title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: For the first time in the series, clips from online gameplay can be recorded. Some specific features that have been removed from the PC version of Infinity Ward's "Modern Warfare 2" return, such as lean, mod tools, the developer console, and dedicated servers. Dedicated servers are exclusively provided by Game Servers. Steam is the exclusive platform for "Black Ops" on PC, and the game is protected by Valve Anti-Cheat.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: The Wii version of the game includes in-game voice chat. This is the first "Call of Duty" title to include the voice chat feature for the Wii. Nintendo and PDP have partnered to release the first headset to be used with the Wii known as PDP's Headbanger Headset.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: A zombie cooperation mode, titled "Zombies", is included in the game. Originally featured in "World at War", it was revamped to be included in "Black Ops". It is a four-player online and two-player split screen co-op mode (which can also be unlocked online). The game features three maps, "Five", Kino Der Toten, and the unlockable Dead Ops Arcade. "Five" takes place in The Pentagon during a chain of events that differ from the storyline of the campaign mode. The playable characters, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara, and Fidel Castro are interrupted from negotiations by an outbreak of zombies. Kino Der Toten takes place in an abandoned Group 935 facility located within a theater in Berlin during 1963. The playable characters in this map return from the World at War Zombies mode: Edward Richtofen, a mad German scientist, Takeo Masaki, an officer of the Imperial Japanese Army, Nikolai Belinski, a Red Army soldier, and Tank Dempsey, a Marine from the United States. Dead Ops Arcade is an unlockable game mode that the player can unlock by typing "DOA" within the data terminal of the main menu. Once unlocked, the player is transferred to play a retro arcade version of the main zombie's game mode. New elements like extra lives, unique mini maps, and zombie bosses are present within the game mode. Dead Ops Arcade includes co-op playthrough through either Xbox Live or split screen of up to 4 players.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: "Black Ops" takes place between 1961 and 1968 during both the Cold War and the Vietnam War, 16 years to 23 years after the events of "". It portrays a secret history of CIA clandestine black operations carried out behind enemy lines. Missions take place in various locations around the globe such as the Ural Mountains, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Hong Kong, Laos, South Vietnam, the Arctic Circle and Siberia. The single-player campaign revolves around an experimental nerve agent and chemical weapon codenamed "Nova 6". This weapon is bound to be used by covert sleeper agents in the United States, who are programmed to carry out their orders once broadcasts are transmitted from an unknown numbers station.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: The player controls the protagonist, CIA SAD/SOG operative and former U.S. Marine Force Recon Captain Alex Mason (Sam Worthington). Occasionally, CIA paramilitary operations officer Jason Hudson (Ed Harris) and some other characters are playable to progress the story. Alex is often joined by fellow operatives Force Recon Master Sergeant Frank Woods (James C. Burns) and Navy UDT Chief Joseph Bowman (Ice Cube), while Hudson teams up with Grigori Weaver (Gene Farber), a Russian-born field operative. Viktor Reznov (Gary Oldman), a key character from the Soviet campaign in "", returns along with that game's Russian protagonist Dimitri Petrenko (Boris Kievsky) also making an appearance. Oldman also voices Daniel Clarke, a British scientist assisting in the development of Project Nova. Opposing the CIA are the leaders of Project Nova: former Red Army General Nikita Dragovich (Eamon Hunt), Colonel Lev Kravchenko (Andrew Divoff), and former Nazi scientist Doctor Friedrich Steiner (Mark Bramhall). "Black Ops" also features several historical figures; during the story, Mason meets John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara, and Fidel Castro.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: In April 1961, Mason, Woods, and Bowman take part in Operation 40 to assassinate Fidel Castro and assist the CIA-sponsored Cuban exiles during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Mason shoots Castro's body double, and stays behind to allow Woods and Bowman to flee in an extraction plane. He is captured by the real Castro, who hands him over to the Soviet Union. Imprisoned at Vorkuta Gulag, Mason befriends former Red Army soldier Viktor Reznov. Reznov gives Mason the identities of their enemies: Major General Nikita Dragovich, Colonel Lev Kravchenko, and ex-Nazi scientist Friedrich Steiner, who defected to the Soviet Union. In October 1945, Reznov, , and their platoon were sent to extract Steiner from a Nazi base in the Arctic. However, they were betrayed by Dragovich, who tested Steiner's nerve gas "Nova 6" on Petrenko and his squad, killing them. Reznov was spared when British commandos, interested in acquiring Nova 6, attacked. He destroyed Nova 6 and escaped, only to be captured by the Soviets and sent to Vorkuta. The Soviets later recreated Nova 6 using British scientist Daniel Clarke.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: By 1963, Mason and Reznov spark an uprising to flee the prison; Reznov stays behind to facilitate Mason's escape. In November, President John F. Kennedy authorizes a mission to assassinate Dragovich. Mason, Woods, Bowman, and CIA agent Weaver are dispatched to the Baikonur Cosmodrome to disrupt the Soviet space program and eliminate members of "Ascension", a Soviet program giving sanctuary to Nazi scientists. The team destroys the Soyuz spacecraft, while Dragovich is seemingly killed in a car explosion.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: In January 1968, Mason's team is sent to Vietnam as part of MACV-SOG. After defending Khe Sanh from a North Vietnamese assault, they recover a dossier on Dragovich from a Russian defector being held by the North Vietnamese Army in Hue City during the Tet Offensive; the defector is revealed to be Reznov. After Dragovich resurfaces, they penetrate Laos to recover a Nova 6 shipment from a downed Soviet plane. They are captured by Viet Cong and Spetznaz forces at the crash site. Bowman is executed, but Woods and Mason escape, hijacking a Mi-24 Hind and crippling the Ho Chi Minh trail before rescuing Reznov from Kravchenko's base. They confront Kravchenko, but he primes grenades strapped to his body, forcing Woods to push both himself and Kravchenko out of a window; Mason presumes the two dead.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: Hudson and Weaver interrogate Clarke in Kowloon City. Clarke reveals the location of a facility in Mount Yamantau before being killed by Dragovich's men. Hudson and Weaver destroy the facility and receive a transmission from Steiner requesting to meet at Rebirth Island, as Dragovich will kill him next. Mason and Reznov, meanwhile, head there to assassinate Steiner, succeeding as Hudson and Weaver arrive. Hudson and Weaver witness Mason carrying out the act alone while declaring himself to be Reznov, prompting the pair to interrogate him; it is revealed that Mason is hallucinating a string of randomised numbers.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: Dragovich has sleeper cells placed within each US State capital which, when ordered by a broadcast of the numbers from his station, will release Nova 6. In response, the U.S., now at DEFCON 2, is preparing a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the Soviet Union. Hudson reveals that Mason was brainwashed by Dragovich at Vorkuta to serve as a Soviet sleeper agent and assassinate Kennedy. Reznov died during the breakout, and the Soviet defector had been killed; Mason's visions of Reznov are an illusion caused by the brainwashing. Prior to his death, Reznov reprogrammed Mason to assassinate Dragovich, Kravchenko, and Steiner. Mason remembers the location of Dragovich's broadcast station is a Russian ship named "Rusalka" off the coast of Cuba. An assault on the "Rusalka" begins, with the United States Navy called in to destroy it. Mason and Hudson confront Dragovich in the underwater submarine base protecting the ship, with Mason drowning Dragovich. He escapes with Hudson, and they join Weaver and the Navy.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: Footage of President Kennedy before his assassination on November 22, 1963, is shown, revealing Mason was among onlookers who watched him arrive at Love Field, suggesting Mason may have carried out his initial programming.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: The Zombies story takes place over various eras of time, mostly during the final year of World War II, and the 1960s. The story mainly follows four soldiers: "Tank" Dempsey (Steve Blum) of the United States Marine Corps, Nikolai Belinski (Fred Tatasciore) of the Red Army, Takeo Masaki (Tom Kane) of the Imperial Japanese Army, and Doctor Edward Richtofen (Nolan North) of the Wehrmacht. Other characters include Doctor Ludvig Maxis (Fred Tatasciore) and his daughter Samantha (Julie Nathanson). The map "Five" features historical figures: John F. Kennedy (Jim Meskimen), Robert McNamara (Robert Picardo), Richard Nixon (Dave Mallow), and Fidel Castro (Marlon Correa). "Call of the Dead" features the appearance of celebrities: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Robert Englund, Danny Trejo, Michael Rooker, all playing themselves and George A. Romero.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: During World War II, Doctor Ludvig Maxis formed Group 935, a group of scientists that was intended to improve the human condition. Lacking funds, they soon turned to creating superweapons to aid the Nazis. Their discovery of Element 115 from a meteorite in Japan lead to the creation of zombies. Maxis and his assistant, Dr. Edward Richtofen, also work on other projects, leading to the creation of teleportation devices and 115-powered weapons. Attempting to use himself as a test subject, Richtofen accidentally teleports to a catacomb within the Moon, where he comes into contact with a mysterious pyramid device that causes him to hear mysterious voices, slowly taking away his sanity. He is later teleported to an exotic jungle known as Shangri-La, where he spends three weeks studying the Vril energy force. Upon returning to Germany, Richtofen secretly forms a plan to kill Maxis, and gathers many members of Group 935 to build a Moon base, known as Griffin Station. While maintaining his cover with Maxis and the rest of Group 935, Richtofen manages to capture three soldiers: Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki; he begins to conduct experiments with Element 115, causing memory loss for all three soldiers.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: Maxis continues his work on other experiments, attempting to use his daughter's dog, Fluffy, as a test subject for his own teleportation device. However, the experiment fails, and Fluffy is transformed into an undead Hellhound. Richtofen takes the opportunity and traps Maxis and his daughter Samantha inside the teleporter with Fluffy, believing that they would die. Richtofen escapes as Der Riese is overrun by zombies with his three captured soldiers, and arrives at the Rising Sun research facility in Japan, where Element 115 was first discovered. After gathering a sample of 115 at the site, and recovering a weapon known as the Wunderwaffe DG-2, they return to the Der Riese factory in Germany. In an attempt to escape the zombie horde, the group accidentally overloads a teleporter with the DG-2, sending them forward in time. They arrive at an abandoned Nazi theater in the 1960s, where Richtofen discovers several recordings left behind by Dr. Maxis. Samantha, having survived and managing to control the zombies, continues raising the undead in order to hunt down Richtofen.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: Some time in 1963, the United States government manages to grab hold of several of Group 935's inventions, keeping them hidden in the Pentagon. Owing to the presence of the undead-raising Element 115, zombies breach the Pentagon. John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara, and Fidel Castro are trapped within the Pentagon, forced to fight their way out. Meanwhile, Richtofen's crew arrive at a Soviet Cosmodrome site, where Richtofen intends to travel to Group 935's Moon base, Griffin Station. The crew is contacted by Gersh, a member of the Ascension Group who requests to be freed from Samantha's grip. After freeing Gersh, the four of them are teleported further in time, and arrive at a Siberian lighthouse sometime in 2011, once used by Richtofen as a secret lab. However, they are trapped within a locked room, and forced to rely on four movie actors: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Danny Trejo, Robert Englund, and Michael Rooker, who are filming a zombie movie on-site along with director George A. Romero, who had been infected as well. Richtofen requests the four celebrities to find a golden rod, which is a Vril generator device, which he then uses to fix the teleporter. He transports himself and the other three soldiers back to Shangri-La, leaving the celebrities behind to continue fighting Romero and the horde. At Shangri-La, the group discovers two explorers, Gary and Brock, who died trapped within a time loop while trying to discover the secrets of the mythical Agartha realm. The group saves the explorers' lives by traveling back and forth in time, altering the environments of the temple in the process. They discover an altar within the temple with Richtofen's name written on it, as well as a piece of a meteorite containing Element 115. However, the explorers remain stuck in the never-ending loop.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: With the Vril generator and the meteorite piece, Richtofen now believes he can control the zombies, and returns to Griffin Station. Here, they attempt to activate the MPD, a machine that controls the Aether energy, which opens to reveal Samantha inside; instead of dying by Richtofen's trap, Samantha was teleported to the moon while Maxis was sent somewhere else. Samantha accidentally triggered the MPD and was trapped within the device, but this also allowed her to enter the Aether realm. Maxis, who was retrieved by Group 935 scientists, apologized to his daughter and committed suicide in front of her, prompting her to assume control of the zombies and seek vengeance on Richtofen. Richtofen fuses the golden rod and the meteorite piece, and using it to switch souls with Samantha, takes over as the new zombie controller. This causes his former allies to feel betrayed, and they ally themselves with Samantha (who now resides in Richtofen's body). Maxis is revealed to have become a sentient artificial intelligence living within the systems of Griffin Station, and he guides his daughter and the three soldiers to launch three missiles at the Earth. This severs Richtofen's link with the Aether, but the launch results in the , while still leaving Richtofen in control of the undead.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: In May 2009, publisher Activision was rumored to be looking for licensing regarding Vietnam War-era music which led to speculation that "Call of Duty 7" would be set in Vietnam. In May 2009, Treyarch employee David Kim revealed on his LinkedIn profile that he would work as a senior animator on "Call of Duty 7". In November 2009, only a few days before "Modern Warfare 2"s release, Activision officially announced a new "Call of Duty" title for 2010 through their third quarter financial call. In February 2010, a casting call for "Call of Duty 7" led to speculation that the game would be taking place during the Cold War era with some battles taking place in South Vietnam. On April 30, 2010, "Black Ops" was officially announced.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: The game runs on an enhanced "World at War" engine (which itself was improved from "Call of Duty 4") at 60 frames per second across all platforms, excluding the Wii. It features a streaming texture technology (also seen in "Modern Warfare 2"), making bigger levels possible such as "Payback" where the player controls a helicopter. Lighting effects have been improved as well. "Call of Duty: Black Ops" supports 3-D imaging rendered by the engine itself. This feature is available on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 versions.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: For "Black Ops", Treyarch focused only on this game unlike past practice. However, it had different teams, each working on separate game modes. Treyarch used a motion capture technology similar to the one used in James Cameron's film "Avatar", which allows accurate facial expressions, capturing the whole performance of the actor. The studio also consulted special forces veterans from both belligerents of the Cold War: Major John Plaster (US Army-Ret.) who served in the MACV-SOG during the Vietnam War, and former Soviet special forces operative Sonny Puzikas. The latter taught Treyarch how Spetsnaz soldiers would react in combat, such as rolling out of the line of fire. Spetsnaz AIs in the game have been modeled after him, from his tactics and his movements to his face. Although having a historical background, the classified aspect of these Cold War black operations allowed the studio to create its own fictional story. The game also allows players to turn down the blood and turn off the profanity.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: It was announced on November 9, 2015, that "Black Ops" would become backwards compatible with the Xbox One. It was originally meant to be available for backwards compatibility in December 2015, but the date was later changed to some time in 2016. "Black Ops" was originally the sixth-most requested Xbox 360 title to become backwards compatible with the Xbox One. On May 17, 2016, the game was made available through Xbox One's backward compatibility. Shortly after, it was reported that sales of the Xbox 360 version had increased by 13,000 percent.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: "Black Ops" features the voices of Sam Worthington as Alex Mason, Ed Harris as Jason Hudson, Gary Oldman reprises his role as Viktor Reznov from "World at War" and also voices Dr. Clarke, James C. Burns voices and provides performance capture for Frank Woods and Ice Cube voices Joseph Bowman, whose appearance is likened to him as well, and is also the multiplayer announcer for the SOG faction. Gene Farber voices Grigori Weaver, Emmanuelle Chriqui plays a live-action character called Numbers, Eamon Hunt voices Nikita Dragovich, Andrew Divoff voices Lev Kravchenko and Robert Picardo voices Secretary Robert McNamara. Dimitri Diatchenko, an American born actor and musician voices the Spetsnaz faction and several other characters due to his strong Russian accent.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: "Call of Duty: Black Ops" features Vietnam War era music including "Sympathy for the Devil" by The Rolling Stones (played during a gameplay sequence, the credits, and as an easter egg in the multiplayer map Nuketown) and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son". Eminem's "Won't Back Down" (featuring Pink) is used for the credits as well, and additionally appears as an Easter Egg in the Zombie map "Five". In the Call of the Dead zombie map the song "Not Ready to Die" by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold is featured as an easter egg. The original music was composed by Sean Murray, who also composed "Call of Duty: World at War" while Kevin Sherwood composed music for the Zombies mode. The soundtrack was released on November 9. The use of The Rolling Stones' music in the game has seen a significant increase in the band's music sales since launch. "Gimme Shelter" sold 2,000 copies in the week before the launch trailer was revealed, 5,000 the week after, and 11,000 the week after the game's release. "Sympathy for the Devil" experienced a similar boost as gamers discovered the band's music.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: The game's score was composed by Sean Murray, and the official soundtrack was released on November 9, 2010. In addition, a soundtrack for the popular "Zombies" mode was released on January 25, 2011.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: "Black Ops" was first officially unveiled when the website for the game went live on April 30, 2010 prior to the release of its debut teaser trailer on GameTrailers TV Episode 310. In early April 2010, an unmarked envelope was sent to various gaming news publications as well as high-profile "Call of Duty" fans via mail. It contained a USB flash drive with sound and text files. These files were codes to be decrypted, only to find a mysterious teaser site for an unknown game. Other codes were updated periodically.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: Similarly to , the first full-length trailer of "Black Ops" was aired after the 3rd quarter on ESPN during the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on May 18, 2010. During E3 2010, studio head Mark Lamia opened the Microsoft conference by playing "Black Ops" on stage. It was also announced that the timed Xbox 360 exclusivity for additional content of "Call of Duty" titles, which began with "Modern Warfare 2", extends until 2012. A remixed version of the ESPN trailer with Eminem's "Won't Back Down" was released on June 14, prior to the E3 Activision conference for which he also performed. A multiplayer teaser trailer was released on August 9, 2010, revealing killstreaks, weapons, and other in-game multiplayer features. A full multiplayer reveal took place on September 1, 2010, and revealed many multiplayer features from the game.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: Chrysler produced a limited-edition "Call of Duty" Jeep as the Wrangler is featured in "Black Ops". In late September, viral site GKNOVA6 was updated revealing fuzzy footages of zombies. On October 11, a single player trailer aired on ESPN during the New York Jets versus Minnesota Vikings NFL Monday Night Football game. The same trailer was aired the next day in the United Kingdom at half time of the England versus Montenegro 2012 European Football Championship qualifying game. On October 29, the official launch trailer was released online. The same trailer aired on October 31 during the New Orleans Saints versus Pittsburgh Steelers NFL Sunday Night Football game. The trailer features the song "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones, and was directed by Rupert Sanders, who later went on to direct "Snow White and the Huntsman" and "Ghost in the Shell".


