Los Angeles
Los Angeles the City of Los Angeles and known by its initials L. A. is the most populous city in California, the second most populous city in the United States, after New York City, the third most populous city in North America. With an estimated population of four million, Los Angeles is the cultural and commercial center of Southern California; the city is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity and the entertainment industry, its sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles is the largest city on the West Coast of North America. Los Angeles is in a large basin bounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side and by mountains as high as 10,000 feet on the other; the city proper, which covers about 469 square miles, is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the country. Los Angeles is the principal city of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second largest in the United States after that of New York City, with a population of 13.1 million. It is part of the Los Angeles-Long Beach combined statistical area the nation's second most populous area with a 2015 estimated population of 18.7 million.
Los Angeles is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States, with a diverse economy in a broad range of professional and cultural fields. Los Angeles is famous as the home of Hollywood, a major center of the world entertainment industry. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index and 9th in the Global Economic Power Index; the Los Angeles metropolitan area has a gross metropolitan product of $1.044 trillion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics and will host the event for a third time in 2028; the city hosted the Miss Universe pageant twice, in 1990 and 2006, was one of 9 American cities to host the 1994 FIFA men's soccer World Cup and one of 8 to host the 1999 FIFA women's soccer World Cup, hosting the final match for both tournaments. 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, becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood; 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 assured the city's continued rapid growth; the Los Angeles coastal area was settled by the Chumash tribes. A Gabrieleño settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning "poison oak place". Maritime explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area of southern California for the Spanish Empire in 1542 while on an official military exploring expedition moving north along the Pacific coast from earlier colonizing bases of New Spain in Central and South America.
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. On September 4, 1781, a group of forty-four settlers known as "Los Pobladores" founded the pueblo they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles,'The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels'; the present-day city has the largest Roman Catholic Archdiocese in the United States. Two-thirds of the Mexican or settlers were mestizo or mulatto, a mixture of African and European ancestry; the settlement remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820, the population had increased to about 650 residents. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the historic district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street, the oldest part of Los Angeles. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, the pueblo continued as a part of Mexico.
During Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta California's regional capital. Mexican rule ended during the Mexican–American War: Americans took control from the Californios after a series of battles, culminating with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. Railroads arrived with the completion of the transcontinental Southern Pacific line to Los Angeles in 1876 and the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885. Petroleum was discovered in the city and surrounding area in 1892, by 1923, the discoveries had helped California become the country's largest oil producer, accounting for about one-quarter of the world's petroleum output. By 1900, the population had grown to more than 102,000; the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, under the supervision of William Mulholland, assured the continued growth of the city. Due to clauses in the city's charter that prevented the City of Los Angeles from selling or providing water from the aqueduct to any area outside its borders, many adjacent city and communities became compelled to annex themselves into Los Angeles.
Los Angeles created the first municipal zoning ordinance in the United States. On September 14, 1908, the Los Angeles City Council promulgated residential and industrial land use zones; the new ordinance established three residential zones of a single type, where industrial uses were
Sterling Holloway
Sterling Price Holloway Jr. was an American character actor and voice actor who appeared in over 100 films and 40 television shows. He was a voice actor for The Walt Disney Company, served as the original voice of the title character in Walt Disney's Winnie the Pooh. Born in Cedartown, Holloway was named after his father, Sterling Price Holloway, who, in turn, was named after a prominent Confederate general, Sterling "Pap" Price, his mother was Rebecca DeHaven Boothby. He had a younger brother named Boothby; the family owned a grocery store in Cedartown, where his father served as mayor in 1912. After graduating from Georgia Military Academy in 1920 at the age of fifteen, he left Georgia for New York City, where he attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. While there, he befriended actor Spencer Tracy, whom he considered one of his favorite working colleagues. In his late teens, Holloway toured with stock company of The Shepherd of the Hills, performing in one-nighters across much of the American West before returning to New York where he accepted small walk-on parts from the Theatre Guild, appeared in the Rodgers and Hart review The Garrick Gaieties in the mid-1920s.
