1.
Compton, California
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Compton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated south of downtown Los Angeles. Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and on May 11,1888, was the city to incorporate. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 96,455. It is known as the Hub City due to its centrality in Los Angeles County. Neighborhoods in Compton include Sunny Cove, Leland, Downtown Compton, the city is generally a working class city with some middle-class neighborhoods, and is home to a relatively young community, at an average 25 years of age, compared to the American median age of 35. In 1784, the Spanish Crown deeded a tract of over 75,000 acres to Juan Jose Dominguez in this area, the tract was named Rancho San Pedro. Dominguezs name was applied to the Dominguez Hills community south of Compton. The tree that marked the northern boundary of the rancho still stands at the corner of Poppy. The rancho was subdivided and parcels were sold within the Californios of Alta California until the lands were ceded after the Mexican-American war in 1848, American immigrants acquired most of the rancho lands after 1848. In 1867, Griffith Dickenson Compton led a group of 30 pioneers to the area and these families had traveled by wagon train south from Stockton, California in search of ways to earn a living other than in the rapid exhaustion of gold fields. Originally named Gibsonville, after one of the owners, it was later called Comptonville. However, to avoid confusion with the Comptonville located in Yuba County, Comptons earliest settlers were faced with terrible hardships as they farmed the land in bleak weather to get by with just the barest subsistence. The weather continued to be harsh, rainy and cold, to gather firewood it was necessary to travel to mountains close to Pasadena. The round trip took almost a week, by 1887, the settlers realized it was time to make improvements to the local government. A series of meetings were held to discuss incorporation of their little town. Griffith D. Compton donated his land to incorporate and create the city of Compton in 1889, in January 1888, a petition supporting the incorporation of Compton was forwarded to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who in turn forwarded the petition to the State Legislature. On May 11,1888 the city of Compton was incorporated with a population of 500 people, the first City Council meeting was held on May 14,1888. The ample residential lots of Richland Farms gave residents enough space to raise a family, and food to feed them, along with building a barn, and caring for livestock
2.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
3.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
4.
Hollywood High School
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In September 1903, a two-room school was opened on the second floor of an empty storeroom at the Masonic Temple on Highland Avenue, north of Hollywood Boulevard. Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in November 1903, the Hollywood High Organ Opus 481 was a gift from the class of 1924. After suffering severe damage from the Northridge earthquake in 1994. The campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 4,2012, the schools mascot was derived from the 1921 Rudolph Valentino film of the same name, The Sheik. In the 2015-2016 Fall Football Season the boys Varsity football team played in the schools 3rd championship game led by head coach Frank Galvan and they finished the season with a 12-2 overal record. Hollywood High has been the location for movies, television shows. Tony Hawks American Wasteland Grease In 2002, artist Eloy Torrez painted a mural of 13 famous entertainers, titled Portrait of Hollywood, across the entire east wall of the schools auditorium. In 2007, Torrez added a 50-foot tall mural of John Ritter, all but four of the entertainers, Cantinflas, Lee, Selena and Valentino, were students at Hollywood High School. The artist said the mural is a celebration of a diverse range of actors and entertainers. Hollywood High School is an excellent school for teenagers to find their calling, known for preparing its graduates for careers in teaching and the performing arts, it has also become a diverse and well-rounded school. Students have many opportunities in different fields of study, Hollywood High School offers four academies to its students, each of them with a different purpose. Teaching Career Academy Hollywood High school offers a Teaching Career Academy to students who seek to work with children as a career, potential careers range from becoming a teacher to being a social worker. In order to give a student an experience, the school works with other elementary schools to allow elementary students to receive tutoring by Hollywood High School students. Performing Arts Magnet For students seeking an entertainment career, Performing Arts Magnet is the best choice and this academy helps students develop their talents and personalities to become performing artist. The academy focuses on training students to develop their skills of actors, singers, New Media Technology If students prefer to go into the filmmaking industry, this academy offers the best opportunities. The New Media Technology academy helps students build their knowledge of technology and they are afforded hands-on experience with equipment usually found inside a film studio. The software used is the newest on the market and this academy also provides internships to permit graduates to immediately start working in that field. School for Advanced Studies This academy does not focus on a specific career, If a student likes to be challenged, this academy offers classes that are at the same level of difficulty as a college class
5.
Howard University
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Howard University is a federally chartered, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university in Washington, D. C. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a university with high research activity and is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. From its outset it has been nonsectarian and open to people of both genders and all races, Howard is classified as a Tier 1 national university and ranks second among HBCUs by U. S. News & World Report. Howard is the only HBCU ranked in the top 75 on the 2015 Bloomberg Businessweek college rankings, the Princeton Review ranked the school of business #1 in opportunities for minority students and in the top five for most competitive students. The National Law Journal ranked the law school among the top 25 in the nation for placing graduates at the best law firms, Howard has produced four Rhodes Scholars between 1986 and 2017. Between 1998 and 2009, Howard University produced a Marshall Scholar, in 2011, the Huffington Post named Howard the second best-dressed college in the nation. Howard is the most comprehensive HBCU in the nation and produces the most black doctorate recipients of any university, within a few weeks, the project expanded to include a provision for establishing a university. Within two years, the University consisted of the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Medicine, the new institution was named for General Oliver Otis Howard, a Civil War hero, who was both the founder of the University and, at the time, Commissioner of the Freedmens Bureau. Howard later served as President of the university from 1869–74, U. S. Congress chartered Howard on March 2,1867, and much of its early funding came from endowment, private benefaction, and tuition. An annual congressional appropriation administered by the U. S. Department of Education funds Howard University, many improvements were made on campus. Howard Hall was renovated and made a dormitory for women, J. Stanley Durkee, Howards last white president, was appointed in 1918. The Great Depression years of the 1930s brought hardship to campus, despite appeals from Eleanor Roosevelt, Howard saw its budget cut below Hoover administration levels during the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Howard University has played an important role in American history and the Civil Rights Movement on a number of occasions, alain Locke, Chair of the Department of Philosophy and first African American Rhodes Scholar, authored The New Negro, which helped to usher in the Harlem Renaissance. Ralph Bunche, the first Nobel Peace Prize winner of African descent, beginning in 1942, Howard University students pioneered the stool-sitting technique, which was to play a prominent role in the later civil rights movement. By January,1943, students had begun to organize regular sit-ins and pickets at cigar stores and cafeterias around Washington and these protests continued until the administration asked the students to stop in the Fall of 1944. Historian Rayford Logan served as chair of the Department of History, E. Franklin Frazier served as chair of the Department of Sociology. Sterling Allen Brown served as chair of the Department of English, at the time, the Voting Rights bill was still pending in the House of Representatives. In 1975 the historic Freedmans Hospital closed after 112 years of use as Howard University College of Medicines primary teaching hospital, Howard University Hospital opened that same year and continues to be used as Howard University College of Medicines primary teaching hospital with service to the surrounding community
6.
American Broadcasting Company
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The network is headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City. There are additional offices and production facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles and Burbank. Since 2007, when ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC originally launched on October 12,1943, as a radio network, separated from and serving as the successor to the NBC Blue Network, which had been purchased by Edward J. Noble. It extended its operations to television in 1948, following in the footsteps of established broadcast networks CBS, in the mid-1950s, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, a chain of movie theaters that formerly operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. Leonard Goldenson, who had been the head of UPT, made the new television network profitable by helping develop, in 1996, most of Capital Cities/ABCs assets were purchased by The Walt Disney Company. The television network has eight owned-and-operated and over 232 affiliated television stations throughout the United States, most Canadians have access to at least one U. S. ABC News provides news and features content for radio stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting. In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by three companies, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Mutual Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company. The last was owned by electronics manufacturer Radio Corporation of America, in 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the practices of radio networks and published its report on the broadcasting of network radio programs in 1940. The report recommended that RCA give up control of either NBC Red or NBC Blue, at that time, the NBC Red Network was the principal radio network in the United States and, according to the FCC, RCA was using NBC Blue to eliminate any hint of competition. Once Mutuals appeals against the FCC were rejected, RCA decided to sell NBC Blue in 1941, the newly separated NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their respective corporate assets. Investment firm Dillon, Read & Co. offered $7.5 million to purchase the network, Edward John Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy, drugstore chain Rexall and New York City radio station WMCA, purchased the network for $8 million. Due to FCC ownership rules, the transaction, which was to include the purchase of three RCA stations by Noble, would require him to resell his station with the FCCs approval, the Commission authorized the transaction on October 12,1943. Soon afterward, the Blue Network was purchased by the new company Noble founded, Noble subsequently acquired the rights to the American Broadcasting Company name from George B. Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue Network, both stations were then managed by Don Searle, the vice-president of the Blue Networks West Coast division. The ABC Radio Network created its audience slowly, the network also became known for such suspenseful dramas as Sherlock Holmes, Gang Busters and Counterspy, as well as several mid-afternoon youth-oriented programs. S. From Nazi Germany after its conquest, to pre-record its programming, while its radio network was undergoing reconstruction, ABC found it difficult to avoid falling behind on the new medium of television. To ensure a space, in 1947, ABC submitted five applications for television station licenses, the ABC television network made its debut on April 19,1948, with WFIL-TV in Philadelphia becoming its first primary affiliate
7.
Black-ish
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Black-ish is an American sitcom starring Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross broadcast on ABC. The single-camera comedy centers on an upper-middle-class African-American family, the series premiered on September 24,2014. On March 3,2016, the show was renewed for a third season, Anthony Anderson as Andre Dre Johnson Sr. an advertising executive who tries to pass on some of his urban culture to his seemingly uninterested children. His alma mater is Howard University, Tracee Ellis Ross as Dr. Rainbow Bow Johnson, who is Dres wife. She is a biracial anesthesiologist who was raised by hippies and her alma mater is Brown University. Yara Shahidi as Zoey Johnson, Dre and Rainbows 17-year-old daughter and she is the attractive, popular, entitled, stylish, and socially active member of the Johnson family. Marcus Scribner as Andre Johnson Jr. Dre and Rainbows 16-year-old son and he is a so-called nerd who is confused by the world around him and frequently subjected to disdain and pettiness at the hands of his more shallow and obnoxious father and siblings. Miles Brown as Jack Johnson, Dre and Rainbows upbeat 8-year-old son, fraternal twin of Diane, marsai Martin as Diane Johnson, Dre and Rainbows 8-year-old daughter, fraternal twin of Jack, who considers herself smarter and more mature than her twin brother. Jenifer Lewis as Ruby Johnson, Dres mother, jeff Meacham as Josh Oppenhol, Dres co-worker. Peter Mackenzie as Leslie Stevens, Dres boss and co-owner of Stevens & Lido, Laurence Fishburne as Earl Pops Johnson, Dres father. Deon Cole as Charlie Telphy, Dres co-worker, raven-Symoné as Rhonda Johnson, Dres sister who is a lesbian but is not yet comfortable discussing her sexuality. Catherine Reitman as Lucy, Dres co-worker, wanda Sykes as Daphne Lido, ex-wife of Phillip Lido and new co-owner of Stevens & Lido. Allen Maldonado as Curtis Miller Jr. Dres co-worker, elle Young as Sharon Duckworth, Rhondas fiancée. Regina Hall as Vivian, Jack and Dianes nanny, daveed Diggs as Johan Johnson, Rainbows brother. Nelson Franklin as Connor Stevens, Leslie Stevens son, Diane Farr as Rachel, Stevens & Lidos HR rep. On January 16,2014, ABC greenlit the pilot episode, two weeks later, Larry Wilmore joined the show as showrunner. In mid-February, Laurence Fishburne was cast as the father of Andersons character, on May 8,2014, ABC picked up the pilot to the series for the 2014–15 television season. A few days later, Anderson announced that Larry Wilmore would be stepping down as early in the shows run due to his forthcoming late night show
8.
