title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam has a reputation for being a platform for architectural development and education through the Berlage Institute, a postgraduate laboratory of architecture, and the NAi (Netherlands Architecture Institute), which is open to the public and has a variety of exhibitions on architecture and urban planning issues.


title: Rotterdam

text: Over 30 new highrise projects are being developed. A Guardian journalist wrote in 2013 that "All this is the consequence of the city suffering a bombardment of two things: bombs and architects."


title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam calls itself "Sportstad" (City of Sports). The city annually organises several world-renowned sporting events. Some examples are the Rotterdam Marathon, the World Port Tournament, and the Rotterdam World Tennis Tournament. Rotterdam also organises one race of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship and the car racing event Monaco aan de Maas (Monaco at the Meuse).


title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam is the home of three professional football clubs, being first tier clubs Feyenoord, Sparta and Excelsior.


title: Rotterdam

text: Feyenoord, founded in 1908 and the dominant of the three professional clubs, has won fifteen national titles since the introduction of professional football in the Netherlands. It won the Champions league as the first Dutch club in 1970 and won the World Cup for club teams in the same year. In 1974, they were the first Dutch club to win the UEFA Cup and in 2002, Feyenoord won the UEFA Cup again. In 2008, the year of their 100-year-anniversary, Feyenoord won the KNVB-cup.


title: Rotterdam

text: Seating 51,480, its 1937 stadium, called "Stadion Feijenoord" but popularly known as De Kuip ('the Tub'), is the second-largest in the country, after the Amsterdam Arena. De Kuip, located in the southeast of the city, has hosted many international football games, including the final of Euro 2000 and has been awarded a FIFA 5 star ranking. There are concrete plans to build a new stadium with a capacity of at least 63,000 seats.


title: Rotterdam

text: Sparta, founded in 1888 and situated in the northwest of Rotterdam, won the national title six times; Excelsior (founded 1902), in the northeast, has never won any.


title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam has its own annual international marathon, which offers one of the fastest courses in the world. From 1985 until 1998, the world record was set in Rotterdam, first by Carlos Lopes and later in 1988 by Belayneh Densamo.


title: Rotterdam

text: In 1998, the world record for women was set by Tegla Loroupe, in a time of 2:20.47. Loroupe won the Rotterdam Marathon three consecutive times, from 1997 to 1999.


title: Rotterdam

text: The track record for men is held by Bashir Abdi, who ran a time of 2:03.36 in 2021. The female record was set in 2012 when Tiki Gelana finished the race in 2:18.58. Gelana went on to become the 2012 Olympic champion in London, a few months later.


title: Rotterdam

text: The marathon starts and ends on the "Coolsingel" in the heart of Rotterdam. It attracts a total of 900.000 visitors.


title: Rotterdam

text: Since 1972, Rotterdam hosts the indoor hard court ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, part of the ATP Tour. The event was first organised in 1972 when it was won by Arthur Ashe. Ashe went on to win the tournament two more times, making him the singles title record holder.


title: Rotterdam

text: Former Wimbledon winner Richard Krajicek became the tournament director after his retirement in 2000. The latest edition of the tournament attracted a total of 116.354 visitors.


title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam won the selection over the Dutch city of Utrecht. Germany's Düsseldorf had previously also expressed interest in hosting. The Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), the organizer of the Tour de France, said in a statement on its web site that it chose Rotterdam because, in addition to it being another big city, like London, to showcase the use of bikes for urban transportation, it provided a location well-positioned considering the rest of the route envisioned for the 2010 event.


title: Rotterdam

text: The start in Rotterdam was the fifth in the Netherlands. The prologue was a individual time trial crossing the centre of the city. The first regular stage left the Erasmusbrug and went south, towards Brussels.


title: Rotterdam

text: The second stage of 2015 edition took the riders through Rotterdam on their way to Neeltje Jans in Zeeland.


title: Rotterdam

text: Members of the student rowing club Skadi were part of the 'Holland Acht', winning a gold medal at the Olympics in 1996. Since the opening in April 2013, Rotterdam hosts the rowing venue Willem-Alexander Baan that hosted the 2016 World Rowing Championships for Seniors, U23 and Juniors.


title: Rotterdam

text: In field hockey, Rotterdam has the largest hockey club in the Netherlands, HC Rotterdam, with its own stadium in the north of the city and nearly 2,400 members. The first men's and women's teams both play on the highest level in the Dutch "Hoofdklasse".


title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam is home to the most successful European baseball team, Neptunus Rotterdam, winning the most European Cups.


title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam has a long boxing tradition starting with Bep van Klaveren (1907–1992), aka 'The Dutch Windmill', Gold medal winner of the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, followed by professional boxers like Regilio Tuur and Don Diego Poeder.


title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam's swimming tradition started with Marie Braun aka Zus (sister) Braun, who was coached to a gold medal at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics by her mother Ma Braun, and 3 European titles 3 years later in Paris. In her career as 14-time national champ, she broke 6 world records. Ma Braun later also coached the Rotterdam-born, three-times Olympic champion Rie Mastenbroek during the Berlin Olympics in 1936. In later years Inge de Bruijn became a Rotterdam sports icon as triple Olympic Gold medal winner in 2000 and triple European Gold medal winner in 2001.


title: Rotterdam

text: Olympic Gold medalist, in the O-Jolle during 1936 Olympics, Daan Kagchelland was born in Rotterdam and member of the . The Kralingse plas was and is still a source of Olympic sailors like Koos de Jong, Ben Verhagen, Henny Vegter, Serge Kats and Margriet Matthijsse.


title: Rotterdam

text: Motorcycle speedway was staged in the Feyenoord Stadium after the second world war. The team which raced in a Dutch league was known as the Feyenoord Tigers. The team included Dutch riders and some English and Australian riders.


title: Rotterdam

text: Since 1986, the city has selected its best sportsman, woman and team at the Rotterdam Sports Awards Election, held in December.


title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam hosts several annual events unique to the city. It hosts the "Zomercarnaval" (Summer carnaval), the second-largest Caribbean carnival in Europe, originally called the Antillean carnival. Other events include: "North Sea Jazz Festival", the largest Jazz festival in Europe, and a three-day long maritime extravaganza called the "World Port Days" celebrating the Port of Rotterdam.


title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam offers connections by international, national, regional and local public transport systems, as well as by the Dutch motorway network.


title: Rotterdam

text: There are several motorways to/from Rotterdam. The following four are part of its 'Ring' (ring road):


title: Rotterdam

text: Much smaller than the international hub Schiphol Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport (formerly known as "Zestienhoven") is the third-largest airport in the country, behind Schiphol Airport and Eindhoven Airport. Located north of the city, it has shown solid growth over the past five years, mostly caused by the growth of the low-cost carrier market. For business travellers, Rotterdam The Hague Airport offers advantages in terms of rapid handling of passengers and baggage. Environmental regulations make further growth uncertain.


title: Rotterdam

text: In 1968, Rotterdam was the first Dutch city to open a metro system. The metro system consists of three main lines, each of which has its own variants. The metro network has of rail tracks, and there are 70 stations, which makes it the biggest of the Benelux. 5 lines operate the system; 3 lines (A, B and C) on the east–west line, and two (D and E) on the north–south line. Line E (Randstadrail) connects Rotterdam with The Hague as of December 2011.


title: Rotterdam

text: The Rotterdam tramway network offers 9 regular tram lines and 4 special tram lines with a total length of . Service


title: Rotterdam

text: RET runs buses in the city of Rotterdam and surrounding places like Barendrecht, Ridderkerk, Rhoon, Poortugaal, Schiedam, Vlaardingen, Delft and Capelle aan den IJssel.


title: Rotterdam

text: An automated bus service, ParkShuttle, runs between Kralingse Zoom metro station and the Rivium Business Park in Capelle aan den IJssel.


title: Rotterdam

text: The Foundation RoMeO (Rotterdam Public Transport Museum and Exploitation of Oldtimers) was founded in 1997 to bring together various historical transport collections into one collection. Currently, the joint collection consists of more than sixty trams, twenty buses and an underground metro dating from 1967. Since 2010 the Rotterdam public transport museum is housed in the monumental tram depot Hillegersberg from 1923.


title: Rotterdam

text: The Waterbus network consists of seven lines. The mainline (Line 20) stretches from Rotterdam to Dordrecht. The ferry carries about 130 passengers, and there is space for 60 bicycles. The stops between Rotterdam and Dordrecht are:


title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam has city and port connections throughout the world. In 2008, the city had 13 sister cities, 12 partner cities, and 4 sister ports. Since 2008, the City of Rotterdam doesn't forge new sister or partner connections. Sister and partner cities are not a priority in international relations.


title: Rotterdam

text: On 15 March 2017, the Turkish president expressed his wish that Istanbul should no longer be the twin town of Rotterdam. A speaker of the Rotterdam municipality then explained that the two cities have no official partnership. Both authorities do cooperate often.


title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam features in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835).


title: Rotterdam

text: Rotterdam features in J.T. Sheridan Le Fanu's "Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter" (1839).


title: Rotterdam

text: In season 1, episode 2 of "The Golden Girls" ("Guess Who's Coming to the Wedding?"), Dorothy reminisces how her ex-husband, Stan, would buy her tulips after they fought. "Towards the end, our house looked like Easter in Rotterdam."


title: Rotterdam

text: In 1996, the British band The Beautiful South recorded a song named after this region titled "Rotterdam (or Anywhere)."


title: Rotterdam

text: In the 2004 video game "", the missions "Rendezvous in Rotterdam" and "Deadly Cargo" are both set in Rotterdam.


title: Rotterdam

text: The 2017 Laurence Olivier Award-winning play "Rotterdam", written by Jon Brittain, is set in the city.


title: Rotterdam

text: In "Battlefield V", this city is used as a map released on its two of its maps on launch, which are Rotterdam and Devastation, and featured the British Army fighting against the Wehrmacht and according to its history, the white building was almost left untouched by the bombing during WWII and that building can be seen on both in-game and real world.


title: Aespa

text: Aespa ( ; , commonly stylized in all lowercase or æspa) is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment. The group consists of four members: Karina, Giselle, Winter, and Ningning. They debuted on November 17, 2020, with the single "Black Mamba".


