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Monday, September 10, 2012

Raiders of the Lost Ark


Last week, I did a feature on one of my favourite movies from the 1980s, only instead of focusing on the plot of the film, I ended up talking about some of the behind the scenes moments about how the film came to be.  Never before heard trivia, bloopers, scene changes, and casting blunders.  You know...the antics that usually end up on the cutting room floor.

Well, since last week’s Monday Matinee was a hit with the audience, I thought that I would do the same thing yet again with another one of my favourite eighties films.  And, believe me, I found out some behind the scenes trivia that not even I knew!

For today’s Monday Matinee, I thought we would go back in time thirty-one years to the year that yours truly was born.

1981 was a year that many would call a period of hodge-podge.  Or, at the very least, I like to call it that.  It was a year in which we had all possible genres of music topping the charts from rock and roll to country music crossovers.  It was a year in which television sitcoms were being backburnered to make way for such prime-time soap operas as “Dallas”, “Dynasty”, “Falcon Crest” and “Knots Landing”.

And in the world of movies, there were a huge variety of films that one could see at the box office.  Among the top ten movies of 1981 were “On Golden Pond”, “Chariots of Fire”, “Arthur”, “The Cannonball Run”, “Stripes”, and “Superman II”.

Quite the eclectic list of films, eh?

It should also be noted that 1981 was also the year that two Hollywood heavyweights made their feature film debuts; Kathleen Turner in “Body Heat”, and Tom Cruise in “Endless Love”.

But what film was the highest-grossing film of 1981?  What film completely set a new standard in how future Hollywood action films were shot?  Which film gave Harrison Ford a career outside of “Star Wars”?

Well...let’s watch a trailer for the movie.  Maybe this will help jog your memory.


That’s right.  We’re going to look at the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, starring Harrison Ford and Karen Allen.  It’s one of my all-time favourite films, and it was the top-ranked movie of 1981, easily making almost four hundred million dollars at the box office.


The movie was released on June 12, 1981, and it was produced by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg.  This film was so successful that a number of sequels (and at least one prequel), each of which did extremely well at the box office, and also inspired a television series entitled “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” which aired between 1992 and 1996.

As most of you know, Harrison Ford portrayed the main character of the series, archaeologist Indiana Jones, and as the film begins, we begin to understand who he is and why he does what he does (although the 1984 film “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” does a better job of this, considering that it was the prequel to this film). 

The year is 1936, and Indiana Jones bravely makes his way through a Peruvian temple filled with traps that would kill the average man, woman, or child.  But not our Indy.  He manages to get through the temple in one piece trying to retrieve an ancient golden idol.  It’s just a shame that on his way out of the temple, he is confronted by his arch-nemesis, Rene Belloq (Paul Freeman) and a group of Hovitos, and is forced to surrender the idol and flee.

All that work for nothing!

But then when Indiana Jones returns to his teaching position in the United States, he is told by a couple of Army intelligence agents that the Nazis are searching for Indy’s former mentor, Abner Ravenwood.  Ravenwood being the leading expert in the Egyptian city of Tanis, and who also happens to have the headpiece of a rare artifact “The Staff of Ra” in his possession.  Indiana Jones believes that the only reason why the Nazis would be interested in Tanis is because they believe that it is the location of the Ark of the Covenant, a biblical chest built by the Israelites to contain the fragments of the Ten Commandments.  The Nazis believe that by getting their hands on the Ark, they will become an unstoppable force in the world.  The Staff of Ra, meanwhile, is the key to opening up the Well of Souls, the area in which the Ark is rumoured to be buried in.

And, Indiana Jones couldn’t let the Nazis take possession of the Ark, could he?

So with that, Indiana Jones boards a flight to Nepal in hopes of meeting with Ravenwood.  Unfortunately, he happens to be too late.  He’s already kicked the bucket.    What’s worse, the headpiece of the Staff of Ra is now in the possession of Ravenwood’s daughter, Marion (Allan), a former, embittered lover of the hero.


