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Sunday, September 14, 2014

Hangin' Tough

I'll be perfectly honest with all of you.  This blog post is dedicated to the ladies of the audience today.  In particular, those ladies who might be between the ages of, oh, 31 and 46.  I imagine that most of you between those ages would probably appreciate this SUNDAY JUKEBOX entry more than anyone.

And the reason why I decided to include an age bracket in this blog entry today is because this song happened to become a #1 hit exactly twenty-five years ago this week.  So, that would be during a time in which you would have been between the ages of 6-21.  But, I'm only really guessing here.  Perhaps some of you might remember listening to these guys while you were sipping a bottle in your playpen, and others might remember listening to them as you entered your golden years wondering who those nice boys on the radio were. 

All I know is that when these guys were on the top of the charts, I was just entering the third grade.  And, if my third grade classroom was any indication, I guess you could say that all the girls in my class had fallen under their spell in a big way. 



When my third grade year began in September 1989, I think that most of the girls in my classroom had at least one piece of memorabilia that had the faces of the boys that called themselves "The New Kids on the Block".  Some of them opted to showcase their love of the band by wearing a concert T-shirt with all five members on the front of it.  Some carried their New Kids on the Block pencil sharpeners and New Kids on the Block pencils inside of their New Kids on the Block pencil cases.  And, I'm sure that if our school allowed walkmans and ghetto blasters to be played in the hallway, we'd hear most of the girls at my school listening to the band on cassette tapes and compact discs.

Mind you, it wasn't just the third grade that NKOTB fever struck.  With the exception of the kindergarten aged kids (who were immersed in the song stylings of Raffi, or Eric Nagler), you'd be hard pressed to find one classroom that didn't have at least one major New Kids on the Block fan.

I still remember this one girl at my school who was in my third grade class.  I think her name was Lisa, or something like that.  I do know it started with an "L".  Anyway, I would classify her as being one of the biggest fans of the New Kids on the Block ever.  She had every accessory, and she had every single album (which granted, back in 1989, amounted to two), and she could often be found singing along to some of the band's singles both outside of class, and inside of class - which often got her into trouble in class by the teacher.  But hey, I suppose you couldn't fault her for it.  She did have a genuine love for the band, and she wanted to show her affection for them.

They certainly weren't the first boy band to exist, but they were far from being the last.  In fact, some might say that the band came around at the perfect time, as there really was nothing else like them at the time they struck it big.

Particularly with today's featured Sunday Jukebox track, which became the band's second #1 single.



ARTIST:  New Kids on the Block
SONG:  Hangin' Tough
ALBUM:  Hangin' Tough
DATE RELEASED:  July 3, 1989
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 1 week

Actually, "Hangin' Tough" could be a great way to describe the New Kids on the Block in general, for they've managed to stick together as a band off and on for the past twenty-eight years.  And despite some controversy, some solo efforts, and a dry spell that lasted nearly a decade and a half, the band seems to be gaining a new appreciation from a younger set of fans.

So, who are the New Kids on the Block?  Well, here they are as they appeared back in 1988 - the year that they released their sophomore disc "Hangin' Tough".



From left to right, we have Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Jonathan Knight, and Danny Wood.  And how they came to be known as the New Kids on the Block is an interesting story that takes place in the band's hometown of Boston, Massachusetts.

The year was 1984, and Maurice Starr had just severed ties with the R&B group that he helped create - a little band that called themselves "New Edition" - and he and his business partner Mary Alford were looking to repeat the same success.  The idea was to create another band similar to New Edition, only instead of using African-American singers, they would use Caucasian.

The first member recruited to the band was Donnie, who at fifteen had mad rapping skills and the ability to put on an energetic show.  And Donnie also managed to recruit at least three other members - brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight (Donnie and Jordan were once classmates), as well as Danny Wood (who happened to be a childhood friend of Donnie's younger brother), who was also considered a candidate for the new band.



You may have heard of him.  A guy by the name of Mark Wahlberg.  He's a big-time movie actor now, but he almost became a New Kid!  But before the band could start recording, Mark decided not to stick with the band after all.  Of course, interestingly enough, Mark would briefly transform himself into Marky Mark, who along with his Funky Bunch would score a #1 hit in 1991 with "Good Vibrations".

But with Mark's departure came the search for a new fifth member.  It seemed as though the New Kids on the Block had found their fifth in Jamie Kelly, but Kelly was soon let go because the death of his father caused him to lose concentration and he lacked the motivation to stick with it.  It was then decided that the fifth member was to be considerably younger than the other members of the group, as Maurice Starr had felt that a member with a voice like Michael Jackson during the Jackson 5 era would be exactly what the band needed, so as a result, twelve year old Joey McIntyre made up the fifth and final member of the band - a move which Donnie, Jordan, Jonathan, and Danny disliked because they felt that Joey was brought on to replace their good friend. 

Luckily for Joey, the other four members soon got over it, and welcomed him into the fold with open arms just before the group released their 1986 self-titled album.  Unfortunately, the album was a failure on the charts, but Starr refused to give up on the band.  And the New Kids weren't about to give up on their dream of making it big on the pop charts that easily.

(And, I suppose that the group made a wise decision in calling themselves the New Kids on the Block.  Their original band name was "Nynuk"!)

The group returned to the recording studio in 1987 to record their second album - and this time they were doing it their own way.  Of course, Maurice Starr did ultimately have the final say, but the guys did input their own personal style to the songs and their general look - enough to warrant giving three of the five New Kids (Donnie, Jordan, and Danny) associate production credits.  When the first single from the album "Please Don't Go Girl" was released in the spring of 1988, it once again didn't seem to make much of an impression, and it appeared as though the New Kids on the Block were going to be dropped from Columbia Records roster.

But then it happened.  A little radio station in Florida started playing the record, and within a few weeks, it became the most requested song on their playlist.  This was enough for Columbia Records to not only keep the band on their roster, but the company took a chance and filmed a professional music video to promote the single.  That gamble paid off.  "Please Don't Go Girl" became the band's first Top 10 hit.

Two more singles from "Hangin' Tough" followed.  The danceable "You Got It (The Right Stuff)", and the ballad "I'll Be Loving You Forever" (which became the group's first #1 hit). 