title: Aespa

text: The group's name, Aespa, combines the English initials of "avatar" and "experience" (Avatar X Experience) with the English word "aspect", meaning "two sides", to symbolize the idea of "meeting another self and experiencing the new world".


title: Aespa

text: Ningning was introduced as a member of pre-debut training team SM Rookies on September 19, 2016. As part of the team, she appeared on the "Rookies Princess: Who's the Best?" segment of the program "My SMT" that year and recorded several covers for the Korean animated TV program "Shining Star" in 2017.


title: Aespa

text: Karina appeared in labelmate Taemin's music video for the song "Want" in February 2019 and performed with him on several music programs in the following weeks.


title: Aespa

text: On October 26, 2020, SM Entertainment announced that it would debut a new girl group, its first since Red Velvet in 2014 and its first overall idol group since NCT in 2016. The group's name and members were revealed individually starting on October 27 (in order: Winter, Karina, Ningning, and Giselle). SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man explained the group's concept at the 2020 World Cultural Industry Forum on October 28. A video trailer featuring all four members was revealed on November 2, alongside the announcement of the release of Aespa's debut single, "Black Mamba", on November 17. The group made their broadcast debut on KBS2's "Music Bank" on November 20 to perform "Black Mamba". The song reached number one on the K-pop music video charts of China's biggest music-streaming service, QQ Music, for three consecutive weeks and earned Aespa their first music show win on SBS's "Inkigayo" on January 17, 2021.


title: Aespa

text: On January 29, 2021, SM Entertainment announced Aespa would release a remake of "Forever", the single originally by Yoo Young-jin for SM Entertainment's 2000 holiday album "Winter Vacation in SMTOWN.com". Aespa's version of the song, a "mid-tempo ballad characterized by acoustic guitar sound" with "warm lyrics about promising forever to a loved one", was released on February 5 that year.


title: Aespa

text: On May 4, 2021, SM Entertainment announced Aespa would release a new single titled "Next Level", describing the song as a dance and hip-hop track with a "groovy" rap, "energetic" bass, and "powerful vocals". It was released on May 17. It debuted at number nine on the Gaon Digital Chart and peaked at number two, becoming their first top five hit in South Korea. "Next Level" became Aespa's third song to chart on the "Billboard" World Digital Song Sales chart peaking at number 3. On July 22, 2021, Aespa was announced to have signed with Creative Artists Agency for their future activities in United States. On September 10, 2021, it was announced that remix versions of "Next Level" will be released on September 14, along with a music video and a visualizer video for "Next Level (IMLAY Remix)".


title: Aespa

text: On September 14, 2021, SM Entertainment announced Aespa will release their first extended play, "Savage". The album contains six tracks, including the lead single of the same name. It was released on October 5. The extended play marked Aespa's first and highest entry on the US "Billboard" 200, peaking at number 20, and debuted atop the Gaon Album Chart. Within 15 days of release, it was reported that the mini-album sold 513,292 copies. The group performed at the 2021 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, making them the first Korean girl group to perform at the event. On December 2, Aespa won their first Daesang (Stage of the Year) at the Asia Artist Awards. Two days later, on December 4, the group won their second Daesang at the 2021 Melon Music Awards for Record of the Year.


title: Aespa

text: On November 4, it was announced that Aespa would be releasing a remake of S.E.S.'s "Dreams Come True", released on December 20. The music video for the song was directed by Lucid Colour, and choreographed and visually directed by BoA. The song peaked at number 8 on the Gaon Digital Chart and at number seven on the "Billboard" World Digital Songs chart.


title: Aespa

text: On December 26, members Karina and Winter were revealed as members of the supergroup Got the Beat. The group debuted with the single "Step Back" on January 3, 2022.


title: Aespa

text: On January 8, the group became the inaugural winner of the Artist of the Year award at the Golden Disc Awards.


title: Aespa

text: On April 19, 2022, it was announced that Aespa would be performing at Coachella on April 23, during the second week of the annual music festival. Their setlist included "Savage", "Next Level", "Black Mamba", and an English version of a then-unreleased song titled "Life's Too Short", which was revealed to be from their then-upcoming EP.


title: Aespa

text: On May 12, the group was included in "Time" magazine's Next Generation Leaders list. On May 27, the group was also included on Forbes' 30 Under 30.


title: Aespa

text: On June 1, 2022, SM Entertainment announced that Aespa signed with Warner Records. They also announced that Aespa would release their second extended play, "Girls", on July 8. It was set to contain nine tracks, including the title track of the same name; their first two singles, "Black Mamba" and "Forever"; and "Dreams Come True", which was previously released as part of the "" album in December 2021. Two other tracks on "Girls", "Illusion" and "Life's Too Short" (English version), preceded the EP and was released on June 1 and 24, respectively.


title: Aespa

text: Aespa delivered a speech and performed at the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development meeting on July 5, 2022. On December 14, 2022, the group will release a collaborative single, "Beautiful Christmas", with labelmates Red Velvet for SM Town's album "".


title: Aespa

text: On February 10, 2021, Aespa became global ambassadors for Givenchy, the first K-pop artists chosen as such by the French fashion house. Later that year in August, Aespa inked endorsement deals with Korean cosmetics brand Clio, Korean skincare brand Mediheal, French sportswear brand Eider and in September KB Kookmin Bank. On November 23, Aespa was selected as muses for Italian fragrance brand Acqua di Parma.


title: Aespa

text: On April 8, 2022, Aespa became the model for Korean beverage brand Lotte Chilsung's Tamz Zero. In August, Aespa became the global ambassador for the Korean sportswear brand MLB. In September, Aespa became the global ambassador for Swiss watch and jewelry brand Chopard. In December, Aespa became a promotional model for mobile game Epic Seven.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and engravings reflected contemporary historical upheavals and influenced important 19th- and 20th-century painters. Goya is often referred to as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Goya was born to a middle-class family in 1746, in Fuendetodos in Aragon. He studied painting from age 14 under José Luzán y Martinez and moved to Madrid to study with Anton Raphael Mengs. He married Josefa Bayeu in 1773. Their life was characterised by a series of pregnancies and miscarriages, and only one child, a son, survived into adulthood. Goya became a court painter to the Spanish Crown in 1786 and this early portion of his career is marked by portraits of the Spanish aristocracy and royalty, and Rococo-style tapestry cartoons designed for the royal palace.


title: Francisco Goya

text: He was guarded, and although letters and writings survive, little is known about his thoughts. He had a severe and undiagnosed illness in 1793 which left him deaf, after which his work became progressively darker and pessimistic. His later easel and mural paintings, prints and drawings appear to reflect a bleak outlook on personal, social and political levels, and contrast with his social climbing. He was appointed Director of the Royal Academy in 1795, the year Manuel Godoy made an unfavorable treaty with France. In 1799, Goya became "Primer Pintor de Cámara" (Prime Court Painter), the highest rank for a Spanish court painter. In the late 1790s, commissioned by Godoy, he completed his "La maja desnuda", a remarkably daring nude for the time and clearly indebted to Diego Velázquez. In 1800–01 he painted "Charles IV of Spain and His Family", also influenced by Velázquez.


title: Francisco Goya

text: In 1807, Napoleon led the French army into the Peninsular War against Spain. Goya remained in Madrid during the war, which seems to have affected him deeply. Although he did not speak his thoughts in public, they can be inferred from his "Disasters of War" series of prints (although published 35 years after his death) and his 1814 paintings "The Second of May 1808" and "The Third of May 1808". Other works from his mid-period include the "Caprichos" and "Los Disparates" etching series, and a wide variety of paintings concerned with insanity, mental asylums, witches, fantastical creatures and religious and political corruption, all of which suggest that he feared for both his country's fate and his own mental and physical health.


title: Francisco Goya

text: His late period culminates with the "Black Paintings" of 1819–1823, applied on oil on the plaster walls of his house the Quinta del Sordo ("House of the Deaf Man") where, disillusioned by political and social developments in Spain, he lived in near isolation. Goya eventually abandoned Spain in 1824 to retire to the French city of Bordeaux, accompanied by his much younger maid and companion, Leocadia Weiss, who may or may not have been his lover. There he completed his "La Tauromaquia" series and a number of other, major, canvases.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Following a stroke which left him paralyzed on his right side, and with failing eyesight and poor access to painting materials, he died and was buried on 16 April 1828 aged 82. His body was later re-interred in the Real Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid. Famously, the skull was missing, a detail the Spanish consul immediately communicated to his superiors in Madrid, who wired back, "Send Goya, with or without head."


title: Francisco Goya

text: Francisco de Goya was born in Fuendetodos, Aragón, Spain, on 30 March 1746 to José Benito de Goya y Franque and Gracia de Lucientes y Salvador. The family had moved that year from the city of Zaragoza, but there is no record why; likely José was commissioned to work there. They were lower middle-class. José was the son of a notary and of Basque origin, his ancestors being from Zerain, earning his living as a gilder, specialising in religious and decorative craftwork. He oversaw the gilding and most of the ornamentation during the rebuilding of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar ("Santa Maria del Pilar"), the principal cathedral of Zaragoza. Francisco was their fourth child, following his sister Rita (b. 1737), brother Tomás (b. 1739) (who was to follow in his father's trade) and second sister Jacinta (b. 1743). There were two younger sons, Mariano (b. 1750) and Camilo (b. 1753).


title: Francisco Goya

text: His mother's family had pretensions of nobility and the house, a modest brick cottage, was owned by her family and, perhaps fancifully, bore their crest. About 1749 José and Gracia bought a home in Zaragoza and were able to return to live in the city. Although there are no surviving records, it is thought that Goya may have attended the Escuelas Pías de San Antón, which offered free schooling. His education seems to have been adequate but not enlightening; he had reading, writing and numeracy, and some knowledge of the classics. According to Robert Hughes the artist "seems to have taken no more interest than a carpenter in philosophical or theological matters, and his views on painting ... were very down to earth: Goya was no theoretician." At school he formed a close and lifelong friendship with fellow pupil Martín Zapater; the 131 letters Goya wrote to him from 1775 until Zapater's death in 1803 give valuable insight into Goya's early years at the court in Madrid.


