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Friday, June 27, 2014

Try These Dressings On For Size (and Flavour)!

Hey, everybody!  I do apologize for this edition of the FOODIE FRIDAY blog being so short.  This has just been one of those weeks in which everything has gone topsy-turvy for whatever reason. 


But, I promised you all a recipe, and a recipe is what you will get!  And in the spirit of it being summer, and not a lot of people liking to cook in superheated kitchens due to the heat and humidity outside, I thought I'd make this post salad themed.

Specifically salad dressing themed.  In one of my mother's retro themed cookbooks (I photocopied some of the pages), I have some recipes for homemade salad dressings that are sure to add a little bit of kick to your salads.

Enjoy!

FAVOURITE CHEESE DRESSING

4 tbsps. salad oil
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 tbsps. vinegar
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup grated Canadian (or American) cheese

Mix ingredients in the order given; shake thoroughly.  Serve with green salads.

BACON DRESSING

Dice about 2 ounces of bacon and fry to a golden brown.  While fat is hot add 1/3 as much vinegar as there is fat in the pan.  Season with black pepper, salt, and a little sugar.  Pour on green salads or potato salad while the dressing is warm.

And, for those of you who like fruit salads, here's an orange dressing that is just perfect for you.

ORANGE DRESSING FOR FRUIT SALADS

1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. butter
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Sugar to taste
Juice of 1 orange
Whipped cream

Cook together egg, butter, a dash of sugar and fruit juices.  Stir until it thickens.  When cool, taste, and if necessary, add more sugar.  Fold in 1/2 whipped cream, but do not take away the tart flavour.


(Recipes courtesy of "Guide to Good Cooking with Five Roses Flour, 1962")

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Did Heather Locklear Save Melrose Place?

For this edition of Tube Talk Thursday, I thought it would be fun to keep up with the soap opera theme, given that yesterday I rambled on about the train wreck that was the 41st Annual Daytime Emmy Awards.  At least with this entry you can be assured that I've done my homework, checked the facts, and made sure that the information holds up.

And in this edition, we're going to be looking at a prime time soap opera that aired for seven seasons that was almost pulled off the air after a few episodes.  But when FOX took a gamble, and hired someone who had previous experience on nighttime soap operas to play a key role in the program, it breathed new life into the show.  By the time the show's second season debuted, the show became one of the biggest pop culture obsessions of the 1990s.  Many people attribute this jump in popularity to this starlet joining the show midway through the first season.  Some might even say that she saved the show from the axe. 

The question that we're going to ask ourselves is...did she really have that much impact on the show, or were there other factors behind it?

Regardless, as someone who admittedly used to watch this show in his teenage years (consider it my embarrassing guilty pleasure, if you will), I'm going to have some fun with this one.

First of all, let's discuss the show.



Have any of you heard of the program called "Melrose Place"?  I'm not talking about the 2009 remake of the show (we'll talk a little about that show at the end of this blog).  I mean the show that debuted during the summer of 1992 with this kick-ass theme song.  Seriously, it's probably one of the most memorable theme songs of the 1990s.  Have a listen to it.  We'll talk later.



Anyway, the original cast of the 1992 version of "Melrose Place" consisted of eight young urban residents of Los Angeles, each seeking their own dreams and goals.  They all lived together at 4616 Melrose Place, a classic Spanish style apartment complex with a pool in the courtyard and eight apartments conveniently located around said pool. 



The original cast members were (clockwise starting at top left) - Josie Bissett (Jane), Thomas Calabro (Michael), Andrew Shue (Billy), Courtney Thorne-Smith (Alison), Amy Locane (Sandy), Grant Show (Jake), Doug Savant (Matt), and Vanessa A. Williams (Rhonda).

The creator of the show was Darren Star, and when "Melrose Place" first debuted, it was meant to be a spin-off of another show that Star created, "Beverly Hills 90210".  Jake made an appearance in the final two episodes of the show's second season where he began an affair with Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth), and Jake and Kelly's relationship carried over into "Melrose Place", where Jake and Kelly found that they just weren't that into each other, paving the way for Kelly to go back to her own show to map out her plan to steal Dylan away from Brenda.

But once Kelly went back to Beverly Hills, "Melrose Place" sort of hit a brick wall at first.  The shows were more episodic than anything, and almost always had a nice little conclusion with a nice pretty bow on top.  It would have been great had "Melrose Place" been a sitcom, but as a prime time drama, it was tanking.  Producers did attempt to shake up the cast a little bit by hiring Daphne Zuniga (Jo) to join the cast after Amy Locane left the series, but the show still struggled to find an audience.  Still, Darren Star was not willing to give up on his show without a fight.  He just needed to find the right character.  Someone who could shake things up in the seemingly perfect apartment complex.  Someone who could cause a lot of drama between people.  Someone who wasn't afraid to get whatever she wanted no matter who she tossed to the wolves in the process.



