1.
Los Angeles
–
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
2.
Femme fatale
–
A femme fatale is a stock character of a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art, in American early 20th century film, femme fatale characters were referred to as vamps, an allusion to their role as sexual vampires. The phrase is French for fatal woman, a femme fatale tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure. In some situations, she uses lies or coercion rather than charm and she may also make use of some subduing weapon such as sleeping gas, a modern analog of magical powers in older tales. She may also be a victim, caught in a situation from which she cannot escape, a younger version of a femme fatale is called a fille fatale, or fatal girl. Femmes fatale are typically villainous, or at least morally ambiguous, and always associated with a sense of mystification, the femme fatale archetype exists in the culture, folklore and myth of many cultures. Ancient mythical or legendary examples include Mohini, Lilith, the Sirens, historical examples from Classical times include Cleopatra and Messalina, as well as the Biblical figures Delilah, Jezebel and Salome. An example from Chinese literature and traditional history is Daji, the femme fatale was a common figure in the European Middle Ages, often portraying the dangers of unbridled female sexuality. The pre-medieval inherited Biblical figure of Eve offers an example, as does the wicked, along with them, there rose the gothic novel, The Monk featuring Matilda, a very powerful femme fatale. This led to her appearing in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, pre-Raphaelite painters frequently used the classic personifications of the femme fatale as a subject. Later, Salome was the subject of an opera by Strauss, and was popularized on stage, screen, another enduring icon of glamour, seduction, and moral turpitude is Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, 1876–1917. While working as a dancer, she took the stage name Mata Hari. Although she may have been innocent, she was accused of German espionage and was put to death by a French firing squad, after her death she became the subject of many sensational films and books. Other considerably famous femmes fatales are Isabella of France, Hedda Gabler of Kristiania, Marie Antoinette of Austria, one traditional view portrays the femme fatale as a sexual vampire, her charms leech the virility and independence of lovers, leaving them shells of themselves. Rudyard Kipling took inspiration from a vampire painted by Philip Burne-Jones, the poem inspired the 1913 eponymous film The Vampire by Robert Vignola, sometimes cited as the first vamp movie. Like much of Kiplings verse it became popular, and its refrain. Describing a seduced man, became the title of the popular 1915 film A Fool There Was that made Theda Bara a star, the poem was used in the publicity for the film. On this account, in the American slang of the era the femme fatale was called a vamp, from the American film-audience perspective, the femme fatale often appeared foreign, usually either of indeterminate Eastern European or Asian ancestry
3.
Film noir
–
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly such that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywoods classical film noir period is regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively, before the notion was widely adopted in the 1970s, many of the classic films noir were referred to as melodramas. Whether film noir qualifies as a genre is a matter of ongoing debate among scholars. Although film noir was originally associated with American productions, films now so described have been made around the world, many pictures released from the 1960s onward share attributes with film noir of the classical period, and often treat its conventions self-referentially. Some refer to such works as neo-noir. The clichés of film noir have inspired parody since the mid-1940s, the questions of what defines film noir, and what sort of category it is, provoke continuing debate. They emphasize that not every film noir embodies all five attributes in equal measure—one might be more dreamlike, another, while many critics refer to film noir as a genre itself, others argue that it can be no such thing. Because of the diversity of noir, certain scholars in the field, such as film historian Thomas Schatz, treat it as not a genre but a style. Other critics treat film noir as a mood, characterize it as a series, there is no consensus on the matter. By 1931, Curtiz had already been in Hollywood for half a decade, the Universal horror that comes closest to noir, in story and sensibility is The Invisible Man, directed by Englishman James Whale and photographed by American Arthur Edeson. Edeson later photographed The Maltese Falcon, widely regarded as the first major film noir of the classic era, josef von Sternberg was directing in Hollywood at the same time. Films of his such as Shanghai Express and The Devil Is a Woman, with their hothouse eroticism and baroque visual style, the commercial and critical success of Sternbergs silent Underworld was largely responsible for spurring a trend of Hollywood gangster films. Successful films in that such as Little Caesar, The Public Enemy. An important, possibly influential, cinematic antecedent to classic noir was 1930s French poetic realism, with its romantic, fatalistic attitude, the movements sensibility is mirrored in the Warner Bros. drama I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, a forerunner of noir. Among films not considered films noir, perhaps none had an effect on the development of the genre than Citizen Kane
4.
