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Sunday, August 25, 2013

The Beach Boys - My Personal Top 10

The month of August ends next week, and for some of you reading this, August will probably seem as though it flew by.

Not me though. For me, August can't go away fast enough. I'm ready for September!

But on account of it being the final Sunday Jukebox of August, I thought that I would take the opportunity to make this particular entry one that celebrates the goodness of summer.

In fact, I guarantee you that the songs of this particular band are (or were) a part of all of your perfect summer soundtracks. Whether you hear them on the car radio while cruising along the highway on a summer drive, or listening to them on a portable radio while you enjoy a picnic on the beach, or grooving along to their songs at a summer beach party, I know that many of you love these guys. I know that I certainly do.



I'm talking about the Beach Boys, the subject of today's blog.

Now, over the years, the line-up of the Beach Boys have changed, depending on the time period, but we can all agree on one thing. The Beach Boys were founded in the city of Hawthorne, California in 1961, and its original line-up consisted of five people. There were the Wilson brothers (Brian, Carl, Dennis), the Wilson brothers' cousin (Mike Love), and the Wilson brothers' family friend (Al Jardine).

Of the five original members of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, and Al Jardine still remain within the group. They are joined by Bruce Johnston (who joined the band in 1965), and David Marks (who was a member between 1962-1963 and rejoined the band in 2011).

Sadly, Dennis Wilson and Carl Wilson are no longer with us. Dennis drowned at Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles on December 28, 1983 at the age of 39, while Carl succumbed to cancer on February 6, 1998 at the age of 51. However, their musical talents were a real gift to the world of pop music, and although Dennis and Carl have both left this world, the legacy they left behind is nothing short of extraordinary.



So, which song would I feature in this blog? That was a REAL tough decision. The band themselves released over eighty singles, several of which were Top 10 singles. The band even managed to score four chart-toppers. Not a bad track record, eh?

In the end, I just simply decided that I couldn't focus on just one song. Instead, I'm going to do something I've never done before.

A Top 10 list.

Now, keep in mind that this list is only the personal view of this blogger. Some of you will appreciate my choices, and some may not agree. Some of you may feel I left a song off, while most others will think that I picked the wrong song. That's why I'm going to allow you to have the chance to have your say at the end of this blog.

So, when I present each song, I'll provide the album you can find the song on, who sang it, some bits of trivia about each song, and how well it did on the charts. And, I'll be doing this ten times! So, I hope you enjoy the Beach Boys because this post is a huge celebration of them!

Ready? Let's kick off this countdown!



10 – KOKOMO
ALBUM: Still Cruisin'
DATE RELEASED: July 18, 1988
PEAK POSITION ON THE CHARTS: #1

Okay, so this was the Beach Boys final chart-topper, and what a chart-topper it was. I was heading into the second grade when this song was released, and it kind of became an unofficial song of my childhood soundtrack as I heard it played a lot during 1988. The song was written by John Phillips, Scott McKenzie, Mike Love, and Terry Melcher.

(And yes, that is John Phillips of “The Mamas and The Papas” and Scott McKenzie who sang “San Francisco”. The song was a who's who of the music world for sure.)

And, hey, check out John Stamos on the drums! This video wouldn't be the first time Stamos would work with the band either. The band made appearances on three episodes of “Full House”. The song also has a connection with Tom Cruise, as the single appeared on the soundtrack of the 1988 film “Cocktail”.

It may very well be the ONLY time you see John Stamos and Tom Cruise appear in the same music video.



9 – HELP ME, RHONDA
ALBUM: Today!
DATE RELEASED: March 8, 1965
PEAK POSITION ON THE CHARTS: #1

This single is quite special as far as who sang lead vocals. Usually the lead vocals were reserved for Mike Love or Carl Wilson, or even Brian Wilson. In this case, it was Al Jardine who took the lead. It was a good move on the band's part, as this song rocketed up to the top of the charts in the spring of 1965.

The song's subject was quite simple. A man falls in love with another girl, only for the girl to fall in love with someone else instead. To ease the pain, he goes to someone named Rhonda and begs her to help him get the other girl out of his heart.

But don't you feel too angry at the guy or feeling sorry for Rhonda. According to Brian Wilson, who co-wrote the song with Mike Love, Rhonda is just a figment of our imagination. She does not exist. Whatever the case though, it still made a great song.



8 – CALIFORNIA GIRLS
ALBUM: Summer Days (and Summer Nights!)
DATE RELEASED: July 12, 1965
PEAK POSITION ON THE CHARTS: #3

I hate to admit this, but the first version I remember hearing of this song was the one done by David Lee Roth back in 1985. My sister was a huge Van Halen fan – so naturally, she was a David Lee Roth fan by association. And, don't get me wrong, as much as I was not a David Lee Roth fan, he did an okay job with it. Regardless though, I prefer the original version by the Beach Boys. It was a song that was written by Brian Wilson under the most unusual circumstances.

He was high on LSD when he came up with the general melody of the single. But then again, it was the sixties. Whatever the case, (not that I am justifying drug usage by any means), this experience helped the Beach Boys earn another Top 10 hit.

And, here's some trivia regarding the song. It was the first Beach Boys hit to feature the vocal stylings of Bruce Johnston, who joined the band earlier in the year.



7 – FOREVER
ALBUM: Sunflower
DATE RELEASED: February 1971
PEAK POSITION ON THE CHARTS: N/A

Okay, so you're probably wondering why I have chosen this song as my #7 favourite Beach Boys song when it didn't really do anything on the charts. Well, remember back in song #10 when I mentioned that the Beach Boys guest-starred on “Full House” three times? Well, one of those appearances took place in the fifth season finale of the show which aired in May 1992. That was the episode that John Stamos' character Jesse Katsopolis and his band “Jesse and the Rippers” released their first hit – a cover version of the song “Forever”. Fans of “Full House” will know that Jesse sang the song to Becky at their wedding, and fans of “Full House” will know that Jesse's version of the song reached #1 in Japan! Now, in the United States, it didn't chart at all, but John Stamos' recording with the Beach Boys apparently made the Top 100 in Australia! Go figure.

But if you can get over the “Full House” connection and really listen to the song's lyrics...I think you might understand why I ranked the song at #7.



