Bathroom Readers' Institute's Blog, page 117

4 Weird Things Alan Thicke Did

Alan Thicke, the sitcom dad from Growing Pains turns 68 this week. And he’s had a much more varied career than one might imagine.

He produced cult TV comedy shows.

The loopy soap opera parody Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was an unlikely TV smash in 1977. When it took a summer break in July 1977 (they needed one—it ran five times a week, like a real soap), the replacement was Fernwood 2 Night, a talk show parody set in the same fictional small town as Mary Hartman. TV juggernaut Norman Lear created it, but he hired Alan Thicke to be the show’s producer and head writer. At the time, Thicke had just one credit to his name: producing the game show The Wizard of Odds.

He wrote classic TV theme songs.

In addition to hosting and producing all kinds of TV, Thicke was a songwriter. Thicke specialized in jaunt game show theme songs: he penned songs for The Joker’s Wild, The Diamond Head Game, and Stumpers! You’ve more likely heard his songwriting work for the themes to Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life.

He was the Johnny Carson of Canada

In 1980, longtime Canadian talk show host Alan Hamel left his show, and Thicke replaced him. The newly renamed The Alan Thicke Show was a massive hit, the most popular talk show in Canada. In short, Thicke was the Johnny Carson of Canada (or at least Merv Griffin—the show aired in the daytime). Thicke was so popular that highlights were culled into a weekly primetime TV show called Prime Cuts. The show ended abruptly when Thicke was hired by MGM Television to move his show to American TV.

He tried to take on Johnny Carson

In 1983, Thicke of the Night debuted in syndication, the first major competitor in over a decade to Carson’s dominant The Tonight Show. The blend of talk show and sketch comedy (similar to what Conan O’Brien would do years later with his show) did not make a dent in Carson’s ratings, and the show was gone after just nine months. Two notable guests, however: John Javna and Gordon Javna, talking about their 1960s nostalgia book ’60s! The Javnas would later go on to start some book series called Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.

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4 People You Probably Didn’t Know Were Oscar Winners

The “Best Live Action Short Film” award at the Oscars has made Academy Award winners out of some notable names.

Peter Capaldi

Today, he’s best known as the latest actor to play the titular role on the long-running sci-fi series Doctor Who, and before that starred in the cult comedy shot The Thick of It. In 1993, the 36-year-old actor made a comic short for BBC Scotland called Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life, which was about Kafka trying to write The Metamorphosis.

Steven Wright

Wright was one of the most dominant stand-up comedians of the ‘80s. That was because of his singular, deadpan delivery of witty, observational one-liners. (E.g. “What’s another word for ‘thesaurus’?” and “Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.”) Wright was a co-winner of the 1989 Oscar for Live Action Short Film for “The Appointments of Dennis Jennings,” which concerns a very neurotic man and his disrespectful psychiatrist. (Wright plays the neurotic man.)

Christine Lahti

In 1996, Lahti was a well-known TV actress, at the time starring on the hit medical drama Chicago Hope. That year she won an Oscar for Best Short Subject for directing “Lieberman in Love,” a 39-minute short film she also starred in. Based on a short story by Canadian author W.P. Kinsella, the author had no idea that the film had even been made, and only found out about it when he was watching the Oscars and it won.

Taylor Hackford

Before he directed An Officer and a Gentleman in 1982, and before he directed Ray in 2004 (and got a Best Director nomination), and before he married Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren in 1994, Taylor Hackford won an Oscar in 1979 for his short film “Teenage Father.” It’s about, well, a teenage father.

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Ask Uncle John Anything: You Can’t Fire Me, I’ve Got Tenure

Uncle John knows pretty much everything—and if he doesn’t, he heads his massive research library, or puts one of his many associates on the case. So go ahead: In the comments below, ask Uncle John anything. (And if we answer your question sometime, we’ll send you a free book!)

What does it mean when a college professor has “tenure”? Can they really not be fired?

