title: Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

text: "The Lancet" in 2006 suggested that it may take more than 50 years for vCJD to develop, from their studies of kuru, a similar disease in Papua New Guinea. The reasoning behind the claim is that kuru was possibly transmitted through cannibalism in Papua New Guinea when family members would eat the body of a dead relative as a sign of mourning. In the 1950s, cannibalism was banned in Papua New Guinea.


title: Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

text: In the late 20th century, however, kuru reached epidemic proportions in certain Papua New Guinean communities, therefore suggesting that vCJD may also have a similar incubation period of 20 to 50 years. A critique to this theory is that while mortuary cannibalism was banned in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s, that does not necessarily mean that the practice ended. Fifteen years later Jared Diamond was informed by Papuans that the practice continued.


title: Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

text: These researchers noticed a genetic variation in some people with kuru that has been known to promote long incubation periods. They have also proposed that individuals having contracted CJD in the early 1990s represent a distinct genetic subpopulation, with unusually short incubation periods for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). This means that there may be many more people with vCJD with longer incubation periods, which may surface many years later.


title: Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

text: Prion protein is detectable in lymphoid and appendix tissue up to two years before the onset of neurological symptoms in vCJD. Large scale studies in the UK have yielded an estimated prevalence of 493 per million, higher than the actual number of reported cases. This finding indicates a large number of asymptomatic cases and the need to monitor.


title: Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

text: In 1997, a number of people from Kentucky developed CJD. It was discovered that all had consumed squirrel brains. A coincidental relationship between the disease and this dietary practice may have been involved.


title: Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

text: In 2008, UK scientists expressed concern over the possibility of a second wave of human cases due to the wide exposure and long incubation of some cases of vCJD. In 2015, a man from New York developed vCJD after eating squirrel brains. From November 2017 to April 2018, four suspected cases of the disease arose in Rochester.


title: Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

text: Researchers believe one in 2,000 people in the UK is a carrier of the disease, linked to eating contaminated beef. The survey provides the most robust prevalence measure to date—and identifies abnormal prion protein across a wider age group than found previously and in all genotypes, indicating "infection" may be relatively common. This new study examined over 32,000 anonymous appendix samples. Of these, 16 samples were positive for abnormal prion protein, indicating an overall prevalence of 493 per million population, or one in 2,000 people are likely to be carriers. No difference was seen in different birth cohorts (1941–1960 and 1961–1985), in both sexes, and there was no apparent difference in abnormal prion prevalence in three broad geographical areas. Genetic testing of the 16 positive samples revealed a higher proportion of valine homozygous (VV) genotype on the codon 129 of the gene encoding the prion protein (PRNP) compared with the general UK population. This also differs from the 176 people with vCJD, all of whom to date have been methionine homozygous (MM) genotype. The concern is that individuals with this VV genotype may be susceptible to developing the condition over longer incubation periods.


title: Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

text: In 2000 a voluntary support group was formed by families of people who had died from vCJD. The goal was to support other families going through a similar experience. This support was provided through a National Helpline, a Carer's Guide, a website and a network of family befriending. The support groups had an internet presence at the turn of the 21st century. The driving force behind the foundation was Lester Firkins, whose young son had died from the disease.


title: Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

text: In October 2000 the report of the government inquiry into BSE chaired by Lord Phillips was published. The BSE report criticised former Conservative Party Agriculture Ministers John Gummer, John MacGregor and Douglas Hogg. The report concluded that the escalation of BSE into a crisis was the result of intensive farming, particularly with cows being fed with cow and sheep remains. Furthermore, the report was critical of the way the crisis had been handled. There was a reluctance to consider the possibility that BSE could cross the species barrier. The government assured the public that British beef was safe to eat, with agriculture minister John Gummer famously feeding his daughter a burger. The British government were reactive more than proactive in response; the worldwide ban on all British beef exports in March 1996 was a serious economic blow.


title: Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

text: The foundation had been calling for compensation to include a care package to help relatives look after those with vCJD. There have been widespread complaints of inadequate health and social services support. Following the Phillips Report in October 2001, the government announced a compensation scheme for British people affected with vCJD. The multi-million-pound financial package was overseen by the vCJD Trust.


title: Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease

text: A memorial plaque for those who have died due to vCJD was installed in central London in approximately 2000. It is located on the boundary wall of St Thomas' Hospital in Lambeth facing the Riverside Walk of Albert Embankment.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: The Facts of Life is an American television sitcom created by Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon and a spin-off of "Diff'rent Strokes" that originally aired on NBC from August 24, 1979, to May 7, 1988, making it one of the longest-running sitcoms of the 1980s. The series focuses on Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae), as she becomes a housemother (and from the second season onward, a dietitian as well) at the fictional Eastland School, an all-girls boarding school in Peekskill, New York.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: A spin-off of "Diff'rent Strokes", the series featured the Drummonds' former housekeeper Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) becoming the housemother of a dormitory at Eastland School, a private all-girls school in Peekskill, New York. The girls in her care included spoiled rich girl Blair Warner (Lisa Whelchel); the youngest, gossipy Dorothy "Tootie" Ramsey (Kim Fields) and impressionable Natalie Green (Mindy Cohn).


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: The pilot for the show was originally aired as the last episode of the first season of "Diff'rent Strokes" and was called "The Girls' School (a.k.a. Garrett's Girls)." The plot line for the pilot had Kimberly Drummond (Dana Plato) requesting that Mrs. Garrett help her sew costumes for a student play at East Lake School for Girls, the school Kimberly attended in Upstate New York, as her dorm's housemother had recently quit. Mrs. Garrett agrees to help, puts on a successful play and also solves a problem for the boyfriend-obsessed Nancy Olsen (Felice Schachter) as she also meets Blair, Tootie, the small-town girl from Kansas Sue Ann Weaver (Julie Piekarski), and the budding activist Molly Parker (Molly Ringwald). Mrs. Garrett is asked to stay on as the new housemother but states she would rather remain working for the Drummonds at the end of the pilot.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: Following the pilot, the name of the school was changed to Eastland and characters were replaced, with Natalie, athletic tomboy Cindy Webster (Julie Anne Haddock), and Mr. Bradley becoming part of the main group featured. Although Kimberly Drummond is featured as a student at East Lake, her character did not cross over to the spinoff series with Mrs. Garrett. In the show's first season, episodes focus on the issues of seven girls, with the action usually set in a large, wood-paneled common room of a girls' dormitory. Also appearing was the school's headmaster, Mr. Steven Bradley (John Lawlor) and Miss Emily Mahoney (Jenny O'Hara), an Eastland teacher who was dropped after the first four episodes. Early episodes of the show typically revolve around a central morality-based or "lesson teaching" theme. The show's pilot episode plot included a storyline in which Blair Warner insinuates that her schoolmate Cindy Webster is a lesbian, because she is a tomboy and frequently shows affection for other girls. Other season one episodes deal with issues including drug use, sex, eating disorder, parental relationships and peer pressure.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: The producers felt that there were too many characters given the limitations of the half-hour sitcom format and that the plotlines should be more focused to give the remaining girls more room for character development. Four of the original actresses—Julie Anne Haddock (Cindy), Julie Piekarski (Sue Ann), Felice Schachter (Nancy) and Molly Ringwald (Molly)—were written out of the show, although the four did make periodic guest appearances in the second and third seasons, and all but Molly Ringwald appeared in one "reunion" episode in the eighth season. Mr. Bradley's character was also dropped and replaced by Mr. Charles Parker (Roger Perry). Mr. Parker appeared in episodes through the beginning of season 5. In addition to being housemother to the remaining girls, Mrs. Garrett became the school dietitian as the second season began. Jo Polniaczek (Nancy McKeon), a new student originally from the Bronx, arrived at Eastland on scholarship. A run-in with the law forced the four to be separated from the other girls and work in the cafeteria, living together in a spare room next to Mrs. Garrett's bedroom. The season two premiere of the retooled series saw an immediate ratings increase. By its third season (1981–82), "Facts of Life" had become NBC's No. 1 comedy and No. 2 overall NBC program, beating its predecessor, "Diff'rent Strokes", for the first time.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: In 1983, Jo and Blair graduated Eastland Academy in the highly anticipated season four finale "Graduation". To keep the four girls under one roof, the hour-long season five premiere "Brave New World" saw Mrs. Garrett go into business for herself and open a gourmet food venture named Edna's Edibles. The four girls came to live and work with Mrs. Garrett in this new refreshed space. In September 1985, NBC moved the seventh season of the series to its burgeoning Saturday night lineup at 8:30, as a lead-in for the new series "The Golden Girls" at 9 pm. In an attempt to refresh the "ratings work horse" and increase ratings, George Clooney was added to the regular cast and Mrs. Garrett's store was gutted by fire in the season seven premiere "Out of the Fire". The follow-up episodes "Into the Frying Pan" and "Grand Opening" had the girls join together to rebuild the store with a pop culture-influenced gift shop, called Over Our Heads. The changes proved successful as all three episodes placed in the top ten ratings each week. By the end of the season, "TV Guide" reported, ""Facts" success has been so unexpected that scions of Hollywood are still taken aback by it ..."Facts" has in fact been among NBC's top-ranked comedies for the past five years. It finished twenty-seven overall for the 1985–1986 season, handily winning its time slot against its most frequent competitors, "Airwolf" and "Benson". Lisa Whelchel stated, 'We're easily overlooked because we've never been a huge hit; we just sort of snuck in there.'"


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: Charlotte Rae initially reduced her role in seasons six and seven and later decided to leave the series altogether, believing she had done all she could do with her character and desired to move on to other projects. In season eight's heavily promoted one-hour premiere, "Out of Peekskill" Mrs. Garrett married the man of her dreams and joined him in Africa while he worked for the Peace Corps. Mrs. Garrett convinces her sister, Beverly Ann Stickle (Cloris Leachman), to take over the shop and look after the girls. The character of Beverly Ann had a similar personality to Leachman's previous Emmy-winning role as Phyllis Lindstrom on two 1970s CBS sitcoms – "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Phyllis". Beverly Ann later legally adopted Over Our Heads worker Andy Moffett (Mackenzie Astin) in the episode "A Boy About the House". Describing the new changes to "The Facts of Life" Brandon Tartikoff, NBC Entertainment President, said he "was surprised that "The Facts of Life" performed well this season, as, with a major cast change and all, I thought it might not perform as it had in the past. "Facts" has been renewed for next season."


