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Sunday, December 08, 2013

Last Christmas, I Gave You Some Wham!



Hello, everyone! I hope that you're feeling great because we're entering Day #8 on “A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR”!

And on this day, we're steering the Sunday Jukebox smack dab into the 1980s!  

Because we are smack dab in the middle of December, today's Sunday Jukebox entry will focus on a Christmas song.  And as it so happens, this song just happens to be almost three decades old!

The singers of this festive hit?  George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, who between 1981 and 1986 performed together as the British pop duo, Wham!  




I'll give you a little bit of information about this band before I post today's holiday favourite.  As the year 1984 was drawing to a close, Wham! was already making it big with the release of their sophomore album, "Make It Big" in their native UK.  "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Careless Whisper", and "Freedom" were already huge radio hits in the United Kingdom, and in North America, the band was starting to get some recognition as well, with "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" becoming a #1 hit in November 1984 and staying on top of the charts for three weeks.  

By December 1984, Wham! had a ton of projects on the go.  George Michael had lent his voice to the collaborative charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas", which would end up being one of the biggest Christmas singles ever released in the United Kingdom.  And, just a few days before Christmas 1984, the band was getting ready to release the final single from "Make It Big".   

Now, the final single was released as two separate songs.  And back in the days of the early 1980s, singles were still released on LP's, with an A-side and a B-side.  The A-side was the widely successful "Everything She Wants" (which coincidentally happens to be my very favourite Wham! single), and that single topped the charts in both Canada and the United States.  

But, the B-side...because the single was released in December of '84, the B-side was a Christmas themed song.  And, who knew that this Christmas single would end up becoming a worldwide success?

Would you like to have a listen for yourselves?  I'm just going to go ahead and post the video right now.  We'll discuss and make fun of the video later on in this blog entry.  





ARTIST:  Wham!
SONG:  Last Christmas
ALBUM:  Music from the Edge of Heaven
DATE RELEASED:  December 20, 1984
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #40
PEAK POSITION ON THE UK CHARTS:  #2

USELESS TRIVIA:  This video would be one of the last videos that would feature George Michael without facial hair.  Beginning in 1985, George would begin growing his now signature beard.




So, in regards to "Last Christmas", I have heard some rather mixed opinions about this Christmas classic.  There are some people who absolutely love this song, and consider it to be a modern contemporary piece to any holiday playlist.  I think that back when this single first hit the shores of North America, my sister really liked this song, as she was a fan of Wham! back in the day (though my sister admittedly had more of a crush on Andrew Ridgeley than she did George Michael).  

But then there are those who find the single to be the epitome of cheese and wish that the single was never recorded.  Trust me, I know at least a couple of people who rush to change the radio station whenever they play the song "Last Christmas" because the can't stand it.

As for my own thoughts about the single...I admit that my opinions are mixed.  As far as a Christmas song goes, it's not the best one that I have ever heard, but it is far from being the worst.  I mean, if you take a look at the video, it's got that right mixture of holiday postcard and gouda and parmesan cheeses...and while that combination might seem quite insane to some...it sort of works.

Apparently, the video is set at a ski resort during a Christmas vacation that the boys of Wham! are taking along with a few of their closest friends.  Among them are British pop duo Pepsi & Shirlee, and Spandau Ballet bassist/EastEnders actor Martin Kemp.  Although this particular ski resort is meant to be just like any other ski resort in the world, it is later revealed through clues in the cable car scenes that the setting of the video is in Switzerland.

(Hey, when you are a part of one of the top selling groups of 1984, you can afford to go anywhere you want!)

Now, at first glance, this music video looks like a nice, warm, wonderfully festive place to be.  After all, it's filled with food, friends, warm fires, and lots of love and romance.

But wait!  There is a little bit of tension between George and Andrew.  Which is surprising, since in the video, both George and Andrew are paired up with a girl each.  But there is something about Andrew's girl that makes George a little bit uncomfortable.

Which seems kind of strange upon retrospect given how infamously he came out of the closet fourteen years after this single was released.  But, again...we've already discussed this story in the blog during a previous entry.  No need to revisit that here.

Back in 1984, George's sexuality was still under lock and key, and at the time this video was filmed, George was quite uncomfortable with Andrew's choice of girlfriend...because some time prior to this video being filmed, George himself had been in a relationship with Andrew's woman!




I know!  Scandalous, isn't it?  

But, wait.  Where is the proof?  What makes us think that Andrew was dating George's former flame?  Consider this.

Clue #1:  You can easily tell apart the woman that has been linked to both Andrew and George by one distinguishing characteristic.  She is the only woman wearing red!  Now, interestingly enough, the main character in "The Scarlet Letter" wore a bright red "A" for adultery...and red is a known colour that represents passion and lust.  Not suggesting that our mystery girl cheated on George with Andrew, of course.  There's no proof of that.  But, it's interesting how the lady in red seems to interact with everyone at the ski lodge.  And, I'll get to more of that in a second.

Clue #2:  Since the song talks about how last Christmas, George gave the girl his heart, but the very next day, she gave it away, clearly, we're going to see some flashbacks of Christmas past...a time in which George was happier and in love with whom he believed was the one.  In this case, during Christmas past, George had bestowed a present of a golden brooch to his love, only for the girl to kick him to the curb just twenty-four hours later.  

But interestingly enough, when the action shifts towards the present day, we discover that the girl is still wearing the brooch that George gave to her!  Now, considering that George and the girl are supposed to be finito by this time, you can understand why George might feel a little bit heartsick and confused.  Certainly, she seems to be sending some rather mixed signals.  And, as if that wasn't bad enough...