Howard Hughes
–
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. was an American businessman, investor, pilot, film director, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most financially successful individuals in the world. He first made a name for himself as a film producer, later in life, he became known for his eccentric behavior and reclusive lifestyle, oddities that were caused in part by a worsening obsessive–compulsive disorder and chronic pain from a plane crash. As a maverick film tycoon, Hughes gained prominence in Hollywood beginning in the late 1920s, when he made big-budget and often controversial films like The Racket, Hells Angels, later he controlled the RKO film studio. Hughes formed the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932, hiring numerous engineers and designers and he spent the rest of the 1930s setting multiple world air speed records and building the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 Hercules. He acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines and later acquired Air West, Hughes was included in Flying Magazines list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation, ranked at No.25. Today, his legacy is maintained through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the birthplace of Howard Hughes is recorded as either Humble or Houston, Texas. The date remains uncertain due to conflicting dates from various sources and he repeatedly claimed that his birthday was on Christmas Eve. A1941 affidavit birth certificate of Hughes that was signed by his aunt Annette Gano Lummis and Estelle Boughton Sharp states that he was born on December 24,1905, in Harris County, Texas. Hughes was the son of Allene Stone Gano and Howard R. Hughes Sr. a successful inventor and he was of English, and some French Huguenot, ancestry, and was a descendant of John Gano, a minister who allegedly baptized George Washington. His father had patented the two-cone roller bit, which allowed rotary drilling for petroleum in previously inaccessible places, the senior Hughes made the shrewd and lucrative decision to commercialize the invention by leasing the bits instead of selling them, and founded the Hughes Tool Company in 1909. Hughes uncle was the famed novelist, screenwriter, and film director Rupert Hughes, at a young age, Hughes demonstrated interest in science and technology. In particular, he had great engineering aptitude and built Houstons first wireless radio transmitter at age 11 and he went on to be one of the first licensed ham radio operators in Houston, having the assigned callsign W5CY. At 12, Hughes was photographed in the newspaper, identified as being the first boy in Houston to have a motorized bicycle. He was an indifferent student, with a liking for mathematics, flying and he took his first flying lesson at 14, and later attended math and aeronautical engineering courses at Caltech. The red brick house where Hughes lived as a teenager at 3921 Yoakum St. Houston today serves as the headquarters of the Theology Department of the University of St. Thomas and his mother Allene died in March 1922 from complications of an ectopic pregnancy. Howard Hughes Sr. died of an attack in 1924. Their deaths apparently inspired Hughes to include the creation of a research laboratory in the will that he signed in 1925 at age 19. Howard Sr. s will had not been updated since Allenes death, on his 19th birthday, Hughes was declared an emancipated minor, enabling him to take full control of his life
5.
Life (magazine)
–
Life was an American magazine that ran weekly from 1883 to 1936 as a humor magazine with limited circulation. Time owner Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936, solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name, Life was published weekly until 1972, as an intermittent special until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. After 2000 Time Inc. continued to use the Life brand for special, Life returned to regularly scheduled issues when it became a weekly newspaper supplement from 2004 to 2007. The website life. com, originally one of the channels on Time Inc. s Pathfinder service, was for a time in the late 2000s managed as a joint venture with Getty Images under the name See Your World, LLC. On January 30,2012 the LIFE. com URL became a channel on Time. com. When Life was founded in 1883, it was developed as similar to the British magazine and it was published for 53 years as a general-interest light entertainment magazine, heavy on illustrations, jokes and social commentary. The Luce Life was the first all-photographic American news magazine, the magazines role in the history of photojournalism is considered its most important contribution to publishing. Life was wildly successful for two generations before its prestige was diminished by economics and changing tastes, Life was founded January 4,1883, in a New York City artists studio at 1155 Broadway, as a partnership between John Ames Mitchell and Andrew Miller. Mitchell held a 75 per cent interest in the magazine with the remainder by Miller, both men retained their holdings until their deaths. Miller served as secretary-treasurer of the magazine and was very successful managing the side of the operation. Mitchell, a 37-year-old illustrator who used a $10,000 inheritance to invest in the weekly magazine, Mitchell created the first Life name-plate with cupids as mascots, he later drew its masthead of a knight leveling his lance at the posterior of a fleeing devil. Mitchell took advantage of a new printing process using zinc-coated plates. This edge helped because Life faced stiff competition from the humor magazines Judge and Puck. Edward Sandford Martin was brought on as Lifes first literary editor, the motto of the first issue of Life was, While theres Life, theres hope. The new magazine set forth its principles and policies to its readers and we shall try to domesticate as much as possible of the casual cheerfulness that is drifting about in an unfriendly world. The magazine was a success and soon attracted the leading contributors. Among the most important was Charles Dana Gibson, three years after the magazine was founded, the Massachusetts native first sold Life a drawing for $4, a dog outside his kennel howling at the moon. Encouraged by a publisher who was also an artist, Gibson was joined in Life early days by such illustrators as Palmer Cox
6.
