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Gracie Films
Gracie Films is an American film and television production company founded by James L. Brooks in 1986. The company is primarily responsible for producing its long-running flagship animated series ''The Simpsons'', as well as the films ''Big'', '' Broadcast News'', and ''Jerry Maguire''. Overview James L. Brooks, who had previously founded John Charles Walters Company, founded Gracie Films at 20th Century Fox in 1986, with Polly Platt as executive vice president. Named for comedian Gracie Allen, the company was established to "provide real writers with a vehicle to get their movies made". Its primary distributor is currently Sony Pictures Entertainment, though it continues to produce ''The Simpsons'' at Fox's studio in Century City, Los Angeles. According to ''Simpsons Confidential'', Brooks gave ''The Simpsons writing staff free rein, as he firmly believed they were the most important part of the process, and "in the legal battles over ''The Simpsons'', it was Fox that was be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Privately Held Company
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is offered, owned, traded, exchanged privately, or Over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter. In the case of a closed corporation, there are a relatively small number of shareholders or company members. Related terms are closely-held corporation, unquoted company, and unlisted company. Though less visible than their public company, publicly traded counterparts, private companies have major importance in the world's economy. In 2008, the 441 list of largest private non-governmental companies by revenue, largest private companies in the United States accounted for ($1.8 trillion) in revenues and employed 6.2 million people, according to ''Forbes''. In 2005, using a substantially smaller pool size (22.7%) for comparison, the 339 companies on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Hollywood film industry, and its sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to it's east. It covers about , and is the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most diverse school district in California" in 2020. In the 1920s, the city became a center for film and later television production, best known as the home of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. From 1932 to 1986, it was the headquarters for the Hughes Aircraft Company. National Public Radio West and Sony Pictures Entertainment have headquarters in the city. The city was named after its founder, Harry Culver. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights. Over the years, it has annexed more than 40 pieces of adjoining land and now comprises about . History Early history Archaeological evidence suggests a human presence in the area of present-day Culver City since a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sony Pictures Studios
The Sony Pictures Studios is an American television and film studio complex located in Culver City, California at 10202 West Washington Boulevard and bounded by Culver Boulevard (south), Washington Boulevard (north), Overland Avenue (west) and Madison Avenue (east). Founded in 1912, the facility is currently owned by Sony Pictures and houses the division's film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, and Screen Gems. The complex was the original studios of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1924 to 1986 and Lorimar-Telepictures from 1986 to 1989. In addition to films shot at the facility, several television shows have been broadcast live or taped there. The lot, which is open to the public for daily studio tours, currently houses a total of sixteen separate sound stages. History Early years (1912–1924) Director Thomas H. Ince built his pioneering Inceville studios in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles in 1912. While Ince was filming at Ballona Creek in 1915, Harry C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was an American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive Golden Globe Awards, a competitive British Academy of Film and Television Arts award (BAFTA), and a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. Poitier was one of the last major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Poitier's family lived in the Bahamas, then still a Crown colony, but he was born unexpectedly in Miami, Florida, while they were visiting, which automatically granted him U.S. citizenship. He grew up in the Bahamas, but moved to Miami at age 15, and to New York City when he was 16. He joined the American Negro Theatre, landing his breakthrough film role as a high school student in the film ''Blackboard Jungle'' (1955). In 1958, Poitier starred with Tony Curtis as chained-together escaped convicts in ''The Defiant Ones ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alf Clausen
Alf Heiberg Clausen (born March 28, 1941) is an American film and television composer. He is best known for his work scoring many episodes of ''The Simpsons'', for which he was the sole composer between 1990 and 2017. Clausen has scored or orchestrated music for more than 30 films and television shows, including ''Moonlighting'', ''The Naked Gun'', '' ALF'' and ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off''. Clausen received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music in 1996. Early life, family and education Clausen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and raised in Jamestown, North Dakota. Clausen was interested in music from a young age. He counts composer Henry Mancini as one of his heroes; his book ''Sounds and Scores'' inspired him. He began playing the French horn in the seventh grade and also learned piano; and he sang in his high school choir. He continued playing and learned to play the bass guitar, stopping singing because the choir met at the same time as the band. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roland D-50