Clue #3:  Have you noticed how much love and affection that the girl seems to give to her newest beau, Andrew?  Yeah, me either.  You know, come to think of it, I think that the girl seems to be treating Andrew with a lot of indifference, given that he seems to want to do everything for her (and quite possibly to her).  In fact, I have to be honest with you.  If I were in Andrew's position where I had a girl rebuff my advances even though she made me believe that I were her one and only...I'd likely have questions too.

Of course, since nearly every holiday video has to have a happy ending, everyone is paired up at the end of the video, Andrew is still with his new girl, and George has seemingly moved on with his new squeeze.  

(Of course, in real life, it is assumed that George is still single, while Andrew has been linked with Bananarama's Keren Woodward for well over twenty years.)

Still, the single did do a lot of good besides being a worldwide hit.  Did you know that Michael and Ridgeley donated all of the proceeds from the royalties taken in from "Everything She Wants/Last Christmas" to the Ethiopian famine relief?  It's true!  After all, George Michael did sing on the Band-Aid track the same time that "Last Christmas" was released.

And, here's one more final fact that I should bring up before I close the book on "Last Christmas".  Did you know that the single is considered to be the most successful Christmas themed single in the country of Germany?  Believe it or not, the single spent a total of two consecutive YEARS on the German pop charts!  That's 104 weeks on the charts between 1984 and 1986!  And, the single has since entered the German charts at least once during the year since 1997!  

Not bad for a Wham! single, huh?

Coming up tomorrow in Day #9 of A Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendar, we're going to be taking a look at a made-for-television movie that came out in 2002...that was based on a song that makes many people...well...cringe in disgust.

Never knew that a pair of shoes could elicit such harsh emotions...but we'll discuss all that tomorrow!

Saturday, December 07, 2013

Foundation of a Gingerbread House

Today's edition of A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDARis brought to you by the number 7 and by the letters Y, U, and M!



Yes, Day #7 is here, and I thought that for Day #7, I would do a spotlight on a holiday treat. Okay, so I know that technically, the Saturday Smorgasbord entry for the first Saturday of December is supposed to be about some sort of toy or game, but somehow, I think that you will understand why I've decided to offer up a sweet treat in place.

Besides, it's one of the few foods that you are actively encouraged to play with.

Now, I'll preface today's entry by saying one thing. I am a huge fan of sweets. In fact, I probably eat way more sweets than I really should admit to, but they are likely the one thing that I find incredibly difficult to turn away. I mean, you can keep your potato chips, pretzels, and nachos with cheese and sour cream. Give me chocolate cake, ice cream cones, and Mars bars any day of the week. Whether it's caramel, chocolate, nougat, or fudge, there is very rarely an occasion in which I will turn down sweets.

(The only way I won't eat them is if they are covered in strawberries or coconut. The first one I have an allergy to, and the second one is just...yuck.)

So, needless to say, my insatiable sweet tooth was attracted to all kinds of sweets, and of course, the more creative looking and visually appealing the sweets were, the more I wanted to eat them! Let's just say that there is a reason why I stalk the local Tim Hortons restaurant in order to get my hands on a “Smile Cookie” or the latest doughnut flavour.


I honestly don't know where my love of sweets came from. Most everyone else in my family prefers salty snacks over sweet ones. But I'm pretty sure that the moment I bit into my first Jersey Milk chocolate bar, or swallowed my very first Junior Mint, I was instantly hooked.

And, certainly I had my favourite candies.  I find the combination of peppermint and chocolate to be absolutely irresistible, which explains my love for York Peppermint Patties and Terry's Chocolate Mint Oranges.  I am also equally in love with the marriage between chocolate and peanut butter, which is why it has taken everything inside of me to avoid those new gigantic size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  Sure, it would be tasty, but I know that I would pay for it later.  And, don't even get me started on the wonderfully tempting store known as "Bulk Barn".  From sour jujubes to broken bits of Skor bars, I find it a struggle to avoid sometimes...especially since the closest Bulk Barn to me is just a block away!  

Yes, my name is Matthew, and I am a choco-holic.  But, I suppose being a choco-holic is slightly better than being an alcoholic.  Maybe only slightly better.

But, you know, there are many more uses for candy other than eating it.  After all, when it comes to one familiar Christmas pasttime, candy makes a perfect decorating tool!

I'm talking about building a house made entirely out of gingerbread!  Or, as Hansel and Gretel would call it...lunch!



Seriously, if you've ever built a gingerbread house, you know exactly how much fun they can be.  They can also be a lot of hard work, mind you, but they can be a lot of fun too!

In fact, I think I can go back in time and remember the first time I ever built a gingerbread house...well...okay, maybe it was more along the lines of a gingerbread shack, but it was most certainly one of the coolest things that I ever remembered doing in school.

Now, here's the kicker.  The teacher who taught us how to build the gingerbread houses (I think her name was Mrs. Shannon), was a teacher who I don't remember ever having in school.  But back when I was in the fourth grade, we would have Christmas activities in which all the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students would swap classes every period, and perform a Christmas activity in class.  And, Mrs. Shannon's class was the place to go if you wanted to build a gingerbread house!

Or, again...as I called them, gingerbread shacks.

You see, because a standard elementary school period lasted at most, forty minutes, we didn't have the time to build a huge, elaborate gingerbread mansion.  Anyone who has ever tried to build a proper gingerbread house knows that it takes a lot longer than 40 minutes to build one from the ground up.  So, Mrs. Shannon decided that we would make a miniature version using graham crackers.  I mean, yes, graham crackers weren't exactly gingerbread, but they did the trick for the time being.

Now, when building a gingerbread house, you never ever use glue.  Glue may hold the walls together, but it also tastes terrible.  So, instead of glue, we used icing sugar.  And, if I remember correctly, I think the teacher gave some of us trouble for actually eating the icing sugar and not using it to build our houses.  But how could you resist it?  It was so tasty!