title: Francisco Goya

text: At age 14 Goya studied under the painter José Luzán, where he copied stamps for 4 years until he decided to work on his own, as he wrote later on "paint from my invention". He moved to Madrid to study with Anton Raphael Mengs, a popular painter with Spanish royalty. He clashed with his master, and his examinations were unsatisfactory. Goya submitted entries for the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in 1763 and 1766 but was denied entrance into the academia.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Rome was then the cultural capital of Europe and held all the prototypes of classical antiquity, while Spain lacked a coherent artistic direction, with all of its significant visual achievements in the past. Having failed to earn a scholarship, Goya relocated at his own expense to Rome in the old tradition of European artists stretching back at least to Albrecht Dürer. He was an unknown at the time and so the records are scant and uncertain. Early biographers have him travelling to Rome with a gang of bullfighters, where he worked as a street acrobat, or for a Russian diplomat, or fell in love with a beautiful young nun whom he plotted to abduct from her convent. It is possible that Goya completed two surviving mythological paintings during the visit, a "Sacrifice to Vesta" and a "Sacrifice to Pan", both dated 1771.


title: Francisco Goya

text: In 1771 he won second prize in a painting competition organized by the City of Parma. That year he returned to Zaragoza and painted elements of the cupolas of the Basilica of the Pillar (including "Adoration of the Name of God"), a cycle of frescoes for the monastic church of the Charterhouse of Aula Dei, and the frescoes of the Sobradiel Palace. He studied with the Aragonese artist Francisco Bayeu y Subías and his painting began to show signs of the delicate tonalities for which he became famous. He befriended Francisco Bayeu and married his sister Josefa (he nicknamed her "Pepa") on 25 July 1773. Their first child, Antonio Juan Ramon Carlos, was born on 29 August 1774.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Francisco Bayeu (Josefa Bayeu's brother), 1765 membership of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and directorship of the tapestry works from 1777 helped Goya earn a commission for a series of tapestry cartoons for the Royal Tapestry Factory. Over five years he designed some 42 patterns, many of which were used to decorate and insulate the stone walls of El Escorial and the Palacio Real del Pardo, the residences of the Spanish monarchs. While designing tapestries was neither prestigious nor well paid, his cartoons are mostly popularist in a rococo style, and Goya used them to bring himself to wider attention.


title: Francisco Goya

text: The cartoons were not his only royal commissions, and were accompanied by a series of engravings, mostly copies after old masters such as Marcantonio Raimondi and Velázquez. Goya had a complicated relationship to the latter artist; while many of his contemporaries saw folly in Goya's attempts to copy and emulate him, he had access to a wide range of the long-dead painter's works that had been contained in the royal collection. Nonetheless, etching was a medium that the young artist was to master, a medium that was to reveal both the true depths of his imagination and his political beliefs. His c. 1779 etching of "The Garrotted Man" ("El agarrotado") was the largest work he had produced to date, and an obvious foreboding of his later "Disasters of War" series.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Goya was beset by illness, and his condition was used against him by his rivals, who looked jealously upon any artist seen to be rising in stature. Some of the larger cartoons, such as "The Wedding", were more than 8 by 10 feet, and had proved a drain on his physical strength. Ever resourceful, Goya turned this misfortune around, claiming that his illness had allowed him the insight to produce works that were more personal and informal. However, he found the format limiting, as it did not allow him to capture complex color shifts or texture, and was unsuited to the impasto and glazing techniques he was by then applying to his painted works. The tapestries seem as comments on human types, fashion and fads.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Other works from the period include a canvas for the altar of the Church of San Francisco El Grande in Madrid, which led to his appointment as a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Art.


title: Francisco Goya

text: In 1783, the Count of Floridablanca, favorite of King Charles III, commissioned Goya to paint his portrait. He became friends with the King's half-brother Luis, and spent two summers working on portraits of both the Infante and his family. During the 1780s, his circle of patrons grew to include the Duke and Duchess of Osuna, the King and other notable people of the kingdom whom he painted. In 1786, Goya was given a salaried position as painter to Charles III.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Goya was appointed court painter to Charles IV in 1789. The following year he became First Court Painter, with a salary of 50,000 reales and an allowance of 500 ducats for a coach. He painted portraits of the king and the queen, and the Spanish Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy and many other nobles. These portraits are notable for their disinclination to flatter; his "Charles IV of Spain and His Family" is an especially brutal assessment of a royal family. Modern interpreters view the portrait as satirical; it is thought to reveal the corruption behind the rule of Charles IV. Under his reign his wife Louisa was thought to have had the real power, and thus Goya placed her at the center of the group portrait. From the back left of the painting one can see the artist himself looking out at the viewer, and the painting behind the family depicts Lot and his daughters, thus once again echoing the underlying message of corruption and decay.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Goya earned commissions from the highest ranks of the Spanish nobility, including Pedro Téllez-Girón, 9th Duke of Osuna and his wife María Josefa Pimentel, 12th Countess-Duchess of Benavente, José Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba and his wife María del Pilar de Silva, and María Ana de Pontejos y Sandoval, Marchioness of Pontejos. In 1801 he painted Godoy in a commission to commemorate the victory in the brief War of the Oranges against Portugal. The two were friends, even if Goya's 1801 portrait is usually seen as satire. Yet even after Godoy's fall from grace the politician referred to the artist in warm terms. Godoy saw himself as instrumental in the publication of the Caprichos and is widely believed to have commissioned "La maja desnuda".


title: Francisco Goya

text: "La Maja Desnuda" ("La maja desnuda") has been described as "the first totally profane life-size female nude in Western art" without pretense to allegorical or mythological meaning. The identity of the "Majas" is uncertain. The most popularly cited models are the Duchess of Alba, with whom Goya was sometimes thought to have had an affair, and Pepita Tudó, mistress of Manuel de Godoy. Neither theory has been verified, and it remains as likely that the paintings represent an idealized composite. The paintings were never publicly exhibited during Goya's lifetime and were owned by Godoy. In 1808 all Godoy's property was seized by Ferdinand VII after his fall from power and exile, and in 1813 the Inquisition confiscated both works as 'obscene', returning them in 1836 to the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.


title: Francisco Goya

text: In 1798 he painted luminous and airy scenes for the pendentives and cupola of the Real Ermita (Chapel) of San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid. Many of these depict miracles of Saint Anthony of Padua set in the midst of contemporary Madrid.


title: Francisco Goya

text: At some time between late 1792 and early 1793 an undiagnosed illness left Goya deaf. He became withdrawn and introspective while the direction and tone of his work changed. He began the series of aquatinted etchings, published in 1799 as the "Caprichos"—completed in parallel with the more official commissions of portraits and religious paintings. In 1799 Goya published 80 "Caprichos" prints depicting what he described as "the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance, or self-interest have made usual". The visions in these prints are partly explained by the caption "The sleep of reason produces monsters". Yet these are not solely bleak; they demonstrate the artist's sharp satirical wit, particularly evident in etchings such as "Hunting for Teeth".


title: Francisco Goya

text: While convalescing between 1793 and 1794, Goya completed a set of eleven small pictures painted on tin that mark a significant change in the tone and subject matter of his art, and draw from the dark and dramatic realms of fantasy nightmare. "Yard with Lunatics" is a vision of loneliness, fear and social alienation. The condemnation of brutality towards prisoners (whether criminal or insane) is a subject that Goya assayed in later works that focused on the degradation of the human figure. It was one of the first of Goya's mid-1790s cabinet paintings, in which his earlier search for ideal beauty gave way to an examination of the relationship between naturalism and fantasy that would preoccupy him for the rest of his career. He was undergoing a nervous breakdown and entering prolonged physical illness, and admitted that the series was created to reflect his own self-doubt, anxiety and fear that he was losing his mind. Goya wrote that the works served "to occupy my imagination, tormented as it is by contemplation of my sufferings." The series, he said, consisted of pictures which "normally find no place in commissioned works."


title: Francisco Goya

text: Goya's physical and mental breakdown seems to have happened a few weeks after the French declaration of war on Spain. A contemporary reported, "The noises in his head and deafness aren't improving, yet his vision is much better and he is back in control of his balance." These symptoms may indicate a prolonged viral encephalitis, or possibly a series of miniature strokes resulting from high blood pressure and which affected the hearing and balance centers of the brain. Symptoms of tinnitus, episodes of imbalance and progressive deafness are typical of Ménière's disease. It is possible that Goya had cumulative lead poisoning, as he used massive amounts of lead white—which he ground himself—in his paintings, both as a canvas primer and as a primary color.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Other postmortem diagnostic assessments point toward paranoid dementia, possibly due to brain trauma, as evidenced by marked changes in his work after his recovery, culminating in the "black" paintings. Art historians have noted Goya's singular ability to express his personal demons as horrific and fantastic imagery that speaks universally, and allows his audience to find its own catharsis in the images.


title: Francisco Goya

text: The French army invaded Spain in 1808, leading to the Peninsular War of 1808–1814. The extent of Goya's involvement with the court of the "intruder king", Joseph I, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, is not known; he painted works for French patrons and sympathisers, but kept neutral during the fighting. After the restoration of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII in 1814, Goya denied any involvement with the French. By the time of his wife Josefa's death in 1812, he was painting "The Second of May 1808" and "The Third of May 1808", and preparing the series of etchings later known as "The Disasters of War" ("Los desastres de la guerra"). Ferdinand VII returned to Spain in 1814 but relations with Goya were not cordial. The artist completed portraits of the king for a variety of ministries, but not for the king himself.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Although Goya did not make his intention known when creating "The Disasters of War", art historians view them as a visual protest against the violence of the 1808 Dos de Mayo Uprising, the subsequent Peninsular War and the move against liberalism in the aftermath of the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814. The scenes are singularly disturbing, sometimes macabre in their depiction of battlefield horror, and represent an outraged conscience in the face of death and destruction. They were not published until 1863, 35 years after his death. It is likely that only then was it considered politically safe to distribute a sequence of artworks criticising both the French and restored Bourbons.


title: Francisco Goya

text: The first 47 plates in the series focus on incidents from the war and show the consequences of the conflict on individual soldiers and civilians. The middle series (plates 48 to 64) record the effects of the famine that hit Madrid in 1811–12, before the city was liberated from the French. The final 17 reflect the bitter disappointment of liberals when the restored Bourbon monarchy, encouraged by the Catholic hierarchy, rejected the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and opposed both state and religious reform. Since their first publication, Goya's scenes of atrocities, starvation, degradation and humiliation have been described as the "prodigious flowering of rage".