That's when Heather Locklear joined the cast of "Melrose Place".

Heather certainly was no stranger to prime time television.  She did after all star in two television drama series at the same time.



(Those two shows were "T.J. Hooker" and "Dynasty", just in case you were wondering.)

So, Heather Locklear certainly had experience.  But could she step into the miniskirts and high heeled shoes that her character had to wear in almost every single scene? 

You bet she could!

Heather took on the role of the sultry, sexy, and powerful Amanda Woodward.  Amanda was an up and coming advertising executive for D&D Advertising, and when she was first introduced on "Melrose Place", she became Alison's boss, and the two formed a near instantaneous friendship.  However, one thing you need to know about Amanda Woodward is that she almost always puts business first, and friendship towards the bottom of her priorities list.  So if you were hoping for a kumbaya moment between Alison and Amanda, you'd be mistaken.



Truth be told, the friendship between Amanda and Alison was almost doomed from the start after Amanda set her sights on Alison's roommate Billy - whom Alison had developed personal feelings towards.  But after Billy decided to make a go of a relationship with Amanda, Alison moved on with a man she had previously had an affair with.  Needless to say, Amanda's self-centered attitude drove Billy away, and Alison was having second thoughts about staying in her relationship, and the two decided to try and start up a relationship themselves.  It made sense.  After all, they did live together as platonic roommates for almost a whole year.  But with Billy's decision to stay with Alison, it caused Amanda's malicious side to come out in a huge way.

She purposely goaded Alison by insulting her work, forcing her to stay after hours to complete her assignments, and purposely berated her at every chance she got.  Amanda even ended up getting pregnant by Billy while they were together, but lost the baby after suffering a miscarriage.

But just when Alison and Billy believed that they were free from interference from Amanda, Amanda proved that she had the last laugh when she announced that she had a big surprise.  With help from her father, Amanda purchased 4616 Melrose Place, and that she would become the new landlady of the property effective immediately. 



Amanda Woodward was there to stay.  And beginning with season two, Heather Locklear was added to the opening credits with a "Special Guest Star" billing - a billing that would last until the end of the series in May 1999.

So, what sorts of mischief did Amanda get herself into over the next six years?  Well, rather than write out entire paragraphs, here's a bullet point list, complete with some video clips and links whenever necessary.

- She helped Jane find a powerful divorce attorney to take Michael to the cleaners.
- Accidentally burned down Jake's motorcycle shop.
- Successfully stole Jake away from Jo.
- Turns on Jake after Jake records a conversation that Jake had with Amanda's father where he admitted to embezzlement.
- Sleeps with Billy after Billy temporarily calls off his relationship with Alison, and when Billy tells Amanda that he wants to stay with Alison, Amanda removes Alison from a huge advertising account.
- Supported Jo in her trial when Jo killed her boyfriend in self-defense (hey, Amanda did have her nice moments!)
- Has a deep seeded hatred for her mother, Hilary Michaels (Linda Gray), and takes her frustrations out on the models who work for Hilary's modelling agency.



(NOTE:  The Hilary/Amanda storyline kicks off the short-lived series "Models Inc.", which ran from 1994-1995 on FOX.)



- Makes Alison's life a living hell at D&D.
- Has to deal with the fact that her father's crimes would later get him killed.
- Launches a coup d'etat of D&D by using Dr. Peter Burns (Jack Wagner) and a team of doctors to purchase the entire building.  Amanda fires the president of D&D Advertising, and the next day, he hangs himself in Amanda's office.
- Is diagnosed with cancer midway through season three.
- Is double-crossed by Peter when he slips Amanda medication laced with marijuana, causing her to be let go from D&D.
- Is again double-crossed by Alison, who submits her own entry for an advertising contest (and wins), and promptly takes over Amanda's job as president.



- Is nearly blown to smithereens when Kimberly Shaw (Marcia Cross) blows up the entire building in an effort to destroy her enemies.