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: Like "Modern Warfare 2", "Hardened" and "Prestige" limited editions are available: the Hardened Edition includes a SteelBook case, a medal with its display case, four exclusive co-op levels and an Xbox Live or PlayStation Home avatar outfit. The Prestige Edition offers, in addition to the Hardened Edition's content, a real RC-XD remote-control vehicle modeled after the in-game killstreak reward, which gives video and audio feedback to its controller. In Japan, the game is distributed by Square Enix. Two versions are available: subtitled or dubbed, released respectively on November 18, 2010, and December 16, 2010. Both have dismemberment censored. Gore is censored as well in Germany in addition to the removal of "Sympathy for the Devil" and Nazi symbols considered "anti-constitutional" in the country.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: Treyarch released the "First Strike" Map Pack on February 1, 2011, for the Xbox 360. The PlayStation 3 received the map pack on March 3, 2011, and the PC version was released on March 25, 2011, through Steam. The Map Pack includes additional maps that can be played in the multiplayer mode. These maps include "Berlin Wall", "Discovery", "Kowloon" and "Stadium" and a map for the Zombies mode titled "Ascension" which takes place in a Soviet launch site.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: On April 11, 2011, a second map pack called "Escalation" was announced by Activison and Microsoft. It features 4 new multiplayer maps named "Zoo", "Hotel", "Convoy", "Stockpile" and one new zombies map named 'Call of the Dead'. This map is based on the movies by George A. Romero, the revolutionary epic-zombie-horror director. The trailer for this map shows the four playable characters: Danny Trejo, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Robert Englund and Michael Rooker. The name is a reference to the immensely popular Dead Series created and directed by Romero. The trailer also offers a sneak peek of a zombiefied version of George A. Romero himself, lurking out of water. The map is set on a ship, with instead of Nazi zombies, shipcrew zombies. It was released on May 3, 2011, for the Xbox 360, June 2 on the PC and June 10 for the PlayStation 3.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: A third map pack called "Annihilation" was released for the Xbox 360 on June 28, 2011, and on July 28, 2011, for the PlayStation 3 and PC. It contains four new multiplayer maps named "Hangar 18", "Hazard", "Drive-In", "Silo", and a new zombies map named "Shangri La", which takes place in a legendary shrine lost in an exotic jungle.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: The fourth map pack, "Rezurrection" was released on August 23, 2011, for the Xbox 360, and September 22, 2011, on PlayStation 3 and PC. The Rezurrection Map Pack is made up of 5 Zombies mode only maps. It includes the first 4 maps from "" ("Shi No Numa"/"Swamp", "Nacht Der Untoten"/"Night", "Verruckt"/"Asylum", "Der Riese"/"Factory") fully remastered. It also includes a new map called "Moon". "Moon" allows players to fight zombies in zero gravity with both the player and the zombies under zero gravity influence.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: "Call of Duty: Black Ops" received "generally positive" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic, except for the DS, where it received "mixed or average" reviews. "GameSpot" awarded it 9.0 out of ten and wrote ""Call of Duty: Black Ops" bears the series' standard superbly, delivering an engrossing campaign and exciting competitive multiplayer." "Edge" magazine was less positive, giving it a 7/10, writing that "As polished and pretty and fun as "Black Ops" often is, it feels more like a yearly update than a sequel [which] isn't distinct from its predecessors in any important way". Several reviewers also complained that the game felt too much like a rail shooter, with "PC Gamer" branding it "barely interactive".