RKO Pictures
–
RKO Pictures Inc. also known as RKO Radio Pictures and in its later years RKO Teleradio Pictures, was an American film production and distribution company. It was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywoods Golden Age, RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the companys sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone. By the mid-1940s, the studio was under the control of investor Floyd Odlum, RKO has long been celebrated for its series of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid-to-late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first major successes at the studio, cary Grant was a mainstay for years. The work of producer Val Lewtons low-budget horror unit and RKOs many ventures into the now known as film noir have been acclaimed, largely after the fact, by film critics. The studio produced two of the most famous films in motion picture history, King Kong and Citizen Kane, RKO Pictures is also a member of Motion Picture Association of America. Maverick industrialist Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1948, after years of turmoil and decline under his control, Hughes sold the troubled studio to General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and was dissolved two years later. In 1981, broadcaster RKO General, the heir, revived it as a production subsidiary. In October 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer and its success prompted Hollywood to convert from silent to sound film production en masse. The Radio Corporation of America controlled an advanced optical sound-on-film system, RCA Photophone, the industrys two largest major studios, Paramount and Loews/MGM, with two other studios Universal and First National, were poised to contract with ERPI for sound conversion as well. Next on the agenda was securing a string of exhibition venues like those the leading Hollywood production companies owned, Kennedy began investigating the possibility of such a purchase. Around that time, the large Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit of theaters, built around the medium of live vaudeville, was attempting a transition to the movie business. In mid-1927, the operations of Pathé Exchange and Cecil B. De Milles Producers Distributing Corporation had united under KAOs control, early in 1928, KAO general manager John J. Murdock, who had assumed the presidency of Pathé, turned to Kennedy as an adviser in consolidating the studio with De Milles company, PDC. This was the relationship Sarnoff and Kennedy sought, on October 23,1928, RCA announced the creation of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum holding company, with Sarnoff as chairman of the board. Kennedy, who withdrew from his positions in the merged companies, kept Pathé separate from RKO. RCA owned the governing stock interest in RKO,22 percent, in the early 1930s, the companys production and distribution arm, presided over by former FBO vice-president Joseph I
7.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
–
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
8.
Lana Turner
–
Lana Turner was an American actress. Over the course of her nearly fifty-year career, Turner would achieve notoriety as both a model and a serious dramatic actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life. In 1951, she was named the most glamorous woman in the history of international art, Turner was discovered in 1937 by William R. Wilkerson, founder of The Hollywood Reporter. At the age of 16, she was signed to a contract by Warner Bros. director Mervyn LeRoy. Turner attracted attention in her first film, LeRoys They Wont Forget and her auburn hair was bleached blonde for a 1939 film at MGM, and she remained blonde for the rest of her life, except for a few film roles. During the early 1940s, Turner established herself as an actress in such films as Johnny Eager, Honky Tonk, Ziegfeld Girl. She appeared in the 1941 horror film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and her popularity continued through the 1950s in such films as The Bad and the Beautiful and Peyton Place, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Turners next film, Imitation of Life, proved to be one of the greatest financial successes of her career, Turner spent most of the 1970s and early 1980s in semiretirement, only working occasionally. In 1982, she accepted a much publicized and lucrative recurring guest role in the television series Falcon Crest, Turner made her final film appearance in 1985, and died from throat cancer in 1995, aged 74. Lana Turner was born Julia Jean Turner on February 8,1921, in the mining town of Wallace. She was of Dutch, English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, until her film career took off, young Julia Turner was known to family and friends as Judy. Turner expressed interest in performance at an age, performing short routines at her fathers Elks chapter in Wallace. Hard times eventually forced the family to relocate to San Francisco, California, on December 14,1930, her father won some money at a traveling craps game, stuffed his winnings in his left sock, and headed for home. He was later murdered on the corner of Minnesota and Mariposa Streets, on the edge of San Franciscos Potrero Hill. The robbery and homicide were never solved, Turner attended a Catholic church in Stockton, California with a local family. She converted to Catholicism taking the saints names Mildred Frances after her mother, in the mid-1930s, Mildred developed health problems and was advised by her doctor to move to a drier climate, she moved to Los Angeles with her daughter in 1936. Mildred and Lana were very poor, and Turner was sometimes separated from her mother and her mother worked eighty hours a week as a beautician to support them. After Turner was discovered, her mother became the overseer of her career, Turners discovery in Hollywood is considered by film historians to be a show-business legend
9.