Because the icing sugar was so tasty, I knew that I had to put as much icing sugar on top of it as I could.  Luckily, Mrs. Shannon had made more than enough for the entire fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classes to use, so it didn't matter if I coated the entire roof of my gingerbread shack with icing.  After all, in Canada, Christmas falls just a few days after the official start of winter.  There's likely going to be snow on the roof!

Once the icing sugar dried enough for the gingerbread shack to stay up, we then had the opportunity to decorate the shack with whatever candies we wanted.  And, because the gingerbread shack activity was so intricate and filled with a lot of steps, it was actually split up into two separate days.  And on day number two, my group was in Mrs. Shannon's classroom again to decorate our gingerbread shacks.



And, believe me, there were a ton of supplies to use.  We had sprinkles in both chocolate and coloured varieties to sprinkle on our shacks, or we could use those swirly mint candies for windows.  My personal favourite decoration to use were the coloured chocolate candies known as "Smarties".  Now, I myself prefer M&M's to Smarties, but Smarties were better to use for gingerbread shacks because they came in a bigger variety of colour options.  Keep in mind that when I was in elementary school, there were no such thing as blue M&M's, so we were fairly limited in colour combinations that we could use had we used M&M's.  So, needless to say, I pretended that the Smarties were Christmas lights and I put every colour under the sun all over the roof to make it stand out from all the others.

In the end, my final creation was absolutely beautiful.  A realish gingerbread shack that was designed and decorated with love.  I only wish I had the idea to snap a picture of the gingerbread shack when I brought it home from school, but it ended up getting eaten before Christmas Day!

(What can I say?  I designed such a good gingerbread shack that it became too irresistible for me to not nibble on!)

Now, over the years, various family members have made gingerbread houses at their own leisure.  My sister made one in the late 1990s that was beautiful and delicious.  And, it actually took her two whole weeks to get the whole thing finished, it was that beautiful.  And, again, I wish that someone had the foresight to take a picture of it because it really was that good, but at the time, nobody had a working camera.  I hate it when I have all these memories, and yet I have nothing to show you.

So, to finish this blog entry off, I thought I'd post some examples of gingerbread houses from all over the world, just to show you just how beautiful they can be!



Coming up tomorrow, it is Day #8 in the calendar...and for the upcoming edition of the Sunday Jukebox, I thought that I would post a song that combines winter imagery, heartbreak, and 1980s New Wave?  Interesting combo, don't you think?

Friday, December 06, 2013

"Yes, Punky, There Is A Santa Claus"

Hello, everybody. I certainly hope that you have enjoyed the first five days of “THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR. I know that I certainly have been having a great time trying to come up with holiday themed topics for the first 25 days of December.



We're now on Day #6 of the calendar, and I have a fantastic topic up for discussion.




But before I do that, I just want to take the opportunity to pay tribute to former South African president Nelson Mandela, who passed away on December 5, 2013 at the age of 95. Certainly Nelson Mandela's contributions to global peace are nothing short of extraordinary. A man who committed himself to eradicating the world of racism by going after South Africa's apartheid government, he spent over a quarter of a century behind bars, and when he was elected president of South Africa in 1994, he became the very first black president and formulated the Government of National Unity to diffuse racial tensions. His efforts to fight for people's rights and stand up against racial injustice earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, a United States Presidental Medal of Freedom, the Soviet Order of Lenin, and the Bharat Ratna.

He even earned himself honourary Canadian citizenship in the early 2000s.  Not that I needed to really add that in there, but I thought it was a neat piece of trivia.

Whatever the case, I do believe that Nelson Mandela did so much good for the world, and he certainly made a huge impact on not just the people of his country, but the rest of the world as well.  Nelson Mandela, you will be truly missed.

Now, I actually have a bit of a confession to make in regards to this particular blog entry.  I had most of this typed out already before the news broke about Nelson Mandela's death.  Had I started typing this blog out a little later, perhaps I could have chosen a topic that might have gone along more with the good that Mandela did while he was alive.

Of course, now that I look at it again, I think the subject that I picked has the ability to do both.  After all, the television show that I am featuring in this particular blog entry promotes friendship and respect between people of different backgrounds and races...two things that Nelson Mandela fought for during his time served in prison as well as his time as South African president.

And, besides...since we're already in the middle of the advent calendar, it's got a little bit of Christmas flavouring to it.

So, this month, I decided that I would do the Friday Night on TV theme a little bit differently.  Instead of doing blogs on television shows as a whole, why not feature a blog entry on a particular television show episode where the theme is all about celebrating Christmas?  After all, I'm sure most of us remember watching television sitcoms and getting excited about the rare occasion when they would air a holiday themed show.  I'm not gonna lie here, some of my favourite sitcom episodes are the ones that aired during the month of December, because I really liked how every single Christmas themed episode had a happy ending.

So for this and the next two weeks, I'm going to be talking yuletide episodes of sitcoms of yore, in hopes that the holiday magic will permeate through the screen and into your heart.

(Or, at the very least, you get some sort of warm fuzzy watching people on a scripted show.)

So, for today's first episodic spotlight, we're going to look at a show that I already did a general blog on.  But when I came across this holiday themed episode online, I knew that I just had to write about it in my blog.  



The show is "Punky Brewster".  And the episode is entitled "Yes, Punky, There Is A Santa Claus", which originally aired as a sixty-minute episode on December 16, 1984 on NBC.