The Roland D-50 is a synthesizer produced by Roland and released in April 1987. Its features include subtractive synthesis, on-board effects, a joystick for data manipulation, and an analogue synthesis-styled layout design. The external Roland PG-1000 (1987-1990) programmer could also be attached to the D-50 for more complex manipulation of its sounds. It was also produced in a rack-mount variant design, the D-550 (1987-1990), with almost 450 user-adjustable parameters. The D-50's capabilities could be modified through the addition of third-party products by Musitronics, most notably the M-EX which made the D-50 multitimbral (the D-50 was bi-timbral) and expanded the patch memory, as well as a chip that improved the D-50's response to incoming MIDI commands. The D-50 was used in popular music by many artists including Jean-Michel Jarre, Prince, Sting, Michael Jackson, Queen, and Enya. History The D-50 was the first affordable synthesizer to combine sample playback with subtrac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treehouse Of Horror III
"Treehouse of Horror III" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 29, 1992. The third annual ''Treehouse of Horror'' episode, it features segments in which Homer buys Bart an evil talking Krusty doll, King Homer is captured by Mr. Burns, and Bart and Lisa inadvertently cause zombies to attack Springfield. The episode was written by Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jay Kogen, Wallace Wolodarsky, Sam Simon, and Jon Vitti, and directed by Carlos Baeza. Plot Homer appears in front of a curtain and warns viewers that the following episode is scary. He then tells parents to turn off their television and calls them chicken, causing the screen to go black and Marge to chastise Homer for insulting the show's audience. The episode's wraparound segment shows the Simpson family having a Halloween party for the children of Springfield. Lisa, Grampa and Bart each tell a h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treehouse Of Horror II
"Treehouse of Horror II" is the seventh episode of the The Simpsons (season 3), third season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It first aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network in the United States on October 31, 1991. It is the second annual ''Treehouse of Horror'' episode, consisting of three self-contained segments, told as dreams of Lisa Simpson, Lisa, Bart Simpson, Bart and Homer Simpson, Homer and is the only ''Treehouse of Horror'' episode to date where each segment name is not stated inside the episode. In the first segment, which was inspired by W. W. Jacobs's short story ''The Monkey's Paw'' and ''The New Twilight Zone'' episode "A Small Talent for War", Homer buys a Monkey's Paw that has the power to grant wishes, although all the wishes backfire. In the second part, which parodies the ''The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series), Twilight Zone'' episode "It's a Good Life (The Twilight Zone), It's a Good Life", Bart is omnipotent, and turns Hom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treehouse Of Horror (The Simpsons Episode)
"Treehouse of Horror" is the third episode of the second season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 25, 1990. The episode was inspired by 1950s horror comics, and begins with a disclaimer that it may be too scary for children. It is the first Treehouse of Horror episode. These episodes do not obey the show's rule of realism and are not treated as canon. The opening disclaimer and a panning shot through a cemetery with humorous tombstones were features that were used sporadically in the ''Treehouse of Horror'' series and eventually dropped. This is also the first episode to have the music composed by Alf Clausen. The plot revolves around three scary stories told by the Simpson children in the family's treehouse. The first segment involves a haunted house that is based on various haunted house films, primarily '' The Amityville Horror'' (1979) and ''Poltergeist'' (1982). In the second se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the American animated sitcom ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared, along with the rest of his family, in ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Homer was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of producer James L. Brooks's office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on his comic strip ''Life in Hell'' but instead decided to create a new set of characters. He named the character after his father, Homer Groening. After appearing for three seasons on ''The Tracey Ullman Show'', the Simpson family got their own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989. The show was later acquired by Disney in 2019. As the nominal foreman of the paternally eponymous family, Homer and his wife Marge have three children: Bart, Lisa and Maggie. As the family's provider, he works at the Springfield Nuc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tracey Ullman
Tracey Ullman (born Trace Ullman, 30 December 1959) is a British-American actress, comedian, singer, writer, producer, and director. Her earliest mainstream appearances were on British television sketch comedy shows ''A Kick Up the Eighties'' (with Rik Mayall and Miriam Margolyes) and '' Three of a Kind'' (with Lenny Henry and David Copperfield). After a brief singing career, she appeared as Candice Valentine in '' Girls on Top'' with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. She emigrated from the United Kingdom to the United States and she starred in her own network television comedy series, ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' from 1987 until 1990, which also featured the first appearances of the long-running animated media franchise ''The Simpsons''. She later produced programmes for HBO, including '' Tracey Takes On...'' (1996–99) garnering numerous awards. Her sketch comedy series ''Tracey Ullman's State of the Union'' ran from 2008 to 2010 on Showtime. She has appeared in several feature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