The title track (which you've heard up above) was the group's fourth single, and in addition to topping the charts in the United States, it also peaked at #1 in both Ireland and the UK.  In fact, in the United Kingdom, "Hangin' Tough" was the first #1 hit of the 1990s!

The single was also prominently featured in the 1989 film "The Wizard", and was even covered by Alvin and the Chipmunks for their 1991 album "The Chipmunks Rock the House"!  Don't believe me?  Click HERE to listen to it!

And, I suppose that the song title (and album title for that matter) would be the best way to describe the New Kids on the Block, for they managed to endure quite a lot of things and yet still have found a way to stay relevant in the music world.

It's no secret that between 1988 and 1991, the New Kids on the Block were one of the most popular acts of that era.  They sold more than 80 million records worldwide, won a couple of American Music Awards in 1990, was nominated for a Grammy Award that same year, and saw their first nine singles reach the Top 10 on the Billboard Charts.  But right around mid-1991, the band's popularity began to fade amidst allegations that the band had lip-synched their live performances, and that other performers (namely Maurice Starr) had actually sang their vocals instead.  Keep in mind that these allegations were coming out right around the time that Milli Vanilli experienced their fall from grace after admitting exactly that they had not sang one note on their debut album. 

Of course, the band completely denied the allegations brought forth by Gregory McPherson, and issued a lawsuit against him in February 1992 - immediately after the band interrupted an Australian tour to fly back to Los Angeles to appear on "The Arsenio Hall Show" to prove that, yes, they could actually sing - though they did admit that Maurice Starr did sing on the disc via backing vocals.  But that hardly matched the level of scandal brought forth by Milli Vanilli.  And McPherson, who must have felt as if he had egg on his face, later recanted his allegations.

However, the damage had been done.  Their concerts were no longer must-see events, album sales dropped, and pop music was being phased out for the grunge movement of the early 1990s.  This prompted the band to split up following the release of their 1994 album "Face the Music".

That break up would last thirteen years. 



I imagine many people were absolutely gobsmacked by the news in late 2007 that the band had secretly gotten back together after thirteen years to record a brand new album of original songs.  And, I imagine that people were even more shocked that their first single in thirteen years actually cracked the Top 40!



ARTIST:  New Kids on the Block
SONG:  Summertime
ALBUM:  The Block
DATE RELEASED:  May 13, 2008
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #35

Okay, here's a confession.  I actually don't mind this song at all!



And in 2011, the band made history once more by joining forces with the Backstreet Boys and forming a supergroup known as NKOTBSB.  The two groups actually toured together during 2011 and 2012!  And, I suppose that the mix-up proved very successful as Jordan Knight and Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys just released an album together two weeks ago under the group name "Nick & Knight".

Interestingly enough, many of the members of the New Kids had successes in their own right.  Donnie Wahlberg made a successful transition from singing to acting and has filmed several movies and television shows - currently appearing on CBS' "Blue Bloods".  Jordan Knight and Joey McIntyre have released solo albums which had moderate success, and Joey even appeared as a contestant on "Dancing With The Stars".  Danny Wood still performs on occasion, but now spends his time being a sales executive for Halcyon.  And Jonathan Knight has mostly stayed away from the entertainment business and went into real estate, and revealed that he was openly gay and had been living that way for over two decades.

But, you know - for a band to start off on top, hit rock bottom, and slowly climb their way back into relevancy - that's the very definition of "Hangin' Tough", I'd say.

And on October 9, 2014, the band will soon have a permanent reminder of their fame and success - that's when they will get their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

Saturday, September 13, 2014

King Ralph

Admittedly, this post is being posted a little later than normal, but my hope is that this SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES post is worth the wait.



It seems like only yesterday that I kicked off the current 10-part miniseries based on this collection of family films that I purchased over the summer, and now that we're almost at the end, I'm trying to figure out what other movies I can do!  At least Halloween is coming up soon, so I'm sure that I can come up with four scary films designed to make you shake in your shoes.

For now, this is week #8 of a ten-week look back at some films that made you laugh, touched your heart - or in a couple of cases made you throw popcorn at your television screen.  I still won't forgive myself for allowing myself to sit through "Ed".

Anyway, one thing that I noticed about this compilation is that thirty per cent of these films all contain the same actor.  Now, when it comes to movie compilations on DVD, unless you're buying a particular series on a box set (like the "Lethal Weapon 4-film series, the "Spider-Man" trilogy, or however many "Police Academy" movies that have been made throughout the 1980s), the odds are that all of the films will have different actors in them.  It's very rare that more than one film will have the same lead actor in a compilation that has random films on it.

And, yet, on three of the ten movies in this family film package, John Goodman has a lead role. 

And, why not?  John Goodman is a fine actor.  I've liked him since the days he played Dan on the sitcom "Roseanne", and he's appeared in a lot of films and movies that I have really enjoyed.

We've already looked at "Matinee", and the finale of this 10-part-series will also feature John Goodman in a starring role as well.  And today's film also has Goodman in the lead role, although admittedly, this film is my least favourite of the three.  It's not really a horrible film, per se.  I remember watching it when I was around eleven or twelve and liking it back then.  I think this is just one of those instances in which I like a movie less the older I get.

Then again, when I was eleven or twelve, I was a little bit more apt to take everything at face value.  To me, it seemed absolutely logical to have an average Joe come in to serve as the ruler of an entire kingdom after a tragedy wipes out the entire royal family.  In fact, there's a wonderful book that depicts that exact situation entitled "Headlong" by Emlyn Williams, which has a twenty-four year old stage actor named Jack Green taking over the British monarchy after the royal family is killed in a dirigible accident.  It's a very good book, and one that I recommend.

In fact, the initial draft for this film was supposed to be a retelling of this story, only instead of the movie being set in the 1930s, it would be set in the 1990s.  But somehow, the book plot got left on the cutting room floor.  The personality traits of some characters were completely changed, the tone of the story became a lot more comical, and instead of the future King being a 24-year-old stage actor from England, it was changed to a 39-year-old lounge singer from Las Vegas.



Even the name was changed of the main character.  Instead of Goodman's character being referred to as King John II, he would come to be known as King Ralph.

Yes, King Ralph did become a minor success at the box office when it was released on February 15, 1991.  Making just over fifty-three million at the box office, the film's profits were double its budget.  That's always a good thing.  And for what it was worth, critics seemed to have no fault in Goodman's performance as Ralph, saying that he was likeable and charming.  It was really the rest of the film with its contrived plot and predictable jokes that really turned critics off.



