title: American Ninja Warrior

text: American Ninja Warrior (sometimes abbreviated as ANW) is an American sports entertainment reality show based on the Japanese television reality show "Sasuke". It features thousands of competitors attempting to complete series of obstacle courses of increasing difficulty in various cities across the United States, in hopes of advancing to the national finals on the Las Vegas Strip and becoming the season's "American Ninja Warrior."


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: To date, only Geoff Britten, Isaac Caldiero, and Drew Drechsel have conquered Mount Midoriyama and achieved Total Victory. Caldiero and Drechsel are the only competitors to win the cash prize of $1,000,000. Britten was awarded the title of "First American Ninja Warrior" for being the first to complete all six courses (city qualifying, city finals, and four stages of Mount Midoriyama) in a single season. The series premiered on December 12, 2009, on cable channel G4, and now airs on NBC.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: In late 2006, the American cable channel G4 began airing broadcasts (subtitled in English or dubbed with English commentary and re-titled "Ninja Warrior") of the Japanese sports entertainment television special "Sasuke". Coinciding with this, the channel held the first "American Ninja Challenge", in which Americans gained the opportunity to be sent to compete on "Sasuke". Over time, the semi-annual "Sasuke" broadcasts on G4 gained a cult following in the United States and eventually became some of the channel's most-watched broadcasts. This led to the creation of the American adaptation of the show, "American Ninja Warrior", in 2009. "American Ninja Warrior" followed "American Ninja Challenge" as the qualifying route for Americans to enter "Sasuke."


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: Since the fourth season, American finalists compete on a nearly-identical finals course on the Las Vegas Strip instead of traveling to Japan to compete on "Sasuke". NBC began broadcasting the city finals and national finals episodes in the fourth season.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: By the fifth season, G4 was set to be replaced by Esquire Network and had wound down all original programming—besides "American Ninja Warrior"—by January 2013. Notably, the sideboard advertising along the fifth season's courses listed Esquire Network as the broadcaster because G4 was going to transition into Esquire Network by April 22, 2013—prior to the season premiere. However, the channel switch was delayed to September 23, 2013, and Esquire Network took over Style Network's channel space instead. As a result, NBC became the sole broadcaster of the original episodes while Esquire Network aired reruns until the eighth season.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: During each episode, the play-by-play announcer and color commentator provide play-by-play on a competitor's run on the course while the sideline reporter introduces the obstacles during the beginning of the episode and interviews competitors.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: In the second season, comedian and television host Matt Iseman joined the show, replacing Herter. Producers were fond of his knowledge of sports and lighthearted, enthusiastic delivery. Additionally, MMA fighter Jimmy Smith was brought in as co-host while Haislip was assigned to the new sideline reporter position. The panel remained the same throughout season three.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: For season four, Olympic medalist Jonny Moseley was brought in as the new color commentator, replacing Smith. Producers believed his experience as a freestyle skier would bring a unique perspective to the series. Meanwhile, sportscaster and television presenter Angela Sun replaced Haislip.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: For season five, two newcomers were introduced. Sports analyst and former NFL player Akbar Gbaja-Biamila replaced Moseley, while ESPN sportscaster and model Jenn Brown replaced Sun as sideline reporter. Gbaja-Biamila was contacted to audition for the role of co-host in Los Angeles after being seen on the NFL Network by one of the series' executive producers. The season five panel remained the same through the sixth season.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: For season seven, CBS Sports reporter Kristine Leahy joined the show as the new sideline reporter, replacing Brown, and remained on the show through season 10.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: Iseman and Gbaja-Biamila returned to host the eleventh season along with new sideline reporter Zuri Hall.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: Before being eligible to compete, all contestants must first meet a number of requirements. Some of the requirements are; (1). Contestants must be legal residents of the United States. (2). Contestants must be in good health and capable of participating in strenuous athletic activities. (3). There is no maximum age limit, but contestants must be at least 19 years of age to apply (21 years old during the first nine seasons). Starting in Season 13 the producers asked specific teens ages 15–18 to submit a video to be on the show. (4). Contestants must fill out a 20-question questionnaire and make a video about themselves. Video length requirements have varied from two to eight minutes, depending on the season. (It is currently two to three minutes).


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: About 1,000 people applied to compete in the first season, 3,500 in the fifth season, 5,000 in the sixth season, 50,000 in the seventh season, 70,000 in the eighth season, and 77,000 in the ninth season. Producers then select 100 contestants from the thousands of applicants to participate in each regional qualifier. Until Season 11, applicants could also camp outside a qualifying course and wait days or weeks to be one of the 10-30 participants selected as "walk-ons." Beginning in Season 11, a lottery system was instituted to randomly select 15-20 'walk-ons' per qualifier location.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: In each city qualifying course, the competitors that the producers have selected compete on an obstacle course consisting of six obstacles.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: At the beginning of each run, a buzzer sounds off and a timer begins, allowing a competitor to start the course. The first obstacle on any city qualifying course is the Quintuple Steps, Quad Steps, Floating Steps, or Shrinking Steps which competitors must run across. This is followed by four different obstacles that test a competitor's balance, upper-body strength, and grip. These five obstacles are built above water (although the balance obstacles were built above a safety mat until season 8). If a competitor falls into the water or touches it, their run ends immediately and the timer records their time.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: In the first seven seasons, the sixth and final obstacle was the 14-foot Warped Wall, in which competitors were given three chances to reach the top. In the eighth and ninth seasons, the wall was 14'6". In the tenth season, the 18-foot "Mega Wall" was introduced adjacent to the Warped Wall. Competitors had only one attempt to reach the top of the Mega Wall and, if successful, they won $10,000. In the eleventh season, competitors choosing the Mega Wall who failed on their first attempt could earn $5,000 on their second attempt and $2,500 on their third if they were successful on, respectively, their second or third attempts. Competitors are given the choice of which to climb.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: At the top of both walls, a competitor presses a buzzer that stops the timer and records their time, ending their run on the course. The top 30 competitors who go the farthest in the least amount of time advance to the city finals course. Since the fifth season, competitors who complete the city qualifiers automatically move on to the city finals. Since the ninth season, the top five women also advance to the city finals, even if they have not finished in the top 30.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: City finals courses are the follow-up to each city qualifying course. They contain four new obstacles in addition to the six obstacles featured in the city qualifying course. These four obstacles are all placed after the original six obstacles. In the tenth season, two of the original six obstacles are replaced with new obstacles for the city finals course, but this was dropped in season eleven.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The top 15 or 12 competitors who go the farthest in the least amount of time from each city finals course move on to compete on the National Finals course. Since the fifth season, competitors who complete the city finals automatically move on to the National Finals. Since the ninth season, the top two women in each city finals course also move on to compete on the National Finals course, even if they do not finish in the top 15 or 12. Previously, many women had been granted "wildcard" slots, which allowed them to advance to the National Finals. Since the eighth season, small prizes ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 are awarded to first, second, and third finishers who complete the city finals course.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: In the first three seasons, there was a semi-finals course in between the city finals and the National Finals courses, where the top 15 competitors from the city finals course were narrowed down to 10 and then sent to Japan to compete on "Sasuke". In the second and third seasons, this was referred to as "boot camp" and took place at a summer camp in Simi Valley, California. During this time, competitors trained together for multiple days and took part in pressure challenges. With the expansion of the series in its fourth season, there was no longer a need to narrow down competitors to 10, as they were no longer being sent to Japan, and this semi-finals course was removed.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: Obstacles are designed and produced in the five months prior to an episode taping. In the fourth season, each location contained one or two obstacles that differed between other locations. Since the fifth season, three to five obstacles have differed. In the eighth season, 18 obstacles were debuted. In the tenth season, the show's first underwater obstacle was introduced during Stage 2 of the National Finals.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: Beginning with the ninth season, fans of the show have been given the opportunity to design their own obstacles through the "ANW Obstacle Design Challenge". Seven fan-submitted obstacles have been featured on the series thus far.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: In the first three seasons, the top 10 "ANW" competitors advanced to a "Sasuke" finals course in Japan. Since season four (except for season twelve), "ANW" has had a finals course on the Las Vegas Strip known as "Mount Midoriyama." The National Finals course consists of four stages, each containing obstacles of increasing difficulty. The course is about the same size as four football fields and contains 23 obstacles.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: Stage 1 consists of eight obstacles, which test the competitors' agility and speed. The first stage is timed, and only the competitors who successfully complete it within 2:35 advance to Stage 2.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: Stage 2 contains six obstacles that test competitors' strength and speed. Competitors must complete the course within a time limit in order to advance to Stage 3. The time limit through the first nine seasons was 4:00. In the tenth season, the time limit was increased by 30 seconds.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: Stage 3 consists of eight obstacles that test competitors' upper body and grip strength. It is the only stage in the National Finals that has no time limit. Like Stages 1 and 2, only the competitors who successfully complete Stage 3 move on to compete on Stage 4. Starting in Season 10, Stage 3 has a clock that counts up to determine any tiebreaking times should no contestant advance from Stage 3, since the format guarantees prize money to the contestant that advances the furthest on the course, and the tiebreaker is based on how fast the contestants reached the previous obstacle prior to failing.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: Stage 4 contains the final obstacle of the National Finals courses—a rope climb. Competitors must complete this rope climb in :30 or less in order to be crowned as "American Ninja Warrior." The rope climb's height was 50 feet from the first through third seasons, and was increased to 65 feet in the fourth season. It has been increased since to 75 feet.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: Aside from the first season, if a competitor completes all four stages of the National Finals, they receive a cash prize. In the second season, the prize money was $250,000. In the third season, the prize was an endorsement deal with K-Swiss worth $500,000 and to become the face of a national advertisement campaign for the company as well as G4. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth seasons, the cash prize was $500,000. From the seventh to eleventh season, the cash prize has been $1,000,000.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: From the second through seventh seasons, the fastest competitor to beat the final stage would receive the full prize money, regardless of whether other competitors completed Stage 4 as well. Beginning with the eighth season, if multiple competitors completed Stage 4, the competitors split the prize money.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: Starting in the tenth season, a guaranteed $100,000 cash prize is offered, without regard of a player finishing all four stages. The player who advances the furthest on the course in the fastest time is declared the "Last Ninja Standing," and wins the prize. If any competitor finishes all four stages, the prize money is augmented to $1,000,000. If one competitor finishes Stage 4, he wins the entirety of the augmented prize. If multiple competitors completed Stage 4, the prize money is split among competitors that finished Stage 4, with the fastest competitor still declared the overall champion.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The first season of "American Ninja Warrior" began production in July 2009. The season premiered on December 12, 2009, on G4, and concluded on December 19, 2009. It consisted of eight half-hour episodes. The qualifying and semifinals rounds took place in Venice Beach, where a tryout was opened, meaning, competitors from across the United States had to fly themselves there to compete. Levi Meeuwenberg was the Last Man Standing, having gone the farthest in the least amount of time among the American competitors on "Sasuke 23".