Now, those of you who may have missed the blog on "Punky Brewster", or don't remember what Punky Brewster was all about, I'll offer up a brief summary.  You have this man named Henry Warnimont (George Gaynes), a gruff sixty-something who makes his living as a photographer in the big city of Chicago.  At some point during the series, Henry crosses paths with a little girl named Penelope Brewster (Soleil-Moon Frye), but she prefers to be called "Punky" instead.  Tagging along with Punky is her beloved canine friend, Brandon.  As the series proceeds, Henry moves Punky and Brandon into his home, and at some point, Henry legally adopts Punky as his own.  Part of the series revolved around Henry adjusting to life as a father in his sixties and the struggles he faces as Punky matures from a little girl into a teenager.  And, the other half of the series showcases Punky dealing with the social struggles of school along with her friends Allen, Margaux, and Cherie.  



The one thing that I love about this show kind of goes along with the ideals of Nelson Mandela, in that he hoped that one day, people could work together and be kind to each other regardless of what the colour of people's skin was.  And certainly, Punky and Cherie 's (Cherie Johnson) friendship had no colour lines.

Anyway, there are several episodes of "Punky Brewster" that could be considered great (and yes, I readily admit that I watched and loved the live-action series), and I really could have focused on any of them.  But since we're into the month of December, I really wanted to do a Christmas episode spotlight.

Before we talk about the special, let's post the link, so that you can watch it too (at least while it is still up, that is).  Now, because it's an hour long show, it is often divided up into two parts in syndication, so here's PART 1, and there's PART 2.  Enjoy.  We'll talk about it when you come back.

Comfy?  Good.  Let's chat.

Okay, so since the television series "Punky Brewster" ran from 1984-1988, and since this episode aired in December 1984, it's a safe assumption to make that this is the first Christmas that Punky and Henry are spending together.  And I can only imagine how excited Henry is about giving Punky her best Christmas ever.  However, little Punky is feeling incredibly down about the festive atmosphere, and when Henry presses her about it, Punky admits that she misses her mother.

(A little backstory before we continue.  The story goes that Punky's mother took Punky and Brandon to a shopping mall in Chicago under the guise that they were going on a trip.  But once they arrived at the mall, Punky's mother disappeared and never came back, leaving Punky and Brandon homeless.  Punky and Brandon squat inside a vacant apartment in Henry's building, where little Cherie keeps Punky's presence a secret while bringing her food and drink.  But of course, the secret gets out, and well...this leads to Punky being taken in by Henry!)



Anyway, Henry does his best to try and cheer Punky up, but Punky still misses her mother.  And of course, things aren't made any easier at school when the class jerk, Billy Bahootsas (played by Danny Ponce of "The Hogan Family"), cruelly informs Punky and Cherie that there is no such thing as Santa Claus.  When Punky and Cherie inform Henry of what Billy has told them, Henry tries to reassure them that Santa is real and that he is capable of making miracles happen.  Punky, however, isn't buying it.

So Henry decides that he will make the children believe in Santa by volunteering to dress up as Santa for Punky's school Christmas party (sigh...remember the days in which public schools still had Christmas parties...I miss those days).  And to Henry's credit, none of the kids even recognize Henry as Santa...not even Punky.

Of course, this leads to Punky going up to Santa and giving him a seemingly impossible request.

The only present that Punky wanted for Christmas was to have her mother back home.

And, Henry was more than determined to make Punky's wish come true.

Of course, this leads to a comedy of errors of sorts.  After all, Henry had zero idea as to where he was supposed to look, or even if Punky's mother was even still alive.  But at the same time, he didn't want Punky to continue believing that Santa wasn't real...especially after Punky went to all the trouble to make sure that her mother had a present to unwrap when she came by to visit.

Oh, the conundrum!

And, on top of all that, the private investigator that Henry hires to find Punky's mother tracks down the wrong woman!  How is Henry going to save Punky's Christmas now?

Well, as luck would have it, Henry finds himself outside of a particular store that sells all sorts of holiday knick-knacks.  In fact, this knick-knack store happens to be called "Nick's Nook", and the store happens to be run by an elderly gentleman named Nick.

Well, knick-knack at Nick's Nook, give the dog a bone!  

Strangely enough, Henry doesn't seem to recall there being a Nick's Nook store in the past, and of course Henry would know that as he has lived in Chicago for years.  But Nick insists that miracles have a way of happening.  

Now, I won't spoil it too much for you (after all, why would I post the link to the whole show and then reveal it all), but I'll give you a hint.  A jewelry box plays a huge part in everything.

So, I'll leave you be to continue watching the special Christmas episode of Punky Brewster and keep reminding you to keep on reading the advent calendar for this year.  Because coming up on Day #7, I talk about a really tasty treat that I was introduced to in elementary school.  And, naturally, it's Christmas themed.  

Hope you're hungry!

Thursday, December 05, 2013

Gift Wrapping 101: A Video Blog

Hi, guys! I hope you're ready for another edition of the Thursday Video Diary entry.



It also happens to be Day #5 of A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR.

(Yes...I decided to switch it up a little, and have a star shaped ornament every fifth day of the advent calendar.)


I'm going to be completely honest. I wasn't entirely sure how well-received these video blogs would be when I decided to start doing them last month.  As I talked about in my very first foray into video, I was extremely nervous about it, as I struggled with public speaking in the past due to a traumatic incident from my grade school years.  Even now, I still get nervous about speaking to people with my voice instead of through written words.  As you can tell, I tend to speak a little bit quickly, I mispronounce words, and I think that I say the word "like" way too many times to count.  I reckon that if I ever transcribed one of the video blogs that I've done so far, I would keel over in pain due to the amount of bad grammar and superfluous words that I pepper each video with.

So why do I keep doing it?

Well, practice makes perfect, right?  

One of these days, maybe a year or two down the road, I'll look back on these early video blog entries and laugh at how "green" I was back then!  But one thing that I will say is that I appreciate your patience throughout my ramblings and my bad camera angles, and the close-ups of my thumb because I don't know how to turn off the camera smoothly!  I mean, I can only promise you that things will get better from here.  They most certainly can't get much worse!

Because practice makes perfect, right?

I will say this though.  I'm certainly enjoying filming these videos.  They might not flow the smoothest, but they do come from the heart.  I've actually wanted to do more personal videos here for a while now, but again, that paralyzing fear that I had of public speaking prevented me from doing so.  I don't even think that I have that sexy of a voice, to be perfectly honest!  Granted, it's not Gilbert Gottfried bad or anything like that, but I will never have that booming baritone that Barry White or James Earl Jones made famous.  

But you know something?  I'm okay with that.  I haven't heard any bad complaints about how I sound, and that's good with me.  And, I imagine that the more video blogs that I do, I can find a way to control my pitch to make it seem more...um...professional?  Um, yeah.  That's it.

Because practice makes perfect.

I think you see where this is going, right?  How the more you practice at something, the better you get at it.

I know I certainly felt that way about gift wrapping.  But as you will see in today's video blog, all it takes is a little practice.  Everything will fall into place one day.


Wednesday, December 04, 2013

A Pink Christmas



Well, hello there, everybody! I hope you're ready to take part in the fourth day of “A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR”! And, hey, look at that...today's ornament happens to have a pinkish tone to it, don't you think?

In fact...I know that pink isn't really considered to be that much of a Christmas colour, but let's go ahead and make the rest of this particular blog entry pink, shall we? Don't worry...I'll explain why this is the case in a moment.

Now, here's the interesting thing about this blog entry. Even though the bulk of this blog entry will be written in pink text, it's not because I was tickled pink over the idea of choosing this particular topic. In fact, since today happens to be “Whatever Wednesday”, where I let one of the murder suspects in the board game clue choose the topic for me, pink would be an impossible colour, as there is no pink playing piece in the classic game of Clue. I mean, yes, Professor Plum and Miss Scarlet are close to pink, but not exactly pink.



Even more strange? The card I chose was the Mrs. Peacock card! And, Mrs. Peacock is almost the direct opposite colour of pink!

But, here's where the idea to turn this blog pink came from.  If you've been following along with this blog for the past couple of months, then you are well aware that each Clue character represents a theme day for the blog.  For Mrs. Peacock, it means that we're going to be talking about a particular television show.

Now that works out beautifully for me, as there are dozens of hundreds of Christmas specials that have been made over the years...some of which I've talked about and many others that I have not.  

And, as it so happens, once I learned that this week's Wednesday blog entry was going to be television based, I happened to get inspired by another topic that I did earlier in the week.

This past Saturday, I did my blog on "Bluetoes, the Christmas Elf", and I mentioned that I happened to still have the special on an old VHS tape of Christmas specials that I taped off of television circa 1989/1990.  Miraculously, that tape survived...even if the several VCR's my family went through did not.

And funnily enough, if I look at the labels on the VHS tape that I recorded Bluetoes on, I have a list of the various Christmas specials that were on that tape!

Let's see what else I taped on that tape, shall we?  Well, I know that I must have put it on the 2-hour setting, as there aren't very many specials on the tape.  And, I was smart enough to know how to pause the recording while the commercials were playing, so that saved a little bit of space on the tape.  

Firstly, there was the classic CBS special, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", which is always going to be one of my favourites.  I have it on DVD now, so I don't really need to keep the VHS copy now...but I don't want to get rid of it, because of the fact that I can't find Bluetoes on DVD.

After Rudolph came Bluetoes.  And, it's just dawned on me that all the television specials that I have on that VHS tape have colours in their names.  "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Bluetoes, the Christmas Elf"...

...and the third and final special on the tape also had a colour in the title.  And, it happens to be the reason why I have coloured this blog entry entirely in pink!



Yes, we're going to be taking a look at the television special "The Pink Panther in:  A Pink Christmas"!

Now, I have a confession to make.  I have always been a huge fan of the Pink Panther.  When I was a kid in school, one of the things that made going home for lunch all that more special was the fact that CJOH-TV in Ottawa used to play cartoons during the 11:30-1:00 time slot.  Or, at least it USED to before the network decided to have a noon hour newscast.  Now, in most cases, the network would air "The Flintstones", but there was one period for about eighteen months where the network would air classic Pink Panther television shows.  In addition to the Pink Panther, the shows would also air other cartoon shorts within the same family of shows.  For instance, the show would also feature "Inspector Clouseau" episodes (which I admit that I didn't like as much as The Pink Panther), and "The Ant and The Aardvark" (which I LOVED just as much as The Pink Panther!)



It was really the only opportunity that I had to watch the Pink Panther on television.  The original series wrapped up the year before I was born, and those reruns were the only way that I could watch the show.  I mean, yes, they revamped the show in 1993 with Matt Frewer as the voice of the Pink Panther, but for whatever reason, I liked the classic version more.  To me, Matt Frewer will always be either Max Headroom, Trashcan Man, or the guy who turns into a zombie in the "Dawn of the Dead" remake...not the Pink Panther.

And, besides...in the cartoon series, the Pink Panther was almost always mute!  And, that's what made the cartoon so charming and wonderful.  Because you had a cartoon character who rarely spoke, the animators really had no choice but to rely on sight gags to get jokes across.  Thankfully, it worked out well.

And, in "The Pink Panther in: A Pink Christmas", those sight gags lead to one hilarious Christmas special that was also very heartwarming as well.  In fact, I'm going to post a link to the special HERE so you can watch along with me.  It'll make the discussion more fun, anyway!