A talented singer, he introduced "Manhattan" in 1925, the following year sang "Mountain Greenery". He moved to Hollywood in 1926 to begin a film career that lasted 50 years, his bushy red hair and high pitched voice meant that he always appeared in comedies. His first film was a silent picture. Over the following decades, Holloway would appear with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Lon Chaney Jr, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Bing Crosby, John Carradine. In 1942, during World War II, Holloway enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 37 and was assigned to the Special Services, he helped develop a show called "Hey Rookie", which ran for nine months and raised $350,000 for the Army Relief Fund. In 1945, Holloway played the role of a medic assigned to an infantry platoon in the critically acclaimed film A Walk in the Sun. During 1946 and 1947, he played the comic sidekick in five Gene Autry Westerns. Walt Disney considered Holloway for the voice of Sleepy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but chose Pinto Colvig instead.
Holloway's voice work in animated films began as the voice of Mr. Stork. Holloway was the voice of the adult Flower in Bambi, the narrator of the Antarctic penguin sequence in The Three Caballeros and the narrator in the Peter and the Wolf sequence of Make Mine Music, he was the voice of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, the narrator in The Little House, Susie the Little Blue Coupe, Lambert the Sheepish Lion, Kaa the snake in The Jungle Book, Roquefort in The Aristocats. He is best remembered as the voice of Winnie the Pooh in Disney's Winnie the Pooh featurettes through 1977, he was honored as a Disney Legend in 1991, the first person to receive the award in the Voice category. His final role was Hobe Carpenter, a friendly moonshiner who helps Harley Thomas in Thunder and Lightning. Holloway acted on many radio programs, including The Railroad Hour, The United States Steel Hour and Lux Radio Theater. In the late 1940s, he could be heard in various roles on NBC's "Fibber McGee and Molly".
His voice retained a touch of its Southern drawl and was recognizable. Holloway was chosen to narrate many children's records, including Uncle Remus Stories, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, Walt Disney Presents Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories and Peter And The Wolf. Holloway made the transition from radio to television, he appeared on the Adventures of Superman as "Uncle Oscar", an eccentric inventor, played a recurring role on The Life of Riley. He guest-starred on Fred Waring's CBS television program in the 1950s and appeared on Circus Boy as a hot air balloonist; some other series on which he performed include Five Fingers, The Untouchables, The Real McCoys, Hazel and Gladys, The Twilight Zone, The Brothers Brannagan, Gilligan's Island, The Andy Griffith Show, The Donald O'Connor Show, Peter Gunn, F Troop, Moonlighting. During the 1970s, Holloway did commercial voice-overs for Purina Puppy Chow dog food and sang their familiar jingle, "Puppy Chow/For a full year/Till he's full-grown!". He provided the voice for Woodsy Owl in several 1970s and 1980s United States Forest Service commercials.
In 1982 he lost to Lorenzo Music. In 1984, he provided voice-over work for a commercial for Libby's baked beans. A lifelong bachelor, Holloway once claimed this was because he felt lacking in nothing and did not wish to disturb his pattern of life, but he did adopt a son, Richard. Holloway died on November 1992 in a Los Angeles hospital, his body was cremated and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean. Voice actor Hal Smith took over the role of Winnie the Pooh for the 1981 short Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons, he would maintain the role until Jim Cummings replaced him in 1988 for The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and took over most of Holloway's other voice roles, including Kaa in Jungle Cubs and The Jungle Book 2. Adventures of Superman as Prof. Oscar Quinn / Prof. Twiddle The Life of Riley as Waldo Binny The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet as The Groceryman Willy as Harvey Evelyn Our Mr. Sun as Chloro Phyll Hemo the Magnificent as Lab assistant The Real McCoys as Orval McCoy
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers are an American rock band formed by singer Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas, in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second drummer from 1983 to 1985, 1986 to 1989, 2009; the band has employed a variety of bass players, most notably Jeff Pinkus. Emerging from the 1980s hardcore punk scene, Butthole Surfers became known for their chaotic live shows, black comedy, a sound that incorporated elements of psychedelia, noise rock, punk as well as their use of sound manipulation and tape editing. Although they were respected by their peers and attracted a devoted fanbase, Butthole Surfers had little commercial success until 1996's Electriclarryland; the album contained the hit single "Pepper" which climbed to number one on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart that year. Butthole Surfers formed at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas during the late 1970s, when students Gibson "Gibby" Haynes and Paul Leary Walthall met for the first time.