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The second season premiered on December 8, 2010, on G4, and concluded on December 23, 2010, after 10 hour-long episodes. Qualifying and semifinals were held in Venice Beach in August. Out of the 10 competitors sent to Japan to compete on "Sasuke 26", five completed Stage 1, four completed Stage 2, while none completed Stage 3. David Campbell was the Last Man Standing, having been the American gone the farthest in the least amount of time on Stage 3.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The third season had the same format as the second season but aired in the summer. Qualifying and semifinals were held in Venice Beach in May. It premiered on July 31, 2011, on G4, and concluded on August 21, 2011. The finale was aired again on August 22, 2011, as a two-hour primetime special on NBC. In addition to the 10 Americans sent to compete on "Sasuke", one fan of "ANW" got the chance to compete as well. This was the result of an eBay auction in which proceeds were sent to the American Red Cross to help with recovery efforts following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. During "Sasuke 27", four of the six competitors who reached Stage 3 were American—a new record. Previously, only one American would reach Stage 3 per "Sasuke" competition. David Campbell was again the Last Man Standing, having gone the farthest in the least amount of time among the American competitors on Stage 3.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The fourth season was notable for differentiating "American Ninja Warrior" from "Sasuke" and began what is known as "the modern era" of the series. Following the ratings success of the third season's NBC primetime special, the fourth season aired on both G4 and NBC. It premiered on May 20, 2012, on G4, and concluded on July 23, 2012, on NBC. Regional qualifying was aired on G4, while the regional finals courses aired on NBC. With an increased production budget, preliminary rounds were held in three locations across the United States. Six regional competitions (Southwest, Midwest, Northeast, Northwest, Mid-South, and Southeast) took place in Venice Beach, Dallas, and Miami. During the National Finals, which were held for the first time in Las Vegas, Brent Steffensen was the only competitor to reach Stage 3 and became the Last Man Standing. He went further on Stage 3 than any American had ever gone before—including on "Sasuke".


