1.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
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.
Oak Park and River Forest High School
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Oak Park and River Forest High School, or OPRF, is a public four-year high school located in Oak Park, Illinois, a neighborhood bordering Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is the school of Oak Park and River Forest District 200. Founded in 1873, the current school building opened in 1907, perhaps the most notable is Nobel Prize– and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Ernest Hemingway, whose writing career began at the school. Throughout most of its history, the school has been a centerpiece of the Oak Park community, many of these events included lecturers and performances from many notable people from a variety of fields. The school has been a waypoint for a number of individuals who have lectured or performed at the school. The school has seen its share of challenges, ranging from student membership in secret societies to issues that impact homosexuals, women. Much of the history comes from the crest which portrays the quote Those things that are best in Greek, the schools crest is a shield divided into three sections. The top left section depicts an acorn cradled in the leaves of an oak tree, the bottom section consists of horizontal wavy lines, suggesting a flowing river, while the right section depicts a group of three trees which represents a park or forest. The crest has been a symbol of the school since 1908, in lieu of having a valedictorian, the high school presents the Scholarship Cup. In 2008, OPRF had an average composite ACT score of 23.5, while the school overall made AYP, one of the schools five student subgroups failed to achieve AYP in both reading and math. One other student subgroup failed to meet AYP in reading, while failed to meet AYP in mathematics. The following Advanced Placement courses are offered, The school sponsors a number of related to studying or performing in the arts. OPRF has been listed six times on Newsweeks top 1500 American public schools, in 2009, the school was ranked #549. In previous years, the school was ranked No, on October 31,1907, the schools orchestra was founded. While more common today, Oak Park was one of the first schools to offer credit toward graduation based on student performance in the orchestra. Among the schools music and song groups are a gospel choir, the school also has three choirs during the school day, a Treble Choir, Chorale, and A Cappella Choir, which is considered the highest level. The school also has three small groups that are student run and include 5–6 members each. These are Take 5, Six Chicks, and No Strings, there are also medium-sized groups that are school sponsored, a Madrigals group and Noteworthy, a show choir
5.
Northern Illinois University
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Northern Illinois University is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois, United States, with satellite centers in Chicago, Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Rockford, and Oregon. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22,1895, douglas Baker was named the universitys twelfth president in May 2013. The university is composed of seven degree-granting colleges and has a student body of 25,000 with over 225,000 alumni. NIU is one of two public universities in Illinois that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the highest levels of all sports. The Universitys athletic teams are known as the NIU Huskies and compete in the Mid-American Conference, Northern Illinois University was founded as part of the expansion of the normal school program established in 1857 in Normal, Illinois. In 1895, the legislature created a Board of Trustees for the governance of the Northern Illinois State Normal School. In July 1917, the Illinois Senate consolidated the boards of trustees for the five state normal schools into one state Normal School Board, over the next fifty-eight years, the school and the governing board changed their names several times. In 1921, the legislature gave the institution the name Northern Illinois State Teachers College, in 1941, the Normal School Board changed its name to the Teachers College Board. In 1951 the Teachers College Board authorized the college to grant the degree Master of Science in Education, the Teachers College Board granted permission for the college to add curricula leading to the degrees Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science. On July 1,1957, the Seventieth General Assembly renamed Northern Illinois State College as Northern Illinois University in recognition of its status as a liberal arts university. In 1967 authority for Northern Illinois University, Illinois State University, the Board of Regents and the Chancellor governed the three Regency universities until the end of 1995. On January 1,1996, authority for each of the three regency universities was transferred to three independent Boards of Trustees, each concerned solely with one university,12 presidents have served at the university. New interdisciplinary academic programs in Environmental Studies and Community Leadership and Civic Engagement were established in FY2012, in the most recent 2014 edition, NIU was ranked number 177 out of 206 ranked National Universities. Washington Monthly ranks NIU as the 135th National University in the United States, NIU is a member of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. Carnegie categorizes Northern as, RU/H, Research Universities, the Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences is known for programs in hydrogeology and polar science. NIU has been awarded the Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships since 1974, NIU is the next major research university outside of Chicagoland. The NIU School of Theatre and Dance has a relationship with the Moscow Art Theatre School, Graduate students spend a month training in Moscow, while the undergraduates participate in a semester-long program. The NIU Rehabilitation Counseling program is noted nationwide, in the 2010-2011 academic year, the program graduated seven students, whose average GPA was 3.90
6.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder
7.
Voice acting
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Voice acting is the art of doing voice-overs or providing voices to represent a character or to provide information to an audience or user. Voice acting is also done for small handheld audio games, performers are called voice actors or actresses, voice artists, or voice talent. Their roles may also involve singing, although a voice actor is sometimes cast as the characters singing voice. Voice acting is recognised in Britain as a specialized dramatic profession, Voice artists are also used to record the individual sample fragments played back by a computer in an automated announcement. The voices for animated characters are provided by voice actors, for live action productions, voice acting often involves reading the parts of computer programs, radio dispatchers, or other characters who never actually appear on screen. With a radio drama or CD drama, there is freedom in voice acting, because there is no need to match a dub to the original actors. In the context of voice acting, narration is the use of commentary to convey a story to an audience. A narrator is a character or a non-personal voice that the creator of the story develops to deliver information to the audience. The voice actor who plays the narrator is responsible for performing the lines assigned to the narrator. In traditional literary narratives, narration is a story element, in other types of narratives, such as plays, television shows, video games. One of the most common uses for voice acting is within commercial advertising, the voice actor is hired to voice a message associated with the advertisement. This has different subgenres, television, radio, cinema, the subgenres are all different styles in their own right. Voiceover used in commercial adverts also is the area of voice acting where de-breathing is used. De-breathing means artificially removing breaths from the recorded voice and this is done to stop the audience being distracted in any way from the commercial message that is being put across. Dub localization is a type of voice-over and it is the practice of voice-over translation altering a foreign language film, art film or television series by voice actors. Voice-over translation is an audiovisual translation technique, in which, unlike in Dub localization, actor voices are recorded over the audio track. This method of translation is most often used in documentaries and news reports to translate words of foreign-language interviewees, automated dialogue replacement is the process of re-recording dialogue by the original actor after the filming process to improve audio quality or reflect dialogue changes. ADR is also used to change original lines recorded on set to clarify context, improve diction or timing, in the UK, it is also called post-synchronization or post-sync
8.
Comedian
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A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, a comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comic. Since the 1980s, a new wave of comedy, called alternative comedy, has grown in popularity with its more offbeat and this normally involves more experiential, or observational reporting, e. g. Alexei Sayle, Daniel Tosh, Louis C. K. and Malcolm Hardee. Many comics achieve a cult following while touring famous comedy hubs such as the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the Edinburgh Fringe, often a comics career advances significantly when they win a notable comedy award, such as the Edinburgh Comedy Award. Comics sometimes foray into other areas of entertainment, such as film and television, however, a comics stand-up success does not guarantee a films critical or box office success. Comedians can be dated back to 425 BC, when Aristophanes and he wrote 40 comedies,11 of which survive and are still being performed. Aristophanes comedy style took the form of satyr plays, the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare wrote many comedies. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has an ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeares other plays. Charles Chaplin was the most popular comedian of the first half of the 20th century. He wrote comedic silent films such as Modern Times and The Kid and his films still have a major impact on comedy in films today. One of the most popular forms of comedy is stand-up comedy. Stand-up comedy is a monologue performed by one or more people standing on a stage. Bob Hope was the most popular comedian of the 20th century. Other noted stand-up comedians include George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Louis CK, another popular form of modern-day comedy is talk shows where comedians make fun of current news or popular topics. Such comedians include Jay Leno, Conan OBrien, Daniel Tosh, Chris Hardwick, Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman, a third form of modern-day comedy is television programs in which many comedians band together to make skits, such as Saturday Night Live. These shows often receive high ratings, likely because many comedians band together to create jokes, one of the most successful comedians is Ellen Degeneres, who has parlayed her comic career into film, television shows, and hosting major media events. In 1986, Ellen DeGeneres appeared for the first time on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson since she began gaining popularity as a comic in the 1980s. Johnny Carson, who launched many contemporary comics careers, would invite them to join him on the couch for one-on-one conversation after their set
9.
Screenwriting
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Screenwriting, also called scriptwriting, is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is frequently a freelance profession, screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, developing the narrative, writing the screenplay, and delivering it, in the required format, to development executives. Screenwriters therefore have great influence over the direction and emotional impact of the screenplay and, arguably. The act of screenwriting takes many forms across the entertainment industry, often, multiple writers work on the same script at different stages of development with different tasks. Over the course of a career, a screenwriter might be hired to write in a wide variety of roles. The content is usually invented solely by the screenwriter, though spec screenplays can also be based on established works, or real people, the spec script is a Hollywood sales tool. The vast majority of scripts written each year are spec scripts, a spec script is usually a wholly original work, but can also be an adaptation. In television writing, a script is a sample teleplay written to demonstrate the writers knowledge of a show and ability to imitate its style. It is submitted to the producers in hopes of being hired to write future episodes of the show. Budding screenwriters attempting to break into the business generally begin by writing one or more spec scripts, although writing spec scripts is part of any writers career, the Writers Guild of America forbids members to write on speculation. The distinction is that a script is written as a sample by the writer on his or her own. In addition to writing a script on speculation, it is not advised to write camera angles or other directional terminology. A director may write up a shooting script himself or herself, the director may ask the original writer to co-write it with him or her, or to rewrite a script that satisfies both the director and producer of the film/TV show. Spec writing is unique in that the writer must pitch the idea to producers. In order to sell the script, it must have a title, good writing. A logline is one sentence that lays out what the movie is about, a well written logline will convey the tone of the film, introduce the main character, and touch on the primary conflict. Usually the logline and title work in tandem to draw people in and these things, along with nice, clean writing will hugely impact whether or not a producer picks up the spec script. A commissioned screenplay is written by a hired writer, the concept is usually developed long before the screenwriter is brought on, and often has multiple writers work on it before the script is given a green light
10.