6 – LITTLE SAINT NICK
ALBUM: The Beach Boys' Christmas Album
DATE RELEASED: December 9, 1963
PEAK POSITION ON THE CHARTS: N/A

I know it's a little early for Christmas music, but I'll readily admit that this is one Christmas song that I could listen to any day of the year. I don't know if it was the fact that the song was used in a really cute commercial for Coca-Cola, or whether it sounded so differently from any other Christmas song, but I love this song enough to make it my #6 favourite Beach Boys song! And despite the fact that the single was released just two weeks after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, it managed to gain a warm reception all over the United States.



5 – SURFIN' SAFARI
ALBUM: Surfin' Safari
DATE RELEASED: June 4, 1962
PEAK POSITION ON THE CHARTS: #14

One thing I noticed about the earliest Beach Boys material is the amount of songs that the band released about surfing. A bit of an irony, given that Dennis Wilson was the only member of the band who actually knew how to surf. But of all the songs that the band performed that had the word “surf” in the title, I think this one was my favourite. It was after all the band's first Top 20 hit! Backed with the single “409” (which peaked at #76), “Surfin' Safari” really was the first successful single that the Beach Boys had, and helped steer them in the direction of a career that for some of the members of the band would last five decades!



4 – WOULDN'T IT BE NICE
ALBUM: Pet Sounds
DATE RELEASED: July 18, 1966
PEAK POSITION ON THE CHARTS: #8

Really? This song only peaked at #8 on the charts? I thought that this song would have charted higher than that!

The song is best described by Brian Wilson as a tribute to “the frustrations of youth”. It's a song about what kids can't have, what they really want, and how they have no choice but to wait for it.

Ironically enough, the same held true when recording the song. Would you believe that it took a total of twenty-one takes before the Beach Boys got the song to sound the way that it was supposed to? That's got to take a lot of patience on everyone's part!

Funnily enough, this song was paired with a B-side, which happens to be my choice as my #3 favourite Beach Boys single.



3 – GOD ONLY KNOWS
ALBUM: Pet Sounds
DATE RELEASED: July 11, 1966
PEAK POSITION ON THE CHARTS: #39

You know, for a B-side to reach the Top 40 – that's not bad. And, for what it's worth, “God Only Knows” is a beautiful song, even if the Beach Boys were worried about the title. After all, it was the first instance in which the word “God” was used in the title of a pop record, and Brian Wilson believed that by making the title of the song “God Only Knows”, that the song would be blacklisted by religious groups and that disc jockeys would be pressured not to play it.

Good thing that Wilson's hypothesis proved wrong. The song, which I would consider to be a pop classic, was an instant favourite for fans of the band. And the song itself was sung by Carl Wilson, whom Brian Wilson had felt could do the song justice. I suppose in some fashion, the song became known as Carl Wilson's signature hit. He sang the song right up until his death in February 1998, and the song remained unsung until Bruce Johnston started to sing it at concerts three years later in 2001.



2 – GOOD VIBRATIONS
ALBUM: Smiley Smile
DATE RELEASED: October 10, 1966
PEAK POSITION ON THE CHARTS: #1

This song, which I have in the #2 position on my list, could very well be considered the Beach Boys signature song. It remains the band's biggest hit, topping the charts in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, and reaching the #2 spot on the Canadian and Norwegian charts.

This particular song was produced and composed by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, and initially it wasn't released on any album until Smiley Smile was released almost a year after “Good Vibrations” was released. That's because the song was recorded around the same time that “Pet Sounds” was being recorded, but the decision was made to have the single released as a stand-alone single, thinking that it would garner more sales this way.

It worked. The single was listed at the #6 song on Rolling Stone's “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, and sold millions of copies.

By the way, were you curious about how the song got its name? You can thank Brian Wilson's mother for that one. When Brian was a kid, his mother used to tell him that dogs would often react to “bad vibrations” from people by barking at them loudly. So, I suppose that Brian chose to write a song about “good vibrations” to counteract the awful memory of being barked at by dogs.

(Well, that's my theory, anyway.)

And here's some more trivia about the song. A total of thirteen instruments were featured in this song including a harpsichord, a bass guitar, a Hammond organ, and cello!

Okay, so are you ready for my #1 pick? It's a good one!



1 – DON'T WORRY BABY
ALBUM: Shut Down, Volume 2
DATE RELEASED: May 11, 1964
PEAK POSITION ON THE CHARTS: #24

Have you ever seen the 1999 film “Never Been Kissed”? The one with Drew Barrymore and Michael Vartan? Well, this song is heavily featured at the end of that film, and it was absolutely fitting for the movie, given that the song is all about a teenager who decides to race against a rival to defend his honour after bragging about his ride, and his girlfriend's plea to take her love with him when he races.

Well, okay, Drew Barrymore's character doesn't race a car. She just changes her image and dresses up as a teenager to go undercover and accidentally falls for one of the teachers at the school. When the charade is exposed, she tries one last plea to get him to listen to her and accept her love...and...I can't reveal what happens. Sorry.

But what I can reveal is that I absolutely love this Beach Boys single. The lyrics are fantastic, and it could be considered one of the greatest love songs ever recorded. I love the melody of this single. I know that the song didn't do as well as some of the other songs that the Beach Boys did, but I don't care. To me, this is my all-time favourite Beach Boys classic, and hopefully, if the stars are aligned the right way, I hope that I'll be able to dance to this song at my own wedding. I just love it so much.

So, just to recap, my top 10 Beach Boys songs are...

10 – KOKOMO
09 – HELP ME, RHONDA
08 – CALIFORNIA GIRLS
07 – FOREVER
06 – LITTLE SAINT NICK
05 – SURFIN' SAFARI
04 – WOULDN'T IT BE NICE
03 – GOD ONLY KNOWS
02 – GOOD VIBRATIONS
01 – DON'T WORRY BABY


So, now that you know MY list...I want to hear yours! What are your favourite Beach Boys singles?

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Sweet Valley High

All right. So yesterday, I believe that I alienated about half of my audience by doing a feature on “The Babes of Baywatch”.

Well, today ladies...it's your turn. I'm going to use today's Saturday Smorgasbord to feature a topic that is solely for your eyes only.