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: Reviewers also noted that the PC version of the game was buggy and had "a number of frustrating problems", including a lag in multiplayer modes which for some players rendered the game almost "unplayable". Players have also reported serious bugs with the PlayStation 3 version, including compatibility issues with 3D televisions. "PC World" magazine noted that user reviews of the game were much less positive than those of critics. As of November 12, 2010, three days after the release, PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 versions of the game held average user ratings of 3.1, 3.1, and 1.8 stars on Amazon.com, respectively (on a 1 to 5 scale), with many PC users complaining about lag, stuttering and bugs.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: In January 2011, to a player complaining about the remaining connection problems for the game on PlayStation 3, an Activision customer service representative threatened that they could shut down the servers for the game for the PlayStation Network at any time. After some days and following some game media heat, Dan Amrich, Activision Social Media Manager, declared that even if they could kill the servers, they did not plan currently to do it.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: "The Daily Telegraph" praised "Black Ops" as its "meaty kick of the guns, the blistering pace of the action and the sterling soundtrack of explosions, gunshots and whistling bullets all serve to quicken the player's pulse and tighten their grip on the controller", and how the game is "compensated for by [the] nail-shredding tension and creepy atmosphere".


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: "Official Nintendo Magazine" awarded the Wii version 90% and said ""Black Ops" on Wii is a fantastic shooter packed with all the features of its HD brothers, with the only exception being split-screen multiplayer." Martin Gaston at "VideoGamer.com" gave the Wii version 6 out of 10, complaining of Treyarch's reworking of in-game sequences as movies, poor AI, and gameplay problems from lower-resolution graphics.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: At the 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (now known as the D.I.C.E. Awards), "Call of Duty: Black Ops" was nominated for "Game of the Year", "Action Game of the Year", "Outstanding Achievement in Animation", "Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay", and "Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering".


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: Within 24 hours of its release, "Black Ops" had sold 4.2 million copies in the U.S. and 1.4 million copies in the UK, surpassing that of "Modern Warfare 2" and establishing a new record for largest entertainment launch. Compared to the much anticipated opening of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1", the game earned more than twice as much as the film, earning $360 million. Only five days after its release, sales from the game worldwide reached US$650 million, surpassing the previous record achieved by "Modern Warfare 2" which earned $550 million in five days. By November 22, the game remained the bestselling title in the United Kingdom, despite sales dropping by 85%. Some estimates had placed sales of the game as reaching 18 million units sold, earning a revenue of $818 million. This would fall about 2 million copies and $182 million short of "Modern Warfare 2". By December 22, worldwide revenue of "Black Ops" exceeded $1 billion. Sales remained strong months after the game's release, remaining at the top-seller list in February 2011. On March 3, 2011, the news magazine "The Hollywood Reporter" also reported on the best selling video games ever. It announced that "Call of Duty: Black Ops" was the best-selling game ever in the United States of America. "Black Ops" was the best-selling game of all time in the UK until "Grand Theft Auto V" overtook it in November 2014. In August 2011, Activision announced that the game had sold more than 25 million copies. By November 2013, the game had sold 26.2 million copies.


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: Cuba has condemned the game for its depiction of American special forces trying but failing to kill a young Fidel Castro, killing instead a body-double. The Cuba-based pro-Fidel Castro website Cubadebate said the game "encourages sociopathic attitudes of American children and adolescents, the main consumers of these virtual games."


title: Call of Duty: Black Ops

text: "Black Ops" was also released for both mobile phones and smartphones. This version is a side-scrolling shooter. It features a different storyline, a different set of characters, and is set in the Vietnam War in 1967. The game was developed by Glu Mobile and published by Activision.


title: BMW X5

text: The BMW X5 is a mid-sized luxury SUV produced by BMW. The X5 made its debut in 1999 as the E53 model. It was BMW's first SUV. At launch, it featured all-wheel drive and was available with either a manual or automatic gearbox. The second generation was launched in 2006, and was known internally as the E70. The E70 featured the torque-split capable xDrive all-wheel drive system mated to an automatic gearbox. In 2009, the X5 M performance variant was released as a 2010 model.


title: BMW X5

text: BMW marketed the X5 officially as a "Sports Activity Vehicle" (SAV), rather than an SUV, to indicate its on-road handling capability despite its large dimensions. The X5 signaled a shift away from the utilisation of body-on-frame construction, in favour of more modern monocoque chassis construction. Although the Mercedes-Benz M-Class was introduced more than a year prior to the X5, the X5 was the first to utilise a monocoque chassis. The M-Class used body-on-frame construction until its second generation.


title: BMW X5

text: The X5 is primarily manufactured in North America, at BMW Group Plant Spartanburg. Assembly operations also take place in Russia by Avtotor, along with operations in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The X5 is also modified for armoured security versions, at the BMW de México Toluca plant.


title: BMW X5

text: The automaker's SAV series, which was created by the X5, has expanded with derivations of other number-series BMWs. This began in 2003 with the X3, and continued in 2008 with the X6 (which shares its platform with the X5).


title: BMW X5

text: The E53 X5 was manufactured between 1999 and 2006. It was developed shortly after BMW Group's acquisition of British off-road vehicle manufacturer Land Rover. BMW vehicles in turn benefitted significantly from Land Rover's technology. The first generation X5 shares many components with the Range Rover (L322) model (specifically the hill descent control and off-road engine management systems). The engine and electronic systems were shared with the BMW E39 5 Series.


title: BMW X5

text: A series of petrol inline-6 and V-8 engines were offered, along with diesel engines. Engine displacement ranged from 3.0 to 4.8 litres.


title: BMW X5

text: The E70 X5 is the second generation of the X5. It debuted in July 2006 for the 2007 model year. The second generation featured key improvements, including BMW's iDrive system as standard across models, and an optional third row of seats for increased seven-passenger capacity.


title: BMW X5

text: Trim and engine level nomenclature for the X5 after 2008 follows the same nomenclature used for other BMW vehicles. The X5 3.0si was renamed the X5 xDrive30i, and the X5 4.8i was renamed the X5 xDrive48i. In 2010 BMW replaced the DVD-based CCC system (which powered iDrive) with a CIC hard drive system.


title: BMW X5

text: In 2009, the diesel xDrive35d variant became available in Canada and the United States, along with the BMW 335d 3-Series sedan.


title: BMW X5

text: The M Performance variant was unveiled at the New York Auto Show in April 2009, and went on sale in September 2009 (2010 model year). Sharing its drivetrain with the X6 M, the X5 M featured BMW's first turbocharged M Power V-8, producing and of torque.


title: BMW X5

text: For the 2011 model year, the X5 became BMW's 3rd best-selling model, after the best-selling 3 Series (E90), and second best-selling 5 Series (F10).


title: BMW X5

text: The F15 X5 (or F85 for the X5 M) is the third generation of the X5, and was first unveiled to the public on 30 May 2013. It officially debuted in November 2013.


title: BMW X5

text: It shared the same chassis and wheelbase as the E70, and introduced a choice of three engines. The range included the xDrive50i (petrol V-8 producing 450 bhp), the xDrive30d (turbocharged inline-6 diesel producing 258 bhp), and the M50d Performance (turbocharged inline-6 diesel producing 381 bhp). In December 2013, additional engine options became available. This included the six-cylinder xDrive40d and xDrive35i models, as well as the four-cylinder xDrive25d (all-wheel drive) and sDrive25d (rear-wheel drive) models. BMW added a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle model (the xDrive40e), which was powered by a turbocharged four-cylinder engine. The xDrive40e's electric motor achieves a peak power output of 83 kW, and a continuous output of 55 kW with the 9kWh 351V Li-ion battery pack.


title: BMW X5

text: The G05 X5 is the fourth (and current) generation of the X5. It was unveiled to the public online, on 6 June 2018. It officially debuted in November 2018. It is based on the BMW Group's new Cluster Architecture (CLAR) chassis.


title: BMW X5

text: All 2019 model year X5s were equipped with xDrive all-wheel drive. An sDrive (rear-wheel drive) variant was added to the US model lineup for 2020. The 2020 X5 sDrive was powered by BMW's inline-6 petrol B58 engine (the sDrive40i).


title: BMW X5

text: Another 2020 model year addition was the xDrive45e PHEV. It also has the firm's B58 engine, mated with an electric motor. The result is a combined power output of from its larger 24 kWh battery pack.