Okay, granted, the way that the movie opens, it's a little bit questionable.  In the book that this film was based off of, the entire royal family gets incinerated in a Hindenburg like disaster.  Which made perfect sense, given that the book's setting was during the time period in which that tragedy took place. 

In "King Ralph", the whole House of Wyndham gets electrocuted because they took a family photo next to a dodgy electrical cord that had gotten wet.  Hardly believable, but you have to admit that it did provide a nice sight gag.

Of course, with the entire royal family seemingly deceased, the search is on for a new heir who can lead Britain into the next generation, and royal private secretary Sir Cedric Willingham (Peter O'Toole) is at the head of the investigation.

Unfortunately for Willingham, his search leads him to Las Vegas and struggling rock and roll musician Ralph Jones (Goodman).  And when I say that Ralph is struggling, I mean he get fired within the first few minutes of his introduction for watching television instead of playing piano.  To rub salt in the would, he's replaced by a monkey.

Again, I was eleven when I watched this movie on VHS.  I believed that anything could happen.

Oh, and how Ralph came to be the heir of the royal family of Wyndham?  Let's just say that Ralph's grandfather - the second Duke of Warren - engaged in a little hanky-panky with a chamber maid at an American hotel, and the product of that little dalliance was Ralph's old man.  Therefore, Ralph shares a connection to the royal family through his father's side.

And since Ralph's grandfather and father have since passed on, this makes Ralph the sole heir to the entire kingdom.  A fact that Ralph is reluctant to believe until he sees the Duke's ring, which looked exactly like the ring that his grandmother wore - claiming that she had received it from a prince.

And so begins the transition to make the boorish, uncouth Ralph into the next ruler of the British monarchy, and of course, Willingham is the one in charge of the whole thing.  Of course, trying to introduce Ralph to such British cuisine as "bangers and mash" and "spotted dick" would prove to be a challenge.  Having Ralph behaving in the proper way when introducing himself to important people is a challenge.  Understanding the rules and regulations in a standard game of cricket was a challenge.  Heck, trying to put an American in the British monarchy was a challenge in itself - especially to Lord Percival Graves (John Hurt), a nasty, cold, calculating man who secretly wants to get Ralph out of there so he can be king himself. 

But despite Ralph's struggles, he certainly does take the experience seriously after a few blunders.  He uses his blue-collar background to impress world leaders - most notably, the King of Zambizi (Rudolph Walker), and his genuine charm seems to impress Britain's common people immensely.  He even manages to fall in love while he is serving as King in the form of Miranda Greene, an exotic dancer (yes, I said exotic dancer).  And, of course, Graves tries to use Miranda in his quest to get the throne...but what happens when Miranda really starts to have feelings for Ralph?  What sorts of low tricks will Graves do to get what he wants?  And could there possibly be another heir to the throne that not even Ralph and Graves are aware of?

Those answers will be revealed in the film.  But not here.  But I can offer you some interesting pieces of trivia for this film. 

01 - It goes without saying if you watch the movie, but yes, that is John Goodman really singing.

02 - Interestingly enough, there's a scene in which Ralph and Miranda try unsuccessfully to get a Whopper from a Burger King restaurant.  One of John Goodman's first television roles was in a Burger King commercial!

03 - Princess Anna of Finland (Joely Richardson) was purposely styled to resemble Diana, Princess of Wales.

04 - John Goodman was the only American actor to be cast in the film.

05 - It appears as though the name of the royal family was actually supposed to be Windsor (the real name), but was changed to Wyndham at the last minute, based on some scenes which appear to be dubbed.

06 - There is no such nation as Zambezi in the world.  It was a country that was made up in order to serve the plot.

07 - This movie was filmed between April and July of 1990.

08 - Bill Murray was originally considered to play the role of Ralph.

09 - The chimpanzee that replaced Ralph in Vegas has a name.  Would you believe it's "Mitzi, the Psychic Chimp"?

10 - Camille Coduri, who played Miranda in the movie, was only paid fifteen thousand pounds for her part.

And, that wraps up a blog on "King Ralph".  Next week, the star of the film is Steve Martin.  But is this really a good thing or not?

Friday, September 12, 2014

What's In a Name?

Okay, so this is going to be an entry that starts off being a FOODIE FRIDAY entry, but might turn out to be more like a WHO AM I WEDNESDAY entry.  So, I suppose we could call today WRIDAY?  Or perhaps FREDNESDAY?

Whatever you want to call it, this is the story of a particular beverage, and how it will become a discussion about names.



By now, I'm sure you have seen the latest promotion that soft drink company Coca-Cola launched this summer.  For presumably a limited time only, you can buy bottles and cans of Coca-Cola in all three varieties (Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero) with a person's name stamped on the label.  The labels tell you to share a Coke with the person on the label, but let's face it - most of us really just wanted to find a Coke with our names on it.

Now, I don't know what the name selection was like in the United States, but one thing I noticed in Canada was the unique selection of names that appeared on 591 mL bottles of Coke products.  Sure, you had common names such as Jennifer, Stephanie, Lauren, Michael, Steven, and Benjamin.  But you also had names like Preet, Shabnam, Zhang, Chen, and Mohammad.  Very cool for Coca-Cola to really release global names so that more people could have the chance to find their name on a Coke label.

Of course, if you spell your name with a unique spelling (like Elizabyth, Rochelle, or Kymberlyn), well...you might have to custom order your special Coca-Cola bottle.

Now, I'll tell you something.  It took me forever to find a bottle with my name on it.  And, it's not as though the name Matthew is all that uncommon of a name.  I'll get to that story a little bit later on, but I have dealt with this kind of frustration before.  One day, I was literally rummaging through every Coke product that was available looking for my name.  It seemed as though they had every other "M" name available.  Madison, Maurice, Melanie, Mick, Michelle, heck, I think I even found a Mordecai in the pile.  But it would take me about three weeks before I found my bottle.



And, here it is up above!  Granted, it's Diet Coke, but given that it had my name on it, I didn't care what kind of beverage it was.  Interestingly enough, once I found that bottle, I ended up doing a triple play, finding one each of Coke, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero with the name "Matthew" on it. 