title: Francisco Goya

text: His works from 1814 to 1819 are mostly commissioned portraits, but also include the altarpiece of Santa Justa and Santa Rufina for the Cathedral of Seville, the print series of "La Tauromaquia" depicting scenes from bullfighting, and probably the etchings of "Los Disparates".


title: Francisco Goya

text: Records of Goya's later life are relatively scant, and ever politically aware, he suppressed a number of his works from this period, working instead in private. He was tormented by a dread of old age and fear of madness. Goya had been a successful and royally placed artist, but withdrew from public life during his final years. From the late 1810s he lived in near-solitude outside Madrid in a farmhouse converted into a studio. The house had become known as "La Quinta del Sordo" (The House of the Deaf Man), after the nearest farmhouse that had coincidentally also belonged to a deaf man.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Art historians assume Goya felt alienated from the social and political trends that followed the 1814 restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, and that he viewed these developments as reactionary means of social control. In his unpublished art he seems to have railed against what he saw as a tactical retreat into Medievalism. It is thought that he had hoped for political and religious reform, but like many liberals became disillusioned when the restored Bourbon monarchy and Catholic hierarchy rejected the Spanish Constitution of 1812.


title: Francisco Goya

text: At the age of 75, alone and in mental and physical despair, he completed the work of his 14 "Black Paintings", all of which were executed in oil directly onto the plaster walls of his house. Goya did not intend for the paintings to be exhibited, did not write of them, and likely never spoke of them. Around 1874, 50 years after his death, they were taken down and transferred to a canvas support by owner Baron Frédéric Émile d'Erlanger. Many of the works were significantly altered during the restoration, and in the words of Arthur Lubow what remain are "at best a crude facsimile of what Goya painted." The effects of time on the murals, coupled with the inevitable damage caused by the delicate operation of mounting the crumbling plaster on canvas, meant that most of the murals suffered extensive damage and loss of paint. Today, they are on permanent display at the Museo del Prado, Madrid.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Leocadia Weiss (née Zorrilla, 1790–1856), the artist's maid, younger by 35 years, and a distant relative, lived with and cared for Goya after Bayeu's death. She stayed with him in his Quinta del Sordo villa until 1824 with her daughter Rosario. Leocadia was probably similar in features to Goya's first wife Josefa Bayeu, to the point that one of his well-known portraits bears the cautious title of "Josefa Bayeu (or Leocadia Weiss)".


title: Francisco Goya

text: Not much is known about her beyond her fiery temperament. She was likely related to the Goicoechea family, a wealthy dynasty into which the artist's son, Javier, had married. It is known that Leocadia had an unhappy marriage with a jeweler, Isidore Weiss, but was separated from him since 1811, after he had accused her of "illicit conduct". She had two children before that time, and bore a third, Rosario, in 1814 when she was 26. Isidore was not the father, and it has often been speculated—although with little firm evidence—that the child belonged to Goya. There has been much speculation that Goya and Weiss were romantically linked; however, it is more likely the affection between them was sentimental.


title: Francisco Goya

text: Goya died on 16 April 1828. Leocadia was left nothing in Goya's will; mistresses were often omitted in such circumstances, but it is also likely that he did not want to dwell on his mortality by thinking about or revising his will. She wrote to a number of Goya's friends to complain of her exclusion but many of her friends were Goya's also and by then were old men or had died, and did not reply. Largely destitute, she moved into rented accommodation, later passing on her copy of the "Caprichos" for free.


title: Emmanuelle Chriqui

text: Emmanuelle Sophie Anne Chriqui ( ; born 10 December 1975) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her performance on HBO's "Entourage" as Sloan McQuewick, Claire Bonner in "Snow Day", Dalia in "You Don't Mess with the Zohan", Lorelei Martins on "The Mentalist" and Lana Lang in the series "Superman & Lois.


title: Emmanuelle Chriqui

text: Chriqui was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the daughter of Moroccan-Jewish parents. Her mother, Liliane, was born in Casablanca, and her father, Albert, in Rabat. Her family practiced Orthodox Judaism.


title: Emmanuelle Chriqui

text: Chriqui has an older brother, Serge, and an older sister, Laurence. When she was almost two, her family moved to Toronto, Ontario. She grew up in Markham, Ontario, a suburb northeast of the city. Her mother, an aesthetician who once told Emmanuelle she would become an actress, died when Chriqui was sixteen years old.


title: Emmanuelle Chriqui

text: As a child, Chriqui's brother began paying for her to take acting classes. She attended the drama program at Unionville High School. After high school, Chriqui decided to pursue a career in acting.


title: Emmanuelle Chriqui

text: Chriqui began acting as a 10-year-old in a McDonald's commercial. She moved to Vancouver in the mid-1990s, guest-starring in series such as "Are You Afraid of the Dark?", "Forever Knight", "Once a Thief", and "". Her first Hollywood role was as a supporting character in "Detroit Rock City" (1999). She had a larger role in Chris Koch's teen comedy "Snow Day" (2000) portraying Claire Bonner, and then appeared in several other Hollywood films, such as "100 Girls", "Wrong Turn", "On the Line", and "In the Mix". She played Eve in the 2005 comedy "National Lampoon's Adam & Eve", and played Adam Sandler's love interest Dalia in the 2008 film "You Don't Mess with the Zohan".


title: Emmanuelle Chriqui

text: Chriqui was nominated for a Best Actress DVD Exclusive Award for her performance in "100 Girls" and was nominated, with Lance Bass, for a Choice Liplock Teen Choice Award in "On the Line". In April 2008, she won the Standout Performance Trophy at the Young Hollywood Awards.


title: Emmanuelle Chriqui

text: Chriqui also starred in several music videos including Hinder's "Lips of an Angel", Zac Brown Band's "Whatever It Is", and Charles Perry's "I Could Be the Best Time of Your Life". She threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Los Angeles Dodgers game on June 8, 2008. Chriqui was on the cover of the Autumn 2008 issue of "Naked Eye".


title: Emmanuelle Chriqui

text: She appeared in the 2008 film "Cadillac Records" as Revetta Chess, where she performed with Beyoncé Knowles. Chriqui was seen in 2009 as one of several women whose lives interconnect in the comedy "Women in Trouble" and appeared in its 2010 sequel "Elektra Luxx".


title: Emmanuelle Chriqui

text: From the second season to the end of the show's original run, Chriqui played Sloan McQuewick in the hit HBO series "Entourage". She reprised the role for the 2015 film of the show. In 2010, Chriqui joined Showtime's series, "The Borgias". She is also the voice of Cheetara in the "ThunderCats" 2011 animated series and lent her voice and physical appearance as Numbers in the hit Activision video game "". In 2019, she played Madison in the Netflix film "The Knight Before Christmas", opposite Vanessa Hudgens.


title: Emmanuelle Chriqui

text: In April 2020, Chriqui was cast as Lana Lang on the CW action-superhero series "Superman & Lois" (part of the Arrowverse) and also portrayed her Bizarro counterpart Lana-Rho in season two.


title: The xx

text: The xx are an English indie rock band from Wandsworth, London, formed in 2005. The band consists of Romy Madley Croft (guitar, vocals), Oliver Sim (bass guitar, vocals), Jamie Smith, also known as Jamie xx (beats, MPC, record production), and formerly Baria Qureshi (keyboard, guitar). They are known for their distinct and minimalist sound that blends indie rock, indie electronic, indie pop, dream pop and electro-rock and the dual vocalist setup of both Croft and Sim. Their music employs soft, echoed guitar, prominent bass, light electronic beats and ambient soundscape backgrounds.


title: The xx

text: The band was formed when Croft and Sim met during their time at Elliott School, with Baria Qureshi joining the same year and Smith a year later. After posting demos on their Myspace page, they drew the attention of the Beggars Group-owned label Young Turks (now Young). Working with producer Rodaidh McDonald, the band released their debut album, "xx", in August 2009. The album was a commercial and critical success, reaching number three on the UK Albums Chart, ranking first for "The Guardian"s and second for "NME"s best of the year lists among others, and winning the Mercury Prize in 2010. After their debut, Qureshi left the group and their second album, "Coexist", was released on 5 September 2012 to positive reviews, reaching number one in the UK and number five on the "Billboard" 200. After a four-year lapse between releases, including Smith's solo debut in 2015, "In Colour", the band released their third album, "I See You", on 13 January 2017, which debuted to critical acclaim and peaked at number one in the UK and number two on the "Billboard" 200.


title: The xx

text: The band members met while studying at Elliott School, the same school attended by Hot Chip, Burial, Four Tet, actor Pierce Brosnan, Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green and singer Matt Monro. The group has downplayed the influence of the school on its career: "A teacher from Elliott who had never even taught us said how great we were. It's a bit annoying. We were left alone, more than anything – although I'm sure that helped us in its own way." Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft started the band as a duo when they were 15. Guitarist Baria Qureshi joined once it began performing in 2005, with Jamie Smith, also known as Jamie xx, joining a year after. Smith, although schoolfriends with Croft, Sim and Qureshi, joined the band after being formally introduced by their now label, Young Turks (now Young).


title: The xx

text: The xx's debut album "xx" was released on 14 August 2009 through the British independent record label Young Turks,


title: The xx

text: and was met with critical acclaim. The album ranked on best of the year lists, ranking ninth on the "Rolling Stone" list and second for "NME". In the 2009 "NME The Future 50 list", the xx was positioned at number six, and in October 2009, it was named one of MTV Iggy's "Top 10 Bands with Buzz" (at the CMJ Music Marathon 2009). "Crystalised" was featured on iTunes (UK) as Single of the Week, starting from 18 August 2009.


title: The xx

text: Though the band had previously worked with producers including Diplo and Kwes, Smith produced "xx" and co-mixed with Rodaidh McDonald. The xx recorded its first album in a small garage that was part of the XL Recordings studio, often at night.


title: The xx

text: In August 2009, the band headlined its own concert tour. The xx has toured with artists including Friendly Fires, The Big Pink, and Micachu. In January 2010, Matt Groening chose the band to play at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival which he curated in Minehead, England. In addition, the band played at five music festivals in the United States, Coachella, Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits.


title: The xx

text: In late 2009, second guitarist and keyboardist Baria Qureshi left the group. Initial reports stated that this was due to exhaustion, but Oliver Sim later said that the rest of the band had made this decision: "Also to be fair to her, people have an idea about that she left the band. She didn't. It was a decision that me, Romy, and Jamie made. And it had to happen."


title: The xx

text: The music of its debut album was used extensively on television and in the media, such as "24/7", "Person of Interest", NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games; during the series "Cold Case", "Suits", "Mercy", the Greek version of "Next Top Model", "Bedlam", "Hung", "90210", as well as being the feature song for the March 2010 E4 advert for "90210", "Misfits", the Karl Lagerfeld fall/winter 2011 fashion show, "Waterloo Road", and the film "I Am Number Four". In May 2010, the track "Intro" was used by the BBC in its coverage of the 2010 general election. This led to the band playing the track on an episode of "Newsnight". The track was also played before the UEFA Euro 2012 and UEFA Euro 2016 matches at stadiums in Poland, Ukraine, and France and featured during the end of "Top Gear" season 19 episode 6 "Africa Special Part 1". Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Sander van Doorn's 2012 single "Project T", which launched the Tomorrowland 2012 aftermovie, contains samples from "Intro"; van Doorn had earlier released a remix of the song in 2010. The song was also sampled in Rihanna's "Drunk on Love" from her album "Talk That Talk" and was featured in the films "It's Kind of a Funny Story" and "Project X".


title: The xx

text: In September 2010, "xx" won the Mercury Prize. After the live ceremony screening, the album jumped from 16 to 3 on 12 September UK album chart, accompanying a 269% sales increase. XL's marketing campaign drastically expanded after this substantial win, with day-time TV advertisements and billboard campaigns on some of the UK's highest-profile digital billboards. Thanks to the highlighted publicity, XL Recordings says that it shipped more than 40,000 CDs in the days following the Mercury Prize. XL managing director Ben Beardsworth explained, "Thanks to the Mercury win... things are accelerating dramatically and the band will be reaching a bigger and bigger audience with their music." In another promotional initiative, the label sent out Saam Farahmand's audio/visual sculpture of the album when the band toured at Bestival 2010, as well as to an event at Seoul.


title: The xx

text: The xx was nominated for 'Best British Album', 'Best British Breakthrough' and 'Best British Band' at the 2011 BRIT Awards held on 15 February 2011 at the O2 Arena in London, although it did not win in any of the categories.


title: The xx

text: In December 2011, Smith revealed that he wanted to release the xx's second album ahead of its festival appearances the following year, and that it was inspired by "club music". "The majority of stuff I'm working on now is the xx stuff. We're just about to start recording. Hopefully we'll get it done in time for most festivals next year, because that's the most fun." Discussing the sound of the album, he said: "We've all come back off tour and been partying a bit more. We left when we were 17 and we missed out on that chunk of our lives when everyone else was partying. Club music has definitely had an influence on the next record."


title: The xx

text: On 1 June 2012, it was announced that the follow-up, "Coexist", would be released on 10 September. On 16 July 2012, it announced and released "Angels" as the lead single from "Coexist". On 3 September 2012, in a collaboration with Internet Explorer, the xx released "Coexist" to stream on its website until the worldwide release date on 11 September.


title: The xx

text: The xx performed at Bestival on 9 September 2012 in front of the largest crowd at the festival. Its first North American tour started on 5 October in Vancouver, Canada, with dates throughout the US and Mexico.


title: The xx

text: In 2013, the xx held a series of three festival-style concerts, called "Night + Day", in Berlin, Lisbon, and London. The festivals featured performances and DJ sets curated by the band, including Kindness and Mount Kimbie. Each festival culminated in a nighttime concert by the band. The band was nominated for a Brit Award for Best British Group, eventually losing out to Mumford & Sons.


title: The xx

text: In April 2013, the xx contributed the song "Together" to the to Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of "The Great Gatsby". In March 2014, the xx performed a series of shows at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. The show featured live visual effects and had a limited capacity.


title: The xx

text: In May 2014, the band revealed that they were working on their third studio album, working with producer Rodaidh McDonald at the Marfa Recording Company studio in Texas.


title: The xx

text: In May 2015, Jamie xx said that his debut album "In Colour" "has definitely informed what we're doing for the next album." The band also reported that the record will have "a completely different concept" than their previous records. In November 2015, the band stated that they would continue working on the record through December and it will be released in 2016. On 6 October 2016, it was reported the band was planning to release new music "before the holidays." On 10 October 2016, they announced that they were still working on the third album, but shared a playlist and added tour dates.


title: The xx

text: In November 2016, the xx announced that the release of their third studio album, "I See You", would be on 13 January 2017. They released the album's lead single "On Hold" at the same time. On 19 November 2016, the xx appeared as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live". They performed the songs "On Hold" and "I Dare You". On 2 January 2017, the band released the album's second lead single "Say Something Loving".


title: The xx

text: In November 2016, UK and European tour dates were announced for the new album. On 25 November 2016 the band announced an extended residency at the O2 Academy, Brixton – adding four additional days to their original tour and setting the record for longest run of sold-out shows in the venue's history.


title: The xx

text: In 2020, Croft recorded backing vocals on the song "We Will Sin Together" on Jehnny Beth's debut solo album, "To Love Is to Live", and released her debut single, "Lifetime".


title: The xx

text: Sim released his debut album, "Hideous Bastard", on 9 September 2022 through Young. It was produced by Jamie xx.


title: The xx

text: The xx has been described as various genres, including indie rock indie pop, indie electronic, R&B, dream pop, and electro-rock, while incorporating elements of post-punk and dance. The band members have cited several artists in their influences. Croft said: "Jamie started out very much into soul and then from there moved into hip-hop and UK-based dance music. He brings some much lower frequencies of bass into the band. And then I've grown up listening to Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Cure. We're really quite a huge melting pot of different stuff." She also had mentioned her liking for Jimi Hendrix, The Slits, Joy Division, Yazoo, Eurythmics and New Order. Croft also added that the xx have been inspired by CocoRosie, The Kills and Electrelane. When signing to their label, they discovered bands like Cocteau Twins. They also expressed admiration for Beyoncé. Sim is an avid fan of Aaliyah, with the band covering her song "Hot Like Fire", while Croft enjoys Mariah Carey's music.


title: Thomas Sadoski

text: Thomas Christian Sadoski (born July 1, 1976) is an American stage, film, and television actor. He is best known for his roles as Don Keefer in the HBO series "The Newsroom" and as Matt Short in the sitcom television series "Life in Pieces".


title: Thomas Sadoski

text: Sadoski was born in New Haven, Connecticut and raised in College Station, Texas. Sadoski attended the University of North Texas for one semester and graduated from the Circle in the Square Theatre School in 1998.


title: Thomas Sadoski

text: Sadoski began his award-winning stage career as the understudy for Mark Ruffalo and Mark Rosenthal in the Off-Broadway production of Kenneth Lonergan's critically acclaimed play "This is Our Youth" at the Second Stage Theatre. It marked the first of many productions with the New York-based theatre company. He has appeared in many Broadway and Off-broadway productions as well as many productions in regional theaters. In 2008, he originated the role of Greg in Neil LaBute's play "reasons to be pretty" for MCC Theatre alongside "The Newsroom" co-star Alison Pill. After a critically lauded sold-out run Off-broadway, it transferred to Broadway in April 2009 where it earned three Tony Award nominations (Best Actor: Sadoski, Best Actress: Marin Ireland, Best Play) as well as three Drama Desk Award nominations (Best Actor: Sadoski, Best Director: Terry Kinney and Best Play), two Outer Critics Circle Award nominations (Best Actor: Sadoski, Best New Play), and three Drama League Award nominations (Best Play, Distinguished Performance Awards: Sadoski and Ireland). Neil LaBute credits Sadoski for inspiring the critically noted change in tone in "reasons to be pretty" from the playwright's earlier works saying: “His own thoughtfulness and good heart helped me to not fall back on anything that I had done before. My plays usually end darkly. I always thought that was real life, that there were always shades of gray, but he helped me see some other colors in the palette.” In 2011, he originated the role of Trip Wyeth in Jon Robin Baitz's "Other Desert Cities" for which he won an Obie Award and Lucille Lortel Award. The play (which, also after a sold out Off-Broadway run, was transferred to Broadway in November 2011) was named Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play by the Outer Critics Circle in 2011. Sadoski has also been seen on Broadway alongside Ben Stiller, Edie Falco, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alison Pill in John Guare's "House of Blue Leaves".


title: Thomas Sadoski

text: Sadoski began dating actress Amanda Seyfried in early 2016. He confirmed his engagement to Seyfried on September 12, 2016. The couple married on March 12, 2017. On March 24, 2017, it was announced that Seyfried had given birth to their daughter. In September 2020, Seyfried gave birth to their second child, a son.


title: Thomas Sadoski

text: Sadoski is a board member of the non-profit INARA. The organization helps displaced children to get the medical treatment they need, following injuries related to conflict. He is also an ambassador for the non-profit organizations War Child USA and War Child Canada, a member of the advisory board of the non-profit Fortify Rights and a board member emeritus of the non-profit Refugees International.


title: Thomas Sadoski

text: In January 2011, Stephen King's audiobook recording of "Mile 81" was released for which Thomas Sadoski was the narrator. "AudioFile" magazine said of his work: "Sadoski’s matter-of-fact narration of the monster's deeds makes the tale that much more unnerving to hear". "Publishers Weekly" agreed saying: "Thomas Sadoski provides smooth, matter-of-fact narration that acts as a counterpoint to the chilling and unnerving story line".


title: I Love Lucy

text: I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along with Vivian Vance and William Frawley. The series followed the life of Lucy Ricardo (Ball), a young, middle-class housewife living in New York City, who often concocted plans with her best friends and landlords, Ethel and Fred Mertz (Vance and Frawley), to appear alongside her bandleader husband, Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz), in his nightclub. Lucy is depicted trying numerous schemes to mingle with and be a part of show business. After the series ended in 1957, a modified version of the show continued for three more seasons, with 13 one-hour specials, which ran from 1957 to 1960. It was first known as "The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show," and later, in reruns, as "The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour".


title: I Love Lucy

text: "I Love Lucy" became the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons and it was the first to end its run at the top of the Nielsen ratings. As of 2011, episodes of the show have been syndicated in dozens of languages across the world and remain popular with an American audience of 40 million each year. A colorized version of its Christmas episode attracted more than eight million viewers when CBS aired it in prime time in 2013, 62 years after the show premiered. CBS has aired two to three colorized episodes each year since then, once at Christmas and again in the spring.


title: I Love Lucy

text: The show – which was the first scripted television program to be shot on 35 mm film in front of a studio audience, by cinematographer Karl Freund – won five Emmy Awards and received many nominations and honors. It was the first show to feature an ensemble cast. As such, it is often regarded as both one of the greatest and most influential sitcoms in history. In 2012, it was voted the 'Best TV Show of All Time' in a survey conducted by ABC News and "People" magazine.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Originally set in an apartment building in New York City, "I Love Lucy" centers on Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) and her singer/bandleader husband, Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), along with their best friends and landlords, Fred Mertz (William Frawley) and Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance). During the second season, Lucy and Ricky have a son named Ricky Ricardo Jr. ("Little Ricky"), whose birth was timed to coincide with Ball's real-life birth of her son, Desi Arnaz Jr.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Lucy is naïve and ambitious, with a zeal for stardom and a knack for getting both herself and her husband into trouble whenever she yearns to make it in show business. The Ricardos' best friends, Fred and Ethel, are former vaudevillians. The Mertz's history in entertainment only strengthens Lucy's resolve to prove herself as a performer, though she often feels excluded, as her industry involvement is limited, relative to that of Ricky, Fred, and Ethel. Though charismatic, throughout the series, she is depicted as having few marketable performance skills, and she is often portrayed as being tone deaf, struggling to sing anything other than off-key renditions of songs such as "Glow Worm" on the saxophone, and many of her performances end in disaster. However, to say she is completely without talent would be untrue, as on occasion, she is shown to be a good dancer and a competent singer. She is also at least twice offered contracts by television or film companies—first in "The Audition", when she replaces an injured clown in Ricky's act at the Tropicana nightclub, and later in "Lucy and the Dummy", when she dances in Hollywood for a studio party using a rubber Ricky dummy as her dancing partner.


title: I Love Lucy

text: The show provided Ball ample opportunity to display her considerable skill at clowning and physical comedy. Character development was not a major focus of early sitcoms, however, so little information was offered about her life before the show. A few episodes mentioned that she was born in Jamestown, New York (Lucille Ball's real-life home town), later changed to "West" Jamestown, that she graduated from Jamestown High School, that her maiden name was "McGillicuddy" (indicating a Scottish or Irish ethnicity, at least on her father's side, though she once mentioned her grandmother was Swedish), and that she met Ricky on a boat cruise with her friend from an agency she once worked for. Her family was absent, other than occasional appearances by her scatter-brained mother (Kathryn Card), who could never get Ricky's name right. Lucy also exhibited many traits that were standard for female comedians at the time, including being secretive about her age and true hair color, and being careless with money, along with being somewhat materialistic, insisting on buying new dresses and hats for every occasion and telling old friends that she and Ricky were wealthy. She was also depicted as a devoted housewife, adept cook, and attentive mother. As part of Lucy's role was to care for her husband, she stayed at home and took care of the household chores, while her husband Ricky went to work. During the post war era, Lucy took jobs outside of the home, but in these jobs, the show portrayed her as being inept outside of her usual domestic duties.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Lucy's husband, Ricky Ricardo, is an up-and-coming Cuban American singer and bandleader with an excitable personality. His patience is frequently tested by his wife's antics trying to get into showbiz, along with her exorbitant spending on clothes and furniture. When exasperated, he often reverts to speaking rapidly in Spanish. As with Lucy, not much is revealed about his past or family. Ricky's mother (played by actress Mary Emery) appears in two episodes; in another, Lucy mentions that he has five brothers. Ricky also mentions that he had been "practically raised" by his Uncle Alberto (who was seen during a family visit to Cuba), and that he had attended the University of Havana.


title: I Love Lucy

text: An extended flashback segment in the 1957 episode "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" of "The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show" filled in numerous details of how Lucy and Ricky met and how Ricky came to the United States. The story, at least insofar as related to newspaper columnist Hedda Hopper, is that the couple met in Havana when Lucy and the Mertzes vacationed there in 1940. Despite his being a university graduate and proficient in English, Ricky is portrayed as a driver of a horse-drawn cab who waits for fares at a pier where tourists arrive by ship. Ricky is hired to serve as one of Lucy's tour guides, and the two fall in love. Having coincidentally also met popular singer, Rudy Vallée, on the cruise ship, Lucy arranges an audition for Ricky, who is hired to be in Vallée's orchestra, thus allowing him to emigrate to the United States on the very ship on which Lucy and the Mertzes were returning. Lucy later states that Ricky played for Vallée only one night before being traded to Xavier Cugat's orchestra.


title: I Love Lucy

text: The extended flashback segment "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana" and the story of how Lucy and Ricky met is inconsistent with Season 4, Episode 18 titled, "Don Juan and the Starlets" (1955). In that episode, Lucy mistakenly believes that Ricky stayed out all night after his publicity agent, Ross Elliott, sent him to a movie premiere accompanied by young starlets who were appearing in his movie. As a comeback in the ensuing argument, Lucy bemoans that she made a mistake fifteen years before when Marion Strong asked her if she would like to go on a blind date with a Cuban drummer, to which she said "yes."


title: I Love Lucy

text: Throughout the series, Lucy is usually found with her best friend, Ethel. A former model from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ethel tries to relive her glory days in vaudeville. Ricky is more inclined to include Ethel in performances at his nightclub because, unlike Lucy, she can sing and dance rather well.


title: I Love Lucy

text: The show mentions that Ethel's husband, Fred, served in World War I, and lived through the Great Depression. As such, in the series, Fred is depicted as being very stingy with money and as being an irascible, no-nonsense type. However, he also reveals that he can be a soft touch, especially when it comes to Little Ricky, to whom Fred is both godfather and honorary "uncle." Fred can also sing and dance, and he often performs duets with Ethel.


title: I Love Lucy

text: The Manhattan building they all lived in before their move to Westport, Connecticut during the sixth season, was addressed at a fictional 623 East 68th Street, at first in apartment 4A, then moving to the larger apartment 3B (subsequently re-designated 3D; the Mertzes’ apartment is then numbered 3B), on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In actuality, however, the addresses go up only to the 500s before the street terminates at the East River.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet, supporting cast members on "My Favorite Husband", were originally approached for the roles of Fred and Ethel, but neither could accept, owing to previous commitments. Gordon did appear as a guest star in three episodes, playing Ricky's boss, Mr. Littlefield, in two episodes, and later in an hour-long episode, as a civil court judge. Gordon was a veteran from the classic radio days in which he perfected the role of the exasperated character, as in "Fibber McGee and Molly" and "Our Miss Brooks". He would go on to co-star with Ball in all of her post–"I Love Lucy" series ("The Lucy Show", "Here's Lucy" and "Life with Lucy"). Benaderet was a guest star in one episode as elderly Miss Lewis, a neighbor of the Ricardos.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Barbara Pepper (later featured as Doris Ziffel in the series "Green Acres") was also considered to play Ethel, but Pepper had been drinking very heavily after the death of her husband, Craig W. Reynolds. Her friendship with Ball dated back to the film "Roman Scandals", in which both appeared as Goldwyn Girls. She did, however, turn up in at least nine episodes of "I Love Lucy" in bit parts.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Many of the characters in the series were named after Ball's family members or close friends. For example, Marion Strong was one of her best friends and a roommate for a time in New York, and she also set Ball and Arnaz up on their first date. Lillian Appleby was a teacher of Ball's when she was in an amateur production on the stage. Additionally, Pauline Lopus was a childhood friend, while Fred was the name of both her brother and grandfather. Ball and Arnaz had a business manager by the name of Mr. Andrew Hickox, and in the first episode of season 4, called "The Business Manager,” Lucy and Ricky hire a man named Mr. Hickox.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Lucille Ball came to Hollywood after a successful stint as a New York model. She was chosen by Samuel Goldwyn to be one of 16 Goldwyn Girls to co-star in the picture "Roman Scandals" (1933), with film star Eddie Cantor. Enthusiastic and hard-working, Ball had been able to secure film work briefly at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio and Columbia Pictures and then eventually at RKO Radio Pictures. It was at RKO that Ball received steady film work, first as an extra and bit player and eventually working her way up to co-starring roles in feature films and starring roles in second rate B pictures, collectively earning her the nickname "Queen of the B's". During her run at RKO, Ball gained the reputation for doing physical comedy and stunts that most other actresses avoided, keeping her steadily employed. In 1940, Ball met Desi Arnaz, a Cuban bandleader who had just come off a successful run in the 1939–40 Broadway show "Too Many Girls". RKO, after purchasing film rights to the show, cast Ball as Arnaz's love interest in the picture. The duo began a whirlwind courtship, leading to their elopement in Connecticut in November 1940. Despite their marriage, however, their careers kept them separated, with Ball's film work keeping her anchored in Hollywood, while Arnaz's nightclub engagements with his orchestra kept him on the road.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Despite steadily working in pictures, Ball's movie career never advanced to the level of a headlining feature-film actress. Nevertheless, she remained popular with film audiences. Ball came to the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after receiving critical acclaim for her starring role in the 1942 Damon Runyon film "The Big Street", which bought out her contract. It was under contract with MGM, however, that Ball, who had previously been a blonde, dyed her hair red to complement the Technicolor features that MGM planned to use her in. MGM cast Ball in a variety of films, but it was her work with fellow comedian Red Skelton in the 1943 film "DuBarry Was a Lady" that brought Ball's physical comedy to the forefront, earning her the reputation as "that crazy redhead,” which Ricky would later call her on the show. Nonetheless, Ball's striking beauty was in sharp contrast to the physical antics she performed in her films. Throughout her career, MGM tried to utilize her in multiple different film genres that did little to highlight her skills. Given their difficulties in casting her, MGM chose not to renew her contract when it expired in 1946.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Ball began working as a freelance artist in films and also began to explore other venues. Before and during World War II, Ball made several notable and successful guest appearances on several radio programs, including both Jack Haley's radio show and bandleader Kay Kyser's radio program. These appearances brought Ball to the attention of CBS, which, in 1948, enlisted her to star in one of two new half-hour situation comedies in development, "Our Miss Brooks" and "My Favorite Husband". Choosing the latter, Ball portrayed Liz Cugat (later anglicized to Cooper), the frustrated and scheming housewife of a Minneapolis banker, played originally by actor Lee Bowman in the series pilot, and later by actor Richard Denning. Based on the novel, "Mr. and Mrs. Cugat," by Isabel Scott Rorick, "My Favorite Husband" was produced by Jess Oppenheimer and written by Oppenheimer, plus scribes Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. Premiering on July 23, 1948, and sponsored by General Foods, "Husband" became a hit for CBS. During the run of the radio program, Ball also appeared in two feature films with Bob Hope, "Sorrowful Jones" in 1949, and "Fancy Pants" in 1950. Both films were box office and critical successes, further cementing Ball's reputation as a top notch, first-rate comedian. They also highlighted her growing popularity with audiences, enticing CBS to further use her skills.