Though it was their overall strangeness and shared taste in non-mainstream music that caused them to become friends, both appeared to be headed for conventional careers. Haynes, as captain of Trinity's basketball team, as well as the school's "Accountant of the Year," soon graduated to a position with a respected Texas accounting firm, while Leary remained in college working on his MBA degree. In 1981, Haynes and Leary published the magazine Strange V. D. which featured photos of abnormal medical ailments, coupled with fictitious, humorous explanations for the diseases. After being caught with one of these pictures at work, Haynes left the accounting firm and moved to Southern California. Leary, at the time one semester shy of his degree, dropped out of college and followed Haynes. After a brief period spent selling homemade clothes and linens emblazoned with Lee Harvey Oswald's image, the pair returned to San Antonio, launched the band that would become Butthole Surfers. Haynes and Leary played their debut show at a San Antonio night club, The Bonham Exchange, in 1981.
By 1982, the band were backed by the sibling rhythm section composed of bassist Quinn Mathews and his brother, drummer Scott Mathews. The band did not gain a following in San Antonio, purchased a van to return to California that summer. During a brief concert at the Tool and Die club in San Francisco, Dead Kennedys frontman and Alternative Tentacles overseer Jello Biafra witnessed their performance and became a fervent fan. Biafra invited the group to open for Dead Kennedys and T. S. O. L. at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, soon made an offer that would launch their recording career. The band returned to San Antonio to record at BOSS Studios. However, the Mathews brothers did not enter the studio with Leary; the bass position was taken over by Bill Jolly, who would play on Butthole Surfers' next two releases, a number of drummers participated. The last of these, King Coffey, is still with the band to this day. Released on Alternative Tentacles in July 1983, the resulting EP, Butthole Surfers, offered songs with provocatively absurd titles like "The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey's Grave" and "Bar-B-Q Pope", alternately sung by Haynes and Leary.
The album cover, like the many bizarre illustrations that would accompany Surfers' succeeding work, was designed by the band itself. Teeming with humor, Butthole Surfers laid the foundation for, it influenced at least one future superstar in Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who listed it as one of his ten favorite albums in his Journals. Cobain went on to list the album "Pee Pee the Sailor" by Butthole Surfers as one of the fifty most influential albums for Nirvana's sound. Cobain would meet his wife, Courtney Love of Hole, at a Butthole Surfers/L7 concert in 1991. Soon after the release of Butthole Surfers, the band recruited a second drummer, Teresa Nervosa, who had played with Coffey in a number of high school marching bands in the Texas' Fort Worth and Austin areas, she and Coffey would drum in unison on separate, stand-up kits, adding to the spectacle of Surfers' ever-evolving stage show. Though Nervosa and Coffey referred to themselves, were referred to, as siblings, it has since been revealed that the two only presented themselves as such due to their similar appearances, are not related.
With her arrival, the band's core "classic lineup" — Haynes, Leary and Nervosa — was in place. With the exception of a number of different bass players and Nervosa's brief sabbatical from late 1985 to 1986, it remained unchanged until her final departure in 1989. In 2008, she returned to the band — their website announced 2009 tour dates including "Teresa Taylor". In 1984 the band returned to BOSS Studios to record enough material for two full-length albums. Both were offered to Alternative Tentacles, with the first being Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac. Before either album could be released, Alternative Tentacles had to acquire the master tapes from Bob O'Neill, BOSS Studios' namesake and owner, he refused to release them until he'd been reimbursed for the sessions, Alternative Tentac
Chuck E.'s In Love
"Chuck E.’s In Love" is a song by American singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. Released in 1979 on her eponymous debut album, Rickie Lee Jones from Warner Bros. Records, the song became her biggest hit, going to number 4 on the Billboard U. S. Hot 100 list."Chuck E.’s In Love" is Track 1 on Side 1 of the Rickie Lee Jones LP, on which it runs 3:28 minutes long. It is Side A on the single. Jones and her lover/fellow songwriter Tom Waits spent a lot of time hanging out with their friend Chuck E. Weiss at the seedy Tropicana Motel in Los Angeles. Weiss, affectionately referred to as "Chuck E.", disappeared. Weiss called the apartment where Jones and Waits lived; when Waits took the call, Weiss explained that he was in Denver, that he had moved there because he had fallen in love with a cousin in Colorado. When Waits hung up he announced to Jones, "Chuck E.’s in love." Jones wrote a song around it. Although toward the end of "Chuck E.’s In Love" the lyrics state, "Chuck E.’s in love with the little girl singing this song," the twist ending is fictional.
