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Tuesday, May 06, 2014

May 6, 1961

The Tuesday Timeline is definitely one of my favourite entries to write because I always learn so much based on the amount of research that I do in order to write one every week.  I'm also interested in reading about some of the events that took place on specific dates throughout history.  That was one of the motivations behind keeping the Tuesday Timeline going for another year.  I genuinely love doing them.

But, considering that I am trying to make May a month of changes, I'm going to be doing the Tuesday Timeline entries for the month of May a little different.  Sure, I'll still be posting the historical events and celebrity birthdays for this and every Tuesday this month...but the twist is that for every single Tuesday Timeline this month, I will be featuring a celebrity birthday.

And, to challenge myself, for each of these celebrity birthdays, I'll attempt to find one piece of trivia for each year that they have been alive.  Like, for instance, if the topic subject was Roma Downey, who turns 54 years old today, I would have to find fifty-four different pieces of trivia about Roma in celebration of her life.

But, just to make things clear...today's subject is NOT Roma Downey.  So, let's discover who this Tuesday Timeline IS about.  Of course, we'll start with pieces of history that took place on the sixth of May.

1682 - Louis XVI of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles

1757 - Two conflicts - The Konbaung-Hanthawaddy War and The Burmese Civil War - end

1835 - The first issue of the New York Herald is published by James Gordon Bennett Sr.

1840 - The Penny Black - the world's first adhesive postage stamp - becomes valid for use in Great Britain and Ireland

1844 - The world's first mechanically frozen ice rink - The Glacarium - opens

1861 - The community of Richmond, Virginia becomes the official capital of the Confederate States of America

1889 - The Eiffel Tower opens to the public

1915 -   Film legend Orson Welles (d. 1985) is born in Kenosha, Wisconsin

1916 - Twenty-one Lebanese nationalists are executed in the Martyr's Square, Beirut by Jamal Pasha, the Ottoman wali

1929 - Paul Lauterbur (d. 2007), the man who was responsible for the development of the MRI is born in Sidney, Ohio

1937 - The Hindenburg zeppelin catches fire and is completely engulfed in flames after just one minute; 36 lose their lives

1940 - Author John Steinbeck wins the Pulitzer Prize for his novel "The Grapes of Wrath"

1941 - Comedian Bob Hope performs the first of many USO shows at California's March Field

1945 - The final major battle of the Eastern Front during World War II - The Prague Offensive - begins

1954 - Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes

1964 - Actress Dana Hill (d. 1996) is born in Encino, Los Angeles, California

1966 - Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors murders in England

1983 - The Hitler Diaries are revealed to be a hoax after experts examine them

1994 - Paula Jones files a lawsuit against then president Bill Clinton, accusing him of sexually harassing her three years prior

2013 - Ariel Castro is taken into custody after three women (Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, Gina DeJesus) are found alive in Cleveland, Ohio more than a decade after they went missing

And, here are a list of the celebrity birthdays that unfortunately I will NOT be featuring in this edition of the Tuesday Timeline.  But do help me in wishing Willie Mays, Larry Gogin, David Friesen, Bob Seger, Alan Dale, Mary MacGregor, Jeffery Deaver, Gregg Henry, Fred Newman, Tony Blair, Lynn Whitfield, Tom Bergeron, Roma Downey, Leslie Hope, Martin Brodeur, Marc Chouinard, Mark Eaton, Kerry Ellis, Nicole Brunner, Edyta Sliwinska, Kyle ShewfeltAdrianne Palicki, Gabourey Sidibe, Naomi Scott, and Emily Alyn Lind a very happy birthday!



Okay, so what date will we be going back in time to this week?  Well, how about May 6, 1961?

That was the day that a particular actor was born.  An actor who made a career in both film and television.  An actor who women have swooned over for the better part of a quarter-century.  An actor who until recently was considered to be Hollywood's most eligible bachelor (well, prior to his engagement to Amal Alamuddin).

I suppose that I don't need to make much more of an introduction here.



Today just happens to be the fifty-third birthday of movie and television actor George Clooney.  And, in celebration of his birthday, here are fifty-three pieces of trivia that you may or may not know about this man.  So, sit back and grab a beverage as we dig a little deeper into George's life.

1 - George was born in Lexington, Kentucky on May 6, 1961.

2 - He is the son of Nick Clooney (a former anchorman/game show host) and Nina Bruce (former beauty pageant queen/city councilwoman)



3 - Singer/actress Rosemary Clooney was his aunt.  She died in 2002.

4 - George's aunt Rosemary married actor Jose Ferrer, and they gave birth to five children, Miguel, Maria, Gabriel, Monsita and Rafael Ferrer.  You might recognize Miguel from his current role in NCIS: Los Angeles, and Rafael does voice acting.  Seems like acting runs in the family!



5 - Another interesting fact is that singer Debby Boone is related to George by marriage.  George's cousin Gabriel married her in September 1979.

6 - When George was in middle school, he developed Bell's Palsy - a condition that partially paralyzes the face, which subjected him to teasing and bullying from classmates.  Fortunately, it went away within a year.