Fox Broadcasting Company
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The Fox Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. It is the third largest major network in the world based on total revenues, assets. Launched on October 9,1986 as a competitor to the Big Three television networks, Fox and its affiliated companies operate many entertainment channels in international markets, although these do not necessarily air the same programming as the U. S. network. Most viewers in Canada have access to at least one U. S, the network is named after sister company 20th Century Fox, and indirectly for producer William Fox, who founded one of the movie studios predecessors, Fox Film. Fox is a member of the North American Broadcasters Association and the National Association of Broadcasters, 20th Century Fox had been involved in television production as early as the 1950s, producing several syndicated programs. Following the demise of the DuMont Television Network in August of that year after it became mired in financial problems. 20th Century Fox would also produce original content for the NTA network, KTTV in Los Angeles, KRIV in Houston, WFLD-TV in Chicago, and KRLD-TV in Dallas. In October 1985, 20th Century Fox announced its intentions to form a television network that would compete with ABC, CBS. The plans were to use the combination of the Fox studios, organizational plans for the network were held off until the Metromedia acquisitions cleared regulatory hurdles. Then, in December 1985, Rupert Murdoch agreed to pay $325 million to acquire the remaining equity in TCF Holdings from his original partner, Marvin Davis. These first six stations, then broadcasting to a reach of 22% of the nations households. Except for KDAF, all of the original owned-and-operated stations are part of the Fox network today. Like the core O&O group, Foxs affiliate body consisted of independent stations. The Fox Broadcasting Company launched at 11,00 p. m. Eastern and its inaugural program was a late-night talk show, The Late Show, which was hosted by comedian Joan Rivers. By early 1987, Rivers quit The Late Show after disagreements with the network over the creative direction. The network expanded its programming into prime time on April 5,1987, with Children and the sketch comedy series The Tracey Ullman Show. Fox added one new show per week over the several weeks, with the drama 21 Jump Street. On July 11, the network rolled out its Saturday night schedule with the premiere of the drama series Werewolf
9.
The Bernie Mac Show
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The Bernie Mac Show is an American sitcom that aired on Fox for five seasons from November 14,2001 to April 14,2006. The series featured comic actor Bernie Mac and his wife Wanda raising his sisters three kids, Jordan, Vanessa, and Bryana, the series was loosely based on Macs stand-up comedy acts. In real life, Bernie Mac McCullough was married with one daughter, the pilot episode, aired on November 14,2001, set up the basic premise for the series, the character Bernie Mac takes in his sisters children after she enters rehab. Much of the humor in the show was derived from Macs continual adjustment to, towards the end of the series, Bryanas long-lost father returns and drops by from time to time to help Bernie and Wanda with the kids. Many of his most emotional scenes occurred in segments in which Mac, while still in character, broke the fourth wall and talked to the television audience. Bernie, who grew up on Chicagos south-side, was a fan of the White Sox and was seen at Game 1 of the World Series. As was also the case during his routine, Mac habitually addressed the audience as America for humorous effect. The lighting of the shots typically appears to be yellowish in color, Macs characters celebrity worked as a plot device allowing other celebrities to appear on the show as themselves. The series debuted in its slot on November 14,2001 with solid ratings in spite of a weak lead-in. The show had a successful first season and in the process won a handful of honors including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. Bernie Mac also received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. In fall 2002, the series aired against the Damon Wayans comedy My Wife, Larry Wilmore, the shows creator and executive producer, was fired at this time. In interviews, Wilmore said he was fed up with the creative interference with the show. Fox contended that it wasnt happy with the direction under Wilmore in the second season. With The Bernie Mac Show s inability to topple My Wife and Kids in the Wednesday 8 p. m. timeslot, Fox eventually aired the show after American Idol, after which it received its highest ratings ever. The third season was scheduled to start on October 29,2003, instead, the series started the season at the late date of November 30,2003. The ratings were mediocre, despite the ratings of its lead-in The Simpsons. In March 2004, the show was moved to Monday nights in a plan to boost ratings for the new show Cracking Up, Cracking Up was canceled and The Bernie Mac Show was pulled from May Sweeps with leftover episodes that aired in June
10.
The Shield
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The Shield is an American crime drama television series starring Michael Chiklis that premiered on March 12,2002, on FX in the United States, and concluded on November 25,2008, after seven seasons. The series was created by Shawn Ryan and The Barn Productions for Fox Television Studios, the series has received critical acclaim, as well as several awards and nominations. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama in 2002, in 2013, TV Guide ranked The Shield #50 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time. Chiklis won both the Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actor in a Drama in 2002, rampart was seriously considered as the series name and was even used in some early promotional ads for the series. The show has an ensemble cast and, as a result, Detective Vic Mackey is the leader of the Strike Team, which also comprises Mackeys close friends Shane Vendrell, Curtis Lemansky, and Ronnie Gardocki. The Strike Team uses a variety of illegal and unethical methods to prosecute criminals and maintain peace on the streets, while making a profit through illegal drug protection schemes and robbery. The Strike Team isnt above planting drugs on, and coercing confessions out of, gang members, attempts to give the team a fifth member have frequently led to near-catastrophe for the group. As the series progresses, the Strike Team members struggle to cover up their crimes in the face of increasing pressure, other prominent figures at the barn include Captain David Aceveda, detectives Holland Dutch Wagenbach, Steve Billings and Claudette Wyms, and uniformed officers Sgt. Danielle Danny Sofer, Julien Lowe, and Tina Hanlon, a predominant theme of The Shield is two wrongs dont make a right. Many episodes and story lines involve cover-ups by characters that lead to an adverse situation. Other common themes include the citizens distrust of police, the impact of drugs and gang warfare. The majority of conversations among characters on the show involve one persons using leverage over another, most characters are portrayed as displaying both vice and virtue. For example, in Season 2, the Strike Team prepares to rob the Armenian Money Train, another example is Mackey letting a serial rapist be mauled by a police dog before calling the dog off. Season 1 consisted of 13 episodes and it premiered on March 12,2002, and concluded on June 4,2002. David Aceveda is assigned as the new Captain of the Barn, one of his top priorities is to get Detective Vic Mackey, leader of the experimental anti-gang unit called the Strike Team, off the streets. Aceveda suspects Mackey is involved in corrupt, illegal activities favoring drug dealer Rondell Robinson, to capture him, Aceveda asks a newly appointed member of the team, Terry Crowley, to gather evidence for Mackeys prosecution. Although reluctant, Crowley agrees, unaware that Mackey already knows about his assignment, acevedas long-term ambition is to become Mayor of Los Angeles. To do this, he must first be elected to the City Council, however, the Latino community is distrustful of law enforcement and would only support a police officer if he had exposed corruption in the police force
11.
New York City Police Department
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The New York City Police Department, officially the City of New York Police Department, is the largest municipal police force in the United States. Established in 1845, the agency has primary responsibilities in law enforcement, the NYPD is one of the oldest police departments established in the U. S. tracing its roots back to the nineteenth century. According to the department, its mission is to enforce the laws, preserve the peace, reduce fear, the departments regulations are compiled in title 38 of the New York City Rules. In June 2004, there were about 40,000 sworn officers plus several thousand employees, in June 2005. As of December 2011, that figure increased slightly to over 36,600, the NYPDs current authorized uniformed strength is 34,450. The Patrolmens Benevolent Association of the City of New York, the largest municipal police union in the United States, represents over 50,000 active, the NYPD Intelligence Division & Counter-Terrorism Bureau has officers stationed in 11 cities internationally. In the 1990s the department developed a CompStat system of management which has also since established in other cities. The NYPD is headquartered at 1 Police Plaza, located on Park Row in Lower Manhattan across the street from City Hall, the NYPD has extensive crime scene investigation and laboratory resources, as well as units which assist with computer crime investigations. The NYPD runs a Real Time Crime Center, essentially a search engine. A Domain Awareness System, a joint project of Microsoft and the NYPD, links 6,000 closed-circuit television cameras, license plate readers, members of the NYPD are frequently referred to by politicians, some media and their own police cars by the nickname New Yorks Finest. The Municipal Police were established in 1845, replacing an old night watch system, in 1857, it was tumultuously replaced by a Metropolitan force, which consolidated many other local police departments in 1898. Twentieth-century trends included professionalization and struggles against corruption, Officers begin service with the rank of Probationary Police Officer, also referred to as Recruit Officer. After successful completion of six months of Police Academy training and various academic, physical, There are three career tracks in the NYPD, supervisory, investigative, and specialist. The supervisory track consists of 12 sworn titles, referred to as ranks, promotion to the ranks of sergeant, lieutenant, and captain are made via competitive civil service examinations. Promotion from the rank of police officer to detective is determined by the current police labor contract, the entry level appointment to detective is third grade or specialist. The commissioner may grant discretionary grades of first or second and these grades offer compensation roughly equivalent to that of supervisors. Specifically, a second grade detectives pay roughly corresponds to a sergeants, Detectives are police officers who have been given a more investigatory position but no official supervisory authority. A Detective First Grade still falls under the command of a sergeant or above, just like detectives, sergeants and lieutenants can receive pay grade increases within their respective ranks
12.
Kevin Bernard
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Kevin Bernard is a fictional character on the TV crime drama Law & Order, portrayed by Anthony Anderson. Bernard appears in his position as junior detective for part of the eighteenth season, as well as all of the nineteenth and twentieth seasons of the show. The back story is that Bernard had not joined IAB willingly, on the show itself, Green is eventually cleared of all charges, but he subsequently leaves the precinct. Following Greens departure, Bernard replaces him as the partner of Detective Cyrus Lupo, Bernards detective shield number is 1954. Bernards duty weapon is a Glock 19, in season 19, he and Lupo become the first main characters in the franchise to kill a suspect in the line of duty when they shoot a murder suspect who pulls a gun on them. In terms of views, Bernards character represents a generally conservative influence in the detective squad of the shows fictional 27th Precinct. However, in the season 19 episode Sweetie he tells the bartender of a gay bar, Trust me, one important personal quirk that the show bestows on Bernards character is that he does not like dogs, due to his nickname in Catholic school, Saint Bernard. Although the majority of the show as a whole focuses on office matters or other events during work hours, season 20 does give a glimpse into Bernards personal history
13.