Homer Simpson
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Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the American animated television series The Simpsons as the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, Homer was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on his comic strip Life in Hell and he named the character after his father, Homer Groening. After appearing for three seasons on The Tracey Ullman Show, the Simpson family got their own series on Fox that debuted December 17,1989, Homer and his wife Marge have three children, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. As the familys provider, he works at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant as a plant operator. Despite the suburban blue-collar routine of his life, he has had a number of remarkable experiences. He has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons – including video games, The Simpsons Movie, The Simpsons Ride, commercials and comic books – and inspired an entire line of merchandise. His signature catchphrase, the annoyed grunt Doh. has been included in The New Oxford Dictionary of English since 1998, Homer is one of the most influential characters in the history of television. The British newspaper The Sunday Times described him as the greatest comic creation of time, for voicing Homer, Castellaneta has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and a special-achievement Annie Award. In 2000, Homer and his family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Homer is the bumbling husband of Marge and father of Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson. He is the son of Mona and Abraham Grampa Simpson, Homer held over 188 different jobs in the first 400 episodes of The Simpsons. In most episodes, he works as the Nuclear Safety Inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, a position he has held since Homers Odyssey, the third episode of the series. At the plant, Homer is often ignored and completely forgotten by his boss Mr. Burns, Matt Groening has stated that he decided to have Homer work at the power plant because of the potential for Homer to wreak havoc. Each of his other jobs has lasted only one episode, in the first half of the series, the writers developed an explanation about how he got fired from the plant and was then rehired in every episode. In later episodes, he began a new job on impulse. The Simpsons uses a floating timeline in which the characters never age, and, as such. Nevertheless, in episodes, events in Homers life have been linked to specific time periods. However, the episode That 90s Show contradicted much of this backstory, portraying Homer and Marge as a childless couple in the early 1990s
11.
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
12.
The Simpsons
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The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a depiction of working-class life epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa. The show is set in the town of Springfield and parodies American culture, society, television. The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a solicitation for a series of animated shorts with producer James L. Brooks, Groening created a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart for his own name. The shorts became a part of The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19,1987. After a three-season run, the sketch was developed into a prime time show and became an early hit for Fox. Since its debut on December 17,1989,615 episodes of The Simpsons have been broadcast and its 28th season began on September 25,2016. It is the longest-running American sitcom and the longest-running American animated program, the Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film, was released in theaters worldwide on July 27,2007, and grossed over $527 million. On May 4,2015, the series was renewed for seasons 27 and 28, on November 4,2016, the series was renewed for seasons 29 and 30, consisting of 22 episodes each. The Simpsons received widespread critical acclaim throughout its first nine or ten seasons, Time named it the 20th centurys best television series, and Erik Adams of The A. V. Club named it televisions crowning achievement regardless of format, on January 14,2000, the Simpson family was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 31 Primetime Emmy Awards,30 Annie Awards, Homers exclamatory catchphrase Doh. has been adopted into the English language, while The Simpsons has influenced many adult-oriented animated sitcoms. Despite this, the show has also criticized for what many perceive as a decline in quality over the years. The Simpsons are a family who live in a fictional Middle American town of Springfield, Homer, the father, works as a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, a position at odds with his careless, buffoonish personality. He is married to Marge Simpson, a stereotypical American housewife, although the family is dysfunctional, many episodes examine their relationships and bonds with each other and they are often shown to care about one another. The family owns a dog, Santas Little Helper, and a cat, Snowball V, renamed Snowball II in I, both pets have had starring roles in several episodes. The show includes an array of supporting characters, co-workers, teachers, family friends, extended relatives, townspeople. The creators originally intended many of these characters as jokes or for fulfilling needed functions in the town
13.
Grampa Simpson
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Voiced by Dan Castellaneta, he is the father of Homer Simpson, and the grandfather of Bart, Lisa, and Maggie Simpson. In the 1000th issue of Entertainment Weekly, Grampa was selected as the Grandpa for The Perfect TV Family, Grampa Simpson is a World War I and World War II veteran and retired farmer who was later sent to the Springfield Retirement Castle by Homer. He is known for his long, rambling, often incoherent stories, Grampa Simpson is the father to Homer Simpson, father-in-law to Marge Simpson and grandfather to siblings Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Grampa has a brother named Cyrus, who lives in Tahiti and has multiple native wives. He also has a brother named Chet, who owns an unsuccessful shrimp company. Grampa was briefly married to Amber, the same woman Homer married on a binge in Las Vegas. Grampa has also briefly married to Marges sister, Selma Bouvier, though Homer was against it. Grampa Simpson is currently married to Rita LaFleur, almost all of Grampas biographical information is supplied by himself. Many of his stories seem to be inaccurate, often physically or historically impossible. It is unknown where Grampa was born and he claims that he came to America as a boy from the old country, but he cannot remember which country it was, although most likely it was the United Kingdom or Ireland. Grampa was raised in New York City with his parents, Orville J. Simpson, Grampa is a veteran of World War II, where he served as Master Sergeant of the Flying Hellfish unit. At the very end of war in Europe, Grampas unit liberated a stash of art from surrendering German forces. The Flying Hellfish formed a tontine, and buried the art in a trunk at sea, decades later, Montgomery Burns, the second surviving member of the unit, tried to murder Grampa in order to get the art, prompting Grampa to violate the tontine. When Grampa and Bart retrieved the art from Mr. Burns, Homers mother, Mona Simpson, was married to Grampa for several years. According to Lets Go Fly a Coot, they met in the 1950s and she became entranced with the hippie lifestyle after seeing Joe Namaths hair on television. She became a fugitive from justice after she abetted in the sabotage of a weapons research lab owned by Mr. Burns to deliberately poison everyone in Springfield. To explain this to his son, Grampa said that Mona died while Homer was at the movies. Grampa has a relationship with his son, who placed him in a nursing home as soon as he could
14.
Barney Gumble
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Barnard Barney Gumble is a fictional character on the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. The character is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared in the premiere episode Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire. He is the town drunk of Springfield and Homer Simpsons best friend and his desperation for alcohol is a frequent butt of jokes on the show. Barney sobered up in the episode Days of Wine and Dohses, which was co-written by Castellaneta, Barney was inspired by the cartoon character Barney Rubble from The Flintstones and by several barflies from other television programs. In 2004, Castellaneta won an Emmy Award for voicing various characters, Barney can be seen in the The Simpsons opening credits since 2009, passed out under a pile of leaves. Barneys father, Arnie Gumble, was a World War II veteran who died in 1979 in a parade float accident, little is known about his mother, except that she lives in Norway and that she served in the United States Navy, including duty on a submarine. She is seen in the nine episode Simpson Tide. In Treehouse of Horror XVII, Barney stated that he was Polish, Barney was born on April 20. In the episode $pringfield, he claims that he studied dance for years, including modern. Two episodes give different reasons for his alcoholism, Mr. Plow suggests that Barney was a dedicated student looking forward to a bright future. He had his set on going to Harvard University, until Homer introduced him to beer the day before the SATs. Season 16s She Used to Be My Girl attributes his drinking to his school girlfriend Chloe Talbot leaving Springfield to pursue a journalism career. In Homers Barbershop Quartet, Barney formed a quartet with Homer, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. In 1986, the Be Sharps won a Grammy Award for Outstanding Soul, Spoken Word, soon, creative disputes arose, and Barney left the group in all but name when he began dating a Japanese conceptual artist. The group realized that they were no longer popular and split up, Barney was rescued from a tar pit by Barts pet elephant Stampy in Bart Gets an Elephant and he also started a snowplowing business rivaling Homers in Mr. Plow. Barneys commercial defamed Homer, causing Homer to lose his customers, as revenge, Homer fooled Barney into plowing a driveway on Widows Peak, a treacherous mountain just outside Springfield. When Homer saw a report showing that Barney had become trapped in an avalanche, Homer immediately drove to the mountain. The friends resolved their differences and agreed to work together, however, a heat wave hit Springfield at that exact moment, driving them both out of business
15.
Krusty the Clown
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Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofsky, better known as Krusty the Clown, is a cartoon character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and he is the long-time clown host of Bart and Lisas favorite TV show, a combination of kiddie variety television hijinks and cartoons including The Itchy & Scratchy Show. Krusty is often portrayed as a cynical, burnt-out, addiction-riddled smoker who is made miserable by show business and he has become one of the most common characters outside of the main Simpson family and has been the focus of several episodes, most of which also spotlight Bart. Krusty was created by cartoonist Matt Groening and partially inspired by Rusty Nails and he was designed to look like Homer Simpson with clown makeup, with the original idea being that Bart worships a television clown who was actually his own father in disguise. His voice is based on Bob Bell, who portrayed WGN-TVs Bozo the Clown, Krusty made his television debut on January 15,1989 in the Tracey Ullman Show short The Krusty the Clown Show. Krusty the Clown, born Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski, was born in the Lower East Side of Springfield and is the son of Hyman Krustofski, very little is known about his mother, aside from her name being Rachel and that she died when Krusty was around thirteen. Hyman strongly opposed Krustys wish to become a clown and make people laugh, believing that it would distract him from his religion, however, Krusty performed slapstick comedy behind his fathers back. One day, he was performing at a convention when one joking rabbi squirted seltzer on him. When Rabbi Krustofski found out, he disowned his son, Krusty was later reconciled with his father with the assistance of Bart and Lisa Simpson. It was later revealed that Krusty did not have a Bar Mitzvah service, Krusty had two adult Bar Mitzvah ceremonies, a Hollywood gala which Krusty uses to stage a comeback after his show is cancelled, then a simple ceremony intended to reconnect with his father. After leaving the Lower East Side of Springfield, Krusty started his show biz career as a mime in Tupelo. Krusty later discovered that he has a daughter named Sophie and he had met Sophies mother when she served as a soldier in the Gulf War and he was entertaining the troops. After spending the night together, he prevented her from assassinating Saddam Hussein to protect his Saddam-themed comedy act, after that she started hating clowns, and kept their daughter a secret from Krusty. Krusty and Sophie bonded over time, and while not a father, he is known to keep up with her birthdays. Krusty has his own show on Channel 6 in Springfield, The Krusty the Clown Show, Krusty has licensed the show to dozens of countries, including Ireland, China, Jamaica, and Romania, that produce localized versions. Krustys show has gone through phases, a clip from 1963 shows Krusty interviewing Robert Frost then dumping a load of snow on the poet. The show later took a different turn, featuring Ravi Shankar as a guest, by the 1980s, the show had devolved into a childrens entertainment show. During the series, the Krusty the Clown Show is shown to be aimed almost entirely at children and features characters, including Sideshow Mel, Mr. Teeny, Tina Ballerina
16.
