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Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael J. Fox
OC

Michael J. Fox in April 2011
Born Michael Andrew Fox
June 9, 1961 (age 50)
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Occupation Actor, author, producer, activist, voice-over artist
Years active 1973–present
Spouse Tracy Pollan (1988–present; 4 children)

Michael J. Fox, OC (born Michael Andrew Fox; June 9, 1961) is a Canadian American actor, author, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox’s roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990); Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties (1982–1989) for which he won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award; and Mike Flaherty from Spin City (1996–2000), for which he won an Emmy, three Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991, and disclosed his condition to the public in 1998. Fox semi-retired from acting in 2000 as the symptoms of his disease worsened. He has since become an activist for research toward finding a cure. This led him to create the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and on March 5, 2010, Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet gave him a honoris causa doctorate for his work in advocating a cure for Parkinson’s disease.[1]

Since 2000 Fox has mainly worked as a voice over actor in films such as Stuart Little and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and taken guest TV roles such as in Boston Legal, The Good Wife, Scrubs, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. He has also released three books, Lucky Man: A Memoir (2002), Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist (2009) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned (2010). He was inducted as an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 27, 2011 for his outreach and fundraising work.[2]

Contents

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[edit] Early life

Michael Andrew Fox was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the son of Phyllis (née Piper), an actress and payroll clerk, and William Fox, a police officer and member of the Canadian Forces.[3][4] Fox’s family lived in various cities and towns across Canada because of his father’s career.[3] The family finally moved to the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, British Columbia, when his father retired in 1971. He currently lives in Vancouver.[5] Fox attended Burnaby Central Secondary School, and now has a theatre named after him in Burnaby South Secondary.[6]

Fox starred in the Canadian television series Leo and Me at the age of fifteen, and in 1979, moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career at the age of eighteen. Shortly after his marriage, he decided to move back to Vancouver, BC.[3] Fox is one of four members of the Leo and Me cast and crew who eventually developed Parkinson’s disease in mid-life, an unusually high number that led to some investigation as to whether an environmental factor may have played a role.[7][8][9]

Fox was discovered by producer Ronald Shedlo and made his American television debut in the television movie Letters from Frank, credited under the name “Michael Fox”. He intended to continue to use the name, but when he registered with the Screen Actors Guild, which does not allow duplicate registration names to avoid credit ambiguities, he discovered that Michael Fox, a veteran character actor, was already registered under the name.[3] As he explained in his autobiography, Lucky Man: A Memoir, and in interviews, he needed to come up with a different name. He did not like the sound of “Andrew” or “Andy” Fox, so he decided to adopt a new middle initial and settled on “J”, as a homage to actor Michael J. Pollard.[5]

[edit] Acting career

[edit] Early career

Michael J. Fox with Tracy Pollan at the 40th Emmy Awards in August 1988 shortly after they were married

Fox’s first feature film roles were in Midnight Madness (1980) and Class of 1984 (1982), credited in both as Michael Fox. Shortly afterward, he began playing “Young Republican” Alex P. Keaton in the show Family Ties which aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. Fox only received the role after Matthew Broderick was unavailable.[10] Family Ties had been sold to the television network using the pitch “hip parents, square kids,”[10] with the parents originally intended to be the main characters. However, the positive reaction to Fox’s performance led to his character becoming the focus of the show following the fourth episode.[10] At its peak, the audience for Family Ties drew one-third of America’s households every week.[3] Fox won three Emmy awards for Family Ties in 1986, 1987 and 1988 respectively.[11] He also won a Golden Globe Award in 1989.[12]

Brandon Tartikoff, one of the show’s producers, felt that Fox was too short in relation to the actors playing his parents, and tried to have him replaced. Tartikoff reportedly said that “this is not the kind of face you’ll ever find on a lunch-box”. After his later successes, Fox presented Tartikoff with a custom-made lunch-box with the inscription “To Brandon, this is for you to put your crow in. Love and Kisses, Michael J. Fox”. Tartikoff kept the lunch-box in his office for the rest of his NBC career.[13]

While filming Family Ties, Fox met his future wife, Tracy Pollan, when she portrayed his girlfriend, Ellen.[3] When Fox left the TV series Spin City, his final episodes made numerous allusions to Family Ties: Michael Gross (who played Alex’s father Steven) portrays Mike Flaherty’s (Fox’s) therapist,[14] and there is a reference to an off-screen character named “Mallory“.[15] Also, when Flaherty becomes an environmental lobbyist in Washington D.C., he meets a conservative senator from Ohio named Alex P. Keaton, and in one episode Meredith Baxter played Mike’s mother.

[edit] Back to the Future trilogy

Michael J. Fox at the 40th Emmy Awards, August 1988

Back to the Future tells the story of Marty McFly (Fox), a teenager who is accidentally sent back in time from 1985 to 1955. He meets his parents in high school, accidentally attracting his mother’s romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by causing his parents to fall in love, while finding a way to return to 1985. Robert Zemeckis, the director, originally wanted Fox to play Marty but Gary David Goldberg the creator of Family Ties, which Fox was working on at the time refused to allow Zemeckis to even approach Fox as he felt that as Meredith Baxter was on maternity leave at the time that Fox’s character Alex Keaton was needed to carry the show in her absence. Eric Stoltz was cast and was already filming Back to the Future, but Zemeckis felt that Stoltz was not giving the right type of performance for the humor involved.[16] Zemeckis quickly replaced Stoltz with Fox whose schedule was now more open with the return of Meredith Baxter. During filming, Fox would rehearse for Family Ties from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m, then rush to the Back to the Future set where he would rehearse and shoot until 2:30 a.m.[3] This schedule lasted for two full months.[3] Back to the Future was both a commercial and critical success. The film spent 8 consecutive weekends as the number one grossing movie at the US box office in 1985, and eventually earned a worldwide total of $381.11 million.[17] Variety applauded the performances, arguing Fox and his co-star Christopher Lloyd imbued Marty and Doc Brown‘s friendship with a quality reminiscent of King Arthur and Merlin.[18] Two sequels, Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III, were released in 1989 and 1990, respectively.

[edit] Mid-career

Fox in September 1987

During and immediately after the Back to the Future trilogy, Fox starred in Teen Wolf (1985), Light of Day (1987), The Secret of My Success (1987), Bright Lights, Big City (1988) and Casualties of War (1989).

In The Secret of My Success, Fox played a recent graduate from Kansas State University who moves to New York City where he has to deal with the downs and ups of the business world. The film was successful at the box office, taking $110 million worldwide.[19] Roger Ebert in The Chicago Sun Times wrote; “Fox provides a fairly desperate center for the film. It could not have been much fun for him to follow the movie’s arbitrary shifts of mood, from sitcom to slapstick, from sex farce to boardroom brawls.”[20]

In Bright Lights, Big City Fox played a fact-checker for a New York magazine, who spends his nights partying with alcohol and drugs. The film received mixed reviews, with Hal Hinson in The Washington post criticizing Fox by claiming that “he was the wrong actor for the job”.[21] Meanwhile Roger Ebert praised the actor’s performance: “Fox is very good in the central role (he has a long drunken monologue that is the best thing he has ever done in a movie)”.[22] During the shooting of Bright Lights, Big City, Michael was reunited with his on-screen girlfriend Tracy Pollan from Family Ties.

Fox then starred in Casualties of War, a war drama about the Vietnam War, alongside Sean Penn. Casualties of War was not a box office hit, but Fox, playing a Private serving in Vietnam, received good reviews for his performance. Don Willmott on film critic’s website wrote; “Fox, only one year beyond his Family Ties sitcom silliness, rises to the challenges of acting as the film’s moral voice and sharing scenes with the always intimidating Penn.”[23]

In 1991, he starred in Doc Hollywood, a romantic comedy about a talented medical doctor who decides to become a plastic surgeon. While relocating from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles, California, he winds up as a doctor in a small southern town. Michael Caton-Jones, from Time Out, described Fox in the film as “at his frenetic best”.[24] The Hard Way was also released in 1991, with Fox playing an undercover actor learning from police officer James Woods. Between 1992 and 1996, he continued making several films, such as For Love or Money (1993), Life With Mikey (1993) and Greedy (1994). Fox then played small supporting roles in political drama The American President (1995) and comedy Mars Attacks! (1996).[3]

His last major film role was in The Frighteners (1996). The Frighteners tells the story of Frank Bannister (Fox), an architect who develops psychic abilities allowing him to see, hear, and communicate with ghosts. After losing his wife, he uses his new abilities by cheating customers out of money for his “ghosthunting” business. However, a mass murderer comes back from Hell, prompting Frank to investigate the supernatural presence. Fox’s performance received critical praise, Kenneth Turan in The Los Angeles Times wrote; “The film’s actors are equally pleasing. Both Fox, in his most successful starring role in some time, and Alvarado, who looks rather like Andie MacDowell here, have no difficulty getting into the manic spirit of things.”[25]

Fox has also done voice-over work providing the voice of Stuart Little in the Stuart Little movie and its sequel, both of which were based on the popular book by E. B. White.[26] He also voiced the American Bulldog Chance in Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey and its sequel Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, as well as Milo Thatch in Atlantis: The Lost Empire.[26]

[edit] Spin City and later career

The hand prints of Michael J. Fox in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World‘s Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park.

Spin City ran from 1996 to 2002 on American television network channel ABC. The show was based on a fictional local government running New York City, originally starring Fox as Mike Flaherty, a Fordham Law graduate serving as the Deputy Mayor of New York.[3] Fox won an Emmy award for Spin City in 2000,[11] three Golden Globe Awards in 1998, 1999 and 2000[12] and two Screen Actors Guild Awards in 1999 and 2000.[27] During the third season of Spin City, Fox made the announcement to the cast and crew of the show that he had Parkinson’s Disease. During the fourth season, he announced his retirement from the show to focus on spending more time with his family.[28] He announced that he planned to continue to act and would make guest appearances on Spin City (he made three more appearances on the show during the final season). After leaving the show, he was replaced by Charlie Sheen, who portrayed the character Charlie Crawford.[29] Altogether, 145 episodes were made. Fox also served as an executive producer during his time on the show, alongside co-creators Bill Lawrence and Gary David Goldberg.[29]

In 2004, Fox guest starred in two episodes of the comedy-drama Scrubs as Dr. Kevin Casey, a surgeon with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.[30] The series was created by Spin City creator Bill Lawrence.[30] In 2006, he appeared in four episodes of Boston Legal as a lung cancer patient.[31] The producers brought him back in a recurring role for Season three, beginning with the season premiere. Fox was nominated for an Emmy Award for best guest appearance.[11] In 2009, he appeared in five episodes of the television series Rescue Me which earned him an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.[11] Since 2000 Fox has released three books, Lucky Man: A Memoir (2002), Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist (2009) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future: Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned (2010). In 2010, Fox returned to television as a guest star in US drama The Good Wife. Fox will make another guest-star appearance on The Good Wife in episode 13.[32]

He made an appearance at the 2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony in Vancouver, Canada and delivered comedic monologues, along with William Shatner and Catherine O’Hara, in the “I am Canadian” part of the show.[33]

Along with Tatjana Patitz, Fox appears in the 2011 Carl Zeiss AG calendar, photographed by Bryan Adams in New York City in the summer of 2010.[34]

Despite a soundalike voicing his character of Marty McFly in the 2011 Back to the Future episodic adventure game, Fox lent his likeness to the in-game version of McFly alongside Christopher Lloyd. Fox makes a special guest appearance in the final episode of the series as an elder version of Marty, as well as his great grandfather Willie McFly.[35][36]

[edit] Personal life

The Michael J. Fox Theatre in Burnaby

Fox married actress Tracy Pollan on July 16, 1988, at West Mountain Inn in Arlington, Vermont. The couple have four children: Sam Michael (born May 30, 1989), twins Aquinnah Kathleen and Schuyler Frances (born February 15, 1995), and Esmé Annabelle (born November 3, 2001). Fox holds dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship.[37] On February 28, 2010, Fox provided a light-hearted segment during the 2010 Winter Olympics‘ closing ceremony which took place in Vancouver, Canada wherein he expressed how proud he is to be Canadian.[38] On June 4, 2010, the City of Burnaby, British Columbia honoured Fox by granting him the Freedom of the City.[6]

[edit] Illness and activism

Fox started displaying symptoms of early-onset Parkinson’s disease in 1990 while shooting the movie Doc Hollywood, although he was not properly diagnosed until the next year.[28] After his diagnosis, Fox began drinking more heavily than in the past; however, he sought help and stopped drinking altogether.[39] In 1998, he decided to go public with his condition, and since then he has been a strong advocate of Parkinson’s disease research.[3] His foundation, The Michael J. Fox Foundation, was created to help advance every promising research path to curing Parkinson’s disease, through embryonic stem cell studies.[3]

Fox manages the symptoms of his Parkinson’s disease with the drug Sinemet,[40] and he also had a thalamotomy in 1998.[41]

His first book, Lucky Man focused on how after seven years of unacceptance of the disease he set up the Michael J Fox Foundation, stopped drinking and began to be an advocate of PD sufferers.[42]

In Lucky Man, Fox wrote that he did not take his medication prior to his testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in 1998;

I had made a deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication. It seemed to me that this occasion demanded that my testimony about the effects of the disease, and the urgency we as a community were feeling, be seen as well as heard. For people who had never observed me in this kind of shape, the transformation must have been startling

Michael J. Fox, Lucky Man[43]

In an interview with NPR in April 2002,[40] Fox explained what he does when he becomes symptomatic during an interview;

Well, actually, I’ve been erring on the side of caution — I think ‘erring’ is actually the right word — in that I’ve been medicating perhaps too much, in the sense [that] … the symptoms … people see in some of these interviews that [I] have been on are actually dyskinesia, which is a reaction to the medication. Because if I were purely symptomatic with Parkinson’s symptoms, a lot of times speaking is difficult. There’s a kind of a cluttering of speech and it’s very difficult to sit still, to sit in one place. You know, the symptoms are different, so I’d rather kind of suffer the symptoms of dyskinesia… this kind of weaving and this kind of continuous thing is much preferable, actually, than pure Parkinson’s symptoms. So that’s what I generally do… I haven’t had any, you know, problems with pure Parkinson’s symptoms in any of these interviews, because I’ll tend to just make sure that I have enough Sinemet in my system and, in some cases, too much. But to me, it’s preferable. It’s not representative of what I’m like in my everyday life. I get a lot of people with Parkinson’s coming up to me saying, “You take too much medication.” I say, Well, you sit across from Larry King and see if you want to tempt it.

Interview, 30 April 2002, Fresh Air, NPR

In 2006, Fox starred in a campaign ad for then-Missouri State Auditor Claire McCaskill in her 2006 Senate campaign against incumbent Jim Talent, expressing her support for stem cell research. In the ad, he visibly showed the effects of his Parkinson’s medication;

As you might know, I care deeply about stem cell research. In Missouri, you can elect Claire McCaskill, who shares my hope for cures. Unfortunately, Senator Jim Talent opposes expanding stem cell research. Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us the chance for hope. They say all politics is local, but that’s not always the case. What you do in Missouri matters to millions of Americans, Americans like me.

Michael J. Fox, Campaign Advertisement for Claire McCaskill[44][45]

The New York Times called it “one of the most powerful and talked about political advertisements in years” and polls indicated that the commercial had a measurable impact on the way voters voted, in an election that McCaskill won.[46] His second book Always Looking Up: The Adventures Of An Incurable Optimist describes his life between 1999 and 2009, with much of the book centered on how Fox got into campaigning for stem cell research.[42] On March 31, 2009, Fox appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show with Dr. Oz to publicly discuss his condition as well as his book, his family and his prime time special which aired May 7, 2009 (Michael J. Fox: Adventures of an Incurable Optimist).[47]

His work led him to be named one of the 100 people “whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world” in 2007 by Time magazine.[48] On March 5, 2010, Fox received an honorary doctorate in medicine from Karolinska Institutet for his contributions to research in Parkinson’s disease.[49] He also has received an honorary doctor of laws from the University of British Columbia.[50]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Actor

Year Film Role Notes
Film
1980 Midnight Madness Scott Larson
1982 Class of 1984 Arthur
1985 Back to the Future Marty McFly
1985 Teen Wolf Scott Howard
1987 Light of Day Joe Rasnick
1987 The Secret of My Success Brantley Foster/Carlton Whitfield
1988 Bright Lights, Big City Jamie Conway
1989 Casualties of War PFC. Eriksson
1989 Back to the Future Part II Marty McFly, Marty McFly Jr, Marlene McFly
1990 Back to the Future Part III Marty McFly, Seamus McFly
1991 The Hard Way Nick Lang/Ray Casanov
1991 Doc Hollywood Dr. Benjamin Stone
1993 Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey Chance Voice only
1993 Life with Mikey Michael “Mikey” Chapman
1993 For Love or Money Doug Ireland
1994 Where the Rivers Flow North Clayton Farnsworth
1994 Greedy Daniel McTeague
1995 Blue in the Face Pete Maloney
1995 Coldblooded Tim Alexander Also Producer
1995 The American President Lewis Rothschild
1996 Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco Chance Voice only
1996 The Frighteners Frank Bannister
1996 Mars Attacks! Jason Stone
1999 Stuart Little Stuart Little Voice only
2001 Atlantis: The Lost Empire Milo James Thatch Voice only
2002 Interstate 60 Mr. Baker
2002 Stuart Little 2 Stuart Little Voice only
2006 Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild Stuart Little Voice only
Direct-to-video
Year Title Role Notes
Television
1977 The Magic Lie Episode: “The Master”
1979 Letters from Frank Ricky CBS television film
1979 Lou Grant Paul Stone Episode: “Kids”
1980 Palmerstown, U.S.A. Willy-Joe Hall
1980 Family Richard Topol Episode: “Such a Fine Line”
1980 Trouble in High Timber Country Thomas Elston ABC television film
1981 Trapper John, M.D. Elliot Schweitzer Episode: Brain Child
1981 Leo and Me Jamie Produced in 1976; was not televised on CBC, until 1981
Credited as “Mike Fox”
1982–1989 Family Ties Alex P. Keaton
1983 The Love Boat Episode: “I Like to Be in America…”
1983 High School U.S.A. Jay-Jay Manners NBC television film/pilot
1984 Night Court Eddie Simms Episode: “Santa Goes Downtown”
1984 The Homemade Comedy Special Host NBC television special
1985 Poison Ivy Dennis Baxter NBC television film
1986 David Letterman’s 2nd Annual Holiday Film Festival NBC television special
Segment: The Iceman Hummeth
1988 Mickey’s 60th Birthday Alex P. Keaton (a flashback clip) Television special
1990 Sex, Buys & Advertising Television special
1991 Saturday Night Live Host Episode: “Michael J. Fox/The Black Crowes”
1991 Tales from the Crypt Prosecutor Episode: “The Trap”
1994 Don’t Drink the Water Axel Magee ABC television film
1996–2001 Spin City Mike Flaherty Seasons 1 – 4
2002 Clone High Gandhi’s Remaining Kidney Voice only
“Escape to Beer Mountain: A Rope of Sand“
2004 Scrubs Dr. Kevin Casey Episode: “My Catalyst”
Episode: “My Porcelain God”
2006 Boston Legal Daniel Post
2009 Rescue Me Dwight
2010 The Colbert Report Himself
2010 The Good Wife Louis Canning Episode: “Poisoned Pill”
Episode: “Real Deal”
Episode: “Wrongful Termination”
2011 Ace of Cakes Himself
2011 Curb Your Enthusiasm Himself Episode: “Larry vs. Michael J. Fox”
2011 Phineas and Ferb Michael Episode: “The Curse of Candace”
Video games
Back to the Future: The Game (2011): Willie McFly, Future Marty McFly – Voice only, video game, Episode 5: “Outatime”

[edit] Producer

Year Title Notes
1995 Coldblooded Producer
1996–2000 Spin City Executive producer
1999 Anna Says Executive producer
2002 Otherwise Engaged Executive producer
2003 Hench at Home Executive producer

[edit] Awards and nominations

Canada’s Walk of Fame

  • 2000: Inducted, Canada’s Walk of Fame[51]

Hollywood Walk of Fame

  • 2002: Star on the Walk of Fame – 7021 Hollywood Blvd.[52]

Emmy Awards[11]

  • 1985: Nominated, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series – Family Ties
  • 1986: Won, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Family Ties
  • 1987: Won, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Family Ties
  • 1988: Won, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Family Ties
  • 1989: Nominated, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Family Ties
  • 1997: Nominated, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Spin City
  • 1998: Nominated, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Spin City
  • 1999: Nominated, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Spin City
  • 2000: Won, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Spin City
  • 2006: Nominated, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series – Boston Legal
  • 2009: Won, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series – Rescue Me
  • 2011: Pending, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series- The Good Wife

Golden Globe Awards[12]

  • 1986: Nominated, Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series — Comedy/Musical – Family Ties
  • 1986: Nominated, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Comedy/Musical – Back to the Future
  • 1987: Nominated, Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series — Comedy/Musical – Family Ties
  • 1989: Won, Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series — Comedy/Musical – Family Ties
  • 1997: Nominated, Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series — Comedy/Musical – Spin City
  • 1998: Won, Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series — Comedy/Musical – Spin City
  • 1999: Won, Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series — Comedy/Musical – Spin City
  • 2000: Won, Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series — Comedy/Musical – Spin City