Law & Order
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Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It originally aired on NBC and, in syndication, on cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13,1990, and completed its 20th, at the time of its cancellation, Law & Order was the longest-running crime drama on American primetime television. Its record of 20 seasons is a tie with Gunsmoke for the longest-running live-action scripted American prime-time series with ongoing characters, although it has fewer episodes than Gunsmoke, Law & Order ranks as the longest-running hour-long primetime TV series. Gunsmoke, for its first six seasons, was originally a half-hour program, plots are often based on real cases that recently made headlines, although the motivation for the crime and the perpetrator may be different. The show has been noted for its revolving cast over the years, the success of the series has led to the creation of additional shows, making Law & Order a franchise, with also a television film, several video games, and international adaptations of the series. It has won and has been nominated for awards over the years. On May 14,2010, NBC announced that it had canceled Law & Order, in July 2010, however, he indicated that those attempts had failed and declared that the series had now moved to the history books. However, in February 2015, rumors started that NBC was planning to bring the back for 10 episodes. In May 2015, former star Sam Waterston announced to The Hollywood Reporter that he supports and would join a revival of Law & Order, saying, Youre darn right. Creator Dick Wolf has expressed wanting to use a L&O revival to do a ripped from the headlines story-line surrounding the trial of Robert Durst. Everybody who knows me knows its something I want to do, he continued, at the 2015 Television Critics Association summer press tour, Wolf noted everyone wants a revival, It is a question of. Most of the involved are very successful in their careers. To try to get everything in sequence is more difficult than it looks on the outside. I would love to do it if we can make it work, in 1988, Dick Wolf developed a concept for a new television series that would depict a relatively optimistic picture of the American criminal justice system. He initially toyed with the idea of calling it Night & Day, the first half of each episode would follow two detectives and their commanding officer as they investigate a violent crime. The second half of the episode would follow the District Attorneys Office, through this, Law & Order would be able to investigate some of the larger issues of the day by focusing on stories that were based on real cases making headlines. Wolf took the idea to then-president of Universal Television Kerry McCluggage, who pointed out the similarity to a 1963 series titled Arrest and Trial, which lasted one season
14.
Me, Myself & Irene
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Me, Myself & Irene is a 2000 American black comedy film directed by the Farrelly brothers, and starring Jim Carrey and Renée Zellweger. Chris Cooper, Robert Forster, Richard Jenkins, Daniel Greene, Anthony Anderson, Jerod Mixon and this was also Carreys first role in a 20th Century Fox film. Charlie Baileygates is a veteran Rhode Island State Police trooper who has taken advantage of by others. In the present, Charlie has raised as his own the triplets, Jamal, Lee Harvey, and Shonté Jr, likewise geniuses, Charlie is continually abused by others. As a result of years of treatment, Charlie develops a split personality named Hank to deal with the confrontations Charlie avoids. Emerging whenever Charlie is under stress, Hank is an over-the-top, rude. A psychiatrist prescribes medication to keep Charlies Hank personality at bay, believing that Charlie needs a vacation, his commanding officer orders him to escort Irene Waters from Rhode Island to Massena, New York, because she reportedly committed a hit-and-run. Charlie keeps Irene safe, and they flee, accidentally leaving his medication behind, meanwhile, the FBI suspects that Charlie is responsible for the murder of the EPA agent. FBI agents begin pursuing him and Irene, as do crooked police officers in Dickies pay, Boshane, the chase becomes a media spectacle, alerting Charlies sons to his predicament. Charlie and Irene decide to return to Rhode Island, developing a bond along the way, though Irene is taken by Charlies personality, the frequent emergences by Hank worry her, though his more aggressive personality keeps them out of trouble. Along the way pick up Casper aka Whitey, an albino waiter from a restaurant who claims he killed his entire family in the past. While stopping at a motel, Charlie discovers how he might be able to suppress Hank and goes to have a conversation with Irene about it, the next morning, Hank reveals that actually it was he who slept with Irene. They board a train back to Rhode Island, Dickie boards the same train, unable to rely on his henchmen to stop Charlie and Irene. He kidnaps her, and Charlie gives chase, working together with Hank to save her, Hank then appears to try to stop Charlie from rescuing her, but Charlie finally stands up for himself against his own fears, thus permanently nullifying Hank. As Charlie tries to wrestle her back and disarm Dickie on a bridge, Dickie is then hit from behind by a lawn dart thrown by Casper, killing him. Charlie and Irene fall from the bridge into a river below, regrouping with Casper, Charlie apologizes for making him kill again, but Casper reveals he made up his backstory due to the fact that Charlie talked too much at the motel and scared him. The police arrive but quickly learn of Irenes plight and the corrupt cops working for Dickie, Gerke is arrested, Charlie is congratulated for bringing him to justice, and Irene is cleared of the charges against her. Irene prepares to leave Rhode Island when she is pulled over by the police, but this only to be a diversion to allow Charlie to propose marriage to her
15.
Kangaroo Jack
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Kangaroo Jack is a 2003 American-Australian buddy-action comedy film from Warner Bros. Kangaroo Jack was theatrically released on January 17,2003 by Warner Bros, an animated childrens sequel titled Kangaroo Jack, GDay U. S. A. was produced and released on video in 2004. The film was panned by critics, critics overall expressed dislike for the films acting, directing, and writing, especially for a film aimed at children. It received a rating of 8% on Rotten Tomatoes and it earned $88,929,111 on a $60 million budget, Kangaroo Jack was released on DVD and VHS on June 24,2003 by Warner Home Video. In 1982 New York, a boy named Charlie Carbone is about to become the stepson of a mobster named Salvatore Maggio, after they botch the job of hiding some stolen goods, resulting in some of Sals men getting arrested, Sal gives Charlie and Louis one more chance. Under instructions from Frankie, they have to deliver a package to Australia to a man named Mr. Smith, Frankie also tells them that should they run into trouble, they should call Mr. Smith at the phone number he gives them. Unknown to Charlie and Louis, Sal tells his Capo that he is cancelling their return trip, once on the plane Louis opens the package, to find $50,000 in cash. Upon landing they rent a car, on their way to Mr. Smith, they accidentally run over a kangaroo. Thinking its dead, Louis puts his jacket on the kangaroo and with Charlies sunglasses for a joke, as they think the kangaroo looks like Jackie Legs. The kangaroo then regains consciousness and hops away with one problem, at a nearby pub, Louis manages to call Mr. Smith and tell him about their situation. Mr. Smith tells Louis that they had better have his money when he meets them and he plans to find them himself. Back in New York City, Salvatore gets a call from Mr. Smith saying that Charlie, Salvatore sends Frankie and some men to Australia to investigate. Meanwhile, one of the attempts to reclaim the money strands Charlie and they meet and get help from a woman named Jessie. They then track the kangaroo at a nearby valley, Mr. Smith and his henchmen arrive soon after and capture the trio. Charlie and Louis outsmart them, only to find Frankie has tracked them and is prepared to kill them, after getting the money back from the kangaroo, they learn from Frankie that Sal really sent them to Australia to pay for their own execution. Out of nowhere, police arrive and arrest Frankie, Mr. Smith and their henchmen, one year later, in 2003, Charlie and Jessie are married and sell their new shampoo, having used the payoff money to start up a line of hair care products. Frankie and his men have been imprisoned for life, which Sal has failed at avoiding, as for the kangaroo, he is still happily hopping around the outback. Smith Bill Hunter as Blue Tony Nikolakopoulos as Sals Capo David Ngoombujara as Sr. Sgt, Mr. Jimmy Inkamale, Australian Police Initially the films screenplay was titled Down and Under and was described as a mafia comedy in the style of Midnight Run
16.
Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
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Agent Cody Banks 2, Destination London is a 2004 American action comedy film and the sequel to the 2003 film Agent Cody Banks. Directed by Kevin Allen and written by Don Rhymer, the film stars Frankie Muniz, Hannah Spearritt, Anthony Anderson, the film takes place in London with Cody trying to recover a stolen software and stop the activation of the governments mind control project. The film and was released in the United States on March 12,2004 and grossed $28 million worldwide, Agent Cody Banks attends summer camp, actually a secret facility for training CIA teenage agents. When a group of CIA soldiers attempt to abduct head counselor Victor Diaz, Cody helps him escape, the director informs Cody that Diaz stole disks containing plans for a secret mind-control device, and sends Cody to recapture him. The next day, Cody breaks into a lab owned by Duncan, where he sees the finished device, a microchip inserted as a filling into a tooth cavity by dentist Santiago. Shortly afterwards Cody and Derek chase Diaz, armed with a gun, through London streets. He is later freed by Emily, a student who. While Emily buys coffee and soda, henchmen sneak up on Cody and they kidnap him and implant him with the microchip. Under Duncan, Santiago and Diazs influence, Cody meets the CIA director and this is witnessed by Emily, who explains things to Derek. To get the out of Cody, Derek cuts one of Codys gadgets, exploding Mentos mints. The group later realise Diazs plan, to implant all of the world leaders, deducing that with the CIA director under Diazs control, they may be put on a most wanted list, Cody, Derek and Emily infiltrate the party before the summit. There, they realize that most of the dignitaries have already been implanted due to bizarre behavior and they explain the truth to the other students, who are performing for the guests, and urge them to keep the world leaders from attending the G7 summit. Derek is implanted with the microchip, and is set on Cody by Santiago, before Santiago can kill him through Derek, Emily finds and subdues him, disabling the mind control software and rescuing the U. S. President, who was to be implanted. Shortly after Cody kicks out Dereks microchip, the two of them remove the CIA directors microchip. Diaz, realising that his plan has failed attempts to flee, but ends up fighting, Duncan also attempts to escape, but is tripped by his apparently senile and blind butler, who turns out to be Emilys handler and is arrested, much to Lady Kenworths delight. After the villains are arrested, Cody returns to the camp, Codys parents pick him up, none the wiser about his dangerous exploits. Alex, Codys younger brother tries to eat a few of his explosive Mentos, but Cody tosses them into the pond where they explode harmlessly
17.
The Departed
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The Departed is a 2006 American crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg, with Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson and Alec Baldwin in supporting roles. The film takes place in Boston, simultaneously, the police assign undercover state trooper William Billy Costigan to infiltrate Costellos crew. When both sides realize the situation, Sullivan and Costigan both attempt to discover the identity before their covers are blown. The film was a critical and commercial success and won awards, including four Oscars at the 79th Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay. Wahlberg was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor, as a child, Colin Sullivan had been introduced to organized crime by Irish-American mobster Frank Costello in the Irish neighborhood of South Boston. Over the years, Costello grooms him to become a mole inside the Massachusetts State Police, until Sullivan is accepted into the Special Investigations Unit and he drops out of the academy and does time in prison on a fake assault charge to increase his credibility. Each man infiltrates his respective organization, and Sullivan begins a romance with police psychiatrist Madolyn Madden, Costigan is seeing her under the terms of his probation, and they begin a relationship, too. After Costello escapes a sting operation, each mole becomes aware of the others existence, Sullivan is told to find the rat and asks Costello for information to identify the informer. Costigan follows Costello into a theater, where Costello gives Sullivan an envelope containing personal information on his crew members. When it is over, neither man knows the others identity, Sullivan has Queenan tailed to a meeting with Costigan on the roof of a building. Queenan orders Costigan to flee while he confronts Costellos men alone, the men then throw Queenan off the building to his death. When they exit, Costigan pretends he has come to join them, television news reveals that crew member Delahunt has been an undercover cop, working for the Boston Police Department. Dignam resigns rather than work with Sullivan, who he suspects is the mole after he is asked why he had Queenan followed, using Queenans phone, Sullivan reaches Costigan, who refuses to abort his mission. Sullivan learns from Queenans diary of Costellos role as an informant for the FBI, with Costigans help, Costello is traced to a cocaine drop-off, where a gunfight erupts between Costellos crew and the police, which results in most of the crew being killed. Costello, confronted by Sullivan, admits he is an FBI informant, Costello tries to shoot Sullivan, but Sullivan shoots him multiple times. With Costello dead, Sullivan is applauded the next day by everyone on the force, fearing retaliation, Sullivan erases Costigans records from the police computer system. Sullivan is unaware that Madolyn had an affair with Costigan when she tells Sullivan that she is pregnant, later, Sullivan finds her listening to a CD from Costigan containing incriminating recorded conversations between Costello and Sullivan
18.
