If you are a Comic book fan and/or superhero movie fan, this news will hit you hard (as it did for me). The icon, magnate and savior of both industries has been silenced.
Stan Lee passed away this afternoon at the age of 95.
When the news came in earlier, I was already sick and asleep. But when I heard the news, it hurt me even more than the cold and allergies I was fighting. His influence and impact in the comic book industry and superhero movie collective in the years since his debut at Marvel Comics (then Timely Comics) in 1941 (he created a prose story for Captain America Comics) and his first creation with Jack Kirby in 1961, The Fantastic Four -- and later creating many of the most iconic characters throughout the decade and 20th century like Spider-Man (with the late Steve Ditko), Iron Man, The Incedible Hulk, Black Panther, Ant Man, Doctor Strange and the X-Men -- was as strong and powerful as the heroes and villains he created (along with fellow icons Ditko and Kirby among others), and could never be overlooked. No matter how hard you could try.
When I was 8, I along with my little brothers and my eldest sister went to see the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie in 2002. In my young mind, I was super excited to see our friendly neighborhood web-slinger (played by Tobey Maguire) make his debut on the big screen, and while watching it, I was super-glued to the screen tas I had never seen a film like it before (and I saw DC's Superman: The Movie and Batman & Robin before [and shoutout to DC, one of the other best comic book companies]). And since, I'm still amazed by it--even if it still is one of my favorite superhero movies. But it was only since then that Marvel would become even more of a force in the movie industry, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (starting with Iron Man) has become one of the biggest, strongest, highest grossing and critically acclaimed movie franchises in American film history.
And of course, Mr. Lee was a part of it with his legendary cameo appearances in each film. These pop-ups were always expected, anticipated and exciting yet random, funny and memorable (always one of the best parts of any Marvel film). In fact, now that he's gone, it's going to be sad (even a little scary) to think of not seeing him in any Marvel film anymore, let alone doing so.
In fact, if not for Marvel not making and releasing the Blade films, we probably wouldn't even have any of the other Marvel films for probably a long time.
If it weren't for Stan Lee, we probably wouldn't have a comic book industry as strong and kicking today. In fact, if it weren't for his life-long wife Joan (who convinced him to give up aspirations of becoming a novelist instead, and expand on what at first was a brief dabble in comic books -- when the industry was, at the time, on its last legs), we wouldn't have the industry's biggest and most legendary name and creator. I personally thank her for that, even though I didn't know of this fact until the news came. I feared this day would come as much as the next fanatic, even if it was inevitable. And now that it is come, it just hurts so much.
My condolences to the Lee family.
May he Rest in Peace.
The 1970s. The year of bell bottoms, afros, beaded vests, free love, urban rise, the birth of hip-hop, the death of bubblegum pop, the birth and death of disco, some of the biggest news stories were scary and weren't around people who's fame didn't reach 14:59, things were much more simpler and TV was achieved (mostly) by antenna.
At the time of the turn of the decade, Americans had 4 choices of national news programs to get their daily stateside and worldwide fix:
the Nightly News with David Brinkley and John Chancellor on NBC
The MacNeil/Leher Report on PBS
(lead by Robert and Jim, respectively)
The Evening News with (the face of national news when it was objective and good) Walter Cronkite on CBS,
and...whatever the hell was on the Alphabet.
Yes, ABC in it's early days wasn't a success across the board. Primetime, daytime and news were in the ratings basement compared to the Eye and the Peacock. (Sometimes, it found better leeway [or got lucky] over NBC and the crap the latter regurgitated at the time.)
So, let's go cliff-notes into the history of ABC News' flagship program.
The Alphabet debuted its daily news program in 1948 and the format was just 15 minutes long. In 1953, the program was hosted by Mr. John Charles Daly, also best known as the host and moderator of What's My Line? on CBS. Daly anchored the program -- named John Daly and the News until 1960,-when he departed, and after multiple fill-ins, was succeeded by for a couple years (starting in 1962) by Ron Cochran, whom himself was replaced by (believe it or not)... Peter Jennings.