Now, obviously I had to watch this special as a rerun.  The original airdate was on December 7, 1978...a full two and a half years before I was even born.  But I still have the special on VHS, and am now trying to find it on DVD.  But it is such a great show...even if at first, we see that the Pink Panther is a little bit of a brat.



Of course, you can hardly blame him for his erratic behaviour throughout the course of the program.  After all, it is the last couple of days before Christmas Day, and our little pink friend is having not the best time of it all.  He's cold, he's homeless, and he doesn't even have any sort of method for getting food.  He's on the brink of desperation, and all of the men, women, boys, and girls are too wrapped up in their own Christmas celebrations that they fail to notice that the Pink Panther is in dire straits.

I suppose I should also mention that although the special originally aired in the late 1970s, the actual setting of the show takes place much earlier.  I would wager a guess that the special is set around the turn of the twentieth century, given that horse drawn carriages are still present on the streets of the city.  But, I could be mistaken too.

EDITED TO ADD:  In the first song, the choir sings about "Twas the day of the ninety-four Christmas.  And, since the special came out in 1978, I assume this story takes place during the Christmas of 1894!  My goodness, that makes the Pink Panther REALLY old!

Anyway, the Pink Panther is starving, and as I said before, he will do almost anything for food.  Sadly, whenever the Pink Panther has the opportunity to get some food, something almost always goes terribly wrong.

I mean, right off the bat, our Pink Panther's Christmas Eve dinner consists of nothing more than a sugar snap pea.  And, a bird happens to steal it on him!  Of course, one might say that the bird did the big pink cat a favour, as a pea is hardly considered to be the most filling meal on Christmas or any other day of the week!  

And, then there's the fact that even though the Pink Panther has a nice warm coat of pink fur, it's apparently not enough to keep him warm during one of the most frigid days of the year!  Luckily, he happens to find a solution as a man happens to drop one of his packages as he tries to catch a streetcar.  Of course, one might question the ethics of stealing someone else's package...especially on Christmas Eve...but, hey, when times are desperate, cats do desperate things.



Fortunately, it works out to his advantage because it happens to be a Santa Claus costume.  And, as luck would have it, the department store Santa is out sick with the flu.  Ergo, what better way to buy food than to work as a department store Santa!  Surely, nothing could possibly go wrong, could it?



Well, that is until a little girl with a bag full of goodies sits on top of Santa's knee, and our hungry pink friend decides to decapitate her poor little gingerbread man with his teeth.  Naturally, it's very uncouth for a Santa Claus to actually take someone else's snack...especially if the Santa happens to be on the clock.  And as you can see from watching the link that I posted up above, Gingy-gate leads to a whole bunch of mayhem inside the store, including running through a children's choir, causing a disaster inside the fashion department, and ending up with the Pink Panther almost getting sold to a young child thinking that it's a life sized stuffed animal!

(I do hope that lady got her money back!  I don't know how return desks worked in the late 1800s, but if they were run the way they are now, she may be in for a battle!)

It seems as though every single time he tries to get a nice, hot meal, the world is seemingly conspiring against him.  He goes to a soup kitchen to get a free bowl of soup, and the kitchen runs out.  Then when he thinks he found some soup, he drinks it not knowing that it is actually dirty dishwater!

Then someone actually takes pity on him, and offers to buy him food, but when an ambulance drives by, the man turns out to be a doctor, and leaves the Pink Panther with the bill!  Needless to say, no money = no food.  The Pink Panther even decides to go into the world of petty crime, swiping a carrot right off of a little kid's snowman, and attempting to impersonate Yogi Bear by swiping some poor person's "pic-a-nic basket".  Needless to say, our poor impoverished pink pal doesn't make a good criminal.  In fact, he even tried to get himself arrested so that he could be guaranteed a nice hot meal in prison!

In short, the Pink Panther was absolutely desperate.

Towards the end of the special, hope arrives in the form of a police officer's luscious tasty honey glazed doughnut (stereotype alert).  When the cop drops the doughnut and it rolls down the hill, the Pink Panther rushes towards the doughnut with whatever energy he has left inside of him.  

In fact, our pink pal is so desperate and filled with frustration that when a little puppy dog snatches the doughnut away from our pink friend, he snatches the doughnut away from the dog, having had enough of coming so close to food and having it cruelly disappear as quickly as he had it.

But something strange happens.  When the Pink Panther is about to eat his prize doughnut, he turns around and sees one of the saddest looking pooches that ever existed.  I'm telling you, the dog looked about as sad as Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey when his mother sacrificed herself so that he could live!  

And then the Pink Panther's brain cells started rubbing together.  All the dog wanted was something to eat.  In all likelihood, the dog was homeless too, just like him.  The dog probably hadn't had anything to eat all day, just like him.  And, when the Pink Panther grabbed the doughnut away from the dog, the dog felt just as he had, when he couldn't catch a break.

So, the Pink Panther decides to look into his heart and pull out the spirit of Christmas...and he gives half of the doughnut to the puppy, who gobbles it up in delight.  And, really, when you make a brand new friend, isn't that satisfying enough?

Of course, we can't very well leave this special on a sad note.  After all, one cannot survive on one doughnut alone.  And, a very special guest makes sure that both the Pink Panther, and his newly adopted pooch, have a very nice Christmas indeed.



So, that wraps up Day #4 of the advent calendar.  Allow me to remove my rose-coloured goggles now.

But do stay tuned for the fifth day of the calendar.  It's a video blog that will have me performing a standard activity during this time of year...as well as all of the mishaps that I have had over the years performing said activity!




Tuesday, December 03, 2013

December 3, 1927



Today is the first Tuesday Timeline entry for the final month of 2013, and as it so happens, it coincides with the third day of “THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR”. And, I will be the first one to admit that finding holiday themed topics for Tuesday Timeline entries has been a really big challenge. But, somehow I managed to make it work for today.