Screen Actors Guild Awards[27]

  • 1999: Won, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series – Spin City
  • 2000: Won, Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series – Spin City

Saturn Awards

  • 1985: Won, Best Actor – Back to the Future[53]

People’s Choice Awards

  • 1997: Won, Favorite Male Performer in a New Television Series[27]

Satellite Awards

  • 1997: Nominated, Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Comedy or Musical – Spin City[54]
  • 1998: Nominated, Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Comedy or Musical – Spin City[55]
  • 1999: Nominated, Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Comedy or Musical – Spin City[56]

Honorary Degrees

Grammy Awards[59]

  • 2010: Won, Best Spoken Word Album – Always Looking Up: Adventures of An Incurable Optimist

Influential Canadian Expat Award

Goldene Kamera

  • 2011: Goldene Kamera für Lebenswerk (Lifetime Achievement Award), German film and TV award.[61]

[edit] Books

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b “Michael J. Fox Gets Doctored”. E Online Website. March 5, 2010. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  2. ^ “Order of Canada Investiture Ceremony”. The Governor General of Canada Official Website. May 25, 2011. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l “Michael J. Fox“. James Lipton (host). Inside the Actors Studio. Bravo. October 30, 2005. No. 4, season 12.
  4. ^ Fox, Michael J. (2003). Lucky Man : A Memoir. Hyperion. pp. 34, 46–47. ISBN 0786888741.
  5. ^ a b “Michael J. Fox Biography”. The Michael J Fox Foundation. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  6. ^ a b “Michael J. Fox Awarded Freeman Status”. City of Burnaby Official Website. June 14, 2010. Retrieved August 22, 2010.
  7. ^ Atkins, Lucy (April 4, 2002). “Can you catch Parkinson’s?”. The Guardian. Retrieved January 23, 2011.
  8. ^ Rocca, Liz (March 27, 2002). “Michael J. Fox part of B.C. Parkinson’s ‘cluster'”. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved January 23, 2011.
  9. ^ “Leo and Me (1981) – News”. Internet Movie Database. March 27, 2002. Retrieved January 23, 2011.
  10. ^ a b c Haglund, David (March 2, 2007). “Reagan’s Favorite Sitcom: How Family Ties spawned a conservative hero”. Slate. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
  11. ^ a b c d e “EMMY Award History”. EMMY Official Website. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  12. ^ a b c “Michael J Fox Golden Globe History”. Golden Globes Official Website. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  13. ^ Fox, Michael J. (2002). Lucky Man: A Memoir. Hyperion. pp. 81–2. ISBN 0786867647.
  14. ^ Wallace, Amy (March 20, 2000). “Putting His Own Spin on ‘City’s’ Season Finale”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  15. ^ Shales, Tom. “Michael J. Fox, Playing ‘Spin City’ to a Fare-Thee-Well.” Washington Post, May 24, 2000, C1.
  16. ^ “Back to the Future: Making the Trilogy: Chapter 1 (DVD Documentary)”
  17. ^ “Back to the Future Box Office Mojo”. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  18. ^ “Back to the Future”. Variety. July 1, 1985. Retrieved October 9, 2008.
  19. ^ “The Secret of My Success Box Office Mojo”. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 1, 2010.
  20. ^ “The Secret of My Success Review”. Chicago Sun Times. April 10, 1987. Retrieved September 1, 2010.
  21. ^ Hinson, Hal (April 1, 1988). “City Blight”. Washington Post.
  22. ^ Ebert, Roger (April 1, 1988). “Bright Lights, Big City“. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved June 10, 2008.
  23. ^ “Casualties of War Review”. Film Critic Website. January 4, 2006. Retrieved September 1, 2010.
  24. ^ “Doc Hollywood Review”. Time Out Magazine. Retrieved September 1, 2010.
  25. ^ “The Frighteners Review”. Los Angeles Times. July 19, 1996. Retrieved September 1, 2010.[dead link]
  26. ^ a b “Michael J Fox Biography”. Yahoo!. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  27. ^ a b c “About Michael J Fox”. The Michael J Fox Foundation. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  28. ^ a b “Fox quits Spin City”. BBC. January 19, 2000. Retrieved August 22, 2010.
  29. ^ a b Weinraub, Bernard (May 7, 2001). “Charlie Sheen Delivers A New Spin To ‘Spin City'”. The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  30. ^ a b Keveney, Bill (April 1, 2004). “Michael J. Fox to scrub up twice for ‘Scrubs'”. USA Today. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  31. ^ “Michael J. Fox to Seek Help on Boston Legal”. Associated Press. October 19, 2005. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  32. ^ “Michael J. Fox Returning to The Good Wife”. TV Guide. Retrieved November 23, 2010.
  33. ^ Winter Olympics 2010 – Michael J. Fox, William Shatner and Catherine O’Hara embrace Canada at the closing from The New York Daily News originally published on Monday, March 1, 2010, 1:26 AM EST, online
  34. ^ Michael J. Fox proves he’s still laughing in the face of Parkinson’s disease as he hams it up for new calendar from The Daily Mail dated on 3:55 PM GMT on September 18, 2010, online
  35. ^ “@telltalegames: We very excitedly announce that Michael J. Fox is making a special appearance in Back to the Future: The Game: Episode 5!”. Twitter. Retrieved June 3. 2011.
  36. ^ “Back To The Future Episode 5: OUTATIME Video Game, E3 2011: Exclusive Developer Diary HD”. GameTrailers. Retrieved June 3. 2011.
  37. ^ Serrano, Alfonso (October 26, 2006). “Fox: I Was Over-Medicated In Stem Cell Ad”. New York: CBS News. Retrieved January 26, 2011.
  38. ^ Littlejohn, Georgina (March 1, 2010). “Who knew so many celebrities were Canadian”. London: Daily Mail. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  39. ^ Brockes, Emma (April 11, 2009). “It’s the gift that keeps on taking”. London: The Guardian. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
  40. ^ a b “Fresh Air” interview by Terry Gross” National Public Radio, April 2002.
  41. ^ “Brain implant better than meds for Parkinson’s disease”. CNN. January 6, 2009. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
  42. ^ a b Emma Brockes (April 11, 2009). “‘It’s the gift that keeps on taking'”. The Guardian. Retrieved October 25, 2010.
  43. ^ Excerpt from Lucky Man, Chapter 8: Unwrapping the Gift. From michaeljfox.org. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
  44. ^ “Michael J Fox makes stem cell ads”. BBC. October 25, 2006. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  45. ^ “Michael J. Fox In Campaign Ad”. CBS News. October 26, 2006. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  46. ^ “The Michael J. Fox Effect”. US News and World Report. October 26, 2006. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  47. ^ Smith, Lizzie (April 2, 2009). “Michael J Fox talks candidly about his battle with Parkinson’s on Oprah”. London: Daily Mail. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  48. ^ Patti Davis (May 3, 2007). “The TIME 100 – Michael J. Fox”. Time. Retrieved May 14, 2011.
  49. ^ (In Swedish) “Michael J Fox hedersdoktor på KI”. Ny Teknik. March 5, 2010. Retrieved August 25, 2010.
  50. ^ “Michael J. Fox ‘deeply moved’ by honorary degree from UBC”. The Vancouver Sun. May 23, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  51. ^ “Michael J Fox Canada Walk of Fame Profile”. Canada Walk of Fame Official Website. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  52. ^ “Michael J Fox Hollywood Star Walk”. Los Angeles Times. February 11, 2010. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  53. ^ “Saturn Award History”. Saturn Awards Official Website. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  54. ^ “Television Satellite Awards 1997”. International Press Academy Website. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  55. ^ “Television Satellite Awards 1998”. International Press Academy Website. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  56. ^ “Television Satellite Awards 1999”. International Press Academy Website. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  57. ^ “Michael J Fox Receives Honorary Doctorate from NYU”. New York University. May 14, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  58. ^ “Michael J Fox Receives Degree of Doctor of Laws”. University of British Columbia. May 22, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  59. ^ “Best Spoken Word Album”. Grammy Awards Official Website. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
  60. ^ “2009 Most Influential Canadian Expat”. The Canadian Expat Association. November 4, 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  61. ^ Hester, Jere (February 7, 2011). “Michael J. Fox’s “Good” Return”. NBC Connecticut. Retrieved February 12, 2011.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael J. Fox
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October 10, 2011 Posted by | Entertainment | , , | Leave a comment

Family Ties

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Family Ties

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Family Ties (disambiguation).
Family Ties
Family Ties title scene from the third season.
The Family Ties “family painting,” used in the opening sequence from 1983 to 1985.
Format Sitcom
Created by Gary David Goldberg
Starring Meredith Baxter-Birney
Michael Gross
Michael J. Fox
Justine Bateman
Tina Yothers
Brian Bonsall (1986–1989)
Theme music composer Jeff Barry
Tom Scott
Opening theme “Without Us”
Performed by Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams[1]
Country of origin United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 7
No. of episodes 180 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time 22–24 minutes
Production company(s) Ubu Productions
Paramount Television
CBS Television Distribution
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
Original run September 22, 1982 – May 14, 1989

Family Ties is an American sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s.[2] This was particularly expressed through the relationship between young Republican Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) and his former-hippie parents, Elyse and Steven Keaton (Meredith Baxter-Birney and Michael Gross). The show won multiple awards, including three consecutive Emmy Awards for Michael J. Fox as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Overview

Cast of Family Ties from a later season. (From left to right) Justine Bateman, Michael J. Fox, Meredith Baxter-Birney, Michael Gross, Brian Bonsall, and Tina Yothers.

Set during the early years of the Reagan administration, Elyse and Steven Keaton (Meredith Baxter-Birney and Michael Gross) are baby boomers, former-Hippies and liberals [2] raising their three children: Alex (Michael J. Fox), Mallory (Justine Bateman) and Jennifer (Tina Yothers) in suburban Columbus, Ohio. Married in 1964, Elyse, an independent architect, and Steven, a station manager in a local public television station, were hippies during the 1960s.

According to the episode, “A Christmas Story” in season one, they were influenced by John F. Kennedy and were members of the Peace Corps following their marriage in 1964. Alex was born in 1965 in Africa. Mallory was born while Elyse and Steven were students at the University of California, Berkeley in 1967, and Jennifer was born the night Richard Nixon won his second term in 1972.

Much of the humor of the series focused on the cultural divide during the 1980s when younger generations rejected the counterculture of the 1960s and embraced the conservative politics which came to define the 1980s.[3] Both Alex and Mallory embrace Reaganomics and exhibit conservative attitudes: Alex is a Young Republican and Mallory is a more materialistic young woman in contrast to her feminist mother.[2] Mallory was also presented as a vacuous airhead, who was fodder for jokes and teasing from her brother Alex. Jennifer, an athletic tomboy and the youngest child, shares the values of her parents and just wants to be a normal kid. Elyse and Steven have a fourth child, Andrew, born in 1984 whom Alex doted on and quickly molded in his conservative image.

[edit] Cast

The show had been sold to the network using the pitch “hip parents, square kids”.[4] Originally, Elyse and Steven were intended to be the main characters. However, the audience reacted so positively to Alex during the taping of the fourth episode that he became the focus on the show.[2][4] Fox had received the role after Matthew Broderick turned it down.[5] Coincidentally, Meredith Baxter had previously starred alongside Matthew Broderick’s father James (as his daughter) on the TV series Family.

Supporting cast and characters included neighbor Irwin “Skippy” Handelman (Marc Price), Mallory’s Sylvester Stallone-esque boyfriend artist Nick Moore (Scott Valentine) and Alex’s feminist artist girlfriend Ellen Reed (Tracy Pollan, whom Michael J. Fox later married). In season 3, episode 17 Elyse gave birth to her fourth child, Andrew (who was played by Brian Bonsall from season 5 onward). Garrett Merriman played baby Andrew. Bewitched actor Dick Sargent guest starred as Elyse’s father Charlie in Season 1.

[edit] Guest stars

Several Hollywood stars appeared on the show before they were famous or during the early years of their careers

  • Judith Light appeared in Season 2 as a colleague of Steven’s, whom she unsuccessfully attempted to seduce.
  • Tom Hanks appeared during the first and second seasons as Elyse’s younger alcoholic brother Ned[4]
  • Geena Davis portrayed inept housekeeper Karen
  • River Phoenix played a fourteen-year-old math genius who develops a crush on Jennifer after coming to tutor Alex. Phoenix’s sister, Rain, would also appear as one of Jennifer’s friends in a different episode.
  • Courteney Cox played Alex’s girlfriend Lauren at the end of the series
  • Julia Louis-Dreyfus portrayed a lawyer in the two-part episode “Read It and Weep”. Louis-Dreyfus would later co-star on the Family Ties spin-off Day by Day. It was revealed that the family patriarch, Brian Harper (played by Douglas Sheehan) was a college roommate of Steven Keaton. A total of 33 episodes were produced.
  • Crispin Glover played one of Alex’s friends on the episode “Birthday Boy”. Glover would later become famous for his portrayal of George McFly, the father of Michael J. Fox’s character Marty McFly, in the blockbuster film Back to the Future.
  • Wil Wheaton played a kid in which Jennifer played dumb in order to date him.
  • Corey Feldman played a 7th grade classmate of Jennifer who was a nominee to win the Thomas Dewey best student achievement award on the episode “The Disciple”
  • Jeff Cohen played 2 different characters, Marv Jr. on the episode, “The Visit”, and Dougie Barker on the episode, “4 Rms Ocn Vu”.
  • Christina Applegate played Kitten, a member of Jennifer’s band, on the episode, “Band on the Run”.[6]
  • Stephen Baldwin appeared as a member of a therapy group that Alex attends with his girlfriend.
  • Daniel Baldwin appeared as an army recruit who harasses Skippy.
  • Joseph Gordon-Levitt played Dougie, a friend of Andrew in Kindergarten in two episodes, “Sign of the Times” and “Father can you spare me a Dime”.
  • Jane Adams played Marty Broadie in two 7th season episodes, “They Can’t Take That Away from Me: Part 1” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me: Part 2”.
  • James Cromwell played John Hancock in the 3rd season episode, “Philadelphia Story”.

[edit] Theme Song

The Theme Song, “Without Us”, was composed by Jeff Barry and Tom Scott in 1982. It was performed by Deniece Williams and Johnny Mathis. The first 10 episodes were performed by Dennis Tufano and Mindy Sterling.

[edit] Ratings

  • 1982–1983: outside the top 30[7]
  • 1983–1984: #43[8]
  • 1984–1985: #5, 18,847,800 households[9]
  • 1985–1986: #2, 25,770,000 households[10]
  • 1986–1987: #2, 28,579,800 households[11]
  • 1987–1988: #17, 15,327,800 households[12]
  • 1988-1989: #36[13]

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Awards

[edit] Emmy Awards

  • 1986: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Michael J. Fox)
  • 1987: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Michael J. Fox); Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series; Outstanding Technical Direction
  • 1988: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Michael J. Fox)

[edit] Golden Globes

  • 1989:Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series (Michael J. Fox)

[edit] TV Land Awards

[edit] Syndication

NBC aired reruns of Family Ties weekday mornings from December, 1985 until January, 1987. In the fall of 1987, several Fox and independent stations, like WNYW-TV 5 in New York City, KTTV-TV 11 in Los Angeles, WFLD-TV 32 in Chicago WSBK-TV 38 in Boston, among others aired the show.

FamilyNet aired the program as part of its “Families on FamilyNet” programming block, also featuring My Three Sons and Happy Days between January 2009 and February 2010.

In the summer of 2008, WGN America aired reruns as part of their Outta Sight Retro Night programming block. Reruns previously aired on TBS, YTV, Nick at Nite, TV Land, and Hallmark Channel during the early to mid 2000s. Currently, it airs on The Hub.

In Canada, reruns of Family Ties began airing on CTS, a Christian-based network, on September 6, 2010. On May 15, 2011 Netflix began to stream season 1-7 on its “watch instantly” streaming service.[14]

In Australia, reruns air every afternoon on Eleven.

[edit] DVD releases

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released the first five seasons of Family Ties on DVD in Region 1. Each release features music replacements due to copyright issues as well as special features such as gag reels and episodic promos. The second season contains interviews with Michael Gross and Michael J. Fox along with other cast members. The fourth season contains the made-for-TV-movie, Family Ties Vacation.

Paramount has also released the first three seasons on DVD in Region 4. Seasons 6 and 7 have yet to be released.

DVD Name Ep# Release dates
Region 1 Region 4
The Complete First Season 22 February 20, 2007[15] April 9, 2008[16]
The Second Season 22 October 9, 2007[17] September 4, 2008[18]
The Third Season 24 February 12, 2008[19] April 2, 2009[20]
The Fourth Season 28 August 5, 2008[21] TBA
The Fifth Season 30 March 10, 2009[22] TBA

[edit] References to prior media

Media critic Ben Shapiro has stated that, based on his interview with Gary David Goldberg, the show was an unintentional comic reversal of All in the Family (which had conservative parents and liberal kids). Goldberg didn’t plan it that way, but discovered that later as a happy accident.[23]

[edit] References in other media

Over a decade after the cancellation of Family Ties, Michael J. Fox’s final episodes on Spin City featured numerous allusions to the show. In these episodes, Michael Gross played a therapist for Fox’s character Michael Patrick Flaherty[24] and the episode contained a reference to an off-screen character named “Mallory”.[25] In the episode, after Flaherty becomes an environmental lobbyist in Washington D.C., he meets a “conservative congressman named Alex P. Keaton.”[26] Meredith Baxter also portrayed Mike Flaherty’s mother, Macy Flaherty, in the episodes “Family Affair” (Parts 1 and 2).

Family Ties has also been referenced on Family Guy, as it is a favorite show of Seth MacFarlane. In the opening scene of the episode “Fifteen Minutes of Shame“, Peter Griffin is coloring the painting of the Keaton family, just like in the title sequence (with the theme song in the background). In the episode “Movin’ Out (Brian’s Song)“, Stewie Griffin compared Brian’s breakup with Jillian to Alex’s: “Remember when Alex P. Keaton lost his girlfriend? And then he got another one and everything was all right? And then he got Parkinson’s. Yikes.” In the episode “Jerome is the New Black“, Family Ties is playing on the television and Jerome buys Peter Griffin a sculpture made by the character Nick. In the episode “Brothers & Sisters“, the Griffins are watching a “later-season” episode of Family Ties, in which puberty has changed Jennifer into a buffalo. Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter reprised their roles for the scene. Coincidentally, this episode of Family Guy aired at the same time as the 9th Annual TV Land Awards when the cast of Family Ties accepted the Fan Favorite Award for the show.

The cast of Family Ties publicly reunited for the first time on February 7, 2008 for an interview on The Today Show.[27]

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ For the first 10 episodes, the opening theme was performed by Dennis Tufano and Mindy Sterling. IMDb (1990-2009). “Biography for Dennis Tufano”. Amazon.com. Retrieved 28 October 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d The Museum of Broadcast Communications: Family Ties
  3. ^ What he left behind: From Tom Clancy to Alex P. Keaton, Ronald Reagan’s legacy extends beyond the political and into the cultural
  4. ^ a b c Reagan’s Favorite Sitcom: How Family Ties spawned a conservative hero
  5. ^ The Biography Channel – Matthew Broderick Biography
  6. ^ http://www.tv.com/family-ties/band-on-the-run/episode/15518/summary.html
  7. ^ TV hits ’82
  8. ^ TV hits ’83
  9. ^ TV hits ’84
  10. ^ TV hits ’85
  11. ^ TV hits ’86
  12. ^ http://fbibler.chez.com/tvstats
  13. ^ TV hits ’88
  14. ^ Netflix:Family Ties (1982-1988) Seasons 1-7
  15. ^ http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1249667
  16. ^ http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/797829
  17. ^ http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1347868
  18. ^ http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/800184
  19. ^ http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1376178
  20. ^ http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/804826
  21. ^ http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1404447
  22. ^ http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1444065
  23. ^ http://www.mattlewis.org/?p=5934
  24. ^ Putting His Own Spin on ‘City’s’ season finale
  25. ^ Shales, Tom. “Michael J. Fox, Playing ‘Spin City’ to a Fare-Thee-Well.” Washington Post, May 24, 2000, C1.
  26. ^ Michael J. Fox Database
  27. ^ “Family Ties: Reunited After Almost 20 Years!”. TVSeriesFinale.com. Retrieved 2008-02-07.

[edit] External links

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October 10, 2011 Posted by | Entertainment, F | , , , | Leave a comment

Keating Five

Keating Five

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators, Alan Cranston (Democrat of California), Dennis DeConcini (Democrat of Arizona), John Glenn (Democrat of Ohio), John McCain (Republican of Arizona), and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (Democrat of Michigan), were accused of improperly intervening in 1987 on behalf of Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of a regulatory investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB). The FHLBB subsequently backed off taking action against Lincoln.

Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in 1989, at a cost of over $3 billion to the federal government. Some 23,000 Lincoln bondholders were defrauded and many elderly investors lost their life savings. The substantial political contributions that Keating had made to each of the senators, totaling $1.3 million, attracted considerable public and media attention. After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB in its investigation of Lincoln Savings, with Cranston receiving a formal reprimand. Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised “poor judgment.”

All five of the senators involved served out their terms. Only Glenn and McCain ran for re-election, and they both succeeded. McCain would go on to run for president twice, including being the unsuccessful Republican Party nominee for president in 2008.

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Circumstances

See also: Savings and Loan crisis

The U.S. Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s was the failure of 747 savings and loan associations (S&Ls) in the United States. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.[1] The accompanying slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 1990-1991 economic recession. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of new homes constructed per year dropped from 1.8 million to 1 million, at the time the lowest rate since World War II.[2]

The Keating Five scandal was prompted by the activities of one particular savings and loan: Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California. Lincoln’s chairman was Charles Keating, who ultimately served five years in prison for his corrupt mismanagement of Lincoln.[3] In the four years after Keating’s American Continental Corporation (ACC) had purchased Lincoln in 1984, Lincoln’s assets had increased from $1.1 billion to $5.5 billion.[4] Such savings and loan associations had been deregulated in the early 1980s, allowing them to make highly risky investments with their depositors’ money. Keating and other savings and loan operators took advantage of this deregulation.[4][5] Savings and loans established connections to many members of Congress, by supplying them with needed funds for campaigns through legal donations.[5] Lincoln’s particular investments took the form of buying land, taking equity positions in real estate development projects, and buying high-yield junk bonds.[6]

[edit] Corruption allegations

The core allegation of the Keating Five affair is that Keating had made contributions of about $1.3 million to various U.S. Senators, and he called on those Senators to help him resist regulators. The regulators backed off, to later disastrous consequences.

Beginning in 1985, Edwin J. Gray, chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB), feared that the savings industry’s risky investment practices were exposing the government’s insurance funds to huge losses.[6] Gray instituted a rule whereby savings associations could hold no more than ten percent of their assets in “direct investments”,[6] and were thus prohibited from taking ownership positions in certain financial entities and instruments.[7] Lincoln had become burdened with bad debt resulting from its past aggressiveness, and by early 1986,[6] its investment practices were being investigated and audited by the FHLBB:[8] in particular, whether it had violated these direct investment rules; Lincoln had directed Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insured accounts into commercial real estate ventures.[4] By the end of 1986, the FHLBB had found that Lincoln had $135 million in unreported losses and had surpassed the regulated direct investments limit by $600 million.[6]

Keating had earlier taken several measures to oppose Gray and the FHLBB, including recruiting a study from then-private economist Alan Greenspan saying that direct investments were not harmful,[6] and getting President Ronald Reagan to make a recess appointment of a Keating ally, Atlanta real estate developer Lee H. Henkel Jr., to an open seat on the FHLBB.[6] But by March 1987, Henkel had resigned, upon news of his having large loans due to Lincoln.[6] Meanwhile, the Senate had changed control from Republican to Democratic during the 1986 Congressional elections, placing several Democratic senators in key positions, and starting in January 1987, Keating’s staff was putting pressure on Cranston to remove Gray from any FHLBB discussion regarding Lincoln.[9] The following month, Keating began large-scale contributions into Cranston’s project to increase California voter registration.[9] In February 1987, Keating met with Riegle and began contributing to Riegle’s 1988 re-election campaign.[10]

It appeared as though the government might seize Lincoln for being insolvent.[7] The investigation was, however, taking a long time.[8] Keating was asking that Lincoln be given a lenient judgment by the FHLBB, so that it could limit its high risk investments and get into the safe (at the time) home mortgage business, thus allowing the business to survive. A letter from audit firm Arthur Young & Co. bolstered Keating’s case that the government investigation was taking a long time.[11] Keating now wanted the five senators to intervene with the FHLBB on his behalf.

By March 1987, Riegle was telling Gray that “Some senators out west are very concerned about the way the bank board is regulating Lincoln Savings,” adding somewhat ominously, “I think you need to meet with the senators. You’ll be getting a call.”[10] Keating and DeConcini were asking McCain to travel to San Francisco to meet with regulators regarding Lincoln Savings; McCain refused.[7][11] DeConcini told Keating that McCain was nervous about interfering.[7] Keating called McCain a “wimp” behind his back, and on March 24, Keating and McCain had a heated, contentious meeting.[11]

On April 2, 1987, a meeting with chairman Gray of the FHLBB was held in DeConcini’s Capitol office, with Senators Cranston, Glenn, and McCain also in attendance.[7] The senators requested that no staff be present.[12] DeConcini started the meeting with a mention of “our friend at Lincoln.”[7] Gray told the assembled senators that he did not know the particular details of the status of Lincoln Savings and Loan, and that the senators would have to go to the bank regulators in San Francisco that had oversight jurisdiction for the bank. Gray did offer to set up a meeting between those regulators and the senators.[7]

On April 9, 1987, a two-hour meeting[4] with three members of the FHLBB San Francisco branch was held, again in DeConcini’s office, to discuss the government’s investigation of Lincoln.[7][11] Present were Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, McCain, and additionally Riegle.[7] The regulators felt that the meeting was very unusual and that they were being pressured by a united front, as the senators presented their reasons for having the meeting.[7] DeConcini began the meeting by saying, “We wanted to meet with you because we have determined that potential actions of yours could injure a constituent.”[13] McCain said, “One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion. ACC [American Continental Corporation] is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn’t want any special favors for them…. I don’t want any part of our conversation to be improper.” Glenn said, “To be blunt, you should charge them or get off their backs,” while DeConcini said, “What’s wrong with this if they’re willing to clean up their act? … It’s very unusual for us to have a company that could be put out of business by its regulators.”[7] The regulators then revealed that Lincoln was under criminal investigation on a variety of serious charges, at which point McCain severed all relations with Keating.[7]

The San Francisco regulators finished their report in May 1987 and recommended that Lincoln be seized by the government due to unsound lending practices.[4][7] Gray, whose time as chair was about to expire, deferred action on the report, saying that his adversarial relationship with Keating would make any action he took seem vindictive, and that instead the incoming chair should take over the decision.[6] Meanwhile Keating filed a lawsuit against the FHLBB, saying it had leaked confidential information about Lincoln.[6] The new FHLBB chair was M. Danny Wall, who was more sympathetic to Keating and took no action on the report, saying its evidence was insufficient.[4][7] In September 1987, the Lincoln investigation was removed from the San Francisco group[7] and in May 1988, the FHLBB signed an agreement with Lincoln that included not going ahead with a criminal referral to the Department of Justice.[14] In July 1988, a new audit of both Lincoln and American Continental began in Washington.[7][14]

Cranston continued intervening on behalf of Keating after the April 1987 meetings, contacting both Wall and California state regulators and continuing to receive large amounts of new donations to the voter registration projects from Keating.[15] DeConcini also continued on behalf of Keating, contacting Wall, California state regulators, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) advocating approval of a sale of Lincoln as a December 1988 alternative to government seizure.[14][15] But bank regulators refused to approve the sale of Lincoln.[14] Glenn too continued to help Keating after the April 1987 revelation, by setting up a meeting with then-House Majority Leader Jim Wright.[16]

News of the April meetings between the senators and the FHLBB officials first appeared in National Thrift News in September 1987, but was only sporadically covered by the general media for the next year and a half.[17] In early 1988, The Detroit News ran a story on Riegle’s participation,[18] which Riegle responded to on Meet the Press by denying an interceding on Lincoln’s behalf,[13] before returning Keating’s campaign contributions back to him.[18] In spring 1988, the Los Angeles Times ran a short piece in their business section, but their political reporters did not follow up on it; two isolated, inside page mentions by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal similarly failed to develop further.[18] As media critic Howard Kurtz would later write, “the saga of Charles Keating took years to penetrate the national consciousness.”[18] The political fortunes of the senators involved did not suffer at this time. During the 1988 U.S. presidential election, McCain was mentioned by the press as a vice-presidential running mate for Republican nominee George H. W. Bush,[19][20] while Glenn was one of the two vice-presidential finalists in Michael Dukakis‘ selection process, losing out to Lloyd Bentsen.[21]

[edit] Failure of Lincoln and investigation of the senators

Lincoln stayed in business; from mid-1987 to April 1989, its assets grew from $3.91 billion to $5.46 billion.[6] During this time, the parent American Continental Corporation was desperate for cash inflow to make up for losses in real estate purchases and projects.[22] Lincoln’s branch managers and tellers convinced customers to replace their federally-insured certificates of deposit with higher-yielding bond certificates of American Continental; the customers later said they were never properly informed that the bonds were uninsured and very risky given the state of American Continental’s finances.[22] Indeed the regulators had already adjudged the bonds to have no solvent backing.[12] FDIC chair L. William Seidman would later write that Lincoln push to get depositors to switch was “one of the most heartless and cruel frauds in modern memory.”[12]

American Continental went bankrupt in April 1989, and Lincoln was seized by the FHLBB on April 14, 1989.[4] About 23,000 customers were left with worthless bonds.[23] Many investors, often ones living in California retirement communities, lost their life savings, and felt emotional damage for having been duped on top of their financial devastation.[22][24] The total bondholder loss came to between $250 million and $288 million.[23][25] The federal government was eventually liable for $3.4 billion to cover Lincoln’s losses when it seized the institution.[26]

Keating was hit with a $1.1 billion fraud and racketeering action, filed against him by the regulators.[4] In talking to reporters in April, Keating said, “One question, among many raised in recent weeks, had to do with whether my financial support in any way influenced several political figures to take up my cause. I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope so.”[27]

In the wake of the Lincoln failure, former FHLBB chair Gray went public about all five of the senators’ assistance to Keating in a May 21, 1989 front page story by John Dougherty in the Dayton Daily News, saying that in the April 1987 meetings the senators had sought “to directly subvert the regulatory process” to benefit Keating.[14][28] Press attention to the senators began to pick up, with a July 1989 Los Angeles Times article about Cranston’s role.[18] With a couple of months, Arizona Republic and Washington Post reporters were investigating McCain’s personal relationships with Keating.[18]

On September 25, 1989, several Republicans from Ohio filed an ethics complaint against Glenn, charging that he had improperly intervened on Keating’s behalf.[29][30] The initial charges against the five Senators were made on October 13, 1989 by Common Cause, a public interest group, who asked for the U.S. Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate the actions of the senators relative to Lincoln and the contributions received from Keating and whether they violated the rules of the Senate or federal election laws.[30][31][32][33] But the most public attention came from the House Banking Committee, whose new chair Henry B. Gonzalez held 50 hours of hearings into the Lincoln failure and associated events.[18]

By November 1989, the estimated cost of the overall savings and loan crisis had reached $500 billion, and the media’s formerly erratic coverage had turned around and become a feeding frenzy.[18][34] The Lincoln matter was getting large-scale press attention and the senators became commonly known as the “Keating Five”.[35][36] All the senators denied they had done anything improper in the matter, and said Keating’s contributions made no difference to their actions.[29] The senators’ initial defense of their actions rested on Keating being one of their constituents; McCain said, “I have done this kind of thing many, many times,” and said the Lincoln case was like “helping the little lady who didn’t get her Social Security.”[35] Some of the five hired high-power Washington lawyers to represent them – including Charles Ruff for Glenn and John Dowd for McCain – while others feared that to do so would give the appearance their political careers were in jeopardy.[37][38]

The Justice Department and the FBI began by investigation possible criminal actions by Keating, but then expanded its inquiries to include the five senators.[39] The FBI soon focused their attention on Cranston, because the largest sums of money from Keating came in to Cranston-involved voter-registration drives whose tax-exempt status might have been violated.[40]

[edit] Relationships of senators to Keating

Much of the press attention to the Keating Five focused on the relationships of each of the senators to Keating.

Cranston had received $39,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1986 Senate re-election campaign.[4] Furthermore, Keating had donated some $850,000 to assorted groups founded by Cranston or controlled by him, and another $85,000 to the California Democratic Party.[4] Cranston considered Keating a constituent because Lincoln was based in California.[35]

DeConcini had received about $48,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1988 Senate re-election campaign.[4] In September 1989, after the government sued Keating and American Continental for improper actions regarding contributions, DeConcini returned the money.[41] DeConcini considered Keating a constituent because Keating lived in Arizona; they were also long-time friends.[35]

Glenn had received $34,000 in direct contributions from Keating and his associates for his 1984 presidential nomination campaign, and a political action committee tied to Glenn had received an additional $200,000.[4] Glenn considered Keating a constituent because one of Keating’s other business concerns was headquartered in Ohio.[35]

McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981,[11] and McCain was the only one of the five with close social and personal ties to Keating.[42][43] Like DeConcini, McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona.[35] Between 1982 and 1987, McCain had received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates.[44] In addition, McCain’s wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley had invested $359,100 in the Fountain Square Project, a Keating shopping center, in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators.[7][45] McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter had made nine trips at Keating’s expense, sometimes aboard Keating’s jet; three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating’s opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay.[7] McCain did not pay Keating (in the amount of $13,433) for some of the trips until years after they were taken, when he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln.[7][46] In 1989 Phoenix New Times writer Tom Fitzpatrick opined that McCain was the “most reprehensible” of the five senators.[47]

Riegle had received some $76,000 from Keating and his associates for his 1988 Senate re-election campaign.[4] Riegle later announced in April 1988 he was returning the money.[6] Riegle’s constituency connection to Keating was that Keating’s Hotel Pontchartrain was located in Michigan.[35]

[edit] Senate Ethics Committee investigation and findings

[edit] History

The Senate Ethics Committee‘s investigation began on November 17, 1989.[48] It focused on all five senators and lasted 22 months,[32] with 9 months of active investigation and 7 weeks of hearings.[49] The committee was composed of three Democratic senators, Howell Heflin (chair), David Pryor, and Terry Sanford, and three Republican senators, Warren Rudman (vice chair), Trent Lott, and Jesse Helms.[48] Washington attorney Robert S. Bennett was appointed as special outside counsel to the committee, tasked with conducting the investigation.[48]

Initially the committee investigated in private. On September 10, 1990, Bennett submitted a confidential report, which soon leaked, that recommended that the committee continue its investigation of Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle, but take no action against Glenn and McCain,[31] as there was insufficient evidence to pursue the latter two.[50] Bennett also recommended that public hearings be held.[30]

Speculation that this would be the decision had already taken place, and both Glenn and McCain were frustrated that the long delay in resolving their cases was damaging their reputations.[50] However, there were political implications, as the removal of the two would eliminate the only Republican from the case.[50] The committee’s work was further made difficult by there being no specific rule that governed the propriety of members intervening with federal regulators.[50] By mid-October, several Republican senators, including former Ethics Committee chair Ted Stevens, were taking the unusual step of publicly complaining about the Ethics Committee’s inaction, saying that it was unfair to Glenn and McCain, that the whole lengthy process was unfair to all five, and that political motives might be behind the delays.[51] Eventually, the committee could not agree on the Bennett recommendation regarding Glenn and McCain:[31] vice chair Rudman agreed with Bennett, chair Heflin did not.[16] On October 23, 1990, the committee decided to keep all five senators in the case, and scheduled public hearings to question them and other witnesses.[30][31]

These hearings would take place from November 15 through January 16, 1991.[31] They were held in the Hart Senate Office Building‘s largest hearing room.[52] They were broadcast live in their entirety by C-SPAN, with CNN and the network news programs showing segments of the testimonies.[52] At the opening of the hearings, as The Washington Post would later write, “the senators sat dourly alongside one another in a long row, a visual suggestive of co-defendants in a rogues’ docket.”[53] Overall, McCain would later write, “The hearings were a public humiliation.”[52]

The committee reported on the other four senators in February 1991, but delayed its final report on Cranston until November 1991.[49] During that period there was partisan-aligned disagreement within the committee over how to treat Cranston, and in August 1991 a special counsel’s report was released by Helms.[54] A delay was also caused when Pryor suffered a heart attack in April 1991, and was replaced on the committee by Jeff Bingaman.[55] Bingaman spent months learning the complex materials involved in the matter, only to resign in July due to a conflict of interest.[55] Pryor was reassigned to the committee in August 1991, so as to not further delay its deliberations.[55]

The various committee reports addressed each of the five senators.

[edit] Cranston: reprimanded

The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that Cranston had acted improperly by interfering with the investigation by the FHLBB.[56] He had received more than a million dollars from Keating, including $850,000 to the voter registration groups closely affiliated with him; he had done more arm-twisting than the other Senators on Keating’s behalf; and was the only Senator officially rebuked by the Senate in this matter.[57]

Cranston was given the harshest penalty of all five Senators. In November 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee voted unanimously to reprimand Cranston, instead of the more severe measure that was under consideration: censure by the full Senate. Extenuating circumstances that helped to save Cranston from censure were the fact that he was suffering from cancer, and that he had decided to not seek reelection, according to chair Heflin. The Ethics Committee took the unusual step of delivering its reprimand to Cranston during a formal session of the full Senate, with almost all 100 Senators present.[32]

Cranston was not accused of breaking any specific laws or rules, but of violating standards that Heflin said “do not permit official actions to be linked with fund-raising.” Although the Ethics Committee stated “No evidence was presented to the Committee that Senator Cranston ever agreed to help Mr. Keating in return for a contribution,” the Committee officially found that Cranston’s conduct had been “improper and repugnant”, deserving of “the fullest, strongest and most severe sanction which the committee has the authority to impose.” The sanction was in these words: “the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, on behalf of and in the name of the United States Senate, does hereby strongly and severely reprimand Sen. Alan Cranston.”[32][58]

After the Senate reprimanded Cranston, he took to the Senate floor to deny key charges against him. In response, vice-chair Rudman charged that Cranston’s response to the reprimand was “arrogant, unrepentant and a smear on this institution,” and that Cranston was wrong to imply that everyone does what Cranston had done. Alan Dershowitz, serving as Senator Cranston’s attorney, alleged that other Senators had merely been better at “covering their tracks.”[32]

[edit] Riegle and DeConcini: criticized for acting improperly

The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that Riegle and DeConcini had acted improperly by interfering with the investigation by the FHLBB.[56] Specifically, it said that even though neither of them violated any Senate rule, their conduct “gave the appearance of being improper.”[41] DeConcini was especially faulted for having taken the lead in the two meetings with the FHLBB.[41]

After the ruling, Riegle expressed contrition, saying “I certainly regret and accept responsibility [for actions that] did lend themselves to an appearance of a conflict of interest.”[41] DeConcini, however, said he would continue to be “aggressive” in representing his constituents in their affairs with federal regulators.[41]

[edit] Glenn and McCain: cleared of impropriety but criticized for poor judgment

The Senate Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of Glenn in the scheme was minimal, and the charges against him were dropped.[56] He was only criticized by the Committee for “poor judgment.”[59]

The Ethics Committee ruled that the involvement of McCain in the scheme was also minimal, and he too was cleared of all charges against him.[56][57] McCain was criticized by the Committee for exercising “poor judgment” when he met with the federal regulators on Keating’s behalf.[7] The report also said that McCain’s “actions were not improper nor attended with gross negligence and did not reach the level of requiring institutional action against him….Senator McCain has violated no law of the United States or specific Rule of the United States Senate.”[60] On his Keating Five experience, McCain has said: “The appearance of it was wrong. It’s a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators, because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do.”[7]

Regardless of the level of their involvement, both senators were greatly affected by it. McCain would write in 2002 that attending the two April 1987 meetings was “the worst mistake of my life”.[61] Glenn has described the Senate Ethics Committee investigation as the low point of his life.[8]

The Senate Ethics Committee did not pursue, for lack of jurisdiction, any possible ethics breaches in McCain’s delayed reimbursements to Keating for trips at the latter’s expense, because they occurred while McCain was in the House.[62] The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said that it too lacked jurisdiction, because McCain was no longer in the House.[63] It said it did not require that McCain amend his existing financial disclosure forms for his House years, on the grounds that McCain had now fully reimbursed Keating’s company.[63]

[edit] Reactions

Not everyone was satisfied with the Senate Ethics Committee conclusions. Fred Wertheimer, president of Common Cause, which had initially demanded the investigation, thought the treatment of the senators far too lenient, and said, “[The] action by the Senate Ethics Committee is a cop-out and a damning indictment of the committee,”[41] and “The U.S. Senate remains on the auction block to the Charles Keatings of the world.”[64] Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, called it a “whitewash”.[64] Jonathan Alter of Newsweek said it was a classic case of the government trying to investigate itself, labeling the Senate Ethics Committee “shameless” for having “let four of the infamous Keating Five off with a wrist tap.”[65] The New York Times ran several editorials criticizing the Ethics Committee for having let the senators off lightly.[66] Margaret Carlson of Time suspected the committee had timed its first report to coincide with the run-up to the Gulf War, minimizing its news impact.[64] One of the San Francisco bank regulators felt that McCain had gotten off too lightly, saying that Keating’s business involvement with Cindy McCain was an obvious conflict of interest.[67]

