1.
San Diego Comic-Con
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San Diego Comic-Con International is a multi-genre entertainment and comic convention held annually in San Diego, California. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International, San Diego and it is a four-day event held during the summer at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego. On the Wednesday evening prior to the opening of the event, there is a preview for professionals, exhibitors. Comic-Con International also produces two other conventions, WonderCon, held in Los Angeles, and the Alternative Press Expo and it is also the home of the Will Eisner Awards. In 2010, it filled the San Diego Convention Center to capacity with more than 130,000 attendees, the convention was founded in 1970 by Shel Dorf, Richard Alf, Ken Krueger, Mike Towry, Barry Alfonso, Bob Sourk, and Greg Bear. Detroit, Michigan-born, comics fan Shel Dorf, had, in the mid-1960s, mounted the Detroit Triple-Fan Fairs, one of the first commercial comics-fan conventions. When he moved to San Diego, California, in 1970, he organized a convention on March 21,1970. Dorf went on to be associated with the convention as president or manager, variously, Alf co-chaired the first convention with Krueger and became chairman in 1971. Following the initial gathering, Dorfs first three-day San Diego comics convention, other locations in the conventions early years included the El Cortez Hotel, the University of California, San Diego, and Golden Hall, before being moved to the San Diego Convention Center in 1991. I was quietly walking the floor stunned and in awe of just how much bigger it really was, the convention is organized by a panel of 13 board members,16 to 20 full-time and part-time workers, and 80 volunteers who assist via committees. Comic Con International is an organization, and proceeds of the event go to funding it, as well as the Alternative Press Expo. The convention logo was designed by Richard Bruning and Josh Beatman in 1995, in September 2010, the convention announced that it would stay in San Diego through 2015. In 2015, working with Lionsgate, a channel was created to host Comic-Con related content. According to the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau, the convention has a regional economic impact of $162.8 million. Along with panels, seminars, and workshops with comic book professionals, there are previews of upcoming feature films, like most comic-book conventions, Comic-Con features a large floorspace for exhibitors. These include media companies such as studios and TV networks, as well as comic-book dealers. And like most comics conventions, Comic-Con includes an area, as well as the Artists Alley where comics artists can sign autographs. Despite the name, artists alleys can include writers and even models, academics and comic industry professionals annually hold the Comics Arts Conference at Comic-Con, presenting scholarly studies on comics as a medium
2.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
3.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
4.
Santa Barbara, California
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Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County in the U. S. state of California. Situated on a section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States. Santa Barbaras climate is described as Mediterranean, and the city has been promoted as the American Riviera. The population of the county in 2010 was 423,895. In 2004, the sector accounted for fully 35% of local employment. Education in particular is well represented, with four institutions of learning on the south coast. The Santa Barbara Airport serves the city, as does Amtrak, U. S. Highway 101 connects the Santa Barbara area with Los Angeles to the southeast and San Francisco to the northwest. Behind the city, in and beyond the Santa Ynez Mountains, is the Los Padres National Forest, Channel Islands National Park and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary are located approximately 20 miles offshore. Evidence of human habitation of the area begins at least 13,000 years ago, an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Chumash lived on the south coast of Santa Barbara County at the time of the first European explorations. Five Chumash villages flourished in the area, portuguese explorer João Cabrilho, sailing for the Kingdom of Spain, sailed through what is now called the Santa Barbara Channel in 1542, anchoring briefly in the area. In 1602, Spanish maritime explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno gave the name Santa Barbara to the channel, a land expedition led by Gaspar de Portolà visited in 1769, and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi, who accompanied the expedition, named a large native town Laguna de la Concepcion. Cabrillos earlier name, however, is the one that has survived, the first permanent European residents were Spanish missionaries and soldiers under Felipe de Neve, who came in 1782 to build the Presidio. They were sent both to fortify the region against expansion by other such as England and Russia. Many of the Spaniards brought their families with them, and those formed the nucleus of the small town – at first just a cluster of adobes – that surrounded the Presidio, the Santa Barbara Mission was established on the Feast of Saint Barbara, December 4,1786. It was the tenth of the California Missions to be founded by the Spanish Franciscans and it was dedicated by Padre Fermín Lasuén, who succeeded Padre Junipero Serra as the second president and founder of the California Franciscan Mission Chain. The Mission fathers began the work of converting the native Chumash to Christianity. The Chumash laborers built a connection between the creek and the Santa Barbara Mission water system through the use of a dam. During the following decades, many of the natives died of such as smallpox
5.
Sarah Lawrence College
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Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States. It is located in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers,15 miles north of Manhattan, the college is known for low student-to-faculty ratio, and highly individualized course of study. The school models its approach to education after the Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials, Sarah Lawrence emphasizes scholarship, particularly in the humanities, performing arts, and writing, and places high value on independent study. Sarah Lawrence College is ranked 59th in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category in 2017 by U. S. News & World Report, Sarah Lawrence was also named the higher education institution with the best classroom experience in all of America by Princeton Review in 2013. Sarah Lawrence College was established by real-estate mogul William Van Duzer Lawrence on the grounds of his estate in Westchester County and was named in honor of his wife, the College was originally intended to provide instruction in the arts and humanities for women. In addition to founding Sarah Lawrence College, William Lawrence played a role in the development of the neighboring community of Bronxville. Harold Taylor, President of Sarah Lawrence College from 1945 to 1959, Taylor, elected president at age 30, maintained a friendship with educational philosopher John Dewey, and worked to employ the Dewey method at Sarah Lawrence. Sarah Lawrence became an institution in 1968. Prior to this transition, there were discussions about relocating the school and merging with Princeton University, at the undergraduate level, Sarah Lawrence offers an alternative to traditional majors. Students pursue a variety of courses in four different curricular distributions, the Creative Arts, history and the social sciences, the humanities. Classes are structured around a system through which students learn in small, highly interactive seminars. Each student is assigned to a faculty advisor, known as a don, to plan a course of study and provide ongoing academic guidance. Most courses, apart from those in the arts, consist of two parts, the seminar, limited to 15 students, and the conference, a meeting with a seminar professor. In these conferences, students develop projects that extend the course material. Sarah Lawrence has no required courses and traditional examinations have largely replaced with research papers. Additionally, grades are recorded only for transcript purposes—narrative evaluations are given in lieu of grades, the College sponsors international programs in Florence, at Wadham College, Oxford, at Reid Hall in Paris, and at the British American Drama Academy in London. Sarah Lawrence is one of the only American colleges operating an international program in Cuba, Sarah Lawrence offers a program for people wishing to seek a B. A. or a Masters and have been out of school for any period of time. Eugene Lang College Exchange Program, In 1996 the college began its program with Eugene Lang College
6.
Stanford University
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Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, adjacent to Palo Alto and between San Jose and San Francisco. Its 8, 180-acre campus is one of the largest in the United States, Stanford also has land and facilities elsewhere. The university was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Stanford was a former Governor of California and U. S. Senator, he made his fortune as a railroad tycoon. The school admitted its first students 125 years ago on October 1,1891, Stanford University struggled financially after Leland Stanfords death in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley. The university is one of the top fundraising institutions in the country. There are three schools that have both undergraduate and graduate students and another four professional schools. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference. Stanford faculty and alumni have founded a number of companies that produce more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue. It is the alma mater of 30 living billionaires,17 astronauts and it is also one of the leading producers of members of the United States Congress. Sixty Nobel laureates and seven Fields Medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, alumni, Stanford University was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford, dedicated to Leland Stanford Jr, their only child. The institution opened in 1891 on Stanfords previous Palo Alto farm, despite being impacted by earthquakes in both 1906 and 1989, the campus was rebuilt each time. In 1919, The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace was started by Herbert Hoover to preserve artifacts related to World War I, the Stanford Medical Center, completed in 1959, is a teaching hospital with over 800 beds. The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, which was established in 1962, in 2008, 60% of this land remained undeveloped. Besides the central campus described below, the university also operates at more remote locations, some elsewhere on the main campus. Stanfords main campus includes a place within unincorporated Santa Clara County. The campus also includes land in unincorporated San Mateo County, as well as in the city limits of Menlo Park, Woodside. The academic central campus is adjacent to Palo Alto, bounded by El Camino Real, Stanford Avenue, Junipero Serra Boulevard, the United States Postal Service has assigned it two ZIP codes,94305 for campus mail and 94309 for P. O. box mail
7.
Bachelor of Arts
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A Bachelor of Arts is a bachelors degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both. Bachelor of Arts degree programs take three to four years depending on the country, academic institution, and specific specializations, majors or minors. The word baccalaureus or baccalarium should not be confused with baccalaureatus, degree diplomas generally are printed on high-quality paper or parchment, individual institutions set the preferred abbreviation for their degrees. In Pakistan, the Bachelor of Arts degree can also be attained within two years as an external degree, in colleges and universities in Australia, New Zealand, Nepal and South Africa, the BA degree can be taken over three years of full-time study. Unlike in other countries, students do not receive a grade for their Bachelor of Arts degree with varying levels of honours. Qualified students may be admitted, after they have achieved their Bachelors program with an overall grade point average. Thus, to achieve a Bachelor Honours degree, a postgraduate year. A student who holds a Honours degree is eligible for entry to either a Doctorate or a very high research Master´s degree program. Education in Canada is controlled by the Provinces and can be different depending on the province in Canada. Canadian universities typically offer a 3-year Bachelor of Arts degrees, in many universities and colleges, Bachelor of Arts degrees are differentiated either as Bachelors of Arts or as honours Bachelor of Arts degree. The honours degrees are designated with the abbreviation in brackets of. It should not be confused with the consecutive Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours, Latin Baccalaureatus in Artibus Cum Honore, BA hon. de jure without brackets and with a dot. It is a degree, which is considered to be the equivalent of a corresponding maîtrise degree under the French influenced system. Going back in history, a three-year Bachelor of Arts degree was called a pass degree or general degree. Students may be required to undertake a long high-quality research empirical thesis combined with a selection of courses from the relevant field of studies. The consecutive B. cum Honore degree is essential if students ultimate goal is to study towards a two- or three-year very high research masters´ degree qualification. A student holding a Baccalaureatus Cum Honore degree also may choose to complete a Doctor of Philosophy program without the requirement to first complete a masters degree, over the years, in some universities certain Baccalaureatus cum Honore programs have been changed to corresponding master´s degrees. In general, in all four countries, the B. A. degree is the standard required for entry into a masters programme, in science, a BA hons degree is generally a prerequisite for entrance to a Ph. D program or a very-high-research-activity master´s programme
8.