So, what does one do to try and get something from someone who is scorned?  Buy them off!  No, seriously, that’s what Indiana Jones does.  He offers to pay Marion $3,000 (an insane amount of money back then) for the headpiece, and an additional $2,000 when they return home to the United States!  But before the deal could be made, a group of Nazis along with their leader, Major Toht (Ronald Lacey) bust through the doors of Marion’s tavern and set it ablaze.  Fortunately, both Marion and Indiana escape with their lives and head off to Cairo, Egypt, where they meet up with an old friend of Indiana’s, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), who agrees to help the two locate the Ark.  But when they learn that Belloq has joined forces with the Nazis to find the mystical treasure, it becomes a race against time to get to the Ark before they do...and naturally there’s lots of danger, trauma, adrenaline, and snakes. 

And anyone who has seen the movie knows exactly how Indiana Jones feels about snakes.

So, that’s the basic plot of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, completely ignoring the ending...because as you know, I never reveal endings.  But I will reveal a bunch of trivia and facts about this movie.  Again, some of this you might already know.  But some of it may be a surprise.

1 – Here’s a recent piece of trivia.  When “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was re-released in September 2012 for a one-week engagement (to promote the upcoming Blu-Ray release of the movie), it actually outperformed the more recent offerings for that box office weekend.  In fact, this past box office weekend was the worst one since the weekend of September 21, 2001!

2 – Watch the whole movie carefully and you will notice something...throughout all of the action sequences and situations that Indiana Jones faces, he never once loses his hat!


3 – Here’s an interesting piece about how the role of Indiana Jones was cast.  Initially, Harrison Ford was always Steven Spielberg’s first choice to play the role.  But George Lucas did not agree.  He was worried that people would accuse Lucas of casting Ford in every movie that he produced (Ford played Hans Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy).  By May of 1980, they thought they had found the perfect Indiana Jones in actor Tom Selleck...but at the last moment, Selleck dropped out of the production as he had just signed on to do a show called “Magnum P.I.” (which ended up running until 1988).  Harrison Ford was cast as Indiana Jones just three weeks before the film started shooting in June 1980!  How’s that for a close call?

4 – Other actors who were briefly considered for the role of Indiana Jones aside from Selleck were Tim Matheson, Jack Nicholson, Bill Murray, Peter Coyote, and Steve Martin!  Could you imagine Steve Martin as Indiana Jones?  I know I can’t!

5 – The famous truck scene in which Indiana Jones is dragged under and out behind a moving truck took eight weeks to complete.


6 – You know that scene in which Indiana Jones is in the room filled with thousands of snakes?  To recreate that sound in the background, sound designer Ben Burtt used a rather unconventional method.  He recorded the sound that his fingers made as they went inside a cheese casserole! 

7 – The film was originally set at a low budget.  By the time the filming wrapped up, the final budget came in at a whopping $22 million!  Luckily, the film more than recouped their budget!


8 – Danny DeVito was originally considered to play the role of Sallah, but he could not make it in to film the movie due to scheduling conflicts.  Rhys-Davies was given the role after Spielberg watched his performance in “Shogun”.


9 – This film marks the acting debut of Alfred Molina.  He plays a guide to Indiana Jones who ends up betraying him at the beginning of the film.  Don’t worry though...he gets what’s coming to him in the end.

10 – Before Karen Allen was given the role of Marion, Sean Young was also under consideration.  Debra Winger turned down the part.

11 – The iconic opening scene where Indiana Jones makes his way through the booby-trapped temple was inspired by an unusual source...a Donald Duck comic illustrated and written by artist Carl Banks!

12 – The jacket that Indiana Jones wore in the film was actually a brand new jacket at the time.  It had to be artificially aged by the costume department.


13 – I’m sure many of you want to know where Indiana Jones’ iconic hat came from.  Fear not, I have the answer.  Ever hear of a place known as Savile Row in London?  In that area was the famous Herbert Johnson hat shop, which is where the hat was sold.  And here’s a funny story about how the costume department aged the hat, courtesy of the Bonus Features section of the DVD.  Apparently, Harrison Ford and the head costume designer Deborah Nadoolman sat on the hat! 


14 – The boulder used in the iconic boulder rolling scene was made of fibreglass, and the sound effect was achieved by recording the sound of a tire from a Honda Civic coasting down a gravel embankment.