Some of the Senate Ethics Committee members were concerned that letting the senators off lightly would harm their own reputations.[41] Nevertheless, the existing Senate rules did not specifically proscribe the actions taken by DeConcini, Riegle, Glenn, and McCain.[41] Vice-chair Rudman defended the committee’s actions, saying: “Given the news media frenzy surrounding [the Keating Five], the easiest thing for the committee to do would have been to find them guilty of something and recommend sanctions. … The politically difficult thing, the one requiring backbone, was what we did — to review all the evidence and reach a predictably unpopular conclusion based only on fact.”[66]

[edit] Leaks

A number of press reports came out during the Ethics Committee’s work that purported to reveal aspects of the investigations.[45] Chair Heflin was upset by the leaks and two investigations into them were held, one by the General Accounting Office acting on behalf of the committee and one by the Senate’s Temporary Special Independent Counsel.[45][62] Neither report reached a conclusive finding or directly implicated anyone in the leaks.[62] The special counsel report, released in 1992, ascribed partisanship as the motive for the leaks and said they were intended to hurt DeConcini, Riegle, and Cranston; it also gave an inference that McCain and his staff were responsible for key leaks.[45][62]

DeConcini later charged that McCain had leaked to the press sensitive information about the investigation that came from some of the closed proceedings of the Ethics Committee.[7] McCain denied doing so under oath, although several press reports concluded that McCain had been one of the main leakers during that time.[7][62] The GAO investigator later said, “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that McCain made those leaks.”[45] Vice chair Rudman stated in his 1996 autobiography that McCain and his staff were responsible for some of the leaks,[62] but later repudiated the assertion.[45]

[edit] Aftermath

Keating and Lincoln Savings became convenient symbols for arguments about what had gone wrong in America’s financial system and society,[68] and were featured in popular culture references.[68][69] The senators did not escape infamy either.[67] By spring 1992, a deck of playing cards was being marketed, called “The Savings and Loan Scandal”, that featured on their face Charles Keating holding up his hand, with images of the five senators portrayed as puppets on his fingers.[7][68] Polls showed that most Americans believed the actions of the Keating Five were typical of Congress as a whole.[49] Political historian Lewis Gould would later echo this sentiment, as well as Cranston attorney Dershowitz’s argument, writing that, “the real problem for the ‘Keating Three’ who were most involved was that they had been caught.”[5]

McCain testified against Keating in a civil suit brought by Lincoln bondholders, and was seen as the plaintiffs’ best witness.[70] The other four senators refused to testify.[70] Cranston left office in January 1993, and died in December 2000. DeConcini and Riegle continued to serve in the Senate until their terms expired, but they did not seek re-election in 1994. DeConcini was appointed by President Bill Clinton in February 1995 to the Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.[71] Glenn did choose to run for re-election in 1992, trying to become the first senator ever to win a fourth term from Ohio.[8] The Republican candidate, Lieutenant Governor R. Michael DeWine, attacked Glenn on Keating Five as well as a number of other matters, in one of the dirtiest campaigns in the country that year and the toughest of Glenn’s senatorial contests.[8][72] Glenn prevailed, however, defeating DeWine by nine percentage points to gain one more term in the Senate before retiring and not running for re-election in 1998.[8][72]

After 1999, the only member of the Keating Five remaining in the U.S. Senate was John McCain, who had an easier time gaining re-election in 1992 than he anticipated.[73] He survived the political scandal in part by becoming friendly with the political press.[73] McCain subsequently ran for president in 2000 and became the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. During the 2000s, several retrospective accounts of the controversy reiterated the contention that McCain was included in the investigation primarily so that there would be at least one Republican target.[16][25][30][34] Glenn’s inclusion in the investigation has been attributed to Republicans who were angered by the inclusion of McCain,[25] as well as committee members who thought that dropping Glenn (and McCain) would make it look bad for the remaining three Democratic Senators.[30]

The scandal was followed by a number of attempts to adopt campaign finance reform—spearheaded by U.S. Sen. David Boren (D-OK)—but most attempts died in committee. A weakened reform was passed in 1993. Substantial campaign finance reform was not passed until the adoption of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002. Bennett would later write that the Keating Five investigation did make a difference, as members of Congress were afterward far less likely to intercede with federal investigations on behalf of contributors.[74]

In early October 2008, the Keating Five scandal, its possible parallel to the subprime mortgage crisis and liquidity crisis of September 2008, and specifically the role in the scandal of Republican presidential nominee McCain, were briefly emphasized by the campaign of his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, through a 13-minute “documentary” entitled Keating Economics.[75][76] This introduction occurred after the McCain campaign began emphasizing the Obama–Ayers controversy.[75] The Keating Five matter otherwise had little impact on McCain’s eventually unsuccessful campaign.[77]

[edit] Reports

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ “Financial Audit: Resolution Trust Corporation’s 1995 and 1994 Financial Statements” (PDF). U.S. General Accounting Office. July 1996.
  2. ^ “Housing Finance in Developed Countries An International Comparison of Efficiency, United States” (PDF). Fannie Mae. 1992.
  3. ^ Grossman, Political Corruption in America: An Encyclopedia of Scandals, Power, and Greed, p. 201.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m “The Lincoln Savings and Loan Investigation: Who Is Involved”. The New York Times. 1989-11-22.
  5. ^ a b c Gould, The Most Exclusive Club, pp. 289–290.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Nash, Nathaniel C. (1989-07-09). “Showdown Time for Danny Wall”. The New York Times.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Nowicki, Dan and Muller, Bill (2007-03-01). “John McCain Report: The Keating Five”. The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
  8. ^ a b c d e f “John Glenn archives: John Glenn ~ Political Career”. The Ohio State University. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-16.
  9. ^ a b Binstein and Bowden, Trust Me, p. 275.
  10. ^ a b Binstein and Bowden, Trust Me, pp. 278–279.
  11. ^ a b c d e Alexander, Man of the People, pp. 108–111.
  12. ^ a b c Seidman, Full Faith and Credit, pp. 233, 235.
  13. ^ a b Pizzo, Inside Job, pp. 291, 294–296.
  14. ^ a b c d e Dougherty, John (1993-07-14). “DeConcini & Keating”. Phoenix New Times.
  15. ^ a b “Who were the Keating Five?”. Chicago Tribune. 1990-01-14.
  16. ^ a b c Karaagac, John McCain: An Essay in Military and Political History, pp. 163, 169.
  17. ^ McCain and Salter, Worth the Fighting For, pp. 185–186. Used because it has a thorough list of media references to what would become Keating Five.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurtz, Media Circus, pp. 69–72.
  19. ^ Alexander, Man of the People, pp. 115–119.
  20. ^ Nowicki, Dan and Muller, Bill (2007-03-01). “John McCain Report: The Senate calls”. The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
  21. ^ Germond and Witcover, Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars?, pp. 340, 343.
  22. ^ a b c Nash, Nathaniel C. (1989-11-30). “Collapse of Lincoln Savings Leaves Scars for Rich, Poor and the Faithful”. The New York Times.
  23. ^ a b Stevenson, Richard W. (1991-12-13). “U.S. Files Keating Charges”. The New York Times.
  24. ^ Stevenson, Richard W. (1990-09-19). “Keating Indicted in Savings Fraud and Goes to Jail”. The New York Times.
  25. ^ a b c Tolchin, Glass Houses, p. 51.
  26. ^ Berthelsen, Christian (1999-04-07). “Keating Pleads Guilty to 4 Counts of Fraud”. The New York Times.
  27. ^ Nash, Nathaniel C. and Shenon, Philip (1989-11-09). “A Man of Influence: Political Cash and Regulation: A Special Report: In Savings Debacle, Many Fingers Point Here”. The New York Times.
  28. ^ Dougherty, John (1989-05-21). “unknown”. Dayton Daily News. See also Preliminary inquiry into allegations regarding Senators Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, McCain, and Riegle, and Lincoln Savings and Loan committee report, p. 126.
  29. ^ a b Roberts and Doss, From Watergate to Whitewater, pp. 140–141.
  30. ^ a b c d e f Bennett, In the Ring, pp. 129, 133–134.
  31. ^ a b c d e Dewar, Helen (1991-02-08). “Panel Finds ‘Credible Evidence’ Cranston Violated Ethics Rules”. The Washington Post.
  32. ^ a b c d e Dewar, Helen (1991-11-21). “Cranston Accepts Reprimand; ‘Keating 5’ Senator Angers Colleagues by Denying Misconduct”. The Washington Post.
  33. ^ Berke, Richard L. (1989-10-27). “Savings and Loan Executives Accused of Tapping Phones”. The New York Times.
  34. ^ a b Mitchell, Talking Back, pp. 147-148.
  35. ^ a b c d e f g Berke, Richard L. (1989-11-05). “Helping Constituents or Themselves?”. The New York Times.
  36. ^ Carlson, Margaret (1989-11-27). “‘A Legal Bank Robbery'”. Time.
  37. ^ Shenon, Philip (1989-11-22). “5 Senators Struggle to Avoid Keating Inquiry Fallout”. The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
  38. ^ McCain and Salter, Worth the Fighting For, p. 195. Used to specify McCain’s attorney.
  39. ^ Nash, Nathaniel C. (1989-11-13). “Savings Official’s Ties In Senate Investigated”. The New York Times.
  40. ^ Berke, Richard L. (1989-12-06). “Cranston Inquiry Widens to Include Signups of Voters”. The New York Times.
  41. ^ a b c d e f g h “Senate ethics panel cites Cranston in Keating Five case”. Chicago Tribune. 1991-02-28.
  42. ^ Berke, Richard L. (1991-01-05). “2 Senators Deny Impropriety In Dealings With Keating”. The New York Times.
  43. ^ Rosenblatt, Robert A. and Fritz, Sara (1991-01-05). “McCain Probed Over Traveling to Keating Spa Thrifts”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-09-31.
  44. ^ Sullum, Jacob (2005-03-11). “How John McCain Reformed”. Reason.
  45. ^ a b c d e f Mahtani, Sahil (2008-11-01). “McCain First, Second, And Always”. The New Republic. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
  46. ^ Rasky, Susan (1989-12-22). “To Senator McCain, the Savings and Loan Affair Is Now a Personal Demon”. The New York Times.
  47. ^ Fitzpatrick, Tom (1989-11-29). “McCain: The Most Reprehensible of the Keating Five”. Phoenix New Times. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
  48. ^ a b c McCain and Salter, Worth the Fighting For, pp. 194–195. Used to give committee composition.
  49. ^ a b c Williams, Political Scandals in the USA, p. 103.
  50. ^ a b c d Berke, Richard L. (1990-09-29). “Ethics Committee is Urged to Clear 2 of 5 in Savings Inquiry”. The New York Times.
  51. ^ Berke, Richard L. (1990-10-15). “G.O.P. Senators See Politics In Pace of Keating 5 Inquiry”. The New York Times.
  52. ^ a b c McCain and Salter, Worth the Fighting For, p. 199. Used to give atmosphere of hearings.
  53. ^ Dobbs, Michael (2008-10-22). “Senator’s Image as Reformer Born in Crisis”. The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-10-26.
  54. ^ Berke, Richard L. (1991-08-05). “Cranston Censure Urged by Counsel”. The New York Times.
  55. ^ a b c “Senator Pryor Returns to Ethics Committee”. The New York Times. 1991-08-22.
  56. ^ a b c d “The Online NewsHour: Washington Corruption Probe”. PBS. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  57. ^ a b Purdy, Elizabeth (2005). “Keating Five”. In Salinger, Lawrence M. (ed.). Encyclopedia of White-collar & Corporate Crime. Sage Publications. ISBN 0761930043. pp. 476–478.
  58. ^ Senate Select Committee on Ethics, Investigation of Senator Alan Cranston …
  59. ^ Regens and Gaddie, The Economic Realities of Political Reform, p. 6.
  60. ^ “Excerpts of Statement By Senate Ethics Panel”. The New York Times. 1991-02-28. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
  61. ^ McCain and Salter, Worth the Fighting For, p. 161. Used to support direct quotation.
  62. ^ a b c d e f Robinson, Walter V. (2000-02-29). “Pluck, leaks helped McCain to overcome S&L scandal”. The Boston Globe.
  63. ^ a b McCain and Salter, Worth the Fighting For, p. 188. Gives best explanation for House treatment of Keating reimbursements.
  64. ^ a b c Carlson, Margaret (1991-03-11). “Then There Was One”. Time.
  65. ^ Alter, Jonathan (1993-10-25). “The Buck Stops Where?”. Newsweek.
  66. ^ a b Rudman, Warren (1991-10-31). “To the Editor: On Keating Five, Ethics Panel Acted Properly”. The New York Times.
  67. ^ a b Rutenberg, Jim; Thompson, Marilyn W.; Kirkpatrick, David D.; Labaton, Stephen (2008-02-21). “For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk”. The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  68. ^ a b c Binstein and Bowden, Trust Me, pp. 388–389.
  69. ^ “The Simpsons: Lisa’s First Word”. TV.com. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
  70. ^ a b Abramson, Jill and Mitchell, Alison (1999-11-21). “Senate Inquiry In Keating Case Tested McCain”. The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
  71. ^ “Dennis DeConcini Papers, 1944–2003: Biographical Note”. University of Arizona Library. Retrieved 2009-01-02.
  72. ^ a b Mondak, Nothing to Read, p. 38.
  73. ^ a b Nowicki, Dan and Muller, Bill (2007-03-01). “John McCain Report: Overcoming scandal, moving on”. The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
  74. ^ Bennett, In the Ring, p. 148.
  75. ^ a b Bacon Jr, Perry (2008-10-06). “Dems: Forget Ayers, Remember Keating”. The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
  76. ^ Miller, S.A. (2008-10-31). “Candidates attack political associations”. The Washington Times. Retrieved 2008-11-19.
  77. ^ Juliano, Nick (2008-09-25). “Fox host tells guest mentioning McCain role in Keating Five scandal to ‘pipe down'”. The Raw Story. Retrieved 2009-01-04.[dead link]

[edit] References

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September 11, 2011 Posted by | Entertainment, K, Symbolism, Symbols of Five | , , , | Leave a comment

Bewitched (dissapearing)

Bewitched

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the American television sitcom. For other uses, see Bewitched (disambiguation).
Bewitched
Bewitched intro.jpg

Series title screen
Genre Sitcom, Fantasy
Created by Sol Saks
Starring Elizabeth Montgomery
Dick York
Dick Sargent
Agnes Moorehead
David White
Theme music composer Howard Greenfield
Jack Keller
Composer(s) Warren Barker
Country of origin United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 8
No. of episodes 254 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Harry Ackerman
Producer(s) Danny Arnold
Jerry Davis
William Froug
William Asher
Camera setup Single-camera
Running time 25 minutes
Production company(s) Screen Gems
Ashmont Productions (1971–72)
Distributor Sony Pictures Television (2002–present)
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Picture format Black-and-white (1964–66)
Color (1966–72)
Audio format Monaural
Original run September 17, 1964 – July 1, 1972
Chronology
Followed by Tabitha

Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York (1964–69) and Dick Sargent (1969–72), Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban housewife. Bewitched enjoyed great popularity, finishing as the number two show in America during its debut season. The show continues to be seen throughout the world in syndication and on DVD and was the longest-running supernatural-themed sitcom of the 1960s–1970s era.

In 2002, Bewitched was ranked #50 on “TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time“.[1] In 1997, the same magazine ranked the season 2 episode “Divided He Falls” #48 on their list of the “100 Greatest Episodes of All Time”.[2]

[edit] Premise and characters

[edit] Plot summary

A young-looking witch named Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) meets and marries a mortal named Darrin Stephens (originally Dick York, later Dick Sargent). While Samantha pledges to forsake her powers and become a typical suburban housewife, her magical family disapproves of the mixed marriage and frequently interferes in the couple’s lives. Episodes often begin with Darrin becoming the victim of a spell, the effects of which wreak havoc with mortals such as his boss, clients, parents, and neighbors. By the epilogue, however, Darrin and Samantha most often embrace, having overcome the devious elements that failed to separate them.

Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York as Samantha and Darrin Stephens, from a 1967 promo

The witches, most having names ending with the soft “-a” sound, and their male counterparts, known as “warlocks“, are very long-lived; while Samantha appears to be in her twenties, many episodes suggest she is actually hundreds of years old. To keep their society secret, witches avoid showing their powers in front of mortals other than Darrin. Nevertheless, the perplexing inexplicable effects of their spells and Samantha’s attempts to hide their supernatural origin from mortals drive the plot of most episodes. Witches and warlocks usually use physical gestures along with their magical spells, and sometimes spoken incantations. Most notably, Samantha often twitches her nose to perform a spell. Modest but effective special visual effects are accompanied by music to highlight the magic.

[edit] Setting

The main setting for most scenes is the Stephens’ house at 1164 Morning Glory Circle (Although the address changes in “How Green Was My Grass” to 192 Morning Glory Circle). Many scenes also take place at the Madison Avenue advertising agency “McMann and Tate” for which Darrin works. The Stephens’ home is located in a nearby upper-middle-class suburban neighborhood, either in Westport, Connecticut or within New York State, as indicated by conflicting information presented throughout the series.

[edit] Characters

Agnes Moorehead as Endora

Samantha’s mother, Endora (Agnes Moorehead), is the chief antagonist. Like all witches, she never reveals her surname, indicating to Darrin that he would be unable to pronounce it. Endora loathes mortals, and disapproves of Darrin, as do many of Samantha’s relatives. Endora refuses even to use Darrin’s name, alternatively calling him “Durwood”, “What’s-his-name”, “Darwin”, “Dum-Dum”, etc., all much to his annoyance. She refers to him as “Darrin” only eight times during the entire series.[3] Many stories revolve around Endora, or another of Darrin’s in-laws, using magic to undermine the union. Endora casts countless farcical spells on Darrin, but never attempts to destroy him outright. Endora’s ploys to provoke a breakup always fail as Samantha’s and Darrin’s love overcomes every obstacle. When High Priestess Hephzibah expresses surprise that Darrin has withstood years of harassment from his mother-in-law, Endora can only shrug and admit, “He loves my daughter.”

Darrin works as an executive at the McMann and Tate advertising agency. His profit-obsessed boss Larry Tate (David White) is a regular character, but Tate’s partner, Mr. McMann, appears only twice during the series. Tate’s opinions turn on a dime to appease a client in an attempt to land a deal. Many episodes culminate in a dinner party with clients at the Stephens’ home that is humorously affected by magic. Samantha usually figures out a clever way to save the day and the account. Louise Tate (Irene Vernon, Kasey Rogers), Larry’s wife, eventually becomes Samantha’s closest mortal friend.

Darrin (Dick York) and Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) in a 1968 episode

Across the street from Darrin and Samantha lives a retired couple, the nosy and tactless Gladys Kravitz (Alice Pearce, Sandra Gould) and her husband Abner (George Tobias). Gladys’s snooping often results in her witnessing witchcraft or its strange side effects. She frequently tries to prove Samantha is a witch, only to fail and be branded delusional by Abner.

Samantha’s father, Maurice (Maurice Evans), is an urbane thespian much like Elizabeth Montgomery’s father, Robert Montgomery. Maurice often embellishes his entrances and exits with strained Shakespearean verse. Bewitched is unique for pre-1970s sitcoms in that it portrays Endora and Maurice in, as Maurice describes, “an informal marriage”. Endora once introduces Maurice as “my daughter’s father”, and twice threatens to “move in” with Maurice. In the episode “Samantha’s Good News”, Endora threatens to file for an “ectoplasmic interlocutory” (i.e. divorce), only to wrangle Maurice’s affection. Maurice also refers to Darrin with incorrect names, including “Duncan” and “Dustbin”, with Endora going so far as to “correct” him, saying “That’s Durwood.”

Darrin’s parents, the strait-laced Phyllis and laid-back Frank Stephens, visit occasionally but never learn of Samantha’s supernatural powers. Phyllis (Mabel Albertson) makes inopportune surprise visits, and often complains of “a sick headache” after accidentally witnessing a spell in motion.

On Samantha’s father’s side of the family[4] is her far-out, egocentric lookalike cousin Serena. Also played by Elizabeth Montgomery, she is credited as “Pandora Spocks” (a spin on the phrase “Pandora’s box“) from 1969 to 1971. Serena is the antithesis of Samantha, in most episodes sporting a beauty mark on her cheek, raven-black cropped hair, and mod mini-skirts. Ever mischievous, Serena often chases after Darrin and Larry Tate (calling the white-haired Tate “Cotton-Top”), just for sport. More progressive than typical witches or warlocks, who generally abhor mortals, Samantha’s counter-culture cousin occasionally dates some (including characters played by Jack Cassidy and Peter Lawford). Despite her wild behavior and frequent co-plotting with Endora, Serena often supports Samantha and Darrin, even though she finds them both a bit “square.”

Uncle Arthur (Paul Lynde), Endora’s prank-loving brother, makes several appearances. Despite many practical jokes at Darrin’s expense, Uncle Arthur has a less antagonistic relationship with him than Endora. In one episode, both Serena and Uncle Arthur go head-to-head with the Witches Council to support the Stephens’ union, only to have their own powers suspended.