Yale University
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Yale University is an American private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 in Saybrook Colony to train Congregationalist ministers, it is the third-oldest institution of education in the United States. The Collegiate School moved to New Haven in 1716, and shortly after was renamed Yale College in recognition of a gift from British East India Company governor Elihu Yale. Originally restricted to theology and sacred languages, the curriculum began to incorporate humanities and sciences by the time of the American Revolution. In the 19th century the school introduced graduate and professional instruction, awarding the first Ph. D. in the United States in 1861 and organizing as a university in 1887. Yale is organized into fourteen constituent schools, the undergraduate college, the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. While the university is governed by the Yale Corporation, each schools faculty oversees its curriculum, the universitys assets include an endowment valued at $25.4 billion as of June 2016, the second largest of any U. S. educational institution. The Yale University Library, serving all constituent schools, holds more than 15 million volumes and is the third-largest academic library in the United States, Yale College undergraduates follow a liberal arts curriculum with departmental majors and are organized into a social system of residential colleges. Almost all faculty teach courses, more than 2,000 of which are offered annually. Students compete intercollegiately as the Yale Bulldogs in the NCAA Division I – Ivy League, Yale has graduated many notable alumni, including five U. S. Presidents,19 U. S. Supreme Court Justices,20 living billionaires, and many heads of state. In addition, Yale has graduated hundreds of members of Congress,57 Nobel laureates,5 Fields Medalists,247 Rhodes Scholars, and 119 Marshall Scholars have been affiliated with the University. Yale traces its beginnings to An Act for Liberty to Erect a Collegiate School, passed by the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut on October 9,1701, the Act was an effort to create an institution to train ministers and lay leadership for Connecticut. Soon thereafter, a group of ten Congregationalist ministers, Samuel Andrew, Thomas Buckingham, Israel Chauncy, Samuel Mather, the group, led by James Pierpont, is now known as The Founders. Originally known as the Collegiate School, the institution opened in the home of its first rector, Abraham Pierson, the school moved to Saybrook, and then Wethersfield. In 1716 the college moved to New Haven, Connecticut, the feud caused the Mathers to champion the success of the Collegiate School in the hope that it would maintain the Puritan religious orthodoxy in a way that Harvard had not. Cotton Mather suggested that the school change its name to Yale College, meanwhile, a Harvard graduate working in England convinced some 180 prominent intellectuals that they should donate books to Yale. The 1714 shipment of 500 books represented the best of modern English literature, science, philosophy and it had a profound effect on intellectuals at Yale. Undergraduate Jonathan Edwards discovered John Lockes works and developed his original theology known as the new divinity
9.
Sylvester Weaver (executive)
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Sylvester Laflin Pat Weaver, Jr. was an American radio advertising executive, who became president of NBC between 1953 and 1955. He has been credited with reshaping commercial broadcastings format and philosophy as radio gave way to television as Americas dominant home entertainment and his daughter is actress Sigourney Weaver. Weaver was born Sylvester Laflin Weaver, Jr. in Los Angeles and he was of Scottish descent, as well as of Ulster-Scots and early New England ancestry. He was a great-great-grandson of Charles Laflin, a gunpowder manufacturer, Charles Laflin and his family were living at Oxford, Massachusetts, when he purchased land in 1749 in the Southern village part of the town of Westfield, Massachusetts. He was the brother of comedian Doodles Weaver and he graduated from Dartmouth College in 1930, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He also served in the United States Navy from 1942 through 1945 and he married Elizabeth Inglis in 1942. She was born Desiree Mary Lucy Hawkins on July 10,1913 in Colchester, Essex, England and she made her screen debut in Borrowed Clothes as well as having a number of small parts in some of Alfred Hitchcocks early movies. She reached the point of her career when she co-starred with Bette Davis in William Wylers movie The Letter. She retired from acting when she married in 1942, the couple were the parents of two children, Trajan Victor Charles and Sigourney. Weaver worked for the Young & Rubicam advertising agency during the age of radio. In the mid-1930s he produced Fred Allens Town Hall Tonight radio show, NBC hired him in 1949 to challenge the CBS networks programming lead. At NBC, Weaver established many operating practices that became standard for network television and he introduced the practice of networks producing their own television programming, then selling advertising time during the broadcasts. Prior to that, ad agencies usually created each show for a particular client, because commercial announcements could now more easily be sold to more than one company sponsor for each program, a single advertiser pulling out would not necessarily threaten a program. Weaver created Today in 1952, followed by Tonight Starring Steve Allen, Home with Arlene Francis and Wide Wide World, years later, Paar said, He didnt invent programs, but wrote great memos. Weaver did not ignore NBC Radio, either and he was the developer of the magazine style of advertising which was very favorable towards the Networks. The sponsors would purchase blocks of time in a show, rather than sponsor an entire show, like a magazine, a television network could now control what advertisements were being broadcast and no one advertiser could own exclusive rights to a particular show. NBC Monitor long outlived Weavers tenure running the network, following disputes with chieftain David Sarnoff, Weaver departed. His ideas were too expensive or too highbrow for company tastes
10.
Doodles Weaver
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Winstead Sheffield Glenndenning Dixon Doodles Weaver was an American character actor, comedian, and musician. Born into a wealthy West Coast family, Weaver began his career in radio, in the late 1930s, he performed on Rudy Vallées radio programs and Kraft Music Hall. He later joined Spike Jones City Slickers, in 1957, Weaver hosted his own variety show The Doodles Weaver Show, which aired on NBC. In addition to his work, he also recorded a number of comedy records, appeared in films. Weaver made his last onscreen appearance in 1981, Weaver was married four times, with all his marriages ending in divorce. He had two sons from his last marriage to actress Reita Green, despondent over poor health, Weaver fatally shot himself in January 1983. Born in Los Angeles, Weaver was one of four born to Sylvester Laflin, a wealthy roofing contractor. His older brother was Sylvester Pat Weaver who served as the President of NBC in the 1950s, Weavers niece is actress Sigourney Weaver. He was of English, Scottish ancestry, including roots in New England, Weaver was given the nickname Doodlebug by his mother when he was a child because of his big ears and freckles. He attended Los Angeles High School and Stanford University, at Stanford, Weaver was a contributor to the Stanford Chaparral humor magazine. He was also known to engage in pranks and practical jokes. He was reportedly suspended from Stanford in 1937 for pulling a prank on the home from the Rose Bowl. On radio during the late 1930s and early 1940s, he was heard as an occasional guest on Rudy Vallées program, in 1946, Weaver signed on as a member of Spike Joness City Slickers band. Weaver was heard on Joness 1947–49 radio shows, where he introduced his comedic Professor Feetlebaum, part of the Professors schtick was mixing up words and sentences in various songs and recitations as if he were suffering from myopia and/or dyslexia. Weaver toured the country with the Spike Jones Music Depreciation Revue until 1951, the radio programs were often broadcast from cities where the Revue was staged. One of Weavers most popular recordings is the Spike Jones parody of Rossinis William Tell Overture, Weaver gives a close impression of the gravel-voiced sports announcer Clem McCarthy in a satire of a horse race announcer who forgets whether hes covering a horse race or a boxing match. The race features a nag named Feitlebaum, who begins at long odds and that same horse was also the winner in a parody of the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race—narrated by Doodles—which appeared in the City Slickers raucous 1949 recording of Ponchiellis Dance of the Hours. In 1966, Weaver recorded a novelty version of Eleanor Rigby—singing, mixing up the words, insulting, Weaver made his television debut on The Colgate Comedy Hour in 1951
11.
Annie Hall
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Annie Hall is a 1977 American romantic comedy film directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay he co-wrote with Marshall Brickman. Produced by Allens manager, Charles H, principal photography for the film began on May 19,1976 on the South Fork of Long Island, and filming continued periodically for the next ten months. Annie Hall was screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival in March 1977, the film received widespread critical acclaim, and along with winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, it received Oscars in three other categories, two for Allen, and Keaton for Best Actress. The film additionally won four BAFTA awards and a Golden Globe and its North American box office receipts of $38,251,425 are fourth-best of Allens works when not adjusted for inflation. Film critic Roger Ebert called it just about everyones favorite Woody Allen movie, the films screenplay was also named the funniest ever written by the Writers Guild of America in its list of the 101 Funniest Screenplays. The comedian Alvy Singer is trying to understand why his relationship with Annie Hall ended a year ago, growing up in New York, he vexed his mother with impossible questions about the emptiness of existence, but he was precocious about his innocent sexual curiosity. That night, Annie shows no interest in sex with Alvy, instead, they discuss his first wife, whose ardor gave him no pleasure. His second marriage was to a New York writer who didnt like sports and was unable to reach orgasm, the two of them have fun making a meal of boiled lobster together. He teases her about the men in her past. He met her playing tennis doubles with friends, following the game, awkward small talk led her to offer him first a ride up town and then a glass of wine on her balcony. There, what seemed a mild exchange of personal data is revealed in mental subtitles as an escalating flirtation. Their first date follows Annies singing audition for a night club and he suggests they kiss first, to get it out of the way. After their lovemaking that night, Alvy is a wreck, while she relaxes with a joint, soon Annie admits she loves him, while he buys her books on death and says that his feelings for her are more than just love. When she moves in with him, things become very tense, eventually, he finds her arm in arm with one of her college professors and the two begin to argue whether this is the flexibility they had discussed. Alvy returns to dating, but the effort is marred by neurosis, bad sex, and finally an interruption from Annie and it turns out she needs him to kill a spider. A reconciliation follows, coupled with a vow to stay together come what may, however, their separate discussions with their therapists make it evident there is an unspoken divide. When Alvy accepts an offer to present an award on television, they fly out to Los Angeles, with Alvys friend, however, on the return trip, they agree that their relationship is not working. After losing her to her producer, Tony Lacey, he unsuccessfully tries rekindling the flame with a marriage proposal
12.
