1.
2014 Toronto International Film Festival
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The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkins film The Judge, starring Robert Downey Jr. a Little Chaos, a British period drama directed by Alan Rickman and starring Kate Winslet closed the festival. More films for each section were announced on 12 August, with the completed on 19 August. A total of 393 films were shown, including 143 world premieres, the first Friday was dubbed Bill Murray Day, as festival organisers dedicated a day to the actor by screening a select number of his films for free. Jules Big Muddy by Jefferson Moneo Corbo by Mathieu Denis The Crows Egg by M, the selected films received a followup screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox as a Canadas Top Ten minifestival in January 2015
2014 Toronto International Film Festival
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Festival poster
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
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
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
California
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A forest of redwood trees in
Redwood National Park
California
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Flag
California
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Mount Shasta
California
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Aerial view of the
California Central Valley
4.
Tisch School of the Arts
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The New York University Tisch School of the Arts is a center of study in the performing and media arts. Founded on August 17,1965, Tisch is a ground for artists, scholars of the arts, filmmakers. The school merges the technical training of a school with the academic resources of a major research university to immerse students in their intended artistic disciplines. It is located at 721 Broadway in Manhattan, New York City, NYU has the most alumni working at Broadway theatre. Tisch School of the Arts was founded in order to provide training in theatre and film. The school created additional departments such as dance, theatre design, in recognition of the generosity of the Tisch family, the school was renamed Tisch School of the Arts. Tisch also offers a selection of classes to NYU students not enrolled in any of its programs through the Open Arts curriculum, the Graduate Acting Program offers a three-year MFA that equips acting students with the skills of a working career in theatre and/or film. The Department of the Dance offers training on the graduate and undergraduate level to students preparing for careers as dancers or choreographers, while taking full advantage of the liberal arts resources of the New York University and the cultural resources of the New York City. The Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program is an MFA program specially designed for the major collaborators in the creation of new theater and opera, composers, lyricists. NYU Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program has gained a reputation for its selectivity. Zelda Fichandler became chair of the program in 1984 and stepped down in 2008, in May 2008, Mark Wing-Davey became chair. Graduate Acting alumni have gone on to achieve many acting accolades, faison Edi Gathegi Jordan Gelber,2000 Enver Gjokaj Matthew Gray Gubler Logan Marshall Green Christopher Guest,1971 Danai Gurira Michael C. Many of the faculty have their own independent of the dance department. The program strives to prepare students for the life of a dancer, preparing them by treating their third year students as a company. Students graduate in three years, hence the schedule which is accelerated in order for dancers to graduate earlier than their peers in other college dance programs. Because of brevity of the program, students attend a six-week summer course following their first. During these summer intensives, six different companies come in a week each and teach students their style of movement and this is an excellent way for students to be introduced to companies and have the chance to get noticed and get to know the different companies in an intimate setting. This is unique to the Tisch Dance Program, and is conducive to introducing dancers into the world of auditions
Tisch School of the Arts
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Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts
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Undergraduate students perform in a main stage production of
Dancing at Lughnasa.
Tisch School of the Arts
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Post-production center on the 11th floor of the Tisch building at 721 Broadway in New York
5.
Forrest Gump
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Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, the film differs substantially from Winston Grooms novel, including Gumps personality and several events that were depicted. Principal photography took place in late 1993, mainly in Georgia, North Carolina, extensive visual effects were used to incorporate the protagonist into archived footage and to develop other scenes. A comprehensive soundtrack was featured in the film, using music intended to pinpoint specific time periods portrayed on screen and its commercial release made it a top-selling soundtrack, selling over twelve million copies worldwide. In 1995 it won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Zemeckis, Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay for Eric Roth, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing. It also garnered other awards and nominations, including Golden Globes, Peoples Choice Awards. Since the films release varying interpretations have made of the films protagonist. In 1996, a restaurant, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. The scene of Gump running across the country is referred to when real-life people attempt the feat. In 2011, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. The plot is delivered in a number of flashbacks in the narrative of Forrest Gump as he sits at a bus stop with a suitcase full of mementos in Savannah. He initiates conversation with a stranger and recalls his childhood in Greenbow, Forrest is raised by a single mother who runs a bed and breakfast for travelling folk including at one point a young Elvis Presley, and has to wear leg braces to fix a crooked back. Despite having a diminished intellect, Forrest is admitted to school after his mother agrees to have sex with the principal. On his first day of school, Forrest meets Jenny Curran, the children bond, finding in each other a confidante and kindred spirit. With Jennys encouragement, Forrest runs away from a group of bullies, struggling until his leg braces break off and he features in the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door and listens to George Wallace. He then meets President John F. Kennedy as a member of the NCAA All-American team and they are sent to Vietnam under Lieutenant Dan Taylor. After four months of patrolling in rain, Bubba is killed during their first encounter, Lieutenant Dan sustains major injuries and loses both his legs. Forrest is wounded in the buttocks while saving members of his platoon—including Lieutenant Dan—and is awarded the Medal of Honor, while recovering from his wounds, Forrest discovers an aptitude for ping-pong, eventually playing against the Chinese in ping-pong diplomacy
Forrest Gump
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Theatrical release poster
Forrest Gump
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Tom Hanks (left) and
Gary Sinise on the film set in 1993.
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump
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Gump with President
John F. Kennedy. A variety of visual effects were used to incorporate Tom Hanks into archive footage with various historical figures and events.
6.
M. Night Shyamalan
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Manoj M. Night Shyamalan is an Indian-American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots and twist endings. His other films include The Village, Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender and he is also known for producing Devil, as well as being instrumental in the creation of the Fox science fiction series Wayward Pines. Shyamalan is also known for filming and setting his films in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was raised, most of his commercially successful films were co-produced and released by the Walt Disney Studios Touchstone and Hollywood film imprints. In 2008, Shyamalan was awarded the Padma Shri by the government of India, Shyamalan was born in Mahé, a town in the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry. The son of Indian parents, his father, Nelliate C, Shyamalan, is a Malayali from Mahé and graduated with a medical degree from JIPMER, while his mother, Jayalakshmi, is a Tamil Indian who is an obstetrician and gynecologist by profession. Shyamalan spent his first six weeks in Puducherry, and then was raised in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania and he attended the private Roman Catholic grammar school Waldron Mercy Academy, followed by the Episcopal Academy, a private Episcopal high school located at the time in Merion, Pennsylvania. Shyamalan earned the New York University Merit Scholarship in 1988, Shyamalan is an alumnus of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, in Manhattan, graduating in 1992. It was while studying there that he adopted Night as his second name, Shyamalan had an early desire to be a filmmaker when he was given a Super 8 camera at a young age. Though his father wanted him to follow in the practice of medicine. By the time he was seventeen, the Steven Spielberg fan had made forty-five home movies, on each DVD release of his films, he has included a scene from one of these childhood movies, which he feels represents his first attempt at the same kind of film. Shyamalan made his first film, the semi-autobiographical drama Praying with Anger, while still a student at NYU, using money borrowed from family and he wrote and directed his second movie, Wide Awake. His parents were the associate producers. The drama dealt with a ten-year-old Catholic schoolboy who, after the death of his grandfather, the films supporting cast included Dana Delany and Denis Leary as the boys parents, as well as Rosie ODonnell, Julia Stiles, and Camryn Manheim. Wide Awake was filmed in a school Shyamalan attended as a child and earned 1999 Young Artist Award nominations for Best Drama, only in limited release, the film grossed $305,704 in theaters, against a $6 million budget. That same year Shyamalan co-wrote the screenplay for Stuart Little with Greg Brooker, in 2013, he revealed he was the ghostwriter for the 1999 film Shes All That, a teen comedy starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachel Leigh Cook. However, this statement has come into question as the screenwriter for the film. In July 2000, on The Howard Stern Show, Shyamalan said he had met with Steven Spielberg and was in talks to write the script for the fourth Indiana Jones film. This would have given Shyamalan a chance to work with his longtime idol, after the film fell through, Shyamalan later said it was too tricky to arrange and not the right thing for him to do
M. Night Shyamalan
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Shyamalan at a press conference for
The Happening in 2008.
M. Night Shyamalan
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M. Night Shyamalan and
Mark Wahlberg (right) at the presentation of the film
The Happening in
Madrid.
M. Night Shyamalan
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M. Night Shyamalan and
Bryce Dallas Howard at the Spanish premiere of
The Village (in the
San Sebastián International Film Festival, 2006).
7.
The Sixth Sense
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The Sixth Sense is a 1999 American supernatural horror-thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film tells the story of Cole Sear, a troubled, isolated boy who is able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist who tries to help him. The film established Shyamalan as a writer and director, and introduced the public to his traits. Released by Hollywood Pictures on August 6,1999, the film was received well, critics highlighted the performances, its atmosphere, the film was the second-highest-grossing film of 1999, grossing about $293 million domestically and $672 million worldwide. Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist in Philadelphia, returns one night with his wife, Anna. Anna tells Crowe that everything is second to his work, a young man then appears in their bathroom, and accuses Crowe of failing him. Crowe recognizes him as Vincent Grey, a patient whom he treated as a child for hallucinations. Vincent shoots his former doctor before killing himself, the next fall, Crowe begins working with another patient, nine-year-old Cole Sear, whose case is similar to Vincents. Crowe becomes dedicated to the boy, though he is haunted by doubts over his ability to him after his failure with Vincent. Meanwhile, he and his wife seldom, if ever, speak or do anything together, Crowe feels he must help Cole in order to rectify his failure to help Vincent and reconcile with his wife. Coles mother, Lynn worries about his stamina, especially after seeing signs of physical abuse. Cole eventually confides his secret to Crowe, he sees ghosts, at first, Crowe thinks Cole is delusional and considers dropping his case. Remembering Vincent, the psychologist listens to an audiotape from a session with Vincent when he was a child, on the tape, when Crowe leaves the room, Vincent begins crying. Turning up the volume, Crowe hears a man begging for help in Spanish, and now believes that Cole is telling the truth. He suggests to Cole that he should try to find a purpose for his gift by communicating with the ghosts, at first, Cole is unwilling since the ghosts terrify and sometimes even threaten him, but he finally decides to attempt helping. Cole talks to one of the ghosts, a girl named Kyra who recently died after a chronic illness. He goes with Crowe to her reception at her home, where Kyra directs him to a box holding a videotape. The tape shows Kyras mother poisoning her daughters food, by proving she was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, Cole has saved Kyras younger sister, the mothers next victim
The Sixth Sense
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Theatrical release poster
8.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Walter Brennan was the first winner of award for his role in Come. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes, currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Since its inception, the award has given to 72 actors. Brennan has received the most awards in this category with three awards, Brennan, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, and Claude Rains were nominated on four occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Mahershala Ali is the most recent winner in category for his role as Juan in Moonlight. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-1-55002-574-3. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com Complete Downloadable List of Academy Award Nominees
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
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Walter Brennan was the first winner in this category for 1936's
Come and Get It; He would also win for his roles in
Kentucky (1938) and
The Westerner (1940).
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
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Van Heflin won in 1942 for his performance in
Johnny Eager.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
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George Sanders won for his role in 1950's
All About Eve.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
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Karl Malden won in 1951 for
A Streetcar Named Desire.
9.
Hollywood, Los Angeles
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Hollywood is an ethnically diverse, densely populated neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is notable as the home of the U. S. film industry, including several of its studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry. Hollywood was a community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, in 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera, named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished, the area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the Father of Hollywood, along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed, the Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, I holly-wood, meaning hauling wood. H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood, Holly would represent England and wood would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States, Whitley arranged to buy the 500-acre E. C. Hurd ranch and disclosed to him his plans for the land. They agreed on a price and Hurd agreed to sell at a later date, before Whitley got off the ground with Hollywood, plans for the new town had spread to General Harrison Gray Otis, Hurds wife, eastern adjacent ranch co-owner Daeida Wilcox, and others. Daeida Wilcox may have learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon and she recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey. In August 1887, Wilcox filed with the Los Angeles County Recorders office a deed and parcel map of property he had sold named Hollywood, Wilcox wanted to be the first to record it on a deed. The early real-estate boom busted that year, yet Hollywood began its slow growth. By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent, the old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard, having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, the hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years. Whitleys company developed and sold one of the residential areas
Hollywood, Los Angeles
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The Four Ladies installation at the
Hollywood Boulevard –
La Brea Avenue Gateway
Hollywood, Los Angeles
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Glen-Holly Hotel, first hotel in Hollywood, at the corner of what is now Yucca Street. It was built in the 1890s.
Hollywood, Los Angeles
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Hollywood Hotel, 1905
Hollywood, Los Angeles
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The intersection of
Hollywood and Highland, 1907
10.
Steven Spielberg
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Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE, OMRI is an American director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the pioneers of the New Hollywood era. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Studios, in a career spanning more than four decades, Spielbergs films have spanned many themes and genres. His other films include Jurassic Park, A. I, artificial Intelligence, and War of the Worlds. Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindlers List and Saving Private Ryan, three of Spielbergs films—Jaws, E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park—achieved box office records, originated and came to epitomize the blockbuster film. The unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $9 billion worldwide and his personal net worth is estimated to be more than $3 billion. Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to an Orthodox Jewish family and his mother, Leah Posner, was a restaurateur and concert pianist, and his father, Arnold Spielberg, was an electrical engineer involved in the development of computers. His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Ukraine who settled in Cincinnati in the first decade of the 1900s, in 1950, his family moved to Haddon Township, New Jersey when his father took a job with RCA. Three years later, the moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Spielberg attended Hebrew school from 1953 to 1957, in classes taught by Rabbi Albert L. Lewis, as a child, Spielberg faced difficulty reconciling being an Orthodox Jew with the perception of him by other children he played with. It isnt something I enjoy admitting, he said, but when I was seven, eight, nine years old, God forgive me. I was embarrassed by the perception of my parents Jewish practices. I was never really ashamed to be Jewish, but I was uneasy at times, Spielberg also said he suffered from acts of anti-Semitic prejudice and bullying, In high school, I got smacked and kicked around. His first home movie was of a wreck involving his toy Lionel trains. Throughout his early teens, and after entering school, Spielberg continued to make amateur 8 mm adventure films. In 1958, he became a Boy Scout and fulfilled a requirement for the merit badge by making a nine-minute 8 mm film entitled The Last Gunfight. Years later, Spielberg recalled to an interviewer, My dads still-camera was broken. He said yes, and I got an idea to do a Western, I made it and got my merit badge
Steven Spielberg
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Spielberg at the
2013 Cannes Film Festival
Steven Spielberg
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Steven Spielberg and
Chandran Rutnam on a location in Sri Lanka during the filming of
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Steven Spielberg
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Spielberg in March 1990
Steven Spielberg
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Spielberg in 2011, at the Paris premiere of
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.