Tenure doesn’t come instantly. It’s a privilege bestowed on teachers or professors after several years of a high-quality job performance at a school, college, or institution as a reward—generally after three, or five years.

Tenure is job security, but it’s not absolute job security. Tenure means that a job is guaranteed, if there’s a job available. For example, if a school cuts positions, the remaining positions are filled from a list of the most tenured instructor, on down the line until the positions are filled.

It’s a myth that a tenured professor can do whatever they want and not get fired. A tenured professor or teacher is guaranteed a hearing rather than outright dismissal for any wrongdoing. And even then, those accusations and the subsequent hearing must be met with substantial proof that the professor did something wrong. Tenure in this regard is a “fair shot,” not bulletproof status.

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3 TV Shows That Wrapped Up on Other TV Shows

Some long-running shows don’t get a finale…until we find out what happened to them on other TV shows. Weird? Confusing? Totally.

My Name is Earl

My Name is Earl ran on NBC from 2005 to 2009, but viewers never found out whether or not Earl completed his long list of good deeds he felt he needed to do to restore “good karma” with the universe. Creator Greg Garcia went on to make Raising Hope for Fox. On the second episode of that series in 2010, there’s a background shot of a TV news show, announcing that a local man had completed a list of good deeds in order to set his life straight.

Dharma & Greg

When Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen had a public meltdown in 2011, which included criticizing his show, his costars, and creator Chuck Lorre, he left the show, and his character, Charlie Harper was killed off. The other characters try to sell his house, and among the buyers are Dharma and Greg, the title characters from Lorre’s 1997–2002 sitcom. Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson reprise their roles as the mismatched married couple. They opt not to buy the house, and an overworked Greg hints that he wants to either divorce his wife or die (making a “shoot me” gesture at his own head).

The George Lopez Show

The George Lopez Show aired for five years on ABC, from 2002 to 2007. It was abruptly cancelled, which didn’t allow for a wrap-up episode. Lopez went on to host a TBS talk show called Lopez Tonight, where he staged a cast reunion in 2010 to give the show a “proper” finale. Well, he might have been kidding. The sitcom wraps up by revealing that it was all just a dream, albeit in the mind of Doug Heffernan, Kevin James’ character from another sitcom that ended in 2007, The King of Queens. Heffernan is portrayed by…George Lopez.

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8 More Bits of Oscar Trivia

Uncle John has an inside line to winning your Oscar pool—knowing Oscar movie trivia!

Best Picture nominee American Sniper has to date earned $307.1 million at the box office. The other seven nominees have earned $293.5 million…combined.


Morten Dylum, who directed The Imitation Game, is the first Norwegian ever nominated for Best Director.


Four out of five of the nominees for Best Actor portray actual people. The fifth is almost real: Batman star Michael Keaton plays an actor who is best known for starring as a superhero named Birdman in Birdman.


Two of the five nominees for Best Supporting Actor—Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo—have played the Incredible Hulk onscreen. Norton in The Incredible Hulk, and Ruffalo in The Avengers.


Ethan Hawke is primarily known as an actor, and this year he earned his second Best Supporting Actor nomination for Boyhood. He already has two screenwriting nominations, for Before Sunset and Before Midnight.


Robert Duvall got his seventh lifetime nomination for The Judge. At age 84, he’s the oldest actor ever nominated for Best Supporting Actor.


Selma received just two nominations, for Best Song and Best Picture. If it wins Best Picture, it will be one of only three movies to win the big prize without a screenplay nomination. The other two: Titanic and The Sound of Music.

For more movie trivia, check out Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into Hollywood.

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Where the Polar Bears Roam

Winter weather getting you down? Well, at least you don’t live in Kaktovik.

Life in Kaktovik, Alaska, can definitely be harsh. The town, which sits along the Beaufort Sea on Barter Island, remains fairly isolated from the rest of the world. The livelihoods of its 200+ residents are dependent upon the hunting of wild caribou and whales, the latter of which is heavily regulated. The temperature drops into the negative 20s in the winter, and oh, there’s also the polar bears.

Due to the effects of climate change, polar bears that once roamed the icy expanses of the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have increasingly started showing up in town. It’s now not uncommon to see them nonchalantly strolling down the streets.

While some of the locals have cashed in on the phenomenon and now offer “polar bear tours” to everyone from journalists and scientists to curious tourists, others are terrified of having a nasty run-in with one of the gigantic critters. The average adult male polar bear can weigh anywhere between 770 and 1540 pounds. They also tend to get pretty grumpy whenever a pesky human comes between them and a meal.

The town is legally allowed to harvest three bowhead whales every year. Until the bears started showing up, many residents left large chunks of meat outside their homes to age. That’s no longer an option. The bears have also discovered the spot where local butchers dump the bones, blubber, and other scraps from the whales. They’ve since turned it into their own personal buffet. The current record for most bears spotted in a single day in Kaktovik: 80.

To help prevent the hungry critters from becoming full-time residents, Kaktovik now has its own polar bear patrol. The squad typically goes in search of the bears every evening and attempts to chase them away with trucks (and the occasional warning shot from a shotgun). Despite their efforts, this hasn’t prevented a few of the bears from breaking into area homes. One resident found two cubs raiding his cellar in the autumn of 2013 and, well, his home is now decorated with their hides.

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The Thing$ We Do For Love

Some people display their affection with a greeting card or a box of chocolates but these folks went to some pretty insane lengths to show how much they adored their sweeties.

A Stroll Around Africa

Ewart Grogan, served as an English politician, was nearly convicted for murder, and managed to become both a successful businessman and a famed explorer. Grogan is also the first person in history to walk the entire length of the African continent. After getting booted out of two universities, he fell madly in love with a girl named Gertrude Watt. Her stepfather wasn’t keen on her marrying a college dropout and demanded that Grogan do something to prove his character. The two men agreed that walking around Africa would somehow be an appropriate way to demonstrate that he was a suitable suitor. He set out from Cape Town and finished his journey 2.5 years later in 1900. His adventures led to a book deal, membership in the Royal Geographic Society, a meeting with Queen Victoria…and Gertrude’s hand in marriage.

The Wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles

Adjusted for inflation, the 1981 nuptials of one of the 20th century’s most famous couples cost $110 million. So what did all of that buy Charles and Diana? An elaborate, “puff ball” wedding dress with a 25-foot train of ivory taffeta and antique lace for the bride and a lavish ceremony in London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral to go along with it. The reception featured 27 cakes. The five-foot tall “main cake” took 14 weeks to prepare, as did a duplicate that was prepared in case the first one had an unfortunate accident. But, like they say, money can’t buy you love—they divorced 14 years later.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

It’s listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World but historians still bicker over whether or not this famous garden actually existed. According to legend, at least, Babylon’s Queen Amytis was feeling pretty homesick around 600 BC. She was forced to marry King Nebuchadnezzar II for political reasons and she completely hated his desert kingdom. She pinned instead for the lush, mountainous landscapes of her native Media. To help her feel more at home and win her heart, Nebuchadnezzar commissioned the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Its gorgeous terraces were said to seemingly float on air and featured countless exotic plants.

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6 Interesting Facts About ‘The Daily Show’

Jon Stewart recently announced his departure from The Daily Show after 16 years and a few thousand episodes. Here are some interesting facts you may not know about The Daily Show.

Stewart so made the show so singular that it’s easy to forget that he wasn’t the first host of The Daily Show. It debuted in the summer of 1996, hosted by former sportscaster Craig Kilborn. The show focused less on politics and satire and primarily sent up entertainment news shows and fluffy newsmagazines.


During the Kilborn era, one of the show’s key segments involved bizarre, and often cruel, segments involving eccentric people all across America. Many of them weren’t in on the joke and were often convinced they were being interviewed by real journalists. Stephen Colbert, who got his big break by serving as a fake reporter on the show in the Kilborn era, once said, “You wanted to take your soul off, put it on a wire hanger, and leave it in the closet before you got on the plane to do one of these pieces.”