- Brooke discovers that Amanda faked her death in Miami, Florida and uses this information to blackmail her.
- Amanda's ex-husband Jack (Antonio Sabato Jr.) comes to Los Angeles and tries to kill Amanda, but Amanda overtakes him and pulls the plug on his ventilator.
- Amanda then gets involved with Jack's brother, Bobby (John Enos III), but the relationship doesn't last.
- Amanda begins using Billy to further her career, which causes Alison to quit D&D once and for all.
- After Peter is arrested for murder, Amanda marries him to keep from testifying against him, only for Amanda to learn that Peter has changed his name because he was accused of killing his first wife.
- When Craig Field (David Charvet) is successful in getting Amanda ousted from D&D Advertising, Amanda starts up her own agency, which essentially puts Craig out of business.
- Amanda is kidnapped and put through a harrowing ordeal where she almost died.
- Amanda has been hiding a secret herself - she was responsible for the death of the ex-boyfriend of her best friend, Eve Cleary (Rena Sofer) by pushing him off the bleachers of their high school to his death.  Eve took the blame and served twenty years in prison while Amanda got to live her life.



- When Peter dumped Eve for Amanda, Eve went crazy and tried to kill both Amanda and Peter on a couple of occasions. 

Wow...what a life, huh?  No wonder the show was considered a soap opera!  Some of the plotlines were so unbelievable, but yet "Melrose Place" seemed to make them work despite the occasional inaccuracy or inconsistency.

Of course, those people who watched the show during the entire seven season run know what happened at the end.  An explosion took place, and everybody assumed that Amanda and Peter were killed in the blast.  What really happened was that with help from Michael (whom Peter and Amanda paid a million dollars to keep their identity a secret), Peter and Amanda faked their deaths and they lived on a secluded island together happily ever after...



...well, that is until ten years later when The CW's reboot of "Melrose Place" started airing, and Amanda Woodward returned to 4616 Melrose Place - without Peter.  I never watched the reboot, so I don't know what the reason behind the break-up was.  But I do know that like the previous season of "Melrose Place", Heather Locklear was brought onto the show to once again save it from cancellation.  Unfortunately, despite good reviews for Heather's performance, and despite the fact that fans responded positively to her addition, the second series of "Melrose Place" was cancelled in May 2010.

So, I suppose this leads to the final question of the day.  Did Heather Locklear save "Melrose Place" from cancellation the first time?

My argument is that she was one key element in keeping the show on the air.  She certainly did create a character that was unlike any other character on television at that time, and she is considered to be one of the more popular characters on the show.

But I would argue that she is just one part.  Other things that I think saved the show were...

- The introduction of Sydney (Laura Leighton).  Without going into too much detail, Sydney was probably even more complex than Amanda.  At times you hated her, but at other times, you rooted for her.
- Kimberly's descent into madness.  Let's face it.  When Kimberly was the other woman in Jane and Michael's marriage disaster, she was kind of boring.  After the car crash which caused her to have brain surgery, she became a lot more evil (and fun as a result of it).
- The move from Wednesday nights to Monday nights.  Monday was considered to be a slow night in prime time television, and FOX's decision to move the show to Monday nights was a great move.  Mind you, the show sometimes competed with Monday Night Football, but the show purposely aired boring shows during this period so that they could show the most explosive storylines during February and May Sweeps.  Smart move.
- The decision to have storylines lasting several episodes instead of just one.  This was probably what kept people watching.  I would argue that the only other show that had more brilliant cliffhangers was "Dallas".

So, my final thoughts are...yes, Heather Locklear did breathe new life into a stale show...but she was just one part of that recipe. 

Regardless, it was a fun ride over seven years.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Commentary on Professionalism

Today's "WHO AM I WEDNESDAY" feature will focus on a subject that I truly do feel strongly about.  It's also the glue that will be holding this particular blog entry together.

That subject is professionalism. 

I'm certainly one who absolutely believes in the idea of putting your best self forward, and I would hope that a lot of people the same way that I do about presenting themselves in the best way possible.  None of us are perfect, and I'm sure we've all had moments of embarrassment that we all want to wipe clean from our memories (I myself have at least six dozen that I would love to forget), but for the most part, I do believe in maintaining professionalism in just about everything that I do.

Take this blog for example.  I made it a personal choice to make this blog one that resembles a tabloid piece.  I never use any swear words in this blog, unless they're part of a quotation (and even so, I'll blur the words out with symbols).  I also don't use this blog as a way to personally slander or humiliate anybody, or single them out.  If there is an instance in which I do, I never reveal their names, or I change them.  That way, nobody knows who the subject it (and it probably saves me from becoming the subject of a lawsuit in the process).  This blog is my "baby", and the absolute best reflection of me and my thoughts.  Why would I sully this blog by acting out on it in an unprofessional manner? 