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: In the ninth and final season, the series aired on NBC's Saturday lineup at 8 pm, NBC still had confidence in the series, making it the 8 p.m. anchor, kicking off the network's second-highest rated night (next to Thursdays). For February Nielsen rating sweeps, the writers created a controversial storyline in this season for the episode titled "The First Time", in which Natalie became the first of the girls to lose her virginity. Lisa Whelchel refused this storyline that would have made her character, not Natalie, the first among the four young women in the show to lose her virginity. Having become a Christian when she was 10, Whelchel refused because of her religious convictions. Whelchel appeared in every episode but asked to be written out of "The First Time". The episode ran a parental advisory before starting and placed 22nd in the ratings for the week. With the show still easily winning its timeslot, NBC had made plans to renew "The Facts of Life" for a 10th season but two castmates – Mindy Cohn and Nancy McKeon – chose to leave at the conclusion of season nine.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: A key recurring character was Geri Tyler (Geri Jewell), Blair's cousin who has cerebral palsy. Jewell's character primarily was created in order to show Blair's more sympathetic side but Cousin Geri eventually inspired many other people with disabilities interested in the entertainment industry. Other recurring characters included the judgment-impaired Miko Wakamatsu (Lauren Tom), the delivery boy Roy (Loren Lester) who was enamored with Jo, the royal princess Alexandra (Heather McAdam) and the snobbish Boots St. Clair (Jami Gertz). Shoplifter Kelly (Pamela Segall) was billed as a regular during the fifth season. Other guest roles included the boyfriends of the girls; Jo's parents, played by Alex Rocco and Claire Malis; Blair's parents, played by Nicolas Coster and Marj Dusay; Tootie's parents, played by Chip Fields (Kim Fields's real-life mother) and Robert Hooks and Natalie's parents, played by Norman Burton and Mitzi Hoag. Characters from "Diff'rent Strokes" also appeared in some episodes of both season one and season two. Other recurring characters included Tootie's boyfriend Jeff Williams (Todd Hollowell), Blair's boyfriend Cliff (Woody Brown), and Charles Parker (Roger Perry), who served as headmaster of Eastland following Lawlor's exit from the show.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: "The Facts of Life" was produced first by T.A.T. Communications Company, later known as Embassy Television (Norman Lear's production companies) and then as Embassy Communications and Columbia Pictures Television (through ELP Communications) on January–May 1988 episodes of the series. Sony Pictures Television currently owns the distribution rights to the sitcom. From 1979 to 1982, the show was produced at Metromedia Square in Los Angeles, California. In 1982, production moved to Universal City Studios and then to Sunset Gower Studios in 1985.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: The show's theme was composed by Al Burton, Gloria Loring and her then-husband, Alan Thicke. The well-known opening lyric "You take the good, you take the bad ..." came later as the first season lyrics, some of them performed by Rae and the original cast, differed from those that followed, later sung by Loring. The original lyrics eventually shifted to the closing credits before being dropped entirely. Burton, Loring and Thicke had previously composed the theme to "Diff'rent Strokes", which was sung by Thicke.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: "The Facts of Life Goes to Paris", a two-hour TV movie in which Mrs. Garrett and the girls travel to France, aired September 25, 1982. It scored 18.1/31 in the Nielsen Ratings. The movie was later added to the American syndication package, separated into four half-hour episodes; however, the original cut of the film appears on the Season 4 DVD set in 2010. The TV movie was directed by Asaad Kelada.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: "The Facts of Life Down Under", another two-hour TV movie, aired Sunday, February 15, 1987 placing a strong No. 13 for the week garnering 21.4/32. This was strategic counterprogramming by NBC, which placed the movie against the conclusion of ABC's highly publicized miniseries "Amerika". The Telemovie was also syndicated as four half-hour episodes in later U.S. airings.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: "The Facts of Life Reunion", a two-hour TV movie reunion aired on ABC November 18, 2001, in which Mrs. Garrett and the girls are reunited in Peekskill, New York, for the Thanksgiving holiday. It occasionally aired in the United States on ABC Family. Nancy McKeon (Jo) did not appear in this movie; her character's absence is explained as being on assignment as a police officer.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: NBC aired daytime reruns of "The Facts of Life" from December 13, 1982 until June 28, 1985 at 10 a.m. (and later noon) on the daytime schedule. Episodes aired on television stations nationwide from September 15, 1986 to September 10, 1993, then aired on the USA Network on and off from September 13, 1993 to September 11, 1998. In August 1994, the network celebrated the show's 15th anniversary with a day-long marathon of 14 episodes featuring new interviews with Rae, Whelchel and Cohn. Episodes aired on Nick at Nite from September 4, 2000 to June 28, 2001, although the network did not air certain episodes that contained highly mature content during primetime (including the first-season episode "Dope"), instead opting to air episodes with more serious topics at late night/early morning times. TV Land aired 48 hours of "The Facts of Life" episodes on its "Fandemonium Marathon Weekend" on November 17–19, 2001. The Hallmark Channel aired "The Facts of Life" from July 1 to November 1, 2002. Episodes were available on Comcast's Video-On-Demand service from August 8, 2005 to July 31, 2006 and again from the August 6, 2007 until Tube Time's shutdown date on December 31, 2009. On July 16, 2008 full episodes and short "minisodes" of "The Facts of Life" became available online via Hulu. On March 12, 2012, TeenNick added the series to their morning lineup; however, the series' addition to the channel was short-lived, as it left the schedule on April 3, 2012. The series premiered on The Hub on April 2, 2012, where it rerun until March 31, 2013 and later moved to Logo TV. Most recently, Antenna TV started airing "The Facts of Life" on January 2, 2020. The series also airs on Logo TV in various time slots. As of March 2022, the series has also been airing in daily blocks and on Saturdays in day long marathons on the GAC Family cable network.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: "The Facts of Life" was originally not a ratings winner on Friday nights in its summer debut in 1979 or in its second tryout in the spring of 1980. It ranked 74th of 79 shows on the air in the year-end Nielsen ratings and was NBC's lowest-rated series. The show was put on hiatus and extensively retooled in preparation for season two. In November 1980, season two of "The Facts of Life" premiered in a Wednesday 9:30 p.m. time slot, where it immediately flourished, peaking in January 1981 with a 27.4 rating and 41 share; it ranked No. 4 for the week. The program became NBC's fourth highest-rated scripted series, after "Little House on the Prairie", "Diff'rent Strokes" and "CHiPs". By the third season, the series moved time slots to 9:00 pm. Wednesdays and soon became NBC's highest-rated comedy series and NBC's No. 2 overall series, after "Real People". For its seventh season, it moved to Saturdays at 8:30 p.m., to bolster the premiering series "The Golden Girls" at 9 p.m. in the newly formed Saturday night comedy block. At the start of the eighth season, the series was moved forward a half-hour to the toughest time slot on television – Saturday at 8 pm, which brought the ratings down from its season seven high. Still, the series easily won its time slot and garnered high numbers in the coveted teen and 18–49 demographics. One of the highest rated season eight episodes saw the original season one cast return for a mini-reunion. Titled "The Little Chill", it placed No. 19 for the week with an 18.2 rating and 31 share. In the article "Ratings Top with Teens" appearing in the January 19, 1988 edition of "USA Today", "The Facts of Life" was ranked as one of the top 10 shows in a survey of 2,200 American teenagers.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: On April 21 and 22, 2001, Columbia House released "The Facts of Life: The Collector's Edition", a 10-volume "Best of" the series on VHS (40 episodes in all). With the advent shortly thereafter of TV on DVD and Columbia House's eventual move from the direct marketing model of exclusive series, the tapes were discontinued. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the first two seasons on DVD in Region 1 on May 9, 2006 with new interviews with most of the cast, including first season regulars Felice Schachter and Julie Anne Haddock. To promote the DVD's release, McKeon, Whelchel and Cohn appeared together on various TV shows such as "Entertainment Tonight", "Today", and "CNN Showbiz" to reminisce about their time on the show and talk about their lives presently; unfortunately, Fields was unable to take part due to other commitments. The third season was released on October 24, 2006. This release failed to match the success of the first and second seasons, sales-wise. The first and second seasons were also released in Region 4 on March 7, 2007. In 2010, Shout! Factory acquired the rights to the series and released the fourth season on Region 1 DVD on May 4, 2010. Special features include "The Facts of Life Goes To Paris", a made-for-TV-movie (which originally aired a few days prior to the fourth season debut) and a "Know "The Facts": Trivia Game." They have subsequently released seasons five through nine on DVD.Mill Creek Entertainment re-released the first and second seasons on DVD on May 20, 2014. It is unknown as to whether or not Mill Creek will release any further seasons. On January 13, 2015, Shout! Factory released "The Facts of Life – The Complete Series" on DVD in Region 1. The 26-disc set contains all 201 episodes of the series as well as the two made-for-TV films ("The Facts of Life Goes to Paris" and "The Facts of Life Down Under") and other bonus features including an all-new cast reunion. "The Facts of Life Reunion" film is not included in this collection and has yet to be released on DVD.


title: The Facts of Life (TV series)

text: The various attempts at spin-offs were backdoor pilots, which were shown as episodes of "The Facts of Life".


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Welcome Back, Kotter is an American sitcom starring Gabe Kaplan as a high-school teacher in charge of a racially and ethnically diverse remedial education class called the "Sweathogs." Recorded in front of a live studio audience, the series aired on ABC from September 9, 1975, through May 17, 1979. It provided John Travolta with his breakthrough role.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: The show stars stand-up comedian and actor Gabriel "Gabe" Kaplan as the main character, Gabe Kotter. A wisecracking teacher who returns to his alma mater, James Buchanan High School in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, to teach a remedial class of loafers, the Sweathogs. The rigid vice principal, Michael Woodman (John Sylvester White), dismisses the Sweathogs as witless hoodlums and only expects Kotter to contain them until they drop out or are otherwise banished. As a former remedial student and a founding member of the original class of Sweathogs, Kotter befriends the current Sweathogs and stimulates their potential. A pupil-teacher rapport is formed, and the students often visit Kotter's Bensonhurst apartment, sometimes via the fire escape window, much to the chagrin of his wife, Julie (Marcia Strassman).