7 - He attempted to become a professional baseball player in his youth, trying out for the Cincinnati Reds in 1977, but he was cut after the first round.

8 - His very first acting role was as an extra in the 1978 TV miniseries "Centennial".

9 - Everyone remembers George Clooney for his role as Dr. Doug Ross in the NBC drama, ER.  Many don't remember that he was in a separate show called E/R which was a sitcom that aired on CBS for the 1984/85 season!  Imagine the weirdness, starring in two shows with almost the same exact name. 



10 - George Clooney was also a regular on "The Facts of Life" for the 1985-1986 season.  He played the role of George, a handyman who helped the girls construct the "Over Our Heads" store.  His character was written off the show after he went on tour with a character named Cinnamon (Stacey Q).



11 - He also had a prominent part on the sitcom "Roseanne", playing the role of Roseanne and Jackie's supervisor Booker Brooks during the show's debut season.

12 - George Clooney also appeared in the movie "Return of the Killer Tomatoes"!



13 - George stayed on ER for five seasons, departing in 1999.  But he did return for the final episode of the series, which aired in 2009.

14 - The first film that George Clooney appeared in was 1996's "From Dusk 'Til Dawn".

15 - He is directly involved with the "Not On Our Watch Project".

16 - He is also a staunch supporter of gay rights, even appearing in a performance of Dustin Lance Black's play "8" - which is based off of the controversial Proposition 8 bill being passed.

17 - He was arrested in March 2012 outside the Sudanese Embassy for civil disobedience due to his advocacy for resolving the Darfur conflict.



18 - Despite his long-standing bachelor status, Clooney was married once.  His marriage to actress Talia Balsam lasted four years.

19 - He has also been linked to Lisa Snowden, Ginger Lynn Allen, Celine Balitran, Sarah Lawson, Stacy Kiebler, and Elisabetta Canalis, and has reportedly dated Kelly Preston, Renee Zellweger, and Krista Allen.

20 - George's next door neighbours are Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber.

21 - George Clooney was injured in a motorcycle accident in September 2007 when a car slammed into him.  Both he and his then girlfriend were fine.



22 - George Clooney once owned a black, potbellied pig named Max, a gift from then girlfriend Kelly Preston.  Clooney owned him from 1988 until his death in 2006.

23 - Clooney stated that Max actually saved his life by waking him up just moments before the Northridge earthquake caused major damage in January 1994.



24 - Is one of only three people to be named People's "Sexiest Man Alive".  Clooney won the honour in 1997 and in 2006.

25 - Clooney was also named one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World for three years straight (2007-2009).

26 - Is a two-time Academy Award winner.  He won the award for "Best Supporting Actor" for 2005's "Syria", and seven years later was honoured when 2012's "Argo" won Best Picture - a film that Clooney helped produce.

27 - He has also won four Golden Globes between 2000 and 2012.

28 - His middle name is Timothy.

29 - His height is listed as five feet, eleven inches.

30 - Both Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer bet Clooney ten thousand dollars that Clooney would at least have one child before his fortieth birthday.  Needless to say, when the deadline came and went in May 2001, both actresses sent him the money via personal check...

31 - ...but Clooney returned the money and bet both of them double or nothing that he still would be childless by the time he reached his fiftieth birthday.  I wonder if that bet went through, given that George is still childless at 53.

32 - George once appeared as a guest star on "The Golden Girls", playing a police detective.

33 - George Clooney opened up a new production company with Grant Heslov - Smokehouse Productions - in 2006.

34 - He served as best man at Richard Kind's wedding.

35 - Launched a boycott of "Entertainment Tonight" after the show filmed Clooney without his permission.

36 - When Rosie O'Donnell's talk show first debuted in the summer of 1996, Clooney was her very first guest!

37 - Clooney and "Three Kings" director David O. Russell nearly broke out in fisticuffs after Clooney reportedly took issue with the way that Russell was treating the extras.



38 - Because of his desire to work with the Coen Brothers, he committed himself to 2000's "O Brother, Where Art Thou" without even reading the script!

39 - Clooney didn't perform "live" in "O Brother, Where Art Thou".  His voice was dubbed in during the editing.

40 - He once rode a bicycle to auditions while he was struggling to get his big break.



41 - Voiced the role of Stan's gay dog, "Sparky" in an episode of "South Park".  Part of the reason why Clooney wanted to do it was because he was a huge fan of the show.

42 - Auditioned five times for a role in "Thelma and Louise" - a part that would eventually go to one of his dear friends, Brad Pitt.

43 - Clooney lived in some strange places while he was a struggling actor.  He even reportedly lived in a friend's walk-in closet!

44 - Was seriously injured on the set of 2005's "Syria".  Although he made a full recovery, he suffered from back pain, headaches, and temporary memory loss.

45 - He became the sixth actor to play Batman when he appeared in 1997's "Batman & Robin".

46 - His famous "Roman Haircut" hairstyle of the mid-1990s was actually created by accident!  He had wanted the unique cut to make his character in "From Dusk 'Til Dawn" seem really crazy.  The only crazy thing was that it became as popular as "The Rachel"!