Transformers (film)
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Transformers is a 2007 American science fiction action film based on the Transformers toy line created by Hasbro. The film, which combines animation with live-action, is directed by Michael Bay. It is the first installment of the live-action Transformers film series, the film was produced by Don Murphy and Tom DeSanto. They developed the project in 2003, and DeSanto wrote a treatment, Steven Spielberg came on board the following year, hiring Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman to write the screenplay. Armed Forces and General Motors loaned vehicles and aircraft during filming, hasbros promotional campaign for the film included deals with hundreds of companies. Advertising included a viral marketing campaign, coordinated releases of prequel comic books, toys, and books, as well as product placement deals with GM, Burger King, and eBay. The film won four awards from the Visual Effects Society and was nominated for three Academy Awards, for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. LaBeoufs performance was praised by Empire, and Cullens reprisal of Optimus Prime from the 1980s television series was received by fans. A sequel, Revenge of the Fallen, was released on June 24,2009, a third film, Dark of the Moon, was released on June 29,2011, in 3-D and went on to gross over $1 billion. A fourth entry, Age of Extinction, was released on June 27,2014, a fifth installment, titled Transformers, The Last Knight, is scheduled for a June 23,2017 release. Several thousand years ago, the planet Cybertron was consumed by a war by the two Transformer factions, the Autobots led by Optimus Prime and the Decepticons led by Megatron. Optimus jettisoned the AllSpark, an artifact that brings life to the planet, into space. Megatron crashed in the Arctic Circle and froze, and was discovered in 1895 by explorer Archibald Witwicky, Witwicky activated Megatron’s navigational system, which scanned the AllSpark’s coordinates into his glasses. The glasses end up in the possession of his great-great-grandson Sam Witwicky, in the present, Sam buys his first car, a rusting Chevrolet Camaro, but discovers it has a life of its own. In modern Qatar, Blackout attacks and destroys a United States military base in a attempt to hack the military network to find information on Megatron. A team of Army Rangers led by Captain William Lennox escape across the desert and they fight Scorponok off, aided by aerial reinforcements, and travel home with Scorponok’s stinger, discovering sabot rounds damaged the armor. At the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense John Keller leads the investigation into the attack, Sound analyst Maggie Madsen catches another Decepticon, Frenzy, hacking into the network while onboard Air Force One. While the hack is thwarted, Frenzy downloads files on Archibald’s glasses, tracking down Sam with Barricade, disguised as a police car
19.
Scream 4
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Scream 4 is a 2011 American slasher film and the fourth and final installment in the Scream series. The plot involves Sidney Prescott returning to Woodsboro after ten years, as soon as she arrives, Ghostface once again begins killing students from Woodsboro High. Originally, the series was intended to be a trilogy, filming took place in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan, in June 2010 to September 2010, with re-shoots in early 2011. Scream 4 was released on April 15,2011 and grossed $97 million against its $40 million budget and it received mixed reviews from critics although many noted it as an improvement over Scream 3. On the fifteenth anniversary of the original Woodsboro murders, high school students Jenny Randall and Marnie Cooper are attacked, the following day, Sidney Prescott returns to Woodsboro to promote her new book, Out of Darkness, with her publicist Rebecca Walters. After evidence is found in Sidneys rental car, Sidney becomes a suspect in the murders, Sidneys teenage cousin Jill, who is dealing with the betrayal of her ex-boyfriend, Trevor Sheldon, gets a threatening phone call from Ghostface. She and her friends Olivia Morris and Kirby Reed, are questioned about their calls by Dewey Riley, meanwhile, Deweys wife, Gale Weathers-Riley, is struggling with writers block. She gives up the writing and decides to investigate the murder instead, Sidney stays with her aunt Kate Roberts. Later that night, Olivia, who lives next door to Jill, is attacked and killed by Ghostface as Jill, Sidney and Jill rush in to save Olivia, but the killer injures them and gets away. Sidney and Jill are taken to the hospital, later, in the hospitals parking garage, Ghostface murders Rebecca. Gale, trying to solve the murders, enlists the help of two high school movie fanatics Charlie Walker and Robbie Mercer, who explain that the killer is using the rules of movie remakes to murder. Charlie concludes that the killer will strike at a party being held that night. Gale goes to the party to investigate, Ghostface attacks and stabs her but flees when Dewey arrives. Dewey takes her to the hospital, at Jills house, Sidney discovers that the policemen assigned to guard the house are dead. She also discovers that Jill has left the house and gone to Kirbys, Sidney goes down to tell Kate, but the killer appears and chases her and Kate. In the ensuing attempt to keep Ghostface from entering the house, after Deputy Judy Hicks arrives, Sidney rushes to Kirbys house to save Jill on her own. Jill, Kirby, Charlie, Robbie, and Trevor are at Kirbys house when Ghostface appears and stabs, Kirby is forced to answer horror movie trivia to save Charlie, who is tied up outside. Sidney goes upstairs to find Jill, promising to return to Kirby, after Kirby answers Ghostfaces questions, she goes outside to untie Charlie, believing that she has won the game
20.
Food Network
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Food Network is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Television Food Network, G. P. A joint venture between Scripps Networks Interactive and the Tribune Cable Ventures Inc, despite this ownership structure, the channel is managed as a division of Scripps Networks Interactive. The channel airs both specials and regular episodic programs about food and cooking, in addition to its headquarters in New York City, Food Network has offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Jersey City, Cincinnati, and Knoxville, Tennessee. As of February 2015, Food Network is available to approximately 96,931,000 pay television households in the United States. Food Network was founded on April 19,1993 as TV Food Network and was launched on November 22 of that year, its name remains Television Food Network. Within a few years, the network had shortened its brand name by removing the TV from its name. It was developed by Reese Schonfeld, under the direction of Providence Journal president Trygve Myrhen, the network was initially launched as a preview in September 1993 with two initial shows featuring David Rosengarten, Donna Hanover, and Robin Leach. Schonfeld, who was also a partner in the company, was appointed as managing director of TV Food Network and maintained a spot on its management board along with two Providence Journal employees. The original lineup for the network included Emeril Lagasse, Debbi Fields, Donna Hanover, David Rosengarten, Curtis Aikens, Dr. Louis Arrone, Jacques Pépin, the following year, the network acquired the rights to the Julia Child library from WGBH. In 1995, Schonfeld resigned as managing director of the network, but remained on its board until 1998, in fact, in 1997, it was the second fastest growing cable network. Greg Willis and Cathy Rasenberger were the two of the members of the start-up team who led the affiliate sales and marketing of the company from 1995 to 1998. Greg Willis served as vice president of worldwide distribution until he left to join Liberty Media in 1998. The A. H. Belo Corporation acquired Food Network when it purchased The Providence Journal Company in 1996, Myrhen left the Journal Company the following year. Belo sold the network to the E. W. Scripps Company in 1997, in a deal that resulted in Belo acquiring the television-radio station combination of KENS-AM/TV in San Antonio. In March 2009, the Food Network launched a repurposed Food. com as a site that allows users to aggregate. The 1080i high definition simulcast feed of Food Network launched on March 31,2008, Food Network was first launched outside of North America in the United Kingdom on November 9,2009, and in Asia on July 5,2010. Since the UK launch on November 9,2009 on Sky, Food Network programming is divided into a daytime block known as Food Network in the Kitchen and a primetime lineup branded as Food Network Nighttime. Promos identify Food Network Nighttime programming but not In the Kitchen daytime programming, Food Network airs infomercials on Sundays from 4,00 to 9,30 a. m
21.
Iron Chef America
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Iron Chef America, The Series is an American cooking show based on Fuji Televisions Iron Chef, and is the second American adaptation of the series, following the failed Iron Chef USA. The show is produced by Food Network, which carried a dubbed version of the original Iron Chef. Like the original Japanese program, the program is a game show. In each episode, a new challenger chef competes against one of the resident Iron Chefs in a cooking competition based on a secret ingredient or ingredients. The show is presented as a successor to the original Iron Chef, the Chairman is portrayed by actor and martial artist Mark Dacascos, who is introduced as the nephew of the original Japanese chairman Takeshi Kaga. The commentary is provided solely by Alton Brown, & Kevin Brauch is the floor reporter, the music is written by composer Craig Marks, who released the soundtrack titled Iron Chef America & The Next Iron Chef by the end of 2010. In addition, regular ICA judge and Chopped host Ted Allen provided additional floor commentary for two battles, Battle First Thanksgiving and Battle White House Produce. For the Battle of the Masters, the elder Chairman dispatched two Iron Chefs, Hiroyuki Sakai and Masaharu Morimoto, in Season 11, the shows fiction expanded to include international Iron Chefs, spread by the Chairman like Johnny Appleseed. In the first episode of that season Iron Chef UK chef Judy Joo competed on the US show against Iron Chef Guarnaschelli as an Iron Chef, unlike the original Iron Chef or Iron Chef USA, Alton Brown, rather than the Chairman, is credited as the shows host. The win/loss data is based solely on the performance of the participant as an Iron Chef in Iron Chef America, The Series, on the left shoulder of each jacket was a flag representing the Chefs country of origin. During the shows season, designer and Iron Chef America judge Marc Ecko designed new jackets for the Iron Chefs. With the exception of Symon and Garces, the jackets have long, Iron Chef with the chefs last name underneath is embroidered in the font from the shows logo on the left front side of the jacket, in the manner of a traditional chefs coat. The jackets also include a large embroidered Iron Chef patch on the arm also bearing the chefs name. Iron Chef America first aired as a special titled Iron Chef America, unlike Iron Chef USA, Iron Chef America quickly earned legitimacy with the appearance of Iron Chefs Hiroyuki Sakai and Masaharu Morimoto. The first Battle of the Masters involved Sakai and Flay, with the theme of trout, other battles in Battle of the Masters were Morimoto taking on Batali, Morimoto taking on Wolfgang Puck, and a tag team battle where Morimoto and Flay teamed up against Sakai and Batali. Battle of the Masters was largely successful and a series was commissioned. The regular series is taped in New York, while Battle of the Masters took place in Los Angeles at Los Angeles Center Studios, because of his other interests, Puck was forced to decline to appear in the regular series, and Morimoto took his place. Later that season, Cat Cora debuted as an Iron Chef during Battle Potato, the second season of Iron Chef America began airing in July 2005
22.