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: The fictional James Buchanan High is based on the Brooklyn high school that Kaplan attended in real life, New Utrecht High School, which is also shown in the opening credits. Many of the show's characters were also based on people Kaplan knew during his teen years as a remedial student, several of whom were described in one of Kaplan's stand-up comic routines entitled "Holes and Mellow Rolls". "Vinnie Barbarino" was inspired by Eddie Lecarri and Ray Barbarino; "Freddie 'Boom Boom' Washington" was inspired by Freddie "Furdy" Peyton; "Juan Epstein" was partially inspired by Epstein "The Animal"; and "Arnold Horshack" was inspired by someone of the same name.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: The character, Gabe Kotter is a flippant but well-meaning teacher who returns to his Alma mater, James Buchanan High, to teach a group of remedial students known as the Sweathogs. Because he was a "founding member" of the original Sweathogs, Kotter has a special understanding of the possibility of these supposedly "unteachable" students, and the challenges and scrutiny they face in daily life (educational, social, and emotional). On his first day on the job, he launches into a Groucho Marx impersonation. Kotter is married to Julie throughout the series, and they eventually have twin girls, Robin and Rachel. It is confirmed by Julie in the episode "Follow the Leader (part 1)" that Gabe is Jewish. During season four, Kaplan had contract issues with the executive producer, which resulted in Kotter's character appearing in only a handful of episodes. In season four, the invisible principal, John Lazarus retires, and Kotter becomes the vice-principal. Though he is said to maintain some social studies training duties, most of that season's shows are filmed outside his classroom (#11), or if in Room 11, Mr. Woodman is teaching. To minimize Kotter's absence, scenes were shot in either the school's hallway, the schoolyard, or the principal's waiting area. Season four ended the series.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: The character, Julie Kotter, is Gabe's wife and closest friend. Though she has a sense of humor, she often wishes Gabe would take matters more seriously. She is occasionally upset with the amount of time her husband spends with his students, and she is troubled that he allows them to visit their apartment regularly; in the two-part story arc "Follow the Leader", the Sweathogs' constant intrusions lead Julie to separate briefly from Gabe and even seriously consider divorce. Originally from Nebraska, with a college degree in anthropology, Julie eventually becomes a secretary at Buchanan, and later a substitute teacher after Gabe's promotion to vice-principal. She makes several references to her "world famous tuna casserole", a common meal at the Kotter dinner table, which Gabe and the Sweathogs deem inedible.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: The character, Michael Woodman is the curmudgeonly vice-principal (and later principal) of Buchanan High. He makes no secret of his dislike for the Sweathogs, whom he considers the bottom of the social stratum at his school. He refers to non-Sweathogs as "real" students. When Kotter was a student at Buchanan, Woodman taught social studies, the same class Kotter returns to teach at Buchanan. His old age, and sometimes his diminutive height, are common jokes with the Sweathogs. Woodman opposes Kotter's unorthodox teaching methods, and at one point even puts Kotter in front of the school's review board in an unsuccessful attempt to have him fired. As the series progresses, Woodman begins to tolerate them marginally. In the season one episode "No More Mr. Nice Guy", Woodman is shown to be a gifted teacher, willing to wear historic costumes and role-play in front of the class during his lessons.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: The character, Vinnie Barbarino is a cocky Italian-American, the "unofficial official" leader and resident heartthrob of the Sweathogs. He has a need to be the center of attention, as seen when he admits to making it rain in the school gymnasium. In the two-episode "Follow the Leader", Barbarino quits the Sweathogs and drops out of school in anger when Freddy Washington is chosen as the "leader" of the group, though he returns as leader at the finish of the story. Barbarino's prowess with women is sometimes a source of envy and more often, amusement among his classmates. On occasion, he breaks out in a song about his last name sung to the tune of "Barbara Ann". He was the first of the Sweathogs to move out on his own, when he got a job as a hospital orderly. In the first episode of the series' fourth season, he has a girlfriend, Sally. Vinnie is Catholic (often describing his mother as a saint), and, as shown in "I'm Having Their Baby", is a fan. Little is known about Vinnie's home life, other than that his parents argue a lot ("Follow the Leader (Part 2)") and take turns beating him when in a mutual rage. His mother's name is Margie ("The Great Debate"), whom he describes in the pilot episode as “holy” and he shares a bed with his brother. The episode "Don't Come Up And See Me Sometime" implies that Vinnie is the older of the two. The character is seen less frequently in season 4, appearing in only 10 of the first 15 episodes of the season, before leaving the series entirely.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: The class clown of the Sweathogs, the character Arnold Horshack, is completely comfortable with his oddball, if naïve, personality. Horshack was known for his unique observations and his wheezing laugh, similar to that of a hyena. (Palillo revealed on a 1995 episode of "The Jenny Jones Show" that it originated from the way his father breathed during the last two weeks of his life as he lay dying from lung cancer.) It is possible that academically he is the smartest Sweathog. He is the only central Sweathog character to be promoted out of a remedial academics class, but he soon returns after feeling out of place. He has an affection for acting and enjoys old movies, particularly 1930s musicals. He eventually marries Mary Johnson, a co-worker and fellow Sweathog. Although his surname sounds like a term for a brothel, he claims it is a "very old and respected name" meaning "the cattle are dying." His middle name (and his mother's maiden name) is "Dingfelder".


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: The character, Freddie Washington is the hip black student known as the athletic Sweathog for his skills on the basketball court (although in the episode "Basket Case", Mr. Kotter almost beats Freddie in a one-on-one game). Washington claimed his nickname came from his habit of "pretending to play the bass" and singing "Boom-boom-boom-boom!". His trademark phrase is, "Hi, there" (spoken with a deep voice and a broad smile). Though often the voice of reason among his classmates, Washington nonetheless is a willing participant in the Sweathogs' various antics and pranks. Freddie also finds success as a radio disc jockey along with another former Sweathog, Wally "The Wow" (played by George Carlin). At one point, Washington challenges Barbarino for leadership of the Sweathogs and even replaces him for a time until the group grows tired of his dictatorial style.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Epstein is a fiercely proud Puerto Rican Jew. When asked if his mother was Puerto Rican, Juan replies that his mother's maiden name was Bibbermann and that his grandfather "saw Puerto Rico from the ship as he was making his way to America and decided to settle there instead of Miami", making him one of the earliest Puerto Rican Jews. Juan is thus Puerto Rican on his father's side and Jewish on both parents' sides.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Rosie Totsie is the femme fatale purported to have put the "sweat" in Sweathog, though her reputation is largely exaggerated by the Sweathogs' word of mouth. Her promiscuity is at least in part a reaction to the strict discipline enforced by her father, the Reverend Totsie. To restore her good name, and to prove a point, she fabricates a story about one of the Sweathogs getting her pregnant. The character was a favorite among male viewers but was phased out of the series at the end of the first season when Scott was picked to co-star in the syndicated Norman Lear comedy "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman". She reprised the role in a 1978 episode, "The Return of Hotsie Totsie", in which it was revealed that she dropped out of school because she became pregnant and had to become a stripper to support her infant child.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: A recurring non-Sweathog character in the earlier seasons, Borden is a straight-A student and editor of the "Buchanan Bugle", the school newspaper. She was Barbarino's tutor, and even dated him at one time. Despite her academic superiority, she can easily hold her own in a Dozens contest against any Sweathog.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Introduced as a regular character in the fourth and final season, Beau is a handsome, friendly, blond, silver-tongued southerner who transfers from New Orleans after being kicked out of several other schools. He ends up in Kotter's class. The producers sought a heartthrob who was not a direct knock-off of the "Italian Stallion" trend that was permeating Hollywood in the mid-1970s, and who would improve ratings in the South, where the show's New York setting was seen as unrelatable. They wanted to retain female viewers but avoid a Travolta clone. Beau's first reaction to the term "Sweathog" was "That sounds gross." He seems to have a way with women, as shown in later episodes. One of his running jokes involves imparting esoteric and nonsensical sayings, such as "a real man never steps on a pregnant alligator".


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: "Welcome Back, Kotter"s first season was controversial. In Boston, the local ABC affiliate (WCVB-TV) initially refused to air the show. The city was going through a tumultuous school busing program that involved widespread protests and riots, and the local affiliate felt Kotter's fictional integrated classroom would exacerbate the situation. The show became an early ratings success, however, and the affiliate relented, picking it up from its fifth episode.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Teachers in other cities had concerns about how Kotter would be portrayed, so producers allowed a union representative on the set to ensure the show protected the image of those in the profession. Kaplan opposed the idea, at one point asking a reporter if there was a junkman on the set of "Sanford and Son" to protect the reputation of junkmen.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Censor concerns about depiction of juvenile delinquency faded after the Sweathogs' antics proved to be silly rather than criminal. Like Kaplan, Hegyes was a fan of the Marx Brothers. Hegyes claimed that he suggested that the Sweathogs be modeled after the Marx Brothers in order to reduce tension.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Ratings slipped greatly in the third season. Kaplan later attributed the decline to the age of the actors playing the Sweathogs, all then in their mid- to late-twenties, claiming that they were no longer believable as high school students. As the series entered its fourth and final season, Travolta, the youngest Sweathog, was 25 -- while Palillo, the oldest, would turn 30 before season's end.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Kaplan's idea to bring the show in line with the age of its cast was to have Kotter join the faculty of a community college attended by the Sweathogs; however, this storyline never materialized. In order to increase viewership, the Kotters had twin girls, but this did not prove to be enough to regain the show's earlier momentum. The show introduced a female Sweathog, Angie Grabowski, played by Melonie Haller.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Major changes took place in the fourth and final season. Shortly before the season began, the series was moved from its successful Thursday 8:00p.m. time slot to Monday 8:00p.m. to make way for the impending hit series "Mork & Mindy". Much of the writing staff turned over after season 3, and Travolta, who had already starred in box office hits such as "Grease", "Saturday Night Fever", and "Carrie", began to focus more time on his film career. He appeared in ten episodes, earning $2,000 for each one, and he was billed as a "special guest star". Mr. Woodman was promoted to Principal of the school (Principal Lazarus quit to take a "less stressful" job at a high-security prison), and Kotter was promoted to Vice-Principal, purposely moving the show's focus away from Kotter's class. Major off-screen disputes led Kaplan to break his contract and reduce his appearances. To help fill the voids, Stephen Shortridge joined the cast as smooth-talking Southerner Beau De LaBarre, and Kotter's wife, Julie, became a school secretary and occasional fill-in teacher, despite having one-year-old twin daughters. Also in season 4, Della Reese was introduced as English teacher and Buchanan High talent show coordinator Mrs. Jean Tremaine.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Knowing the series was in a nosedive, producer James Komack attempted to spin-off a newly married Arnold Horshack into a new sitcom (see section below).


