title: Glenn Youngkin

text: Throughout the campaign, Youngkin spoke against what he characterized as the pervasive teaching of critical race theory in the state. "Politifact" found this characterization of his to be false, saying it found no evidence that critical race theory was part of state curriculum standards and little evidence of it being taught in classrooms. The publication wrote, "Critical race theory is being widely discussed by educators across Virginia. But there's a difference between educators learning about the theory and actually teaching it to students." Critics of Youngkin noted that he sent his own children to private schools where resources promoting critical race theory have been recommended. Youngkin served on the governing board for one of those schools from 2016 until 2019 but has distanced himself from anti-racism initiatives that were adopted by the school.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: "The Washington Post" identified the Loudoun County school system as "ground zero for Youngkin's victory", citing the widespread activism among parents in the county who opposed progressive school policies. Following two sexual assaults that occurred in Loudoun County schools, Youngkin called for campus police to be stationed at every school in Virginia, and after winning the election, he directed the state's Attorney General, Jason Miyares, to investigate the Loudoun County school system's handling of those assaults. Initially, the perpetrator of the assaults was characterized as gender fluid; although this was later denied by the perpetrator's lawyer, conservative media coverage focused on this aspect of the assaults, and the news story fueled opposition to bathroom policies that had been newly adopted in Virginia to accommodate transgender students. Youngkin's Democratic opponent in the election, Terry McAuliffe, said that the assaults were being exploited during the campaign as "a transphobic dog whistle".


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: A major subject of opposition among Republicans during the campaign was a state law signed in 2020 by Youngkin's predecessor, Ralph Northam, requiring that all Virginia public schools adopt protections for transgender students. Youngkin has been critical of these protections. While running for governor, he supported teachers who refused to refer to their students by preferred pronouns and argued against allowing transgender girls to play on girls' sports teams. As governor, he has stated that he believes public school teachers should be required to out LGBTQ students to their parents. His administration has since announced plans to repeal all of the protections for transgender students that had been introduced under Northam.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: Youngkin's first official action as governor was to sign an executive order banning Virginia schools from teaching critical race theory. The order also bans critical race theory from teacher diversity trainings and any other materials produced by the Virginia Department of Education. "The Richmond Times-Dispatch" reported that the executive order "targets various initiatives...including the EdEquityVa Initiative, a program aimed at promoting cultural competency in classrooms, higher teacher diversity, and decreasing suspension rates for Black students."


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: This same executive order cancels the Virginia Mathematics Pathways Initiative, a program that had been developed and proposed by the Northam administration in an effort to both close the racial achievement gap and better equip students with modern job skills. According to "The Virginian-Pilot", some critics of the program viewed it as "a dumbing down of standards". Youngkin called the program a "left-wing takeover of public education", and many conservatives claimed that it would have eliminated advanced high school math classes - a claim that Youngkin gave prominence to during his campaign. James Lane, Virginia Superintendent at the time, and NPR, both disputed this characterization of the program. The Virginia Math Pathways Initiative would have prioritized data science and data analytics over calculus while still offering students the opportunity to enroll in calculus at an accelerated pace. Although education officials within the Northam administration explored the potential benefits of detracking students prior to the 11th grade, no plans to do so were ever adopted, and in April 2021, those officials explained that the Virginia Math Pathways Initiative was not designed to eliminate advanced math classes at any grade level. Shortly after Youngkin and other conservatives first began speaking out against the Virginia Math Pathways Initiative, "The Washington Post" reported that the actual nature of the program had been "obscured...[by] prominent Virginians and copious coverage from right-wing news outlets" as "outrage built online" among those opposed to it.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: In early April 2022, Youngkin signed a bill allowing school parents throughout Virginia to review and opt their children out of any educational material containing "sexually explicit content"; any opted out student would be provided with alternative material. At the start of Youngkin's governorship, there were no statewide laws in the nation allowing for parental review of sexually explicit content in school curriculum. Shortly before Youngkin signed the bill, a similar bill was signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Virginia Democrats have criticized the bill signed by Youngkin for taking control over education away from local school systems and have argued that its definition of "sexually explicit content" is "overly broad". The bill passed along mostly party lines. A similar bill, known as the "Beloved Bill", was vetoed by McAuliffe in both 2016 and 2017. That bill, which had originated when a conservative activist took issue with the inclusion of "Beloved" in her high school senior son's AP English class, became one of the focal points of Virginia's 2021 gubernatorial election, and reviving the bill was identified by "The Washington Post" as "one of the key promises" of Youngkin's campaign. The provisions of the bill will take effect in 2023.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: In May 2022, Youngkin sent a letter to the Council of Presidents overseeing Virginia colleges and universities, urging mandatory political diversity in their hiring practices. That year, he introduced a budget amendment, which succeeded in the General Assembly, requiring that the state's public colleges and universities promote "free speech and diversity of thought on [their] campuses."


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: In August 2022, Youngkin enlisted the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, to assist in revising Virginia's educational standards for history and social sciences. In November of that year, the Virginia Department of Education released a proposal for those revisions, which the department stated would make the state's educational standards easier "to understand and implement". The proposal was not adopted by the Virginia Board of Education, after it received what "The Washington Post" described as "overwhelming pushback from parents, teachers and community members who characterized the new standards as lacking context, being politically motivated and even being 'whitewashed.'" That publication wrote that the proposal "places less emphasis on the perspectives of marginalized peoples, removes suggested discussions of racism and its lingering effects, and promotes the workings of the free market, with limited government intervention".


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: During the 2022 legislative session, Youngkin advocated for a bill that would have reversed reforms that had been recently adopted to the admissions processes at some Governor's Schools in Virginia, specifically at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria and at Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies in Richmond. The reforms that Youngkin wanted to reverse had been adopted to increase racial diversity among the student bodies at those two schools, where Black and Hispanic students had been consistently underrepresented. Although race blind, the reformed admissions processes achieved their goal by implementing an approach largely based on geographic and socioeconomic factors. The bill supported by Youngkin would have banned such an approach, characterizing the use of geographic and socioeconomic factors as "proxy discrimination". This bill passed in the Republican-controlled House of Delegates but failed in the Democratic-controlled State Senate. A separate bill signed by Youngkin that same year bans Governor's Schools in Virginia "from discriminating against any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the process of admitting students to such school." This bill, which received bipartisan support, was described by "The Richmond Times-Dispatch" as "a watered-down version" of Youngkin's preferred bill. According to WRIC-TV, a Virginia ABC News affiliate, it has been argued that the bill signed by Youngkin "has no legal impact because it largely reiterates existing federal law."


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: Youngkin and McAuliffe both campaigned on increasing the education budget in Virginia, where teacher salaries had perpetually lagged behind the national average. Shortly before leaving office, outgoing governor Ralph Northam proposed increasing Virginia's biennual education budget from $14.8 billion to $17.2 billion, while McAuliffe's platform called for increasing the state's spending on education by $2 billion annually. The two Democrats sought to focus their proposed spending increases on raising teacher salaries, expanding preschool to disadvantaged children, investing more in both STEM programs and ESL services, ensuring internet access for all students, and closing the state's achievement gaps.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: In contrast to McAuliffe, who introduced much of his education platform concurrently with his announcement to run in the Democratic primary, Youngkin did not begin sharing proposals for state spending on education until months after securing the Republican nomination. McAuliffe criticized Youngkin for not releasing budget details until late in the campaign and argued that spending on education in Virginia could be threatened by the extent of Youngkin's tax cut proposals. "The Washington Post" wrote that Youngkin's education platform was "far lighter on details" than McAuliffe's and that it largely focused on cultural issues over budgetary proposals. Youngkin began offering specific proposals for education spending late in the summer of 2021, only a few months before the election. These proposals included $100 million a year for raising teacher salaries, $200 million for improvements to school infrastructure, and over $1 billion for expanding school choice programs.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: Youngkin inherited a record surplus in state revenue from Northam, which was projected to continue growing during the state's then-upcoming budget cycle. As a result of this surplus, Youngkin had the opportunity to sign a biennial state budget in 2022 that committed $19.2 billion to education, a record for the state even when accounting for inflation. This exceeded the $16.95 billion in education spending that Republicans had wanted to include in the biennial budget. Republicans agreed to the higher amount as part of a budget compromise with Democrats. In exchange for getting much of their desired education spending enacted, Democrats agreed to enact several of Youngkin's tax cut proposals.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: Incorporated into the budget compromise was an outgoing proposal of Northam's to enact a 10% salary increase for Virginia teachers over two years. Also included in the compromise were one-time $1,000 bonuses for teachers. This plan was chosen over the one preferred by Republicans, which would have paired a more modest 8% salary increase for teachers over two years with 1% bonuses.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: School construction and maintenance received $1.25 billion in the 2022 biennial state budget. This exceeds the amount that had been allotted for these needs in Northam's outgoing budget proposals but is a small fraction of the $25 billion that the Virginia Department of Education says it would take to fully replace the state's oldest schools.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: The Virginia Preschool Initiative was expanded by the 2022 biennial state budget. This program provides preschool for many low-income children in the state. Prior to 2022, the program only served children aged four or older, and only families earning less than the federal poverty line could qualify. The 2022 state budget that Youngkin signed lowered the age eligibility to include three year olds and raised the income threshold to 300% of the federal poverty line.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: While running for governor, Youngkin voiced support for expanding charter schools in the state and set a goal of adding at least twenty during his term. After the election, "The Richmond-Times Dispatch" reported that Youngkin's actual goal for charter schools would be to increase the number in Virginia "to match North Carolina, which has more than 200." Only seven charter schools currently exist in Virginia, one of the lowest amounts in the country, and Youngkin has backed proposed legislation that would shift the authority to approve new charter schools from local school boards to newly created "regional charter school divisions". These divisions would have nine voting members, eight appointed by the Virginia State Board of Education, and one appointed by local school boards within the region.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: The state budget that Youngkin signed for 2022 includes $100 million for re-establishing lab schools in Virginia. These K-12 public schools, which are separate from charter schools, had previously existed in the state and had continued to be allowed under Virginia law before Youngkin came into office, but none remained operating in the state by the start of Youngkin's term. Previous lab schools in Virginia had been established as partnerships with institutions of higher learning; only public colleges and universities with teacher training programs were allowed to enter into these partnerships. An amendment that Youngkin introduced to the 2022 state budget removed the requirement that all lab schools in the state act as teacher training programs. It also opened lab school partnerships to be formed with community colleges or certain private universities. Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears had to break a tie vote in the State Senate for this budget amendment to be approved by the General Assembly. Youngkin has additionally advocated for allowing private businesses to enter into lab school partnerships. He has said that lab schools could be either newly established or converted out of existing schools and has supported legislation that would direct the Virginia State Board of Education to "give substantial preference" to lab school applications filed by historically black colleges or universities. Under that legislation, the same preference would be given to applications seeking to establish lab schools in "underserved communities".