When one of Aunt Clara’s spells backfires, Samantha plays hostess to two space aliens in 1968’s “Samantha’s Secret Saucer”

The only one of Samantha’s relatives for whom Darrin regularly shows tolerance is the bumbling, elderly, absent-minded-but-lovable Aunt Clara (Marion Lorne). Though well-intentioned, Clara’s spells usually backfire, and her entrances and exits are often a grand fumble, such as entering via a chimney or colliding with a wall. She has a collection of over a thousand doorknobs (inspired by Lorne’s real-life collection).[5] Rather than recast the role after Lorne’s death in 1968, a similar witch, the anxiety-ridden and magically inept housekeeper Esmeralda (Alice Ghostley), was introduced in 1969.

In the second season, Samantha gives birth to a daughter, Tabitha (spelled Tabatha in production credits until season 5) and later in the series has a son, Adam. Both eventually prove to have supernatural powers. The Tates’ son Jonathan is born several months before Tabitha.

A strange occurrence or condition caused by a supernatural illness is occasionally used as a plot device, and assistance is often sought from the warlock Dr. Bombay (Bernard Fox), a womanizer who is often accompanied by a buxom assistant, and who constantly cracks bad jokes. He could be summoned by the phrase, “Dr. Bombay, calling Dr. Bombay. Emergency, come right away.” Help for supernatural illnesses is also occasionally sought from the unnamed witches’ apothecary (Bernie Kopell), an amorous old warlock.

[edit] Other recurring characters

  • Aunt Enchantra and Aunt Hagatha are Samantha’s aunts. They occasionally ride in an antique car called “Macbeth” (sometimes driven by chauffeur Rasputin, other times operating sans driver) which enters the Stephens’s home through the wall. Enchantra was played by three different actresses, while Hagatha was played by five, including Reta Shaw and Ysabel MacCloskey. Hagatha sometimes babysits the children.
  • The “drunk guy” (Dick Wilson) shows up in various bars, jail cells and sidewalks to witness acts of witchcraft.
  • Betty, the secretary at McMann and Tate, was played by various actresses.
  • Sheila Sommers (Nancy Kovack) is Darrin’s wealthy former fiancée and Samantha’s nemesis. Twice in the series (in the premiere episode, “I, Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha” and in “Snob in the Grass”) she tries to seduce Darrin, only to be stopped by Samantha’s powers. The character also appears in the 1968 episode “If They Never Met.”
  • Howard McMann, is Larry Tate’s business partner, played by Roland Winters in “Man of the Year” (139) and Leon Ames in “What Makes Darrin Run” (191).
  • Miss Peabody, Tabitha’s teacher (Maudie Prickett), appears in two episodes during Season 8: “Tabitha’s First Day of School” and “School Days, School Daze”.

[edit] Historical, fictional, and contemporary characters

Thanks to witchcraft, a number of interesting characters were seen, including Benjamin Franklin, Franklin Pierce, George and Martha Washington, Paul Revere, Sigmund Freud, Julius Caesar, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, King Henry VIII, Cleopatra, Bonanno Pisano, Santa Claus, Jack of Jack and the Beanstalk, Mother Goose, The Artful Dodger, Hansel and Gretel, The Tooth Fairy, the Loch Ness Monster, a Leprechaun, Prince Charming, Sleeping Beauty, Willie Mays (playing himself), and Boyce and Hart (playing themselves).

[edit] Cast

Scene from “Daddy Does His Thing”, the last episode York filmed.

Cast of Characters
Character Actor(s) No. of episodes
Main Characters
Samantha Stephens Elizabeth Montgomery 254
Darrin Stephens Dick York (1964–1969)
Dick Sargent (1969–1972)		 156 (York)
84 (Sargent)
Endora Agnes Moorehead 147
Larry Tate David White 166
Recurring Characters
Tabitha Stephens Cynthia Black (1966)
Heidi and Laura Gentry (1966)
Tamar and Julie Young (1966)
Diane Murphy (1966–1968)
Erin Murphy (1966–1972)		 116
Gladys Kravitz Alice Pearce (1964–1966)
Sandra Gould (1966–1971)		 57
Abner Kravitz George Tobias (1964–1971) 55
Louise Tate Irene Vernon (1964–1966)
Kasey Rogers (1966–1972)		 46
Aunt Clara Marion Lorne (1964–1968) 28
Serena Elizabeth Montgomery (1966–1972)
(as “Pandora Spocks”)		 24
Adam Stephens unknown (1969–1970)
Greg and David Lawrence (1970–1972)		 24
Phyllis Stephens Mabel Albertson (1964–1971) 19
Dr. Bombay Bernard Fox (1967–1972) 18
Esmeralda Alice Ghostley (1969–1972) 15
Frank Stephens Robert F. Simon (1964–67, 1971)
Roy Roberts (1967–1970)		 13
Maurice Maurice Evans 12
Uncle Arthur Paul Lynde (1965–1971) 10

The series is noted for having a number of major cast changes, often because of illness or death of the actors. Most notably, the actor playing Darrin was quietly replaced mid-series. The only surviving members of the regular cast are Bernard Fox and the actors who played the Stephens children. The various changes during the series and untimely deaths of several of the regular actors in the decades following its cancellation produced a mythology that the series was cursed. However, a study of the average age of death of the actors, many of whom were already past middle age during the show’s production, reveals no unusual pattern.[6]

Dick York was unable to continue his role as Darrin because of a severe back condition (the result of an accident during the filming of They Came To Cordura in 1959). Starting with the third season, York’s disability caused ongoing shooting delays and script rewrites. After collapsing on the set and being rushed to the hospital in January 1969, York left the show. Dick Sargent, who would go on to play Darrin in the sixth through eighth seasons, was cast for the role that same month.[7]

Marion Lorne appeared in 28 episodes as Aunt Clara and won a posthumous Emmy Award in 1968. Essentially replacing this character was the similarly magic-disabled Esmeralda (Alice Ghostley) in season 6. Lorne and Ghostley had appeared side by side in the hotel scene of Mike Nichols’s film The Graduate in 1967.

Ghostley and Lorne together in The Graduate

Also winning a posthumous Emmy award in 1966 for her role, Alice Pearce was the first to play the character of Gladys Kravitz. After Pearce’s death from ovarian cancer, Mary Grace Canfield played Harriet Kravitz, Abner’s sister, in four episodes during the spring of 1966, and is said to be keeping house while Gladys is out of town. Sandra Gould assumed the role of Gladys Kravitz beginning in season 3.

Louise Tate was played by Irene Vernon during the first two seasons and then replaced by Kasey Rogers, who wore a short black wig to appear similar to Vernon. According to Rogers,[8] Bill Asher noticed her tugging at the wig and asked why she was wearing it. She laughed and said, “Because you told me to.” He replied, “Why don’t you take it off!” and she played Louise with red hair for the show’s final three seasons.

Tabitha Stephens’s birth in the season 2 episode “And Then There Were Three” featured infant Cynthia Black in the role. For the remainder of the season, Tabitha was played by twins Heidi and Laura Gentry, followed by twins Tamar and Julie Young. Fraternal twin toddlers Diane and Erin Murphy were cast for the role at the beginning of season 3. In time, they began to look less alike, so Diane was dropped during season 4. Diane made several guest appearances in other roles, and filled in as Tabitha one last time in season 5’s “Samantha Fights City Hall”, because Erin had mumps.

Alice Ghostley (Esmeralda), Paul Lynde (Uncle Arthur), and Bernard Fox (Dr. Bombay) all had guest roles during the first two seasons as mortal characters before being cast as magical regulars.

[edit] Production

Ratings
Season Rank (rating)
1) 1964–65 # 2 (31.0)
2) 1965–66 # 7 (25.9)
3) 1966–67 # 8 (23.4)
4) 1967–68 # 11 (23.5)
5) 1968–69 # 12 (23.3)
6) 1969–70 # 25 (20.6)
7) 1970–71 # 34 (15.0)
8) 1971–72 # 72 (10.0)

According to Harpies Bizarre,[9][unreliable source?] creator Sol Saks‘ inspirations for this series in which many similarities can be seen were the 1942 film I Married a Witch (from Thorne Smith‘s unfinished novel The Passionate Witch and Me), and the John Van Druten Broadway play Bell, Book and Candle that was adapted into a 1958 movie.

Sol Saks, who received credit as the creator of the show, wrote the pilot of Bewitched, although he was not involved with the show after the pilot. Initially, Danny Arnold, who helped develop the style and tone of the series as well as some of the supporting characters who did not appear in the pilot, like Larry Tate and the Kravitzes, produced and headed writing of the series. Arnold, who wrote on McHale’s Navy and other shows, thought of Bewitched essentially as a romantic comedy about a mixed marriage; his episodes kept the magic element to a minimum. One or two magical acts drove the plot, but Samantha often solved problems without magic. Many of the first season’s episodes were allegorical, using supernatural situations as metaphors for the problems any young couple would face. Arnold stated that the two main themes of the series were the conflict between a powerful woman and a husband who cannot deal with that power, and the anger of a bride’s mother at seeing her daughter marry beneath her. Though the show was a hit right from the beginning, finishing its first year as the number 2 show in the United States, ABC wanted more magic and more farcical plots, causing battles between Arnold and the network.

Arnold left the show after the first season, leaving producing duties to his friend Jerry Davis, who had already produced some of the first season’s episodes (though Arnold was still supervising the writing). The second season was produced by Davis and with Bernard Slade as head writer, with mistaken identity and farce becoming a more prevalent element, but still included a number of more low-key episodes in which the magic element was not front and center.

With the third season and the switch to color, Davis left the show, and was replaced as producer by William Froug. Slade also left after the second season. According to William Froug’s autobiography, William Asher (who had directed many episodes) wanted to take over as producer when Jerry Davis left, but the production company was not yet ready to approve the idea. Froug, a former producer of Gilligan’s Island, was brought in as a compromise. By his own admission, Froug was not very familiar with Bewitched and found himself in the uncomfortable position of being the official producer even though Asher was making most of the creative decisions. After a year, Froug left the show, and Asher took over as full-time producer of the series for the rest of its run.

The first three seasons had aired Thursdays at 9:00, and the time was moved to 8:30 starting with the fourth season (1967-1968). During the sixth season (1969-1970), along with Darrin now being played by Dick Sargent, the show also saw a significant decline in ratings. Viewership continued to dwindle in the seventh season. The show used fewer recurring characters in later episodes, the Kravitzes, Darrin’s parents, and Uncle Arthur not appearing in the final (eighth) season at all. Scripts from old episodes were also recycled more frequently, the final season having eight remade episodes. The last season began with ABC moving Bewitched’s air time to Wednesdays at 8:00. The schedule change did not help ratings as the show was now pitted against CBS’s popular The Carol Burnett Show. Filming for the season ended in December 1971, and in January 1972 the show was finally moved to Saturday night at 8:00, opposite television’s number one show, All in the Family, and finished the year in 72nd place.

[edit] Storylines repeated from I Love Lucy

In the episode “Samantha’s Power Failure”, Serena’s and Uncle Arthur’s powers are removed by the Witches’ Council. The impotent duo get jobs in a confectionery factory, with both tossing and hiding an onslaught of bananas from a conveyor belt which are to be dipped in chocolate and nuts, then packaged. This episode mimics the famous chocolate assembly-line episode of I Love Lucy (“Job Switching”), which was directed by Bewitched producer/director William Asher. Serena’s and Arthur’s jokes and physical antics are taken from Lucy’s (Lucille Ball) and Ethel’s (Vivian Vance) playbook.

In the episode “Samantha’s Supermaid” Samantha interviews a maid, and the scene is almost identical to one in Lucy. Season 8 featured a European vacation, but was filmed in Hollywood using stock footage, like the “European” episodes of Lucy. Similar to Endora’s refusal to pronounce Darrin’s name correctly, Lucy’s mother always referred to son-in-law Ricky with incorrect names, including “Mickey”, and in a letter once, “what’s-his-name.”

[edit] Timely topics

Some episodes take a backdoor approach to such topics as racism, as seen in the first season episode, “The Witches Are Out”, in which Samantha objects to Darrin’s demeaning ad portrayal of witches as ugly and deformed. Such stereotypical imagery often causes Endora and other witches to flee the country until November. “Sisters at Heart” (season 7), whose story was submitted by a tenth-grade English class,[10] involved Tabitha altering the skin tone of herself and a black friend with coordinating polka-dots, so that people would treat them alike.

In the 1969 episode, “Tabitha’s Weekend”, when offered homemade cookies by Darrin’s mother, Endora asks, “They’re not by chance from an Alice B. Toklas recipe?” Phyllis replies, “They’re my recipe”, to which Endora retorts, “Then I’ll pass.” Toklas had been known for her recipes being laced with marijuana.

[edit] Sets and locations

The 1959 Columbia Pictures Gidget movie was filmed on location at a real home in Santa Monica (at 267 18th Street). The blueprint design of this home was later reversed and replicated as a house facade attached to an existing garage on the backlot of Columbia’s Ranch. This was the house seen on Bewitched. The patio and living room sets seen in Columbia’s Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) were soon adapted for the permanent Bewitched set for 1964. The interior of the Stevens’ house can be seen, substantially unaltered, in the 1969 Jerry Lewis film Hook, Line & Sinker. The set was also used several times in Gidget and I Dream of Jeannie.

In June 1970, Bewitched filmed on location in Salem, Magnolia and Gloucester, Massachusetts. These location shoots marked the only time the show would film away from its Hollywood studio set, which was being rebuilt due to a fire. The eight so-called “Salem Saga” episodes helped the show’s sagging ratings.[11] On June 15, 2005, TV Land unveiled a Samantha statue in Salem Massachusetts, to mark the show’s 40th anniversary. On hand were stars Bernard Fox, Erin Murphy and Kasey Rogers.

On the Columbia studio backlot, the Kravitzes’ house was actually down the street from the Stephens’ house exterior. Both homes’ exterior doors opened to an unfinished eighteen-by-fifteen foot entry, as the interiors were shot elsewhere. The exterior of the Kravitzes’ house later became the home of The Partridge Family.

[edit] In popular culture

The magical powers of the characters on the show and the sudden switch of actors playing Darrin at the start of the 1969 season without explanation have both been sources of many popular culture references to the show.

In an episode of the 1960s sitcom My Favorite Martian, Martin’s hands are tied so he is unable to utilize his martian powers with his finger. He instead tries twitching his nose, and when successful states that he had seen that technique on an Earth television program.

In the episode “Having His Baby”, of The Nanny, Mr. Sheffield asks Fran, “Since when did you want to have a baby?” and she replies, “Ever since Samantha had Tabitha on Bewitched.”

In the episode “Trouble with the Rubbles” of Roseanne, new neighbors move in and Jackie asks Roseanne if she knows anything about them. Roseanne jokingly replies, “Well, okay, the husband, Darrin, he’s in advertising, and they have this cute little daughter named Tabitha. But the wife, I don’t know, something’s wrong with her. I think she’s a witch.” In the episode “Homecoming”, daughter Becky is recast with a new actress. Becky returns home after moving away and Roseanne comments that it’s been so long, she barely recognizes her. During the epilogue, the Connors are watching Bewitched on television and discuss the two actors playing Darrin. Becky muses, “well, I like the second Darrin much better”.[12] In another episode, Roseanne states sarcastically that she tried “twitching [her] nose” to clean up the kitchen, but it didn’t work.

In the supernatural child sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place, the principal of the title characters’ prep school is named Mr. Laritate, a reference to David White’s character, Larry Tate.

In the Charmed fourth season episode, “Lost and Bound”, Phoebe worries about her ability to be a good wife and notes the only married witch she can think of as a model is Samantha Stephens. Subsequently, Cole gives her a ring which causes Phoebe to start behaving like Samantha, wearing her hairdo, spending all her time in the kitchen, while alternating between color and black and white.

In The Simpsons episode “Duffless“, the advertising agency the feminists are protesting is called “McMahon and Tate Advertising”. In a segment of the Halloween episode “Treehouse of Horror VIII“, Marge Simpson portrays a witch in old Salem who is living as a mortal with her husband, Homer. When she is discovered and returns to her sister witches, one states, “So, you finally left Durwood.”

In the Family Guy episode, “The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire“, Stewie puts on an episode of Bewitched that has Darrin throwing holy water on Endora as payback for all the spells she’s cast on him. Cleveland, angered at Quagmire for sleeping with Loretta, shouts “I hate Bewitched!” and flips the couch over with Stewie on it in a fit of rage.

In an episode of “The King of Queens” where Carrie goes back to school, she arrives home and tells Doug how she can’t understand the law theories of Plato when she can’t even comprehend two Darrins on “Bewitched”.

[edit] Spin-offs, crossovers, and remakes

The Flintstones episode, “Samantha” (1965), features Dick York & Elizabeth Montgomery as Darrin and Samantha Stephens[13]

[edit] Tabitha and Adam and the Clown Family

An animated cartoon made in 1972 by Hanna-Barbera Productions for The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, this featured teenage versions of Tabitha and Adam visiting their aunt and her family who travel with a circus.

See Also List of Animated Spinoffs from Prime Time Shows

[edit] Tabitha

Main article: Tabitha (TV series)

In 1977, a short-lived spin-off entitled Tabitha aired on ABC. Lisa Hartman plays Tabitha, now an adult working with her brother Adam at television station KXLA. There were several continuity differences with the original series. Adam and Tabitha had both aged far more than the intervening five years between the two series would have allowed. Adam also had become Tabitha’s older mortal brother, rather than her younger warlock brother, as he was in Bewitched. Supporting character Aunt Minerva (Karen Morrow) is said to be “like a mother” to Tabitha, though she had never been mentioned once in the original series. Tabitha’s parents are mentioned but never appear. However Bernard Fox, Sandra Gould, George Tobias and Dick Wilson reprised their roles as Dr. Bombay, Gladys Kravitz, Abner Kravitz and the “drunk guy”, respectively.

[edit] Passions

Bernard Fox appeared as Dr. Bombay in two episodes of the supernatural-themed daytime soap opera Passions. This show also featured a character named Tabitha, a middle-aged witch whose parents were Samantha and a mortal, Darrin, and who names her own child “Endora.”[14]

[edit] Theatrical movie

Main article: Bewitched (2005 film)

Bewitched inspired a 2005 film starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. Rather than a remake, in this deconstruction of the sitcom, a failing Hollywood actor, Jack Wyatt (Ferrell), is offered the chance of a career comeback playing Darrin in a remake of Bewitched. All he has to do is find the perfect girl to play Samantha, which he does in Isabel Bigelow (Kidman), who really is a witch. The film, which was written, directed, and produced by Nora Ephron, was poorly received by most critics and was a financial disappointment, earning $22 million less than the production cost domestically. However it earned an additional $68 million internationally. The New York Times called the film “an unmitigated disaster.”[15]

[edit] International television remakes

  • Argentina — A remake called Hechizada, produced by Telefé, aired in early 2007. It starred Florencia Peña as Samantha, Gustavo Garzón as her husband, Eduardo, and Georgina Barbarrosa as Endora. This show adapted original scripts to an Argentinian context, with local humor and a contemporary setting. The show was cancelled due to low ratings after a few weeks.
  • Japan — TBS, a flagship station of Japan News Network, produced a remake called Okusama wa majo (奥さまは魔女), also known as Bewitched in Tokyo.[16] Eleven episodes were broadcast on JNN stations Fridays at 10 p.m., from January 16 to March 26, 2004, and a special on December 21, 2004. The main character, Arisa Matsui, was portrayed by Ryōko Yonekura. Okusama wa majo is also the Japanese title for the original American series.
  • India — In 2002, Sony Entertainment Television began airing Meri Biwi Wonderful a local adaptation of Bewitched.
  • Russia — In 2009, TV3 broadcast a remake entitled “Моя любимая ведьма” (“My Favorite Witch”), starring Anna Zdor as Nadia (Samantha), Ivan Grishanov, as Ivan (Darrin) and Marina Esepenko as Nadia’s mother. The series is very similar to the original, with most episodes based on those from the original series. American comedy writer/producer Norm Gunzenhauser oversaw the writing and directing of the series.
  • United Kingdom — In 2008, the BBC made a pilot episode of a British version, with Sheridan Smith as Samantha, Tom Price as Darrin, and veteran actress Frances de la Tour as Endora.

[edit] Proposed Remake by CBS

A rebooted Bewitched may be created by CBS. The network has ordered a script to be written by Marc Lawrence who would also serve as executive producer.[17]

[edit] Episode availability

[edit] Syndication history

After completing its original run, ABC Daytime and ABC Saturday Morning continued to show the series until 1973. Bewitched has since been syndicated on many local US broadcast stations. Cable television channel WTBS carried the show throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The first two seasons, which were available only in black and white at the time, were rarely seen in reruns from the late 1970s to the late 1980s, until Nick at Nite began syndication of the series in the 1990s. These seasons were later colorized for syndication and DVD sales. The Hallmark Channel aired the show from 2001 to 2003; TV Land then aired the show from 2003 to 2006, and it returned in March 2010.[18] In October 2008, the show began to air in the US on WGN America and now broadcasts episodes in high definition. Channel 9 Australia airs the series on its digital channel GO! The Russian channel Domashny aired the show from 2008 to 2010.