(Now I just have to find Christmas themed entries for December 10, December 17, and December 24.)

Anyway, I offered up a little bit of a clue as to what today's Tuesday Timeline entry happens to be all about in yesterday's blog. Before we get to work exposing the secrets behind that clue as well as talking about the topic itself, we've gotta start things off right, just as we do on this and every Tuesday.

It's time to take a look at the events that shaped the world...and the common thread is that all of these events took place on December 3.

So, on this date in...

1818 – Illinois becomes the twenty-first state admitted into the United States of America

1854 – Eureka Stockade – More than twenty Australian gold miners are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licenses

1901 – Theodore Roosevelt delivers a speech to the House of Representatives asking Congress to curb the power of trusts – a speech that had no fewer than 20,000 words

1910 – Modern neon lighting is first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show

1919 – The Quebec Bridge opens to traffic following twenty years of planning and construction

1927 – Laurel and Hardy release their first film, “Putting Pants on Phillip”

1951 – John and Greg Rice are born, and until John's 2005 death, the duo were known as the shortest living male twins in the world

1960 - “Camelot”, the musical, debuts at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway

1964 – Over eight hundred students of the University of California, Berkeley, are arrested following the takeover and sit-in of the campus administration building in protest of the UC Regents' decision to forbid protests on UC property

1967 – The world's very first human heart transplant is performed in Cape Town, South Africa

1970 – British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released after being held hostage for sixty days by a Quebec-based terrorist group

1973 – Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up shots of the planet Jupiter

1976 – An assassination attempt is made on Jamaican singer Bob Marley, who survives and plays a concert just two days later

1979 – In Cincinnati, Ohio, eleven people suffocate to death while trying to find seats at Riverfront Coliseum just before a concert by The Who is set to start

1984 – Bhopal Disaster – a methyl isocyanate leak from a pesticide plant leads to the deaths of over 3,800 people, and sicken as many as six hundred thousand more in what is easily considered to be one of the world's costliest industrial accidents.

1992 – The world's first text message is sent by a test engineer for Sema Group

1994 – American AIDS activist Elizabeth Glaser passes away at the age of 47

1997 – At least 121 nations (except The United States, Russia, and The People's Republic of China) sign “The Ottawa Treaty” - a treaty designed to prohibit the manufacturing and deployment of anti-personnel landmines

1999 – Actress Madeline Kahn passes away at the age of 57 from ovarian cancer

2002 – Actor Glenn Quinn, best known for playing the role of Mark Healy on “Roseanne” dies of a drug overdose at the age of just 32

2012 – Typhoon Bopha makes landfall over the Philippines, killing 475 people

Some interesting facts, don't you think?

Now let's wish the following people a very happy birthday! Happy birthday to Phyllis Curtin, Jean-Luc Godard, Jaye P. Morgan, Nicolas Coster, Ozzy Osbourne, Heather Menzies, Mickey Thomas (Jefferson Starship), Don Barnes, Benny Hinn, Steven Culp, Daryl Hannah, Julianne Moore, Scott Ian (Anthrax), Steve Harris, Andrew Stanton, Katarina Witt, Brendan Fraser, Montell Jordan, Lu Parker, Vernon White, Bucky Lasek, Holly Marie Combs, MC Frontalot, Mickey Avalon, Malinda Williams, Troy Evans, Trina, Daniel Bedingfield, Rainbow Sun Francks, Anna Chlumsky, Brian Bonsall, Amanda Seyfried, Michael Angarano, and Jake T. Austin.

So, which date are we going to take a look at today?



Well, we're actually going to be going back to the date in which Laurel & Hardy released their very first film. December 3, 1927.

But, we're not going to be talking about a movie starring a couple of silent film stars in this Tuesday Timeline. Instead, we'll be discussing a person who made his claim to fame as a true blue crooner. His career spanned several decades, and he was the host of a variety show that ran for almost a decade.

And, it is here where that clue I posted yesterday comes into play. Here, I'll post it again to refresh your memory.



No, the theme of the blog is not Staples, or “back to school ads”. But take a listen at the song that plays in the background. You know, the one that goes “It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”? Well, the version that the Staples commercial used was a cover version, and to be honest, several artists have performed this song over the course of the last fifty years. But admittedly, it's this version (reportedly the original version at that), that happens to be my favourite interpretation.



ARTIST: Andy Williams
SONG: It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
ALBUM: The Andy Williams Christmas Album
DATE RELEASED: October 14, 1963
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS: N/A


Now, here's an interesting fact about the song. Believe it or not, it wasn't intended to be released as a single when Andy Williams set about recording a Christmas album (the first of eight he would eventually do). Columbia Records instead released Williams' version of “White Christmas” as the promotional single instead.  Somehow though, this classic song found its way into households and record stores all over the world, and the album itself reached the pole position on the Christmas album charts in 1963, 1964, and 1965, and stayed on the charts right up until 1973!

So, what does this song have to do with the actual Tuesday Timeline date?  It's quite simple.  For it was on this date eighty-six years ago today that the man who made this song famous was born!



Howard Andrew Williams was born in the small town of Wall Lake, Iowa, the son of Jay Emerson and Florence Williams.  He was the youngest of four boys, and graduated from University High School in West Los Angeles.

Now, does anyone want to take a guess as to how Andy Williams began his singing career...or at the very least, how he made the decision that he wanted to pursue a career in entertainment - when he was a child, he performed in a choir at a Presbyterian church.  Williams also performed on several radio stations with his brothers (as a quartet known as "The Williams Brothers") in several different states, including his home state of Iowa, California, Ohio, and Illinois.