That's why I do my best to make sure that the spelling and grammar of the blog is at perfection or near-perfection every entry.  That's why I do extensive fact checking to make sure that my information is one hundred per cent accurate.  That's why if I'm writing something that I'm not sure of the validity, I make sure that I point out that what I am writing may not be the absolute truth.  I want to represent myself in a positive light.  Even though this blogging venture is just a hobby right now, I still want it to be as professional looking as possible.  After all, you never know if I could use this blog as a reference point for something bigger.  It's always a possibility, I suppose.

I also try to maintain a professional attitude at my workplace as well (which admittedly can be a little bit more challenging).  After all, when you work at a workplace, you're being a representative of a company.  And no matter how big or how small a company is, I'm sure that the company would want their employees demonstrate a courteous and professional experience at all times.  After all, there are television shows such as "Undercover Boss" that send out owners and chief executive officers of corporations undercover to make sure that the employees are putting the best of themselves into the business.  It's just proof positive that you really have to make sure that you're presenting yourself well because you never know who might be seeing you in action.

I guess the major point that I want to illustrate in this blog is that professionalism is a very good thing.  When you go to a job interview, do your research on the company you're applying for so that you can be well prepared.  When you go out on a first date, take a little bit of extra effort in dressing to impress and keeping your ego at the door.  After all, the main reason for a first date is seeing if you have the chemistry for another, right?  Even the way you introduce yourself to a person can have a more of an impact in the impression that you give them than you might think.

So, I suppose that you're all wondering where I am going with this train of thought about professionalism.  I'm getting to that.  In fact, I've prepared a little bit of "video commentary" that explains that train of thought about a particular train wreck of an event that took place three nights ago. 


I've had a few discussions in this blog about television award shows.  I've discussed the Primetime Emmy Awards, the Grammy Awards, the MTV Video Music Awards, and even the Golden Raspberry Awards.  But I don't think I've ever covered the Daytime Emmy Awards.  Today I'll be doing exactly that.



First, a brief history of the awards show.  The very first one was held on May 21, 1974 in New York City with Barbara Walters and Peter Marshall as hosts.  The awards broadcast was created after John Beradino (who portrayed the role of Steve Hardy on "General Hospital" from 1963 until his death in 1996) lobbied to have actors and actresses in daytime soap operas recognized for the hard work that they put into each episode of the soaps that they filmed.  After all, with over two hundred original episodes being made a year, soap opera actors and actresses are probably some of the hardest working people in the entertainment industry.  It was long overdue that they get a chance to earn accolades for their talents.

And certainly over the forty-one year history of the awards show, many actors, actresses, talk show hosts, game show hosts, and children's entertainers have been rewarded for their talents, and some have been honoured more than others.  Susan Lucci (All My Children) won her first (and only) Daytime Emmy Award after nineteen tries, while Erika Slezak (One Life To Live) seemingly won one award every three years!  But in the height of the daytime era, the awards show would air on different networks (my understanding is that the three main networks of ABC, NBC, and CBS alternated every three years, but I'm not sure), and the show was just as glamourous and elegant as the Primetime show.

Well, times have definitely changed.  And some are wondering if that's a good thing.

These days, the daytime industry is a lot different.  Fifteen years ago, there were ten different soap operas on the air.  Today there are only four.  Chat shows, cooking shows, and game shows seem to be the hottest thing on daytime television, and some networks have even taken to broadcasting informercials or syndicated programming to fill in the empty blocks vacated by cancelled soap operas.  So, over the last few years, network television has decided not to host or finance the awards show, leaving organizers of the event to try something new.  Over the last couple of years, the ceremony had been hosted on the CW Network, or HLN.  But for the 2014 awards, the lack of finding a network to host the event meant that the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) had to get creative when it came to broadcasting the show.



Eventually, the decision was made to have the awards show air online only.  The entire ceremony would air live commercial free with no restrictions on acceptance speeches, and with ample time to show whole clips from the reels that nominated actors and actresses would submit as part of their reel submissions.  The ceremony would be hosted by "Suddenly Susan" and "My Life on the D-List" star Kathy Griffin, and the red carpet coverage would be handled by four social media personalities.  On paper, it sounded like a brilliant idea.



The execution was a complete embarrassment to not only viewers, but the entire daytime industry as a whole.

Before I voice my opinion in video, have a look at these clips from the show itself.



And now my thoughts.  And I must warn you...although I do try to be as professional as possible in this video, there are some instances in which I can't really help myself.  You have been warned.  But what can I say?  It's the professional thing to do. 



