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Friday, September 21, 2012

Randomness on a Friday Morning...



I know what most of you must be thinking.  Today is Friday, and this is the time of the week when I am supposed to be talking about a television show, a television character in a television show, or just something related to the world of television.

Well, to be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely in the mood to do that this morning at all.  I did have a topic selected for today, but I think what I will do is wait until next Friday to discuss it.  It's my blog, and I can do that.  Trust me, it will be worth the wait.

Instead, I want to take this opportunity to tell you all how grateful I am to all of you who have supported this venture (and continue to support it) over the last sixteen months.  If it wasn't for your appreciation, your viewing, and your actual interest in my thoughts on pop culture and other various things, I certainly wouldn't have the motivation to keep bringing you a brand new blog topic each and every day.  

Granted, there have been a couple of missteps along the way.  Occasionally, I have posted information in my blog that hasn't been one hundred per cent correct.  But thankfully, I have a great group of friends who tend to double as my fact checkers who assist me in keeping this blog one hundred per cent accurate.

(Well...okay...maybe 99.9% accurate.  Nobody's perfect.)


I also admit that I have made a few spelling and grammatical errors.  This one is a bit harder for me to admit to, as I tend to be one step away from being a full-fledged Grammar and Spelling Nazi myself.  But thankfully, I have friends who will point out (albeit in a joking and sarcastic manner) when I have made a typing error, and I am very appreciative of that because the last thing that someone who is a step away from being a Grammar and Spelling Nazi wants is to have spelling and grammatical errors in the very thing that they are trying to write.

I usually get positive feedback with most of the topics that I have chosen.  Some get loads of views, while others I am lucky if one person other than myself take a gander at it.  But I am proud of each and every topic I choose, because you never know what sorts of discussions that might pop up.  I remember getting into a very spirited conversation with someone on my Facebook page about the "Big Comfy Couch", and I was so inspired by that conversation that I turned it into a blog entry!  

So, be warned...the next time you have a conversation with me, it might end up in the blog!

There are some topics that I have brought up that have generated mild controversy, and I admit that there were minor scuffles between my friends and I over the subject matter, as well as my opinion.  But I think that one of the greatest things about this is the fact that whenever something happens where we end up mad at each other, we're always willing to hear the other person out and come to a compromise about where we stand.  I appreciate the fact that some people have called me out on something that they might not have agreed with, and had a talk about it with me.  It helped me out a lot because it helped me take constructive criticism a lot better...but I think it also helped me understand how to handle conflict resolution.

As far as I am concerned, there is no feeling more frustrating then when you have a conflict with someone, you have absolutely no idea what it is that you have done wrong, and when you try to open up a dialogue with them, they don't even so much as respond to you.  It's a feeling that I wish none of you had to experience.

I know that in my life and times, I have had several friendships end because the other person wasn't willing to hear me out, and vice versa.  In fact, I suppose one can say that I am currently in a situation exactly like this one, which does explain why I have decided to write about it here instead of talking about a television program.  I guess maybe by writing it out and seeing it in print will help me understand what the next step is in the situation.  

As much as I don't want to end any of the friendships that I have lost as a result of no communication from one of the two parties...sometimes, it might just be the only option that might bring both of us peace of mind.  

But, as far as I'm concerned, if one of the parties in a friendship still has communication barriers up, then I would think that trying to re-establish a connection would be quite difficult...maybe even impossible.  It sucks to have to admit that , but sometimes you also have to realize that in situations like this, it is completely out of your control.  

And sometimes, that's how life is.  Sometimes you can put so much effort into something, and it still doesn't work out the way you want it to.  And, sometimes, you just have to make the choice as to whether something is worth saving.  I'll admit that the choice for me is a hard one...and sometimes I still second guess my decisions.  At the end of the day, at least I can give myself some credit for trying. It is of small comfort, but it is a start.

I'll be back next Friday with a look back on a television show.  For now, enjoy the rest of your Friday, everyone. 