Jon Stewart took over in 1999 after Kilborn departed to host The Late Late Show on CBS. Among the hosts he beat out for the job? Jon Stewart, who had hosted a failed talk show on MTV.

The Daily Show

Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

 

The show went on hiatus during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. When it returned to the airwaves during the final weeks of the strike, it was briefly renamed A Daily Show With Jon Stewart. To support the efforts of his writers, Stewart ad-libbed most of his material and the show relied on previously recorded segments.


While the show isn’t a real newscast, Stewart was determined the winner of a 2009 poll conducted by Time magazine to determine America’s most trusted newscaster.


In addition to helping launch the career of Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show also served as the launching pad for Steve Carell, who served as a correspondent for five years. Other famous comedians who have appeared as contributors or correspondents on the show include: Kristen Schaal, John Oliver, Lewis Black, John Hodgman, and Olivia Munn.

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Music Trivia: 4 Music Videos Released Way, Way Late

Bands make music videos to make people aware of their latest single. Well, usually. Here is a bit of music trivia about a handful of videos released much later than usual.

“Night Moves”

To promote a greatest hits album in 1994, Bob Seger did something kind of strange: he shot a video for “Night Moves,” a song initially released in 1976. A big hit on MTV and VH1, it starred Daphne Zuniga of Melrose Place and Matt LeBlanc, just a few months before he’d become a huge star on Friends.

“Estranged”

In 1991 and 1992 Guns N’ Roses released sprawling, cinematic, big-budget videos for “Don’t Cry” and “November Rain,” respectively to promote its double album Use Your Illusion I and II. Both were based on short stories written by Del James, the band’s road manager, as was the third part of the trilogy, a video for the Use Your Illusion single “Estranged.” But it wasn’t released until late 1993…confusingly, in order promote the band’s newest album, The Spaghetti Incident?

“96 Tears”

? and the Mysterians released the garage rock classic “96 Tears” in 1966, and it went to #1. Music videos weren’t really around then, and it took the band until 1997 to shoot a video for the song. Why? By then the band had lost the rights to their masters, so they re-recorded all of their old songs, including “96 Tears,” trying to make them sound exactly like the originals. Then they released them, and promoted the album with a video.

“Space Oddity”

The world had “moon fever” in 1969, brought on by Apollo 11’s lunar landing.

Despite that, David Bowie couldn’t gain any traction with “Space Oddity,” a song about an astronaut losing contact with Ground Control. Three years later, RCA Records bought the rights to Bowie’s back catalog and re-released “Space Oddity” along with a video. This time the song went to #1 in England and #15 in the U.S.

For more music trivia, check out Uncle John’s Plunges into Music.

 

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5 Radio Shack Facts

They don’t sell too many radios any more, but Radio Shack is still hanging in there…just barely.

Radio Shack filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. Store closures were expected and the hammer came down on Feb. 9: the chain will be closing a whopping 1,784 stores by the end of March, including 162 by mid-February. But the chain has so saturated the company that even with that many stores closing—one of the largest in retail history—there will still be 2,513 stores left open.

The company was founded as a mail-order business in Boston in 1921 by brothers Theodore and Milton Deutschmann as a ham radio supply company. By 1960, it was a nine-store chain.

The 2015 bankruptcy is not the first time Radio Shack has been in trouble. In 1962, the company was selling $14 million worth of radio gear, as well as speakers and antennas, but was still losing money. The hobby goods company Tandy bought Radio Shack, closed the mail-order business, and reduced the store’s inventory from 40,000 to 2,500 items. It saved the company, and allowed for rapid store growth.

The chain grew fast in the 1970s, in part because of its “free battery card,” entitling customers to free batteries once a month, as well as being a principal retail supplier of those looking to get in on the CB radio fad.

As of the last few years, electronics weren’t the company’s biggest source of revenue anymore (long ago overtaken by “big box” retailers like Circuit City and Best Buy). More than half of its business came from the sales of cheap cellular phones.

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