11.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
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Artificial Intelligence, also known as A. I. is a 2001 American science fiction drama film directed by Steven Spielberg. The screenplay by Spielberg was based on a story by Ian Watson. The film was produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Spielberg and Bonnie Curtis and it stars Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances OConnor, Brendan Gleeson and William Hurt. Set in a futuristic post-climate change society, A. I. tells the story of David, development of A. I. originally began with producer-director Stanley Kubrick after he acquired the rights to Aldiss story in the early 1970s. Kubrick hired a series of writers until the mid-1990s, including Brian Aldiss, Bob Shaw, Ian Watson, in 1995, Kubrick handed A. I. to Spielberg, but the film did not gain momentum until Kubricks death in 1999. Spielberg remained close to Watsons film treatment for the screenplay, the film divided critics, with the overall balance being positive, and grossed approximately $235 million. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards at the 74th Academy Awards, for Best Visual Effects and Best Original Score, a. I. is dedicated to Stanley Kubrick. In the late 22nd century, global warming has flooded the coastlines, wiping out coastal cities such as Amsterdam, Venice, and New York City, There is a new class of robots called Mecha, advanced humanoids capable of emulating thoughts and emotions. David, a prototype, is designed to resemble a human child and they test their creation with one of their employees, Henry Swinton, and his wife Monica. The Swintons son, Martin, had placed in suspended animation until a cure could be found for his rare disease. Initially frightened of David, Monica eventually warms up enough to him to activate his imprinting protocol and he is also befriended by Teddy, a robotic teddy bear, who takes it upon himself to care for Davids well-being. A cure is found for Martin and he is home, as he recovers, it becomes clear he does not want a sibling. First, he attempts to make Teddy choose whom he likes more and he then makes David promise to do something and in return Martin will tell Monica that he loves his new brother, making her love him more. The promise David makes is to go to Monica in the middle of the night and this upsets the parents, particularly Henry, who fears that the scissors are a weapon, and warns Monica that a robot programmed to love may also be able to hate. At a pool party, one of Martins friends unintentionally activates Davids self-protection programming by poking him with a knife, David grabs Martin, apparently for protection, but they both fall into the pool. David sinks to the bottom while still clinging to Martin, Martin is saved from drowning, but Henry mistakes Davids fear during the pool incident as hate for Martin. Henry persuades Monica to return David to Cybertronics, where he will be destroyed, however, Monica cannot bring herself to do this and abandons David in the forest to hide as an unregistered Mecha. David is captured for an anti-Mecha Flesh Fair, an event where obsolete, David is nearly killed, but the crowd is swayed by his fear into believing he is human and he escapes with Gigolo Joe, a male prostitute Mecha on the run after being framed for murder
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
–
Theatrical release poster
12.
Pay It Forward (film)
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Pay It Forward is a 2000 American drama-romance film based on the novel of the same name by Catherine Ryan Hyde. The film is set in Las Vegas in the present day, the film was a moderate box office success, earning just over $55.7 million on a $40 million budget. Trevors plan is a program based on the networking of good deeds. He calls his plan pay it forward, which means the recipient of a favor does a favor for three rather than paying the favor back. However, it needs to be a favor that the recipient cannot complete themselves. Trevor does a favor for three people, asking each of them to pay the favor forward by doing favors for three people, and so on, along a branching tree of good deeds. His first good deed is to let a man named Jerry live in his garage. Trevors efforts appear to fail when Jerry relapses into addiction, but Jerry pays his debt forward later by talking to a suicidal woman. Meanwhile, Trevors mother Arlene confronts Eugene about Trevors project after discovering Jerry in their house, Trevor then selects Eugene as his next pay it forward target and tricks Eugene and Arlene into a romantic dinner date. This also appears to fail until Trevor and Arlene argue about her love for Ricky, her alcoholic ex-husband, the two adults are brought together again when Trevor runs away from home and Arlene asks Eugene to help her find him. After finding Trevor, Arlene begins to pursue Eugene sexually, Eugene has deep burn marks visible on his neck and face, and he initially resists Arlenes overtures out of insecurity. When they finally sleep together, he is seen to have extensive scarring all over his torso, Arlene accepts Eugenes physical disfigurement and forms an emotional bond with him, but quickly abandons their relationship when Ricky returns to her, claiming to have given up drinking. Rickys return and Arlenes acceptance of it angers Eugene, whose own mother had a habit of taking his abusive and he berates Arlene for being one of those women and warns her of Rickys potential to abuse Trevor. When Ricky drinks again and resumes his abusive behavior, Arlene realizes her mistake, as the film proceeds, Chris traces the chain of favors back to its origin as Trevors school project. The gang member then saves a life in a hospital. Chris finally identifies Trevor as the originator of pay it forward and conducts an interview in which Trevor describes his hopes. Eugene, hearing Trevors words, realizes that he and Arlene should be together, as Eugene and Arlene reconcile with an embrace, Trevor notices his friend Adam being bullied by gangster-like children, as he has several times before. He pays it forward to Adam by rushing into the scene, when one of the bullies takes a switchblade out of his pocket, Trevor is stabbed in the abdomen and dies from his injuries
Pay It Forward (film)
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Theatrical release poster
13.
David Mamet
–
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director. As a playwright, Mamet has won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross, Mamet first gained acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway plays in 1976, The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and American Buffalo. His play Race opened on Broadway on December 6,2009, Mamets 2017 play The Penitent previewed off-Broadway on February 8,2017. Feature films that Mamet both wrote and directed include Redbelt, The Spanish Prisoner, House of Games, Spartan, Heist, State and Main, The Winslow Boy, and Oleanna. This was accompanied by Homicide, Things Change, and most recently the 2013 HBO film Phil Spector, starring Al Pacino as Spector with Helen Mirren and Jeffrey Tambor. His drama Glengarry Glen Ross, in 1992, was adapted by Mamet into a version which also received an Academy Award nomination. Mamet was also the producer and frequent writer for the TV show The Unit. As a screenplay writer, Mamet received Oscar nominations for The Verdict, Mamet was born in 1947 in Chicago to Jewish parents, Lenore June, a teacher, and Bernard Morris Mamet, an attorney. One of his first jobs was as a busboy at Chicagos The Second City and he was educated at the progressive Francis W. Parker School and at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. At the Chicago Public Library Foundation 20th anniversary fundraiser in 2006, though, I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign. Mamet is a member of the Atlantic Theater Company, he first gained acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway plays in 1976, The Duck Variations, Sexual Perversity in Chicago. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for Glengarry Glen Ross and his play Race, which opened on Broadway on December 6,2009 and featured James Spader, David Alan Grier, Kerry Washington, and Richard Thomas in the cast, received mixed reviews. His play The Anarchist, starring Patti LuPone and Debra Winger, in her Broadway debut and his 2017 play The Penitent previewed off-Broadway on February 8,2017. In 2002, Mamet was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame, Mamet later received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for Grand Master of American Theater in 2010. His latest feature-length film, a thriller titled Blackbird, is slated for release in 2015, Mamets first produced screenplay was the 1981 production of The Postman Always Rings Twice, based upon James M. Cains novel. He received an Academy Award nomination one year later for his first script, The Verdict and he also wrote the screenplay for The Untouchables. In 1987, Mamet made his directing debut with House of Games, starring his then-wife, Lindsay Crouse. He uses friends as actors, especially in one scene in the movie
David Mamet
–
Mamet at the premiere of
Redbelt at the Tribeca Film Festival, April 25, 2008
14.