Thursday, September 20, 2012

A Slice Of Birthday Cake


NOTE: I am still looking for ideas for a new theme day for Thursdays, so if you have any ideas that you want to float my way, please post them in a comment on this blog entry.

In this blog entry, I thought that I would talk about something that is food-related. There was a couple of reasons why I opted to go this route.

The first reason is that I don't have a food themed theme day in my blog as of yet (and actually, now that I have written it down, that actually makes a very good theme day idea). Certainly, I've done blog entries on certain foods (Oreos, M&M's, Popsicles, etc), so this isn't much of a departure for me.

But I definitely wanted to do a blog entry on this particular topic because it certainly fits with what today is.



Today happens to be my nephew's 12th birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSH!!!), and as a result of that, I'm going to be talking about a particular food item that is present at almost all birthday celebrations.

Yes, this post is all about CAKE!



Um...no...not THAT cake.



I mean this cake...as in BIRTHDAY cake!

In this blog entry, we're going to take a look at the history of birthday cakes, the symbolism that is associated with birthday cakes, and while we're on the subject, I'll talk about some of my own memories with birthday cakes as well. I wish I had pictures to show you, but the cakes were already half devoured by the time the pictures were shot. But, I'm a fairly descriptive person, so I think I can make it work.



(Even though in all actuality, my nephew would rather have a pumpkin pie instead of a birthday cake.)

So, how did the birthday cake come to be?

If we take a look back at classical Roman culture, many people baked cakes of flat rounds that were made with flour and contained nuts. The cakes were leavened with yeast and sweetened with honey, and for the most part were served at wedding feasts in Ancient Greece. But sometimes the cakes were used to celebrate special birthdays as well.

In the 15th century, many bakeries in Germany began to make one-layer cakes for customers to be used for the dual-purpose of weddings and birthdays, and it is this practice that many believe inspired the modern birthday cake. It took another two hundred years before the birthday cake took on its current look, though. The cakes that were constructed in the 17th century featured cake icing, multiple layers, and decorations...but back in those days, only the incredibly wealthy could afford it.

In other words, using the “Occupy Movement” terminology, only the 1% could afford frosted cakes...the 99% went without icing.

In fact, it wasn't until the Industrial Revolution that birthday cakes became more accessible to more people. With cake making and decorating tools becoming more advanced and easier to afford, birthday cakes became available to a larger section of the population. These days, a person can get a birthday cake for as low as ten bucks! Vive le progress!

So now that you know how birthday cakes came to be made, now comes the next part. Do you know how the tradition of putting birthday candles on a cake came to be? Well, I have the answer for all of you right here.



Apparently the tradition of placing candles on a birthday cake came from Ancient Greece as well. They used to put candles on cakes and lit them so that they would glow like the moon. It is also somewhat believed that the reason that the candles were lit because the smoke carried prayers from people to God.

Come to think of it, I wonder if that was how the tradition of blowing out the candles to make a wish was originated?



In most modern countries, the tradition of singing the song “Happy Birthday To You” is a common occurance, and is more or less the most widely accepted custom when it comes to serving birthday cakes. But depending on what nation you come from, these traditions can be tweaked a little. Take the nation of New Zealand, for example. After people in New Zealand sing “Happy Birthday”, it is tradition in that country to clap one time for each year that the person has lived, plus one extra clap for good luck. This would be fine if the person celebrating the birthday was a child...but if you were celebrating Grandma's 90th birthday, perhaps you might want to invest in a good hand lotion before following New Zealand's traditions!

That is about all that I have to say about the history of birthday cakes. I hope that you learned a little bit about how they came to be. I know I certainly did.

In my lifetime, I think I have managed to sample approximately 155 birthday cakes. Thirty-one of them were my own, and of course, I've also had slices of cake from the various birthday parties of family members and close friends. That's a lot of cakes.

And certainly, some cakes were better than others.



I think that my sister holds the record for having the most creative birthday cake designs of all time. When my sister turned nine, it was right around the time that “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” was popular, and my sister had a Star Wars themed cake. My sister claimed that it was a Darth Vader cake that she had, but looking at the faded snapshots from the early 1980s, I thought it looked more like R2D2.