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: Youngkin supports revising how Virginia public schools are funded, so that per pupil funding for any students attending lab schools in the state would go to the institutions operating the schools attended by those students instead of going to the public school boards for the districts where those students reside. An amendment proposed by Youngkin for the 2022 state budget would have enacted this plan but was not adopted by the General Assembly. Although the Virginia Education Association and the Editorial Board of "The Free Lance–Star" have both supported Youngkin's goal of re-establishing lab schools in Virginia, they have also both criticized Youngkin's plan for redirecting per pupil funding away from local school boards, noting that because Virginia law allows lab schools to enroll students from anywhere in the state, the plan could lead to decreased funding for certain school districts.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: Asked if he accepts the scientific consensus on the causes of climate change, Youngkin said he does not know what causes climate change and that he considers the cause to be irrelevant. He supports climate change adaptation efforts such as building additional seawalls. While running for governor, Youngkin said he would not have signed Virginia's Clean Economy Act (which calls for Virginia's carbon emissions to reach net zero by 2050) because he believes it would increase utility prices. Youngkin is in favor of what he calls an "all of the above approach" to energy, saying that he supports both renewable energy sources and natural gas. He has called for Virginia to become a world leader in nuclear energy, proposing that a small modular reactor be built in Southwest Virginia within the next decade.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: After winning the election, Youngkin said that he would use an executive action to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a regional carbon cap-and-trade market. Youngkin has called the initiative a "carbon tax" and has stated that leaving the initiative would save ratepayers an average of about $50 a year. Democrats have countered that leaving the initiative would cut off a source of revenue for the state that raises hundreds of millions of dollars a year; this revenue is used for flood control and to provide low income ratepayers with energy assistance. On his first day in office, Youngkin signed an executive order calling for a reevaluation of Virginia's membership in the initiative. "The Washington Post" noted that because Virginia entered the initiative through legislative action, Youngkin may lack the legal authority to withdraw from the initiative without legislative approval. The publication theorized that this legal limitation may have been why Youngkin ultimately ordered a reevaluation of the initiative rather than a withdrawal. In August 2022, the Youngkin administration announced that, despite the likely legal challenges, it would attempt to withdraw Virginia from the initiative by the end of 2023 without seeking legislative approval to do so. Around that same time, Youngkin announced his desire to block a law set to take effect in 2024, which would require that Virginia follow California's vehicle emissions standards.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: A few months after his inauguration, Youngkin proposed that Virginia recriminalize possessing more than two ounces of marijuana. When the Northam administration, a year earlier, had legalized possessing up to an ounce of marijuana in Virginia, it did so while establishing a system in which possessing between one ounce and one pound was made punishable by a $25 fine; possessing over one pound remained a felony. This system made Virginia the only US state to have legalized marijuana possession without having misdemeanor penalties for possessing over the legal amount. Youngkin's proposal to introduce such penalties in Virginia was inspired by a recommendation made in 2021 by the state legislature's nonpartisan Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: Under Youngkin's proposal, possessing more than two ounces of marijuana would become a Class 2 misdemeanor, while possessing more than six ounces would become a Class 1 misdemeanor. Before this proposal was made, the Democratic-controlled State Senate had passed a bill during the 2022 legislative session that would have made possessing more than four ounces of marijuana a Class 3 misdemeanor. That bill, which also would have legalized the sale of recreational marijuana in Virginia, was rejected by the Republican-controlled House of Delegates. Later that year, as part of a bipartisan budget deal signed by Youngkin, Virginia made possessing between four ounces and a pound of marijuana in public a Class 3 misdemeanor for a first time offense and a Class 2 misdemeanor for repeat offenses. This same budget deal banned the sale of cannabis products shaped as animals, humans, vehicles, or fruits, so as to protect against accidental consumption by children.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: Separate marijuana legislation signed by Youngkin in 2022 allows patients to purchase medical marijuana immediately upon receiving a certificate to do so from a registered medical provider. Previously, patients were required to register with the State Board of Pharmacy before they could make such a purchase. This reform was enacted due to long wait times occurring during the registration process.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: Youngkin has also proposed raising the legal age for purchasing CBD products in Virginia to 21 and banning products that contain Delta-8 THC, which is described by "The Washington Post" as "a hemp-derived compound that has become popular for its similarity to Delta-9, the main compound in marijuana that gives consumers a high.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: As governor, Youngkin has continued the work of restoring voting rights to former felons, an effort that began under Governor Bob McDonnell and then intensified under McDonnell's immediate successors, McAuliffe and Northam. Virginia is one of only eleven states that does not automatically allow former felons to vote by the end of their sentences. An amendment to the state constitution that would have established automatic voting rights restoration for released felons in Virginia passed the legislature during Northam's final year in office, but amendments to the state constitution must be passed during two consecutive legislative sessions separated by an election before they can be voted on by the public in a referendum, and Republicans in the House of Delegates voted against the amendment during Youngkin's first year in office.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: In 2022, Youngkin signed bipartisan legislation requiring that the removal of deceased voters from Virginia's electoral rolls be conducted on a weekly basis; this had previously been done on a monthly basis. That same year, Youngkin signed legislation changing how absentee ballots are reported in Virginia. Previously, these ballots had been reported as part of a single, at-large precinct. Youngkin's legislation requires that they instead be reported precinct-by-precinct.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: Before taking office, Youngkin lived in Great Falls, Virginia, with his wife Suzanne and their four children.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: As of September 2021, Youngkin had an estimated net worth of $440 million; he contributed $20 million of his own money to his race for governor. Although he said that he would release summaries of his tax returns before the election, he did not release them until after the election and has never released his actual tax returns. The summaries have not been independently verified. As governor, he has placed some, but not all, of his financial holdings into a blind trust. The assets that he has not placed into a blind trust include stock in several companies that operate in Virginia. Youngkin has said that he will donate his entire gubernatorial salary, $175,000 a year, to charities. He donated his salary for the first quarter of 2022 to the Virginia Law Enforcement Assistance Program, an organization devoted to helping first responders who have experienced trauma, and he donated his salary for the second quarter of that year to the Virginia Veterans Services Foundation.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: As a college basketball player Youngkin's height was listed as 6 feet 7 inches; he now gives his height as 6 feet 5 inches.


title: Glenn Youngkin

text: Youngkin and his wife attended St. John’s Episcopal Church in McLean but departed due to their disagreement with the denomination's support for same-sex marriage. In 2010, the couple helped found Holy Trinity Church, which met initially in their basement in McLean, Virginia. Holy Trinity describes itself as a "non-denominational church with Anglican roots and a contemporary charismatic expression." The Youngkins set up a private foundation which owns the property where the church stands and a farm in Middleburg, Virginia, that serves as a Christian retreat.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: The thirteenth series of the British science fiction television programme "Doctor Who", subtitled "Flux", was broadcast from 31 October to 5 December 2021. The series is the third and last to be led by Chris Chibnall as head writer and executive producer. It is the thirteenth to air following the programme's revival in 2005, and the thirty-ninth season overall. The series, initially announced in November 2019, was broadcast on Sunday nights, and was followed by three associated specials which aired in 2022.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: Jodie Whittaker returns for her third and final series as the Thirteenth Doctor, an incarnation of the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in her ship, the TARDIS, which externally assumes the appearance of a British police box. The thirteenth series also stars Mandip Gill and John Bishop as the Doctor's travelling companions, playing Yasmin Khan and Dan Lewis, respectively. The series follows the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions as they navigate a universe-ending anomaly called the "Flux", while dealing with enemies and secrets from the Doctor's past.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: The series consists of six episodes, which form a single story across the series. The six episodes were directed by Jamie Magnus Stone and Azhur Saleem; Stone returned from directing for the previous series, with Saleem directing as a new contributor. Chibnall wrote all six episodes of the series, co-writing one episode with Maxine Alderton, who also returned after writing for the previous series. Filming commenced in November 2020, and was completed by August 2021. The series has received generally positive reviews from critics.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: For the first time since "The Trial of a Time Lord" (1986), and the third time in the programme's history, the series tells one complete story across its entirety, rather than self-contained episodic stories. It is the second time where all episodes are encompassed by a single story number; "The Key to Time" (1978–79) maintained separate serial designations.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: The series is the third to feature Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. Mandip Gill also returns as Yasmin Khan. Following the departures of Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole in "Revolution of the Daleks" (2021), John Bishop joined the cast for the series as Dan Lewis.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: Jacob Anderson appears in a recurring role as Vinder. Jo Martin returned as the Fugitive Doctor in "Once, Upon Time", having last appeared in the twelfth series episodes "Fugitive of the Judoon" and "The Timeless Children" (2020). Jemma Redgrave also reprises her role as Kate Stewart, a recurring character alongside the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors, who was last seen in "The Zygon Invasion" / "The Zygon Inversion" (2015). Other guest actors for the series include Robert Bathurst, Thaddea Graham, Blake Harrison, Kevin McNally, Craig Parkinson, Sara Powell, Annabel Scholey, Gerald Kyd, Penelope Ann McGhie, Rochenda Sandall, Sam Spruell, Craige Els, Steve Oram, Nadia Albina, Jonathan Watson, Sue Jenkins and Paul Broughton.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: In May 2017, it was announced that due to the terms of a deal between BBC Worldwide and SMG Pictures in China, the company has first right of refusal on the purchase for the Chinese market of future series of the programme until and including Series 15. In October 2019, a deal was made between HBO Max and BBC for an additional two series of "Doctor Who", including the thirteenth and fourteenth series.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: The thirteenth series was announced by showrunner Chris Chibnall to be in development in November 2019, before the twelfth series premiered; Chibnall returns as the series' showrunner, having been in the role since the eleventh series.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on television, the series' production included only eight episodes, reduced from the previous eleven. This was later announced to be shown as six episodes as part of the thirteenth series and two specials slated to air in 2022, with an additional special ordered for later that year as part of the BBC's centenary celebrations. The last episode would be Whittaker and Chibnall's last as star and executive producer respectively. The six-episode series also tells one complete narrative across its entirety, rather than episodic stories; this format was last used in "The Trial of a Time Lord" (1986). Chibnall stated, "Before we started making it, there were times when we thought we were going to be unable to do the show under Covid conditions this year… there were two ways you could go. You could go 'let's do lots of tiny little episodes in one room, with no monsters,' or we could throw down the gauntlet and do the biggest story we've ever done." Chibnall considered the latter approach more suitable, and said that it is "definitely the most ambitious thing we've done since we've been on the series."