But I'll admit...I'm a little apprehensive about today's blog topic because it's on a book series that I have never read. So, I'm hoping that I do this blog entry justice here.

So, this probably leads to the next question that you're likely asking yourselves as you begin today's blog. How then, did you get the inspiration behind this blog entry today if you've never even read one book in the series.

To this, I say, a childhood memory sparked this blog entry.

Everybody remembers their elementary school library periods (unless your school was one of those unlucky ones that never had a school library, that is). In my school's case, the library was kept in the basement of the school. I think I've already talked about the stone walls of the library, the huge, overstuffed sofas where we could read books, and the fact that our school library was one of the only ones that had a gigantic red bathtub in the center of the room where three kids could squeeze inside to flip through the pages of the two books we were allowed to check out.

(God, I miss that bathtub.)

Of course, one thing that I remember vividly about library period were the various types of books that the kids would read. And depending on what gender you were, you had your own distinct preferences.

In my case, I really liked looking at the Guinness Book of World Records, the Garfield collections and treasuries, and Choose Your Own Adventure books. And, I found myself competing with the other boys in the class for claim on those books, as all the other boys seemed to like those books too.

The only difference between me and the other guys in the class was that they were also fighting over sports almanacs and issues of Sports Illustrated magazines – neither of which I was interested in.

Now the girls in my class? Well, let's just say that the Garfield collections were always the toughest books to get in the whole library, as many of them loved the comic strip cat as well. But they also had their own distinct tastes. Many of them liked the series known as “The Baby-Sitters Club”. Many of them flocked towards the many copies of Seventeen Magazine to get beauty tips (even though most of their parents refused to let them wear make-up until they got to high school). And for some reason, I remember there being a book about the television series “Charles in Charge” floating around our school library, and seeing at least every girl in my fifth grade reading that book.

(Keeping in mind that “Charles in Charge” stopped airing new episodes some three years prior to my entering fifth grade.)

But the most popular book series that the girls all flocked towards? Well, that's the subject of today's blog.

The series was created by a woman named Francine Rubin (b. May 13, 1938). A graduate of New York University's Class of '58, Francine fell in love with journalist/author John Pascal, marrying him in 1965. Over the next sixteen years, Francine and John would collaborate together on a series of projects, even writing scripts for a short-lived daytime serial “The Young Marrieds” which ran from 1964-1966. Sadly, Francine would be left a widow following the death of her beloved John in 1981 from lung cancer at the age of 49.

Francine began writing young adult fiction in 1977, following the release of her first novel, “Hangin' Out With CiCi”. The novel achieved a lot of success, and the plot of the story was even made into an ABC Afterschool Special! Some of her other works have included the “Caitlin” trilogy, “The Ruling Class”, and “If Wishes Were Horses”. She and John even wrote a non-fiction book entitled “The Strange Case of Patty Hearst”.

But perhaps her finest creation was a book series whose stars were a pair of identical twin girls. One of the twins was sweet, kind, gentle, and caring. The other twin was selfish, sarcastic, and stuck-up. But despite their different personalities, and despite the different ways that they handled their problems and high school life, they always found a way to stick up for one another when times got too tough.



The twins' names were Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield. And the high school that they attended was a little school called “Sweet Valley High”.

Sweet Valley High, of course, being the topic of discussion for today.



Now, “Sweet Valley High” was one popular book series back in the day. Debuting in 1983 with the book “Double Love”, the original run of the series ran for one hundred and forty-three books! I don't even know of too many titles that ran for 143 books!



And, that's not all. Did you know that there were an additional twelve “Sweet Valley High” Super Editions that were published between 1985 and 1998?



And, that there were nine Sweet Valley High Super Thriller books?



Not to mention the five adaptations of the Sweet Valley High Super Stars books.



Don't forget the Sweet Valley Twins series of books as well.



Oh yeah...there was also that television series that aired on UPN between 1994 and 1998, starring former Doublemint twins Brittany and Cynthia Daniel and Elizabeth and Jessica respectively.

My god...Francine Pascal must have been exhausted! Or...WAS she?

Okay, okay. Here's the confession. Francine didn't actually write all those books. Rather, she hired a team of ghostwriters to do the work for her. That's not to say that she just sat back and collected the money for work that other people did. She supervised every single manuscript, ensuring that all of her characters were written in character, and that the plot lines made sense. And to Francine's credit, she did write quite a few books herself.

As for what Sweet Valley High was all about? Well, I suppose that you could say that it was kind of like “Beverly Hills 90210”, only instead of fraternal Brandon and Brenda Walsh, you had the Wakefield twins. And the storylines within the pages of the Sweet Valley High series started off innocently enough. Jessica and Elizabeth fighting over the same boy, rumours being spread over school, taking on part-time jobs, etc. But as the series progressed, the stories became more soap-opera like. People were being kidnapped. People getting engaged while still in high school. Houses burning down. Families stabbing each other in the back. There are even a couple of deaths towards the end of the series!

This isn't your standard teenage fiction here, folks.

Anyway, I've already talked about Elizabeth and Jessica. Should we now have a discussion about some of their friends? I bet some of you are watching this blog closely, wondering if I am going to do a good job with the character descriptions. All I can say is that I'll try my best.

TODD WILKINS: Todd is more or less your “Archie”, while Elizabeth and Jessica are the “Betty and Veronica” of the equation. Elizabeth likes Todd. Jessica, seeing that Elizabeth likes Todd decides that she also likes Todd too. Todd, meanwhile, can't seem to make up his mind at first, but eventually chooses Elizabeth. But the course of true love never runs smoothly, and they have the ultimate on-again/off-again relationship, plagued by both of them cheating on each other. Todd then decides to go after Jessica. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. But Todd also is a very good athlete, has a slight speech impediment, and excels in creative writing.



ENID ROLLINS: The Barenaked Ladies song says it all. “Enid, we never really knew each other anyway”. And that certainly holds true for Enid, who seems to have a complete personality transplant towards the end of the series. But when we first are introduced to Enid, she's Elizabeth's best friend and biggest supporter. She just has one major flaw. She has an addiction to drugs and alcohol, which got her into a lot of trouble. After she gets into a car accident, she cleans up her act and stops abusing drugs for a little while. But after she joins a snobby sorority, she falls off the wagon, starts abusing drugs again, and actually embarks on an affair with Todd while he's seeing Elizabeth. This pretty much destroys the friendship between Elizabeth and Enid, and makes Todd look like an even bigger jerk than we all thought.



LILA FOWLER: While Elizabeth and Enid were bonding together, Jessica had a best friend of her own in Lila Fowler...though sometimes you'd never know it as Lila and Jessica would often try to one-up each other when it came to any sort of competition be it with boys, or getting higher grades, or landing a job. Lila's family is one of the wealthiest in Sweet Valley, and Lila's parents and the Wakefield parents were best friends. Although Jessica and Lila hung out together, Elizabeth did have some respect for her. And while Lila was seen as a largely unsympathetic character, some instances in her personal life (including almost being raped) helped her become more likeable.

WINSTON EGBERT: Winston's ultimate fate at the end of the Sweet Valley series is so tragic and terrible that I don't really want to talk about it. But at the very beginning of the series, he could easily be considered the nerdy class clown of the bunch. He was always playing jokes on people, and he always came up with some rather interesting schemes that often blew up in his face. He was friendly with Elizabeth and Enid, but had a huge crush on Jessica...a crush that never really amounted to anything.



BRUCE PATMAN: Bruce Patman's family is also a wealthy family in Sweet Valley, and the Patman family happens to have some history with the Wakefields. Jessica and Elizabeth's mother was once engaged to be married to the man who would become Bruce's father! Obviously, the wedding never happened. Bruce once dated Jessica, and even developed feelings for Elizabeth, making their connection even more unusual. In the book, Bruce had to deal with the death of his parents, as well as the accidental death of his girlfriend, Regina.

STEVEN WAKEFIELD: He's actually the older brother of Elizabeth and Jessica, and while he tends to favour Elizabeth over Jessica, he is also the one who probably understands Jessica more than anyone else in the Wakefield home. He does become an attorney and gets married sometime during the series...but he's holding a rather deep secret...and when it is revealed, everything blows apart in a way that he never expected.


So, that's our look back on “Sweet Valley High”. Ladies...did I do this blog justice?

Friday, August 23, 2013

The Babes of Baywatch

I'll be honest with all of you right now. This blog entry is such that male readers will probably appreciate this much more than the female readers. Be warned.

So, summer is on its way out in a few weeks, and I know what you're all thinking. What a bummer, right? Those precious days of freedom are ticking away, and soon you'll be back in the halls of your school trying to remember your locker combination, trying to carry all your schoolbooks in one trip, and hoping you haven't forgotten too much of the history facts that you learned only last semester.

But you know, while we still have a little bit of summer vacation left, we might as well talk about topics that are summer themed, right?

Okay, so today is Friday, and as you all well know, Fridays are dedicated towards television programming. The problem is that there aren't really a whole lot of television programs that take place in a summer like beach setting.

Oh, sure, there's “Gilligan's Island”...but I already did an entry on that show months ago, and doubt that I could give another point of view on that particular show.

I suppose I could have done a feature on the short lived television program called “Paradise Beach”...but I've never seen it. And, it's just as well too because I heard it was rather lousy.

And, while there was a program called “China Beach”, I doubt that it would fit the mood of today's happy-go-lucky summer theme.

So, here is my quandary. I wanted to do a feature on a television show that epitomized the summer beach culture, but was having a lot of trouble finding a topic that fit.

So I reached back into the depths of my memory (also known as trying to remember childhood memories that I felt were long forgotten), and for some reason, I keep going back to the year 1996.

I remember that year well. It was the year that I finally ended up switching bedrooms after spending several years in a room that seemed as though it was the size of a green apple Jolly Rancher. I went from a room that would barely hold a twin bed and a chest of drawers to having enough floor space that I could feasibly strap on a pair of roller blades and go zooming around my room.

(I said feasibly. Whether or not I could actually do that without injuring myself...well, that would be debatable.)

Anyway, with the square footage in my new room being about four times the size of my old one, I really could go to town the way my new bedroom could look.

(Sometimes I really miss my old bedroom...)

So, keep in mind that at the time I moved into my new room, I was fifteen. Therefore, if you were to go back in time seventeen years to what my teenage bedroom looked like, you'd probably deem it no different from any other fifteen year old boy's room. I had a video game console (Super Nintendo, for those of you who were curious), I had a bookcase that was filled with mystery books and true crime novels (I was really into those as a teenager), and if you looked at the walls in my room, you'd likely see some posters hanging up on the walls that typical fifteen year old boys would have.

You know how a simple Farrah Fawcett poster from 1976 ended up being featured in many teenage boys bedrooms? Well, twenty years later, I had my own version of the Farrah Fawcett poster hanging up on my bedroom door. Would you like to see it?



Yes, that is Pamela Anderson in her signature red one-piece suit. What can I say? I was fifteen. And believe it or not, she wasn't my favourite Baywatch lifeguard.

Would you like to know who was though?

Well, you're in luck. Guys, as a special treat for you today, I thought that I would devote this blog to some of the “Babes of Baywatch”.

Ladies...I promise you all that I will make this up to you tomorrow by purposely picking out a topic solely for you all to enjoy. Promise.



I'm sure that most of you reading this have seen at least one episode of “Baywatch”. At one time, it was the most syndicated television program of all-time according to the Guinness Book of World Records. And believe it or not, the show lasted a grand total of twelve seasons between 1989 and 2001! I honestly thought it had gotten cancelled after season nine!

Anyway, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. “Baywatch” was a show that was never ever going to be recognized as a stellar program. The acting was debatable, the plot lines were contrived and ridiculous, and let's be perfectly honest...those slow motion segments were the epitome of cheese. And. I'm not talking your average brick of cheddar cheese that you can buy from most supermarkets for five bucks a pop. I'm talking real, stinky, disgusting limburger cheese here.

And yet as a teenager I had to watch “Baywatch” every chance I got.

It wasn't because of the fact that I found the program absolutely gripping television. In all honesty, a kindergarten student could probably draft a better script. It was because I found myself unable to break the gaze that I had upon the female lifeguards on “Baywatch”.

Again, keep in mind that I was a teenage boy once.

But which Baywatch beauty was I enamored with the most? Well, let's find out. I have a list of Baywatch lifeguards who once appeared on “Baywatch”. Some only lasted a season, while others lasted four or five. But one thing was the same. They all saved a whole lot of lives and got ensnared in love triangles and drama along the way.

Let's start at the very beginning and work our way up as we talk about the female lifeguards of “Baywatch”.



JILL RILEY
Portrayed by Shawn Weatherly (1989-1990)

Jill Riley didn't actually last that long on the series. She was only on for nineteen episodes of the show's first season. But she knew her stuff. She was the senior most female lifeguard on the staff (Mitch Buchannon was the only lifeguard who had more experience), and she often trained other female lifeguards how to do their jobs and do them well (the next lifeguard you will see on this list is proof of that).

Sadly, Jill didn't make it to season two. She was attacked by a shark and later died as a result of the injuries sustained in the attack. She was the first “Baywatch” cast member to be killed off the show, but not the last.



SHAUNI MCCLAIN
Portrayed by Erika Eleniak (1989-1992)

Yes, Elliot's crush in the movie “E.T. : The Extra Terrestrial” grew up to become a lifeguard on Baywatch for three years, leaving the show at the tail end of 1992. She was one of the lifeguards that Jill Riley was training on the series, and when Jill died, Shauni really took her death hard. It was because of Jill that Shauni got over her fear of watching people drown, and with encouragement from Mitch and Jill got over her fear.

She would also start up a relationship with her co-worker Eddie Kramer (Billy Warlock), and both left the series in the third season to get married and take jobs in Australia. It was sad to see Shauni go, as for some time she was the only female lifeguard to be a main character. But with Shauni's departure came another blonde lifeguard who made all the men do a double take.



CASEY JEAN “C.J.” PARKER
Portrayed by Pamela Anderson (1992-1997)

Okay, so as I explained before, Pamela Anderson's poster hung on the door of my teenage bedroom. But she wasn't my favourite lifeguard. I liked her, don't get me wrong, but other than her...ample assets...she didn't really stand out all that much.

The character of C.J. Parker first appeared on “Baywatch” in 1992, on the same episode that Shauni left. Fresh from her stint as the “Tool Time Girl” on “Home Improvement”, C.J. quickly made an impression on the beach. She saved a lot of lives on the show, got involved romantically with several suitors, and Pamela Anderson especially loved the role because it allowed her to incorporate her own New Age style personality into the role. Not exactly sure what that meant, but looking back on it, C.J. Parker did seem kind of like a hippie child reincarnated in the 1990s.



SUMMER QUINN
Portrayed by Nicole Eggert (1992-1994)

Once upon a time, a young girl named Nicole Eggert was on the television series “Charles in Charge”. A few years later, she took on the role of Summer Quinn on “Baywatch”, junior lifeguard and best friend of Matt Brody (David Charvet). Summer and her mother settled in California after going cross country to get away from her mother's abusive ex-boyfriend. She was very nervous about lifeguard training, and was afraid to leap off of the pier until Matt helped her overcome her fear. During Summer's time on the show, her mother's ex-boyfriend was arrested, and she began dating a professional surfer before moving on to date Matt. But Summer also suffered from an eating disorder (which she overcame), and when she and Matt called it quits, she moved to Pittsburgh.



STEPHANIE HOLDEN
Portrayed by Alexandra Paul (1992-1997)

Ah, Stephanie. I loved Stephanie. And, right away, I see you staring daggers at me. How can you love Stephanie? She was the toughest broad on the whole show and she was only there to be a kill-joy!

Yes, Stephanie may have been all of those things and more. But unlike all of the other female lifeguards, I felt like she took her job very seriously. And she also had brains to go with the beauty that she had (and yes, I thought she was very beautiful). And hey, she had one of the most spectacular death scenes on the whole series.

Yes, Stephanie lost her life in the middle of the ocean on a boat, when a lightning bolt caused the mast of the boat to crush her to death, devastating her new husband, Tom, as well as the entire staff of “Baywatch”. Before that, she probably saved more lives than anyone on the show (well, next to Mitch that is). In fact, before Stephanie married Tom, she was involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Mitch that lasted the better part of three and a half years.

And Stephanie wasn't the only Holden to become a lifeguard.



CAROLINE HOLDEN
Portrayed by Yasmine Bleeth (1994-1998)

You know, maybe I just had a thing for brunettes, because I also had a huge crush on Caroline Holden as well. Part of me wonders if the Holden sisters were named after the Princesses of the Royal Family of Monaco, and if they had a brother named Albert. Whatever the case, Caroline came onto the show in 1994 to announce her wedding plans to Stephanie, but the marriage didn't work out, and she came back to “Baywatch” later that year to become a lifeguard (getting caught in an earthquake the very night she arrived). She and C.J. Parker became roommates and best friends, and she, C.J., and Stephanie made up the trifecta of Baywatch beauties in the mid-1990s. Caroline ends up dating Logan Fowler (Jaason Simmons) and J.D. Darius (Michael Bergin) before leaving the series in 1998 to star on daytime soap opera “Shannon's Hope”.

TRIVIA: Yasmine Bleeth actually starred on a soap opera called “Ryan's Hope”.



NEELY CAPSHAW
Portrayed by Heather Campbell (1995)
Portrayed by Gena Lee Nolin (1995-1998)
Portrayed by Jennifer Campbell (1999)

Yes, Neely was played by three different actresses on the show. But the one I liked best was former Price is Right model Gena Lee Nolin. And unlike most of the other “Baywatch” female lifeguards, Neely was a bit different.

She was a raging, jealous bitch.

In her earliest appearances, Neely was manipulative, scheming, and insecure, and she instantly got on the wrong side of C.J., Caroline, and Stephanie. She also got Matt Brody in a world of trouble after he caught her drinking on the job when she falsely accused him of sexually harassing her. Matt and C.J. exposed Neely's lies, and she was initially let go from her job – until Stephanie was forced to rehire her after Neely dropped her lawsuit against the county. Although Neely did start to become a more likeable character by the end of Gena Lee Nolin's run, she was always considered to be just a little bit sneaky, and a lot insecure. I wonder what Mitch Buchannon ever saw in her that he decided to marry her.

And, that's all that I have time to talk about this week. Mind you, there were other Baywatch beauties who appeared on the show. Brooke Burns, Kelly Packard, Traci Bingham, Donna D'Errico, and Carmen Electra. But these were the female lifeguards that I remember the most from my “Baywatch” viewing experiences.


(If only I could have learned CPR that easily.)

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Going Viral and "Loving" It!

This past week in “A Pop Culture Addict's Guide To Life” has been a rather weird one...but in a very good way. I'm going to explain why this has been the case in today's Thursday Diary entry.

August 22, 2013

You know, I've only been a fairly new member of the blogging community. I've only kept a blog going for two years plus a few months. There are some blogs that have been started after mine, but millions more that began before I even started off “A Pop Culture Addict's Guide To Life”.

And of course, the goal for any blogger (or published author, which is what I really hope to become one day) is to have one of their pieces make such an impact that people share it with their friends.

Have you ever heard of the phrase “going viral” before? It's when a picture, blog post, or video is shared with friends, who share it with their friends, who in turn post them on friends of friends' personal profiles, and before you know it, fifty thousand people have viewed it within a twenty-four hour time period. It's a phenomenon that almost every blogger wants. After all, there's no better way of knowing how successful you are than watching people read your stuff, right?

So, why am I talking about this today? Well, although one of my posts is nowhere near reaching fifty thousand people in a given day, I will state that this past week, one of my blog posts recently went viral!

What makes this situation even more bizarre is that it was the one blog post that I never expected to go viral in the first place! It was on a topic that I thought was so obscure that I didn't think that people would even remotely remember it, and yet, as of August 22, 2013, it is my most viewed entry, and the page views are still climbing on this particular subject! Just have a look at this chart that I took a screenshot of!



Now prior to August 15 (which was when the surge of activity began to skyrocket), I was averaging a total of 350 page views each day. It's a fairly good number, but I was secretly hoping for more. We reach August 15, and the page views increase to five times that amount! I actually did a double take, thinking that there was a mistake in the coding of the site, but the graph doesn't lie!

So, which blog topic caused this spike in activity recently? Surely it had to be something that was quite big. Was it a Monday Matinee? Was it a personal story? Were people so gripped by Diana Ross and the Supremes that they had to know more about them?

Well, as it turns out, it was a blog entry on a soap opera that was cancelled eighteen years ago! I know, right? It seems like the most random blog topic ever to go viral!



It wasn't even a recent blog entry! I wrote it all the way back in October 2012 as part of a special Halloween themed month. I cherry-picked spooky and scary topics to feature all that month, and I figured that doing a special feature on the soap opera “Loving” certainly fit.

If you want to read the post that went viral, you're more than welcome to click HERE, but the reason why I decided to do a blog on a long-forgotten soap opera was because it fit the Halloween theme. It was a show that certainly went out with a bang as the show's final storyline featured the police department trying to catch a serial killer who was killing off characters left and right. It was certainly a gripping storyline, and from what I have heard, the ratings for “Loving”'s final storyline were quite good.



The victims of the Corinth Serial Killer were all tied to the blue-blooded Alden family, and when the killer was unmasked as Gwyneth Alden - the matriarch of the family – it was revealed that she did it to take away the pain caused by Alden heiress Trisha Alden, who was kidnapped in an amnesiac state and developed a case of Stockholm Syndrome with her kidnapper and decided not to return to Corinth. This caused Gwyneth to lose her mind, kill six people (including her own son and husband), and when she was exposed, she committed suicide.

Thus ended the soap opera “Loving”, which became “The City”, which became cancelled in 1997.

Now, it was a decent topic to write a Halloween themed entry on (the killer was unmasked right around Halloween 1995, so it fit), and it certainly did get some people talking about it for a bit...but it was also a show that I felt that nobody would remember. After all, eighteen years has passed since the final episode aired. Who would have remembered it?

So imagine my surprise when the entry that I did on “Loving” started to increase in popularity right around the middle of August 2013 – a full ten months after I wrote the initial blog entry.

And I was very clueless as to why this was the case.

And so, my investigation began. And what I eventually discovered made a whole lot of sense!

In the control panel of my own blog (which none of you can really see except me), I have a lot of neat little features that I can use to check my blog post views, the nationality of all my followers (United States is #1 followed closely by Canada and the United Kingdom), and I can even check and see where most of my traffic sources are coming from.

Needless to say, I checked out where the traffic was coming from first.

Of course, most of the listings were fairly self explanatory. You can find my blog listings on Google, so that would automatically be number one. I post links to my blog on both Google+ and Facebook, so those listings would automatically show as well. I even get the odd link to Yahoo and Bing popping up under there.

But then I saw a link to somewhere that I had never heard of before. If you click on this link HERE, you can visit it. And it is here where the mystery begins to unfold.



As you can see by clicking on the blog link, it is a blog dedicated to another soap opera that is currently celebrating its fiftieth anniversary on ABC. As it so happens, “General Hospital” is the only soap opera still airing on ABC following “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” shifting their focus to an online audience. For those of you who watch “General Hospital”, you know that the show is all about doctors and nurses, and Luke and Laura.

Nice. But what does “General Hospital” have to do with “Loving”? I'm getting to that point.

I'll be the first one to admit that I never watched one episode of “General Hospital”. So I thought that I would take the opportunity to read through this person's blog on General Hospital to get caught up. After all, they were kind enough to link my blog to theirs, so I thought I'd share the blogger love and link their blog to mine! Consider it sharing amongst blogger buds! So, reading the blog on “General Hospital”, one key point should be highlighted.

Apparently there's a storyline going on featuring the characters of Holly Scorpio and Luke Spencer. They're involved in a mystery where they're trying to find out what happened to the missing and presumed dead Robin Scorpio, and their destination takes them to a small town in Pennsylvania called Corinth.

Hmmm...Corinth. Where have we heard that name before? It wouldn't be the setting for the soap opera “Loving”, would it? Why, yes! I believe it is!

The plot thickens.

Clue number two comes from this episode of “General Hospital”, which you can click on HERE if you want. Just focus on the scenes that feature Holly and Luke. They're the only ones that matter.