title: BMW X5

text: A long wheelbase (LWB) version of the BMW X5 was developed for the Chinese market under the model code G18. The wheelbase of the G18 is extended by 13 cm over the standard X5.


title: BMW X5

text: The X5 M is the high-performance variant of the X5. The following generations of the X5 M have been produced to date.


title: Seohyun

text: Seo Ju-hyun (; born June 28, 1991), known professionally as Seohyun, is a South Korean singer, actress and songwriter. She debuted as a member of girl group Girls' Generation (and later its subgroup Girls' Generation-TTS) in August 2007, which went on to become one of the best-selling artists in South Korea and one of South Korea's most popular girl groups worldwide. Seohyun released her first extended play "Don't Say No" in 2017. She left SM Entertainment later that year, although she remains as a member of Girls' Generation. She joined Namoo Actors in 2019.


title: Seohyun

text: Aside from her music career, she has established herself as an actress. Following her supporting role in the television drama "Passionate Love" (2013) and "" (2016), she starred in "Bad Thief, Good Thief" (2017), "Time" (2018), "Private Lives" (2020) and "Jinxed at First" (2022). Her film work includes "Love and Leashes" (2022). She also participated in the original and Korean versions of stage musicals including "Moon Embracing the Sun", "Gone with the Wind" and "Mamma Mia".


title: Seohyun

text: Seohyun was born Seo Ju-hyun on June 28, 1991, in Seoul, South Korea, and is the only child in her family. Her mother was a chairwoman at a piano school and Seohyun was taught how to play piano, as well as violin and traditional Korean drums in her early childhood. She also learned horseback riding and skating as a child. Her parents did not encourage her to become a celebrity, but Seohyun credited them as the ones who helped her choose her career path by letting her experience different things. As a fifth grader, Seohyun was discovered by a talent scout while riding in a subway train. She sang children's songs for her audition at SM Entertainment, and was accepted as a trainee. Seohyun cited BoA, S.E.S and Fin.K.L. as her main influences to become a singer, expressing "I thought it was cool to show and communicate the emotions through songs".


title: Seohyun

text: She attended Dongguk University, majoring in theatre acting and graduated in August 2014, receiving an achievement award at the graduation ceremony. Her fellow Girls' Generation member, Yoona, attended the same university.


title: Seohyun

text: In August 2007, Seohyun made her official debut as the youngest member of girl group Girls' Generation. The group gained significant popularity after the release of their hit single "Gee" in 2009.


title: Seohyun

text: Seohyun's early solo work mostly involved songs recorded for side projects and original soundtracks. Although they did not achieve much commercial success; her duet titled "JjaLaJaJJa" with veteran singer Joo Hyun-mi earned a "Trot Music of the Year" nomination at the 2009 Mnet Asian Music Awards. In 2010–2011, Seohyun appeared in MBC's variety show "We Got Married 2", alongside CNBLUE's Yonghwa. They played a make-believe couple, portraying what life would be like if they were married. In addition, Seohyun was cast as voice actor for the Korean-dubbed version of animated film "Despicable Me" (2010) and its sequel "Despicable Me 2" (2013), together with fellow member Taeyeon. She voiced the character of Edith, who is known for her rebellious attitude.


title: Seohyun

text: In April 2012, Seohyun, along with fellow members Taeyeon and Tiffany, formed a Girls' Generation subgroup named TTS. Their debut EP, "Twinkle", met with much success and became the eighth highest selling album of the year in South Korea. The subgroup went on to release two more EPs: "Holler" (2014) and "Dear Santa" (2015). Besides contributing her vocals to Girls' Generation and TTS songs, Seohyun began to become more active in lyrics writing. She co-wrote the songs "Baby Maybe" and "XYZ" ("I Got a Boy", 2013) and was credited as the sole lyricist for "Only U" ("Holler", 2014) and "Dear Santa" ("Dear Santa", 2015).


title: Seohyun

text: In 2013, Seohyun debuted as an actress when she was cast for a supporting role in SBS's drama "Passionate Love". She played Han Yu-rim, a veterinary student and first love of the male lead character. Director Bae Tae-sub said Seohyun's persona "perfectly paralleled that of her role" and "her understanding and expressiveness of the character exceeds those of a rookie actress".


title: Seohyun

text: Seohyun, self-described as someone who likes both singing and acting, began to develop an interest in musical theatre. She named musical actress Ock Joo-hyun, who later became her mentor, as her main influence. Although she had wanted to be in a musical for a long time, she rejected casting offers because she felt unprepared. In January 2014, her wish was fulfilled as she accepted her first musical acting role. Seohyun made her theatrical debut in the musical, "Moon Embracing the Sun", which was adapted from the novel of the same name. Seohyun played the lead role, Yeon-woo, the daughter of a noble family who has a love relationship with both the King and his brother.


title: Seohyun

text: In January 2015, Seohyun was cast in the role of Scarlett O'Hara in the Korean version of "Autant en emporte le vent", a French musical based on "Gone with the Wind". She received encouraging review for her performance. Seon Mi-gyeong of "" said that while Seohyun's performance cannot surpass that of Bada, who shared the same role, her "fierce voice" complemented and successfully expressed an arrogant Scarlett O'Hara. Kim Hyun-joong of "Sports Chosun" noted Seohyun's occasional "clumsy" acting, but compared her to Ock Joo-hyun during her rookie days and said that "her ability to bring emotion through song, the most important part of a musical, rivaled that of a veteran actor. Despite a short career, she endlessly showed us various colours and peculiar charms of a woman's life."


title: Seohyun

text: From February–June 2016, Seohyun was cast in the Korean version of the musical "Mamma Mia". She played a character named Sophie, a 20-year-old bride-to-be, who hopes to find out who her biological father is on her wedding day. Kim Geum-yeong from "CNB Journal" commented on Seohyun's improvement from her prior musical performances, praising her "natural acting" and "daring side" while Park Jeong-hwan from "" claimed Seohyun's performance made the musical "all the more entertaining". Seohyun next played supporting roles in Chinese romantic film "So I Married An Anti-fan" and SBS's historical drama ""; the latter earned her a Special Acting Award at the 2016 SBS Drama Awards.


title: Seohyun

text: In January 2017, Seohyun became the third Girls' Generation member to release a solo album, with the release of her debut extended play titled "Don't Say No". For this record, Seohyun took full initiatives and control of the production process, shaping her own musical style–a fulfillment of what she was unable to do fully being in a larger musical group. Tamar Herman from "Billboard" noted the album presented a "new maturity" to the singer. "Don't Say No" debuted atop the South Korean Gaon Album Chart. To accompany her solo release, she held a concert residency titled "Love, Still – Seohyun", part of a series of concerts by SM Entertainment artists.


title: Seohyun

text: After taking part in OnStyle's web-drama "Ruby Ruby Love", Seohyun next starred in MBC's weekend drama "Bad Thief, Good Thief" as Kang So-joo, a police-woman-turned-investigator who struggles to fight against the abusive officials. Her portrayal of the character earned her the Best New Actress award at the 2017 MBC Drama Awards.


title: Seohyun

text: In October 2017, Seohyun left SM Entertainment after her contract ended. Her future activities with Girls' Generation remain in discussion.


title: Seohyun

text: In 2018, Seohyun was cast as the female lead in MBC's melodrama "The Time" as the character Seol Ji-hyun, a bright and optimistic woman who became depressed after the tragic death of her sibling.


title: Seohyun

text: In March 2019, Seohyun signed with Namoo Actors. A year after signing with her new agency, she starred in the short drama "Hello Dracula". She played the role of An-na, an elementary school teacher who hid her emotions from her mother since the day she came out to her as a lesbian. Later that year, she starred in the JTBC television series "Private Lives" as Cha Joo-eun, a swindler who has to choose a deceptive path to survive in Korea.


title: Seohyun

text: In February 2022, Seohyun made her debut in a movie as a lead actress in the Netflix original movie "Love and Leashes", based on the webtoon "Moral Sense". She played the character of Jung Jiwoo, a competent public relations team member who accidentally found out her co-worker's BDSM desires. Her portrayal of the role earned her a nomination for the Best New Actress award under the Film category at the 58th Baeksang Arts Awards. In April 2022, Seohyun renewed her contract with Namoo Actors.


title: Seohyun

text: In June 2022, Seohyun starred in the KBS fantasy romance series "Jinxed at First", She played the character Lee Seul-bi, who has the special ability of seeing the future of any person she touches.


title: Seohyun

text: Seohyun has been announced to star in the film "Holy Night: Demon Hunters" and the Netflix original series "Song of the Bandits". She is also announced to make a special appearance on the upcoming KBS series "Curtain Call".


title: Seohyun

text: In 2011, Seohyun named former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as her life mentor and role model, stating that his book, at one point in time, had helped her endure hard times. She was appointed as the United Nations Pavilion's ambassador at Yeosu Expo, where she was presented with the honor by Ban.


title: Seohyun

text: In 2013, as an effort to help less-fortunate students with their studies, she donated 100 million Korean won to Dongguk University.


title: Seohyun

text: In 2020, Seohyun donated 100 million Korean won worth of feminine products to NGO Official Development Association Korea.


title: Seohyun

text: In April 2022, Seohyun donated 17,000 sanitary pads for women's products. The donated feminine products were distributed to a total of 31 organizations, including four of the Nanum Employment Welfare Foundation, the Multicultural Family Support Center for Healthy Families in Uijeongbu and member organizations of the Uijeongbu Regional Children's Center Association and delivered to 500 students from multicultural and low-income families.


title: Seohyun

text: From 2011 to 2013, Seohyun was the official international ambassador for cosmetics brand The Face Shop.


title: Seohyun

text: From 2016 to 2018, Seohyun was selected as South Korean ambassador for hair care brand Pantene along with fellow member Yuri.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: Bates Motel is an American psychological horror drama television series that aired from March 18, 2013, to April 24, 2017. It was developed by Carlton Cuse, Kerry Ehrin, and Anthony Cipriano, and is produced by Universal Television and American Genre for the cable network A&E.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: A "contemporary prequel" to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film "Psycho" (based on Robert Bloch's 1959 novel of the same name), it depicts the lives of Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and his mother Norma (Vera Farmiga) prior to the events portrayed in the film, albeit in a different fictional town (White Pine Bay, Oregon, as opposed to Fairvale, California) and in a modern-day setting. However, the final season loosely adapts the plot of "Psycho".