Sideshow Mel
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The writers originally intended many of these characters as one-time jokes or for fulfilling needed functions in the town. A number of them have gained expanded roles and have starred in their own episodes. According to the creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening, the show adopted the concept of a supporting cast from the Canadian sketch comedy show Second City Television. Agnes Skinner is the mother of Principal Skinner and first appeared in the first season episode The Crepes of Wrath as an old woman who calls her son Spanky. However, as episodes progressed, the character turned bitter and she is very controlling of her son and often treats him as if he is a child. She hates Edna Krabappel due to her sons feelings for the other woman, several Springfield residents are afraid of her. Agnes first name was revealed in the season episode Bart the Fink. Before that, the character was known as Mrs. Skinner, in the beginning of the series, the writers made several references to Agnes and Seymours unhealthily close relationship as similar to that of Norman Bates and his mother. When Seymour makes his first kick, he hits the bar, thus, making Agnes lose, however, this would contradict the earlier episode when it is revealed that Seymour is not her birth son. In Grade School Confidential, it is revealed that Agnes enjoys collecting pictures of cakes that she out of magazines. She does not like to eat them, however, in the twenty sixth season episode Sky Police she mentions that she has a brother Stevie. Akira works as a waiter at The Happy Sumo, a Japanese restaurant in Springfield and he first appeared in the second season in One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish. Actor George Takei originally voiced Akira in One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, since Akiras speaking role in When Flanders Failed, Hank Azaria has voiced the character, doing an impression of Takei for the voice. Allison Taylor is in Lisas class but skipped a grade and has a lot in common with Lisa and she first appeared in Lisas Rival, in which Lisa feels threatened by Allisons talents and abilities. During a school competition Lisa has Bart sabotage Allisons Tell-Tale Heart diorama with a heart in a box. Wracked with guilt, Lisa returns Allisons real diorama, Lisa and Allison both lose to Ralph Wiggum and his Star Wars figurines. Afterwards, Lisa apologizes and the two make amends, Allison has had a few speaking roles after that and has been friends with Lisa, Janey, Sherri and Terri at the school and on the bus. Anastasia is a tiger that performs in casinos with Gunter
17.
Groundskeeper Willie
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William Willie MacDougal, is a recurring character on The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He is head groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School, Willie is almost feral in nature and is immensely proud of his native Scotland. He is easily identifiable by his red hair and beard, as well as his aggressive temperament. Groundskeeper Willie is the groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School and lives in squalor in a shack on the school grounds and he is a Scotsman with an aggressive temper. He is an uncouth and unpleasant, though harmless, character. His personality is depicted as being incompetent, quick to anger for little or no reason, slow-witted, Willie has shown antipathy to both his employer, Principal Skinner, and Bart Simpson, who plays pranks on him. This settled the previous continuity problem in which Willie had been stated to be a fan of Aberdeen Football Club, in early episodes Willies father was said to be deceased. However, his parents were introduced in Monty Cant Buy Me Love. In The Girl Who Slept Too Little, it is revealed that he has a cousin, Willie plays a supporting role in most of his episodes, but featured heavily in the episode My Fair Laddy in which Lisa Simpson introduced him to high culture as a science project. On two occasions, Willie frames Bart for pulling pranks that Bart would normally pull, Skinner is quick to blame Bart and expels him. In Dark Knight Court, Willie causes hundreds of eggs to be splattered at the Springfield Easter celebration out of inbred hatred for the holiday. Bart is put on trial for the incident, only to be acquitted when Willie is caught and turned in by Lisa, Groundskeeper Willies first appearance was in the season two episode Principal Charming, first broadcast on February 14,1991. Originally, the character was written just as an angry janitor, Dan Castellaneta, who voices several other characters including Homer Simpson, was assigned to do the voice. Castellaneta did not know what voice to use and Sam Simon and he first tried a Spaniards voice, which Simon felt was too clichéd. He then tried a big dumb Swede, which was also rejected, for his third attempt, he used the voice of an angry Scotsman, which was considered to be appropriate and was used in the episode. Originally thought by the directors to be an appearance, Willie has since become a common recurring character. A recurring joke, which was first shown in Radio Bart, is that Groundskeeper Willie appears to have a pot belly, but whenever he takes off his shirt, he is very muscular. One of Groundskeeper Willies trademarks is a gruffly-spoken insulting retort, which take the writers a long time to come up with, although they do not consider them that funny
18.
Mayor Quimby
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Mayor Joseph Fitzgerald OMalley Fitzpatrick ODonnell The Edge Joe Quimby, nicknamed Diamond Joe, is a recurring character from the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, and first appeared in the episode Bart Gets an F, a member of the Democratic Party, Quimby is the mayor of Springfield, and is a composite parody of U. S. Senator Ted Kennedy and certain members of the Kennedy family who have entered politics. Joe Quimby is a parody of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and the Kennedy family, like the Kennedys, Quimby speaks with a Boston accent, throws money at political problems, and vacations in a coastal resort called the Quimby Compound. Castellaneta voices Quimby with Transatlantic and Boston accents, resulting in a reminiscent of that of President John F. Kennedy. Quimby has long served as the mayor of the city of Springfield, the seal on the wall of his office reads Corruptus in Extremis, which means extremely corrupt. Like Kennedy, Quimby is known as a womanizer, and occasionally amuses himself with playing cards during town meetings. Quimby was once the subject of 27 separate paternity suits, one of the women he impregnated is Cookie Kwan, whose baby is remarkably similar to Quimby in both looks and mannerisms. Quimby also is frequently noticed in bed with the same or similar blonde woman/women and he also once accidentally courted his own niece, which is one of the few things Quimby has ever shown shame over. Despite being mayor for such a time, Quimby does not know or care much about his city. He frequently takes overseas vacations, which take him out of town for extended periods of time and he once referred to Springfield as Springfeld at a public meeting. However, he makes frequent, albeit short, public appearances for local festivities, events, business openings, if bending the law will suit Quimbys purposes, he will likely do so. He also resorted to bribing witnesses when assault charges were brought against his nephew, leading Bart Simpson to observe that the system works, Quimby was elected Mayor of Springfield in 1986 and has been re-elected several times since, despite openly admitting to fraud and wrongdoing. Quimbys political stranglehold on Springfield has earned him the hatred of Springfields small but vocal Republican elite, themselves portrayed as mostly dark, when the Republicans nominate Sideshow Bob as its mayoral candidate, Bob rigs the election, briefly deposing Quimby. He is re-instated when Bob is found guilty of fraud and imprisoned and he also survives a recall election, with no candidate in the race against him garnering the five percent necessary to force a recall. On May 17,2013, following reporting on a new scandal, Justin Peters, Peters prepared a list of 20 outrageous statements, and asked readers to guess which ones were uttered by the fictional Quimby, and which were uttered by the real life Ford. Politics in The Simpsons Official site of Joe Quimbys 2000 presidential election campaign Mayor Quimby at the Internet Movie Database
19.
Hans Moleman
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Hans Moleman is a recurring character on the animated television series The Simpsons. He was created by series creator Matt Groening and is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, Hans Moleman is the retconned name of an earlier character named Ralph Melish. He has cataracts and is almost entirely blind, which has severely impaired his ability and has led to repeated revokings of his drivers license. He carries a cane to walk with, although he appears to be elderly, in fact, Hans Moleman claims to be 31 years old, and that drinking has ruined life. Like many recurring characters, Hans Moleman does not have a fixed occupation, much of the humor associated with Moleman has involved his cheating death innumerable times, usually under highly improbable circumstances. He was also run over by Homer in The Parent Rap, Homer ran over Moleman again in The Simpsons Movie. Although the second Moleman was most likely a mistake, The Archive suggested humorously it could indicate that each Moleman is a different person. Hans first appeared as a model for the season two episode Principal Charming, but he looked so shriveled and unrealistic that Matt Groening proclaimed him to look like a mole man. However, he was used in episodes and later became a recurring character. According to a DVD commentary for one episode, some number of viewers were offended by Molemans appearance, Matt Groening has said that Hans Moleman was inspired by Tex Averys Droopy, who shares many of Molemans deadpan and unassuming mannerisms. Molemans appearance is based on an elderly man Groening had once seen at the DMV, in 2015, nerdcore rapper MC Lars created a song and music video as a tribute to Hans Moleman titled The Ballad of Hans Moleman. Hans Moleman at the Internet Movie Database
20.
Futurama
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Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series was envisioned by Groening in the mid-1990s while working on The Simpsons, he later brought David X. Cohen aboard to develop storylines and characters to pitch the show to Fox. In the United States, the series aired on Fox from March 28,1999, to August 10,2003, Futurama also aired in reruns on Cartoon Networks Adult Swim from 2002 to 2007, until the networks contract expired. It was revived in 2007 as four direct-to-video films, the last of which was released in early 2009, Comedy Central entered into an agreement with 20th Century Fox Television to syndicate the existing episodes and air the films as 16 new, half-hour episodes, constituting a fifth season. In June 2009, producing studio 20th Century Fox announced that Comedy Central had picked up the show for 26 new half-hour episodes, the show was renewed for a seventh season, with the first half airing in June 2012 and the second set for mid-2013. It was later revealed that the season would be the final season. The series finale aired on September 4,2013, while Groening has said he will try to get it picked up by another network, David X. Cohen stated that the episode Meanwhile would be the last episode of season 7 and also the series finale. Throughout its run, Futurama has received critical acclaim, the show has been nominated for 17 Annie Awards and 12 Emmy Awards, winning seven of the former and six of the latter. Futurama-related merchandise has also released, including a tie-in comic book series and video game, calendars. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Futurama as one of the top 60 Greatest TV Cartoons of All Time, Fox expressed a strong desire in the mid-1990s for Matt Groening to create a new series, and he began conceiving Futurama during this period. In 1996, he enlisted David X. Cohen, then a writer and producer for The Simpsons, the two spent time researching science fiction books, television shows, and films. When they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and story lines, Groening described trying to get the show on the air as by far the worst experience of my grown-up life. With The Simpsons the network has no input, Fox was particularly disturbed by the concept of suicide booths, Doctor Zoidberg, and Benders anti-social behavior. Groening explains, When they tried to give me notes on Futurama, I just said, and they said, Well, we dont do business that way anymore. And I said, Oh, well, thats the only way I do business, the episode I, Roommate was produced to address Foxs concerns, with the script written to their specifications. Fox strongly disliked the episode, but after negotiations, Groening received the same independence with Futurama, the name Futurama comes from a pavilion at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes, the Futurama pavilion depicted how he imagined the world would look in 1959, many other titles were considered for the series, including Aloha, Mars. and Doomsville, which Groening notes were resoundly rejected, by everyone concerned with it. It takes approximately six to nine months to produce an episode of Futurama, the long production time results in several episodes being worked on simultaneously
21.
Sibs
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Sibs is an American sitcom broadcast by ABC from September 17,1991 until May 6,1992. The series chronicled the relationship of three sisters, and the support the youngest two especially needed from their eldest married sister. Sibs was created by Heide Perlman and executived produced by Perlman, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon, the series was backed by Brooks Gracie Films company and Columbia Pictures Television. Sibs starred veteran actress Marsha Mason as Nora Ruscio, an accountant and Alex Rocco as her long-suffering husband. The source of most of Howies frustration was his wifes sisters, Audie. Audie was an estate agent and hence almost unemployed in the eras weak market. Lily had just been dumped by her boyfriend, who had fled to Germany without her, both sisters brought all of their problems to Nora, continuing a pattern that had apparently begun when they were all children. In the beginning of the pilot, Nora was distraught after just having learned that the head of her firm had died. Noras late boss had left the firm to his boorish, whiny nephew Warren Morris, who was another ongoing character. Shortly after inheriting his uncles firm, Warren had fired Nora, only to learn that she was the one most of the client base had trusted, and he was now unemployed and constantly begging Nora for a job. The original title proposed for the series was Grown-ups, the following night, the show began airing in its regular Wednesday 9, 30/8, 30c time period, kicking off the latter half of the three-hour Wednesday comedy block that ABC was promoting as The Hump. Ultimately, Sibs had very little appeal to a mass audience, Sibs was put on hiatus in late October 1991 as the three-hour sitcom block was discontinued. The remaining episodes were aired by ABC in April and May of 1992, on Tuesdays at 9, 30/8, 30c, in 1993, a year after the series cancellation, Heide Perlman proposed a new comedy pilot for ABC which was a re-conceived version of Sibs. Perlman was successful in having Margaret Colin, Jami Gertz and Dan Castellaneta participate in the new pilot, in which all reprised their Sibs characters of Audie, Lily, ABC greenlighted the pilot, titled Related By Birth, and it was produced later that year. This incarnation focused on the relationship of sisters Audie and Lily. Audie, who had been cynical and icy in Sibs, exhibited a softer personality in this version, ABC aired Related By Birth as a summer pilot special on July 2,1994, but passed on developing the project into a weekly series. Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows
22.
Darkwing Duck
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It featured the eponymous anthropomorphic duck superhero whose alter ego is suburban father Drake Mallard. On April 2,2015, a rumor surfaced that Disney would be rebooting the series for a 2018 premiere and this has since been debunked, instead it has returned as a comic book published by Joe Books, which premiered on April 27,2016. Though originally believed by fans to be a spin-off of DuckTales. Darkwing Duck tells the adventures of the superhero, aided by his sidekick. In his secret identity of Drake Mallard, he lives in a suburban house with his adopted daughter Gosalyn. Darkwing struggles to balance his egotistical craving for fame and attention against his desire to be a father to Gosalyn. Most episodes put these two aspects of Darkwings character in conflict, though Darkwings better nature usually prevails. The show was the first Disney Afternoon series to emphasize rather than adventure. While conflict with villains was routine in earlier Disney Afternoon shows, Darkwing Duck was also the first Disney Afternoon property that was produced completely as a genre parody. Prior shows would contain elements of parody in certain episodes, but would otherwise be straight-faced adventure concepts, by contrast, every episode of Darkwing Duck is laden with references to superhero, pulp adventure, or super-spy fiction. Darkwing Duck himself is a satirical character, the fictional city of St. Canard is a direct parody of Gotham City. Darkwing Duck was developed as a replacement for a proposed reboot of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The show was a spin-off of the successful series DuckTales. Darkwing Duck entered production one year after DuckTales ended. The name The Masked Mallard became an often used in the new show to refer to Darkwing himself. It turned out that the title Double-O Duck could not be used as the Broccoli family owned the double-o title, a new name was selected, Darkwing Duck. Thus, Stones designed a new character for the lead, Drake Mallard and this name would result in a new look. Other elements of the show, such as Darkwings habit of coining new catchphrases every time he announced himself, where most prior Disney Afternoon series included at least some characters from classic Disney animation, Darkwing Duck featured a completely original cast
23.
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
24.
Fox Kids
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Fox Kids was an American childrens programming block and branding for a slate of international childrens television channels. Fox Kids originated as a block that aired on the Fox network from the September 8,1990. The block aired on Saturday mornings throughout its existence, with a block on Monday through Friday afternoons airing until January 2002. Fox Kids is the form of daytime television programming, outside of sports. The Fox Kids block continued to air in repeats until September 7,2002, the first Fox Kids-branded television channel launched on October 1,1995, on Foxtel in Australia. Beginning in 2002, the channels were relaunched under the Jetix brand because of Disneys acquisition of Fox Kids Worldwide. Fox Kids was launched on September 8,1990, as the Fox Childrens Network, originally headed by division president Margaret Loesch, its programming aired for 30 minutes per day on Monday through Fridays, and for 3 hours on Saturday mornings. In September 1991, the block was rebranded as the Fox Kids Network, the weekday editions of the block grew to 2½ hours the following year. From 1992 to 1998, Fox Kids aired The Fox Kids T. V. Takeover, many stations split the weekday lineup programming into a one-hour block in the morning and a two-hour block in the afternoon, when network programs intertwined with syndicated childrens lineups. Very few Fox stations aired all three hours of the block in the morning. When Fox Kids launched, virtually all of Foxs owned-and-operated stations and affiliates carried the block, the first Fox station to drop the block was Miami affiliate WSVN, the networks first station to maintain a news-intensive format, in 1993. Many of the owned by New World declined to carry the block in order to air syndicated programs aimed at older audiences or local newscasts. In some cases, Fox Kids would be carried on the station as one of its two competing childrens blocks, The WBs Kids WB and UPNs UPN Kids block. Examples of stations where Fox Kids aired in lieu of the Fox station in a given market include, Between 1995 and early 1996, meanwhile, SF Broadcasting acquired three former NBC affiliates and one ABC affiliate during the summer of 1994. m. Stations that would run it at this time included, Savoy/Fox and later Emmis-owned stations, two of Fox Kids most popular programs, Animaniacs and Batman, The Animated Series, moved to The WB when that network launched in January 1995. Both Animaniacs and Batman served as the linchpin of The WBs new childrens block, Kids WB, in 1996, Saban Entertainment acquired a 50% ownership interest in Fox Kids, to form Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. later renamed Fox Family Worldwide. Some of Fox Kids programming also aired on Fox Family Channel, after News Corporation, in 1998, Fox bought out its affiliates interest in Fox Kids as part of a deal to help pay for the networks NFL package. In 2000, affiliates were given the option of pushing the block up one hour to air from 2,00 to 4,00 p. m. rather than 3,00 to 5,00 p. m
25.
Back to the Future (TV series)
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Back to the Future is an animated series for television based on the live action Back to the Future movie trilogy. The show lasted two seasons, each featuring 13 episodes, and ran on CBS from September 14,1991, to December 26,1992, the network chose not to renew the show for a third season. It later reran on FOX, as a part of the Fox Box block from March 22 to August 30,2003 and it was the very first production of Universal Cartoon Studios. This show marked the television appearance of Bill Nye on a nationally-broadcast show. As with the films, time travel was achieved through the use of a modified DeLorean, the DeLorean now has voice-activated time circuits and can also travel instantaneously to different locations in space and time, in addition to folding into a suitcase. The characters also traveled through using the steam engine time machine Doc invented at the end of the third film. Although Marty McFly is the main star and Jennifer Parker making occasional appearances. The films villain, Biff Tannen, also appeared from time to time, in addition, relatives of McFly, Brown, and Tannen families were plentiful in the past or future parallel time zones visited. Unlike the films, which took place entirely in Hill Valley and the surrounding area, at the end of every episode, Doc Brown would appear to do an experiment, often related to the episodes plot. The first season also included segments with Biff Tannen telling a joke related to the episode. The music for the intro is a version of Back in Time, originally by Huey Lewis. The intro begins with Doc Brown surprised when seeing the time on his watch, before he enters the DeLorean. As he drives away, he heads to May 19,2015 where he grabs Marty McFly, to June 10,1885 to collect Clara, the following scene depicts the group sits down to dinner, before noticing Einstein is missing. They subsequently find him driving the train time machine to an unknown time. For the second season, the intro replaces the collection of the characters with clips of the first season. Marty McFly – The main character of the series, Marty spends a lot of time visiting the Brown house where Doc, Clara, and their sons live. He continues to travel through time alongside Jennifer, Doc and the rest of the Brown family on many of their adventures, Marty and Jennifer become students at Hill Valley College after graduating from Hill Valley High School. Emmett Doc Brown – Martys best friend and the inventor of the time machine and he lives with Clara and two sons Jules and Verne
26.
CBS
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CBS is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major facilities and operations in New York City. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the iconic logo. It has also called the Tiffany Network, alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBSs first demonstrations of color television, the network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paleys guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, in 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971, CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which also controls the current Viacom. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated stations throughout the United States. The origins of CBS date back to January 27,1927, Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18,1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, in early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the networks Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. With the record out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. He believed in the power of advertising since his familys La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchenheim share of CBS, during Louchenheims brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebes Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the networks flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant was relocated also – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, by the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures. The deal came to fruition in September 1929, Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time
27.
Aladdin (animated TV series)
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Aladdin is an animated television series made by Walt Disney Television Animation which aired from 1994 to 1995, based on the original 1992 Disney film of the same name. It was animated at the Slightly Offbeat Productions Studios in Penrose, Auckland, the series is set after The Return of Jafar and picked up where the installment left off. The series was produced by Alan Zaslove and Tad Stones, who were renowned for their work on Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers. Many of the films stars provided the voices of their TV counterparts, with the exceptions of Dan Castellaneta filling in for Robin Williams in the Genie role. Unlike The Little Mermaid, the series does not feature any musical numbers. Aladdin TV series are to led more two direct-to-videos followed by, The Return of Jafar, was released on May 20,1994 and Aladdin, Disney Channel reran the series in the late-1990s until it was replaced by their pre-teen lineup. The show was shown on Toon Disney, until 2009 when the channel shutdown. After Jafars death, Aladdin continues his duty as the saviour of Agrabah and he and his friends continue their adventure, exploring the world and protecting Agrabah from the group of villains. The animated television series are done the animation by Walt Disney Television Animation Pty. Limited, Walt Disney Animation Japan, sunwoo Animation Co. Ltd. and Jaime Diaz Productions. Additional Production Facility by Jade Animation, Light Foot, Nakumara Production, Studios CATS, Studios Fuga, Studios Robin and Takahashi Productions. Aladdin, He was originally a street urchin who stole food to survive, but his life changed when he met and fell in love with Jasmine, Aladdin is engaged to marry Jasmine and will eventually become Prince and someday Sultan. He learns of his future responsibilities while protecting the kingdom from monsters, sorcerers, Princess Jasmine, She was forced by her father to marry a prince, but her life changed for the better when she ran away from home and met the man of her dreams, Aladdin. Jasmine is no ordinary princess as she is independent and wants to live a life where she is free to make her own choices, Genie, Freed from his lamp and able to use his magic freely, Genie helps Aladdin in his adventures to protect Agrabah. However, Genies magic does not always work as others would like it as much of his power was taken away once he was freed, but with or without his magic his friends love him for who he is. Iago, Though he may have changed his ways and is now on the side of good, Iago is still rather greedy and someday wishes to have riches, Iago causes trouble for the gang as he leads them on treasure hunts that turn out to be dangerous. Though he may not be the most likeable bird, Iago has a heart of gold, the Sultan Abu, The loveable yet troublesome best friend of Aladdin. Abu is known to be a thief and has his eyes set on gold and jewels. Abu and Iago have become friends and work together on many occasions to gain money
28.
Hey Arnold!
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Is an American animated television series created by Craig Bartlett that aired on Nickelodeon from October 7,1996 to June 8,2004, with reruns until 2007. The show centers on a fourth grader named Arnold, who lives with his grandparents in an inner-city boarding house, episodes center on his experiences navigating big city life while dealing with the problems he and his friends encounter. Bartletts idea for the show is based on a character named Arnold whom he created while working on Pee-wees Playhouse. The executives enjoyed the character, and Bartlett completed the cast by drawing inspiration from people he grew up with in Portland, Oregon, Bartlett created the pilot episode in his living room in 1994 and official production began in 1995. The animators worked to transform Arnold from clay animation to cel animation, the show finished production in 2001 after 5 seasons and 100 episodes. It was the second longest running Nicktoon behind Rugrats, until Spongebob Squarepants surpassed it in June 6,2008 with the episode House Fancy/Krabby Road, then Fairly Odd Parents surpassed it as the third longest running Nicktoon in April 72010 with the episode Playdate of Doom. It is currently the fourth longest running Nicktoon, received generally positive reviews, with many critics praising its character development, emotional storytelling and mature themes. Over the course of its run, the series aired 100 episodes. A feature film based on the series, Hey Arnold, the Movie, was released in 2002. All five seasons have been released on DVD, and reruns air on the TeenNick block The Splat. As of 2016, a Hey Arnold, television movie, reportedly titled Hey Arnold. The Jungle Movie, has been greenlit for production and it is expected to pick up from where the series ended and will resolve unanswered plot lines of the story, including the whereabouts of Arnolds parents. The TV movie will premiere in November 2017, Bartlett drew inspiration from people he grew up with when creating the characters for the show. Arnold lives with his eccentric but loving paternal grandparents, Phil and Gertrude, proprietors of the Sunset Arms boarding house, in each episode, he often helps a schoolmate or boarding home tenant solve a personal problem, or encounters a predicament of his own. Many episodes involve urban legends usually told by Gerald, such as superheroes or headless horsemen, other characters include students and faculty at P. S. 118, Arnolds school, and citizens of Hillwood, certain episodes focus on the lives of supporting characters, such as the tenants of the boarding house that Arnolds grandparents own. Takes place in the fictional American city of Hillwood, while its geographic location is never revealed outright, some episodes suggest that the city is located in Washington State. Bartlett described the city as an amalgam of northern cities I have loved, including Seattle, Portland
29.
Olive, the Other Reindeer
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Olive, the Other Reindeer is a 1999 CGI animated Christmas television special written by Steve Young, and directed by Oscar Moore. The feature was produced by Matt Groenings The Curiosity Company, and it first aired on December 17,1999 on Fox, produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Flower Films. The special combines paperlike character art in 3-D environments, the story was based on the 1997 childrens book by Vivian Walsh and illustrated by J. Otto Seibold. In the song, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the lyric All of the other reindeer can be misheard in dialects with the merger as the mondegreen Olive. Drew Barrymore voices the title character, the story follows an anthropomorphic Jack Russell Terrier named Olive, who does not act at all like a dog. While in town, she meets Martini, a con artist penguin, when she returns home from some errands, she finds her owner, Tim, putting away Christmas decorations and announcing morosely that there wont be any Christmas. Olive eventually finds out that this is because Blitzen, one of Santas reindeer, is injured earlier during a practice flight, Santa hopes he can make the Christmas run with all of the other reindeer. Mishearing this on the radio as Olive the other reindeer, Olive becomes convinced that it is she Santa is referring to, prompting her to travel to the North Pole to fill in on the sleigh team. On the way to the bus station, Olive runs into a grouchy Postman who is fed up with the stress of having to deliver the loads of mail during the Christmas rush. He then tells Olive that By next year, people will have forgotten about Christmas and he learns that Olive is trying to help save Santas flight. He is vengeful towards Santa for being put on his Naughty list and is determined to stop Olive from saving Christmas. Olive goes to the Mauvehound bus station to buy a ticket to Arctic Junction, Martini shows up, and Olive buys him a bus ticket out of pity. After pleading to Martini to help her, Martini rolls several pens along the ground, Martini and Olive then catch the bus right before it leaves, with the Postman watching them drive away. On the bus, Olive and Martini talk to an Inuit couple and they all believe Olive misheard Santa, but wish her luck anyway. When they arrive at Arctic Junction, there is a wait for the next bus. The radio then says that Santa is scheduling a press conference for 11,00. The group does not know that their waitress is really the Postman in disguise. He lures Olive outside, saying that Santa is going to give her a flying test, while he is driving away, Olive finds a package addressed to her from Deus Ex Machina. The package is a metal file Olive uses to escape, Olive then hears and sees a bus coming and tries to stop it, but fails
30.
I Am Not Homer
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I Am Not Homer is a 2002 comedy album by actor and comedian Dan Castellaneta, with additional input by his wife Deb Lacusta. The album is a collection of sketches written and performed by Castellaneta and Lacusta. The title of the album is a reference to Leonard Nimoys first autobiography, I Am Not Spock, and a majority of the sketches were material that the pair had used before in their careers. A majority of the sketches had been written and performed before the CD was recorded, additionally, Citizen Kane, a sketch in which two people discuss the film Citizen Kane with different meanings, was something the pair had performed at an art gallery. Castellaneta noted that we knew that these skits were funny. The skits were written by improvising from a basic point, transcribing the results. It was also a reference to the fact many people do not know anything about Castellanetas comedy career away from The Simpsons. A Canadian writer, Jenny Yuen, gave the CD a mixed review, noting some funny moments, bradley Torreano found that there are a few very funny sketches, but in the long run this is a very average comedy album that only inspires the occasional chuckle. All skits are performed by Castellaneta and Lacusta, except for So Dumb which is a monologue performed by Castellaneta. AM Therapy –8,04 Badger Baseball –5,00 Elvus –5,28 Rocks Off –6,48 Horoscope –2,16 Dynamite Sales –8,14 Drive Time –10,19 Citizen Kane –4,54 So Dumb –7,20 I Am Not Homer at Allmusic
31.
One-person show
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A one-person show is a solo performance, featuring a comedian or actor who stands on stage and entertains an audience. While a one-person show may be the musings of a comedian on a theme, in the preface of the book Extreme Exposure, editor Jo Bonney uses the term solo performance to encompass those performers who do not necessarily have a comedic history. She suggests that at the most basic level, despite their limitless backgrounds and performance styles and this assumption is based on her assertion that a number of solo shows have a storyline or a plot. When creating a show, a performer is not limited to creating and performing the show themselves. They can use directors, writers, designers, and composers, an example of how Eric Bogosian builds a character can be found in the published version of his show Wake Up And Smell the Coffee, by Theatre Communications Group, New York City. The backgrounds of solo performers over the range from vaudeville, stand-up comedy, poetry, music, the visual arts, magic, cabaret. We may assume that individuals have told stories in front of members of their tribe or society for thousands of years. They would have passed down many of todays myths and legends in this manner. Edgar Allan Poe both lectured and recited poetry as a performer between 1843 and 1849, his performances stand as a paradigm of the one-person show hybrid simply called the lecture-recital. The reading tours of Charles Dickens in Britain and America between 1858 and 1870 created a sensation and his American tour of 1867-68 was unparalleled until the arrival of the Beatles in the early 1960s. One person shows enjoyed an artistic and commercial vogue in the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century. Literary historians often associate the Victorian period with the highest development of the monologue as a poetic form. By the time the United States entered the 20th century, the number, by the 1960s, the term performance art became popular and involved any number of performance acts or happenings, as they were known. Many performers, like Laurie Anderson, developed through these happenings and are still performing today, since solo shows have long been the domain of comic performers, it should be no surprise that many American comedians, past and present, have come to prominence through this genre. Several performers have presented shows in tribute to famous personalities. The blueprint for this type of show may have been drafted by Hal Holbrook, jack Aranson starred in a one-man, 13-character production of Moby Dick. One-person shows may be personal, autobiographical creations, sometimes, solo shows are simply traditional plays written by playwrights for a cast of one. Examples, Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell, I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, The Blonde, the Brunette, a performer of shows of this type is Chris Harris, whose performances in the genre include Kemps Jig, Thats The Way To Do It
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Oak Park, Illinois
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Oak Park is a village adjacent to the West Side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Pace buses serve the Village for travel within its borders and connecting to neighboring suburbs, as of the 2010 United States Census the Village had a total population of 51,878. Oak Park was settled beginning in the 1830s, with rapid growth later in the 19th century and it incorporated in 1902, breaking off from Cicero. Development was spurred by railroads and street cars connecting the village to jobs in Chicago, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife settled here in 1889. Population peaked at 66,015 in 1940, smaller families led to falling population in the same number of homes and apartments. In the 1960s, Oak Park faced the challenge of racial integration, devising many strategies to integrate rather than re-segregate the village, Oak Park includes three historic districts for the historic homes, Ridgeland, Frank Lloyd Wright and Seward Gunderson, reflecting the focus on historic preservation. In 1835, Joseph Kettlestrings, an immigrant from England, purchased 172 acres of land just west of Chicago for a farm and their home. Once their children were born, they moved to Chicago for the schools in 1843, more farmers and settlers had entered the area. Their land was called by several names locally, including Oak Ridge, by 1850, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad was constructed as far as Elgin, Illinois, and passed through the settlement area. In the 1850s the land on which Oak Park sits was part of the new Chicago suburb, the town of Cicero. The population of the area boomed during the 1870s, with Chicago residents resettling in Cicero following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the expansion of railroads and street cars to the area. In 1872, when Oak Park received its own depot on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway. As Chicago grew from a center to a national metropolis Oak Park expanded – from 500 residents in 1872 to 1,812 in 1890, to 9,353 in 1900, to 20,911 in 1910. Oak Park thus emerged as a leading Chicago suburb, one of the first streetcar lines was the Chicago, Harlem, & Batavia “dummy” line, which ran approximately along the present-day route of the Eisenhower Expressway. The “dummy” trains used a steam locomotive with a false cladding designed to conceal most of the moving parts. This line first began operation in 1881, but did not provide direct service to downtown Chicago until June 1888. A more extensive network throughout Oak Park was opened in 1890. In the future village of Oak Park, this system ran east-west on Madison Street and Lake Street, streetcar service was discontinued in 1947, to be replaced by buses
33.
Alan Arkin
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Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician, and singer. He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor twice for his performances in The Russians Are Coming and he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Little Miss Sunshine and received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance in Argo. Arkin was born Alan Wolf Arkin in Brooklyn, New York City] on March 26,1934, Arkin, a painter and writer, and his wife, Beatrice, a teacher. He was raised in a Jewish family with no emphasis on religion and his grandparents were immigrants from Ukraine, Russia, and Germany. His parents moved to Los Angeles when Alan was 11, during the 1950s Red Scare, Arkins parents were accused of being Communists, and his father was fired when he refused to answer questions about his political ideology. David Arkin challenged the dismissal, but he was vindicated only after his death, Arkin attended Los Angeles City College from 1951 to 1953. With two friends, he formed the music group The Tarriers, in which Arkin sang. It reached #4 on the Billboard magazine chart the year as Harry Belafontes better-known hit version. The group appeared in the 1957 Calypso-exploitation film Calypso Heat Wave, singing Banana Boat Song, from 1958 to 1968, Arkin performed and recorded with the childrens folk group, The Baby Sitters. He also performed the role of Dr. Pangloss in a staging of Leonard Bernsteins operetta Candide, alongside Madeline Kahns Cunegonde. Arkin was an member of the Second City comedy troupe in the 1960s. Arkin is one of six actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance. Two years later, he was nominated, for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. In 1968, he appeared in the role of Inspector Clouseau after Peter Sellers disassociated himself from the role. His portrayal of Dr. Oatman, a scared and emotionally conflicted psychiatrist treating John Cusacks hit man character Martin Q, Blank in Grosse Point Blank was also well received. At 72 years old, Arkin was the sixth oldest winner of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, on Broadway, Arkin starred in Enter Laughing and Luv. He also directed The Sunshine Boys, among others, in 1969, Arkins directorial debut was a 12-minute childrens film titled People Soup, starring his sons Adam and Matthew Arkin. His most acclaimed directorial effort is Little Murders, released in 1971, the film opened to a lukewarm review by Roger Greenspan, and a more positive one by Vincent Canby in the New York Times
34.
Mike Nichols
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Mike Nichols was an American film and theatre director, producer, actor and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres, Nichols began his career in the 1950s with the comedy improvisational troupe, The Compass Players, predecessor of The Second City, in Chicago. He then teamed up with his partner, Elaine May, to form the comedy duo Nichols. Their live improv acts were a hit on Broadway resulting in three albums, with their debut album winning a Grammy Award, after Nichols and May disbanded their act in 1961, Nichols began directing plays. He soon earned a reputation as a skilled Broadway director with a flair for creating innovative productions and his debut Broadway play was Neil Simons Barefoot in the Park in 1963, with Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. He next directed Luv in 1964 and in 1965 directed another Neil Simon play, Nichols received a Tony Award for each of those plays. Nearly five decades later, he won his sixth Tony Award as best director with a revival of Death of a Salesman in 2012, during his career, he directed or produced over twenty-five Broadway plays. In 1966, Warner Brothers invited Nichols to direct his first film, Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf. starring Elizabeth Taylor, the groundbreaking and acclaimed film led critics to declare Nichols the new Orson Welles. The film garnered 13 Academy Award nominations, winning five and it was also a box office hit and became the number 1 film of 1966. His next film was The Graduate in 1967, starring then unknown actor Dustin Hoffman, alongside Anne Bancroft, the film was another critical and financial success, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1967 and receiving seven Academy Award nominations, winning Nichols the Academy Award for Best Directing. Among the other films he directed were Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood, Working Girl, Wolf, The Birdcage, Closer, along with an Academy Award, Nichols won a Grammy Award, four Emmy Awards and nine Tony Awards. He was also a three-time BAFTA Award winner and his other honors included the Lincoln Center Gala Tribute in 1999, the National Medal of Arts in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2010. His films garnered a total of 42 Academy Award nominations and seven wins, Mike Nichols was born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin, Germany, the son of Brigitte and Pavel Peschkowsky, a physician. His father was born in Vienna, Austria, to a Russian Jewish immigrant family, Nichols fathers family had been wealthy and lived in Siberia, leaving after the Russian Revolution, and settling in Germany around 1920. Nichols mothers family were German Jews and his maternal grandparents were anarchist Gustav Landauer and author Hedwig Lachmann. Nichols is a cousin twice removed of scientist Albert Einstein. His mother eventually joined the family, escaping through Italy in 1940, the family moved to New York City on April 28,1939. His father, whose original Russian name was Pavel Nikolaevich Peschkowsky and he had a successful medical practice in Manhattan, enabling the family to live near Central Park
35.
Elaine May
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Elaine May is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and comedian. She made her impact in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols, performing as Nichols. After her duo with Nichols ended, May subsequently developed a career as a director and she has been twice nominated for an Academy Award, for Heaven Can Wait and the Nichols-directed Primary Colors. In 1996, she reunited with Nichols to write the screenplay for The Birdcage, after studying acting with theater coach Maria Ouspenskaya in Los Angeles, she moved to Chicago in 1955 and became a founding member of the Compass Players, an improvisational theater group. May began working alongside Nichols, who was also in the group, and together began writing and performing their own comedy sketches. In 1957 they both quit the group to form their own act, Nichols and May, in New York. Jack Rollins, who produced most of Woody Allens films, said their act was so startling, so new, I was stunned by how really good they were. They performed nightly to mostly sold-out shows, in addition to making various TV, in their comedy act, they created satirical clichés and character types which made fun of the new intellectual, cultural, and social order that was just emerging at the time. In doing so, she was instrumental in removing the stereotype of women being unable to succeed at live comedy, together, they became an inspiration to many younger comedians, including Lily Tomlin and Steve Martin. Their relatively brief time together as comedy stars led New York talk show host Dick Cavett to call their act one of the meteors in the sky. Gerald Nachman noted that Nichols and May are perhaps the most ardently missed of all the comedians of their era. May was born Elaine Iva Berlin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1932, as a child, Elaine performed with her father in his traveling Yiddish theater company, which he took around the country. Her stage debut on the road was at the age of three, and she played the character of a generic little boy named Benny. Because the troupe toured extensively, May had been in over 50 different schools by the time she was ten, may says she hated school and would spend her free time at home reading fairy tales and mythology. Her father died when she was 11 years old, and then she and her mother moved to Los Angeles and she dropped out when she was fourteen years old. Two years later, aged sixteen, she married Marvin May and they had one child, Jeannie Berlin, who became an actress and screenwriter. The couple divorced in 1960, and she married lyricist Sheldon Harnick in 1962, in 1964, May married her psychoanalyst, Dr. David L. Rubinfine, they remained married until his death in 1982. Mays current longtime companion is director Stanley Donen, whom she has dated since 1999, Donen claims to have proposed marriage about 172 times
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Improvisation
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Improvisation is the term for the action of improvising. In a technical context, this can mean adapting a device for use other than that which it was designed for, or building a device from unusual components in an ad-hoc fashion. Improvisation, within the context of performing arts, is a spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of improvisation can apply to different faculties, across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic. Musical improvisation is usually defined as the composition of music, without prior preparation, improvisational comedy is a theatre art performed throughout the world and has had on-again, off-again status throughout history. Dance improvisation is frequently used as a choreographic tool, choreography is also frequently used as a tool for improvisation. Improvisation also exists outside the arts, Improvisation in engineering is to solve a problem with the tools and materials immediately at hand. Improvised weapons are used by guerrillas, insurgents and criminals. Improvisation in engineering is to solve a problem with the tools and materials immediately at hand, engineering improvisations may be needed because of emergencies, embargo, obsolescence of a product and the loss of manufacturer support, or just a lack of funding appropriate for a better solution. Users of motor vehicles in parts of Africa develop improvised solutions where it is not feasible to obtain manufacturer-approved spare parts. The popular television program MacGyver used as its gimmick a hero who could solve almost any problem with jury rigged devices from everyday materials, a Swiss Army knife and some duct tape. Improvisation can be thought of as an on the spot or off the cuff spontaneous moment of sudden inventiveness that can just come to mind, body, no preparation or training is needed. However, improvisation in any life or art form, can more often if it is practiced as a way of encouraging creative behavior. That practice includes learning to use ones intuition, as well as learning a technical understanding of the necessary skills and this can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or new ways to act. Improvisation was originally used on dramatic television. Techniques of improvisation are used in training for performing arts or entertainment, for example, music, theatre. To extemporize or ad lib is basically the same as improvising, colloquial terms such as lets play it by the ear, take it as it comes, and make it up as we go along are all used to describe improvisation. Where the improvisation is intended to solve a problem on a temporary basis and this applies to the field of engineering
37.
The Second City
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The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise, best known as the first ever on-going improvisational theater troupe based in Chicago. It also has programs that run out of Toronto and Los Angeles, the Second City Theatre opened on December 16,1959 and has since become one of the most influential and prolific comedy theatres in the world. The Second City has produced programs in both the United States and Canada including SCTV, Second City Presents, and Next Comedy Legend. The Second City chose its name from the title of an article about Chicago by A. J. Liebling that appeared in The New Yorker in 1952. In 1959, the first Second City revue show premiered at 1842 North Wells Street, the cabaret theater, comedy style of the Second City tended towards satire and commentary of current social norms and political figures and events. In 1961, the theater sent a cast to Broadway with the revue, From the Second City, directed by Sills. Eventually, the theater expanded to include three touring companies and a resident company, and now fosters a company devoted to outreach. The style of comedy has changed with time, but the format has remained constant, a number of well-known performers began careers as part of the historic troupe and later moved to television and film. In 1973, Second City opened a theater in Toronto, theater became the second resident stage in Old Town, Chicago location, handling overflow crowds and increasing the number of resident company members. Co-founder Bernard Sahlins owned the company until 1985, before selling it to Andrew Alexander. Along with its theaters, training centers, and television shows, Second City also produces improv, Second City Television, or SCTV, was a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from the Toronto troupe of the Second City and ran from 1976 to 1984. The basic premise of SCTV was modeled on a station in the fictional city of Melonville. Edith Prickley, Catherine OHaras washed-up, alcoholic, narcissist former leading-lady Lola Heatherton, martin Short originated his dorky Ed Grimley character here, which he later brought to Saturday Night Live. Andrew Alexander took the reins of Second City Toronto in 1974 and formed a partnership with Len Stuart in 1976 and its first television production was SCTV. Alexander co-developed and executive produced over 185 half-hour shows for the comedy series. In 1985, Alexander and Stuart became owners of Chicagos Second City and he has produced or executive produced over 200 Second City revues in Canada and the United States. Most recently, Alexander has expanded The Second City TV & Film Division with offices in Los Angeles and he serves on the Columbia College Board of Trustees, is Chair of the Gildas Club Honorary Board, and is also an Honorary Member of the Chicago Gildas Club Board. As of 2014, the Second City has been awarded thirty-seven Equity Joseph Jefferson Awards, which have recognized them for Best Revue five times, the first being Paradigm Lost
38.
The Tracey Ullman Show
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The Tracey Ullman Show is an American television variety show starring Tracey Ullman. It debuted on April 5,1987, as the Fox networks second prime-time series after Married, with Children, and ran until May 26,1990. The show is produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television, the show blended sketch comedy shorts with many musical numbers, featuring choreography by Paula Abdul. By the 1980s, acclaimed television producer James L. Brooks, had left the industry for the big screen. At the time that he won the Oscar for his film, Terms of Endearment, Brooks began receiving videotapes from Ullmans Los Angeles agent, hoping to get his attention. Ullman, who was famous in her homeland, England, was already landing a variety of television deals and proposals in America. These projects did not suit Ullmans interests, shows with morals, where everyone learns something at the end of the show, related Ullman to a television critic for TV Guide in 1989, describing the television show ideas that were offered to her. Brooks was so taken by what he saw in Ullman that he decided to take the young actress under his wing, Brooks was determined to develop the right vehicle to showcase Ullmans talents — acting, dancing, and singing — and decided to create a sketch comedy show. A typical episode would begin with Ullman giving an introduction, ostensibly from her dressing room. Then two or three comedy sketches would be presented in episode, most designed to showcase Ullmans ability to skillfully mimic various accents. One popular recurring character was timid, slow-talking Kay Typically, the sketch of the night would include a musical and/or dance number featuring Ullman solo or other members of the cast. The final segment saw Ullman, clad in a robe, deliver a monologue to the studio audience before ending the show with her catchphrase Go Home. Go Home. and dancing as the credits rolled, Ullman often talked about her husband, Allan McKeown, and her daughter, Mabel. Ullman chose the phrase, Go home, during the pilot episode because she could not think of anything clever to end with. Ullman performed an array of characters, most only appeared once, as the sketches concentrated on plot, with characters created to best tell that particular storyline. A handful of characters did return for subsequent sketches. Among the recurring characters portrayed by other cast members, besides those mentioned, were Gulliver Dark, singer and rival to Marty Tish, and Dr. Alexander Gibson. In the course of its four season run, Ullman performed a total of 108 characters, the Tracey Ullman Show regularly featured short animated cartoons as interstitials in the first three seasons
39.
Tracey Ullman
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She holds dual British and American citizenship. Her earliest appearances were on British television sketch comedy shows A Kick Up the Eighties, after a brief singing career, she appeared as Candice Valentine in Girls on Top with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. She emigrated from the United Kingdom to the United States where she starred in her own television comedy series, The Tracey Ullman Show. She later produced programmes for HBO, including Tracey Takes On. for which she garnered numerous awards and her sketch comedy series, Tracey Ullmans State of the Union, ran from 2008 to 2010 on Showtime. She has also appeared in feature films. Ullman was the first British woman to be offered her own sketch show in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Since 2016, she stars in her own BBC sketch comedy show Tracey Ullmans Show, Ullman is currently the richest female British comedian and the third richest British comedian overall. She is also the second richest British actress, Tracey Ullman was born Trace Ullman in Slough, Buckinghamshire, the younger of two daughters, to Dorin and Antony John Ullman. Her mother was British, with Roma ancestry, and her father was a Roman Catholic Pole, on the subject of the spelling of her name, My real name is Trace Ullman, but I added the y. My mother said it was spelled the American way, but I dont think she can spell, I always wanted a middle name. My mum used to me it was Mary but I never believed her. I looked on my birth certificate and I didnt have one, Antony Ullman served in the Polish Army and was evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. He subsequently worked as a solicitor, a salesman. He also brokered marriages and translated among the émigré Polish community, Dorin recognized their younger daughters talents early on and encouraged her to perform. When that happens to you as a child, you can face anything, Youre always waiting for the other shoe to drop. If something great happens, youre like, Wow, thats great that happened, the most disappointing thing happened when you were younger Youre just braver and if good things happen youre really grateful. After died, our fortunes came and went because Mum couldn’t speak Polish and had to give up the business, Mother Dorin would go on to take a host of odd jobs. My mother was always doing things like driving parts around for a garage, all covered in oil
40.