Ellen Ripley
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Ellen Louise Ripley is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Alien film series played by American actress Sigourney Weaver. The character earned Weaver world recognition, and the role remains her most famous to date, sir Ridley Scott, director of the first film in the series, made the decision to switch Ripley from the standard male action hero to a heroine. Alien and Aliens were heralded for challenging gender roles, particularly in the fiction, action. Ripley is often considered one of the most significant female protagonists in all of cinema, john Scalzi, film critic and president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, wrote in 2011, Shes not a sidekick, arm candy, or a damsel to be rescued. Starting with Alien, Ripley was a competent member of a crew or ensemble — not always liked and sometimes disrespected. As each film progresses, she comes to the fore and faces challenges head-on — shes the hero of the piece, Science fiction film is filled with hot kickass women doing impossible things with guns and melee weapons while they spin about like a gymnast in a dryer. As fun as that is to watch, at the end of the day its still giving women short shrift, All without being a spinny killbot. Today, Ripleys influence extends beyond that of the film franchise, she has appeared in novels, comic books. Ripley is introduced as a warrant officer aboard the Nostromo, a spaceship from planet Thedus returning to Earth, having been placed in stasis for the long journey home, the crew is awakened when the Nostromo receives a transmission of unknown origin from a nearby planetoid. Following their landing, an unknown creature infiltrates the ship, Ripley is the only member to escape from the Nostromo prior to its explosion, which she deliberately commenced to kill the monster. However, she discovers that the Alien is also aboard the ships shuttle,57 years later, Ripley awakes from her stasis. Her testimony regarding the Alien is met with skepticism, and she loses her space flight license as a result of her questionable judgment. However, after contact was lost with a colony on LV-426 and they find the planet infested by many Aliens, who wipe out almost all of the marines. Ripley finally escapes the planet with Corporal Dwayne Hicks, the android Bishop, and Newt, a young girl, back on the Sulaco, they are soon attacked by the surviving Alien Queen, which is finally expelled into space by Ripley. Ripley enters into hypersleep alongside the three survivors for the return to Earth. The Sulaco launches an escape pod containing the four survivors, which crashes on Fiorina Fury 161. Unbeknownst to her, an Alien egg had been aboard the ship, once hatched in the prison, the creature begins to kill inmates and guards, but strangely refuses to kill her. After rallying the inmates and preparing the defense against the creature, Ripley discovers the embryo of an Alien Queen growing inside her, thus realizing why she had not been attacked
13.
Alien (film)
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The films title refers to a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature that stalks and kills the crew of a spaceship. Dan OBannon wrote the screenplay from a story he wrote with Ronald Shusett, drawing influence from works of science fiction. The film was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler and Walter Hill through their Brandywine Productions, Giler and Hill made revisions and additions to the script. The eponymous Alien and its elements were designed by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger, while concept artists Ron Cobb. Alien launched the Alien franchise and is chronologically the first of the main series and it has remained highly praised in subsequent decades, being considered one of the greatest films of all time. In 2002, the film was deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2008, it was ranked as the seventh-best film in the fiction genre by the American Film Institute. The success of Alien spawned a franchise of novels, comic books, video games. A crossover with the Predator franchise produced the Alien vs. Predator series, a prequel series, which includes Prometheus and Alien, Covenant, continues in development. Detecting a mysterious transmission from a nearby planetoid— possibly a distress signal—the ships computer, Mother, following standard company policy for such situations, the Nostromo lands on the planetoid, sustaining damage from the planetoids dusty atmosphere in the process. Parker and Brett begin repairing the ship, while Dallas, Kane and they discover the signal is coming from a derelict alien spacecraft. Inside, they find the remains of an alien creature whose rib cage appears to have exploded from the inside. On the Nostromo, Ripley determines that the transmission is not a distress signal, Ash responds by telling her that she wouldnt be able to communicate with the others in time. In the alien ship, Kane discovers a chamber containing hundreds of eggs, as he inspects one, a creature springs out and attaches itself to his face. Dallas and Lambert carry the unconscious Kane back to the Nostromo, as acting senior officer, Ripley refuses to let them aboard, citing quarantine regulations, but Ash violates protocol by overriding Ripleys lock and letting them in. The crew unsuccessfully attempt to remove the creature from Kanes face and it detaches on its own and dies. With the ship repaired, the crew lifts off, Kane awakens with some memory loss but otherwise unharmed. Brett follows the cat, Jones, into an engine room
14.
Aliens (film)
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It is the sequel to the 1979 film Alien and the second installment in the Alien franchise. The film follows Weavers character Ellen Ripley as she returns to the planet where her crew encountered the hostile Alien creature, Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill of Brandywine Productions, who produced the first film and the later sequels, were executive producers of Aliens. They were interested in a follow-up to Alien as soon as its 1979 release, the script was written with a war film tone influenced by the Vietnam War to contrast the horror motifs of the original Alien. It was filmed in England at Pinewood Studios and at a power plant in Acton, London. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including a Best Actress nomination for Sigourney Weaver and it won eight Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film, Best Actress for Weaver and Best Direction and Best Writing for Cameron. Aliens is considered one of the best films in its genre, a sequel Alien 3 was released in 1992, with Sigourney Weaver reprising her role as Ellen Ripley and Lance Henriksen as Bishop in the film. Ellen Ripley is rescued after drifting through space in stasis for 57 years, the exomoon LV-426, where the Nostromo encountered the alien eggs, is now home to the terraforming colony Hadleys Hope. A dropship delivers the expedition to the surface of LV-426, where they find the colony deserted, the crew uses the colonys computer to locate the colonists grouped beneath the fusion powered atmosphere processing station. They head to the location, descending into corridors covered in Alien secretions, at the center of the station, the marines find the colonists cocooned, serving as incubators for the Aliens offspring. When the marines kill a newborn Alien, the Aliens are roused and ambush the marines, when the inexperienced Gorman panics, Ripley takes control of their vehicle and rams it through the nest to rescue marines Hicks, Hudson, and Vasquez. Hicks orders the dropship to recover the survivors, but a stowaway Alien kills the pilots, Ripley, Newt, Burke, Gorman, and the remaining marines barricade themselves inside the colony command center. He volunteers to crawl through several hundred meters of piping conduits to reach the colonys transmitter, Ripley and Newt fall asleep in the medical laboratory, awakening to find themselves locked in the room with the two facehuggers, which have been released from their tanks. Ripley triggers an alarm to alert the marines, who rescue them. Before the marines can execute Burke in response to the accusation, Hudson, Burke, Vasquez, and Gorman are all killed in the attack and Newt is captured. Ripley and an injured Hicks reach Bishop in the second dropship, the group arrives at the processing station, allowing a heavily armed Ripley to enter the hive and rescue Newt. As they escape, the two encounter the Alien queen in her egg chamber, pursued by the queen, Ripley and Newt rendezvous with Bishop and Hicks on the dropship. All four escape moments before the station explodes with the colony consumed by the nuclear blast, on the Sulaco, the group discover the Alien queen stowed away on the dropships landing gear. She emerges and tears Bishop in half, the queen advances on Newt, but Ripley clashes with her using an exosuit cargo-loader and expels it through an airlock into space
15.
Academy Award for Best Actress
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The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actress who has delivered a performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Janet Gaynor receiving the award for her roles in 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the branch of AMPAS. In the first three years of the awards, actresses were nominated as the best in their categories, at that time, all of their work during the qualifying period was listed after the award. The following year, this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actress is nominated for a performance in a single film. Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year, one actress has been nominated posthumously, Jeanne Eagels. Only three film characters have been nominated more than once in this category, elizabeth I of England, Leslie Crosbie in The Letter, and Esther Blodgett in A Star is Born. Six women on the list have received an Honorary Academy Award for their acting, they are Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Pickford, Deborah Kerr, Gena Rowlands, since its inception, the award has been given to 74 actresses. Katharine Hepburn has won the most awards in this category, with four Oscars, meryl Streep, who has a total of 20 Oscar nominations, has been nominated in this category on 16 occasions, resulting in two awards. As of the 2017 ceremony, Emma Stone is the most recent winner in category for her role as Mia Dolan in La La Land. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933
16.