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The fifth season premiered on June 30, 2013, on G4, and concluded on September 16, 2013, on NBC. City qualifying and finals courses aired on both G4 and NBC. City competitions were held in four locations: Venice Beach, Baltimore, Miami, and Denver. During Venice Beach Qualifying, Jessie Graff became the first woman to qualify for a city finals course. During the National Finals, 41-year-old Joyce Shahboz became the first woman to compete there twice in two years (as a wild card), while Brian Arnold fell on the final obstacle of Stage 3 and won the title of Last Man Standing.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The sixth season premiered on May 26, 2014, and concluded on September 8, 2014, with original episodes airing solely on NBC. City competitions were held in five locations: Venice Beach, Dallas, St. Louis, Miami, and Denver. During Dallas Qualifying, Kacy Catanzaro became the first female competitor to make it up the Warped Wall. Later in the Dallas Finals, she became the first woman to complete a city finals course. Catanzaro's two runs have been described as the first "viral moment" of the show and are credited with increasing the seventh season's submissions ten times over. During the National Finals, Joe Moravsky fell on the antepenultimate obstacle of Stage 3 and became the sixth season's Last Man Standing.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The seventh season premiered on May 25, 2015, and ended on September 14, 2015. City competitions were held in six locations: Venice Beach, Kansas City, Houston, Orlando, and Pittsburgh, and San Pedro, where a special military edition was held for competitors who are either current or former members of the U.S. Armed Forces. During the National Finals, a record of 38 competitors completed Stage 1, and 8 athletes completed Stage 2, and both Isaac Caldiero and Geoff Britten completed Stage 3, marking the first time any competitor(s) completed it in the regular season. During Stage 4, Britten completed the rope climb in 0:29.65 seconds, earning the title of "First American Ninja Warrior" for being the first to complete all six courses (city qualifying, city finals, and four stages of Mount Midoriyama) in a single season, and Caldiero completed the rope climb in 0:26.14 seconds, earning the title of "Second American Ninja Warrior" and the $1,000,000 prize due to him having the fastest time.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The eighth season of the series began on June 1, 2016, and concluded on September 12, 2016. The eighth season marked a 40 percent increase in the number of female submission videos from the previous season. City competitions were held in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, and Philadelphia. During the Philadelphia finals, no competitor completed the course—a first in the series' history. In Stage 1 of the National Finals, many veterans of the show, including Ryan Stratis, Brent Steffensen, Travis Rosen, James McGrath, Jamie Rahn, Mike Bernardo, Kevin Bull, Ian Dory, Jojo Bynum, and Geoff Britten, did not complete the course. As a result, only 17 competitors advanced to Stage 2—the lowest in the series' history. However, Jessie Graff became the first woman to complete Stage 1, placing fifth. Only two athletes: Drew Drechsel and Daniel Gil, managed to beat Stage 2, but none of them completed Stage 3. Daniel Gil fell on the Ultimate Cliffhanger, while Drew fell further on the Hang Climb, and was declared the Last Man Standing.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The ninth season premiered on June 12, 2017, and ended on September 18, 2017. City competitions were held in Los Angeles, San Antonio, Daytona Beach, Kansas City, Cleveland, and Denver. A record of 41 competitors successfully completed Stage 1 during the National Finals, including David Campbell, Ryan Stratis, Drew Drechsel, and Allyssa Beird, who became just the second woman to complete it. Stage 2 saw every competitor eliminated except Joe Moravsky, Sean Bryan, and Najee Richardson. However, none of them could complete Stage 3. Bryan and Richardson fell on the Ultimate Cliffhanger, while Moravsky fell on the penultimate obstacle and became the Last Man Standing.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The tenth season began airing on May 30, 2018, and ended on September 10, 2018. City competitions were held in Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis. In one episode, they did a Jurassic World night and showed a sneak peek of . Drew Drechsel and Sean Bryan—the two competitors to reach Stage 3 of the National Finals—both fell during their runs. However, Drechsel fell at a faster time than Bryan, crowning him the Last Ninja Standing. As the result of a format change introduced this season, Drechsel was also the first Last Ninja Standing to win $100,000 for being the competitor who went the farthest in the least amount of time on the National Finals course but did not complete Stage 4.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The eleventh season started its premiere on May 29, 2019, and ended on September 16, 2019. City competitions were held in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Oklahoma City, Seattle/Tacoma, marking the first time that a course was held in the Pacific Northwest, Baltimore, and Cincinnati. In one episode, they did Angry Birds obstacles in honor of Angry Birds Movie 2. New rules regarding the Mega Wall obstacle, which was introduced in the previous season, came into effect. Competitors were given three chances to make it up the wall, but the prize money decreased after each attempt, starting at $10,000, then decreasing to $5,000, and finally $2,500. This season also introduced the Power Tower, where the top two finishers from each city qualifying would race on a giant metal structure to gain the "Speed Pass", which guaranteed them a spot in the National Finals. In City Finals, the Power Tower was modified, and the top two finishers would race for the "Safety Pass", which allowed them to rerun the course in either one of the first two stages (Stage 1 or Stage 2) if they fail. During the National Finals, 28 of the 86 finalists completed Stage 1, and a record 21 astounding athletes completed Stage 2, and both Drew Drechsel and Daniel Gil completed Stage 3. Daniel Gil was not able to complete the rope climb on Stage 4 in the 30-second time limit, but Drew Drechsel was able to climb it in 0:27.46 seconds, earning him the title of "Third American Ninja Warrior" and the $1,000,000 prize.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: On January 22, 2020, the series was renewed for a twelfth season, which premiered on September 7, 2020. For the first time, a Spanish-language version airs on Telemundo. Qualifying cities originally included returns to Los Angeles and St. Louis with a new location, Washington, D.C., with the National Finals initially set to be held again held in Las Vegas. Production of the season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic with filming interrupted in the middle of production on the show, just a day before it was set to begin. On August 12, 2020, it was announced that the season would premiere on September 7. The season, consisting of eight episodes, was filmed at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri; "ANW" was the first NBC series to have completed a full season of episodes during the current pandemic.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The thirteenth season consists of 12 episodes aired from May 31 to September 13, 2021. The season format has the filming of 5 qualifying episodes in the Tacoma Dome in Seattle/Tacoma, with the 4 semifinals will be taped at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles. The top 30 competitors and the top 5 women from each qualifying advance to the semifinals. The top 15 competitors and the top 3 women from each semifinals will advance to the National Finals at Mount Midoriyama in Las Vegas. Starting this season, the age limit was lowered to 15 years old.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The fourteenth season premiered on June 6, 2022. The season format is similar to the previous season, but the filming of 5 qualifying episodes was moved to the Alamodome in San Antonio, with the 4 semifinals will be taped at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles. The top 30 competitors and the top 5 women from each qualifying advance to semifinals. The top 15 competitors and the top 3 women from each semifinals will advance to the National Finals at Mount Midoriyama in Las Vegas.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: NBC has aired a series of seven international competitions in which an "American Ninja Warrior" team from the USA compete against teams from other countries around the world, including Japan, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Australia for bragging rights and the "American Ninja Warrior: USA vs. The World" trophy. The competitors race on the same Mount Midoriyama course used in the National Finals on the Las Vegas Strip.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: All of the international competitions have been hosted by Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila. The first two included sideline reporter Jenn Brown. The next four included Kristine Leahy as the sideline reporter. The seventh included Zuri Hall as the sideline reporter.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The first international showdown was called "USA vs. Japan", while the rest were named "USA vs. The World". The first global competition aired on January 13, 2014, and was won by Team USA. The second global competition aired on September 15, 2014, and was won by Team Europe. The third global competition aired on January 31, 2016, and was won by Team USA. The fourth global competition was aired on June 4, 2017, and was again won by Team USA. The fifth global competition aired on March 11, 2018, and was won by Team Europe. The sixth global competition aired on January 27, 2019. For the first time, each team had at least one female competitor. It was won by Team USA. The seventh global competition aired on January 26, 2020, and was won by Team Australia.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: On May 29, 2016, prior to the premiere of season eight, NBC aired a two-hour all-stars special in which hosts Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila chose their own all-star teams composed of three veterans, one rookie, and one woman. Teams competed on Stages 2, 3, and 4 of the regular season finals course, Mt. Midoriyama, as well as competitions on a supersized course that tested their skills in competitions on the Giant Pegboard, Supersonic Shelf Grab, Super Salmon Ladder, and Giant Jump Hang, concluding with a race to the top of the Mega Wall.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: On February 20, 2017, NBC aired a second two-hour all-stars special. Like the previous year's competition, "ANW" hosts Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila chose their own all-star teams, this year composed of one veteran, one breakout star, and one woman. Team Matt featured Chris Wilczewski, Najee Richardson, and Jesse "Flex" Lebreck. Team Akbar featured Grant McCartney, Neil "Crazy" Craver, and Meagan Martin. Sideline interviewer Kristine Leahy picked her team, which consisted of Jessie Graff, Flip Rodriguez, and Nicholas Coolridge. Teams competed in a relay race to finish sections of Stages 1, 2, and 3 of the regular season finals course, Mt. Midoriyama. Next came the skills competition on a supersized course, where contestants tested their skills in competition on the 75-feet tall Endless Invisible Climb, the 4-story high Super Salmon Ladder, Striding Steps, Big Air Grab, Mega Wall, now 20 feet high, Thunderbolt, and Supersonic Shelf Grab.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: On May 17, 2018, NBC aired a third two-hour all-stars special. Like the last two seasons' competition, "ANW" hosts Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila, along with Kristine Leahy, chose their all-star teams composed of two male veterans and one female veteran. The reigning champs, Team Kristine (gray/pink), featured: Jessie Graff, Flip Rodriguez, and JJ Woods. Team Matt (blue) featured: Jamie Rahn, Lance Pekus, and Jesse Labreck. Team Akbar featured first-time all-stars: Allyssa Beird, Jon Alexis Jr., and Tyler Yamauchi, as well as competitions on a supersized course that tested their skills in competitions, which consisted of climbing the Super Salmon Ladder, 4 stories high in the fastest time, a speed and balance challenge on the Striding Steps, an upper body test on the Thunderbolt, the Wicked Wingnuts, and a new obstacle, the Mega Spider Climb, where eight women all-stars raced side-by-side 80 feet up to the top of the Stage 4 tower.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: Just like the last three seasons' competition, "ANW" hosts Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila, along with Kristine Leahy, chose their all-star teams consisting of two male veterans and one female veteran. Two-time winner Team Kristine (gray/pink), focused on young all-stars: Mathis "Kid" Owhadi, Tyler Gillett, and Barclay Stockett. Team Matt (blue) reached out on the same team that just missed out on winning last season: Jamie Rahn, Lance Pekus, and Jesse "Flex" LaBreck. Team Akbar (red) featured: Grant McCartney, Meagan Martin, and Jake Murray. Next came the skills competition on a supersized course, where contestants tested their skills in competition on the 80-foot tall Mega Spider Climb, Wicked Wingnuts, an upper body test on the Dual Doorknob Drop, a side-by-side race on the Striding Steps, 4-story Super Salmon Ladder, and a fun new obstacle, the Big Dipper Freestyle.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The fifth all-stars (skills challenge) special aired on August 31, 2020, on NBC, a week before the start of the twelfth season's premiere. Like previous seasons' competition, "ANW" hosts Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila returned, this time with Zuri Hall as the sideline reporter picking her first team this year, as well as competitions on a supersized course that tested their skills in competitions, which consisted of the Fearsome Ferris Wheel, Striding Steps, Mega Spider Climb, Big Dipper Freestyle. They chose their all-star teams consisting of two male veterans and one female veteran. Team Matt (blue): Karsten Williams, Ryan Stratis, and Michelle Warnky. Team Akbar (red): Grant McCartney, Jake Murray, and Allyssa Beird. Team Zuri (yellow), like herself, Zuri chose a team of rookies: David Wright, Seth Rogers, and Mady Howard. However, some of the skills competition that featured Drew Drechsel as one of the competitors were not shown in the special, due to US current legal proceedings.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The sixth All-Stars Special aired on May 30, 2022 on NBC and was renamed All Star Spectacular, a week before the start of the fourteenth season's premiere. Like previous seasons' competition, "ANW" hosts Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila returned, alongside Zuri Hall as the sideline reporter. This also marks the return of the format after missing out during post twelfth season, due to the various changes in format as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were some competitions on a supersized course, which consisted of the Spring Forward Tag, Cat Grab, Big Dipper Freestyle and Striding Steps. Compared to previous tournaments, there was no Team Competition to set.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: A special, "American Ninja Warrior" Women's Championship aired on May 9, 2021, on NBC at 7:00pm EDT. It featured 12 female competitors that battled through three rounds. In Round 1, all 12 women will face a six-obstacle course. The top 6 women will advance to Round 2, the extended ten-obstacle course. The top four women will advance to race head-to-head on the Power Tower. The winner takes home $50,000 and becomes the "ANW" female champion.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: In Australia and New Zealand, the show is broadcast on SBS2 (2013–2017), 9Go! (2018–present), TV3 and Four. On April 25, 2016, it was announced that Canadian broadcaster CTV picked up "American Ninja Warrior" for its 2016 summer broadcast schedule. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the show is broadcast on Challenge and more recently on Sky Two. In Israel, the show is broadcast on Yes Action with the American version, and on Keshet 12 with its own version. In 2016, Croatian RTL started broadcasting the show. The show is also shown in Finland on Sub-TV. In the Netherlands the show was first broadcast in 2017 on SBS 6, where their own "Ninja Warrior NL" has been broadcast. In Norway it is broadcast on TV2 Zebra. The show also airs in South Africa, on SABC 3, airing Sunday afternoons 13:30.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: The show is in syndication markets throughout the US and airs on local broadcast channels. At one point syndicated episodes were airing on MTV2 on Saturdays in August 2018. On August 12, 2019, the series began airing reruns on Nickelodeon. However, after airing just 10 episodes, the series was abruptly pulled from Nick's schedule after August 23, 2019.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: On October 9, 2015, Esquire Network announced a spin-off of "American Ninja Warrior", which would feature 24 three-person teams (two men and one woman) of popular "ANW" alumni, initially titled "Team Ninja Warrior". The teams compete head-to-head against each other, running the course simultaneously, thus creating a new live duel dynamic (including crossing points, where the two competitors can affect the other's progress.) The two teams with the fastest times advance to the finale, where one team will be crowned the winner and receive a cash prize. Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila host alongside actor and journalist, Alex Curry. The series is Esquire Network's most-watched program in the channel's history.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: On May 31, 2016, Esquire Network ordered a sixteen-episode second season that also included a five-episode special college edition that had college-aged competitors go head-to-head against rival schools. On March 6, 2017, it was announced that "Team Ninja Warrior" will be moving to sibling cable channel USA Network as Esquire Network winds down its linear channel operations and relaunches as an online only service. The show's second season premiered proper on April 18. Ahead of its third season, the show was also re-titled "American Ninja Warrior: Ninja vs. Ninja".


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: On May 2, 2018, the second spin-off of "American Ninja Warrior"—entitled "American Ninja Warrior Junior"— was announced. Premiered on Universal Kids on October 13, 2018, Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila reprised their roles from "ANW" as hosts, with Olympic 2016 gold medalist Elijah Browning joining as co-host, guiding competitors in head-to-head challenges. The series will feature 142 kids ages 9–14 competing along a course of miniature "ANW" obstacles such as the Sky hooks. Similar to "ANW", males and females will run along the same course, and similarly to "Ninja vs. Ninja" and "College Madness", competitors compete head-to-head. However, they will be divided into three age groups: 9–10, 11–12 and 13–14, with each category coached by fan-favorite athletes: Korey Kade, Lucas Gomes, Calle Alexander, Caleb Bergie, Danny Bergie, and Natalie Duran. In May 2021, it was announced that the third season would be moving to Peacock.