Yes, this wasn't the first time Jennings presided over the show. Peter was a transplant from the CBC in Canada, and was hired by ABC to bring a fresher, younger face to keep the show going, with a name change to Peter Jennings with the News. Too bad he was inexperienced at the time, as his (first) tenure didn't last and he departed the program two years later.
It was during that time in 1967 that the network gave the show a major revamp. A new (generic) name, a new format (double the runtime to 30 minutes) and change to color. ABC News was the name of its program from '67 to 1970, with a few hosts at the forefront during that time: Bob Young (67-68), Frank Reynolds (May 68-70; also not the first time as anchor as thought of too) and Howard K. Smith (May 69-70--as co-anchor).
And finally, another name and format change come a new decade. In December 1970, Harry Reasoner left CBS to join ABC to replace Mr. Reynolds as co-anchor of the ABC Evening News (yep, not at all even more generic or lazily conceived) with Mr. K. Smith. Five years later, Smith slid into the role of commentator, leaving Reasoner as sole anchor. That is until 1976 when he received a co-anchor in one (unexpected but incredibly talented) Barbara Walters. Walters joined ABC from NBC's Today on October 4 of that year, and thus begins a storied (and even more turbulent) chapter in ABC News ' history. Reasoner was against Walters not only as his co-anchor, but also against women anchoring any evening news broadcast, as he saw it as a man's job to report short recaps of the day's news. And this wasn't something that he kept to himself or something I made up because of a dislike of him; he really made it known as time went on -- to producers, the viewers (well, at least those who could read his face and body language) and even to Walters. Because of this, the pairing failed to catch on with viewers and Reasoner left ABC after 8 years (up to this point, the longest tenure of an ABC News program host after Charles Daly, sadly) to go back to CBS. But, the best was still yet to come.
Despite its low viewership, constant host and format changes, and constant tension behind the scenes between the previous man-and-woman anchors, the producers and ABC News President Roone Arledge decided to completely revamp the nightly program's approach to presenting the day's main news, and bring Americans a new voice in evening news to get them informed every night at 6:30. So they brought in three new voices (from three different cities to catch up three different angles gathering to move the country closer to the world) and renamed the network's news half-hour to a name and brand that would (and did) change the landscape of the national news program forever.
World News Tonight.
Anchored by three of the best, brightest and most brilliant faces of news at the time, World News Tonight brought viewers the day's national, international, political and world affairs news along with special reports and commentary, all in less than thirty minutes. Anchored by newcomer (and the first black anchor of a network news program) Max Robinson in Chicago, (the returning [and much more experienced]) Peter Jennings in London and (the re-promoted) Frank Reynolds in Washington; along with Special Reports by holdover Barbara Walters and Commentary by Howard K. Smith, this broadcast did just that and brought itself the viewers it deserved and the respect and credibility it really deserved. If you want proof, here's its debut broadcast on this day, July 10, 1978.
During it's first broadcast, featured reports included:
-- International Desk Reports by Jennings
-- Jewish immigrant reporters on trial in Moscow for giving their honest opinions about relations between the United States and the Soviet Union (by Charles Bierbauer)
-- The White House's brutal response to the trial and a drop in Jewish immigration to Russia (by Sam Donaldson)
-- Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin's reaching out to President Jimmy Carter for a helping hand in freeing the jailed reporters (by Bill Siemmens[?])