John Leguizamo
–
John Alberto Leguizamo is a Colombian-American actor, voice actor, producer, playwright, screenwriter, and stand-up comedian. Leguizamo was born in Bogotá, the son of Alberto and Luz Leguizamo and his father was once an aspiring film director and studied at Cinecittà, but eventually dropped out due to lack of finances. According to Leguizamo, his grandfather was of Italian and Puerto Rican descent. He has also described himself as being of Amerindian and Mestizo heritage, Leguizamo had always declared that he was Puerto Rican on his fathers side, which was one of the reasons he was selected as the Puerto Rican Day Parade Global Ambassador of the Arts. In response to his fathers allegations, Leguizamo reiterated that his grandfather was of Puerto Rican descent, a National Puerto Rican Day Parade spokesman stated that Leguizamo would keep his ambassadorship. He marched in the parade on June 12,2011, when Leguizamo was four years old, his family immigrated to the United States, and lived in various neighborhoods in Queens, New York, including Jackson Heights. He later credited growing up as one of the first Latino children in the neighborhood as formative in his acting ability, I would walk through a park and be attacked, and I had to defend myself all the time. But this helped me to become funny so that I wouldn’t get hit, Leguizamo attended the Joseph Pulitzer Middle School and later the Murry Bergtraum High School. As a student at Murry Bergtraum, he wrote comedy material and he was voted Most Talkative by his classmates. After graduating from school, he began his theater career as an undergraduate at NYUs Tisch School of the Arts. Post-NYU, Leguizamo enrolled at LIU Post, where he took theater classes, Leguizamo started out as a stand-up comic doing the New York nightclub circuit in 1984. He made his debut in 1986 with a small part in Miami Vice. In 1992, he starred in Whispers in the Dark as John Castillo, in 1993 Leguizamo was offered the lead part as Luigi in the film Super Mario Bros. based on the Mario video game franchise. Despite being considered a critical and financial failure universally, the film started his career in Hollywood. It also provided a boost to his career, allowing him to appear in better roles in the following years. That same year, he had a prominent role in Brian De Palmas Carlitos Way as Carlito Brigantes nemesis, Benny Blanco from the Bronx, in 1995, he starred as drag queen Chi-Chi Rodriguez in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything. Julie Newmar for which he received a Golden Globe Nomination for Best Supporting Actor, in 2002, he starred in the movie Empire. To promote the 2001 movie Moulin Rouge and he appeared on a celebrity edition of the US version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
John Leguizamo
–
Leguizamo at the 2013
San Diego Comic Con International
John Leguizamo
–
Leguizamo at the 2010
Tribeca Film Festival
John Leguizamo
–
From left to right:
Sara Benincasa,
Bob Saget and Leguizamo on a "Comedians as Authors" panel at the 2014
Brooklyn Book Festival
15.
Cedric the Entertainer
–
Cedric Antonio Kyles, better known by his stage name, Cedric the Entertainer, is an American actor, comedian, director, and game show host. He was originally the host on Its Showtime at the Apollo and he also hosted BETs ComicView during the 1993-1994 season and Def Comedy Jam in 1995. He is best known for co-starring with Steve Harvey on The WB sitcom The Steve Harvey Show and he hosted the twelfth season of daytime version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in the 2013-2014 television season. He also starred in the TV Land original series The Soul Man, Cedric was born on April 24,1964 in Jefferson City, Missouri, and is the son of Rosetta, a school teacher, and Kittrell Kyles, an employee of a railroad company. His only sibling is his younger sister Sharita Kyles Wilson, an adjunct instructor at the University of Memphis in Memphis. He was raised in Caruthersville, Missouri, but after junior school he moved to Berkeley. Cedric is a graduate of Berkeley High School in St. Louis northern suburbs, while Cedric attended Berkeley High, he developed a very severe rash on the top of his head, forcing him to wear a hat for the rest of his career. In 2005, Cedric told CNN he no longer cares about his rash and is proud of it and he continues his involvement with his high school by awarding a scholarship each year to a graduating senior through his Cedric the Entertainer Charitable Foundation Inc. The foundations motto is, Reaching Out. Giving Back and he is also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. Mr. Kyles recently was awarded the Honorary Doctorate Degree in Fine Arts, in 1996, Cedric moved into acting, playing Steve Harveys friend, Cedric Jackie Robinson, on the sitcom, The Steve Harvey Show. These comments were spoken in character, were part of the script, in the 2005 animated film Madagascar, Cedric voiced Maurice the aye aye. In October 2005, Cedric joined the Champ Car auto racing series as a part owner, Cedric appeared in the movie Charlottes Web as the voice of Golly the gander. While his acting career grew, Cedric continued stand-up and traveled the country as one of the Kings of Comedy headliners, with Steve Harvey, the act was later made into a film by Spike Lee called The Original Kings of Comedy. Cedric briefly had his own comedy show called Cedric the Entertainer Presents. The show had been renewed for a season, but Fox canceled it before the season began. He then appeared in the 2003 PlayStation 2 video game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 and his most recent HBO Comedy Special was titled Cedric The Entertainer, Taking You Higher. Two of the dancers from the special were Kamilah Barrett and Sandra Colton. He also recorded comedic interludes on two multi-platinum selling albums, Nellys Country Grammar and Jay-z Black Album and he then starred in the 2008 films Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins and Street Kings
Cedric the Entertainer
–
Cedric at the
Johnson Family Vacation premiere, April 7, 2004
Cedric the Entertainer
–
Cedric at the June 2008 premiere of
Get Smart
Cedric the Entertainer
–
Cedric in May 2013
16.
Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
–
Sora is a fictional character and the protagonist of Square Enixs Kingdom Hearts video game series. Introduced in the first Kingdom Hearts game in 2002, Sora is portrayed as a teenager who lives in the Destiny Islands and has been best friends with Riku. When they plan to go on a journey to see other worlds, while fighting against them, Sora obtains a weapon called the Keyblade. Donald Duck and Goofy then recruit him in their journey across various worlds to aid King Mickey while Sora searches for his friends, along the way, the trio protects the worlds they visit from various villains. In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora searches for Riku and fights against Organization XIII who, Sora has also made supporting appearances in other games from the series, and reprised his role in manga and light novel adaptations of the games. Sora was originally designed by Kingdom Hearts series director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura during a discussion between Disney and Square about who should be the protagonist of the series, wanting an original character, Nomura made various sketches of Sora until the design met the approval of Disney. Nomura came to regard Sora as his character that he had designed. Throughout the series, Sora has been voiced by Haley Joel Osment in the English version, for his depiction as a child in the prequel Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Sora was voiced by Luke Manriquez and Takuto Yoshinaga in English and Japanese, respectively. Soras character has received positive critical response due to his warm personality. His personal and martial growth in the series received praise. Additionally, Sora has ranked high on various video game character popularity polls, Sora appears as a child with spiky brown-hair who, when first introduced, wears a red shirt, red pants, and a white and blue jacket covered by keychains. Upon traveling to certain worlds, Soras appearance is altered by Donald Ducks magic to adapt to different environments, for example, he turns into a merman in underwater environments. After undergoing significant growth in Kingdom Hearts II, Sora is given a new outfit given by Flora, Fauna, when battling, Soras outfit can change into other designs depending on the players choices. However, through the use of game known as Keychains. During Kingdom Hearts II, Sora dual-wields Keyblades, but their forms depend on the use of Keychains. Across the series, Sora is depicted as a teenager who cherishes his friendships. As a result, several of Soras enemies use his friends as bait to use the Keyblade for their purposes. During the first game, it is discovered that Sora was not meant to wield the Keyblade, however, Soras greater strength of heart causes the Keyblade to reject Riku in favor of Sora
Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
–
Sora as he appears in
Kingdom Hearts.
Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
–
Concept artwork of Sora by
Tetsuya Nomura
Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
–
Haley Joel Osment has received praise for portraying Sora in the English version of the series
17.
Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts)
–
Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix. It is the result of a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney Interactive Studios, Kingdom Hearts is a crossover of various Disney settings based in a universe made specifically for the series. The series features a mixture of familiar Disney, Final Fantasy and The World Ends with You characters, in addition, it has an all-star voice cast which includes many of the Disney characters official voice actors. The series centers on Soras search for his friends and his encounters with various Disney, players primarily control Sora, though there are numerous characters that join Soras party as computer controlled members. The majority of the characters were introduced in the original game Kingdom Hearts, various types of merchandise modeled after the characters likeness have been produced, including figurines and jewelry. The characters have garnered praise from video game websites and magazines for the quality of their voice acting. The Kingdom Hearts series is directed by Tetsuya Nomura, the designer of the games. Nomura has stated that working with Final Fantasy characters, keeping the main character Sora alive. Though Disney gave Nomura freedom in the characters and worlds used for the games, he and his staff tried to stay within the established roles of characters and boundaries of the worlds. When deciding which worlds to include in the game, the development staff tried to take into account worlds with Disney characters that would be interesting, the inclusion of specific Final Fantasy characters was based on the opinions of fans and the development staff. Another criterion for inclusion was whether the staff felt the characters would fit into the storyline, initially, Nomura was hesitant to use characters he did not design, because he was unfamiliar with the background work of such characters. For Kingdom Hearts II, he changed his mind after receiving pressure from his staff, throughout the development of the games, Nomura has often left certain events and connections between characters unexplained until the release of future games. Nomura did this because he feels that games should have room for fans to speculate and he stated that with speculation, even though a game may get old, people can still be happy with it. Sora is a character created by Tetsuya Nomura. He is the protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series and the character that the player directly controls through a majority of the games, Nomura has stated that Soras name can be interpreted as sky, the Japanese word for sky is sora. Sora is voiced by Miyu Irino in the Japanese version and by Haley Joel Osment in the English version, the characters child version is voiced by Takuto Yoshinaga in the Japanese version and by Luke Manriquez in the English version. Riku is a character created by Tetsuya Nomura. He is Soras and Kairis best friend, Nomura has stated that Rikus name can be interpreted as land, the Japanese onyomi pronunciation of land is riku
Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts)
–
A piece of promotional artwork for
Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ that showcases the main characters of the series up to II; Sora appears twice in the center in two different outfits with his Kingdom Hearts II design next to Roxas (left) and his original design next to Riku (right), with the members of Organization XIII at the bottom.
Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts)
–
Early concept art of Riku, Kairi, and Sora, original characters created for the series
Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts)
–
Kingdom Hearts character figurines; a Play Arts figure of Roxas appears in the center and Formation Arts Volume 1 & 2 figures are arrayed around him.
18.
Kingdom Hearts
–
Kingdom Hearts is a series of crossover action role-playing games owned by Disney Interactive Studios and developed and published by Square Enix. It is a collaboration between Disney Interactive and Square Enix, and is under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square Enix character designer, Kingdom Hearts is a crossover of various Disney settings based in a universe made specifically for the series. All characters original to the Kingdom Hearts franchise are owned by The Walt Disney Company, the series consists of eight games across multiple video game consoles, and future titles are planned. Most of the games in the series have been critically acclaimed and commercially successful. As of October 2013, the Kingdom Hearts series has sold over 25 million copies worldwide, a wide variety of related merchandise has been released along with the games, including soundtracks, figurines, companion books, novels and manga series. Kingdom Hearts is the first game in the series, released in Japan on March 28,2002 for PlayStation 2, Tetsuya Nomura has served as game director, his first time in this position. Kingdom Hearts introduced the characters of the series, and established the plots framework involving hearts. It also established the role of Disney characters in the series, Kingdom Hearts was released in North America on September 17,2002, and featured additional content that was not in the original Japanese version. The game was later re-released exclusively in Japan as Kingdom Hearts Final Mix on December 26,2002, Final Mix includes the content from the North American release and additional enemies, cutscenes, and weapons. Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories is a sequel to the first game. It was released on the Game Boy Advance in Japan on November 11,2004, Chain of Memories was touted as a bridge between the two PlayStation 2 titles, introducing and previewing plot elements that would be explored in the next game. The gameplay system is a departure from the original and employs card game mechanics in real time, players construct decks out of cards that correspond to different actions in battle, such as attacking or using magic. It was remade into a PlayStation 2 game titled Kingdom Hearts Re, Chain of Memories, which contains polygonal graphics instead of the sprites used in the original game. The remake was released in Japan as a second disc packaged with Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix on March 29,2007, Kingdom Hearts II takes place one year after the events of Chain of Memories. It was released for the PlayStation 2 in Japan on December 22,2005, the game further explores the heart concept by involving a new group of enemies, the Nobodies, which are the cast-off shells of those who have become Heartless. The gameplay is similar to that of the first Kingdom Hearts game, with the addition of the Reaction Command, Kingdom Hearts II was revised into Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, which contains more material than the original release, such as additional cutscenes and bosses. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix was released with Kingdom Hearts Re, Chain of Memories in a collection titled Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+, Kingdom Hearts Coded is an episodic mobile phone game that picks up directly after Kingdom Hearts II. The preinstall episode was released exclusively in Japan on November 18,2008, the game was remade for the Nintendo DS as Kingdom Hearts Re, coded, and features updated gameplay combining that of two later titles in the series, 358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep
Kingdom Hearts
–
A group of Kingdom Hearts
cosplayers posing at the Los Angeles
Anime Expo in 2010.
Kingdom Hearts
–
The logo of Kingdom Hearts, the first game in the series. Subsequent titles use a similar logo.
19.
The Spoils of Babylon
–
It is intended to be a spoof of the epic-scale TV event miniseries adapted from bestselling novels prevalent on American network television in the 1970s and 1980s. The miniseries premiered on IFC on January 9,2014, for her performance as Cynthia Morehouse, Kristen Wiig was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. Patriarch Jonas Morehouse shepherds his daughter Cynthia and adopted son Devon from meager beginnings in the oil fields of Texas to powerful boardrooms in New York City. Cynthia and Devon, entwined in undeniable love, stumble through war-torn battlefields, blazing mansions, filthy drug dens and velvet-sheeted bedrooms on their quest for power and influence. Will Ferrell as Eric Jonrosh, Author, Producer, Actor, Writer, Director, Raconteur, Bon Vivant, Legend, Ferrell as Jonrosh also plays Reza the Shah of Iran in the final episode. Tobey Maguire as Dirk Snowfield as Devon Morehouse, Jonass adopted son Kristen Wiig as Lauoreighiya Samcake as Cynthia Morehouse, Jonass daughter and Devons adopted sister. The series was enough of a success for the network to prompt a second Spoils miniseries, The Spoils Before Dying, official website The Spoils of Babylon at the Internet Movie Database
The Spoils of Babylon
–
The Spoils of Babylon
20.
Birmingham, Alabama
–
Birmingham is the most populous city in the U. S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Jefferson County. The citys population was 212,237 in the 2010 United States Census, the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of about 1,128,047 according to the 2010 Census, which is approximately one quarter of Alabamas population. Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period and it was named for Birmingham, England, one of the UKs major industrial cities. The Alabama city annexed smaller neighbors and developed as an industrial and railroad center, based on mining, the new iron and steel industry. Most of the settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry. From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham was an industrial center of the southern United States. Its growth from 1881 through 1920 earned its nicknames as The Magic City and its major industries were iron and steel production, plus a major component of the railroading industry. Rails and railroad cars were manufactured in Birmingham. The two primary hubs of railroading in the Deep South have been nearby Atlanta and Birmingham, since the 1860s, the economy has diversified since industrial restructuring in the latter half of the 20th century. Banking, telecommunications, transportation, electrical transmission, medical care, college education. Except for coal mining, the industry has declined in the Birmingham area, Birmingham ranks as one of the most important business centers in the Southeastern United States and as one of the largest banking centers in the nation. In higher education, Birmingham has been the location of the University of Alabama School of Medicine, since that time it has also gained the University of Alabama at Birmingham, one of three main campuses of the University of Alabama System. It is also home to three institutions, Samford University, Birmingham-Southern College, and Miles College. In total, the Birmingham area has major colleges of medicine, dentistry, optometry, physical therapy, pharmacy, law, engineering, the city has three of the states five law schools, Cumberland School of Law, Birmingham School of Law, and Miles Law School. Birmingham is also the headquarters of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and Southeastern Conference, Birmingham was founded on June 1,1871, by the Elyton Land Company, whose investors included cotton planters, bankers and railroad entrepreneurs. It sold lots near the crossing of the Alabama & Chattanooga and South & North Alabama railroads. The first business at that crossroads was the trading post and country store operated by Marre, the site of the railroad crossing was notable for its proximity to nearby deposits of iron ore, coal, and limestone – the three main raw materials used in making steel. Birmingham is the only place worldwide where significant amounts of all three minerals can be found in close proximity, from the start the new city was planned as a center of industry
Birmingham, Alabama
–
From top left: Downtown from
Red Mountain; Torii in the
Birmingham Botanical Gardens;
Alabama Theatre;
Birmingham Museum of Art; City Hall; Downtown Financial Center.
Birmingham, Alabama
–
Child labor at Avondale Mills in Birmingham, 1910, photo by
Lewis Hine
Birmingham, Alabama
–
Panorama of Birmingham, Alabama in 1916
Birmingham, Alabama
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16th Street Baptist Church, now a National Historic Landmark
21.
IKEA
–
IKEA, is a multinational group, headquartered in the Netherlands, that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories. It has been the worlds largest furniture retailer since at least 2008, the company is known for its modern architectural designs for various types of appliances and furniture, and its interior design work is often associated with an eco-friendly simplicity. The IKEA group has a corporate structure, which the European Union has alleged was designed to avoid over 1 billion Euros in tax payments over the 2009-2014 period. It is controlled by several foundations based in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, as of December 2016, IKEA owns and operates 392 stores in 48 countries. In fiscal year 2016, €36.4 billion worth of goods were sold, the IKEA website contains about 12,000 products and is the closest representation of the entire IKEA range. There were over 2.1 billion visitors to IKEAs websites in the year from September 2015 to August 2016, the company is responsible for approximately 1% of world commercial-product wood consumption, making it one of the largest users of wood in the retail sector. Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 as a mostly mail-order sales business and it began to sell furniture five years later. The first Möbel-IKÉA store was opened in Älmhult, Småland, in 1958, the first stores outside Sweden were opened in Norway and Denmark. The stores spread to parts of Europe in the 1970s, with the first store outside Scandinavia opening in Switzerland. Amid a high level of success, the companys West German executives accidentally opened a store in Konstanz in 1973 instead of Koblenz, later that decade, stores opened in other parts of the world, such as Japan, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore. IKEA further expanded in the 1980s, opening stores in such as France and Spain, Belgium, the United States. The company then expanded into more countries in the 1990s and 2000s, Germany, with 50 stores, is IKEAs biggest market, followed by the United States, with 44 stores. At the end of the 2009 financial year, the IKEA group operated 267 stores in 25 countries, the first IKEA store in Latin America opened on 17 February 2010 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. As of July 2013, the presence in developing countries remains minimal. The next store opening in Goyang in 2017 will be larger at 164,000 square meters in gross floor area. IKEA plans to have 6 stores in the country by 2020, four in the Seoul Capital Area, one in Daejeon, the largest store in the Southern Hemisphere is located in Tempe, Sydney, Australia with a total area of 39,000 m2. The biggest store in North America is located in Montreal, in the province of Quebec, the store was opened in 1986 in the Ville-St-Laurent area, and was completely renovated and expanded in 2012-2013. Built in 1986, the initial area was 22,062 m2
IKEA
–
The first IKEA store, located in
Älmhult in Sweden, not far from where the founder was born.
IKEA
–
IKEA
IKEA
–
The world's largest IKEA store located near the
KTX Gwangmyeong Station in
Seoul Capital Area,
South Korea.
IKEA
–
The world's second largest IKEA store, situated at
Kungens Kurva in
Huddinge Municipality, Sweden. This IKEA store was opened in 1965.
22.
IMAX
–
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of cinema projection standards developed in Canada by Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, Robert Kerr, and William C. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size, since 2002, some feature films have been converted into IMAX format for displaying in IMAX theatres and some have also been partially shot in IMAX. IMAX is the most widely used system for special-venue film presentations, as of June 2016, there were 1,102 IMAX theatres in 69 countries. The desire to increase the impact of film has a long history. In 1929, Fox introduced Fox Grandeur, the first 70 mm film format, in the 1950s, the potential of 35 mm film to provide wider projected images was explored in the processes of CinemaScope and VistaVision, following multi-projector systems such as Cinerama. While impressive, Cinerama was difficult to install, during Expo 67 in Montreal, the National Film Board of Canadas In the Labyrinth and Fergusons Man and the Polar Regions both used multi-projector, multi-screen systems. Each encountered technical difficulties led them to found a company called Multiscreen. As it became clear that a single, large-screen image had more impact than multiple smaller ones and was a viable product direction. An IMAX 3D theatre also is in operation near the former Expo 67 site at the Montreal Science Centre in the Port of Old Montreal, tiger Child, the first IMAX film, was demonstrated at Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan. The first permanent IMAX installation was built at the Cinesphere theatre at Ontario Place in Toronto and it debuted in May 1971, showing the film North of Superior. The installation is still in place, however, Ontario Place is on hiatus for redevelopment, during Expo 74 in Spokane, Washington, an IMAX screen that measured 27 m ×20 m was featured in the US Pavilion. It became the first IMAX Theatre to not be partnered with any brand of movie theaters. About five million visitors viewed the screen, which covered the total visual field when looking directly forward. This created a sensation of motion in most viewers, and motion sickness in some, much to the dismay of the majority of Spokane and the disapproval of the IMAX Corporation itself, it will be demolished because of its inability to project films digitally. An IMAX 3D & Digital theater was built in Spokane. However, its screen-size is less than half that of the original, due to protests, the IMAX Corporation has been able to remodel the area with the city, and turn the U. S. Pavilion itself into the first permanent outdoor IMAX screen, the first permanent IMAX Dome installation, the Eugene Heikoff and Marilyn Jacobs Heikoff Dome Theatre at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, opened in San Diegos Balboa Park in 1973, the first permanent IMAX 3D theatre was built in Vancouver, British Columbia for Transitions at Expo 86, and was in use until September 30,2009
IMAX
–
Audiences view a film using 3D glasses.
IMAX
–
A comparison between 35 mm and 15/70 mm negative areas.
IMAX
–
An IMAX cinema camera, displayed at the National Media Museum, Bradford, U.K.
IMAX
–
The 15 kW
Xenon short-arc lamp used in IMAX projectors.
23.