15 – Harrison Ford must have a high tolerance for pain.  When he was filming the scene that involved an airplane that was out of control, the plane ran over Ford’s knee!  Although ligaments were torn, he did not want to undergo any health care in Tunisia (where the bulk of the movie was filmed).  He ended up simply wrapping his knee in ice!

16 – John Rhys-Davies ended up contracting cholera while filming the movie.  In fact, the only crew member that did not get sick during the shoot was director Steven Spielberg!

17 – Initially, the main character of the film was named “Indiana Smith”.  It was changed to Jones the day the film began production.  The name Indiana came from the name of George Lucas’ dog, who also inspired another George Lucas creation, Chewbacca from Star Wars.

18 – Indiana Jones’ bull whip was actually sold at Christie’s auction house for $43,000 in December 1999.  His hat and jacket are on display in the Smithsonian.

19 – In the German release of the film, the voices of the Nazi actors were redubbed because the parts were played by American actors who weren’t exactly fluent in German.


20 – British wrestler Pat Roach held a dubious honour in the film.  He was the only actor to portray two different characters in the film, both of which were killed off!


21 – Want to know how the shot of the monkey raising his paw and saying “Heil Hitler” was achieved?  The first part was achieved by putting a grape on a fishing pole and holding the grape above the monkey’s head so that he would reach for it.  Of course, it took about fifty takes before the production crew got the shot they needed.  As for the voice of the monkey, it was provided by veteran voice artist Frank Welker.

22 – Here’s a freeze frame moment for you.  Take your copy of the movie and fast forward to the scene in which Indy is confronting the Nazi troops, threatening to blow them away with a bazooka.  If you watch the scenes containing Paul Freeman, you may notice a fly creeping around his mouth...which Paul ends up swallowing!

23 – The snake pit in the Well of Souls contained mostly real snakes, scavenged from several pet stores in the London area.  But when they still didn’t have enough snakes to cover the pit, garden hoses were added in.

24 – During the filming of the Well of Souls segment, assistant director David Tomblin was attacked by a python!  He ended up being okay, and the python was not seriously injured.  Another python wasn’t so lucky...it ended up dying after being attacked by a cobra.

25 – Frank Marshall, one of the film’s producers had to play a pilot in the airplane fight sequence after almost all of the stuntmen fell ill.  But this cameo was not a fun experience for Marshall, who was forced to sit in a cramped airplane cockpit in the unrelenting Tunisian heat.

And, finally...

26 – Without giving too much away, I’ll just state that the following items were used in the iconic final confrontation scenes...a vacuum machine, a heat gun with time lapse photography, and a shotgun.  And believe it or not, the movie was almost given an R rating because of the graphic scenes.  It was eventually lowered to PG after some editing work.


That’s our look back behind the scenes of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.  So, what’s on tap for Monday, September 17?  Well, in 1982, Dustin Hoffman ended up performing in a movie that had people talking...and here's a hint...it's not "The Lady In Red".

Sunday, September 09, 2012

The "Independence" of Martina McBride


“Sweethearts of Country Music” month continues with an artist who has had a career that has lasted over twenty years.  With eleven studio albums, a greatest hits compilation, a live album, and a collection of Christmas favourites, it’s no wonder that our featured singer has sold over fourteen million albums and has earned several award nominations and wins.

But before I get into the subject for today, I wanted to talk a little bit about why I decided to feature country music every Sunday in September.

Obviously, I haven’t focused too much on country music in the blog, mainly because it’s not really a genre of music that I go out of my way to listen to.  When you grow up in a household that consistently played old-school country music by Tom T. Hall, Ernest Tubb, Jim Reeves, and Emmylou Harris every waking hour, it gets to be a bit much.  My entire childhood was spent trying to drown out Ricky Skaggs and Hank Snow with Michael Jackson and R.E.M.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that country music (especially country music that has been released over the last twenty years or so) have some rather powerful lyrics that can really stir up emotions and feelings.  And the song that I plan to feature is one that best displays this point.  In fact, this song actually garnered a little bit of controversy back in the day for displaying disturbing imagery and graphic violence.  Although, on a personal level, given some of the music videos that have aired since, this one appears tame.


Today, we’re featuring the music of the woman who some have called the “Celine Dion of Country Music”, Martina McBride.