-- The wife of one of the jailed reporters speaks out to correspondent Jack Smith (introduction by Jennings)
-- Barbara Walters' special report with then-Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz on his unsuccessful defense of the jailed reporters and the impact of their case (he calls it "a farce"). (Introduction by Reynolds)
-- Washington Desk reports by Reynolds
- Congress Returns from recess in hopes of a tax break, an energy bill and a controversial decision on abortion (by Reynolds)
- Firestone tire recall (by Bettina Gregory
- President Carter proposes spending on communities to fight crime
-- National Desk reports (Chicago) by Robinson
- Cleveland public housing police force problems
- Petition for Tax Hike from Proposition 13 in Michigan going to impasse
-Four held hostage by bomb-wielding worker at World Trade Center (by Lynn Shure)
-Little on trial for prison guard murder and escape, delay denied in Raleigh, NC
-Western States farmers vs. crops eating grasshoppers
I thought this first broadcast was a fantastic and well-done production. Everyone was at the top of their game. Reynolds was always a brilliant, consummate professional, Robinson took a huge risk of co-anchoring a national newscast and paid it off handsomely (and damn sure rocks that afro with class) and Jennings proved after a decade of honing his craft as a correspondent for the network and the CBC in his native Canada, he can (and did [AND does]) become a brilliant anchor worth the timeslot. Barbara Walters' special report with Dershkowitz was captivating and have a nice perspective. Ms. Walters was already well known for her serious yet sweetly delicate reports on Today, and this iconic reporting style extended to WNT and the rest of her career with the News division and the network. And Howard K. Smith gave such powerful commentary on the decrease in world peace thanks to the Jewish Reporters on trial, and what negative impact protests could give in similar situations.
Plus, the theme music. If there is something so iconic and memorable that begins with just four notes, that it would become the audible symbol of an entire news division, it is this tune.
As the years pass, the faces would change.
Reynolds would anchor the broadcast until his time off from illness and his death from bone cancer on July 20, 1983. Robinson and Jennings remained in a dual anchor format ever since until Robinson moved to the weekend edition and news briefs (until his leaving the News division in 1984; he later passed away from AIDS in 1988), while Jennings became sole anchor and senior editor on September 5 and holding the role-- through praise and high respect, until his untimely death from lung cancer at 67 on August 7, 2005. Other faces leading the program would later include Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas (in the first male-female dual anchor team since the ill-fated Reasoner/Walters pair-up), Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and current anchor (as of this post) David Muir.
While all network newscasts at the time definitely had the strong showing of objectivity, class, dignity, talent and emotion intertwined with both the anchors/correspondents/commentators and their reports, in my opinion, World News Tonight was the broadcast to watch; it was a unique format that drew me in from the word "go": three men bringing the News of importance from three different cities with their own distinct personalities separating them, but their one goal bringing them together and drawing me in in the process. In fact, many other viewers (although at time watched live, and I was still years from even being a semen) thought so too; since WNT's July 10 debut, ratings for it (and the network) gradually rose to the point of beating both Nightly News and the Evening News to become the nation's #1 evening network news program. And after watching this debut broadcast, you can probably see why.
For me though, that love for WNT extended to this this first broadcast. I was a longtime viewer since I was a child. One of my life's dreams and aspirations was to work in broadcast journalism. Mr. Jennings (as you know of course) was still anchor and his personality and long strong talents shone through to me and pulled me in every night, year after year. Because of him, he was a major inspiration to me and made my TV news dreams grow and grow ever since. His 2005 passing to me (and the rest of the country) was extremely devastating, but his legacy (along with those of Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Robinson) kept my aspirations alive -- along with my love of local TV news.
Well, that is my review of the first of many editions of World News Tonight (and yes, for reference and curiosity, many more are on YouTube. I hope you've had a good day, and I hope you've enjoyed it.
Here's to 40 years of such iconic reporting and reporters giving them and being such beacons of television news. And here's to 40 more.
Goodnight, everybody.
UPDATE:
Without a doubt, I (along with the rest of the nation) would have to face this day with either solemnness and tears or happiness and thoughts of a conga line and popping champagne. But the day has finally come: the man once known as one of the greatest comedians and comedic actors in all of American television and "America's Dad" will now be known as a "sexually violent predator" for the rest of his life, and quite possibly the rest of time.
Bill Cosby was formally sentenced to "no less than" 3 years and up to 10 years in state prison after his retrial earlier in the year based on an accusation of drugging and sexual assault at his home in 2004 by former friend/Temple University employee Andrea Constand. Cos will now spend most of his days those next 3-10 years at SCI Phoenix prison--a relatively new maximum-security facility in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, as inmate NN7687.