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: The show enjoyed ratings success during its first two seasons, spawning a host of merchandising tie-ins, including lunchboxes, dolls, trading cards, comic books, novels, and even a board game, advertised as "The 'Up Your Nose With A Rubber Hose' Game" in a commercial with a class full of Sweathog look-alikes featuring Steve Guttenberg as Barbarino and Thomas Carter as Boom Boom Washington. The Sweathogs — or at least an impressionist's version of them — even made a crossover appearance with characters from the "Happy Days" universe on one track (the disco-themed "Fonzarelli Slide") of a 1976 TV-promoted oldies compilation album.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: In 2010, the cast, including Gabe Kaplan, Marcia Strassman, John Travolta, Robert Hegyes, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, and Ellen Travolta were honored at the TV Land Award ceremonies. Co-star Ron Palillo was not in attendance, nor were fellow co-stars John Sylvester White (who died in 1988) and Debralee Scott (who died in 2005).


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: The popular theme song, "Welcome Back", written and recorded by John Sebastian, former front-man for the Lovin' Spoonful, became a No. 1 hit in the spring of 1976. The show was originally going to be called "Kotter", but that was changed because of the theme song lyrics. Sebastian has said he tried to find a more general theme for the song after being unable to find any reasonable rhymes for Kotter.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: DC Comics published ten issues of a "Welcome Back, Kotter" comic book starting in 1976. Following its cancellation in 1979, a "Limited Collectors' Edition" was issued, incorporating a four-page "On the Set" section and photographs from the show.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: A series of novels based on characters and dialog of the series was written by William Johnston and published by Tempo Books in the 1970s.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Mattel produced a series of 9-inch "Welcome Back, Kotter" action figures in 1977. Figures produced included Barbarino, Horshack, Epstein, Washington, and Mr. Kotter.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Warner Home Video released a 6-episode Television Favorites collection on February 28, 2006. Due to the success of this release, Warner released the Complete first Season on DVD in Region 1 on June 12, 2007.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: On May 7, 2014, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series. Ultimately, they released "Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete Series" on DVD in Region 1 on August 26, 2014, and have since released the second, third, and fourth seasons as individual sets.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: "Kotter" failed to receive any major awards, though it was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1976 after its first season; it lost to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". The series was also nominated for three technical Emmy Awards: Outstanding Achievement in Videotape Editing for a Series (to Editors Susan Jenkins and Manuel Martinez) in 1976, Outstanding Art Direction for a Comedy Series (to Art Directors Roy Christopher and James Shanahan) in 1978, and Outstanding Individual Achievement — Creative Technical Crafts (to Dick Wilson for sound effects) in 1979.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Several noteworthy performers enjoyed guest stints on Kotter either during or prior to their widespread fame. James Woods guest starred in the first episode of Season 1 ("The Great Debate") as Alex Welles, a drama teacher who leads the school debate team ("the Turkeys") in a competition against the Sweathogs. Pat Morita appears in the 1976 episode "Career Day" as Mr. Takahashi. Comedian George Carlin was featured, as was John Astin. Other guest stars included Scott Brady, Ellen Travolta, Richard Moll, Della Reese, and Dinah Manoff who would work with John Travolta again in "Grease".


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Groucho Marx was set to have a brief walk-on role in one episode. He arrived on-set, but was deemed to be too sick to appear. Pictures of Marx with the cast were taken, but not released. However, the photographs did appear on the Internet decades later.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: At least three spin-offs of "Kotter" were seriously considered, but only one ever became a series. The short-lived "Mr. T and Tina" starred Pat Morita as Taro Takahashi (Mr. T for short), a brilliant Japanese inventor whom he portrayed in one episode of "Kotter". The show was not received well by critics and lasted for five episodes on ABC. There was also talk of developing a spin-off built around the Horshack character and his family, "Rich Man, Poor Man; Horshack!", but it never went beyond the backdoor pilot stage, shown as an episode of "Kotter". In the mid-1990s, Hegyes announced on "The Jenny Jones Show" that plans were in the works to create a spin-off featuring the Sweathogs, all grown up, minus Travolta's Barbarino, but the project never got off the ground and little information about it was ever made public.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: Kaplan welcomed back Hegyes and Jacobs on his short-lived 1981 sitcom "Lewis & Clark". Their characters joked that Kaplan seemed familiar and, being a smart guy, "should become a teacher."


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: In 1997, Ron Palillo, Robert Hegyes, and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs reprised their respective roles in a dream sequence in the "Mr. Rhodes" episode "The Welcome Back Show".


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: In 2012, both Ron Palillo and Robert Hegyes died. Other members of the cast who have died include Marcia Strassman in 2014, John Sylvester White in 1988, and Debralee Scott in 2005. , Gabe Kaplan, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and John Travolta are the only main actors still living.


title: Welcome Back, Kotter

text: In March 2016, the show aired on MeTV Sunday mornings at 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. In September 2017, Antenna TV began airing the show weekdays at 6:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. Eastern.


title: Tripe

text: Tripe is a type of edible lining from the stomachs of various farm animals. Most tripe is from cattle, pigs and sheep.


title: Tripe

text: Beef tripe is made from the muscle wall (the interior mucosal lining is removed) of a cow's stomach chambers: the rumen (blanket/flat/smooth tripe), the reticulum (honeycomb and pocket tripe), and the omasum (book/bible/leaf tripe). Abomasum (reed) tripe is seen less frequently, owing to its glandular tissue content.


title: Tripe

text: Tripe refers to cow (beef) stomach, but includes stomach of any ruminant including cattle, sheep, deer, antelope, goat, ox, giraffes, and their relatives. , the related Spanish word, also refers to culinary dishes produced from any animal with a stomach. In some cases, other names have been applied to the tripe of other animals. For example, tripe from pigs may be referred to as "paunch", "pig bag", or "hog maw".


title: Tripe

text: Washed tripe is more typically known as dressed tripe. To dress the tripe, the stomachs are cleaned and the fat trimmed off. It is then boiled and bleached, giving it the white color more commonly associated with tripe as seen on market stalls and in butchers' shops. The task of dressing the tripe is usually carried out by a professional tripe dresser.


title: Tripe

text: Dressed tripe was a popular, nutritious and cheap dish for the British working classes from Victorian times until the latter half of the 20th century. While it is still popular in many parts of the world today, the number of tripe eaters, and consequently the number of tripe dressers, in the UK has rapidly declined. Tripe has come to be regarded as a pet food, as the increased affluence of postwar Britain has reduced the appeal of this once staple food.


title: Tripe

text: It remains a popular dish in many parts of continental Europe such as Portugal, Spain, France and Italy. In France, a very popular dish, sold in most supermarkets, is "tripes à la mode de Caen". In Spain are served as tapas in many restaurants as well as in supermarkets. The most beloved and celebrated dish in the city of Porto and surrounding areas, in Portugal, is 'tripas à moda do Porto', a tripe stew made with white butter beans, carrots, paprika and chouriço. It is so loved that locals are called 'Tripeiros', in an homage to the 'tripa' (tripe).


title: Tripe

text: In Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, the close cognate "tripas" tends to denote small intestines rather than stomach lining. Dishes of this sort include:


title: Tripe

text: Beef tripe is also a common meat in Kerala, India. Beef tripe and tapioca () is a traditional wedding eve dinner for Christians in some parts of Kerala.


title: Tripe

text: The Tripe Marketing Board promotes World Tripe Day on 24 October, because on that day in 1662, Samuel Pepys wrote, "So home and dined there with my wife upon a most excellent dish of tripes of my own directing."


title: Madonna albums discography

text: American singer Madonna has released 14 studio albums, three soundtrack albums, six live albums, seven compilation albums, and 38 other limited releases. Recognized as the world's best-selling female recording artist of all time by the "Guinness World Records", Madonna has accumulated a total record sales of more than 300 million units worldwide. In their 2006 press release, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) confirmed that Madonna's albums alone had sold over 200 million copies worldwide. She is ranked by the RIAA as the best-selling female rock artist of the 20th century and third highest-certified female artist in the United States, with 64.5 million album units. She holds the all-time record for the most number-one albums by a female artist in major music markets such as Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom.


title: Madonna albums discography

text: In 1982, Madonna signed a recording contract with Sire Records, a label owned by Warner Bros. Records. The first release under the label was her self-titled debut album, "Madonna" (1983). It peaked at number eight on the "Billboard" 200 and was certified five-time platinum by the RIAA. She followed the debut album with "Like a Virgin" (1984), which became her first chart-topper in various countries and was certified diamond by the RIAA. Her third studio album, "True Blue" (1986), reached number one in a record-breaking 28 countries and was once named the best-selling album by a woman of all time by the 1992 edition of "Guinness World Records". During 1987, she released two albums that reached platinum status in the United States: the "Who's That Girl" soundtrack and her first remix compilation, "You Can Dance". Madonna's fourth studio album, "Like a Prayer" (1989), made her the woman with most "Billboard" 200 number-one albums of the 1980s (second overall, behind only Bruce Springsteen).


title: Madonna albums discography

text: Madonna entered the 1990s with the release of "I'm Breathless" (1990), which contained songs from and inspired by the film "Dick Tracy", and her first greatest hits compilation, "The Immaculate Collection" (1990). The latter became her second diamond-certified album in the US and remains the best-selling compilation album by a solo artist with global sales of over 30 million units. In 1992, Madonna founded her own record label, Maverick Records, as a joint venture with Time Warner. She was paid an advance of $60 million and received 20% royalties from the music proceedings, the highest rate in the industry at the time, equaled only by that of Michael Jackson. Her next releases under Maverick were the studio albums, "Erotica" (1992) and "Bedtime Stories" (1994), as well as "Something to Remember" (1995), a collection of Madonna ballads. All of them reached multi-platinum status in the US. Madonna scored her best-selling studio album of the decade with "Ray of Light" (1998), which sold over 16 million copies worldwide.


title: Madonna albums discography

text: After charting five albums at number two on the "Billboard" 200 during the 1990s, Madonna returned to the top of the chart with "Music" (2000). The album sold over 11 million copies worldwide, of which four million were sold within the first ten days. She continued her chart-topping streak with studio albums "American Life" (2003) and "Confessions on a Dance Floor" (2005); the latter became a number-one album in 40 countries with global sales of over 10 million copies. In 2007, Madonna signed a 360 deal with Live Nation for $120 million. Her remaining contract with Warner Bros. ended with her eleventh studio album, "Hard Candy" (2008), and her career-spanning greatest hits compilation, "Celebration" (2009). Through her Live Nation partnership, Madonna signed a three-album deal with Interscope Records in 2011. "MDNA" (2012) was her first release with the label, which marked her fifth studio album to debut at number one on the "Billboard" 200. It was followed with "Rebel Heart" (2015) and "Madame X" (2019), the latter being her ninth chart-topper on the "Billboard" 200. In 2021, Madonna announced her return to Warner Music Group in a global partnership which grants the label her entire recorded music catalog, including the last three Interscope releases. Under the contract, Madonna will launch a series of catalog reissues beginning in 2022, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of her recording career.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: Gong Hyo-jin (born April 4, 1980) is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her leading role in the film "Crush and Blush" (2008), as well as for her popular television series "Sang Doo! Let's Go to School" (2003), "Thank You" (2007), "Pasta" (2010), "The Greatest Love" (2011), "Master's Sun" (2013), "It's Okay, That's Love" (2014), "The Producers" (2015), "Don't Dare to Dream" (2016) and "When the Camellia Blooms" (2019).