WINNERS OF THE 2014 DAYTIME EMMY AWARDS

Outstanding Drama Series:  THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS
Outstanding New Approaches Drama Series:  VENICE THE SERIES
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series:  EILEEN DAVIDSON (Days of our Lives)
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series:  BILLY MILLER (The Young and the Restless)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series:  AMELIA HEINLE (The Young and the Restless)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series:  ERIC MARTSOLF (Days of our Lives)
Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series:  HUNTER HALEY KING (The Young and the Restless)
Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series:  CHANDLER MASSEY (Days of our Lives)
Outstanding Game Show:  JEOPARDY!
Outstanding Game Show Host:  STEVE HARVEY (Family Feud)
Outstanding Talk Show (Entertainment):  THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW
Outstanding Talk Show (Informative):  STEVE HARVEY
Outstanding Talk Show Hosts:  DR. MEHMET OZ/KATIE COURIC (tie)
Outstanding Morning Program:  GOOD MORNING AMERICA
Outstanding Courtroom/Legal Program:  THE PEOPLE'S COURT

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

June 24, 1987

Today's edition of the Tuesday Timeline will feature a spotlight on an actor who many remember from one show and one show only...but as you will see in this blog entry, he did so much more than that!

In the meantime, take a look at some of the other events that happened on June 24 throughout history.

637 - The largest battle in the history of Ireland - The Battle of Moira - is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dalraida

1374 - A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance (dancing mania) causes people in the community of Aachen, Germany to experience hallucinations and dance and twitch uncontrollably to the point of collapsing on the streets from exhaustion

1497 - Explorer John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings

1509 - Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are crowned King and Queen of England

1604 - Explorer Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River - the present location of St. John, New Brunswick, Canada

1812 - Napoleon's army crosses the Neman River, which begins France's invasion of Russia

1846 - Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone in Paris, France

1880 - The first public performance of the Canadian national anthem, "O Canada" is held at the Congres national des Canadiens-Francais

1916 - Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million dollar contract

1918 - Canada begins air mail service between Toronto and Montreal

1932 - The absolute power of King Prajadhipok of Siam (now Thailand) is ended following a bloodless Revolution instigated by the People's Party

1939 - Siam is officially renamed Thailand

1947 - A man by the name of Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting in the area of Rainier, Washington

1949 - The first western to air on network television "Hopalong Cassidy" makes its debut on NBC

1966 - Actress and director Adrienne Shelly (d. 1996) is born in Queens, New York

1981 - The Humber Bridge opens to traffic and becomes the world's longest single-span suspension bridge, holding that record until 1998

1982 - British Airways Flight 9 flies through a cloud of volcanic ash from the erupting Mount Galunggung which subsequently shuts down all four engines - all passengers survive

2005 - American actor and ventriloquist Paul Winchell dies at the age of 82

2007 - Canadian wrestler Chris Benoit is found dead in his hotel room, just two days after killing his wife and son

2010 - John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon in what is the longest match in professional tennis history

And while we're here, let's wish Al Molinaro, Billy Casper, Sam Jones, Terry Reilly, Michele Lee, Jeff Beck, Kathryn Lasky, Mick Fleetwood, Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Mercedes Lackey, Betsy Randle, Joe Penny, Terence "Astro" Wilson, Tom Lister Jr., Siedah Garrett, Curt Smith, Sherry Stringfield, Glenn Medeiros, Christopher Showerman, Mindy Kaling, Petra Nemcova, Minka Kelly, Kyle Searles, Solange Knowles, and Raven Goodwin a very happy birthday!

So, after all that, which year will we be going back to this week?



Well, we're going back in time 27 years to June 24, 1987.

So, what was happening in the world in June 1987?  Well, I graduated kindergarten, the movie "Spaceballs" debuted in theatres, and the #1 song of the day was "Head to Toe" by Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam.  Remember that one?

On a sad note, June 24, 1987 was the date in which a famous comedian and actor drew his last breath.  The cause of death was directly linked to cancer, and in the case of today's Tuesday Timeline subject, he was dealt a double whammy.  Ultimately, it was colon cancer that killed him, but he was also diagnosed with liver cancer and suffered from dangerous thrombosed hemorrhoids as a result.  Prior to his cancer diagnosis in 1986, this man also underwent emergency heart surgery in the late 1970s after undergoing severe chest pains on more than one occasion - likely brought about by the fact that he was addicted to cigarettes - smoking as much as four packs a day at the peak of his addiction.

He died peacefully in his Lauderhill, Florida home at the age of 71, and his body was entombed in a sarcophagus in a private mausoleum in Miami.  The engraving on the sarcophagus?  "And Away We Go".

Have you guessed our mystery celebrity yet?  



