Nell Carter
Nell Carter (born Nell Ruth Hardy; September 13, 1948 – January 23, 2003) was an American singer and actress. Carter began her career in 1970, singing in the theater, and later crossed over to television. She was best known for her role as Nell Harper on the sitcom '' Gimme a Break!'' which originally aired from 1981 to 1987. Carter received two Emmy and two Golden Globe award nominations for her work on the series. Prior to ''Gimme a Break!'', Carter won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical in 1978 for her performance in the Broadway musical '' Ain't Misbehavin''' as well as a Primetime Emmy Award for her reprisal of the role on television in 1982. Early life Nell Ruth Hardy was born September 13, 1948 in Birmingham, Alabama, one of nine children born to Edna Mae and Horace Hardy. She was born into a Roman Catholic family and raised Presbyterian. Carter self-identified as Pentecostal. When she was only two years old, her father was electrocu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% from the 2020 Census, making it Alabama's third-most populous city after Huntsville and Montgomery. The broader Birmingham metropolitan area had a 2020 population of 1,115,289, and is the largest metropolitan area in Alabama as well as the 50th-most populous in the United States. Birmingham serves as an important regional hub and is associated with the Deep South, Piedmont, and Appalachian regions of the nation. Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, notably, Elyton. It grew from there, annexing many more of its smaller neighbors, into an industrial and railroad transportation center with a focus on mining, the iron and steel industry, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ain't Misbehavin' (Broadway Show)
''Ain't Misbehavin is a musical revue with a book by Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby Jr., and music by various composers and lyricists as arranged and orchestrated by Luther Henderson. It is named after the song by Fats Waller (with Harry Brooks and Andy Razaf), " Ain't Misbehavin'". The musical is a tribute to the music of Fats Waller. It was a time when Manhattan nightclubs such as the Cotton Club and the Savoy Ballroom were the playgrounds of high society and Lenox Avenue dives were filled with piano players banging out the new beat known as swing. Five performers present an evening of rowdy, raunchy, and humorous songs that encapsulate the various moods of the era and reflect Waller's view of life as a journey meant for pleasure and play. Productions ''Ain't Misbehavin'' opened in the Manhattan Theatre Club's East 73rd Street cabaret on February 8, 1978. The cast included Irene Cara, Nell Carter, André DeShields, Armelia McQueen, and Ken Page and was stage ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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You Take The Kids
''You Take the Kids'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on CBS from December 15, 1990, to January 12, 1991. The series starred Nell Carter, who also performed the theme song "Nobody's Got It Easy". ''You Take the Kids'', which was perceived as being the black answer to '' Roseanne'' due to its portrayal of a working-class African-American family, featured Carter as a crass, no-nonsense mother and wife. Synopsis Carter stars as Nell Kirkland, the opinionated matriarch of a blue collar African American family living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Nell's husband Michael ( Roger E. Mosley) worked as a school bus driver while Nell gave piano lessons at the family home for extra money. Nell and Michael had four children: eldest son Raymond ( Dante Beze), boy-crazy daughter Lorette (Caryn Ward), 12-year-old Peter (Marlon Taylor), and 10-year-old Nate ( Trent Cameron). In addition to the kids, Nell and Michael also had to contend with Nell's equally opinionated mother Hele ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1989 World Series
The 1989 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1989 season. The 86th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Oakland Athletics and the National League (NL) champion San Francisco Giants. The Series ran from October 14 through October 28, with the Athletics sweeping the Giants in four games. It was the first World Series sweep since 1976, when the Cincinnati Reds swept the New York Yankees. This marked the fourth World Series matchup, and first since 1913, between the two franchises. The previous three matchups occurred when the Giants were in New York and the Athletics resided in Philadelphia. The then New York Giants defeated the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1905 World Series four games to one, the Athletics defeating the Giants in the 1911 World Series four games to two, and then again in the 1913 Fall Classic four games to one. The series would be historic in other way ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships of the Royal Navy in Outer Baltimore Harbor in the Patapsco River during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the large U.S. flag, with 15 stars and 15 stripes, known as the Star-Spangled Banner, flying triumphantly above the fort during the U.S. victory. The poem was set to the tune of a popular British song written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men's social club in London. " To Anacreon in Heaven" (or "The Anacreontic Song"), with various lyrics, was already popular in the United States. This setting, renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner", soon became a well-known U.S. patriotic song. With a range of 19 semitones, it is known for being very ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Joan Rivers
Joan Alexandra Molinsky (June 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014), known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedian, actress, producer, writer and television host. She was noted for her blunt, often controversial comedic persona—heavily self-deprecating and acerbic, especially towards celebrities and politicians. She is considered a pioneer of women in comedy by many critics. Rivers started her career in comedy clubs in Greenwich Village alongside her peers George Carlin, Woody Allen, and Richard Pryor. She then rose to prominence in 1965 as a guest on ''The Tonight Show''. Hosted by her mentor, Johnny Carson, the show established Rivers's comedic style. In 1986, with her own rival program, '' The Late Show with Joan Rivers'', Rivers became the first woman to host a late night network television talk show. She subsequently hosted ''The Joan Rivers Show'' (1989–1993), winning a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host. From the mid-1990s, she became known for her ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dolph Sweet