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: Max Thieriot and Olivia Cooke both starred as part of the main cast throughout the series' run. After recurring in the first season, Néstor Carbonell was added to the main cast from season two onward.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: The series begins in Arizona with the death of Norma's husband, after which Norma purchases the Seafairer motel located in a coastal Oregon town so that she and Norman can start a new life. Subsequent seasons follow Norman as his mental illness becomes dangerous, and Norma as she struggles to protect her son, and those around him, from himself. The series was filmed outside Vancouver in Aldergrove, British Columbia, along with other locations within the Fraser Valley of British Columbia.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: A&E chose to skip a pilot of the series, opting to go straight-to-series by ordering a 10-episode first season. "Bates Motel" is the longest-running original scripted drama series in the channel's history. The series' lead actors, Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore, received particular praise for their performances in the series, with the former receiving a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and winning a Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television. "Bates Motel" also won three People's Choice Awards for Favorite Cable TV Drama, and for Favorite Cable TV Actress (Farmiga) and Actor (Highmore).


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: The first season follows Norma and Norman Bates as they buy a motel after Norman's father dies. On one of the first nights of the two owning the motel, the former owner breaks in and rapes Norma. Norman knocks the attacker out, and Norma stabs him to death. She decides it is best not to call the police and to cover up the murder. She and Norman dispose of the body. He complicates the cover-up by keeping a belt that belonged to the victim. When the town sheriff and his deputy notice that a man has gone missing, Norma and Norman must keep them from digging too far.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: The second season follows the aftermath of Norman's teacher's murder, as her mysterious past comes to light. Meanwhile, Norma finds herself making dangerous decisions in order to keep the motel running and preventing the impending bypass. Bradley's search for her father's killer leads to the extremes, and Dylan learns the disturbing truth about his parentage.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: The third season focuses on Norman's waning deniability about what is happening to him, and the lengths he will go to, to gain control of his fragile psyche. The dramatic events of last season leave Norma more aware of her son's mental fragility and fearful of what he is capable of. Meanwhile, Sheriff Romero begins to distance himself from the Bates family after he suspects Norma is lying to him about her husband's death.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: The fourth season follows Norma as she becomes increasingly fearful of Norman, going to great lengths to find him the professional help he needs. This complicates their once unbreakable trust as Norman struggles to maintain his grip on reality. Meanwhile, Sheriff Romero once again finds himself drawn into Norma and Norman's lives. He agrees to marry Norma because his insurance will enable her to place Norman in an expensive psychiatric hospital.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: The fifth season begins two years after the death of Norma. Publicly happy and well-adjusted, Norman struggles at home, where his blackouts are increasing and "Mother" threatens to take him over completely. Meanwhile, Dylan and Emma find themselves drawn back into Norman's world, and Romero hungers for revenge against his stepson.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: In 2012, A&E was developing a television series titled "Bates Motel" that would serve as a "contemporary prequel" to the Alfred Hitchcock film "Psycho". The first script was written by Anthony Cipriano. Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin joined the project in March as executive producers and head writers. Cuse has cited the drama series "Twin Peaks" as a key inspiration for "Bates Motel": "We pretty much ripped off "Twin Peaks"... If you wanted to get that confession, the answer is yes. I loved that show. They only did 30 episodes. Kerry [Ehrin] and I thought we'd do the 70 that are missing". A&E gave "Bates Motel" a straight-to-series order in July. Chris Bacon was hired to score the music for the series in January 2013.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: The casting for the series started in August 2012. Vera Farmiga was the first to be cast in the leading role of Norma Louise Bates. Freddie Highmore was cast as Norman Bates in September. The same month, Max Thieriot was cast as Norman's half-brother, Dylan Massett. Shortly after, Nicola Peltz was cast as Bradley Martin, a possible love interest for Norman. Olivia Cooke was the final main cast member to join the series, in the role of Emma Decody, Norman's best friend. Nestor Carbonell was cast in a recurring role as Sheriff Alex Romero in the first season, but was upgraded to the main cast at the beginning of the second season. Kenny Johnson, who recurred as Norma's brother Caleb Calhoun in the second season, was promoted to a series regular for the third season. Rihanna later appeared in the iconic role of Marion Crane for the fifth and final season.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: A replica of the original Bates Motel set from the film "Psycho" was built on location at approximately 1054 272nd Street in Aldergrove, British Columbia, where portions of the series were filmed. The original house and motel are located in Universal Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles. Additional filming for the series took place in multiple areas in Metro Vancouver, including Steveston, Coquitlam, Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver and Fort Langley. In February 2017, after filming was completed for the series, the Bates Motel exterior set in Aldergrove was demolished.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: The first season received positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, the season holds a score of 66 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an 84% "certified fresh" rating with an average score of 7.11/10, based on 43 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, ""Bates Motel" utilizes mind manipulation and suspenseful fear tactics, on top of consistently sharp character work and wonderfully uncomfortable familial relationships".


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: The second season also received positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic the season had a score of 67 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a 90% "certified fresh" rating with an average score of 8.02/10, based on 21 reviews. The site's consensus reads, ""Bates Motel" reinvents a classic thriller with believable performances and distinguished writing".


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: The third season of "Bates Motel" received a score of 72 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Rotten Tomatoes reported a 95% rating from 21 reviews. The site's consensus reads, ""Bates Motel" further blurs lines around TV's creepiest taboo mother/son relationship, uncomfortably darkening its already fascinating tone".


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: The fourth season of "Bates Motel" was met with critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% positive rating from 17 reviews. The site's consensus reads, ""Bates Motel" fulfills its menacing potential in a fourth season that confidently careens toward the mother-son duo's ghastly destiny". Alan Sepinwall of Uproxx considered "Bates Motel" to have only become a good series midway through season four due to obtaining a better narrative purpose and "tragic grandeur" with the season's latter episodes.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: The fifth and final season of "Bates Motel" received a score of 81 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim". Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% rating from 21 reviews. The site's consensus reads, ""Bates Motel"'s final season brings the franchise full circle, with a satisfyingly creepy conclusion to the trials and tribulations of Norman Bates".


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: In Canada, the series airs only on the U.S. network A&E, which is available through most Canadian cable and satellite companies. In Australia, the series premiered on Fox8 on May 26, 2013. In the UK and Ireland, it premiered on Universal Channel on April 2, 2014 and then on BBC One on February 23, 2021. In Jamaica, it premiered on CVM TV on August 11, 2014. In the Middle East, it premiered on OSN First HD in mid-2014. The second season premiered on January 5, 2015. In the Philippines, "Bates Motel" began airing on Jack TV on August 12, 2013. In South Africa, the series premiered on MNet on June 21, 2013. The series premiered in India on Colors Infinity on November 6, 2015. As of May 2019 Netflix has licensed worldwide distribution for at least 30 countries.


title: Bates Motel (TV series)

text: NBCUniversal partnered with Hot Topic, the American retailer of pop culture merchandise, to introduce a collection of clothing and accessories inspired by "Bates Motel". The merchandise, including items such as bathrobes and bloody shower curtains, became available at Hot Topic's website and select stores on March 18, 2014. As of 2018, the merchandise is no longer available through Hot Topic.


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer.


title: Tarzan

text: Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel "Tarzan of the Apes" (magazine publication 1912, book publication 1914), and subsequently in 23 sequels, several books by Burroughs and other authors, and innumerable works in other media, both authorized and unauthorized.


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan is the son of a British lord and lady who were marooned on the coast of Africa by mutineers. When Tarzan was an infant, his mother died, and his father was killed by Kerchak, leader of the ape tribe by whom Tarzan was adopted.


title: Tarzan

text: Soon after his parents' death, Tarzan became a feral child, and his tribe of apes is known as the Mangani, great apes of a species unknown to science. Kala is his ape mother. Burroughs added stories occurring during Tarzan's adolescence in his sixth Tarzan book, "Jungle Tales of Tarzan".


title: Tarzan

text: As an 18-year-old, Tarzan meets a young American woman named Jane Porter. She, her father, and others of their party are marooned on the same coastal jungle area where Tarzan's human parents were 20 years earlier. When Jane returns to the United States, Tarzan leaves the jungle in search of her, his one true love. In "The Return of Tarzan", Tarzan and Jane marry. In later books, he lives with her for a time in England. They have one son, Jack, who takes the ape name Korak (the Killer). Tarzan is contemptuous of what he sees as the hypocrisy of civilization, so Jane and he return to Africa, making their home on an extensive estate in British East Africa that becomes a base for Tarzan's later adventures.


title: Tarzan

text: As revealed in "Tarzan's Quest", Tarzan, Jane, Tarzan's monkey friend Nkima, and their allies gained some of the Kavuru's pills that grant immortality to their consumer.


title: Tarzan

text: "Tarzan" is the ape-name of John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke, according to Burroughs's "Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle". (Later, less canonical sources, notably the 1984 film "Greystoke", make him Earl of Greystoke.) The narrator in "Tarzan of the Apes" describes both "Clayton" and "Greystoke" as fictitious names, implying that, within the fictional world that Tarzan inhabits, he may have a different real name.


title: Tarzan

text: Burroughs considered other names for the character, including "Zantar" and "Tublat Zan", before he settled on "Tarzan". Though the copyright on "Tarzan of the Apes" has expired in the United States and in other countries, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. claims the name "Tarzan" as a trademark.


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan's jungle upbringing gives him abilities far beyond those of ordinary humans. These include climbing, clinging, and leaping as well as any great ape. He uses branches, swings from vines to travel at great speed, and can use his feet like hands (he prefers going barefoot because he relies on the flexibility of bare feet), a skill acquired among the anthropoid apes.


title: Tarzan

text: His strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, and swimming skills are extraordinary; he has wrestled not just full-grown apes, but also gorillas, lions, rhinos, crocodiles, pythons, leopards, sharks, tigers, giant seahorses, and even dinosaurs (when he visited Pellucidar). Tarzan is a skilled tracker, and uses his exceptional hearing and keen sense of smell to follow prey or avoid predators.


title: Tarzan

text: As originally depicted, Tarzan/John Clayton is very intelligent and articulate, and does not speak in broken English as the classic movies of the 1930s depict him. He can communicate with many species of jungle animals, and has been shown to be a skilled impressionist, able to mimic the sound of a gunshot perfectly.