title: American Ninja Warrior

text: A sports video game based on the series, American Ninja Warrior: Challenge, was released exclusively in North America on March 19, 2019 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. It was developed by Gaming Corps Austin and published by GameMill Entertainment. The Career mode is the main mode of the game, and much like in real life, it centers around the idea of picking and training on various obstacles, participating in skills competitions, and competing in the 6 different rounds of American Ninja Warrior. The 6 rounds are the Qualifiers, the City Finals, and the 4 stages of Mount Midoriyama, Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4, just like on the TV show that it is inspired by. Its Quick Play mode allows up to 4 players to compete on predetermined obstacle courses.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: A Monster Calls is a 2016 dark fantasy drama film directed by J. A. Bayona from a screenplay by Patrick Ness and based on Ness' 2011 novel of the same name. It stars Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, Lewis MacDougall, and Liam Neeson. In the film, Conor O'Malley (MacDougall) grapples with his mother's terminal illness as he is visited by the Monster (Neeson), a giant anthropomorphic yew tree who tells him stories.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: The film rights to Ness' novel were acquired by Focus Features in March 2014, after which, he was hired as screenwriter and Bayona signed on as director. Jones was first hired that April and Neeson joined that May, with the rest of the main cast rounded out by that September. Principal photography began on 30 September 2014, with filming locations mainly including West Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Lancashire in England, with additional scenes filmed on location in Spain.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: "A Monster Calls" premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2016 and was theatrically released first in Spain on 7 October by Universal Pictures, in the United Kingdom by Entertainment One on 1 January 2017, and in the United States five days later. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for Bayona's direction, acting performances, visual effects, and its thematic content. It underperformed at the box office, grossing $47 million worldwide.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: 12-year-old Conor O'Malley has a close bond with his seriously ill mother and maintains the household during her regular chemotherapy treatments at the hospital. His grandmother often visits, and suggests he come live with her in the event of his mother's death. Conor doesn't warm to her due to her coldness.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: At school, he is regularly tormented by his classmate Harry. He is also plagued by a nightmare in which the old church near his house collapses into a hole, where he tries to prevent someone from plummeting to their death by trying to hold onto them. Conor vents his emotions by drawing, a talent inherited from his mother.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: One night at exactly seven minutes past midnight, he sees the large yew tree next to the church transform into a gnarled Monster that approaches his home. The Monster says it will tell Conor three stories during their next meetings, after which Conor must tell the Monster a fourth tale in return.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: In the Monster's first story, a prince escapes from his stepgrandmother, the supposedly evil queen. He then kills his sleeping bride under a yew tree and makes the queen the scapegoat so the people drive her away and make him king.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: As Conor's mother worsens, he moves in with his grandmother. In the evening, Conor summons the Monster by forcing the hands of the clock to show 12:07. He appears, and tells the second story. In the tale, a hard-hearted parson forbids an apothecary from extracting medicine from an old yew tree, only to rescind this measure when his own children become ill. The apothecary refuses to help him, and the Monster begins to destroy the parson's house as punishment. Conor enthusiastically joins in on the destruction, but he suddenly finds he has angrily destroyed his grandmother's sitting room and valuable grandfather clock instead. His grandmother, while shocked and upset, does not punish Conor.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: The doctors turn to a final treatment involving yew wood. Conor implores the Monster to heal his mother, only for the Monster to dismiss the matter as outside of his responsibility. At school, Harry tells Conor he will no longer bother him because he "no longer sees [him]". The Monster tells the third story of an invisible man who did not want to be so. Conor angrily attacks Harry, hospitalizing him. To his surprise, the headmistress refrains from punishing him as she comprehends his current home situation.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: When it becomes clear his mother will die, Conor runs to the yew tree, where the Monster forces him to relive his recurring nightmare. This time we see it's his mother dangling for her life over a precipice, holding onto Conor's hand. He slowly loses his grip until his mother disappears into the enormous sinkhole. The monster then confronts Conor and repeatedly demands he tell his fourth tale, as it's the only way for him to be set free. Conor pleads not to, believing that the truth would kill him.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: Eventually, Conor admits that he had long suspected his mother would not survive and secretly hoped she would die to end their suffering, although at the same time he did not want her to die. In his recurring nightmare, he subconsciously lets go of his mother's hand, which fills him with guilt. The Monster commends Conor for his bravery in telling the truth and tells him it's human to feel the way he did.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: Conor's grandmother finds him asleep under the yew tree and drives to the hospital where the mother is about to die. Conor embraces his mother, and she glances at the Monster and dies at exactly seven minutes past midnight. Conor returns to his grandmother's house, where his mother's old room has been refurbished for him. There he finds his mother's childhood art book, which depicts the stories that were told to him by the Monster, and a drawing of his mother as a child on the Monster's shoulder.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: Focus Features bought the rights to the book in March 2014. Patrick Ness, the book's author, served as the film's screenwriter, with J. A. Bayona hired as director. On 23 April 2014, Felicity Jones joined the film to play the boy's mother. On 8 May, Liam Neeson was cast to voice the Monster, and on 18 August, Sigourney Weaver joined to play the boy's grandmother. On August 19, Toby Kebbell was also cast in the film. On 3 September, author Ness tweeted that Lewis MacDougall had been set for one of the lead roles as the boy in the film. On 30 September, Geraldine Chaplin joined the cast.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: Principal photography began on 30 September 2014, in Spain and Britain. On 9 October, the filming began on location in Glossop, Preston, Lancashire, Rivington Pike (Chorley/Horwich), Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and Marsden, West Yorkshire.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: Liam Neeson, who voices the titular tree creature, was not on set throughout the shooting process, and completed his motion-capture performance during a two-week period beforehand, with MacDougall in the room. Actor Tom Holland, who worked with Bayona on "The Impossible", worked on set as The Monster on a week when Neeson was absent.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: The film was originally scheduled for an October 2016 release. It was rescheduled for a limited roll out on 23 December 2016, followed by a wide release on 6 January 2017. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2017, by Entertainment One and Lionsgate, and in India on 6 January 2017, by B4U Relativity.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: "A Monster Calls" grossed $3.7 million in the United States and Canada and $43.5 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $47.2 million, against a production budget of $43 million.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: In North America, the film had its wide release alongside the opening of "" and the wide expansions of "Hidden Figures" and "Lion", and was initially expected to gross around $10 million from 1,523 theaters over the weekend. However, after making just $659,000 on its first day, weekend projections were lowered to $2 million, which it ended up grossing, finishing 13th at the box office. In its second weekend of wide release it grossed $537,262 (a drop of 74.2%) and in its third week made just $19,080 (a drop of 96.4%) after being pulled from all but 42 theaters, one of the biggest third week theater drops in history.


title: A Monster Calls (film)

text: The aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 86% based on 266 reviews, and an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""A Monster Calls" deftly balances dark themes and fantastical elements to deliver an engrossing and uncommonly moving entry in the crowded coming-of-age genre." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Latex

text: Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well.


title: Latex

text: In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms). It is a complex emulsion that coagulates on exposure to air, consisting of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins, and gums. It is usually exuded after tissue injury. In most plants, latex is white, but some have yellow, orange, or scarlet latex. Since the 17th century, latex has been used as a term for the fluid substance in plants, deriving from the Latin word for "liquid". It serves mainly as defense against herbivorous insects. Latex is not to be confused with plant sap; it is a distinct substance, separately produced, and with different functions.


title: Latex

text: The word latex is also used to refer to natural latex rubber, particularly non-vulcanized rubber. Such is the case in products like latex gloves, latex condoms and latex clothing.


title: Latex

text: The cells (laticifers) in which latex is found make up the laticiferous system, which can form in two very different ways. In many plants, the laticiferous system is formed from rows of cells laid down in the meristem of the stem or root. The cell walls between these cells are dissolved so that continuous tubes, called latex vessels, are formed. Since these vessels are made of many cells, they are known as "articulated laticifers". This method of formation is found in the poppy family and in the rubber trees (Para rubber tree, members of the family Euphorbiaceae, members of the mulberry and fig family, such as the Panama rubber tree "Castilla elastica"), and members of the family Asteraceae. For instance, "Parthenium argentatum" the guayule plant, is in the tribe Heliantheae; other latex-bearing Asteraceae with articulated laticifers include members of the Cichorieae, a clade whose members produce latex, some of them in commercially interesting amounts. This includes "Taraxacum kok-saghyz", a species cultivated for latex production.


title: Latex

text: In the milkweed and spurge families, on the other hand, the laticiferous system is formed quite differently. Early in the development of the seedling, latex cells differentiate, and as the plant grows these latex cells grow into a branching system extending throughout the plant. In many euphorbs, the entire structure is made from a single cell – this type of system is known as a "non-articulated laticifer", to distinguish it from the multi-cellular structures discussed above. In the mature plant, the entire laticiferous system is descended from a single cell or group of cells present in the embryo.


title: Latex

text: The laticiferous system is present in all parts of the mature plant, including roots, stems, leaves, and sometimes the fruits. It is particularly noticeable in the cortical tissues. Latex is usually exuded as a white liquid, but is some cases it can be clear, yellow or red, as in Cannabaceae.


title: Latex

text: Latex is produced by 20,000 flowering plant species from over 40 families. These include both dicots and monocots. Latex has been found in 14 percent of tropical plant species, as well as six percent of temperate plant species. Several members of the fungal kingdom also produce latex upon injury, such as "Lactarius deliciosus" and other milk-caps. This suggests it is the product of convergent evolution and has been selected for on many separate occasions.


title: Latex

text: Latex functions to protect the plant from herbivores. The idea was first proposed in 1887 by Joseph F. James, who noted that latex carries with it at the same time such disagreeable properties that it becomes a better protection to the plant from enemies than all the thorns, prickles, or hairs that could be provided. In this plant, so copious and so distasteful has the sap become that it serves a most important purpose in its economy.


title: Latex

text: Evidence showing this defense function include the finding that slugs will eat leaves drained of their latex but not intact ones, that many insects sever the veins carrying latex before they feed, and that the latex of "Asclepias humistrata" (sandhill milkweed) kills by trapping 30% of newly hatched monarch butterfly caterpillars.


title: Latex

text: Other evidence is that latex contains 50–1000× higher concentrations of defense substances than other plant tissues. These toxins include ones that are also toxic to the plant and consist of a diverse range of chemicals that are either poisonous or "antinutritive."