Adolphus Jean Sweet (July 18, 1920 – May 8, 1985) was an American actor, credited with nearly 60 television and film roles and more than 50 roles in stage productions, including performances on Broadway. He often played policemen throughout his career, and may be best known for his portrayal of police chief and father Carl Kanisky, on the sitcom '' Gimme a Break!'', from 1981 until his death in May 1985. Early life Sweet was born in New York City, New York. In 1939, he attended the University of Alabama; however, he was called away from his education for a tour of duty in World War II with the 44th Bombardment Group (Heavy) of the Eighth Air Force, where the young Second Lieutenant served as a navigator on B-24 Liberator bomber aircraft. During his service, he was shot down over Romania while flying on Operation Tidal Wave, and subsequently spent two years as a prisoner of war (POW). He joined other POWs in putting on short plays in the prison camp, leading to an interest i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Misadventures Of Sheriff Lobo
''The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo'' is an American action comedy television series that ran on NBC from September 18, 1979, to May 5, 1981. For its second season the show was renamed ''Lobo''. The program aired Tuesday nights, at 8:00p.m. Eastern time. The lead character, Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo, played by Claude Akins, was a spin-off character from '' B. J. and the Bear'', which also aired on NBC from 1979-1981. Synopsis In fictitious Orly County, Georgia, Sheriff Lobo is the lead enforcer of the law — as well as one of its leading offenders. The pilot of ''The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo'' aired as an episode of ''BJ and the Bear'' titled "Lobo", which set the premise for the show and introduced the main cast of characters that would be involved in the show. The corrupt (but now somewhat reformed) sheriff is assisted in his schemes by Deputy Perkins ( Mills Watson), whose buffoonery often upsets and exacerbates the situation. An honest but naive new deputy, Birdwell "Birdi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hair (film)
''Hair'' is a 1979 American musical anti-war comedy-drama film based on the 1968 Broadway musical '' Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical''. Set against the backdrop of the hippie counterculture of the Vietnam era, the film focuses on a Vietnam War draftee who meets and befriends a "tribe" of hippies while en route to the army induction center. The hippies and their leader introduce him to marijuana, LSD and their environment of unorthodox relationships and draft evasion. The film was directed by Miloš Forman (who was nominated for a César Award for his work on the film) and adapted for the screen by Michael Weller (who would collaborate with Forman on a second picture, ''Ragtime'', two years later). Cast members include John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo, Annie Golden, Dorsey Wright, Don Dacus, Cheryl Barnes and Ronnie Dyson. Dance scenes were choreographed by Twyla Tharp and were performed by Tharp's dancers. The film was nominated for two Golden Gl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Miloš Forman
Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (; ; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech and American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the United States in 1968. Forman was an important figure in the Czechoslovak New Wave. Film scholars and Czechoslovak authorities saw his 1967 film '' The Firemen's Ball'' as a biting satire on Eastern European Communism. The film was initially shown in theatres in his home country in the more reformist atmosphere of the Prague Spring. However, it was later banned by the Communist government after the invasion by the Warsaw Pact countries in 1968. Forman was subsequently forced to leave Czechoslovakia for the United States, where he continued making films, gaining wider critical and financial success. In 1975, he directed ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (1975) starring Jack Nicholson as a patient in a mental institution. The film received widespread acclaim and was ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Annie (musical)
''Annie'' is a Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip '' Little Orphan Annie'' and loosely based on the 1885 poem " Little Orphant Annie" written by James Whitcomb Riley. The musical includes music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and a book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years, setting a record for the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon Theatre). It spawned numerous productions in many countries, as well as national tours, and won seven Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical's songs "Tomorrow" and "It's the Hard Knock Life" are among its most popular musical numbers. Background Charnin first approached Meehan to write the book of a musical about ''Little Orphan Annie'' in 1972. Meehan researched by rereading prints of the comic strip, but was unable to find any satisfactory material for a musical other than the characters of Annie, Oliver Warbucks ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dude (musical)
''Dude (The Highway Life)'' is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. It is an allegory about good and evil, the conflict between mankind's creative and destructive urges, the power of love, and the joy to be found in simple pleasures. Dude is an Everyman who loses his innocence and fights to regain it. Background As soon as the musical ''Hair'' opened, Ragni began to work on ''Dude''. MacDermot was busy with ''Two Gentlemen of Verona'' but finally began to compose the music. In March 1972, their studio cast album, ''Salome Bey Sings Songs from Dude'', was recorded and released on Kilmarnock Records. The music was more influenced by country music than their previous musical, ''Hair''. The rehearsal period was plagued with problems: Kevin Geer, the actor who had been cast in the leading role, Dude, was unable to sing the role acceptably and had to be replaced; the script (such as it was) was far from finished; Ragni's requests ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |