1.
Glendale, California
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Glendale /ˈɡlɛndeɪl/ is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Its estimated 2014 population was 200,167, making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and it is located about 8 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Glendale lies on the end of the San Fernando Valley, bisected by the Verdugo Mountains. The Golden State, Ventura, Glendale, and Foothill freeways run through the city, Glendale has one of the largest communities of Armenian descent in the United States. In 2013, Glendale was named LAs Neighborhood of the Year by the readers and editors of Curbed. com, Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery contains the remains of many noted celebrities and local residents. Grand Central Airport was the point for the first commercial west-to-east transcontinental flight flown by Charles Lindbergh. The area was inhabited by the Tongva people, who were later renamed the Gabrieleños by the Spanish missionaries. Rancho San Rafael was a Spanish concession, of which 25 were made in California, unlike the later Mexican land grants, the concessions were similar to grazing permits, with the title remaining with the Spanish crown. In 1860, his grandson Teodoro Verdugo built the Verdugo Adobe, the property is the location of the Oak of Peace, where early Californio leaders including Pio Pico met in 1847 and decided to surrender to Lieutenant Colonel John C. Verdugos descendants sold the ranch in various parcels, some of which are included in present-day Atwater Village, Eagle Rock, in 1884, residents gathered to form a townsite and chose the name Glendale. Residents to the southwest formed Tropico in 1887, the Pacific Electric Railway brought streetcar service in 1904. Glendale incorporated in 1906, and annexed Tropico 12 years later, Brand loved to fly, and built a private airstrip in 1919 and hosted fly-in parties, providing a direct link to the soon-to-be-built nearby Grand Central Airport. The grounds of El Miradero are now city-owned Brand Park and the mansion is the Brand Library, Brand partnered with Henry E. Huntington to bring the Pacific Electric Railway, or the Red Cars, to the area. Today, he is memorialized by one of the main thoroughfares. The citys population rose from 13,756 in 1920 to 62,736 in 1930, the Forest Lawn Cemetery opened in 1906 and was renamed Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in 1917. Pioneering endocrinologist and entrepreneur Henry R. Harrower opened his clinic in Glendale in 1920, the American Green Cross, an early conservation and tree preservation society, was formed in 1926. In 1964, Glendale was selected by George Lincoln Rockwell to be the West Coast headquarters of the American Nazi Party and its offices, on Colorado Street in the downtown section of the city, remained open until the early 1980s. In 1977 and 1978,10 murdered women were found in, the murders were the work of Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, the latter of whom resided at 703 East Colorado Street, where most of the murders took place
2.
Animal House
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National Lampoons Animal House is a 1978 American comedy film from Universal Pictures. It was produced by Ivan Reitman and Matty Simmons, directed by John Landis, and stars John Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Thomas Hulce, and Donald Sutherland. The film, a direct spin-off from National Lampoon, is about a group of fraternity members who challenge the authority of the dean of Faber College. The screenplay was adapted by Douglas Kenney, Chris Miller, and Harold Ramis from stories written by Miller, upon its initial release, Animal House received generally mixed reviews from critics, but Time and Roger Ebert proclaimed it one of the years best. The film, along with 1977s The Kentucky Fried Movie, also directed by Landis, was responsible for defining and launching the gross out film genre. As of 2017, it was considered by fans and critics as one of the greatest comedy films ever made. In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed Animal House culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and it was No.1 on Bravos 100 Funniest Movies. It was No.36 on AFIs 100 Years,100 Laughs list of the 100 best American comedies. In 2008 Empire magazine selected it as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, in 1962, Faber College freshmen Lawrence Larry Kroger and Kent Dorfman seek to join a fraternity. Larry and Kent are invited to pledge and given the fraternity names Pinto and Flounder respectively, by Bluto and he directs the clean-cut, smug Omega president Greg Marmalard to find a way for him to remove the Deltas from campus. Bluto and D-Day steal the answers to an upcoming test from the trash, the Deltas fail the exam, and their grade-point averages fall so low that Wormer tells them he needs only one more incident to revoke their charter. To cheer themselves up, the Deltas organize a party and bring in Otis Day. Wormers wife attends at Otters invitation and has sex with him, Pinto hooks up with Clorette, a girl he met at the supermarket. They make out, but do not have sex because she passes out drunk, Pinto takes her home in a shopping cart and later discovers that she is the mayors daughter. Outraged by his wifes escapades and the threat of personal violence, Wormer organizes a kangaroo court. To take their minds off this action, Otter, Boon, Flounder, Otter is successful in picking up four young women from Emily Dickinson College as dates for himself and his Delta brothers. He elicits sympathy by posing as the fiancé of a woman at the college who died in a recent kiln explosion. They stop at a bar where Days band is performing
3.