Zydeco
Zydeco is a music genre that evolved in southwest Louisiana by French Creole speakers which blends blues and blues, music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles and the Native people of Louisiana. Though distinct in origin from the Cajun music of Louisiana, the two forms influenced each other, forming a complex of genres native to Louisiana; the origin of the word "zydeco" is uncertain. One theory is that it derives from the French phrase Les haricots ne sont pas salés, when spoken in the Louisiana Creole French, sounds as; this translates as "the snap beans aren't salty" but idiomatically as "times are hard" signifying the speaker's fatigue or lack of energy. The earliest recorded use of the term may have been the country and western musical group called Zydeco Skillet Lickers who recorded the song "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo" in 1929. Several different spellings of the word existed, including "zarico" and "zodico". In 1960, musicologist Robert "Mack" McCormick wrote liner notes for a compilation album, A Treasury of Field Recordings, used the spelling "zydeco".
The word was used in reviews, McCormick began publicizing it around Houston as a standard spelling. Its use was accepted by musician Clifton Chenier – who had recorded "Zodico Stomp" in 1955 – in his recording "Zydeco Sont Pas Salés", after which Chenier himself claimed credit for devising the word. In an alternative theory the term derives from the Atakapa people, whose enslaved women were well known for forming marital unions with male African slaves in the early 1700s; the Atakapa word for "dance" is "shi" and their word for "the youths" is "ishol". In 1528 Spanish people, the first Europeans to contact the Atakapa, translated "shi ishol" as "zy ikol". Four hundred years the mixed-blood descendants of Atakapas and Africans would still sway in synchrony to their raucous music, but with a evolved name: zydeco. Another possible root word for zydeco is as a West African term for "musicking". Recent studies based on early Louisiana recordings made by Alan and John Lomax suggests that the term, as well as the tradition, may have African origins.
The languages of West African tribes affected by the slave trade provide some clues as to the origins of zydeco. In at least a dozen languages from this culture-area of Africa, the phonemes "za," "re," and "go" are associated with dancing and/or playing music". Fast tempo and dominated by the button or piano accordion and a form of a washboard known as a "rub-board," "scrub-board," "wash-board," or frottoir, zydeco music was created at house dances, where families and friends gathered for socializing; as a result, the music integrated waltz, two-steps, blues and roll, other dance music forms of the era. Today, zydeco integrates genres such as R&B, brass band, hip hop, rock, Afro-Caribbean and other styles, in addition to the traditional forms; the original French settlers came to Louisiana in the late 1600s, sent by the Regent of France, Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, to help settle the Louisiana Territory. Arriving in New Orleans on seven ships, the settlers moved into the bayous and swamps.
There the French culture permeated those of the Irish, Native Indian and German peoples populating the area. For 150 years, Louisiana Creoles enjoyed an insular lifestyle, educating themselves without the government and building their invisible communities under the Code Noir; the French created the Code Noir in 1724 to establish rules for treatment of slaves, as well as restrictions and rights for gens de couleur libres, a growing class of free people of color. They had the right to own land, something few blacks in the American South had at that time; the disruption of the Louisiana Creole community began when the United States made the Louisiana Purchase and Americans started settling in the state. The new settlers recognized only the system of race that prevailed where they came from; when the Civil War ended and the black slaves were freed, Louisiana Creoles assumed positions of leadership. However, segregationist Democrats in Louisiana classified Creoles with freedmen and by the end of the 19th century had disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites under rules designed to suppress black voting.
Creoles continued to press for advancement while negotiating the new society. Zydeco's rural beginnings and the prevailing economic conditions at its inception are reflected in the song titles and bluesy vocals; the music arose as a synthesis of traditional Creole music, some Cajun music influences, African-American traditions, including R&B, blues and gospel. It was often just called French music or le musique Creole known as "la-la." Amédé Ardoin made the first recordings of Creole music in 1928. This Creole music served as a foundation for what became known as zydeco. Sometimes the music was performed in the Catholic Church community centers, as Creoles were Catholic, it moved to rural dance halls and nightclubs. During World War II with the Great Migration, many French-speaking and Louisiana Creole speaking Créoles from the area around Marksville and Opelousas, Louisiana left a poor and prejudiced state for better economic opportunities in Texas. More southern blacks migrated to California, where buildup of defense industries provided good jobs without the restrictions of the segregated South.