47 - Had George Clooney turned down "Batman & Robin", he would have taken over Michael Keaton's role in "Jack Frost".

48 - Although George Clooney was once a smoker, he quit for good following his uncle's death from lung cancer.

49 - He has appeared on the cover of GQ Magazine at least four times.

50 - Worked in the shoe department of a department store in the late 1970s.



51 - Although he and actress Sandra Bullock have been friends for at least a quarter of a century, the first and only time they've appeared in a film together was 2013's "Gravity".

52 - Got into a little bit of a controversy when he poked fun of Charlton Heston being diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and refused to apologize for it at first.  Though he would later write a note to Heston and his family in 2008 - the same year that Heston passed away.

And...

53 - The most that George Clooney was paid for one film role was $20,000,000...a sum he earned filming "Ocean's Eleven" in 2001.



Happy birthday, Mr. Clooney!

Monday, May 05, 2014

Motivation Monday - The Inaugural Posting

Good morning, everybody!  I suppose that you're probably logging in expecting to see a blog about movies today on account that it happens to be Monday.

Well, it is true that today happens to be Monday.  But if you're looking for a movie blog, you're going to have to wait until Saturday, because the changes that I promised were coming have already arrived!

Just to catch you up to speed, I made the decision some time ago to make the third anniversary of this blog a very special one.  And, one of the ways that I plan to make the anniversary very special is switching up the theme days.  And just to refresh your memory over the brand new schedule that goes into effect today, I'll repost it.  Remember, black means the days remain unchanged, blue means that the theme days are switching days, and red means brand new theme topics. 

The brand new schedule is as follows;

SUNDAY - SUNDAY JUKEBOX
MONDAY - MOTIVATION MONDAY
TUESDAY - TUESDAY TIMELINE
WEDNESDAY - WHO AM I WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY - TUBE TALK THURSDAY
FRIDAY - FOODIE FRIDAY
SATURDAY - SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES

Now, this probably leads to the next question.  What exactly is "Motivation Monday" all about?



Well, remember how a couple of months ago, I decided to take part in an Internet chat show with a couple of my friends?  It was a talk show entitled "MOTIVE2CHANGE", and it featured myself and my friends CARINE and JOSH talking about a lot of different topics that the youth of our world might be experiencing, and offering them lots of tips and solutions for getting through it by sharing our experiences.

But wait.  Notice how I wrote that in past tense.  Why would I do that?  Has the show been canceled due to lack of interest?  Did we run out of topics to talk about?  Did we have a huge fight and we're now constructing tell-all books about how horrible the partnership really was?

Well, the short answers to those three questions are no, no, and absolutely not.



You see, the theme for "A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE" is all about change.  It's the third anniversary of the blog, and in order to keep things fresh, I wanted to try some new things. 

And, on our Internet chat show, we're trying some new things too beginning with a new addition to our hosting panel as well as a name change reflecting that addition.

Beginning with the episode of the series that I will be posting after this little blurb is finished, you will notice a fourth person taking part in the show, and I would like to welcome our newest host
JONATHON for joining us on this, and hopefully more episodes of the series.  We all agreed that by having a fourth person on our panel that it would offer up some more depth to our discussions, and also open up more dialogue for us to talk about.  It's also good for keeping the show running because if one of us were unable to make it for a show taping, there would always be three others who could take over in a pinch.

Now, as a result of adding Jonathon to our discussion panel, we realized that the name "MOTIVE2CHANGE" was a little bit redundant.



Hence the decision to make the show title "MOTIVE4CHANGE" instead.  It fits, it incorporates the number of people hosting the show, and the name change still reflects the message we want to provide! 

(SLIGHT SECRET REVEAL:  Keep an eye on the brand new colour scheme for the new Motive4Change logo.  You might see it sooner than you think on the blog...)

So, before I post this week's episode, I want to post links to the other four episodes that were previously taped, as well as the subjects that each program discussed.  Remember, there was no episode posted on Easter Sunday, and episode #4 was delayed a couple of days due to illness.


And now join us for the fifth episode for the newly renamed "MOTIVE4CHANGE".  The topic?  Future Goals!



Remember, you will now see a brand new episode of the chat show every Monday from now on!  I hope you enjoy them!

And, you know, just going off on a slight tangent that is loosely linked to the topic of the show...when I first began this blogging venture close to three years ago, I never expected in my wildest dreams that it would even make as much of an impact on the Internet.  I thought that at most, I would get a small group of regular followers who would check in at least once a week, and that would have been fine for me.



Well, I can honestly tell you that three years after I started this blog, I have clocked in my 300,000th view from a variety of people in several different countries!  And, before some of you accuse me of being responsible for more than half of those views, I will state that the United States accounts for more than half of the people reading this blog...a statistic that this Canadian is blown away by.

Again, I just want to state that having all of you continue to read this blog and my ramblings about pop culture, and the occasional bout of self-reflection trying to work out why there are some days in which I have been questioning the paths I have taken throughout my life's journey so far...it makes me realize that writing is the best possible way that I can communicate with people, and that your interest in this blog makes me realize that there's a lot more that I can do with my writing skills.