title: Latex

text: Latex is actively moved to the area of injury; in the case of "Cryptostegia grandiflora", latex more than 70 cm from the site of injury is mobilized. The large hydrostatic pressure in this vine enables an extremely high flow rate of latex. In a 1935 report the botanist Catherine M. Bangham observed that "piercing the fruit stalk of "Cryptostegia grandiflora" produced a jet of latex over a meter long, and maintained [this jet] for several seconds."


title: Latex

text: The clotting property of latex is functional in this defense since it limits wastage and its stickiness traps insects and their mouthparts.


title: Latex

text: While there exist other explanations for the existence of latex including storage and movement of plant nutrients, waste, and maintenance of water balance that "[e]ssentially none of these functions remain credible and none have any empirical support".


title: Latex

text: Natural rubber is the most important product obtained from latex; more than 12,000 plant species yield latex containing rubber, though in the vast majority of those species the rubber is not suitable for commercial use. This latex is used to make many other products including mattresses, gloves, swim caps, condoms, catheters and balloons.


title: Latex

text: Dried latex from the opium poppy is called opium, the source of several useful analgesic alkaloids such as codeine, thebaine, and morphine, the latter two of which can then further be used in the synthesis and manufacture of other (typically stronger) opioids for medicinal use, and of heroin for the illegal drug trade. The opium poppy is also the source of medically useful non-analgesic alkaloids, such as papaverine and noscapine.


title: Latex

text: Latex is used in many types of clothing. Worn on the body (or applied directly by painting), it tends to be skin-tight, producing a "second skin" effect.


title: Latex

text: Synthetic latexes are used in coatings (e.g., latex paint) and glues because they solidify by coalescence of the polymer particles as the water evaporates. These synthetic latexes therefore can form films without releasing potentially toxic organic solvents in the environment. Other uses include cement additives and to conceal information on scratchcards. Latex, usually styrene-based, is also used in immunoassays.


title: Latex

text: Some people only experience a mild allergy when exposed to latex, like eczema, contact dermatitis or developing a rash.


title: Latex

text: Others have a serious latex allergy, and exposure to latex products such as latex gloves can cause anaphylactic shock. Guayule latex has only 2% of the levels of protein found in "Hevea" latexes, and is being researched as a lower-allergen substitute. Additionally, chemical processes may be employed to reduce the amount of antigenic protein in "Hevea" latex, yielding alternative materials such as Vytex Natural Rubber Latex which provide significantly reduced exposure to latex allergens.


title: Latex

text: About half of people with spina bifida are also allergic to natural latex rubber, as well as people who have had multiple surgeries, and people who have had prolonged exposure to natural latex.


title: Latex

text: Several species of the microbe genera "Actinomycetes", "Streptomyces", "Nocardia", "Micromonospora", and "Actinoplanes" are capable of consuming rubber latex. However, the rate of biodegradation is slow, and the growth of bacteria utilizing rubber as a sole carbon source is also slow.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some insects, fish, amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans, cnidarians, echinoderms, and tunicates undergo metamorphosis, which is often accompanied by a change of nutrition source or behavior. Animals can be divided into species that undergo complete metamorphosis ("holometaboly"), incomplete metamorphosis ("hemimetaboly"), or no metamorphosis ("ametaboly").


title: Metamorphosis

text: Scientific usage of the term is technically precise, and it is not applied to general aspects of cell growth, including rapid growth spurts. Generally organisms with a larva stage undergo metamorphosis, and during metamorphosis the organism loses larval characteristics. References to "metamorphosis" in mammals are imprecise and only colloquial, but historically idealist ideas of transformation and morphology, as in Goethe's "Metamorphosis of Plants", have influenced the development of ideas of evolution.


title: Metamorphosis

text: The word "metamorphosis" derives from Greek , "transformation, transforming", from ('), "after" and ('), "form".


title: Metamorphosis

text: In insects, growth and metamorphosis are controlled by hormones synthesized by endocrine glands near the front of the body (anterior). Neurosecretory cells in an insect's brain secrete a hormone, the prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) that activates prothoracic glands, which secrete a second hormone, usually ecdysone (an ecdysteroid), that induces ecdysis.


title: Metamorphosis

text: PTTH also stimulates the corpora allata, a retrocerebral organ, to produce juvenile hormone, which prevents the development of adult characteristics during ecdysis. In holometabolous insects, molts between larval instars have a high level of juvenile hormone, the moult to the pupal stage has a low level of juvenile hormone, and the final, or imaginal, molt has no juvenile hormone present at all. Experiments on firebugs have shown how juvenile hormone can affect the number of nymph instar stages in hemimetabolous insects.


title: Metamorphosis

text: All three categories of metamorphosis can be found in the diversity of insects, including no metamorphosis ("ametaboly"), incomplete or partial metamorphosis ("hemimetaboly"), and complete metamorphosis ("holometaboly"). While ametabolous insects show very little difference between larval and adult forms (also known as "direct development"), both hemimetabolous and holometabolous insects have significant morphological and behavioral differences between larval and adult forms, the most significant being the inclusion, in holometabolus organisms, of a pupal or resting stage between the larval and adult forms.


title: Metamorphosis

text: In hemimetabolous insects, immature stages are called nymphs. Development proceeds in repeated stages of growth and ecdysis (moulting); these stages are called instars. The juvenile forms closely resemble adults, but are smaller and lack adult features such as wings and genitalia. The size and morphological differences between nymphs in different instars are small, often just differences in body proportions and the number of segments; in later instars, external wing buds form. The period from one molt to the next is called a stadium.


title: Metamorphosis

text: In holometabolous insects, immature stages are called larvae and differ markedly from adults. Insects which undergo holometabolism pass through a larval stage, then enter an inactive state called pupa (called a "chrysalis" in butterfly species), and finally emerge as adults.


title: Metamorphosis

text: The earliest insect forms showed direct development (ametabolism), and the evolution of metamorphosis in insects is thought to have fuelled their dramatic radiation (1,2). Some early ametabolous "true insects" are still present today, such as bristletails and silverfish. Hemimetabolous insects include cockroaches, grasshoppers, dragonflies, and true bugs. Phylogenetically, all insects in the Pterygota undergo a marked change in form, texture and physical appearance from immature stage to adult. These insects either have hemimetabolous development, and undergo an incomplete or partial metamorphosis, or holometabolous development, which undergo a complete metamorphosis, including a pupal or resting stage between the larval and adult forms.


title: Metamorphosis

text: A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the evolution of holometaboly from hemimetaboly, mostly centering on whether or not the intermediate stages of hemimetabolous forms are homologous in origin to the pupal stage of holometabolous forms.


title: Metamorphosis

text: According to a 2009 study, temperature plays an important role in insect development as each individual species are found to have specific thermal windows that allow them to progress through their developmental stages. These windows are not significantly affected by ecological traits, rather, the windows are phylogenetically adapted to the ecological circumstances insects are living in.


title: Metamorphosis

text: According to research from 2008, adult "Manduca sexta" is able to retain behavior learned as a caterpillar. Another caterpillar, the ornate moth caterpillar, is able to carry toxins that it acquires from its diet through metamorphosis and into adulthood, where the toxins still serve for protection against predators.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Many observations published in 2002, and supported in 2013 indicate that programmed cell death plays a considerable role during physiological processes of multicellular organisms, particularly during embryogenesis, and metamorphosis. Additional research in 2019 found that both autophagy and apoptosis, the two ways programmed cell death occur, are processes undergone during insect metamorphosis.


title: Metamorphosis

text: In cephalochordata, metamorphosis is iodothyronine-induced and it could be an ancestral feature of all chordates.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Some fish, both bony fish (Osteichthyes) and jawless fish (Agnatha), undergo metamorphosis. Fish metamorphosis is typically under strong control by the thyroid hormone.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Many species of flatfish begin their life bilaterally symmetrical, with an eye on either side of the body; but one eye moves to join the other side of the fish – which becomes the upper side – in the adult form.


title: Metamorphosis

text: The European eel has a number of metamorphoses, from the larval stage to the leptocephalus stage, then a quick metamorphosis to glass eel at the edge of the continental shelf (eight days for the Japanese eel), two months at the border of fresh and salt water where the glass eel undergoes a quick metamorphosis into elver, then a long stage of growth followed by a more gradual metamorphosis to the migrating phase. In the pre-adult freshwater stage, the eel also has phenotypic plasticity because fish-eating eels develop very wide mandibles, making the head look blunt. Leptocephali are common, occurring in all Elopomorpha (tarpon- and eel-like fish).


title: Metamorphosis

text: Most other bony fish undergo metamorphosis initially from egg to immotile larvae known as "sac fry" (fry with a yolk sac), then to motile larvae (often known as fingerlings due to them roughly reaching the length of a human finger) that have to forage for themselves after the yolk sac resorbs, and then to the juvenile stage where the fish progressively start to resemble adult morphology and behaviors until finally reaching sexual maturity.


title: Metamorphosis

text: In typical amphibian development, eggs are laid in water and larvae are adapted to an aquatic lifestyle. Frogs, toads, and newts all hatch from the eggs as larvae with external gills but it will take some time for the amphibians to interact outside with pulmonary respiration. Afterwards, newt larvae start a predatory lifestyle, while tadpoles mostly scrape food off surfaces with their horny tooth ridges.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Metamorphosis in amphibians is regulated by thyroxin concentration in the blood, which stimulates metamorphosis, and prolactin, which counteracts its effect. Specific events are dependent on threshold values for different tissues. Because most embryonic development is outside the parental body, development is subject to many adaptations due to specific ecological circumstances. For this reason tadpoles can have horny ridges for teeth, whiskers, and fins. They also make use of the lateral line organ. After metamorphosis, these organs become redundant and will be resorbed by controlled cell death, called apoptosis. The amount of adaptation to specific ecological circumstances is remarkable, with many discoveries still being made.


title: Metamorphosis

text: With frogs and toads, the external gills of the newly hatched tadpole are covered with a gill sac after a few days, and lungs are quickly formed. Front legs are formed under the gill sac, and hindlegs are visible a few days later. Following that there is usually a longer stage during which the tadpole lives off a vegetarian diet. Tadpoles use a relatively long, spiral‐shaped gut to digest that diet. Recent studies suggest tadpoles don't have a balanced homeostatic feedback control system until the beginning stages of metamorphosis. At this point, their long gut shortens and begins favoring the diet of insects.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Rapid changes in the body can then be observed as the lifestyle of the frog changes completely. The spiral‐shaped mouth with horny tooth ridges is resorbed together with the spiral gut. The animal develops a big jaw, and its gills disappear along with its gill sac. Eyes and legs grow quickly, a tongue is formed, and all this is accompanied by associated changes in the neural networks (development of stereoscopic vision, loss of the lateral line system, etc.) All this can happen in about a day, so it is truly a metamorphosis. It is not until a few days later that the tail is reabsorbed, due to the higher thyroxin concentrations required for tail resorption.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Salamander development is highly diverse; some species go through a dramatic reorganization when transitioning from aquatic larvae to terrestrial adults, while others, such as the axolotl, display pedomorphosis and never develop into terrestrial adults. Within the genus "Ambystoma", species have evolved to be pedomorphic several times, and pedomorphosis and complete development can both occur in some species.


title: Metamorphosis

text: In newts, metamorphosis occurs due to the change in habitat, not a change in diet, because newt larvae already feed as predators and continue doing so as adults. Newts' gills are never covered by a gill sac and will be resorbed only just before the animal leaves the water. Adults can move faster on land than in water. Newts often have an aquatic phase in spring and summer, and a land phase in winter. For adaptation to a water phase, prolactin is the required hormone, and for adaptation to the land phase, thyroxin. External gills do not return in subsequent aquatic phases because these are completely absorbed upon leaving the water for the first time.


title: Metamorphosis

text: Basal caecilians such as "Ichthyophis" go through a metamorphosis in which aquatic larva transition into fossorial adults, which involves a loss of the lateral line. More recently diverged caecilians (the Teresomata) do not undergo an ontogenetic niche shift of this sort and are in general fossorial throughout their lives. Thus, most caecilians do not undergo an anuran-like metamorphosis.


title: Vincent Schiavelli

text: Vincent Andrew Schiavelli (; November 11, 1948 – December 26, 2005) was an American character actor noted for his work on stage, screen, and television. Described as an "instantly recognizable sad-faced actor", he was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome in childhood.


title: Vincent Schiavelli

text: Schiavelli gained fame as a character actor, mainly in supporting roles. His better-known roles include Fredrickson in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975), Mr. Vargas in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982), the Subway Ghost in "Ghost" (1990), Organ Grinder in "Batman Returns" (1992), Chester in "The People vs. Larry Flynt" (1996), Dr. Kaufman in "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) and ABC executive Maynard Smith in "Man on the Moon" (1999).


title: Vincent Schiavelli

text: Schiavelli was born in Brooklyn to a Sicilian-American family, the son of John Schiavelli and Katherine Coco. He attended Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn. He studied acting through the theatre program at New York University and began performing on stage in the 1960s.


title: Vincent Schiavelli

text: Schiavelli's first film role occurred in Miloš Forman's 1971 production "Taking Off", in which he played a counselor who taught parents of runaway teens to smoke marijuana in order to better understand their children's experiences. Schiavelli's aptitude and distinctive appearance soon provided him with a steady stream of supporting roles, often in Forman's films, including "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Amadeus", "The People vs. Larry Flynt", "Valmont", and the 1999 biopic "Man on the Moon".


title: Vincent Schiavelli

text: He played Mr. Vargas, the biology teacher, in the 1982 comedy "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", a role he reprised in the 1986 television spin-off "Fast Times". He was cast in a similar role in "Better Off Dead" in which he played Mr. Kerber, a geometry teacher.


title: Vincent Schiavelli

text: In 1987, he starred alongside Tim Conway in the short film comedy "Dorf on Golf", and then "Dorf and the First Games of Mount Olympus" in 1988. In 1990, he played the Subway Ghost in "Ghost" and in 1992, he played in Tim Burton's "Batman Returns" as the "Organ Grinder", one of the Penguin's henchmen. He appeared as another villain in the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997), as a silent monk in "The Frisco Kid" (1979), and as John O'Connor, one of the evil Red Lectroids in 1984's "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension". In 1994 he appeared in the music video for ZZ Top's "Breakaway", alongside Fairuza Balk and in 1997, was named one of America's best character actors by "Vanity Fair" magazine. He also made several voice appearances in the animated television show "Hey Arnold!". In 2002, he played a children's television show host turned heroin addict named Buggy Ding Dong in "Death to Smoochy".


title: Vincent Schiavelli

text: His first television role came in 1972 as Peter Panama in "The Corner Bar", the first sustained portrayal of a gay character on American television. His other television credits include "The Moneychangers", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "WKRP in Cincinnati", "Benson" and "Taxi" as the priest who marries Latka and Simka. He appeared in the "" episode "The Arsenal of Freedom" as a holographic salesman, on "Miami Vice" as a research scientist who conspires to steal a top-secret prototype weapon from his employer, and in an uncredited role in an episode of "Punky Brewster". In 1987 he appeared as Lyle, a gangster, in the "MacGyver" season 2 episode "Soft Touch". In "", he played Leo Atkins, a homeless Vietnam War veteran accused of murder in the Season 1 episode "Innocent Man". In "The X-Files", he played Lanny, a man with an underdeveloped conjoined twin in the Season 2 episode "Humbug".


title: Vincent Schiavelli

text: Schiavelli served as honorary co-chair of the National Marfan Foundation, an organization which serves those affected by Marfan syndrome, from which Schiavelli suffered.


title: Vincent Schiavelli

text: Schiavelli also performed in a few video games, including "" (as Harkonnen Mentat Yanich Kobal) and as Dr. Hellman in the video game "Corpse Killer".


title: Vincent Schiavelli

text: Schiavelli was married twice. He and his first wife, actress Allyce Beasley, were married from 1985 to 1988. The couple appeared together in an episode of Moonlighting (TV series), Beasley's television series. Schiavelli and Beasley had one son, music composer Andrea Schiavelli. Vincent Schiavelli then married harpist Carol Sue Mukhalian on October 23, 1992. They remained married until Vincent's death.


title: Vincent Schiavelli

text: Schiavelli died of lung cancer on December 26, 2005, at his home in Polizzi Generosa, the Sicilian town where his grandfather Andrea Coco was born, and about which he wrote in his 2002 book "Many Beautiful Things: Stories and Recipes from Polizzi Generosa" (). Schiavelli was buried at Polizzi Generosa Cemetery, near Palermo, Sicily.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: The price-earnings ratio, also known as P/E ratio, P/E, or PER, is the ratio of a company's share (stock) price to the company's earnings per share. The ratio is used for valuing companies and to find out whether they are overvalued or undervalued.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: As an example, if share A is trading at and the earnings per share for the most recent 12-month period is , then share A has a P/E ratio of = years. Put another way, the purchaser of the share is investing for every dollar of annual earnings; or, if earnings stayed constant it would take 8 years to recoup the share price. Companies with losses (negative earnings) or no profit have an undefined P/E ratio (usually shown as "not applicable" or "N/A"); sometimes, however, a negative P/E ratio may be shown.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: There are multiple versions of the P/E ratio, depending on whether earnings are projected or realized, and the type of earnings.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: Some people mistakenly use the formula to calculate the P/E ratio. This formula often gives the same answer as , but if new capital has been issued it gives the wrong answer, as = .


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: Variations on the standard trailing and forward P/E ratios are common. Generally, alternative P/E measures substitute different measures of earnings, such as rolling averages over longer periods of time (to attempt to "smooth" volatile or cyclical earnings, for example), or "corrected" earnings figures that exclude certain extraordinary events or one-off gains or losses. The definitions may not be standardized. For companies that are loss-making, or whose earnings are expected to change dramatically, a "primary" P/E can be used instead, based on the earnings projections made for the next years to which a discount calculation is applied.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: As the ratio of a stock (share price) to a flow (earnings per share), the P/E ratio has the units of time. It can be interpreted as the amount of time over which the company would need to sustain its current earnings in order to make enough money to pay back the current share price. While the P/E ratio can in principle be given in terms of any time unit, in practice it is essentially always implicitly reported in years, with the unit of "years" rarely indicated explicitly. (This is the convention followed in this article.)


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: The price/earnings ratio (PER) is the most widely used method for determining whether shares are "correctly" valued in relation to one another. But the PER does not in itself indicate whether the share is a bargain. The PER depends on the market’s perception of the risk and future growth in earnings. A company with a low PER indicates that the market perceives it as higher risk or lower growth or both as compared to a company with a higher PER. The PER of a listed company’s share is the result of the collective perception of the market as to how risky the company is and what its earnings growth prospects are in relation to that of other companies. Investors use the PER to compare their own perception of the risk and growth of a company against the market’s collective perception of the risk and growth as reflected in the current PER. If investors believe that their perception is superior to that of the market, they can make the decision to buy or sell accordingly.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: Since 1900, the average P/E ratio for the S&P 500 index has ranged from 4.78 in Dec 1920 to 44.20 in Dec 1999. However, except for some brief periods, during 1920–1990 the market P/E ratio was mostly between 10 and 20.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: The average P/E of the market varies in relation with, among other factors, expected growth of earnings, expected stability of earnings, expected inflation, and yields of competing investments. For example, when U.S. treasury bonds yield high returns, investors pay less for a given earnings per share and P/E's fall.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: The average U.S. equity P/E ratio from 1900 to 2005 is 14 (or 16, depending on whether the geometric mean or the arithmetic mean, respectively, is used to average).