In California blacks from Louisiana began to participate in political life. Today, there are many Cajun and zydeco festivals throughout the US. Zydeco music p
Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls is an American dramedy television series, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. The show became a flagship series for the network. Gilmore Girls ran for seven seasons, with the final season moving to The CW, ended its run on May 15, 2007; the show's main focus is on the relationship between single mother Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter Rory, who live in Stars Hollow, Connecticut, a small fictional town filled with colorful characters. The series explores issues of family, education, friendship and ambition, along with generational divides and social class, the latter themes manifesting through Lorelai's difficult relationship with her high society parents and Richard, Rory's experiences at an elite high school and on at Yale University. Sherman-Palladino, who served as showrunner for the majority of the series, infused Gilmore Girls with distinctive fast-paced dialogue filled with pop culture references. After season six, when the series moved to its new network, Sherman-Palladino left the show and was replaced by David S. Rosenthal for the final season.
The series was distributed by Warner Bros.. Television and filmed on the studio's lot in Burbank, California. Television critics praised Gilmore Girls for its witty dialogue, cross-generational appeal, effective mix of humor and drama, it never drew large ratings but was a relative success for The WB, peaking during season five as the network's second most-popular show. The series has been in daily syndication since 2004, while a growing and dedicated fandom has led to its status as a cult classic. Since coming off the air, Gilmore Girls has been cited in TV and Time magazine as one of the 100 greatest television shows of all time. In 2016, the main cast and Sherman-Palladino returned for a four-part miniseries revival titled Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, which streamed on Netflix; the series has two protagonists: witty "thirty-something" mother Lorelai Gilmore and her intellectual teenage daughter Rory. Their backstory is established early in the show: Lorelai grew up in Hartford with her old money parents and Emily, but always felt stifled by this environment.
She had an accidental pregnancy at age sixteen and ran away from home a year to raise Rory in the close-knit town named Stars Hollow. Lorelai found work and shelter at the Independence Inn as a maid, where she progressed to executive manager. Over the years and Rory develop a close relationship, living like best friends rather than a typical mother-daughter pair. Lorelai is proud of the independent life. However, in the pilot episode, she is forced to go to them for financial aid after Rory is admitted to Chilton Preparatory School because she cannot afford the tuition fees. Emily and Richard agree to provide a loan, so long as the girls join them every Friday night for dinner; this sets up the show's primary conflict: the Gilmores are forced to face their differences and complicated past. The contrasting mother–daughter relationships of Emily–Lorelai and Lorelai–Rory become a defining theme of the show. Series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has summarized the core of Gilmore Girls: I think the theme was always family and connection.
I always felt like the underlying thing about Gilmore was that, if you happened to be born into a family that doesn't understand you, go out and make your own. That's, she went out and she made her own family. The ironic twist in her life is that this daughter that she created this half family for, likes the family that she left, it was a cycle of crazy family. The series focuses on both girls' ambition: Rory to attend an Ivy League college and become a journalist, Lorelai to open an inn with her best friend Sookie St. James; the romantic relationships of the protagonists are another key feature. Lorelai develops temporary feelings for Rory's English literature teacher, Max Medina and Jason "Digger" Stiles, who she has known since childhood. Rory has three boyfriends during the run of the show - local boy Dean Forrester, well-read bad boy Jess Mariano, wealthy charismatic Logan Huntzberger; the quirky townspeople of Stars Hollow are a constant presence. Along with series-long and season-long arcs, Gilmore Girls is episodic in nature, with mini-plots within each episode - such as town festivals, issues at Lorelai's inn, or school projects of Rory's.
