes to move a radio and guitar, and when his gaze fixed back on the river, the swimmer had vanished.

Almost one week later, on June 4, 1997, the body of 30-year-old Jeff Buckley was found by a couple of people near a riverboat.  With that discovery ended the promising career of a young man just starting out in the music business.


This blog is about the short life of Jeff Buckley.

Jeffrey Scott Buckley was born in Anaheim, California on November 17, 1966.  However, he didn’t go by his birth name right away.  You see, Buckley’s parents split up when Jeff was very young, and Jeff was raised by his mother Mary and stepfather Ron Moorhead.  As a result, Jeff went by the name of Scott Moorhead, which was his middle name paired with the surname of his stepfather.  His biological father, Tim Buckley, had made a living as a singer and songwriter himself, releasing a series of jazz and folk albums during the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Jeff only met his father once, when he was eight years old.  In 1975, Tim Buckley overdosed on drugs and died.  Shortly thereafter, Jeff decided to go by the name Jeff Buckley, though his immediate family still called him Scott.

Of course, his biological father wasn’t the only influence that inspired Jeff to pursue a career of his own in music.  His mother was a classically trained pianist, and his stepfather introduced him to such bands as Led Zeppelin, Queen, and Pink Floyd when he was young.  He made the decision to pursue a career in music when he was barely a teenager, and received his first guitar as a present for his thirteenth birthday.  Throughout high school, he joined the school jazz band, and upon graduating from high school in 1984, he attended the Musicians Institute for a year.  Despite this though, Buckley would later tell Rolling Stone that his time spent as the school was a huge waste of time, but he would later explain that he enjoyed studying music theory there.

It took Jeff Buckley six years before his music career would kick off.  He worked at a hotel by day, and played guitar for several struggling bands by night.  In early 1990, Buckley moved to New York City hoping to find work there, but at that time, there weren’t a lot of opportunities in the music scene.  A few months later, he moved back to Los Angeles after his father’s former manager, Herb Cohen, offered to record a demo for him, made up of original songs.  He cut a four track demo tape in late 1990, and started sending it to various record labels.

Jeff Buckley returned to New York City in April 1991 to sing at a tribute concert for his father.  It ended up being Buckley’s debut on stage, and contrary to what some believed Buckley never intended to have the concert be the springboard to his career.  He simply cited personal reasons behind his agreement to sing at the event.  Whatever the reason was, Buckley made quite an impression at the concert.  Even when his guitar string snapped during his final song, he finished the performance a cappella.  He would later explain to Rolling Stone magazine that his reason for performing at the concert was as a final goodbye to his father.  He felt guilty over not having a relationship with him, and he used the concert as a way to set things right.

Throughout the rest of 1991 and 1992, Buckley played at various clubs, concert halls, and bars in Lower Manhattan in hopes of scoring his big break.  After attracting the attention of record executives, including scoring a meeting with Clive Davis, Buckley eventually signed with Columbia Records in late 1992.


His first album, “Grace” was released in the summer of 1994.  The album included seven original songs, plus three cover songs.  One of these cover songs was originally performed by Leonard Cohen, and although it wasn’t released as a single that year, it did make appearances on various charts in the late 2000s. 


ARTIST:  Jeff Buckley
SONG:  Hallelujah
ALBUM:  Grace
DATE RELEASED:  August 23, 1994
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  N/A

What was interesting about this particular song was that it was the number one digitally downloaded song on four separate occasions between 2005 and 2008.  For instance, after American Idol contestant Jason Castro performed the song, Jeff Buckley’s version soared up the charts for most downloaded song from iTunes.  And, you know, I have to admit, of all the different versions of the song “Hallelujah” that have come out, I like Buckley’s interpretation a lot.

That’s not to say that other singles from the album “Grace” didn’t do well.  Buckley’s entire album was critically acclaimed, and singles such as “Grace”, “So Real”, “Eternal Life”, and the song down below were well loved by fans of the alternative genre.


The only problem was that his album didn’t receive a lot of airplay on radio stations, so the album sales were slow going.  But while sales in his native United States were moderate, the album’s popularity exploded in both France and Australia, where “Grace” reached gold two years after its release.  In fact, in Australia alone, the album reached sales of six times platinum by 2006!

“Grace” was also well received by other famous musicians.  One of Buckley’s idols, the members of Led Zeppelin, could not praise the album enough.  Bob Dylan once named him one of the greatest songwriters of the 1990s, and David Bowie once stated in an interview that Jeff Buckley’s album would be the one he would take with him on a deserted island.

When you have artists like Bob Dylan and David Bowie singing your praises, you know that you’ve done well!

Throughout 1995 and 1996, Buckley promoted “Grace” by performing at venues all over the world.  He toured Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and the United States in various venues, and the more he toured, the more people fell in love with his work.  But it was a double edged sword for Buckley.  As much as he appreciated the support of his fans, and the excitement of performing for fans, he lamented the idea of losing the anonymity he had back in the days when he was a struggling up and coming artist in New York City in the early 1990s.

At any rate, after his touring commitments wrapped up in 1996, he went to work on his second album, and by early 1997, he was well on his way to putting the finishing touches on it all.

But then came the evening of May 29, 1997, and in an instant, Jeff Buckley’s voice was silenced forever.

An autopsy ruled out suicide, and there were no drugs or alcohol found in his system.  His death was ruled an accidental drowning.  But that was of little comfort to his family and the millions of fans that he had all over the world.  Jeff Buckley was gone.


However, Jeff’s death didn’t necessarily mean that his music career was over.  His second album was released posthumously in 1998, with the title “Sketches for My Sweetheart The Drunk”, which was composed of both finished tracks and demos.  Almost immediately, the album reached gold status that same year.  He was also the subject of several documentaries that aired in France and England, and many artists recorded songs in tribute to their fallen friend, including PJ Harvey, Duncan Sheik, Steve Aday, and Rufus Wainwright.


Buckley’s legacy was remembered on the ten year anniversary of his death.  In May and June 2007, Australia, Canada, England, France, Iceland, Israel, Ireland, Macedonia, Portugal, and the United States launched a series of global tributes for the singer.

It’s now been exactly fifteen years since Jeff Buckley lost his life.  It’s not very often that an artist releases a breakthrough album that is well loved by so many people.  It almost seems unfair that Buckley died at a time in which he was just starting to find his way in the music industry because he really did have the talent to go far. 

Jeff Buckley would be 45 years old today if he lived.  It’s easy to imagine him at that age having half a dozen albums, several hit singles, and maybe even a Grammy Award or two.  Sadly, we’ll never know if he could have made those accomplishments.  But, if there is any comfort that fans of Jeff Buckley can take with them, it’s that at least when he was alive, he made a huge impact on the music scene and was well loved by a lot of people. 

And that’s our look back on May 29, 1997.