To Tell the Truth
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As of the 2016 version, a total of 26 seasons of the various versions of To Tell the Truth have been produced, surpassing the 25 of Whats My Line. and the 20 of Ive Got a Secret. The show features a panel of four celebrities whose object is the identification of a described contestant who has an unusual occupation or has undergone an unusual experience. This central character is accompanied by two impostors who pretend to be the character, together, the three persons are said to belong to a team of challengers. The celebrity panelists question the three contestants, the impostors are allowed to lie, but the character is sworn to tell the truth. After questioning, the attempts to identify which of the three challengers is telling the truth and is thus the central character. Although there have some variations in the rules over the years. Three challengers are introduced, all claiming to be the central character, the announcer typically asks the challengers, who stand side by side, What is your name, please. Each challenger then states, My name is, the celebrity panelists then read along as the host reads aloud a signed affidavit about the central character. The panelists are given a period of time to question the challengers. Questions are directed to the challengers by number, with the central character sworn to give truthful answers, and the impostors permitted to lie and pretend to be the central character. Any panelist who knows one of the challengers or has another advantage is required to recuse or disqualify himself or herself which. Once the votes are in, the host asks, Will the real please stand up, the central character then stands, often after some brief playful feinting and false starts among all three challengers. Occasionally, the character would be asked to do something else related to their story instead of standing up. The two impostors then reveal their names and their actual occupations. Prize money is awarded and divided among all three of the based on the number of incorrect votes the impostors draw. The series was recorded in New York City, initially at CBS-TV Studio 52, the existence of an audience ticket for a taping indicates that the show originated in color at the CBS Broadcast Center in late 1966. Bud Collyer was the shows host, recurring panelists by the 1960s included Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean, and Kitty Carlisle. Earlier regular panelists had included Johnny Carson, Polly Bergen, Jayne Meadows, Don Ameche, Hy Gardner, Dick Van Dyke, Faye Emerson, Hildy Parks, John Cameron Swayze, and Ralph Bellamy
23.
Little Rock, Arkansas
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Little Rock is the capital and the most populous city of the U. S. state of Arkansas. It is also the county seat of Pulaski County and it was incorporated on November 7,1831, on the south bank of the Arkansas River close to the geographic center of the state. The city derives its name from a rock formation along the river, the capital of the Arkansas Territory was moved to Little Rock from Arkansas Post in 1821. The citys population was 193,524 at the 2010 census, Little Rock is a cultural, economic, government, and transportation center within Arkansas and the South. Little Rocks history is available through history museums, historic districts or neighborhoods like the Quapaw Quarter, the city is the headquarters of Dillards, Windstream Communications, Acxiom, Stephens Inc. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Heifer International, the Clinton Foundation, other large corporations, such as Dassault Falcon Jet and LM Wind Power have large operations in the city. State government is an employer, with many offices being located in downtown Little Rock. Two Interstate highways, Interstate 30 and Interstate 40, meet in Little Rock, Little Rock derives its name from a small rock formation on the south bank of the Arkansas River called le petit rocher. The little rock was used by river traffic as a landmark. The little rock is across the river from big rock, a bluff at the edge of the river. Archeological artifacts provide evidence of Native Americans inhabiting Central Arkansas for thousands of years before Europeans arrived, the early inhabitants may have been the Folsom people, Bluff Dwellers, and Mississippian culture peoples who built earthwork mounds recorded in 1541 by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. Historical tribes of the area were the Caddo, Quapaw, Osage, Choctaw, Little Rock was named for a stone outcropping on the bank of the Arkansas River used by early travelers as a landmark. Le Petit Rocher, named in 1722 by French explorer and trader Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe, Travelers referred to the area as the Little Rock, and the landmark name stuck. Little Rock is located at 34°44′10″N 92°19′52″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 116.8 square miles, of which,116.2 square miles of it is land and 0.6 square miles of it is water. Little Rock is located on the bank of the Arkansas River in Central Arkansas. Fourche Creek and Rock Creek run through the city, and flow into the river, the western part of the city is located in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains. Northwest of the city limits are Pinnacle Mountain and Lake Maumelle, the city of North Little Rock is located just across the river from Little Rock, but it is a separate city. North Little Rock was once the 8th ward of Little Rock, an Arkansas Supreme Court decision on February 6,1904, allowed the ward to merge with the neighboring town of North Little Rock
24.
Bubi people
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Once the majority group in the region, the population experienced a sharp decline due to disease and outright killing sprees during Portuguese expeditions. Seventy-five percent perished due to tribal/clan rooted political genocide during a war that led to Spanish Guineas independence from Spain. This, too, sparked mass exodus from their homeland with most of the exiles and refugees immigrating into Spain, once numbering over 3 million, the Bubi currently number less than 100,000 worldwide. The Bubi people have held little political power. Despite this, the majority of Bubi descendants, both living in Equatorial Guinea and exiles abroad, hold political and economic stake in their native land. Most Bubi people that remain on Bioko Island, as well as native to Gabon. Many of the islanders also speak Spanish as a secondary language and those native to Cameroon speak Bubia. The name applied to the tribe, Bubi, did not originate from within the tribe and it was given to them by pre-colonial visitors to the island of Bioko. It has been suggested that the term bubi was derived from the bubi word boobè which means man, more than likely, the term was taken from Europeans who had heard the manner in which the indigenous people of Bioko Island greeted one another. A boobe, oipodi translates into good morning, man, from the word boobè, meaning male, the term Bubi was derived by foreigners. Subsequently, the term bubi was adopted by the indigenous people, originally the Bubi referred to themselves as people of the land who are among the living. Indigenous Bubi folklore indicate that the tribe immigrated to Bioko Island some 3,000 years ago as a means of escaping servitude. However, according to evidence, the Bubi immigrated to Bioko Island some time during the 13th century. Other reports suggest that the tribe arrived between the 5th and the 18th centuries from southern Cameroon and the area of the Rio Muni. One perspective offers that the Bubi were once enslaved by a single continental African tribe, in essence, the tribe is a result of an amalgamation of small tribal groups who immigrated to Bioko Island in several waves, and each group established its own enclave upon the island. Throughout their history, these engaged in brutal battles for supremacy. The Bubi were known to have had long battles against one another on an individual, family, district, city, with the arrival of Portuguese explorer Fernando Po, life changed drastically for the native Bubi. Some sources claim that a full 80% of tribespeople were killed by foreign plagues and fever, other sources suggest that the high death ratio is a result of genocide
25.
Bioko
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Bioko is an island 32 km off the west coast of Africa, and the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea. Its population was 334,463 at the 2015 Census and it covers an area of 2,017 km2, the island is located off Cameroon, in the Bight of Bonny portion of the Gulf of Guinea. Its geology is volcanic, its highest peak is Pico Basile at 3,012 m, Bioko has a total area of 2,017 km2. It is 70 km long from NNE to SSW and about 32 km across and it is volcanic and very mountainous with the highest peak Pico Basile. It thus resembles neighbouring islands São Tomé and Príncipe, like them, it lies on the Cameroon line. Bioko used to be the end of an attached to the mainland in what is now Cameroon. The island has a population of 334,463 inhabitants and its historic indigenous people are the Bubi people who currently constitute 58% of the population. Other ethnicities include the Fang, the Igbo who constitute 7% of the population, biokos native name is Otcho in the Bube language. The Portuguese navigator Fernão do Pó in 1472 named it Formosa Flora, the island was inhabited in the middle of the first millennium BC by Bantu tribes from the mainland, who formed the Bubi ethnic group. Unlike other islands in the area, Bioko had an indigenous African population, the Bubi speak a Bantu language. The island has probably been inhabited by this or other Bantu-speaking groups since before the 7th century BC, in 1472, the Portuguese navigator Fernão do Pó was the first European to visit the island. In 1494 it was renamed Fernando Pó in his honor after being claimed as a colony by the Portuguese, the Portuguese developed the island for sugarcane crops, and while considered poor quality, the refineries output was such that Fernando Po sugar briefly dominated the trade centres in Europe. In 1642, the Dutch East India Company established trade bases on the island without Portuguese consent and it temporarily centralized from there its slave trade in the Gulf of Guinea. The Portuguese appeared again on the island in 1648, replacing the Dutch Company with one of their own, also dedicated to slave trading and established in its neighbour island Corisco. Parallel with this establishment, the Bubi clans began the process of establishing the core of a new kingdom on the island. During a period when enslavement was increasing in the region, local clans abandoned their coastal settlements, under the 1778 Treaty of El Pardo, Portugal ceded Fernando Po, Annobón, and the Guinea coast, Rio Muni, to Spain, together forming modern Equatorial Guinea. The treaty was signed by Queen Mary I of Portugal and King Charles III of Spain, in exchange for territory on the American continent, Spain mounted an expedition to Fernando Po, led by the Conde de Argelejos, who stayed for four months. In October 1778, Spain installed a governor on the island who stayed until 1780, chief Molambo was succeeded by another local leader, Lorite, who was succeeded by Lopoa
26.
Equatorial Guinea
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Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country located in Central Africa, with an area of 28,000 square kilometres. Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name evokes its location near both the Equator and the Gulf of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea is the only sovereign African state in which Spanish is an official language. As of 2015, the country has an population of over 1.2 million. Equatorial Guinea consists of two parts, an insular and a mainland region, the insular region consists of the islands of Bioko in the Gulf of Guinea and Annobón, a small volcanic island south of the equator. Bioko Island is the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea and is the site of the countrys capital, the island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe is located between Bioko and Annobón. The mainland region, Río Muni, is bordered by Cameroon on the north and Gabon on the south and it is the location of Bata, Equatorial Guineas largest city, and Oyala, the countrys planned future capital. Rio Muni also includes several small islands, such as Corisco, Elobey Grande. The country is a member of the African Union, Francophonie, since the mid-1990s, Equatorial Guinea has become one of sub-Saharan Africas largest oil producers. The country ranks 144th on the UNs 2014 Human Development Index, the UN says that less than half of the population has access to clean drinking water and that 20% of children die before reaching the age of five. Reporters Without Borders ranks President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo among its predators of press freedom, the report rates Equatorial Guinea as a Tier 3 country, the lowest ranking, Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so. Pygmies probably once lived in the region that is now Equatorial Guinea. Bantu migrations between the 18th and 19th centuries brought the coastal ethno-linguistic groups as well as the Fang people, elements of the latter may have generated the Bubi, who migrated from Cameroon to Río Muni and Bioko in several waves and succeeded former Neolithic populations. The Annobón population, originally native to Angola, was introduced by the Portuguese via São Tomé island, the Portuguese explorer Fernando Pó, seeking a path to India, is credited as being the first European to discover the island of Bioko in 1472. He called it Formosa, but it took on the name of its European discoverer. The islands of Fernando Pó and Annobón were colonized by Portugal in 1474, Spain thereby tried to gain access to a source of slaves controlled by British merchants. Between 1778 and 1810, the territory of Equatorial Guinea was administered by the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, based in Buenos Aires. From 1827 to 1843, the United Kingdom had a base on Bioko to combat the slave trade, in 1844, on restoration of Spanish sovereignty, the area became known as the Territorios Españoles del Golfo de Guinea. Spain had neglected to occupy the area in the Bight of Biafra to which it had right by treaty
27.