Alien 3
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It serves as the third film installment of the Alien franchise, and takes place after the events of Aliens and was followed by Alien, Resurrection. The film stars Sigourney Weaver reprising her role as Ellen Ripley, the film faced large-scale problems during production, including shooting without a script, with various screenwriters and directors attached. Fincher was finally brought in to direct after a version with Vincent Ward at the helm was cancelled well into pre-production. While underperforming at the American box office, it earned over $100 million outside of North America, the film received polarized reviews and was regarded as inferior to the previous installments. Fincher has since disowned the film, blaming studio interference and deadlines, in 2003, a revised version of the film known as the Assembly Cut was released without Finchers involvement, it received a warmer reception than the first release version. A fire starts aboard the Colonial Marine spaceship Sulaco, the computer launches an escape pod containing Ellen Ripley, the young girl Newt, Hicks, and the damaged android Bishop, all four are in cryonic stasis. Scans of the crews cryotubes show an Alien facehugger attached to one member, the inmates, who live and work on Fiorina Fury 161 due to their dangerous nature and histories of violence, recover the crashed pod and its passengers. Another facehugger is seen approaching inmate Murphys dog, Spike, Ripley is awakened by Clemens, the prison doctor, who informs her that she is the sole survivor. She is warned by the warden, Harold Andrews, that her presence may have disruptive effects. Ripley insists that Clemens perform an autopsy on Newt, secretly fearing that Newt may be carrying an Alien embryo, despite protests from the warden and his assistant Aaron, the autopsy is conducted and no embryo is found. The bodies of Newt and Hicks are cremated, elsewhere in the prison, a quadrupedal alien bursts from Spike. Growing to full size, the Alien kills Murphy, Boggs, Ripley finds the damaged Bishop in the wreckage of the ship. Just as she is leaving the wreckage, four of the attempt to rape her. Ripley heads back to the infirmary, and re-activates Bishop, who confirms that a facehugger came with them to Fiorina in the escape pod, Ripley informs Andrews of her encounters with the Aliens and suggests everyone work together to hunt down and kill it. Andrews does not believe her story, but explains that the facility has no weapons, the Alien surprises Ripley and Clemens in the prison infirmary, where it kills Clemens. It examines Ripley, but spares her and retreats, Andrews orders Aaron to take her back to the infirmary, but he is dragged into the vents and killed by the Alien. Ripley rallies the inmates and proposes they pour flammable toxic waste into the ventilation system, however, the Aliens intervention causes an explosion and several inmates are killed. With Aarons help, Ripley scans herself using the escape pods medical equipment and she also discovers that Weyland-Yutani hopes to turn the Aliens into biological weapons
17.
Alien Resurrection
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Alien, Resurrection is a 1997 American science fiction action horror film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and written by Joss Whedon. It is the installment in the Alien film series, and was filmed at the 20th Century Fox studios in Los Angeles. In the film, which is set 200 years after the preceding installment Alien 3, Ellen Ripley is cloned and an Alien queen is surgically removed from her body. The United Systems Military hopes to breed Aliens to study and research on the spaceship USM Auriga, the Aliens escape their enclosures, while Ripley and the mercenaries attempt to escape and destroy the Auriga before it reaches its destination, Earth. Alien, Resurrection was released on November 26,1997 and received mixed reviews from film critics. In 2379, two hundred years after the events of Alien 3, military scientists on the space vessel USM Auriga create a clone of Ellen Ripley using DNA from blood samples taken before her death. The Alien queens DNA was mixed in with Ripleys, and the clone grows up with an embryo inside it, the scientists extract the embryo, raise it and collect its eggs. The Ripley clone is kept alive for further study, as a result of the aliens DNA inside her, she develops enhanced strength and reflexes, has acidic blood and a psychic link with the Aliens. Also, the genetic memory allows the clone to have some of Ripleys memories. A group of mercenaries, Elgyn, Johner, Christie, Vriess, Hillard and Call and they deliver several kidnapped humans in stasis. The military scientists use the humans as hosts for the Aliens, the Betty crew soon encounters Ripley. Call recognizes her name and tries to kill her, suspecting she may be used to create more Aliens, the Aliens have already matured and escape confinement by killing off one of their own and using the acidic blood to burn through their enclosures. They then capture Dr. Jonathan Gediman and kill another scientist and they damage the Auriga and kill some of those people who do not evacuate, including General Perez and Elgyn. Military scientist Dr. Wren reveals that the default command in an emergency is to return to Earth. Along the way, Ripley encounters the grotesque products of failed attempts to clone Ripley, the surviving one begs Ripley to mercy kill her, and she complies. As the group makes their way through the ship, they swim through a flooded kitchen. They are chased by two Aliens, one is killed, while the other snatches Hillard. As they escape the kitchen, the Alien returns and blinds Christie, after Wren betrays the group, Call is revealed to be an android
18.
Ghostbusters
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Ghostbusters is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis as three eccentric parapsychologists who start a business in New York City. Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis co-star as a client and her neighbor, Aykroyd conceived the film as a project for himself and fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus John Belushi, with the Ghostmashers travelling through time and space in the future with magic wands. He and Ramis dramatically rewrote the script following Belushis death and after Reitman deemed Aykroyds initial vision financially impractical, Ghostbusters was released in the United States on June 8,1984. It received a response from critics and audiences and grossed $242 million in the United States. It was nominated for two Oscars at the 57th Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song, but lost to Indiana Jones, the American Film Institute ranked Ghostbusters 28th in its AFIs 100 Years.100 Laughs list of film comedies. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it culturally, historically, a reboot, also titled Ghostbusters, was released on July 15,2016, by Columbia Pictures. Parapsychologists Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz, and Egon Spengler are called to the New York Public Library to investigate recent paranormal activity and they encounter the ghost of a dead librarian but are frightened away when she transforms into a horrifying monster. After losing their jobs at Columbia University, the trio establish a paranormal investigation and elimination service known as Ghostbusters and they develop high-tech equipment capable of capturing ghosts and open their business in a disused, run-down firehouse. Egon warns them never to cross the energy streams of their proton pack weapons and they capture their first ghost, Slimer, at a hotel and deposit it in a specially built containment unit in the firehouse basement. As paranormal activity increases in New York City, they hire a fourth member, Winston Zeddemore, Venkman takes a particular interest in the case, and competes with Danas neighbor, accountant Louis Tully, for her affections. As the Ghostbusters investigate, Dana is demonically possessed by Zuul, which declares itself the Gatekeeper, and Louis by a demon, Vinz Clortho. Both demons speak of the coming of the destructive Gozer and the release of the ghosts. The ghosts wreak havoc throughout the city while Louis/Vinz advances toward Dana/Zuuls apartment, the Ghostbusters are released from custody to combat the supernatural crisis. As they trudge up 22 flights of stairs in Danas building, after reaching the roof, the team is unable to prevent the arrival of Gozer, who appears in the form of a woman. Briefly subdued by the team, Gozer disappears, but her voice echoes that the destructor will follow, the Ghostbusters cross their proton pack energy streams and fire them against Gozers portal, the explosion defeats the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and frees Dana and Louis. As thousands of New Yorkers wipe themselves free of marshmallow, the Ghostbusters are welcomed on the street as heroes, Aykroyd conceived it as a vehicle for himself and his friend and fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus John Belushi. The original story, as written by Aykroyd, was different from what was eventually filmed
19.
Ghostbusters II
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It is the sequel to the 1984 film Ghostbusters, and follows the further adventures of the three parapsychologists and their organization which combats paranormal activities. Despite generally mixed reviews critics, the film grossed $112.5 million in the United States and $215.4 million worldwide. Peters former girlfriend Dana Barrett has had a son, Oscar, with an ex-husband, after an incident in which Oscars baby carriage is controlled by an unseen force and drawn to a busy junction, Dana turns to the Ghostbusters for help. Meanwhile, Danas colleague Dr. Janosz Poha is indoctrinated by the spirit of Vigo the Carpathian, Vigo orders Janosz to locate a child that Vigo can possess, allowing him to return to life on the New Year. The Ghostbusters investigation leads them to illegally excavate First Avenue at the point where the carriage stopped. Lowered underneath, Ray discovers a river of pink slime filling an abandoned pneumatic transit line, attacked by the slime after obtaining a sample, Ray accidentally causes a city-wide blackout, and the Ghostbusters are arrested. The Ghostbusters imprison the ghosts in exchange for the dismissal of all charges, later, the slime invades Danas apartment and attacks her and Oscar. She seeks refuge with Peter, and the two begin to renew their relationship, investigating the slime and Vigos history, the Ghostbusters discover that the slime reacts to emotions, and suspect that it has been generated by the negative attitudes of New Yorkers. While Peter and Dana have dinner together, Egon, Ray, while measuring the depth, Winston gets pulled into the flowing river, and Ray and Egon jump in after him. After they escape back to the surface Ray and Winston begin arguing and they also learn the river is flowing directly to the museum. Meanwhile, a spirit resembling Janosz kidnaps Oscar from Peters apartment, after she enters, the museum is covered with a barrier of impenetrable slime. New Years Eve sees an increase of supernatural activity as the slime rises from the subway line and onto the city streets. In response, the mayor fires Hardemeyer and has the Ghostbusters released, after heading to the museum, they are unable to breach the power of the slime barrier with their proton packs. As they arrive at the museum, the slime begins to recede and they use the Statues torch to break through the ceiling to attack Vigo. Janosz is neutralized with positively-charged slime, but Vigo immobilizes the Ghostbusters, a chorus of Auld Lang Syne by the citizens outside weakens Vigo, returning him to the painting and freeing the Ghostbusters. Vigo momentarily possesses Ray, and the other Ghostbusters attack him with a combination of proton streams, dressed in full Ghostbusters attire, Louis attacks the weakened slime barrier around the building with a proton stream of his own. This combination destroys Vigo and changes the painting to a likeness of the four Ghostbusters standing protectively around Oscar, outside, the Ghostbusters receive a standing ovation from the crowd and, at a later ceremony to restore the Statue, the Key to the City from the mayor. Jason Reitman, son of director Ivan Reitman, plays the boy who insults the Ghostbusters at a birthday party, cheech Marin is the dock supervisor who witnesses the arrival of the Titanic, and Philip Baker Hall is the city police chief
20.