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan is literate in English before he first encounters other English-speaking people. His literacy is self-taught after several years in his early teens by visiting the log cabin of his infancy and looking at children's primer/picture books. He eventually reads every book in his father's portable book collection, and is fully aware of geography, basic world history, and his family tree. He is "found" by traveling Frenchman Paul d'Arnot, who teaches him the basics of human speech and returns with him to civilization. When Tarzan first encounters d'Arnot, he tells him (in writing): "I speak only the language of my tribe—the great apes who were Kerchak's; and a little of the languages of Tantor, the elephant, and Numa, the lion, and of the other folks of the jungle I understand."


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan can learn a new language in days, ultimately speaking many languages, including that of the great apes, French, Finnish, English, Dutch, German, Swahili, many other Bantu languages, Arabic, Ancient Greek, Ancient Latin, and Mayan, as well as the languages of the Ant Men and of Pellucidar.


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan has been called one of the best-known literary characters in the world. In addition to more than two dozen books by Burroughs and a handful more by authors with the blessing of Burroughs's estate, the character has appeared in films, radio, television, comic strips, and comic books. Numerous parodies and pirated works have also appeared.


title: Tarzan

text: While "Tarzan of the Apes" met with some critical success, subsequent books in the series received a cooler reception and have been criticized for being derivative and formulaic. The characters are often said to be two-dimensional, the dialogue wooden, and the storytelling devices (such as excessive reliance on coincidence) strain credulity. According to Rudyard Kipling (who himself wrote stories of a feral child, "The Jungle Book"s Mowgli), Burroughs wrote "Tarzan of the Apes" just so he could "find out how bad a book he could write and get away with it."


title: Tarzan

text: While Burroughs was not a polished novelist, he was a vivid storyteller. Most of his novels are still in print. In 1963, author Gore Vidal wrote a piece on the Tarzan series that, while pointing out several of the deficiencies that the Tarzan books have as works of literature, praises Burroughs for creating a compelling "daydream figure." Critical reception grew more positive with the 1981 study by Erling B. Holtsmark, "Tarzan and Tradition: Classical Myth in Popular Literature". Holtsmark added a volume on Burroughs for Twayne's United States Author Series in 1986. In 2010, Stan Galloway provided a sustained study of the adolescent period of the fictional Tarzan's life in "The Teenage Tarzan".


title: Tarzan

text: Despite critical panning, the Tarzan stories have remained popular. Burroughs's melodramatic situations and the elaborate details he works into his fictional world, such as his construction of a partial language for his great apes, appeal to a worldwide fan base.


title: Tarzan

text: After Burroughs's death, a number of writers produced new Tarzan stories. In some instances, the estate managed to prevent publication of such works. The most notable example in the United States was a series of five novels by the pseudonymous "Barton Werper" that appeared 1964–65 by Gold Star Books (part of Charlton Comics). As a result of legal action by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., they were taken off the market. Similar series appeared in other countries, notably Argentina, Israel, and some Arab countries.


title: Tarzan

text: In 1972, science-fiction author Philip José Farmer wrote "Tarzan Alive", a biography of Tarzan using the frame device that he was a real person. In Farmer's fictional universe, Tarzan, along with Doc Savage and Sherlock Holmes, are the cornerstones of the Wold Newton family. Farmer wrote two novels, "Hadon of Ancient Opar" and "Flight to Opar", set in the distant past and giving further knowledge of the antecedents of the lost city of Opar, which plays an important role in the Tarzan books. In addition, Farmer's "A Feast Unknown", and its two sequels "Lord of the Trees" and "The Mad Goblin", are pastiches of the Tarzan and Doc Savage stories, with the premise that they tell the story of the real characters upon which the fictional characters are based. "A Feast Unknown" is somewhat infamous among Tarzan and Doc Savage fans for its graphic violence and sexual content.


title: Tarzan

text: In her "Manliness and Civilization", Gail Bederman describes how various people of the time either challenged or upheld the idea that "civilization" is predicated on white masculinity. She closes with a chapter on "Tarzan of the Apes" (1912) because the story's protagonist is, according to her, the ultimate male by the standards of 1912 White Americans. Bederman does note that Tarzan, "an instinctively chivalrous Anglo-Saxon," does not engage in sexual violence, renouncing his "masculine impulse to rape." However, she also notes that not only does Tarzan kill black man Kulonga in revenge for killing his ape mother (a stand-in for his biological White mother) by hanging him, "lyncher Tarzan" actually enjoys killing black people, for example the cannibalistic Mbongans.


title: Tarzan

text: Bederman, in fact, reminds readers that when Tarzan first introduces himself to Jane, he does so as "Tarzan, the killer of beasts and many black men". The novel climaxes with Tarzan saving Jane (who in the original novel is not British, but a southern White woman from Baltimore, Maryland) from a black ape rapist. When he leaves the jungle and sees "civilized" Africans farming, his first instinct is to kill them just for being Black. "Like the lynch victims reported in the Northern press, Tarzan's victimscowards, cannibals, and despoilers of white womanhoodlack all manhood. Tarzan's lynchings thus prove him the superior man."


title: Tarzan

text: According to Bederman, despite Tarzan embodying all the tropes of white supremacy espoused or rejected by the people she had reviewed (Theodore Roosevelt, G. Stanley Hall, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ida B. Wells), Burroughs, in all probability, was not trying to make any kind of statement or echo any of them. "He probably never heard of any of them." Instead, Bederman writes that Burroughs proves her point because, in telling racist and sexist stories whose protagonist boasted of killing black people, he was not being unusual at all, but was instead just being a typical 1912 White American.


title: Tarzan

text: The Tarzan books and movies employ extensive stereotyping. With changing social views and customs this has led to criticism, including charges of racism since the early 1970s. The early books give a pervasively negative and stereotypical portrayal of native Africans, including Arabs. In "The Return of Tarzan", Arabs are "surly looking" and call Christians "dogs", while black Africans are "lithe, ebon warriors, gesticulating and jabbering".


title: Tarzan

text: In regards to race, a superior–inferior relationship with valuation is implied in virtually all interactions between white and black people in the Tarzan stories, and similar relationships and valuations can be seen in most other interactions between differing people. According to James Loewen's "Sundown Towns", this may be a vestige of Burroughs's having been from Oak Park, Illinois, a former Sundown town (a town that forbids non-white people from living within it).


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan is a white European male who grows up with apes. According to "Taking Tarzan Seriously" by Marianna Torgovnick, Tarzan is confused with the social hierarchy that he is a part of. Unlike everyone else in his society, Tarzan is the only one who is not clearly part of any social group. All the other members of his world are not able to climb or decline socially because they are already part of a social hierarchy which is stagnant. Turgovnick writes that since Tarzan was raised as an ape, he thinks and acts like an ape. However, instinctively he is human and he resorts to being human when he is pushed to. The reason of his confusion is that he does not understand what the typical white male is supposed to act like. His instincts eventually kick in when he is in the midst of this confusion, and he ends up dominating the jungle. In Tarzan, the jungle is a microcosm for the world in general in 1912 to the early 1930s. His climbing of the social hierarchy proves that the European white male is the most dominant of all races/sexes, no matter what the circumstance. Furthermore, Turgovnick writes that when Tarzan first meets Jane, she is slightly repulsed but also fascinated by his animal-like actions. As the story progresses, Tarzan surrenders his knife to Jane in an oddly chivalrous gesture, which makes Jane fall for Tarzan despite his odd circumstances. Turgovnick believes that this displays an instinctual, civilized chivalry that Burrough believes is common in white men.


title: Tarzan

text: Burroughs's opinions, manifested through the narrative voice in the stories, reflect common attitudes in his time, which in a 21st-century context would be considered racist and sexist.


title: Tarzan

text: Although the character of Tarzan does not directly engage in violence against women, feminist scholars have critiqued the presence of other sympathetic male characters who do so with Tarzan's approval. In "Tarzan and the Ant Men", the men of a fictional tribe of creatures called the Alali gain social dominance of their society by beating Alali women into submission with weapons that Tarzan willingly provides them. Following the battle, Burroughs (p. 178) states:To entertain Tarzan and to show him what great strides civilization had taken—the son of The First Woman seized a female by the hair and dragging her to him struck her heavily about the head and face with his clenched fist, and the woman fell upon her knees and fondled his legs, looking wistfully into his face, her own glowing with love and admiration.While Burroughs depicts some female characters with humanistic equalizing elements, Torgovnick argues that violent scenes against women in the context of male political and social domination are condoned in his writing, reinforcing a notion of gendered hierarchy where patriarchy is portrayed as the natural pinnacle of society.


title: Tarzan

text: The first Tarzan films were silent pictures adapted from the original "Tarzan" novels, which appeared within a few years of the character's creation. The first actor to portray the adult Tarzan was Elmo Lincoln in 1918's film "Tarzan of the Apes". With the advent of talking pictures, a popular Tarzan film franchise was developed, lasting from the 1930s through the 1960s. Starting with "Tarzan the Ape Man" in 1932 through twelve films until 1948, the franchise was anchored by former Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the title role. Tarzan films from the 1930s on often featured Tarzan's chimpanzee companion Cheeta, his consort Jane (not usually given a last name), and an adopted son, usually known only as "Boy." However, productions by Sy Weintraub from 1959 onward dropped the character of Jane and portrayed Tarzan as a lone adventurer. Later Tarzan films have been occasional and somewhat idiosyncratic.


title: Tarzan

text: There were also several serials and features that competed with the main franchise, including "Tarzan the Fearless" (1933) starring Buster Crabbe and "The New Adventures of Tarzan" (1935) starring Herman Brix. The latter serial was unique for its period in that it was partially filmed on location (Guatemala) and portrayed Tarzan as educated. It was the only Tarzan film project for which Burroughs was personally involved in the production.


title: Tarzan

text: Weissmuller and his immediate successors were enjoined to portray the ape-man as a noble savage speaking broken English, in marked contrast to the cultured aristocrat of Edgar Rice Burroughs's novels (the pidgin English being more linguistically plausible). With the exception of Burroughs's co-produced "The New Adventures of Tarzan", this "me Tarzan, you Jane" characterization of Tarzan persisted until the late 1950s, when Weintraub, having bought the film rights from producer Sol Lesser, produced "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" (1959) followed by eight other films and a television series. The Weintraub productions portray a Tarzan that is closer to Burroughs's original concept in the novels: a jungle lord who speaks grammatical English and is well educated and familiar with civilization. Most Tarzan films made before the mid-1950s were black-and-white films shot on studio sets, with stock jungle footage edited in. The Weintraub productions from 1959 on were shot in foreign locations and were in color.


title: Tarzan

text: More recently, "Tarzan, the Ape Man", starring Miles O'Keeffe and Bo Derek, was released in 1981. Tony Goldwyn voiced Tarzan in Disney's animated film of the same name, released in 1999 (making it the first major animated motion picture to star the Ape Man) and his ape family were portrayed as gorillas in the film. This version marked a new beginning for the ape man, taking its inspiration equally from Burroughs and the 1984 live-action film "". Since "Greystoke", two additional live-action Tarzan films have been released, 1998's "Tarzan and the Lost City" and 2016's "The Legend of Tarzan", both period pieces that drew inspiration from Edgar Rice Burroughs's writings.