Tikar people
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The Tikar is a blanket term used for several ethnic groups in Cameroon. It has been used very widely of people so that it has become profoundly ambiguous, there is a single ethnic group called the Tikar who live in on the Tikar Plain Adamaoua Region. They speak a Bantoid language called Tikar, the Bedzan pygmies share their language. The main Tikar towns are Bankim, Ngambe Tikar, and Magba, the Tikar have elements of matrilineal and patrilineal descent. Their folk belief states that during pregnancy the blood that the woman would normally release during menstruation forms parts of the fetus and this blood is said to form the skin, blood, flesh and most of the organs. The bones, brain, heart and teeth are believed to be formed from the fathers sperm, in the case of a son the masculinity also comes from this. The Tikar are also noted as mask-makers, eldridge Mohammadou has written extensively on Tikar origins which he traces to a group called Ntumu from between Tibati and Ngaoundere. Although the Joshua Project states that the religion of the Tikar people is Islam this is uncertain. Most Bamoun are Muslim, but most Tikar are Christian as are most of the population of the North West Province apart from the Fulbe/Fulani, examples are the Nso and the Wimbum from the North West as well as the Bamoun whose languages are different from Tikar. On the 2006 PBS television program, African American Lives, the noted African American musician Quincy Jones had his DNA tested, in the PBS television program Finding Your Roots, African American former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice learned she shared maternal heritage with the Tikar. Introductory Essay, the Grassfields and the Tikar, in African Crossroads, intersections of history and anthropology in Cameroon. I. Fowler and D. Zeitlyn, eds. pp. 1–16, journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 26 no. Tikar entry at Ethnologue site Article about Bamenda and Tikar
28.
Hausa people
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The Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. The largest population of Hausa are concentrated in Nigeria and Niger, most Hausa, however, live in small villages or towns in Africa, where they grow crops, raise livestock including cattle, and engage in trade. They speak the Hausa language, an Afro-Asiatic language of the Chadic group, the Hausa aristocracy had historically developed an equestrian based culture. Still a status symbol of the nobility in Hausa society. Daura city is the origin of Hausawa, Hausa people, the town predates all the major Hausa towns in tradition and culture. A table of Hausa ethnic population by country, Daura, in northern Nigeria is the oldest city of Hausaland. The Hausa of Sokoto, also in northern Nigeria, speak the oldest surviving classical vernacular of the language, historically Sokoto was the centre of Hausa Islamic scholarship. Migrants from these areas were introducing Islam to many of the Hausa by the 14th century, all of these groups live in the Sahel, Saharan and Sudanian regions, and as a result have influenced each others cultures to varying degrees. Today some Fulani people cannot be distinguished from Hausa people in northern states of Nigeria, due to inter-marriage. In Agadez and Saharan areas of central Niger, the Tuareg and Hausa groups are indistinguishable from each other in their traditional clothing, but the two groups differ in language, lifestyle and preferred beasts of burden. Islamic Shari’a law is loosely the law of the land in Hausa areas, well understood by any Islamic scholar or teacher, known in Hausa as a mallam, mallan or malam. This pluralist attitude toward ethnic-identity and cultural affiliation has enabled the Hausa to inhabit one of the largest geographic regions of non-Bantu ethnic groups in Africa, the Nok culture appeared in Northern Nigeria around 1000 BC and vanished under unknown circumstances around 300 AD in the region of West Africa. It is believed to be the product of a nation that branched to create the Hausa, Gwari, Birom, Kanuri, Nupe. The Kwatarkwashi Culture or Sokoto Culture located to the North west of Nok is thought to be the same as or an ancestor of the Nok. Noks social system is thought to have highly advanced. The Nok culture is considered to be the earliest sub-Saharan producer of life-sized Terracotta, the refinement of this culture is attested to by the image of a Nok dignitary at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The dignitary is portrayed wearing a crooked baton, the dignitary is also portrayed sitting with flared nostrils, and an open mouth suggesting performance. Other images show figures on horseback, indicating that the Nok culture possessed the horse, iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, appears in Nok culture in Africa at least by 550 BC and possibly earlier
29.
Fulani people
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The Fula people or Fulani or Fulɓe, numbering between 20 and 25 million people in total, are one of the largest and a widely dispersed Muslim ethnic group in Sahel and West Africa. The Fula people are believed to have roots in the people from North Africa and the Middle East. As an ethnic group they are bound together by the Fula language, culture, history, their religious affiliation and their efforts to spread Islam in Sahel region and the West Africa. A significant proportion of the Fula – a third, or an estimated 7 to 8 million – are pastoral people, the majority of the Fula ethnic group consisted of semi-sedentary people, as well as sedentary settled farmers, artisans, merchants and nobility. Spread over many countries, they are mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa. Many Fulbe was also taken to the New World during 16th to 19th century Atlantic Slave Trade and they were largely captured from the Senegal and Guinea with a significant percentage also taken from Mali and Cameroon. Some of the Fulbe of note were Bilali Muhammad, Ayuba Diallo, Salih Bilali, Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori, some of Bilali Muhammads known descendants still live on Salepo Island Georgia and he also left descendants in the Bahama Archipelago who are not known. Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori and many others have many descendants in the USA, there are many names used in other languages to refer to the Fulɓe. Fulani in English is borrowed from the Hausa term, Fula, from Manding languages, is also used in English, and sometimes spelled Fulah or Fullah. Fula and Fulani are commonly used in English, including within Africa, the French borrowed the Wolof term Pël, which is variously spelled, Peul, Peulh, and even Peuhl. More recently the Fulfulde / Pulaar term Fulɓe, which is a noun has been Anglicised as Fulbe. In Portuguese, the terms Fula or Futafula are used, the terms Fallata Fallatah or Fellata are of Kanuri origins, and are often the ethnonyms by which Fulani people are identified by in Sudan. The Fula people are distributed, across the Sahel from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea. Alongside, many speak other languages of the countries they inhabit. Such languages include Hausa, Bambara, Wolof, and Arabic and this is the area known as the Fombina, literally meaning The South in Adamawa Fulfulde, because it represented the most southern and eastern reaches of Fulɓe hegemonic dominance in West Africa. In this area, Fulfulde is the lingua franca. Further east of this area, Fulani communities become predominantly nomadic, the Fulani People occupy a vast geographical expanse located roughly in a longitudinal East-West band immediately south of the Sahara, and just north of the coastal rain forest and swamps. There are an estimated 20-25 million Fulani people, there are generally three different types of Fulani based on settlement patterns, viz, the Nomadic/Pastoral or Mbororo, The Semi-Nomadic and the Settled or Town Fulani
30.
Cameroon
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Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroons coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. French and English are the languages of Cameroon. The country is referred to as Africa in miniature for its geological and cultural diversity. Natural features include beaches, deserts, mountains, rainforests, the country is well known for its native styles of music, particularly makossa and bikutsi, and for its successful national football team. Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad, portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area Rio dos Camarões, which became Cameroon in English. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate in the north in the 19th century, Cameroon became a German colony in 1884 known as Kamerun. After World War I, the territory was divided between France and the United Kingdom as League of Nations mandates, the Union des Populations du Cameroun political party advocated independence, but was outlawed by France in the 1950s, leading to the Cameroonian Independence War. It waged war on French and UPC militant forces until 1971, in 1960, the French-administered part of Cameroon became independent as the Republic of Cameroun under President Ahmadou Ahidjo. The southern part of British Cameroons federated with it in 1961 to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon, the federation was abandoned in 1972. The country was renamed the United Republic of Cameroon in 1972, Cameroon enjoys relatively high political and social stability. This has permitted the development of agriculture, roads, railways, nevertheless, large numbers of Cameroonians live in poverty as subsistence farmers. Power lies firmly in the hands of the president since 1982, Paul Biya. The English-speaking territories of Cameroon have grown increasingly alienated from the government, politicians and civil society in English-speaking regions have called for greater decentralization and even complete separation or independence from the former French-governed territories. The territory of present-day Cameroon was first settled during the Neolithic Era, the longest continuous inhabitants are groups such as the Baka. From here, Bantu migrations into eastern, southern, and central Africa are believed to have originated about 2,000 years ago, the Sao culture arose around Lake Chad c. AD500 and gave way to the Kanem and its successor state, kingdoms, fondoms, and chiefdoms arose in the west. Portuguese sailors reached the coast in 1472 and they noted an abundance of the ghost shrimp Lepidophthalmus turneranus in the Wouri River and named it Rio dos Camarões, which became Cameroon in English
31.
Eddie Murphy
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Edward Regan Eddie Murphy is an American comedian, actor, writer, singer, and producer. Murphy was a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984 and he has worked as a stand-up comedian and was ranked #10 on Comedy Centrals list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. In films, Murphy has received Golden Globe Award nominations for his performances in 48 Hrs. the Beverly Hills Cop series, Trading Places, and The Nutty Professor. Murphys work as an actor in films includes Thurgood Stubbs in The PJs, Donkey in DreamWorks Shrek series. In some films, he plays multiple roles in addition to his character, intended as a tribute to one of his idols Peter Sellers. He has played roles in Coming to America, Wes Cravens Vampire in Brooklyn, the Nutty Professor films, Bowfinger, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Norbit. As of 2014, Murphys films have grossed over $3.8 billion in the United States and Canada box office, in 2015, his films made him the 6th-highest grossing actor in the United States. Murphy was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Murphy was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and raised in the boroughs Bushwick neighborhood. His mother, Lillian, was an operator, and his father, Charles Edward Murphy, was a transit police officer. His father died when he was young and my mother and father broke up when I was three, and he died when I was eight, so I have very dim memories… He was a victim of the Murphy charm. I never got all the logistics and it was supposed to be one of those crimes of passion, If I cant have you, no one else will-kind of deal. Someone said to me one day, Thats why you dont trust women, what are you, a fucking psychiatrist. – Eddie Murphy When Murphys single mother became ill, the eight-year-old, in interviews, Murphy has said that his time in foster care was influential in developing his sense of humor. Later, he and his older brother Charlie were raised in Roosevelt, New York by his mother and stepfather Vernon Lynch, around the age of 15, Murphy was writing and performing his own routines, which were heavily influenced by Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor. His early comedy was characterized by frequent swearing and sketches lampooning a diverse group of people, Eddie Murphy was his first album, released in 1982. In Rolling Stones February 2015 appraisal of all 141 SNL cast members to date and it is customary to say that Eddie Murphy is the only reason SNL survived the five-year wilderness without Lorne Michaels, they noted. In 1982, Murphy made his big debut in the film 48 Hrs. with Nick Nolte. 48 Hrs. proved to be a hit when it was released in the Christmas season of 1982, Nolte was scheduled to host the December 11,1982, Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live, but became too ill to host, so Murphy took over
32.
Life (1999 film)
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Life is a 1999 American comedy-drama film written by Robert Ramsey & Matthew Stone and directed by Ted Demme. The film stars Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence and it is the second film that Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence have worked on, the first being Boomerang. The supporting cast includes Obba Babatundé, Bernie Mac, Anthony Anderson, Miguel A. Núñez Jr. Bokeem Woodbine, Guy Torry and Barry Shabaka Henley. The films format is a story being told by an elderly inmate about two of his friends, who are wrongly convicted of murder and given a life sentence in prison. The film was the last R-rated role to date for Eddie Murphy, elderly inmate Willie Long attends the burial of two friends who recently perished in an infirmary fire in a Mississippi prison. He begins telling the two young inmates digging the graves his friends life story, Ray Gibson and Claude Banks are two New Yorkers in 1932 from two different worlds. Ray is a hustler and petty thief, and Claude. They are both at a club called Spankys when Ray picks Claude as his mark to pick-pocket, a short time later, they go to trial, are convicted, and sentenced to life. Ray and Claude are sent to a prison camp called Camp 8 to perform hard labor. Claude has his cousin, Melvin, appeal against his conviction with his girlfriend Daisys help, but it is denied. With any chance of being freed gone, Claude attempts to escape one night with Ray, around 1944,12 years later, aged 37 years old, they meet a mute inmate nicknamed Cant-Get-Right, a talented baseball player. He catches the eye of a Negro League scout who states that he can get him out of prison if he will play baseball. Ray and Claude try to convince the scout to help let out as well, as they relate to Cant-Get-Right. Twenty-eight years later, in 1972, Ray and Claude are now elderly, all of Ray and Claudes friends have now died or been released by some means, except for Willie, now confined to a wheelchair. Dillard still runs the camp, who one day informs Ray and Claude that they will be transferred to live and work at Superintendent Dexter Wilkins mansion. Claude forms a friendship with Wilkins, and is entrusted to drive and pick up the new superintendent, Sheriff Warren Pike, the man who framed them forty years earlier. While on a pheasant hunt, Ray confronts Pike, where the sheriff admits to framing him and he intends to give them a pardon, but dies of a heart attack before he can do so. In 1997, Ray and Claude are now elderly, aged 90 years
33.