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: In July 2021, near the end of filming, both Whittaker and Chibnall announced their intention to leave the programme following the series and three associated specials, to air by 2022. Chibnall explained that he and Whittaker had agreed to a "three series and out" pact, and that "now our shift is done, and we’re handing back the Tardis keys". In the BBC press release, Chibnall is quoted as saying: “I wish our successors - whoever the BBC and BBC Studios choose - as much fun as we’ve had. They’re in for a treat!”


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: Maxine Alderton, writer of the twelfth series episode "The Haunting of Villa Diodati", was listed on her CV as a "core writer" for the thirteenth series. In April 2020, Chibnall confirmed that writing for the series had commenced and continued remotely throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Chibnall wrote all six episodes of the series, co-writing the fourth episode with Alderton.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: Ed Hime, who wrote "It Takes You Away" (2018) and "Orphan 55" (2020) from the two past series, listed on his CV that he was set to write an episode for the series, as was Pete McTighe; however, Chibnall later stated in October 2021: "We had some other really great writers scheduled, but a lot of our plans had to be altered. Partly because the new series is a serial, partly because there are less episodes and partly because of the turnaround."


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: The story features some of "Doctor Who"s recurring aliens, including the Cybermen, Daleks, Ood, Sontarans, and Weeping Angels.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: According to production executive Tracie Simpson, pre-production for the thirteenth series was set to begin in June 2020, with filming originally set for September 2020. Filming eventually commenced in November 2020, and ran for ten months. Filming was still ongoing in July 2021 as confirmed at the San Diego Comic Con. Jamie Magnus Stone and Azhur Saleem directed episodes of the series, with Stone directing the first, second and fourth episodes, and Saleem directing the third, fifth and sixth episodes. Filming for the six episodes of the series, along with two of the 2022 specials, had concluded by August 2021.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: The series was first promoted at San Diego Comic Con on 25 July 2021, where the first teaser trailer was released. Throughout October 2021, a Sontaran ship was projected over Liverpool, and the Doctor's "phone number" was released in a promotional message. On 8 October 2021, the social media accounts for "Doctor Who" went offline. Whittaker appeared in an episode of "The Graham Norton Show" on 15 October 2021 during which a second trailer was released.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: The series premiered on 31 October 2021 on BBC One, and aired through 5 December 2021. The six-episode series is collectively referred to under the subtitle "Flux". In the United States the series aired the same day on BBC America where the streaming service AMC+ carried the streaming video on demand rights to new episodes. In Australia episodes are released same-day on ABC iview and broadcast on ABC TV Plus.


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: "Doctor Who"s thirteenth series has received positive reviews from critics. Series 13 holds an 80% critic approval rating on online review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 6/10, based on 46 critic reviews. Metacritic calculated a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 from six reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Doctor Who (series 13)

text: 30 selected pieces of score from this series as composed by Segun Akinola was released on digital music platforms on 30 September 2022 by Silva Screen Records, and was released on a 3-CD set on 11 November 2022. The physical release of the soundtrack will include twelve selected pieces of score from "Revolution of the Daleks" as the third disc, which were originally released on digital music platforms on 2 January 2021.


title: Denis Leary

text: Denis Colin Leary (born August 18, 1957) is an American actor and comedian. A native of Massachusetts, Leary first came to prominence as a stand-up comedian, especially through appearances on MTV (including the comedic song "Asshole") and through the stand-up specials "No Cure for Cancer" (1993) and "Lock 'n Load" (1997). Leary began taking roles in film and television starting in the 1990s, including substantial roles in the films "Judgment Night" (1993), "Gunmen" (1994), "Operation Dumbo Drop" (1995) and "Wag the Dog" (1996).


title: Denis Leary

text: In the 2000s, he developed and starred in the television show "The Job" (2001–2002) and was the star and co-creator of "Rescue Me" (2004–2011), for which he received two Primetime Emmy nominations, one for writing and one for acting. He has continued to take starring roles in films, including Captain George Stacy in "The Amazing Spider-Man" and Cleveland Browns head coach Vince Penn in "Draft Day". Leary has also done voice work, including Francis the ladybug in "A Bug's Life" and Diego the saber tooth tiger in the "Ice Age" franchise.


title: Denis Leary

text: He and his wife Ann Leary are the inspiration behind the episode of the Amazon series "Modern Love" "Rallying to Keep the Game Alive". From 2015 to 2016, Leary wrote and starred in the comedy series "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" on FX.


title: Denis Leary

text: Denis Colin Leary was born on August 18, 1957, in Worcester, Massachusetts, the son of Catholic immigrant parents from County Kerry, Ireland. His mother, Nora (née Sullivan) (b. 1929), was a maid, and his father, John Leary (1924–1985), was an auto mechanic. Leary is a citizen of both the United States and Ireland. Leary is a third cousin of talk show host Conan O'Brien.


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary attended Saint Peter's High School (now Saint Paul's) in Worcester and graduated from Emerson College in Boston. At Emerson, he met fellow comic Mario Cantone, whom Leary considers to be his closest friend. While a student, Leary founded the Emerson Comedy Workshop, a troupe that continues on the campus today.


title: Denis Leary

text: After graduating from Emerson in 1981, Leary taught comedy-writing classes at the school for five years. In May 2005 he received an honorary doctorate and spoke at his alma mater's undergraduate commencement ceremony; and is credited as Dr. Denis Leary on the cover of his 2009 book "Why We Suck".


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary began working as a comedian at the Boston underground club Play It Again Sam's. However, his first real gig was at the Rascals Comedy Club as part of the TV show "The Rascals Comedy Hour", on October 18, 1990. He wrote and appeared on a local comedy series, "Lenny Clarke's Late Show", hosted by his friend Lenny Clarke and written by Martin Olson. Leary and Clarke both spoke about their early affiliations and influences in the Boston comedy scene in the documentary film "When Standup Stood Out" (2006). During Leary's time as a Boston-area stand-up comic, he developed his stage persona.


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary appeared in sketches on the MTV game show "Remote Control", playing characters such as Keith Richards, co-host Colin Quinn's brother and artist Andy Warhol. He earned fame when he ranted about R.E.M. in an early 1990s MTV sketch. Several other commercials for MTV quickly followed, in which Leary would rant at high speeds about a variety of topics, playing off the then-popular and growing alternative scene. One of these rants served as an introduction to the video for "Shamrocks and Shenanigans (Boom Shalock Lock Boom)" by House of Pain. Leary released two records of his comedy: "No Cure for Cancer" (1993) and "Lock 'n Load" (1997). In late 2004, he released the EP "Merry F#%$in' Christmas", which included a mix of new music, previously unreleased recordings and some tracks from "Lock 'n Load".


title: Denis Leary

text: In 1993, Leary's sardonic song about the stereotypical American male, "Asshole", achieved much notoriety. The song was voted No. 1 in an Australian radio poll and was used in Holsten Pils ads in the UK, with Leary's participation, and with adapted lyrics criticizing a drunk driver. The single was a minor hit there, peaking at No. 58 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1996.


title: Denis Leary

text: In 1995, Leary was asked by Boston Bruins legend Cam Neely to help orchestrate a Boston-based comedy benefit show for Neely's cancer charity; this became Comics Come Home, which Leary has hosted annually ever since.Leary has appeared in many films, including "The Sandlot" as Scott's stepfather Bill, "Monument Ave.", "The Matchmaker", "The Ref", "Draft Day", "Suicide Kings", "Dawg", "Wag the Dog", "Demolition Man", "Judgment Night", "The Thomas Crown Affair" and "Operation Dumbo Drop". He had a role in Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" that was eventually cut. He held the lead role in two television series, "The Job" and "Rescue Me", and he co-created the latter, in which he played Tommy Gavin, a New York City firefighter dealing with alcoholism, family dysfunction and other issues in post-9/11 New York City.


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary received Emmy Award nominations in 2006 and 2007 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for "Rescue Me", and in 2008 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for the HBO movie "Recount". Leary was offered the role of Dignam in "The Departed" (2006) but turned it down because of scheduling conflicts with "Rescue Me". He provided voices for characters in animated films, such as a fire-breathing dragon named Flame in the series "The Agents", a pugnacious ladybug named Francis in "A Bug's Life" and a prehistoric saber-toothed tiger named Diego in the "Ice Age" film series. He has produced numerous movies, television shows, and specials through his production company, Apostle; these include Comedy Central's "Shorties Watchin' Shorties", the stand-up special "Denis Leary's Merry F#$%in' Christmas" and the movie "Blow".


title: Denis Leary

text: As a Boston Red Sox fan, Leary narrated the official 2004 World Series film. In 2006, Leary and Lenny Clarke appeared on television during a Red Sox telecast and, upon realizing that Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis is Jewish, delivered a criticism of Mel Gibson's antisemitic comments. As an ice hockey fan, Leary hosted the National Hockey League video "NHL's Greatest Goals". In 2003, he was the subject of the "Comedy Central Roast of Denis Leary".


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary did the TV voiceover for MLB 2K8 advertisements, using his trademark rant style in baseball terms, and ads for the 2009 Ford F-150 pickup truck. He has also appeared in commercials for Hulu and DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket package. Leary was a producer of the Fox series "Canterbury's Law", and wrote and directed its pilot episode. "Canterbury's Law" aired in the spring of 2008 and was canceled after eight episodes. On September 9, 2008, Leary hosted the sixth annual "Fashion Rocks" event, which aired on CBS. In December of the year, he appeared in a video on funnyordie.com critiquing a list of some of his "best" films, titled "Denis Leary Remembers Denis Leary Movies". Also in 2008, Leary voiced a guest role as himself in "The Simpsons" episode "Lost Verizon".


title: Denis Leary

text: On March 21, 2009, Leary began the Rescue Me Comedy Tour in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The 11-date tour, featuring "Rescue Me" co-stars Lenny Clarke and Adam Ferrara, was Leary's first stand-up comedy tour in 12 years. The Comedy Central special "Douchebags and Donuts", filmed during the tour, debuted on American television on January 16, 2011, with a DVD release on January 18, 2011.


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary played Captain George Stacy in the movie "The Amazing Spider-Man", released in July 2012. He wrote the American adaptation of "Sirens". He is an executive producer of the documentary "Burn", which chronicles the struggles of the Detroit Fire Department. "Burn" won the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award.


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary created a television series for FX called "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll", taking the starring role himself. A 10-episode first season was ordered by FX, with the premiere on July 16, 2015. The show ran for two seasons.


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary has been the narrator for NESN's documentary show about the Boston Bruins called "Behind the B" since the show began in 2013.


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary has been married to author Ann Lembeck Leary since 1989. They met when he was her instructor in an English class at Emerson College. They have two children, son John Joseph "Jack" (born 1990) and daughter Devin (born 1992). Ann Leary published a memoir, "An Innocent, a Broad", about the premature birth of their son on a visit to London. She has also written a novel, "Outtakes From a Marriage", which was published in 2008. Her second novel, "The Good House", was published in 2013. Her essay in a New York Times column about her marriage to Denis inspired the "Modern Love" series Episode 4: "Rallying to Keep the Game Alive".


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary is an ice hockey fan and has a backyard rink at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, with piping installed under the ice surface to help it stay frozen. He is a fan of the Boston Bruins and the Boston Red Sox, as well as the Green Bay Packers.


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary describes himself as a "Jack Kennedy Democrat" with some conservative ideologies, including support for the military. Leary told Glenn Beck, "I was a life-long Democrat, but now at my age, I've come to realize that the Democrats suck, and the Republicans suck, and basically the entire system sucks. But you have to go within the system to find what you want."


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary has said of his religious beliefs, "I'm a lapsed Catholic in the best sense of the word. You know, I was raised with Irish parents, Irish immigrant parents. My parents, you know, prayed all the time, took us to Mass. And my father would sometimes swear in Gaelic. It doesn't get more religious than that. But, no, after a while, they taught us wrong. I didn't raise my kids with the fear of God. I raised my kids with the sense of, you know, to me, Jesus was this great guy..."


title: Denis Leary

text: On December 3, 1999, six firefighters from Leary's hometown of Worcester were killed in the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire. Among the dead were Leary's cousin Jerry Lucey and his close childhood friend, Lt. Tommy Spencer. In response, the comedian founded the Leary Firefighters Foundation. Since its creation in the year 2000, the foundation has distributed over $2.5 million (USD) to fire departments in the Worcester, Boston and New York City areas for equipment, training materials, new vehicles and new facilities. Leary won $125,000 for the foundation on the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". He had close ties with WAAF, which in 2000 released the station album "Survive This!". Part of the proceeds from this album were donated to the Leary Firefighters Foundation.


title: Denis Leary

text: A separate fund run by Leary's foundation, the Fund for New York's Bravest, has distributed over $2 million to the families of the 343 firemen killed in the September 11 attacks in 2001, in addition to providing funding for necessities such as a new mobile command center, first-responder training, and a high-rise simulator for the New York City Fire Department's training campus. As the foundation's president, Leary has been active in all of the fundraising. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Leary donated over a dozen boats to the New Orleans Fire Department to aid in rescue efforts in future disasters. The foundation also rebuilt entire NOLA firehouses.


title: Denis Leary

text: For many years, Leary had been friends with fellow comedian Bill Hicks. But when Leary's comedy album "No Cure for Cancer" was released, Leary was accused of stealing Hicks' act and material, ending their friendship abruptly. In April 1993, the "Austin Comedy News" remarked on the similarities of Leary's performance: "Watching Leary is like seeing Hicks from two years ago. He smokes with the same mannerisms. (Hicks recently quit.) He sports the same attitude, the same clothes. He touches on almost all of the same themes. Leary even invokes Jim Fixx." When asked about this, Hicks told the magazine, "I have a scoop for you. I stole his [Leary's] act. I camouflaged it with punchlines, and to really throw people off, I did it before he did".


title: Denis Leary

text: At least three stand-up comedians have gone on the record stating they believe Leary stole Hicks' material, comedic persona and attitude. One similar routine was about the so-called Judas Priest "suicide trial," during which Hicks says, "I don't think we lost a cancer cure."


title: Denis Leary

text: During Leary's 2003 Comedy Central Roast, comedian Lenny Clarke, a friend of Leary's, said there was a carton of cigarettes backstage from Bill Hicks with the message, "Wish I had gotten these to you sooner." This joke was cut from the final broadcast.


title: Denis Leary

text: According to the book, True said that upon hearing a tape of Leary's album "No Cure for Cancer", "Bill was furious. All these years, aside from the occasional jibe, he had pretty much shrugged off Leary's lifting. Comedians borrowed, stole stuff and even bought bits from one another. Milton Berle and Robin Williams were famous for it. This was different. Leary had, practically line for line, taken huge chunks of Bill's act and "recorded" it."


title: Denis Leary

text: In a 2008 appearance on "The Opie and Anthony Show", comedian Louis C.K. claimed Leary stole his "I'm an asshole" routine, which was then expanded upon and turned into a hit song by Leary. On a later episode of the same show, Leary challenged this assertion by claiming to have co-written the song with Chris Phillips.


title: Denis Leary

text: In his 2008 book "Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid", Leary wrote:


title: Denis Leary

text: Leary later stated that the quote was taken out of context and that in that paragraph he had been talking about what he calls the trend of "unwarranted" over-diagnosis of autism, which he attributed to American parents seeking an excuse for behavioral problems and under-performance. Later, he apologized to parents with autistic children whom he had offended.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled after the death of his father, and he was incarcerated several times in his youth. After being released from San Quentin State Prison in 1960, he managed to turn his life around and launch a successful country music career. He gained popularity with his songs about the working class that occasionally contained themes contrary to anti–Vietnam War sentiment of some popular music of the time. Between the 1960s and the 1980s, he had 38 number-one hits on the US country charts, several of which also made the "Billboard" all-genre singles chart. Haggard continued to release successful albums into the 2000s.


title: Merle Haggard

text: He received many honors and awards for his music, including a Kennedy Center Honor (2010), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006), a BMI Icon Award (2006), and induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977), Country Music Hall of Fame (1994) and Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame (1997). He died on April 6, 2016—his 79th birthday—at his ranch in Shasta County, California, having recently suffered from double pneumonia.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard's parents were Flossie Mae (née Harp; 1902–1984) and James Francis Haggard (1899–1946). The family moved to California from their home in Checotah, Oklahoma, during the Great Depression, after their barn burned in 1934.


title: Merle Haggard

text: They settled with their two elder children, James 'Lowell' (1922–1996) and Lillian, in an apartment in Bakersfield, while James started working for the Santa Fe Railroad. A woman who owned a boxcar placed in Oildale, a nearby town, asked Haggard's father about the possibility of converting it into a house. He remodeled the boxcar, and soon after moved in, also purchasing the lot, where Merle Ronald Haggard was born on April 6, 1937. The property was eventually expanded by building a bathroom, a second bedroom, a kitchen, and a breakfast nook in the adjacent lot.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1946 Haggard's father died of a brain hemorrhage. Nine year-old Haggard was deeply affected by the loss, and it remained a pivotal event to him for the rest of his life. To support the family, Haggard's mother took a job as a bookkeeper. Older brother Lowell gave his guitar to Merle when Merle was 12. Haggard learned to play it on his own, with the records he had at home, influenced by Bob Wills, Lefty Frizzell, and Hank Williams. While his mother was out working during the day Haggard started getting into trouble. She sent him to a juvenile detention center for a weekend to try and correct him, but his behavior did not improve. If anything, he became worse.


title: Merle Haggard

text: By the age of 13, Haggard was stealing and writing bad checks. In 1950 he was caught shoplifting and sent to a juvenile detention center. The following year he ran away to Texas with his friend Bob Teague. The two rode freight trains and hitchhiked throughout the state. When they returned later that year the two boys were accused of robbery and sent to jail. This time, they had not actually committed the crime, and were released when the real robbers were found. The experience did not change Haggard much. He was again sent to a juvenile detention center later that year, from which he and his friend again escaped and headed to Modesto, California. There he worked a series of laborer jobs, including potato truck driver, short order cook, hay pitcher and oil well shooter. His debut performance was with Teague in a Modesto bar named "Fun Center", for which he was paid US$5 and given free beer.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1951 he returned to Bakersfield, where he was again arrested for truancy and petty larceny and sent to a juvenile detention center. After another escape, he was sent to the Preston School of Industry, a high-security installation. He was released 15 months later but was sent back after beating a local boy during a burglary attempt. After Haggard's release, he and Teague saw Lefty Frizzell in concert. The two sat backstage, where Haggard began to sing along. Hearing the young man from the stage, Frizzell refused to go on unless Haggard was allowed to sing first. Haggard did, and was well received by the audience. After this experience Haggard decided to pursue a career in music. At nights he would sing and play in local bars, while working as a farmhand or in the oil fields during the day.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Married and plagued by financial issues, in 1957 he tried to rob a Bakersfield roadhouse, was caught and arrested. Convicted, he was sent to the Bakersfield Jail. After an escape attempt he was transferred to San Quentin Prison on February 21, 1958. There he was prisoner number A45200. While in prison, Haggard learned that his wife was expecting another man's child, which stressed him psychologically. He was fired from a series of prison jobs, and planned to escape along with another inmate nicknamed "Rabbit" (James Kendrick) but was dissuaded by fellow inmates.


title: Merle Haggard

text: While at San Quentin, Haggard started a gambling and brewing racket with his cellmate. After he was caught drunk, he was sent for a week to solitary confinement where he encountered Caryl Chessman, an author and death-row inmate. Meanwhile, "Rabbit" had successfully escaped, only to shoot a police officer and be returned to San Quentin for execution. Chessman's predicament, along with the execution of "Rabbit," inspired Haggard to change his life. He soon earned a high school equivalency diploma and kept a steady job in the prison's textile plant. He also played for the prison's country music band. He was released from San Quentin on parole in 1960.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1972, after Haggard had become an established country music star, then-California governor Ronald Reagan granted Haggard a full and unconditional pardon for his past crimes.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Upon his release from San Quentin in 1960, Haggard started digging ditches for his brother's electrical contracting company. Soon, he was performing again and later began recording with Tally Records. The Bakersfield sound was developing in the area as a reaction against the overproduced Nashville sound. Haggard's first record for Tally was "Singing My Heart Out" backed by "Skid Row"; it was not a success, and only 200 copies were pressed. In 1962, Haggard wound up performing at a Wynn Stewart show in Las Vegas and heard Wynn's "Sing a Sad Song". He asked for permission to record it, and the resulting single was a national hit in 1964. The following year, he had his first national top-10 record with "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers," written by Liz Anderson, mother of country singer Lynn Anderson, and his career was off and running. Haggard recalls having been talked into visiting Anderson—a woman he did not know—at her house to hear her sing some songs she had written. "If there was anything I didn't wanna do, it was sit around some danged woman's house and listen to her cute little songs. But I went anyway. She was a pleasant enough lady, pretty, with a nice smile, but I was all set to be bored to death, even more so when she got out a whole bunch of songs and went over to an old pump organ... There they were. My God, one hit right after another. There must have been four or five number one songs there..."


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1967, Haggard recorded "I'm a Lonesome Fugitive" with The Strangers, also written by Liz Anderson, with her husband Casey Anderson, which became his first number-one single. When the Andersons presented the song to Haggard, they were unaware of his prison stretch. Bonnie Owens, Haggard's backup singer and then-wife, is quoted by music journalist Daniel Cooper in the liner notes to the 1994 retrospective "Down Every Road": "I guess I didn't realize how much the experience at San Quentin did to him, 'cause he never talked about it all that much ... I could tell he was in a dark mood ... and I said, 'Is everything okay?' And he said, 'I'm really scared.' And I said, 'Why?' And he said, 'Cause I'm afraid someday I'm gonna be out there ... and there's gonna be ... some prisoner ... in there the same time I was in, stand up—and they're gonna be about the third row down—and say, 'What do you think you're doing, 45200?'" Cooper notes that the news had little effect on Haggard's career: "It's unclear when or where Merle first acknowledged to the public that his prison songs were rooted in personal history, for to his credit, he doesn't seem to have made some big splash announcement. In a May 1967 profile in "Music City News", his prison record is never mentioned, but in July 1968, in the very same publication, it's spoken of as if it were common knowledge."


title: Merle Haggard

text: The 1967 album "Branded Man" with The Strangers kicked off an artistically and commercially successful run for Haggard. In 2013, Haggard biographer David Cantwell stated, "The immediate successors to "I'm a Lonesome Fugitive"—"Branded Man" in 1967 and, in '68, "Sing Me Back Home" and "The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde"—were among the finest albums of their respective years." Haggard's new recordings showcased his band The Strangers, specifically Roy Nichols's Telecaster, Ralph Mooney's steel guitar, and the harmony vocals provided by Bonnie Owens.


title: Merle Haggard

text: At the time of Haggard's first top-10 hit "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers" in 1965, Owens, who had been married to Buck Owens, was known as a solo performer, a fixture on the Bakersfield club scene and someone who had appeared on television. She won the new Academy of Country Music's first ever award for Female Vocalist after her 1965 debut album, "Don't Take Advantage of Me", hit the top five on the country albums chart. However, Bonnie Owens had no further hit singles, and although she recorded six solo albums on Capitol between 1965 and 1970, she became mainly known for her background harmonies on Haggard hits such as "Sing Me Back Home" and "Branded Man".


title: Merle Haggard

text: Producer Ken Nelson took a hands-off approach to produce Haggard. In the episode of "American Masters" dedicated to him, Haggard remembers: "The producer I had at that time, Ken Nelson, was an exception to the rule. He called me 'Mr. Haggard' and I was a little twenty-four, twenty-five year old punk from Oildale... He gave me complete responsibility. I think if he'd jumped in and said, 'Oh, you can't do that,' it would've destroyed me." In the documentary series "Lost Highway", Nelson recalls, "When I first started recording Merle, I became so enamored with his singing that I would forget what else was going on, and I suddenly realized, 'Wait a minute, there's musicians here you've got to worry about!' But his songs—he was a great writer."


title: Merle Haggard

text: Towards the end of the decade, Haggard composed several number-one hits, including "Mama Tried," "The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde," "Hungry Eyes," and "Sing Me Back Home". Daniel Cooper calls "Sing Me Back Home" "a ballad that works on so many different levels of the soul it defies one's every attempt to analyze it". In a 1977 interview in "Billboard" with Bob Eubanks, Haggard reflected, "Even though the crime was brutal and the guy was an incorrigible criminal, it's a feeling you never forget when you see someone you know make that last walk. They bring him through the yard, and there's a guard in front and a guard behind—that's how you know a death prisoner. They brought Rabbit out ... taking him to see the Father, ... prior to his execution. That was a strong picture that was left in my mind." In 1969, Haggard's first tribute LP "Same Train, Different Time: A Tribute to Jimmie Rodgers", was also released to acclaim.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard's songs attracted attention from outside the country field. The Everly Brothers covered both "Sing Me Back Home" and "Mama Tried" on their 1968 country-rock album "Roots". The following year, Haggard's songs were performed or recorded by a variety of artists, including the Gram Parsons incarnation of the Byrds, who performed "Sing Me Back Home" on the Grand Ole Opry and recorded "Life in Prison" for their album "Sweetheart of the Rodeo"; singer-activist Joan Baez, who covered "Sing Me Back Home" and "Mama Tried"; crooner Dean Martin, who recorded "I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am" for his album of the same name; and the Grateful Dead, whose live cover of "Mama Tried" became a staple in their repertoire until the band's end in 1995.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In the original "Rolling Stone" review for Haggard and The Strangers 1968 album "Mama Tried", Andy Wickham wrote, "His songs romanticize the hardships and tragedies of America's transient proletarian and his success is resultant of his inherent ability to relate to his audience a commonplace experience with precisely the right emotional pitch... Merle Haggard looks the part and sounds the part because he is the part. He's great."


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1969, Haggard and The Strangers released "Okie From Muskogee," with lyrics ostensibly reflecting the singer's pride in being from Middle America, where people are conventionally patriotic, don't smoke marijuana, don't take LSD, don't protest by burning draft cards or otherwise challenge authority. American president Richard Nixon wrote an appreciative letter to Haggard upon his hearing of the song, and would go on to invite Haggard to perform at the White House several times. In the ensuing years, Haggard gave varying statements regarding whether he intended the song as a humorous satire or a serious political statement in support of conservative values. In a 2001 interview, Haggard called the song a "documentation of the uneducated that lived in America at the time". However, he made several other statements suggesting that he meant the song seriously. On the "Bob Edwards Show", he said, "I wrote it when I recently got out of the joint. I knew what it was like to lose my freedom, and I was getting really mad at these protesters. They didn't know anything more about the war in Vietnam than I did. I thought how my dad, who was from Oklahoma, would have felt. I felt I knew how those boys fighting in Vietnam felt." In the country music documentary series "Lost Highway", he elaborated: "My dad passed away when I was nine, and I don't know if you've ever thought about somebody you've lost and you say, 'I wonder what so-and-so would think about this?' I was drivin' on Interstate 40 and I saw a sign that said '19 Miles to Muskogee', while at the same time listening to radio shows of "The World Tomorrow" hosted by Garner Ted Armstrong. Muskogee was always referred to in my childhood as 'back home.' So I saw that sign and my whole childhood flashed before my eyes and I thought, 'I wonder what dad would think about the youthful uprising that was occurring at the time, the Janis Joplins... I understood 'em, I got along with it, but what if he was to come alive at this moment? And I thought, what a way to describe the kind of people in America that are still sittin' in the center of the country sayin', 'What is goin' on on these campuses?'", as it was the subject of this Garner Ted Armstrong radio program. "And a week or so later, I was listening to Garner Ted Armstrong, and Armstrong was saying how the smaller colleges in smaller towns don't seem to have any problems. And I wondered if Muskogee had a college, and it did, and they hadn't had any trouble - no racial problems and no dope problems. The whole thing hit me in two minutes, and I did one line after another and got the whole thing done in 20 minutes." In the "American Masters" documentary about him, he said, "That's how I got into it with the hippies... I thought they were unqualified to judge America, and I thought they were lookin' down their noses at something that I cherished very much, and it pissed me off. And I thought, 'You sons of bitches, you've never been restricted away from this great, wonderful country, and yet here you are in the streets bitchin' about things, protesting about a war that they didn't know any more about than I did. They weren't over there fightin' that war any more than I was."


title: Merle Haggard

text: The studio version, which was mellower than the usually raucous live-concert versions, topped the country charts in 1969 and remained there for a month. It also hit number 41 on the "Billboard" all-genre singles chart, becoming Haggard's biggest hit up to that time, surpassed only by his 1973 crossover Christmas hit, "If We Make It Through December," which peaked at number 28. "Okie from Muskogee" is also generally described as Haggard's signature song.


title: Merle Haggard

text: On his next single, "The Fightin' Side of Me," released by his record company in 1970 over Haggard's objections, Haggard's lyrics stated that he did not mind the counterculture "switchin' sides and standin' up for what they believe in," but resolutely declared, "If you don't love it, leave it!" In May 1970, Haggard explained to John Grissom of "Rolling Stone", "I don't like their views on life, their filth, their visible self-disrespect, y'know. They don't give a shit what they look like or what they smell like... What do they have to offer humanity?" In a 2003 interview with "No Depression" magazine, Haggard said, "I had different views in the '70s. As a human being, I've learned [more]. I have more culture now. I was dumb as a rock when I wrote 'Okie From Muskogee.' That's being honest with you at the moment, and a lot of things that I said [then] I sing with a different intention now. My views on marijuana have totally changed. I think we were brainwashed and I think anybody that doesn't know that needs to get up and read and look around, get their own information. It's a cooperative government project to make us think marijuana should be outlawed."


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard had wanted to follow "Okie from Muskogee" with "Irma Jackson," a song that dealt with an interracial romance between a white man and an African American woman. His producer, Ken Nelson, discouraged him from releasing it as a single. Jonathan Bernstein recounts, "Hoping to distance himself from the harshly right-wing image he had accrued in the wake of the hippie-bashing "Muskogee," Haggard wanted to take a different direction and release "Irma Jackson" as his next single... When the Bakersfield, California, native brought the song to his record label, executives were reportedly appalled. In the wake of "Okie," Capitol Records was not interested in complicating Haggard's conservative, blue-collar image."


title: Merle Haggard

text: After "The Fightin' Side of Me" was released, instead, Haggard later commented to the "Wall Street Journal", "People are narrow-minded. Down South they might have called me a nigger lover." In a 2001 interview, Haggard stated that Nelson, who was also head of the country division at Capitol at the time, never interfered with his music, but "this one time he came out and said, 'Merle, I don't believe the world is ready for this yet.' ... And he might have been right. I might've canceled out where I was headed in my career."


title: Merle Haggard

text: "Okie From Muskogee," "The Fightin' Side of Me," and "I Wonder If They Think of Me" (Haggard's 1973 song about an American POW in Vietnam) were hailed as anthems of the Silent Majority and have been recognized as part of a recurring patriotic trend in American country music that also includes Charlie Daniels' "In America" and Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA". Although Gordon Friesen of "Broadside" magazine criticized Haggard for his "[John] Birch-type songs against war dissenters," Haggard was popular with college students in the early 1970s, not only because of the ironic use of his songs by counterculture members, but also because his music was recognized as coming from an early country-folk tradition. Both "Okie from Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me" received extensive airplay on underground radio stations, and "Okie" was performed in concert by protest singers Arlo Guthrie and Phil Ochs.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard's 1970 LP "A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World", dedicated to Bob Wills, helped spark a permanent revival and expanded the audience for western swing. By this point, Haggard was one of the most famous country singers in the world, having enjoyed an immensely successful artistic and commercial run with Capitol, accumulating 24 number-one country singles since 1966.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1972, "Let Me Tell You about A Song", the first TV special starring Haggard, was nationally syndicated by Capital Cities TV Productions. It was a semi-autobiographical musical profile of Haggard, akin to the contemporary "Behind The Music", produced and directed by Michael Davis. The 1973 recession anthem, "If We Make It Through December," furthered Haggard's status as a champion of the working class. "If We Make It Through December" turned out to be Haggard and The Strangers last crossover pop hit.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard appeared on the cover of "TIME" on May 6, 1974. He also wrote and performed the theme song to the television series "Movin' On", which in 1975 gave him and The Strangers another number-one country hit. During the early to mid-1970s, Haggard and The Strangers country chart domination continued with songs such as "Someday We'll Look Back," "Grandma Harp," "Always Wanting You," and "The Roots of My Raising". Between 1973 and 1976, he and The Strangers scored nine consecutive number-one country hits. In 1977, he switched to MCA Records and began exploring the themes of depression, alcoholism, and middle age on albums such as "Serving 190 Proof" and "The Way I Am". Haggard sang a duet cover of Billy Burnette's "What's A Little Love Between Friends" with Lynda Carter in her 1980 television music special, "Lynda Carter: Encore!" In 1980, Haggard headlined the "Bronco Billy" soundtrack alongside Ronnie Milsap, which saw Haggard score a number-one hit with "Bar Room Buddies," a duet with actor Clint Eastwood.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard appeared in an episode of "The Waltons" entitled "The Comeback," season five, episode three, original air-date October 10, 1976. He played a bandleader named Red, who had been depressed since the death of his son (Ron Howard).


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1981, Haggard published an autobiography, "Sing Me Back Home". The same year, he alternately spoke and sang the ballad "The Man in the Mask". Written by Dean Pitchford, whose other work includes "Fame," "Footloose," "Sing," "Solid Gold," and the musical "Carrie", this was the combined narration and theme for the movie "The Legend of the Lone Ranger", a box-office flop. Haggard also changed record labels again in 1981, moving to Epic and releasing one of his most critically acclaimed albums, "Big City", on which he was backed by The Strangers.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Between 1981 and 1985, Haggard scored 12 more top-10 country hits, with nine of them reaching number one, including "My Favorite Memory," "Going Where the Lonely Go," "Someday When Things Are Good," and "Natural High". In addition, Haggard recorded two chart-topping duets with George Jones—"Yesterdays' Wine" in 1982—and with Willie Nelson—"Pancho and Lefty" in 1983. Nelson believed the 1983 Academy Award-winning film "Tender Mercies", about the life of fictional singer Mac Sledge, was based on the life of Merle Haggard. Actor Robert Duvall and other filmmakers denied this and claimed the character was based on nobody in particular. Duvall, however, said he was a big fan of Haggard's.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1983, Haggard and his third wife Leona Williams divorced after five stormy years of marriage. The split served as a license to party for Haggard, who spent much of the next decade becoming mired in alcohol and drug problems. Haggard has stated that he was in his own mid-life crisis, or "male menopause," around this time. He said in an interview from this period: "Things that you've enjoyed for years don't seem nearly as important, and you're at war with yourself as to what's happening. 'Why don't I like that anymore? Why do I like this now?' And finally, I think you actually go through a biological change, you just, you become another... Your body is getting ready to die and your mind doesn't agree." He was briefly a heavy user of cocaine but was able to quit. Despite these issues, he won a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for his 1984 remake of "That's The Way Love Goes".


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard was hampered by financial woes well into the 1990s, as his presence on the charts diminished in favor of newer country singers, such as George Strait and Randy Travis. Haggard's last number-one hit was "Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star" from his smash album "Chill Factor" in 1988.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1989, Haggard recorded a song, "Me and Crippled Soldiers Give a Damn," in response to the Supreme Court's decision not to allow banning flag burning, considering it to be "speech" and therefore protected under the First Amendment. After CBS Records Nashville avoided releasing the song, Haggard bought his way out of the contract and signed with Curb Records, which was willing to release the song. Haggard commented about the situation, "I've never been a guy that can do what people told me... It's always been my nature to fight the system."


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 2000, Haggard made a comeback of sorts, signing with the independent record label Anti and releasing the spare "If I Could Only Fly" to critical acclaim. He followed it in 2001 with "Roots, vol. 1", a collection of Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams, and Hank Thompson covers, along with three Haggard originals. The album, recorded in Haggard's living room with no overdubs, featured Haggard's longtime bandmates, The Strangers, as well as Frizzell's original lead guitarist, Norman Stephens. In December 2004, Haggard spoke at length on "Larry King Live" about his incarceration as a young man and said it was "hell" and "the scariest experience of my life".


title: Merle Haggard

text: When political opponents were attacking the Dixie Chicks for criticizing President George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq, Haggard spoke up for the band on July 25, 2003, saying:


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard and The Strangers number-one hit single "Mama Tried" is featured in the 2003 film "Radio" with Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ed Harris, as well as in Bryan Bertino's "The Strangers" with Liv Tyler. In addition, his and The Strangers song "Swingin' Doors" can be heard in the film "Crash (2004)", and his 1981 hit "Big City", where he is backed by The Strangers, is heard in Joel and Ethan Coen's film "Fargo".


title: Merle Haggard

text: In October 2005, Haggard released his album "Chicago Wind" to mostly positive reviews. The album contained an anti-Iraq war song titled "America First," in which he laments the nation's economy and faltering infrastructure, applauds its soldiers, and sings, "Let's get out of Iraq, and get back on track." This follows from his 2003 release "Haggard Like Never Before" in which he includes a song, "That's The News".


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 2008, Haggard was going to perform at Riverfest in Little Rock, Arkansas, but the concert was canceled because he was ailing, and three other concerts were canceled, as well. However, he was back on the road in June and successfully completed a tour that ended on October 19, 2008.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In April 2010, Haggard released a new album, "I Am What I Am", to strong reviews, and he performed the title song on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in February 2011.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard collaborated with many other artists over the course of his career. In the early 1960s, Haggard recorded duets with Bonnie Owens, who later became his wife, for Tally Records, scoring a minor hit with "Just Between the Two of Us". As part of the deal that got Haggard signed to Capitol, producer Ken Nelson obtained the rights to Haggard's Tally sides, including the duets with Owens, resulting in the release of Haggard's first duet album with Owens and The Strangers in 1966, also entitled "Just Between the Two of Us". The album reached number four on the country charts, and Haggard and Owens recorded a number of additional duets before their divorce in 1978. Haggard went on to record duets with George Jones, Willie Nelson, and Clint Eastwood, among others.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1970, Haggard released "A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World (or, My Salute to Bob Wills)", rounding up six of the remaining members of the Texas Playboys to record the tribute: Johnnie Lee Wills, Eldon Shamblin, Tiny Moore, Joe Holley, Johnny Gimble, and Alex Brashear. Merle's band, The Strangers, were also present during the recording, but Wills suffered a massive stroke after the first day of recording. Merle arrived on the second day, devastated that he would not get to record with him, but the album helped return Wills to public consciousness, and set off a Western swing revival. Haggard did other tribute albums to Bob Wills over the next 40 years. In 1973 he appeared on "For the Last Time: Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys". In 1994, Haggard collaborated with Asleep at the Wheel and many other artists influenced by the music of Bob Wills on an album entitled "A Tribute To The Music of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys". "A Tribute" was re-released on CD on the Koch label in 1995.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1972, Haggard agreed to produce Gram Parsons's first solo album but backed out at the last minute. Warner Bros. arranged a meeting at Haggard's Bakersfield home and the two musicians seemed to hit it off, but later on the afternoon of the first session, Haggard canceled. Parsons, an enormous Haggard fan, was crushed, with his wife Gretchen telling Meyer, "Merle not producing Gram was probably one of the greatest disappointments in Gram's life. Merle was very nice, very sweet, but he had his own enemies and his own demons." In 1980, Haggard said of Parsons, in an interview with Mark Rose, "He was a pussy. Hell, he was just a long-haired kid. I thought he was a good writer. He was not wild, though. That's what's funny to me. All these guys running around in long hair talking about being wild and Rolling Stones. I don't think someone abusing themselves on drugs determines how wild they are. It might determine how ignorant they are."


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1982, Haggard recorded "A Taste of Yesterday's Wine" with George Jones, an album that produced two top-10 hits, including the number-one "Yesterday's Wine". In 2006, the pair released a sequel, "Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again".


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard released the duet album "Pancho & Lefty" with Willie Nelson in 1983, with the title track becoming an enormous hit for the duo. In 1987, a second, less successful LP, "Seashores of Old Mexico", was also released, and the pair worked together again with Ray Price in 2007, releasing the album "Last of the Breed". In 2015, they released their sixth and final duet album, "Django and Jimmie". The album's lead single, "It's All Going to Pot", was a subtle reference to smoking marijuana, and the music video for the song showed Haggard and Nelson smoking joints while singing in a recording studio.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1983, Haggard got permission from Epic Records to collaborate with then-wife Leona Williams on Polydor Records, releasing "Heart to Heart" in 1983. The album, on which they were backed by The Strangers, was not a hit, peaking at number 44.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 2001, Haggard released an album of gospel songs with Albert E. Brumley called "Two Old Friends". In 2002, Haggard collaborated with longtime friend and fellow recording artist Chester Smith (founder of television broadcasting company Sainte Partners II, L.P. and owner of several stations in California and Oregon) with a CD titled "California Blend". The CD features classic country, western, and gospel tracks performed by both Smith and Haggard.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 2005, Haggard was featured as a guest vocalist on Gretchen Wilson's song "Politically Uncorrect", which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. He is also featured singing a verse on Eric Church's 2006 song "Pledge Allegiance to the Hag".


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 2005, Haggard was featured as a guest vocalist on Blaine Larsen's song "If Merle Would Sing My Song". In 2015, Haggard was featured as a guest vocalist on Don Henley's song "The Cost of Living" on the album "Cass County".


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 2010, Haggard was featured along with Ralph Nader, Willie Nelson, Gatewood Galbraith and Julia Butterfly Hill in the documentary film "" directed by Michael P. Henning.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 2017, Haggard appeared alongside Willie Nelson in the award-winning documentary "The American Epic Sessions" directed by Bernard MacMahon. They performed a song Haggard had composed for the film, "The Only Man Wilder Than Me" and Bob Wills' classic "Old Fashioned Love", which they recorded live on the restored first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s. It was the last filmed performance of the pair, with "Rolling Stone" commenting "in the final performance of Sessions, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard perform the duet "The Only Man Wilder Than Me." Haggard has a look of complete joy on his face throughout the session in the old-timey recording set-up once used by his musical heroes."


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard's last recording, a song called "Kern River Blues," described his departure from Bakersfield in the late 1970s and his displeasure with politicians. The song was recorded February 9, 2016, and features his son Ben on guitar. This record was released on May 12, 2016.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard endorsed Fender guitars and had a Custom Artist signature model Telecaster. The guitar is a modified Telecaster Thinline with laminated top of figured maple, set neck with deep carved heel, birdseye maple fingerboard with 22 jumbo frets, ivoroid pickguard and binding, gold hardware, abalone Tuff Dog Tele peghead inlay, 2-Colour Sunburst finish, and a pair of Fender Texas Special Tele single-coil pickups with custom-wired 4-way pickup switching. He also played six-string acoustic models. In 2001, C. F. Martin & Company introduced a limited edition Merle Haggard Signature Edition 000-28SMH acoustic guitar available with or without factory-installed electronics.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard was married five times, first to Leona Hobbs from 1956 to 1964. They had four children: Dana, Marty, Kelli, and Noel.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Shortly after divorcing Hobbs, in 1965, he married singer Bonnie Owens, the former wife of Buck Owens. Haggard credited her with helping him make his big break as a country artist. He shared the writing credit with Owens for his hit "Today I Started Loving You Again" and acknowledged, including on stage, that the song was about a sudden burst of special feelings he experienced for her while they were touring together. She also helped care for Haggard's children from his first marriage and was the maid of honor for Haggard's third marriage. Haggard and Owens divorced in 1978 but remained close friends as Owens continued as his backing vocalist until her death in 2006.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1975 he was engaged to a prominent business woman in Bakersfield, Tresa Destefani. They called off the engagement in 1976 but remained close friends.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In 1978, Haggard married Leona Williams. In 1983, they divorced. In 1985 Haggard married Debbie Parret; they divorced in 1991. He married his fifth wife, Theresa Ann Lane, on September 11, 1993. They had two children, Jenessa and Ben.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard said he started smoking marijuana in 1978, when he was 41 years old. He admitted that in 1983, he bought "$2,000 (worth) of cocaine" and partied for five months afterward, when he said he finally realized his condition and quit for good. He quit smoking cigarettes in 1991, and stopped smoking marijuana in 1995. However, a "Rolling Stone" magazine interview in 2009 indicated that he had resumed regular marijuana smoking.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard underwent angioplasty in 1995 to unblock clogged arteries. On November 9, 2008, it was announced that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer in May and undergone surgery on November 3, during which part of his lung was removed. Haggard returned home on November 8. Less than two months after his cancer surgery, he played two shows on January 2 and 3, 2009, in Bakersfield at Buck Owens Crystal Palace, and continued to tour and record until shortly before his death.


title: Merle Haggard

text: On December 5, 2015, Haggard was treated at an undisclosed hospital in California for pneumonia. He made a recovery, but postponed several concerts.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In March 2016, Haggard was once again hospitalized. His concerts for April were canceled due to his ongoing double pneumonia. On the morning of April 6, 2016, his 79th birthday, he died of complications from pneumonia at his home in Palo Cedro, Shasta County, California. Haggard was buried in a private funeral at his ranch on April 9, 2016; longtime friend Marty Stuart officiated.


title: Merle Haggard

text: During his long career, Haggard received numerous awards from the Academy of Country Music, Country Music Association, and National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammy Awards) (see Awards). He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1977, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 1994, and the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2006, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and was also honored as a BMI Icon at the 54th annual BMI Pop Awards that same year. During his songwriting career up to that time, Haggard had earned 48 BMI Country Awards, nine BMI Pop Awards, a BMI R&B Award, and 16 BMI "Million-Air" awards, all from a catalog of songs that added up to over 25 million performances.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard accepted a Kennedy Center Honor on December 4, 2010, from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in recognition of his lifetime achievement and "outstanding contribution to American culture". The following day, he was honored at a gala in Washington, DC, with musical performances by Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill, Jamey Johnson, Kid Rock, Miranda Lambert, and Brad Paisley. This tribute was featured on the December 28, 2010, CBS telecast of the Kennedy Center Honors.


title: Merle Haggard

text: In July 2007, a three-and-a-half-mile stretch of 7th Standard Road in Oildale, California, where Haggard grew up, was renamed Merle Haggard Drive in his honor. It stretches from North Chester Avenue west to U.S. Route 99 and provides access to the William M. Thomas airport terminal at Meadows Field Airport. Haggard played two shows to raise money to pay for the changes in road signage. In 2015, the converted boxcar in which the Haggard family lived in Oildale was moved to the Kern County Museum for historic preservation and restoration.


title: Merle Haggard

text: On November 6, 2013, the mayor of Winchester, Virginia, awarded Haggard the Key to the City at the Patsy Cline Theatre after a sold-out show by Bonnie Blue Concerts.


title: Merle Haggard

text: On June 14, 2013, the California State University, Bakersfield, awarded Haggard the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts. Haggard stepped to the podium and said, "Thank you. It's nice to be noticed."


title: Merle Haggard

text: On January 26, 2014, Haggard performed his 1969 song "Okie from Muskogee" at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards along with Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, and Blake Shelton.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Haggard's guitar playing and voice gave his country songs a hard-edged, blues-like style in many cuts. Although he was outspoken in his dislike for modern country music, he praised George Strait, Toby Keith, Alan Jackson, and Sturgill Simpson. Haggard also had an interest in jazz music, and stated in an interview in 1986 that he wanted to be remembered as "the greatest jazz guitar player in the world that loved to play country". Keith has singled out Haggard as a major influence on his career.


title: Merle Haggard

text: As noted by an article published in "The Washington Post" upon Haggard's death, "Respect for the Hag [Haggard] as an icon, both for his musical status and his personal views, is a common theme" in country music. Many country music acts have paid tribute to Haggard by mentioning him in their songs (a fact aided by his first name rhyming with "girl," a common theme in country songs). These include:


title: Merle Haggard

text: In the 1970s, several rock acts responded in their own songs to Haggard's criticism of hippie counterculture in "Okie from Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me". The Youngbloods answered "Okie from Muskogee" with "Hippie from Olema", in which, in one repetition of the chorus, they change the line, "We still take in strangers if they're ragged" to "We still take in strangers if they're haggard." Nick Gravenites, of Big Brother and the Holding Company, paid Haggard a tongue-in-cheek tribute with the song, "I'll Change Your Flat Tire, Merle," later covered by other artists including Pure Prairie League. Despite these critiques, the Grateful Dead performed "Mama Tried" over 300 times, and "Sing Me Back Home" approximately 40 times.


title: Merle Haggard

text: The Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd more respectfully referenced Haggard in their song, "Railroad Song," which contains the lyric, "Well I'm a ride this train Lord until I find out/What Jimmie Rodgers and the Hag was all about." Skynyrd also performed both a cover of "Honky Tonk Night Time Man" and their own take on the song with "Jacksonville Kid" (found on the 2001 CD reissue of the album) on their album "Street Survivors". He described himself as a student of music, philosophy, and communication. He would discuss jazzman Howard Roberts guitar playing, life after death and the unique speaking technique of Garner Ted Armstrong of The World Tomorrow with enthusiasm and authority.


title: Merle Haggard

text: Merle appeared in season five, episode three of "The Waltons" called "The Comeback". He played Red Turner, a local musician who had become depressed and withdrawn after the death of his son, played by Ron Howard, in the episode called "The Gift".


title: Central Europe

text: Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War between Catholicism and Protestantism was a significant shaping process in the history of Central Europe. The concept of "Central Europe" appeared in the 19th century.


title: Central Europe

text: Central Europe comprised most of the territories of the Holy Roman Empire and those of the two neighboring kingdoms of Poland and Hungary. Hungary and parts of Poland were later part of the Habsburg monarchy, which also significantly shaped the history of Central Europe. Unlike their Western European (Portugal, Spain et al.) and Eastern European (Russia) counterparts, the Central European nations never had any notable colonies (either overseas or adjacent) due to their inland location and other factors. It has often been argued that one of the contributing causes of both World War I and World War II was Germany's lack of original overseas colonies.


title: Central Europe

text: After World War II, Central Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain (as agreed by the Big Three at the Yalta Conference and the Potsdam Conference) into two parts, the capitalist Western Bloc and the communist Eastern Bloc. The Berlin Wall was one of the most visible symbols of these artificial and forced divisions. Specifically, Stalin had advocated the creation of a Soviet sphere of influence in Central Europe, starting with Poland, in order to provide the Soviet Union with a geopolitical buffer zone between it and the western capitalist world".


title: Central Europe

text: Central Europe began a "strategic awakening" in the late 20th and early 21st century, with initiatives such as Central European Defence Cooperation, the Central European Initiative (CEI), Centrope, and the Visegrád Four Group. This awakening was triggered by writers and other intellectuals who recognized the societal paralysis of decaying dictatorships and felt compelled to speak up against Soviet oppression.


title: Central Europe

text: All of the Central European countries are presently listed as being "very highly developed" by the Human Development Index (see List of central European countries by development indexes).


title: Central Europe

text: Elements of cultural unity for Northwestern, Southwestern and Central Europe were Catholicism and Latin. However Eastern Europe, which remained Eastern Orthodox, was dominated by Byzantine cultural influence; after the East–West Schism in 1054, Eastern Europe developed cultural unity and resistance to the Catholic (and later also Protestant) Western Europe within the framework of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Church Slavonic language and the Cyrillic alphabet.


title: Central Europe

text: According to Hungarian historian Jenő Szűcs, foundations of Central European history at the first millennium were in close connection with Western European development. He explained that between the 11th and 15th centuries, not only Christianization and its cultural consequences were implemented, but well-defined social features emerged in Central Europe based on Western characteristics. The keyword of Western social development after millennium was the spread of liberties and autonomies in Western Europe. These phenomena appeared in the middle of the 13th century in Central European countries. There were self-governments of towns, counties and parliaments.


title: Central Europe

text: In 1335, under the rule of the King Charles I of Hungary, the castle of Visegrád, the seat of the Hungarian monarchs was the scene of the royal summit of the Kings of Poland, Bohemia and Hungary. They agreed to cooperate closely in the field of politics and commerce, inspiring their post-Cold War successors to launch a successful Central European initiative.


title: Central Europe

text: Before 1870, the industrialization that had started to develop in Northwestern and Central Europe and the United States did not extend in any significant way to the rest of the world. Even in Eastern Europe, industrialization lagged far behind. Russia, for example, remained largely rural and agricultural, and its autocratic rulers kept the peasants in serfdom.


title: Central Europe

text: The concept of Central Europe was already known at the beginning of the 19th century, but its real life began in the 20th century and immediately became an object of intensive interest. However, the very first concept mixed science, politics and economy – it was strictly connected with the intensively growing German economy and its aspirations to dominate a part of European continent called "Mitteleuropa". The German term denoting Central Europe was so fashionable that other languages started referring to it when indicating territories from Rhine to Vistula, or even Dnieper, and from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans. An example of that-time vision of Central Europe may be seen in Joseph Partsch's book of 1903.


title: Central Europe

text: On 21 January 1904, "Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftsverein" (Central European Economic Association) was established in Berlin with economic integration of Germany and Austria–Hungary (with eventual extension to Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands) as its main aim. Another time, the term Central Europe became connected to the German plans of political, economic and cultural domination. The "bible" of the concept was Friedrich Naumann's book "Mitteleuropa" in which he called for an economic federation to be established after World War I. Naumann's idea was that the federation would have at its centre Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire but would also include all European nations outside the Triple Entente. The concept failed after the German defeat in World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. The revival of the idea may be observed during the Hitler era.


title: Central Europe

text: According to Emmanuel de Martonne, in 1927 the Central European countries included: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Switzerland. The author uses both Human and Physical Geographical features to define Central Europe, but he doesn't take into account the legal development or the social, cultural, economic, infrastructural developments in these countries.


title: Central Europe

text: The interwar period (1918–1938) brought a new geopolitical system, as well as economic and political problems, and the concept of Central Europe took on a different character. The centre of interest was moved to its eastern part – the countries that have (re)appeared on the map of Europe: Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. Central Europe ceased to be the area of German aspiration to lead or dominate and became a territory of various integration movements aiming at resolving political, economic and national problems of "new" states, being a way to face German and Soviet pressures. However, the conflict of interests was too big and neither Little Entente nor Intermarium ("Międzymorze") ideas succeeded. These matters were not helped by the fact that Czechoslovakia appeared alone as the only multicultural, democratic, and liberal state among its neighbors. The events preceding World War II in Europe—including the so-called Western betrayal/ Munich Agreement were very much enabled by the rising nationalism and ethnocentrism that typified that time period.


title: Central Europe

text: The interwar period brought new elements to the concept of Central Europe. Before World War I, it embraced mainly German states (Germany, Austria), non-German territories being an area of intended German penetration and domination – German leadership position was to be the natural result of economic dominance. After the war, the Eastern part of Central Europe was placed at the centre of the concept. At that time the scientists took an interest in the idea: the International Historical Congress in Brussels in 1923 was committed to Central Europe, and the 1933 Congress continued the discussions.