Search This Blog

Saturday, September 08, 2012

Eureeka's Castle


One thing you could always count on in regards to children's programming was that there would be some form of merchandise that could be associated with the show.

I imagine that almost all of us had our favourite cartoons and children's shows growing up. And, I imagine that almost all of us owned at least one piece of merchandise that was associated with the shows we would wake up early for each Saturday morning.

There were records, books, board games, comic books, magazines, breakfast cereals, juice boxes, cosmetics, shampoo and conditioner, notebooks, pens, pencils, action figures, dolls, toys, stuffed animals, video games, clothing items, backpacks...

...yeah, you get the idea.

Some of our favourite cartoon characters have appeared in a variety of places outside of the television screen from lunchboxes to McDonald's Happy Meals, and some people could amass quite a collection of memorabilia. Back in the late 1980s when I was obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I saved up my allowance to buy as much Ninja Turtles stuff as I could. I no longer have the action figures (and even if I still did, I think my Raphael one was missing an arm anyway), but I still have a set of fridge magnets and the four bubble bath containers that I saved from each of the bottles I used up twenty years ago.

(I swear I'm not a hoarder. I'm really not. Honest.)

But sometimes I would get toys for Christmas or my birthday, and I would be completely confused as to what show they were from because I either hadn't seen it, or it was a show that did not keep my interest enough to really remember details from it.

I'm going to tell you a story about one of these times. Don't worry, I'll transition it to the theme of today's blog.

My family is really big on stocking stuffers for Christmas. In fact, my two sisters and I ended up having some rather unique stockings. My sister's stockings were about twice the size of a regular stocking, meaning that they ended up getting a lot of apples, oranges, and Asian pears (that last fruit is a holiday favourite of one of my sisters, by the way). My original stocking wasn't quite that big...and it wasn't really a stocking. It was like a child size pair of long johns where the treats were stuffed inside the little flap at the back.

And, the unusual stockings didn't end with just us kids. My father's stocking is designed like a cowboy boot.

When my eldest sister got married in 1989, she gave me her old stocking, and I believe that the year after that was when this story took place.

In addition to the various pieces of fruit and holiday chocolates that we would find in our stockings, we would often find small toys that were wrapped up. Nothing too expensive...mostly they came from the local dollar store. When I opened up one small present in my stocking, I found this.



It was a dragon finger puppet. Well, actually, given the size of the puppet, it worked as a hand puppet for me. I thought it was really cool, and I played with it quite often, but for the life of me, I didn't know exactly who he was. I had a feeling that he was a part of some children's show, but at the time, I couldn't find it.

It wasn't until a couple of years later that I finally found the source of the finger puppet. Now, by that time, I had outgrown most television shows for little kids, but I happened to flip through the channels and landed on TVOntario. And, who should happen to come across my screen but the green dragon that inspired my finger puppet! So, curious, I ended up watching the whole show, just to see what it was about.



That show was the Nickelodeon television series “Eureeka's Castle”. The show aired for six years on that network, running from September 4, 1989 to June 30, 1995. And, here's a bit of trivia for you. One of the creators and writers of the series was R.L. Stein. If that name sounds familiar to some of you, it's because it is the same R.L. Stein who wrote the successful series of “Goosebumps” books.



For 134 episodes, Eureeka's Castle entertained a number of children all over the world...and you know something? Although I was almost twelve by the time I saw my first episode, I admit that it was a neat little show. If I could best describe the program, I would call it a mash up of “Sesame Street”, “The Friendly Giant”, “Fraggle Rock”, and “Pee-Wee's Playhouse”.



Now, the dragon that I ended up playing with had a name. He was called Magellan. And, Magellan was a dragon who was approximately eight feet tall. He was big and green, but was anything but scary. Really, the only annoying thing about Magellan was that he would often be prone to sneezing fits. And anyone who was in the castle at the time of Magellan sneezing might have felt the earth shake and quiver. Magellan's sneezes were so strong that they likely would have made an impression on the Richter scale.

But Magellan was hardly the only one who lived in the castle. After all, the show was called “Eureeka's Castle” for a reason. And, well, you couldn't have a castle without an Eureeka.



In this case, Eureeka was a sorceress with multi-coloured hair. Don't worry, she was just as friendly as Magellan. A wizard in-training, Eureeka loved to use her magic wand to help her friends, and she was always very helpful. Although sometimes her magic could backfire due to the fact that she wasn't quite experienced in every spell. Eureeka would often have a segment in the show where she would cast a spell, and show us a scene in which we saw kids having fun doing an activity. It was almost similar to that of the polka dots within the Polka Dot Door, come to think of it.



There were other characters that lived in the castle as well. There was Batley, a little blue bat that would fly around the castle...but due to the fact that he was incredibly nearsighted, he would often crash into walls whenever he took flight. Batley also has a bit of an ego, and sometimes would act a bit like a know-it-all. But luckily, he had his best friend Magellan to keep him on his toes.



We also had Mr. Knack, a purple haired man who pushed around a cart filled with knick-knacks that he would often sell to the residents of the castle. He also was the one who would fix various things around the castle to varying degrees of success depending on what needed fixing.