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan was the hero of two popular radio programs in the United States. The first aired from 1932 to 1936 with James Pierce in the role of Tarzan. The second ran from 1951 to 1953 with Lamont Johnson in the title role.


title: Tarzan

text: The Tarzan book series was later modernized and parodied in an authorized 2021 golden-age radio styled podcast program entitled "The Adventures of Tarzan", produced by the Freshly Squeezed Pulp comedy troupe of Duke University.


title: Tarzan

text: Television later emerged as a primary vehicle bringing the character to the public. From the mid-1950s, all the extant sound Tarzan films became staples of Saturday morning television aimed at young and teenaged viewers. In 1958, movie Tarzan Gordon Scott filmed three episodes for a prospective television series. The program did not sell, but a different live action "Tarzan" series produced by Sy Weintraub and starring Ron Ely ran on NBC from 1966 to 1968. This depiction of Tarzan is a well-educated bachelor who grew tired of urban civilization and is in his native African jungle once again.


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan was voiced by Robert Ridgely and Danton Burroughs in the animated series from Filmation, titled "Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle" (1976–1977), as well as in the anthology programs that followed:


title: Tarzan

text: Joe Lara starred in the title role in "Tarzan in Manhattan" (1989), an offbeat TV movie, and later returned in a completely different interpretation, titled "" (1996), a new live-action series.


title: Tarzan

text: In between the two productions with Lara, "Tarzán" (1991–1994), a half-hour syndicated series in which Tarzan is portrayed as a blond environmentalist, with Jane turned into a French ecologist.


title: Tarzan

text: Disney's animated series "The Legend of Tarzan" (2001–2003) was a spin-off of the animated Disney film from 1999.


title: Tarzan

text: The latest television series was the short-lived live-action "Tarzan" (2003), which starred male model Travis Fimmel and updated the setting to contemporary New York City, with Jane as a police detective, played by Sarah Wayne Callies. The series was cancelled after only eight episodes.


title: Tarzan

text: "Saturday Night Live" featured recurring sketches with the speech-impaired trio of "Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein's Monster". In these sketches, Tarzan is portrayed by Kevin Nealon.


title: Tarzan

text: Throughout the 1970s Mego Corporation licensed the Tarzan character and produced 8" action figures which they included in their "World's Greatest Super Heroes" line of characters. In 1975 they also produced a 3" "Bendy" figure made of poseable, malleable plastic.


title: Tarzan

text: Several Tarzan-themed products have been manufactured, including View-Master reels and packets, numerous Tarzan coloring books, children's books, follow-the-dots, and activity books.


title: Tarzan

text: "Tarzan of the Apes" was adapted in newspaper-strip form in early 1929, with illustrations by Hal Foster. A full-page Sunday strip began March 15, 1931, by Rex Maxon. Over the years, many artists have drawn the "Tarzan" comic strip, notably Burne Hogarth, Russ Manning, and Mike Grell. The daily strip began to reprint old dailies after Manning's last daily (#10,308; publ. July 29, 1972). The Sunday strip also turned to reprints . Both strips continue as reprints today in a few newspapers and in "Comics Revue" magazine. NBM Publishing did a high quality reprint series of the Foster and Hogarth work on Tarzan in a series of hardback and paperback reprints in the 1990s.


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan has appeared in many comic books from numerous publishers over the years. The character's earliest comic book appearances were in comic strip reprints published in several titles, such as "Sparkler", "Tip Top Comics" and "Single Series". Western Publishing published "Tarzan" in Dell Comics's "Four Color Comics" #134 & 161 in 1947, before giving him his own series, "Tarzan", published through Dell Comics and later Gold Key Comics from January–February 1948 to February 1972; many of these issues adapted Burroughs's novels.


title: Tarzan

text: DC took over the series in 1972, publishing "Tarzan" #207–258 from April 1972 to February 1977, including work by Joe Kubert. In 1977, the series moved to Marvel Comics, who restarted the numbering rather than assuming those of the previous publishers. Marvel issued "Tarzan" #1–29 (as well as three "Annual"s), from June 1977 to October 1979, mainly by John Buscema.


title: Tarzan

text: Following the conclusion of the Marvel series the character had no regular comic-book publisher for a number of years. During this period, Blackthorne Comics published "Tarzan" in 1986, and Malibu Comics published "Tarzan" comics in 1992. Dark Horse Comics has published various "Tarzan" series from 1996 to the present, including reprints of works from previous publishers like Gold Key and DC, and joint projects with other publishers featuring crossovers with other characters.


title: Tarzan

text: There have also been a number of different comic book projects from other publishers over the years, in addition to various minor appearances of Tarzan in other comic books. The Japanese manga series "Jungle no Ouja Ta-chan" (Jungle King Tar-chan) by Tokuhiro Masaya was based loosely on Tarzan. Also, manga "god" Osamu Tezuka created a Tarzan manga in 1948 entitled "Tarzan no Himitsu Kichi" ("Tarzan's Secret Base").


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan's primitivist philosophy was absorbed by countless fans, amongst whom was Jane Goodall, who describes the Tarzan series as having a major influence on her childhood. She states that she felt she would be a much better spouse for Tarzan than his fictional wife, Jane, and that when she first began to live among and study the chimpanzees she was fulfilling her childhood dream of living among the great apes just as Tarzan did.


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of chameleon, "Calumma tarzan", which is endemic to Madagascar.


title: Tarzan

text: Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli has been cited as a major influence on Burroughs's creation of Tarzan. Mowgli was also an influence for a number of other "wild boy" characters.


title: Tarzan

text: Jerry Siegel named Tarzan and another Burroughs character, John Carter, as early inspiration for his creation of Superman.


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan's popularity inspired numerous imitators in pulp magazines. A number of these, like Kwa and Ka-Zar were direct or loosely veiled copies; others, like Polaris of the Snows, were similar characters in different settings, or with different gimmicks. Of these characters the most popular was Ki-Gor, the subject of 59 novels that appeared between winter 1939 to spring 1954 in the magazine "Jungle Stories".


title: Tarzan

text: Tarzan is often used as a nickname to indicate a similarity between a person's characteristics and that of the fictional character. Individuals with an exceptional 'ape-like' ability to climb, cling and leap beyond that of ordinary humans may often receive the nickname 'Tarzan'. An example is retired American baseball player Joe Wallis.


title: Tarzan

text: Comedian Carol Burnett was often prompted by her audiences to perform her trademark Tarzan yell. She explained that it originated in her youth when she and a friend watched a Tarzan movie.


title: Tarzan

text: In the 1950s, Byrne wrote the novel "Tarzan on Mar"s under the pen name John Bloodstone, the novel is a crossover of the Tarzan series and the Barsoom series, John Carter's adventures on Mars, however, he did not obtain a license to publish the novel, which had unauthorized editions.


title: Tarzan

text: Publisher Faber and Faber with the backing of the Edgar Rice Burroughs, Incorporated, have updated the series through author Andy Briggs. In 2011, Briggs published the first of the books "". In 2012 he published the second book "Tarzan: The Jungle Warrior", and in 2013, he has published the third book "Tarzan: The Savage Lands".


title: Bart Simpson

text: Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional character in the American animated television series "The Simpsons" and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in "The Tracey Ullman Show" short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening created and designed Bart while waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on his comic strip, "Life in Hell", but instead decided to create a new set of characters. While the rest of the characters were named after Groening's family members, Bart's name is an anagram of the word "brat". After appearing on "The Tracey Ullman Show" for two years, the Simpson family received its own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989. Bart has appeared in every "Simpsons" episode except "Four Great Women and a Manicure".


title: Bart Simpson

text: At ten years old, Bart is the eldest child and only son of Homer and Marge, and the brother of Lisa and Maggie. Bart's most prominent and popular character traits are his mischievousness, rebelliousness and disrespect for authority. Hallmarks of the character include his chalkboard gags in the opening sequence; his prank calls to Moe; and his catchphrases "Eat my shorts", ""¡Ay, caramba!"", "Don't have a cow, man!", and "I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?". However, with the exception of ""¡Ay, caramba!"", these hallmarks have been retired or are not often used. Bart has appeared in other media relating to "The Simpsons" – including video games, "The Simpsons Movie", "The Simpsons" Ride, commercials, and comic books – and inspired an entire line of merchandise.


title: Bart Simpson

text: In casting, Cartwright originally planned to audition for the role of Lisa, while Yeardley Smith tried out for Bart. Smith's voice was considered too high for a boy, so she was given the role of Lisa. Cartwright found Lisa uninteresting, so she instead auditioned for Bart, which she thought was a better role.