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: Jeremy Siegel has suggested that the average P/E ratio of about 15 (or earnings yield of about 6.6%) arises due to the long term returns for stocks of about 6.8%. In "Stocks for the Long Run", (2002 edition) he had argued that with favorable developments like the lower capital gains tax rates and transaction costs, P/E ratio in "low twenties" is sustainable, despite being higher than the historic average.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: Set out below are the recent year end values of the S&P 500 index and the associated P/E as reported. For a list of recent contractions (recessions) and expansions see U.S. Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: Note that at the height of the Dot-com bubble P/E had risen to 32. The collapse in earnings caused P/E to rise to 46.50 in 2001. It has declined to a more sustainable region of 17. Its decline in recent years has been due to higher earnings growth.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: Due to the collapse in earnings and rapid stock market recovery following the 2020 Coronavirus Crash, the Trailing P/E ratio reached 38.3 on October 12, 2020. This elevated level was only attained twice in history, 2001-2002 and 2008-2009.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: The P/E ratio of a company is a major focus for many managers. They are usually paid in company stock or options on their company's stock (a form of payment that is supposed to align the interests of management with the interests of other stock holders). The stock price can increase in one of two ways: either through improved earnings or through an improved multiple that the market assigns to those earnings. In turn, the primary drivers for multiples such as the P/E ratio is through higher and more sustained earnings growth rates.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: Consequently, managers have strong incentives to boost earnings per share, even in the short term, and/or improve long term growth rates. This can influence business decisions in several ways:


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: In general, a high Price-Earning ratio indicates that investors are expecting higher growth of company's earnings in the future compared to companies with a lower Price-Earning ratio. A low Price-Earning ratio may indicate either that a company may currently be undervalued or that the company is doing exceptionally well relative to its past trends. The price-to-earnings ratio can also be seen as a means of standardizing the value of one dollar of earnings throughout the stock market. In theory, by taking the median of P/E ratios over a period of several years, one could formulate something of a standardized P/E ratio, which could then be seen as a benchmark and used to indicate whether or not a stock is worth buying. In private equity, the extrapolation of past performance is driven by stale investments. State and local governments that are more fiscally stressed by higher unfunded pension liabilities assume higher portfolio returns through higher inflation assumptions, but this factor does not attenuate the extrapolative effects of past returns.


title: Price–earnings ratio

text: When a company has no earnings or is posting losses, in both cases P/E will be expressed as “N/A.” Though it is possible to calculate a negative P/E, this is not the common convention.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: The Wiz is a 1978 American musical adventure fantasy film directed by Sidney Lumet and produced by Rob Cohen. A reimagining of L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 children's novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" featuring an all African-American cast, the film was loosely adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical of the same title. It follows the adventures of Dorothy, a shy, twenty-four year old Harlem schoolteacher who finds herself magically transported to the urban fantasy Land of Oz, which resembles a dream version of New York City. Befriended by a Scarecrow, a Tin Man and a Cowardly Lion, she travels through the city to seek an audience with the mysterious Wiz, who they say is the only one powerful enough to send her home.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: Produced by Universal Pictures and Motown Productions, filming took place in Queens, New York from October to December 1977, with a cast starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, in his feature film debut, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor. Its story was reworked from William F. Brown's Broadway libretto by Joel Schumacher, and Quincy Jones supervised the adaptation of Charlie Smalls and Luther Vandross' songs for it. A handful of new songs, written by Jones and the songwriting team of Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, were added for the project.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: "The Wiz" was theatrically released on October 24, 1978 to critical and commercial failure, marking the end of the resurgence of African-American films that began with the blaxploitation movement of the early 1970s. Despite its initial failure, it became a cult classic among audiences, Jackson's fanbase and Oz enthusiasts. Certain aspects influenced "The Wiz Live!", a live television adaptation of the musical, aired on NBC in 2015.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: A crowded Thanksgiving dinner brings a host of family together in a small Brooklyn apartment, where shy, twenty-four-year-old elementary schoolteacher Dorothy Gale lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry ("The Feeling That We Once Had"). Extremely introverted, she is teased by Aunt Em for having delayed moving out to start her life as an adult ("Can I Go On?"). While Dorothy cleans up after the meal, her dog Toto runs out the open kitchen door into a snowstorm. She succeeds in retrieving him but finds herself trapped in the storm. A magical whirlwind made of snow materializes and transports them to the realm of Oz, depicted as a dystopian version of New York City.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: As Dorothy descends from the atmosphere she smashes through an electric "Oz" sign, which falls upon and kills Evermean, the Wicked Witch of the East who rules Munchkinland. As a result, she frees the Munchkins who populate the playground into which she lands. Dorothy soon meets the Munchkins' main benefactress, Miss One, the Good Witch of the North, a magical "numbers runner" who gives her Evermean's charmed silver slippers. Dorothy declares she just wants to get home to Aunt Em. Miss One urges her to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City and seek the help of the powerful "Wiz" ("He's the Wiz"). After telling her never to take the silver shoes off, Miss One and the Munchkins disappear and Dorothy is left to search for the road on her own ("Soon As I Get Home").


title: The Wiz (film)

text: The next morning, Dorothy happens upon mysterious and a scarecrow made of garbage and saves him from being teased by a group of humanoid crows ("You Can't Win"). The Scarecrow hopes the Wiz might be able to give him the one thing he feels that he lacks: a brain. They discover the yellow brick road and begin to "Ease on Down the Road". Along the way, they meet the Tin Man in an abandoned amusement park ("If I Could Feel"/"Slide Some Oil to Me") and a Cowardly Lion, banished from the jungle ("I'm a Mean Ol' Lion"). The Tin Man and Lion join them on their quest to find the Wiz, hoping to gain a heart and courage, respectively. En route to the Emerald City, the adventurers escape from a haunted subway station and a group of flamboyant prostitutes known as the "Poppy Girls", who seduce the Lion. The Lion feels deeply ashamed of leading Dorothy into a trap, but she and the rest of the gang cheer him up ("Be a Lion").


title: The Wiz (film)

text: Finally reaching the Emerald City, the four friends are granted an audience with the Wiz, who appears to them as a giant fire-breathing metallic head. He will only grant their wishes if they kill the sister of the Wicked Witch of the East, Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, who runs a sweatshop in the underground sewers of Oz. Before they can reach her domain, Evillene learns of their quest to kill her and sends out the Flying Monkeys to capture them ("Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News").


title: The Wiz (film)

text: Vengeful for Dorothy having killed her sister, she dismembers the Scarecrow, flattens the Tin Man, and hangs the Lion up by his tail in hopes of making Dorothy give her the silver shoes. When she threatens to throw Toto into a fiery cauldron, Dorothy nearly gives in until the Scarecrow hints to her to activate a fire sprinkler switch. The sprinklers put out the fire and melt Evillene. With Evillene dead, her spells lose their power, resulting in the freedom of all her sweat shop workers and prisoners ("A Brand New Day").


title: The Wiz (film)

text: The Flying Monkeys give Dorothy and her friends a triumphant ride back to the Emerald City, where they discover that the Wiz is actually Herman Smith, a failed politician from Atlantic City. The Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion are distraught that they will never receive their brain, heart, and courage, but Dorothy makes them realize that they already have had these things all along ("Believe in Yourself") even as she fears she will never find her own way home. Glinda appears and implores her to use the magic of the silver slippers ("Believe in Yourself (Reprise)"). After thanking Glinda and saying goodbye to her friends, she reminisces about "Home". She clicks her heels together three times and discovers she is back near home with Toto in her arms.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: "The Wiz" was the eighth feature film produced by Motown Productions, the film/television division of Berry Gordy's Motown Records label. Gordy originally wanted the teenaged future R&B singer Stephanie Mills, who had originated the role on Broadway, to be cast as Dorothy. When Motown star Diana Ross asked Gordy if she could be cast as Dorothy, he declined, saying that Ross—then 33 years old—was too old for the role. Ross went around Gordy and convinced executive producer Rob Cohen at Universal Pictures to arrange a deal where he would produce if Ross was cast as Dorothy. Gordy and Cohen agreed to the deal. Pauline Kael, a film critic, described Ross's efforts to get the film into production as "perhaps the strongest example of sheer will in film history."


title: The Wiz (film)

text: After filmmaker John Badham learned that Ross was cast as Dorothy, he decided not to direct, and Cohen replaced him with Sidney Lumet. Of his decision not to direct "The Wiz", Badham recalled telling Cohen that he thought Ross was "a wonderful singer. She's a terrific actress and a great dancer, but she's not this character. She's not the little six-year-old girl Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz"." Though 20th Century Fox had financially backed the stage musical, they ended up exercising their first refusal rights to the film production, which gave Universal an opening to finance the film. Initially, Universal was so excited about the film's prospects that they did not set a budget for production.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: Joel Schumacher's script was influenced by Werner Erhard's teachings and his Erhard Seminars Training ("est") movement, as both Schumacher and Ross were "very enamored of Werner Erhard". "Before I knew it," said Rob Cohen, "the movie was becoming an est-ian fable full of est buzzwords about knowing who you are and sharing and all that. I hated the script a lot. But it was hard to argue with [Ross] because she was recognizing in this script all of this stuff that she had worked out in est seminars." Schumacher spoke positively of the results of the est training, stating that he was "eternally grateful for learning that I was responsible for my life." However, he also complained that "everybody stayed exactly the way they were and went around spouting all this bull shit." Of est and Erhard references in the film itself, "The Grove Book of Hollywood" notes that the speech delivered by Glinda the Good Witch at the end of the film was "a litany of est-like platitudes", and the book also makes est comparisons to the song "Believe in Yourself". Although Schumacher had seen the Broadway play before writing the script, none of the play's writing was incorporated into the film.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: During production, Lumet felt that the finished film would be "an absolutely unique experience that nobody has ever witnessed before." When asked about any possible influence from MGM's popular 1939 film adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz", Lumet stated that "there was nothing to be gained from [the 1939 film] other than to make certain we didn't use anything from it. They made a brilliant movie, and even though our concept is different – they're Kansas, we're New York; they're white, we're black, and the score and the books are totally different – we wanted to make sure that we never overlapped in any area."