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
4.
Ronald Reagan
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Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who was the 40th President of the United States, from 1981 to 1989. Before his presidency, he was the 33rd Governor of California, from 1967 to 1975, after a career as a Hollywood actor and union leader. Raised in a family in small towns of northern Illinois, Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932. After moving to Hollywood in 1937, he became an actor, Reagan was twice elected President of the Screen Actors Guild, the labor union for actors, where he worked to root out Communist influence. In the 1950s, he moved into television and was a speaker at General Electric factories. Having been a lifelong Democrat, his views changed and he became a conservative and in 1962 switched to the Republican Party. In 1964, Reagans speech, A Time for Choosing, in support of Barry Goldwaters foundering presidential campaign, Building a network of supporters, he was elected Governor of California in 1966. Entering the presidency in 1981, Reagan implemented sweeping new political, in his first term he survived an assassination attempt, spurred the War on Drugs, and fought public sector labor. During his re-election bid, Reagan campaigned on the notion that it was Morning in America, foreign affairs dominated his second term, including ending of the Cold War, the bombing of Libya, and the Iran–Contra affair. Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an empire, and during his famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate. Jack, a salesman and storyteller, was the grandson of Irish Catholic immigrants from County Tipperary, Reagan had one older brother, John Neil Reagan, who became an advertising executive. As a boy, Reagans father nicknamed his son Dutch, due to his fat little Dutchman-like appearance and Dutchboy haircut, Reagans family briefly lived in several towns and cities in Illinois, including Monmouth, Galesburg, and Chicago. In 1919, they returned to Tampico and lived above the H. C, Pitney Variety Store until finally settling in Dixon. After his election as president, residing in the upstairs White House private quarters, for the time, Reagan was unusual in his opposition to racial discrimination, and recalled a time in Dixon when the local inn would not allow black people to stay there. Reagan brought them back to his house, where his mother invited them to stay the night and have breakfast the next morning, after the closure of the Pitney Store in late 1920 and the familys move to Dixon, the midwestern small universe had a lasting impression on Reagan. Reagan attended Dixon High School, where he developed interests in acting, sports and his first job was as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park in 1927. Over a six-year period, Reagan reportedly performed 77 rescues as a lifeguard and he attended Eureka College, a Disciples-oriented liberal arts school, where he became a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, a cheerleader, and studied economics and sociology. While involved, the Miller Center of Public Affairs described him as an indifferent student and he majored in economics and sociology, and graduated with a C grade
5.
CBS
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CBS is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major facilities and operations in New York City. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the iconic logo. It has also called the Tiffany Network, alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBSs first demonstrations of color television, the network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations that was purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paleys guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, in 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971, CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which also controls the current Viacom. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated stations throughout the United States. The origins of CBS date back to January 27,1927, Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18,1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, in early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the networks Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. With the record out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System. He believed in the power of advertising since his familys La Palina cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchenheim share of CBS, during Louchenheims brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebes Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the networks flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant was relocated also – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, by the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures. The deal came to fruition in September 1929, Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time
6.
Hanna-Barbera
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Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated American television animation for over three decades in the mid 20th century. In late 1966, it was sold to Taft Broadcasting and spent two decades as its subsidiary and it is officially considered the very first major animation studio to successfully produce cartoons exclusively for television. For their achievements, Hanna and Barbera together won seven Academy Awards, eight Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the pair was also inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1993. Hanna-Barberas fortunes declined in the mid-1980s when the profitability of Saturday morning cartoons was eclipsed by weekday afternoon syndication, in late 1991, the animation studio was purchased from Taft by Turner Broadcasting System, who used much of its back catalog to program its new channel, Cartoon Network. After Turner purchased the company, Hanna and Barbera continued to serve as creative consultants, Turner merged with Time Warner in 1996 and the studio became a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Animation, into which Hanna-Barbera was absorbed after Hanna died in 2001, Cartoon Network Studios continued the projects for the channels output. Barbera went on to work for Warner Bros, Animation until his death in 2006. As of 2017, the studio exists as a unit used to market properties and productions associated with the Hanna-Barbera library. Melrose, New Mexico native William Hanna and New York City-born of Italian heritage Joseph Barbera first met while working at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio in 1939. Their first directorial production and collaboration was the Academy Award-nominated Puss Gets the Boot, Hanna and Barbera served as directors of the shorts for over 20 years, with Barbera in charge of the stories and pre-production and Hanna in charge of supervising the animation. Hanna also provided the screams, yelps and yells for Tom Cat, in addition to the series being nominated for twelve more Oscars, seven of the cartoons won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject between 1943 and 1953. The trophies were awarded to their producer Fred Quimby, who was not involved in the development of the shorts. In addition to their work on the cartoons, the two men moonlighted on outside projects, including the title sequences and commercials for the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer decided in early 1957 to close its cartoon studio, as it felt it had acquired a reasonable backlog of shorts for re-release, Hanna and Barbera, contemplating their future while completing the final Tom and Jerry cartoons, began producing animated TV commercials. During their last year at MGM, they developed a concept for an animated TV program about a dog, a coin toss determined that Hanna would have precedence in the naming the new studio. Harry Cohn, president and head of Columbia Pictures, took an 18 percent ownership in Hanna and Barberas new company, H-B Enterprises, Screen Gems became the new studios distributor and its licensing agent, handling merchandizing of the characters from the animated programs. Sidney and several Screen Gems alumni became members of the board of directors. H-B Enterprises was one of the first American cartoon studios to produce cartoons specifically for TV broadcast
7.