I couldn't believe my luck!  I never usually have any sort of luck finding my name.  Why, until recently, I always seemed to have a huge problem locating any sort of personalized object with my name on it!

Now, to explain the reason why this was the case, we have to go back in time about...oh...thirty-three and one-quarter years ago to May 1981.  That was the month that yours truly first got a glimpse of this crazy place known as Planet Earth.  And for the first three days of my life, I did NOT have a name.

Yeah, I'll be perfectly honest.  In my family, I was known as the "Uh-Oh".  I wasn't planned at all.  Take into consideration that my siblings are nine and fifteen years older than I am.  My parents were both in their mid-thirties at the time of my birth.  The last thing they wanted to do before their sixteenth wedding anniversary was have another child - and yet, here I came!  So, needless to say, I don't think giving me a name was really a top priority.  They didn't even know what sex I was until the day I was born.

SNARKY COMMENT:  I mean, it's not like they didn't have time to discuss it.  I was born three weeks past my expected due date of April 30, 1981! 

Anyway, the reason why it took my family three whole days to come up with a name for me was because nobody could agree on one.  Granted, the middle name was pretty easy to figure out (and no, I won't reveal my middle name in public, though some of you reading this probably already know it).  But the first name was the kicker.

Here are some of the names that my family came up with that eventually went on the reject pile.



Name #1:  Dakota

Okay, to me, Dakota is a name that would work better for females.  I don't know what it is about Dakota that my dad thought was so great - maybe because it sounded western (my dad is like the very definition of country boy), or maybe because North Dakota is his favourite American state...I don't know.  Whatever the case, he liked the name Dakota.  And, granted, Dakota is a nice name.  I know friends who have named their children Dakota (all daughters, might I add), and actress Dakota Fanning certainly made a name for herself from child to adult.

I just don't think Dakota Turcotte has that nice ring to it.  Do you?

Name #2:  Cody

Now, Cody was my mom's original idea.  And, it was sort of a way to appease my dad because she explained that Cody was an abbreviated version of the name "Dakota".  But, honestly, I think my mom was just trying to tell my father in a nice way that there was no way in hell that she wanted a son named Dakota!

Here's the thing.  Cody is a fairly nice name.  I have nothing against it.  I just don't think that I would make a very good Cody.  Let Kathie Lee Gifford name her child Cody.  That's fine for him.  He actually kind of looks like a Cody.  I don't think I look like a Cody. 

Name #3:  Schuyler

Ah, yes.  Schuyler (pronounced like Skylar).  To be honest with you, I could probably think of worse names that my sisters could have come up with.  Truth be told, I have nothing against this name possibility at all.  I quite like the name myself.  What I didn't really like was the reason why they wanted to name me Schuyler.

You see, my sisters were fifteen and nearly nine when I was born.  And for the sake of argument, I'll just mention that their first names are Dawn and Starr.  Now, I really don't have any idea how my parents came up with the name Dawn.  Maybe they just felt that it was a beautiful name, and they went with it.  But in the case of Starr, my father was the brainchild behind that name, naming her after the character that Shirley Temple played in the film "Captain January". 

(Though admittedly, I'd have been more impressed if they told me they named her after Ringo Starr.  Now that would have been cool!)

Anyway, their names also have to do with - wait for it - the sky!  The period between night and early morning is typically known as "dawn".  And at nighttime, you can often see "stars" in the sky.  Ergo, by naming me Schuyler, they could give me the nickname of "Sky", and then we'd be Dawn, Starr, Sky.

You see why I am so happy that they voted NO on that name?  How cheesy could you get?  Well, that plus when I was in school, I had to deal with a rather unpleasant person who also happened to have a similar name.  Yeah, given that, I'm sort of glad that they denied that name.

Actually, given my parents love of old school country, my sister's love of Kiss, and my other sister's love of Duran Duran, it's a wonder I wasn't named "Merle", "Gene", or "Simon LeBon".

So, how did they end up naming me Matthew?  Simple.  They looked at a baby book and chose the most popular name for boys.  Back in '81, that was "Matthew".  Actually, between 1981 and 2000, it was practically in the Top 5 for twenty consecutive years!  My second grade teacher nearly had a coronary when she discovered that there were SIX Matthews in her classroom!

So, now I suppose that you know where I am going with this.  With so many Matthews in the world, finding keychains, pens, T-shirts, and other pieces of memorabilia became as difficult as Indiana Jones' quest in finding that golden idol that releases that boulder in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"!  It was so frustrating going to different stores and seeing the "Matthew" section always sold out of items.  I cursed the fact that my parents had to choose a popular name because I could never find anything with my name on it.  It wouldn't be until I hit my thirties that it became a lot easier.

I'm sure that anyone named Liam, Noah, or Ethan in 2014 can relate to what anyone named Matthew, Jason, or Michael had to endure in 1984.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Mork & Mindy

I still can't believe that it's been a month since actor Robin Williams died.  I know that we've all grieved his loss over the last thirty-one days, and I'm sure that many of us have certainly watched a marathon of his films at some point after his passing.  But Robin Williams was such a huge presence in Hollywood that it still seems like a dream.

I mean, I can still remember just days after his death, customers at the store I work at swarmed the electronics area looking for every single movie that they could get their hands on that featured him in a starring, or even a supporting role. 

I certainly remember scanning my fair share of copies of "Hook", "Mrs. Doubtfire", "Patch Adams", "The Fisher King", "Awakenings", "Jumanji", "RV", and even some of his recent films such as "The Big Wedding" and "The Angriest Man in Brooklyn" through the cash register.  Eerily enough, the day after he died was the day that we reset our movie section, and there was a LOT of Robin Williams movies in the movie plans.  It was certainly a huge coincidence that we'd have so many of his movies added onto the new movie set-up! 

Now, certainly, Robin Williams had an extensive film library.  From "Good Morning Vietnam" and "Dead Poets Society" to "Good Will Hunting" and "Happy Feet", he certainly made his mark on Hollywood.  But he also was a recognizable face on television as well.  Most recently, he starred in the short-lived series "The Crazy Ones" which also featured Sarah Michelle Gellar and James Wolk.

However, for today's blog entry - on this, Tube Talk Thursday - I thought I'd devote today to the television show that first made Williams a star.  It was really the first time that any of us really got to see him in action, and yet after just a few episodes, the general public could automatically tell that he was meant to do great things. 