I'm not the same person I was three years ago.  I was looking back at my entries that I wrote when I first started this blog, and I was amazed at how much my writing style has changed since then.  I think that I've changed and adapted my writing style enough so that I sound more mature, and I'm certainly finding myself getting more and more creative.

I guess that's part of the reason why I'm more open to making these changes to the blog.  I think I've done the blog long enough that I feel confident that these changes will help the blog grow even more.  And, it's not unusual for me to come up with more plans to make this blog special...and who knows?  I may end up having the courage to take some of these life lessons learned from pop culture and writing a best-seller one day. 

Hmmm...that may not be such a bad idea.




Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being a part of "A POP CULTURE ADDICT'S GUIDE TO LIFE.  These past three years have been great.  Let's make this year the best one yet!

(SLIGHT SECRET REVEAL #2:  Don't get too used to that logo...)

Sunday, May 04, 2014

Addicted to Love

Before I go ahead with this week's Sunday Jukebox, I want to reiterate that the Sunday Jukebox will be one of the few theme days that is staying put where it is as we head towards the third anniversary makeover for the blog. 

Can you tell that I'm just a wee bit EXCITED about changing things up for this month?  Why, I'm almost giddy about it to tell you the truth!

Now, in addition to the Sunday Jukebox sticking around on Sundays for the foreseeable future, something else that is still in play - at least for the year 2014 anyway - is the fact that every Sunday Jukebox song that I feature this year will have been a #1 hit on the Billboard charts for at least one week.  And that is a theme that will continue until the calendar rolls around to the year 2015.  Then I will switch to #2 songs.  Or one-hit-wonders.  Or songs that have music videos featuring clouds.  Or whatever the heck I decide to do!

This week, we're heading back in time twenty-eight years to the year 1986.  It's also one of the first years that I have vivid memories of.  Prior to '86, everything was a blur...though it could be because I was only five that year.

So, what was happening in May 1986?  Well, "Benson", "Knight Rider", and "Diff'rent Strokes" were on their way out.  The brand new movies of the month were "Short Circuit", "Top Gun", and "Cobra". Tommy Lee was getting married to Heather Locklear (of which that marriage would end in divorce).

And some of the albums that were being released in May of '86 were Peter Gabriel's "So", Poison's "Look What The Cat Dragged In", and Nu Shooz's "Poolside".

But what was the #1 hit during the first week of May 1986?  Well, have a look for yourselves!

NOTE:  The "release date" is the date the song entered the Billboard 100...I couldn't find the actual release date for this song, so I improvised.



ARTIST:  Robert Palmer
SONG:  Addicted to Love
ALBUM:  Riptide
DATE RELEASED:  February 8, 1986
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 1 week



Now, this is a song that you probably have recognized from a number of different places.  Perhaps you remember that episode from "Beverly Hills 90210" in which Brenda, Kelly, and Donna dressed up as the girls from the video to do some talent show at school.  Perhaps you may recall Shania Twain borrowing the concept of this video for her own single, "Man...I Feel Like a Woman".  Or, maybe you recall the television series "Hot in Cleveland" doing a parody version of this video during a 2012 episode. 



Regardless of where you might remember the video from, I have actually been looking for an excuse to feature a Robert Palmer video in this blog for quite a while.  Robert Palmer was definitely one of my favourite singers from the 1980s, and he has had a lot of hits besides "Addicted To Love".  Since he burst onto the music scene in 1974, Palmer had dozens of hits - both original compositions and cover hits.  Let's see...there was "Looking For Clues", "Every Kinda People", "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On", "Simply Irresistible", "Mercy Mercy Me/I Want You".  I honestly don't know if there's a bad song that Palmer ever did.

His death in September 2003 at the age of just 54 years old was very shocking.  And, admittedly, there's a part of me that still feels as though he left the world way too soon.  But at least he left behind nearly three decades of music for us to enjoy.

And, certainly "Addicted to Love" was one of Palmer's most well-known songs.  Although it only spent a total of seven days on the top of the charts, it certainly made a huge impact in the world of pop culture.  And, I think one of the most amusing things about the song is the music video itself...as well as some of the juicy little secrets about how the song and the video were made.

(Thank you VH1's "Pop-Up Video" for helping me with the research!)

I'm sure that you want to know what these secrets are.  Heck, the video is almost thirty years old, and you may know this stuff already...but just for argument's sake, let's just assume that you don't.

All right, let's begin with secret #1.

1 - A MEMBER OF DURAN DURAN ASSISTED WITH THE MUSIC

All right, so this shouldn't come as too much of a shocker if you were up to date on the New Wave music scene circa 1985.  As many of you know, Duran Duran briefly split up to form two side projects.  One project was Arcadia which featured Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, and Roger Taylor.  The other project was "The Power Station", which featured Andy and John Taylor, Chic's Tony Thompson, and Palmer.  So, the connection between Robert Palmer and two-fifths of the original Duran Duran was established about a year prior to "Addicted to Love" being released. 