(I suppose that it's kind of a moot point to mention that the Williams family moved around a lot.)

It wouldn't be until 1953 that Andy would begin singing professionally as a solo artist.  Prior to that, Andy and his brothers were signed by MGM to sing on the film soundtracks of such films as "The Harvey Girls" and "Good News" after being discovered and hired by Kay Thompson, then the head of the MGM vocal department.

TRIVIA:  According to Andy Williams' autobiography, "Moon River and Me", it was revealled that Andy and Kay had a relationship together.  At the time the relationship began, Williams was nineteen, and Thompson was nearly forty!  And, who said that "cougars" were a millennial thing?

Now, back to Andy's music career, as stated before, Williams began his professional singing career in 1953, but the problem was that his first six singles did not chart at all.  It wasn't really anybody's fault.  After all, we all know that Andy Williams had a lot of talent...it just took a while for him to make his mark.

Fortunately that time came just one year later, when Steve Allen asked him to perform on his talk show "Tonight With Steve Allen".  Williams quickly became a regular performer on that television series, and shortly after that switched record labels from RCA Victor to Cadence Records.  Now, Cadence Records was a considerably small label.  In fact, I suppose you could say that it could be considered an independent label by today's standards.  However, Williams made the most of it, and it proved to be an advantageous decision.  After all, his third single released with Cadence Records - "Canadian Sunset" - became a Top 10 hit in 1956!

More hits soon followed.  1957's "Butterfly" became Williams' one and only #1 hit on the Billboard charts, "Are You Sincere?" hit the #3 position in 1958, and by 1960, Williams had already been considered to be one of the most popular vocalists in the entire United States of America.  I wouldn't quite say that he was quite as popular as...say...Elvis Presley, but he certainly did have his entourage of loyal fans who salivated over him and his music.  And, why wouldn't they?  Andy Williams, after all, had a really unique voice.  After all, you heard an example of it up above!

Now, where many artists such as Elvis Presley and Mariah Carey achieve a lot of their success to single releases, Andy Williams success came from album sales.  Guess how many gold records he achieved over his entire career?  Go on, guess!  Five?  Ten?

How about EIGHTEEN gold records between 1956 and 1973?  How is that for successful?

And, that's not all.  Did you know that one of Andy Williams' biggest hits was one that he actually never got credit for?  Here, I'll set the story up.

Back in 1962, Andy Williams was asked to sing a song from the 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" at that year's Academy Award ceremony, which was written by the duo of Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer.  Here's that song below.



Now, many of you would be correct in assuming that "Moon River" would be Andy Williams' signature song.  And, the song ended up winning an Academy Award that very night.  But here's where things get tricky.  Because Andy Williams' version of "Moon River" was technically never released as a single, it was ineligible to enter the Top 40 charts.  But, don't feel too bad for Williams.  After all, lightning did strike twice when another composition by Mancini/Mercer ("Days of Wine and Roses") also won the Academy Award after Williams performed it.

And, of course, we cannot forget the variety show that Andy put on for nearly ten years.  When "The Andy Williams Show" debuted in 1962, nobody expected it to last until 1971.  But it did, and it was because of Andy's show that we were introduced to some really big talent over the years.  In fact, perhaps one of the biggest discoveries that Williams had on his show were a group of brothers from Utah known as the Osmond Brothers!

(So, the next time you ever see Donny and Marie on your television set, you can either thank - or blame - Andy Williams...well, depending on if you like them or not.  For the record, I'm okay with them.)

Having had experience hosting a variety show, Andy Williams also put on annual Christmas specials right around this time.  By all accounts, the Christmas specials began right around the same time he began hosting his show, and continued to air annually until 1974.  After an eight-year hiatus, the specials resumed in the early 1980s, and continued well into the 1990s.

And, here's a little extra piece of trivia.  As of right now, Andy Williams' record for hosting the Grammy Awards has never been broken.  He has been the only person to host the ceremony for a consecutive seven years in a row between 1971 and 1977.  And, to top off his general coolness, he actually defended John Lennon when Richard Nixon attempted to get the former Beatle deported!  

In Andy's later years, he still kept performing well into his eighties, citing that continuing to sing at concerts kept him young.  And, he certainly did keep performing as long as he could.  In May of 1992, Williams decided to open up his own theatre in Branson, Missouri, which he christened with the name "The Moon River Theatre", and over the next two decades, several performers appeared on Andy's stage, including Glen Campbell, Ann-Margret, Charo, Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop, Phyllis Diller, Pat Benatar, and David Copperfield, amongst others.

In fact, the theatre itself appeared on several episodes of the soap opera, "As The World Turns" in the summer of 2007, in which Williams himself made a guest appearance.

Sadly, all good things have to come to an end.  And, for Williams, the end came on September 25, 2012.  After being diagnosed with bladder cancer in November 2011, Williams underwent chemotherapy in order to fight the cancer, and by July of 2012, it had been announced that Williams had come back to Branson (after moving to Los Angeles to be closer to the hospital where he was undergoing the cancer treatment), and Williams was actually looking forward to performing in Branson that fall.



Sadly, his death at the age of 84 prevented him from doing that.

However, even though Andy Williams has been gone for a whole year, his music still remains a part of people's playlists and record collections, and his music will likely still be heard at holiday parties yet to come.



After all, they didn't call him "Mr. Christmas" for nothing.

And, that wraps up our Tuesday Timeline, and our third day of the advent calendar.  What's on tap for day #4?  Well, I don't know yet.  I figure that I'd let the Clue cards tell the future on that one.

One more note before I leave this topic for today, even though it has nothing to do with today's topic, I do want to send my condolences to the family and friends of actor Paul Walker, who was killed in a car accident in California on the afternoon of November 30, 2013.