In the castle's moat, deep under the castle lived two fuzzy monsters known as the Moat Twins. They were a brother and sister named Bogge and Quagmire. Bogge is the orange one, Quagmire, the pinkish-red one. They mostly swim deep under the water of the moat, and when they are finished their swim, they have a nice big lunch containing their favourite food...peanut butter.



Other characters of the show included the singing fish fountain that would sing songs in between squirting water, Sir Klank, a royal mouse who lives inside a suit of armor, and Batley and Magellan's pets, Webster and Cooey.

In fact, if one were to go inside Magellan's bedroom, you might find a group of claymation worm/slug hybrids known as “Slurms”.



Yes, the gang in Eureeka's Castle had a lot of fun within the castle walls...but now here's the twist. The gang only continued to have fun as long as the castle key kept spinning in a circle. You see, the “Castle” was actually a toy that a big, red haired giant would play with every day. All he had to do was wind up the key in the castle, and it was guaranteed entertainment for the next twenty-one minutes.

The Magellan puppet was just one of the many toys associated with “Eureeka's Castle”. I come to find out that my Magellan finger puppet was sold at Pizza Hut with the purchase of a large pizza (they also manufactured puppets of Batley and Eureeka). But there were also books and VHS cassettes produced. I almost sort of wish the series was found on DVD because I think a lot of people would enjoy it.

A lot of the actors and puppeteers who appeared on the show managed to become stars on other shows. Cheryl Blaylock, who played Eureeka worked on Sesame Street, as did Pam Arciero, who voiced Quagmire. In fact, Pam Arciero is currently the speaking voice of Grungetta the Grouch!

Noel MacNeal has also built a name for himself in the world of puppeteering. Not only did he get recognition for voicing Magellan, but he was also the man who helped bring “Bear In The Big Blue House” to television, voicing the title role.

I think “Eureeka's Castle” is one of those forgotten treasures in the world of children's television, and I hope that one day a new generation can discover this wonderful show.

I know that had it not been for that Magellan finger puppet, I might not have discovered just how great a show it was. After all, each episode ended with a picnic!

Friday, September 07, 2012

Are You Being Served?


It has been months since I did a focus on a British television show, and I thought that today would be a great day to talk about one of the UK's most successful programs. Not only did it garner huge ratings in Great Britain, but it also became a hit with American audiences due to its quick wit, strong cast, and double entendres galore.

The show is set in a large department store located in the heart of downtown London, and I have to admit that part of the reason why I love this show more than I did before is because I can sort of relate to it. After all, the show is set in a retail establishment, and I've been working in retail for almost eight years now. Even though I work in the food department, and the show is set mainly in the fashion area, there are quite a bit of similar experiences between what I have gone through at my workplace and what the experiences of the various people on this program dealt with during the series run.

Mind you, almost all of the situations that are featured in this program are ones that I have never experienced at my own workplace. In my nearly eight years of retail, I have never sold home-made perfume, set up an after hours night club on the sales floor, or wrote a love letter to someone with the greeting “Dear Sexy Knickers”.



Yet, these are all plot lines that aired during the run of the BBC series “Are You Being Served?”, which aired for sixty-nine episodes over the course of thirteen years.



The program was created by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, and was heavily inspired by the work experiences of Lloyd, who like the characters featured on the program worked in a department store chain, “Simpsons of Piccadilly” during the 1950s. As far as the store design itself, the look of the fictional “Grace Brothers Department Store” was inspired by two other stores...”Rossiters of Paignton” and “Clements of Watford”, both places that Lloyd and Croft worked at.

The pilot episode of the program aired on September 8, 1972 (meaning that tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of the program). This was a bit unusual for British television, as many television shows produced in Britain debuted at the beginning of the calendar year. But due to the tragic events of the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics, there was free airtime available to air the pilot.

The pilot was rebroadcast in March 1973, but failed to get much attention, as it was then airing opposite ratings juggernaut “Coronation Street”. It was only after a couple of airings that the show really began to take off. During the show's peak, it managed to attract an average of 22 million people per episode.

TRIVIA: Originally, the pilot episode of the series was filmed in colour, but unfortunately, the tape that contained the pilot was erased. The only footage that existed was a 16mm film recording in black and white. But in 2009, the pilot episode was restored to full colour using the technology known as “colour recovery”, and the restored version aired on British television on January 1, 2010.



Now, you can't have a television show without a cast of characters, and “Are You Being Served?” had some of the best actors and actresses ever assembled. Not only did they keep the audience in stitches the whole time, but they also had wonderful chemistry with each other.

When the show began, there were eight main characters cast, and of those eight, five of them managed to stay on the entire series run. Each of these characters had their own distinct personalities, and each one had their own jobs within the store. Part of the humour of the show stemmed from the idea that each character had their own strong personalities that often clashed with someone else's. The show also implemented sight gags, misunderstandings, and slapstick comedy, and successfully poked fun at the British class system. The employees of the store rarely referred to themselves by their first names, which added to the comedic effect.

So, let's meet some of the staff, shall we?



First, there's Captain Stephen Peacock (Frank Thornton). He works at the store as a floorwalker, but prior to joining the staff of Grace Brothers, he was enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps. When we are first introduced to Captain Peacock, he has the attitude that he is better than everyone else, even though he started off as a floor sweeper. At the beginning of the series, he was stuffy, stodgy, and old-fashioned, and who did everything by the rule book. But as time progressed, his exterior softened a bit, and he ended up sticking by his employees more.



Then there was Mrs. Betty Mary Elizabeth Jennifer Rachel Abergavenny Slocombe (Mollie Sugden), the Senior of the Ladies Department at Grace Brothers. She is known for mainly two things. Firstly, in each episode of the show, her hair is dyed an unusual colour such as lime green, bright purple, or sky blue. And secondly, she tells the staff of the store lots of stories about her beloved cat, Tiddles. Though whenever she told these stories, she didn't exactly refer to her cat as a “cat”. Just watch the series of clips below. You'll get it.



Mrs. Slocombe's best friend (and employee) in the store is Miss Shirley Brahms (Wendy Richard), who works as the junior ladieswear assistant. In the earliest episodes, she is quite hard to understand as she speaks with a heavy Cockney accent, but whenever she talks on the telephone, the accent is relaxed, and she becomes easier to comprehend. 



She is widely considered to be the sex symbol of the program, and is often placed in situations which allowed her to showcase almost all of her best features. She is also considered to be a modern girl and a real woman of the 1970s. She is extremely proud of her working-class roots, but this doesn't stop her from wanting a more luxurious lifestyle. Although Miss Brahms makes up for this by having a busy social life.



Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries (John Inman) was the store's junior menswear associate. He also happened to keep the audience guessing in regards to his sexuality. It was purposely dealt with in an ambiguous nature so that it made it impossible to tell whether he was straight or gay. He was also known for his one-liners and his outrageous dress style. Take a look to see what I mean.



TRIVIA: When Australia attempted their own version of “Are You Being Served?”, John Inman was the only person from the show to reprise his role in that series.

Other characters who appeared on the program were Mr. Cuthbert Rumbold (Nicholas Smith), a department manager of the store who often could be confused or forgetful, Mr. Ernest Grainger (Arthur Brough), an employee of Grace Brothers for over 40 years, who was often caught dozing on the job, Mr. Mash (Latty Martyn), a maintenance man who was often scolded by Captain Peacock for being on the sales floor during opening hours, and Mr. Dick Lucas (Trevor Bannister), a young junior salesman who despite his pathetic bank account managed to charm the ladies.



TRIVIA: On the show, Trevor Bannister's character was supposed to be in his mid-twenties when the show's pilot aired in 1972. In real life, Trevor Bannister was thirty-seven years old at the time the pilot was filmed. In case you were wondering, the youngest cast member of the original group was Wendy Richard, who was 29 when she was cast on the program.

The show would end up running until April 1, 1985. By then, much of the cast had moved onto other projects. But seven years later, in 1992, the program would be reborn in the form of a new project entitled “Grace & Favour”. In Canada and the United States it was known under the alternate title of “Are You Being Served? Again!”. 



The second reincarnation of the series moved away from the department store setting and into a manor setting. Five of the show's original cast members (Mollie Sugden, John Inman, Wendy Richard, Nicholas Smith, and Frank Thornton) made the move onto the new series. The series did manage a two season run before ending in February 1993, but didn't match the same success as the original formula. But, hey, you can't blame them for trying to recreate the magic of the first series.

So, what happened to some of the original cast members since “Are You Being Served?” wrapped up? Well, two of the actors (Frank Thornton and Nicholas Smith) are still alive and kicking. Frank Thornton's last acting credit was back in 2001 with an appearance on “Gosford Park”, and Nicholas Smith is still acting as of 2010 with an appearance on a children's show.

Trevor Bannister, who passed away in April 2011, continued acting as well, his most recent project being a recurring role on the series “Last of the Summer Wine”.

John Inman passed away of hepatitis in 2007, but before his death, he acted in several pantomimes and made guest appearances in several television programs in the United Kingdom.



Perhaps the star who ended up having the most fulfilling career was that of Wendy Richard. Just months after “Are You Being Served” wrapped up filming, she took on the role of Pauline Fowler on the BBC dramatic series “EastEnders”, which debuted two months before the last episode of “Are You Being Served?” aired. Although Wendy was forced to dress down for the role and cut her long hair quite short, she ended up loving the role of Pauline Fowler, and she proved that she could do drama as well as comedy. Although, in the scene of EastEnders down below, that line could sometimes be crossed.



Wendy Richard remained on EastEnders until December 25, 2006 after playing the role for nearly twenty-two years (only taking a small break during 1992 while filming the sequel to “Are You Being Served?”). It is rare for a star to have success after a long run on a serial, and even rarer to have an acting job last eight years longer than the previous one they had. Yet, Wendy Richard managed to accomplish exactly that.

Sadly, Wendy Richard passed away from cancer at the age of 65 in February 2009. Her funeral would end up becoming the final public appearance of her co-star Mollie Sugden, who would pass away just four months later.

But you know something? Even though most of the original cast of “Are You Being Served?” are now gone, the joy, laughter, and comedic timing that they brought the United Kingdom and North America for thirteen years still remain. I can see why it was such a beloved program for so many people. In fact, I wish that my PBS station would broadcast it once more so that a new generation can watch it. If anything, it'll give people a laugh over how people dressed 40 years ago.

Coming up next week in this spot, we focus the blog on a doctor...a really, really young doctor...

Thursday, September 06, 2012

2012 - The Year Of The Celebrity Death?


Just to let all of you know, I am still taking submissions and ideas for a brand new theme day for Thursdays.  I hope to have a more permanent idea in place for October 2012 to replace the Thursday Confessional, but I can’t think of any ideas on my own.  So, I’m asking all of you out there to float me some suggestions.  I’ll take any idea...well, provided that it has at least a PG-13 rating, that is.

For today’s blog entry though, I thought I would offer up a bit of a personal commentary about the past year.

Have you ever heard of the saying “Death comes in threes?” 

I imagine that quite a few of you have.  I did attempt to try and find out the origin of this phrase/superstition, but unfortunately I was unable to pinpoint an exact source.  The phrase is often used in pop culture references in regards to celebrity deaths.  Some seem to believe that when one famous person passes away, two more will soon follow.  Many people have dismissed this theory as superstitious nonsense...an old wives tale, if you will.

But for whatever reason this year, celebrity deaths seem to come in more than threes.  In fact, I’m almost thinking that the year 2012 is one of the deadliest years to be famous, celebrities dropping like flies.


The latest celebrity to join the 2012 Celebrity Death Club (a rather direct name, but the only one I could come up with spur of the moment) was Michael Clarke Duncan, who passed away just three days ago at the age of 54.  Many of you remember Michael Clarke Duncan from his role as John Coffey in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Green Mile”, but he also starred in a variety of other film projects as well.  He appeared in “Armageddon”, “The Whole Nine Yards”, “The Scorpion King”, and “Kung Fu Panda”. 

His death from a heart attack absolutely still shocked me, even though he was recovering from another one that he sustained two months prior to his death (well, that, plus the fact that his girlfriend was Omarosa from The Apprentice).  He was a brilliant actor, and he deserved every accolade that people could have bestowed upon him.  He will be greatly missed.

But Michael Clarke Duncan was not the first famous face to enter into rest during 2012.  As I said before, we lost a lot of high-profile people during the first eight months of the year, and unlike other years, it seemed as though the celebrity deaths happened one right after the other!

So, I thought that I would devote this space to the stars we loved and lost in 2012 so far, why we loved them (or not), if they could have been saved, and the legacy that they have left in the world of pop culture.  Most of these ones have already had a feature written about them in some manner, but since it’s been a few months since their deaths in some cases, my opinions may have shifted a bit.


I suppose the first high-profile celebrity death that we had was “At Last” singer Etta James, who passed away on January 20, just a few days shy of turning 74.  During her lifetime, she ended up winning six Grammy Awards and 17 Blues Music Awards!  Despite battling a drug addiction, James went on to achieving great success as a singer, and she single-handedly helped bridge the wide gap between two popular styles of music...R&B and rock and roll, earning her a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.


I am sure that Etta James helped inspire a lot of people all over the world to become singers.  I am not sure if Whitney Houston ever cited Etta James as an influence, but certainly Whitney had her own success with music, as well as a slew of personal demons that for whatever reason ended up sticking with her during her whole life.  Her death on February 11 at the age of 48 probably didn’t shock a lot of people, but I admit that it was still sad to hear.  If only she had taken the help that she was offered, perhaps she would still be here.  However, Whitney Houston still managed to make an impact six months after she died when her last film, “Sparkle” was released nationwide in the summer of 2012.  I suppose one could call it her last hurrah.


And then on the last day of February 2012, we said goodbye to former Monkee Davy Jones, whose death at the age of 66 broke the hearts of many women of all generations.  I admit that of all the celebrity deaths that occurred in 2012, his was probably the one that left me open-mouthed in astonishment the most.  By all accounts, Davy Jones was the pinnacle of good health, and it just seemed unbelievable that he was here one moment and gone the next.

March was a rather slow month for the Grim Reaper, although we did say goodbye to comic book artist Jean Giraud on the tenth, and Earl Scruggs on the twenty-eighth.

But then in April, we ended up losing two television legends in less than two weeks.


The April 7 death of longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace was a huge loss to the world of journalism, but when you consider that he lived to be 93 years old, he had a long, fulfilling life and career. 


And just eleven days later, on April 18, the world of entertainment lost a legend in Dick Clark, host of American Bandstand, dozens of Rockin’ New Years Eve parties, and the various incarnations of “Pyramid” during the 1980s.  He was 82 years old.

In May, we said goodbye to three legends.  On May 8, “Where the Wild Things Are” author Maurice Sendak passed away at the age of 83.  One day later, on May 9, famed British stylist Vidal Sassoon lost his battle with leukemia at the age of 84.  




And on May 17, Donna Summer danced her last dance, succumbing to lung cancer at age 63.


May 20, 2012 was the final day for Bee Gee Robin Gibb, who bravely fought to continue “stayin’ alive” to the end, passing away at age 62.  And former Beastie Boy Adam Yauch lost his battle with cancer on May 4 at the age of 47.


As June 2012 arrived, we lost “Desperate Housewives” and “The West Wing” actress Kathryn Joosten on the second of the month.  She was 72.  On June 5, American author Ray Bradbury died at the age of 91.  Rodney King (the figure at the center of a police brutality case which sparked the Los Angeles riots of 1992) died on June 17 at the age of 47, and on June 26, the world said farewell to 71-year-old director/screenwriter Nora Ephron, who was responsible for such films as “Sleepless in Seattle”, “You’ve Got Mail”, and “Julie & Julia”.


In July, Hollywood lost three major players in the world of classic film.  First, Andy Griffith, star of “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Matlock” died on July 3 at the age of 86.  Ernest Borgnine passed away on July 8 at age 95 of renal failure.  And Celeste Holm passed away on July 15, also at 95.


We also said a fond farewell to Sylvester Stallone’s son, Sage, who was found dead at the age of 36 on July 13, astronaut Sally Ride, who succumbed to cancer at the age of 61, as well as Irish author Maeve Binchy, who passed away at the age of 72 on July 30, and writer/playwright Gore Vidal who died on July 31 at age 86.


And just last month, we had three celebrity deaths in a row.  Scott McKenzie, who had a hit with “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in your Hair)” lost his life on August 18, aged 73.  On August 19, the world was shocked over the suicide of director Tony Scott, who was 68 at the time of his death.  And then on August 20, 95-year-old Phyllis Diller laughed her last laugh.

Finally, on August 25, the first man to walk on the moon became a star in the sky, as Neil Armstrong breathed his last breath.  He was 82.

Is that not a lot of celebrity deaths for 2012 or what?  By my count so far, there have been 27 celebrity deaths for this year alone...and we’ve still got four months left to go.  I honestly don’t even know if I covered everybody here!

It most likely isn’t the year with the most high-profile deaths, but there certainly have been quite a lot of them.  And certainly the music industry, film industry, and New Years Eve will never quite be the same now that we have lost these figures. 

But on the other hand, death is just a part of life, and it is something that we all have to face sooner or later (though I am hoping that my lifespan is more like Phyllis Diller’s than Sage Stallone’s).  It’s certainly sad to think that these people are no longer with us, but at the same time, the contributions that they made to the world of entertainment are nothing short of remarkable.  And, that goes to everyone here who has lost a loved one in 2012.  As long as you keep the good memories of these people close to your hearts, and never forget who they were and how much they meant to you, then they don’t really fade away, do they?

This post is dedicated to everybody who has lost a loved one in 2012, as well as anyone who has ever lost a loved one. 

May the families of Michael Clarke Duncan and all the others who passed away so far this year be able to find comfort and peace.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Calvin and Hobbes


It’s been a while since I have done a featured blog entry on a comic strip (and, no, the Josie and the Pussycats blog entry that I wrote last week won’t count either). 

If any of you were around at the very beginning when I first created this blog, you might recall that Sundays were originally dedicated to comic strips.  But a couple of weeks in, I realized that I forgot to include a music category.  Luckily, I just combined the comic strips into the Saturday morning entry and made Sunday the music day.

It’s a decision that I don’t regret because I needed a music themed day (after all, there’s lots of interesting stories and facts that one can get from listening to a CD single or an entire album of songs).  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that maybe I should talk about comic strips more often than I do.  After all, everyone has their favourite comic characters, and everyone who is close to me always reads the funnies first in the newspaper.  And, I figure that since Wednesdays are dedicated to toys, games, books, and magazines, this would be a great day to talk about comic strips.

When I was a kid, our newspaper would have a rather decent selection of comic strips.  I’m trying to think back to what comic strips were in the Brockville Recorder and Times twenty years ago, in September 1992.  If my memory serves me, the list went like this.
GARFIELD
BLONDIE
CATHY
SHOE
PEANUTS
HERMAN
DOONESBURY
FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE
EEK AND MEEK
B.C.
ANDY CAPP

(There were a couple of others but I can’t remember what they were now.  I do know one of them was illustrated by Ben and Vince Wicks, but the name escapes me.)

Twenty years later, only two of these strips are still being printed (Garfield and For Better or for Worse).  As well, Dilbert, Zits, and Adam are a part of the current comic line-up. 

You may notice that a few popular comics were missing from that list.  I don’t believe my newspaper ever carried “The Far Side” or “Beetle Bailey”, which is a shame, as I liked both.  But then again, my newspaper spared us “The Family Circus”, which could be viewed by some as a good decision (for the record, I didn’t mind it THAT much.)

Today, we’re going to be putting the spotlight on a comic strip that also never appeared in my newspaper.  And I found that to be quite shameful because many people regard this comic strip as one of the best.  It wasn’t until I read a collection of these comic strips (that I checked out of my school library) that I realized how great it was. 

That’s why I also found it surprising that the comic only lasted ten years, considering its popularity, as well as the fondness that some of the strip’s biggest fans still have for the comic, seventeen years after the final edition was printed.


We’re going to take a look at the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes”, illustrated by Bill Watterson.

How did “Calvin and Hobbes” come to be created?  We’re going to take a trip back to the 1980s to get the answer to that question.  At that time, Watterson was making a living working at an advertising agency.  And he hated it! 

Watterson would have rather had a career in his one true passion...cartooning.  He came up with dozens of ideas to sell to comic strip syndicates, but each idea was rejected. 


But then in 1985, Watterson got the break of a lifetime when he showed off a comic strip creation he created.  The main characters were a six-year-old boy with blonde hair and a striped shirt, and a stuffed tiger who could magically come to life with the power of a child’s imagination.  United Feature rejected the idea, but United Press Syndicate decided to take a chance on the comic.

November 18, 1985 marked the debut of the “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip.  Here’s the iconic first strip below.


Within the first year of the serial, the comic strip became syndicated in over 250 newspapers, and by 1987, the strip soon found distribution outside of the United States.

Now, although this has not truly been confirmed as fact, it is speculated that Watterson came up with the names for the characters as a shout out to the political science department at Kenyon College (in which he earned a degree in the subject in 1980).  It’s rumoured that Calvin came from sixteenth century theologian John Calvin, and that Hobbes came from seventeenth century political philosopher Thomas Hobbes.  Again, I’m not sure if it is exactly one hundred per cent gospel, but it does sound logical.

Anyway, back to “Calvin and Hobbes”.


The cartoon was a masterpiece of sorts, and what worked in regards to the strip was the fact that the audience for the strip was quite broad.  Little kids loved the comic because I’m sure they could relate to playing with a cherished stuffed animal that ended up becoming their best friend.  I should know, as I had an entire menagerie of stuffed animals that I would pretend were guests at my own diner.

(Yes, I did have a vibrant imagination as a child.)

But adults loved Calvin and Hobbes as well because it often dealt with subjects that most parents could relate to as well.  There were lots of gags that involved various subjects such as environmentalism, political activism, and lots of philosophical questions.  Parents could also relate to Calvin’s own relationship with his family as well, because a lot of the situations that Calvin’s family went through were situations that they themselves went through.

“Calvin and Hobbes” was definitely a labour of love for Watterson, and he put every bit of effort into making the strip shine.  As a result, he ended up winning several awards for his work on the strip including the following;

Two-time winner of the Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year (1986, 1988)

National Cartoonists Society; Newspaper Comic Strips Humor Award (1988)

Sproing Award (1988)

Harvey Award, Special Award for Humor (1989)

Seven-time winner of the Harvey Best Syndicated Comic Strip Award (1989-1996)

That’s just a few of his achievements.  To win the same award seven years in a row in the same category...that’s almost unheard of today!

That’s not to say that Bill Watterson didn’t have his fair share of problems and concerns while he was drawing the strip.  One of his biggest pet peeves in regards to drawing the comic was the fact that the syndicate put pressure on him to merchandise the characters of Calvin and Hobbes, and that was something that Watterson was not willing to do, aside from putting out collection books of his strips from time to time.  To Watterson, he felt that the integrity of the comic strip would be compromised and the impact of the strip would be lost in the sea of commercialism.  So while Jim Davis and Charles M. Schulz inked merchandising deals for Garfield and Peanuts respectively, there were never any Calvin and Hobbes baseball caps, keychains, breakfast cereals or cartoon shows on Saturday mornings, although Watterson did briefly entertain the idea of animating Calvin and Hobbes into a 30-minute television program.

Watterson also took issue with the amount of space that he had to work with on his cartoon.  Around the early 1990s, newspapers shrunk the space available for cartoonists to work with, and that frustrated him incredibly.  Watterson’s argument was that the limited space would force cartoonists to omit detailed artwork from the panels, making the cartoons look dull and unoriginal.  In fact, Watterson lobbied to have his Sunday comics take up an entire page, and he craved more artistic freedom than the syndicate would allow him.

As a result of these frustrations, Watterson ended up taking two sabbaticals from the strip.  The first one lasted from May 1991 to February 1992, and the second one lasted for eight months in 1994.  During this time, many newspapers re-ran old Calvin and Hobbes strips.

By 1995, however, it became clear that the run of Calvin and Hobbes was soon to come to an end.  And, in November 1995, Watterson made that clear in a letter to the editors of the newspapers that carried the strip via his syndicate.

I will be stopping “Calvin and Hobbes” at the end of the year.  This was not a recent or easy decision, and I leave with some sadness.  My interests have shifted however, and I believe I’ve done what I can do with the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels.  I am eager to work at a more thoughtful pace, with fewer artistic compromises.  I have not yet decided on future projects, but my relationship with Universal Press Syndicate will continue.  That so many newspapers would carry “Calvin and Hobbes” is an honor I’ll long be proud of, and I’ve greatly appreciated your support and indulgence over the last decade.  Drawing this strip has been a privilege and a pleasure, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity.

And with that came the end of an era.  Below is the final “Calvin and Hobbes” strip, dated December 31, 1995.


Since ending “Calvin and Hobbes” seventeen years ago, Bill Watterson has shifted his focus from drawing cartoons to painting landscapes.  He has also become a bit of a recluse, and very rarely gives interviews to the media.  In fact, over the years, many newspapers and news outlets have sent reporters out to try and locate Watterson for an interview, but all of them came back empty-handed.  Some may be disappointed that Watterson has disappeared from the public eye, but as far as I’m concerned if Watterson wishes to live the rest of his life privately, he certainly has earned that right.

In fact, Watterson also refuses to give out autographs and refuses to let people license his characters, which I can understand as well after reading a story.  Initially, when Watterson became famous, he would often sign a few copies of Calvin and Hobbes anthologies and place them in a bookstore in Ohio for people to be surprised.  Instead, the surprise was on him, as he found that some of the very books that he signed were being sold on eBay for huge money...a principal that he was very much against.  It’s a shame that because of a few people, he had to stop that practice, because to tell you the truth, I thought that it was a neat idea. 


As far as Calvin and Hobbes goes, I think it’s a safe bet to say that they won’t be coming back any time in the near future (if at all), and I think that people are missing out because of it.  It truly was a gem in the crown of comic strips.  It still is.

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

September 4, 2006


This is the first Tuesday Timeline for the month of September, and I for one am excited.  I have some great topics lined up for this month, and I hope all of you will enjoy them.

September is a time for reflection, and also a time for new beginnings.  And, our subject today is one that does both.  We’ll reflect on the contributions this person did, as well as the new beginnings that took place after this person departed this world.

So, by now, I suppose you have figured out that today’s Tuesday Timeline will focus on an individual who has passed away.  But before we speak of the dead, we should take a look at the living, and start this discussion by listing some famous faces celebrating a birthday today.

Celebrating a birthday this fourth day of September are Bert Olmstead, Mitzi Gaynor, Dawn Fraser, Merald “Bubba” Knight, Jennifer Salt, Ron Ward, Gary Duncan (Quicksilver Messenger Service), Martin Chambers (The Pretenders), Judith Ivey, Blackie Lawless (W.A.S.P.), Khandi Alexander, Dr. Drew Pinsky, George Hurley (Minutemen), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), Damon Wayans, Kevin Kennedy, Sam Yaffa (New York Dolls), Jeff Tremaine, John DiMaggio, Mike Piazza, Phill Lewis, Kristen Wilson, Ione Skye, Jason David Frank, Carmit Bachar (The Pussycat Dolls), Kai Owen, Wes Bentley, Beyonce Knowles, and Whitney Cummings.

And here are some of the historical events for today.

1666 – The most destructive day of the Great Fire of 1666 in London, England

1774 – During the second voyage of Captain James Cook, Europeans discover New Caledonia

1781 – 44 Spanish settlers found the city that would come to be known as Los Angeles, California

1812 – The Siege of Fort Harrison begins when the fort is set ablaze during the War of 1812

1870 – Napoleon III is deposed, and the Third Republic is declared in France

1884 – The United Kingdom ends its policy of penal transportation to Australia

1888 – George Eastman receives a patent for a camera that uses roll film, and trademarks the brand name “Kodak”

1923 – The first flight of the first American airship, the USS Shenandoah takes place

1944 – Finland exits from combat in World War II along with the Soviet Union

1948 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates throne due to illness

1949 – The Peekskill riots occur following a concert by Paul Robeson

1950 – The first NASCAR race takes place at Darlington Raceway

1956 – The first commercial computer to utilize magnetic disk storage, the IBM RAMAC 305 is introduced to the public

1957 – Ford Motors introduces the Edsel

1963 – Swissair Flight 306 crashes in Switzerland, killing all 80 people aboard

1967 – Operation Swift begins during Vietnam War

1972 – Mark Spitz becomes the first person to win seven Olympic medals at a single Olympic Games

1977 – Golden Dragon Massacre takes place in San Francisco, California

1998 – Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University, create the popular search engine Google

2010 – A powerful 7.1 earthquake strikes New Zealand, causing widespread damage and power outages

That’s a lot of history to digest isn’t it?  Well, there’s one more section that I want to talk about as well.  There were quite a few public figures that passed away on September 4.  Dottie West passed away on September 4, 1991.  Herve Villachaize died on September 4, 1993.


And today’s blog subject ended up passing away on September 4, 2006.

Six years ago, we lost someone who was a real champion for wildlife conservation.  For years, he dedicated his whole life to studying animals, as well as leading the fight to protect animals and their natural habitats.  In his later years, he developed several television programs and specials, while serving as an ambassador for tourism in his native Australia.  His death on September 4, 2006 at the age of 44 was one of the most shocking deaths that year, and when the news was released, some websites in Australia actually crashed because they could not handle the amount of traffic that flowed in the days after he died.


Today’s blog topic is all about Steve Irwin, the “Crocodile Hunter”.

It seems hard to believe that had he not been fatally attacked by a stingray that fateful September day, he would be fifty years old today.  I can remember being completely blown away by him.  When I was in my late teens, I watched his show on the Discovery Channel all the time.  I don’t know whether it was his larger than life personality, his dedication towards wildlife, or the fearlessness he displayed each time he picked up a snake with his bare hands, I loved his shows.

Apparently, so did everyone else at my former university campus, as we even created a Crocodile Hunter drinking game.  Of course, with everyone taking a swig of alcohol each time Steve Irwin said “Crikey!”, none of us stayed sober for very long!  J


Stephen Robert Irwin was born on February 22, 1962 to Lyn and Bob Irwin just outside of Melbourne, Australia.  Interestingly enough, he was born on his mother’s birthday!  Right from an early age, Steve was destined to pursue a career involving zoology.  After all, when you consider that he described his father as a wildlife expert, and his mother was a wildlife rehabilitator, it was already in his blood.  For Steve’s sixth birthday, he received a gift of a 12-foot long python! 

By the time his family relocated to Queensland when Steve was ten, Steve was already dedicating his life towards animals.  His family opened up the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park which allowed Steve to have many adventures that most boys only dreamed of.  He wrestled his first crocodile at the age of nine (under his father’s supervision), and volunteered in Queensland’s East Coast Crocodile Management Program where he captured at least one hundred crocodiles, of which many were relocated.


Steve’s family ran the reptile and fauna park until 1991, when the then 29-year-old Irwin took over the management.  In 1992, he changed the name of the park to “Australia Zoo”, and twenty years later, the park still holds that name.


It was right around the time that Steve Irwin took over management of the park that he ended up meeting the woman that would eventually become his wife.  In 1991, Steve met Terri Raines, an American who was visiting Australia at the time.  For Terri and Steve, it was love at first sight, and just four months later, the couple got engaged, marrying in Terri’s hometown of Eugene, Oregon in June 1992.

Now, you would think that most people when they go on a honeymoon, they would end up seeing sights, visiting national landmarks, and various...well...indoor recreational activities.  Would you like to know what Steve and Terri Irwin did on their honeymoon?  They trapped crocodiles together!  In fact, the footage that the couple filmed while they were trapping crocodiles together ended up being spliced together to create the pilot episode of the television series that made Steve and Terri Irwin stars!


“The Crocodile Hunter” debuted in Australia in 1996, and followed suit in North America the following year, and the show featured Steve Irwin observing creatures in their natural habitats and picking up various creatures.  Filming the show could be risky, particularly since Steve often had the penchant of handling the most dangerous and deadly animals in the world.  However, the formula worked, and his show exploded in popularity.  By 2000, “The Crocodile Hunter” was airing in 130 countries, and an estimated 500 million people had seen at least one episode of the series.  The show aired for seven years, concluding its run in December 2004.


Steve and Terri Irwin also continued to run the Australia Zoo during the filming of the series, and in July 1998, the pair became first-time parents when their daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin was born.


TRIVIA:  The name Bindi Sue came from a couple of animals that were living at the Australian Zoo at the time she was born.  The “Bindi” came from the name of a saltwater crocodile, and the “Sue” came from a Staffordshire bull terrier.


A second child, Robert “Bob” Clarence Irwin was born in December 2003.  You might remember Bob from an incident in January 2004 where Steve Irwin held him in his arms while feeding a crocodile, which caused quite the outrage from child welfare and animal rights groups.  Despite the controversy, Steve and Terri maintained that they would never put their children in harm’s way intentionally, and no charges were laid.

“The Crocodile Hunter” was the program that put Steve Irwin on the map, but it was far from being his only contribution to the world of entertainment.  He made frequent guest appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, he presented a documentary entitled “The Ten Deadliest Snakes in the World”, appeared on a Wiggles video, and in 2001 acted in a cameo role in the film, “Dr. Doolittle 2”.

And, in 2002, Steve Irwin appeared in his very own feature film loosely based on “The Crocodile Hunter” series entitled, “The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course”.  The film didn’t exactly get the best reviews, but it did make double its budget at the box office, and won a Young Artist Award for Best Family Feature Film.  Take a look at the trailer for the film below, if you like.


Steve Irwin was also involved in several media campaigns.  In most cases, he appeared in advertisements promoting Australian tourism, but he also lent his name to some more high-profile causes.  He was a key figure for the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service to raise awareness of Australia’s strict quarantine and customs regulations.  He was also a huge public figure in the conservation of the environment and protection of wildlife sanctuaries. 

And, did you know that Steve Irwin actually has a couple of animal species named after him?  In 1997, a species of turtle was discovered by Irwin while he was on a fishing trip with his father.  He was given the honour of naming the species, and he decided to name it Irwin’s Turtle (Elseya irwini), after his family’s name.  In 2009, three years after Irwin’s death, a species of air-breathing land snail was posthumously named after Irwin (Crikey steveirwini).

It’s been six years since Steve Irwin passed away, but his legacy continues to live on.  His widow, Terri, continues to manage the Australia Zoo, and in 2006 was made an honourary Member of the Order of Australia for her services to the wildlife and tourism industries.  Terri officially became a citizen of Australia in 2009 as a tribute to her late husband, and has essentially taken over where Steve left off.


Even Steve’s children have followed in their father’s footsteps.  At the time that Steve Irwin was killed, he was filming footage to be used in a show that his daughter Bindi would be presenting for Discovery Kids (did I mention that at the time of Steve’s death, Bindi was just eight years old?).  That show would come to be known as “Bindi the Jungle Girl”, and ran from June 2007 until May 2008.  Her work on the program helped earn the young star a Daytime Emmy Award.  At the time, Bindi was nine years old, and was the youngest person to ever win a Daytime Emmy Award.  Recently, Bindi hosted the 2012 Australian game show “Bindi’s Bootcamp”, and is currently filming the sequel to the film “Nim’s Island”, due out in 2013.

But perhaps the one television appearance that most people might remember Bindi for is the one that aired on September 20, 2006, when she delivered the eulogy in honour of her father just sixteen days after his death.  A crowd of 5,000 gathered at the Australia Zoo to hear the little girl speak, and an estimated worldwide audience of 300 million viewed the eulogy on their television sets or through online news sites.  I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the life of Steve Irwin than by hearing his then eight-year-old daughter talk about him.


And, that’s what happened on September 4, 2006.