Avatar (2009 film)
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The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Navi – a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The films title refers to a genetically engineered Navi body with the mind of a remotely located human that is used to interact with the natives of Pandora, Development of Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page treatment for the film. Work on the language of the films extraterrestrial beings began in 2005, Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million. Other estimates put the cost between $280 million and $310 million for production and at $150 million for promotion, the film made extensive use of new motion capture filming techniques, and was released for traditional viewing, 3D viewing, and for 4D experiences in select South Korean theaters. The stereoscopic filmmaking was touted as a breakthrough in cinematic technology and it also became the first film to gross more than $2 billion and the best-selling film of 2010 in the United States. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, following the films success, Cameron signed with 20th Century Fox to produce three sequels, making Avatar the first of a planned tetralogy. On April 14,2016, Cameron confirmed that there were now plans for four sequels, Avatar 2 was scheduled for release in December 2018 before being delayed, with the sequels following in December 2020,2022, and 2023, respectively. By 2154, humans have depleted Earths natural resources, leading to an energy crisis. The Resources Development Administration mines for a valuable mineral – unobtanium – on Pandora, Pandora, whose atmosphere is poisonous to humans, is inhabited by the Navi, 10-foot tall, blue-skinned, sapient humanoids who live in harmony with nature and worship a mother goddess called Eywa. Dr. Grace Augustine, head of the Avatar Program, considers Sully an inadequate replacement, witnessing an auspicious sign, she takes him to her clan, whereupon Neytiris mother Moat, the clans spiritual leader, orders her daughter to initiate Jake into their society. When Grace learns of this, she herself, Jake. Over the following three months, Jake grows to sympathize with the natives, while trying to warn the Navi, Jake confesses to being a spy and the Navi take him and Grace captive. Seeing this, Quaritchs men destroy Hometree, killing Neytiris father, Moat frees Jake and Grace, but they are detached from their avatars and imprisoned by Quaritchs forces. Pilot Trudy Chacón, disgusted by Quaritchs brutality, carries them to Graces outpost, to regain the Navis trust, Jake connects his mind to that of Toruk, a dragon-like predator feared and honored by the Navi. Jake finds the refugees at the sacred Tree of Souls and pleads with Moat to heal Grace, the clan attempts to transfer Grace from her human body into her avatar with the aid of the Tree of Souls, but she dies before the process can be completed. Supported by the new chief Tsutey, who acts as Jakes translator, Jake speaks to unite the clan, noticing the impending gathering, Quaritch organizes a pre-emptive strike against the Tree of Souls, believing that its destruction will demoralize the natives. On the eve of battle, Jake prays to Eywa, via a connection to the Tree of Souls. Quaritch prepares to slit the throat of Jakes avatar, but Neytiri kills Quaritch, humans Sam Worthington as Jake Sully, a disabled former Marine who becomes part of the Avatar Program after his twin brother is killed
21.
Drama Desk Award
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Broadway productions were excluded until the 1968–69 award season. The awards are considered a significant American theatre distinction and they debuted the presentations of the Vernon Rice Awards. The name honors the New York Post critic Vernon Rice, who had pioneered Off-Broadway coverage in the New York press, the name was changed for the 1963–1964 awards season to the Drama Desk Awards. In 1974, the Drama Desk became incorporated as a not-for-profit organization, in 1975, the Drama announcement of winners included the nominees as well. The Drama Desk has more than 100 members, including critics, reporters and editors who cover New York theater. Membership consists of two categories, Active membership and Participating Membership, all of the Drama Desk officers and Nominating Committee members perform their various services for the organization on a voluntary basis. The Nominating Committee generally meets twice a month to discuss the many eligible shows members are responsible for seeing and they then nominate the productions on which the entire membership will vote. What sets the organization apart is that the awards are voted on by people only without any vested interests in the results. Previous winners include Bernadette Peters, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, over the last 36 years, the Drama Desk Awards have contributed to the ongoing success of major stars, playwrights and designers, while also identifying newcomers. The Drama Desk was the first New York theater organization to give awards to talents such as Edward Albee, Wendy Wasserstein, plays like Driving Miss Daisy, Other Peoples Money, Steel Magnolias, and The Boys in the Band built momentum with the help of Drama Desk wins. In 2010 William Wolf was announced as the President of Drama Desk, the current managing executive producer of the Drama Desk Awards is Gretchen Shugart, and the president of the Drama Desk is Charles Wright. David Barbour is chairperson of the nominating committee, in keeping with its original mission, the organization sponsors guest panel luncheons with theater professionals. Panels address topics of current interest, covering the season on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway, with the aim of prompting informative and stimulating discussion
22.
Tony Award
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The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at a ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre, several discretionary non-competitive awards are also given, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. The awards are named after Antoinette Tony Perry, co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, the rules for the Tony Awards are set forth in the official document Rules and Regulations of The American Theatre Wings Tony Awards, which applies for that season only. It also forms the fourth spoke in the EGOT, that is someone who has won all four awards, the Tony Awards are also considered the equivalent of the Laurence Olivier Award in the United Kingdom and the Molière Award of France. From 1997 to 2010, the Tony Awards ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City in June and broadcast live on CBS television, except in 1999, in 2011 and 2012, the ceremony was held at the Beacon Theatre. From 2013 to 2015, the 67th, 68th, and 69th ceremonies returned to Radio City Music Hall, the 70th Tony Awards were held on June 12,2016 at the Beacon Theatre. The 71st Tony Awards will be held on June 11,2017, as of 2014, there are 24 categories of awards, plus several special awards. Starting with 11 awards in 1947, the names and number of categories have changed over the years, some examples, the category Best Book of a Musical was originally called Best Author. The category of Best Costume Design was one of the original awards, for two years, in 1960 and 1961, this category was split into Best Costume Designer and Best Costume Designer. It then went to a category, but in 2005 it was divided again. For the category of Best Director of a Play, a category was for directors of plays. A newly established non-competitive award, The Isabelle Stevenson Award, was given for the first time at the ceremony in 2009. The award is for an individual who has made a contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian. The category of Best Special Theatrical Event was retired as of the 2009–2010 season, the categories of Best Sound Design of a Play and Best Sound Design of a Musical were retired as of the 2014-2015 season. Performance categories Show and technical categories Special awards Retired awards The award was founded in 1947 by a committee of the American Theatre Wing headed by Brock Pemberton. The award is named after Antoinette Perry, nicknamed Tony, an actress, director, producer and co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, who died in 1946. As her official biography at the Tony Awards website states, At Jacob Wilks suggestion, proposed an award in her honor for distinguished stage acting, at the initial event in 1947, as he handed out an award, he called it a Tony
23.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
24.
Hurlyburly
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Hurlyburly is a dark comedy play by David Rabe, first staged in 1984. The title refers to dialogue from Shakespeares Macbeth, Hurlyburly depicts the intersecting lives of several low-to-mid-level Hollywood players in the 1980s. Fueled by large quantities of drugs, they attempt to find meaning in their isolated, the title is derived from dialogue in Act I, Scene I of Shakespeares Macbeth, First Witch, When shall we three meet again / In thunder, lightning, or in rain. Second Witch, When the hurlyburlys done, / When the battles lost, the plays first staging was produced by the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. It opened off-Broadway at Manhattans Promenade Theatre in June 1984, the Broadway production, directed by Mike Nichols, opened on August 7,1984 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, where it ran for 343 performances. The original cast included William Hurt, Christopher Walken, Harvey Keitel, Jerry Stiller, Judith Ivey, Sigourney Weaver, Nixon was performing in The Real Thing at the same time. Replacements later in the run included Danny Aiello, Susan Anton, Christine Baranski, Frank Langella, Ron Silver, John Rubinstein and Candice Bergen. A2005 Off-Broadway revival was produced by The New Group, and starred Ethan Hawke, Josh Hamilton, Bobby Cannavale, Parker Posey, Wallace Shawn, Halley Wegryn Gross, the production received critical acclaim and garnered a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Revival of a Play. Tony Award for Best Play Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play Rabe wrote the screenplay for a 1998 film version directed by Anthony Drazan and he condensed the action into two hours and updated the setting from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. The cast included Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Robin Wright Penn, Garry Shandling, Anna Paquin, penns performance won him the Volpi Cup and Drazan was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Penn also was nominated Best Male Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards, Hurlyburly at the Internet Broadway Database Hurlyburly at the Internet off-Broadway Database Hurlyburly at the Internet Movie Database
25.
Golden Globe Award
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Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign. The annual ceremony at which the awards are presented is a part of the film industrys awards season. The 74th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film, the 1st Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best achievements in 1943 filmmaking, was held in January 1944, at the 20th Century-Fox studios. Subsequent ceremonies were held at venues throughout the next decade, including the Beverly Hills Hotel. In 1950, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made the decision to establish an honorary award to recognize outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry. Recognizing its subject as a figure within the entertainment industry. The official name of the award became the Cecil B. In 1963, the Miss Golden Globe concept was introduced, in its inaugural year, two Miss Golden Globes were named, one for film and one for television. The two Miss Golden Globes named that year were Eva Six and Donna Douglas, respectively, in 2009, the Golden Globe statuette was redesigned. It was unveiled at a conference at the Beverly Hilton prior to the show. The broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards, telecast to 167 countries worldwide, generally ranks as the third most-watched awards show each year, behind only the Oscars, gervais returned to host the 68th and 69th Golden Globe Awards the next two years. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the 70th, 71st and 72nd Golden Globe Awards in 2015, the Golden Globe Awards theme song, which debuted in 2012, was written by Japanese musician and songwriter Yoshiki Hayashi. On January 7,2008, it was announced due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The ceremony was faced with a threat by striking writers to picket the event, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was forced to adopt another approach for the broadcast. In acting categories, Meryl Streep holds the record for the most competitive Golden Globe wins with eight, however, including honorary awards, such as the Henrietta Award, World Film Favorite Actor/Actress Award, or Cecil B. DeMille Award, Barbra Streisand leads with nine, additionally, Streisand won for composing the song Evergreen, producing the Best Picture, and directing Yentl in 1984. Jack Nicholson, Angela Lansbury, Alan Alda and Shirley MacLaine have six awards each, behind them are Rosalind Russell and Jessica Lange with five wins. Meryl Streep also holds the record for most nominations with thirty, at the 46th Golden Globe Awards an anomaly occurred, a three way-tie for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
26.