Even show producer Garry Marshall saw something in the then 26-year-old actor.  When they first met, Robin was auditioning for a guest starring role on the already established sitcom "Happy Days".  It was early 1978, and Marshall was looking to fill a rather...unusual part.  The story goes that at the audition, Garry had asked Robin to have a seat, and Robin did - upside down!



Is it any wonder that Robin ended up getting the part on the spot with such a response?  Turns out that the role was almost custom made for him, as in February 1978, Robin made his very first appearance as Mork from Ork, a space alien who ended up on Earth and paid Richie Cunningham and his family a visit on an episode of "Happy Days".  Mork was on a mission to bring Richie back to Mork's home planet as a human specimen, but the plan was foiled by Richie's best friend, Fonzie. 

Now the initial airing of the "Happy Days" episode had Richie dreaming the whole thing, but in subsequent airings on ABC and in syndication, the show's ending was re-filmed where Mork actually erases the memories of everyone involved in the "Happy Days" episode so that the event really did happen.

Why would they do this?  Well, it turns out that Mork's appearance on "Happy Days" was an absolute hit in the ratings, and fans of the show couldn't get enough of Mork. 



So, the decision was made to give Mork his own series just a few months later.  All Mork needed was a love interest to get the ball rolling.  Perhaps a young woman named Mindy played by Pam Dawber?



And that is how "Mork & Mindy" was born.

Hard to believe that it has been over thirty years since the series last aired on television.  But considering that the show lasted for four seasons (September 14, 1978 - May 27, 1982 to be exact), I'd call that a success story. 

Of course, I was only a year old when the show ended, so unfortunately I had to wait until the show aired in reruns before I had the opportunity to enjoy it.  But, boy oh boy did I ever love it when I finally watched it.  And for fans of the show in DVD Region 1, the first three seasons are available on DVD box sets.  Still no word on whether Season 4 will ever be released on DVD though.  I guess you never can tell.

Anyway, the story of Mork & Mindy is this.  Mork arrives on Earth (circa 1978) in his egg shaped spaceship where he has been given an assignment by his superior, Orson (voiced by Ralph James) to observe human behaviour on Earth.  In actuality, Ork is a planet in which humour is forbidden (what a sad place to be!) and Orson sends Mork to Earth so that he will be out of his hair.

Who knew that Mork's arrival in the state of Colorado would end up turning into the best four years of his life?

Now, part of Mork's plan to blend into human society is to dress the part.  And Mork happened to find a rather groovy looking suit to wear in hopes of fitting in.  The problem is that he dresses himself backwards, and when he happens to cross paths with Mindy, she mistakes him for being a priest (as his backwards suit jacket sort of resembles a priest's collar).  She has just had an argument with her boyfriend, and Mork tries to offer comfort in his own alien manner.  But the jig is up when Mindy notices that Mork's clothing is on backwards, and Mork reveals that he is really an alien from outer space.

Now, you might think that this news would make Mindy run screaming for the hills, but Mindy's heart was as pure as freshly fallen snow, and she felt for the guy.  Rather than abandon him, she takes him in to live in her attic.



Of course, this causes problems for Mindy as Mindy's father (Conrad Janis) disapproves of Mindy sharing her home with an unmarried man.  On the flipside, Mindy's grandmother (Elizabeth Kerr) loves Mork, and is much more accepting of the friendship between Mork and Mindy.

Of course, living with Mork is also incredibly challenging for Mindy.  You see, Mork is completely clueless about the cultures of Earth, and some traditions that might be considered a good deed on Earth could be a grave insult on Mork's home planet, and vice versa.  And Mindy really had to work overtime to try and steer Mork in the right direction a lot of the time which naturally lead to major hilarity.  But why would I talk about it when I can show you instead?  Have a look at these video clips!



And as the show progressed, we ended up seeing quite a lot of star power on this series.  After all, Morgan Fairchild played the recurring role of Mindy's friend from high school during season one.  Comedian Jay Thomas played Remo DaVinci for the last three years of the show, the man who owned the deli in which Mork and Mindy hung out at.  And when Mork and Mindy got married and had a child together, that child was played by Jonathan Winters (on Mork's planet, people age backwards).

Perhaps the best part about the show was at the end of each episode was the segment where Mork calls Orson at the end of another day to report back to what he has learned from being on Earth.  And, here is one poignant example for you to watch.



All in all, "Mork & Mindy" was the show that really made both Pam Dawber and Robin Williams big stars.  Pam went on to marry actor Mark Harmon and she would star in "My Sister Sam" and a few films.  And of course, we know just how brightly Robin's star shined.



One interesting, yet sad footnote to add to this blog entry.  Just four months before Robin's death, Robin had the chance to reunite with his "Mork & Mindy" co-star, Pam Dawber on "The Crazy Ones".  And just as they had done thirty years earlier, Pam revealed that even now she had great difficulty keeping a straight face whenever she and Robin would do a scene together.  More often than not, Pam really had to keep it together to prevent the scene from being scrapped on "Mork & Mindy" due to Robin's tendency to ad-lib everything, and it seemed as though very little had changed.

At any rate, it was really nice to see Robin and Pam work together one last time. 

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Lessons From School I Needed to "Un-Learn"

Well, I hope you're ready for another WHO AM I WEDNESDAY entry, because this one is going to be quite a big topic for me to write about.

It's also one that I've talked about before, and one that talks about the subject of being bullied - which as many of you know by now, I endured more than my fair share of it.

But this one has a bit of a twist to it.  You see, when it comes to the kids that I went to school with, I've finally made peace with it.  Sure, there are some people who really did hurt me, and I have absolutely no desire to reconnect with them.  And honestly, I think there are some people who genuinely had no idea how their words and actions really did hurt in the grand scheme of things.  However, the reason that I can forgive them is because back then they were children who really didn't know any better.  They couldn't really understand how their actions really made people feel.  It doesn't make what they did right by any means, but I just hope that they grew out of that sort of behaviour as they became adults.

But what happens when you are being bullied by someone who is supposed to be an authority figure?  Someone who is supposed to have your best interests at heart?  Someone whose job is to make you feel confident and empowered about learning new things, but instead makes you feel scared and inferior about life in general?

Well, bullying by children, I can forgive.  Bullying by teachers?  Inexcusable.