That connection was expanded to Robert Palmer's solo projects.  Andy Taylor played lead guitar.  So, if you ever wanted to know who provided that wicked guitar sound, Taylor's your man.

2 - ADDICTED TO LOVE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A DUET

This was probably the fact that stunned me the most about this song.  I mean, Robert Palmer owned this single.  I can't even think of anyone else doing this song justice, and I honestly couldn't picture this song as a duet.

But believe it or not, this single was planned as a duet between Palmer and Chaka Khan.  And, had Chaka Khan's record company been more flexible, Khan would have joined Palmer as a duet partner.  Alas, the duet was not meant to be.  However, if you look closely at the album liner notes for Palmer's "Riptide" album, Chaka Khan is still credited.  Interesting.  I have that album, I should definitely see if I can spot her name on it.



Edited to add:  Yep, sure enough, Chaka Khan's name IS credited.  Well, I'll be damned.

Okay, moving on.

3 - ANOTHER ROCK PERFORMER WISHED HE RECORDED THE SINGLE

Now, many of you in North America might not know the name Noddy Holder, but those of you in the UK know him as the lead singer of UK based rock band, Slade (best known for their '73 holiday classic "Merry Xmas Everybody").  And, admittedly in an interview that he did after the single was released, Holder admitted that he wished that he would have wrote the song instead, claiming it to be a perfect pop song.



4 - ONE OF THE MODELS ACCIDENTALLY INJURED ROBERT PALMER ON SET!

Don't worry.  It wasn't a serious injury.  It was more along the lines of a freak accident.  The five models that were used in the video were Julie Pankhurst, Patty Kelly, Mak Gilchrist, Julia Bolino, and Kathy Davies.  Whenever they feature the shots where the four models are all lined up together with the guitars and keyboards, look at the guitar model in the middle.  That would be Mak Gilchrist...the woman who did the deed.

As Gilchrist explained in an interview, she and the other models were cast by director Terence Donovan - then a noted British fashion photographer - and she explained that Terence had brought a bottle of wine for all of them to drink to loosen them up.  Unfortunately, it worked a little too well.  Mak became quite tipsy on the wine, and while she and the other models were getting their make-up retouched, she stumbled in her high heels, lost her balance, and her guitar slammed into the back of Robert Palmer's head with such force that his face hit the microphone!  Ouch!

But I suppose that Robert Palmer wasn't too mad about it.  He did use Gilchrist and the other models in future video projects!

5 - A GUITAR EXPERT WAS BROUGHT ON SET TO TEACH THE MODELS FINGERING TECHNIQUES

He was brought in to teach the models the techniques to make the video look more authentic.  But he gave up after an hour and quit the project when it became clear that the models weren't grasping the concept...not to mention the guitars!

6 - THE SONG HAS SINCE BEEN COVERED BY SEVERAL ARTISTS


Perhaps the most famous cover version of the song is by Tina Turner, who has made the song a regular feature on her tours and concerts since the late-1980s.  Have a listen to Tina's version above.

But did you know that the song was also covered by Ciccone Youth, Westlife, Florence + The Machine, and even Garth Brooks?

At any rate, "Addicted to Love" is a fantastic song by an artist who left us far too soon.  

Saturday, May 03, 2014

Film Strips in Class - WHY?!?

As I've previously announced, there's going to be a lot of changes happening in the blog beginning on Monday.  And, because of that, this is going to be the final edition of the "Saturday Smorgasbord".

Oh, but don't worry.  I won't be completely abandoning the cartoon and toy discussions.  They'll just be moving to other days of the week.  Possibly they'll be discussed in the Tube Talk Thursday section.  Or they could be a part of the Tuesday Timeline.  Or, quite possibly they'll be discussed in the "as of right now secret" Who Am I Wednesday portion of the blog.  So, they'll still be around...just in a lesser, supporting role.

For now, I thought that since we're going to be transitioning into the all new "Saturday Night At The Movies" section, that we'd do a topic that has to do with movies in some format.

Certainly there's one place where I can remember watching a ton of movies.  Movies that taught you life lessons.  Movies that inspired you to do something.  Movies that showed you how things were made.

And, sorry to say it was also a place in which we watched movies solely for the purpose of killing time because our teachers were too lazy to come up with an actual lesson plan.

Yes, I'm talking about school.  And, the subject for today's blog entry has to do with those film strips and educational movies that we were forced to watch as elementary school children.



I think that almost every single of us who ever went to elementary school knows those "educational film strips" very well.  Certainly those "educational film strips" have been lampooned in pop culture quite often.  How many times have you heard a sitcom character lament the fact that they spent the whole day watching film strips about cheese?  Or, how many times have you seen characters in a television show fall asleep in a classroom set because they get bored with watching the film that they are being shown in class.

And do I even need to talk about the number of film strips that the kids of Springfield Elementary School on "The Simpsons" have watched?  Chances are, if Troy McClure was the host of the video, you'll essentially have learned nothing about how anything was really made!