Working Girl
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Working Girl is a 1988 romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Kevin Wade. It tells the story of a Staten Island-raised secretary, Tess McGill, working in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank. When her boss, Katharine Parker, breaks her leg skiing, Tess uses Parkers absence and connections, including her errant beau Jack Trainer, the film was a box office hit, grossing a worldwide total of $103 million. Griffith was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, while both Weaver and Joan Cusack were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the film itself was nominated for Best Picture at the 61st Academy Awards. Tess McGill is an Irish American working-class stockbrokers secretary from Staten Island with a degree in Business from evening classes. She aspires to reach an executive position, tricked by her boss into a date with his lascivious colleague, she gets into trouble by publicly insulting him and is reassigned as secretary to a new financial executive, Katharine Parker. Seemingly supportive, Katharine encourages Tess to share ideas, Tess suggests that a client, Trask Industries, should invest in radio to gain a foothold in media. Katharine listens to the idea and says shell pass it through some people, later, she says the idea wasnt well received. But when Katharine breaks her leg skiing in Europe, she asks Tess to house-sit, while at Katharines place, Tess discovers some meeting notes where Katharine plans to pass off the merger idea as her own. At home, Tess finds her boyfriend in bed with another woman, disillusioned, she returns to Katharines apartment and begins her transformation. Tess sets up a meeting with executive Jack Trainer, using her bosss name as an entrée and she wants to see Trainer the evening before the meeting at a party, which she will attend in a dress of Katharines. Before the party, when Tess suffers an attack, her friend Cynthia gives her a valium from Katharines bathroom. At the party, Tess unknowingly meets Jack, who is fascinated by her and they have a couple of drinks, and the combined effect of valium and alcohol lead to her waking next morning in Jacks bed. She leaves before he wakes and, entering the meeting, realizes Jack Trainer is the man she had spent the night with and she feels the pitch goes badly. Back at her desk, she is mortified about the night before, days later, Tess and Jack gatecrash Trasks daughter’s wedding and pitch their plan. Trask is interested, and a meeting is set up, later, Tess and Jack end up in bed together. Tess wants to explain her situation but keeps quiet after learning Jack has been in a relationship with Katharine. Katharine comes home on the day of the meeting with Trask, Tess overhears Katharine asking Jack to confirm his love for her, but he avoids answering and hurries out
27.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
28.
The Ice Storm (film)
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The Ice Storm is a 1997 American drama film directed by Ang Lee, based on the 1994 novel of the same name by Rick Moody. The film features an ensemble cast of Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, Katie Holmes, Glenn Fitzgerald, Jamey Sheridan, the film opened in the United States on September 26,1997. Its release was limited and it ultimately grossed US$8 million on a budget of US$18 million, a special two-disc DVD set was released as part of the Criterion Collection on March 18,2008. Set over Thanksgiving weekend,1973, the film centers around two families, the Hoods and their neighbors, the Carvers, Ben, dissatisfied in his marriage and with the futility of his career, is having an affair with Janey. Elena is bored with her life and is looking to expand her thinking but is unsure of how to do so, Wendy enjoys sexual games with her school peers, as well as both Carver boys. Paul has fallen for a classmate, Libbets, at the school he attends. As the party progresses, Ben becomes drunk, when Janey chooses the keys of a handsome young man, Ben attempts to protest but trips and knocks his head on the coffee table, leading Jim to realize that his wife and Ben are having an affair. Ben, in his embarrassment, retreats to the bathroom where he remains for the rest of the evening, the remaining key party participants are paired off and leave together with only Jim and Elena remaining. She retrieves Jims keys from the bowl and returns them to him, after debating the issue, Jim and Elena leave together, engaging in a quick, clumsy sexual encounter in the front seat of Jims car. Jim, regretting the line he and Elena have just crossed, Wendy decides to make her way to the Carvers to see Mikey, but he has decided to go out into the ice storm, so she and Sandy climb into bed together and remove their clothes. They drink from a bottle of vodka and Wendy tries to him, however. Paul is invited to Libbets apartment in Manhattan, though upon arriving, is disappointed to learn that Francis was also invited. The three drink beer and listen to music, Francis and Libbets also take prescription pills found in Libbets mothers medicine cabinet, Paul decides to leave, just narrowly making the train about to leave for New Canaan. Meanwhile, Mikey, out walking in the storm, is enchanted by the beauty of the trees and he slides down an icy hill then sits on a guardrail to rest. A moment later a line, broken by a fallen tree, connects with the guardrail. Jim and Elena become stuck, due to a downed tree, Elena walks in on her daughter in bed with Sandy and orders her to get dressed. Janey had also returned home earlier and curled up on her bed in the position without bothering to take off her party clothes. Although it is not revealed what transpired between Janey and her key partner, she is exhausted and sad
29.
Emmy Award
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An Emmy Award, or simply Emmy, recognizes excellence in the television industry, and corresponds to the Academy Award, the Tony Award, and the Grammy Award. Because Emmy Awards are given in various sectors of the American television industry, Regional Emmy Awards are also presented throughout the country at various times through the year, recognizing excellence in local and statewide television. In addition, International Emmys are awarded for excellence in TV programming produced, each is responsible for administering a particular set of Emmy ceremonies. The Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences established the Emmy Award as part of an image-building and public relations opportunity. The first Emmy Awards ceremony took place on January 25,1949, at the Hollywood Athletic Club, shirley Dinsdale has the distinction of receiving the very first Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, during that first awards ceremony. In the 1950s, the ATAS expanded the Emmys into a national event, in 1955, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences was formed in New York City as a sister organization to serve members on the East Coast, and help to also supervise the Emmys. The NATAS also established regional chapters throughout the United States, with each one developing their own local Emmy awards show for local programming, the ATAS still however maintained its separate regional ceremony honoring local programming in the Los Angeles Area. Originally there was only one Emmy Awards ceremony held per year to honor shows nationally broadcast in the United States, in 1974, the first Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony was held to specifically honor achievement in national daytime programming. Other area-specific Emmy Awards ceremonies soon followed, also, the International Emmy Awards, honoring television programs produced and initially aired outside the U. S. was established in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, all Emmys awarded prior to the emergence of these separate, in 1977, due to various conflicts, the ATAS and the NATAS agreed to split ties. However, they agreed to share ownership of the Emmy statue and trademark. With the rise of television in the 1980s, cable programs first became eligible for the Primetime Emmys in 1988. The ATAS also began accepting original online-only web television programs in 2013, the Emmy statuette, depicting a winged woman holding an atom, was designed by television engineer Louis McManus, who used his wife as the model. The TV Academy rejected a total of forty-seven proposals before settling on McManus design in 1948. The statuette has become the symbol of the TV Academys goal of supporting and uplifting the art and science of television, The wings represent the muse of art. When deciding a name for the award, Academy founder Syd Cassyd originally suggested Ike, however, Ike was also the popular nickname of World War II hero and future U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the Academy members wanted something unique. Finally, television engineer and the third president, Harry Lubcke, suggested the name Immy. After Immy was chosen, it was feminized to Emmy to match their female statuette
30.
Saturn Award
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The award was initially, and is still sometimes, loosely referred to as a Golden Scroll. The Saturn Awards were created in 1973 and are the oldest Award ceremony dedicated to science fiction, fantasy. The physical award is a representation of the planet Saturn, with its ring composed of film, the Saturn Awards are voted upon by members of the presenting Academy. The Academy is a organization with membership open to the public. Its members include filmmakers Jeff Rector, Rich Correll, Tom De Santo, Mark A. Altman and Irwin Keyes, among others. Although the Award still primarily focuses on films and television in the fiction, fantasy and horror categories. There are also awards for lifetime achievement in film production. The 42nd Saturn Awards were held on June 22,2016, in Burbank, the Saturn Awards are often criticized for having a broad and inconsistent definition of genres, as well as for nominating and awarding movies not related to sci-fi, fantasy or horror. Hugo Award Scream Awards Official website Saturn Awards 2009 at FEARnet Saturn Award at the Internet Movie Database
31.
Galaxy Quest
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Galaxy Quest is a 1999 American comedy science fiction film directed by Dean Parisot and written by David Howard and Robert Gordon. Mark Johnson and Charles Newirth produced the film for DreamWorks Pictures, enrico Colantoni stars as the leader of an alien race who ask the actors for help, believing the shows adventures were real. The films supporting cast features Robin Sachs as the warlord Sarris, justin Long makes his feature film debut as an obsessed fan of the television show. The film received praise and reached cult status through the years, becoming popular with Star Trek fans, staff. The film was included in Readers Digests list of The Top 100+ Funniest Movies of All Time, the former cast of the once-popular television space-adventure series Galaxy Quest spend most of their days attending fan conventions and promotional stunts. During one event, Nesmith is approached by Mathesar and others calling themselves Thermians and request his assistance, after Nesmith spends the night drinking heavily, the Thermians arrive to pick up a hungover Nesmith in the limo he had requested. Unaware that they are truly octopoidal aliens, using technology to appear human, aboard their ship in deep space, Nesmith goes through the motions of commanding the ship and asks to be returned home. When they send him back to Earth via a transporter, Nesmith realizes that it is all real and he races to meet his cast, accidentally bumping into Brandon and misplacing a Thermian communicator Mathasar gave him with Brandons fan-made replica. Nesmith eagerly relates his experience to the crew, who think he is drunk again and they are all transported to a perfect reproduction of the NSEA Protector in deep space, and are shocked by the reality of the situation. Mathesar begs the crew to command the Protector, as Nesmiths previous actions have enraged Sarris, while they were able to recreate the ship from the broadcast episodes, the Thermians have no idea how to pilot it. The crew hesitantly take the controls, and despite their ineptitude, after the second encounter with Sarris ship, they barely evade his attack by flying through a minefield, severely damaging the ship. The humans take a shuttle to a planet to find a replacement beryllium sphere as a new power source. They manage to secure the sphere after a run-in with the alien species on the planet. Once back aboard the Protector, they find that Sarris and his soldiers have captured the ship, Sarris interrogates the humans, discovering they are only actors, and recognizes that the Thermians have no concept of fiction, believing the show to have been real. Sarris sets the Protector to self-destruct and departs, leaving a few soldiers to guard the humans. Nesmith and DeMarco then set off into the bowels of the ship to stop the sequence, using help from Brandon. Having finally accepted their roles on the ship and gained confidence in themselves, Nesmith and his crew use the minefield as a weapon against Sarris ship and they prepare to head to Earth when Sarris, who has transported over at the last moment, starts killing the crew. A desperate Nesmith activates the Omega 13, which reverses time far enough for him to knock out Sarris and they near a wormhole to return the humans home via the command module, and Nesmith assures Mathesar he has the ability to command the Protector along with the other Thermians
32.