Pizza Hut
–
Pizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise, known for its Italian-American cuisine menu including pizza and pasta, as well as side dishes and desserts. The company has over 15,000 locations worldwide as of 2015, Brands, Inc. one of the worlds largest restaurant companies. Pizza Hut was founded in June 1958 by two Wichita State University students, brothers Dan and Frank Carney, as a location in Wichita. PepsiCo acquired Pizza Hut in 1977, before closing in 2015, the oldest continuously operating Pizza Hut was in Manhattan, Kansas, in a shopping and tavern district known as Aggieville near Kansas State University. The first Pizza Hut restaurant east of the Mississippi was opened in Athens, Ohio in 1966 by Lawrence Berberick, Pizza Hut was one of the first American franchises to open in Iraq. The company announced a rebrand that began on November 19,2014, the rebrand was an effort to increase sales, which dropped in the previous two years. The menu was expanded to various items such as crust flavors. Work uniforms for employees were also refreshed, in 2017, Pizza Hut was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 24 in the list of 200 Most Influential Brands in the World. Some full-size Pizza Hut locations have a buffet, with all-you-can-eat pizza, salad, bread sticks. Pizza Hut has other business concepts different from the type, Pizza Hut Bistro locations are Red Roofs which have an expanded menu. An upscale concept was unveiled in 2004, called Pizza Hut Italian Bistro, at 50 U. S. locations, the Bistro is similar to a traditional Pizza Hut, except the menu features new, Italian-themed dishes such as penne pasta, chicken pomodoro, and toasted sandwiches. Instead of black, white, and red, Bistro locations feature a burgundy, Pizza Hut Bistros still serve the chains traditional pizzas and sides. In some cases, Pizza Hut has replaced a Red Roof location with the new concept, Pizza Hut Express and The Hut locations are fast food restaurants. They offer a menu with many products not seen at a traditional Pizza Hut. Vintage Red Roof locations, designed by architect Richard D. Burke, can be found in the United States and Canada, several exist in the UK, Australia, and Mexico. These buildings rarely show up in architectural journals, yet they have some of the most numerous and conspicuous in the United States today. This building style was common in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the name Red Roof is somewhat anachronistic now, since many locations have brown roofs. Dozens of Red Roofs have closed or been relocated or rebuilt, many Red Roof branches have beer if not a full bar, music from a jukebox, and sometimes an arcade
Pizza Hut
–
The original Pizza Hut building, opened on June 15, 1958 at the corner of Kellogg and Bluff by brothers Frank and Dan Carney, both students at Wichita State University. This photo is from 2004, after the building had been moved to the campus.
Pizza Hut
–
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut
–
Athens, Ohio: distinctive roof and older white sign used before 1999, typical of U.S. Pizza Hut restaurants
Pizza Hut
24.
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
American Broadcasting Company
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ABC's corporate headquarters are located at 77 West 66th Street, on the
Upper West Side of
Manhattan in
New York City.
American Broadcasting Company
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American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
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Edward Noble, founder of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
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In 2002, dancers and other cast members from the 32-year run of American Bandstand reunited with host
Dick Clark to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show's local television debut.
25.
Forrest Gump (character)
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Forrest Gump is a fictional character who first appears in the 1986 novel by Winston Groom. Forrest Gump also appeared on screen in the 1994 film of the same name directed by Robert Zemeckis, Forrest was portrayed as a child by Michael Humphreys and portrayed as an adult by Tom Hanks, who won an Academy Award for the role. The portrayal of Forrest in the novel is different from the portrayal in the film. He later reappears in the 1995 sequel novel Gump and Co, in 2008, Forrest Gump was named the 20th greatest movie character of all time by Empire magazine. In the film, Forrest is portrayed essentially as a character who faces a variety of setbacks and misfortunes yet maintains a compassionate. He tries to help every person whom he meets, despite his strong naivety, Forrest was born near the small town of Greenbow, Alabama, on June 6,1945. His father was absent during his life, and his said he was on vacation. She intended his name to be a reminder that sometimes we all do things that, well, Forrest was born with strong legs but a crooked spine. He was forced to wear leg braces which made walking difficult and he also had a relatively low I. Q. of 75, which nearly prevented him from being accepted into public school. Despite his physical and mental challenges, Forrests mother told him not to let anyone tell him he was different, Forrest and his mother lived in a large house just outside the town of Greenbow. They made money by renting out rooms to travelers, one of their guests was a young Elvis Presley. Forrest liked dancing to Elvis music and his leg gave him a unique dancing style that would inspire Elviss hip dancing. On the bus ride on Forrests first day of school, Forrest met Jenny Curran and was taken by her. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life, he would say of her. The two became friends, often playing around a large nearby tree. Forrest described their relationship saying, Jenny and me was like peas, Jenny was one of the few people besides his mother to accept Forrest as he was, helping him learn to read and stand up to bullies who harassed him. One day, a group of bullies was throwing rocks at Forrest, Jenny told Forrest to just run away, which he did, only to prompt the bullies to chase him on their bikes. As Forrest struggled to run, his leg braces broke apart, once he was free of them, Forrest was able to run incredibly fast
Forrest Gump (character)
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Tom Hanks' portrayal of Forrest Gump in the film
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump (character)
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Gump with President
John F. Kennedy.
Forrest Gump (character)
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Forrest in the army
Forrest Gump (character)
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Forrest Gump brick in front of the Lucas Theater in Savannah, Georgia, USA
26.
Mixed Nuts
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Mixed Nuts is a 1994 American Christmas comedy film directed by Nora Ephron, based on the 1982 French comedy film, Le Père Noël est une ordure. Mixed Nuts was released theatrically on December 21,1994, commercially unsuccessful and critically panned, it has since been listed as one of the worst films ever made. The plot begins on Christmas Eve, with ex-con Felix running from his angry, pregnant wife, Gracie and he accidentally runs into and damages a Christmas tree carried by two rollerbladers. When an argument breaks out among them, a stranger, Philip, Philip, head of the suicide-prevention hotline Lifesavers, receives an eviction notice from his landlord, Stanley, after being unable to pay the organizations rent for several months. In addition to him, the hotline is staffed by the selfish, neurotic, and rather fearful Mrs. Munchnik and the overly emotional and empathetic Catherine. Philip, who does not inform his coworkers of the eviction, attempts to convince his girlfriend, Susan and she refuses the loan before telling him that she has been secretly dating a psychiatrist for four months and is breaking up with him. Despite Catherines expectation that youd expect everyone to be thinking of jumping out of windows or slitting their wrists on Christmas Eve, meanwhile, an elevator malfunction leaves Mrs. Munchnik trapped on her way to Christmas Eve dinner. Philip eventually manages to pull her to the top of the elevator when Gracie arrives and they are terrified that they will be crushed by the ceiling of the elevator shaft, but eventually they all manage to return to the office. Felix arrives, begging Gracie to listen to him, and she throws a fruitcake at him, Philip and Catherine take him to a veterinarian to be treated for his head wound. While the doctor is distracted, he steals and quickly overdoses on dog tranquilizers and is taken to a hospital, meanwhile, at the office, the doorbell rings. Gracie quickly throws the door open, accidentally striking Mrs. Munchnik, Gracie leaves Chris to care for the unconscious Mrs. Munchnik. When Philip returns, Chris is sitting on the sofa and convinces him to dance with her, when Mrs. Munchnik revives, she witnesses the dancing and threatens to sue Philip for withholding information of the eviction and for inappropriate office behavior before leaving. Felix arrives at the office brandishing a gun, having escaped from the hospital, Chris gets shot in the foot after attempting to disarm him. Gracie takes the gun and shoots wildly around the office to empty it of ammunition, two shots go through the front door, killing Stanley, who was standing behind it with a bag of his possessions. The sight of the dead Stanley puts Catherine in shock, Philip prepares a bath to calm her down, realizes that he is strongly attracted to her, and they have sex. Meanwhile, Chris takes a romantic interest in Louie Capshaw - an eccentric resident in the building. Gracie and Felix disguise Stanleys body as a Christmas tree, and the decision is made to take it, as they all carry Stanleys body down the street, they encounter the now-vengeful rollerbladers, who barrel through them. Felix tosses the tree and it crashes to the ground, revealing Stanleys body, when the police arrive, Philip falsely confesses to the killing, but Gracie pulls out the gun as proof of her guilt
Mixed Nuts
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Theatrical release poster
Mixed Nuts
27.