Ava Gardner
–
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress and singer. She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in Mogambo, and also received BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for other films. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Earthquake, Gardner continued to act regularly until 1986, four years before her death in London in 1990 at the age of 67. She is listed 25th among the American Film Institutes 25 Greatest Female Stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema, Gardner was born near the farming community of Smithfield, North Carolina. She was the youngest of seven children and she had two older brothers, Raymond and Melvin, and four older sisters, Beatrice, Elsie Mae, Inez, and Myra. Her parents, Mary Elizabeth Molly and Jonas Bailey Gardner, were poor cotton, while there are varying accounts of her background, Gardners only documented ancestry was English. She was raised in the Baptist faith of her mother, while in Newport News, Gardners father became ill and died from bronchitis in 1938, when Ava was 15 years old. After Jonas Gardners death, the moved to Rock Ridge near Wilson, North Carolina. Gardner attended high school in Rock Ridge and she graduated there in 1939. She then attended classes at Atlantic Christian College in Wilson for about a year. Gardner was visiting her sister Beatrice in New York in 1941 when Beatrices husband Larry Tarr and he was so pleased with the results that he displayed the finished product in the front window of his Tarr Photography Studio on Fifth Avenue. A Loews Theatres legal clerk, Barnard Duhan, spotted Gardners photo in Tarrs studio, at the time, Duhan often posed as an MGM talent scout to meet girls, using the fact that MGM was a subsidiary of Loews. Duhan entered Tarrs and tried to get Gardners number, but was rebuffed by the receptionist, Duhan made the offhand comment, Somebody should send her info to MGM, and the Tarrs did so immediately. With cameras rolling, he directed the 18-year-old to walk towards the camera, turn and walk away and he did not attempt to record her voice because her Southern accent made it almost impossible for him to understand her. Mayer, head of the studio, however, sent a telegram to Altman, She cant sing, she cant act, she cant talk and she was offered a standard contract by MGM, and left school for Hollywood in 1941 with her sister Beatrice accompanying her. MGMs first order of business was to provide her with a speech coach, other films include The Hucksters, Show Boat, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Lone Star, Mogambo, The Barefoot Contessa, Bhowani Junction, The Sun Also Rises, and On the Beach. Gardner starred as Guinevere in 1953s Knights of the Round Table, indicative of her sophistication, she portrayed a duchess, a baroness and other ladies of royal lineage in her films of the 1950s. John Huston directed the movie in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, insisting on making the film in black and white, Gardner received billing below Burton but above Kerr
10.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
–
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted and executive produced by Alfred Hitchcock, which aired on CBS and NBC between 1955 and 1965. It featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries, by the time it premiered on October 2,1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades. Time magazine named it one of The 100 Best TV Shows of all time, the Writers Guild of America ranked it #79 on their list of the 101 Best-Written TV Series tying it with Monty Pythons Flying Circus, Star Trek, The Next Generation and Upstairs, Downstairs. A series of anthologies with the running title Alfred Hitchcock Presents were issued to capitalize on the success of the television series. Alfred Hitchcock Presents is well known for its title sequence, the camera fades in on a simple line-drawing caricature of Hitchcocks rotund profile. He then almost always says Good evening, the caricature drawing, which Hitchcock created, and the use of Gounods Funeral March of a Marionette as theme music have become indelibly associated with Hitchcock in popular culture. At least two versions of the opening were shot for every episode, a version intended for the American audience would often spoof a recent popular commercial or poke fun at the sponsor, leading into the commercial. An alternative version for European audiences would instead include jokes at the expense of Americans in general, for later seasons, opening remarks were also filmed with Hitchcock speaking in French and German for the shows international