Futurama
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Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series was envisioned by Groening in the mid-1990s while working on The Simpsons, he later brought David X. Cohen aboard to develop storylines and characters to pitch the show to Fox. In the United States, the series aired on Fox from March 28,1999, to August 10,2003, Futurama also aired in reruns on Cartoon Networks Adult Swim from 2002 to 2007, until the networks contract expired. It was revived in 2007 as four direct-to-video films, the last of which was released in early 2009, Comedy Central entered into an agreement with 20th Century Fox Television to syndicate the existing episodes and air the films as 16 new, half-hour episodes, constituting a fifth season. In June 2009, producing studio 20th Century Fox announced that Comedy Central had picked up the show for 26 new half-hour episodes, the show was renewed for a seventh season, with the first half airing in June 2012 and the second set for mid-2013. It was later revealed that the season would be the final season. The series finale aired on September 4,2013, while Groening has said he will try to get it picked up by another network, David X. Cohen stated that the episode Meanwhile would be the last episode of season 7 and also the series finale. Throughout its run, Futurama has received critical acclaim, the show has been nominated for 17 Annie Awards and 12 Emmy Awards, winning seven of the former and six of the latter. Futurama-related merchandise has also released, including a tie-in comic book series and video game, calendars. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Futurama as one of the top 60 Greatest TV Cartoons of All Time, Fox expressed a strong desire in the mid-1990s for Matt Groening to create a new series, and he began conceiving Futurama during this period. In 1996, he enlisted David X. Cohen, then a writer and producer for The Simpsons, the two spent time researching science fiction books, television shows, and films. When they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and story lines, Groening described trying to get the show on the air as by far the worst experience of my grown-up life. With The Simpsons the network has no input, Fox was particularly disturbed by the concept of suicide booths, Doctor Zoidberg, and Benders anti-social behavior. Groening explains, When they tried to give me notes on Futurama, I just said, and they said, Well, we dont do business that way anymore. And I said, Oh, well, thats the only way I do business, the episode I, Roommate was produced to address Foxs concerns, with the script written to their specifications. Fox strongly disliked the episode, but after negotiations, Groening received the same independence with Futurama, the name Futurama comes from a pavilion at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes, the Futurama pavilion depicted how he imagined the world would look in 1959, many other titles were considered for the series, including Aloha, Mars. and Doomsville, which Groening notes were resoundly rejected, by everyone concerned with it. It takes approximately six to nine months to produce an episode of Futurama, the long production time results in several episodes being worked on simultaneously
33.
WALL-E
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WALL-E is a 2008 American computer-animated dystopian comic science fiction comedy film directed and co-written by Andrew Stanton, produced by Jim Morris, and co-written by Jim Reardon. It stars the voices of Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver and it was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, and was the overall ninth feature film produced by the company. After directing Finding Nemo, Stanton felt Pixar had created believable simulations of underwater physics and was willing to direct a film set largely in space. WALL-E has minimal dialogue in its early sequences, many of the characters do not have voices, the film criticizes consumerism, corporatism, nostalgia, waste management, human environmental impact and concerns, obesity, and global catastrophic risk. It is also Pixars first animated film with segments featuring live-action characters, following Pixar tradition, WALL-E was paired with a short film titled Presto for its theatrical release. WALL-E was released in the United States and Canada on June 27,2008 and it was an instant blockbuster, grossing $533. The film also topped Times Best Movies of the Decade, in 2805, Earth is abandoned and largely contaminated with garbage, with its people evacuated by megacorporation Buy-N-Large on giant starliners. One day, WALL-E discovers a healthy seedling, which he returns to his home, later, an unmanned spaceship lands and deploys an EVE probe to scan the planet. WALL-E is infatuated with EVE, who is hostile but gradually befriends him. When WALL-E brings EVE to his trailer and shows her the plant, however, she takes the plant. WALL-E, confused, unsuccessfully tries to reactivate her, the ship then returns to collect EVE, and with WALL-E clinging on, returns to its mothership, the starliner Axiom. EVE is taken to the bridge, with WALL-E tagging along, however, AUTO orders his robotic assistant GO-4 to steal the plant to prevent this from happening. With the plant missing, EVE is deemed faulty and taken to Diagnostics, WALL-E mistakes the procedure as torture, and in intervening accidentally frees a group of malfunctioning robots and causes both EVE and himself to be designated as rogue. WALL-E escapes, saving the plant, and he and EVE reconcile, EVE brings the plant back to McCrea, who watches EVEs recordings of Earth and concludes that they must return. However, AUTO refuses, revealing his own secret no-return directive A113 and he mutinies, electrocuting WALL-E and deactivating EVE and throwing them both down the garbage chute, then detaining the captain. Having arrived back on Earth, EVE repairs and reactivates WALL-E, heartbroken, EVE gives WALL-E a farewell kiss, which sparks his memory back to life. WALL-E and EVE reunite as the humans and robots of the Axiom begin to restore Earth, Ben Burtt as WALL-E, the title character. WALL-E, a robot who has developed sentience, is the robot of his kind shown to be still functioning on Earth
34.
Paul (film)
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Paul is a 2011 British-American science fiction comedy film directed by Greg Mottola and written by and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The film is about two science fiction geeks who meet an extraterrestrial being, voiced by Seth Rogen, with a sarcastic manner and they help the alien to escape the Secret Service agents pursuing him, so that he can return to his home planet. The film contains references to other science fiction films, especially those of Steven Spielberg. Paul was released on 14 February 2011 in the United Kingdom, critical reaction to the film was generally positive. The film earned $98 million on a $40.67 million budget, while driving on a remote desert highway at night, after a tense situation with some rednecks in a diner, Graeme and Clive observe a car driving erratically and then crash. They stop to investigate and offer assistance to the driver, who turns out to be an alien named Paul, Clive faints, but Graeme agrees to assist Paul and gives him a ride. Later, United States Secret Service Agent Zoil arrives at the car crash site and informs his unseen female superior, the Big Guy and she sends two inept rookies, Haggard and OReilly, to assist Zoil. Graeme, Clive and Paul camp at an RV park run by two Christian fundamentalists, one-eyed Ruth Buggs and her father, Moses, upon Ruth discovering Paul the next day, the three are forced to take her with them. During an argument about her religion, Paul transfers his knowledge to her, after which Ruth realises that everything she was raised to believe is questionable. Paul later uses his powers to cure Ruths blinded eye and convinces her to moderate her fundamentalist beliefs. The fugitives stop at a bar and Ruth tries to call Moses, the group escapes when Paul terrifies the rednecks into fainting. Later, at another RV park, Ruth is questioned by Agent Zoil, released, she and Graeme retrieve Clive and Paul, who narrowly escape Haggard and OReilly. Frustrated, Zoil orders Haggard and OReilly to return to base, the group soon arrive at a house owned by Tara, who rescued Paul when he first crashed on Earth, and as a result of no one believing her story, has spent her life as a pariah. As she makes tea for her visitors, Haggard, OReilly, the fugitives flee, but OReilly shoots at them, igniting gas from Taras stove and destroying her house. OReilly is apparently killed in the explosion, Haggard pursues and catches up to the RV. Due to an error in judgement, Haggard drives off a cliff and is killed, Zoil reassures the Big Guy that he will have Paul within the hour, but she is tired of waiting and informs Zoil that she has ordered a military response. Paul, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and Tara arrive at Devils Tower National Monument, a helicopter suddenly arrives with agents and The Big Guy. Zoil then appears and starts a stand-off, disabling the agents, secretly, Zoil is Pauls friend and was attempting to aid the escape under cover of capturing Paul
35.
The Cabin in the Woods
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The Cabin in the Woods is a 2012 American horror comedy film directed by Drew Goddard in his directorial debut, produced by Joss Whedon, and written by Whedon and Goddard. The film stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia from March to May 2009 on an estimated budget of $30 million. The film was slated for release on February 5,2010 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists. In 2011, Lionsgate picked up the distribution rights, the film premiered on March 9,2012 at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas and was released in the United States on April 13,2012, grossing over $66 million worldwide. In a high tech facility, senior technicians Gary Sitterson. A similar operation undertaken by their counterparts in Stockholm has just ended in failure and they take bets from the different Facility departments as to what kind of monster they want to attack the teenagers and discuss the failures of similar rituals in other nations. In the cabins cellar, the group finds many bizarre objects, including the diary of Patience Buckner, Dana recites incantations from the journal, inadvertently summoning the zombified Buckner family despite Martys warnings. By releasing pheromones, Hadley successfully induces Curt and Jules to have sex, attacked by the marauding Buckner zombies, Jules is decapitated while Curt escapes to alert the group. Marty, a frequent marijuana smoker, discovers concealed surveillance equipment before being dragged off by one of the Buckners and seemingly killed. Later, the Facility workers learn that the ritual in Japan has also ended in failure, ending Japans streak of success and it becomes apparent that the ritual involves blood sacrifice. Curt, Holden, and Dana attempt to escape in their RV, Curt jumps a ravine on his motorcycle in an attempt to flee and alert the authorities, only to crash into a camouflaged force shield, killing him. Dana escapes and swims ashore and is beset in turn, as she is attacked, Sitterson, Hadley, and their staff celebrate her impending death and the successful completion of their ritual, viewing the events from their underground facility. The celebration is interrupted by a call from downstairs pointing out that Marty has survived. His heavy marijuana use has rendered him immune to Sitterson. Marty rescues Dana and shows her to an elevator he discovered under a grave. They take the elevator into the facility, where a menagerie of monsters, utilized by Sitterson. Dana correlates them with the objects in the cellar and realizes that those items gave victims the opportunity to choose the circumstances that will lead to their deaths during the ritual. Fleeing further, Dana and Marty discover a temple where they are confronted by The Director and she explains that, every year, worldwide rituals are held to appease the Ancient Ones, malevolent beings living beneath the surface of the earth, one of them under their own Facility
36.