So we have some juicy information. Both Luke and Holly talk about Gwyneth Alden and how she snapped and killed off her entire family. The setting of where they are kind of looks like the mansion that the Alden family once called home two decades earlier. And to add to the fun of the storyline, there are pictures and family snapshots of the Alden family randomly scattered around the abandoned house. What this exactly has to do with advancing the plot on “General Hospital”, I'm not sure. Whatever the case, it's become clear that the writers of the soap certainly didn't insert this scene randomly. It will fit in somehow to future storylines, I'm certain of it.

But check out the date that this episode aired. August 15, 2013. And, what a coincidence. That's exactly the date in which the “Loving” blog post went viral! And, according to the “General Hospital” blog, the post in which their blog linked to mine was written on...drumroll please...August 15, 2013!

So now the answers have been made clear. The reason why my blog on “Loving” went viral was because another soap opera began to reference the soap opera into their own storyline. The storyline prompted other bloggers who write about “General Hospital” to find out everything they could about the “Loving Murders”, and as it so happens, they felt that they must have liked something about my blog enough to link to it.

It's been a week since the “Loving” blog post went viral, and I just noticed that I am now getting traffic from the Soap Central message boards as someone posted the link to the blog on that forum, which is fantastic as far as I am concerned. In fact, I actually owe everyone who has shared my blog a huge thank you! Up until now, I thought that doing a blog was kind of a personal thing...something that I thought was only to give myself the false satisfaction that if I even had a few people reading my stuff, it was okay. But now that I see so many people looking at and sharing my work with others...it gives me a renewed hope that this career path that I want for myself as a writer could possibly happen.

And perhaps what is even more exciting is the fact that the people who have clicked on the “Loving” post are not only reading that post. I've noticed that a lot of my blog posts from October 2012 have gotten an insane amount of page views this past week...which tells me that the people who are reading the “Loving” blog are interested in other things that I have written. It's a wonderful feeling.

So that's the story of how one of my blog posts went viral. It could very well be the only one that ever does, and I may not have a situation like that happen ever again (unless the cast of the Young and the Restless does a Macarena party or something). But for now, I'm “loving” it!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Those 70s Fashions - Riverdale Style

I was almost ready to give up on the All-Request Wednesday because the request well had been dried up for some time, and no new requests were coming in. I was at a loss as to what I would be talking about in this blog entry.

But then I had a request from someone who had already submitted a request to me a few months earlier, and I thought to myself...why not? After all, I encourage all of my readers to send in their ideas...and if a person is a huge fan of my work, why wouldn't I take their ideas into consideration?

So once again, I want to thank Cullen P. from Virginia for this great suggestion.

Now here's the tricky part. Cullen's request was all about fashion trends of the 1970s. And certainly there is a lot to talk about. After all the 1970s were the era of mood rings, feathered hair, and of course, this iconic poster from the heyday of the era.



I'm certain that poster hung on the walls of many teenage boys at the time.

The only problem is that I wasn't around to see the fashion trends of the 1970s. I missed that decade completely! Oh, sure, there were still some traces of seventies era fashion still kicking around by the time I was born in 1981, but not much. So, it would be kind of difficult for me to do a blog entry on fashions from a decade that I could only experience through the history books.

I knew that if I were to do a blog entry on seventies fashions, I would have to consult an encyclopedia of sorts. I would have to find ways to talk about the fashion trends of the era while showing some visual aids for good measure. I would have to give my opinion on fashion trends from four decades ago when I've only lived through three decades.

But fear not. I had a plan. And, all it took was going through my collection of comic books for the inspiration.



That's right. Who better to showcase the fashion trends of the 1970s than Archie and his pals and gals? After all, the 1970s were a brilliant decade for the company. With no less than twenty different titles in print, and with Archie celebrating its thirtieth anniversary in 1971, the Archie world was never any hotter than it was during the decade of the pet rock and energy crisis.

Artist Dan DeCarlo was the premier Archie artist of the 1970s, and some of his covers from the 1970s remain his best work. A huge part of that success came from the fact that he was always paying attention to the latest fads and trends that were in vogue at the time, and drew the latest fashions on Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Reggie.

Jughead...well, he had his own distinct style.

For this blog entry, I'll be posting an Archie comic cover from my own personal collection – specifically covers released between January 1970 and December 1979 – and underneath it, I'll point out the fad that is being shown, why it was a popular choice, and what my own personal feelings are (would I wear it, how I think it would look on others, etc.)

Okay, so let's have a look at cover number one – as well as fad number one.



You know, I've completely forgotten how jerky Reggie can be. He certainly was in this Archie's Pals N Gals cover from 1979. However, this cover demonstrates the very first fashion fad of the 1970s. Roller skating! And I'm not talking about the roller blades or heelies that the kids of today are used to. I'm talking about those old-fashioned skates with the four clunky wheels that one reportedly used a key on (maybe some of you who actually experienced the 1970s can tell me the significance behind the keys). As the 1970s came to a close, roller discotheques became extremely popular – well, at least until people decided that disco sucked and destroyed their disco records.

Now would I try roller skating? Only if someone was able to hold me up. My equilibrium on roller skates would be similar to one who guzzled down twelve shots of tequila. It's not a pretty sight.

Okay, fad number two is a “blink and you'll miss it” one. Keep a close eye on Jughead on the right hand side of this “Archie's Joke Book” cover from 1978.



Did you notice the smiley face button on Jughead's clothes? Yep, smile buttons were all the rage in the 1970s...which was kind of ironic given the fact that the period known as the 1970s was among some of the most bleakest with presidential scandals, the fear of running out of gasoline, and the shell-shock of the Vietnam War still fresh on people's minds. At least by the end of the decade, people were beginning to find reasons to smile again, and the yellow happy face button became a little bit of a fad during this time.

Okay, next fad.



Now Archie and Mr. Weatherbee certainly had fashion sense, didn't they? Personalized T-shirts were in style back in the days of the 1970s. I have heard that the 1970s were one of the most creative decades of the 20th century, and certainly with a personalized T-shirt, you could express yourself however you wanted. Since buying a T-shirt with writing on it was somewhat rare back in the 1970s (unless you bought one of those vintage concert tees), many people sewed the letters on themselves, or had someone else stitch the letters on instead.



Again, I have to say that Reggie can be a jerk even when he isn't provoked. Sheesh. But this cover does demonstrate another 1970s fad. Well, the early 1970s anyway. Yes, tie-dyed clothing was all the rage, as Archie and Betty are demonstrating below. And as Archie happily pointed out, tie-dying was a lot of fun because you could never make the same exact pattern twice. You could tie dye several hundred pairs of jeans, and have no exact matches. It certainly was a mainstay from the swinging sixties, but people really seemed to enjoy this trend well into the 1970s. Even in 2013, you still see the odd person wearing a tie-dyed garment. Shirts, pants, shorts...even socks and underwear if you believe it! And while I will be the first one to admit that I have never worn tie-dyed underwear, I have worn tie-dyed shirts before. I even had the opportunity to make my own tie-dyed shirt when I was a kid...but I tossed it when it wore out.



Now this cover certainly showcases the next fashion trend of the 1970s...and it also shows that Veronica can be just as snooty as Reggie. But don't let the lack of laughs on this “Laugh” cover fool you. Rather, I want you to take a look at the bottoms that both Betty and Reggie are wearing. You notice how they flare down like a bell? Bell-bottomed pants and jeans were all the rage in the 1970s, and according to some people, the more your pants flared out, the better they were. On a personal note, I have never worn a pair of bell-bottoms, and I don't think that I would particularly like them just because I would feel as though every time I walked down a street I would feel like I was sweeping it! But I'm sure many of you will counter my point by telling me that bell-bottoms were comfortable. Some of you may still wear them today, and that's cool. They're just not for me.



I just posted this cover because I'm honestly not sure if Bermuda shorts were all the rage in the 1970s. The 1950s and 1960s, yes. But this post isn't really about the shorts. It's really about the pattern and colour. Reggie's blinding Bermudas could also be found on sweaters, vests, leisure suits (another popular trend of the 1970s), and trousers. For some reason, plaid was the new black when it came to trends in 1970s fashion. And, actually come to think of it, plaid was all the rage in the 1990s as the grunge movement really came into its own. And in the 2010s, I definitely think that plaid is making a comeback, as I'll readily admit to owning a pair of shorts almost similar to the ones that Reggie is wearing in this very cover!

And speaking of patterns, they weren't just limited to men's clothing. Check out this Betty and Me cover from 1971!



Again, this is just another example of wild prints becoming fashionable in the 1970s – paisley being another one – and how Betty's trousers weirdly match the rest of her ensemble.



Now this cover of Archie's Joke Book features quite a lot of fashion trends all rolled into one cover as we peer in on Archie and his pals at a disco party. And on a lighter note, it's nice to see Archie deliver a put down to Reggie once in a while.

Some of the fashion trends in this cover are ones we have already talked about (such as the lime green bell-bottomed pants that Betty is wearing in the background). But we're also seeing a couple of new fashion trends. Get a look at Reggie and Veronica dancing along to the music. You notice the shoes that both of them are wearing? Those shoes are known as platform shoes, and they made a brief comeback in the mid-1990s when the Spice Girls made them popular once again.

On a personal note, I am not really a fan of platform shoes. For one, they may have been the height of fashion back in the 1970s, but I just find them to be some of the ugliest looking shoes of all time. Not as ugly as Crocs, mind you, but ugly enough. And the second thing that I would hate about platform shoes is that with my general lack of balance, I would NEVER be able to walk in them. I would trip over my own feet and end up crashing into a bush.

Oh, and while we're on this cover, check out how short Veronica's skirt is! Miniskirts started becoming fashionable in the 1960s, but it wasn't until the 1970s that the fad really took off. For many men, the shorter the skirt, the more they drooled. And, yeah, I'll be the first to admit that had I been a teenager in the 1970s, I likely would have done the same. I'm human, right?



This Betty and Veronica cover also showcases how women's fashions of the 1970s became skimpier and briefer. Those bikinis that Betty and Veronica are wearing certainly don't leave much to the imagination, do they? Bikinis have been around since 1949, but when we first saw them introduced, they certainly didn't look like that! Now, on a purely scientific form, I would guess that bikinis became smaller because less fabric meant more agility when it came to swimming. After all, the less fabric a person is wearing, the less it slows you down...which is why we very rarely ever see someone swimming fully-clothed. Of course, just looking at how the bikinis were styled back then, I would hope that the gals tied the knots tightly!

Of course, this also meant that men's bathing suits also seemed to get skimpier over the years, resulting in the Speedo becoming popular during this time period. And, just for the record, you will never see me wearing a Speedo. Ever.

Another interesting thing to note about the cover is the flower that Veronica is wearing. I don't know whether that was strictly a 1970s thing, but it just seems to have that 1970s vibe about it. I don't know exactly.



This next cover is nice and pleasant with the gang dancing at a ski lodge party and OH MY GOD, REGGIE SHAVED HOT DOG AND MADE A VEST OUT OF HIM!

Well, not really. Reggie's just demonstrating the trend of fur being a real fashion statement during the 1970s, as he shows us in this cover. I honestly don't know what to say about this trend. I suppose if it were fake fur, I would find a way to rock the fur vest. If it were real fur, I don't think I could do it. I suppose you could call me pro-fake fur, and anti-real fur. If that makes any sense.



And finally, here's an “Everything's Archie” cover from the late 1970s, showcasing another seventies fad. I don't know what exactly triggered the western chic trend, but it seemed as though as we closed out the 1970s, people began to don cowboy hats, cowboy boots and western style kerchiefs out on the streets. I suppose that's where the term “urban cowboy” came into play. Mind you, this fashion trend lasted all the way into the early 1980s, but it sometimes makes a reappearance ever so often. And certainly for some celebrities like Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, and Miranda Lambert, the country-western look never really goes out of style!

As for me? I could wear the plaid shirts. I could rock a belt buckle the size of a baseball. I might even be persuaded to wear a ten-gallon hat. But my feet are WAY too big to squeeze into a cowboy boot. I would have to have them custom made, and who has the money to do that?


And that ends our look back on 1970s fashion as demonstrated by the Archie gang. I do hope that this entry was as creative as it was informative. I'll leave you now with one final cover.