But whatever cake she had back then didn't compare to a recent cake that she ended up having.

You see, back in July, my sister celebrated a milestone birthday. So, naturally, we had to do something very special for her. So a party was planned, and someone that my sister worked with arranged to have someone bake her an Oreo cookie cake that looked like a giant pink and black high heeled shoe!

(In case you were wondering, my sister has been trying to achieve the goal of having more shoes than Imelda Marcos since she was in her early teens.)

My cakes have been more or less perfect. There was one cake that I had three years ago that was completely covered in purple and blue icing (my two favourite colours) which was delicious! I also vaguely remember having a cake that had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle candles on it...it was probably around the time that I had my ninth birthday and my birthday party was Ninja Turtle themed on account that the live-action movie had come out the month before.

(Wow...apparently it's common for my family to have themed birthdays whenever any of us turn nine. That's sort of freaky in a way.)

As far as the worst cake that I ever had went...well, it seems fitting that it would be for the worst birthday that I have ever had.



It was May 1995. I was all set to turn fourteen years old, and everything was going well. I was about to graduate from elementary school, and in just a few days, I would be off to my very first overnight field trip to Toronto. My fourteenth birthday was supposed to be a good one.

But then my mom and my sister both got sick and both needed operations. On one hand, they both made history, as they were a mother and daughter who both went in for surgery for the same procedure on the same day performed by the same doctor! It was the first time that had happened. I suppose in that sense, it was cool.



The problem was that the surgery date was May 16, 1995...two days before my fourteenth birthday.

So, needless to say, my mom and my sister were not able to celebrate my birthday with me, which was terrible. To make things even more worse, my mother's surgery was so complicated, she almost died. So, if anyone I attended school with during eighth grade noticed that I was in a horrible mood on my birthday and didn't want anyone to wish me a happy birthday back in 1995, you now know why. It wasn't a good time.

I didn't even have a party for my 14th birthday because of everything that was going on. My dad and my other sister were determined to make sure that I at least had a cake.

They went to the nearest supermarket, picked up a small store-bought chocolate cake and a tube of green icing (you know, those little tubes that you can find in the baking section of most supermarkets), and my sister attempted to write a birthday message on it.

It was supposed to say “Happy 14th Birthday, Matthew”. Instead, it read “HAPPY #^&WUUIYWIH*@&XZ(ZHA.”

Yeah, it wasn't pretty at all.

Looking back on it though, I do appreciate the fact that they made an effort to try to make the birthday seem normal, even though it was anything but. And, hey, at least it's a birthday celebration that I will never forget. How could I forget a chocolate cake with green squiggles all over it? My family really tried, and I really am grateful. I was just happy that my mom and sister survived their surgical procedures, and when it came time for my 15th birthday, they all really went out to make it up to me for the miserable time that I had during my 14th birthday.

So, now I open up the floor to you. What are some of your favourite birthday cake moments?

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

You Don't Know Jack


You know, I always told myself that no matter what happened, I would never get myself addicted to a video game application on Facebook of all places.

To me, Facebook applications are nothing but trouble, as far as I am concerned.  A lot of them suck you in with the promise of a good time, and at first, they are a lot of fun.  But then after a while, you need to accomplish certain things in order to progress to the next level.  Like, you need to have a particular item to be able to complete your dream kitchen in Cafe World, and the only way to get that item is to spam your friends list constantly with game requests asking you to help them out by signing up for the game. 

Yeah.  Just in case you weren’t sure...I don’t play games that have that annoying feature.  So, here’s a heads up.  STOP SENDING ME GAME REQUESTS IN WHICH I HAVE TO SPAM PEOPLE TO PLAY IT! 

I also don’t like the idea of games forcing you to spend actual money on tokens that can be used to “enhance” your gaming experience.  I mean, I suppose I COULD spend $25 to buy a bunch of apple trees for my Farmville game...but why would I do that when I can get a bag of REAL apples from the grocery store for a sixth of the price?  I mean, priorities, people!