Here's my story about the lessons that one particular teacher tried to teach me about myself...and I've also provided lessons from other teachers that I have had along the way to try and disprove or discredit the teacher who seemingly made it her mission to "fix what wasn't broken".



September 10, 2014

I think that it must be some sort of prerequisite for most children to despise their first grade teacher.  In most cases, whenever I engage someone in conversation about teachers that they liked or disliked, most people I've spoken to disliked or even hated their first grade teachers.  And, I often wondered why that was. 

I guess the most obvious reason could be because Grade 1 is really one of the toughest years to get through in school.  I know some people might shake their heads in disbelief over that statement, thinking that high school classes are much tougher than elementary school ones.  But when I was a kid, kindergarten was only a half a day, and kindergarten was more or less a place where all you did was paint pictures, play with building blocks, and burying other kids in the sandbox.

(Oh, wait.  You weren't supposed to do that last one.  My bad.)

Therefore, the transition from kindergarten into the full-day Grade 1 where you actually had to do schoolwork without the benefit of a mid-afternoon nap was a tough one.  Grade 1 really was that whole transition point between still being a kid and actually becoming more and more responsible.  Maybe that could explain why first grade teachers seem to be more strict than other teachers.  Their jobs are to teach you the basic fundamental skills that are necessary to get through life.  And sometimes those lessons don't necessarily involve addition and subtraction, or nouns and verbs.

Unfortunately, I was saddled with a teacher who taught me a whole bunch of life lessons that I never really should have been taught in the first place.  Instead, she taught me things about myself that most other teachers would have likely been terminated for.  And it took the kindness and caring of other teachers and other adult figures in my life to help me realize that her "lessons" were more harmful than good.

So, aside from reading, writing, and arithmetic, what lessons did this first grade teacher of mine teach me?

LESSON #1:  YOU'RE DIFFERENT.  AND THAT'S BAD.

When I entered the first grade, I admittedly marched to the beat of my own drum.  Some of this was intentional, but a lot of it I couldn't control.  I used to hold my crayon in a fist motion because I couldn't figure out what the proper way was to hold it.  In fact, when I was in school, I didn't even think that there WAS a proper way to hold a pencil because as long as the teacher could read my name, that was all that counted in my eyes.  But according to Grade 1 teacher, that was not acceptable.  I mean, I suppose I could understand the reasoning behind it.  You do get more control holding a pencil the way that most people hold them. 

That said, I don't think she had the right to make a big deal in front of class of me having special crayons and pencils with those big triangular blocks on them to draw attention to the fact that I did things differently from the other kids.  I especially didn't like the fact that I didn't have a green crayon and she actually gave me trouble for using a crayon that didn't have those pyramids of imperfection  attached to them.  She basically humiliated me in class on purpose because she didn't like the way that I held a pencil.

WHO HELPED DISPROVE HER LESSON?

Well, pretty much any other teacher that I had.  Unlike my first grade teacher, who basically believed that I was worthless unless I knew how to hold a pencil correctly, the others instead focused on the skills that I did have.  I may not have been a great pencil holder, but I certainly did do well in other aspects of the class.  Well, at least the academic portion of the classroom, anyway.

LESSON #2:  YOU WALK DIFFERENTLY?  NOT IN MY CLASSROOM!

I've talked about this before in the blog years ago, but if you're just tuning in, here's the Cliff Notes version.  Back when I was a kid, my arches in my feet didn't properly develop.  As a result, it made it incredibly difficult to walk flat-footed without feeling any pain.  It was a problem that eventually corrected itself, but between first and fifth grades, I had to walk on my tip toes in order not to feel pain.  I didn't expect that the kids would understand this, but I did expect that the teacher would have been kind and sympathetic about it.

She wasn't.  Not only would she refuse to let me go to the bathroom without promising in front of the class that I would walk flat footed, but she also arranged to have a social worker take me out of class so that I could walk around the school with books on my head to correct my posture.

Long story short, she made me feel as though I was broken or damaged because I didn't walk to her standards, and she wanted the whole school to single me out in hopes of embarrassing me enough that I would walk the way she wanted me to walk without completely understanding that I couldn't.  It was a living nightmare to endure, and I honestly think the decisions made by my teacher, and the school administration for allowing such a thing to go on destroyed my self-esteem. 

WHO HELPED DISPROVE THAT LESSON?

I guess in a way, I am.  All by myself.  Eventually, my walking style did correct itself on its own, and once that happened, kids were a lot less cruel about my walking style.  But honestly I still feel like I have issues with self-worth because of that teacher.  Many times I still feel like I push people away who get too close because I feel as though I'm too different from them because of what I was told by that teacher.  It's been a real struggle to try and find out who I really am as a result of what I went through, and I'm getting better at it each day.  But, again...that second lesson she taught me stuck for a really, really long time.

LESSON #3:  I TREAT EVERYONE THE SAME WAY...EXCEPT YOU.

I'm sure if you've ever been a student at any given time, you were asked to raise money for the school in a variety of different ways.  At our school, we sold wrapping paper, boxes of chocolates, and other holiday pieces every Christmas.  And school fundraising meant that every kid received an order form to take home to their families and friends so that a portion of all the sales made would go towards improving the school (things like buying new books for the library, or providing new gym equipment).

At least, every kid was SUPPOSED to get one.

I was the only kid in my class who did NOT get a booklet.  And the way the teacher kept talking about the fundraising drive while purposely handing out booklets to every other kid in the class, it made me think that something was not right.  So, after school ended, I went to her desk and asked her why I couldn't have a book, and her response was that she had run out.  Yet, I could clearly see that she had four extra booklets that she could have given me.  I didn't think much of it at the time, but now that I'm older, I knew what the jig was.  She purposely denied me my right to fundraise as a sort of punishment in not being like everyone else in the class.  This was her almost making a point that I would not be seen in the same regard as the rest of my classmates, and that was inexcusable.

WHO HELPED DISPROVE THAT LESSON?

Honestly, I would give the credit to my second grade teacher, Miss Johnson.  Not only did she encourage all of us to do fundraising activities (and yes, she made sure I got a fundraising order form that year), but she was so supportive of everyone who raised money that it made me want to sell as much as possible.