Lucille Ball
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Lucille Désirée Ball was an American actress, comedienne, model, film-studio executive, and producer. She was best known as the star of the self-produced sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Heres Lucy, Balls career began in 1929 when she landed work as a model. Shortly thereafter, she began her career on Broadway using the stage names Diane Belmont. She later appeared in minor film roles in the 1930s and 1940s as a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures. During this time, she met Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, in the 1950s, Ball ventured into television. In 1951, Arnaz and she created the sitcom I Love Lucy, the same year, Ball gave birth to their first child, Lucie Arnaz, followed by Desi Arnaz, Jr. in 1953. Ball and Arnaz divorced in May 1960, and she married comedian Gary Morton in 1961, in 1962, Ball became the first woman to run a major television studio, Desilu Productions, which produced many popular television series, including Mission, Impossible and Star Trek. Ball did not back away from acting completely, appearing in film, Ball was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning four times. In 1977, Ball was among the first recipients of the Women in Film Crystal Award and she was the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. Born in Jamestown, New York, Lucille Désirée Ball was the daughter of Henry Durrell Ball and her family lived in Wyandotte, Michigan for a time. When she was three and a half, her father died from fever at age 27. Her family and she moved to Celoron to live with her grandparents. She sometimes later claimed that she had born in Butte. A number of magazines reported inaccurately that she had decided that Montana was a romantic place to be born than New York. In fact, her father had moved the family to Anaconda, Montana and her family was Baptist, and her ancestry was mostly English, and included small amounts of Scottish, French, and Irish. Her father, a lineman for Bell Telephone Company, was transferred because of his occupation. Within three years of her birth, Lucille had moved with her parents from Jamestown to Anaconda, Montana, while DeDe Ball was pregnant with her second child, Frederick, Henry Ball contracted typhoid fever and died in February 1915. Ball recalled little from the day her father died, but remembered a bird getting trapped in the house, from that day forward, she suffered from ornithophobia
8.
Henry Fonda
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Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor with a career spanning more than five decades. Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor and he also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins. Throughout six decades in Hollywood, Fonda cultivated a strong, appealing screen image in such classics as The Ox-Bow Incident, Fonda was the patriarch of a family of famous actors, including daughter Jane Fonda, son Peter Fonda, granddaughter Bridget Fonda, and grandson Troy Garity. His family and close friends called him Hank, in 1999, he was named the sixth-Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute. Fondas ancestors from Genoa, Italy, migrated to the Netherlands in the 15th century, in 1642, a branch of the Fonda family immigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland on the East Coast of North America. They were among the first Dutch population to settle in what is now upstate New York, establishing the town of Fonda, by 1888, many of their descendants had relocated to Nebraska. Henry Fonda was born in Grand Island, Nebraska, to advertising-printing jobber William Brace Fonda, Fonda was brought up as a Christian Scientist, though he was baptized an Episcopalian at St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Grand Island. He said, My whole damn family was nice and they were a close family and highly supportive, especially in health matters, as they avoided doctors due to their religion. Despite having a background, he later became an agnostic. Fonda was a bashful, short boy who tended to avoid girls, except his sisters, and was a skater, swimmer. He worked part-time in his fathers print plant and imagined a career as a journalist. Later, he worked after school for the phone company, Fonda was active in the Boy Scouts of America, Teichmann reports that he reached the rank of Eagle Scout. When he was about 14, his father took him to observe the lynching of a black man accused of rape. This enraged the young Fonda and he kept a keen awareness of prejudice for the rest of his life, by his senior year in high school, Fonda had grown to more than six feet tall, but remained shy. He attended the University of Minnesota, where he majored in journalism and he took a job with the Retail Credit Company. He was fascinated by the stage, learning everything from set construction to stage production, Fonda decided to quit his job and go East in 1928 to seek his fortune. He arrived on Cape Cod and played a role at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis. A friend took him to Falmouth, MA where he joined and quickly became a member of the University Players
9.