But, so help me.  I got addicted to a Facebook game, and have played it at least once a day all this month of September.  I got so addicted to this game that I actually purchased a copy of the Nintendo DS version of it from eBay last night (at a relatively low shipping cost too, might I add).  And, I am so addicted to this game that I am going to devote a whole blog entry towards it.

I’d also like to thank my Facebook friend Sarah L for turning me onto this game.  If it weren’t for her, this blog entry would not have been written.

All right, here’s the topic of the blog.


That’s right, it’s the recent game phenomenon that goes under the title of “You Don’t Know Jack”...or, YDKJ, if you want to deal with abbreviations.

I got turned onto the game via a request on Facebook, but to my surprise, the game has existed a lot longer than I initially thought.  Would you believe that “You Don’t Know Jack” has been around for seventeen years, and that the idea was thought up some time before that?


If the idea for “You Don’t Know Jack” was born in the same year that Super Mario World hit the scene, Paula Abdul’s new day had a lot of promise, and the Soviet Union split up, what year was it?

A)     1981   B)   1986   C)  1991  D)  1996

If you said D, you obviously didn’t read the earlier paragraph, did you?

Of course, the answer is C.  Back in 1991, a multimedia company known as “Learn Television” had released a film entitled “The Mind’s Treasure Chest” for children.  The film received a lot of praise, and ended up winning some awards.  It was largely due to the success of this film that the company decided to branch out into the computer software market so they could use the technology to create a new learning experience for young children.

Teaming up with Follett Software Company, the computer game “That’s A Fact, Jack” was born.  It was a game that came in CD-ROM format that focused primarily on young adult fiction.  The game would give a title for a child to read, and then asked them questions based on what they had just read.  The game’s target audience was between the ages of 8 and 16, and it became a great learning tool.


It was around the time of the release of “That’s A Fact, Jack” that the idea that spawned “You Don’t Know Jack” was born.  Right around that time, the founder of Learn Television, Harry Gottlieb, had decided to make a couple of changes within the company.  With the company shifting focus from television and film to computer games, Gottlieb changed the name of the company to “Jellyvision”.  The second change came from a partnership that Jellyvision entered into with Berkeley Systems.  I could tell you what the changes were, but I think this statement on the Jellyvision official website does a fair enough job on its own.

“Way back in the early ‘90s, Jellyvision decided to test the waters of mainstream interactive entertainment by beginning a partnership with Berkeley Systems, of ‘Flying Toasters’ fame.  Berkeley Systems asked us if we could apply the concept of a game show to an adult trivia game.  Since no one at Jellyvision at the time liked trivia games, we tried to figure out how to make trivia questions fun and engaging to us.  When we realized that it was possible to ask about both Shakespeare and Scooby-Doo in the same question, “You Don’t Know Jack” was born.”

Really...Shakespeare and Scooby-Doo in the same question, eh?  Let’s see if I can try coming up with one that uses both.


If Scooby-Doo were to eat a Scooby Snack that was flavoured with the last beverage that Romeo drank, what would happen?

A)     Scooby-Doo would end up Scooby-Refreshed

B)      Scooby-Doo would end up Scooby-Dead

C)     Scooby-Doo would end up Scooby-Drunk

D)     Scooby-Doo would end up Scooby-Cured

Now, unlike the last question, I won’t reveal the answer right now.  Besides, you probably already know this one already, as I am not nearly as clever at the “You Don’t Know Jack” writers.

The first edition of “You Don’t Know Jack” was released on September 12, 1995, and the host of the game was the never seen Nate Shapiro.

TRIVIA:  And, here’s some trivia for all of you.  The voice of Nate Shapiro was provided by Jellyvision founder Harry Gottlieb.  And, keeping the business in the family, Harry’s brother Tom provides the voice of the most recent host, Cookie Masterson...also unseen.

Over the years, there have been a grand total of twenty different versions of the game released, the most recent being the Facebook application in early 2012.  But there have also been versions with only Sports trivia, versions geared towards teens and young adults, and even versions for video game consoles and mobile phones.