Coincidentally, it's only a shame that my first grade teacher denied me the right to sell anything that year.  I only ended up being the kid who came in second for most funds raised for three consecutive years in the early 1990s.  I mean, granted, I only sold for the prize incentive...but if that school only realized just how much money I could have raised for them that year, maybe they would have been more interested in stepping in and stopping the emotional abuse that teacher inflicted on me.

Because let's face it.  What she did to me was abuse.  Abuse that would no longer be tolerated inside of a classroom.

LESSON #4:  IF I HAD MY WAY, I WOULD HOLD YOU BACK IN CLASS TO TEACH YOU A LESSON.

Believe it or not, my first grade teacher flunked quite a few kids.  If memory serves me, at least four kids in my class were held back from completing first grade at the end of the year.  That seems insane to me.

What I didn't find out until later was that my teacher actually lobbied to have me repeat the first grade too!  And, I honestly was so angry at that fact because I didn't think I did anything that would warrant me being held back.  I read at an eighth grade level in first grade, and my French teacher often commented about my "photographic memory".  Oh, sure, I had a hard time getting along with some of the kids in my class, but my teacher's actions encouraged that behaviour, so there wasn't a whole lot that I could do about it.  But that wasn't enough to keep me stuck in the first grade, and the school agreed that not passing me into the second grade would have caused me more harm than good (nice that you thought of my welfare then, but not during the 1987-1988 school year, school admins).  I mean, if you're going to hold me back a year, make it a good enough reason instead of having a personal grudge against me.  And for that matter, maybe if that teacher had used her attention to help the other kids in the class who were struggling instead of inventing new ways to make my experience in her class a living hell, perhaps everyone in the class would have moved onto the next grade.

WHO HELPED DISPROVE THAT LESSON?

Ironically enough, the very kids who used to pick on me were the ones who saw that there was no reason why the teacher should have held me back.  After all, they did copy off of my paper when I wasn't looking.  I honestly don't know if they actually learned anything, but the fact that they deemed me smart enough to copy from meant that I had to be doing something right.  And any of the teachers that I had who encouraged my talents helped me realize that the school shouldn't have even entertained the possibility of being held back another year.  From my sixth grade teacher Mrs. Woodfine who encouraged me to write down how I was feeling (though I imagine if she finds this blog, she'll think that she created a monster), to my twelfth grade math teacher Mr. Wright who helped make mathematics fun again after having a negative experience in grade eleven, I knew that depending on the teacher, I was capable of taking a lot of lessons from the classroom and applying them to real life in a positive way.

Needless to say, the teacher that I had in first grade left the school just a couple of months after I went into grade two.  I'd like to think that I broke her, even though I imagine that the real reason came from the fact that so many of her pupils failed her class and the parents of those kids likely made the school terminate her.  In some ways, I wish that more could have been done to stop her from abusing me the way she did.  My parents certainly tried their best to get the abuse to stop, but nothing they did seemed to work.  She got away with making me feel inferior to everyone else, and in many ways, I blame her for a lot of the abuse that I sustained at the hands of my classmates because she was basically teaching the rest of the class that it was okay to bully and belittle other people who were different from them.


But you know what?  I'm a survivor.  And while the scars still remain over what she did to me...it gives me comfort knowing that at least the kids who entered my elementary school after she left would never have to endure the life lessons taught by a mad woman whose bitterness and anger in her own life should have never been inflicted on any of her students.

Tuesday, September 09, 2014

September 9, 1999

Hey, guys!  It is time for another Tuesday Timeline flashback on this, the ninth day of the ninth month of the year.  And when it comes to this week's topic, the number nine makes a lot of appearances in today's timeline date.

I'm sure you'll figure out pretty quickly what I mean by that.

Of course, before we get into today's date, we have some other things to talk about.  We'll get to famous birthdays in a minute.  For now, have a look at some of the worldwide events that took place throughout history on September 9.

1087 - William Rufus is sworn in as King of England (under the Royal title of King William II) 

1513 - The Battle of Flodden takes place which sees the defeat of James IV of Scotland

1543 - Mary Stuart is crowned "Queen of Scots" - at just nine months old!

1739 - The Stono Rebellion - the largest slave uprising in Britain's North American colonies - occurs near Charleston, South Carolina

1776 - The Continental Congress officially names its new union of sovereign states the United States of America

1791 - The capital of the United States is named Washington, D.C., after its first president, George Washington

1839 - John Herschel becomes the first person to take the first glass plate photograph

1850 - California becomes the thirty-first American state

1914 - The Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade is created to aid British armed forces during World War I

1926 - The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is founded

1940 - George Stibitz pioneers the first remote operation of a computer

1941 - Singer Otis Redding (d. 1967) is born in Dawson, Georgia

1945 - The Empire of Japan formally surrenders to China

1947 - A moth lodges in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer, coining the phrase "computer bug"

1956 - First appearance of Elvis Presley on "The Ed Sullivan Show"

1965 - Hurricane Betsy makes second landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana, killing 76 people and causing over a billion dollars in damage

1969 - The Official Languages Act comes into force, officially making the Canadian federal government bilingual

1971 - The Attica Prison Riot begins - 39 people lose their lives over the four-day event

1997 - Actor Burgess Meredith dies at the age of 89

1999 - Baseball player Catfish Hunter passes away at the age of 53

2004 - The 2004 Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta kills 10 people

2010 - Eight people are killed following a natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California - the blast creating a "wall of fire" more than 1,000 feet high

And, for celebrity birthdays, we have a long list of birthday greetings.  A very happy birthday to Bernard Bailyn, Sylvia Miles, Carlos Ortiz, Pamela Des Barres, Joe Theismann, Robert Desidario, Tom Wopat, Angela Cartwright, Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), Jeffrey Combs, Colin Murdock, Hugh Grant, Kimberly Willis Holt, Chip Esten, Michelle Johnson, Constance Marie, Adam Sandler, B.J. Armstrong, Rachel Hunter, Eric Stonestreet, Goran Visnjic, Divine Brown, Gok Wan, Michael Buble, Nikki DeLoach, Michelle Williams, Clayton Snyder, Jo Woodcock, and Charlie Stewart.

I should note that when I mention Divine Brown, I don't mean the prostitute that Hugh Grant slept with back in 1995.  I'm actually talking about the Canadian singer named Divine Brown.  But, boy is that not strange that Hugh Grant would share a birthday with someone named Divine Brown!