title: The Wiz (film)

text: Michael Jackson, a former Motown star and close friend of Ross, was cast as the Scarecrow. By the start of development, he and his brothers The Jacksons had left Motown for Epic Records after the release of their tenth album "Moving Violation", though Jackson had yet to make a solo album since his fourth album "Forever, Michael". Cohen, head of Motown Productions, thought Jackson would be perfect for the role of the Scarecrow, and approached Gordy with the idea, who agreed, though Lumet was harder to convince. Lumet wanted Jimmie Walker, star of CBS-TV's "Good Times", telling Cohen “Michael Jackson’s a Vegas act. The Jackson 5’s a Vegas act.” Quincy Jones was also skeptical of Jackson, but after Cohen arranged a meeting, flying 19-year-old Jackson to New York, Lumet and Jones saw the qualities that Cohen saw. Jackson's father, Joseph, was wary of the project and saw it as a threat to the Jacksons group cohesion. Cohen moved Michael and his sister La Toya into a Manhattan apartment, allowing him to be on his own for the first time. During production, he became a frequent visitor to New York's famous Studio 54. Jackson was dedicated to the Scarecrow role, and watched videotapes of gazelles, cheetahs and panthers in order to learn graceful movements for his part. The long hours of uncomfortable prosthetic makeup by Stan Winston did not bother him. During production, Jackson asked Quincy Jones who he would recommend as a producer on a yet unrecorded solo album project. Jones, impressed by Jackson's professionalism, talent and work ethic, offered to be producer of what became "Off The Wall" (1979), then later on the hugely successful albums "Thriller" (1982) and "Bad" (1987).


title: The Wiz (film)

text: Ted Ross and Mabel King were brought in to reprise their respective roles from the stage musical, while Nipsey Russell was cast as the Tin Man. Lena Horne, mother-in-law to Lumet during the time of production, was cast as Glinda the Good Witch, and comedian Richard Pryor portrayed The Wiz. The film's choreographer was Louis Johnson.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: Principal photography began on October 3, 1977 and concluded on December 29, 1977. It took place at Astoria Studios in Queens, New York. The decaying New York State Pavilion from the 1964 New York World's Fair was used as the set for Munchkinland, Astroland at Coney Island was used for the Tinman scene with The Cyclone as a backdrop, while the World Trade Center served as the Emerald City. The Emerald City scenes were elaborate, using 650 dancers, 385 crew members and 1,200 costumes. Costume designer Tony Walton enlisted the help of high fashion designers in New York City for the Emerald City sequence, and obtained exotic costumes and fabric from designers such as Oscar de la Renta and Norma Kamali. Albert Whitlock created the film's visual special effects, while Stan Winston served as the head makeup artist.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: Quincy Jones served as musical supervisor and music producer. He later wrote that he initially did not want to work on the film, but did it as a favor to Lumet. The film marked Jones' first time working with Jackson, and Jones later produced three hit albums for Jackson: "Off the Wall" (1979), "Thriller" (1982) and "Bad" (1987). Jones recalled working with Jackson as one of his favorite experiences from "The Wiz", and spoke of Jackson's dedication to his role, comparing his acting style to Sammy Davis, Jr. Jones had a brief cameo during the "Gold" segment of the Emerald City sequence, playing what looks like a fifty-foot grand piano.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: "The Wiz" proved to be a commercial failure, as the $24 million production only earned $13.6 million at the box office. Though prerelease television broadcast rights had been sold to CBS for over $10 million, in the end, the film produced a net loss of $10.4 million for Motown and Universal. At the time, it was the most expensive film musical ever made. The film's failure steered Hollywood studios away from producing the all-black film projects that had become popular during the blaxploitation era of the early to mid-1970s for several years.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: The film was first released on VHS home video in 1981 by MCA/Universal Home Video (with a reissue in 1992) and was first broadcast on television on CBS on October 11, 1980 then on May 5, 1984 (edited to 100 minutes), to capitalize on Jackson's massive popularity at the time. It continues to be broadcast periodically on Black-focused networks such as BET, TVOne, BET Her, and was the inaugural broadcast on the Bounce TV digital broadcast network. "The Wiz" is often broadcast on Thanksgiving Day (attributed to the opening scene of Dorothy's family gathered for a Thanksgiving dinner).


title: The Wiz (film)

text: The film was released on DVD in 1999; a remastered version entitled "The Wiz: 30th Anniversary Edition" was released in 2008. Extras on both DVD releases include a 1978 featurette about the film's production and the original theatrical trailer. A Blu-ray version was released in 2010.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: Critics panned "The Wiz" upon its October 1978 release. Many reviewers directed their criticism at Diana Ross, whom they believed was too old to play Dorothy. Most agreed that what had worked so successfully on stage simply did not translate well to the screen. Hischak's "Through the Screen Door: What Happened to the Broadway Musical When It Went to Hollywood" criticized "Joel Schumacher's cockamamy screenplay", and called "Believe in Yourself" the score's weakest song. He described Diana Ross's portrayal of Dorothy as: "cold, neurotic and oddly unattractive"; and noted that the film was "a critical and box office bust". In his work "History of the American Cinema", Harpole characterized the film as "one of the decade's biggest failures", and, "the year's biggest musical flop". "The Grove Book of Hollywood" noted that "the picture finished off Diana Ross's screen career", as the film was Ross's final theatrical feature. In his 2004 book "Blockbuster", Tom Shone referred to "The Wiz" as "expensive crud". In the book "Mr. and Mrs. Hollywood", the author criticized the script, noting, ""The Wiz" was too scary for children, and too silly for adults." Ray Bolger, who played the Scarecrow in the 1939 "The Wizard of Oz" film, did not think highly of "The Wiz", stating ""The Wiz" is overblown and will never have the universal appeal that the classic MGM musical has obtained."


title: The Wiz (film)

text: Jackson's performance as the Scarecrow was one of the few positively reviewed elements, with critics noting that Jackson possessed "genuine acting talent" and "provided the only genuinely memorable moments." Of the results of the film, Jackson stated: "I don't think it could have been any better, I really don't." In 1980, Jackson stated that his time working on "The Wiz" was "my greatest experience so far . . . I'll never forget that." Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film some of its most positive reviews on Sneak Previews. Siskel called it "superior musical theater," said Diana Ross was "superb," "terrific" and came across as "a real star" but had reservations about the film's "heavy message." Ebert praised other cast members and numerous technical aspects of the film, saying it was "fun" and in the "great tradition of the American musical." The film received another positive critique for its elaborate set design in the book "American Jewish Filmmakers", which noted that it "features some of the most imaginative adaptations of New York locales since the glory days of the Astaire-Rogers films." In a 2004 review of the film, Christopher Null wrote positively of Ted Ross and Richard Pryor's performances. However, Null's overall review of the film was critical, and he wrote that other than the song "Ease on Down the Road", "the rest is an acid trip of bad dancing, garish sets, and a Joel Schumacher-scripted mess that runs 135 agonizing minutes." A 2005 piece by Hank Stuever in "The Washington Post" described the film as "a rather appreciable delight, even when it's a mess", and felt that the singing – especially Diana Ross's – was "a marvel".


title: The Wiz (film)

text: "The New York Times" analyzed the film within a discussion of the genre of blaxploitation: "As the audience for blaxploitation dwindled, it seemed as if "Car Wash" and "The Wiz" might be the last gasp of what had been a steadily expanding black presence in mainstream filmmaking." The "St. Petersburg Times" noted, "Of course, it only took one flop like "The Wiz" (1978) to give Hollywood an excuse to retreat to safer (i.e., whiter) creative ground until John Singleton and Spike Lee came along. Yet, without blaxploitation there might not have been another generation of black filmmakers, no Denzel Washington or Angela Bassett, or they might have taken longer to emerge." "The Boston Globe" commented, "the term 'black film' should be struck from the critical vocabulary. To appreciate just how outmoded, deceptive and limiting it is, consider the following, all of which have been described as black films, . . ." and characterized "The Wiz" in a list that also featured 1970s films "Shaft" (1971), "Blacula" (1972), and "Super Fly" (1972).


title: The Wiz (film)

text: Despite its lack of critical or commercial success in its original release, "The Wiz" became a cult classic, especially because it features Michael Jackson in his first starring theatrical film role. Jackson later starred in films such as Disney's "Captain EO" in 1986, the anthology film "Moonwalker" in 1988 and the posthumous documentary "This Is It" in 2009.


title: The Wiz (film)

text: As of November 2021, "The Wiz" holds a 41% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 34 reviews, with the consensus; "This workmanlike movie musical lacks the electricity of the stage version (and its cinematic inspiration), but it's bolstered by strong performances by Diana Ross and Michael Jackson."


title: Jio Platforms

text: Jio Platforms is an Indian multinational technology company, headquartered in Mumbai. It is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Established in 2019, it acts as a holding company for India's largest mobile network operator Jio and other digital businesses of Reliance.


title: Jio Platforms

text: Since April 2020, Reliance Industries has raised by selling 32.97% equity stake in the company. In August 2021, it was ranked 155th on the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list of world's biggest corporations.


title: Jio Platforms

text: In October 2019, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) announced the creation of a wholly owned subsidiary for its digital businesses including Jio. In November 2019, the subsidiary was named Jio Platforms. The liability of Jio was transferred to RIL and in turn RIL received preferential shares of Jio Platforms. According to some observers, the restructuring was done to keep the digital businesses of the group within a debt-free entity.