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Elephant Parts
''Elephant Parts'' is a collection of comedy sketches and music videos made in 1981 by Michael Nesmith, formerly of the Monkees. Nesmith produced the video through his company Pacific Arts. ''Elephant Parts'' is one hour long with parody commercials and comedy sketches, and features five full-length music videos, including the popular songs "Rio" and "Cruisin'", which featured wrestler Steve Strong and Monterey-based comic "Chicago" Steve Barkley. Overview There are various comedy sketches between musical numbers: The most notable sketches are "Elvis Drugs", "Neighborhood Nuclear Superiority", "The Tragically Hip" (which was the inspiration for the Canadian band the Tragically Hip and was featured as a pretaped sketch on a season six episode of ''Saturday Night Live''), "Large Detroit Car Company", "Mariachi Translations", recurring comic blackouts that ended with the catchphrase "Just to prove a point!" and several series of bits with a lounge singer and a pirate, as well as a ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Dear
William Dear (born November 30, 1943) is a Canadian actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He is known for directing the films ''Harry and the Hendersons'', '' If Looks Could Kill'', '' Angels in the Outfield'', '' Wild America'', and '' Santa Who?''. He also directed episodes of the television series ''Saturday Night Live'', ''Television Parts'', ''Amazing Stories'', ''Dinosaurs'', ''Covington Cross'', and '' The Wannabes Starring Savvy''. Dear was born on November 30, 1943, in Toronto, Ontario. He is the father of actor and storyboard artist, Oliver Dear. Filmography Director * ''Nymph'' (1973) * '' Northville Cemetery Massacre'' (1976) * ''PopClips'' (1980) * ''Elephant Parts'' (1981) * '' Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann'' (1982) * ''Harry and the Hendersons'' (1987) * '' If Looks Could Kill'' (1991) * ''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (1993) * '' Angels in the Outfield'' (1994) * '' Wild America'' (1997) * '' Balloon Farm'' (1999) * '' Santa Who?'' (2000) * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodan
is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', which first appeared as the title character in Ishirō Honda's 1956 film ''Rodan'', produced and distributed by Toho. Following its debut standalone appearance, Rodan went on to be featured in numerous entries in the ''Godzilla'' franchise, including ''Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster'', ''Invasion of Astro-Monster'', ''Destroy All Monsters'', '' Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II'' and '' Godzilla: Final Wars'', as well as in the Legendary Pictures-produced film '' Godzilla: King of the Monsters''. Rodan is depicted as a colossal, prehistoric, irradiated species of ''Pteranodon''. In 2014, IGN ranked Rodan as #6 on their "Top 10 Japanese Movie Monsters" list, while ''Complex'' listed the character as #15 on its "The 15 Most Badass Kaiju Monsters of All Time" list. Overview Name The Japanese name ''Radon'' is a contraction of '' Pteranodon''. The spelling of Radon in Japanese also corresponds to the name of Ladon, the dragon guarding the H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of Star Wars, phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into List of Star Wars films, various films and Star Wars expanded to other media, other media, including List of Star Wars television series, television series, Star Wars video games, video games, List of Star Wars books, novels, List of Star Wars comic books, comic books, List of Star Wars theme parks attractions, theme park attractions, and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, themed areas, comprising an all-encompassing fictional universe. ''Star Wars'' is one of the List of highest-grossing media franchises, highest-grossing media franchises of all time. The original film (''Star Wars''), retroactively subtitled ''Episode IV: A New Hope'' (1977), was followed by the sequels ''The Empire Strik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capacitance Electronic Disc
The Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED) is an analog video, analog video disc playback system developed by RCA, in which video and audio could be played back on a TV set using a special stylus and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records. First conceived in 1964, the CED system was widely seen as a technological success which was able to increase the density of a long-playing record by two Order of magnitude#Uses, orders of magnitude. Despite this achievement, the CED system fell victim to poor planning, various conflicts with RCA management, and several technical difficulties that slowed development and stalled production of the system for 17 years—until 1981, by which time it had already been made obsolete by laser videodisc (DiscoVision, later called LaserVision and LaserDisc) as well as Betamax and VHS Videotape, video cassette formats. Sales for the system were nowhere near projected estimates. In the spring of 1984, RCA announced it was discontinuing player ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LaserDisc
The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diameter typically spans . Unlike most optical disc standards, LaserDisc is not fully Digital data, digital, and instead requires the use of analog video signals. Although the format was capable of offering higher-quality video and audio than its consumer rivals—VHS and Betamax videotape—LaserDisc never managed to gain widespread use in North America, largely due to high costs for the players and the inability to record TV programmes. It eventually did gain some traction in that region and became somewhat popular in the 1990s. It was not a popular format in Europe and Australia. By contrast, the format was much more popular in Japan and in the more affluent regions of Southeast Asia, such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betamax
Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, followed by the US in November of the same year. Betamax is widely considered to be obsolete, having lost the videotape format war which saw its closest rival, VHS, dominate most markets. Despite this, Betamax recorders continued to be manufactured and sold until August 2002, when Sony announced that they were discontinuing production of all remaining Betamax models. Sony continued to sell Betamax cassettes until March 2016. Original version Launch and early models The first Betamax device introduced in the United States was the LV-1901 console, which included a color monitor, and appeared in stores in early November 1975. The cassettes contain videotape in a design similar to that of the earlier, professional , U-matic format. L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blind Men And An Elephant
The parable of the blind men and an elephant is a story of a group of blind men who have never come across an elephant before and who learn and imagine what the elephant is like by touching it. Each blind man feels a different part of the elephant's body, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then describe the elephant based on their limited experience and their descriptions of the elephant are different from each other. In some versions, they come to suspect that the other person is dishonest and they come to blows. The moral of the parable is that humans have a tendency to claim absolute truth based on their limited, subjective experience as they ignore other people's limited, subjective experiences which may be equally true. The parable originated in the ancient Indian subcontinent, from where it has been widely diffused. The Buddhist text ''Tittha Sutta, Udāna 6.4, Khuddaka Nikaya'', contains one of the earliest versions of the story. The Tittha sutta is dat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operating in 29 states. Its corporate headquarters were located in the Time Warner Center in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with other corporate offices in Stamford, Connecticut; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Herndon, Virginia. It was controlled by Warner Communications, then by Time Warner (later known as WarnerMedia and now Warner Bros. Discovery). That company spun off the cable operations in March 2009 as part of a larger restructuring. From 2009 to 2016, Time Warner Cable was an entirely independent company, continuing to use the Time Warner name under license from its former parent company (including the " Road Runner" name for its Internet service, now Spectrum Internet). In 2014, the company was the subject of a proposed purch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Television Parts
''Michael Nesmith in Television Parts'' is a summer TV series run by NBC in 1985. It was a 30-minute comedy-variety series created by Michael Nesmith as a continuation of his Grammy Award-winning video production ''Elephant Parts'', and earlier series PopClips. The first episode was a stand-alone television special which aired on March 7, 1985. The following series premiered on June 14, 1985. The show was a mix of music videos (by both Nesmith and others) mixed in with comedy sketches, commercial parodies, and general silliness. It was hosted by Nesmith himself, who also participated in many of the sketches. ''Television Parts'' also featured guest appearances by a number of comedians, including Martin Mull, Whoopi Goldberg, Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Martin, The Funny Boys and Garry Shandling, whose appearance on the show was the seed for ''It's Garry Shandling's Show''.'' Ricky Gervais Meets... Garry Shandling'', 2006-12-26, Channel 4 One of the show's featured pieces, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Paramount Global#Kids & Family Entertainment, networks division's Kids and Family Group. Its programming is primarily aimed at children aged 2–17, along with a broader family audience through its block programming, program blocks. The channel began life as a test broadcast on December 1, 1977 as part of QUBE, an early cable television system broadcast locally in Columbus, Ohio. The channel, now named Nickelodeon, launched to a new countrywide audience on April 1, 1979, with ''Pinwheel'' as its inaugural program. The network was initially commercial-free and remained without advertising until 1984. Throughout history, Nickelodeon has introduced several sister channels and programming blocks. Nick Jr. (TV programming block), Nick Jr. is a pres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PopClips
''PopClips'' is a music video television program, the direct predecessor of MTV. Former Monkee Mike Nesmith conceived the first music-video program as a promotional device for Warner Communications' record division. Production began in the spring of 1979 at SamFilm, a sound-stage built and operated in Sand City, California by Sam Harrison, a Monterey Peninsula College instructor with a motion picture background. The series was produced by Jac Holzman. With an infinity cyclorama as the background, set flats were made from the Styrofoam packing used to ship laserdisc players and 3/4" video decks. The first " VeeJay" was Jeff Michalski. The director was William Dear. Besides Harrison, the production team was made up of Bruce "Buz" Clarke, Keith Cornell, Marybeth Harris, and Leslie Chacon. The program was broadcast weekly on the youth-oriented cable television channel Nickelodeon in late 1980 and early 1981. The channel's owners at the time, Warner Cable, wanted to buy the nam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billboard (magazine)
''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music industry. Its music charts include the Hot 100, the 200, and the Global 200, tracking the most popular albums and songs in different genres of music. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows. ''Billboard'' was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegan's interest in 1900 for $500. In the early years of the 20th century, it covered the entertainment industry, such as circuses, fairs, and burlesque shows, and also created a mail service for travelling entertainers. ''Billboard'' began focusing more on the music industry as the jukebox, phonograph, and radio became commonplace. Many topics it covered were spun-off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