Rory has a difficult time settling in at Chilton, struggling to match the demands of private school and attracting the fury of classmate Paris Geller, her academic rival. She meets her first boyfriend, but the pair break up when Rory doesn't reciprocate his, "I love you", she is pursued by arrogant Chilton student Tristin, but she has little interest. After being romantically pursued by Rory's teacher, Max Medina, Lorelai decides with a conflicted heart to give the relationship a chance; this dynamic creates some tension between Rory. At the same time, Lorelai harbours a close friendship with the local diner owner, Luke Danes, several people comment on their mutual attraction—but Lorelai is in denial and Luke doesn't act on it. Rory's father, Christopher Hayden and wants to be with Lorelai but she tells him he is too immature for a family life. All the while, Lorelai struggles to adjust to having her parents in her life on a regular basis. Emily and Richard enjoy developing a relationship with their granddaughter, but realize how much they have misse
Married... with Children
Married... with Children is an American television sitcom that aired on Fox, created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt. Broadcast from April 5, 1987 to June 9, 1997, it is the longest-lasting live-action sitcom on Fox and the first to be broadcast in the network's primetime programming slot; the show follows the suburban Chicago lives of Al Bundy, a once glorious high school football player turned hard-luck women's shoe salesman. Their neighbors are the upwardly mobile Steve Rhoades and his feminist wife Marcy, who gets remarried to Jefferson D'Arcy, a white-collar criminal who becomes her "trophy husband" and Al's sidekick. Most storylines involve Al's schemes being foiled by bad luck; the series comprises 11 seasons. Its theme song is "Love and Marriage" by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, performed by Frank Sinatra from the 1955 television production Our Town; the first two seasons of the series were videotaped at ABC Television Center in Hollywood. From season three to season eight, the show was taped at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood, the remaining three seasons were taped at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City.
The series was produced by Embassy Communications during its first season and half of its second season and the remaining seasons by ELP Communications under the studio Columbia Pictures Television. In 2008, the show placed number 94 on Entertainment Weekly's "New TV Classics" list. Al Bundy —the misanthropic head of the Bundy household, he attempts to relive his high-school Big Man On Campus days, when he was the "All State Fullback". His most noted achievement was having scored four touchdowns in a single game for Polk High, his favorite things in life are the local nudie bar, his collection of BigUns magazine, his television, his Dodge car with 1 million mi on the odometer, a television show called Psycho Dad. Despite his family's contempt for him, his for them, Al is always ready to defend Bundy honor, he is fiercely protective of daughter Kelly, his "little girl" who had a boyfriend Al did not beat up. Peggy Bundy —Al's wife, always on his case about money and refuses to clean or cook, she is a lazy, big-haired redhead who spends most of her time parked in front of the TV watching talk shows such as Oprah or robbing Al blind to go shopping.
Her careless spending on things like clothes and going to male strip clubs have run Al into debt on numerous occasions. A recurring joke in the series is Al's regret of having married Peggy in the first place. Peggy's best friend is Marcy, with whom she conspires against Al, her family is a stereotypical backwoods clan of degenerates whom she forces the other Bundys to endure her morbidly obese mother, whom Al finds intolerable. Kelly Bundy —the Bundys' firstborn, her stupidity manifests in many ways, from forgetting ideas on the spot to mispronouncing or misspelling simple words. Like her mother, she is quick to steal Al's money for expensive things, her favorite hobby is belittling her lonely and sexless brother, though she stands up for him against anyone outside the family aside from her circle of friends, who never miss an opportunity to take a swipe at Bud either individually or collectively. Bud Bundy —the younger Bundy offspring, the most intelligent family member, his awkwardness and preoccupation with sex leads to inevitable failures with women.
To improve his success with girls, Bud uses his alternate persona, "Grandmaster B", a bad-boy rapper from New York City. When using the "Grandmaster B" persona, Bud wears dark sunglasses and a backward Los Angeles Raiders hat, his mistreatment at the hands of Kelly is returned in kind, making jokes at her expense regarding her promiscuity and stupidity, tricking her into mixing up TV shows with novels. Marcy Rhoades D'Arcy —the Bundys' next-door neighbor, she is just as chauvinistic as Al and the founder and leader of an anti-man support group called "FANG". Despite her political correctness and structured life, Marcy harbors a dark, somewhat sexually deviant side, which comes up when she reminisces over events in her past. Al is repulsed by Marcy and belittles her, likening her to a chicken, mockingly confusing her for an adolescent male. At the outset of the show, Marcy is married to Steve Rhoades. After Steve is written off the show during the fourth season, he is replaced by Jefferson D'Arcy.
Steve Rhoades is Marcy's first husband, a nerdy banker, dragged into Al's schemes, such as going to strip clubs, chasing after girls, watching sports when Marcy disapproves, reading pornogra