presentations. Hitchcock closed the show in much the way as it opened. He told TV Guide that his reassurances that the criminal had been apprehended were a necessary gesture to morality, Alfred Hitchcock Presents finished at #6 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1956–57 season, and at #12 in 1957–58, #24 in 1958–59 and #25 in 1959–60. Originally 25 minutes per episode, the series was expanded to 50 minutes in 1962, Hitchcock directed 17 of the 267 filmed episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and one of the 50-minute episodes, I Saw the Whole Thing with John Forsythe. The last new episode aired on June 26,1965, in 1985, NBC aired a new TV movie pilot based upon the series, combining four newly filmed stories with colorized footage of Hitchcock from the original series to introduce each segment. The movie was a ratings success. Alfred Hitchcock Presents revival series debuted in the fall of 1985 and retained the format as the pilot. The new series lasted one season before NBC cancelled it. Other notable directors included Robert Altman, Ida Lupino, Stuart Rosenberg, Robert Stevenson, David Swift and William Friedkin, who ended up directing what would be the last episode. Alfred Hitchcock Presents,25 minutes long, aired weekly at 9,30 on CBS on Sunday nights from 1955 to 1960, and then at 8,30 on NBC on Tuesday nights from 1960 to 1962. It was followed by The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, which lasted for three seasons, September 1962 to June 1965, adding another 93 episodes to the 268 already produced for Alfred Hitchcock Presents
11.
Bonanza
–
Bonanza is an NBC television western series that ran from 1959 to 1973. The show continues to air in syndication, the show is set around the 1860s and it centers on the wealthy Cartwright family, who live in the area of Virginia City, Nevada, bordering Lake Tahoe. The series stars Lorne Greene, Dan Blocker, Michael Landon, Pernell Roberts, the show is known for presenting moral dilemmas. The shows theme song itself, called Bonanza, became a hit song in its own right, only instrumental renditions, absent Ray Evans words, were ever used during the series long run. In 2002, Bonanza was ranked No.43 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, the time period for the television series is roughly between 1861 to 1867 during and shortly after the American Civil War. During the summer of 1972, NBC aired reruns of episodes from the 1967–1970 period in time on Tuesday evening under the title Ponderosa. The show chronicles the adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by the thrice-widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright. Via exposition and flashback episodes, each wife was accorded a different ancestry, English, Swedish, the familys cook was the Chinese immigrant Hop Sing. Greene, Roberts, Blocker, and Landon were billed equally, the opening credits would alternate the order among the four stars. The family lived on a 600, 000+ acre ranch called the Ponderosa on the shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada. The vast size of the Cartwrights land was quietly revised to half a million acres on Lorne Greenes 1964 song, the ranch name refers to the Ponderosa Pine, common in the West. The nearest town to the Ponderosa was Virginia City, where the Cartwrights would go to converse with Sheriff Roy Coffee, or his deputy Clem Foster. You always saw stories about family on comedies or on an anthology, but Bonanza was the first series that was week-to-week about a family, Bonanza was a period drama that attempted to confront contemporary social issues. That was very difficult to do on television, most shows that tried to do it failed because the sponsors didnt like it, and the networks were nervous about getting letters, explains Stephen Battaglio, a senior editor for TV Guide magazine. Episodes ranged from high drama, to comedy, and addressed issues such as the environment, substance abuse, domestic violence, anti-war sentiment. The series sought to illustrate the cruelty of bigotry against, Asians, African-Americans, Native Americans, Jews, Mormons, originally, the Cartwrights tended to be depicted as put-off by outsiders. Lorne Greene objected to this, pointing out that as the areas largest timber and livestock producer, the producers agreed with this observation and changed the Cartwrights to be more amiable. Though not familiar stars in 1959, the cast quickly became favorites of the first television generation, the order of billing at the beginning of the broadcast appeared to be shuffled randomly each week, with no relation whatsoever to the current episode featured that week