Avery Brooks
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Avery Franklin Brooks is an American actor, director, and occasional singer. His maternal grandfather, Samuel Travis Crawford, was also a singer, when Avery was aged eight, his family moved to Gary, Indiana, after his father had been laid off from International Harvester. Brooks has said, I was born in Evansville, but it was Gary, Indiana that made me. The Brooks household was filled with music and his mother, who was among the first African-American women to earn a masters degree in music at Northwestern University, taught music wherever the family lived. His father was in the choir Wings over Jordan, performing on CBS radio from 1937 to 1947 and his maternal uncle Samuel Travis Crawford was a member of the Delta Rhythm Boys. Music is all around me and in me, as I am in it, Brooks attended Indiana University and Oberlin College. He later completed his B. A. plus an M. F. A. from Rutgers University in 1976, in 1985, Brooks assumed the role of Hawk on the ABC television detective series Spenser, For Hire, based on the mystery series published by Robert Parker. Hawk became a character and, after three seasons, Brooks in 1989 received his own, short-lived spinoff series, A Man Called Hawk. Brooks said of his role as Hawk, I never thought of myself as the sidekick, Ive never been the side of anything. I just assumed that I was equal, Brooks returned to play Hawk in four Spenser television movies, Spenser, Ceremony, Spenser, Pale Kings and Princes, Spenser, The Judas Goat and Spenser, A Savage Place. Brooks won the role of Commander Benjamin Sisko by beating 100 other actors from all backgrounds to become the first African-American captain to lead a Star Trek series. Brooks was the second in American television history to do so since Bill Cosby co-starred with Robert Culp in the NBC spy series I Spy from 1965 to 1968, Brooks also directed nine episodes of the series, including Far Beyond the Stars, an episode focusing on racial injustice. Series producer Ronald D. Moore said of Brooks, Avery and he is not a demanding or ego-driven actor, rather he is a thoughtful and intelligent man who sometimes has insights into the character that no one else has thought about. He has also been unfailingly polite and a guy in all my dealings with him. In 1984, Brooks received critical praise for his role in PBSs American Playhouse production of Half Slave, Half Free, Solomon Northups Odyssey. It was adapted from Northrups memoir, Twelve Years a Slave, Brooks appeared in the 1985 television movie adaptation of Finnegan Begin Again. In 1987 he starred in the role of Uncle Tom in the Showtime production of Uncle Toms Cabin, in 1998 he appeared in the motion picture American History X, which also stars another Star Trek actor, Jennifer Lien. He also played the role of Paris in the 1998 film The Big Hit, in animated films, he supplied the voice of King Maximus in Happily Ever After, Fairy Tales for Every Child, as well as Nokkar in an episode of Disneys Gargoyles
34.
Ruby Dee
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Ruby Dee was an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and civil rights activist. She is perhaps best known for originating the role of Ruth Younger in the stage and her other notable film roles include The Jackie Robinson Story, and Do the Right Thing. She was a Grammy, Emmy, Obie and Drama Desk winner and she was also a National Medal of Arts, Kennedy Center Honors and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award recipient. She was married to Ossie Davis, with whom she frequently performed, Dee was born Ruby Ann Wallace on October 27,1922, in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Gladys and Marshall Edward Nathaniel Wallace, a cook, waiter and porter. After her mother left the family, Dees father remarried, to Emma Amelia Benson, Dee was raised in Harlem, New York. She attended Hunter College High School and went on to graduate from Hunter College with a degree in Romance languages in 1945 and she was a member of Delta Sigma Theta. Dee joined the American Negro Theater as an apprentice, working with Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and she made several appearances on Broadway. Her first onscreen role was in That Man of Mine in 1946 and she received national recognition for her role in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story. She played both roles opposite Poitier, during the 1960s, Dee appeared in such politically charged films as Gone Are the Days and The Incident, which is recognized as helping pave the way for young African-American actors and filmmakers. In 1969, Dee appeared in 20 episodes of Peyton Place and she appeared as Cora Sanders, a Marxist college professor, in the Season 1/Episode 14 of Police Woman, entitled “Target Black which aired on Friday night, January 3,1975. The character of Cora Sanders was obviously, but loosely, influenced by the real-life Angela Y and she appeared in one episode of The Golden Girls sixth season. She played Queen Haley in Roots, The Next Generations, a 1979 miniseries, Dee was nominated for eight Emmy Awards, winning once for her role in the 1990 TV film Decoration Day. She was nominated for her television guest appearance in the China Beach episode and her husband Ossie Davis also appeared in the episode. She appeared in Spike Lees 1989 film Do the Right Thing, in 1995, she and Davis were awarded the National Medal of Arts. They were also recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, in 2003, she narrated a series of WPA slave narratives in the HBO film Unchained Memories. In 2007 the winner of the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album was shared by Dee and Ossie Davis for With Ossie And Ruby, In This Life Together, and former President Jimmy Carter. Dee was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2007 for her portrayal of Mama Lucas in American Gangster and she won the Screen Actors Guild award for the same performance. At 83 years of age, Dee is currently the second oldest nominee for Best Supporting Actress and this was Dees only Oscar nomination
35.
Ossie Davis
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Ossie Davis was an American film, television and Broadway actor, director, poet, playwright, author, and civil rights activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed and he and his wife were named to the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame, were awarded the National Medal of Arts and were recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame, in 1994, Davis was born Raiford Chatman Davis in Cogdell, Clinch County, Georgia, a son of Kince Charles Davis, a railway construction engineer, and his wife Laura. The name Ossie came from a county clerk who misheard his mothers pronunciation of his initials R. C. when he was born. So he inadvertently became Ossie when his mother told the clerk in Clinch County. Davis experienced racism from an age when the KKK threatened to shoot his father. His acting career, which spanned eight decades, began in 1939 with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem, during World War II, Davis served in the United States Army in the Medical Corps. He made his debut in 1950 in the Sidney Poitier film No Way Out. He voiced Anansi the spider on the PBS childrens television series Sesame Street in its animation segments, instead, he tried to follow the example of Sidney Poitier and play more distinguished characters. When he found it necessary to play a Pullman porter or a butler, he played those characters realistically, however, Davis never had the tremendous commercial or critical success that Cosby and Poitier enjoyed. As a playwright, Davis wrote Paul Robeson, All-American, which is performed in theatre programs for young audiences. In 1976 Davis appeared on Muhammad Alis novelty album for children, The Adventures of Ali, Davis found recognition late in his life by working in several of director Spike Lees films, including Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, She Hate Me and Get on the Bus. In 1999, he appeared as a caretaker in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra film The Ghosts of Christmas Eve. For many years, he hosted the annual National Memorial Day Concert from Washington and his distinguished bearing made him a perfect choice for the concert. Following his passing, the hosting duties passed on to the twosome of Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna. Daviss last role was an episode guest role on the Showtime drama series The L Word. In his final episodes, his character was taken ill and died and his wife Ruby Dee was present during the filming of his own death scene. That episode, which aired shortly after Daviss own death, aired with a dedication to the actor, in 1989, Ossie Davis and his wife, actress/activist Ruby Dee, were named to the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame
36.
Laurence Fishburne
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Fishburne became the first African American to portray Othello in a motion picture by a major studio when he appeared in Oliver Parkers 1995 film adaptation of the Shakespeare play. For his portrayal of Ike Turner in Whats Love Got to Do With It, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in Two Trains Running, Fishburne starred in several cult classics, including Deep Cover and King of New York. In 2013, he portrayed Perry White in the Zack Snyder-directed Superman reboot Man of Steel and in 2016 reprised his role in Batman v Superman, Dawn of Justice. Fishburne was born in Augusta, Georgia, the son of Hattie Bell, a high school mathematics and science teacher. After his parents divorced during his childhood, his mother moved him to Brooklyn, New York. Fishburnes father saw him once a month, Fishburne is a graduate of Lincoln Square Academy in New York, which closed in the 1980s. For most of his career, he was credited as Larry Fishburne. In 1973, Fishburne had his first acting role portraying Joshua Hall on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live and he auditioned for the role of Michael Evans in the television series Good Times, but the role went to Ralph Carter. His most memorable role was in Cornbread, Earl and Me. He later earned a role in Apocalypse Now, in which he played Tyrone Miller. When production began in March 1976, he was just 14 years old, filming took so long that he actually was 17 years old upon its completion. Fishburne spent much of the 1980s in and out of television, in the early 1980s, he worked as a bouncer at punk rock clubs. He also had a role in the early 1980s movie Band of the Hand and he also had a role in the 1984 movie The Cotton Club. Fishburne had a role as Cowboy Curtis on Paul Reubens CBS childrens television show Pee-wees Playhouse. He also appeared in the M*A*S*H episode, The Tooth Shall Set You Free, in Spenser, For Hire, he was a guest star for the second-season episode Personal Demons. He appeared as a thug in Death Wish 2 and he also appeared alongside Kevin Bacon in Quicksilver. His stage work during the 1980s included Short Eyes, and Loose Ends, also in 1987 he played a part in the third Nightmare On Elm Street film as a hospital orderly
37.
Tracee Ellis Ross
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Tracee Ellis Ross is an American actress, model, comedian, producer and television host. From 2000 to 2008, she played the role as Joan Clayton on the UPN/CW comedy series Girlfriends. In 2014, Ross began starring as Dr. Rainbow Johnson in the ABC comedy series Black-ish, the role brought her three more NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series. She has received nominations for a Critics Choice Television Award and Primetime Emmy Award and, in 2017, born Tracee Joy Silberstein in Los Angeles, California, she is the daughter of Motown singer/actress Diana Ross and music business manager Robert Ellis Silberstein. Actor and musician Evan Ross is her half-brother and her father is Jewish-American and her mother is African-American. Ross attended Riverdale Country School in the Bronx and the Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland and she was a model in her teens. She attended Brown University, where she appeared in plays, and she later worked in the fashion industry, as a model and contributing fashion editor to Mirabella and New York magazines. Ross made her big debut in 1996, playing a Jewish/African-American woman in the independent feature film Far Harbor. The following year, she debuted as host of The Dish, in 1998, she starred as a former high school track star who remained silent about having been abused at the hands of a coach, in the NBC made-for-TV movie Race Against Fear, A Moment of Truth. Her next role was an independent feature film Sue, in 2000, she landed her first major studio role in Diane Keatons Hanging Up. The same year, she broke into comedy as a performer in the MTV series The Lyricist Lounge Show, a hip-hop variety series mixing music, dramatic sketches. The series centered on four young African-American women, and their male best friend, in 2007, Ross won an NAACP Image Award in the category, Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on the series. She won a second Image Award for the role in 2009, in 2007, Ross starred with her brother Evan Ross and Queen Latifah in the HBO movie Life Support, That same year, she appeared in the Tyler Perry theatrical movie, Daddys Little Girls. She appeared in the 2009 film Labor Pains, in 2010, she appeared in an episode of Private Practice as a pregnant doctor. In 2011, Ross appeared in four episodes of CSI as the wife of Laurence Fishburnes character. Ross starred in the sitcom, Reed Between the Lines, with Malcolm-Jamal Warner airing on BET starting in October 2011 and she won a third NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series in 2012 for her performance in the series. In August 2012, it was announced that Ross would not return for Season Two, in 2011, she appeared in the Lifetime film Five directed by Alicia Keys. The performance in film earned her nominations for a NAACP Image Award, in 2012, Ross starred in the NBC drama pilot Bad Girls
38.
NYPD Blue
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NYPD Blue is an American police procedural drama television series set in New York City, exploring the struggles of the fictional 15th Precinct detective squad in Manhattan. Each episode typically intertwines several plots involving an ensemble cast, the series was originally broadcast on the ABC network, debuted on September 21, 1993‚ and aired its final episode on March 1,2005. It was ABCs longest-running primetime one-hour drama series until Greys Anatomy surpassed it in 2016, in 1997, True Confessions, written by Art Monterastelli and directed by Charles Haid, was ranked #36 on TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. Produced by 20th Century Fox and Steven Bochco Productions, film production took place in the greater Los Angeles area. The show did film in New York but only for shots that used New York landmarks. In the final season the show was filmed only in Los Angeles to save money, exterior shots of the 15th Precinct used the former 9th Precinct building on Fifth Street in New York City, also used for Kojak. Once it was demolished, the façade was recreated on a Los Angeles lot, the show was initially a vehicle for David Caruso. John Kelly was the character, and the first season revolved around him. Promo shots for the show depicted Caruso in the foreground and other first-season characters set off behind him, Season 2 saw the departure of John Kelly, and the show was thereafter built around an ensemble cast. His co-stars included Jimmy Smits as Det, Bobby Simone, Rick Schroder as Det. Danny Sorenson, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Det, John Clark, Jr. John Kelly and Andy Sipowicz are detectives in the 15th squad. Sipowicz is the partner but is an alcoholic who drinks on the job as well as off-duty. Kelly has an affection for his partner but becomes increasingly exasperated by Sipowiczs behavior. In addition to his alcoholism, Sipowicz is a negative, misogynist. In the pilot, Sipowicz is shot by a suspect he had attacked and humiliated earlier and this leads to his decision to sober up and save his job. While Sipowicz is recuperating, the lieutenant, Arthur Fancy, teams Kelly with a young cop from Anti-Crime. Kellys personal life is as frenetic as his professional life and he is reluctantly going through a divorce from his wife, Laura, and is embarking on an affair with a uniformed cop, Janice Licalsi. To complicate matters further, Licalsis police officer father is on the payroll of mob boss Angelo Marino, Licalsi, in an attempt to protect her father, has been ordered to do a hit on Kelly
39.
Ally McBeal
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Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy-drama television series, originally aired on Fox from September 8,1997 to May 20,2002. The series, set in the fictional Boston law firm Cage and Fish, on her first day Ally is horrified to find that she will be working alongside her ex-boyfriend Billy Thomas —whom she has never gotten over. To make things worse, Billy is now married to fellow lawyer Georgia, the triangle among the three forms the basis for the main plot for the shows first three seasons. For example, bitter divorce litigation of a client might provide a backdrop for Allys decision to break up with a boyfriend, legal arguments were also frequently used to explore multiple sides of various social issues. Cage & Fish, the law firm where most of the characters work, is depicted as a highly sexualized environment symbolized by its unisex restroom. The show used vivid, dramatic fantasy sequences for Allys and other characters wishful thinking, the series also featured regular visits to a local bar where singer Vonda Shepard regularly performed. Notes In Australia, Ally McBeal was aired by the Seven Network from 1997 to 2002, in 2010, it was aired repeatedly by Network Ten. Seymore Walsh, a stern judge often exasperated by the eccentricities of the Cage & Fish lawyers, whats unusual about this continuing storyline is that Ally McBeal and The Practice aired on different networks. Bobby Donnell, the character of The Practice played by Dylan McDermott, was featured heavily in both this crossover and another Ally McBeal episode, These are the Days. Regular Practice cast members Lara Flynn Boyle and Michael Badalucco each had a cameo in Ally McBeal, upon premiering in 1997, the show was an instant hit, averaging around 11 million viewers per episode. The shows second season saw an increase in ratings and soon became a top 20 show, however, Downeys character was written out after the end of the season due to the actors troubles with drug addiction. The first two seasons, as well as the fourth, remain the most critically acclaimed and saw the most awards success at the Emmys, SAG Awards, in 2007 Ally McBeal placed #48 on Entertainment Weeklys 2007 New TV Classics list. Ally McBeal was a heavily music-oriented show, Vonda Shepard, a virtually unknown musician at the time, was featured continually on the show. Her song Searchin My Soul became the theme song. Many of the songs Shepard performed were established hits with lyrics that paralleled the events of the episode, including Both Sides Now, Hooked on a Feeling and Tell Him. Besides recording background music for the show, Shepard frequently appeared at the ends of episodes as a performing at a local piano bar frequented by the main characters. On rare occasions, her character would have conventional dialogue, a portion of Searchin My Soul was played at the beginning of each episode, but remarkably the song was never played in its entirety. Several of the characters had a musical leitmotif that played when they appeared, two compilation albums from the show featuring Shepard were also released in 2000 and 2001
40.
'Til Death
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’Til Death is an American sitcom which aired on the Fox network from September 7,2006, to June 20,2010. The series was created by husband and wife team Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa, the show focuses on Eddie and Joy Stark, a couple married for 23 years who live in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ’Til Death centers on Eddie and Joy Stark, and their life, relationship, the first two seasons often focus on the conflict between the Starks and their newlywed neighbors, Jeff and Steph Woodcock. The second season introduces a new character named Kenny Westchester who is Eddies friend from the Big Brothers Organization, the third season focuses primarily on Eddie and Joys relationship with Kenny after he moves in with them. The fourth and final season focuses on the Starks coping with life with their daughter Ally and new son-in-law Doug, the series takes place in suburban Philadelphia in Cheltenham Township. The first season of ’Til Death ran from September 7,2006 to April 11,2007, the series initially aired Thursdays at 8/7c alongside fellow freshman sitcom Happy Hour. In November, the series was given a season order. Beginning in March 2007, the show was given the time slot directly following American Idols results show. In May, ’Til Death was renewed for a second season, the second season ran from September 2007 to May 2008 and consisted of 15 episodes, during which it aired on Wednesdays at 8,30 p. m. following a new comedy Back to You. Late in 2007, production was halted because of the 2007–2008 writers strike, the series went on hiatus beginning November 28, but returned with a new episode on a special night in March 2008 at 9,30 p. m. Then in April, ’Til Death moved again to Wednesdays at 8,00 p. m. leading into Back to You, in May, the series was given an 18-episode order for its third season, while comedy companion Back to You was canceled. The third season consisted of 22 episodes and initially ran from September to October 2008, during this brief run of seven episodes, ’Til Death aired Wednesdays at 9/8c alongside a new comedy Do Not Disturb. The ratings for both shows were low, and as a result, the network pulled the sitcom from its November schedule, despite not airing all of season three and low ratings, ’Til Death was renewed for a fourth season in January 2009. Fox confirmed at its upfront presentation in May that the new season would air on Friday nights in the fall. The fourth and final season premiered in October 2009 at a new time, Fridays at 8, 30/7, 30c, following a new sitcom, Brothers, starring former NFL player Michael Strahan. This season is notable in that a number of episodes produced for the third season. Four new episodes of ’Til Death aired sequentially on Christmas Day from 8/7c until 10/9c, the schedule changed again, when ’Til Death moved to Sundays at 7/6c and 7, 30/6, 30c on January 31,2010, with these first two episodes airing against Super Bowl XLIV. Eventually, it was paired for three episodes with the soon-to-be-canceled comedy Sons of Tucson, the fourth season finale aired on May 23,2010, although three unaired episodes formerly consigned for season three were burned off in June
41.
The WB
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The WB Television Network was an American television network that was first launched on broadcast television on January 11,1995 as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner and the Tribune Broadcasting subsidiary of the Tribune Company, on January 24,2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment announced plans to shut down the network and launch The CW later that same year, the WB Television Network shut down on September 17,2006, with select programs from both it and competitor UPN moving to The CW when it launched the following day, September 18. Time Warner re-used The WB brand for a network that launched on April 28,2008. The website could only be accessed within the United States, on November 2,1993, the Warner Bros. Only five of these stations – along with a sixth that Tribune acquired the following year – would join The WB at launch, when the network was announced, The WB planned to run a predominately network programmed schedule over time. The WB Television Network premiered on January 11,1995, with the episode of The Wayans Bros. as its first program. The classic Warner Bros. cartoon character Michigan J. Frog appeared on-air as the official mascot. Much of the branding was based around Warner Bros. locations and characters. Pictures shield logo, network promotions and imaging campaigns for The WB, the networks first programs were mostly sitcoms targeted at an ethnically black audience. Even though four of the five shows that debuted in the netlets first nine months were renewed beyond the first year – The Wayans Bros, unhappily Ever After, The Parent Hood and Sister, Sister – none of them made a significant impact. On August 17,1995, the Tribune Company acquired a 12. 5% on March 31,1997, the WB expanded its programming to Sunday nights for the 1995–96 season, but none of the new shows managed to garner much viewing interest. The WB continued to expand in the 1996–97 season, adding programming on Monday nights and this season gave The WB modest hits in the Aaron Spelling-produced family drama 7th Heaven and comedies The Steve Harvey Show and The Jamie Foxx Show. The WB first began to experience success with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it debuted with the highest Monday night ratings in the networks history, attracting not only new teenage viewers, but new advertisers as well. The networks breakout hit and, arguably, its series was Dawsons Creek. At the start of the 1998–99 season, the network expanded its programming to Thursday nights, for the 1999–2000 season, the network concluded its primetime expansion with the addition of programming on Friday nights. During this season, The WB was the network to have gains in its total audience viewership. As the teen boom of the late 1990s began to wane, although teen-oriented fare like Popular and Roswell had premiered to strong ratings, both series saw serious ratings erosion in their sophomore seasons, leading the network to cancel them both
42.
NBC
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The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is the flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is part of the Big Three television networks, founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007. In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, and acquired General Electrics remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBC Universal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke, during a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had an outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&Ts manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&Ts telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, the 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs. In an early example of chain or networking broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its network were incompatible with the companys primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&Ts phone lines for network transmission, the divisions ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15,1926, WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On April 5,1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network and this was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18,1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network, initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. The Orange Network name was removed from use in 1936, at the same time, the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, in 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown