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: She is considered to be the queen of romantic comedies due to her successful portrayals in her rom-com dramas. In 2019, she was Gallup Korea's Television Actor of the Year.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: Gong Hyo-jin was born in 1980 in Sinwol-dong, Gangseo District, Seoul, South Korea. When she was a junior in high school, she moved to Australia with her mother and younger brother, while her father remained in Korea to support the family. Kong attended high school at John Paul College in Brisbane. Kong has spoken fondly of her memories of her time there, and in 2011 she was designated as one of the goodwill ambassadors for "Year of Friendship," the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations between Australia and South Korea.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: Upon her return to Korea, Gong began working as a model. She appeared in advertisements, notably the "Happy to Live" commercial for telecom 700–5425. After a year and a half of modeling, she made her acting debut in a supporting role in "Memento Mori". Co-directed by Kim Tae-yong and Min Kyu-dong, the comedy film reinvented its genre with its fresh approach on teenage femme sexuality and its destructive force, melding sapphism and the supernatural at a girls' high school. Although it was not a box office hit in 1999, the film is frequently cited by young Korean filmmakers and cinema fans as a modern-day classic. At first Gong wasn't serious about acting and couldn't wait for filming to be over, but "Memento Mori"'s critical success encouraged her to continue acting, and she followed that with a role in 2000 sitcom "My Funky Family".


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In 2001, she was cast in the 25-episode television series "Wonderful Months", where she played a bus conductor with a one-sided crush on Ryoo Seung-bum's character (Gong and Ryoo later won Best New Actress and Best New Actor in the TV category at the Baeksang Arts Awards). After appearing in small roles in Jang Jin's comedy "Guns & Talks" and teen martial arts flick "Volcano High", the young actress had her breakthrough year in 2002, landing lead roles in "Emergency Act 19" and "A Bizarre Love Triangle".


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: Gong's performance in "Ruler of Your Own World" grabbed the industry's attention. The TV series was praised for its realistic writing and strong acting, earning it "mania drama" (or cult hit) status in Korea. That same year, she again acted opposite Ryoo in "Conduct Zero", earning praise for her role as the tough-talking "boss" of the girls' high school. The 1980s-set retro comedy was well received by both audiences and critics.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: The 2003 series "Snowman" paired Gong with Cho Jae-hyun and Kim Rae-won, in a controversial plot about a girl who falls in love with her older brother-in-law. She then returned to more mainstream fare in "Sang Doo! Let's Go to School", helmed by TV director Lee Hyung-min, whom she had previously worked with in a Drama City episode. Gong played a high school teacher who meets her childhood sweetheart again, now a gigolo and single dad with a sick daughter. Known for being the acting debut of pop singer Rain, the drama did well in the ratings, and Gong won several awards at the KBS Drama Awards.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In 2004 to 2005, Gong entered a career slump. She was dissatisfied with the scripts she was getting, and felt she was being typecast in ingenue roles. Cast as another high school teacher in "Hello My Teacher", and a scientist in "Heaven's Soldiers", Gong longed to portray meatier, "real women" roles, but she was unwilling to do nudity in film.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In 2009, "Memento Mori" director Kim Tae-yong (whom Gong considers her mentor) offered her a part in "Family Ties", a role he had written specifically for her. The film drew widespread acclaim as a delicately observed, cross generational look at unconventional families. The cast was praised for their brilliant acting, with reviews singling out Gong's portrayal of an angry young woman in a deeply troubled relationship with her mother. She received a Best Actress nomination from the Korean Film Awards, and also shared Best Actress honors with co-stars Moon So-ri, Go Doo-shim and Kim Hye-ok at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece. "Family Ties" marked a turning point in her career, and gave Gong a renewed passion for acting.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In 2007 she returned to television in "Thank You", written by "Sang-doo" scribe Lee Kyung-hee. Several actresses had turned down the unglamorous role of a single mother with an HIV-positive daughter and a grandfather with dementia; another reason being that this was lead actor Jang Hyuk's comeback after his draft-dodging scandal. Despite little hype, "Thank You" became a modest hit and rose to number one in its timeslot. Viewer response to the drama had been mostly heartwarming and life-affirming, which Gong said she treasures. The maternal role served to soften and feminize her image, but Gong was also praised for her nuanced portrayal that grounded her character in reality, helping to prevent the drama from being overly maudlin or saccharine.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: After "Thank You", Gong went back to film and took on supporting roles for the opportunity to work with some of the most talented directors in Chungmuro. She played a coolly unsentimental ex-girlfriend in Hur Jin-ho's melodrama "Happiness", a concerned fiancée in Lee Myung-se's stylistic psychodrama "M", and a spy in Ryoo Seung-wan's action comedy/parody "Dachimawa Lee".


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: Strong performances in varied roles helped cement Gong's reputation as a serious actress, but "Crush and Blush" in 2008 would become her most high-profile movie yet. Hailed by critics as one of the most original Korean films in recent years, Lee Kyoung-mi's feature directorial debut was divisive, and though its box office performance was a disappointment, it acquired a sort of cult status among Korean cinephiles. The black comedy was a showcase for Gong, who transformed herself into a misanthropic antiheroine with an unattractively blushing red face, frizzy hair, dowdy clothes, and a chronic case of inferiority complex and hopeless delusion. Gong had wavered at first when presented with the script, given the character's excesses. Reportedly urged on by fellow actress Jeon Do-yeon, she eventually accepted and threw herself into the role. Park Chan-wook, who produced the film, praised Gong's subtle emotional variations, and told her that she might never be able to top this performance, joking that she should retire. She won numerous acting awards in Korea, among them Best Actress trophies from the Korean Film Awards, Director's Cut Awards, and Women in Film Korea Awards. She also received nominations from the Blue Dragon Film Awards and Baeksang Arts Awards, as well as a Rising Star Award from the New York Asian Film Festival.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: After starring with close friend Shin Min-ah in the 2009 indie "Sisters on the Road", Gong played an aspiring chef in romantic comedy series "Pasta" in 2010. Originally written as the usual brash and spunky rom-com heroine, Gong thought it would be boring and clichéd to play her as such, and instead made the significant acting decision to play against type by creating the character as an ordinary girl who was seemingly meek, but had a quiet strength and slyly got her way. Her chemistry with co-star Lee Sun-kyun and the drama's breezy atmosphere propelled it to the top of the ratings chart.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: Defying easy categorization into the actress dichotomies of innocent (Choi Ji-woo, Song Hye-kyo) or sexy (Kim Hye-soo, Uhm Jung-hwa), Gong belonged to a third, very minor group of eccentrics that also include Kang Hye-jung and Bae Doona. Though not a typical beauty, after the success of "Pasta", Gong was given the label "Gongvely" by the press, a portmanteau of her surname and the English word "lovely."


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In an emerging pattern of alternating mainstream TV series with riskier big-screen projects, Gong starred in "Rolling Home with a Bull", another low-budget indie adapted from Kim Do-yeon's novel. She played a widow traveling with her poet ex-boyfriend in Yim Soon-rye's part-Buddhist meditation, part-road movie.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In 2011, Gong acted opposite Cha Seung-won in the TV series "The Greatest Love". Written by the Hong sisters, the romantic comedy is set in the entertainment industry and about an unlikely romance between a has-been pop-star and a top actor. The series was a big hit with audiences, resulting in increased popularity for Cha and Gong. She was also praised for her naturalistic, no-nonsense acting, which served to balance Cha's wacky antics. "The Greatest Love" swept the MBC Drama Awards, including a Top Excellence Award for Gong (her third consecutive, after "Thank You" and "Pasta"). Gong later won Best Actress for TV at the Baeksang Arts Awards.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: She worked again with Kim Tae-yong for "Beautiful 2012", a series of four Micro Movies produced by Chinese internet platform Youku. that explore the concept of "what is beautiful?". In Kim's short film "You Are More Than Beautiful", Park Hee-soon plays a man who hires an actress named Young-hee (Gong) to pretend to be his fiancée when he introduces her to his dying father in Jeju Island. "You Are More Than Beautiful" later received a theatrical release in 2013.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: Uninterested in stereotypical pretty roles, Gong said she preferred playing multi-faceted women, like the laidback, unpredictable female lead with unshaved armpit hair in "Love Fiction". Known for her candor on set and in public, Gong openly admitted that she had problems with her character and took her complaints to its director Jeon Kye-soo. Though Gong said she would rather continue making small-scale films rather than do a shallow blockbuster, "Love Fiction" was her most commercial feature yet, and broke even at more than 1.7 million admissions. She then reunited with "Love Fiction" co-star Ha Jung-woo in "577 Project", a documentary that follows a group of actors walking 577 kilometers (358 miles) across the nation.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In 2013 Gong starred in comedy film, "Boomerang Family", adapted from Cheon Myung-kwan's novel "Aging Family" about a grown-up trio of siblings who embark on a series of misadventures after they move back in their mother's home. Gong said she felt catharsis from her character's constant cursing, and pleasure from acting in an ensemble whose actors share great chemistry with each other. Veteran actress Youn Yuh-jung said that the role of a twice-divorced single mother was perfect for her that she couldn't imagine anyone else playing it.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: The Hong sisters cast her again in their next series "Master's Sun", a romantic comedy with horror elements. Costar So Ji-sub praised Gong as "the best Korean actress currently working in romantic comedy." The drama series was a commercial hit and renewed So and Gong's domestic and international popularity.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In 2014, Gong starred as a psychiatrist who falls for a mystery novelist with schizophrenia (played by Jo In-sung) in the medical-melodrama series "It's Okay, That's Love". She said she chose the project because of screenwriter Noh Hee-kyung, who had also written a drama Gong appeared in a decade ago, "Wonderful Days". Despite lackluster ratings, "It's Okay, That's Love" ranked third on the year-end Content Power Index and received praise for addressing the discrimination and social stigma attached to people with mental health issues and other minorities.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: Gong then made her stage debut in the Willy Russell play "Educating Rita", which depicts the relationship during the course of a year between a young working class hairdresser and a middle-aged university lecturer (played by Jeon Moo-song).