When I watched the news, I had a big mix of emotions. I was both saddened by the news as (of course) I grew up watching his works all throughout childhood and saw him as more than just as actor and comedian that we loved to laugh with, but also an inspiring father figure to look up to and want to be like. I also felt happy and relieved, most for Ms. Constand as she now has the justice and vindication she truly deserves, and that after a while I of rooting for Cosby and not believing the women accusers at first (I now regret that), I now happy that they at least have some vindication as well.
I do feel sorry for his immediate family and the work families he's spent much of his career and life with as the man they see and loved as the loving, wholesome, important figure and icon in the entertainment industry and a loving. caring, strong-willed father has now been tainted forever by and the (credible) accusations of sexual abuse and forced inebriation by over 60+ women (not that they had no right to come forward and tell their stories against all odds). It's going to be hard to to shake off all of this for some type of comeback but in the court of public opinion, it's going to stay a part of his repertoire forevermore. And I honestly do feel a bit sorry for Cosby, as his career is now forever tarnished and destroyed to a million little pieces; but at this point my solemn for him is as big as the hair on my arms (there barely are any).
Will I still watch Cosby's TV shows? Yes, without a doubt.
Will it be the same? From now on, No, not really.
--
Well... it finally happened.
America's Dad is no longer a trustworthy, loving, caring, knowledgeable family man we all knew and loved. Now, he's seen mostly as sexual maniac with no regard for the safety and well-being of women.
Throughout last April, the embattled and now disgraced actor/comedian was subjected to a retrial based on allegations of sexual misconduct by over 50 women spanning nearly 4 decades. The youngest accusation came from Andrea Constand, a friend of Cosby's who worked at his Alma mater Temple University. She claimed she was sexually assaulted by Cosby at his Philadelphia suburb home in 2004. After a wild first trial, a shocking deposition being released and a heavy, powerful end in a hung jury, this retrial's verdict left me so conflicted.
I was stunned that Cosby was found guilty, but also happy for his victims. We never got to see them on the stand under their own trials, because the statute of limitations expired over time, but had their accusations successfully went to court, we would've a lot worse for Cosby. But then again, a sentence of 30 years for him (who's 80 as of posting this) is insane. He will certainly die in prison after he's formally sentenced, and I don't know if I'll ever watch anything with him in it or with his name tied to it. But it is a little sad when you see his legacy destroyed. Critically-acclaimed TV shows and stand-up routines, Jell-O endorsements, love and support of adoring fans? Gone.
But I'll be damned if I say he didn't deserved it.
I wish Ms. Constand and the other victims well moving forward.
Last week America and the world bore witness to a cinematic experience like no other. Marvel Studios' Black Panther premiered in theaters to overwhelming anticipation, excitement and praise. Not only was it an awesome superhero movie, it was a powerful film based on race relations, self-worth and strength with the -- and that's just according to me, when I saw it officially debuted last week.
Buuut some white people took major and unwanted offense to the fact that this movie exists, and wanted to rain cuck-y Caucasian cum on it's beautifully black parade.
Some Right-wing basket cases made up stories on Twitter of other white people being attacked by black people at showings of Black Panther, perpetuating the long-trotting stereotype that all (or at least most) black people are wildly violent against people of other races, especially when it comes to things related to the Black community and especially to white people. Their intentions were clear: they wanted to troll with other people to not only plan to ruin a film that features an almost all-Black cast (two white actors are in supporting roles) and a mostly Black crew, but also drag through the mud people who were really assaulted in other incidents years ago who really don't deserve this disgusting crap.
According to this article from the LA Times, some of the poor people used include a man who was beaten at a Dallas nightclub in 2013, a woman whom was hit with a glass bottle and bloodied, Supernatural star Jensen Ackles (no, really) and the ex-wife of former Trump-era White House staff secretary Rob Porter, who was fired after allegations were revealed that Porter beat the fuck out of two of his ex-wives. (And lemme say right here that the fact that these Right-wing psychos are using the battered image of the ex of the former Trump official when it was learned they never believed it happened says some disgusting and hypocritical shit about them.)