title: I Love Lucy

text: In 1950, CBS asked Ball to take "My Favorite Husband" to television with co-star Richard Denning. Ball saw a television show as a great opportunity to work with Arnaz, however, and she insisted that he play her husband, much to the dismay of CBS, which was reluctant to cast Arnaz in that role, as he was Cuban. CBS executives did not think audiences would buy into a marriage between an all-American girl and a Latin man. To prove CBS wrong, the couple developed a vaudeville act, written by Carroll and Pugh, that they performed at Newburgh NY's historic Ritz Theater with Arnaz's orchestra. The act was a hit and convinced CBS executive Harry Ackerman that a Ball-Arnaz pairing would be a worthwhile venture. At the same time, rival networks NBC, ABC, and DuMont were showing interest in a Ball-Arnaz series, which Ackerman used to convince CBS to sign the duo.


title: I Love Lucy

text: A pilot was ordered and kinescoped in Hollywood in March 1951, which coincided with Ball's first pregnancy, and the ending of "Husband", which aired its last radio show on March 31, 1951. Ball and Arnaz used the same radio team of Oppenheimer, Pugh, and Carroll to create the television series that was named "I Love Lucy". The couple's agent, Don Sharpe, brought the pilot to several advertising agencies with little luck but finally succeeded with the Milton H. Biow agency. Biow's agency presented the pilot to its clients and was able to convince cigarette giant Philip Morris to sponsor the show.


title: I Love Lucy

text: During the spring and summer of 1951, "I Love Lucy" moved into production. Oppenheimer, Pugh, and Carroll began fine-tuning the premise of the show and writing the series' first scripts. The trio chose to adapt many storylines for television using the backlog of episodes of "My Favorite Husband". In addition, the series' ensemble cast and crew were assembled. Arnaz retained his orchestra, which was used in the series musical numbers and to score the show's background and transitional music. Arnaz's childhood friend Marco Rizo arranged the music and played the piano for the show, while Wilbur Hatch was used to conduct the orchestra.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Two problems arose after Philip Morris signed on to sponsor the show, that would ultimately change the fate of "I Love Lucy". Ball and Arnaz had originally decided that the series would air on a biweekly basis, much like "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show". Philip Morris, however, was insistent that the show air weekly, thus diminishing the possibility of Ball continuing her film career alongside a television show. Another problem lay in the fact that Philip Morris wanted the series to originate from New York rather than Hollywood. At the time, most television shows were produced from New York with live broadcasts of the show airing for eastern and Midwest audiences. West Coast viewers were able to view live programs only through low-quality kinescopes, which derived their images by using a 35 mm or 16 mm film camera to record the show from a television monitor.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Although the pilot film shown to Philip Morris had been a kinescope, the sponsor did not want the lucrative East Coast market, accustomed to quality broadcasts, to see a low-quality kinescope film. Owing to the impending birth of their first child, both Ball and Arnaz insisted on staying in Hollywood and producing the show on film, something a few Hollywood-based series had begun to do. Both CBS and Philip Morris initially balked at the idea, because of the higher cost that filming the show would incur, yet acquiesced only after the couple offered to take a $1,000 a week pay cut in order to cover the additional expense. In exchange, Ball and Arnaz demanded, and were given, 80% ownership in the "I Love Lucy" films (the other 20% went to Oppenheimer who then gave 5% to Pugh and 5% to Carroll). Shooting the show on film, however, would require that Ball and Arnaz become responsible for producing the series themselves. Union agreements at the time stipulated that any production filmed in a studio use film studio employees. CBS staff were television and radio employees and thus fell under different union agreements. Thus, Arnaz reorganized the company he created to manage his orchestra bookings and used it as the corporation that would produce the "I Love Lucy" shows. The company was named Desilu, from the combination of both their first names "Desi" and "Lucille".


title: I Love Lucy

text: Though some television series were already being filmed in Hollywood, most used the single-camera format familiar from movies, with a laugh track added to comedies to simulate audience response. Ball wanted to work in front of a live audience to create the kind of comic energy she had displayed on radio. The idea of a film studio that could accommodate an audience was a new one for the time, as fire safety regulations made it difficult to allow an audience in a studio. Arnaz and Oppenheimer found the financially struggling General Service Studios located on Las Palmas Avenue in Hollywood. Studio owner Jimmy Nasser was eager to accommodate the Desilu company and allowed them, with financial backing of CBS, to renovate two of his studios so that they could accommodate an audience and be in compliance with local fire laws.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Another component to filming the show came when it was decided to use three 35 mm film cameras to simultaneously film the show. The idea had been pioneered by Jerry Fairbanks, and had been used on the live anthology series The Silver Theater, and on the game show "Truth or Consequences", as well as subsequently "Amos 'n' Andy" as a way to save money, though "Amos n' Andy" did not use an audience. Edwards's assistant Al Simon was hired by Desilu to help perfect the new technique for the series. The process lent itself to the "Lucy" production as it eliminated the problem of requiring an audience to view and react to a scene three or four times in order for all necessary shots to be filmed. Multiple cameras would also allow scenes to be performed in sequence, as a play would be, which was unusual at the time for filmed series. Retakes were rare and dialogue mistakes were often played off for the sake of continuity.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Ball and Arnaz enlisted the services of Karl Freund, a cinematographer who had worked on such films as "Metropolis" (1927), "Dracula" (1931), "The Good Earth" (1937) and "DuBarry Was a Lady" (1943) (which also starred Ball), as well as directing "The Mummy" (1932), to be the series cinematographer. Although at first Freund did not want anything to do with television, it was the personal plea of the couple that convinced him to take the job.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Freund was instrumental in developing a way to uniformly light the set so that each of the three cameras would pick up the same quality of image. Freund noted that a typical episode (20–22 min.) was shot in about 60 minutes, with one constant concern being the shades-of-gray contrast in the final print, as each stage of transmission and broadcast would exaggerate the contrast. Freund also pioneered "flat lighting," in which everything is brightly lit to eliminate shadows and the need for endless relighting.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Audience reactions were live, which created a more authentic laugh than the canned laughter used on most filmed sitcoms of the time. Regular audience members were sometimes heard from episode to episode, and Arnaz's distinctive laugh could be heard in the background during scenes in which he did not perform, as well as Ball's mother, DeDe, whose distinctive "uh oh" could be heard in many of the episodes. In later years, CBS would devise a laugh track from several "I Love Lucy" audiences and use them for canned laughter on shows done without a live audience.


title: I Love Lucy

text: "I Love Lucy"'s pioneering use of three cameras led to it becoming the standard technique for the production of most sitcoms filmed in front of an audience. Single-camera setups remained the technique of choice for sitcoms that did not use audiences. This led to an unexpected benefit for Desilu during the series' second season when it was discovered that Ball was pregnant. Not being able to fulfill the show's 39-episode commitment, both Desi and Oppenheimer decided to rebroadcast popular episodes of the series' first season to help give Ball the necessary rest she needed after she gave birth, effectively allowing fewer episodes to be filmed that season. Unexpectedly, the rebroadcasts proved to be ratings winners, effectively giving birth to the rerun, which would later lead to the profitable development of the rerun syndication market.


title: I Love Lucy

text: The show's original opening and commercial bumpers were animated caricatures of Ball and Arnaz. They were designed and animated by MGM character designer and future "Flintstones" cartoonist, Gene Hazelton (1917–2005) and were produced under a contract producer William Hanna had secured privately. The program sponsor, Philip Morris cigarettes was incorporated into many of these sequences, so when "I Love Lucy" went into repeats, they were replaced by the now familiar heart logo. However Hazelton's original animation survives, and can be seen in the DVD boxed set as originally presented.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Desilu Productions, jointly owned by Ball and Arnaz, would gradually expand to produce and lease studio space for many other shows. For seasons 1 and 2 (1951–1953), Desilu rented space and filmed "I Love Lucy" at General Service Studios, which eventually became known as Hollywood Center Studios. In 1953, it leased the Motion Picture Center at 846 Cahuenga Blvd. in Hollywood, renaming it "Desilu Studios", to shoot seasons 3–6 (1953–1957) of "I Love Lucy". After 1956, it became known as "Desilu-Cahuenga Studios" to avoid confusion with other acquired Desilu locations. In an effort to keep up with the studio's growth, and need for additional sound stages, Arnaz and Ball purchased RKO Radio Pictures from General Tire in 1957 for over $6 million, effectively owning the studio where they had started as contract players. Desilu acquired RKO's two studio complexes located on Gower Street in Hollywood, and in Culver City (now part of the Paramount lot and Culver Studios respectively), along with the Culver City back lot nicknamed "Forty Acres". The sale was achieved by the duo selling their ownership of the once-thought-worthless "I Love Lucy" films back to CBS for over four million dollars.


title: I Love Lucy

text: In 1962, two years after their marriage dissolved, Ball bought out Arnaz's shares of Desilu, becoming the studio's sole owner. She eventually sold off Desilu in 1967 to Gulf+Western, owners of Paramount Pictures. After the sale, Desilu-Cahuenga became a private production company and was known as Ren-Mar Studios till 2010, when it was acquired by the Red Digital Cinema Camera Company and renamed Red Studios – Hollywood.


title: I Love Lucy

text: As with "My Favorite Husband", "Lucy" writers decided that the Ricardos needed an older couple to play off of. While performing in "Husband", veteran character actors Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet had played Rudolph and Iris Atterbury, an older, more financially stable couple as Mr. Atterbury had been George Cooper's boss. Ball had initially wanted both actors to reprise their roles on television; however, both were unavailable at the time the show went into production as Benaderet was already playing Blanche Morton on "The Burns and Allen Show", and Gordon was under contract by CBS to play Mr. Conklin on both the radio and television versions of "Our Miss Brooks".