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In 2015, she starred in "The Producers", a variety drama series written by Park Ji-eun who also wrote the hugely successful "My Love From the Star". Gong plays a "Music Bank" variety show producer who has been working in broadcasting for 10 years. The drama drew solid viewership ratings domestically, and also gained popularity internationally.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In 2016, Gong starred in the SBS romantic comedy drama "Don't Dare to Dream" opposite Jo Jung-suk, playing a weather broadcaster. She then starred in the mystery film "Missing", in the role of a babysitter who one day disappears with someone else's child. "Missing" proved Gong's versatility on the big screen.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In 2017, Gong starred in the thriller "Single Rider" with Lee Byung-hun. She played a former violinist who lives in Australia with her son.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In 2019, Gong starred in a police action film "Hit-and-Run Squad" alongside Ryu Jun-yeol and Jo Jung-suk, a car chase thriller that focuses on hit and runs; followed by romantic comedy film "Crazy Romance" alongside "Snowman" co-star Kim Rae-won. The same year, she made her small-screen comeback in the romantic comedy thriller "When the Camellia Blooms" alongside Kang Ha-neul. Both "Crazy Romance" and "When the Camellia Blooms" are commercial successes, and solidified her position as romantic comedy queen. Gong won the Grand Prize award at the KBS Drama Awards.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In 2010 Gong published a collection of essays on the environment titled "Gong Hyo-jin's Notebook" (, which is a play on her surname and the Korean word for "notebook"). In it, Gong gives a look inside her personal lifestyle habits and offers practical and simple tips. The book has sold over 40,000 copies and is on its fourth printing.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: Gong, along with fellow actresses Kim Min-hee and Choi Kang-hee, is considered an influential fashion icon by Korean women in their 20s and 30s. In 2010 she collaborated with shoe brand pushBUTTON to produce the capsule collection "Excuse Me + pushBUTTON." Two years later, Suecomma Bonnie, another shoe brand, released her "Excuse Me x Suecomma Bonnie" line. In 2012 she designed a selected line of apparel for the fashion shop Los Angeles Project, a brand located inside Shinsegae Department Stores. Her neon-colored and patterned items were sold under the name "LAP by Kong Hyo-jin."


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: She was named jury president for the 2009 International Women's Film Festival in Seoul. Gong was also a jury member for the 2011 Asiana International Short Film Festival, 2006 Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival and 2006 Jecheon International Music & Film Festival.


title: Gong Hyo-jin

text: In April 2022, Gong and Kevin Oh admitted that they were dating. Later on August 17, 2022, Kevin announced in letters posted on his social media accounts that they are getting married in October in USA, and will be held privately with only close relatives from both families. They married in a private ceremony on October 11, 2022 (US time) in New York City.


title: China Anne McClain

text: China Anne McClain (born August 25, 1998) is an American actress and singer. McClain's career began when she was seven years old, portraying Alexis in the film "The Gospel" (2005), and then China James in "Daddy's Little Girls" (2007). She then received recognition for starring as Jazmine Payne in the television series "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" (2007–2012; 2020–present) and as Charlotte McKenzie in the film "Grown Ups" (2010); and became internationally known for starring as Chyna Parks in the Disney Channel television series "A.N.T. Farm" (2011–2014), and as Uma in the Disney Channel films "Descendants 2" (2017) and "Descendants 3" (2019). In 2018, McClain began starring in The CW superhero series "Black Lightning" (2018–2021) as Jennifer Pierce / Lightning. She also reprised her character Jazmine Payne on OWN's revival of "The Paynes" (2018).


title: China Anne McClain

text: McClain began her musical career in 2005 as a member of the sister girl group the 3mcclaingirls with her sisters Sierra and Lauryn. Her first professional single was "Your Biggest Fan" with Nick Jonas on the soundtrack album "Jonas L.A." (2010). In 2011, McClain signed with Hollywood Records both as a solo artist and with her sister girl group, known as the McClain Sisters. Her debut single as a solo artist was "Dynamite" which peaked at no. 2 on the US Kid Digital Songs, and her second single, "Calling All the Monsters", peaked at no. 1 on the same chart and earned 25,000 downloads within its first week of release. The "A.N.T. Farm" soundtrack album spent five weeks on the "Billboard" Kids chart in 2011 and sold 14,000 copies in its first week of release. "Billboard" also named her the sixth best-selling artist for digital kids' songs in 2012. In 2017, her single "What's My Name" from "Descendants 2" peaked on several "Billboard" charts, and was certified gold, with 500,000 units sold, on November 10, 2017. In June 2020 her sister girl group changed their name to Thriii.


title: China Anne McClain

text: China Anne McClain was born on August 25, 1998 and raised in Decatur, Georgia. Her father, Michael McClain, is a music producer who produced a track on Solange Knowles' debut album "Solo Star" (2002). Her mother, Shontell, is a songwriter and former screenwriter. She has two older sisters, Sierra and Lauryn, who are also actresses and singers, and has a younger brother, Gabriel.


title: China Anne McClain

text: McClain was discovered in 2005 by a music executive who heard her singing and encouraged director Rob Hardy to audition her for his 2005 feature film "The Gospel". McClain auditioned for the Disney Channel Original Movie "Jump In!" (2007) and won a role but turned it down to instead star in the television series "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" (2007–present) as Jazmine Payne, after catching Tyler Perry's attention. Disney kept working with McClain where she booked several guest roles in the years to come. She appeared in the movie "Daddy's Little Girls" (2007) with her sisters, Sierra and Lauryn, who are also actresses and played her older sisters in the film.


title: China Anne McClain

text: McClain appeared in various other shows and movies such as "Hannah Montana" (2009) with future co-star Sierra McCormick, "NCIS" (2009), and the film "Hurricane Season" (2009). In 2009, McClain booked the starring role as Janet in the Disney Channel pilot "Jack and Janet Save the Planet" alongside future co-stars McCormick and Jake Short. The pilot was not picked up and never aired. She also appeared in the film "Grown Ups" (2010) as Charlotte McKenzie, the daughter of Chris Rock's and Maya Rudolph's characters. McClain had a recurring role on Disney Channel show "Jonas" (2010) as Kiara, and sang alongside Nick Jonas for the song "Your Biggest Fan" which was featured both in the series and on "Jonas L.A"., the show's soundtrack album.


title: China Anne McClain

text: In February 2011, McClain guest starred on "Wizards of Waverly Place" (2011). In May, McClain won the NAMIC Vision Award for Best Performance – Actress of Comedy, for her performance as Jazmine Payne. Later that year, McClain was cast as the lead role, Chyna Parks, in the Disney Channel series "A.N.T. Farm", which Disney tailored for her. She sang and composed the series theme song "Exceptional". For the show, McClain recorded a cover of Taio Cruz's "Dynamite", for which the music video amassed more than 1 million views in under a week after release on YouTube. She appeared in an episode of "PrankStars" (2011). For the Disney Channel Halloween special in 2011, she performed the song "Calling All the Monsters". On June 14, 2011, McClain and her sisters – known as the McClain Sisters – signed with Hollywood Records.


title: China Anne McClain

text: The "A.N.T. Farm" soundtrack was released on October 11, 2011, which includes McClain's version of "Dynamite" and her original song "Calling All the Monsters", among other songs performed by her featured in the show and new songs performed by some of her fellow cast members and two songs performed by the McClain Sisters. The soundtrack for the show was successful, spending five weeks on the "Billboard" Kids chart in 2011, peaked at number 29 on the US "Billboard" 200, peaked at number 2 on the US Top Soundtracks, and sold 14,000 copies within the first week of release. On September 28, 2011, McClain released "Calling All the Monsters" to iTunes. "Calling All the Monsters" charted at number 86 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, and received 25,000 downloads within its first week of release. That same month McClain earned a "J-14" Teen Icon Award nomination for Icon of Tomorrow.On November 10, 2011, McClain met with the then First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House to speak about the Joining Forces initiative; the next day Disney Channel aired messages promoting the initiative, which recognizes America's military families and children, and brings awareness on Veterans Day. On November 19, 2011, McClain performed at the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival in Chicago. On November 24, 2011, she performed her song "Unstoppable" at the 85th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (2011). In December, McClain and her sisters, Sierra and Lauryn, performed their version of the song "Jingle Bell Rock" at the 2011 "Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade."


title: China Anne McClain

text: In February 2012, McClain performed her song "Unstoppable" and guest starred in the television series "So Random!". Later that month she received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Youth for her performance as Chyna Parks in "A.N.T. Farm". On March 4, 2012, McClain was the opening act alongside her sisters in Houston for Big Time Rush on their Better with U Tour. On March 11, 2012, the McClain Sisters performed their new song called "Rise", featured in the Disneynature film "Chimpanzee", at the Mall of America. The song was released on March 23, 2012. The music video premiered on March 25, 2012 during an episode of "Austin & Ally". It was also a featured song for Disney's Friends for Change.


title: China Anne McClain

text: McClain also sang the theme song for the first three seasons for the Disney Channel children's television series "Doc McStuffins", which premiered on March 23, 2012, and guest starred later that year as Tisha McStuffins, the main character's cousin. On April 9, 2012, McClain performed at the 2012 White House Easter Egg Roll with her sisters. In September, McClain earned a nomination for another "J-14" Teen Icon Award as an Iconic Triple Threat. In December it was announced that she was nominated for another NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance by a Youth for "A.N.T. Farm". "Billboard" also named her the sixth best-selling artist for digital kids' songs in 2012.