The show has been distributed by Columbia Pictures Television (1974–1984, 1988-1996), Colex Enterprises (1984–1988), The Program Exchange (1980–1990, 2010–present), Columbia TriStar Domestic Television (1996–2002), and Sony Pictures Television (2002–present).

[edit] Internet

Selected episodes may be viewed on iTunes, YouTube, Internet Movie Database, Hulu, The Minisode Network, and Crackle.

[edit] DVD releases

Beginning in 2005, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released all eight seasons of Bewitched. In regions 1 and 4, seasons 1 and 2 were each released in two versions—one as originally broadcast in black-and-white, and one colorized. Only the colorized editions were released in regions 2 and 4.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

  1. ^ TV Guide Names Top 50 Shows
  2. ^ “Special Collector’s Issue: 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time”. TV Guide (June 28-July 4). 1997.
  3. ^ “Nicknames”. Bewitched @ Harpies Bizarre. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
  4. ^ Episode 5.20, “Mrs. Stephens, Where Are You?” Aired 1969-02-13.
  5. ^ IMDb bio of Marion Lorne Retrieved 2011-08-10
  6. ^ Mikkelson, Barbara (2007-11-05). “‘Bewitched’ Curse”. Snopes.com. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
  7. ^ “Sargent Replaces Bewitched Costar”. Los Angeles Times: p. G14. 1969-01-31.
  8. ^ Interview with Kasey Rogers and Mark Wood – Bewitched @ Harpies Bizarre
  9. ^ Sol Saks: Creator of Bewitched from harpiesbizarre.com
  10. ^ Pilato, Herbie J. (2004-10). Bewitched Forever: 40th Anniversary Edition (2nd ed.). Tapestry Press. ISBN 978-1930819405.
  11. ^ Alachi, Peter. “The Salem Saga, 1970”. Bewitched @ Harpies Bizarre. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
  12. ^ “Homecoming Plot Synopsis”. imdb.com.
  13. ^ “Samantha”. Barbera, Joseph R. (Executive Producer/Writer), Montgomery, Elizabeth (Samantha Stephens), York, Dick (Darrin Stephens), Corden, Henry (Fred Flintstone), Vander Pyl, Jean (Wilma Flintstone), Blanc, Mel (Barney Rubble), and Johnson, Gerry (Betty Rubble). The Flintstones. ABC. 1965-10-22. No. 6, season 6.
  14. ^ “Tabitha Lenox”. TV Acres. Retrieved 2010-12-12.
  15. ^ Barnes, Brooks (2009-07-31). “Full Stomachs, and Full Marriages Too”. The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-03.
  16. ^ “奥さまは魔女 – Bewitched in Tokyo”. Tokyo Broadcasting System. Retrieved 2009-09-12.
  17. ^ Fletcher, Alex (August 10, 2011). “‘Bewitched’ to be remade by CBS”. Retrieved August 10, 2011.
  18. ^ “TV Land March 2010 Has Return of Bewitched; Hope For Haiti Now Telethon Airs Friday Night”. sitcomsonline.com. 2010-01-20.

[edit] External links

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Virginia Woolf

Virginia WoolfFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Virginia woolfe)

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Born Adeline Virginia Stephen

25 January 1882(1882-01-25)

London, England

Died 28 March 1941(1941-03-28) (aged 59)

near Lewes, East Sussex, England

Occupation Novelist, Essayist, Publisher, Critic

Notable work(s) To the Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, Orlando: A Biography, A Room of One’s Own

Spouse(s) Leonard Woolf (1912–1941)

——————————————————————————–

Influences[show]William Shakespeare, George Eliot, Leo Tolstoy, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Anton Chekhov, Emily Bronte, Daniel Defoe, E. M. Forster

Adeline Virginia Woolf (pronounced /ˈwʊlf/; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One’s Own (1929), with its famous dictum, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”

Contents [hide]

1 Early life

2 Bloomsbury

3 Work

4 Death

5 Modern scholarship and interpretations

6 Depictions

7 Bibliography

7.1 Novels

7.2 Short story collections

7.3 “Biographies”

7.4 Non-fiction books

7.5 Drama

7.6 Autobiographical writings and diaries

7.7 Letters

7.8 Prefaces, contributions

8 Biographies

9 Notes

10 External links

[edit] Early life

Photographic portrait of Julia Stephen, mother of Woolf, by Julia Margaret Cameron.Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen in London in 1882. Her mother, a renowned beauty, Julia Prinsep Stephen (born Jackson) (1846–1895), was born in India to Dr. John and Maria Pattle Jackson and later moved to England with her mother, where she served as a model for Pre-Raphaelite painters such as Edward Burne-Jones.[1] Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen, was a notable historian, author, critic and mountaineer.[2] The young Virginia was educated by her parents in their literate and well-connected household at 22 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington. Her parents had each been married previously and been widowed, and, consequently, the household contained the children of three marriages. Julia had three children from her first husband, Herbert Duckworth: George Duckworth, Stella Duckworth, and Gerald Duckworth. Her father Leslie Stephen was married to Harriet Marian (Minny) Thackeray (1840–1875), and they had one daughter: Laura Makepeace Stephen, who was declared mentally disabled and lived with the family until she was institutionalised in 1891.[3] Leslie and Julia had four children together: Vanessa Stephen (1879), Thoby Stephen (1880), Virginia (1882), and Adrian Stephen (1883).

Sir Leslie Stephen’s eminence as an editor, critic, and biographer, and his connection to William Thackeray (he was the widower of Thackeray’s youngest daughter), meant that his children were raised in an environment filled with the influences of Victorian literary society. Henry James, George Henry Lewes, Julia Margaret Cameron (an aunt of Julia Stephen), and James Russell Lowell, who was made Virginia’s honorary godfather, were among the visitors to the house. Julia Stephen was equally well connected. Descended from an attendant of Marie Antoinette, she came from a family of renowned beauties who left their mark on Victorian society as models for Pre-Raphaelite artists and early photographers. Supplementing these influences was the immense library at the Stephens’ house, from which Virginia and Vanessa (unlike their brothers, who were formally educated) were taught the classics and English literature.

Julia Prinsep Stephen portrayed by Edward Burne-Jones, 1866According to Woolf’s memoirs, her most vivid childhood memories, however, were not of London but of St. Ives in Cornwall, where the family spent every summer until 1895. The Stephens’ summer home, Talland House, looked out over Porthminster Bay, and is still standing today, though somewhat altered. Memories of these family holidays and impressions of the landscape, especially the Godrevy Lighthouse, informed the fiction Woolf wrote in later years, most notably To the Lighthouse.

The sudden death of her mother in 1895, when Virginia was 13, and that of her half-sister Stella two years later, led to the first of Virginia’s several nervous breakdowns. She was, however, able to take courses of study (some at degree level) in Greek, Latin, German and history at the Ladies’ Department of King’s College London between 1897 and 1901, and this brought her into contact with some of the early reformers of women’s higher education such as Clara Pater, George Warr and Lilian Faithfull (Principal of the King’s Ladies’ Department).[4] Her sister Vanessa also studied Latin, Italian, art and architecture at King’s Ladies’ Department.

The death of her father in 1904 provoked her most alarming collapse and she was briefly institutionalised.[3] Her breakdowns and subsequent recurring depressive periods, modern scholars (including her nephew and biographer, Quentin Bell) have suggested,[5] were also influenced by the sexual abuse she and Vanessa were subjected to by their half-brothers George and Gerald Duckworth (which Woolf recalls in her autobiographical essays A Sketch of the Past and 22 Hyde Park Gate).

Throughout her life, Woolf was plagued by periodic mood swings and associated illnesses. Though this instability often affected her social life, her literary productivity continued with few breaks until her suicide.

[edit] Bloomsbury

The Dreadnought Hoaxers in Abyssinian regalia; Virginia Woolf is the bearded figure on the far leftAfter the death of their father and Virginia’s second nervous breakdown, Vanessa and Adrian sold 22 Hyde Park Gate and bought a house at 46 Gordon Square in Bloomsbury.

Woolf came to know Lytton Strachey, Clive Bell, Rupert Brooke, Saxon Sydney-Turner, Duncan Grant, Leonard Woolf and Roger Fry, who together formed the nucleus of the intellectual circle of writers and artists known as the Bloomsbury Group. Several members of the group attained notoriety in 1910 with the Dreadnought hoax, which Virginia participated in disguised as a male Abyssinian royal. Her complete 1940 talk on the Hoax was discovered and is published in the memoirs collected in the expanded edition of The Platform of Time (2008). In 1907 Vanessa married Clive Bell, and the couple’s interest in avant garde art would have an important influence on Virginia’s development as an author.[6]

Virginia Stephen married writer Leonard Woolf in 1912. Despite his low material status (Woolf referring to Leonard during their engagement as a “penniless Jew”) the couple shared a close bond. Indeed, in 1937, Woolf wrote in her diary: “Love-making – after 25 years can’t bear to be separate … you see it is enormous pleasure being wanted: a wife. And our marriage so complete.” The two also collaborated professionally, in 1917 founding the Hogarth Press, which subsequently published Virginia’s novels along with works by T.S. Eliot, Laurens van der Post, and others.[7] The Press also commissioned works by contemporary artists, including Dora Carrington and Vanessa Bell.

The ethos of the Bloomsbury group encouraged a liberal approach to sexuality, and in 1922 she met the writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West, wife of Harold Nicolson. After a tentative start, they began a sexual relationship, which, according to Sackville- West, was only twice consummated. [8] In 1928, Woolf presented Sackville-West with Orlando, a fantastical biography in which the eponymous hero’s life spans three centuries and both genders. Nigel Nicolson, Vita Sackville-West’s son, wrote “The effect of Vita on Virginia is all contained in Orlando, the longest and most charming love letter in literature, in which she explores Vita, weaves her in and out of the centuries, tosses her from one sex to the other, plays with her, dresses her in furs, lace and emeralds, teases her, flirts with her, drops a veil of mist around her”. [9] After their affair ended, the two women remained friends until Woolf’s death in 1941. Virginia Woolf also remained close to her surviving siblings, Adrian and Vanessa; Thoby had died of an illness at the age of 26.

[edit] WorkWoolf began writing professionally in 1900, initially for the Times Literary Supplement with a journalistic piece about Haworth, home of the Brontë family.[10]

Her first novel, The Voyage Out, was published in 1915 by her half-brother’s imprint, Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd. This novel was originally entitled Melymbrosia, but Woolf repeatedly changed the draft. An earlier version of The Voyage Out has been reconstructed by Woolf scholar Louise DeSalvo and is now available to the public under the intended title. DeSalvo argues that many of the changes Woolf made in the text were in response to changes in her own life.[11]

Lytton Strachey and Woolf at Garsington, 1923.[12]Woolf went on to publish novels and essays as a public intellectual to both critical and popular success. Much of her work was self-published through the Hogarth Press. She has been hailed as one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century and one of the foremost modernists.[13]

Woolf is considered one of the greatest innovators in the English language. In her works she experimented with stream-of-consciousness and the underlying psychological as well as emotional motives of characters. Woolf’s reputation declined sharply after World War II, but her eminence was re-established with the surge of Feminist criticism in the 1970s.[14]

Her work was criticised for epitomising the narrow world of the upper-middle class English intelligentsia. Some critics judged it to be lacking in universality and depth,[citation needed] without the power to communicate anything of emotional or ethical relevance to the disillusioned common reader,[citation needed] weary of the 1920s aesthetes. She was also criticised by some as an anti-semite, despite her being happily married to a Jewish man. This anti-semitism is drawn from the fact that she often wrote of Jewish characters in stereotypical archetypes and generalisations, including describing some of her Jewish characters as physically repulsive and dirty.[15] The overwhelming and rising 1920s and 30s anti-semitism possibly influenced Virginia Woolf. She wrote in her diary, “I do not like the Jewish voice; I do not like the Jewish laugh.” However, in a 1930 letter to the composer, Ethel Smyth, quoted in Nigel Nicolson’s biography,Virginia Woolf, she recollects her boasts of Leonard’s Jewishness confirming her snobbish tendencies, “How I hated marrying a Jew- What a snob I was, for they have immense vitality.”[16] In another letter to her dear friend Ethel Smyth, Virginia gives a scathing denunciation of Christianity, seeing it as self-righteous “egotism” and stating “my Jew has more religion in one toe nail—more human love, in one hair.”[17] Virginia and her husband Leonard Woolf actually hated and feared 1930s fascism with its anti-semitism knowing they were on Hitler’s blacklist. Her 1938 book Three Guineas was an indictment of fascism.[18]

Virginia Woolf’s peculiarities as a fiction writer have tended to obscure her central strength: Woolf is arguably the major lyrical novelist in the English language. Her novels are highly experimental: a narrative, frequently uneventful and commonplace, is refracted—and sometimes almost dissolved—in the characters’ receptive consciousness. Intense lyricism and stylistic virtuosity fuse to create a world overabundant with auditory and visual impressions.[18]

The intensity of Virginia Woolf’s poetic vision elevates the ordinary, sometimes banal settings – often wartime environments – of most of her novels. For example, Mrs Dalloway (1925) centres on the efforts of Clarissa Dalloway, a middle-aged society woman, to organise a party, even as her life is paralleled with that of Septimus Warren Smith, a working-class veteran who has returned from the First World War bearing deep psychological scars.[19]

To the Lighthouse (1927) is set on two days ten years apart. The plot centres around the Ramsay family’s anticipation of and reflection upon a visit to a lighthouse and the connected familial tensions. One of the primary themes of the novel is the struggle in the creative process that beset painter Lily Briscoe while she struggles to paint in the midst of the family drama. The novel is also a meditation upon the lives of a nation’s inhabitants in the midst of war, and of the people left behind. It also explores the passage of time, and how women are forced by society to allow men to take emotional strength from them.[20]

Orlando (1928) has a different quality from all Virginia Woolf’s other novels suggested by its subtitle, “A Biography”, as it attempts to represent the character of a real person and is dedicated to Vita Sackville-West. It was meant to console Vita for being a girl and for the loss of her ancestral home, though it is also a satirical treatment of Vita and her work. In Orlando the techniques of historical biographers are being ridiculed; the character of a pompous biographer is being assumed in order for it to be mocked.[21]

The Waves (1931) presents a group of six friends whose reflections, which are closer to recitatives than to interior monologues proper, create a wave-like atmosphere that is more akin to a prose poem than to a plot-centered novel.[22]

Her last work, Between the Acts (1941) sums up and magnifies Woolf’s chief preoccupations: the transformation of life through art, sexual ambivalence, and meditation on the themes of flux of time and life, presented simultaneously as corrosion and rejuvenation—all set in a highly imaginative and symbolic narrative encompassing almost all of English history. This book is the most lyrical of all her works, not only in feeling but in style, being chiefly written in verse.[23] While Woolf’s work can be understood as consistently in dialogue with Bloomsbury, particularly its tendency (informed by G.E. Moore, among others) towards doctrinaire rationalism, it is not a simple recapitulation of the coterie’s ideals.[24]

Her works have been translated into over 50 languages, by writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Marguerite Yourcenar.

[edit] DeathAfter completing the manuscript of her last (posthumously published) novel, Between the Acts, Woolf fell into a depression similar to that which she had earlier experienced. The onset of World War II, the destruction of her London home during the Blitz, and the cool reception given to her biography of her late friend Roger Fry all worsened her condition until she was unable to work.[12] On 28 March 1941, Woolf put on her overcoat, filled its pockets with stones, and walked into the River Ouse near her home and drowned. Woolf’s body was not found until 18 April 1941.[25] Her husband buried her cremated remains under an elm in the garden of Monk’s House, their home in Rodmell, Sussex.

In h

er last note to her husband she wrote:

“ I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier ’til this terrible disease came. I can’t fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can’t even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.[26] ”

[edit] Modern scholarship and interpretationsRecently, studies of Virginia Woolf have focused on feminist and lesbian themes in her work, such as in the 1997 collection of critical essays, Virginia Woolf: Lesbian Readings, edited by Eileen Barrett and Patricia Cramer. Controversially, Louise A. DeSalvo reads most of Woolf’s life and career through the lens of the incestuous sexual abuse Woolf suffered as a young woman in her 1989 book Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on her Life and Work.

Woolf’s fiction is also studied for its insight into shell shock, war, class and modern British society. Her best-known nonfiction works, A Room of One’s Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938), examine the difficulties female writers and intellectuals face because men hold disproportionate legal and economic power and the future of women in education and society.

Irene Coates’s book Who’s Afraid of Leonard Woolf: A Case for the Sanity of Virginia Woolf holds that Leonard Woolf’s treatment of his wife encouraged her ill health and ultimately was responsible for her death. This is not accepted by Leonard’s family but is extensively researched and fills in some of the gaps in the traditional account of Virginia Woolf’s life. Victoria Glendinning’s book Leonard Woolf: A Biography, which is even more extensively researched and supported by contemporaneous writings, argues that Leonard Woolf was not only supportive of his wife but enabled her to live as long as she did by providing her with the life and atmosphere she needed to live and write. Accounts of Virginia’s supposed anti-semitism (Leonard was jewish) are not only taken out of historical context but greatly exaggerated. Virginia’s own diaries support this view of the Woolfs’ marriage.[27]

Though at least one biography of Virginia Woolf appeared in her lifetime, the first authoritative study of her life was published in 1972 by her nephew Quentin Bell.

In 1992, Thomas Caramagno published the book The Flight of the Mind: Virginia Woolf’s Art and Manic-Depressive Illness.”

Hermione Lee’s 1996 biography Virginia Woolf provides a thorough and authoritative examination of Woolf’s life and work.

In 2001 Louise DeSalvo and Mitchell A. Leaska edited The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf. Julia Briggs’s Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life, published in 2005 is the most recent examination of Woolf’s life. It focuses on Woolf’s writing, including her novels and her commentary on the creative process, to illuminate her life. Thomas Szasz’s book My Madness Saved Me: The Madness and Marriage of Virginia Woolf (ISBN 0-7658-0321-6) was published in 2006.

Rita Martin’s play Flores no me pongan (2006) considers Woolf’s last minutes of life in order to debate polemical issues such as bisexuality, Jewishness and war. Written in Spanish, the play was performed in Miami under the direction of actress Miriam Bermudez.

[edit] DepictionsMichael Cunningham’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Hours, focused on three generations of women affected by Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway. In 2002, a film version of the novel was released starring Nicole Kidman as Woolf, a role for which she won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Actress. The film also starred Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep. Susan Sellers’ novel Vanessa and Virginia (2008) explores the close sibling relationship between Woolf and her sister, Vanessa Bell. It was adapted for the stage by Elizabeth Wright in 2010 and first performed by Moving Stories Theatre.

[edit] BibliographySee also: Bibliography of Virginia Woolf

[edit] NovelsThe Voyage Out (1915)

Night and Day (1919)

Jacob’s Room (1922)

Mrs Dalloway (1925)

To the Lighthouse (1927)

Orlando (1928)

The Waves (1931)

The Years (1937)

Between the Acts (1941)

[edit] Short story collectionsMonday or Tuesday (1921)

A Haunted House and Other Short Stories (1944)

Mrs Dalloway’s Party (1973)

The Complete Shorter Fiction (1985)

[edit] “Biographies”Virginia Woolf published three books to which she gave the subtitle “A Biography”:

Orlando: A Biography (1928, usually characterised Novel, inspired by the life of Vita Sackville-West)

Flush: A Biography (1933, more explicitly cross-genre: fiction as “stream of consciousness” tale by Flush, a dog; non-fiction in the sense of telling the story of the owner of the dog, Elizabeth Barrett Browning), reprinted in 2005 by Persephone Books

Roger Fry: A Biography (1940, usually characterised non-fiction, however: “[Woolf’s] novelistic skills worked against her talent as a biographer, for her impressionistic observations jostled uncomfortably with the simultaneous need to marshall a multitude of facts.”[28])

[edit] Non-fiction booksModern Fiction (1919)

The Common Reader (1925)

A Room of One’s Own (1929)

On Being Ill (1930)

The London Scene (1931)

The Common Reader: Second Series (1932)

Three Guineas (1938)

The Death of the Moth and Other Essays (1942)

The Moment and Other Essays (1947)

The Captain’s Death Bed And Other Essays (1950)

Granite and Rainbow (1958)

Books and Portraits (1978)

Women And Writing (1979)

Collected Essays (four volumes)

[edit] DramaFreshwater: A Comedy (performed in 1923, revised in 1935, and published in 1976)

[edit] Autobiographical writings and diariesA Writer’s Diary (1953) – Extracts from the complete diary

Moments of Being (1976)

A Moment’s Liberty: the shorter diary (1990)

The Diary of Virginia Woolf (five volumes) – Diary of Virginia Woolf from 1915 to 1941

Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals, 1897–1909 (1990)

Travels With Virginia Woolf (1993) – Greek travel diary of Virginia Woolf, edited by Jan Morris

The Platform of Time: Memoirs of Family and Friends, Expanded Edition, edited by S. P. Rosenbaum (London, Hesperus, 2008)

[edit] LettersCongenial Spirits: The Selected Letters (1993)

The Letters of Virginia Woolf 1888–1941 (six volumes, 1975–1980)

Paper Darts: The Illustrated Letters of Virginia Woolf (1991)

[edit] Prefaces, contributionsSelections Autobiographical and Imaginative from the Works of George Gissing ed. Alfred C. Gissing, with an introduction by Virginia Woolf (London & New York, 1929)

[edit] BiographiesVirginia Woolf by Nigel Nicolson. New York, Penguin Group. 2000

Virginia Woolf: A Biography by Quentin Bell. New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972; Revised editions 1990, 1996

“Vanessa and Virginia” by Susan Sellers (

Two Ravens, 2008; Harcourt 2009) [Fictional biography of Woolf and her sister Vanessa Bell]

The Unknown Virginia Woolf by Roger Poole. Cambridge UP, 1978.