Anyway, what date are we going back to?  Well, I guess you could say that it's a date where you can dress up to the nines because there happens to be a lot of nines in the date!



We're going back fifteen years to September 9, 1999.  Or 9/9/99, if you like.

Now, a lot happened on what could be considered the day of "El Nine-nio".  As mentioned earlier, famed baseball player Catfish Hunter died on this day.  As well, the sixteenth annual MTV Video Music Awards aired on this date which featured rapper L'il Kim in what could be considered one of the most questionable outfits to ever be seen at an awards show in the 1990s.  Click HERE to see a photo of that wardrobe disaster.

But something else was happening on this date as well.  Something that was taking place in the world of video gaming. 

Now, unfortunately, this event was considered to be the swan song of one particular video game console manufacturer (although the company still exists in some format), but still, you have to give them credit for at least trying something that really changed the way that we looked at video games. 



How many of you have heard of the video game company known as SEGA?  The company began in Honolulu back in 1940 under its original name of "Service Games", and between 1940 and 1980, the company merged with a company started up by David Rosen called Rosen Enterprises - a Tokyo based company that began manufacturing and importing coin operated games, just as Service Games had been doing for years.  By the mid 1960s, Rosen Enterprises and Service Games merged together, and a new company - SEGA - was born.

TRIVIA:  The name SEGA is actually taken from the first two letters in each of the two words that made up SErvice GAmes.

It wasn't until 1982 that SEGA jumped into the video game console market, with their first console being the SG-1000.  Unfortunately, SEGA had some stiff competition from Atari, Intellivision, and Coleco Games, and by the time they had started to find their footing, the video game crash of 1984 happened, and the industry was in danger of collapsing.



With Nintendo's arrival in 1985 in the North American market, the video game industry rebounded in a huge way, and the following year, SEGA decided to compete against Nintendo in a huge way by launching their Sega Master System, followed closely by the SEGA Genesis in 1988-1989.  And certainly through the world of SEGA, brand new video game characters were launched such as Alex Kid, Ecco the Dolphin, Ristar, and of course, Sonic the Hedgehog.  And many people argue that when it came down to comparing SEGA games to the rival Nintendo, SEGA games had better quality of music files and better, more colourful graphics.  But throughout the video game wars of the 1990s, Nintendo almost always seemed to stay one step ahead of their competition by promoting the heck out of their own creations which included Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus Aran, and Mega Man. 

Add the launch of the Sony PlayStation in 1995, and SEGA found it harder and harder to compete.  They attempted to keep up with the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 consoles by releasing the SEGA Saturn in 1995, but the console was considered a failure and only saw a limited release in the United States.

By the late 1990s, SEGA was trying to stay relevant in the game console battle, and the company thought that they had found a way to make it happen.  What the company created was a console that paved the way for the sixth generation consoles - one that featured a 16 MB RAM (quite good for the 1990s), an 8 MB GPU, and 128-bit graphics (all other consoles on the market at that time reached a peak of 64-bit graphics).



It was originally launched in Japan in late 1998 - but on September 9, 1999, this console was released in the United States and Canada, and initially, it looked like the SEGA Dreamcast would be the console that would give SEGA a second wind!

Consider the time period in which the Dreamcast was launched.  It was in between console releases by the other two competing video game manufacturers at the time.  This was at a time before Microsoft even launched their popular XBOX console!  By that time, the PlayStation console and the Nintendo 64 had been around for at least three years, and development of brand new consoles were still quite a while away.  So, the timing of the SEGA Dreamcast was great.

And for what it was worth, the SEGA Dreamcast seemed to receive a lot of buzz, with some 300,000 consoles being pre-ordered prior to its release.  After all, 128-bit graphics were considered revolutionary for that period in time, and it also helped that SEGA seemed to take a page out of Nintendo's books and promoted the heck out of the console in commercials such as the one below.



The console release dates were staggered worldwide as well, which likely spawned the anticipation of the video game console and games.  After Japan's 1998 release and America's September 9, 1999 release, the UK and Europe released their own version in October 1999, and Australia soon followed with a release of their own in November.



TRIVIA:  Depending on where you were in the world, your Dreamcast might have had a different logo.  Most of the consoles had a red swirl for a symbol, but in PAL regions, the swirl was changed to blue, as a German video game publisher already used a red swirl logo.

And, the system also had some really decent titles to accompany its launch into the console market.  With titles such as "SoulCalibur", "Sonic Adventure", "Marvel vs. Capcom", and "NFL 2K", the system's first year on the market was incredibly successful, and all signs pointed to the Dreamcast being a real jewel in the world of console gaming.

So, what happened?  How did the Dreamcast become a nightmare? 

Well, finances were a huge factor behind it.

Yes, the Dreamcast did extremely well in both Europe and North America.  But in Japan, sales were at an all-time low.  Sales were so low that the company ended up with a $412 million loss at the end of the first quarter of 2000.  This amounted to double the loss that SEGA had anticipated at this time.  By September 2000, SEGA had continued to lose money for a third straight year since the failure of the SEGA Saturn, and the decision was made in 2001 to discontinue the production of the console.  By 2002, the system and its games were no longer being produced - the last game produced in North America being "NHL 2K2". 

According to former president and CEO of Sega of America, Bernie Stolar, the Dreamcast stopped production because the new chairman of the company wanted to focus on software instead of consoles.  But it probably didn't help matters much that Sony released its PlayStation 2 console right around the same time that sales began to drop dramatically for the Dreamcast.  With the PlayStation 2 boasting record sales, as well as Nintendo launching its Gamecube console a year later, the final nail in the coffin was drilled in permanently.

The Dreamcast remained in stores for approximately a couple of years after production stopped, and as of 2014, the Dreamcast remains the last console that SEGA ever produced.  Interestingly enough, Nintendo and Sony have released SEGA Genesis compilations and Sonic the Hedgehog games for their consoles, which still boast the SEGA name.

Yes, fifteen years ago, SEGA had a dream.  Their dream was to release the Dreamcast to the world and hoped to revolutionize the world of video gaming - which they did for the first year of the console's release.  Unfortunately, the dream was not to last, and sadly, the Dreamcast ended up being the console that would end SEGA's competition in the console video game industry.

Life is but a dream.  At least SEGA of America will always have September 9, 1999...