Martina McBride was born Martina Mariea Schiff on July 29, 1966 in Sharon, Kansas, a town with a population of just 200.  She was exposed to country music at an early age from her father, who used to listen to it while he worked as a farmer and owner of a cabinet business.  Listening to some of her favourite artists on the radio such as Reba McEntire, Juice Newton, and Linda Ronstadt helped Martina find her voice in a way...for listening to country music all the time inspired Martina to become a singer herself.  By the time she was nine years old, she began singing with her father’s band, “The Schiffters”, and as she grew older, she assumed the role of keyboardist within the band.

Now here’s some interesting trivia for all of you reading this.  Although Martina grew up listening to country music, did you know that when she was in her late teens, she ended up joining a rock band?  The name of the band was “The Penetrators”, and they played around Wichita, Kansas before Martina left the band circa 1987.  That same year, Martina attempted to form another band, and during this time she was looking for a place for her new band to rehearse.  She ended up finding a space for the band to practice in, renting it from a sound engineer named John McBride.


I’m sure you’ve figured out where this story is going.  Martina and John ended up falling in love, they got married in 1988, she took his last name as her own, and they are still married twenty-four years later with three children.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself here.

The year after Martina and John got married, the two relocated from Kansas to Nashville, Tennessee where Martina had dreams of making it big in the world of country music.  It was only a matter of time before Martina’s dreams began to come true. 


Lucky break #1:  Almost immediately after settling down in Nashville, Martina’s husband ended up getting a gig working on the sound crew for up-and-coming country artist Garth Brooks.  This gig eventually set John McBride up for his own career rise when he later became Brooks’ concert promotion manager.  Martina was thrilled for her husband, and she supported him in every possible way.  Would you believe that she even went on the road to sell Garth Brooks souvenirs like T-shirts and concert posters at various venues?

Well, it didn’t take long for Garth Brooks to notice Martina’s bubbly personality and passion, and here is where lucky break #2 factors into the equation.  In 1990, Brooks was so impressed by Martina’s enthusiasm that when he discovered that she wanted to make it big as a singer, he offered her a deal.  He would offer Martina the chance to become his opening act at his concerts.  And certainly, this was a proposition that Martina was not going to refuse.  After all, Garth Brooks was one of the fastest growing country stars of the early 1990s.  Opening up for him would give her a lot of publicity and attention.  But, there was one small catch.  In order for Garth to consider honouring his part of the deal, she would have to get herself signed to a recording contract within Nashville...a task that seemed nearly impossible.

But not for Martina McBride.

Her husband may have been on the road working for various country music artists, but in between his road trips, he helped Martina record a demo tape that she would shop around to various record labels, hoping that one would take interest.  It took a few months, but RCA Nashville Records heard the tape and immediately signed the then 25-year-old singer to a recording contract in 1991.


The following year, Martina McBride released her debut album “The Time Has Come”, and it was by all accounts a traditional country album, influenced heavily by honky tonk and country folk.  The album did net McBride a Top 30 hit with the album’s title track, but the following singles after that failed to chart within the Top 40.  It became clear to McBride that for her sophomore album, she would have to change up her style.

And change it up she did with her second release, 1993’s “The Way That I Am”.  And it is this album that contains the song spotlight for this week.


Although it wasn’t her first album, it was the album that helped propel Martina into Country Sweetheart status.  For one, the album was the first one she released to reach “Gold” status (in September 1994).  Just eight months later, in May 1995, the album went platinum.  The album was also the one that contained Martina’s first top 5 hit on the country charts with “My Baby Loves Me”, in 1993.

It also contained this single.


ARTIST:  Martina McBride
SONG:  Independence Day
ALBUM:  The Way That I Am
DATE RELEASED:  April 25, 1994
PEAK POSITION ON THE COUNTRY MUSIC CHARTS:  #12

TRIVIA:  The song was originally offered to Reba McEntire, but she turned it down, leaving Martina McBride free to record the song herself.  It was written by Gretchen Peters.

You know, I really tried to find a version of the proper music video that I could link to this blog because the music video is a huge part of this entry.  But since I couldn’t find a way to get the video to link, I had to do the next best thing and post the link to the music video.  Click below and watch the video, and once you have, we’ll chat about it.