I think a part of the fun of the game is the fact that in some cases, you never know what kind of questions you will end up getting.  There’s one question type that pops up in more recent versions known as “Cookie’s Fortune Cookie Fortunes with Cookie “Fortune Cookie” Masterson”.  Literally, you hear Cookie eating a fortune cookie while he reads a fortune.  Then you answer a question that is related to the fortune inside the cookie.  Like this one.


“PRIME REAL ESTATE IS IN YOUR FUTURE”

If you were looking for a house that has a prime number in its address, which house should you buy?

A)    2 Rose Street

B)      15 Violet Street

C)     77 Tulip Street

D)     1989 Willow Street


Another popular question type that can be found in the game is the “Put The Choices Into Order Then Buzz In To See If You Are Right Question”.  I really wish I had video clips to insert into this blog, but all I could find was a clip of dancing fours, which makes no sense.  Oh well.  I can still ask this question.


Place the following video game characters into order beginning with the one that debuted first:  Sonic the Hedgehog, Spyro the Dragon, Samus Aran

A)     Sonic, Spyro, Samus

B)      Samus, Sonic, Spyro

C)     Spyro, Sonic, Samus

D)     Spyro, Samus, Sonic

Don’t worry.  I’ll post the answers later on.  Trust me.  I hope you’re keeping score.


There’s also a question known as the “Flickerpiss Nosescum”...ah, I mean “Ticklefish Western”...oh, wait, I know.  The Gibberish Question!  In that question, you’ll see a phrase that is written in complete gibberish...but in reality, the words actually rhyme with the words in the phrase.  An example can be something like “Quit cakes, you do mango”...if you really examine it, the phrase really is “It takes two to tango.”

Confused yet?  Try this one, courtesy of this screenshot from one of the games.


(If it’s too small to read, it goes “Flask snot butt four guntry ran two more flew.”)


Now, at the end of however many rounds you play for (depending on the version you play, the game can be anywhere from five to twenty-one questions), the last round will always feature a phenomenon known as the “Jack Attack”.  You’ll be given a clue, and your job is to select the choice that fits best with the clue.  For instance, if you’re given the clue of “City Nicknames”, and your clue is New York, you’ll want to buzz in the moment you see the words “Big Apple” flying across the screen.  Here’s an example of this below, although this example is not exactly the best one.


Now, you’ll want to be quick because you don’t want to miss the correct answer.  At the most, they only appear for four seconds.  And, also, you don’t want to click on the wrong answer.  You’ll get penalized if you do.

So, let’s do a “Jack Attack” right now, shall we?  I didn’t create this one, and the last three questions are repeats, so just answer the first seven, okay?  Good luck!


That’s about all that I have to say about the game “You Don’t Know Jack”.  Now, if you excuse me, I have a game to play.

Now for the answers to the questions, which are blended into this blog post.  Just scroll over them to see them.

2WO – Since Romeo drank a bottle of poison at the end of Romeo & Juliet, I think it’s a safe bet to say that if Scooby-Doo ate poisoned Scooby Snacks, he’d be as dead as the zombies in Michael Jackson's Thriller video..

3HREE – The number two is the only prime number on that list...and the only EVEN prime number.  A prime number is one that only can be divisible by itself and one.  15 is divisible by three and five, 77 is divisible by seven and eleven, and 1989 is a multiple of nine.

4OUR – Samus Aran from “Metroid” debuted in 1986, Sonic the Hedgehog’s first game came out in 1991, and Spyro the Dragon first hit PlayStation consoles in 1998.  So, the order would be Samus, Sonic, Spyro...or B.

5IVE – “Ask not what your country can do for you”.

JACK ATTACK ANSWERS:

Siegfried & Roy, Click & Clack, Frick & Frack, Heckle & Jeckle, Goofus & Gallant, Flotsam & Jetsam, Cheech & Chong

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

September 18, 2009


It's time for another trip back through time as we enter the time machine for the Tuesday Timeline. This week, the date we're going to be focusing on is September 18. It was quite hard to choose a particular event to focus on, because September 18 was a date in history that had quite a lot going on. First things first, we will talk about some of the famous people who are celebrating a September 18 birthday.

Happy birthday to the following celebrities...June Foray, Bob Toski, Robert Blake, Scotty Bowman, Jimmie Rodgers, Frankie Avalon, Fred Willard, Michael Franks, P.F. Sloan, Billy Drago, Otis Sistrunk, Rodger Beckman, Anna Deveare Smith, Chris Hedges, Tim McInnerny, Don Geronimo, Mark Romanek, Ryne Sandberg, James Gandolfini, Mark Olson, Joanne Catherall, Holly Robinson Peete, Ricky Bell (Bell Bev Devoe), Aisha Tyler, Lance Armstrong, Jada Pinkett Smith, Adam Cohen, James Marsden, Damon Jones, Travis Schuldt, Xzibit, Jason Sudeikis, Ronaldo, Alison Lohman, and Patrick Schwarzenegger.

There have also been a couple of celebrity deaths that took place on September 18. Jimi Hendrix passed away on this date in 1970. In 1986, Coronation Street star Pat Phoenix lost her life. And in 2001, Canada mourned the loss of Ernie “Mr. Dressup” Coombs.

Here are some of the other events that took place on this date.

1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his fourth and final voyage

1679 – New Hampshire becomes a county of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

1739 – The Treaty of Belgrade is signed

1759 – The British capture Quebec City

1793 – The first cornerstone of the Capitol building is laid by George Washington

1809 – The Royal Opera House in London opens to the public

1812 – The 1812 Fire of Moscow begins to die out after destroying nearly 75% of the city

1837 – Tiffany & Co. is founded as a “stationery and fancy goods emporium”

1850 – The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 is passed by U.S. Congress

1851 – The very first publication of the New York Daily Times...later to be renamed The New York Times

1870 – Henry D. Washburn gives the geyser in Yellowstone its official name, “Old Faithful”

1873 – American based bank Jay Cooke & Company goes bankrupt, resulting in the “Panic of 1873”

1885 – Riots occur in Montreal following a protest against compulsory smallpox vaccinations

1895 – The “Atlanta Compromise” address is delivered by Booker T. Washington

1906 – A typhoon causes a tsunami which kills ten thousand people in Hong Kong

1911 – Russian premier Peter Stolypin is shot at the Kiev Opera House

1919 – Fritz Pollard becomes the first African-American person to play professional football

1927 – The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air

1948 – Margaret Chase Smith becomes the first female elected to the U.S. Senate without completing another senator's term

1962 – The nations of Trinidad & Tobago, Burundi, Rwanda, and Jamaica are admitted into the United Nations

1973 – Three more nations join the United Nations – the Bahamas, East Germany, and West Germany

1975 – After spending a whole year on the FBI's Most Wanted List, Patty Hearst is arrested

1977 – Voyager I takes the first photograph of the Earth and Moon together

1982 – Christian militia begin slaughtering six hundred Palestinians in Lebanon

1984 – Joe Kittinger completes the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic Ocean

1990 – Liechtenstein joins the United Nations

2001 – One week after the September 11 terrorist attacks, letters laced with anthrax begin appearing in the United States mail

2011 – Anti-bullying activist Jamey Rodemeyer takes his own life at the age of fourteen

So, what date are we going to be focusing on this week? Fear not...we aren't going back that far in time.



In fact, we're only going to take a look back three years in the past to September 18, 2009.

Three years ago, one of the world's longest running television programs aired its final episode, and with that episode ended seventy-two years of stories involving romance, joy, pain, and heartbreak. For seventy-two years, millions of people tuned in to watch the trials and tribulations of the residents of a mid-sized town as they interacted with each other. It was a show that began on radio and transitioned to television fifteen years after it began. And while the later years of the show were just a shadow of what the show used to be like (according to many fans of this program), one thing remained the same. The show was all about family and relationships.

Although the show has been off the air for three years, the show still remains the longest-running soap opera of all time, and will likely hold that record for some time (at least until the year 2033 when “Coronation Street” surpasses that record).



Today we are going to take a look back on the CBS soap opera “Guiding Light”.

The above opening that you watched was used between 1991 and 2002, but the program actually used several opening sequences during its run.



Guiding Light” began as the radio program “The Guiding Light”, which initially began on NBC Radio. Debuting on January 25, 1937, the program was created by Irna Phillips. The show was created based on the personal experiences of Irna Phillips, and initially began as a way for her to cope with the grief that she carried with her as a result of a personal tragedy. When Phillips was just nineteen, she had given birth to a baby that was stillborn. Devastated by the loss, Phillips began to listen to radio sermons given by Preston Bradley, the founder of the People's Church in Chicago. The church was one that promoted the brotherhood of man, and Phillips was so inspired that these sermons that they formed the core of the show that would come to be known as “The Guiding Light”. I suppose one could say that the sermons also inspired the soap opera's long-running tagline, which aired during the opening credits of the television soap opera during 2007 and 2008.



Wasn't that nice?

Initially, “The Guiding Light” aired on NBC Radio as 15-minute programs until November 1946. After that, the show switched networks to CBS Radio a few months later in June 1947. By 1952, the decision was made to begin airing the long running radio show on television. The premiere episode of the television adaptation of “The Guiding Light” began airing on June 30, 1952. What was interesting about the show begin broadcast on television was the fact that the radio program continued broadcasting as well. For the first four years that “The Guiding Light” aired on CBS television, the radio station aired the same program. The actors who were in the series at the time had to act out their scenes twice...once for television, once for radio. This continued until June 29, 1956, when the radio program was taken off the air, and aired solely on television. And “The Guiding Light” did incredibly well on television at first, being the #1 ranked soap opera between 1956-1958.



TRIVIA: In 1958, Irna Phillips left “The Guiding Light” to work on the newer soap opera “As The World Turns”, and her protege stepped in as head writer. That head writer? It was Agnes Nixon, who ended up creating the soap operas “All My Children”, “Loving”, and “One Life To Live” for ABC. She stayed on the position until 1965.

As the program entered the 1960s, several changes occurred that made the show stand out even more. In March 1967, the show began broadcasting in colour, and in 1968, the show was expanded to a half hour in length. In 1975, the show's title was slightly changed, dropping the word 'the', becoming just “Guiding Light” and in 1977, the show was expanded to an hour long broadcast, which remained until its final episode aired in 2009.

The show ended up winning its first Daytime Emmy Award in 1980 for “Outstanding Achievement in a Daytime Drama”. The show would end up winning a grand total of 38 Emmy Awards between 1980 and 2008. The show also kickstarted the careers of several big-named stars. Below is a list of the celebrities who appeared on Guiding Light, as well as the characters that they played on the serial. How many do you recognize?



Kevin Bacon – Tim Werner (1980-1981)
Laura Bell Bundy – Marah Lewis (1999-2001)
Matthew Bomer – Ben Reade (2001-2003)
Joan Collins – Alexandra Spaulding (2002-2003)
Ruby Dee – Martha Frazier (1967)
Mark Derwin – A.C. Mallet (1990-1993)
Taye Diggs - “Sugar” Hill (1997)
Calista Flockhart – Elise (1989)
Paula Garces – Pilar Santos (1999-2001)
Rick Hearst – Alan-Michael Spaulding (1990-1996)
Allison Janney – Ginger (1993-1995)
James Earl Jones – Dr. Jerry Turner (1966)



Melina Kanakaredes – Eleni Andros Spaulding Cooper (1991-1995)
Harley Jane Kozak – Annabelle Sims Reardon (1983-1985)
Bethany Joy Lenz – Michelle Bauer Santos (1998-2000)
Nia Long – Kat Speakes (1991-1994)



Hayden Panettiere – Lizzie Spaulding (1996-2000)
John Wesley Shipp – Kelly Nelson (1980-1984)
Brittany Snow – Susan “Daisy” LeMay (1998-2001)
Sherry Stringfield – Christina “Blake” Thorpe Marler (1988-1992)
Paige Turco – Dinah Marler (1987-1989)
Christopher Walken – Mike Bauer (1954-1956)
Cynthia Watros – Annie Dutton (1994-1998)
Michael Zaslow – Roger Thorpe (1971-1980; 1989-1997)
Ian Ziering – Cameron Stewart (1986-1988)
Kim Zimmer – Reva Shayne Lewis (1983-1990; 1995-2009)



That's quite a list of names, no? A lot of them ended up being forever associated with their roles on the show, such as the case with Kim Zimmer, who played the fiery Reva Shayne Lewis for several stints. After all, with scenes like the one below, it's easy to see why she made such an impression on the show.



However, Reva was also known for some rather “interesting” storylines throughout her time on “Guiding Light”. Her one true love was her beloved Josh Lewis (played by Robert Newman), but there were a whole lot of marriages in between the seven or eight that Reva and Josh ended up having on the show. I don't know how many to be honest...I'm too lazy to research it. But my sister, who was a huge fan of “Guiding Light” in her teenage years has told me that it was a lot!

Let's take a look at some other storylines Reva's been involved in. Okay, she ended up getting pregnant with her first child, and it was a Maury Povich type storyline where she didn't know who the father was. Then she had post partum depression and drove off a bridge where she was presumed dead for five years. Then she became Amish. Then she wasn't Amish. Then Josh's new wife tried to kill Reva in plane crash where she was presumed dead again. Josh, for some unknown reason decides to clone her. Reva comes back. Reva's clone commits suicide. She finds out she was a princess while she was away from Josh the first time, and is reunited with her son that she had with the prince of the country. And then she went back in time, and...

...yeah, apparently the last few years of “Guiding Light” sort of resembled an episode of “Doctor Who”. At least Kim Zimmer made it seem more believable than it was.



In all seriousness though, “Guiding Light” had a lot of groundbreaking, memorable stories that really kept audiences glued. It also had cast members that really tied the history together, such as Charita Bauer as the matriarch of the Bauer family, Bert Bauer.



Perhaps some of the most interesting characters were the villains of the program. Fans of Guiding Light must remember Roger Thorpe (Michael Zaslow), who was the epitome of evil. In the classic scene below, he ends up attacking his wife (or love interest? I don't know, I wasn't alive in the 1970s), Holly.



But, Michael Zaslow was such a great actor, and continued to be so despite being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease in 1997. Sadly, the producers decided to let him go shortly after (a move that angered just as many fans of the series as it did when popular character Maureen Bauer was killed off), but Zaslow found work on another soap, “One Life To Live”, where he worked until his death in 1998.



And Cynthia Watros as Annie Dutton was just scary to watch...however, her portrayal of the damaged, crazed nurse helped her win a Daytime Emmy, so she must have been quite convincing. Take a look and see what I mean (it starts around the 3:16 mark).



Before “Guiding Light” ended its run in 2009, the show touched upon some real issues. Drug addiction, racism, sexism, abortion, mental illness, alcoholism, AIDS awareness...these were all issues that the soap tackled, and they managed to do a brilliant job with it.  In later episodes, the cast would film scenes out of character, showing them working on Habitat for Humanity houses, or going on cast tours.



TRIVIA: Believe it or not, “Guiding Light” was even involved in a partnership with Marvel Comics, where the character of Harley Cooper (Beth Ehlers) was turned into a superhero called...wait for it...”The Guiding Light”. Yeah...I know...it sounded a bit lame to me too...but at the same time, for Marvel Comics to take interest in a soap opera, it had to have some cultural impact.

It's been three years since the longest running soap opera dimmed its lights forever, but for those of us who sat down in front of the television to catch up on what Reva, Josh, Harley, Roger, Holly, and the other residents of Springfield, Illinois were doing, the memories will always remain.

Always.



That's our look back on September 18, 2009.