Finding Dory
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Finding Dory is a 2016 American 3D computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Andrew Stanton with co-direction by Angus MacLane, the screenplay was written by Stanton, Finding Dory focuses on the amnesiac fish Dory, who journeys to be reunited with her parents. The film premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 8,2016, upon release, the film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $1 billion worldwide, becoming the second Pixar film to cross this mark after 2010s Toy Story 3. The film set records, including the highest-grossing animated film opening of all time in North America. Dory, a Regal blue tang, gets separated from her parents as a child, as she grows up, Dory attempts to search for them, but gradually forgets them due to her short-term memory loss disability. In the flashback of the film, after accidentally running into Marlin. One year later, Dory has joined Marlin and Nemo on their reef, one day, Dory has a flashback and remembers that she has parents. She decides to look for them, but finds her memory problem an obstacle and she remembers that they lived at the Jewel of Morro Bay across the ocean in California. With the help of Crush, a sea turtle friend, they ride a water current to California, upon arrival, Dory accidentally awakens a squid, who immediately pursues them, almost devouring Nemo. Marlin berates Dory for endangering them and her feelings hurt, Dory travels to the surface to seek help and is captured by staff members from the nearby Marine Life Institute after getting entangled in six pack rings. Dory is placed in the section and tagged. There she meets a grouchy but well-meaning octopus named Hank, Dorys tag shows that she will be sent to an aquarium in Cleveland. Due to a traumatic ocean life, Hank wants to live in the aquarium instead of being released back into the ocean, Dory subsequently has flashbacks of life with her parents and struggles to recall details. She finally remembers how she was separated from her parents, she overheard her mother crying one night, left to retrieve a shell to cheer her up, Marlin and Nemo attempt to rescue Dory. With the help of two sea lions named Fluke and Rudder and a common loon named Becky, they manage to get into the institute. Other blue tangs tell them that Dorys parents escaped from the institute a time ago to search for her and never came back. Hank retrieves Dory from the tank, accidentally leaving Marlin and Nemo behind and he is then apprehended by one of the employees and unintentionally drops Dory into the drain, flushing her out to the ocean. While wandering aimlessly, she comes across a trail of shells, remembering that when she was young, her parents had set out a trail to help her find her way back home
37.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
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Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a comedy play written by Christopher Durang. The story revolves around the relationships of three middle-aged single siblings, two of whom live together, and takes place during a visit by the third, Masha and they discuss their lives and loves, argue, and Masha threatens to sell the house. Some of the elements were derived from works of Anton Chekhov, including several character names, the plays setting in a cherry orchard. The play premiered at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey in 2012 and it transferred to Broadway in 2013. The original McCarter, Off-Broadway, and Broadway casts included David Hyde Pierce, Kristine Nielsen, Sigourney Weaver, Critics praised Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike as a humorous adaptation of Chekhov themes that doesnt require familiarity with Chekhov. The original Broadway production proved to be a success, recouping its $2.75 million investment in under four months. In 2013, it won the Tony Award for Best Play, middle-aged siblings Vanya and Sonia live in the family home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Named after Chekhovs characters by their theater-enthusiast professor parents, Vanya, after spending their adulthood looking after their now-dead parents, neither has a job, and money is provided by their movie star sister Masha, who owns the house and pays the bills. The only other resident of the house is their cleaning woman Cassandra and this static environment is disrupted when Masha returns home, bringing with her a flurry of drama, an endless litany of insecurity, and a much younger, gorgeous, dimwitted lover named Spike. Mashas fifth marriage has recently ended and her career is starting to stall, spikes career has never started, and his biggest claim to fame is nearly landing a part in the sequel to Entourage, Entourage 2. Another interloper arrives, the pretty niece Nina, an aspiring actress who provokes envy in Masha, lust in Spike. When told she will be going as one of the dwarfs, Sonia rebels and dresses up as the Evil Queen, as they prepare for the party, Masha tells them she intends to sell the house, leaving Vanya and Sonia devastated. Things come to a head the day after the party, as Cassandra uses a voodoo doll on Masha, trying to dissuade thoughts of selling the house, Sonia receives a phone call from a man she met at the party, requesting a date. Vanya, who is writing a play inspired by Konstantins imagined symbolist drama in The Seagull, is convinced by Nina to let her read it in front of the others. During the reading, Spike rudely answers a text on his phone, concluding that the intent of such progress seems to make people like him feel lost and forgotten, he retreats into the kitchen in tears. Masha realizes that the person Spike is texting is her personal assistant and she ends her relationship with him and kicks him out of the house, announcing she no longer intends to sell it. As the play ends, the three siblings, optimistic for the first time in a long time, sit quietly together. According to Durang, My play is not a Chekhov parody. I take Chekhov scenes and characters, although the characters in the play, named by university professors, share names with Chekhov characters, they are not the same characters
38.
The Defenders (miniseries)
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It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, sharing continuity with the films of the franchise and is the culmination of a series of interconnected shows from Marvel and Netflix. The miniseries is produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios, Élodie Yung also stars as Elektra Natchios, reprising the role from Marvels Daredevil. Development of the began in late 2013, with Cox the first actor cast in May 2014. Petrie and Ramirez joined as showrunners in April, after serving in the role on the second season of Daredevil. However, Petrie left as showrunner at the start of filming in New York City in October 2016, the Defenders will consist of eight episodes, and is scheduled to be released August 18,2017. Set a few months after the events of the season of Daredevil, the vigilantes Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage. Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil, A blind lawyer who becomes the vigilante Daredevil and he finds it impossible to ask for help. One of the lessons that he’s to learn, is that he needs other people, he needs help. In addition, Murdock still looks to his faith regarding his actions, with Cox commenting, He’s always, always going to wonder if he’s committing mortal sin. Cox also felt that Murdock and Jessica Jones would have a relationship in the series since both characters are quite opinionated and quite stubborn. Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, A private investigator suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who has her own agency, Ritter felt it would be interesting to see what forces Jones to team up with the other heroes, since she doesnt want to be a superhero. She doesnt want anything to do with that, describing the dynamic between Jones and the rest of the team, showrunner Marco Ramirez says, She’s gloriously the most reluctant hero in the world. She’s going to have to let three men into her life who she doesn’t 100 percent trust, Ritter noted that Jones and Murdock would have a cat and mouse dynamic, with the roles switching between the two characters. Mike Colter as Luke Cage, A former convict at Seagate Prison with superhuman strength and unbreakable skin who now fights crime. He added that the beginning of the series would deal with the consequences of Cage voluntarily going to prison to atone for his past, saying, He’s been able to come clean and deal with his past. The difficulty with Cage is that he has this secret, he has this thing that he’s been trying to run away from and deal with and that weighs on you, that changes who you are as a person. Now that that’s out of the way, I think we can give him a different approach to life, Colter added that Cage would act as the conciliator for the group as well as a mentor to Danny Rand. The combination of Cage and Rand was done as an homage to the relationship in Heroes for Hire
39.
Manhattan
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Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the citys historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1,1683, Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough and it is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1062 today. New York County is the United States second-smallest county by land area, on business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile. Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York Citys five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, the City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the citys government. The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a 1610 map depicts the name as Manna-hata, twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River. The word Manhattan has been translated as island of hills from the Lenape language. The United States Postal Service prefers that mail addressed to Manhattan use New York, NY rather than Manhattan, the area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, a permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, the 1625 establishment of Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1846, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 to US$23, variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars, as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 was valued at approximately $1,000 in 2006, based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony, New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. In 1664, the English conquered New Netherland and renamed it New York after the English Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16,1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British political, British occupation lasted until November 25,1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city
40.
Given name
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A given name is a part of a persons personal name. It identifies a person, and differentiates that person from other members of a group, such as a family or clan. The term given name refers to the fact that the name usually is bestowed upon a person and this contrasts with a surname, which is normally inherited, and shared with other members of the childs immediate family. Given names are used in a familiar and friendly manner in informal situations. In more formal situations the surname is commonly used, unless it is necessary to distinguish between people with the same surname. The idioms on a basis and being on first-name terms allude to the familiarity of addressing another by a given name. The order given name – family name, commonly known as the Western order, is used throughout most European countries and in countries that have cultures predominantly influenced by Western Europe. The order family name – given name, commonly known as the Eastern order, is used in East Asia, as well as in Southern and North-Eastern parts of India. The order given name - fathers family name - mothers family name is used in Spanish-speaking countries to acknowledge the families of both parents. Today the order can also be changed legally in Spain using given name - mothers family name - fathers family name, under the common Western naming convention, people may have one or more forenames. If more than one, there is usually a main forename for everyday use, sometimes however two or more forenames may carry equal weight. There is no particular ordering rule for forenames – often the main forename is at the beginning, a childs given name or names are usually chosen by the parents soon after birth. If a name is not assigned at birth, one may be given at a ceremony, with family. In most jurisdictions, a name at birth is a matter of public record, inscribed on a birth certificate. In western cultures, people normally retain the same name throughout their lives. However, in some cases names may be changed by petitioning a court of law. People may also change their names when immigrating from one country to another with different naming conventions, in France, the agency can refer the case to a local judge. Some jurisdictions, like in Sweden, restrict the spelling of names, parents may choose a name because of its meaning
41.
NBC
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The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is the flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is part of the Big Three television networks, founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007. In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, and acquired General Electrics remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBC Universal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke, during a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had an outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&Ts manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&Ts telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, the 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs. In an early example of chain or networking broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its network were incompatible with the companys primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&Ts phone lines for network transmission, the divisions ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15,1926, WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On April 5,1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network and this was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18,1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network, initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. The Orange Network name was removed from use in 1936, at the same time, the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, in 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown
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