Murphy Brown
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Murphy Brown is an American sitcom which aired on CBS from November 14,1988, to May 18,1998, for a total of 247 episodes. The program starred Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, an investigative journalist and news anchor for FYI. The first two seasons of the show received favorable reviews from critics, the second season received universal acclaim with a Metacritic rating of 100 out of 100 based on 5 reviews. It is the series to receive a score of 100 on the website. The program was known for stories inspired by current events and its political satire. It achieved a level of cultural notoriety in the 1992 presidential campaign when Dan Quayle mentioned the show in a campaign speech. The show began in the Monday 9/8 p. m. timeslot and remained there until its final season when it was moved to Wednesday at 8, the series finale aired in its original Monday timeslot. The show did not have an opening theme song. Murphy Brown is an alcoholic, who, in the shows first episode. Over 40 and single, she is sharp-tongued and hard as nails, in her profession, she is considered one of the boys, having shattered any glass ceilings encountered during her career. Dominating the FYI news magazine, she is portrayed as one of Americas hardest-hitting media personalities and her colleagues at FYI include stuffy veteran anchor Jim Dial, who affectionately addresses Murphy as Slugger and reminisces about the glory days of Murrow and Cronkite. Murphys best friend and sometime competitor is investigative reporter Frank Fontana, though a daredevil reporter, insecurities regarding fame and his personal relationships have him in psychotherapy for the majority of the series. In early seasons, there was a gag about Franks toupée, which he hated. Also present are the two newest members of the FYI team introduced to Murphy, a new executive producer was appointed during her stay at Betty Ford, Miles Silverberg, a yuppie overachiever who was 25 and fresh from public television. Naive and neurotic despite his lightning intellect, Miles is the object for Murphys skewering wit. Corky Sherwood was Murphys replacement during her sabbatical, due to overwhelming audience reaction, management decides to retain Corkys services after Murphys return, usually assigning her to lifestyle pieces or lightweight celebrity profiles. Shaud left at the end of the season, and his character was replaced during season 10 by veteran TV producer Kay Carter-Shepley. Kay did not have a background in journalism, but instead had made a career as a producer of game shows, the FYI team also frequently socializes at Phils, a bar-and-grill across the street from their office/studio in Washington, D. C
Murphy Brown
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Murphy Brown
Murphy Brown
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The cast of Murphy Brown (1988–96, from left): (front) Kimbrough, Bergen, Regalbuto, Ford, Shaud; (back) Pastorelli, Corley
Murphy Brown
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Dan Quayle criticized single parenting during his 1992 speech.
Murphy Brown
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The cast of Murphy Brown for its final two seasons. Lily Tomlin is pictured fourth.
28.
The Larry Sanders Show
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The Larry Sanders Show is an American television sitcom set in the office and studio of a fictional late-night talk show. The series was created by Garry Shandling and Dennis Klein and aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network, the series stars Shandling, Jeffrey Tambor, and Rip Torn and features celebrities playing exaggerated, self-parodying versions of themselves. The show has its roots in Shandlings stand-up comedy background, his experience as a guest host on The Tonight Show and his earlier sitcom Its Garry Shandlings Show. The program has had a marked and long-lasting influence on HBO as well as on shows in the US and Britain such as Curb Your Enthusiasm,30 Rock. The supporting cast includes Janeane Garofalo, Wallace Langham, Penny Johnson, Linda Doucett, Scott Thompson, Garry Shandling took a slightly different path with the cable network sitcoms The Larry Sanders Show and its forerunner Its Garry Shandlings Show. In Its Garry Shandlings Show, Shandling makes use of the George Burns technique of addressing the audience. He speaks to the studio and home audiences as well as the other actors, in both shows celebrity guests appear as themselves and Shandling essentially plays himself, a star of a television show and stand-up comedian with a distinctive comic persona and rhythm. I thought I could make the show look very real so the audience would buy that part. In 1981, Shandling performed a routine on The Tonight Show and subsequently became a regular guest. He also began appearing as a guest host and, in 1986 and he was considered to be a possible, although unlikely, successor to Johnny Carson. After Jay Leno replaced Carson in 1992, Shandling was offered his own talk show but preferred instead to create a show about a talk-show. Alex Pareene commented Shandling turned down hosting a late night show to do a brilliant cult hit sitcom about a version of himself who took the deal. The show follows the production of a late night talk show The Larry Sanders Show. It chronicles the life of host Larry, producer Arthur Artie, sidekick Hank Kingsley and their interaction with celebrity guests. Episodes focus on the professional and personal lives of the principal characters, ancillary characters are also featured, among them the writers Phil and Jerry, talent bookers Paula and Mary Lou, and the personal assistants Beverly, Darlene and Brian. Larrys wife, ex-wife and girlfriends are frequent sources of conflict, a typical early episode opens to the titles with the sound of Hanks audience warm-up routine in the background. This is followed by the shows titles and an excerpt from Larrys monologue. Episodes vary after this, sometimes continuing with the studio recording, the Larry Sanders Show is a satire on show business that mixes fact with fiction
The Larry Sanders Show
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The Larry Sanders Show
29.
Walker, Texas Ranger
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Walker, Texas Ranger is an American action television series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis. It was inspired by the film Lone Wolf McQuade, with both series and that film starring Chuck Norris as a member of the Texas Ranger Division. The show aired on CBS in the spring of 1993, with the first season consisting of three pilot episodes, eight full seasons followed with new episodes airing from September 25,1993, to May 19,2001, and reruns continuing on CBS until July 28,2001. It has been broadcast in over 100 countries and has spawned a 2005 made-for-television movie entitled Trial By Fire. The movie ended on a cliffhanger, which was never resolved, DVD sets of all seasons have been released. At various times since 1997, reruns of the show have aired, in syndication, on the USA Network, reruns can currently be seen on CBS Action, WGN America, INSP and Grit. The series was noted for its moralistic style, the characters refrained from the use of drugs, and they participated in community service. Martial arts were displayed prominently as the tool of law enforcement and occasionally as a tool for Walker. The show was developed by executive producer Allison Moore and supervising producer J. Michael Straczynski when the series was still being produced by Cannon Television. While Straczynski had to depart to get his new series Babylon 5 on the air, the show is centered on Sergeant Cordell Walker, a Dallas–Fort Worth–based member of the Texas Rangers, a state-level bureau of investigation. Walker was raised by his uncle, a Native American named Ray Firewalker. The surname being, possibly, a nod to the 1986 Norris film, Cordell, prior to joining the Rangers, served in the Marines elite recon unit during the Vietnam War. Both Cordell and Uncle Ray share the characteristic of Wild West sheriffs. His partner and best friend is James Jimmy Trivette, a former Dallas Cowboys player, Go Long T, Walkers young partner grew up in Baltimore and used football as his ticket to college education. He was dropped from the team after he tore up his shoulder in a major game, Trivette also works inside the office using computers and cellular phones to collate information of the people who have been taken into custody. Walker also works closely with Alexandra Alex Cahill, a Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney and he also gets advice on cases from C. D. Parker, a veteran Ranger who worked with Walker until retiring to operate a restaurant and bar called CDs Bar and Grill. In Season 7, two rookie Texas Rangers, Sydney Cooke, and Francis Gage, are assigned under Walker, the series was well-known during its run for its product placement deal with Chrysler, especially its Dodge division
Walker, Texas Ranger
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Walker, Texas Ranger