title: Bart Simpson

text: During the first two seasons of "The Simpsons", Bart was the show's protagonist and "Bartmania" ensued, spawning Bart Simpson-themed merchandise touting his rebellious attitude and pride at underachieving, which caused many parents and educators to cast him as a bad role model for children. Around the third season, the role of the protagonist was taken over by his father, and series started to focus more on the family as a whole, though Bart still remains a prominent breakout character. "Time" named Bart one of the , and he was named "entertainer of the year" in 1990 by "Entertainment Weekly". Cartwright has won several awards for voicing Bart, including a Primetime Emmy Award in 1992 and an Annie Award in 1995. In 2000, Bart, along with the rest of his family, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


title: Bart Simpson

text: "The Simpsons" uses a floating timeline in which the characters do not age or age very little, and as such, the show is always assumed to be set in the current year. In several episodes, events have been linked to specific times, though sometimes this timeline has been contradicted in subsequent episodes. Bart's year of birth was stated in "I Married Marge" (season three, 1991) as being in the early 1980s. In "Simpsorama" (season 26, 2014) Bart states his birthday as February 23. He lived with his parents in the Lower East Side of Springfield until the Simpsons bought their first house. When Lisa was born, Bart was at first jealous of the attention she received, but he soon warmed to her when he discovered that "Bart" was her first word. Bart's first day of school was in the early 1990s. His initial enthusiasm was crushed by an uncaring teacher and Marge became worried that something was truly wrong with Bart. One day during recess, Bart met Milhouse and started entertaining him and other students with various gestures and rude words. Principal Skinner told him "you've just started school, and the path you choose now may be the one you follow for the rest of your life! Now, what do you say?" In his moment of truth, Bart responded, "eat my shorts". The episode "That '90s Show" (season nineteen, 2008) contradicted much of the backstory's time frame; for example, it was revealed that Homer and Marge were childless in the early 1990s.


title: Bart Simpson

text: Bart's hobbies include skateboarding, watching television (especially "The Krusty the Clown Show" which includes "The Itchy & Scratchy Show"), reading comic books (especially Radioactive Man), playing video games and generally causing mischief. His favorite movies are "Jaws" and the "Star Wars" Trilogy. For the duration of the series, Bart has attended Springfield Elementary School and has been in Edna Krabappel's fourth grade class. While he is too young to hold a full-time job, he has had occasional part-time jobs. He works as a bartender at Fat Tony's social club in "Bart the Murderer" (season three, 1991); as Krusty the Clown's assistant in "Bart Gets Famous" (season five, 1994); as a doorman in Springfield's burlesque house, the Maison Derrière, in "Bart After Dark" (season eight, 1996); and briefly owns his own factory in "Homer's Enemy" (season eight, 1997).


title: Bart Simpson

text: Matt Groening first conceived of Bart and the rest of the Simpson family in 1987, while waiting in the lobby of producer James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts for "The Tracey Ullman Show", and had intended to present an adaptation of his "Life in Hell" comic strip. When he realized that animating "Life in Hell" would require him to rescind publication rights, Groening decided to go in another direction. He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, naming the characters after members of his own family. For the rebellious son, he substituted "Bart", an anagram of the word "brat", for his own name, as he decided it would have been too obvious for him to have named the character 'Matt'. Bart's middle initial "J" is a "tribute" to animated characters such as Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket J. Squirrel from "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show", who received their middle initial from Jay Ward. According to the book "Bart Simpson's Guide to Life", Bart's full middle name is "JoJo".


title: Bart Simpson

text: Bart had originally been envisioned as "a much milder, troubled youth given to existential angst who talks to himself", but the character was changed based on Cartwright's voice acting. Groening has credited several different figures with providing inspiration for Bart: Matt Groening's older brother Mark provided much of the motivation for Bart's attitude. Bart was conceived as an extreme version of the typical misbehaving child character, merging all of the extreme traits of characters such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn into one person. Groening describes Bart as "what would happen if the son of Eddie Haskell [from "Leave It to Beaver"] got his own show". Groening has also said that he found the premise of "Dennis the Menace" disappointing and was inspired to create a character who was actually a menace.


title: Bart Simpson

text: Bart made his debut with the rest of the Simpson family on April 19, 1987, in "The Tracey Ullman Show" short "Good Night". In 1989, the shorts were adapted into "The Simpsons", a half-hour series airing on the Fox Broadcasting Company. Bart and the Simpson family remained the main characters on this new show.


title: Bart Simpson

text: The entire Simpson family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette. The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings. Bart's original design, which appeared in the first shorts, had spikier hair, and the spikes were of different lengths. The number was later limited to nine spikes, all of the same size. At the time Groening was primarily drawing in black and "not thinking that [Bart] would eventually be drawn in color" gave him spikes which appear to be an extension of his head. The features of Bart's character design are generally not used in other characters; for example, no other characters in current episodes have Bart's spiky hairline, although several background characters in the first few seasons shared the trait.


title: Bart Simpson

text: The basic rectangular shape of Bart's head is described by director Mark Kirkland as a coffee can. Homer's head is also rectangular (with a dome on top), while spheres are used for Marge, Lisa, and Maggie. Different animators have different methods of drawing Bart. Former director Jeffrey Lynch starts off with a box, then adds the eyes, then the mouth, then the hair spikes, ear, and then the rest of the body. Matt Groening normally starts with the eyes, then the nose, and the rest of the outline of Bart's head. Many of the animators have trouble drawing Bart's spikes evenly; one trick they use is to draw one on the right, one on the left, one in the middle, then continue to add one in the middle of the blank space until there are nine. Originally, whenever Bart was to be drawn from an angle looking down so the top of his head was seen, Groening wanted there to be spikes along the outline of his head, and in the middle as well. Instead, Wes Archer and David Silverman drew him so that there was an outline of the spikes, then just a smooth patch in the middle because "it worked graphically". In "The Blue and the Gray", Bart (along with Lisa and Maggie) finally questions why his hair has no visible border to separate head from hair.


title: Bart Simpson

text: In the season seven (1995) episode "Treehouse of Horror VI", Bart (along with Homer) was computer animated into a three-dimensional character for the first time for the "Homer" segment of the episode. The computer animation was provided by Pacific Data Images. While designing the 3D model of the character, the animators did not know how they would show Bart's hair. They realized that there were vinyl Bart dolls in production and purchased one to use as a model.


title: Bart Simpson

text: Bart's voice is provided by Nancy Cartwright, who voices several other child characters on "The Simpsons", including Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders, and Kearney. While the roles of Homer and Marge were given to Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner because they were already a part of "The Tracey Ullman Show" cast, the producers decided to hold casting for the roles of Bart and Lisa. Yeardley Smith had initially been asked to audition for the role of Bart, but casting director Bonita Pietila believed her voice was too high. Smith later recalled, "I always sounded too much like a girl. I read two lines as Bart and they said, 'Thanks for coming! Smith was given the role of Lisa instead. On March 13, 1987, Nancy Cartwright went in to audition for the role of Lisa. After arriving at the audition, she found that Lisa was simply described as the "middle child" and at the time did not have much personality. Cartwright became more interested in the role of Bart, who was described as "devious, underachieving, school-hating, irreverent, [and] clever". Matt Groening let her try out for the part instead, and upon hearing her read, gave her the job on the spot. Cartwright is the only one of the six main "Simpsons" cast members who had been professionally trained in voice acting prior to working on the show.


title: Bart Simpson

text: Cartwright's normal speaking voice is said to have "no obvious traces of Bart". The voice came naturally to Cartwright; prior to "The Tracey Ullman Show", she had used elements of it in shows such as "My Little Pony", "Snorks", and "Pound Puppies". Cartwright describes Bart's voice as easy to perform, saying, "Some characters take a little bit more effort, upper respiratory control, whatever it is technically. But Bart is easy to do. I can just slip into that without difficulty." She usually does five or six readings of every line in order to give the producers more to work with. In flashforward episodes, Cartwright still provides the voice of Bart. For "Lisa's Wedding" (season six, 1995), Bart's voice was electronically lowered.


title: Bart Simpson

text: Despite Bart's fame, Cartwright is rarely recognized in public. When she is recognized and asked to perform Bart's voice in front of children, Cartwright refuses as it "freaks [them] out". During the first season of "The Simpsons", the Fox Network did not allow Cartwright to give interviews because they did not want to publicize that Bart was voiced by a woman.


title: Bart Simpson

text: Until 1998, Cartwright was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing for casting of new voices. The dispute was resolved and Cartwright received $125,000 per episode until 2004, when the voice actors demanded that they be paid $360,000 an episode. The dispute was resolved a month later, and Cartwright's pay rose to $250,000 per episode. After salary renegotiations in 2008, the voice actors received approximately $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, Cartwright and the other cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut to just over $300,000 per episode.


title: Bart Simpson

text: In the opening sequence of many "Simpsons" episodes, the camera zooms in on Springfield Elementary School, where Bart can be seen writing lines on the chalkboard. The sentences, which changes from episode to episode, has become known as the "chalkboard gag". Chalkboard messages may involve political humor such as "The First Amendment does not cover burping", pop culture references such as "I can't see dead people", and meta-references such as "I am not a 32-year-old woman" and "Nobody reads these anymore". The animators are able to produce the chalkboard gags quickly and in some cases have changed them to fit current events. For example, the chalkboard gag for "Homer the Heretic" (season four, 1992) read, "I will not defame New Orleans." The gag had been written as an apology to the city for a controversial song in the previous week's episode, "A Streetcar Named Marge", which called the city a "home of pirates, drunks and whores". Many episodes do not feature a chalkboard gag because a shorter opening title sequence, where the chalkboard gags are cut, is used to make more room for story and plot development.


title: Bart Simpson

text: One of Bart's early hallmarks were his prank calls to Moe's Tavern owner Moe Szyslak in which Bart calls Moe and asks for a gag name. Moe tries to find that person in the bar, but rapidly realizes it is a prank call and (despite not knowing who actually made the call) angrily threatens Bart. These calls were based on a series of prank calls known as the Tube Bar recordings. Moe was based partly on Tube Bar owner Louis "Red" Deutsch, whose often profane responses inspired Moe's violent side. The prank calls debuted in "Homer's Odyssey" (season one, 1990), the third episode to air, but were included in "Some Enchanted Evening", the first episode of the series that was produced. As the series progressed, it became more difficult for the writers to come up with a fake name and to write Moe's angry response, so the pranks were dropped as a regular joke during the fourth season but they have occasionally resurfaced on the show.