Well, that's basically how I felt watching some of the film strips and videos that we watched in class.  I have a confession to make.  I HATED movie day in school.



(Well, okay, I didn't HATE it.  I liked it during the last week of school when we moved our desks out into the hallway and we sat on the floor of the classroom watching movies such as "The Little Mermaid", "All Dogs Go To Heaven" and "The Sandlot".  That was always fun...well, provided you liked the movie, anyway.)

But whenever we had the opportunity to watch an "educational" film or video, I always saw it as my cue to take a nap during class.  Was it just me, or were they not the most pointless activity in class?

For one, whenever they showed us educational videos in class, you could tell that they weren't actual tapes that the school board used their own money to buy.  Nope, instead they were on those really retro Memorex VHS cassette tapes and recorded on VCR's by teachers in their own home. 



For another, I can't even begin to tell you how many of those videos came from the educational television network known as TVOntario circa 1980s.  The reason why?  I was obsessed with TVOntario as a little boy.  I watched it all day long whenever I was sick from school, and my mother always had it on in the house before I even started school.  I watched a lot of "Readalong", "Read All About It", "The Science Alliance", and even tried to sit through that French show "Telefrancais" with that asinine talking pineapple named "Ananas"!  I watched so much TVO as a little kid that I was downright sick of it by the time I got to elementary school.

So, imagine my disdain when our teachers always showed educational videos from TVO during class to supplement their lessons.  I was completely bored stiff.  After all, I had seen every single one of those shows...at least half a dozen times!  It's a wonder that I didn't recite the scripts from memory.



And, don't even get me started on those film strips.  For those of you who might not know what film strips are, they're those little pieces of orangey-brown film that sort of look like a roll of undeveloped negatives from a retro camera that you slide into a machine that projects them onto a screen.  In most cases, the teacher had a sliding projection screen that was installed in front of the blackboard (or, in the case of my elementary school, greenboard) and we watched the film strips on that. 



Now, because these were film strips, they didn't move like the typical film.  In fact, to make the experience of watching a film strip even more unbearable and worthless, the film strip often included a cassette tape (yep, you can tell I went to elementary school in the late 1980s/early 1990s), and that cassette tape contained the transcript for the film.  

This wouldn't have been so bad had the transcript been read by someone who had a lot of pep, or who sounded as if they were being paid five hundred thousand dollars to describe the film strip.  Heck, even "Full House" character Joey Gladstone reading the film strip in his Popeye voice would have been an improvement over the people that did read the transcripts.



To put it simply, the transcript readers of the film strips were so dull and monotonous they make Ben Stein sound like Richard Simmons.  And, although the example up above is a little better than most...it's still quite bad.

What was even worse about the whole thing were that the film strips were all created at least two decades before we were all born!  Did our teachers even come to think that maybe history has the potential to radically shift in just a couple of decades?  Did they even realize that the ability to make cheese has gotten a lot more complex since 1961? 

Nah...I don't think they cared at all.  They were still drawing a salary from their work.  If they could get away with not teaching us anything at all by letting twenty year old film strips educate us instead, you know they'd jump on the chance.

(Not ALL teachers were like this, mind you...but I did have quite a few who did exactly that.  Not that I'll ever name names or anything.)

Truth be told, I hated film strip day.  Most kids I knew didn't mind it because watching a movie in class meant that they could get a day off from doing reading, writing, and arithmetic.  But, to be honest with you, I hated movie day.  I was one of those kids (who became one of those adults) who found it much easier to learn by actually doing the activities in class...not watching some middle-aged actors who were clearly bitter over not having done more with their acting careers do the activities for me!  In fact, although it might have contributed to my poor vision today which requires me to wear glasses, I was lucky enough to have had seats that were shrouded in enough natural light for me to try and read a book while the film strips were being played.  It wasn't as if we were being tested on the material in the movie after all.  It was just there as a babysitter while the teachers graded papers, or worked on lesson plans, or took a sip out of their flask that they kept in their desks arranged the numerous pens, pencils, and Cadomark permanent markers on their desks.

I mean, if the film strips actually taught me anything, I might feel differently about them.  But the only thing those film strips taught me was just exactly how much I hated film strips.

Still...there were a couple of them that I remember from my youth that I sort of liked.  I couldn't find the first one online anywhere, but the film strip was about giving people "Warm Fuzzies", and there was actually an activity at the end of it.  We were all given ten different Warm Fuzzies papers, and we had to give ten of our classmates one by writing something nice about them.  Unfortunately, I didn't get many back...but you know, the giving was more important than the receiving anyway. 

(Though admittedly the second grade version of me was a bit miffed that he doled out compliments to kids who really could care less.)

And, to end off this blog on film strips, I'll post another one that I DO remember watching and somewhat liking.  If anything, that song got stuck in my head for six months straight, and now it's my turn to repay the favour.



Happy viewing!

Friday, May 02, 2014

The Price Is Right: Pricing Games From The Past

Hello!  And, allow me to welcome you to the final Friday discussion of all things television!

Surprised?  Don't be.  Truth is that the television portion of the blog will be switching over to Thursdays beginning on Thursday, May 8.  It's all a part of the huge changes that I have coming to the blog in May as we celebrate the third anniversary of the blog all month long!  Next Friday at this time, we'll be talking about retro foods, food commercials, food memories, and I'll even post some recipes for you to try, courtesy of the millions of cookbooks we have scattered all over the family kitchen cupboards. 

TO SEE THE FULL LIST OF THE NEW THEME DAYS, TAKE A LOOK AT THE THURSDAY, MAY 1 ENTRY ENTITLED "APRIL FLOWERS BRING MAY...CHANGES?" 

For now, we have one final Friday discussion on television, and I think that I've come up with a great topic idea to usher out the old and bring in the new. 

Admittedly, it's an idea that I got while watching this television show yesterday morning.



Okay, so everybody must have seen at least one episode of "The Price Is Right".  It's only been a daytime institution since 1972, after all!  For over forty years, thousands of contestants have come on down to meet Bob Barker or Drew Carey (depending on when the episode was taped), and have played dozens of pricing games in hopes of winning some classy furniture, an exotic vacation, sleek appliances, or a BRAND NEW CAR!!!

(Ahem...sorry about that folks.  I was channeling my inner Rod Roddy.)

Of course, over the years, I remember there being some games that were played way more than others, and certainly there are some games that have been played for thirty years or more!  I think that the "Check Game" was introduced the same year I was born, and is still sporadically played today.  "Secret X" continues to make people richer by playing a simple game of Tic-Tac-Toe.  When I was younger, I used to love it when the little yodeler dude flung himself over the cliff due to the stupidity of the contestants who played "Cliff Hangers".  And, "Any Number" is one of the few games to have lasted the entire run of "The Price Is Right" so far, debuting in September 1972 and still going strong!

Of course, the pricing games that I have listed up above are ones that are featured at least once a week on "The Price Is Right".  But did you know that in the 42-year history of the game show that there have been a total of 107 different pricing games that have been created for the show?  One hundred and seven!  Unbelievable!

Of course, not all 107 games are still available to play.  Case in point, one of my favourite pricing games to watch was the pricing game called "BUMP", which debuted in September 1985.  The game was designed like a London city street with double-decker buses on it.  Each bus had a price tag on the side, and the contestant had to decide whether to bump the buses to the left or the right to win the prizes offered.  And the way that the show chose to bump the buses made it a very popular game...especially with the men in the audience.  Have a look!



Now, here's the thing.  I loved the game "BUMP", but I remember that it had been years since I last saw it.  I did a little research and found that it was retired on November 20, 1991.  No wonder I missed it!  It hasn't been shown in almost 25 years!  As for the reason why it was pulled?  Well...partly it was due to the fact that the producers felt that the provocative grinding of the hips by Barker's Beauties was not very family-friendly, and they decided to pull it after six years.  But it's also rumoured that it was axed right around the same time that Barker's affair with Dian Parkinson was beginning to cool.

Who knows what the reason was?

Truth is, there are a lot of pricing games from the game show that have been retired - thirty-three in all.  And, in this blog, I thought I'd showcase seven more of these thirty-three games to explain how they were played, how long they lasted, show you videos of how the games were played (if possible), and the reason why they were pulled.  How many will you remember?

Okay, let's start with game #1.



SUPER BALL!
Date Premiered:  February 3, 1981
Date Retired: January 12, 1998

How many of you remember playing the game of Skee-Ball at your local carnival or video arcade?  I loved Skee-Ball!  I was never very good at Skee-Ball, but regardless, I still liked to play it.  And, I think that's one of the reasons why I enjoyed watching this game whenever it came on "The Price Is Right".  The way the game worked was that the contestant would be shown three prizes that they could win, and they would get the opportunity to win the three balls that corresponded with said prizes.  If they throw the ball and it lands in the center slot, they win the prize.  There was also the chance to win the "Super Ball", which allowed contestants the chance to win all three prizes at once with just one throw.  If the contestants missed the center hole, the other slots all had a cash value, so contestants always left with something.  Here's a visual of the game in action.



REASON FOR RETIREMENT:  It took WAY too long to play.  On average, the game took at least five minutes to get through, which took away from the time spent on other games.  If you ever have heard Bob Barker say "We may have to cancel 'The Young and the Restless' today", it's likely because the episode featured "Super Ball".  In fact, there was one play of the game in late 1991 that ended up lasting almost TEN minutes because the contestant had no idea how to play Skee-Ball!

WALK OF FAME
Date Premiered:  November 4, 1983
Date Retired:  November 27, 1985

I was a bit too young to remember this game when it originally aired, but reading up on how it worked, I'm sorry I missed it.  This was certainly one of the more interesting games played on the show.  Have a look at a playing of this game for yourselves.



Now, the game mechanics, as you see, were simple enough.  You had four prizes, and you had to guess the right price of each prize within a specific range.  For instance, the first prize you had a $25 window to work with.  If your answer was within $25 either above or below, you won.  Of course, if a player missed one of the prizes, their game was technically over...unless the autograph book that they held had "SECOND CHANCE" written inside.  If it did, they could continue.

Each autograph book contained the signatures of Bob Barker, then-announcer Johnny Olson, and presumably the signatures of then-models Janice Pennington, Dian Parkinson, and Holly Hallstrom.  And whether the contestants won or lost, they got to KEEP the autograph book as a souvenir!  Heck, that would have been enough of a prize for me alone!  I wonder how much those books would go for today?

REASON FOR RETIREMENT:  Inflation made the game harder and harder to design, thus making it harder to win, and it was canned after just two years.



PENNY ANTE
Date Premiered:  January 25, 1979
Date Retired:  June 14, 2002

The story of "Penny Ante" is one of the most tragic of all the pricing games.  You'll understand why this is the case when you read the reason why it was retired.

The one thing that I remember the most about "Penny Ante" is the sound that the buttons made when they were pushed.  Have a look at the playthrough of the game.  We'll continue after the video.



So, the game worked as such.  The contestant was given three gigantic pennies at the beginning of the game.  The game had two different coloured sections, and each section featured a grocery item along with four possible choices of prices.  If the contestant guessed incorrectly, they lost a penny.  If a contestant lost all three pennies before guessing the two grocery prices, the game was over.

REASON FOR RETIREMENT:  The death knoll for "Penny Ante" began in the late 1990s.  Mechanical failure started to occur more and more, with the wrong price tags opening up, and the lights not working.  By 2002, the game was more or less ready to give up on itself.  The final nail in the coffin came when the game was pulled and replaced with another game last minute...and the game itself was left outside in the pouring rain and was completely damaged beyond repair!  Designers attempted to redesign the game, but nothing was ever built, and the game went into permanent hibernation.



HURDLES
Date Premiered:  February 19, 1976
Date Retired:  March 31, 1983

Ah, "Hurdles".  Another game I don't remember.  Let's see if I can find a video for it.



That was one wacky game, wasn't it?  Though, I can see how it was played.  Contestants were shown a grocery item and price at the beginning.  That item signified the "hurdler's price", the price that the hurdler could clear.  Underneath the hurdle course were three pairs of prices for three other grocery items.  One was priced above the "hurdler's price", one was below.  Naturally, the object of the game became clear.  Choose the lower price so that the hurdler could clear the course!  Clear the course without knocking over a hurdle, you win!

REASON FOR RETIREMENT:  Like "Penny Ante", the game was subjected to a lot of mechanical issues.  Sometimes the hurdlers wouldn't clear the course even though they were supposed to.  It was a popular game for its time, but it was pulled in early 1983.



PHONE HOME GAME
Date Premiered:  September 12, 1983
Date Retired:  November 3, 1989

This was one weird game.  I presume that this game was the one that eventually replaced "Hurdles" as it debuted six months after "Hurdles" ended.  But this was also a game which allowed audience participation from home - the one, and so far ONLY game to do so.

During the 1980s, home viewers were encouraged to send postcards to "The Price Is Right" which included their names, addresses, and home phone numbers so that they could have the chance to play along with the contestants on the show.

At the beginning of the game, Bob Barker would draw a postcard out of a bin at random, and dial the at home contestant to play along with the studio contestant.  That contestant would then work with the at-home contestant to share a cash prize of $15,000!  I'd love to explain how that worked, but a video is worth a thousand words.



REASON FOR RETIREMENT:  Staff felt that the game was too long, and they weren't very enthused by it.  Also, I think a lack of audience participation sealed the fate of this very interesting pricing game.



POKER GAME
Date Premiered:  September 9, 1975
Date Retired:  May 10, 2007

Of all the pricing games that were retired, this one definitely had the longest life-span - lasting for 31 years, 6 months, and one day.  The game - which was retired shortly before Bob Barker's own retirement in 2007 - was considered to be one of the easiest games to play and win.  All you had to do was know the rules of poker.  Know that a four of a kind beats a three of a kind, and that a full house beats one pair.  The ultimate goal was to try and get five nines...that way you were guaranteed a win.  Have a look at how the game is played.



REASON FOR RETIREMENT:  Inflation.  It was a fine game to play when it first debuted...but it was finally put to pasture in 2007 due to the lack of value for the prizes offered - due to the rules, no prize could be worth more than $999.



PROFESSOR PRICE
Date Premiered:  November 14, 1977
Date Retired:  November 21, 1977

On the flipside, while "Poker Game" was the longest running game to be retired, "Professor Price" was one of the shortest, lasting just one whole week!  Rather than explain how the game was played, I'll post a video and let you guys figure it out for yourselves.



REASON FOR RETIREMENT:  Well, aside from the fact that it was really awkward to play...the game itself really had nothing to do with actually pricing items.  It was more or less a random trivia game.  Might have been a good concept in theory, but the execution was lousy.

So, there you have it.  A sampling of some of "The Price Is Right" games that no longer are in play, as well as the sad stories behind why they were pulled.  DO you have any more games that you want to add to this list?