So, the first thing that you might notice about this song is that it performed modestly on the charts.  It managed to peak at #12 on the charts, but it could have gone higher.  The main reason why it didn’t was due to the song’s airplay...or lack thereof.

A lot of country music stations refused to play “Independence Day” due to the subject matter, and that decision likely helped keep the song from the Top 10. 

The song itself though is very powerful, and although the video is chilling, it worked with the lyrics of the song.


The song is all about the subject of domestic violence, and how it can affect an entire family.  As the video and song begins, we quickly discover that a little girl living at the house is in a situation that no child should have to be a part of.  Imagine witnessing your mother being verbally and physically abused by your father every day of your life and being absolutely powerless to stop it.  Certainly, the video depicted the beatings that the woman sustained in a graphic and disturbing way.  But looking back on it, I’m happy that the director went that route.  With this particular song, I think that it wouldn’t have worked otherwise.  If the director tried to hide the violent scenes from the video, it would not have been as strong a message. 


The little girl at some point during the video decides that she wants to get away from the turmoil at home, and she decides to go to the 4th of July carnival where a parade is taking place.  At first, the little girl seems to be enjoying herself, and is drawn to the parade floats, marching bands, and balloons.  But then a couple of clowns attracted the girl’s attention, and not in a good way.

(And no, it wasn’t because she was afraid of clowns.  It was because she was afraid of what the clowns were doing.)

It wasn’t the fault of the clowns...they had no idea of what horrors the girl had to endure at home.  But when the clowns were doing slapstick comedy on each other, which included fake slaps and shoving, it reminded the girl of the moments in which she saw her father pushing her mother around.  Just in case we weren’t clear, the music video keeps switching back and forth between the clowns and the terrible domestic abuse.

Whatever the case was, the little girl is frightened and runs back home...only to find that her whole house is burning to the ground and that Martina McBride is just standing outside of it singing away.  I mean, seriously, Martina, why are you not throwing buckets of water on the house!  Help the firemen out!

Turns out the woman was getting tired of taking the kicks and punches thrown her way by the man who was supposed to love and protect her the most, and she lit the match that burned down the house that Jack built (well, assuming her husband’s name was Jack, that is.)

Long story short, the fate of the parents is not known (although Martina has later admitted that the woman did not die in the blaze and that the abusive man was delivered karma served piping hot), and the little girl is taken away to become a ward of the state, a tragic end to an already terrible day for her.

All right, so the video’s ending wasn’t like an episode of “Full House”.  But it did serve its purpose that domestic violence is no laughing matter, and I think the video did a good job of displaying that message.  I’m not saying that it should encourage all women in an abusive relationship to set their husband’s bed on fire like Farrah Fawcett did, but it should serve as message that women can reclaim their lives and get their independence back, even if things seemed impossible.  I imagine that the woman ended up getting arrested for killing her husband at the end of the video, and we really aren’t sure if she ended up getting reunited with her daughter or not.  But it didn’t matter to her, because in that moment that her husband died, she regained a sense of independence.  For the first time in what seemed like years, she was finally free of the abuse, the pain, and the scars, and in that moment, she was finally celebrating her own “Independence Day”.

That’s a nice double meaning to the phrase, by the way.  The woman ended up getting her independence back on the 4th of July...the American Independence Day.


This song helped get Martina McBride some more recognition as a serious country music artist.  It was nominated for a couple of Grammy Awards in 1995, and the song won two Academy of Country Music Awards for “Best Video” and “Best Song”.

In the coming years, Martina McBride would end up achieving even greater success on the country charts, and she even had a few crossover hits on the Adult Contemporary charts as well.  With songs such as “Wild Angels”, “A Broken Wing”, “I Love You”, “Concrete Angel”, “This One’s for the Girls”, and “Wrong Baby Wrong”, Martina McBride has successfully cemented her place on the country music charts for years to come...and in this blogger’s opinion, it’s a place that she earned.


Next Sunday, “Sweethearts of Country Music” month continues with a young woman, just twenty-two.  She’s been rewarded with Grammy Awards, and has had several #1 singles and a few Top 10 crossover hits on the pop charts.  And she is not letting bullies, past relationships or Kanye West keep her from her dreams.

That’s coming up on September 16.

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...