Julie Kavner
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Julie Deborah Kavner is an American film and television actress, voice actress and comedian. She is best known for her role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons. She also voices other characters for the show, including Jacqueline Bouvier, known for her improvisation and distinctive honeyed gravel voice, Kavner was cast in her first professional acting role as Brenda Morgenstern in Rhoda in 1974. She received the Primetime Emmy Award in 1978 and three nominations for playing the character. Following Rhoda, Kavner was cast in The Tracey Ullman Show, the Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, and the decided to ask Kavner to voice Marge. The shorts would eventually be spun off into The Simpsons, Kavner has been described as nearly reclusive, part of her contract says that she will never have to promote The Simpsons on video. Typically cast as a woman who is supportive, sympathetic or self-effacingly funny, in 1992, she starred in This Is My Life, her first leading role in a feature film. Kavner has also appeared in roles in seven films written by Woody Allen. Kavner was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 7,1950, the daughter of Rose, a family counselor, and David Kavner, a furniture manufacturer. She decided to pursue a career in acting because There was nothing else I wanted to do and she attended Beverly Hills High School, where she was something of a loner, and unsuccessfully tried out for several plays. After graduating in 1971 she got a day job as a typist at the UCLA School of the Arts, in 1973, Kavner auditioned for a role as one of Rhoda Morgensterns sisters in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. David Davis, producer of the show, had convinced her to audition for the part, a year later, Rhoda Morgenstern became the leading character in a spin-off called Rhoda. Kavner was cast in her first professional acting role as Brenda Morgenstern, Rhoda ran on CBS from September 9,1974, to December 1978. She received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for playing Brenda and she also received four Golden Globe Award nominations. In 1975, she received Daytime Emmy Award nomination for her role in the daytime special The Girl Who Couldnt Lose. Following Rhoda, Kavner had a guest appearance on Taxi and appeared in the 1985 comedy Bad Medicine as well as the 1987 film Surrender and she appeared in the television movies Revenge of the Stepford Wives, No Other Love and A Fine Romance, and shot a television pilot. Woody Allen first saw Kavner one night while he was watching Rhoda in the 1970s and he thought that she was remarkable and later offered her a role in his 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters
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Marge Simpson
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Marjorie Jacqueline Marge Simpson is a fictional character in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short Good Night on April 19,1987, Marge was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on Life in Hell and he named the character after his mother Margaret Groening. After appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show for three seasons, the Simpson family received their own series on Fox, which debuted December 17,1989, Marge is the matriarch of the Simpson family. With her husband Homer, she has three children, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, Marge is the moralistic force in her family and often provides a grounding voice in the midst of her familys antics by trying to maintain order in the Simpson household. She is often portrayed as a stereotypical television mother and is included on lists of top TV moms. She has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons—including video games, The Simpsons Movie, The Simpsons Ride, commercials, Marges distinctive blue beehive hairstyle was inspired by a combination of the Brides in Bride of Frankenstein and the style that Margaret Groening wore in the 1960s. Julie Kavner, who was a member of the original cast of The Tracey Ullman Show, was asked to voice Marge so that voice actors would not be needed. Kavner has won awards for voicing Marge, including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992. She was also nominated for an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature for her performance in The Simpsons Movie, in 2000, Marge, along with the rest of her family, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Simpsons uses a floating timeline in which the characters do not physically age, in several episodes, events have been linked to specific time periods, although this timeline has been contradicted in subsequent episodes. Marge Simpson is the wife of Homer and mother of Bart, Lisa and she was raised by her parents, Jacqueline and Clancy Bouvier. She has a pair of sisters, the joyless Patty and Selma, in The Way We Was, it is revealed via flashback that Marge attended Springfield High School, and in her final year met Homer Simpson. She was at first wary of Homer, but agreed to go to the prom with him, however, she regretted going with Artie and ended up with Homer. After the two had been dating for years, Marge discovered she was pregnant with Bart, and she. Bart was born soon after, and the couple bought their first house, as with many Simpsons characters, Marges age and birthday changes to serve the story. In season one episodes Life on the Fast Lane and Some Enchanted Evening, in Homers Paternity Coot, Marge states that Emerald would have been her birthstone if she had been born three months later, placing her birthday sometime in February. In Regarding Margie, Homer mentioned that Marge was his age, in the season eighteen episode Marge Gamer she states that she and actor Randy Quaid share the same birthdate
42.
Walter Matthau
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He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1966 Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie. Besides the Oscar, he was the winner of BAFTA, Golden Globe, Matthau was born Walter John Matthow on October 1,1920, in New York Citys Lower East Side. His mother, Rose, was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant who worked in a garment sweatshop, as part of a lifelong love of practical jokes, Matthau himself created the rumors that his middle name was Foghorn and his last name was originally Matuschanskayasky. As a young boy, Matthau attended a Jewish non-profit sleepaway camp, Tranquillity Camp and he also attended Surprise Lake Camp. His high school was Seward Park High School and he worked for a short time as a concession stand cashier in the Yiddish Theatre District. He was based at RAF Old Buckenham, Norfolk during this time and he reached the rank of staff sergeant and became interested in acting. He took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School with German director Erwin Piscator and he often joked that his best early review came in a play where he posed as a derelict. One reviewer said, The others just looked like actors in make-up, Matthau was a respected stage actor for years in such fare as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter. He won the 1962 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a play, Matthau appeared in the pilot of Mister Peepers with Wally Cox. For reasons unknown he used the name Leonard Elliot and his role was of the gym teacher Mr. Wall. He made his motion picture debut as a bad guy in The Kentuckian opposite Burt Lancaster. He played a villain in King Creole, in which he gets beaten up by Elvis Presley, around the same time, he made Ride a Crooked Trail with Audie Murphy, and Onionhead starring Andy Griffith, the latter was a flop. Matthau had a role opposite Griffith in the well received drama A Face in the Crowd. Matthau also directed a movie called The Gangster Story and was a sympathetic sheriff in Lonely Are the Brave. He appeared opposite Audrey Hepburn in Charade, appearances on television were common too, including two on Naked City, as well as an episode of The Eleventh Hour. He appeared eight times between 1962 and 1964 on The DuPont Show of the Week and as Franklin Gaer in an episode of Dr. Kildare, additionally he featured in the syndicated crime drama Tallahassee 7000, as a Florida-based state police investigator. Comedies were rare in Matthaus work at that time, Neil Simon cast him in the play The Odd Couple in 1965, with Matthau playing slovenly sportswriter Oscar Madison, opposite Art Carney as Felix Unger. Matthau later reprised the role in the version, with Jack Lemmon as Felix Ungar
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Nancy Cartwright
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Nancy Jean Cartwright is an American voice actress, film and television actress, and comedian. She is known for her role as Bart Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons. Cartwright also voices other characters for the show, including Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders, Kearney, Cartwright was born in Dayton, Ohio. Cartwright moved to Hollywood in 1978 and trained alongside voice actor Daws Butler, after continuing to search for acting work, in 1987, Cartwright auditioned for a role in a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family that was to appear on The Tracey Ullman Show. Cartwright intended to audition for the role of Lisa Simpson, the middle child, Matt Groening, the series creator, allowed her to audition for Bart and offered her the role on the spot. She voiced Bart for three seasons on The Tracey Ullman Show, and in 1989, the shorts were spun off into a show called The Simpsons. In 2000, she published her autobiography, My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy and she also co-produced the one-woman play In Search of Fellini. Cartwright was born in Dayton, Ohio, on October 25,1957 and she grew up in Kettering, Ohio, and discovered her talent for voices at an early age. While in the grade, she won a school-wide speech competition with her performance of Rudyard Kiplings How the Camel Got His Hump. Cartwright attended Fairmont West High School, and participated in the schools theater and she regularly entered public speaking competitions, placing first in the Humorous Interpretation category at the National District Tournament two years running. The judges often suggested to her that she should perform cartoon voices, Cartwright graduated from high school in 1976 and accepted a scholarship from Ohio University. She continued to compete in public speaking competitions, during her sophomore year, in 1976, Cartwright landed a part-time job doing voice-overs for commercials on WING radio in Dayton. A representative from Warner Bros. Records visited WING and later sent Cartwright a list of contacts in the animation industry, one of these was Daws Butler, known for voicing characters such as Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Elroy Jetson and Yogi Bear. Cartwright called him, and left a message in a Cockney accent on his answering machine, Butler immediately called her back and agreed to be her mentor. He mailed her a script and instructed her to him a tape recording of herself reading it. Once he received the tape, Butler critiqued it and sent her notes, for the next year they continued in this way, completing a new script every few weeks. Cartwright described Butler as absolutely amazing, always encouraging, always polite, Cartwright returned to Ohio University for her sophomore year, but transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles so she could be closer to Hollywood and Butler. Her mother, Miriam, died late in the summer of 1978, Cartwright nearly changed her relocation plans but, on September 17,1978, joylessly left for Westwood, Los Angeles
44.
Yeardley Smith
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Martha Maria Yeardley Smith is a French-born American actress, voice actress, writer, author, comedian, and painter. She is best known for her role as Lisa Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons. She was born in Paris and moved with her family to Washington, DC, as a child, Smith was often teased because of her voice. She became an actress in 1982 after graduating from drama school and moved to New York City in 1984. She made her debut in 1985s Heaven Help Us, followed by roles in The Legend of Billie Jean. She moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and received a role in the television series Brothers. In 1987, she auditioned for a role in a series of animated shorts about the Simpson family on The Tracey Ullman Show. Smith intended to audition for the role of Bart Simpson, but the director felt her voice was too high, so she was assigned the role of Lisa. She voiced Lisa for three seasons on The Tracey Ullman Show, and in 1989, the shorts were spun off into their own half-hour show, for her work as the character, Smith received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992. Alongside The Simpsons, Smith appeared in the sitcom Hermans Head as Louise and she has appeared in several films, including City Slickers, Just Write, Toys and As Good as It Gets. In 2004, Smith performed her own off-Broadway one-woman show entitled More at the Union Square Theatre in New York City, aside from The Simpsons, Smith has recorded few voice-over parts, only commercials and the film Were Back. Smith starred in and served as producer for the independent romantic comedy Waiting For Ophelia. Smith was married to actor Christopher Grove from 1990 to 1992, during the first season of Hermans Head, Smith taught herself to paint by copying other artists. She released a book titled I, Lorelei in 2009 and her story The Race was included in the book Just Humor Me. Smith was born Martha Maria Yeardley Smith on July 3,1964. Her father, Joseph Smith, worked for United Press International in Paris and moved to Washington, DC, in 1966 and her mother, Martha Mayor, was a paper conservator for the Freer and Sackler Galleries at the Smithsonian Institution. Smith labeled her family upper crust and reserved, as a child, Smith was often teased because of her unusual voice. Smith has stated, Ive sounded pretty much the way since I was six. She made her debut in a sixth-grade play