title: China Anne McClain

text: McClain was one of the award presenters at the 2013 Radio Disney Music Awards in April. In July, she reprised her role as Charlotte McKenzie in the 2013 sequel "Grown Ups 2". On December 27, 2013, it was announced on her Twitter page that "A.N.T. Farm" would be ending after its third season. The series finale aired on March 21, 2014. On the same day, it was revealed that the McClain Sisters had left Hollywood Records. The McClain Sisters changed their name to simply McClain, their last names.


title: China Anne McClain

text: In the March/April 2014 issue of "BYOU" magazine, McClain said it was "bittersweet" that "A.N.T Farm" was ending, and announced plans to focus on doing music with her sisters. For her performance in the series, in 2014, McClain won both the NAMIC Vision Award for Best Performance – Actress of Comedy, and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance by a Youth.


title: China Anne McClain

text: In April 2014, it was announced that McClain would compete as one of the celebrity contestants on ABC's "Sing Your Face Off" (2014). She competed from May to June of that year, performing as several iconic singers: Rihanna, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, James Brown, and Whitney Houston; she won the show's first and only season. In August, McClain starred in the Disney Channel television film "How to Build a Better Boy" (2014) alongside Kelli Berglund, and released the single "Something Real" which was featured in the film. For her performance, McClain received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Youth. In August 2014, McClain hosted the 19th Arthur Ashe Kids' Day, and also performed with her sisters. In November 2014, McClain guest starred on "R.L. Stine's The Haunted Hour" in the episode "Argh V".


title: China Anne McClain

text: In 2015, McClain was featured in the FOX series "Bones" (2015) in the episode "The Lost in the Found", playing Kathryn Walling. McClain sang "Night is Young" on the soundtrack for the Disney Channel Original Movie "Descendants". Her song also appeared in "" (2015). She voiced Freddie, the daughter of Dr. Facilier. Her sister, Lauryn McClain, voiced the character for season two. McClain voiced the role of Ghufaira in the 3D computer-animated action-drama film "" (2015). She went on to guest star on "The Night Shift", and starred in a voice role as Lyra in the English version of the film "Sheep and Wolves", both in 2016. On November 25, 2016, McClain performed her cover of the song "This Christmas" at the "Disney Parks Presents: A Descendants Magical Holiday Celebration".


title: China Anne McClain

text: In April 2017, she was an award presenter at the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards. In June, "Variety" named her one of the "10 TV Stars to Watch in 2017" for her role as Jennifer Pierce in her then upcoming 2018 television series "Black Lightning". In July, "Descendants 2" premiered, in which she played the villain Uma, the daughter of Ursula. Her single "What's My Name" from the film peaked on several "Billboard" charts and was certified gold, with 500,000 units sold, on November 10, 2017. She also guest starred as Sheena on "K.C. Undercover" (2017), and starred as Meg in the Lifetime television film "Ten: Murder Island" (2017), which she also executive produced.


title: China Anne McClain

text: In January 2018, McClain began playing Jennifer Pierce in "Black Lightning" on The CW, and in February reprised her role as Jazmine Payne on "The Paynes" (2018). Later that year in September, she reprised her role as Uma in the television short film "". In November, she starred in the action thriller film "Blood Brother", opposite Trey Songz and Ron Killings. In November 2018, McClain performed her original song "Young Guns" during a season two episode of "Black Lightning".


title: China Anne McClain

text: In August 2019, McClain reprised her role as Uma in "Descendants 3". In February 2020 it was announced that "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" would be revived on BET. In June 2020, her girl group changed their name to Thriii, and performed at "Radio Disney Presents ARDYs Summer Playlist". On August 20, it was announced that "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" would premiere on September 2, 2020. Later that year, McClain was part of the cast of the Netflix comedy "Hubie Halloween".


title: China Anne McClain

text: In March 2021, McClain left "Black Lightning" and her role was recast with Laura Kariuki. McClain, however, later returned to reprise her role in the series finale.


title: China Anne McClain

text: In 2014, Lauryn and China created a YouTube channel where they posted singing videos, challenges, tags, and Q&As. Sierra appeared in several of the channel's videos. As of August 2020, the channel has approximately 701,000 subscribers and 29 million views. They have since renamed the channel "Thriii".


title: Prunella Scales

text: Prunella Margaret Rumney West Scales ("née" Illingworth; born 22 June 1932) is an English former actress, best known for playing Sybil Fawlty, wife of Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), in the BBC comedy "Fawlty Towers", her nomination for a BAFTA award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in "A Question of Attribution" ("Screen One", BBC 1991) by Alan Bennett, and for the documentary series "Great Canal Journeys" (2014–2021), travelling on canal barges and narrowboats with her husband, fellow actor Timothy West.


title: Prunella Scales

text: Scales was born in Sutton Abinger, Surrey, the daughter of Catherine ("née" Scales), an actress, and John Richardson Illingworth, a cotton salesman. She attended Moira House Girls' School, Eastbourne. She had a younger brother, Timothy "Timmo" Illingworth (1934–2017).


title: Prunella Scales

text: In 1939, at the start of the Second World War, Scales's parents moved with their children to Bucks Mill near Bideford in Devon. Scales herself and her brother were evacuated to Near Sawrey in Lancashire.


title: Prunella Scales

text: Scales started her career in 1951 as an assistant stage manager at the Bristol Old Vic. Throughout her career, she has often been cast in comic roles. Her early work included the (now believed to be lost) second UK adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" (1952), "Laxdale Hall" (1953), "Hobson's Choice" (1954), "Room at the Top" (1959) and "Waltz of the Toreadors" (1962).


title: Prunella Scales

text: Her career break came with the early 1960s sitcom "Marriage Lines" starring opposite Richard Briers. She played her most famous role, Sybil Fawlty in the sitcom "Fawlty Towers", over two series in 1975 and 1979. In addition to this, she has had roles in BBC Radio 4 sitcoms, and comedy series including "After Henry", "Smelling of Roses" and "Ladies of Letters"; on television she starred in the London Weekend Television/Channel 4 series "Mapp & Lucia" based on the novels by E. F. Benson. She played Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett's "A Question of Attribution".


title: Prunella Scales

text: In 1973, Scales was cast with Ronnie Barker in "One Man's Meat" which formed part of Barker's "Seven of One" series, also for the BBC. Her later film appearances include "Escape from the Dark" (1976), "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1978), "The Boys From Brazil" (1978), "The Wicked Lady" (1983), "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne" (1987), "Consuming Passions" (1988), "A Chorus of Disapproval" (1989), "Howards End" (1992), "Wolf" (1994), "An Awfully Big Adventure" (1995) and "Stiff Upper Lips" (1997). For the BBC Television Shakespeare production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (1982) she played Mistress Page and in the "Theatre Night" series (BBC) she appeared with her husband Timothy West in the Joe Orton farce "What the Butler Saw" (1987) playing Mrs Prentice.


title: Prunella Scales

text: For ten years, Scales appeared as "Dotty" Turnbull, together with Jane Horrocks as her character's daughter, Kate Neall, in advertisements for UK supermarket chain Tesco. In 1996, Scales starred in the television film, "Lord of Misrule", alongside Richard Wilson, Emily Mortimer and Stephen Moyer. The film was directed by Guy Jenkins and filming took place in Fowey in Cornwall. Also in 1996, she appeared as Miss Bates in Jane Austen's "Emma". In 1997, Scales starred in Chris Barfoot's science-fiction film short "Phoenix" which was first aired in 1999 by NBCUniversal's Sci-Fi Channel. Scales played The Client, an evil government minister funding inter-genetic time travel experiments. The same year, she played Minny Stinkler in the comedy film "Mad Cows", directed by Sara Sugarman. In 1993 Scales voiced Mrs Tiggy-Winkle in "The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends".


title: Prunella Scales

text: In 2000, Scales appeared in the film "The Ghost of Greville Lodge" as Sarah. The same year, she appeared as Eleanor Bunsall in "Midsomer Murders" "Beyond the Grave". In 2001, she appeared in two episodes of "Silent Witness" "Faith" as Mrs Parker. In 2003, she appeared as Hilda, "she who must be obeyed", wife of Horace Rumpole, in four BBC Radio 4 plays, with Timothy West playing her fictional husband. Scales and West toured Australia at the same time in different productions. Scales appeared in a one-woman show called "An Evening with Queen Victoria", which also featured the tenor Ian Partridge singing songs written by Prince Albert. Scales has performed "An Evening with Queen Victoria" more than 400 times, in theatres around the world, over the course of 30 years.


title: Prunella Scales

text: Also in 2003, Scales voiced the speaking ("cawing") role of Magpie, the eponymous thief in a recording of Gioachino Rossini's opera "La gazza ladra" ("The Thieving Magpie").


title: Prunella Scales

text: In 2006, Scales appeared alongside Academy Award winners Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell in the mini-series "The Shell Seekers".


title: Prunella Scales

text: On 16 November 2007, Scales appeared in "Children in Need", reprising her role as Sybil Fawlty, the new manager who wants to take over Hotel Babylon. John Cleese said in an interview on 8 May 2009 that the role of Sybil Fawlty was originally offered to Bridget Turner, who turned down the part, claiming "it wasn't right for her".


title: Prunella Scales

text: Scales appeared in the audio play "The Youth of Old Age", produced in 2008 by the Wireless Theatre Company, and available to download free of charge on their website. In 2008, she appeared in "Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple" "A Pocket Full of Rye" as Mrs Mackenzie.


title: Prunella Scales

text: Scales appeared in a production of "Carrie's War", the Nina Bawden novel, at the West End Apollo Theatre in 2009. The run was successful despite middling reviews. However, Ben Bradley, writing for "The New York Times" Arts & Beats, stated that Scales was the most memorable thing about the show, "[playing] a rich, Miss Havisham-like eccentric, who trails through her house in evening gowns".


title: Prunella Scales

text: Scales starred in the 2011 British live-action 3D family comedy film "" as the titular character's Great Aunt Greta. She appeared in a short audio story, "Dandruff Hits the Turtleneck", written by John Mayfield, and available for download. Scales starred in a short film called "Stranger Danger" alongside Roderick Cowie in 2012. In 2013 she made a guest appearance in the popular BBC radio comedy "Cabin Pressure" as Wendy Crieff, the mother of Captain Martin Crieff.


title: Prunella Scales

text: Alongside husband West, Scales appeared in "Great Canal Journeys" for Channel 4 from 2014 for ten series before her deteriorating health brought her television career to an end. Stuart Heritage, writing for "The Guardian" in November 2016, commented that it "is ultimately a work about a devoted couple facing something huge together. It's a beautiful, meditative programme". "An emotional but unrooted glimpse of life with dementia" was Christopher Howse's characterization in October 2018, writing for "The Telegraph". Reviewing Scales' and West's last episode in October 2019 for "The Guardian", Jack Seale wrote "Since the first instalment in 2014, the series has charted the long, slow goodbye that is living with dementia, cherishing every moment of precious normality and celebrating how an immersion in nature is the surest way to bring the old Pru back."


title: Prunella Scales

text: In 1992 Scales appeared on BBC Radio 4's "Desert Island Discs". Her chosen book was the "Complete Works of Shakespeare" in German, the Bible in Russian, and a Russian dictionary; her luxury item was "a huge tapestry kit".


title: Prunella Scales

text: Her biography, "Prunella", written by Teresa Ransom, was published by UK publishing imprint John Murray in 2005.


title: Prunella Scales

text: Scales is married to the actor Timothy West, with whom she has two sons; the elder is actor and director Samuel West. Their younger son Joseph participated in two episodes of "Great Canal Journeys" filmed in France. Scales also has a step-daughter, Juliet, by West's first marriage.


title: Prunella Scales

text: Scales has been an ambassador for SOS Children's Villages charity, an international orphan charity providing homes and mothers for orphaned and abandoned children. She supports the charity's annual World Orphan Week campaign, which takes place each February.


title: Prunella Scales

text: In March 2014, Scales's husband told "The Guardian" that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The couple discussed practical measures in a radio programme about age and dementia on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014. In June 2018, her husband characterised her short-term memory as "no good at all", and admitted her condition "slowed them down", but "not so it closes up opportunities." In January 2020 it was announced that due to Scales’s deteriorating health, she and West had no choice but to bring her 67-year career to an end.


title: Prunella Scales

text: Scales was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1992 Birthday Honours List. Her husband had received the same honour in the 1984 Birthday Honours List.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: The Gods Must Be Crazy is a 1980 comedy film written, produced, edited and directed by Jamie Uys. An international co-production of South Africa and Botswana, it is the first film in "The Gods Must Be Crazy" series. Set in Southern Africa, the film stars Namibian San farmer Nǃxau ǂToma as Xi, a hunter-gatherer of the Kalahari Desert whose tribe discovers a glass Coca-Cola bottle dropped from an airplane, and believe it to be a gift from their gods. When Xi sets out to return the bottle to the gods, his journey becomes intertwined with that of a biologist (Marius Weyers), a newly hired village school teacher (Sandra Prinsloo), and a band of guerrilla terrorists.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: "The Gods Must Be Crazy" was released in South Africa on 10 September 1980 by Ster-Kinekor, and broke several box office records in the country, becoming the most financially successful South African film ever produced at the time. The film was a commercial and critical success in most other countries, but took longer to find success in the United States, where it was eventually re-released in 1984 by 20th Century Fox, with its original Afrikaans dialogue being dubbed into English. Despite its success, the film attracted criticism for its depiction of race and perceived ignorance of discrimination and apartheid in South Africa. In 1989, it was followed by the sequel "The Gods Must Be Crazy II".


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: Xi and his San tribe are living happily in the Kalahari Desert, away from industrial civilization. One day, a glass Coca-Cola bottle is thrown out of an airplane by a pilot and falls to the ground unbroken. Initially, Xi's people assume the bottle to be a gift from their gods, just as they believe plants and animals are, and find many uses for it. Unlike other bounties, however, there is only one glass bottle, which causes unforeseen conflict within the tribe. As a result, Xi, wearing only a loincloth, decides to make a pilgrimage to the edge of the world and dispose of the divisive object.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: Along the way, Xi encounters biologist Andrew Steyn, who is studying the manure of wildlife; Steyn's assistant and mechanic, M'pudi; Kate Thompson, a woman who quit her job as a journalist in Johannesburg to become a village school teacher; and eventually a band of guerrillas led by Sam Boga, who are being pursued by government troops after a failed assassination attempt. In a fictitious town called Biryani, northwest of Botswana, Boga's men kill three cabinet members and injure two others in an attempt on the president's life, sending the military in hot pursuit.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: Steyn is tasked with bringing Thompson to the village where she will teach, but he is awkward and clumsy around her. Their Land Rover stalls while trying to ford a deep river; he hoists it out with a winch, but it continues lifting the vehicle to a very high treetop level while a forgetful Steyn is distracted extricating Thompson from a briar bush. She more than once mistakes his attempts to evade wild animals, and putting out an evening campfire, as advances towards her. Eventually, a snobbish safari tour guide named Jack Hind arrives, and takes Thompson the rest of the way to the village.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: One day, Xi happens upon a herd of goats, and shoots one with a tranquilizer arrow, planning to eat it. He is arrested and sentenced to jail. M'pudi, who once lived with the San and can speak the San language, is discontent with the verdict. He and Steyn arrange to hire Xi as a tracker for the remainder of his sentence in lieu of prison time, and teach Xi how to drive Steyn's Land Rover. Meanwhile, the guerrillas invade Thompson's school, taking her and the students as hostages as they make their escape to a neighbouring country.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: Steyn, M'pudi and Xi, immersed in their fieldwork, find that they are along the terrorists' and children's path, and observe their movements with a telescope. They manage to immobilize six of the eight guerrillas using makeshift tranquilizer darts launched by Xi with a miniature bow, allowing Thompson and the children to confiscate the guerillas' firearms. Steyn and M'pudi apprehend the remaining two guerrillas by frightening one with a snake and by shooting at a tree above the other, causing latex to drip from the tree and irritate his skin. Jack Hind arrives and takes Thompson and the children away, taking credit for the rescue that Steyn, M'pudi and Xi had actually planned and executed.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: Later, with Xi's term over, Steyn pays his wages and sends him on his way. Xi has never seen paper money (banknotes) before, and throws them on the ground. Steyn and M'pudi then drive from their camp to visit Thompson, where Steyn attempts to explain his tendency to be uncoordinated in her presence, but accidentally and repeatedly knocks over a number of objects in the process. Thompson finds his efforts endearing, and kisses Steyn.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: Xi eventually arrives at God's Window, the top of a cliff with a solid layer of low-lying clouds obscuring the landscape below. Convinced that he has reached the edge of the world, he throws the bottle off the cliff, and returns to his family.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: Jamie Uys conceived the premise of "The Gods Must Be Crazy" while making the 1974 documentary "Animals Are Beautiful People". The documentary was filmed partially on the Kalahari Desert, where Uys first encountered the San people and "fell in love with them." Uys chose a Coca-Cola bottle as the object that the San people would discover and covet in "The Gods Must Be Crazy" because he felt that the bottle was representative of "our plastic society", and because it "is a beautiful thing, if you've never seen glass before."


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: Uys noted that he modelled the character of Andrew Steyn after himself, saying, "I used to be awkward like that, especially with women. But then, I think most young guys knock things over with their first girl."


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: After writing the script for "The Gods Must Be Crazy", Uys reportedly spent three months traversing the Kalahari Desert with an interpreter, searching for a San person to play the role of Xi in the film. Visiting areas of the desert inhabited by the San, Uys took photographs of individuals he felt he might cast, and then "marked the longitude and latitude, so we could find them again."


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: Uys decided to cast Namibian San farmer Nǃxau ǂToma as Xi, and later recalled that "At first [Nǃxau] didn't understand, because they have no word for work. Then the interpreter asked, 'Would you like to come with us for some days?" N!xau agreed and flew with Uys by airplane to Windhoek, Namibia, which served as a base for the film's production. Uys stated that "The airplane didn't impress him at all. He thinks we are magicians, so he believes we can do anything. Nothing impressed him." In his hotel room, N!xau agreed to use the toilet, but slept on the floor rather than on the provided bed.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: However, according to author Josef Gugler, Uys "[fictionalized] the production of the film. The stories he told reviewers varied." Unlike what was presented in "The Gods Must Be Crazy", N!xau did not lead a hunter-gatherer lifestyle; he grew up as a herder on a farm in Botswana, before moving to Namibia to work as a cook. In the 1980 documentary film "Nǃai, the Story of a ǃKung Woman", directed by John Marshall, footage of the filming of "The Gods Must Be Crazy" is used. The documentary shows San restricted to living in a reservation established by South African authorities in Tsumkwe, Namibia. The San there are shown to not be hunter-gatherers; they are instead dependent on the government for food and other aid, with some suffering from tuberculosis.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: According to Uys, N!xau would be flown back to his home in the Kalahari Desert every three or four weeks to prevent him from suffering from culture shock. During his time in urban areas, N!xau learned to smoke and acquired an affinity for liquor and "sake". Uys said that he paid N!xau $300 for his first 10 days of work, but that the money was reportedly blown away by wind. N!xau was then compensated with 12 head of cattle. In 1985, Uys stated that he had sent N!xau $100 a month since filming, which N!xau used at a trading store 60 miles from his hunting ground; Uys also stated that a $20,000 trust account in N!xau's name had been established.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: A scene in which a rhinoceros stomps out a fire is based in a Burmese legend about fire-eating rhinos, which is not widely known in Africa and appears not to be based in fact.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: "The Gods Must Be Crazy" was initially released in South Africa on 10 September 1980 by Ster-Kinekor Pictures.Within its first four days of its release, the film broke box office records in every city in South Africa. It became the highest-grossing film of 1982 in Japan, where it was released under the title "Bushman". Executive producer Boet Troskie sold the distribution rights to the film to 45 countries.


title: The Gods Must Be Crazy

text: For its release in the United States, the original Afrikaans dialogue was dubbed into English, and voiceover work was provided for !Kung and Tswana lines. The film initially received a limited American release through Jensen Farley Pictures in 1982, but performed poorly in at least half a dozen test cities. However, the film would eventually find critical and commercial success when it was re-released by 20th Century Fox on 9 July 1984, becoming the highest-grossing foreign film released in the United States at the time. The film also played at the Music Hall Theater in Beverly Hills, California for at least eight months.