The Invisible Presence: Virginia Woolf and the Mother-Daughter Relationship by Ellen Bayuk Rosenman. Louisiana State University Press, 1986.

Virginia Woolf and the politics of style, by Pamela J. Transue. SUNY Press, 1986. ISBN 0887062865.

The Victorian heritage of Virginia Woolf: the external world in her novels, by Janis M. Paul. Pilgrim Books, 1987. ISBN 0937664731.

Virginia Woolf’s To the lighthouse, by Harold Bloom. Chelsea House, 1988. ISBN 1555460348.

Virginia Woolf: the frames of art and life, by C. Ruth Miller. Macmillan, 1988. ISBN 0333448804.

Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work by Louise DeSalvo. Boston: Little Brown, 1989

A Virginia Woolf Chronology by Edward Bishop. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1989.

A Very Close Conspiracy: Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf by Jane Dunn. Boston: Little, Brown, 1990

Virginia Woolf: A Writer’s Life by Lyndall Gordon. New York: Norton, 1984; 1991.

Virginia Woolf and war, by Mark Hussey. Syracuse University Press, 1991. ISBN 0815625375.

The Flight of the Mind: Virginia Woolf’s Art and Manic-Depressive Illness by Thomas D. Caramago. Berkeley: U of California Press, 1992

Virginia Woolf by James King. NY: W.W. Norton, 1994.

Art and Affection: A Life of Virginia Woolf by Panthea Reid. New York: Oxford UP, 1996.

Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee. New York: Knopf, 1997.

Granite and Rainbow: The Hidden Life of Virginia Woolf by Mitchell Leaska. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.

The Feminist Aesthetics of Virginia Woolf, by Jane Goldman. Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN 0521794587.

Virginia Woolf and the nineteenth-century domestic novel, by Emily Blair. SUNY Press, 2002. ISBN 0791471195.

Virginia Woolf: becoming a writer, by Katherine Dalsimer. Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 0300092083.

Virginia Woolf: The Will to Create as a Woman by Ruth Gruber. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005

My Madness Saved Me: The Madness and Marriage of Virginia Woolf by Thomas Szasz, 2006

Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life, by Julia Briggs. Harcourt, 2006. ISBN 0156032295.

The Bedside, Bathtub and Armchair Companion to Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury by Sarah M. Hall, Continuum Publishing, 2007

Virginia Woolf and the Visible World, by Emily Dalgarno. Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 0521033608,.

A Life of One’s Own: A Guide to Better Living through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf by Ilana Simons, New York: Penguin Press, 2007

Sudden Endings: 13 Profiles in Depth of Famous Suicides by M. J. Meaker, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1964, p. 250-269: “The Fatal Game: Virginia Woolf”.

[edit] Notes1.^ Smith College libraries biography of Julia Prinsep Stephen

2.^ Alan Bell, ‘Stephen, Sir Leslie (1832–1904)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006

3.^ a b Robert Meyer, 1998, Case Studies in Abnormal Behaviour, Allyn and Bacon

4.^ Christine Kenyon Jones and Anna Snaith, ‘“Tilting at Universities”: Woolf at King’s College London’, Woolf Studies Annual, volume 16, 2010, pages 1–44.”

5.^ Bell 1996: 44

6.^ Briggs, Virginia Woolf (2005), 69–70

7.^ Claire Messud (10 December 2006). “The Husband”. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Messud.t.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fFeatures%2fBooks%2fBook%20Reviews&oref=slogin. Retrieved 10 August 2008.

8.^ Boynton, Victoria and Malin, Jo (2005) Encyclopedia of Women’s Autobiography: K-Z Greenwood Press p580

9.^ Blamires, Harry (1983) A Guide to twentieth century literature in English Routledge p307 ISBN 978-0416364507

10.^ “Virginia Woolf”. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/vwoolf.htm. Retrieved 5 October 2007.

11.^ Haule, J. (1982). Melymbrosia: An Early Version of “The Voyage out”. Contemporary Literature, 23, 100–104.

12.^ a b Lee, Hermione: “Virginia Woolf.” Knopf, 1997.

13.^ “Critical Essays on Virginia Woolf”, Morris Beja, 1985, Introduction, p.1

14.^ “Critical Essays on Virginia Woolf”, Morris Beja, 1985, Introduction, p.1,3,53.

15.^ “Tales of abjection and miscegenation: Virginia Woolf’s and Leonard Woolf’s Jewish stories” Twentieth Century Literature, Fall, 2003 by Leena Kore Schroder, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0403/is_3_49/ai_n6130106/pg_17/

16.^ “Mr. Virginia Woolf”. Commentarymagazine.com. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/viewArticle.aip?id=10801&page=2. Retrieved 8 September 2008.

17.^ “The Letters of Virginia Woolf” Volume Five 1932–1935, Nigel Nicolson & Joanne Trautmann, 1979, p. 321.

18.^ a b “The Hours” DVD, “Special Features”, “The Mind and Times of Virginia Woolf”, 2003.

19.^ “Critical Essays on Virginia Woolf”, Morris Beja, 1985, p.13,53.

20.^ “Critical Essays on Virginia Woolf”, Morris Beja, 1985, p.15-17.

21.^ “The Novels of Virginia Woolf”, Hermione Lee, 1977, pp.138–157.

22.^ “Critical Essays on Virginia Woolf”, Morris Beja, 1985, p.19.

23.^ “Critical Essays on Virginia Woolf”, Morris Beja, 1985, p.24.

24.^ “From Clapham to Bloomsbury: a genealogy of morals”, Professor Gertrude Himmelfarb, 2001.

25.^ Panken, Shirley (1987). “”Oh that our human pain could here have ending” – Between the Acts”. Virginia Woolf and the “Lust of Creation”: a Psychoanalytic Exploration. SUNY Press. pp. 260–262. ISBN 9780887062001. http://books.google.com/?id=de4UyeBbCIwC&pg=PA260. Retrieved 13 August 2009.

26.^ Rose, Phyllis (1986). Woman of Letters: A Life of Virginia Woolf. Routledge. pp. 243. ISBN 0863580661. http://books.google.com/?id=Nco9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA243&dq=%22I+don%27t+think+two+people+could+have+been+happier+than+we+have+been.%22. Retrieved 24 September 2008.

27.^ “Mr. Virginia Woolf”. Commentarymagazine.com. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/cm/main/viewArticle.aip?id=10801. Retrieved 8 September 2008.

28.^ Frances Spalding (ed.), Virginia Woolf: Paper Darts: the Illustrated Letters, Collins & Brown, 1991, (ISBN 1-85585-046-X) (hb) & (ISBN 1-85585-103-2) (pb), pp. 139–140

[edit] External links Wikisource has original works written by or about: Virginia Woolf

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Virginia Woolf

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Virginia Woolf

Literature portal

Archival material relating to Virginia Woolf listed at the UK National Register of Archives

Works by Virginia Woolf at Project Gutenberg

Works by or about Virginia Woolf in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Biography of Virginia Woolf on the Yale Modernism Lab

Listen to Virginia Woolf’s BBC Broadcast (29 April 1937) ‘Words Fail Me’

Rare recordings of Virginia Woolf, Conan Doyle, and others

Monk’s House information at the National Trust

The Virginia Woolf Collection at the Victoria University Library Special Collections

[hide]v · d · eWorks by Virginia Woolf

Novels The Voyage Out · Night and Day · Jacob’s Room · Mrs Dalloway · To the Lighthouse · Orlando: A Biography · The Waves · The Years · Between the Acts

Short stories A Haunted House · A Society · Monday or Tuesday · An Unwritten Novel · The String Quartet · Blue & Green · Kew Gardens · The Mark on the Wall · The New Dress · The Duchess and the Jeweller

Biographies Flush: A Biography · Roger Fry: A Biography

Non-fiction Modern Fiction · The Common Reader · A Room of One’s Own · On Being Ill · The London Scene · The Second Common Reader · Three Guineas · The Death of the Moth and Other Essays · The Moment and Other Essays · Women and Writing

Bibliography of Virginia Woolf

Persondata

Name Woolf, Virginia

Alternative names Stephen, Virginia

Short description English novelist, essayist

Date of birth 25 January 1882

Place of birth London, England, UK

Date of death 28 March 1941

Place of death near Lewes, England, UK

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf”

Categories: Virginia Woolf
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Willis Group Holdings

Willis Group Holdings

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Willis Group Holdings
WillisLogo.png
Type Public (NYSE: WSH)
Industry Insurance broking; insurance, reinsurance, risk management, financial and human resource consulting, and actuarial services
Founded 1828, London
Headquarters The Willis Building,
London, United Kingdom
(Global headquarters)
Willis Tower,
Chicago, Illinois
(United States headquarters)
Key people Joe J. Plumeri, Chairman & CEO; Grahame J. Millwater,
Group President
Products Insurance, Risk management,
Human resource consulting
Revenue $2,834 million (2008)
Operating income $504 million (2008)
Net income $303 million (2008)
Employees 17,000
Website willis.com

Willis Group Holdings (NYSE: WSH) is a global insurance broker headquartered in the Willis Building, London, United Kingdom. It has more than 400 offices in 120 countries, and approximately 17,000 employees.[1] As of June 2010, the company had the third-highest insurance brokerage revenues in the world.[2][3]
The company acts as an intermediary between its clients and insurance carriers, advising its clients on risk management requirements, helping them determine the best way to manage risk, and negotiating and placing insurance risk with insurance carriers.[4] It has major clients in the aerospace, marine, construction, and energy industries.[5]
It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Contents

[hide]

[edit] History

The company was founded by Henry Willis in London in 1828, and initially operated as Henry Willis & Co.[6] In 1898 it merged with Faber Brothers (founded in 1886) to form Willis Faber,[6] and then in 1928 it merged with Dumas & Wylie (founded in 1843) to create Willis, Faber & Dumas.[6] It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1976 as Willis Faber.[6]
It expanded into the United States in 1990 when it merged with Corroon & Black (founded as R. A. Corroon & Co. in 1905) to form the Willis Corroon Group.[6] In 1998 in a leveraged buyout the Company was acquired by Trinity Acquisition on behalf of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts,[6]

and in 1999 the name Willis Group was adopted.[6] It was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001.[6]

Skyline view with Tower 42,
the Willis Building, 30 St Mary Axe,
and the Broadgate Tower, London

Willis moved into the Willis Building, its new London headquarters, in May 2008.[7]
In October 2008, Willis acquired Hilb, Rogal & Hobbs Co. (HRH), one of the largest insurance and risk management intermediaries in North America.[8]
The 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago was renamed the Willis Tower in July 2009. Willis secured the naming rights as part of its agreement to lease 140,000 square feet (13,000 m2) of space in the 3,800,000-square-foot (353,000 m2) tower.[9] It was the world’s tallest building from 1974 until 1998, when it was surpassed by the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[10]

Willis Tower, Chicago

Willis Group Holdings announced plans in 2009 to relocate its headquarters from Bermuda to Ireland.[11] Its shareholders approved the move in December 2009, and the company announced on December 31, 2009, that its reorganization has been completed and the new parent company of the Willis Group – known as Willis Group Holdings Public Limited Company – is incorporated in Ireland.[12][13]

[edit] Operations

Willis has 400 offices in 100 countries.[14]

[edit] External links

London portal
Companies portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ “Willis Group Holdings Fact Book”. Willis Group Holdings. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
  2. ^ Basic concepts of accounting and taxation of property/casualty insurance companies, Book 2009, p. 6, Insurance Information Institute, ISBN 0932387012. Retrieved July 13, 2010.
  3. ^ “.”. The Royal Gazette. October 12, 2009. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
  4. ^ Plunkett’s Insurance Industry Almanac 2006: The Only Complete Reference To The Insurance And Risk Management Industry, Jack W. Plunkett, Plunkett Research, Ltd., 2005, ISBN 1593920385, accessed December 17, 2009
  5. ^ Plunkett’s Insurance Industry Almanac 2007 (E-Book): Insurance Industry Market Research, Statistics, Trends and Leading Companies, Jack W. Plunkett, Plunkett Research, Ltd., 2006, ISBN 1593924054, accessed December 17, 2009
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Willis: History
  7. ^ Crunch? And the Willis building is sold, World Architecture News, May 13, 2008
  8. ^ Insurance broker Willis to buy HRH, Business Week, June 2008
  9. ^ “Willis Tower Becomes Official: Sears Tower Renamed”, Huffington Post, July 17, 2009
  10. ^ Fodor’s Chicago 2010, p. 125, Stephanie Butler, Kelly Kealy, Alexis Kelly, Random House, Inc., 2009, ISBN 1400008603, accessed December 17, 2009
  11. ^ Willis Proposes Change in Place of Incorporation to Ireland, Press Release
  12. ^ “Willis Investor Relations”, December 31, 2009
  13. ^ “Willis Group holders agree to move co. to Ireland”, Associated Press, December 11, 2009, accessed December 17, 2009
  14. ^ Willis: The Willis Way

January 11, 2011 Posted by | Business enterprises, Illinois | , , | Leave a comment

Good Times (Thelma, Florida, Esther, Roll, Michael, JJ)

Good Times

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Good Times (disambiguation).
Good Times
Good Times Title Screen.jpg
Good Times title screen
Genre Sitcom
Created by Eric Monte
Michael Evans
Directed by Gerren Keith
Herbert Kenwith
Bob LaHendro
Donald McKayle
Starring Esther Rolle
(Seasons 1–4, 6)
John Amos (Seasons 1–3)
Jimmie Walker
Ja'net Dubois
Bern Nadette Stanis
Ralph Carter
Johnny Brown
(Seasons 2–6)
Janet Jackson
(Seasons 5–6)
Ben Powers (Season 6)
Theme music composer Dave Grusin
Alan Bergman
Marilyn Bergman
Opening theme "Good Times" performed by Jim Gilstrap and Blinky Williams
Ending theme "Good Times"
Country of origin United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 6
No. of episodes 133 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Norman Lear (seasons 1-2)
Allan Manings (seasons 3-4)
Austin and Irma Kalish (season 5)
Norman Paul (season 6)
Producer(s) Allan Manings (season 1-2)
Jack Elinson (season 3)
Norman Paul (season 3)
Austin and Irma Kalish (season 4)
Lloyd Turner (season 5)
Gordon Mitchell (season 5)
Sid Dorfman (season 6)
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time 22–24 minutes
Production company(s) Bud Yorkin-Norman Lear-Tandem Productions, Inc.
Distributor PITS Films (1978–1982)
Embassy Telecommunications (1982–1986)
Embassy Communications (1986–1988)
Columbia Pictures Television (1988–1996)
Columbia TriStar Television (1996–2002)
Sony Pictures Television (2002–present)
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Original run February 8, 1974 – August 1, 1979
Status Ended
Chronology
Preceded by Maude

Good Times is an American sitcom that originally aired from February 8, 1974, until August 1, 1979, on the CBS television network. It was created by Eric Monte and Michael Evans and produced by Norman Lear. Good Times is a spin-off of Maude, which was itself a spin-off of All in the Family.
While the series was set in Chicago, all episodes of Good Times were produced in the Los Angeles area. The first two seasons were taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood. In the fall of 1975, the show moved to Metromedia Square, where Norman Lear's own production company was housed.

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Synopsis

Good Times is based on Eric Monte's childhood—although one of the main characters' name is "Michael Evans", which was the real name of co-creator Mike Evans, who portrayed Lionel Jefferson on the Norman Lear-produced series All in the Family and The Jeffersons.
The series stars Esther Rolle as Florida Evans and John Amos as her husband, James Evans, Sr. The characters originated on the sitcom Maude as Florida and Henry Evans, with Florida employed as Maude Findlay's housekeeper in Tuckahoe, New York and Henry employed as a firefighter. When producers decided to feature the Florida character in her own show, they applied retroactive changes to the characters' history. Henry's name became James, there was no mention of Maude, and the couple now lived in Chicago.
Florida and James Evans and their three children live in a rented project apartment, 17C, at 963 N. Gilbert Ave., in a housing project (implicitly the infamous Cabrini–Green projects, shown in the opening and closing credits but never mentioned by name on the show) in a poor, black neighborhood in inner-city Chicago. Florida and James' children were James, Jr., also known as "J.J." (Jimmie Walker), Thelma (Bern Nadette Stanis), and Michael (Ralph Carter). When the series began, J.J. and Thelma were seventeen and sixteen years old, respectively, and Michael, called "the militant midget" by his father due to his passionate activism, was eleven years old. Their exuberant neighbor, and Florida's best friend, was Willona Woods (played by Ja'net Dubois), a recent divorcée. Her adopted daughter Millicent "Penny" Woods (Janet Jackson) joined the show in the fifth season. Willona would affectionately call Michael Evans "Gramps", because of his wisdom.
As was the case on other Norman Lear sitcoms, the characters and subject matter in Good Times were a breakthrough for American television. Working class characters had been featured in sitcoms before (dating back at least to The Life of Riley), but never before had a weekly series featured African American characters living in such impoverished conditions. (Fred and Lamont Sanford of Sanford and Son, though they lived in the poor Watts area of Los Angeles, at least had their own home and business.)
Episodes of Good Times dealt with the characters' attempts to "get by" in a high rise project building in Chicago, despite all the odds stacked against them. When he was not unemployed, James Evans was a man of pride and would often say to his wife or family "I ain't accepting no hand-outs". He usually worked at least two jobs, many of them temporary such as a dishwasher or car washer, and when he had to he would gather his pool stick, much to Florida's disappointment, and sneak out and hustle up a few bucks as he struggled to provide for his family. Being a sitcom, however, the episodes were usually more uplifting and positive than they were depressing, as the Evans family stuck together and persevered.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Principal cast

[edit] Minor characters

  • Ned the Wino (Raymond Allen) – The local drunk who frequented the neighborhood and the apartment building where the Evans family reside. In the first-season episode "Black Jesus", J.J. uses Ned the Wino as the model for a portrait of Jesus. Another episode was centered around Michael's plan to "clean up" Ned and get him off the booze by letting him stay at the Evans' house.
  • Carl Dixon (Moses Gunn) – An atheist shop owner who marries the widowed Florida Evans following the final episode of Season 4. Carl and Florida do not appear in Season 5. Florida returns at the beginning of Season 6, without Carl, for Thelma's wedding. Carl is referenced briefly in the second episode of Season 6, but he is never mentioned again (Florida continues to use the surname Evans instead of Dixon).
  • "Sweet Daddy" Williams (Theodore Wilson) – A menacing neighborhood numbers runner and pimp, who has a reputation for wearing flashy clothing and jewelry. He is usually accompanied by bodyguards (one portrayed by Bubba Smith) and comes across as cool and threatening, but has shown a soft heart on occasion, particularly when he decided not to take an antique locket (to settle a debt) that Florida had given to Thelma because it had reminded him of his late mother.
  • Alderman Fred Davis (Albert Reed, Jr.) – A local politician with a slightly shady disposition. Spoofing President Richard M. Nixon, he would state in a speech "I am not a crook." He always relied on the support of the Evans family (his "favorite project family") for reelection or support (and usually threatened them with some type of adverse action if they did not agree). He always had James' support; J.J. supported him when he became of age to vote; the rest of the family did not particularly like him (J.J. would later come to despise him like the rest of the family). During the first season, he addressed Willona as "and you too, Willona." In later seasons, he would forget her name entirely and called her something else that began with a "W" (such as Wilhemina, Winnifrieda, Winsomnium and Wyomia), thus earning him her everlasting ire as well as the nickname "Baldy".
  • Lenny (Dap 'Sugar' Willie) – A neighborhood hustler and peddler who is always trying to sell items that are usually attached to the lining of his fur coat. He usually approaches people with a laid-back rap and a rhyme ("hey there mama, my name is Len-nay, if you buy from me I can save you a pen-nay" or "don't go to J. C. Pen-nay, just come and see Sweet Len-nay"). He will sell anything from watches to bedpans (out of his coat). Usually the person he approaches will ignore him or tell him to go away. He usually responds by saying "that's cold" or uses a small brush to "brush off" the negativity.
  • "Grandpa" Henry Evans (Richard Ward) – James' long lost father. He abandoned the family years before because he was ashamed that he could not do more to provide for them. This hurt James deeply, who disregarded his father's existence, telling everyone he was dead. Thelma learns about her grandfather while doing some family research. She meets him and invites him to the Evans' home to surprise James for his birthday, not knowing that James was well aware of his whereabouts but chose to stay out of his life. After Henry arrives at the Evans home and meets the rest of the family, he realizes that James would not welcome him in the home and decides to leave. Florida convinces him to stay and talk to James and explains that there may never be another chance to do so. Henry and James have a heart-to-heart talk, with Henry being remorseful and apologetic. James ultimately forgives his father. After James' death, the Evans family embraces Henry into the family, alongside his common law (and eventually legal) wife Lena in later episodes.
  • Wanda (Helen Martin) – Another resident in the apartment building where the Evans reside. Earlier episodes show her at a women's support group, and the tenants rallying around her by giving her a rent party. Later episodes show her appearing and crying at several funerals, whether she knew the person or not, thus earning her the nickname "Weeping Wanda" from J.J. and Willona.
  • Mrs. Gordon (Chip Fields) – Penny's abusive mother. Mrs. Gordon had been abandoned by Penny's father when she became pregnant. As a result, she took her anger and frustrations out on Penny. After the abuse was finally brought to light, Mrs. Gordon abandoned Penny, despite Willona's pleas to her to try and seek help. Just before she disappeared, Mrs. Gordon expressed regret for hurting her child, telling Willona that Penny deserved better than her. She reappeared more than a year later, having remarried, and she reveal that her new husband is from a very wealthy family. She uses her husband's wealth to send Penny anonymous gifts and also attempts to frame Willona, making Willona look like an unfit foster parent so Mrs. Gordon can resume custody of Penny. However, her scheme is exposed and Penny rejects her, telling Willona that no matter what anyone said, Penny would always consider Willona to be her real mother. Mrs. Gordon is devastated by this and leaves Penny with Willona, never to be seen again.
  • Cleatus (Jack Baker) – Cousin of J.J. Evans, Thelma Evans Anderson, and Michael Evans and nephew of Florida Evans and James Evans. He made one appearance in the episode "Cousin Cleatus".