It didn't take long before these posts were brutally debunked thanks to Google and brilliant sleuthing by black people on the internet. Using the search engine's reverse image feature, many people were easily able to track the origins off all the photos used in these smears used by the jackasses making these false claims.
This surprised me as much as it didn't surprise me. White people have been proven for years of getting their pussies in a twitch when a black person or people do something that has inspired or benefited the rest of Black communities across the world. Sometimes it worked (sadly), sometimes it doesn't -- this case included. Because this mostly-black film was a success even as it production, it was hated by many whites because of it's pro-Black tone and messages. And they (not all mind you, just some that have no brains or common sense) wanted to take it down for some boneheaded reason. They don't like that Black people are having a moment in the sun in their country--despite the fact that since this country wasn't theirs to begin with. And because of Black Panther being a thing, and people going to see it with more excitement and wonder than ever possible, they wanted to stop it somehow. Too bad for them the idiots didn't know about the Power of Black Twitter. And you don't have to look far.
Meanwhile, on the days of the movie's official release, none of these claims ever happened. And this comes from personal experience. I really don't have to tell you this, but the theater I went to (the small, independently-owned PFS Roxy Theater in Philadelphia) had people, both whites and blacks--along with a couple other races, there to see the movie. And everyone was on their best behavior--no unwanted fighting, no stupid race-dividing arguments, no shitty people committing anything worth a trip to the police station. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the movie. And that's the way it was supposed to be. Unfortunately for this idiots, it all came crashing down on them as their plan quickly crashed and burned before it even got off the ground. And fortunately for us sane people, it only barely slightly clouted this movie's existence and excellence for a minute, before everything went back to normal.
Now, lemme end this MMost on a positive: Black Panther is an incredible film. Not only is in a perfect and unforgettable showing of pure Black excellence for Black people to watch with wonder and bewilderment, this is a film for people of all races to see. To enjoy a culture, to come together, and to enjoy with no problems or fears. It's a film for all, especially blacks around the globe. Not only do adults want to see it, kids also want to see it, especially black kids, who wanted a superhero who looks like them; and they now have one (after Blade of course, but that's a different film). And I'm glad that everyone came out and showed out in droves to watch it. And because of this colossally strong showing, Black Panther has shattered box office records, not only claiming the title of highest-grossing February opening ever, but also the title of the fifth-highest opening weekend of all time. This makes me so happy, not only as a film fan, superhero movie fan and movie goer, but also as a black person and person of color. I'm grateful to the cast and crew of Black Panther, and also everyone who came to show it major love, appreciation and all their money.
So, how is 2018 starting out for us... We could say it's stating out with a ba--
Uhhhhhhhhh.
Well, anyway, here's probably the first great news of the year (especially for television animation fans), Animaniacs is coming back to television! Seriously. it's being revived as new episodes will air on Hulu starting in 2020. Steven Spielberg, executive producer of the original series, will board the revival as EP with his Amblin Television studio, no doubt along with many of the voice actors who helped bring the characters we loved and cherished since episode one to life, as they'll be back to bring them all out of the WB water tower.
The original series, along with other Amblin's other iconic animated series Tiny Toon Adventures, Pinky & The Brain and the later Pinky, Elmyra & The Brain are also available exclusively on Hulu, thanks to a deal between Warner Bros. Television Distribution and the streaming service. (And yes, the series was on Netflix some time ago.
This is a big get for Hulu, and definitely bolsters their current library at the moment, continuing the competition between the two services.
I'm honestly excited. As a fan of the original series, I can't be anymore ecstatic about this news. I don't care that I have to wait another two years or that I have to sign up for a Hulu account (which as of now I do have one), I'm just so happy that it's coming back.
Clearly as this is the start of 2018, we'll have to wait for more news and everything about production, but this, amphitheater other things in the news, definitely made my year start out just NARF!-tastic.
Hope you all enjoy this news. And I'll see you all soon.