We've already talked about how Jackie Gleason died.  Now let's talk about how he lived.

Born in Brooklyn, New York on February 26, 1916, John Herbert Gleason was one of two children born to Maisie and Herb Gleason.  His brother Clemence passed away at the age of 14 from spinal meningitis, and his father abandoned the family when Jackie was still a child.  Gleason's love of acting was born after he appeared in a school play, and although Gleason never finished his secondary school education, he did land his first job when he was a teenager, working as a master of ceremonies at a nearby theater for four dollars a night.  He also took turns as a carnival barker and a stunt driver during this time.

By the time Gleason was nineteen, his mother had died, and he was left on his own with just forty cents in his pocket.  Despite this, Gleason was determined to make a success of himself.  Getting his first big break in Reading, Pennsylvania where he made $19 a day was the beginning of what would become a long standing career in stand-up comedy.

He eventually worked his way up to a job in New York's "Club 18", in which he used his ability to heckle and insult the people who came to see him perform to his advantage.  His style of comedy certainly got him noticed by Jack Warner of Warner Brothers, who signed him to a movie contract for $250 a week.  Some of the films he appeared in during this time were "Navy Blues", "All Through The Night", "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp", and "Springtime in the Rockies".

Though his career in Hollywood didn't get a whole lot of attention at first, he supplemented his income by performing a nightclub act where he performed comedy and music.  Interestingly enough, Gleason also gained a reputation for being an all-night partier.  Hotel suites would actually take the effort to soundproof his suite so that he wouldn't disturb the other guests on the floor!  I don't know why I felt the need to mention that little detail.  I suppose I just found it interesting.



Now, you might think that a show that he did in the 1950s was his big break (and we'll get to that in a moment), but in actuality his first break came in the year 1949 when the radio program "The Life of Riley" was going to transition into television.  The problem was that William Bendix, who played the role of aircraft worker Chester A. Riley on the radio show was unable to commit to the role due to prior commitments, so Jackie Gleason was given the role instead.  And for what it was worth, Jackie Gleason's performance did earn positive reviews, and the show was a modest success.  Sadly, that show was cancelled after one season, and when Bendix became available for filming again, the show was rebooted and ran for five more seasons.

But don't feel too bad for Gleason.  The best was still yet to come.



On October 1, 1955, Gleason, along with Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, and Joyce Randolph made up the cast of the CBS sitcom "The Honeymooners".  The program was actually based off of a sketch comedy piece that aired on DuMont's "Cavalcade of Stars" (which later became the variety show "The Jackie Gleason Show").  The success of the sketch prompted CBS to order a full season of thirty-nine episodes (yes, there was a time in which seasons were that long), and when it first debuted on television it was the #2 program in the nation.



And, why wouldn't it be?  The show was groundbreaking in the sense that it depicted two working-class married couples living in a Brooklyn apartment building that had seen better days.  Gleason played the role of bus driver Ralph Kramden, a man who is frustrated with being stuck in a job with no rewards and accolades, and who always dreamed of ways to get ahead...even if his plans didn't work.  He was so frustrated that he often took his frustrations out on his homemaker wife Alice (Meadows).  



Yeah, I don't know if any modern sitcoms these days would have men threatening to give them a punch in the kisser these days.  But we all know that Ralph would never abuse his wife in that manner.  Ralph and Alice were good for each other.  Besides, Audrey could hold her own with her sharp tongue and acerbic wit.  Have a look at this classic scene below.



Throw in Art Carney and Joyce Randolph as Ed and Trixie Norton and you had a cast that was worth watching.  I don't know of any other cast that had so much chemistry with each other (except for maybe "The Facts of Life", "Friends", or "Melrose Place").

TRIVIA:  Gleason and Carney were the only actors to play their characters on both "The Honeymooners" sketches and television shows.  The original Audrey and Trixie were played by Pert Kelton and Elaine Stritch respectively.

Here's the surprising part about "The Honeymooners".  It started off strong, and people enjoyed it.  The problem is that it aired opposite the ratings winner "The Perry Como Show" on NBC, and it slipped from #2 all the way down to #19 (which normally wouldn't be that bad except for the fact that there weren't nearly as many television programs on the air in 1955 as there are now).  The show was cancelled after nearly one year - its last episode airing on September 22, 1956.  But the good news is that the show helped Jackie Gleason's career big time.  And you can purchase the entire series of "The Honeymooners" on both Blu-Ray and DVD.

After "The Honeymooners" wrapped up, Jackie Gleason continued to balance comedy with music.  Over the course of his life, he released several mood albums despite the fact that he didn't know how to read or write music at all.  In fact, Gleason's debut album, "Music for Lovers Only" still holds the record for the longest time spent on the Billboard Top Ten charts - 153 weeks (that's nearly three years!), and his first ten albums all sold at least one million copies each!  That's not bad for someone who claimed to be completely illiterate in music!

And of course his television career didn't stop after "The Honeymooners" ended in 1956.  In fact, he was credited with saving a train wreck of a game show by dedicating the second episode to making an apology on the air over how horrible the show was!  I won't go into too much detail here, but if you Google the words "You're In The Picture 1961 Game Show", you can read the humourous story behind it!

He also resurrected both "The Honeymooners" and his variety show in the 1960s (Trixie and Alice were recast as by that time the shows were filmed in Miami Beach, Florida), and for audiences it was the first time that they would see Jackie Gleason in color television.  He also had a contract with CBS until the early 1970s when Gleason's contract expired. 

And, here's one final piece of trivia to wrap up this blog entry on Jackie Gleason.  Did you know that Gleason had a photographic memory?  He absolutely hated doing rehearsals for any of his television projects, so what he would do was read the script once, watch his stand-in interact with the other co-stars in the scene, and shot the show later that day.  If he made mistakes during taping, he just blamed the cue cards.  Still, you have to admire true talent like that.

Talent which will forever be immortalized.  Sometimes it doesn't even seem like it's been twenty-seven years since Jackie Gleason died, as he has been the source of inspiration for many up and coming actors and comedians, and will likely continue to be an inspiration for decades to come. 

Monday, June 23, 2014

We Interrupt This Motivation Monday...

I know that today is the day designated as MOTIVATION MONDAY, and that this is the time of the week in which my friends JOSHUA, JONATHON, and CARINE post a brand new episode of MOTIVE4CHANGE...but this week, I have an announcement to make.  



And, it's an announcement that I feel is best made in person through a video that I made.  Please take the time to watch it.  It explains what is going on with the show.  But it also talks about how I plan to keep the motivation going every Monday.

And, to tell you the truth, I could use some ideas here.



Okay, so now that you've watched the video, you know that MOTIVE4CHANGE is off the air (at least for now).  That being said, I'm going to use Mondays as an opportunity to film more video blogs and coming up with motivational topics to fill the void.  In all likelihood, that will mean that I bare my soul (but not my skin) more often than not, and hopefully inspiring other people to do the same.  I guess it sort of reminds me of the Thursday Confessions that I used to make, only instead of Thursdays, it'll be Mondays...and it'll be on video.

But here's where you come in.  Do you want me to keep the topics the same as we did on
MOTIVE4CHANGE, or do you want pop culture topics, or do you just want me to do my own experimentation until I get something that sticks?  I'm really interested in your input.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?

This edition of the Sunday Jukebox is one that will bring back memories of a time gone by - well, at least for me anyway.  And, for the rest of you, it will be just like any other Sunday Jukebox entry that you've seen in the year so far. 

This week, we're going back nineteen years ago in the past to June 1995.  Let's see...what was I doing exactly nineteen years ago this weekend?  Let me think.

Oh, yeah.  That's right.  Nineteen years ago this weekend, I was getting ready to graduate from elementary school into high school!  And thinking about high school now kind of made me wish that I could have taken ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades at my old elementary school!  Of course, that would be an impossibility now, as all the elementary schools in the area have now been changed to K-6 schools, and the seventh and eighth graders now have a junior high school inside of a high school campus.

How very Degrassi of the school system.

Anyway, back in the good old days in which seventh and eighth grade was still a part of the elementary school curriculum, I graduated with 68 other people (some of which I'm still friends with today, while others I hope to never see again as long as I live) on June 21, 1995.  And, because I'm not above embarrassing myself, I'll post a couple of pictures from the event below.



(Sigh...if only I had that much hair on my head today...only not styled in a bowl cut.  The Archie Comics necktie that I wore was a nice touch though.)

Yeah, for some reason, I always look back on my elementary school graduation with a sense of pride and fond memories.  It was the event in which I received my diploma.  It was where I earned a faculty award for having the highest average in the subject of English.  It was where I earned my badge for being in the senior concert band. 

And, perhaps most importantly of all, it was the event where I had my very first date!  All I will tell you about her is that her name was Heather, and we had a great time together.  Unfortunately, she moved away, and I never saw her again after that.  It's a shame too, because I really liked her.  Oh well...I suppose that sometimes things like that happen.

And, because it's been nineteen years since that day, I wanted to take a trip back to the month of June 1995, just to see what the #1 song was on the day that I graduated elementary school.  As it turns out, it was a song that could very well have been the perfect soundtrack to a slow dance with a date...or at the very least one of those Snowball slow dances where it starts off with a couple, then they separate and grab someone in the circle surrounding them making two sets of two, and so on and so forth.

Here's that song from 1995...and as a special treat, the coloured font will be written in my school colours from elementary school.



ARTIST:  Bryan Adams
SONG:  Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?
ALBUM:  18 til I Die
DATE RELEASED:  April 14, 1995
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 5 weeks

(Yes...it's true.  Our school colours were royal blue and Sunkist orange...two of the most non-complementary colours in the whole spectrum.  I suppose it could be worse...they could have been something like pink and red.)



But enough about school colours.  We're here to talk about Bryan Adams in this Sunday Jukebox spotlight.

Now, I'm sure that most of you have heard at least one Bryan Adams song in your lifetime.  After all, his first album ever was released in 1980!  That's thirty-four years ago!

Granted, Bryan Adams was more well known in his native Canada and had more impact on the Canadian charts than the Billboard charts, but when he broke through into the American market with 1984's "Reckless" album, he showed everyone that he had the star power and talent to become one of the biggest Canadian exports of rock music.  With singles like "Heaven", "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You", and the collaboration he did with Rod Stewart and Sting entitled "All for Love", Bryan Adams was one of those artists who managed to strike while the iron was hot three times...as all three of those singles hit the #1 spot on the Billboard Charts.

"Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" was Adams' fourth #1 hit on Billboard...and unfortunately, his last #1 in America (though he did have several more chart toppers in Canada).  These days, music has taken a bit of a backseat to his humanitarian efforts, photography career, and fatherhood (Adams became a first time father at the age of fifty-one), but he's still known to record an album or perform a concert every now and again. 




Anyway, back to the story of "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman".  It was one of the tracks on Bryan Adams' 1996 album "18 til I Die", but prior to that album's release, it could also be found on the soundtrack for the 1995 film "Don Juan DeMarco", a film which starred Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp, and Faye Dunaway.  The film was classified as a sleeper hit of 1995, raking in a total of $68 million on a budget of $25 million, and currently holds a rating of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes.  And, I could go on about what "Don Juan DeMarco" was about, but then I remembered that this was the Sunday Jukebox entry and not the Saturday Night at the Movies entry, and I thought that if I really were to do a feature on "Don Juan DeMarco", I would be better off doing it then.

(Which loosely means that I've never seen the movie, so I have no idea what the movie is all about.  I do know that it was one of the last film projects that Tejano singer Selena did before her March 1995 murder, so it might be worth checking out.)

The song was written by Adams, and his long time collaborators Robert "Mutt" Lange and Michael Kamen, and it was performed throughout the movie "Don Juan DeMarco" a total of three times during the movie.  The first two times were performed by other artists after the song had been translated into Spanish, and the third time was during the closing credits, which was performed by Adams himself. 

The music video is also a production in itself.  It was shot on location in Spain by director Anton Corbjin, and features actresses Amira Casar and Cecelie Thomsen.  It also features Bryan Adams during his shaggy long hair phase circa 1994 as well as him wearing what appears to be a Zorro mask.  The mask features quite prominently in the movie "Don Juan DeMarco", but again, since this isn't a movie post, I won't go into much more detail than that.

The one thing that I can say was that this song was a success, lasting a total of five weeks on the top of the charts.  Not nearly as long as the Mariah Carey/Boyz II Men collaboration that spent four months at the top of the charts, but it was still a great success.  I can still picture some of my classmates dancing the night away to that song...even though we were fourteen, and in all likelihood none of us guys really knew what it was like to really really ever love a woman...or for that matter, a fourteen year old girl.  In some cases, we're probably still trying to figure that out.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm likely on that boat right now. 

I can also picture this song being a very popular choice to be played at weddings.  I imagine that anyone who got married in 1995, 1996, 1997, or even 1998 likely heard this song playing at least once at any wedding ceremony.  It's certainly the right song to play if you want to...ahem...get into the mood.  And, hey, with lyrics like "when you can see your unborn children in her eyes, you know you really love a woman"...yeah, that's deep.

And did you know that this song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1996?  Unfortunately, it lost to "Colors of the Wind" from "Pocahontas".  Still, that is quite an achievement.

This song also holds a place in my heart.  It was the song that closed off the chapter of elementary school, and paved the way towards high school.  Such as it was. 

And, if that class reunion gets rescheduled, I hope that this song is one of the ones that is played.  That would be perfect.