title: I Love Lucy

text: Casting the Mertzes, as they were now called (the surname taken from a doctor that "Lucy" scriptwriter Madelyn Pugh knew as a child in Indianapolis), proved to be a challenge. Ball had initially wanted character actor James Gleason, with whom she appeared in the Columbia Pictures film "Miss Grant Takes Richmond" (1949), to play Fred Mertz. However, Gleason wanted nearly $3,500 per episode to play the role, a price that was far too high to sustain.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Sixty-four-year-old William Frawley, a seasoned vaudevillian and movie character actor with nearly 100 film credits to his name, was a long shot to play Fred Mertz and only came into consideration after he telephoned Ball personally to ask if there was a role for him on her new show. Ball, who had only briefly known Frawley from her days at RKO, suggested him to both Arnaz and CBS. The network objected to the idea of casting Frawley, fearing that his excessive drinking—which was well known in Hollywood—would interfere with a commitment to a live show. Arnaz nonetheless liked Frawley and lobbied hard for him to have the role, even to the point of having Lucy scribes re-tailor the role of Fred Mertz to be a less financially successful and more curmudgeonly (in contrast to Gordon's Mr. Atterbury) character to fit Frawley's persona. CBS relented only after Arnaz contractually bound Frawley to complete sobriety during the production of the show, and reportedly told the veteran actor that if he ever appeared on-set more than once in an intoxicated state he would be fired. Not once during "Lucy"'s nine seasons did Frawley's drinking ever interfere with his performance, and over time Arnaz became one of Frawley's few close friends.


title: I Love Lucy

text: The Ethel Mertz character also took quite some time to pin down an actress suitable for the role. Since Lucy's "Husband" co-star Bea Benaderet was not available, Mary Wickes, a longtime friend was offered the role, but declined because she did not want to strain her friendship with Ball. Actress Barbara Pepper, who was a close friend of Ball, was also considered for the role. The two had a long history together, as Pepper had been one of the Goldwyn Girls who came to Hollywood with Lucy in 1933. Pepper was ruled out by Ball and Arnaz because she too had a drinking problem like Frawley.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Vivian Vance became a consideration on the recommendation of "Lucy" director Marc Daniels. Daniels had worked with Vance in New York on Broadway in the early 1940s. Vance had already been a successful stage star performing on Broadway for nearly 20 years in a variety of plays, and in addition, after relocating to Hollywood in the late 1940s, had two film roles to her credit. Nonetheless, by 1951, she was still a relatively unknown actress in Hollywood. Vance was performing in a revival of the play "The Voice of the Turtle" in La Jolla, California. Arnaz and Jess Oppenheimer went to see her in the play and hired her on the spot. Vance was reluctant about giving up her film and stage work for a television show, yet was convinced by Daniels that it would be a big break in her career. Ball, however, had many misgivings about hiring Vance, who was younger and far more attractive than the concept of Ethel as an older, somewhat homely woman (Vance was just 2 years older than Ball). Ball was also a believer in the Hollywood adage at the time that there should be only one pretty woman on the set and Ball, being the star of the show, was it. Arnaz, however, was impressed by Vance's work and hired her. The decision was then made to dress Vance in frumpier clothing to tone down her attractiveness. Ball and Vance's relationship during the series' early beginnings was lukewarm at best. Eventually realizing that Vance was no threat and was very professional, Ball began to warm to her. In 1954, Vance became the first actress to win an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actress". Vance and Ball developed a close, lifelong friendship. Ball went on to ask Vance to co-star in Ball's new series "The Lucy Show" after the end of "I Love Lucy".


title: I Love Lucy

text: Vance and Frawley's off-screen relationship was less successful. In spite of this, they were always professional and exhibited exceptional chemistry while performing on the show. Frawley derisively described Vance's appearance as "a sack of doorknobs." It was reported that Vance, who was 22 years younger than Frawley, was not really keen on the idea that her character Ethel was married to a man that was old enough to be her father. Vance also complained that Frawley's song-and-dance skills were not what they once were. Frawley and Vance had an adversarial relationship during the entire run of the show.


title: I Love Lucy

text: In 1957, "I Love Lucy" was re-tailored into an hour-long show originally titled "The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show" that was to be part of an anthology series called the "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse". The hour-long "Lucy-Desi" show was to alternate on a monthly basis with other hour long "Playhouse" shows. The new series put a much heavier emphasis on big name guest stars as being part of the plot and although the Mertz characters continued into the new series, their roles became somewhat diminished. Although a lighter workload was welcomed by Frawley, Vance came to somewhat resent the change. Arnaz, in an effort to please Vance, for whom he had much respect, proposed doing a spin-off from "I Love Lucy" called "The Mertzes". Seeing a lucrative opportunity and the chance to star in his own show, Frawley was enthused. Vance, however, declined for a number of reasons, the biggest factor being that she felt she and Frawley could barely work together on the ensemble show they were doing at the time, so it would be much less likely the two could work together on their own series. Vance also felt that the Mertz characters would not be as successful without the Ricardos to play off of, and despite being her biggest success, she was becoming interested in playing more glamorous roles rather than Ethel. During the thirteen-episode run of the "Lucy-Desi" hour-long shows, Vance was given a lot more latitude to look more attractive as Ethel Mertz, something she was denied during the run of the "I Love Lucy" episodes. Frawley's resentment of Vance intensified after she declined to do the spin-off show and the two rarely talked to each other outside of their characters' dialogue with one another.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Just before filming the show, Ball and Arnaz learned that she was once again pregnant (after multiple miscarriages earlier in their marriage) with their first child, Lucie Arnaz. They filmed the original pilot while Lucy was "showing", but did not include any references to the pregnancy in the episode. This was because CBS thought that talk of pregnancy might be in bad taste and because an ad agency told Desi Arnaz not to show a pregnant woman.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Later, during the second season, Ball was pregnant again with second child Desi Arnaz Jr., and this time the pregnancy was incorporated into the series' storyline. (Contrary to popular belief, Ball's pregnancy was not television's first on-screen pregnancy, a distinction belonging to Mary Kay Stearns on the late 1940s sitcom "Mary Kay and Johnny".)


title: I Love Lucy

text: CBS would not allow "I Love Lucy" to use the word "pregnant", so "expecting" was used instead. In addition, sponsor Philip Morris made the request that Ball not be seen smoking during the pregnancy episodes. The episode "Lucy Is Enceinte" first aired on December 8, 1952 ("enceinte" being French for "expecting" or "pregnant"). One week later, on December 15, 1952, the episode titled "Pregnant Women Are Unpredictable" was aired (although the show never displayed episode titles on the air). The episode in which Lucy Ricardo gives birth, "Lucy Goes to the Hospital", first aired on January 19, 1953, which was the day before the inauguration of Dwight Eisenhower as President of the United States. To increase the publicity of this episode, the original air date was chosen to coincide with Ball's real-life delivery of Desi Jr. by Caesarean section. "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" was watched by more people than any other television program up to that time, with 71.7% of all American television sets tuned in, topping the 67.7 rating for the inauguration coverage the following morning.


title: I Love Lucy

text: Unlike some programs that advance the age of a newborn over a short period, "I Love Lucy" at first allowed the Ricardo's son Little Ricky to grow up in real time. America saw Little Ricky as an infant in the 1952–53 season and a toddler from 1953 to 1956. However, for the 1956–57 season, Little Ricky suddenly aged by two years, becoming a young school-age boy from 1956 to 1960. Five actors played the role, two sets of twins and later Keith Thibodeaux, whose stage name when playing Ricky Ricardo Jr. was Richard Keith. (In the Superman episode, Little Ricky is mentioned as being five years old but it had been less than four years since the birth-of-Little-Ricky episode.)


title: I Love Lucy

text: Jess Oppenheimer stated in his memoir, "Laughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time", that the initial plan was to match the sex of the Ricardo's baby with Ball's real baby, inserting one of two alternate endings into the broadcast print at the last minute. When logistical difficulties convinced Oppenheimer to abandon this plan, he advised Desi Arnaz that as head writer, he would have Lucy Ricardo give birth to a boy. Desi Arnaz agreed, telling Oppenheimer that Ball had already given him one girl, and might give him another—this might be his only chance to get a son. When the baby boy was born, Desi Arnaz immediately called Oppenheimer and told him, "Lucy followed your script. Ain't she something?", to which Oppenheimer replied "Terrific! That makes me the greatest writer in the world!"


title: I Love Lucy

text: The opening familiar to most viewers, featuring the credits superimposed over a "heart on satin" image, was created specifically for the 1959–67 CBS daytime network rebroadcasts, and subsequent syndication. As originally broadcast, the episodes opened with animated matchstick figures of Arnaz and Ball making reference to whoever the particular episode's sponsor was. These sequences were created by the animation team of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who declined screen credit because they were technically under exclusive contract to MGM at the time.


title: I Love Lucy

text: The original sponsor was cigarette maker Philip Morris, so the program opened with a cartoon of Lucy and Ricky climbing down a pack of Philip Morris cigarettes. In the early episodes, Lucy and Ricky, as well as Ethel and Fred on occasion, were shown smoking Philip Morris cigarettes. Lucy even went so far as to parody Johnny Roventini's image as the Philip Morris "bellhop" in the May 5, 1952, episode, "Lucy Does a TV Commercial". Since the original sponsor references were no longer appropriate when the shows went into syndication, a new opening was needed, which resulted in the classic "heart on satin" opening. Other sponsors, whose products appeared during the original openings, were Procter & Gamble for Cheer and Lilt Home Permanent (1954–57), General Foods for Sanka (1955–57), and Ford Motor Company (1956–57). The later "Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show" was sponsored by Ford Motor Company (1957–58) and Westinghouse Electric Corporation (1958–60), as part of the "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse".


title: I Love Lucy

text: The original openings, with the sponsor names edited out, were revived on TV Land showings, with a TV Land logo superimposed to obscure the original sponsor's logo. However, this has led some people to believe that the restored introduction was created specifically for TV Land as an example of kitsch.


title: I Love Lucy

text: The animated openings, along with the middle commercial introductory animations, are included, fully restored, in the DVDs. However, the openings are listed as special features within the disks with the "heart on satin" image opening the actual episodes.