[edit] Notable guest stars

  • Matthew "Stymie" Beard – The former Our Gang child actor appeared in five episodes, including four appearances as James' friend Monty.
  • Grand L. Bush – Appeared in a two-part storyline ("J.J.'s New Career"), playing the role of Leon, J.J.'s bully.
  • Robert Guillaume – Appeared as Fishbone the wino in the episode "Requiem for a Wino".
  • Jay Leno – Appeared in the third-season episode "J.J. in Trouble" which was one of the first times that the subject of STDs (then referred to as "VD") was addressed on a primetime television series.
  • Louis Gossett, Jr. – Appeared in Season 2 as Donald Knight, Thelma's much-older paramour. Florida and James objected to their relationship because of the age difference. Gossett appeared in a later episode as Uncle Wilbur (Florida's brother), who came from Detroit to look in on the family while James was away.
  • Alice Ghostley – Appeared in Season 5 as a social worker who was working on Penny being adopted by Willona.
  • Philip Michael Thomas – Appeared in Season 1 as Eddie, Thelma's college-aged boyfriend (while she was in high school). When Florida stumbles across Eddie's thesis titled "Sexual Behavior in the Ghetto," it ultimately causes an uproar within the Evans' household when it is learned that the thesis belongs to Thelma, and not J.J. as originally thought.
  • Gary Coleman – Appeared in two 1978 episodes as Gary, a sharp-tongued classmate of Penny's.
  • Kim Fields – Appeared in two episodes as Penny's friend, Kim. Kim is the real-life daughter of Chip Fields, who played Mrs. Gordon (mentioned above).
  • Carl Weathers – Husband of 'nude' model for J.J.'s painting.
  • Calvin Lockhart – Appeared as Florida's cousin Raymond, who earned his riches by betting on horses.
  • Debbie Allen – Appeared as J.J.'s drug-addicted fiancee, Diana.
  • Hal Williams – Appeared as one of the movers in a 1st season episode, James' friend Willy Washington in a 2nd season episode, and Mr. Mitchell, the father of Earl Mitchell, who was an art student of J.J.'s.
  • Charlotte Rae – Appeared as a hiring manager for a sales job that Florida stole from James.
  • Roscoe Lee Browne – Appeared as a shady televangelist named "Reverend Sam, the Happiness Man". He befriended James in the military and nearly recruits him for his crusade, against Florida's wishes.
  • Sorrell Booke – Appeared as Mr. Galbraith, J.J.'s boss at the ad agency.
  • Rosalind Cash – portrayed Thelma's teacher, Jessica Bishop, who becomes romantically involved with a much younger J.J.
  • Ron Glass – appeared as Michael's elementary school principal who met with James and Florida regarding busing Michael to another school. He also made an appearance as a blind encyclopedia salesman who tries to swindle the Evans family.

[edit] Initial success and ratings

The program premiered in February 1974; high ratings led CBS to renew the program for the 1974–1975 season, as it was the seventeenth-highest-rated program that year. During its first full season on the air, 1974–1975, the show was the seventh-highest-rated program in the Nielsen ratings and a quarter of the American television-viewing public tuned in to an episode during any given week. Three of the top ten highest-rated programs on American TV that season centered around the lives of African-Americans: Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, and Good Times.
Good Times's ratings declined over time, partly because of its many timeslot times. In its third season, the series was that season's twenty-fourth-highest-rated program. The ratings went down when the show had entered its final season, likely due to a Saturday night time slot:

[edit] Backstage tension

Almost from the premiere episode, J.J., an aspiring artist, was the public's favorite character on the show and his frequently-invoked catch phrase "Dy-no-mite" became very popular. As the series progressed through its second and third year Rolle and Amos, who played the Evans parents, grew increasingly disillusioned with the direction the show was taking as J.J.'s antics and stereotypically buffoonish behavior took precedence in the storylines. Rolle was rather vocal about disliking the character of J.J. in a 1975 interview with Ebony magazine.

"He's eighteen and he doesn't work. He can't read or write. He doesn't think. The show didn't start out to be that…Little by little—with the help of the artist, I suppose, because they couldn't do that to me—they have made J.J. more stupid and enlarged the role. Negative images have been slipped in on us through the character of the oldest child."[5]

 

Although doing so less publicly, Amos also was outspoken about his dissatisfaction with J.J.'s character. The ill feelings came to a head when it came time to negotiate Amos' contract in the summer of 1976, and he was dismissed from the series.

"The writers would prefer to put a chicken hat on J.J. and have him prance around saying "DY-NO-MITE", and that way they could waste a few minutes and not have to write meaningful dialogue."[6][7]

 

[edit] Departure of John Amos and Esther Rolle

Husband-and-wife team Austin and Irma Kalish were hired to oversee the day-to-day running of the show, replacing Allan Manings, who had become executive producer when he was also working on another Lear sitcom, One Day at a Time. The Kalishes and Manings, as script supervisors, threw ideas to writers Roger Shulman, John Baskin, and Bob Peete, and eventually penned an exit for Amos's character.
At the beginning of the 1976–1977 season in the episode "The Big Move", the family was packing to move from the ghetto to a better life in Mississippi where James had found a job as a partner in a garage. At the end of the first episode that season, Florida learned via a telegram (which, at first, she thought was to congratulate her on her move) that James was killed in a car accident. It was the following episode in which, after spending most of the episode refusing to acknowledge and fully mourn James' death, she smashed a glass bowl on the floor and uttered her famous line: "Damn, damn, DAMN!". The show continued without a father, which was something Rolle did not want to pursue. One of the primary appeals of the project for her had been the presentation it initially offered of the strong black father leading his family. However, she stayed on hoping that the loss of the father's character would necessitate a shift in J.J.'s character, as J.J. would now become the man of the family. The writers did not take this approach; if anything, J.J.'s foolishness increased. Wanting no further part in such depictions, by the summer of 1977, Rolle left the series. She was written out as marrying and moving to Arizona with her new love interest, Carl Dixon (Moses Gunn).
Despite this, Good Times still performed well in the Nielsen ratings, ranking at number 26 for the 1976-77 season, making its fourth year breaking the top 30 rated programs.

[edit] Final seasons

With Amos and Rolle gone, Ja'net Du Bois took over as the star, as Willona checked in on the Evans children as they were now living alone. New characters were added or had their roles expanded: Johnny Brown as the overweight building superintendent Nathan Bookman, formerly a recurring character, became a regular; Ben Powers as Thelma's husband Keith Anderson; and Janet Jackson as Penny Gordon Woods, an abused girl adopted by Willona. Many viewers defected from the series, and the fifth season ranked only at number 39.
For the sixth and final season, Esther Rolle agreed to return to the show. There were several conditions, one was that the Carl Dixon character be written out as if he had never existed. Rolle disliked the storyline surrounding the Carl Dixon character, as she believed Florida would not have moved on so quickly after James' death. Rolle also thought the writers had disregarded Florida's devout Christian beliefs having her fall for and marry Carl, who was an atheist. Other conditions of her return were that she would have a greater say in the storyline, J.J. would become a more respectable character, and that she would receive a raise in her salary.
Despite Rolle's return, viewers did not. CBS moved the series to Saturday nights in the fall of 1978, furthering the decline in ratings. Production ended in early 1979 after the final season ranked only 45th in the ratings.
The last original episode of Good Times aired in August 1979. In a finale atypical of the series in general, each character finally had a "happy ending." J.J. got his big break as an artist for a comic book company, after years of the audience waiting for such a development; his newly-created character, DynoWoman, was based on Thelma. Michael attended college and moved into an on-campus dorm. Keith's bad knee miraculously healed, leading to the Chicago Bears offering him a contract to play football. Keith and (a newly pregnant) Thelma moved to a luxury apartment in Chicago's upscale Gold Coast area and offered Florida the chance to move in with them (and her future grandchild). Willona became the head buyer of the boutique she worked in; she and Penny moved into the same luxury building and, once again, became Florida's downstairs neighbors.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Good Times episodes

[edit] Theme song and opening

The gospel-inspired theme song was composed by Dave Grusin with lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman. It was sung by Jim Gilstrap and Blinky Williams.
The lyrics to the theme song are notorious for being hard to discern, notably the line "Hanging in a chow line"/"Hanging in and jiving" (depending on the source used). Dave Chappelle used this part of the lyrics as a quiz in his "I Know Black People" skit on Chappelle's Show in which the former was claimed as the answer.[8] The insert for the Season One DVD box set has the lyric as "hangin' in a chow line". However, the Bergmans confirmed that the lyric is actually "hanging in and jiving."[8]
Initial seasons featured the theme song played over stark visuals of an economically depressed Chicago neighborhood (in similar fashion to most of Norman Lear's other sitcoms of the time, which also depicted the characters' neighborhoods, using real footage of the cities in which they were set), before zooming in on a window of a housing project and then cutting to a painting of an African American family. Later seasons used the same theme song recording, but showed clips from various episodes, as the actors were credited.

[edit] Awards and nominations

Year Award Result Category Recipient
1975 Golden Globe Award Nominated Best TV Actress – Musical/Comedy Esther Rolle
Best Supporting Actor – Television Jimmie Walker
1976 Nominated Best Supporting Actor – Television Jimmie Walker
1975 Humanitas Prize Nominated 30 Minute Category John Baskin and Roger Shulman
(For episode "The Lunch Money Ripoff")
30 Minute Category Bob Peete
(For episode "My Girl Henrietta")
2003 TV Land Award Nominated Catchiest Classic TV Catch Phrase
(Dy-no-mite!)		 –
2005 Nominated Favorite Catch Phrase –
2006 Won Impact Award John Amos, Ralph Carter, Ja'net DuBois, BernNadette Stanis, and Jimmie Walker

[edit] Syndication

The cable network TV One (which can be seen on most cable systems as well as DirecTV) currently airs the show.
The sitcom has also aired regularly on TV Land. It first aired as a 48-hour marathon the weekend of July 23, 2005, with two more marathons following on the weekends of November 26, 2005, and May 6, 2006. However, TV Land airs the version of episodes that were edited for syndication, while TV One airs the original edits, as they were shown on during its CBS primetime run, albeit digitally-remastered.
In late 2006 or early 2007, Good Times was pulled from the TV Land lineup along with several other shows (most notably Happy Days) to make room for new programming. The show returned in mid-February with a 48-hour weekend marathon. However, the show has now returned to the TV Land lineup, airing weekday mornings 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM EST.
Good Times is also seen in Canada on DejaView, a specialty cable channel from Canwest. A selection of full episodes of the show is available to Canadians for free on GlobalTV.com
Minisodes of the show are available for free on Crackle.

[edit] DVD releases

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 between February 2003 and August 2006, with a complete box set following the separate seasons on October 28, 2008.

DVD Name Ep # Release Date
The Complete First Season 13 February 4, 2003
The Complete Second Season 24 February 3, 2004
The Complete Third Season 24 August 10, 2004
The Complete Fourth Season 23 February 15, 2005
The Complete Fifth Season 24 August 23, 2005
The Complete Sixth Season 24 August 1, 2006
The Complete Series 133 October 28, 2008

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://classictvhits.com/tvratings/1973.htm
  2. ^ http://classictvhits.com/tvratings/1974.htm
  3. ^ http://classictvhits.com/tvratings/1975.htm
  4. ^ http://classictvhits.com/tvratings/1976.htm
  5. ^ "Bad Times on the Good Times Set", Ebony, September 1975
  6. ^ Mitchell, John L. (2006-04-14). "Plotting His Next Big Break". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2006-05-24. Retrieved 2006-07-25.
  7. ^ Ingram, Billy. "Good Times?". tvparty.com. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  8. ^ a b "Backstage with… Alan and Marilyn Bergman". Time Out New York. 2007-02-01. Retrieved 2007-07-31.

[edit] External links

[show]v · d · eAll in the Family
[show]v · d · eShows produced or created by Norman Lear

January 11, 2011 Posted by | Entertainment, G, Uncategorized | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Isabel Sanford (Louise)

Isabel Sanford

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Isabel Sanford

with Sherman Hemsley on The Jeffersons, 1975
Born Eloise Gwendolyn Sanford
August 29, 1917
New York City, New York,
United States
Died July 9, 2004 (aged 86)
Los Angeles, California,
United States
Occupation Actress
Years active 1967—2004
Spouse William Edward (Sonny) Richmond (?-1960) (his death) 3 children

Isabel Sanford (August 29, 1917 – July 9, 2004) was an American actress best known for her role as Louise “Weezy” Jefferson on the CBS television sitcoms All in the Family (1971–1975) and The Jeffersons (1975–1985).

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Biography

[edit] Career

Born Eloise Gwendolyn Sanford in New York City, New York, to parents James Edward Sanford and the former Josephine Perry. Sanford was the first African-American actress to win a Lead Actress Emmy Award (for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1981), and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and received an honorary doctorate degree from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.
During the 1960s, Sanford worked in the theatre industry, and in 1967 she made her film debut in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, playing the critically acclaimed role of the maid Tillie Binks. She caught the attention of major Hollywood players, including Norman Lear, who cast Sanford in the role of Louise Jefferson in All in the Family. She almost turned down the role after receiving a bucket of fried chicken in her dressing room, which in those days was a racist stereotype as a favorite food of African-Americans. Norman Lear assured her that it was a genuine gift, and she eventually agreed to play the part. Sanford and her TV husband, Sherman Hemsley, were so popular that The Jeffersons was spun off into its own series.
After production of The Jeffersons ended in 1985, Sanford realized that she and Hemsley were typecast by their Jeffersons’ roles. Sanford was mostly limited to guest TV appearances and cameo appearances in movies, appearing in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Dream On, Roseanne, Living Single, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, In the House and The Steve Harvey Show, as well as the extremely short-lived 1992 CBS Hearts Are Wild (similar to Love Boat). She also did voice acting for The Simpsons in her final television appearance before her death.
She has also done several voices on three other cartoon shows including Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo and Pepper Ann.
Sanford also appeared with Sherman Hemsley in a series of advertisements for Denny’s and Old Navy. Such was their compatibility and credibility as a married couple that no one seemed to notice or care that Sanford was twenty years older than Hemsley. She and Hemsley also made a cameo appearances in films such as Sprung and Mafia!

[edit] Death

Sanford died on July 9, 2004, of cardiac arrest and heart disease at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. She was a month and a half away from her 87th birthday and was interred at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles.
For her contribution to the television industry, Isabel Sanford has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard.

[edit] Filmography

Film
Year Film Role Other notes
1967 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Tillie
1968 The Young Runaways Sarah
1969 Pendulum Effie
The Comic Woman
1970 The Red, White, and Black Isabel Taylor
1972 The New Centurions Wilma
Hickey & Boggs Nyona’s Mother
Lady Sings the Blues The Madame
Up the Sandbox Maria
1974 The Photographer Mrs. Slade
1979 Love At First Bite Judge R. Thomas
1981 Desperate Moves Dottie Butz
1990 Pucker Up and Bark Like a Dog Joanna
1992 South Beach Mama
1996 Original Gangstas Gracie Bookman
1997 Sprung Sista #1
1998 Jane Austen’s Mafia! Mrs. Louise Jefferson Uncredited
2000 Click Three Times Dorothy
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1968 Bewitched Aunt Jenny 1 episode
The Mod Squad Lillian 1 episode
1970 Daniel Boone Maybelle 1 episode
1971 The Bill Cosby Show Bertha 1 episode
The Interns Dr. Hearn 1 episode
1971–1972 Love, American Style 2 episodes
1971–1979 All in the Family Louise Jefferson 26 episodes
1972 The Mary Tyler Moore Show Mrs. Wilson 1 episode
1972 Wait Till Your Father Gets Home Betsy (voice) 1 episode
1973 Temperatures Rising 1 episode
1974 Kojak Grace 1 episode
1978 Vega$ Mae 1 episode
1975–1985 The Jeffersons Louise Jefferson 251 episodes
1979 Supertrain Reba 1 episode
1980–1983 The Love Boat Tanya, Isaac’s Aunt 2 episodes
1986 Crazy Like a Fox 1 episode
The New Mike Hammer Mama Vibes 1 episode
1987 Isabel’s Honeymoon Hotel Isabel Scott Unknown episodes
1988 A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Additional voices Episode A Bicycle Built for Boo!
1993 Dream On Judge Isabel Kohner 1 episode
Living Single Eunetta Ryan 1 episode
1994 Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper Judge 1 episode
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Ms. Duffy 1 episode
1995 Roseanne Louise Jefferson, TV Mom #3 1 episode
In the House Nanna 2 episodes
1995–1996 The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Louise ‘Weezy’ Jefferson 2 episodes
1996 The Steve Harvey Show Mother Hightower 1 episode
1997 Teen Angel Laurie 1 episode
1998 Pepper Ann Bernice (voice) 1 episode
2001 The Parkers Evelyn ‘Nana’ Smith 1 episode
2002 The Young and the Restless Sylvia 1 episode
2004 The Simpsons Herself 1 episode
2004 Candid Camera Mrs. Jefferson 1 episode

[edit] Awards and nominations

Year Award Result Category Film or series
1979 Emmy Award Nominated Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series The Jeffersons
1980 Nominated Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series The Jeffersons
1981 Won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series The Jeffersons
1982 Nominated Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series The Jeffersons
1983 Nominated Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series The Jeffersons
1984 Nominated Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series The Jeffersons
1985 Nominated Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series The Jeffersons
1977 Golden Globe Award Nominated Best TV Actress – Musical/Comedy The Jeffersons
1978 Nominated Best TV Actress – Musical/Comedy The Jeffersons
1983 Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series – Comedy/Musical The Jeffersons
1984 Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series – Comedy/Musical The Jeffersons
1985 Nominated Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series – Comedy/Musical The Jeffersons
2004 TV Land Awards Won Favorite Cantankerous Couple The Jeffersons (Shared with Sherman Hemsley)

[edit] References

Kathryn Shattuck (13 July 2004). “Isabel Sanford, 86, Actress Who Portrayed Mrs. Jefferson, Dies”. The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-03-19.

[edit] External links

[hide]v · d · ePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Comedy Series
Mary Tyler Moore (1976) · Beatrice Arthur (1977) · Jean Stapleton (1978) · Ruth Gordon (1979) · Cathryn Damon (1980) · Isabel Sanford (1981) · Carol Kane (1982) · Shelley Long (1983) · Jane Curtin (1984) · Jane Curtin (1985) · Betty White (1986) · Rue McClanahan (1987) · Beatrice Arthur (1988) · Candice Bergen (1989) · Candice Bergen (1990) · Kirstie Alley (1991) · Candice Bergen (1992) · Roseanne Barr (1993) · Candice Bergen (1994) · Candice Bergen (1995) · Helen Hunt (1996) · Helen Hunt (1997) · Helen Hunt (1998) · Helen Hunt (1999) · Patricia Heaton (2000)
Categories: 1917 births | 2004 deaths | Actors from New York City | African American film actors | African American television actors | American film actors | American television actors | American voice actors | Cardiovascular disease deaths in California | Emmy Award winners | Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) | People from Manhattan

January 11, 2011 Posted by | Entertaiment, I, Uncategorized | , | Leave a comment

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