Western (genre)
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Cowboys and gunslingers typically wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, cowboy boots and buckskins. Other characters include Native Americans, bandits, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, mounted cavalry, settlers, Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a. mythic vision of the plains, specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution. The Western was the most popular Hollywood genre, from the early 20th century to the 1960s, Western films first became well-attended in the 1930s. John Fords landmark Western adventure Stagecoach became one of the biggest hits in 1939, Westerns were very popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the most acclaimed Westerns were released during this time – including High Noon, Shane, The Searchers, the Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–frontier justice–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, a showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the descendants of the knight errant which stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian Romances. And like knights errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress, similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, Westerns often stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the Wild West, it is the place to go for music, women, gambling, drinking, brawling and shooting. The American Film Institute defines western films as those set in the American West that embodies the spirit, the struggle, the term Western, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World Magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th century popular Western fiction and were firmly in place before film became an art form. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds, Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era. With the advent of sound in 1927-28, the major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and these smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream star in the wake of a decade of headlining B westerns
10.
The Virginian (TV series)
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The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. It was a spin-off from a 1958 summer series called Decision, filmed in color, The Virginian became televisions first 90-minute Western series. Immensely successful, it ran for nine seasons—televisions third longest running western, behind Bonanza at 14 seasons and 430 episodes, the series is loosely based on the novel of the same name. When Revue Productions popular hour-long series Wagon Train moved from the NBC network to ABC, from the beginning, the series was filmed in color on 35mm film. Set in the late 19th century, and loosely based on the 1902 novel by Owen Wister and his top hand Trampas and he were the only characters to remain with the show for the entire run. As in the book, the foreman went only by the name The Virginian, the Virginians real name was never revealed in the nine years the show was on the air. The series was set in Medicine Bow, Wyoming, various references in the first season indicate that setting is about 1898 – in episode 5, The Brazen Bell, guest star George C. The series circled around the foremans quest to maintain an orderly lifestyle at Shiloh, the ranch was named after the two-day American Civil War Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee. The Virginians white Appaloosa was named Joe D. and Trampas buckskin horse was named Buck, as the show progressed, Trampas became the more developed of the characters, and it continues to be the role for which actor Doug McClure was best known. Several cast changes were made throughout the programs run, in the first three seasons, the owner of the ranch was Judge Garth. His daughter Betsy lived at the ranch with him, and had a relationship with the ranch hands. Ranch hand Steve Hill joined in episode storylines, Randy Boone joined the show in the second season as a youthful ranch hand who played guitar and sang duets with Betsy. In the episode First To Thine Own Self Boones character sings Im So Lonesome I Could Cry and this is odd in that the series was set in the 1890s but the song was written by Hank Williams in 1949. In the third season, Clu Gulager was added to the show as the restless deputy Emmett Ryker, after executive producer Frank Price was replaced by Norman Macdonnell at the end of season 3, season 4 became a troublesome time. When Roberta Shore left the cast, Macdonnell added a new leading woman—Diane Roter, who played Jennifer, when Lee J. Cobb also left the show, John Dehner was brought in as the new owner, Morgan Starr. His demanding presence and tough demeanor did not fit well with the show, Frank Price was brought back on board for season 5 to straighten out the series. He replaced the characters of Randy, Morgan Starr and Jennifer with a few actors who brought back the atmosphere to the show. John Grainger became the new owner, Elizabeth Grainger, was John Graingers granddaughter
11.
Bonanza
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Bonanza is an NBC television western series that ran from 1959 to 1973. The show continues to air in syndication, the show is set around the 1860s and it centers on the wealthy Cartwright family, who live in the area of Virginia City, Nevada, bordering Lake Tahoe. The series stars Lorne Greene, Dan Blocker, Michael Landon, Pernell Roberts, the show is known for presenting moral dilemmas. The shows theme song itself, called Bonanza, became a hit song in its own right, only instrumental renditions, absent Ray Evans words, were ever used during the series long run. In 2002, Bonanza was ranked No.43 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, the time period for the television series is roughly between 1861 to 1867 during and shortly after the American Civil War. During the summer of 1972, NBC aired reruns of episodes from the 1967–1970 period in time on Tuesday evening under the title Ponderosa. The show chronicles the adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by the thrice-widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright. Via exposition and flashback episodes, each wife was accorded a different ancestry, English, Swedish, the familys cook was the Chinese immigrant Hop Sing. Greene, Roberts, Blocker, and Landon were billed equally, the opening credits would alternate the order among the four stars. The family lived on a 600, 000+ acre ranch called the Ponderosa on the shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada. The vast size of the Cartwrights land was quietly revised to half a million acres on Lorne Greenes 1964 song, the ranch name refers to the Ponderosa Pine, common in the West. The nearest town to the Ponderosa was Virginia City, where the Cartwrights would go to converse with Sheriff Roy Coffee, or his deputy Clem Foster. You always saw stories about family on comedies or on an anthology, but Bonanza was the first series that was week-to-week about a family, Bonanza was a period drama that attempted to confront contemporary social issues. That was very difficult to do on television, most shows that tried to do it failed because the sponsors didnt like it, and the networks were nervous about getting letters, explains Stephen Battaglio, a senior editor for TV Guide magazine. Episodes ranged from high drama, to comedy, and addressed issues such as the environment, substance abuse, domestic violence, anti-war sentiment. The series sought to illustrate the cruelty of bigotry against, Asians, African-Americans, Native Americans, Jews, Mormons, originally, the Cartwrights tended to be depicted as put-off by outsiders. Lorne Greene objected to this, pointing out that as the areas largest timber and livestock producer, the producers agreed with this observation and changed the Cartwrights to be more amiable. Though not familiar stars in 1959, the cast quickly became favorites of the first television generation, the order of billing at the beginning of the broadcast appeared to be shuffled randomly each week, with no relation whatsoever to the current episode featured that week
12.
Leave It to Beaver
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Leave It to Beaver is an American television sitcom about an inquisitive and often naïve boy, Theodore The Beaver Cleaver, and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood. The show also starred Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont as Beavers parents, June and Ward Cleaver, the show has attained an iconic status in the United States, with the Cleavers exemplifying the idealized suburban family of the mid-20th century. The show was created by the writers Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher and these veterans of radio and early television found inspiration for the shows characters, plots and dialogue in the lives, experiences and conversations of their own children. Leave It to Beaver is one of the first primetime sitcom series written from a point of view. Like several television dramas and sitcoms of the late 1950s and early 1960s, in a typical episode, Beaver gets into some sort of boyish scrape, then faces his parents for reprimand and correction. Neither parent was omniscient, the series showed the parents debating their approach to child rearing. Leave It to Beaver ran for six full 39-week seasons, the series had its debut on CBS on October 4,1957. The following season, it moved to ABC, where it stayed until completing its run on June 20,1963, throughout the shows run, it was shot with a single camera on black-and-white 35mm film. The shows production companies included the comedian George Gobels Gomalco Productions and Kayro Productions with filming at Revue Studios/Republic Studios, the show was distributed by MCA TV. Contemporary commentators praised Leave It to Beaver, with Variety comparing Beaver to Mark Twains Tom Sawyer, much juvenile merchandise was released during the shows first run, including board games, novels, and comic books. The show has enjoyed a renaissance in popularity since the 1970s through off-network syndication, a reunion telemovie, in 1997, a movie version based on the original series was released to moderate acclaim. In October 2007, TV Land celebrated the shows 50th anniversary with a marathon, although the show never broke into the Nielsen ratings top 30 or won any awards, it placed on Time magazines unranked 2007 list of The 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time. According to Tony Dow, If any line got too much of a laugh and they didnt want a big laugh, they wanted chuckles. In 1957, the radio, film and television writers Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher developed a concept for a TV show about childhood and family life featuring a fictional suburban couple, working titles during the shows gestation period included Its a Small World and Wally and the Beaver. The pilot aired April 23,1957, as Its a Small World on the anthology series Heinz Studio 57, the stars of the pilot were Casey Adams and Paul Sullivan. They were replaced as production of the series neared, six months after the broadcast of the pilot, the series debuted on CBS on Friday October 4,1957, as Leave It to Beaver, with the episode third in production order, Beaver Gets Spelled. The intended premiere, Captain Jack, displayed a toilet tank, Captain Jack has claimed its place in television history as the first American TV show to display a toilet tank. In 1997, it was ranked number 42 in TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time, remington Rand was a potential sponsor during the shows conception and counseled against the shows suggested title, Wally and the Beaver, believing viewers would think the show was a nature program
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